Rabat, Morocco, Mar 31, 2019 / 05:23 am
Pope Francis urged religious communities in Morocco to practice an "ecumencism of charity," calling for dialogue, not proselytism, in the Muslim-majority country Sunday.
"Charity, especially towards the vulnerable, is the best opportunity we have to keep working to build of a culture of encounter," Pope Francis told the priests, religious, and seminarians gathered in Rabat Cathedral March 31.
The pope pointed to the example of Saint Francis of Assisi, who "at the height of the Crusades went to encounter Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil" and Blessed Charles de Foucauld, the French missionary martyred in Algeria in 1916, who "wished to be a brother to all."
"When the Church, in fidelity to the mission she has received from the Lord, enters into dialogue with the world and gives her message, she takes part in the advent of that fraternity whose deepest source is not in ourselves but in the fatherhood of God," he said.