Is Pope Francis' Egypt visit new beginning for Vatican-Azhar ties?
With the visit of Pope Francis to Cairo on April 28-29, ties between the Vatican and Al-Azhar have been strengthened, putting interfaith dialogue high on the agenda of the Christian and Muslim representatives.
CAIRO – With the 26-hour historic visit of Pope Francis to Cairo on April 28-29, Al-Azhar and the Vatican have restored momentum to Christian-Muslim dialogue. At the end of the visit, Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb and the head of the Roman Catholic Church exchanged a warm embrace.
"Together let us affirm the incompatibility of violence and faith, belief and hatred," said the pope, commenting on the photo of the embrace he posted on his Instagram account.
At the start of his two-day trip to Egypt, at the International Peace Conference held at Al-Azhar Conference Center in Cairo, Francis said, "Precisely in the field of dialogue — particularly interreligious dialogue — we are constantly called to walk together, in the conviction that the future also depends on the encounter of religions and cultures."
The words of Francis reflected the Vatican's keenness to promote dialogue between Islam and Christianity through the institutions of Al-Azhar and the Vatican, and find mechanisms to pass on the culture of dialogue to the new generations in schools and universities as well as at the popular level.
