Marking International Day of Human Fraternity US President Joe Biden urged all nations to work together, saying that global challenges are "too great for any one nation or group of people to solve."
Biden insisted that problems such as the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, and violent conflicts "require us to speak with one another in open dialogue to promote tolerance, inclusion, and understanding."
The US President was speaking on the occasion during a celebration that included officials from al-Azhar and the Vatican and religious leaders and world figures.
It marks the third anniversary of the signing of the historic Document on Human Fraternity by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayeb in Abu Dhabi on February 04, 2019.
Biden said the commemoration offers the chance to reaffirm the inherent humanity that unites all people.
For his part, al-Tayeb said that "the world's celebration of the International Day of Human Fraternity is, in fact, a commemoration of the humaneness of divine religion, its call for acquaintance and understanding among the followers of divine and man-made messages, and its reverence for the particularities of religions and beliefs."
The Grand Mufti reiterated that the Document was drafted both at al-Azhar Ash-Sharif and the Vatican, out of the common belief in mutual understanding among the followers of religions, not excluding the non-believers, to get rid of misjudgments and conflicts that often lead to bloodshed and warfare among people, notably among followers of the same religion and believers in a single faith.
Tayeb asserted that he would keep pursuing the commenced peace efforts, along with fellow religious leaders and lovers of goodness around the world, towards achieving peace and world fraternity and fellow feeling and removing all the stimuli of hate, conflicts, and wars.
"We badly need amity, cooperation, and solidarity to encounter the genuine challenges threatening humanity and compromising its stability."
For his part, Pope Francis affirmed that fraternity is "one of the fundamental and universal values" that should underpin relations between peoples so that disadvantaged people or those who suffer do not feel excluded and forgotten but welcomed and supported as part of this one human family.
"We are brothers! By sharing feelings of fraternity, all of us must promote a culture of peace, which encourages sustainable development, tolerance, inclusion, mutual understanding, and solidarity."
Pope Francis made it clear that "we all live under the same sky, regardless of where and how we live, of skin color, religion, social class, gender, age, health, and economic conditions. We are all different, yet we are all the same, and this pandemic proved it."
The Pope asserted that fraternity "allows us to open ourselves to the Father of everyone and find a brother or a sister in the other, share life, support one another, love, and know others."
The right time to walk together is today, not tomorrow or in the future, he asserted, noting that "today is the right time to walk together as believers and people of goodwill."
The path of fraternity is long, explained the Pope, adding that it is a difficult path, but it is humanity's lifeline.
"To the many signs of threat, dark times, and conflict logic, we respond with the ensign of fraternity, which leads them on a shared path by welcoming others and respecting their identity. We are not the same, no. We are brothers, each with their personality and singularity."
Meanwhile, the Sec-Gen of the Higher Committee for Human Fraternity, Mohammad Abdel-Salam, said that Fraternity Day was a defining moment in the history of humanity when the leaders of the two most prominent institutions in the Christian and Islamic worlds met in 2019 to sign the Document.
