Last Thursday, May 14, Pope Francis joined leaders of the world’s religions and their adherents for a day of prayer, fasting and acts of charity. He called upon all Catholics to join in this day of prayer imploring God the Father to stop the coronavirus pandemic. At his daily Mass on that day the pope said that believers of every religion should beg the mercy of God during this global time of “tragedy and suffering.” He said some people may feel, “It hasn’t affected me; thank God I’m safe.’ But think about others! Think about the tragedy and also about the economic consequences on education. That is why today everyone, brothers and sisters from every religious tradition are praying to God!”
The day of prayer was called for by the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity. It was the first major worldwide production created by the United Arab Emirates following the visit of Pope Francis to Abu Dhabi last year. The Higher Committee of Human Fraternity was formed after Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, grand imam of al-Azhar, signed a document in 2019 on promoting dialogue and “human fraternity.” The Higher Committee of Human Fraternity is currently comprised of nine members: five Muslims; one Jew, a rabbi; two Catholics, members of the Roman Curia; and one United Nations official with no stated religious preference.
Bishop Paul Hinder, Vicar Apostolic of Southern Arabia, explained, “As I understand, after its constitution it was thought mainly as a body related to the initiative of the ‘Abrahamic House’ in Abu Dhabi, a project launched on the occasion of the visit of Pope Francis.”
The Abrahamic Family House will be an interreligious complex in Abu Dhabi designed by David Adjaye to house a church, a synagogue, and a mosque in the same construct. When it is completed in 2022 the committee that is working on bringing it to fruition has stated that their hope is that the Abrahamic Family House will be a locus of interreligious dialogue and coexistence. Those supporting the Higher Committee’s “Prayer for Humanity” campaign include the Vatican, Muslim Council of Elders, al-Azhar Mosque, the UAE Ministry of Tolerance, World Council of Churches and the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations. In early May the Higher Committee sent out their appeal for a worldwide day of prayer for humanity in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Pashto, Malay, Persian, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu, Chinese and Hebrew.
During Pope Francis’ live-streaming Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae on May 14, he addressed the controversy of praying with non-Christians head on. He said that he could imagine that some would criticize his call for Catholics to join with people of other religions for a common cause, as “religious relativism, and you can’t do it. But how can you not pray to the Father of us all?” He added, “We are all united as human beings, as brothers and sisters, praying to God each according to our own culture, traditions and beliefs, but brothers and sisters praying to God.”
He explained, “This is important: brothers and sisters fasting, asking God to pardon our sins so that the Lord would have mercy on us, that the Lord would forgive us, that the Lord would stop this pandemic.”
The pope also called on humanity to recognize other serious situations, besides coronavirus, that bring death to millions of people. He said, “In the first four months of this year, 3.7 million people die of hunger. There is a pandemic of hunger!” And so he called upon all people of religion to add to their prayers not only the victims of COVID-19 but also all those suffering from the plagues of “war, of hunger” and all other evils that impact the human family. “May God stop this tragedy, stop this pandemic,” Pope Francis prayed, “May God have mercy on us and also stop other awful pandemics: those of hunger, war, children without education. And we ask this as brothers and sisters, all together. May God bless us and have mercy on us.”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said, “I join his Holiness Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, in their support for the ‘Prayer for Humanity,’ a moment for reflection, hope and faith.”
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