For the first time in the Vatican, the Grand Imam of the Sunni Islamic University thanked Francis for his words on the respect due to religions and invited him to Cairo.
“Our meeting is the message.” With these words, in the library of the Apostolic Palace, at noon yesterday, Francis greeted the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Muhammad Al-Tayyib, who at the end of the meeting invited the Pope to the IslamicUniversity of Cairo. The handshake- and then the fraternal embrace between the bishop of Rome and the highest authority of Sunni Islam -is a religious event which took place for the first time at the Vatican. It comes after years in which relations had become tense. The meeting is an eventdestined to have consequences in the Muslim world: Al-Tayyibis the Imam who is most decidedly averse to the fundamentalism of Islamist preachers of hate, that ideology which cloaks terrorism and violent acts in religiosity by abusing the name of God.
Rejection of terrorism
At the center of the meeting, which lasted almost thirty minutes and was held in a very cordial atmosphere, was the “common commitment of the authorities and the faithful of the great religions for peace in the world, the rejection of violence and terrorism, and the situation of Christians in the context of conflicts and tensions in the Middle East, and their protection.” Francis and Al-Tayyib, “noted the great significance of this new meeting in the framework of the dialogue between the Catholic Church and Islam. Then they mainly focused on the common commitment of the authorities and the faithful of the great religions for peace in the world, the rejection of violence and terrorism, and the situation of Christians in the context of conflicts and tensions in the Middle East, and their protection .”
An “important” delegation
The brief European journey of the Sunni leader, who in the afternoon departed for Paris - the European city hit hardest by the attacks - where he met François Hollande at the Elysée and today will participate in a meeting sponsored by the Community of Sant’Egidio together with Andrea Riccardi, was designed and built around this visit toVatican City, which had been worked on for a long time, but which was decided upon in the space of a few days. From the airport, Al-Tayyibarrived at the Vatican, accompanied by a high-level delegation, describedas “important”also by the press spokesman of the Holy See, Father Federico Lombardi. Traveling along with the great Imam, among others, were Dr. Abbas Shouman, Undersecretary of Al-Azhar; Dr. Mahmaoud Hamdi Zakzouk, director of the Center for Dialogue of Al-Azhar;andJudge Mohamed Mahmoud Abdel Salam, Advisor to Al-Tayyib. Also present was the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the Holy See, Mr. Hatem Seif Elnasr.
The case of 2011
The Pope received Al-Tayyib with the ceremonydedicated to the religious authorities. There were no Swiss guardpickets, and the two dialogued while facing each other, on either side of the table. Acting as an interpreter was the private secretary of the Pope, the Egyptian father Yoannis Lahzi Gaid. Francis and the Imam looked at each other in the eye. There was not even the need to rehash the events of recent years. The meeting has in fact closed a phase of iciness, which began in January of 2011, after a bloody attack against the Coptic Christians in Alexandria, when Benedict XVI spoke of the “urgent need for governments of the region to adopt, despite difficulties and threats, effective measures for the protection of religious minorities.” Pope Ratzinger was obviously referring to local governments. But his words were translated badly by the media and especially on television in the Arab world, where they were presented as a request for intervention by the West in that area.
The birth of the Arabsection of the Secretariat of State
The reaction of Al-Azhar and of Egyptwas to consider it an unacceptable political interference. The ambassador to the Holy See was called back to Cairo. When it was finally clear what had actually been said by the Pope, it was too late. And so the Sunni University decided, evoking the speech by Ratzinger in Regensburg five years earlier, to suspend the dialogue with the HolySee. The Vatican decided, at the request of the bishops participating in the Synod on the Middle East, to inaugurate an Arabsection of the Secretariat of State, suchas to providetimely accurate translation of all the papalwords and interventions, thus preventing any associated manipulations.
“Isis is not Islam”
But all this is in the past, overcome even before the handshake, and remaining marginal in effect at the the interview. The two leaders exchanged views and concerns. Both wish for religions to preach peace, not hatred. They both want the name of God to not be used by those who incite hatred and terror, even that which is preached in mosques. For this reason, Francis reiterated that “the meeting is the message.” Al-Tayyibtold the Pope that Isis is not Islam. He thanked Francis for his messages, particularly for what he had said in the interview on the plane in January 2015 after the massacre of Charlie Hebdo, when he insisted on the need to respect religions. At the end of the interview Francis gave the Imam the ecological encyclical “Laudato sì”, and the Medallion of Peace, which depicts an olive tree that is born from the rock. In the corner room then a meeting was held between the Egyptian delegation and the Vatican, led by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
