In a historic meeting at Asia’s largest mosque, Pope Francis and Indonesia’s Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar signed a joint declaration on September 5 calling on religious leaders to deepen cooperation to uphold human dignity and combat climate change.

The document, “Joint Declaration of Istiqlal 2024: Fostering Religious Harmony for the Good of Humanity,” identifies climate change and dehumanization as two serious crises facing the world today and affirms that interfaith dialogue is an effective tool for resolving local and global conflicts.

“The values ​​shared by our religious traditions must be effectively promoted in order to overcome the culture of violence and indifference that afflicts our world,” the statement said. “Indeed, religious values ​​must aim to promote a culture of respect, dignity, compassion, reconciliation and fraternal solidarity in order to overcome both dehumanization and environmental destruction.”

At less than 400 words, the succinct statement clearly identifies “human exploitation of creation” as a contributing factor to “climate change” and laments that “the current environmental crisis has become an obstacle to the harmonious coexistence of peoples.”

Over the past five years, Francis has continued to deepen his relations with the Islamic world, notably through joint declarations that have served as a basis for deeper collaboration.

The 2019 document on “human fraternity for world peace and living together,” signed during a papal visit to the United Arab Emirates with Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, was widely hailed as a major step forward in the Catholic Church’s relations with the Muslim world. It has since received support from the United Nations and several countries and served as the basis for the pope’s 2020 encyclical Fratelli tutti (“All Brothers: On Fraternity and Social Friendship”).

But with this trip and this new declaration – signed in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country – Francis is now extending his reach to the Islamic world beyond the Middle East and into the Asian world.

Although Christians and Muslims have historically lived in harmony with each other in this vast country, there has recently been an increase in conflict between the two faiths.

“It is particularly worrying that religion is often instrumentalized in this regard, causing suffering to many people, including women, children and the elderly,” the statement said. “The role of religion should, however, include promoting and safeguarding the dignity of every human life.”

The signing of the declaration came on the 87-year-old pope’s second full day in the Indonesian capital as part of a nearly two-week tour of Southeast Asia and Oceania, the longest trip of his pontificate.

Despite the grueling journey, the pope appears invigorated by the trip and the opportunity to address some of the key themes of his pontificate, including the fight against climate change and interreligious dialogue.

In his speech at the Istiqlal Mosque, the third largest in the world, just behind Mecca and Medina, the Pope stressed that interreligious dialogue does not mean renouncing one’s beliefs or convictions, but rather “creating a connection in the midst of diversity, cultivating bonds of friendship, care and reciprocity.”

“These relationships unite us with others, enable us to commit ourselves to seeking truth together, to learning from each other’s religious traditions, and to coming together to meet our human and spiritual needs,” he said. “They are also bonds that enable us to work together, to move forward together in pursuit of the same goals: the defense of human dignity, the fight against poverty, and the promotion of peace.”

In his September 4 speech at the Indonesian presidential palace and again today at the mosque, Francis insisted that religion must contribute to building open societies and reject fundamentalism and extremism.

In his speech, the grand imam echoed the pope’s call, stressing that the Istiqlal Mosque was specifically built to encourage tolerance and moderation – and that it provided the ideal setting to illustrate the shared desire for friendship between him and the pope.

As the imam pointed out, the mosque, which can accommodate more than 250,000 people, was designed by architect Friedrich Silaban, a Christian, and is located directly across from Jakarta’s Catholic cathedral, Our Lady of the Assumption, which Francis visited on September 4.

The mosque and the cathedral, which share a parking lot, are connected underground by the “friendship tunnel”, officially inaugurated today by the two men.

“We who belong to different religious traditions have a role to play in helping each one to pass through the tunnels of life with our eyes turned towards the light,” the Pope said. “Then, at the end of the road, we will be able to recognize in the one who has walked beside us, a brother, a sister, with whom we can share life and support each other.”

During the ceremony, which included both a reading from the Gospel and the chanting of a passage from the Koran, Francis was greeted by a number of religious leaders from other traditions and the pope and the imam sat side by side throughout the meeting and shared a kiss of peace.

Later in the day, the pope is expected to celebrate a Mass for the country’s Catholics, which is expected to draw more than 80,000 participants.