For the second consecutive year, the Custos of the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, in collaboration with the Apostolic Nunciature, organized an encounter at Notre Dame Center with Muslims of the thrice-holy city during Ramadan.
Invited for the occasion were the Muslim authorities of the city: the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein; the Justice-President of the Supreme Court, Sheikh Tayseer At-Tamimi; and numerous other religious and civil dignitaries. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, unable to accept the invitation personally, was represented by Doctor Khafiq Al Husseini. Some 280 people were present, including the Rector of Al Qods University, and a number of directors, physicians, attorneys and businessmen—Christians and Muslims—all of them influential residents of Jerusalem, joined by several Friars Minor. The presence of numerous members of the local and foreign media demonstrated the importance of the encounter. Though the western journalists may have been thinking of the controversy around the remarks of the Holy Father Benedict XVI, none of the speakers saw fit to discuss it. On the contrary, they all emphasized the generally positive nature of the relationships between the country’s Christians and Muslims, accustomed to living together for centuries, and today enduring the same difficulties: a peaceful coexistence that is certainly, in their opinion, an example that shows the world that living together harmoniously is possible.
Among the guests invited this year by the Apostolic Nuncio, Mgr. Antonio Franco, was H. E. Mgr. Pier Luigi Celata, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, whose present was noted and greatly appreciated by the evening’s guests. The evening before the event, the Apostolic Nuncio, accompanied by Mgr. Celata and Father Ibrahim Faltas ofm, pastor of the Latin parish of Jerusalem, paid a visit to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in the spirit of interreligous dialogue.
After the speeches that continued until sundown, Tuesday’s encounter continued with the Iftar meal, literally “the lifting of the fast”, in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere.
For the Custody, this encounter is inscribed in the spirit of Saint Francis, who exhorted the friars who lived among the Muslims: One way (to live among them) is not to engage in arguments or disputes, but to be subject to every human creature for God’s sake and to acknowledge that they are Christians. (Earlier Rule 16:6)
MAB
Invited for the occasion were the Muslim authorities of the city: the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein; the Justice-President of the Supreme Court, Sheikh Tayseer At-Tamimi; and numerous other religious and civil dignitaries. The President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, unable to accept the invitation personally, was represented by Doctor Khafiq Al Husseini. Some 280 people were present, including the Rector of Al Qods University, and a number of directors, physicians, attorneys and businessmen—Christians and Muslims—all of them influential residents of Jerusalem, joined by several Friars Minor. The presence of numerous members of the local and foreign media demonstrated the importance of the encounter. Though the western journalists may have been thinking of the controversy around the remarks of the Holy Father Benedict XVI, none of the speakers saw fit to discuss it. On the contrary, they all emphasized the generally positive nature of the relationships between the country’s Christians and Muslims, accustomed to living together for centuries, and today enduring the same difficulties: a peaceful coexistence that is certainly, in their opinion, an example that shows the world that living together harmoniously is possible.
Among the guests invited this year by the Apostolic Nuncio, Mgr. Antonio Franco, was H. E. Mgr. Pier Luigi Celata, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, whose present was noted and greatly appreciated by the evening’s guests. The evening before the event, the Apostolic Nuncio, accompanied by Mgr. Celata and Father Ibrahim Faltas ofm, pastor of the Latin parish of Jerusalem, paid a visit to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in the spirit of interreligous dialogue.
After the speeches that continued until sundown, Tuesday’s encounter continued with the Iftar meal, literally “the lifting of the fast”, in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere.
For the Custody, this encounter is inscribed in the spirit of Saint Francis, who exhorted the friars who lived among the Muslims: One way (to live among them) is not to engage in arguments or disputes, but to be subject to every human creature for God’s sake and to acknowledge that they are Christians. (Earlier Rule 16:6)
MAB