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Media reports - 07 November 2007
Saudi King meets Pope at the Vatican
November 6, 2007 - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Pope Benedict XVI clasped hands at the Vatican in a cordial meeting, the first meeting ever between a pope and the Saudi monarch.
They met for half an hour, speaking through interpreters, in a conversation that a Vatican press release later said had covered such themes as the "value of collaboration between Christians, Muslims and Jews for promoting peace" and "the necessity of finding a just solution" of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A Vatican statement said "the presence and hard work of Christians (in Saudi Arabia) was discussed" -- seen as a clear reference to the Vatican's concern over the Christian minority.
Vatican sources said before the meeting that they expected the Pope to raise his concern over the situation of Catholics and other Christians in Saudi Arabia.
The Vatican wants greater rights for the 1 million Catholics who live in Saudi Arabia, most of them migrant workers who are not allowed to practice their religion in public. They are only allowed to worship in private places, usually homes, and cannot wear signs of their faith in public.
Marco Politi, the Vatican correspondent for La Repubblica and a biographer of Pope John Paul II, said, "I think it is extraordinarily important that an official communiqué from the Vatican and an important Islamic state like Saudi Arabia mentions 'cooperation' between Christians, Muslims and Jews - not dialogue but cooperation."
The official Saudi Press Agency said: “The King and the Pope held a bilateral meeting during which they emphasized the importance of dialogue between religions and civilizations to promote tolerance on which all religions urge, to renounce violence and to achieve security, peace and stability for all peoples of the world.
“The King stressed that peoples are combined by common values and the best expression of these shared values came in religions. The Monarch affirmed that turning back to these values is a solution to the suffering of peoples of the plights of differences and conflicts and that adherence to these values embodies the good, tranquility and social harmony for the human being, his family, society and relation with others.
”The two sides also stressed that violence and terrorism have nothing to do with a religion or a homeland and that all nations and peoples should work together in confronting and eliminating this phenomenon,” the Saudi agency said.
The meeting, presaged by an upbeat front-page story in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, was also a clear attempt by the Vatican to repair damage done by the pope's statement on Islam made in Regensburg, Germany a little over a year ago, which had been seen as insensitive if not incendiary in the Arab world.
The Vatican expressed "deepest regrets" but said the remark had been misinterpreted in a way that "absolutely did not correspond" to the pope's intentions.
The article in the Vatican newspaper seemed to open the door for a new diplomatic initiative toward Islam and the Middle East. It said that the meeting with Abdullah was "of great importance," noting: "In a world where the boundaries have become day by day more open, dialogue is not a choice but a necessity."
The meeting represents a triumph of sorts for the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and especially for Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. Tauran, who previously served the church in Lebanon and Syria, is familiar with the Middle East and has promoted greater contact with Islamic states.
The trip was politically risky for Abdullah, since many Muslim clerics and intellectuals view Benedict as a dogmatic conservative who disparages religions other than Catholicism and lacks the diplomatic skills and moral stature of John Paul II.
"This is a very courageous step by King Abdullah given all the pressures he faces in Saudi society from extremists who regard Christians as enemies," said Mustafa Alani, a political analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "These talks are more important than a meeting with any other Arab leader. The king comes from the heart of Islam."
Alani added, however, that although the talks were a "major step this will not mean the establishment of diplomatic relations tomorrow or anytime soon."
Official statements made no mention of establishing diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Saudi Arabia, and it was not clear that that topic had even been discussed. In May, the United Arab Emirates became the latest Islamic country to establish diplomatic relations with the Vatican, according to the Vatican paper.
Benedict has said he wants to reach out to all countries that still do not have diplomatic relations with the Holy See, which include Saudi Arabia and China.
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