Pope Benedict XVI and King Abdullah hold historic meeting
From Missiopedia
- The talks in the pope’s Vatican library occurred at a time of strained relations between Islam and Christianity over global terrorism, the Iraq war and the lack of religious freedom for Christians living in the Persian Gulf state, The Los Angeles Times reported.
- It was the first meeting between a sitting Saudi monarch, who also oversees Islam’s holiest shrine at Mecca, and the head of the Catholic Church. Last year, Benedict suggested that Islam was prone to violence, igniting a furor across the Muslim world and setting back interreligious efforts by his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
- Benedict later said he was misunderstood and regretted offending Muslims. He has since met a number of Islamic leaders and a year ago visited predominantly Muslim Turkey.
- It was not clear if the 30-minute conversation between Benedict and Abdullah, both in their 80s, draped in pressed robes, rose beyond the symbolic, the Times reported. The Vatican has urged the Saudis to loosen religious restrictions in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which forbids non-Muslim religious services and icons such as crucifixes.
- Many migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, most of whom are Catholic Filipinos working as maids and labourers, attend mass in private homes in near secrecy. The government has been known to crack down on them, or deport Filipino workers if they hold even private services, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
- The Vatican counts 890,000 Catholics among the estimated 1.5 million Christians in Saudi Arabia. Christians are barred from opening churches in the desert kingdom where Islam’s holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, are located.
- The meeting and handshake between the king and the pope offered encouragement to resolving the religious and political turmoil across the Middle East. The Vatican said the two leaders stressed the “importance of collaboration between Christians, Muslims and Jews for the promotion of peace, justice and spiritual and moral values.”
- “This is a very courageous step by King Abdullah given all the pressures he faces in Saudi society from extremists who regard Christians as enemies,” Mustafa Alani, a political analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, told the Times. “These talks are more important than a meeting with any other Arab leader. The king comes from the heart of Islam.” Alani added, however, that although the talks were a “major step this will not mean the establishment of diplomatic relations tomorrow or any time soon.”
- Islam is the official religion of Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom requires all Saudi citizens to be Muslims, restricts worship by other faiths and bans Bibles. Only Muslims can visit the cities of Mecca and Medina, the AP reported.
- Under the authoritarian rule of the royal family, the kingdom enforces Shari'a, or Islamic law. It follows a severe interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism that rejects the possibility of diplomatic relations with a Christian entity. This interpretation would prohibit a Vatican embassy in Saudi Arabia on the grounds it is equivalent to raising the cross inside Islam’s holiest places, the AP reported
- In Saudi Arabia, renouncing Islam is punishable by death. Members of the royal family insist that Christians are free to worship in their own homes. Practice has proven otherwise. The total number of arrested Christians in 2006 was lower than in 2005, when as many as 70 expatriate Christians were arrested.
- Sources: The Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press.
