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Manama (Agenzia Fides) - On Monday, January 30, 2024, in the presence of three Ministers and the Protocol, His Majesty the King of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, received Bishop Aldo Berardi, O.SS.T., Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia.
"I had asked His Majesty for a meeting to get to know each other in person and yesterday, January 30, I was received in the offices of the Royal Palace in Manama. I was accompanied by the Rector of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, Father Saji Thomas, Ofm Cap., and some Ministers including the Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs and the Director of the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence, Dr. Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa".
"It was a very pleasant meeting, the King is an exquisite person, always open to tolerance and the coexistence of different religious realities", declared the Apostolic Vicar to Fides. Among the highlights of our visit, King Hamad focused a lot on the joy of the meetings he had with Pope Francis, first in Bahrain in November 2022 (see Fides, 2/11/2022) and then when he was received in the Vatican in October 2023, for his wisdom and positions in favor of world peace. During the meeting, they discussed ways to consolidate the culture of dialogue, tolerance, religious moderation and the rejection of extremism and fanaticism. He appreciated and highlighted the good relations and cooperation with the Catholic Church, as well as the value of the coexistence of different religions. We discussed the history of Bahrain, the first Gulf country to accept the presence of Buddhists, Hindus and the Jewish community. King Hamad recalled Christian values and the past before Islam. His Majesty is aware of all the events in the Catholic Church in the country. He praised the Sacred Heart School in Manama which recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of its foundation (see Fides, 11/12/2023), he was informed of the construction of the bishop's house on the land that the King himself donated next to the Cathedral of Awali". "The king said that he could see the Cathedral from the Palace rooms, so I jokingly told him that I was going to turn on a light to say hello and two lights to know if everything was okay". Berardi invited Hamad to the Cathedral and expressed his gratitude to him for supporting the different religions represented in Bahrain without discrimination and for providing places of worship, highlighting the Kingdom's efforts to spread the values of peace and coexistence. As a tribute to the king, the bishop brought a painting, framed in Rome in the 19th century, with one of the first maps of the Arabian Peninsula dating back to 1658, where Bahrain is also present.
Furthermore, on the occasion of a meeting of the Board of the King Hamad Global Centre for Peaceful Coexistence, which will be held tomorrow, February 1 in Manama, and of which Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, MCCJ, prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, is a new member, the Apostolic Vicar of Northern Arabia proposed to the Director an International Conference on inclusion and humanitarian service to celebrate the 825th anniversary of the founding of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity and the Captives (O.SS.T.) whose charism is to redeem Christian prisoners kidnapped or reduced to slavery (see Fides, 7/11/2023).
At the end of tomorrow's meeting, Cardinal Ayuso will leave for Abu Dhabi where, on February 4, the anniversary of the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, in 2019, will be celebrated.
The Kingdom of Bahrain Declaration, which he himself signed on July 3, 2017, as a global document for religious freedoms, and the Kingdom's hosting of many international conferences and events, including the 'East and West Forum for Human Coexistence' are examples of this approach which underline the persistent openness of King Hamad.
"Ignorance is the enemy of peace, it is, therefore, our duty to learn, to share, and to live together, by the tenets of faith in the spirit of mutual respect and love", quotes the document quotes. "For hundreds of years, different religious groups have lived harmoniously, side by side, in the Kingdom of Bahrain, fully practicing the tenets of their respective faiths in blessed, peaceful coexistence with each other. We humbly offer the centuries-old traditional Bahraini way of life as an example to inspire others around these principles", we can still read in the 2017 Declaration. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 31/1/2024)
