Pope Francis advocated this Wednesday (04.09.2024) for interreligious dialogue to “contrast extremism and intolerance, which, distorting religion, try to impose themselves by means of deception and violence”during his speech to authorities at the presidential palace in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, on the first day of the official agenda of his tour of Asia and Oceania.
He also regretted that “in various regions we see the emergence of violent conflicts, which are often the result of a lack of mutual respect, of an intolerant desire to make one’s own interests, one’s own position or one’s own partial vision of history prevail at all costs, even if this means endless suffering for entire communities and gives rise to real bloody wars.”
He began by praising “mutual respect for the specific cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious characteristics of all human groups that make up Indonesia“It is the indispensable thread that keeps the Indonesian people united and proud.”
Catholics make up just 3.1 percent of Indonesia’s 270 million people, but with 8 million followers they are the third-largest Catholic population in Asia, after the Philippines and China, while Muslims make up 89.4 percent.
Together with President Joko Widodo, with whom he met, Francis reaffirmed that “harmony in respect for differences is achieved when each particular opinion takes into account the needs that are common and when each ethnic group and religious confession acts in a spirit of fraternity, pursuing the noble goal of serving the good of all.”
He added that “this wise and delicate balance between the multiplicity of cultures, the different ideological visions and the reasons that underpin unity must be continually defended against any imbalance.”
Interreligious dialogue
Although Francis also stressed that “in order to promote a peaceful and constructive harmony that guarantees peace and unify efforts to overcome the imbalances and pockets of misery that still persist in some areas of the country.” According to data from the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency (BPS), although decreasing, there are 25 million poor people.
And he assured that The Catholic Church “wants to increase interreligious dialogue”. In this way, prejudices can be eliminated and a climate of respect and mutual trust can be fostered, factors that are essential for facing common challenges, including that of countering extremism and intolerance.”
In this regard, the Pope will attend an interreligious meeting at the Istiqlal mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia, connected to the cathedral by the “tunnel of friendship” on Thursday 5 September, and will sign a joint declaration on tolerance with the Grand Imam, Nasaruddin Umar.
Pope Francis considered that there are cases “in which faith in God is continually placed in the foregroundbut often, unfortunately, to be manipulated and not to serve to build peace, communion, dialogue, respect, collaboration and fraternity, but to foster divisions and increase hatred.”
He concluded by sending a message to the country’s political class, stating that “harmony is, in fact, achieved when each person commits himself, not only in accordance with his own interests and his own vision, but with a view to the good of all, to build bridges, to promote agreements and create synergies, to join forces and defeat all forms of moral, economic and social misery, and to promote peace.”
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