With China’s crackdown on religious minorities as a backdrop, Pope Francis joined Mongolian shamans, Buddhist monks and a Russian Orthodox priest on Sunday to highlight the role that religions can play in forging world peace, as he presided over an interfaith meeting highlighting Mongolia’s tradition of religious tolerance.

Francis listened intently as a dozen faith leaders—Jewish, Muslim, Bahai, Hindu, Shinto and evangelical Christian among them—described their beliefs and their relationship with heaven. Several said the traditional Mongolian ger, or round-shaped yurt, was a potent symbol of harmony with the divine—a warm place of family unity, open to the heavens, where strangers are welcome.