Rappler: END RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS. Pope Francis will meet with heads of various religions during his visit to the Philippines on January. File photo by Filippo Monteforte/AFP
MANILA, Philippines – Pope Francis will meet with leaders of various religions when he visits the Philippines next month, pushing a message of tolerance in order to combat global religious conflicts, a church official said Monday, December 22.
The pontiff will hold a 10 to 15-minute dialogue with the dean of the Philippines’ largest Islamic studies centre and a Taiwan-based Buddhist leader on January 18, according to Father Carlos Reyes, a member of the committee organising the Pope’s visit.
He will also meet with the Hong Kong-based regional head of the Greek Orthodox Church, as well as a Hindu leader, Protestant bishops, and a Manila-based rabbi, Reyes told reporters.
The dialogue will be held at the 400-year-old church-run University of Santo Tomas in Manila, where the pontiff will also address a crowd of 25,000 youths.
“The church is Catholic, it is universal, we are in dialogue with the world,” Reyes said.
“It is our job as men and women of religion not to allow the fundamentalists or extremists to hijack the religion.”
The event comes as the largely-Catholic Philippines is implementing a peace deal signed last March with its main Muslim rebel group to create an autonomous area for the Muslim minority in the southern islands.
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