Iraq, the conference of Catholics with Shiite Muslims: “Learning to listen to each other to overcome one’s prejudices”

NAJAF (Iraq) – The first day of the international conference Catholics and Shiites facing the future is underway in Iraq, in Najaf, a holy city for Shiites, about 160 km south of Baghdad, where there is the shrine of Imam Ali. Two years after Pope Francis’ visit to Iraq, organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio together withAl-Khoei Institute. Introducing the proceedings, Cardinal Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, prefect of the dicastery for interreligious dialogue, explained that “dialogue between religions is not a sign of weakness but a manifestation of God’s dialogue with humanity: fraternity is a challenge for all of humanity”.

Message from Pope Francis. He then announced that tomorrow morning he will deliver, together with Andrea Riccardi, a message from the Pope to Al Sistani. The founder of Community of Sant’Egidio, recalling the historic meeting between Francis and the Grand Ayatollah, two years ago in Najaf, underlined the importance of listening “to get out of one’s own prejudices and the categories” with which life and the future are faced: “Believers , in the difference of traditions and theologies, they represent a people that sows fraternity and makes it grow. It is not only an action of leaders, but also of peoples, in the daily practice of fraternity”.

“Not one religion, but working together for good.” On the first day of the conference, dedicated to “fraternity” and “prayer, the poor and peace”, Al-Ishkawari, of the High Shiite seminary of Najaf, specified that the goal “is not to unite religions into one, but to work together for the good”. While Shahid Al-Baghdadi, of the general management of the Imam Ali Shrine, expressed the hope that “the meeting will be part of a larger project with which scholars and wise men, Christians and Muslims, can build a thought of fraternity that circulates for the gardens of the world”. “Since 2015 – recalled the general secretary of the Al-Khoei institute, Jawad Al-Kohei – we have been trying, with the friends of Sant’Egidio, to create an intellectual dialogue between Catholics and Shiites, remaining in our tradition, but seeking the aspects common in ethical values ​​and mutual respect”. “A believing soul – underlined the patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans, Louis Raphaël Sako, “should never make others suffer. We need to renew the mentality to build a future in which no one is marginalized for reasons of faith”.