On December 6, 2019, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas granted a certificate of appreciation to Monsignor Khaled Akasheh, Bureau chief for Islam at the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue and Secretary of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims in the Vatican City, in appreciation of his pioneering role in building bridges of communication between followers of the Abrahamic religions.
During the ceremony held at the Embassy of the State of Palestine in the Vatican, His Excellency Dr. Ramzi Khoury, President of the Presidential Higher Committee of Churches Affairs and Director General of the Palestinian National Fund, along with Ambassador Issa Kassissieh the Ambassador of the State of Palestine to the Holy See ,conveyed President Abbas’s greetings and appreciation for the efforts of Monsignor Akasheh in Deepening the constructive dialogue among believers, through his work for more than 25 years in the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in the Vatican, as well as in defending justice and peace in Palestine.
Monsignor Khaled Akasheh is secretary of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims and bureau chief for Islam at the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue. Ordained in 1978 in the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, he joined the pontifical council in 1994. Akasheh was one of the Vatican’s participants in the 2008 Catholic-Muslim Forum following the publication of the open letter “A Common Word Between Us and You.” He earned a Ph.D. in biblical theology from the Pontifical Lateran University and a licentiate from the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies.
