The Church brought together religious leaders for the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis: “The only enemy is hate”

The president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Oscar Ojea, together with the Apostolic Nuncio in Argentina, Monsignor Adamczyk Morslav. To his left Marcelo Colombo, Archbishop of Mendoza and first vice president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, and the Archbishop of Bahía Blanca, Fray Carlos Azpiroz Costa, second vice president (Photos: Nicolás Stulberg)

The trip to Iraq that Pope Francis made the first week of March 2021 helped Monsignor Oscar Ojea, president of the Argentine Episcopal Conference, to synthesize the transversal friendship that united the religious leaders who met in the main hall of the palace located on Suipacha street, in the downtown area of ​​the City of Buenos Aires, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the assumption of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as head of the Catholic Church.

Evoking the Pope’s homily that time in Ur de Chaldeos, the land of Abraham 300 kilometers from Baghdad, the Bishop of San Isidro recalled: “We are his descendants, Jews, Christians and Muslims, along with sisters and brothers of other religions ”, and gave a welcome during the Interreligious and Ecumenical Meeting that celebrated the 10th anniversary of the assumption of the Supreme Pontiff.

One by one, the director of the Latin American Jewish Congress, Claudio Epelman, the president of the Islamic Center of the Argentine Republic, Fabián Ankah, the Bishop emeritus of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Kisag Mouradian, the pastor of the Evangelical Methodist Church, Néstor Miguez, and the pastor of the Evangelical Pentecostal Church, Norberto Saracco, followed one another during the meeting, sharing anecdotes and gestures that they experienced with the Holy Father during their years in Buenos Aires, with which they illustrated their inclination towards the reconciliation of the different faiths.

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Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, meanwhile, stood next to the hosts, as an envoy of the national government, and picked up the gauntlet based on the message of unity against divisions that was common to all the speakers during the meeting. “From the diversities you have to work in unity, not to unite us but to enrich us, it is what we have to apply in our country, in politics as well,” he said in a brief dialogue with Infobae.

Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero to Monsignor Daniele Liessi, charge d’affaires of the nunciature, recently arrived in Argentina

After 6:00 p.m., a screen projected the historic moment that took place in Saint Peter’s Square on March 13, 2013 and gave way to the perceptible emotion of the guests when each one saw the Pope again asking them to pray for him.

The representative of Judaism, Claudio Epelman, recalled that in November 2022 the World Jewish Congress, which brings together leaders from more than 100 countries, was held for the first time in history in the Vatican. “It was in the synod where the Bishops build the future of the Church”, he highlighted.

Ankah, president of the Islamic Center in our country, recounted that he hugged a taxi driver that afternoon in 2013, when he heard the announcement after the white smoke. “I prayed for him,” she said.

“My friendship with him began after the Cro-Magnon tragedy”, confided the Bishop Emeritus of the Armenian Church, Kisag Mouradian, and thanked Francis for recognizing the Armenian people as the first Christian country in the world, the one that accepted Christianity in the year 301, “12 before Rome.”

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“The people of God is built with broad criteria,” said the pastor of the Methodist Church, Néstor Míguez, and recalled how in 2007, during the historic Episcopal Conference held in Aparecida, a municipality in Brazil, the then Cardinal Bergoglio included some paragraphs written by him, “saved on a diskette and then printed on three sheets”, as part of the final document that ratified the friendship between the Catholic Church and other faiths.

Before concluding, the president of the commission for Ecumenism and Relations with Judaism, Islam and Religions, Monsignor Pedro Javier Torres, Bishop of Rafaela, returned to another milestone of Francisco’s papacy and said “I’m going to make a mess”.

“Stop and look at each other,” he asked the guests of the historic building located between Santa Fe Avenue and Alvear Street, in downtown Buenos Aires.

After that, he described: “Look at each other and observe, as Francis said, that unity is not uniformity but reconciled diversity.”

Keep reading:

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