Merry Christmas to All Our Christian Neighbors

Posted on December 25, 2007

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Muslim scholars send Christmas greetings, accept dialogue invitation
By John Thavis

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — An international group of Muslim scholars has accepted an invitation from Pope Benedict XVI for a major dialogue session at the Vatican.Meanwhile, the group has issued a message of Christmas greeting to “our Christian neighbors all over the world.”

A letter from Jordan’s Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, architect of the Muslim scholars’ project, said the group planned to send representatives to the Vatican in February or March to work out details of the dialogue. The letter, dated Dec. 12 and addressed to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, thanked the pope for inviting the Muslim experts to meet with him and for the pontiff’s personal encouragement of the dialogue initiative.

The letter also raised a delicate issue when it spoke of “some recent pronouncement emerging from the Vatican and from Vatican advisers … as regards the very principle of theological dialogue with Muslims. [more]

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