RABAT — Pope Francis has called for tolerance and peace at a mass for thousands of Catholics during a rare visit by a pontiff to Morocco, after warning the faithful there against trying to convert others.

Ten thousand worshipers, many migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, packed a sports complex in Rabat on Sunday as the pope rounded off his two-day stay in the Muslim North African state.

"Often we are tempted to believe that hatred and revenge are legitimate ways of ensuring quick and effective justice," the 82-year-old pontiff told those gathered.

"Yet experience tells us that hatred, division and revenge succeed only in killing our peoples' soul, poisoning our children's hopes, and destroying and sweeping away everything we cherish."

Ahead of the mass the pope insisted to an audience of around 400 at Rabat's cathedral that trying to convert people to one's own belief "always leads to an impasse".

"Please, no proselytism!" he said.

Visit with migrants

Christians are a tiny minority in Morocco where 99 percent of the population is Muslim, with sub-Saharan Africans making up a large part of the country's 30,000-strong Catholic community.

Islam is the state religion and authorities are keen to stress the country's "religious tolerance", which allows Christians and Jews to worship freely.

But Moroccans are automatically considered Muslim if they are not born into the Jewish community, apostasy is socially frowned upon, and proselytizing is criminalized.

"I protect Moroccan Jews as well as Christians from other countries, who are living in Morocco," King Mohammed VI told crowds on Saturday, following the pontiff's arrival.

There are a few thousand Christian converts in Morocco, who since 2017 have called openly for the right to live "without persecution" and "without discrimination".

Francis is the first pontiff to visit the North African country since John Paul II in 1985 and the cathedral had been repainted for the occasion.

Waiting for the pope outside, a Nigerian man said the visit "shows that living together is possible in Morocco".

But "there are things to improve, notably the question of migrants and that of Moroccan Christians", said 36-year-old Antoine, who works for an association to defend migrant rights.

The need to support migrants was mentioned again Sunday by Francis, who has made the issue a focal point of his papacy.

On Saturday he visited migrants at a Caritas charity center, where the pope criticized "collective expulsions" and said ways for migrants to regularize their status should be encouraged.

Morocco says it has a "humanistic" approach to migration and rejects allegations by rights groups of "brutal arrest campaigns" and "forced displacement" to the country's southern border.

Earlier on Sunday, Francis visited a social center run by nuns and volunteers near Rabat, including a health center where he met with unwell children.

The Moroccan king also welcomed Francis to the royal palace, where the two addressed the "sacred character of Jerusalem" in a joint declaration.

The city should be a "symbol of peaceful coexistence" for Christians, Jews and Muslims, they said in a statement released by the Vatican.

"The specific multi-religious character, the spiritual dimension and the particular cultural identity of Jerusalem... must be protected and promoted," said the text, which was jointly signed at Rabat's royal palace. — AFP

Pope vows

'healing' of

Church amid

sex abuse

allegations

MADRID — Pope Francis said a process of "healing" had started within the Catholic Church in the wake of a pedophilia summit, but acknowledged guilty priests had not been punished.

The Argentine pontiff last week issued stringent child abuse legislation for Vatican City employees as part of the Church's bid to address a wave of sex abuse allegations against priests.

In an interview broadcast on Sunday with Spanish TV channel La Sexta, he said he understood that many were disappointed at the lack of concrete results of the landmark Vatican summit in February, but insisted progress was being made.

"If I hanged 100 priests in Saint Peter's Square (people would have said) that's good, something concrete," he said in Spanish.

"I would been seen to have taken action. But what interests me is not being seen to take action, but starting a healing process and that takes time."

Abuse scandals have hit countries around the world, with lives devastated from Australia to Chile, Germany and the US.

Following the summit, designed to educate bishops, the pope promised an "all-out battle" against abusive priests.

But victims expressed their frustration, accusing him of not having directly addressed the problem, with one describing his comments as "pastoral 'blah-blah'".

The pope also criticized the media, saying journalists need to avoid salacious stories. — AFP