Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, ranked this as the most important of the 15 points agreed with delegates from the Common Word project, a dialogue initiative launched last year by 138 Islamic leaders from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Western countries. The declaration also called for respect for personal "choices in matters of conscience and religion," which could apply to the thorny question of conversion from Islam, which the delegates discussed briefly but did not seek consensus on.
Pope Benedict XVI told Forum participants that Catholics and Muslims must overcome all misunderstanding and disagreements. "There is a great and vast field in which we can act together in defending and promoting the moral values which are part of our common heritage," he said.
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said the meeting was "a significant step forward in dialogue" which "demonstrated the possibility of entering more deeply and frankly into essential themes and of successfully expressing, with greater clarity and fidelity, that which unites and differentiates [us]".
The Vatican spokesman characterised the dialogue of the forum as "open" and taking place in "a climate of trust". He shared hopes that the dialogue would extend itself to larger circles in the Christian and Muslim world.
The declaration, issued after talks at the Vatican on 4-6 November between delegations of 28 from each side, did not specifically refer to contentious issues such as opening churches in Saudi Arabia, where they are banned by law. But delegates said its wording could apply both to Christian minorities in the Islamic world and to Muslims seeking to build mosques in Western countries.
The declaration also said that "founding figures and symbols", which a religion considers sacred, "should not be subjected to any form of mockery or ridicule", a passage Muslim delegates said they appreciated highly.
The Apostolic Vicar for Arabia, Bishop Paul Hinder, saw slow movement on the question of opening churches in Saudi Arabia. "I don't think we'll get any right away, but things are changing," he said without giving details.
Cardinal Tauran also said the Common Word group could become a "favoured channel" for Vatican dialogue with Muslims. He said Rome already had several formal dialogues with Muslim institutions and there were so many Christian-Muslim dialogues that they were causing confusion.
Muslim delegates praised the mutual respect that dominated the talks. Common Word delegation spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said this showed "we can engage in interfaith dialogue while maintaining our traditions".
Cardinal Tauran headed the Catholic delegation, which included former Washington Archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies director Fr Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, German Jesuit Islam expert Fr Christian Troll and bishops based in Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
Led by Bosnian Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric, the Muslim delegation included Iranian Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad, the Islamic philosopher Tariq Ramadan, Shia philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and the Cambridge Interfaith Programme adviser Aref Ali Nayed. The Common Word is a movement of Muslim civil society, backed by 271 figures such as grand muftis and theologians from Sunni, Shia, Sufi and other Islamic traditions. "They're influential through their personalities, their preaching and their books, not through an institution," Fr Troll said.
