Christian talks with Muslims praised

POPE BENEDICT XVI met leaders of the Muslim community, welcoming progress in Christian-Muslim dialogue and saying the Catholic Church wanted to continue “building bridges of friendship” with all other religions.

He was speaking after he received leaders of other faiths and Christian Churches in the first private audience of his Pontificate.

He said he particularly wanted to recognise the presence of the Muslim community at his inaugural Mass.

“I am particularly grateful for the presence in our midst of members of the Muslim community, and I express my appreciation for the growth of dialogue between Muslims and Christians, both at the local and international level,” he said.

“I assure you that the Church wants to continue building bridges of friendship with the followers of all religions, in order to seek the true good of every person and of society as a whole,” the 78-year-old Pontiff said.

It was Benedict XVI’s first specific public reference to Muslims since becoming Pope. In his homily during his inaugural Mass on Sunday, the Pontiff greeted the Jewish people as “my brothers and sisters, to whom we are joined by a great shared spiritual heritage.”

The Pope made a triumphant entry into the first public audience of his Pontificate via the centre aisle of the Vatican’s Paul VI hall, awkwardly grasping the hands of pilgrims who thrust theirs at him, blessing the rapturous crowd and waving as he moved forward.

Unused to such public adulation during his 24 years as the uncompromising guardian of Catholic doctrine which earned him the unsavoury epithet “God’s Rottweiler” by some critics, the Pope has still not mastered the easy charm of his predecessor John Paul II.

Benedict XVI tenderly touched children held up for him to bless, making the sign of the cross on their foreheads, where the late Pope would often have held them and kissed them. He asked the pilgrims from his native Germany for their “understanding” if he makes mistakes, calling for their help and their trust as he begins his Pontificate. “Let’s walk together, I trust in your help and I ask your understanding if I make mistakes, as happens to every man. I ask you to give me your trust,” he said in his mother tongue.

Earlier, in his private audience with the leaders of other religions and Christian Churches, he said that though the world was often marked by violence and war, “it earnestly longs for peace, peace which is above all a gift from God, peace for which we must pray without ceasing.” The Pope said peace was a “duty to which all peoples must be committed.”