Word: vaticans
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Before he was Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger would hold an annual summer retreat for his former theology students that focused each year on a single theme of acute concern. Three months after his rise to the papacy, Benedict XVI continued the tradition with a closed-door encounter in the Vatican's breezy summer residence, Castel Gandolfo. The topic chosen that first year with him as Pope was Islam, and the keynote speaker was Father Samir Khalil Samir, a soft-spoken, Cairo-born Jesuit and an expert on Muslim history and theology...
...years since Benedict's charged lecture, the Vatican has established a permanent, ongoing Catholic-Muslim dialogue group, which held its first meetings in November. But last Easter, the Pope performed a high-profile baptism in St. Peter's Basilica of Egyptian-born Italian journalist Magdi Allam, who converted from Islam. Many Muslims and Catholics took this as a provocation. Samir instead praised it as a "necessary gesture." He says, "Freedom to choose your religion is more important than all the initiatives put together. Without it, dialogue is not possible...
Though Samir's words cannot be put into Benedict's mouth, it is widely acknowledged that the Jesuit scholar continues to enjoy great favor in the Pope's inner circle, which includes Monsignor Khaled Akasheh, head of the Muslim section of the Vatican's Council for Interreligious Dialogue, who is considered an intellectual ally of Samir. "It is not that he is inspired by me," Samir says of the Pope. "We just have the same line of thinking on this subject. Without being a specialist of Islam, His Holiness has a vast culture and knowledge in human and world religious...
...choice for the center-right with a human face." - John L. Allen Jr., the National Catholic Reporter's veteran Vatican correspondent on Archbishop Dolan's appointment The Times Online...
...appointed to a five-year term as secretary to the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Washington. (He speaks fluent Italian.) He returned to St. Louis in 1992 and was appointed vice rector of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary...