Pope Benedict XVI raised the issue of Christians living in Saudi Arabia in a historic meeting on Tuesday with King Abdullah, the first monarch of the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom to visit the Vatican.
During their talks, which also touched on conflicts in the Middle East, the pope highlighted "the positive and hard-working presence of the Christians" in Saudi Arabia, a Vatican communique said.
The two men also stressed "the value of collaboration among Christians, Muslims and Jews" and renewed a commitment to "intercultural and inter-faith dialogue with the goal of peaceful and fruitful coexistence," the statement said.
PHOTO: EPA
The Holy See does not have diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam's holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina and applies a rigorous doctrine of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism.
The question of religious freedoms for the roughly one million Christians and other non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia remains an extremely sensitive one.
In September, the US State Department's annual report on religious freedoms noted some improvement in "specific areas" in Saudi Arabia but said overall government policies continued to place "severe restrictions on religious freedom."
The report mentioned discrimination against non-Muslims, or against Muslims with practices other than Wahhabism, citing allegations of harassment, abuse and "even killings."
The groundbreaking talks were not King Abdullah's first contact with the head of the Roman Catholic Church, since he met Pope Benedict's predecessor John Paul II in 1999 when he was crown prince to his half brother King Fahd.
King Abdullah, 84, and the 80-year-old pontiff also exchanged "ideas on the Middle East and the need to find a fair solution to the conflicts afflicting the region, in particular the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," the Vatican communique said.
The king gave Pope Benedict a gold sword encrusted with precious stones and accepted a 16th-century engraving of the Vatican in return.
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi met the Saudi king later, saying afterward that he hoped a planned Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, later this year would "yield solid expectations for an end, once and for all, to this conflict."
He said the conference held out "strong expectations" among Palestinians for a future sovereign state "with geographical continuity in peace and security with the state of Israel, which in turn would be recognized by all the countries of the region."
Prodi also mentioned the upcoming election by the Lebanese parliament of a new president, saying that Italy and Saudi Arabia were in "constant close contact to facilitate dialogue and to exhort Lebanese political forces to reach a compromise in the primary interests of the people."
Lebanese officials said on Tuesday that the parliamentary speaker might again postpone a special session to elect a president to replace Emile Lahoud, whose mandate expires on Nov. 24.
Two other sessions to pick a president have already been delayed for lack of consensus between the Western-backed ruling majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition.
King Abdullah, who ascended the throne two years ago, had arrived in Rome late on Monday following a lavish three-day visit to London at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS