Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayyeb sends anniversary wishes to Pope Francis

By Vatican News

As Pope Francis celebrates the 10th anniversary of his election to the papacy, on 13 March, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayyeb, has sent the following message to the Pope.

Dear friend and brother Pope Francis, a warm greeting. 

I am pleased to send my warmest congratulations to Your Holiness on the tenth anniversary of your tenure as Pope and Head of the Catholic Church.

I proudly appreciate your illustrious journey over the past ten years, during which you have sought to build bridges of love and fraternity among all human beings, and your tireless efforts to promote the values of human fraternity and to establish dialogue among the followers of religions as a basis for achieving the peace for which we all yearn.

My brother Pope Francis,

Our world today is full of challenges, conflicts and difficulties on all moral, economic and social levels, which increases the suffering of many people; therefore, the responsibility of leaders and a consistent emblematic figure like yourself to alleviate the suffering of people and the oppressed becomes great.

I pray to God to bless your efforts in the pursuit of peace and to help us, together with you and all people of goodwill, to fulfil our religious and moral duty to promote peace and consolidate mutual knowledge and solidarity.

May you - my dear brother - be blessed with good health, well-being and happiness, and may Almighty God bless you always. I gladly welcome every initiative to work together to realise human fraternity so that security, tranquillity, coexistence and stability may prevail in our world.

Yours sincerely.