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Pope’s Morocco Visit Highlights Kingdom’s Commitment to Religious Tolerance
Monday 13 May 2019, by
The Spanish magazine "Atalayar entre dos orillas" in its latest issue of April has devoted two articles to the visit made, at the end of last March, to Morocco by Pope Francis, at the invitation of King Mohammed VI. For the magazine, this historic visit only "confirms the Moroccan exception" which has among its objectives the promotion of tolerance and interreligious dialogue.
A visit by the Pope that mobilized all the media in the world and made Morocco a unique destination in a few days, provided that the kingdom invests in a model that commands admiration. It is this exception that the Spanish media is talking about.
For the magazine, the Moroccan exception is "based on the modernization of the institutions of a secular Kingdom with deep historical roots" and which is, at the same time, open to the world and to the other. The monthly review emphasizes in a first article that this papal visit "was an opportunity to highlight the importance of the concrete actions taken by Morocco at several levels, including the promotion of a moderate Islam in Africa and in other regions", in particular through the Mohammed VI Institute for the training of imams and morchidates in Rabat.
In a world plagued by terrorism and other movements of all kinds that tend to cast opprobrium on Islam, the magazine notes that the Kingdom of Morocco is tirelessly working to preserve Islam and protect it from those who want to invest in ignorance", under the enlightened leadership of King Mohammed VI who did not fail to clearly affirm "this will of Morocco in His speech on the occasion of the visit of Pope Francis".
For the Spanish magazine, indeed, this historic visit of Francis I to Morocco must be read as "the incarnation of a common front of representatives of the monotheistic religions working for the eradication of terrorism in all its forms, regardless of its sources".
Moreover, "Atalayar entre dos orillas" notes that the Pope’s visit to Morocco also aimed to promote the rapprochement between religions and to send a message of tolerance to the world. The media makes it known in a second article entitled "Message of tolerance between religions" where it writes that King Mohammed VI and the sovereign pontiff have a common goal: "to support tolerance and dialogue between the different religions, including Islam and Christianity".