Hawzah News Agency- Ayatollah Alireza Arafi and his accompanying delegation, at the sidelines of his visit to the Franciscan Method Council, met with the father Thomas Simchezak the Secretary General of the order and its directors and professors.
During the meeting the head of Iranian seminaries explained the capacities of Islamic seminaries in educational, research and international fields and emphasized on the strategy of seminaries and expressed their readiness to exchange scientific and cultural experiences with the Franciscan Assembly.
Secretary General of Franciscan Christian religious order, Thomas Simchezak expressed his satisfaction and gratitude for the seminary delegation’s visit in the Central Assembly of the Franciscan Congregation and stated, The Franciscans are a sect under the authority of the Vatican and Pope Francis and their priority is to provide human service activities in 75 different countries.
Welcoming the development of cooperation between the two countries, Father Thomas Simchezak expressed hope that practical steps would be taken to realize deeper inter-religious ties between Islam and Christianity.
It should be noted that the Franciscan way, also known as Christian Sufis, aim at promoting Christian teachings as well as social and cultural services in different countries. They carry out various activities such as educating children, establishing hospitals and clinics as well as schools and other public educational centers. They have public services for the people, and in addition to Christian missionaries, they widely cooperate with religious activists and public service enthusiasts, and in recent decades, in particular, they have been able to gain popularity and credibility for the Holy See around the world. Missionaries of this Christian religious order have devoted their lives to improve well-being and living conditions of people worldwide regardless of worldly titles and fame.
The training courses of this Christian religious order are designed and implemented with promotional approach in short periods of time and have many similarities with the Islamic propagation activities in the Islamic world.
