Pope: Tolerance is good for society, the soul

Friday, Oct. 07, 2016

BAKU, Azerbaijan (CNS) — As the spiritual leader of a tiny religious minority in Azerbaijan, Pope Francis told the leaders of the country’s other religious communities that they share a responsibility to help people grow in faith, but also in tolerance for the faith of others.

“The blood of far too many people cries out to God from the earth, our common home,” the pope said Oct. 2 during a meeting with religious leaders hosted by Sheik Allahshukur Pashazade, the region’s chief imam, in Baku’s Heydar Aliyev Mosque.

At a time when the world seems to be dwelling in a “night of conflict,” Pope Francis expressed his prayer that religions would prepare the way for “a dawn of peace, seeds of rebirth amid the devastation of death, echoes of dialogue resounding unceasingly, paths to encounter and reconciliation reaching even those places where official mediation efforts seem not to have borne fruit.”

Pashazade told the pope that as “head of Vatican state and of the world’s Catholics, your activity is of great interest to us.” The sheik praised the pope’s defense of immigrants and particularly “your protest of connecting the name of Islam to terrorism, while harshly condemning the real causes of terrorism and your incisive speeches against xenophobia.”

In the country of more than 9.4 million people, there are only about 570 Catholics, and most of them are foreigners. Still, the pope said, the Catholic Church has found a place in the nation, which proves that “it is not opposition, but cooperation that helps to build better and more peaceful societies.”

In every religion, he said, there are people who oppose tolerance toward and any sign of collaboration with people of other faiths.