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A leading ecumenist said Iran's state and religious authorities were showing a "new openness," and would consider extending the rights of local Christian minorities.

About 93 percent of Iran's 66 million citizens are Shi'ite Muslim, 5 percent Sunni Muslim, and 2 percent belong to other faiths. According to the World Churches Handbook, Iran has a range of small Christian churches, the biggest being the Armenian Orthodox Church, followed by the Roman Catholic Church, and other Protestant and Orthodox churches.

"Iranian leaders are genuinely seeking solutions to their problems, including the formula for a new balance of powers," Johann Marte, the director of Austria's ecumenical Pro Oriente association, told ENI. "[Conservative] voices, though still strong, appear to be on the defensive. The leading force is a religious one; but there's also a desire to develop the country economically and intellectually—a sense that theocracy cannot be the final stage."

Marte was speaking to ENI after accompanying the Catholic Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, on the five-day visit (February 17 to 21), one of the highest-ranking Christian visits to Iran since the 1980s Iran-Iraq War.

The highlight of the visit was, he said, a "very friendly" meeting on February 21 with Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which had included a "sensational discussion" about Christian-Muslim ties. "The Ayatollah said he knew about the current dialogue and approved of it," said Marte, whose association was founded in 1964 to promote Roman Catholic contacts with Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches.

"He [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] talked about Jesus Christ and the prophet Mohammed, and smiled many times. Although we expected a good atmosphere in talks with other leaders, this show of friendliness came as a surprise."

Cardinal Schonborn and his delegation held talks with President Mohammed Khatami, attended a service in Tehran's Assyrian-Chaldean cathedral and met Armenian Apostolic Christians in the former capital, Esfahan.

Church sources said that Iranian leaders had agreed during the visit to support new textbooks for Muslim and Christian schoolchildren, as well as a joint history of both religions.

They added that students at Tehran's elite Imam Sadr University had "listened with great interest" to a lecture on Catholic social teaching given by the cardinal, who was invited to Iran by the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization.

Erich Leitenbeger, spokesman for the Vienna archdiocese, told ENI the visit was intended to promote a "dialogue of civilizations" urged by the United Nations for 2001, and to debate "problems of tradition and modernity."

He added that the Iranian authorities had accepted "all requests" by the 56-year-old cardinal, whose delegation had been allowed to travel unrestricted without Iranian observers.

"The cardinal had the impression that Iran's state and religious authorities are now genuinely interested in dialogue with other religions and cultures," Leitenberger said. "They voiced interest in the system operating in European countries, whereby state and religion are separate, but nevertheless co-operate."

Asked about Iran's 100,000-member Christian minority, whose priests and ministers were forced to leave after the 1979 Islamic revolution, Johann Marte said the Armenian Apostolic Church occupied a "historic position" and was "very self-confident," whereas the country's six other Christian denominations suffered discrimination in education and jobs.

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March (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45