Pope Francis and top Indonesian imam make joint call for peace

On his final day of his first stop in the Asia-Pacific area, Pope Francis warned against using faith to exacerbate discord.

The Pope met with local rulers of six religions at the Istiqlal mosque in Jakarta, where the pope met with the temple’s great imam to sign a declaration on spiritual tranquility and environmental security.

The 87-year-old had earlier on Tuesday kicked off a 11-day attend to the area, the longest overseas trip of his church.

After celebrating mass before an expected masses of 80, 000 in Indonesia’s main football facility after in the day, he may move to Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Singapore.

The Pope said at the largest mosque in South East Asia that people from various sects needed to be aware that” we are all boys, all travellers, all on our way to God, beyond what distinguishes us.”

Humanity is facing a” major issue” brought about by war, discord and the destruction of the environment, he added.

The Pope also took a 28-meter (91-foot ) tunnel that connects the Catholic church across the street from the Istiqlal shrine.

He and his grandimam Nasaruddin Umar sat at the entrance to the “tunnel of friendship,” which he described as an “eloquent signal” of how people of different ideologies may unite under one roof.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim lot region and only 3 % of its 275 million are Catholics.

Indonesia has six formally recognised sects– Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism.

The Pope will have a grueling schedule of public gatherings and meetings with Church leaders in Asia-Pacific, one of only a dozen places in the world where the Catholic Church is expanding in terms of spiritual jobs and baptized honest.

In Indonesia, he has been seen moving about and waving to adoring audiences from his chair, underscoring worries about his deluge of health problems.

The Pope had previously on Wednesday, the second day of his three-day attend, spoke alongside the government’s outgoing president, Joko Widodo in Jakarta.

That, he said Indonesia does live up to its promises of “harmony in diversity”.

He even praised Citizens for having large families with up to five children.

” Keep it up, you’re an example for everyone, for all the countries that maybe, and this might sound funny, ( where ) these families prefer to have a cat or a little dog instead of a child”, he said.

His remarks evoke memories of two years ago, when the Pope said having animals rather than children lessens the “humanity” of married couples.