Friday, September 22, 2006

Pope invites Islamic diplomats

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The pontiff will open the doors of his summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, to the ambassadors and members of the Italian Islam Consulta, according to ANSA, an Italian news agency. The Islam Cosulta is a council of the various Muslim community leaders in Italy who meet periodically with Italian government officials.

"The purpose of this meeting is to relaunch dialogue with the Islamic world," a senior Vatican official said on Friday.

Islamic diplomats accredited to the Holy See said they hoped the meeting would help restore trust between the Roman Catholic Church and Muslims angered by the pope's speech last week in Germany.

"We welcome it and are definitely going to participate," Iran's deputy ambassador to the Holy See, Ahmad Faihma, told Reuters.

"This is a positive signal from the Vatican. I know that this will improve relations with the Islamic world."

"This meeting will be very important, especially in these days, to try to stop every action that is not good," Fathi Abuabed, head of international relations at the Arab League's Vatican mission, told the agency.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The words of Iran's Deputy Ambassador to the Holy See are encouraging. As long as the Holy Father doesn't refer to his wife as the diplomatic bag, we should be all right.

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