From Louisville RECORD, 2/24/00
Visit to Cairo is first by modern pope and could shape relations with Muslims.
By John Thavis, Catholic News Service
HOLY YEAR PILGRIMAGE BEGINS WITH POPE'S JOURNEY TO EGYPT
Pope John Paul II embarks on, the first leg of a Holy Year biblical pilgrimage visit to Egypt Feb. 24-26, a trip that could help shape the future of church relations with Muslims.
The trip takes the pope to Cairo and to Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. It is the first visit by any modern pope to Egypt, where occasional clashes between Muslim extremists and minority Christian communities have ended in bloodshed.
From the beginning, the pope has emphasized that his trip to Egypt and to the Holy Land in March were spiritual journeys with no hidden political agendas. But Vatican officials are quietly hoping that a warm welcome in Egypt can help build bridges with Islamic communities throughout the Middle East and beyond.
"This is not a political visit, it's one stage of a pilgrimage. But Egypt has an important role in the Arab world and the Islamic world, and therefore this visit takes on a degree of importance," said Bishop Michael Fitzgerald, secretary the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
Father Etienne Renaud, who heads the Pontifical Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies, said a warm welcome for the pontiff in Egypt could have a ripple effect on other Muslim populations.
"Egypt has an important influence, and what happens there could have consequences elsewhere. There's an opportunity for progress now." he said.
One sign that the pope may be well received in Egypt was that a Mass originally scheduled for Cairo's small Catholic cathedral Feb. 25 was being moved to a 20,000-capacity stadium, so more people, including some of the country's Muslims, could attend.
The change was requested by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who will greet the pope on his arrival and hold talk with him at the Cairo airport.
Father Renaud said many of the hopes for an improved interreligious climate in Egypt are pinned on Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi, who heads Cairo's al-Azhar University, the main center for Islamic learning for the approximately 1 billion Sunni Muslims worldwide.
"He is obviously a much more open personality than his predecessor. With him, progress is really possible," Father Renaud said. The pope will hold a private meeting with the sheik.
The highlight of the papal visit is a one-day journey to Mount Sinai, where Moses was called by God to lead his people out of slavery. The pope is to pray at the foot of the mountain - called Mount Horeb in the Bible - where he will be hosted by Greek Orthodox Christians at the sixth-century Monastery of St. Catherine.
The papal visit holds ecumenical significance in a country where Catholics number about 218,000 and Coptic Orthodox Christians more than 3 million.
Shortly after his arrival in Cairo Feb. 24, the pope will meet privately with Pope Shenouda III, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church. In a sense the pontiff will be returning a visit - Pope Shenouda visited Pope Paul VI at the Vatican in 1973.
Since that time, the Coptic leader has suffered for the faith. After anti-Coptic protests by Muslim fundamentalists, he was placed under house arrest in 1981 and kept in a desert monastery until 1985. More recently, Coptic Christians were again targeted by extremists in the late 1990s.
BUILDING BRIDGES WITH ISLAM
Editorial by Joseph Duerr, 2/24/00, Louisville RECORD
Speaking from a historical perspective, Kamel Al-Sharif, a Jordanian who is secretary-general of the International Islamic Council, said last fall at an interreligious assembly in Rome: "There are many bitter memories (between Christians and Muslims). But we cannot deny the existence of one another. We cannot try to wipe each other out we tried that and it failed. We must now find ways to live with each other."
The assembly, which drew representatives from 20 religious traditions, echoed this sentiment in its concluding message. It called on all religions to seek forgiveness for past wrongs, promote reconciliation through dialogue and understanding and work together for the betterment of society.
This also has been what Pope John Paul II has emphasized as a theme for Jubilee Year 2000 - reconciliation not only among Christians but also between Christians and non-Christians. For example, he has said that the faith Christians and Muslims share in one God as the creator of all must lead to a renunciation of violence and a commitment to promoting dialogue and respect.
Saying this is one thing. Doing it is another. An important step in the latter instance might well come this week with the pope's visit to Egypt. It is significant that Pope John Paul is the first modern pope to visit predominantly Muslim Egypt. He is making the trip as part of his jubilee year desire to visit key biblical sites in the Middle East (he also will go to Israel in March). But the trip also can do a lot to help build bridges between Christians and Muslims, not only in Egypt, where there are tensions between members of the two religions, but also in other parts of the world.
What is involved in building such bridges?
Showing respect for one another's beliefs is one thing. As the Vatican Council said about non-Christian religions, the Catholic Church "looks with sincere respect upon those ways of conduct and life, those rules and teachings which, though differing in many particulars from what she holds and sets forth, nevertheless often reflect a ray of the truth which enlightens all men."
Another is accenting what Christians and Moslems have in common. As the pope noted in a talk last year, both believe in one God. And the differences between them should not detract from the common obligations Christians and Muslims have to serve God and love his creation, he said, in such ways as working for peace and justice, "promotion of the human person" and protection of the environment.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, said: "We think all people, but especially Muslims, can share with us the values that we have received from Jesus: Total obedience to the will of God, witness given to the truth, humility in behavior, control of one's speech, justice in one's actions, mercy shown in deeds, love toward all, pardon granted for wrong done, maintaining peace with all brothers and sisters."
The Vatican Council also noted the "common cause" Christians and Muslims share in "safeguarding and fostering social justice, moral values, peace and freedom."
Pope John Paul said last May: "Walking together on the path of reconciliation and, in humble submission to God's will, renouncing every form of violence as a means of resolving differences, the two religions (Christianity and Islam) can offer a sign of hope, making the wisdom and mercy of the one God who created and governs the human family shine in the world."
The pope's Feb. 24-26 trip to Egypt offers such a sign of hope. This could encourage Christians and Muslims throughout the world to work together for what Pope John Paul has called a "civilization of hope."
