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(1) "Pope Rejoices Over Conversions on Easter"
by Frances D'Emilio (AP, 24 March 2008)
Vatican City -- Pope Benedict XVI rejoiced over conversions to Christianity in an Easter Sunday Mass on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica a day after he baptized a prominent Muslim newspaper editor.
A white canopy protected the 80-year-old pontiff from a downpour while thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans braved thunder and wind-whipped rain.
The faithful were celebrating their belief in the resurrection of Jesus after he was crucified. Thanks to the apostles' preaching about the resurrection, "thousands and thousands of persons converted to Christianity," Benedict said.
"And this is a miracle which renews itself even today," the pope said, hours after a Saturday night Easter vigil service in which he baptized seven adults. The converts included Magdi Allam, a prominent journalist and commentator in Italy who has received death threats for his denunciations of Islamic fanaticism. Allam, 55, deputy editor of Corriere della Sera newspaper, was born a Muslim in Egypt, but was educated by Catholics and says he has never been a practicing Muslim.
He wrote in a front-page letter published Sunday in Corriere that he was now taking on the middle name Cristiano _ Christian in Italian.
He expressed his gratitude to Benedict, calling Saturday "the most beautiful day of my life."
"The miracle of the resurrection of Christ reverberated in my soul, freeing it from the shadows of a preaching where hate and intolerance toward he who is different, toward he who is condemned as an 'enemy,' prevailed over love and respect for your neighbor," Allam wrote.
His criticism of Palestinian suicide bombings prompted the Italian government to provide him with a sizable security detail in 2003 after Hamas singled him out for death, Allam has said in an interview.
The pope himself has come under verbal attack from Islamic militants.
Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in a new audio message posted last week, accused Benedict of playing a role in what he called a "new Crusade" against Islam. The Vatican has described the accusation as baseless. Security during papal public appearances was stepped up in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks, and there has been no noticeable increase in protective measures since the new message surfaced.
In a speech at the end of the Mass, Benedict said that on the joyous day of Easter, "in particular, how can we fail to remember certain African regions, such as Darfur and Somalia, the "tormented Middle East, especially the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon and finally Tibet, all of which I encourage to seek solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good."
Benedict singled out the Middle East and Tibet among places most in need of peace and denounced "selfishness, injustice, hatred and violence" between individuals and peoples.
"These are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner of the planet, although they are often ignored and sometimes deliberately concealed, wounds that torture the souls and bodies of countless of our brothers and sisters," the pontiff said, speaking over the sound of heavy rain in the square.
At times, thunder drowned out a paramilitary band playing in the square and the voices of a choir singing "Alleluja."
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(2) "Vatican says Pope's baptism of Muslim not a hostile act"
by Phil Stewart (Reuters, 25 March 2008)
Vatican City - Pope Benedict's baptism of an Italian Muslim over Easter weekend was not a hostile act against Islam, the Vatican's newspaper wrote on Tuesday after the public conversion prompted criticism in the Muslim world.
In a surprise move, the pope baptized Egyptian-born Magdi Allam, a well-known journalist and outspoken critic of radical Islamism, at an Easter Vigil service in St Peter's Basilica on Saturday evening that was broadcast around the globe.
Muslim commentators said Allam's hostile writings and his headline-grabbing baptism strained relations between Muslims and the Catholic Church and cast shadows over a recently agreed dialogue between Catholicism and Islam.
The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, apparently reacting to this criticism, wrote a front-page editorial arguing that Benedict's gesture was an expression of religious freedom and certainly not directed against Islam. "There is no hostile intention toward such an important religion as Islam," editor-in-chief Gian Maria Vian wrote on Tuesday. "For many decades now, the Catholic Church has shown its willingness to engage and dialogue with the Muslim world, despite thousands of difficulties and obstacles."
But critics of the baptism questioned why the pope chose to highlight the conversion of Allam, known in Italy for his attacks on Islam. Church experts on Islam privately expressed concern that his message could strain inter-faith relations. Writing in Sunday's edition of the Milan daily Corriere della Sera, of which he is a deputy director, Allam said: "... the root of evil is innate in an Islam that is physiologically violent and historically conflictual."
"DIFFICULTIES AND OBSTACLES"
Catholic-Muslim relations nosedived in 2006 after Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, that implied he thought Islam was violent and irrational. Muslims around the world protested and the pope, who said he did not agree with the Byzantine emperor he had quoted, sought to make amends by visiting the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul and praying towards Mecca with its imam.
Earlier in March, the Vatican agreed with Muslim leaders to establish a permanent, official dialogue to improve relations.
L'Osservatore Romano said the Vatican remained dedicated toward dialogue with Islam: "Difficulties and obstacles should not overshadow what there is in common and how much can come of the future."
Aref Ali Nayed, a key figure in a group of over 200 Muslim scholars that launched the dialogue with the Vatican and other Christian churches, said on Monday the Vatican had turned the baptism into "a triumphalist tool for scoring points."
"The whole spectacle... provokes genuine questions about the motives, intentions and plans of some of the pope's advisers on Islam," Nayed, who is director of the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in Amman, said in a statement.
Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends.
(3)"Pope rejects bin Laden claim"
by Ian Fisher ("New York Times", 21 March 2008)
Rome, Italy - The Vatican on Thursday rejected an audiotaped accusation from Osama bin Laden that Pope Benedict XVI was leading a "new crusade" against Muslims, but Italian security officials were concerned about the threats included in bin Laden's new message. "These accusations are absolutely unfounded," the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the pope's chief spokesman, said in a telephone interview. "There is nothing new in this, and it doesn't have any particular significance for us."
Benedict XVI is scheduled to make his first visit as pope to the United States from April 15-20, with stops in New York and Washington. The Secret Service and the New York City Police Department, responsible for the pope's security on the trip, had no comment on the bin Laden audiotape.
Paul J. Browne, a deputy police commissioner in New York, said in an e-mailed statement that the department "has been working closely with the United States Secret Service to provide the highest level of protection possible for the pope during his visit to New York."
The new audio message attributed to bin Laden was released Wednesday night and was addressed to "the intelligent ones in the European Union."
It was posted on a militant Web site on Wednesday, and an English transcription was distributed Thursday by the SITE Intelligence Group in Bethesda, Md., which tracks Qaida postings on the Internet.
The audiotape listed broad grievances, but specifically mentioned the pope, and coincided with the busiest week of the year at the Vatican, the week leading up to Easter Sunday. The pope will appear at several public events, including the annual Good Friday procession of the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum.
In the five-minute message, the speaker said there would be a "severe" reaction against the publication in Europe of cartoons that many Muslims consider offensive to the Prophet Muhammad.
He said the cartoons -- one reprinted in February in Denmark, more than two years after they were first published there -- "came in the framework of a new crusade in which the pope of the Vatican has played a large, lengthy role."
Without naming any specific action or target, the speaker said, "The response will be what you see and not what you hear, and let our mothers bereave us if we do not make victorious our messenger of God."
Lombardi dismissed the accusations, noting that the pope had condemned the cartoons several times and stressed that "religion must be respected."
Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends.
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