Iranian President Meets Pope
Pope John Paul met Iranian President Mohammad Khatami at the Vatican on Thursday in the highest level encounter between the pontiff and a post-revolutionary leader from the Islamic state.
The pope greeted Khatami at the entrance of his private study in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, and the two men walked in together for private talks.
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"Welcome, good morning," the pope said in English as he greeted Khatami, who is making the first visit to Western Europe by an Iranian president.
After their 25-minute meeting in the pope's private library, John Paul called it "an important, promising day."
As Khatami left the library, the Iranian leader asked the pope to pray for him and said: "The hope is for the final victory of monotheism, morality, peace and reconciliation."
In a public exchange of gifts following their meeting with interpreters, the two men appeared relaxed and pleased.
The pope gave the president a painting of Sts. Peter and Paul; Khatami presented John Paul with a Persian rug with a design of St. Mark's Basilica in Venice.
Khatami described the encounter as a "great and pleasant meeting." As the two men emerged from the library, the chanting of Iranian dissidents outside in St. Peter's Square could be heard.
Security appeared even heavier than when U.S. presidents have called on the pope. Helicopters buzzed overhead, and hundreds of police blocked off the boulevard leading to St. Peter's Square, searching garbage bins in the area for any explosives.
The square was off-limits to tourists, but somehow about 50 chanting anti-Khatami protesters got in and were surrounded by about as many police officers. Witnesses said police detained four women and two men and tried to prevent photographers from using their cameras.
Khatami, who arrived in Italy on Tuesday for a state visit, has appealed to Western nations to treat Iran and Islamic states as internationa equals but stressed that Tehran was open to dialogue and to work towards global security.
He also wants to promote his ideas for a "dialogue of civilizations" and closer contact between Islam and Christianity. The pope, too, has often appealed for greater collaboration between the world's great faiths.
"The meeting between the Iranian president and the pope is of primary importance for dialogue between Islam and Christianity," Archbishop Romeo Panciroli, the Vatican's envoy to Tehran, told the Vatican missionary arm news agency Fides.
Since the beginning of his papacy a year before the Islamic revolution toppled the Shah of Iran in 1979, the pope has held talks with senior Iranian ministers, including Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi last year, at the Vatican.
The highest level meeting between the Vatican and Iran before Thursday's encounter took place in November 1970 when Pope Paul VI met the shah at a stopover at Tehran airport.
While conditions for Iran's tiny Roman Catholic minority of 13,000 have improved significantly in the past several years after an initial crackdown following the Islamic revolution, the pope said in 1997 he wanted to see more progress from Iran on the defense of "fundamental human rights...first of all freedom of religion."
The Vatican has urged Iran, with its huge influence in the Moslem world, to disown international terrorism, improve its human rights record and open up to the West.
In his public comments in Italy, Khatami has touched upon many of the issues troubling Washington and Europe and hindering progress towards Iran's full return into the international fold.
©1999 CBS Worldwide Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report