c. 2006 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ A month after Pope Benedict XVI’s address at the University of Regensburg in Germany sparked violence from some Muslims that sent Muslim-Christian relations into a tailspin, Vatican officials are embracing the controversy for accomplishing what decades of conciliatory gestures from Pope John Paul II could not: an honest, intellectual, public debate.

The pope’s remarks on Islam have in many ways heightened tensions between the world’s largest religions as he prepares to visit predominantly Muslim Turkey at the end of November. But the address has also thrown into relief key issues that have been lurking beneath the veneer of Christian-Muslim dialogue for decades, if not centuries.

On Monday (Oct. 16), 38 Muslim scholars released an open letter to Benedict that offered a point-by-point rebuttal to his address at Regensburg, in which he quoted a medieval Christian ruler describing the teachings of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman” and “spread by the sword.”

Top religious authorities signed the letter, including Shaykh Ali Jumu’ah, the grand mufti of Egypt, and the Ayatollah Muhammad Ali Taskhiri of Iran. The letter also carried the signatures of prominent Muslim scholars in the United States and Britain.

On Friday, the Vatican’s top mediators with the Muslim world responded to the letter during a special press conference to present the Holy See’s annual message for Ramadan, the Islamic holy month that ends Sunday.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, said the “letter shows that an exchange of ideas has begun on the fundamental questions.” Poupard’s deputy, Monsignor Pier Luigi Celata, who recently traveled to Turkey and the Palestinian territories in the wake of Benedict’s remarks, said the address had “encouraged” and “reinforced” the push for frank dialogue.

The shift in tone represents a dramatic departure from John Paul’s dovish relations with the Muslim world. Under John Paul, the Holy See aimed to underscore the common historical and theological roots of Christianity and Islam and play down their violent past.

At the center of the wide-ranging debate is Benedict’s assertion that faith is inextricably linked to reason and therefore cannot be used to justify violence. In their open letter, the Muslim scholars poked holes in the pontiff’s argument, citing a passage from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus upends the tables of money changers in the Temple, stating, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

The Vatican’s Ramadan message renewed the pontiff’s rejection of faith-inspired violence, however, describing terrorism as a “particularly painful scourge” for religious leaders.

“Without doubt, the credibility of religions and also the credibility of our religious leaders and all believers is at stake,” the document said. “If we do not play our part as believers, many will question the usefulness of religion.”

Poupard said future dialogue would focus on the “fundamental theme of faith and reason” and would not shy away from disagreements with Muslim leaders.

“Religions do not dialogue,” Poupard said. “Men and women of different faiths dialogue.”

KRE/PH END MEICHTRY