Intense preparations before pontiff meets Iraqi ayatollah

[Disir]

Iraqi officials in government, too, see the meeting’s symbolic power — as does Tehran.

The 90-year-old al-Sistani has been a consistent counterweight to Iran’s influence. With the meeting, Francis is implicitly recognizing him as the chief interlocutor of Shiite Islam over his rival, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. News of the meeting heightened long-standing rivalries between the Shiite seminaries of Najaf and Iran’s city of Qom over which stands at the center of the Shiite world.

“It will be a private visit without precedent in history, and it will not have an equal to any previous visits,” said a religious official in Najaf, involved in the planning.

For the Vatican, it was a meeting decades in the making, one that eluded Francis’ predecessors.

“Najaf did not make it easy,” said one Christian religious official close to the planning from the Vatican side, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the visit’s delicacy.

Intense preparations before pontiff meets Iraqi ayatollah

BAGHDAD (AP) — In Iraq’s holiest city, a pontiff will meet a revered ayatollah and make history with a message of coexistence in a place plagued by bitter divisions.

apnews.com

I didn't realize that al-Sistani was 90. This will be interesting. I think the expectations here are entirely too high.

 

[JGalt]

Mehh. Interfaith dialogue is one of the strategies the Marxists are using to corrupt and destroy Christianity. The Pope will no doubt become radicalized by the ayatollah and blow up the Vatican.

 

[Disir]

Mehh. Interfaith dialogue is one of the strategies the Marxists are using to corrupt and destroy Christianity. The Pope will no doubt become radicalized by the ayatollah and blow up the Vatican.

No. It's not. You and I have the luxury of living in the US. We are free to believe or not believe in whatever and it's protected in the 1st Amendment.

I am a believer in interfaith dialogue and the role it plays in conflict resolution. In fact, one of my all time favorite heroes, the late Rabbi Sacks, was very involved in interfaith dialogue. He was absolutely fantastic.

 

[JGalt]

Mehh. Interfaith dialogue is one of the strategies the Marxists are using to corrupt and destroy Christianity. The Pope will no doubt become radicalized by the ayatollah and blow up the Vatican.

No. It's not. You and I have the luxury of living in the US. We are free to believe or not believe in whatever and it's protected in the 1st Amendment.

I am a believer in interfaith dialogue and the role it plays in conflict resolution. In fact, one of my all time favorite heroes, the late Rabbi Sacks, was very involved in interfaith dialogue. He was absolutely fantastic.

He's wrong. The Qur’an does not speak of Ishmael or Abraham as ancestors of the Arabs.

 

[Taz]

The Iraqis will want to check the Popemobile for car bombs.

 

[JGalt]

The Iraqis will want to check the Popemobile for car bombs.

Well that would be a switch. A Christian suicide bombing a Muslim?