Posted on 03/03/2008 2:21:08 PM PST by traumer
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Muslim representatives and Vatican officials begin talks this week that they hope will lead to an unprecedented Catholic-Islamic meeting.
Five representatives from each side will meet on Tuesday for two days in Rome to work out the details of a larger meeting that will include Pope Benedict later this year.
"We have to bring the dialogue up to date following the great successes of the pontificate of John Paul II," said Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community.
Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that was taken by Muslims to imply that Islam was violent and irrational.
Muslims around the world protested and the Pope sought to make amends when he visited Turkey's Blue Mosque and prayed towards Mecca with its Imam.
After the fallout from the Regensburg speech, 138 Muslim scholars and leaders wrote to the German-born Pontiff and other Christian leaders last year, saying "the very survival of the world itself" may depend on dialogue between the two faiths.
The signatories of the Muslim appeal for theological dialogue, called the "Common Word," has grown to nearly 225 since.
"Now there is a need for deeper dialogue on doctrine, theology and the character of religions in today's world and the challenges we face," Pallavicini told Reuters.
"We must try, together with the Pope, to get on a path of dialogue on issues confronting humanity today," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Why not TOWNHALL MEETING... ??
Remember your Holiness, they are allowed to lie to us infidels.
More waste of breath and time.
“talks will include a Turk, a Briton, a Jordanian and a Libyan.... “
... and the Briton will be the MOST RADICAL !
I hope JP II doesn’t lose his head.
They better install some good metal detector... I wouldn’t trust those fellahs
And what about inviting Hindus too ?
I have lost much respect with this church over this. Where is the outrage? The disgust? All that should not be allowing this meeting to even be considered.
They were probably lower when that Moslem assassin tried to kill the pope.
I was speaking literally, not figuratively.
“I hope JP II doesn’t lose his head.”
Not if the Swiss have anything to do with it.
The muslims want to convert the Pope.
John Paul the Second has been dead for quite some time now. Where’ve you been?
What? Does this mean PB is going to fold?
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