{"id":38236,"date":"2019-03-31T21:23:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T21:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38236"},"modified":"2019-03-31T21:23:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-31T21:23:40","slug":"african-union-to-host-libya-reconciliation-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=38236","title":{"rendered":"African Union to host Libya \u2018reconciliation\u2019 conference"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nRABAT: Pope Francis sought to encourage greater Christian-Muslim dialogue on Sunday, telling his flock that showing the country\u2019s Muslim majority they are part of the same human family will help stamp out extremism.
On his second and final day in Morocco, Francis told Catholic priests and sisters that even though they are few in number, they shouldn\u2019t seek to convert others but rather engage in dialogue and charity.
\u201cIn this way, you will unmask and lay bare every attempt to exploit differences and ignorance in order to sow fear, hatred and conflict,\u201d he said. \u201cFor we know that fear and hatred, nurtured and manipulated, destabilize our communities and leave them spiritually defenseless.\u201d
Francis has stressed a message of Christian-Muslim fraternity during his first trip to Morocco, a majority Muslim nation of 36 million. Proselytism is a prominent issue in religious discourse in the north African country, even though Christians, Muslims and Jews have coexisted peacefully here for centuries.<\/p>\n

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\nPope Francis (R) blesses worshipers during a visit to the St Peter’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Rabat on March 31, 2019 . (AFP\/Vatican Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After reaching out to the Sunni majority and Morocco\u2019s ever growing community of migrants from countries in sub-Saharan Africa on Saturday, Francis turned his attention Sunday to Christian minorities. His aim was to highlight their constructive presence in Moroccan life.
Francis visited a social center run by Catholic religious sisters that serves a poor Muslim community south of the capital, Rabat, with medical, educational and vocational services. The Temara center operates a pre-school, treats burn victims, trains women in tailoring and provides meals for 150 children a day.
Catholic catechism isn\u2019t taught at the pre-school.
\u201cTheir teachers are all Muslims and speak in Arabic and they prepare them on Muslim religion,\u201d said sister Gloria Carrillero. \u201cWe did not come here with the purpose of doing proselytism. We came here just to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nPope Francis meets children during a meeting with representatives of other Christian denominations at Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Rabat, Morocco, March 31, 2019. (Vatican Media\/Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Catholics represent less than 1 percent of Morocco\u2019s population and most are foreign-born migrants. Morocco also has between 2,000 and 6,000 homegrown converts to Christianity who are obliged to practice their faith privately because Morocco prohibits Muslim conversions.
These Moroccan converts often celebrate Masses in their homes and hide their religious affiliations for fear of prosecution and arrest. Yet many flocked to Francis\u2019 afternoon Mass in a Rabat sports stadium with the hope the pope\u2019s visit would compel Moroccan authorities to be more tolerant of religious diversity.
\u201cWith this visit, we want to tell the pope and the Moroccan society that we are proud to be Christians,\u201d said Moroccan Christian Adam Rbati, who was attending the Mass with his Christian wife and newborn son. \u201cIt might not change much, but it will certainly create the space for future positive change.\u201d
Francis touched on the issue of religious freedom in his opening speech to King Mohammed VI on Saturday, urging Morocco to move beyond just freedom of worship to true respect for an individual\u2019s faith.<\/p>\n

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\nPope Francis blesses a child upon his arrival for a visit to the Rural Center for Social Services at Temara, south of Rabat, on March 31, 2019. (AFP\/Vatican Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u201cThat is why freedom of conscience and religious freedom \u2014 which is not limited to freedom of worship alone, but allows all to live in accordance with their religious convictions \u2014 are inseparably linked to human dignity,\u201d he said.
In a speech to Catholic priests in the city cathedral Sunday, Francis drew applause when he told them they should not proselytize. The church grows, he said, when people are attracted to its message, witness its charity and engage in dialogue as part of a human family.
He called for prayer \u201cin the name of this fraternity, torn apart by the policies of extremism and division, by systems of unrestrained profit or by hateful ideological tendencies, that manipulate the actions and the future of men and women.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RABAT: Pope Francis sought to encourage greater Christian-Muslim dialogue on Sunday, telling his flock that showing the country\u2019s Muslim majority they are part of the same human family will help stamp out extremism.On his second and final day in Morocco, Francis told Catholic priests and sisters that even though they are few in number, they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}