“Why did the Pope skip the Philippines?”
On Tuesday, September 3, Pope Francis began the longest journey of his 11-year-old pontificate: an 11-day tour of Asia-Pacific countries, from Indonesia to Papua New Guinea to Timor-Leste and finally to Singapore.
On Rappler’s Facebook page, a follower was wondering why the Pope chose a country like Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, over the Philippines. Ours, after all, is the biggest Catholic-majority country in Asia and, globally, the one with the third highest number of Catholics, following Brazil and Mexico.
A most heartwarming event in Indonesia, however, proved the wisdom of the Pope’s move.
On Thursday, September 5, the Pope visited the Istiqlal State Mosque of Jakarta, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia. Here, Francis held an interreligious meeting with the mosque’s grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar, a respected religious figure who was Indonesia’s former deputy minister of religious affairs.
Much has been written about their meeting, but nothing can encapsulate it more than their iconic photos.
The images from Jakarta, which we published through Reuters, went viral with at least 11,900 likes and 5,600 shares on Rappler’s Facebook page alone.
The Pope who kissed the hand of the grand imam, and the Muslim religious leader who kissed the pontiff’s head, provided a symbol of harmony in a world beset by different forms of conflict. Many of the world’s conflicts have religious roots, so the gesture of the Pope and the grand imam spoke volumes.
By traveling to a Muslim country, the Pope showed us a path to harmony that embraces differences, avoids proselytism, and respects a diversity of beliefs.
This path, according to the Pope, is actually a tunnel — much like the “tunnel of friendship” that connects the Istiqlal State Mosque and the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, the heart of the Catholic faith in Jakarta.
The Pope said people of different faiths are invited to “always look deeply, because only in this way can we find what unites despite our differences.”
“Indeed, on the surface there are spaces in both the Mosque and the Cathedral that are well defined and frequented by their respective faithful, but below ground in the tunnel, those same people can meet and encounter each other’s religious perspectives,” he said.
Likewise, Francis explained that “underneath” the visible aspects of religions, such as their rites and practices, “is the one root common to all religious sensitivities: the quest for an encounter with the divine.” He said it is important to “discover that we are all brothers and sisters, all pilgrims, all on our way to God, beyond what differentiates us.”
The Pope said members of different religions should always strive “to preserve the bonds between you,” in the same way that a tunnel is built “to create a link between two different and distant places.”
“Sometimes we think that a meeting between religions is a matter of seeking common ground between different religious doctrines and beliefs no matter the cost. Such an approach, however, may end up dividing us, because the doctrines and dogmas of each religious experience are different,” said Francis.
“What really brings us closer is creating a connection in the midst of diversity, cultivating bonds of friendship, care and reciprocity,” he added, citing the need “to move forward together in pursuit of the same goals: defense of human dignity, the fight against poverty and the promotion of peace.”
In another event last Thursday, he again underscored the need to embrace diversity. I preferred the way he explained it this time around, because he was addressing a young woman — and Francis is always in his element whenever explaining things to the youth.
“Life is to be lived in differences. If all things were the same, if all of us were the same, this would be boring,” he said. “In our differences, we can choose war or we can choose dialogue. We need always to choose the path.”
Francis, the first Jesuit pope, warned bishops and priests, seminarians, consecrated persons, and catechists in Indonesia against proselytizing, or the act of inducing another person to convert to one’s religious beliefs.
Proclaiming the Gospel, he said, “does not mean imposing our faith, placing it in opposition to that of others, or proselytizing.” Rather, “it means giving and sharing the joy of encountering Christ, always with great respect and fraternal affection for everyone.”
This statement by Francis, as expected, heightened criticism of conservatives against him. Certain quarters in the Catholic Church continue to emphasize proselytism, even unfairly contrasting Francis to his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
The conservative outlet LifeSiteNews reported: “In contrast with Francis’ emphasis, Pope Benedict XVI gave a 2010 address, in which he stated: ‘The witness of charity, practiced here in a special way, is part of the Church’s mission, together with the proclamation of the truth of the Gospel.’”
Has @Pontifex WARNED against evangelization?#CatholicX #CatholicTwitter #Catholic #Vatican #Faithhttps://t.co/2RrEQae9P6
— LifeSite Catholic (@LSNCatholic) September 5, 2024
LifeSiteNews, of course, conveniently forgot a 2007 homily by Benedict XVI to the bishops of Latin America and the Carribean. At that time, the Latin American bishops included Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, who was to become Pope Francis six years later.
Benedict XVI said on May 13, 2007: “The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by ‘attraction’: just as Christ ‘draws all to himself’ by the power of his love, culminating in the sacrifice of the Cross, so the Church fulfils her mission to the extent that, in union with Christ, she accomplishes every one of her works in spiritual and practical imitation of the love of her Lord.”
Gone are the days when the Catholic Church would conquer foreign lands, or force “infidels” or “heretics” into submission, to spread the faith.
Gone, too, are the days when the Catholic Church would proclaim: “Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.” (Outside the Church, there is no salvation.)
In 1965, the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate stated, in reference to non-Christian faiths: “The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men.”
Pope Francis, by meeting Jakarta’s Grand Imam Umar and even kissing his hand, showed us a path — a “tunnel of friendship” — that allows harmony to thrive despite different beliefs.
By choosing Indonesia, the Pope taught a lesson to a world on fire. – Rappler.com