(24 September 2011, Saturday) Pope Benedict XVI met with top German Muslim leaders Friday, emphasizing the importance of the values shared between Christianity and Islam in an increasingly secularized society.
Benedict XVI told more than a dozen Muslim leaders during the closed-door meeting that he understood the “great importance” Muslims placed on the religious dimension of life. Ali Dere, a professor of Islamic theology and a religious affairs adviser at the Turkish Embassy to Berlin, also attended the meeting and spoke with the pope for a while.
“At times this is thought-provocative in a society that tends to marginalize religion or at most assign it a place among the individual’s personal choices,” he said, according to his prepared remarks distributed by the Vatican.
Dere said the pope’s remarks on multiculturism were significant.
“The Catholic Church firmly advocates that due recognition be given to the public dimension of religious adherence,” Benedict XVI added. “In an overwhelmingly pluralist society, this demand is not unimportant.”
Aiman Mazyek, the chairman of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims, said he welcomed the pope’s message of increased Muslim-Christian dialogue as an “important and friendly sign.” “We must with one voice make it clear that this no-boundaries and anything-goes mentality is against human nature,” Mazyek said in a statement.
Here is how Benedict presented his ideas about the constitution:
”Many Muslims attribute great importance to the religious dimension of life. At times this is thought provocative in a society that tends to marginalize religion or at most to assign it a place among the individual’s personal choices.
The Catholic Church firmly advocates that due recognition be given to the public dimension of religious adherence. In an overwhelmingly pluralist society, this demand is not unimportant. Care must be taken to guarantee that others are always treated with respect. Mutual respect grows only on the basis of agreement on certain inalienable values that are proper to human nature, in particular the inviolable dignity of every single person.Such agreement does not limit the expression of individual religions; on the contrary, it allows each person to bear witness explicitly to what he believes, not avoiding comparison with others.
In Germany – as in many other countries, not only Western ones – this common frame of reference is articulated by the Constitution, whose juridical content is binding on every citizen, whether he belongs to a faith community or not.”
During the meeting, Professor Khorchide delivered the Muslim address to the pope. He noted that the Vatican had founded a Catholic-Muslim Forum in 2008 with signatories of the Common Word manifesto on dialogue between the world’s two largest religions. “The Catholic-Muslim Forum, launched in 2008, stresses love of God and of one’s fellows as the central binding link between Islam and Christianity,” he said. “Expressed in Christian terms as love, and in Islamic terms as mercy, God therefore reveals Himself in love and mercy experienced and lived here and now in this world.” After quoting the Evangelist John and the Prophet Mohammed, he said to Benedict: “I wish to see Muslims and Christians growing in mutual understanding and in God’s love and mercy, and I would like to wish to you, Your Holiness, God’s blessing on this path.”