Hawzah News Agency- Ayatollah Arafi, Head of Iran’s Seminary and his accompanying delegation met with Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, President of the Assembly of Eastern Churches in the Vatican, which administers the Catholic Churches of Asian countries, including the Churches of Iran.

The head of Iran’s seminaries in this meeting elaborated on the capacities of Islamic seminaries, and noted, Although Islam includes many sects with many commonalities, but the Shia school in in particular has a unifying approach towards religions; the Islamic Revolution of Iran also highlighted this feature and strives to develop and deepen the cooperation of followers of religions by relying on commonalities.

The member of the Supreme Council of seminaries Ayatollah Arafi added, "The strategy of Islamic seminaries is to pay attention to interfaith studies, especially Islamic and Christian studies, in particular Shia and Catholic studies, and in this regard, various religious disciplines have been designed so far and hundreds of books, articles and dissertations have been published.

Ayatollah Arafi further expressed hope that by making this trip and developing cooperation, we will organize several joint programs, including the development of a joint cooperation document.

Cardinal Sandry President of the Assembly of Eastern Churches also thanked Ayatollah Arafi for his visit and said, "We are trying to create a new world by creating a bond between all human beings, especially Christians and Muslims, and to promote love, peace and brotherhood."

He added, "We hope that hunger and war will disappear from the world and that people in different parts of the world will be able to reach their true potential with the least facilities."

Leonardo Sandri is an Argentine Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He has been the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches since June 2007 and a cardinal since November of that year.