The Plain Dealer: A group of prominent Muslim scholars and clerics has accepted the invitation of Pope Benedict XVI for a “working meeting” on inter-religious dialogue at the Vatican.
The Catholic News Service reported that Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan wrote to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, on Dec. 12 to accept the pope’s invitation.
Representatives of Muslim participants at the meeting will travel to the Vatican in February or March to prepare for the event, Ghazi wrote.
The Vatican’s proposal was itself a response to an open letter published Oct. 13 by 138 Muslim leaders seeking better relations with the Christian world.
That letter invoked the common principles of “love of the One God, and love of the neighbor” as the ultimate basis for peace between Muslims and Christians.
On Nov. 29, Bertone wrote on the pope’s behalf to Ghazi, a signatory of the Oct. 13 letter, inviting the prince and a “restricted group of signatories” of his choosing to visit the Vatican, for both an audience with Benedict and a “working meeting” with Vatican experts on inter-religious dialogue.