Abbott Timothy Wright on Pope Francis and hopes for inter-religious dialogue

(Vatican Radio) Benedictine Abbott Timothy Wright, spiritual director at the Pontifical Beda College, author and expert in Christian Muslim dialogue, welcomes the election of Pope Francis.

Speaking to Vatican Radio, Abbott Timothy Wright says his hope is that Pope Francis will take up the tradition started by the Blessed John Paul II in reaching out to the Muslim world “because it is only through the dialogue that the violence will end. It’s only when dialogue breeds trust and that trust is a trust in the one God in whom both Christians and Muslims believe”…

Listen to the interview…

One of the remarkable consequences of the election of Pope Francis – says father Timothy – “ is the speed with which he has won the hearts of the world, particularly of the billions of people who are poor, who are suffering, whose life is precarious, who feel that no one cares” – and in Pope Francis, he says, there is someone who does care, as has been shown in the way he has conducted himself in the last few days since he was elected: “very informal, very personable”, very clear that people need to be loved and that his love is not just “Papa Francesco” – it’s Christ.

And that, father Timothy continues “comes across all the time – that none of us Christians live just because it’s us and our identity, and our personality. No, “we are living for Christ, with Christ, in Christ, to promote Christ”. And the difficulty theinstitutional Church has, is that sometimes that personal relationship gets smothered by structures, by organization.

One of the great gifts of Pope Francis – says father Timothy - is “his ability to cut through and go directly to people: to meet them, to kiss the babies, to embrace the widows and the orphans and to affirm them. Affirm them that they are lovable because he loves them, because Christ loves them, and that they are a gift for him. Hence his radical decision - after his election – and it continues to this day: “Pray for me” “Your prayers are important for me” , “You have a way of talking to God, of being with Jesus which have an influence on how I behave, and on how I behave throughout my Ministry so: “Pray for me”. That is a remarkable way of reaching out to people”.

And referring to the Pope’s talk to journalists, father Timothy “it was remarkable how he affirmed the goodness of the non-believer, the goodness of those who seek to communicate, and seek to communicate with accuracy, faithful, and seek to challenge. And Pope Francis affirmed all those responsibilities of the media and was able to break down walls, build a relationship. And that gives us great hope because what do people need in our world today? They need someone who loves them, someone who is going to give them a love which has security, a love which is affirming, and a love which is looking future towards fulfillment”.

In my own work with dialogue with the Muslim world, - says father Timothy -“ my big hope is that he will take up the tradition which John Paul II started: going out and reaching these people of great faith, whose love for the scriptures, their scriptures, is parallel to the love that we have for ours. For us it is Christ. For them it is God. But for both, each of us it’s an intimacy of love. A creating God of love which brought the world into being with an inspired Word. God speaking in the holy Koran. And we, a creating loving God brought us into the world with a person who is God: Jesus Christ. The one who came to give us that grace and that gift and that hope which takes us through death to resurrection as he exemplified in his life. The death and resurrection that we celebrate in these coming days”.

So, father Timothy concludes,” there is great hope that PF will build that bridge, will make it stronger, and that the Muslim world will see in him the sort of simplicity that you find in many Imams and Sufis around the world. Great piety and great sense of the presence of God and great communicators too. And in that hope the Christian equivalent of whom there are many too will be able to restart or reinvigorate the dialogue that goes on in different ways and in different parts of the world, particularly in the Muslim world. Because it is only through the dialogue that the violence will end. It’s only when dialogue breeds trust and that trust is a trust in the one God in whom Christians and Muslims believe. And it is that trust in the one God where the inspiration comes from, where the hope goes towards, and where the present has to be one of peace, mutual respect, and mutual love. Once that can be brought about, we pray together, we pray because we believe that God is alive in the hearts of each of us believers, is alive in the Revelation, respective of one for the other, and from that Revelation we get hope, we get vision and we get fulfillment in the ones God who is love without end”.