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Pope Benedict XVI has agreed to meet a Jordanian prince and a "restricted group" of Muslim scholars at the Vatican, in what constitutes his first positive response to recent Muslim requests for fresh dialogue. The new development came in a letter that Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, sent to Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan on 19 November. The prince was one of the 138 Islamic scholars who sent the Pope and other Christian leaders an open letter entitled "A Common Word Between Us and You" on 13 October requesting talks (The Tablet, 20 October). Cardinal Bertone's letter, released by the Holy See press office on 30 November, was the Vatican's first formal answer to the Muslim text. The cardinal expressed Pope Benedict's "deep appreciation" for the Muslims' open letter. He told the prince that, as well as meeting the Pope, a "working meeting" could be organised between his delegation and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The cardinal said such a gathering would include experts from the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) and the Gregorian University - two Catholic institutions respected by Muslim academics. In their open letter the 138 Muslims specifically asked for "theological" dialogue between Christians and Muslims. While other Christian leaders and many Catholic experts have shown openness to such a proposal, Pope Benedict has always expressed grave doubts that the two faiths could honestly enter strictly theological dialogue, given their fundamental theological differences. In his letter of response, Cardinal Bertone does not mention "theological dialogue" and stresses a dialogue based on respect for human dignity, "objective knowledge of the religion of the other" and promotion of "mutual respect and acceptance" among young Christians and Muslims. A leading signatory of the Muslim scholars' letter said the Vatican's response had encouraged Muslim leaders and opened the way to serious theological talks, but he said Catholic leaders should not lose sight of the larger context behind the new initiative. Aref Ali Nayed, senior adviser to the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, welcomed the positive Vatican response last week. But prompt responses from other Christian leaders helped rally initial support for the initiative, especially among more conservative Muslim leaders wary of such dialogue. "We respect the Vatican very much," he said, "but we must also give respect to the others." Professor Nayed singled out the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, the first head of a Christian Church to respond, as setting the tone for later positive responses. Professor Nayed, a former professor at the PISAI in Rome, disputed an argument sometimes heard that the dialogue was a result of the jolt Pope Benedict gave interfaith relations with the speech he delivered in Regensburg last year linking Islam and violence. "I keep hearing this, especially from Catholics," Professor Nayed said. In fact Muslim scholars came together a year before Regensburg to issue the Amman Message, which condemned terrorism and advocated Islamic unity. "The Pope's lecture rang a very loud alarm ... saying things that fuelled misunderstanding and hatred," argued Professor Nayed. Following the lecture a group of 38 Muslim scholars wrote to the Pope in October 2006 disputing his references to Islam, but did not receive a response. On the anniversary of the first letter, said Professor Nayed, "the ulema [scholars] felt it was time to make a more fundamental theological and spiritual statement and an appeal for peace". Apart from individual church leaders, more than 300 theologians and Christian leaders have backed a declaration by Yale Divinity School professors, published in November in the New York Times, welcoming the Muslim initiative. Signatories are mainly Protestant but include Catholic scholars. (See Tauran sets limits, page 33.)  |
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