Vatican opens Muslim prayer room in Apostolic Library

AT THE request of Islamic scholars, the Vatican has opened a dedicated prayer room for Muslims in the Apostolic Library. The prayer room’s existence was revealed offhandedly in an interview in Italian news source La Repubblica, by Vice-Prefect Giacomo Cardinali. 

The prayer room, revealed suddenly and with nonchalance

According to Cardinali, the room was granted as a courtesy for Muslims visiting the library, who would frequently request a room with a carpet for prayer. Cardinali said the library was “universal” and stressed that it is open to scholars of all faiths and religions.

“Some Muslim scholars have asked us for a room with a carpet for praying and we have given it to them,” Cardinali said simply. According to him, the request was easily fulfilled, and accommodating prayer was in line with the library’s broader mission to serve the global academic community.

The prayer room installed in the 500-year-old library is a modest room containing a simple prayer rug, facing in the direction of the Muslim holy city of Mecca. However, there are no mosques or permanent Muslim residents within the Vatican itself, although the Vatican – and indeed the Apostolic Library – regularly receives Muslim visitors.

The library is known to have various accommodations for the scholars who visit, from ergonomic desks to archival gloves, but the revelation of the prayer room marks the first instance of a publicly acknowledged amenity for Muslim visitors.

Pope Leo XIV’s continuing ethos of religious fraternity

The installation of the prayer room aligns with the interfaith rhetoric by Pope Leo XIV, who became Pope on May 7 following the death of Pope Francis. Continuing Pope Francis’ outreach to Muslim communities, Pope Leo XIV stresses fraternity among faiths and religious harmony. The Vatican has already hosted several inter-religious events, including a Christian-Muslim prayer vigil for peace in the Middle East that took place in July.

Revelation of prayer room sparks fierce debate among Catholics

Not surprisingly, the revelation of this prayer room, though it was mentioned flippantly in an unassuming interview, has sparked intense debate and discussion. While some praise the decision as a courteous gesture of respect for all faiths, some critics slammed the decision as an insult to Catholic identity.

Conversely, the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia is strictly closed to non-Muslims, and those who try to enter Mecca and other holy Muslim spaces can face being turned away and even risk deportation under Saudi law.

The digitalisation of the Apostolic Library

According to Cardinali in the interview, which focused more on the digitalisation of the library than any other factors, the digital catalogue has made the archives more accessible for everyone across the world … though it has inspired some odd remarks from curious scholars. “We receive the most absurd requests, especially from America,” said Cardinali. “Do you have a time machine? And the menorah from the temple in Jerusalem that Titus took away? And the Holy Grail?”

The Apostolic Library, one of the oldest repositories of knowledge

The Vatican Apostolic Library was founded in 1475 by Pope Sixtus IV and houses a jaw-dropping collection of works. Its archives contain some 80,000 manuscripts, 50,000 documents, and nearly two million books in varying languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopian, and Chinese, to name a few. It is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious hubs of knowledge and welcomes thousands of scholars each year. The library also houses ancient Qur’ans; some of the oldest surviving copies, in fact.

Whether the decision to include a prayer room is an outreach of fraternity for all faiths, or a blurring of Catholic identity is still being fiercely debated, but the current papacy has staunchly shown that the path towards a more peaceful tomorrow lies in religious harmony.

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