At 9.00 this morning, in the room next to the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father Francis received in audience a delegation of Muslim leaders from Great Britain: Moulana Ali Raza Rizvi, president of Majlis e ulama Europe; Moulana Muhammad Shahid Raza, chairman of the British Muslim Forum, Great Britain; Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, co-chair of the Christian-Muslim Forum; Moulana Sayed Ali Abbas Razawi, director general of the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society.

The following are the words the Pope addressed to those present:

Greeting of the Holy Father

I welcome you with joy. I like to think that the most important task we must do together, in humanity, is the work “of the ear”: listening to each other. Listening to each other, without haste to give an answer. Welcoming the word of our brother, our sister, and then thinking of giving my own. But the capacity to listen, this is very important. It is interesting: when people have this capacity for listening, they speak with a low and calm tone. … Instead, when they do not have this, they speak loudly and even shout. Among brothers, we must all speak, listen to each other and speak slowly, calmly, looking for the way together. And when we listen to each other and speak to each other, we are already on the path.

Thank you for this journey you are taking, and I ask God, almighty and merciful, to bless you. And I ask you to pray for me.

Thank you very much.