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.