Word: islamics
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...baldly controversial - lecture on faith, reason and violence. It was the young papacy's quintessential Ratzinger moment, as the 79-year-old professor-turned-pope returned to his old university in Regensburg to draw a theological line in the sand that set off a worldwide debate about how Islam and the West should talk to each other. Yet last week, that same man, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was famous for his doctrinal rigidity, was in Turkey doing and saying things on the same issue, Islam, that few could have ever imagined...
...sign a letter in response to Benedict's speech in September. Offering a tour of the mosque and explaining step-by-step what happens when Muslims come to pray, Cagrici continued his respectful lesson to the professor Pontiff on what he sees as the true, moderate nature of Islam. The two later gathered in a "moment of serenity," that may be as close to a genuine joint prayer as the traditionalist Pope has ever done with a non-Christian. The two leaders closed the visit by exchanging art works of doves, the symbol for peace in both faiths. Clearly moved...
...Tally: Benedict may have had no choice but to play nice, but he is still searching for his voice on Islam. Perhaps by taking off his papal slippers and stepping into a mosque, he has begun to find his footing...
...Words: Benedict spoke out strongly - and repeatedly - for religious freedom throughout the trip. The explicit softness in his approach to Islam allowed him to make an implicit plea for allowing religious minorities in Muslim countries - and everywhere - to freely practice their religion. On his first day, the Pope told diplomats in Ankara that religions must "not seek to exercise direct political power." On Thursday, he and Bartholomew I, Patriarch of Constantinople, leader of the tiny Orthodox community in Turkey, delivered a joint statement that insisted that religious "minorities must be protected, with their cultural traditions and the distinguishing features...
...Tally: Benedict is intent on making freedom of religion a hallmark issue of his papacy. While he sees threats to this liberty in China and in an increasingly secularized Europe, it may also end up being a pointed - if somewhat safer - way of confronting fundamental problems he sees in Islam...