By Muslim Mirror Staff

New Delhi: In a message for Islam’s holy month of Ramadan and Id al-Fitr, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue has urged Christians and Muslims worldwide to build bridges of brotherhood and promote the culture of dialogue. The Vatican is calling on Christians and Muslims worldwide to promote human fraternity and harmonious existence by building bridges of friendship and promoting a culture of dialogue where violence is rejected and the human person is respected.

The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) made the invitation in a message to wish Muslims worldwide a peaceful and fruitful celebration of the fasting month Ramadan that ends with Id al-Fitr. “The month of Ramadan with its dedication to fasting, prayer and alms giving, is also a month for strengthening the spiritual bonds we share in Muslim-Christian friendship,” notes the message entitled, “Christians and Muslims: Promoting Universal Fraternity”, signed by PCID Secretary, Bishop Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot.

Quoting the document signed by Pope Francis and the Gran Iman Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb of Al-Azhar in Abu Dhabi on February 4, Bishop Ayuso invites Christians and Muslims to “remain rooted in the values of peace; to defend the values of mutual understanding, human fraternity and harmonious coexistence; to re­establish wisdom, justice and love.”

Full text of the Message is given below:

Christians and Muslims: Promoting Universal Fraternity

The month of Ramadan with its dedication to fasting, prayer and almsgiving, is also a month for strengthening the spiritual bonds we share in Muslim-Christian friendship. I am pleased, therefore, to take this opportunity to wish you a peaceful and fruitful celebration of Ramadan.

Our religions invite us to “remain rooted in the values of peace; to defend the values of mutual understanding, human fraternity and harmonious coexistence; to re-establish wisdom, justice and love” (cf. Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, Abu Dhabi, 4 February 2019).

We Muslims and Christians are called to open ourselves to others, knowing and recognizing them as brothers and sisters. We thus cultivate in our families and in our political, civil and religious institutions, a new way of life where violence is rejected, and the human person respected.

In order to respect diversity, dialogue must seek to promote every person’s right to life, to physical integrity, and to fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of conscience, of thought, of expression and of religion. This includes the freedom to live according to one’s beliefs in both the private and public spheres. In this way, Christians and Muslims – as brothers and sisters – can work together for the common good.

It is wish that the gesture and message of fraternity will find an echo in the hearts of all those holding positions of authority in the areas of social and civil life of the whole human family, and may lead all of us to put into practice not merely an attitude of tolerance but true and peaceful living together.

With heartfelt fraternal greetings, renewed esteem for our friendship, and in the name of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, I convey sincere best wishes for a fruitful month of Ramadan and a joyous ‘Id al-Fitr.

Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, M.C.C.J.