On 4 February 2019 Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, sign the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, a step of great importance in the dialogue between Christians and Muslims. The Document brings together Christians and Muslims after a journey that is for both in continuity with their sacred texts and traditions. At the core the themes of peace and common coexistence, through religious freedom, citizenship and brotherhood.
Marco Impagliazzo wrote for the occasion: "The journey of Pope Francis to Abu Dhabi in the Arab Emirates (the first in the history of the Church of a Pope in the Arabian Peninsula) was characterised by two embraces and two signatures. The embrace of peace with the great imam of Al Azhar, and therefore with the Sunni Muslim world, which seals a path of meetings of which I am witness with the Community of Sant'Egidio in the "spirit of Assisi”. It is an embrace that led to the first of the two signatures, that to a joint document between the Catholic Church and the University of Al-Azhar (the most important cultural and religious place of Sunni Islam) on human fraternity for world peace and common coexistence.
A declaration of brotherhood, with all the positive implications that this carries. As witnesses to the embrace and signature of the leaders of the great world religions and, humbly, the Community. Indeed, it is the fulfilment of the dream of John Paul II: religions pray for peace and for one another. No longer against each other".
Following that historic meeting, the United Nations General Assembly declared 4 February the International Day of Human Fraternity.
Pope Francis recently said: «It is a reason for satisfaction that the nations of the entire world are joining in this celebration, aimed at promoting interreligious and intercultural dialogue, as also called for in the Document on Human Brotherhood and for World Peace and Common Coexistence, signed on 4 February 2019 in Abu Dhabi, by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Muhammad Aḥmad al-Tayyib, and by myself. Fraternity means reaching out to others, respecting them and listening to them with an open heart. I hope that concrete steps will be taken together with the believers of other religions, and also with people of good will, to affirm that today is a time of brotherhood, avoiding fuelling clashes, divisions, and closures. Let us pray and commit ourselves every day so that we can all live in peace, as brothers and sisters".
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