São Paulo – In his last appointment in Morocco, Pope Francis talked about the dialogue between Muslims and Christians. The head of the Catholic Church , had a two-day schedule in the Arab country and left to Rome on Sunday (31) after celebrating a Mass in Rabat at Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium for approximately ten thousand people from 60 different countries, according to information published at Vatican News.
“With these feelings of gratitude, I want once more to encourage you to persevere on the path of dialogue with our Muslim brothers and sisters, also collaborating to make it visible that universal fraternity that comes from God. I urged you to be the servants of hope that our world so urgently needs,” he said to the Catholics during his homily.
The gratitude was directed to king Mohamed VI and the authorities that collaborated for the good progress of the visit, specially the Catholic Church archbishops in Rabat and Tangier. Francis said he made the apostolic trip to Morocco as a “servant of hope.”
The gospel excerpt read during the Mass was about the prodigal son, which tells the story of the son who leaves the house and is welcomed back by his father years later, against his brother’s will. From that, the Pope invited those present to see themselves as brothers. “As beloved children, we don’t measure or rank people according to a moral, social, ethnic or religious status,” he said.
At the end of the Mass, the archbishop of Rabat, Dom López Romero said the Pope’s visit was an actual response for the invite Francis always make for Christians to go to the outskirts. He thanked Francis for having met migrants during the trip and for his continuous support to the dialogue between Christians and Muslims.
“Humbly our Church and each one of us want to be a bridge between Muslims and Christians, between the North and the South, between Europe and Africa. Like you, we want to be pontiffs, building bridges, not only walls, or trenches or frontiers,” Romero said to the public and the Pope.
Pope Francis was welcomed on Saturday by the king Mohammed VI at the Rabat-Salé Airport and had a ceremony of greeting. The Pope has also paid a visit to the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, the king who died in 1961, and a courtesy visit to the current Moroccan king Mohammed VI where they both signed an appeal on Jerusalem, acknowledging the unicity and sacredness of the city. His visit to the country included meetings with Moroccans, authorities, religious leaders, civil society, diplomats, and the Catholic community.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
