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Document Details : Title: Pope Benedict's Prayer in the Blue Mosque Subtitle: In the Light of Recent Roman Catholic Teachings on Interreligious Relations Author(s): TIRIMANNA, Vimal Journal: Studies in Interreligious Dialogue Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Date: 2008 Pages: 29-45 DOI: 10.2143/SID.18.1.2031607 Abstract : When Pope Benedict XVI visited the well-known Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, in November 2006 he not only created history as the second Pope to visit a mosque but also became the first pope to «invoke God» inside a Muslim place of worship. Granted, praying to God could mean different things to different adherents of the different religions. But since the three monotheistic Abrahamic religions worship and pray to the same God (the God of Abraham), when the pope prayed in the Blue Mosque, he was not only well within the Catholic tradition, but through this gesture he also paved the way towards enhancing an interreligious dialogue between the Christians and Muslims who include more than half the population of our contemporary world. It eventually becomes a gesture towards world peace via interreligious dialogue. |
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