Pope Francis will celebrate the UN’s first International Day of Human Fraternity on Feb. 4 with Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and other public figures will also take part in the event.
The Zayed Award for Human Fraternity will be given that day, with the meeting and ceremony streamed live in several languages.
Watch it live on February 4th here from 5.30pm UAE Time (GMT +4)
It has established an independent jury to receive nominations for the Zayed Award and choose winners whose work demonstrates a lifelong commitment to human fraternity. The award carries a $1 million prize.
The prize was inspired by the Document on Human Fraternity that the pope signed with Al-Tayyeb in Abu Dhabi during his inaugural visit to the Arabian peninsula two years ago.
“This celebration responds to a clear call that Pope Francis has been making to all humanity to build a present of peace in the encounter with the other,” Cardinal Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot MCCJ, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, told a press conference.
“In October 2020, that invitation became even more vivid with the encyclical ‘Fratelli Tutti.’ These meetings are a way to achieve true social friendship.”
It was on Feb. 4 2019, during his trip to the UAE, that the pope signed the Document on Human Fraternity. He and the grand imam had spent nearly six months drafting the document before announcing it together during the historic visit.
The Higher Committee of Human Fraternity was established to translate the document’s aspirations into sustained engagement and concrete actions to foster fraternity, solidarity, respect and mutual understanding.
Their work is to act concretely according to the aspirations of the document and to spread the values of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.
The committee’s secretary-general is Judge Mohamed Mahmoud Abdel Salam.
Last December the UN General Assembly unanimously declared Feb. 4 as the International Day of Human Fraternity.
Pope Francis has encouraged the Holy See to join in the celebration of International Human Fraternity Day under the leadership of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, a Vatican institution founded in 1964 by Pope Paul VI with the aim of working on relations and dialogue between the Catholic Church and the faithful of other religions.
Source: Arab News.
