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| Europe |
| Pope Benedict Reaches Out to Muslims |
| 2005-04-25 |
| A day after reaching out to other Christians and to Jews in his installation Mass, Pope Benedict XVI met Monday with members of the Muslim community, assuring them the church wanted to continue building "bridges of friendship" that he said could foster peace in the world. I'm thinking of another bridge, in Brooklyn, that's for sale... Benedict made the comments while meeting with religious leaders who attended Sunday's installation ceremony, saying he was particularly grateful that members of the Muslim community were present. "I express my appreciation for the growth of dialogue between Muslims and Christians, both at the local and international level," he said. He noted that the world is marked by conflicts "Yet peace is also a duty to which all peoples must be committed, especially those who profess to belong to religious traditions," he said. "Our efforts to come together and foster dialogue are a valuable contribution to building peace on solid foundations. "It is therefore imperative to engage in authentic and sincere dialogue, built on respect for the dignity of every human person, created as we Christians firmly believe, in the image and likeness of God," he said. Here we go again. |
| Posted by:Spot |
| #4 Pope Benedict Reaches Out to Muslims With a long stick, one hopes. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-04-25 11:25:50 PM |
| #3 I left something out of my above comment. In other words, Benedict did not dilute/avoid explicit Christian theology in favor of a more islamically-correct general or shared theology where the similarities between religions are stressed and the differences ignored. |
| Posted by: peggy 2005-04-25 10:39:38 AM |
| #2 Another telling difference. When the Pope calls attention to the Jewish/Christian belief that humans are created in the image of God, this flies in the face of islamic theology which explicitly denies this. |
| Posted by: peggy 2005-04-25 10:33:24 AM |
| #1 The last phrase is the clincher. Has me grinning. built on respect for the dignity of every human person Pope Benedict is talking nice,but this is a direct swipe at Islams inability to treat every human with respect and dignity. It draws out the direct contrast of Islam's treatment of women, infidels, dhimmis, etc. created as we Christians firmly believe, in the image and likeness of God And a passing point for the charitable social work the modern Catholic church has done in the third world, versus the paucity of any effort from the rich wahhabists and others inside Islam. To help every one including non-beleivers as if he/she were in the likeness and image of God. imperative to engage in authentic and sincere dialogue I hope this is the Pope is saying "If you are religious and call yourselves beleivers in the God of Abraham, show it. We are willing to talk if/when you do". |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2005-04-25 9:55:21 AM |