World on the ‘brink of delicate precipice'

It was the first day of “Baba Pope’s” -- as Bahrainis fondly call him-- apostolic journey to the Kingdom and his 39th outside of Italy. Francis, who suffers from a knee ailment that forces him to use a wheelchair and cane, wove his speech around the role of religions in promoting peace, disarmament and social justice.

Sitting around him in the Sakhir royal palace grounds were His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, leading imams, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and US rabbis.

Appeal to relgious leaders

He appealed to religious leaders to commit themselves to encouraging and assisting humanity in a world run by narrow interests and war. “After two terrible world wars, a cold war that for decades kept the world in suspense, catastrophic conflicts taking place in every part of the globe, and in the midst of accusations, threats, and condemnations, we continue to find ourselves on the brink of a delicate precipice and we do not want to fall,” he said at the courtyard of the royal palace.

Pope also pointed out that the conference with the theme "East and West for Human Coexistence" is happening at a time when humanity, connected as never before, appears much more divided. In an apparent reference to the Ukraine conflict, Pope said, “It is a striking paradox that, while the majority of the world’s population is united in facing the same difficulties, suffering from grave food, ecological and pandemic crises, as well as an increasingly scandalous global injustice, a few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving obsolete rhetoric, redesigning spheres of influence and opposing blocs.”

In another apparent reference to Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, Pope also called on religious leaders to set a good example “when it comes to such issues”. The Russian Orthodox Church, which sent an envoy to the conference, has strongly supported the Kremlin in its war and justified it on religious grounds.

The emergence of conflicts, he insisted, should not cause us to lose sight of the "less evident tragedies in our human family. Pope stressed: “We have a specific role to play ... It is our duty to encourage and assist our human family, interdependent yet at the same time disconnected, to sail the sea together.”

“We appear to be witnessing a dramatic and childlike scenario: in the garden of humanity, instead of cultivating our surroundings, we are playing instead with fire, missiles and bombs, weapons, covering our common home with ashes and hatred.”

Pope further warned that there will be bitter consequences, if we continue to accentuate conflict instead of understanding.

Unity and witness of life are essential for ecumenism: Pope

Later, at the end of his second day in Bahrain, Pope Francis joined the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as well as other Christian leaders from the region for an Ecumenical Meeting and Prayer for Peace at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia in Awali.

In his address, the Pope lamented divisions among Christians, which “have wounded the Lord’s holy body.” However, he said, “the Holy Spirit, who joins all the members together, is greater than our divisions according to the flesh”; and so, the Pope continued, “it is right to say that what unites us far exceeds what divides us.”

Reflecting on the reading chosen for the Encounter, which described the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Pope Francis focused on two main themes: unity in diversity, and witness of life.” In Bahrain, he said, the smallness of the Christian flock “helps us feel the need for unity” – a unity that can grow through praise of God, “which the Spirit stirs up in everyone.”

At the same time, he emphasized once again that unity does not mean uniformity, but embraces diversity, accepting one another with our differences. That, the Pope said, “is the spirit of our ecumenical journey.”