Meeting to Showcase Pope Francis’ Close Relations with Iran
Pope Francis and Mr. Rouhani will meet during the second day of the Iranian president’s four-day visit to Italy and France, his first overseas trip since the loosening of sanctions earlier this month, following last year’s Iranian nuclear deal with six world powers. The two men are likely to discuss efforts for peace in Syria and Iraq.
The Vatican has extolled the role of Iran in finding a solution to the conflict in Middle East.
Pope Francis can help promote the "thaw in diplomatic relations between Iran and other countries” in a way similar to his support for a rapprochement between Cuba and the US, Father Bernardo Cervellera, editor of the Rome-based Asia News, said. "If we want peace in the Middle East, Iran and 'Iranian' Islam have a vital role to play.”
The meeting will be the first between a pope and an Iranian head of state since 1999. Yet diplomatic relations between the two states, which predate the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, have been consistently cordial and have grown more so in the current pontificate.
The close relations are based on religious affinities as well as geopolitical interests.
In early 2014, Tehran’s ambassador to the Holy See praised Pope Francis as a "virtuous figure”whom Iran expected to "resist oppressors and the powerful with divine support.”
The Vatican has repeatedly called for a negotiated settlement to Syria’s nearly five-year-old civil war and supported Iran’s participation in that process, over the objections of Arab and Western states.
Last year, the Holy See’s representative to the United Nations institutions in Geneva called Iran an "integral part of the dialogue and negotiation” for peace in the Middle East and particularly for a "common, coordinated and reasonable response” to ISIL. In October, Iran was invited for the first time to join multilateral talks to end the Syria crisis.
Pope Francis also has singled out Iran’s landmark nuclear deal with the US and other world powers for praise, telling the UN General Assembly in September that the agreement was "proof of the potential of political good will and of law”.
The Vatican’s close relationship with Iran is also grounded in religion. For the Holy See, Iran’s religious leadership is a privileged partner in its dialogue with the Muslim world.
Iranian efforts at dialogue with Catholicism have included a Farsi translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Iranian Muslim scholars, a 12-year project presented at the Vatican in early 2015.
The UN estimates there are some 300,000 Christians in Iran, but the country’s statistical authorities put the number at fewer than 120,000. Most of Iran’s Christians are members of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Roman Catholics are thought to be a small minority, numbering around 20,000.
Christians are a recognized minority in Iran and, as such, are guaranteed freedom of worship and exemptions from certain prohibitions that apply to Muslims. Five seats in Iran’s parliament are reserved for minorities, with three occupied by Christians.
Source: WSJ
