Pope to meet Muslim envoys
2006-09-24 12:03
Rome - Pope Benedict XVI is due to meet Muslim envoys on Monday as part of an unprecedented diplomatic offensive to show his willingness for dialogue after the outrage over his recent remarks on Islam.
The meeting at Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer residence, will bring together Muslim ambassadors to the Vatican and Islamic representatives in Italy as well as a French cardinal, Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.
Envoys from Iran, Turkey - where Benedict is scheduled to visit on November 28-30 - and Morocco, whose Vatican ambassador had been recalled for consultations, have all confirmed their participation at the talks.
Cardinal Poupard said that he could not recall a similar initiative in the past 10 years, and declared that the get-together was "a signal that the Holy Father's call for a dialogue between cultures and religion has been widely welcomed."
The furore in the Muslim world erupted when the pope made a speech on September 12 at the University of Regensburg in Germany, in which he quoted a medieval Christian emperor who criticised some teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as "evil and inhuman".
The lecture sparked days of sometimes violent protests in Muslim countries, prompting the pontiff to say that he was "deeply sorry" for any offence and attributing Muslim anger to an "unfortunate misunderstanding".
"The new and exceptional character of this meeting is evidence of the desire to get out of this crisis, and also of a wish to resume dialogue in a creative way," Italian daily La Repubblica's Vatican specialist, Marco Politi, told AFP.
"Apart from theological and philosophical reasons, the Catholic Church needs to maintain relations with 1.3 billion people," Politi added, referring to the number of Muslims in the world.
"I am very happy that this meeting has been organised," Mohamed Nur Dachan, president of the Union of Muslim Communities and Organisations of Italy (UCOII) told AFP earlier.
And Mario Scialoja, former Italian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said it was a good opportunity to "clarify things once and for all."
But some reaction was less positive, with Jordan's opposition Islamic Action Front insisting that a fuller papal apology was needed if talks were to achieve anything.
"The pope committed a great wrong against Islam and a meeting with Muslim countries' ambassadors is not sufficient. There must be a clear apology," the front's secretary general Zaki Saad Beni Rsheid said.
- SAPA