Pope seeks end to religious extremism

Pope Francis on Wednesday called for religious unity to mitigate extremism and intolerance, as the longest tour of the 87-year-old’s papacy got into full swing in Muslim-majority Indonesia.

On the first full day of his four-nation trip to the Asia-Pacific, the Pope zeroed in on the role all faiths can play on flashpoint security issues.

“To foster a peaceful and fruitful harmony that ensures peace… the Church desires to strengthen interreligious dialogue.

“(Extremists) through the distortion of religion attempt to impose their views by using deception and violence,” the pope said in a speech after meeting President Joko Widodo.

The pontiff also said self-interest was preventing the religious unity he had called for and was driving wars around the world, without referring to a specific one.

“In various regions, we see the emergence of violent conflicts, which are often the results… of the intolerant desire to let one’s interests, one’s position or one’s historical narrative prevail at all costs,” he said.

“Freedom and tolerance is what Indonesia, together with the Vatican, want to spread… amid an increasingly turbulent world,” he added.

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, has long contended with Islamist extremism.

The 2002 bombings on the tourist island of Bali killed 202 people, making them the bloodiest in Indonesian history and prompting a crackdown on militancy.

Catholics make up less than 3% of Indonesia’s population—approximately eight million individuals—ccompared to 87 percent, or 242 million Muslims.

However, they are one of six officially accepted religions or denominations in the purportedly secular republic, with Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism.

The trip to Indonesia is the third ever by a pope and the first since John Paul II in 1989.