Pope Francis on Wednesday arrived in the Indonesian capital Jakarta where he called for strengthening of Interfaith ties.
He noted that Interfaith dialogue was the best method to confront extremism and intolerance, he said in a speech after meeting President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
“In order to foster a peaceful and fruitful harmony that ensures peace […] the Church desires to increase interreligious dialogue,” he told officials at the presidential palace in Jakarta.
Indonesia has long struggled with Islamist militancy, including bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 that left 202 people dead.
The head of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics is on a three-day visit to Indonesia, the first stop in a 12-day trip that will take in Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.
The speech was one of the first events in a packed schedule in the Indonesian capital, including an address at the city’s cathedral later in the day and a mass at the 80,000-seater national football stadium on Thursday.
Pope Francis met with bishops, priests, deacons, religious men and women, seminarians, and catechists in Jakarta’s Cathedral, the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption.
Pope Francis reflected on the three virtues that comprise the theme of his Apostolic Journey to Indonesia: faith, fraternity, and compassion.
“I think these are three virtues that express well both your journey as a Church and your character as a people, who are ethnically and culturally diverse”, the Pope said. “At the same time, you are characterized by an innate striving for unity and peaceful coexistence”.
To illustrate the idea of “fraternity”, Pope Francis borrowed an image from a twentieth century poet, who said that being brothers and sisters means “loving each other by recognizing one another ‘as different as two drops of water’”.
He drew the lesson that “living out fraternity” – a value that he noted was “dear to the Indonesian Church” – “means welcoming each other, recognizing one another as equal in diversity”.
