Pope Francis travels to Iraq, in the first move of a Pope to that country and the eleventh to a Muslim nation he visits in his work of building bridges with Islam.
– JORDAN (May 2014)
The first leg of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. During his meeting in Amman with King Abdullah II, he renewed his “deep respect and appreciation for the Muslim community” and his wish that the visit would help “increase and promote good and cordial relationships between Christians and Muslims.”
– ALBANIA (September 2014)
Francisco praised “the peaceful coexistence and cooperation between people belonging to different religions,” which “is a valuable asset to the country and is of particular relevance in this day and age.”
– TURKEY (November 2014)
He visited the Blue Mosque and stopped for an iconic prayer with other Muslim leaders. On his return to the plane, he defended that “it cannot be said that all Muslims are terrorists.”
– BOSNIA (June 2015)
The Pope traveled to Sarajevo for just one day, where he launched his message of “peace and dialogue” to representatives of all religious communities that co-exist in the country: Muslim, Orthodox Christian, Catholic and also Jewish.
– MIDDLE AFRICAN REPUBLIC (November 2015)
At the central mosque in Bangui, with the Muslim community, he noted, “Christians and Muslims are brothers. We should see ourselves that way, act like that. Christians, Muslims, and adherents of traditional religions have been living together peacefully for years.”
– AZERBAIJAN (November 2016)
In the Baku Mosque, the Pope exclaimed, “God cannot be invoked for partisan interests and selfish purposes, he cannot justify any form of fundamentalism, imperialism or colonialism. No more violence in the name of God!”
– EGYPT (April 2017)
He visited the mosque and, at the invitation of the great Imam Ahmed al Tayeb, the university of al-Azhar, where he stressed, “As religious leaders, we are called to expose the violence.” “Today we need peace builders, not weapons; today we need peace builders, not provocateurs of conflict; firefighters and not arsonists; preachers of reconciliation and not sellers of destruction.”
– BANGLADESH (November 2017)
Francis asked the various confessions to work together to end “the temptation to close our eyes to the needs of the poor, refugees, persecuted minorities and the most vulnerable,” during an interfaith meeting.
– UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (February 2019)
The first pope to travel to the Arabian Peninsula signed there with the great Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed al Tayeb, a document on human brotherhood affirming “the common calling of all men to be brothers as children of God.”
– MOROCCO (March 2019)
The Pope visited the Mohamed VI religious training center, where imams are trained to prevent extremist infiltration.