Vatican City: Pope Francis met briefly on Wednesday with a delegation of four British Muslim clerics and praised their contribution to dialogue between different faiths and cultures.
“I like to think that the most important job we have to do between us, as humanity, is done with our ears, by listening,” Francis told the four-man group as he greeted them warmly at the Vatican for a private audience.
“The ability to listen is so important. Those who have it speak softly, quietly. Those that don’t talk loudly, shout even. “Among brothers, all of us have to talk and listen gently, to seek the way together.
“And when we listen and talk to each other, we are already on the path. I thank you for taking this path and ask almighty and merciful God to bless you. And I ask you, to pray for me.”
The clerics at the talks were scholar Syed Ali Raza Rizvi, Moulana Muhammad Shahid Raza, an imam who heads the British Muslim Forum, Ibrahim Mogra of the Christian Muslim Forum and Sayed Ali Abbas Razawi, Director-General of the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society.
Since his election four years ago, Francis has overseen a steady improvement in relations between the Vatican and the Islamic world.
The Argentine pontiff hosted top cleric Ahmed al Tayeb at the Vatican last year and will meet him again when he visits the Al Azhar mosque as part of a visit to Egypt at the end of this month.
Francis has made interfaith dialogue one of his priorities, describing fundamentalism as a disease of all religions. —AFP
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