VATICAN CITY – Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the highest seat of religious learning in the Sunni world, met Pope Francis on Monday, May 23, embracing each other in a highly symbolic message of unity.

“Our meeting is the message,” Francis said in a brief comment to a small pool of reporters present at the start of his meeting with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

In a statement on the trip, Al-Azhar said Tayeb had accepted Francis’s invitation in order to “explore efforts to spread peace and co-existence.”

The imam was accompanied by eight people while the papal delegation featured Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the pontifical council for inter-religious dialogue.

The “very cordial” meeting lasted around 30 minutes, the Vatican said in a statement after the talks.

The visit marks the restoration of cordial relations between the two faiths after a decade of sour relations.

Relations between Muslims and the Vatican strained in 2006 after late pope Benedict quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor that everything Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) brought was evil and inhuman.

Benedict had repeatedly said the words did not reflect his personal views but stopped short of a clear apology to Muslims.

The pontiff’s remarks had prompted Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni Muslim world, to halt dialogue with the Vatican.

Relations hit new ebb after the pope said Christians in the Middle East were facing persecution following a church attack in Egypt.

At the time, Al-Azhar said it would cut ties with the Vatican over Benedict’s “repeated treatment of Islam in a negative way.”

Francis, who succeeded Benedict in March 2013, has succeeded in relaxing much of the strained relations.