Pope meets Prodi and Dalai Lama
Pastor Dale Morgan
Pope meets Prodi and Dalai Lama*
Pope Benedict XVI met with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi for the
first time since the Italian center-left government took office in May.
The pontiff also met the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai
Lama, according to the Vatican press office, and apparently failed to
agree on reviving a series of controversial inter-faith meetings.
Prodi, the former president of the European Commission, met privately
with the pope for about half an hour, and then had an hour-long meeting
with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state,
officials said.
An official communique said the talks dealt with bilateral relations
between the independent city state of the Holy See and the lay Italian
republic, including issues such as bio-ethics, the defense and promotion
of life and the family, social solidarity, education, and religious
dialogue.
According to the Vatican, the pope and Prodi also discussed
international politics, including the Italian force engagement in
southern Lebanon and the importance of Christian values in the process
of European integration.
Prodi, accompanied by his wife Flavia and senior associates, was
received with full honors in the Vatican's San Damaso courtyard,
including the playing of the Italian national anthem.
Prodi, a practising Catholic, leads a center-left coalition government,
including members of the old Christian Democratic party.
The coalition is strained by disagreements over ethical issues that
incur the condemnation of the Vatican but are supported by liberal
groups -- including legislation for civil partnerships between
homosexuals, euthanasia and embryo research.
Vatican spokesman the Reverend Ciro Benedettini said the meeting with
the Dalai Lama was "a courtesy visit with a religious context."
The Dalai Lama, who has been in exile since 1959 and rules his Buddhist
flock around the world from a seat in northern India, met Benedict's
predecessor, John Paul II, on eight occasions. It was his first meeting
with the present pontiff.
The Dalai Lama described his meeting with Benedict as "very, very
agreeable" and had been concerned with the link between faith and reason.
That was also the theme of the pope's speech in Germany last month when
he created an uproar in the Muslim world by referring to an ancient text
about the supposedly aggressive nature of Islam.
The Dalai Lama told journalists that "not all Muslims should be
considered as militants."
He said there was a tendency to generalize about extremists, which exist
in all religions.
"It is a big mistake to generalize," he said.
The Dalai Lama said he had told the pope of his desire to revive the
interfaith meetings in the central Italian town of Assisi, organized by
Pope John II.
Benedict XVI has been critical of the meetings, however, saying they
risk relativizing religion and undermining the claim of the Roman
Catholic Church to hold the entire truth.
The Dalai Lama had arrived Thursday in Rome, where he has also been
received at the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.
Italian newspapers said Friday that former Vatican spokesman Joaquin
Navarro Valls had signed a contract with Italian public television to
comment on religious and ethical questions.
Navarro Valls, a medical doctor and lay member of the Opus Dei religious
society, was in charge of the Vatican press room for 22 years under Pope
John Paul II.
A Spanish citizen, he has settled in retirement in Italy, where he is in
considerable demand to share his reminiscences about the late Polish pope.