Church in the World

Vatican disappoints Muslim scholars

The Muslim scholars who appealed earlier this month to Christian leaders for high-level dialogue have expressed their impatience to the Pope and their concern about what they see as negative comments by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran.

Sheikh Dr Izz Al-Din Ibrahim, one of the appeal's 138 signatories, brought up the issue with the Pope when they shared a table for lunch at the start of the Sant'Egidio interfaith International Meeting in Naples last Sunday. He also handed Cardinal Tauran a letter signed on behalf of the Muslim scholars that recalled how Muslims appreciated Pope John Paul II's "gracious" attitude towards Islam and the many positive responses other Christian leaders had sent following their letter.

"However, Muslims are still awaiting a proper response from His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for this unprecedented initiative," the letter said. "An initial cautiously positive response from the re-established Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue [of which Cardinal Tauran is president] quickly turned negative a few days later."

Cardinal Tauran gave a cautious welcome to the call for dialogue a day after it was launched on 11 October (The Tablet, 20 October), calling the letter "an encouraging sign, since it demonstrates that goodwill and dialogue are able to overcome prejudices". But a few days later he told the French Catholic daily La Croix that Christians could not hold a serious theological dialogue with Muslims because Islamic scholars saw the Qur'an as the literal word of God. He also said that any talks would have to discuss reciprocity of religious freedoms, specifically the ban on church-building in some Islamic countries.

The letter to Cardinal Tauran warned that ruling out a theological exchange "misses the very point of dialogue. Dialogue is by definition between people of different views ... Dialogue is not about imposing one's views on the other side, nor deciding oneself what the other side is and is not capable of, nor even of what the other side believes. Dialogue starts with an open hand and an open heart."

It also noted a further point that has irritated Muslims: "Unfortunately, even the annual Eid greeting gesture, kindly established during the time of John Paul II, has been made polemical of late." The 2006 and 2007 Vatican messages at the end of Ramadan called on all faiths to oppose terrorism and violence, an element not found in earlier messages.

Asked about the latest letter, Cardinal Tauran said that the Vatican wanted to respond quickly but had to study how to do this. "The Pope cannot respond and sign a collective letter," he told the French Catholic news agency I.Media, adding that he (Cardinal Tauran) would probably sign any all-Christian response. He said that his responses were meant to be positive but also to voice some questions. "When we speak of the love of God, are we speaking of the same love?" he asked, adding that he had discussed a common response with Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I.

In an interview with Vatican Radio on Tuesday he said that the letter was a positive signal to Christians. "There are some new elements. When they mention Jesus they quote the New Testament, not the Qur'an." Meanwhile the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, told Vatican Radio that he was canvassing other Christian leaders about an all-Christian response. There were "various theoretical possibilities" and "proper face-to-face discussions" were desirable, he said, but facilitating these would be "quite a logistical challenge".