POPE FRANCIS CALLS FOR BROTHERHOOD ON 1ST HUMAN FRATERNITY DAY

Pope Francis said on the first International day of Human Fraternity Thursday, February 4, 2021, that "today fraternity is the new frontier of humanity, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

"Either we are brothers or we destroy each other. There is no time for indifference today. We cannot wash our hands of it, with distance, with neglect, with disinterest. Either we are brothers, allow me, or everything collapses. It is the frontier, the frontier upon which we must build; it is the challenge of our century, it is the challenge of our times," he stressed.

Francis celebrated the International Day of Human Fraternity in a virtual event organized by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.

The event was hosted in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and saw the participation of the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, and the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, along with other international leaders. During the occasion, the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity, inspired by the Document on Human Fraternity, was awarded.

Thursday's celebration was linked with the historic signing of the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together” two years ago in Abu Dhabi. The signers of this document, Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, spent more than a year drafting it prior to signing it in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2019, the 800th anniversary of the meeting of St. Francis with Sultan al-Malik al-Kamal in 1219.

On Thursday the pope thanked Al-Tayyeb for his "courage and true fraternity." The pontiff said a world without brothers was a world of enemies.

WEEKLY FEATURE : COLORSTEEL'S PRESIDENT BREAKS BARRIERS