Pope Praises Islam, Urges Catholics to Be Tolerant

Pope John Paul II, on the final day of his 12-day African tour, today praised some aspects of Islam and urged members of Morocco’s tiny Roman Catholic minority to live in harmony with their Muslim brethren.

The Pope ended the third African tour of his papacy with a visit to this Muslim kingdom apparently in a bid to reopen a Catholic-Muslim dialogue crippled by Islamic fundamentalism.

John Paul exchanged greetings at Casablanca’s airport with King Hassan II, the temporal and spiritual leader of Morocco.

The Polish-born pontiff then celebrated an outdoor Mass for some of Morocco’s 64,000 Roman Catholics, who comprise less than 1% of the population in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation.

During the Mass, John Paul praised “many aspects” of the Islamic faith--love of a single God, obedience to God’s laws, “the simplicity of life and the generosity toward the poor practiced by devout Muslims.”

He also praised Morocco’s history of religious tolerance and urged his Catholic listeners to maintain that harmony by living in peace with the Muslim majority.

“The Christian faithful to the gift of love banishes every arrogance, every egoism,” John Paul said. “He rejects intolerance towards customs different than his.”

After the Mass, the pontiff conferred with Hassan, whose people believe him to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed.

John Paul then addressed about 80,000 Moroccans at the Mohammed V Stadium, the first time the Pope has spoken to a large crowd of Muslims.

John Paul greeted the stadium crowd in Arabic, then used French to praise the generosity of Muslims toward the poor as “living testimony of their faith.”

On Sunday, John Paul ended his tour of six sub-Saharan black African nations with an attack on apartheid. (Story, Page 4.)