Hawzah News Agency (Rome, Italy)- Leader of the world’s Catholics met on Tuesday with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed Muhammad el-Tayeb who is in Rome to attend a conference organized by the St Egidio community.

No details of the private meeting between Pope Francis and the al-Azhar Sheikh were released, but it marked the second trip to the Vatican in two years by Egypt’s top Muslim leader. His first meeting with the pope in May 2016 marked an important step forward after five years of suspended dialogue between the Holy See and the prestigious Al-Azhar university.

In April this year, Pope Francis travelled to Cairo to visit the headquarters of Sunni Muslim scholarship and attend an international peace conference there. During his two-day visit to Egypt, the pope urged religious leaders to denounce violations of human rights and expose attempts to justify violence and hatred in the name of God.

He appealed for respectful interreligious dialogue, saying the only alternative to a culture of civilized encounter is "the incivility of conflict”.