Another historic first:
Pope invites Muslim director
of UN food agency to
address Bishops' Synod
VATICAN CITY, Sept. 10 (Translated from Apcom) - According to the French news agency I-Media, Pope Benedict XVI has invited two prominent African laymen to address the second special assembly for Africa of the Bishops Synod, to be held at the Vatican next month.
The two men are Jacques Diouf of Senegal, who is the current head of the Rome-based Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations; and Rodolphe Adada from the Congo, former head of the peace- making mission to Darfur of the United Nations and the African Union.
Diouf, 71, has been head of FAO since 1993. He will be the first Muslim ever to address a Catholic Bishops' Synod. There will be some 240 bishops present, at least 200 of them African.
In 1995, three Muslim representatives were invited to be observers at a special assembly for Lebanon.
Last year, the Holy Father invited Shear Yashuv Cohen, Chief Rabbi of Haifa, to address the 12th General Assembly of the Synod on the Word of God. Cohen became the first non-Christian to address the Synod.
This year, Benedict XVI has also invited the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abouna Paul Gebre Yohannes, who heads one of the oldest national churches on the African continent.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 24/09/2009 04:19]