Pope starts 27-hour visit to Morocco

Pope Francis today started a visit to Morocco. A visit as a “servant of hope” to encourage the country’s small Catholic community, the migrants hosted there and all people of goodwill, said Archbishop Cristobal Lopez Romero of Rabat, the nation’s capital.

The pope is travelling to Morocco 34 years after St. John Paul II became the first pope to visit.

Francis will address the first two items on the agenda Saturday when he begins his 27-hour visit to Rabat, the Moroccan capital. He’ll tend to the third when he wraps up the visit with a Mass and a meeting with Moroccan clergy on Sunday.

See the Pope’s full schedule for Morocco here

The highlight of the trip is likely to be Francis’ visit Saturday to the Mohammed VI Institute, a school of learning for imams that epitomizes Morocco’s efforts to promote a moderate brand of Islam and export it via preachers to Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

The trip follows Francis’ February visit to the United Arab Emirates, where the pope and the imam of Cairo’s Al Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning, signed a landmark joint statement establishing the relationship between Catholics and Muslims as brothers, with a common mission to promote peace.

Via Fox News