"Mine is strong with the Dark Side..."
Posted on 06/01/2008 2:36:09 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
Mr Ahmadinejad is one of 40 heads of state arriving in Rome on Tuesday for a vital United Nations summit on the world’s food crisis.
Mr Ahmadinejad was keen to meet Benedict XVI, after writing to him two years ago on the subject of spirituality and the need for dialogue between Islam and Christianity.
Relations between Iran and the Holy See are warming, and Mr Ahmadinejad said the Vatican was a “positive force for justice and peace” in April after meeting with the new nuncio to Iran, Archbishop Jean-Paul Gobel. Benedict is also thought to have the support of several leading Shia clerics, including Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Iraq. A delegation of eight Iranians from the Islamic Culture and Relations Organisation, including Mahdi Mostafavi, one of Mr Ahmadinejad’s inner circle, came to Rome for a two-day meeting at the end of April and agreed religion should be a force for peace.
However, the Pope was keen to avoid the glare of publicity that would have been triggered by a one-to-one meeting with Mr Ahmadinejad.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, President Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, President Evo Morales of Bolivia and several African leaders also asked for a papal meeting.
The Vatican briefly considered a single audience for all the heads of state.
However, it eventually decided to refuse all the requests in order to avoid any potential embarrassment. It did not comment further on the decision.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Methinks Ahmad won't think so highly of the Pope anymore...
I read on another post that Mr. Nutjob made several demands preparatory to a meeting with the Pope, indicating that the audience with the Pope would mainly be for publicity ... I am glad the Pope declined to meet this fool.
"Mine is strong with the Dark Side..."
Ahmadinejad should take a leap into that well where he thinks that demon is hiding.
Good! Ray Flynn thought for sure that the Pope would ok the meeting. I was praying fervently that he would not.
I can't even imagine Obama meeeting with Benedict -- I doubt the Pontiff would know how to descend to that level of vapid ignorance.
My guess is that the Pope prayed too. ;-)
Yes. A lot. He has certainly very courageously put himself in the thick of things, but Ahmadinejad is a fanatic and there is little point in discussing anything with him. Besides, I think if Pope Benedict ever decides to engage him, it will be on his terms, not Mahmoud’s.
I agree! ;-)
Surely he deals with lay-persons all the time.
Who funds the church, after all?
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