During these 10 years of pontificate, Francis has continued from Rome to the entire world a pastoral task that he had begun and carried out in Buenos Aires as Archbishop, promoting and participating in interreligious dialogue with the aim of promoting peace on the basis of respect for the differences and willingness to “build bridges and not build walls”.
Given the fact of the war that humanity suffers today, at the beginning of the Plenary Assembly of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, Francis reaffirmed that dialogue is a crucial issue in this era of globalization in which there is an acceleration of international communications. He reaffirms interreligious dialogue to build peace among all.
The year 2014 will remain in the history of that path. The apostolic trip to the Holy Land and the visit to the Wailing Wall, and the meeting with the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef and the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau, in which Francis affirmed that “together we will be able to firmly face all form of antisemitism and any other form of discrimination.”
On February 4, 2019, during his visit to the United Arab Emirates, Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayyeb jointly signed the Document on “Human Fraternity for world peace and common coexistence”. , inviting all people to join and work together.
The UN Assembly decided to proclaim February 4 International Day of Human Fraternity based on that text. In Iraq, on March 6, 2021, Francis and the Shiite Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani met in Najaf. The spiritual leader of Iraqi Shiite Muslims once said: “Men are brothers by religion or equal by creation”, a phrase that Francis recalled on his return to explain the importance of all feeling brothers when it comes to dialogue between different religions.
In October 2020, the encyclical Fratelli tuttiwhich is part of the Social Doctrine of the Church, of the social teachings that the Church calls to practice, not only Catholics but all people “of good will”.
There is a fundamental human right that must not be forgotten on the path of brotherhood and peace; that of religious freedom for believers of all religions.
Peace constitutes a value, a principle and an objective inherent to all of humanity, just as human rights are the common and inalienable patrimony of all people, the idea of peace and the need for its realization is in the mind and in the hearts of all of us.
*Secretary of Worship of the Nation
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by Guillermo Oliveri*
