Pope Francis receives members of a delegation from Albania led by Dede Edmond Brahimaj, leader of the Bektashi Muslims: ‘Interreligious dialogue has a unique role to play in building a future of reconciliation, justice and peace’.

Vatican News

‘In these difficult times, we are all called to reject the logic of violence and discord, to embrace that of encounter, friendship and collaboration in the search for the common good’. This is what Pope Francis told the delegation from Albania led by Haxhi Baba Edmond Brahimaj, leader of the Bektashi Muslims of Tirana. The Pontiff received everyone this morning, 16 January, in the Library Room of the Vatican Apostolic Palace.

Hope for a better world

‘Every time that religious leaders come together in a spirit of mutual esteem and commit themselves to the culture of encounter, through dialogue, mutual understanding and cooperation, our hope in a better and more just world is renewed and confirmed. How much our time needs such hope!’, began the Pope in his address.

Relations between the Catholic Church and the Bektashi community

He then recalled the friendly relations between the Catholic Church, Albania and the Bektashi Community that ‘are good for all of us’. The Pope’s hope is that ‘these bonds will grow ever stronger in the service of fraternity and peaceful coexistence between peoples’. ‘Our religious convictions,’ he adds, “help us to embrace more clearly these fundamental values, proper to our common humanity, allowing the ensemble of different voices to form a noble and harmonious song”.

In Francis’ words, he also recalled the many moments of fraternal encounter that have taken place between the Bektashi community and the Catholic Church, such as the Prayer for Peace in the Balkans in 1993 and the World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi in 2011. The inauguration of the Bektashi Temple in Tirana in 2015 was also ‘a particularly fruitful moment of closeness and friendship’. The Pope said he is ‘convinced’ that the Bektashi Community, together with other Muslims, Christians and all other believers present in Albania, can serve as a ‘bridge of reconciliation and mutual enrichment not only within your country, but also between East and West’.

A future of justice and peace

‘Despite the challenges of the present,’ assured the Bishop of Rome, ’interreligious dialogue has a unique role to play in building a future of reconciliation, justice and peace that the peoples of the world, and especially the young, so ardently desire.