Vatican stresses dialogue with Islam

The Vatican on Friday said "ongoing dialogue" with Islam was "more necessary than ever" in the wake of Pope Benedict XVI's controversial speech in Germany that sparked widespread protests in the Muslim world.

"The particular circumstances that we have recently experienced together demonstrate clearly that, however arduous the path of authentic dialogue may be at times, it is more necessary than ever," Cardinal Paul Poupard said in a message to Muslims marking the end of Ramzan.

Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, took the unprecedented step of presenting to the media what is normally a routine salute to the leaders of Islam.

"I undertook this initiative because I believe it was opportune at this particular moment in time," Poupard said.

The message was drafted in August but was amended to take the recent controversy into account, Poupard told reporters.

On September 12, Pope Benedict angered Muslims with a lecture on "faith and reason" at Regensburg University in Germany in which he appeared to criticize Islam's justification of the use of force to spread the faith.

The pope has said he was misunderstood and has since launched a diplomatic

offensive aimed at restoring friendly relations with the Muslim world.

Officials at Poupard's office said they considered the incident "closed" but admitted they had been working harder than usual since the pope made his speech.

"The episode has been placed in its proper context and the misunderstanding has been cleared. We must continue on the path of dialogue," said Monsignor Pier Luigi Celata, the council's secretary. Poupard and his colleagues said the pope's speech had succeeded in initiating a thoughtful discussion between the Church and Muslims on the relationship between faith and reason. As evidence, they cited a recent open letter sent to the pope by 38 top Muslim clerics.

In their letter, the clerics challenged Benedict's quotation in his lecture of an early Islamic writer who said, "God is not bound, even by his own word" and said it was wrong "to conclude that Muslims believe in a capricious God who might or might not command us to evil."

In his message marking the end of Ramzan, Poupard said the world needs "Christians and Muslims who respect and value each other and bear witness to their mutual love and co-operation to the glory of God and the good of all humanity." (DPA)