The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar speaks to Vatican Media about his relationship with Pope Francis: “From the first minute of our meeting I had confirmation that he is a man of peace and humanity. The encyclical is an appeal to create a true fraternity where there is no room for dis-crimination on the basis of diffe-rences of religion, race, gender, or other forms of intolerance.”
“Each one of us has disco-vered a great spiritual and thoughtful attunement to the crises that afflict contemporary man…” The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Prof. Ahmad Muhammad Al-Tayeb, during his days in Rome to participate at some important events alongside Pope Francis and other religious lead-ers, visited the studios of Vatican Radio – Vatican News and spoke about his relationship with Pope Francis, one year after the publi-cation of the Encyclical Fratelli tutti.
The Grand Imam recounted that “after the election of dear brother Pope Francis, Al-Azhar took the initiative to congratulate him, and we received a beautiful response from Pope Francis.” He noted that it was a response that encouraged us to renew the relationship, and so, he decided to visit the Pope in the Vatican in May 2016.

Pope Francis said on October 7 that he plans to declare St. Irenaeus of Lyon a Doctor of the Church with the title “Doctor unitatis,” meaning “Doctor of Unity.”
The Pope made the announ-cement in a speech to the St. Irenaeus Working Group, a group of Catholic and Orthodox theologians who conducted a study together on synodality and primacy. “Your patron, Saint Irenaeus of Lyon — whom soon I will willingly declare a Doctor of the Church with the title Doctor unitatis — came from the East, exercised his episcopal ministry in the West, and was a great spiritual and theological bridge between Eastern and Western Christians,” Pope Fran-cis said on Oct. 7.
St. Irenaeus was a second-century bishop and writer revered by both Catholics and Orthodox Christians and known for refu-ting the heresies of Gnosticism with a defence of both Christ’s humanity and divinity.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed climate change and clerical abuse with Pope Francis on October 7 in a fare-well trip to Rome that included talks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Merkel, who is bowing out after 16 years in power, also visited St Peter’s Basilica and will lunch at a restaurant in central Rome before giving a speech at a peace conference at the Colosseum.
She was honoured with a ceremonial welcome by the Swiss Guards at the Vatican before meeting and exchanging gifts with the Pope, whom she has met several times before.
She said afterward they dis-cussed climate change – an issue on which Francis has been out-spoken – and the sexual abuse by children of clergy, a problem that has rocked the Catholic Church in Germany and else-where.
“We had important discuss-ions about child abuse,” Merkel, the daughter of a Lutheran clergyman, told reporters.
“I wanted to underline with my visit that we think that the truth must come to light, and the topic must be dealt with.”
Earlier, Merkel visited the site of a new institute within the Vatican’s Gregoriana university dedicated to child protection and met with Hans Zollner, the Vatican’s leading expert on measures to safeguard minors.
She was later due to meet with Draghi, with whom she has worked closely for years, notably when he was head of the European Central Bank — and where they did not always see eye-to-eye.

The Catholic Church’s inability to make victims of sexual abuse its top concern is a cause for intense shame, Pope Francis said.
In the wake of a major report investigating the extent of sexual aggression and abuse against minors in the church in France, the Pope said, “I wish to express to the victims my sadness, my grief, for the traumas they have endured, and also my shame.” This deep sense of shame, “our shame, my shame,” he said, was for “the too lengthy inability of the church to put (victims) at the center of its concerns.”
The pope made his remarks at his general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall, in the presence of a group of bishops and a cardinal from France who had been in Rome for their “ad limina” visit. Just before the audience, the Pope and four of the bishops gathered privately for a moment of silent prayer for victims.
After delivering his main catechesis, the pope highlighted a recent report published by an independent body commissioned by the French bishops’ conference.
According to the four-year investigation, an estimated 216,000 children were abused by priests since 1950, and more than 100,000 others were abused by lay employees of church institutions.
This history of unchecked abuse extending over the course of generations challenges our comprehension of how innocent persons could have suffered so terribly
The Pope commented on the “considerable number” of known victims revealed in the report.
Assuring victims of his prayers, the pope asked everyone to pray with him: “To you, Lord, the glory; to us, the shame. This is the moment of shame.” He encouraged the country’s bishops and superiors general of religious orders “to continue to do their utmost so that similar tragedies are not repeated.”
Pope Francis also expressed his closeness to the priests in France, assuring them of his “paternal support before this ordeal, which is arduous but beneficial.”