Pope Looks To Repair Muslim Relations

(AP)  Pope Benedict XVI said Friday he hopes the Catholic church can play a role in the Middle East peace process as he began his first trip to the region with a stop in Jordan, where he hopes to improve frayed ties with Muslims.

The pope rankled many in the Muslim world with a 2006 speech in which he quoted a Medieval text that characterized some of the Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."

The pope has already said he was "deeply sorry" over the reaction to his speech and that the passage he quoted did not reflect his own opinion. But his comments continue to fuel criticism by some Muslims.

Jordan's hard-line Muslim Brotherhood said Friday that its members would boycott the pope's visit because he did not issue a public apology ahead of time as they demanded.

Brotherhood spokesman Jamil Abu-Bakr said the absence of a public apology meant "obstacles and boundaries will remain and will overshadow any possible understanding between the pope and the Muslim world."

The Brotherhood is Jordan's largest opposition group. Although it commands a small bloc in parliament, it wields considerable sway, especially among poor Jordanians.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the Vatican has made all possible clarifications, telling Associated Press Television News that "we cannot continue until the end of the world to repeat the same clarifications."

Despite the controversy, Benedict expressed hope his visit and the power of the Catholic church could help further peace efforts between Israelis and Palestinians. The pope will also visit Israel and the Palestinian territories during his weeklong tour.

"We are not a political power but a spiritual power that can contribute," Benedict told reporters on the plane before he landed in Amman.

The pope was met at the airport by Jordan's King Abdullah, Queen Rania and Muslim and Christian leaders. A Jordanian army band equipped with bagpipes and drums played the Vatican and Jordanian national anthems before the pope and the king inspected the honor guard.

Benedict's three-day stay in Jordan is his first visit to an Arab country as pope. During his time in the country, Benedict is scheduled to meet with Muslim religious leaders at Amman's largest mosque - his second visit to a Muslim place of worship since becoming pope in 2005. He prayed in Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque, a gesture that helped calm the outcry over his remarks. He is also expected to meet Iraqi Christians driven from their homeland by violence.

[honestabe8]

oooh...the devil....

[quapawsix]

Right you have two extremist groups Trying to play buddy buddy. Like that's going to happen, the history of this group has not produced any meaningful dialog on peace because they both think their god is the right god. My god is more powerful than your God. They both seemed to have missed Christ's message we are all divine and are the sons and daughters of God and we don't need a Pope or or the religious leader to talk to God or go to God for us.

[paddyhayes]

When the long arm of the law was about to wrap itself around Bernard Cardinal Law for his complicity in the protection of pedophile priests, Rome spirited him out of Boston.

Did I tell you my first confessor was a priest by the name of . . . Bernard Law?

Maybe the Pope should just continue the Church's practice of repairing relations with altar boys.

Oh, and this for endpcnow: When Arnaud was asked by the Cistercians how to tell the Catholics from the Cathars in Beziers, Arnaud replied: "Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.". Which Christians renounced that Christian extremism against other nominal Christians?

In case you are home-schooled, what he told them was: "Kill them all. God will recognize His own."



What goes around comes around.

[veils-2009]

-Word of advice "Pope", you can't make a deal with the devil. - Culture_Warrior_in_09

The Pope, himself a minion of the devil, can speak the language....

[veils-2009]

This pope? His own audience doesn't trust him. This man is a swindler and a liar to the world, He hides pedophiles in his lair, untouchable to world justice. He denounces publicly EVERY type of Christianity other than his Catholic religion.

Then again, for someone who has sworn away worldly possessions, yet wears gold threaded robes everyday and lives in his own private Idaho, this man is living phat. Unfortunately he does not know how his pauper flock, those that support the largest international corporation, suffer so he may eat cake.

[Culture_Warrior_in_09]

Pope Looks To Repair Muslim Relations

-Word of advice "Pope", you can't make a deal with the devil.

[pensacola8-2009]

There are many more Muslims who have moderated their hardliner rhetoric and moved into liberal waters through value and use of education and common sense.

The Catholics know that in their dark ages, totalitariansim and controlling access to education was self-defeating and gave birth to dissentors who eventually formed protestant religions.

Some factions of Protestants have moderated their rhetoric and realized that the hypocracy they seeked to escape, when they revolted from the Catholic church, was forming right inside their own Protestant establishments.

The latest events of the world has been a mind-opening experience and the world is seeing that applying divisive values into conflict resolution, simply does not work.

Catholics, Muslims and Protestants are learning that exhibiting the value of seeking similarity with all, is essential towards respect and strengthens the fundamental buidling block of conflict resolution.

[revmrbill]

"When will this old fool realize that no one is paying attention to him? For that matter when have the middle east combatants paid attention to anyone? The enmity have been going on for centuries, nothing this irrelevant idiot does will make even the smallest difference."

Benedict is no fool and you are wrong about no one paying attention to him. Perhaps the errors he has made in some of his speeches appear like pouring gasoline on the fire, but his comments I think are more slip ups than calculated. None-the-less I understand the reasoning behind many Muslim's protests. But I assure you that when the Pope speaks many listen and his influence is without question.

[shameonbush]

The Pope has nothing to apologize for. They are fortunate to have him in their presence.

[batchitcrazy]

I think the muslims should be doing some protesting against the muslim extremists to show they're not aligned with them. They've done nothing so it looks as though they are with the extremists.
Posted by some1has2sayit at 8:18 AM : May 8, 2009
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nicely put...... thank you