Pope Francis urges climate action, unity at Jakarta mosque

Pope Francis and Indonesian Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar outside Jakarta mosque

(Image credit: Aditya Aji / Pool / AFP via Getty Images)

published 5 September 2024

What happened

Pope Francis met with fellow religious leaders yesterday at Southeast Asia's largest mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia. The pope and the mosque's top cleric, Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar, signed a joint declaration urging Catholics and Muslims to encourage their leaders to fight climate change and religious intolerance.

The visit to Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, highlighted two pillars of Francis' papacy: the environment and interfaith dialogue. The declaration he and Umar signed at Jakarta's Istiqlal Mosque urged "all people of good will to take decisive action" to protect the planet from human-caused climate change and said religion should be used to resolve conflicts, never abused to justify violence.

The "Istiqlal Declaration" was the latest of several joint communiqués Pope Francis has signed with Muslim leaders, including on a historic 2019 trip to the Arabian peninsula and a 2021 visit to Iraq. The Jakarta encounter, "rich with symbolic meaning and personal touches," showed the "personal side" of that Muslim outreach, The Associated Press said, "with Francis and Umar — the aged pope and the youthful imam — showing a clear affinity for one another."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.