Pope Francis met with Muslim leaders in the Gulf-kingdom of Bahrain on November 4 with a message that Catholics and Muslims alike are called to work to promote peace in the world.
Speaking at the Grand Mosque on the grounds of Bahrain’s Sakhir Palace on November 4, the Pope told the Muslim Council of Elders that he wanted to “journey together in the spirit of Francis of Assisi.”
“God is the source of peace. May he enable us to be ‘channels of his peace’ every-where,” Pope Francis said.
The Pope added: “The God of peace never brings about war, never incites hatred, never supports violence. We, who believe in him, are called to promote peace with tools of peace, such as encounter, patient nego-tiations and dialogue, which is the oxygen of peaceful coexistence.”
Pope Francis attended a meeting with the Muslim Council of Elders in Bahrain, Nov. 4, 2022. The Muslim Council of Elders is an international group founded in the United Arab Emirates in 2014 to work together to promote peace, principles of tolerance, address sources of conflict within Muslim communities, and “bring the Islamic nation together,” according to its website.
The council’s board members include Nigerian Sheik Ibrahim Ibn Saleh al-Hu-ssaini; Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Moha-mmed bin Talal; Grand Mufti of Azerbaijan Sheik Allahshükür Hummat Pashazade; and Abdallah bin Bayyah, an influential Islamic scholar who teaches in Saudi Arabia.
Pope Francis told the council: “We who are descended from Abraham, the father of peoples in faith, cannot be concerned merely with those who are ‘our own’ but, as we grow more and more united, we must speak to the entire human community, to all who dwell on this earth.”
Before the meeting at the mosque, Pope Francis spoke privately with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, a leading Sunni cleric and the grand imam of Al-Azhar in Cairo.
Pope Francis with the grand imam Sheik Ahmed Muhammad Al-Tayyib in Bahrain, November 4, 2022.