Pope Francis has told the small Catholic community in Muslim-majority Morocco that Christianity is not a numbers game, and should instead be measured by its integrity of mission.
On his second and final day in Morocco on 31 March, Francis turned his focus to encouraging the Church in the North African country which saw him celebrate Mass for an estimated 10,000 people in a sports complex.
During a meeting with priests, religious and Christian leaders, the 82-year old Pope set out a roadmap for communities working in Islamic countries telling them not to be concerned about their size and that for Christians success does not mean having a powerful public profile.
The Christian faith, he stressed, is not about adherence to “a doctrine, a temple or ethnic group” but an “encounter” while believers are called to be the “yeast” of gospel teaching in the places where they live.
“Jesus did not choose us and send us forth to become more numerous!” he explained in the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre Rabat.
“He called us to a mission. I believe we should worry whenever we Christians are troubled by the thought we are only significant if we are the flour, if we occupy all the spaces. You know very well that our lives are meant to be ‘yeast’, wherever and with whomever we find ourselves, even if this appears to bring no tangible or immediate benefits.”
Among those listening in the Cathedral congregation was Fr Jean-Pierre Schumacher, the last surviving monks of the Tibhirine Monastery, Algeria, the Trappist community that stayed in the country to live among the Muslim community despite a civil war. Fr Schumacher, 95, was also one of the priests who concelebrated during the papal mass.
In 1996 seven of the monks were kidnapped and assassinated and on 8 December 2018 were beatified along with 12 others who died in Algeria’s armed conflict government forces and rebel Islamist groups.
Francis’ placed papal support behind the Tibhirine pastoral strategy for the Church’s presence in Muslim countries, praising those “fellow Christians who chose to live in solidarity with another people, even to the point of giving their lives.”
The Tibhirine model was also on display at a social services centre in Temara, run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul who offer medical treatment to Muslim children along with maths and language classes. Francis paid them a visit early on Sunday morning.
The Catholic Church in Morocco makes up less than 0.7 per cent of the population and includes 3,000 believers, 2 dioceses, 35 parishes and 46 priests. But the little flock punches above its weight by running 34 schools education 12,000 children, 10 orphanages, a hospital and assistance to 4,000 immigrants each year.
There were jubilant scenes ahead of the Pope’s arrival at the Prince Moulay Abdellah stadium where a choir of migrants and a crowd made up of around 60 nationalities from across the world sang and waved flags.
The liturgy was celebrated in Spanish, French, English, Portuguese, Arabic and Italian, Francis reflected on how the Prodigal Son gospel passage highlights the tensions in our “societies and in our communities”. This, he said, between the openness and compassion of welcoming outsiders and the “elder son” mentality of bitterness and isolation of refusing to celebrate when his younger brother returned home.
The Pope warned them to avoid reducing faith to “rules and regulations” while stressing that “our identity and mission” does not come from voluntarism, legalism, relativism or fundamentalism.”
He urged believers to stay close to “the poor, and all those who are rejected, abandoned and ignored” praying that “the merciful and compassionate one - as our Muslim brothers and sisters frequently invoke him - strengthen you and make your works of love ever more fruitful.”
Earlier in the day, Francis was welcomed to cheers by a large number of religious sisters in their habits and priests who had gathered in the art deco, 1930s style cathedral, the Pope took his place on the altar with a lectern that had inscribed in red: “Jesus-Caritas.”
During his talk to them, the Pope called on the gathering to be a “living sacrament of the dialogue that God wants to initiate with each man and woman,” and that dialogue “becomes prayer.” He added that “dialogue, cooperation and friendship” will always unmask any “attempt to exploit differences and ignorance in order to sow fear, hatred and conflict.”
Francis praise of the Church in Morocco, echoed the support he showed to the Catholic community in the United Arab Emirates, another Church community in a Muslim country made up of migrants. The Pope’s visit to Morocco comes a month after he went to Abu Dhabi.
At the end of the Mass, the Pope made his away to the airport to board the return flight back to Rome which was due to land at 21.30 local time.
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