October 6, 2024 Essay: Has the Time of Fraternity Arrived?
An “Amber Alert” for our world this October might notify us of the following soul-searching events: October 2-29, Toward a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission; October 4, the Feast of St. Francis; October 7, Commemoration of Terrorist attack on Israel leading to horrific attacks and loss of life among Palestinians; and the endless angst of the election season. What is the connection among these events? How is Christ present? Where are our faith, hope, compassion?
In June, I discovered an article in a quarterly, “OFM Fraternitas”. It has had the effect of stirring my own hope and conviction that Christ is indeed at work in and with us in our struggles for human decency. On February 4, 2019, Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar signed a joint agreement, “The Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.” This historic agreement was signed on the 800th anniversary of the meeting between St. Francis of Assisi and the sultan Malik El-Kamil during the 5th Crusade. Born from the dialog between Tayyeb and and Francis, the document declares a “Culture of Dialog as the Path; Mutual Cooperation as the Code of Conduct; and, Reciprocal Understanding as the Method and Standard for different faiths to live in solidarity and peace.” They asked world leaders to re-discover the values of peace, justice, goodness, beauty, human fraternity and co-existence in order to stop the bloodshed, environmental decay, moral and cultural decline in the world. Panic terror and pessimism are instrumentalized by the absence of these values as well as incorrect interpretations of religious texts and inadequate policies linked to poverty, hunger, and injustices.
On October 4, 2020, Pope Francis followed up on this agreement by releasing his Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti, which expanded and deepened the concept of fraternity for all people. On October 4, 2023, Francis opened the first session of a Synod on Synodality intending it to be a laboratory for learning skills of communion: respect for the other, listening, discernment, actualizing the dialogs, and inculcating an approach of Church as a communion of brothers and sisters both internally and externally.
In February 2023, “The Abrahamic Family House” was blessed and inaugurated in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Designed by Nigerian-British Architect David Adjaye, the Abrahamic Family House is a concrete expression of the ideals of both the Abu Dhabi Agreement and Fratelli Tutti. It consists of a campus with three worship spaces all in cubic, equal size design: Ahmed Al-Tayeb Mosque facing Mecca; Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue facing Jerusalem; and St. Francis of Assisi Church facing east toward the Rising Sun. A fourth structure, The Forum, serves as a welcome place for convening ecumenical programs and a space for other religious communities of the world to practice their faith. An internal garden with symbolism from the three faiths links these structures. Residences for the pastoral leaders of each group are attached to their worship space so that the sense of “neighbor” can become real. Plans for an interfaith outreach for migrants and refugees, an orphanage and a school are underway.
Rev. Stefan Luca, OFM CAP, the Pastor of St. Francis Church, believes that the Abrahamic Family House reflects the deepening commitment of the Church to the future horizon of human communion through interfaith relationships. Bishop Paolo Martinelli, Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, notes that the Vicariate, with over 200 ethnic groups is a migrant community. Most exciting, both men see this experiment as a stronghold for establishing a new ecclesiology, a migrant ecclesiology where a theological Pentecost can find space and expression through fraternity and experience, learned through dialog and conversation.
The witness of a dual path to human communion based on interfaith relationships, is both theological/spiritual as well as concrete. With the spiritual and human challenges of today, we are all “migrants” in the sense of standing on the borders of unknown landscapes. Perhaps our Christian call is to embrace a new social location as “migrant” with its potential to create fraternal communion for our ecclesial journey.
— Sr. Kathryn King, FSP