Rabat – With the two-day visit of Pope Francis coming up next month, the Vatican released a new update about his schedule in Morocco, including a visit to the Mohammed VI Institute for the training of imams.
Vatican News quoted Archbishop of Rabat Cristobal Lopez, who shared his excitement over the pope’s visit to Morocco March 30-31.
According to Lopez, the visit will be a “great event,” but a “very demanding two day visit full of meaningful meetings.”
In the agenda, Pope Francis will visit Rabat to meet members of the Catholic community, bishops and migrants.
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According to Vatican News, the pope will also visit a migrant center, a social center and the imam school.
The institute receives imams, mourchidin and mourchidat (councillors) from across the world to be trained.
The pope’s visit will reflect the coexistence between the two Abrahamic religions in Morocco.
“The Pope will come to Morocco as a universal pastor, father of all Catholic Christians, a person of good will who wants to meet everyone. And for everyone, he presents himself as a servant of hope,” said Lopez.
Vatican News expected that security arrangements for the visit will be strict. Despite the expectation, Lopez is confident that people who want to meet the pope will have a chance.
“Our concern and our desire should not be to shake hands or take a selfie with him. Attention must be paid by listening to his words, receiving his message, witnessed by words and gestures,” he said.
Earlier this month, Vatican News said that the pope’s agenda would include a meeting with King Mohammed VI, as well as civil authorities and senior officials.
On his second day, the pope will visit a “rural center for social services in the town of Temara,” near Rabat.
The two day-visit, from March 30-31, will end with the celebration of a “solemn papal Mass.”
Pope Francis also visited the UAE recently, where he announced that the Gulf country and Morocco “represent two important opportunities to advance interreligious dialogue and mutual understanding between the followers of both religions.”
Vatican News estimates the number of Catholics in Morocco at 50,000, who are mostly European expatriates.
The pope’s visit will be the second of its kind from a pope to Morocco after the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1985.
Late monarch Hassan II invited Pope John Paul II as an opportunity to build a bridge between Muslims and Christians.
