Pope Francis, imam of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque make joint call to fight violence, protect planet

Pope Francis and the grand imam of Southeast Asia's largest mosque pledge to fight violence and protect the environment.

Pope Francis joined the grand imam of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque in pledging to work together to fight religiously inspired violence and protect the environment on Thursday (September 5, 2024), issuing a joint call for interfaith friendship and common cause at the heart of the Pope’s visit to Indonesia.

In an encounter rich with symbolic meaning and personal touches, Pope Francis travelled to Jakarta’s iconic Istiqlal Mosque for an interfaith gathering with representatives of the six religions that are officially recognised in Indonesia: Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Catholicism and Protestantism.

There, he and the grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar, stood at the ground-level entrance to the “Tunnel of Friendship,” an underpass which connects the mosque compound with the neighbouring Catholic cathedral, Our Lady of the Assumption.

Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population, has held out the tunnel as a tangible sign of its commitment to religious freedom, which is enshrined in the Constitution but has been challenged by repeated instances of discrimination and violence against religious minorities.

Approaching the elevator to the tunnel, Pope Francis said it was a potent sign of how different religious traditions “have a role to play in helping everyone pass through the tunnels of life with our eyes turned towards the light.”

He encouraged all Indonesians of every religious tradition to “walk in search of God and contribute to building open societies, founded on reciprocal respect and mutual love, capable of protecting against rigidity, fundamentalism and extremism, which are always dangerous and never justifiable.”

The Pope travelled to Indonesia, at the start of an 11-day, four-nation trip to Asia and Oceania, to encourage Indonesia to combat religiously inspired violence and pledge the Catholic Church’s commitment to greater fraternity.