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Pope Francis: reaching out to Muslims

AFP via Daily Mail — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 05:18:27 +0000

Pope Francis met mufti Rahmi Yaran at Istanbul’s Blue Mosque in November 2014

Pope Francis has made dialogue with Islam a cornerstone of his papacy, which began in 2013, and visited several countries with large Muslim populations.

In February he will become the first pontiff to go to the Arabian Peninsula when he visits the United Arab Emirates. He is scheduled to travel to Morocco in March.

Here is a recap of some of his other trips to meet Muslims.

– Jordan, Palestinian territories, Israel –

In May 2014 Pope Francis receives a warm welcome in Jordan’s capital Amman from King Abdullah II and meets with Syrian refugees.

Pope Francis prays at Israel’s separation barrier with the West Bank at Bethlehem in 2014

A day later he begins a pilgrimage to the Holy Land at Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, stopping off for a silent prayer at the controversial separation wall erected by the Israelis.

Francis also visits some of the most sacred sites in Islam and Judaism, including the Al-Aqsa mosque compound and the Western Wall.

– Albania –

In September the same year he visits Albania where he praises the peaceful coexistence of its Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Muslims, labelling it “a precious gift to the country”.

Francis says it is especially important “in these times where an authentic religious spirit is being perverted and where religious differences are being distorted”.

– Turkey –

In November 2014 he travels to Turkey where there is a comparatively tiny Christian community — just 80,000 among about 75 million Muslims.

In Istanbul’s famous Blue Mosque, Francis clasps his hands in prayer alongside a senior Islamic cleric, a gesture of fraternity with Islam similar to that of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, in the same place eight years before.

While the pope defends the alliance of religions against terrorism, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, responds by issuing a strong warning about “seriously and rapidly” rising Islamophobia in the world.

– Central Africa –

Pope Francis in Central African Republic in 2015, when he called for peace between Christians and Muslims

In November 2015 Pope Francis is given a rapturous welcome in the Central African Republic, a country plagued by sectarian violence.

During his 26 hours there, he visits a mosque in Bangui’s flashpoint PK5 Muslim neighbourhood where he says Christians and Muslims are “brothers”.

“Together, we must say no to hatred, to revenge and to violence,” he says.

Among the crowd are several Muslims from PK5 wearing T-shirts bearing the pope’s image.

– Azerbaijan –

In October 2016 the pontiff makes a brief visit to mainly Muslim Azerbaijan, a volatile ex-Soviet Caucasus region.

There he praises the “benefits of multiculturalism and of the necessary complementary of cultures” where the different religions practice “mutual collaboration and respect”.

– Egypt –

A poster welcomes Pope Francis to Egypt in 2017

In April 2017 Francis pays the second papal visit to Egypt of modern times, 17 years after that of pope John Paul II.

In a country where 10 percent of the population of 92 million is Coptic Christian, he says “true faith” depends on “the culture of encounter, dialogue, respect and fraternity.”

He visits Al-Azhar university, one of the Muslim world’s leading religious authorities with whom the Vatican’s ties soured in 2006 when Benedict XVI made a speech in which he was seen as linking Islam to violence.

– Myanmar and Bangladesh –

In December 2017, during a visit to Bangladesh, the pope asks for “forgiveness” from Muslim Rohingya refugees who have fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar in their hundreds of thousands.

“In the name of all those who have persecuted you, who have harmed you, in the face of the world’s indifference, I ask for your forgiveness,” he says after meeting 16 Rohingya refugees.

The pontiff had just made a four-day visit to Myanmar where he called on Buddhist clergy to conquer “prejudice and hatred”, without explicitly referring to the Rohingyas.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6652101/Pope-Francis-reaching-Muslims.html

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Pope’s decision may face opposition within church

Jaweed Kaleem and Tom Kington Los Angeles Times — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 05:17:40 +0000

ROME — A new ruling by Pope Francis published Thursday saying that the death penalty is “inadmissible” in all circumstances, and that the church must try to abolish it, may generate opposition by conservative Roman Catholics in the U.S. and other countries.

The Vatican announced Francis had updated the catechism of the Catholic Church — which represents official Catholic teaching — to exclude the death penalty, a move that reflects Francis’ focus on mercy. Before the pope’s update, the church accepted capital punishment under some circumstances, a position supported by many of its more than 1 billion members worldwide.

“Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good,” the updated section of the catechism says.

It then adds that the church now views the death penalty as “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” and that it will work for its “abolition worldwide.”

Francis has opposed capital punishment for years and his predecessors, Benedict XVI and John Paul II, also argued against it. But Francis decided to leave no room for doubt in the catechism during a meeting this year with Cardinal Luis Ladaria, the head of the church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The change reflects the “clearer awareness of the church for the respect due to every human life,” Ladaria said in an open letter Thursday. The church wanted to energize the campaign against the death penalty, he wrote.

If the death penalty were once justified to keep the public safe from criminals, jails were now more secure and “the rehabilitation and social reintegration of the criminal” was now a higher priority,” Ladaria wrote.

Father Tom Reese, a Jesuit priest and Vatican expert, said the change is expected to see some opposition from conservative Catholics in the United States.

“The loophole has until now been a reason not to speak up, but the next time there is a horrendous criminal due to be executed, perhaps for a school shooting, bishops will have a duty to say this shouldn’t be done,” he said.

A conservative Catholic blog, Rorate Caeli, tweeted Thursday that Francis was “In open violation of the authority recognized to him,” and that “no Catholic has any obligation of obedience to abuse of authority.”

Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author, said the change might “fuel discontent” among U.S. conservative Catholics who are critical of Francis for his emphasis on mercy before rigid doctrine.

“Some people who said any disagreement with the catechism was dissent when Benedict and John Paul were popes seem to feel free to disagree with this now,” he said in an interview.

The change was welcomed by Mario Marazziti, the head of the campaign against the death penalty run by Rome-based Sant’Egidio, which is recognized by the church as a public lay association with tens of thousands of members worldwide.

“Now that the refusal of the death penalty is absolute, conservative Catholics who are pro-life and pro-death penalty will have to start questioning that and decide if they want to respect the pope’s authority or be disobedient Catholics,” he said in a phone interview.

“People like the late Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia said the death penalty was consistent with Catholicism. Now that becomes impossible,” he said.

Marazziti said he expects more Catholics to increasingly oppose capital punishment.

“The death penalty only exists to please public opinion since it doesn’t cut crime, and I believe public opinion will shift,” he said.

“Other Christian denominations believe in retributive justice, taking a fundamentalist approach to the biblical statement about an “eye for an eye,” but Pope Francis believes there is nothing that cannot be forgiven,” Marazziti said.

The death penalty has long divided U.S. Catholics even though church leaders have frequently spoken out against it. A Pew survey this year found that 53 percent of American Catholics supported capital punishment and that 43 percent were against it.

Still, a vocal minority of conservative Catholic priests has argued for putting criminals to death.

Father C. John McCloskey III is an Opus Dei priest known for helping a number of Republican politicians, including then-Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Newt Gingrich, convert to Catholicism.

“It is a great grace to know the time of one’s death, as it gives us the opportunity to get right with the Lord who will judge us at our death,” McCloskey wrote in a 2015 article. “Perhaps many people have been saved in this way by the death penalty. Who knows what would have happened if they had been allowed to linger in this life, one day possibly killing other people?”

Several U.S. bishops expressed their support of the pope’s decision via Twitter.

Bishop Felipe J. Estevez of St. Augustine, Fla., described the news as one of “hope and consolation” for prisoners on death row.

“Today, our Catholic ministers officially console them with hope for when the day draws near when they no longer will be awaiting for the punishment of death,” Estevez tweeted.

Source: https://herald-review.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/pope-s-decision-may-face-opposition-within-church/article_552e2b83-e6bf-57f3-814c-7eefa54dc3fb.html

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