Relativism must be avoided in interfaith discussion, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, has warned ahead of possible Catholic-Muslim dialogue, writes Tom Heneghan. "It is important to avoid relativism, avoid saying that basically all religions are the same and it's the same God," he told Vatican Radio, echoing a favourite theme of Pope Benedict XVI. "What we say is that all seekers of God have the same dignity. That is the sense of inter-religious dialogue."

Cardinal Tauran's comments coincided with the response of the Pope to an open letter sent by a group of 138 Muslim scholars to the pontiff and other Christian leaders in October inviting them to seek common "theological" ground for the sake of world peace.

The cardinal supports the Pope's decision to meet a small delegation of the Muslim scholars who wrote the letter but would like the talks to go well beyond courtesies. "Someday, we should start to share our ideas about human rights, and the famous principle of reciprocity," he said. "If Muslims have mosques for praying and practising their faith in Europe, that's completely normal. It should be the same for Christians living in majority-Muslim countries."