Google+
 
Pagina precedente | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Pagina successiva

PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY LAND - May 8-15, 2009

Ultimo Aggiornamento: 20/07/2009 14:18
Autore
Stampa | Notifica email    
09/05/2009 20:50
OFFLINE
Post: 17.403
Post: 121
Registrato il: 28/08/2005
Registrato il: 20/01/2009
Administratore
Utente Junior



All my hackles were up as I started to read Jeff Israely's instant take on the Holy Father's Regensburg follow-up today. But despite the usual biases, both ideological aa well as self-serving, he does get the point this time and says so!





Under Pope Benedict XVI's reign, the Vatican dossier on Islam could be entitled: "Regensburg, and Everything After."

Regensburg was the professor Pope's landmark 2006 discourse at his former university that included a nasty historical citation about the prophet Mohammed and provocatively asked if Islam lacks reason, making it inherently prone to violence.

The worldwide protests among Muslims, including a handful of church burnings and the killing of a nun, forced the Pope to quickly change his approach, and soften his tone.

[Your opinion, Israely, and that of your like-minded colleagues! Not objective fact. All of you are covering this pilgrimage with vulture eyes on just how to 'trip up' the Pope on Islam or on the Jews. All of the reportage by the Western MSM so far has been oriented along Regenbsurg and Williamson - events that you consider and constantly deride as blunders by Benedict, so you are all invested in proving yourselves 'right', even if all the evidence you can muster is your own self-interested, self-serving and tendentious reporting.]

But while he has spent the past two-plus years reaching out to Islamic leaders, Benedict has subtly tried to keep alive the hard questions he posed at the German university.

Benedict has expanded on this formula since landing Friday in the moderate Muslim kingdom of Jordan, the first stop on his eight-day Holy Land pilgrimage.

He told King Abdullah II upon his arrival in Amman that he has "deep respect" for Islam, and on Saturday he was welcomed in the country's largest mosque and gave another fascinating — if less radioactive — philosophical treatise.

Indeed, it is in dissecting this Pope's ideas — often now cloaked in more diplomatic language that was absent in Regensburg [There was nothing undiplomatic about Regensburg, as there never is about Benedict, except the Byzantine emperor's words if not considered in the context of when he was saying it and to whom(i.e., a Byzantine emperor engaging in extended civilized debate with a Persian Muslim on the eve of the Muslims' final conquest of Byzantium] — that we can see that he is still preoccupied with the contemporary interplay (or lack thereof) of faith and reason, and the risk of rising inter-religious conflict.

[Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has been writing and talking about the faith-reason interplay for decades! What do you mean he is 'still preoccupied' about it? It wasn't a transient whim that made him choose it as the theme for his Regensburg lecture. And was he supposed to stop taking an interest in it just because snooty morons* passing themselves off as intellectuals far superior to the man from Marktl savaged one lecture - a lectio magistralis in every sense - that they were too biased to report properly and in context????]

Speaking after a visit inside the al-Hussein Ben-Talal mosque, the Pope acknowledged that "tensions and divisions between the followers of different religious traditions, sadly, cannot be denied."

But Benedict said that Muslims and Christians have a shared obligation to counter the contemporary idea that "religion is necessarily a cause of division in our world."

Instead, he said, faith is in fact necessary in a world in which reason alone can become a form of extremism. "When human reason humbly allows itself to be purified by faith... it is strengthened to resist presumption and reach beyond its own limitations."

This idea of a faithless allegiance to reason as the cause of rising secularism is a concern of both Muslim and Christian leaders, and was a much less cited theme of his Regensburg lecture.

But the source of tension two years ago was the flipside: Benedict's contention that Islam has an absolutist conception of God that doesn't leave room for reason.

On Saturday, however lightly, he seemed to return to this point. "Christians describe God, among other ways, as creative Reason, which orders and guides the world," the Pope said. "Muslims worship God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, who has spoken to humanity."

The Pope seems to still believe that this distinction — between Christian faith that is "purified" by human reason, and Muslim faith that is simply received from God — is worth deeper exploration with his Islamic counterparts.

"Religion," he said at an earlier discourse Saturday, "can be corrupted .... when pressed into the service of ignorance or prejudice, contempt, violence and abuse." He called for a "mature belief in God."

The speech at the mosque intertwined theology and a more nuanced view of current events than the purely philosophical discourse in 2006. [Ah so, now you can call it a 'purely philosophical discourse' which it was and as it was meant to be! !Then why did you all present Regensburg as an act of deliberate provocation on the basis of a single citation that was entirely apposite in an academic lecture?]

"Often it is the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, that is the real catalyst for tension and division and at times even violence in society."

Jordan is the ideal setting to return to these sensitive themes, home to the royal Hashemite lineage that traces back to Mohammed, and a modern tradition of religious tolerance.

This was also where a group of Islamic scholars from around the world first launched a response to Regensburg, which led to the creation of an official Muslim-Catholic dialogue that kicked off with a summit at the Vatican in November on the religions' shared principles of love of God and love of neighbor.

Speaking before the Pope on Saturday, Prince Ghaszi Bin Muhammad Bin Talal, the top religious advisor to the Jordanian King, thanked Benedict for having expressed regret for "the hurt caused by the [Regensburg] lecture to Muslims" and for other words and gestures since.

Still, Ghaszi pointedly condemned "distorted depictions" in the West of the roots of Islam as "responsible for much historical and cultural tension between Christians and Muslims."

He said it was now clear that the Pope's comments about the prophet in 2006 was just "a citation in an academic lecture," but added that it is incumbent on Muslims to explain the Prophets' example above all with deeds of virtue, charity, piety and goodwill."

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi was asked afterwards whether the Pope's view on Islam has changed since Regensburg.

"It's a journey, there's progress," he said. "We have to learn from what the Muslims tell us about Islam."

This Pope has sought to infuse "frankness" in the inter-faith dialogue that was a cornerstone of John Paul II's papacy. But talking about both what unites and divides different religious traditions, requires not only talking frankly but listening carefully.

[What is that supposed to mean? That Benedict does not 'listen carefully'? If interfaith dialog was a cornerstone of John Paul II's policy, then let us say that it was in its period of gestation then. Benedict XVI performed Caesarean surgery at Regensburg to bring it to light, squalling and all. And it is now taking baby steps. Surely that is progress!]





For some reason, neither John Allen nor Cindy Wooden of CNS thought there was anything extraordinary about the Holy Father's address at teh mosque today! And Allen chooses to emphasize something rather banal. Two mosque visits against John Pauyl's one - big deal already.


Benedict XVI sets new papal record
for mosque visits


May 9, 2009


The late Pope John Paul II reigned so long and did so much that it’s difficult to imagine Benedict XVI surpassing his records in most areas, especially after a scant four years in office.

Today, however, Benedict moved past John Paul II in one telling category: He’s doubled his predecessor’s total of mosques which he actually entered.

Late this morning, Benedict visited the Hussein bin-Talal mosque in the Jordanian capital of Amman. That makes two mosque tours for Benedict XVI, after a visit to the legendary Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, in late 2006.

Though John Paul made appearances at many mosques over the years, he only entered one – the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, in 2001.

Granted, the visit in Amman wasn’t quite the same stunner as Istanbul. For one thing, the symbolism was different; Benedict didn’t share a moment of silent prayer with an imam, and he didn’t take off his shoes. He did both in the Blue Mosque in 2006.

Nonetheless, the Pope’s choice to go to the mosque at all, which is named for Jordan’s late King Hussein, offered further confirmation of the rising importance of Islam for this Pope and for the broader Catholic church.

In his address, Benedict delivered a version of what has, in effect, become his standard “stump speech” when addressing Muslim audiences: Islam and Christianity as natural allies in defense of common values and a positive role for religion in society, but, at the same time, the need to reject extremism and to respect religious freedom.

The latter tends to be an especially urgent concern for church leaders, given the limitations and occasional persecution facing Christian minorities in some Islamic societies.

“Because of the burden of our common history, so often marked by misunderstanding,” Benedict said, Muslims and Christians must “bear witness to all that is good and true,” especially “the common origin and dignity of all human persons.”

Praising Jordan’s leadership in inter-faith dialogue, Benedict said it coincides with his own emphasis on “the fundamental contradiction of resorting to violence in the name of God.”

Benedict also called for respect for religious freedom, which, he said, “extends beyond the question of worship and includes the right – especially of minorities – to fair access to the employment market and other spheres of civic life.”

Benedict added a special word on Christians in Iraq, acknowledging the presence at the mosque in Amman of the Catholic patriarch of Baghdad, Emmanuel III Delly.

In the wake of the two Gulf Wars, roughly one million Iraqis have arrived in Jordan as refugees, including a disproportionate share of Iraq’s Christian population, fleeing both war and a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism.

“I urge diplomats and the international community they represent, together with local political and religious leaders, to do everything possible to ensure the ancient Christian community of that noble land its fundamental right to peaceful coexistence with their fellow citizens,” the Pope said.

Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, a cousin of King Abdullah II, welcomed Benedict to the mosque this morning. Ghazi is widely seen as a leader in inter-faith relations, and played a key role in organizing a positive response from Islamic clerics and scholars to Benedict’s controversial 2006 speech in Regensburg, Germany, in which be quoted a Byzantine emperor who asserted that Muhammad, the founder of Islam, “brought things only evil and inhuman.”

Using careful diplomatic language, Ghazi thanked Benedict for the “regret” the pPpe expressed after Regensburg. Whether or not the Pope adequately apologized for Regensburg has been a matter of some controversy here, as officials with the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and its political wing, the Islamic Action Front, have demanded a clearer apology from the Pope.

Ghazi recalled the ancient roots of Christian-Muslim coexistence in Jordan. He recalled, for example, that in 630 A.D, local Christian tribes joined an army led by Muhammad in a battle against a Byzantine army -- even though these Christians were mostly Orthodox, as were the Byzantines.

In fact, Ghazi pointed out, the current Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Jordanian Archbishop Foaud Twal, is a Jordanian and a descendent of one of those tribes.

As the Pope moved through the Hussein mosque, he was accompanied by Ghazi and an architect who explained aspects of its design and history, not by an imam or other Muslim cleric.

Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, said during a briefing for reporters shortly after the visit that the Pope didn’t pray. Instead, Lombardi said, his attitude was one of “respectful reflection.”

Lombardi also said the Pope didn’t take off his shoes before entering the mosque because his hosts had arranged strips of carpet to walk along.

“We were all ready to take off our shoes,” Lombardi said. “But the people who welcomed us didn’t ask us to do it … It would be absolutely wrong to make a problem out of it.” [Lombardi also said that Prince Ghazi himself and the Muslims who took the Pope around kept their shoes on. But hey, it's a modern mosque inaugurated in 2006, and the state mosquem too - so the hosts were prepared with a convenient solution for non-Muslim visitors.]

Earlier today, Benedict XVI visited an ancient basilica at Mt. Nebo, which tradition regards as the place where Moses looked upon the Promised Land. Benedict used the opportunity to offer his first gesture to Judaism, which will become a more prominent theme when he reaches Israel next week. The site on Mt. Nebo, he said, “reminds us of the inseparable bond between the church and the Jewish people.”

Benedict also blessed the cornerstone of a new Catholic university in Jordan operated by the Latin Patriarchate, saying that it illustrates the importance of education for “breaking the spell cast by ideologies old and new.”

“Religion is disfigured when pressed into the service of ignorance or prejudice, contempt, violence and abuse,” he said.

Later today, Benedict will take part in a vespers service at the Greek Melkite Cathedral of Saint Georges in Amman, when he is expected to stress the importance of the Eastern Christian tradition. It’s also an opportunity for Benedict to offer encouragement to the Christian population, not only of Jordan but also throughout the Middle East.






Cindy Wooden does have a couple of positive comments from Muslims who were at the mosque today. I wish more reporters thought of doing that.


Visiting mosque, Pope says
believing in God means respecting others

By Cindy Wooden



AMMAN, Jordan, May 9 (CNS) -- To believe in God is to pray, to be merciful and compassionate, to witness to the truth and to uphold the dignity of every person, Pope Benedict XVI said after visiting a monumental new mosque in Amman.

Acknowledging that much of the history of Christian-Muslim relations has been marked by misunderstanding and tension, the pope said it is faith that calls members of both communities to respect each other and join together to promote the common good.

The pope visited the King Hussein Mosque in Amman May 9, the second day of his eight-day trip to the Holy Land. It was his second visit as pope to a mosque; he made history in 2006 when he entered the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, and stood praying next to the imam.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters in Amman, "It would not be precise to say the pope prayed in the mosque (today), but it would be right to say he paused in respectful meditation in a place where numerous people also pray and meditate before God."

"The pope was prepared to take off his shoes" out of respect for the Muslim custom, Father Lombardi said, but he was not asked to do so because the Jordanians had unrolled a thick cloth for their guests to walk on.

Pope Benedict said the new mosque, with its copper-topped dome and four copper-topped minarets, and other places of worship "stand out like jewels across the earth's surface. From the ancient to the modern, the magnificent to the humble, they all point to the divine, to the Transcendent One, to the Almighty."

Entering a place of worship, people turn their minds to God and recognize that they are his creatures, the pope told the Muslim clerics and scholars, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives of Jordanian universities present for his speech.

The common experience of knowing God is the creator and lord of all, he said, should lead all believers to witness to that knowledge by upholding the most noble aspects of their faith and by resisting all attempts to manipulate faith for political or ideological reasons.

"We cannot fail to be concerned that today, with increasing insistency, some maintain that religion fails in its claim to be by nature a builder of unity and harmony, an expression of communion between persons and with God," the pope said.

Many people in the world see religion purely as a motive of division, a concern that leads them to resist any attempt to allow the faith of an individual or group to influence public life and public policies, he said.

A central point of the pope's speech was the need to "cultivate for the good, in the context of faith and truth, the vast potential of human reason."

Reason is a gift of God, he said, and when people allow their intellectual capacities to be purified by faith, it helps them see beyond their own little worlds and their own interests.

"In this way, human reason is emboldened to pursue its noble purpose of serving mankind, giving expression to our deepest common aspirations and extending, rather than manipulating or confining, public debate," Pope Benedict said.

When faith and reason inform each other, he said, society is protected from "the excesses of the unbridled ego which tend to absolutize the finite and eclipse the infinite; it ensures that freedom is exercised hand in hand with truth, and it adorns culture with insights concerning all that is true, good and beautiful."

The relationship between faith and reason also was the central point in the pope's 2006 talk at the University of Regensburg, Germany, a speech that offended many Muslims because it included a quotation from a medieval Byzantine emperor, who said the prophet Mohammed had brought "things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith." The pope afterward clarified that he was not endorsing the emperor's words.

Although the pope did not refer back to the Regensburg speech in his address, his official host at the Jordanian mosque, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, thanked the pope for expressing regret "for the hurt caused by this lecture."

"Of course, Muslims know that nothing that can be said or done in this world can harm the prophet" Mohammed, the prince said, "but Muslims were nevertheless hurt because of their love for the prophet."

The Mohammed known, loved and emulated by Muslims "is completely and entirely different" from the figure often presented in the West, he said.

"It is incumbent upon Muslims to explain the prophet's example above all with deeds of virtue, charity, piety and good will," Prince Ghazi said.

The prince welcomed the pope as the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church, a defender of moral values and as a promoter of ecumenical and interfaith dialogue.

"But most of all, we receive Your Holiness as a simple pilgrim of peace who comes in humility and gentleness to pray where Jesus Christ the Messiah, peace be upon him, prayed and was baptized and began his mission 2,000 years ago," he said.

The prince, who was instrumental in drafting and promoting the 2007 Common Word declaration of 138 Muslim scholars, told the pope that he and many other Muslim scholars were prepared to continue dialogue with the Catholic Church and find ways to serve humanity together.

Pope Benedict expressed his hope that "reason, ennobled and humbled by the grandeur of God's truth" would shape the life and institutions of Jordan so the people would flourish in peace.

At a press conference after the mosque visit, Father Lombardi said he would not agree that Pope Benedict had changed his mind about Islam, but rather had moved forward in a process of learning about Islam by meeting and speaking with Muslims.

"Sure, there has been a process, progress," Father Lombardi said.

Nawal Al Faoury, a member of the Jordanian Senate who attended the talk, said the pope's visit was positive for "dialogue and being together and common understanding about a lot of issues."

She said that, like the prince, she was satisfied that the pope did not mean to offend Muslims with his Regensburg speech, "and I think we have to forgive ourselves and others ... because we do want to live in peace all over the world."

Hamdi Murad, a professor of religious studies at the University of Jordan, said, "I am sure his visit opened a new, pure and white page for relations between Muslims and Christians.

"This also has closed that page that had some -- if we can say -- misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians. So we have many hopes and wishes for the future after this visit," Murad added.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/05/2009 00:10]
Amministra Discussione: | Chiudi | Sposta | Cancella | Modifica | Notifica email Pagina precedente | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Pagina successiva
Nuova Discussione
 | 
Rispondi
Cerca nel forum

Feed | Forum | Bacheca | Album | Utenti | Cerca | Login | Registrati | Amministra
Crea forum gratis, gestisci la tua comunità! Iscriviti a FreeForumZone
FreeForumZone [v.6.1] - Leggendo la pagina si accettano regolamento e privacy
Tutti gli orari sono GMT+01:00. Adesso sono le 10:52. Versione: Stampabile | Mobile
Copyright © 2000-2024 FFZ srl - www.freeforumzone.com