VATICAN: The meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani “will be one of the highlights” of the Pope s visit to Iraq, scheduled from March 5 to 8 according to the official schedule released by the Vatican.
Both are “great men of peace,” said Mgr Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of Baghdad, speaking about the upcoming papal visit, which was confirmed despite the latest episodes of violence in the country.
The Chaldean Patriarch, Card Louis Sako, has strongly supported the visit, hoping that it might be a “key moment in the life of Iraq”.
“During a personal meeting with al-Sistani, he explained to me how he behaves with politicians,” explained Bishop Warduni, who is the patriarch’s righthand man. “I don’t go to them, he said; they come to me and I tell them what there is to know, to build peace and fraternity. Several times he repeated: I am not a politician; I am a man of faith who wants peace for the whole country.”