Catholic Leaders Open New Church in UAE’s Interfaith House

February 24, 2023211 views0

Catholic Leaders Open New Church in UAE’s Interfaith House

2023-02-24T10:38:14+01:00

By Church News

The three Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — now share a common place to worship in the predominantly Muslim United Arab Emirates with the opening of the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi.Such was the dream of Pope Francis and Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, who in 2019 signed a historic pledge calling for peace and brotherhood between religions and nations. Four years later a synagogue, church, and mosque sit opposite a secular visitor pavilion in an interfaith complex meant to encourage goodwill and understanding.Representing the pope for the first prayer service at the new St. Francis of Assisi Church was Cardinal Michael L. Fitzgerald, a past president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.“The place of prayer should also be a place of joy, and I hope that this will be true for all of us here present,” Fitzgerald said at the Sunday prayer service at the new church.Cardinal Fitzgerald conveyed the pope’s greetings. He said Pope Francis would encourage all those gathered “to continue in the culture of dialogue as our path; to adopt mutual cooperation as our code of conduct and to endeavour to make reciprocal understanding the constant method of our undertakings.”Bishop Paolo Martinelli, the apostolic vicar of Southern Arabia, spoke at the prayer service of the new church, the Abrahamic Family House and reflected on the meaning of the document “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” also known as the Abu Dhabi declaration, which was signed by the pope and Sunni Islam’s highest legal authority.“We have entered a new phase in the history of religions,” Martinelli said. “With the Abu Dhabi document on human fraternity, a prophetic and far-sighted document, religions are presented in their original capacity to collaborate and contribute together to the formation of a more humane world, in which we all recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters, called to fraternity, to coexistence and tolerance, mutual acceptance, and the promotion of justice and peace.”He characterized the church as a gift to Pope Francis and he described its namesake St. Francis of Assisi as “the saint of universal brotherhood, peace, and reconciliation, and the saint of the custody of creation.”“His Holiness Pope Francis wanted to take the name of this great saint precisely to recall the value of fraternity, peace, and creation and to show the priority of closeness between human beings, especially for those who are in poverty and in need,” Martinelli said.The Abrahamic Family House was designed by Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye, whose works include the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.ALSO READ: Vietnam Catholics Open New Church After Two Centuries