Pope Francis, visiting Iraq for the first time in Catholic history, met with Islamic Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali Alsistani.
The pope met with Alsistani in Najaf, a Shi’ite holy land in southern Iraq, to deliver the message of’peaceful coexistence’.
During the meeting held privately for about 50 minutes, the Pope urged Alsistani to embrace Muslim minority Christians in Iraq, the Associated Press said.
The oldest Iraqi Christians in the world amounted to 1 million to 1.4 million in 2003, but it is reported that the number has decreased to 300,000 to 400,000 now due to the war, civil war, and attacks by the Islamic extremist terrorist group’Islamic State’ (IS). .
[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
– .
