Damascus, Aug. 1, 2008 (CWNews.com) - A top Islamic leader has issued an invitation for Pope Benedict XVI to visit Syria during the current Pauline year, the Italian Apcom news agency reports.
Sheik Ahmad Badereddine Hassoun, the grand mufti of Syria, told reporters that he hoped the Pope would visit "in the footsteps of St. Paul." He volunteered to travel to Rome to help the Pontiff prepare for such a trip.
The Vatican acknowledged the invitation without making any commitment. Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, observed that the invitation was a sign of warm relations between the Holy See and Syria's Islamic leadership.
The Syrian grand mufti has not always been so cordial in his attitude toward Pope Benedict. Following the Pope's Regensburg lecture, Hassoun said that the text revealed the Pope's "ugliness and extremism."
More recently, however, Hassoun joined the other Islamic officials in the "Common Word" initiative designed to encourage talks between Catholic and Islamic leaders. The first session of those talks is now scheduled to take place in Rome in November.