[Apologetics] Vatican clarifies Pope's comments on Islam

[Art Kelly]

Vatican clarifies Pope's comments on Islam
 
Sep. 16 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI "sincerely
regrets that certain passages of his address could
have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the
Muslim faithful," the Vatican Secretary of State
announced in a clarifying statement released on
Saturday, September 16. 

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who had only been installed
in the Vatican's second-ranking post the previous day,
issued the statement in response to a worldwide furor
among Muslim protesting the Pontiff's September 12
speech at the University of Regensburg. 

In the passage of the speech that has roused so much
anger, the Pope was quoting a 14th-century Byzantine
emperor, and the Pontiff "did not intend "to make that
opinion is own in any way," the Secretary of State
said. What the Pope intended, the Italian cardinal
emphasized, was "a clear and radical rejection of the
religious motivation for violence, from whatever side
it may come." 

Pope Benedict is dismayed, the cardinal said, because
his words were "interpreted in a manner that in no way
corresponds to his intentions." Far from belittling
the faith of Muslims, he noted, the Holy Father had
explicitly warned, in that same speech, against "the
contempt for God and the cynicism that considers
mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom." 

Citing the Vatican II document Nostra Aetate, Cardinal
Bertone said that Pope Benedict held the Islamic faith
in "esteem," and strongly favors inter-religious
dialogue. He said that the Pope hopes the present
"uneasy moment" can be overcome, and "collaboration
may intensify" between Christians and Muslims. 



                           
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