Faith, fraternity, compassion by Pope Francis

Today, as I write this, Pope Francis has completed the first leg of his papal visit to Southeast Asia. The visit has been termed the apostolic journey of His Holiness to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore. This 12-day journey is considered unique because the four countries he will visit are non-Catholic, except for Timor-Leste.

As usual, those who follow this apostolic journey will be waiting for the words Pope Francis will use in the different groups he is scheduled to meet.

In his first talk in the meeting with the authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps in Jakarta, Indonesia, he said: “A harmony in diversity is achieved when particular perspectives take into account the needs common to all and when each ethnic group and religious denomination acts in a spirit of fraternity, pursuing the noble goal of serving the good of all.”

Indonesia is a country of more than 270 million people and is the largest Muslim country in the world. Its population is only three percent Catholic.

Pope Francis expressed the basic purpose of his journey: “In order to foster a peaceful and fruitful harmony that ensures peace and unites efforts to remove imbalances and suffering that still persist in some areas, the Church desires to increase inter-religious dialogue. In this way, prejudices can be eliminated and a climate of mutual respect and trust can grow. This is indispensable for meeting common challenges, including that of countering extremism and intolerance which, through the distortion of religion, attempt to impose their views by using deception and violence. Closeness, on the other hand, listening to the opinion of others, creates a fraternal nation. This is something very, very beautiful.”

In his initial message, the pope assures the world that the Catholic Church wants to strengthen cooperation with all the different sectors of civil society and reassures that the Church never proselytizes and respects the faith of every person.

The pope is obviously addressing the conflicts between the Christian population of the world and its Muslim counterparts, which are the two biggest religious populations on earth. Unfortunately, there have been