Pope discusses Islam relations with Anglican head
Pastor Dale Morgan
Pope discusses Islam relations with Anglican head*
By Philip Pullella
Reuters
Monday, May 5, 2008; 11:58 AM
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict and the Archbishop of Canterbury
discussed Catholic-Muslim relations on Monday in their first meeting
since the Anglican leader caused a storm with comments on the role of
Sharia law in Britain.
The Vatican said the Pope had received Rowan Williams in a private
audience but gave no details.
An Anglican spokesman said the two spoke privately for about 20 minutes
and discussed Catholic-Muslim relations, inter-faith dialogue and the
Pope's impression of his visit to the United States last month.
He described the visit, the second official meeting between the Pope and
the spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, as "warm and
friendly."
In March Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's top man for relations
with Islam, criticized Williams as mistaken and "naive" for suggesting
that it was unavoidable that some aspects of Sharia, Islamic law, would
be adopted in Britain.
Williams's remarks, in a speech in February, sparked a storm in Britain
and beyond and became part of a broader debate on how to integrate
Britain's 1.8 million Muslims.
He is in Rome for the 7th Building Bridges Seminar, an annual meeting of
leading Catholic and Muslim scholars for intensive study of Biblical and
Koranic texts.
The theme of this year's seminar, organized together with Georgetown
University in Washington D.C., is "Communicating the Word: Revelation,
Translation and Interpretation in Ccatholicism and Islam."
Relations between the Catholic and Anglican Churches have been strained
over the past decade over the issue of women priests and homosexual
bishops in the Anglican Church, which both leaders have acknowledged as
obstacles to unity.
(Editing by Tim Pearce)