Pope Francis’ image of Church and dialogue

In recent days, many people have tried to take stock of Pope Francis’ trip to Iraq. I think it is difficult, if not impossible, to attempt an exhaustive one. There are too many issues involved and, above all, we are too close to this global event made up of so many other details that can only be read in the course of time. Obviously some elements more than others struck the imagination of those who followed the various events in a context that, in some ways, in its stark reality risked appearing surreal.

In fact, if we think of the model of papal journeys, inaugurated with Pope John Paul II from 1979 onwards, we were accustomed to quite different scenarios and backgrounds: oceanic crowds, choreographic preparation that often bordered on perfection and, above all, events that left the image, especially in the early years of the Polish pope’s era, of a strong faith, at the centre of history, in contrast to the atheistic world from which the Polish pope came. Pope Francis, who at the beginning of his pontificate had introduced the idea of another Church, the ‘accidental’ and ‘field hospital’ Church, in recent years has been committed to transmitting this image of the Church and has done so practically everywhere he has gone. He has done so practically everywhere he has gone.

From his first official trip to Lampedusa, the port and cemetery of migrants, to Bangui, where he opened the door that inaugurated his unexpected and extraordinary Jubilee, to Mosul, where the stage had only rubble and walls still perforated by bullets of various calibers as a backdrop. And we cannot forget Tacloban where he braved an impending typhoon to stand by the survivors of another catastrophic event, Lesbos where he spent unhurriedly precious time listening to the unspeakable stories of refugees of various origins. The lesson of Francis is not just about showing that the most precious face of the Church is the ‘accidental’ one. Rather, it is the way in which he shows the ‘proximity’, the warmth that needs to be felt by those who suffer in the Christian community. Above all, he is committed to projecting these communities onto the world stage to say that this is the true Church, which we should all cherish and which bears real witness to Christ. As he said on his return flight, Bergoglio is breathing at these junctures, because this is his Petrine call, the one for which the conclave elected him, without knowing and imagining where he would lead Peter’s boat. We are all seeing and experiencing this in recent years. And the voyages are probably the truest reflection of this, leaving no room for misunderstandings.

On the other hand, this is nothing new. Like his predecessors, the Argentine pope has shown that he is able to read and decode the ‘signs of the times’ and offers credible testimony to the fact that the Church is a witness to its time and intercepts its problems and key issues, offering answers that are almost always against the current with respect to those that the political, international and, today, financial world impose. Faced with the reality that Francis found himself living, including the unprecedented one (at least in these terms) of the pandemic, the essential category of the pontificate, confirmed also in Iraq, is fraternity. Bergoglio’s personal and ecclesial testimony, his Magisterium and his relations, especially but not only with the Muslim world, now make fraternity  a geopolitical element. This was also demonstrated by his meeting with the Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani. The implications of those forty-five minutes are fundamental. We all know, in fact, that the great knot that Islam must untie today is internal to its own world: the tension, never appeased but now dangerously acute, between the Sunni and Shiite spheres. It is here that the roots of many of the problems that Muslims experience and for which many also die must be sought. Bergoglio has shown great ‘political’ tact in wanting to meet al-Sistani, the most significant representative of Shiism, well distanced from the Iranian theocracy that since the Khomeinist revolution of the 1980s has pushed the Iranian world to be a champion of this fringe of the Muslim kaleidoscope. Al-Sistani has always distanced himself from the theocratic choice of the Iranian ayatollahs, and has been an acknowledged spiritual and religious leader for decades. Among other things, he was born in Iran. The meeting between the two leaders took place behind closed doors, but as Pope Francis described it on the return flight, it was a moment of spirituality, “a universal message. I felt the duty, […] to go and see a great, a wise man, a man of God. And only by listening to him do you perceive this. […] And he is a person who has that wisdom … and also prudence. […] And he was very respectful, very respectful in the meeting, and I felt honoured. Even in the greeting: he never gets up, and he got up, to greet me, twice. He is a humble and wise man. This meeting had a great positive impact on my soul”. Bergoglio ventured an appreciation that perhaps no pope had had the courage to say in the past: “And these wise men are everywhere, because God’s wisdom has been spread throughout the world. It is the same with the saints, who are not only those on the altars. They are the everyday saints, the ones I call ‘next door’, the saints – men and women – who live their faith, whatever it may be, with consistency, who live human values with consistency, fraternity with consistency”. All this did not go unnoticed.

Positive comments poured down from many quarters, starting with the Muslim world itself. Sayyed Jawad Mohammed Taqi Al-Khoei, secretary general of the Al-Khoei Institute in Najaf, a prominent member of the Iraqi Shiite world and director of the Al-Khoei Institute which is part of the Hawza of Najaf, a religious seminary founded 1,000 years ago for Shiite Muslim scholars, was very clear in his appreciation. “Although this is the first meeting in history between the head of the Shia Islamic establishment and the head of the Catholic Church, this visit is the fruit of many years of exchanges between Najaf and the Vatican and will undoubtedly strengthen our interreligious relations. It was also a historic moment for Ira”. Al-Khoei affirmed the commitment to “continue strengthening our relations as institutions and individuals. We will soon travel to the Vatican to ensure that this dialogue continues, develops and does not stop here. The world faces common challenges and these challenges cannot be solved by any state, institution or person alone”.The AsiaNews agency also reports some of the positive comments that appeared in the Iranian press, which gave wide coverage and celebrated the historic meeting as an “opportunity for peace”.  The news was the opening headline in the Islamic Republic’s newspapers and media outlets. Sazandegi, who is close to the reformist wing, emphasised that the two religious leaders are today “the standard-bearers of world peace”. He called their face-to-face meeting in the home of the Shiite spiritual leader ‘the most effective event [in the history of] dialogue between religions’.

Roberto Catalano

Source: Blog Whydontwedialogue