VATICAN CITY (AFP) — Pope Benedict XVI gave his approval Wednesday to the creation of a permanent Catholic-Muslim interfaith forum that will hold it inaugural meeting this November in Rome, the Vatican said.
The initiative was sparked by the pope's own controversial speech at a German university in 2006, where he appeared to link Islam with violence.
The dispute inspired by his remarks led last year to 138 leading Muslim scholars calling for a dialogue with the leader of the Roman Catholic church, and eventually to today's accord.
The first summit of the "Catholic-Muslim forum" will be on November 4-6 in Rome, on the theme of "the love of God, love of neighbour," according to a joint statement issued after the meeting between the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and a delegation of the so-called Group of 138.
November's meeting will be attended personally by the pope, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran confirmed in a statement. The Muslim side will be represented Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad, president of Britain's Muslim Academic Trust.
A second follow-up conference has already been scheduled for 2010, to be held in a Muslim country, Ali Aref Nayed, director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, said.
The structure put in place Wednesday could also be activated in case of a crisis such as the global uproar that followed the publication of cartoons of Mohammed in 2006, according to Nayed.
Nayed told a press conference in Rome he was delighted with the "incredibly positive response" to the Group of 138's call for dialogue, which had already led to a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury amongst others.
The goal is to "return to the roots of the faith and what we have in common" -- far from the image of violence too often attached to Islam, Nayed said.
I wanted to include this story as a follow up to a post that I did last month--on February 21--to comment on a similar story. By now it's been pushed to page two below.
While what may come forth from official dialogue with Islam is intriguing, it'll be disappointing if all we end up hearing is how important mutual respect is for peaceful coexistence. We don't need a pontifical council to tell us what is obvious--actually, the mutual respect line might even be viewed as lacking substance or even soft on real issues if it fails to go much beyond that.
Nevertheless, arriving at a place of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence is an important starting place. It's also obvious that there are places in the world where respect and coexistence would receive a great welcome.
In terms of dialogue, what will be much more important--and interesting--is if the dialogue explores the theological underpinnings of both Islam and Christianity and addresses the problem of violence committed in the name of religion. Honest and straightforward dialogue stands only to strengthen Catholic commitment to evangelization, and it will certainly send a highly publicized message to the world in regard to the Church's position concerning the truths of the faith and our resolve to peacemaking in the world.
Well, my response is pretty much the same as my aged mother-in-law who said in her front room, while watching "Meet the Press" (which soon clarified why she had whispered her great wonder over how Aunt Lil's lamp got here), "Oh, I hope they don't ask my opinion --I know hardly anything about this matter."
The article's last paragraph, tho' one can't tell whose words they are, is very key:
"The Catholic Church remains reluctant to engage in a profound theological debate with Islam without first clarifying such issues as complete religious freedom for Christians in Muslim countries."
Posted by: Carol | March 06, 2008 at 02:05 PM