06 March 2008
The Vatican will hold formal talks with Muslim religious leaders for the first time. Following informal talks in Rome this week, Vatican officials and representatives of the ‘Common Word’ initiative have agreed to establish a Catholic-Muslim Forum whose inaugural meeting is to take place in Rome on 04-06 November 2008. The theme of that meeting will be ‘Love of God, Love of Neighbor’, the two sides said in a joint statement. Participants will include 24 Catholic and Muslim scholars.
The joint statement announcing plans for the Catholic-Muslim Forum was signed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue; and Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad, president of the Muslim Academic Trust in Britain. It indicated that the first day of the November seminar would be devoted to theological and spiritual foundations of the two faiths, with the second day concentrating on ‘human dignity and mutual respect’. The third day will be a public session, ending with a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI.
The Common Word initiative originated with an appeal from 138 Islamic leaders for a deeper dialogue with Christians. Pope Benedict welcomed the idea, and Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, issued an invitation on behalf of the Pope for representatives of the group to visit the Vatican for in-depth discussions. There are now more than 200 Islamic leaders, many of them living in Western countries, who have endorsed the Common Word initiative, according to the Catholic News Service.
