Pope celebrates mass
CELEBRATING MASS IN CAIRO, POPE FRANCIS LAMENTS THE RISE OF ‘DEMAGOGIC FORMS OF POPULISM’
Pope Francis celebrated a mass in Cairo yesterday, the last day of a two-day visit during which he urged Muslim leaders to unite against religious violence as Islamist militants threaten to rid the Middle East of its ancient Christian communities.
Pope Francis’ trip, aimed at rebuilding ties with Muslim religious leaders, comes three weeks after Daesh killed at least 46 people in attacks on two Egyptian churches. He has used the visit to launch a strong appeal for religious freedom and accuse extremists of distorting the merciful nature of God.
After a dense first day of meetings with political and religious leaders, the highlight yesterday was the mass in the Air Defence Stadium, where Vatican officials said 15,000 people gathered, among them Coptic and Anglican bishops.
Crowds began to arrive early, waving Egyptian and Vatican flags to welcome Francis, who toured the stadium in a golf buggy to the sound of hymns performed by a choir and orchestra.
Protect rights of others
At the end of his mass for the Catholic community, Francis blessed Egypt as one of the earliest nations to embrace Christianity and repeated his call for tolerance.
“True faith leads us to protect the rights of others with the same zeal and enthusiasm with which we defend our own,” he told the crowd.
“God is pleased only by a faith that is proclaimed by our lives, for the only fanaticism believers can have is that of charity! Any other fanaticism does not come from God and is not pleasing to him!”
His words echoed his message on the opening day of his visit, when he told an international peace conference at AlAzhar, Cairo’s 1,000-year-old Sunni seat of learning: “Together let us affirm the incompatibility of violence and faith, belief and hatred.”
He also lamented the rise of “demagogic forms of populism” — a possible reference to rightwing nationalist parties in Europe pushing anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agendas.
TThe visit was the first by Francis to Cairo but the second by a Vatican pope. Pope John Paul II came to Egypt in 2000.
Egypt’s Christians comprise roughly 10 per cent of the 92 million population — making them by far the largest Christian community in the Middle East. Most of Egypt’s Christians are Coptic Orthodox with barely 200,000 members of churches within the Roman Catholic fold.
On Friday, Shaikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi, Minister of State for Tolerance, who was attending the Al Azhar International Peace Conference, stressed the importance of working harder to achieve peace and promote the values of tolerance, harmony, co-existence and mutual understanding among all the different races, colours, religions, cultures and beliefs.
She added that practical steps should be taken to achieve this without relying solely on the theoretical aspects, noting that the UAE has done this thanks its leadership.
“The UAE has taken multiple legislative, religious, cultural and media procedures, notably enacting the anti-discriminatory law issued in 2015,” she said.
“This conference is an important opportunity at a sensitive time to call on all peoples of the world to reject destructive beliefs that incite hatred, and discrimination. We should be building bridges of communication among different religions, cultures and peoples, and be promoting tolerance, co-existence, peace and respect for the values of pluralism and acceptance of others intellectually, culturally and religiously,” the UAE minister said.