To help spread Pope Francis’ greetings for the festival of "Id al-Fitr," Fr. Giuseppe Moretti – in charge of the Missio sui iuris in Afghanistan - reads the message in church and sends the text to a local newspaper. It was not republished, but he still hopes to bring home to Muslims, "the closeness and the Church's respect for their holy days."

Kabul (AsiaNews) - "I read the Holy Father's message for the end of Ramadan, to let Muslims know that the Church is close to their holy days, and hopes that the sentiments expressed by Pope Francis coincide with those of the Islamic world", Fr. Giuseppe Moretti tells AsiaNews.  The Italian native is parish priest of the only church in Afghanistan, the mother church that - since its creation in the 1930s - has been housed in the Italian Embassy in Kabul. Yesterday, at Sunday Mass, the priest decided to read the Pope's Message for the feast of ' Id al-Fitr, "which closes the holy month of Islam.

"The faithful who come to church - said Fr. Moretti, who is in charge of the missio sui iuris in Afghanistan - are almost all Westerners, because there are no Catholics here. Instead of the homily I preferred to read them the text so they clearly understand the churches viewpoint and in the hope that they would speak about it with their Afghan and Muslims co-workers. "

In his message, Pope Francis emphasizes "the importance of education in understanding one another, based on mutual respect," and starting from this he invites Christians and Muslims to "respect the others religion, its teachings, symbols and values".

"It's the first time - Fr. Moretti notes to AsiaNews - a Pope has personally signed a Message for the end of Ramadan. This is important and so I asked a local newspaper to publish the full text, hoping that it would understand its beauty and originality. " However, the newspaper has devoted only a paragraph to the message of the Pope. According to the priest, "there is some fear that publishing a full text of the Holy Father - and therefore of the Catholic Church - may elicit a reaction from fundamentalists. But it is a wish, a greeting, and I do not understand why it should trigger such brutal reactions".

At the end of the Mass, Fr. Moretti continues, "one parishoner pointed out to me that perhaps the Pope, in signing the message himself, wanted to refer to St. Francis, who at the time of the Crusades went to Egypt to meet the Sultan. Somehow, the figure of Francis is of profound relevance to the Islamic world. "

The patrons of the mother church of Kabul are St. Catherine and St. Francis, the latter depicted at the moment of his meeting with the Sultan. (GM)

 

• Afghanistan
• kabul
• pope
• francis
• message
• ramadan
• christian
• muslim
• dialogue