Pope Appeals for More Interreligious Dialogue

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/world/europe/pope-francis-urges-more-interreligious-dialogue.html

Version 0 of 1.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis appealed for more intense dialogue with Islam on Friday, while calling on church leaders to renew diplomatic discourse with countries that do not have official ties with the Holy See, like China.

The new pope addressed ambassadors from the 180 countries accredited with the Holy See, urging them to share his objectives: fighting poverty, building peace and establishing “true links of friendship between all people,” by building bridges between them.

To this aim, promoting interreligious dialogue, particularly with Islam, is critical, he said, adding that he was grateful that “so many civil and religious leaders from the Islamic world” had attended his installation Mass on Tuesday.

During Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy, relations between the Vatican and Islam were strained by remarks he made in a 2006 speech that were interpreted as critical of Islam, prompting widespread protests in the Muslim world.

The Vatican apologized, explaining that the remarks had been misinterpreted, but the incident weighed on the papacy.

Then, in 2011, Al Azhar University in Cairo, the center of Islamic learning, froze relations with the Vatican in protest after the pope called for greater protection of Egypt’s Coptic Christians after a church bombing in Alexandria.

But the Vatican said Friday that Sheik Ahmed el-Tayyib, Al Azhar’s chief imam, had sent a message congratulating Francis for his election. As he has done on other public occasions, the pope on Friday drew attention to his decision to choose the name of Francis of Assisi, a “familiar figure” around the world, known for helping the poor, caring for those who suffer, protecting the environment from greedy exploitation and setting an example “to make society more humane and more just,” he said.

Francis of Assisi, the pope said, also “tells us we should work to build peace,” which can come about only by overcoming a relativistic view of the world, “which makes everyone his own criterion and endangers the coexistence of all peoples.”

The title of pontiff, he said, means builder of bridges. “My wish is that the dialogue between us should help to build bridges connecting all people, in such a way that everyone can see in the other not an enemy, not a rival, but a brother or sister to be welcomed and embraced,” he said.

The pope also said it was crucial “to intensify outreach to nonbelievers, so that the differences which divide and hurt us may never prevail.” And he expressed a hope that dialogue would pick up with countries that do not have diplomatic ties with the Holy See.

The Vatican and China have not had formal ties since 1951, and relations have been strained in recent years over the ordination of bishops named by the Beijing government without Vatican consent.

This week, a Chinese spokesman sent a message of congratulations for Francis’ election, but demanded that the Vatican sever its ties with Taiwan as a necessary prelude to formal diplomatic relations.

In the Sala Regia, a ceremonial hall in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, the pope said he was reaching out to the rest of the world through the ambassadors, as well as representatives from the European Union, the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta and emissaries from the Palestine Liberation Organization.

“Fighting poverty, both material and spiritual, building peace and constructing bridges: these, as it were, are the reference points for a journey that I want to invite each of the countries here represented to take up,” he said.