Pope Expresses Regret
for Remarks
By REUTERS, from the
NYTimes on the Web. September 16, 2006
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -- Pope
Benedict is sorry Muslims were offended by a speech on Islam that provoked fury
around the world and led to calls for the leader of the Catholic church to
apologize, an aide said on Saturday.
"The Holy Father is very sorry that some passages of his speech may have sounded
offensive to the sensibilities of Muslim believers," said Vatican Secretary of
State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in a statement.
The worst crisis since Benedict was elected in April 2005 was sparked by a
speech in his native Germany on Tuesday that appeared to endorse a Christian
view, contested by most Muslims, that early Muslims spread their religion by
violence.
The backlash has cast doubt on a planned visit to Turkey by the German-born Pope
in November. In an early reaction to the Vatican statement, Egypt's Muslim
Brotherhood said it was not enough and they wanted "a personal apology."
"We feel he has committed a grave error against us and that this mistake will
only be removed through a personal apology," the Brotherhood's deputy leader
Mohammed Habib told Reuters.
The Pope's next scheduled public appearance is his Sunday Angelus blessing, when
he often comments on current affairs.
Bertone, walking into the crisis only a day after taking over as "deputy pope,"
said the 79-year-old Pope confirmed "his respect and esteem for those who
profess the Islamic faith" and hoped his words would be understood "in their
true sense."
The academic speech was meant as a "a clear and radical rejection of religiously
motivated violence, wherever it comes from," said the statement, which came as
criticism of the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics swelled.
Yemen's president became the first head of state publicly to denounce him and
two churches -- neither of them Catholic -- were fire-bombed in the West Bank,
although no one was hurt.
But Chancellor Angela Merkel and other German politicians defended his comments,
saying he had been misunderstood.
"It was an invitation to dialogue between religions," she told the
mass-circulation Bild newspaper in an interview.
CALLS FOR APOLOGY
The New York Times said in an editorial the Pope must issue a "deep and
persuasive" apology for quotes used in his speech.
"The world listens carefully to the words of any pope. And it is tragic
and dangerous when one sows pain, either deliberately or carelessly," it said.
In the speech, the Pope referred to criticism of the Prophet Mohammad by 14th
century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who said everything Mohammad
brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he
preached."
Using the terms "jihad" and "holy war," the Pope said violence was "incompatible
with the nature of God."
But Bertone said the Pontiff "had absolutely no intention" of presenting Emperor
Manuel's opinions on Islam as his own.
Vatican insiders and diplomats say the Pope may have mixed up his new role with
his former posts as a theologian and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith, when as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he was known as a
disciplinarian.
BACK TO CRUSADES
Angry Muslim leaders flung the supposed allegations of violence back in the face
of the Christian West.
"How can (the Pope) imply that Muslims are the creators of terrorism in the
world while it is the followers of Christianity who have aggressed against every
country of the Islamic world?" prominent Saudi cleric Salman al-Odeh said.
"Who attacked Afghanistan and who invaded Iraq?"
In Libya, the General Instance of Religious Affairs said the "insult ... pushes
us back to the era of crusades against Muslims led by Western political and
religious leaders."
Turkish paper Vatan quoted a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party
saying Benedict "will go down in history in the same category as leaders like
Hitler and Mussolini."
Catholic bishops in Turkey feared the angry local reaction, led by the Grand
Mufti, may demonstrate that due to its struggle to gain admission to the
European Union, public opinion in Turkey was "shifting against the Pope's
planned visit."
In Iraq, the government asked Muslims who felt offended not to take their anger
out on the small Christian minority, after the door of a church in Basra was
attacked overnight.
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