SW News: The first Sunday prayer service was held at the new St. Francis of Assisi Church in the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi. Representing the pope for the first prayer service was Cardinal Michael L. Fitzgerald, former president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. “The place of prayer should also be a place of joy, and I hope that this will be true for all of us present here,” Fitzgerald said.

Bishop Paolo Martinelli, the apostolic vicar of Southern Arabia, reflected on the meaning of the document ‘Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,’ also known as the Abu Dhabi declaration. In 2019, Pope Francis and Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb signed a historic pledge calling for peace and brotherhood between religions and nations. He characterized the church as a gift to Pope Francis and he described St. Francis of Assisi as the saint of universal brotherhood, peace, and reconciliation, and the saint of the custody of creation.

The document on human fraternity said, “We resolutely declare that religions must never incite war, hateful attitudes, hostility, and extremism, nor must they incite violence or the shedding of blood. These tragic realities are the consequence of a deviation from religious teachings. They result from the political manipulation of religions and from interpretations made by religious groups who, in the course of history, have taken advantage of the power of religious sentiment in the hearts of men and women to make them act in a way that has nothing to do with the truth of religion. This is done to achieve objectives that are political, economic, worldly, and short-sighted. We thus call upon all concerned to stop using religions to incite hatred, violence, extremism, and blind fanaticism, and to refrain from using the name of God to justify acts of murder, exile, terrorism, and oppression. We ask this based on our common belief in God who did not create men and women to be killed or to fight one another, nor to be tortured or humiliated in their lives and circumstances. God, the Almighty, does not need to be defended by anyone and does not want His name to be used to terrorize people.”

The Abrahamic Family House encompasses a church, a synagogue, and a mosque symbolizing the three Abrahamic religions—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. A fourth space—not affiliated with any specific religion—will be an educational center where all people can come together as a single community devoted to mutual understanding and peace.