Global Tolerance and Human Fraternity Conference, 5-6 Feb 2025 - Panel discussion with Bp Paolo | Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia

February 6, 2025

The 5th edition of the Global Tolerance and Human Fraternity Conference, organized by the UAE Ministry of Tolerance & Coexistence in collaboration with the Muslim Council of Elders, was entitled "Peace, Human Dignity, & Peaceful Coexistence”.

Bp Paolo Martinelli OFM Cap., Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia, and Fr. Stefano Luca OFM Cap., director of the vicariate’s Interfaith & Ecumenical Dialogue Office were present.

The apostolic vicar participated in the panel “The Importance of Inter-Religious Dialogue in Promoting Understanding and Social Cohesion”.

For him, “the theme of the relationship between those who are positive bearers of differences is fundamental”, stating that “you only know yourself if you enter into a relationship with someone else”, hence it is important to see “the encounter of others as a richness”.

This makes the Abrahamic Family House, that has three distinct and related places of worship and a space dedicated to the dialogue between different faiths, “an important place to experience the contents of the Document on Human Fraternity that promotes the culture of dialogue”.

Bp Paolo Martinelli stressed that this “culture of dialogue is very important and must be passed on to the new generations”, and how the Church, seeing the educational dimension as decisive, “deeply fulfills this mission through the formative activity of the communities and schools run by the vicariate”.

Referring to the specificity of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, a Church composed of people coming from over a hundred countries, he recalled that “the theme of dialogue is not only with other religions but also within the Church”. It is also an everyday matter that concerns everyone and is not reserved for a group of experts. In fact, “today everyone lives in contact with people of different views: in school, at work and in society, therefore education to encounter and dialogue with others is crucial to work together and walk towards a more human and fraternal society.”