Pope Francis will meet with Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, during his upcoming visit to the Middle East country — the first ever by a pope, an Iraqi Catholic official told AFP.
Louis Sako, the patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Iraq, told the agency that the pope and Sistani are expected to have a “private visit ... without formalities” in the southern city of Najaf. The 90-year-old Sistani is the spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiite majority and is a highly revered figure for millions of Muslims around the world.
