Pope Benedict XVI

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Pope Benedict XVI Condemns Genetic Engineering, Designer Babies

In a speech to a group of experts on pro-life issues within the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against genetic engineering and designer babies. He used the speech to the Pontifical Academy for Life to condemn in vitro fertilization and the use of diagnostic tests to have abortions of babies with disabilities.

"In developed countries, there is a growing interest for the most sophisticated biotechnological research to introduce subtle and extensive eugenics methods in the obsessive search for the 'perfect child'," the Pope said.
He opposed "the spread of artificial insemination and of various forms of diagnosis that tend to ensure its selection."

The pontiff also said the right to life was under attack in countries around the world and pointed to the weakening of pro-life laws in South American countries and promoting euthanasia in Europe and other industrialized nations.

Pope Benedict said people are promoting euthanasia and assisted suicide claiming to favor the "presumed well-being of people."

He complained about how outside forces want the pro-life nations to "liberalize new forms of chemical abortion using the pretext of reproductive health."

The Catholic leader said that pro-life people should do more to organize against these threats.

"Christians are constantly called to mobilize to resist the many attacks against the right to life," he told the conference participants.

He called on pro-life advocates to do more to talk about pro-life issues with doctors in order to raise their conscience against abortion and to object to being involved in immoral practices such as ending the lives of the elderly or disabled.

He called on governments to "guarantee the right to the life to all and in equal way for all"

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Pope Benedict XVI leads Easter Vigil

Pope Benedict XVI lead the traditional Easter Vigil late Saturday in Rome's Basilica of St Peter, describing the resurrection of Christ as the triumph of love over death.


'This is the joy of the Easter Vigil: we are free. In the resurrection of Jesus, love has been shown to be stronger than death, stronger than evil,' Benedict said.


During the evening ceremony, the 79-year-old pontiff also administered the sacraments to six converts, all women, and baptized two children.


Benedict will celebrate the second Easter Mass of his pontificate Sunday in St Peter's Square and will impart his traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing 'to the city and the world.'

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Text of Pope Benedict XVI's 'Urbi et Orbi' Easter Sunday address

Nothing positive is coming from the continual slaughter caused by the war in Iraq, said Pope Benedict XVI, pointing to some of the world’s wounds and much suffering on the day that celebrates the joyful news for Christians that Christ is risen.

In his April 8 address “Urbi et Orbi” – to the City and the World – Pope Benedict marked the second Easter of his pontificate by appealing “to brothers and sisters in faith who are listening to me from every part of the world” to unite to be “apostles of peace” and to witness with renewed conviction to those wracked by doubts, fears and pain.

He also decried unrest in Afghanistan and denounced violence in the name of religion.

“How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world,” the pope told tens of thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans gathered in St. Peter’s Square here. “Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous material destruction are not lacking.”

“Peace is sorely needed,” Pope Benedict said, dressed in gold vestments that he wore for the Easter Mass that had just concluded.

He contrasted the Easter celebration of the Resurrection as “the great mystery, the foundation of Christian faith and hope” with a cataloguing of some of world current tragedies.

He said that he was thinking of “the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons.”

The following is the Vatican English text of the “Urbi et Orbi” Easter 2007 message of Pope Benedict XVI delivered April 8, Easter Sunday:

Dear Brothers and Sisters throughout the world, Men and women of good will!

Christ is risen! Peace to you! Today we celebrate the great mystery, the foundation of Christian faith and hope: Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified one, has risen from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures. We listen today with renewed emotion to the announcement proclaimed by the angels on the dawn of the first day after the sabbath, to Mary of Magdala and to the women at the sepulcher. “Why do you search among the dead for one who is alive? He is not here, he is risen!” (Lk 24:5-6).

It is not difficult to imagine the feelings of these women at that moment: feelings of sadness and dismay at the death of their Lord, feelings of disbelief and amazement before a fact too astonishing to be true. But the tomb was open and empty: the body was no longer there. Peter and John, having been informed of this by the women, ran to the sepulcher and found that they were right. The faith of the apostles in Jesus, the expected messiah, had been submitted to a severe trial by the scandal of the cross. At his arrest, his condemnation and death, they were dispersed. Now they are together again, perplexed and bewildered. But the risen one himself comes in response to their thirst for greater certainty. This encounter was not a dream or an illusion or a subjective imagination; it was a real experience, even if unexpected, and all the more striking for that reason. “Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘peace be with you!’” (Jn 20:19).

At these words their faith, which was almost spent within them, was rekindled. The apostles told Thomas who had been absent from that first extraordinary encounter: Yes, the Lord has fulfilled all that he foretold; he is truly risen and we have seen and touched him! Thomas however remained doubtful and perplexed. When Jesus came for a second time, eight days later in the upper room, he said to him: “put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing!” The apostle’s response is a moving profession of faith: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:27-28

“My Lord and my God!” We too renew that profession of faith of Thomas. I have chosen these words for my Easter greetings this year, because humanity today expects from Christians a renewed witness to the resurrection of Christ; it needs to encounter him and to know him as true God and true man. If we can recognize in this apostle the doubts and uncertainties of so many Christians today, the fears and disappointments of many of our contemporaries, with him we can also rediscover with renewed conviction, faith in Christ dead and risen for us. This faith, handed down through the centuries by the successors of the Apostles, continues on because the risen Lord dies no more. He lives in the church and guides it firmly towards the fulfillment of his eternal design of salvation.

We may all be tempted by the disbelief of Thomas. Suffering, evil, injustice, death, especially when it strikes the innocent such as children who are victims of war and terrorism, of sickness and hunger, does not all of this put our faith to the test? Paradoxically the disbelief of Thomas is most valuable to us in these cases because it helps to purify all false concepts of God and leads us to discover his true face: the face of a God who, in Christ, has taken upon ...

himself the wounds of injured humanity. Thomas has received from the Lord, and has in turn transmitted to the church, the gift of a faith put to the test by the passion and death of Jesus and confirmed by meeting him risen. His faith was almost dead but was born again thanks to his touching the wounds of Christ, those wounds that the risen one did not hide but showed, and continues to point out to us in the trials and sufferings of every human being.

“By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pt 2:24). This is the message Peter addressed to the early converts. Those wounds that, in the beginning were an obstacle for Thomas’ faith, being a sign of Jesus’ apparent failure, those same wounds have become in his encounter with the risen one, signs of a victorious love. These wounds that Christ has received for love of us help us to understand who God is and to repeat: “My Lord and my God!” Only a God who loves us to the extent of taking upon himself our wounds and our pain, especially innocent suffering, is worthy of faith.

How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world! Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous material destruction are not lacking. My thoughts go to recent events in Madagascar, in the Solomon Islands, in Latin America and in other regions of the world. I am thinking of the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons. I look with apprehension at the conditions prevailing in several regions of Africa. In Darfur and in the neighboring countries there is a catastrophic, and sadly to say underestimated, humanitarian situation. In Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the violence and looting of the past weeks raises fears for the future of the Congolese democratic process and the reconstruction of the country. In Somalia the renewed fighting has driven away the prospect of peace and worsened a regional crisis, especially with regard to the displacement of populations and the traffic of arms. Zimbabwe is in the grip of a grievous crisis and for this reason the Bishops of that country in a recent document indicated prayer and a shared commitment for the common good as the only way forward.

Likewise the population of East Timor stands in need of reconciliation and peace as it prepares to hold important elections. Elsewhere too, peace is sorely needed: in Sri Lanka only a negotiated solution can put an end to the conflict that causes so much bloodshed; Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability. In the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees. In Lebanon the paralysis of the country’s political institutions threatens the role that the country is called to play in the Middle East and puts its future seriously in jeopardy. Finally, I cannot forget the difficulties faced daily by the Christian communities and the exodus of Christians from that blessed Land which is the cradle of our faith. I affectionately renew to these populations the expression of my spiritual closeness.

Dear brothers and sisters, through the wounds of the risen Christ we can see the evils which afflict humanity with the eyes of hope. In fact, by his rising the Lord has not taken away suffering and evil from the world but has vanquished them at their roots by the superabundance of his grace. He has countered the arrogance of evil with the supremacy of his love. He has left us the love that does not fear death, as the way to peace and joy. “Even as I have loved you – he said to his disciples before his death – so you must also love one another” (cf. Jn 13:34).

Brothers and sisters in faith, who are listening to me from every part of the world! Christ is risen and he is alive among us. It is he who is the hope of a better future. As we say with Thomas “My Lord and my God!” may we hear again in our hearts the beautiful yet demanding words of the Lord “If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the father will honor him” (Jn 12:26). United to him and ready to offer our lives for our brothers (cf. 1 Jn 3:16), let us become apostles of peace, messengers of a joy that does not fear pain – the joy of the Resurrection. May Mary, mother of the rRisen Christ, obtain for us this Easter gift. Happy Easter to you all.

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Benedict's backs "theistic evolution"

In remarks published in a new book yesterday, Pope Benedict refused to endorse "intelligent design" theories, instead backing "theistic evolution" which considers that God created life through evolution with no clash between religion and science.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Pope Benedict says science has narrowed the way life's origins are understood and Christians should take a broader approach to the question.

The Pope also says the Darwinist theory of evolution is not completely provable because mutations over hundreds of thousands of years cannot be reproduced in a laboratory.

But Benedict, whose remarks were published yesterday in Germany in the book Schoepfung und Evolution (Creation and Evolution), praised scientific progress and did not endorse creationist or "intelligent design" views about life's origins, the Herald says.

"Science has opened up large dimensions of reason ... and thus brought us new insights," Benedict, a former theology professor, said at the closed-door seminar with his former doctoral students last September that the book documents.

"But in the joy at the extent of its discoveries, it tends to take away from us dimensions of reason that we still need. Its results lead to questions that go beyond its methodical canon and cannot be answered within it," he said.

"The issue is reclaiming a dimension of reason we have lost," he said, adding that the evolution debate was actually about "the great fundamental questions of philosophy - where man and the world came from and where they are going".

"Both popular and scientific texts about evolution often say that nature or evolution has done this or that," Benedict said in the book, which included lectures from theologian Schoenborn, two philosophers and a chemistry professor.

"Just who is this nature or evolution as (an active) subject? It doesn't exist at all!" the Pope said.

Benedict argued that evolution had a rationality that the theory of purely random selection could not explain.

"The process itself is rational despite the mistakes and confusion as it goes through a narrow corridor choosing a few positive mutations and using low probability," he said.

"This ... inevitably leads to a question that goes beyond science ... where did this rationality come from?" he asked. Answering his own question, he said it came from the "creative reason" of God.

Speculation about Benedict's views on evolution have been rife ever since a former student and close adviser, Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, published an article in 2005 that seemed to align the Church with the intelligent design view.

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Stop wearing fur, activists tell Pope

Animal rights activists in Italy have asked Pope Benedict to stop wearing fur in a sign of respect for the "sacredness of all living species".

The Pope, who turns 80 on Monday, has been seen over the past winter donning a red velvet hat trimmed with white ermine fur, known as "camauro".

The hat was commonly worn by popes in the medieval period to keep their heads warm on cold days and it featured on many paintings at the time.

On special occasions, such as official audiences with heads of state, Pope Benedict also wears a red cape trimmed with white fur.

The Anti-Vivisection league (LAV) made its appeal ahead of an April 22 visit by Benedict to Pavia, a northern town where Italy's best-known fur makers are based.

"We call on the Holy Father to make a choice of high religious and ethical significance by not wearing fur on this occasion, nor in the future," the LAV said in a statement on Friday.

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Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his 80th birthday on Monday with a lunch at the Vatican in the company of about 50 cardinals and a VIP concert in his honour in the afternoon.

In an interview with Vatican Radio, Benedict's personal secretary, Father Georg Gaenswein, said the pope had received a variety of gifts, including music cds, books, flowers and a large teddy bear.

Ordinary Catholics were able to wish him well during a Mass in St Peter's Square on Sunday attended by an estimated 50,000 people.

In an unusually personal homily, the pope referred to the conclusion of a large part of his life and thanked his family and friends.

"I thank God to have been able to experience the meaning of family ... I thank God to have experienced deeply what maternal love means ... I thank God for my brothers and sisters, who have stood by side and helped me throughout my life," German-born Joseph Ratzinger said, speaking in Italian.

His birthday was also celebrated in Marktl am Inn, the Bavarian town where the future pope was born on April 16, 1927.

Vatican employees were to share in the celebrations with a day off plus a gratuity of 500 euros (650 dollars) each. Monday is also the day in which Jesus of Nazareth: From Baptism to the Transfiguration, Ratzinger's first book as pope, is published.

Ratzinger was elected as the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church on April 19, 2005, just three days after his 78th birthday.

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Vatican marks anniversary of pope's election with a holiday

Vatican City - The world's smallest state, the Holy See, celebrated the second anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday with a public holiday.

Most of the staff and the approximately 820 official residents of Vatican City were able to enjoy a day off while Benedict did not hold any public meetings and limited his official workday to the nomination of a new archbishop in Guatemala.

Joseph Ratzinger, who celebrated his 80th birthday on Monday, was elected the spiritual leader of the world's 1 billion plus Catholics on April 19, 2005. He replaced the immensely popular John Paul II at the end of one of the shortest conclaves in history.

'Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord,' Benedict told a crowd gathered under the main balcony of St Peter's Basilica in his first public address as pope.

A widely respected theologian who acted as one of John Paul's top advisors, Benedict attracted record crowds to St Peter's Square during his first year as pope.

Latest Vatican figures, however, suggest the novelty factor may be beginning to wane.

A total of 3.37 million people have attended his mid-week general audiences, Sunday Angelus and other special audiences since April 2006. The figure represents a drop of 700,000 when compared to the April 2005-2006 period.

Moreover, his highly conservative views and his frequent attacks on the growing secularism of Italian society have also irked many left-wingers and supporters of the centre-left Romano Prodi government.

Anti-pope writings appeared on a wall in Vigevano on Wednesday, just three days before Benedict was due to visit the Italian town.

Benedict, who was invited by the new UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to visit the agency's headquarters in New York during talks at the Vatican on Wednesday, is due to travel to Brazil in May.

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Pope Benedict Says Medical Advances Must Respect Pro-Life Concerns

Pope Benedict XVI over the weekend said that advances in medicine must be tempered by a respect for the sanctity and value of human life. The pope made the comments during a visit at a hospital on the second day of a weekend visit to the tomb of St. Augustine, whose writings have influenced him.
The Catholic leader said that advances in medicine were greatly benefiting people.

But he added that scientists engaging in practices like cloning and embryonic stem cell research need to be concerned about respecting human life.

"It is my true hope that the necessary scientific and technological progress are constantly accompanied by the conscience to also promote ... those fundamental values like the respect of human life in each of its phases," he said, according to an AP report.

The pontiff called for a respect for human life from conception to natural death -- a longtime Catholic phrase requesting a respect for human life including the unborn and the elderly and disabled.

The comment came during a visit at St. Matthew's Hospital in Pavia, a northern Italian city.

"Here, you try to alleviate people's suffering, looking at the same time for their full recovery and often -- thanks to modern scientific discoveries -- with very satisfactory results," the Pontiff said, addressing the hospital's staff.

"The hospital is a place we could, in a sense, call 'sacred,' where the fragility of human nature is experienced, but also the enormous potential and the resources of human ingenuity and technology in the service of life," he added.

"Suffering repulses the human being," he concluded.

"But when it is welcomed with love because of faith, it becomes a precious occasion to be united in a mysterious way with Christ the redeemer, who, on the cross, took on the death and all of the pain of humanity."

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پاپ بندیکت شانزدهم برای دیداری پنج روزه از برزیل، پرجمعیت ترین کشور کاتولیک جهان، وارد سائوپائولو شده است.
این نخستین سفر او به آمریکای لاتین از زمان انتخاب به عنوان پاپ در آوریل 2005 است.

وی قرار است پیش از سفر به آپارسیدا برای شرکت در یک کنفرانس بزرگ اسقف های اعظم آمریکای لاتین که اوج سفر پاپ خواهد بود، یک رشته مراسم عشاء ربانی را هدایت کند.

در آپارسیدا انتظار می رود پاپ به چالش فزاینده ای که کلیسای کاتولیک رومی از سوی گروه های اِوَنجلیکی روبروست بپردازد.

پاپ در جریان پرواز به برزیل به خبرنگاران گفت که بزرگترین نگرانی او در منطقه گرویدن میلیون ها نفر از اعضای کلیسای کاتولیک رومی به کلیساهای "اِوَنجلیکال" است.

براساس یک مطالعه تازه در حدود 64 درصد برزیلی ها کاتولیک هستند اما این رقم نشانگر افتی 10 درصدی نسبت به ده سال قبل است که همزمان شده است با افزایش شمار پیروان کلیساهای اِوَنجلیکی.

اِوَنجلیک به یک کلیسای مسیحی گفته می شود که به حاکمیت و معصومیت مطلق کتاب مقدس، رستگاری تنها از طریق باز زایی و یک زندگی شخصی منقلب شده از طریق معنویات ایمان دارد.

بحث سقط جنین

پاپ بندیکت قرار است کنفرانس اسقف های اعظم را که نخستین ملاقات در نوع خود طی 15 سال گذشته خواهد بود روز یکشنبه افتتاح کند.

این مجمع که کار آن برای 15 روز ادامه خواهد داشت تقریبا 200 اسقف اعظم و کاردینال را از سراسر آمریکای لاتین و منطقه کارائیب گرد هم خواهد آورد.


انتظار می رود پاپ با استقبال گسترده روبرو شود

انتظار می رود در جریان آن، دستور کار و سیاست های کلیسا در منطقه برای سال های آینده رقم بخورد.

این کنفرانس تنها چندین هفته پس از آنکه قانونگذاران در مکزیکو سیتی، پایتخت مکزیک، به قانونی کردن سقط جنین در سه ماهه نخست حاملگی رای دادند برگزار می شود.

پاپ بندیکت در هواپیما به خبرنگاران گفت که از موضع کلیسای مکزیکو سیتی در مورد قضیه حمایت می کند. آن کلیسا گفته بود عضویت مقام هایی که از این قانون حمایت کرده اند و مددیارانی که آن را اجرا می کنند را منفصل خواهد کرد.

این موضوع در برزیل نیز مورد بحث قرار خواهد گرفت. وزیر بهداشت برزیل اخیرا گفت که مایل است شاهد مناظره در مورد سقط جنین باشد که با واکنش شدید روحانیون ارشد کلیسا روبرو شد. سقط جنین هم اکنون در برزیل فقط در شرایط خاص آزاد است.

رویگردانی

اما پاپ گفت "بزرگترین نگرانی ما" مساله مربوط به گرویدن کاتولیک ها به کلیساهای اونجلیکی است و موضوع در کنفرانس آپارسیدا مورد بحث قرار خواهد گرفت.

وی گفت: "باید پاسخی قانع کننده پیدا کنیم."

سایمون واتس خبرنگار بی بی سی در برزیل می گوید شکی نیست که پاپ بندیکت از سوی مومنان کلیسای کاتولیک به گرمی استقبال خواهد شد.

اما به گفته خبرنگار بی بی سی مشکل او این است که هم او و هم سلسله مراتب محلی کلیسای کاتولیک در برزیل محافظه کارتر از اکثر برزیلی ها هستند.

کلیساهای اونجلیکی به کسانی که به آن می گروند شانس استخلاص در زمان حاضر و در این جهان را می دهد درحالی که کلیسای کاتولیک آن را به آخرت موکول می کند. این کلیساها همچنین یک شبکه اجتماعی هستند و به کسانی که به مواد مخدر و الکل اعتیاد دارند کمک می کنند.

خبرنگار ما می افزاید در مقابل، مراسم کاتولیکی می تواند خشک و ثقیل و دور از واقعیات زندگی روزمره اکثر برزیلی ها جلوه کند.

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به عنوان بخشی از برنامه گفتگوی میان ادیان که از سوی شورای پاپی فرهنگ و سفارت ترکیه در واتیکان برگزار می شود روز 5 ژوئن (15 خرداد) رقص سماع مولوی در واتیکان برگزار شده و پاپ بندیکت شانزدهم به همراه کاردینالها و مقامات عالی رتبه واتیکان و ایتالیا در این مراسم شرکت خواهند کرد.

به نقل از ترکیش دیلی نیوز، عمر فاروق بلویرانلی مدیر دسته اجرا کنندگان موسیقی صوفی قونیه اظهار داشت: این فعالیتها از سوی وزارت فرهنگ و توریسم ترکیه به مناسبت نامگذاری امسال به عنوان سال مولانا برگزار می شود.

پاکستان، هلند، بوسنی و هرزگوین به عنوان بخشی از برنامه های خود در سال مولانا رقص سماع را اجرا می کنند. در روز 5 ژوئن(15 خرداد) علاوه بر رقص سماع یک نسخه ایتالیایی از مثنوی به عنوان شاهکار این فیلسوف مسلمان قرن سیزدهمی به پاپ بندیکت شانزدهم اهدا می شود.

وی افزود: اعتقاد داریم این رویداد گامی انضامی در زمانی محسوب می شود که گفتگوی بین ادیان در آن در کانون توجه قرار دارد.

دنیس کلیچر از سفارت ترکیه در واتیکان گفت: گروه اجراکنندگان موسیقی صوفیسم قونیه پس از رقص سماع کنسرت صوفی برگزار می کنند و این رقص سماع نخستین بار است که در واتیکان اجرا می شود. این برنامه با حمایت وزارت فرهنگ و توریسم ترکیه و همچنین وزارت امور خارجه با هدف گرامی داشت مولانا در سال 2007 به مناسبت تولد هشتصدمین سالگرد وی برگزار می شود.

وی همچنین تصریح کرد: اعتقاد دارم پاپ بندیکت شانزهم پس از خواندن نسخه ایتالیای مثنوی تحت تأثیر قرار خواهد گرفت

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Pope in about-face over Muslim dialogue office

In an unexpected about-face, Pope Benedict will restore power and prestige to the Vatican department that oversees dialogue with Islam a year after he controversially downgraded it.

The move to restore the department to its former higher status comes as Catholic-Muslim dialogue is still feeling the negative effects of Benedict's speech last September in which he appeared to equate Islam with violence.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in an interview at the weekend with La Stampa newspaper that the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue would again become "a separate department".

In March, 2006, Benedict downgraded the office by putting it under joint presidency with the Vatican's culture ministry and removing its president, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, a Briton.

Both Catholics and Muslims in inter-faith dialogue criticized the move, with many saying it sent a negative signal to the Islamic world.

Vatican sources said on Monday Bertone's comments meant the department would soon get its own head again.

"This would be a very positive thing for Muslims," said one senior Muslim official, long active in inter-faith dialogue.

The official, who asked not to be named, said Muslims had interpreted the merger of the department with the Vatican's culture ministry as a sign that Benedict wanted to focus inter-faith work on relations with other Christian churches.

In his September speech in Regensburg, Germany, the Pope quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor as saying Islam had only brought evil to the world and that it was spread by the sword, a method that was unreasonable and contrary to God's nature.

He later said he regretted any misunderstanding it caused among Muslims, after protests including attacks on churches in the Middle East and the killing of a nun in Somalia.

But as late as this month, the Regensburg speech was still having repercussions on Catholic-Islam dialogue.

When former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami met the Pope on May 4 he said wounds between Christians and Muslims were still "very deep" as a result of the Regensburg speech.

Some observers saw the Regensburg issue as a direct consequence of the Pope's downgrading of the Muslim dialogue office and the removal of Fitzgerald since the Vatican no longer had a world-class expert on Islam to advise the Pope.

"I think it's a great idea," said Father Tom Reese, senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center and a world-renowned Vatican expert.

"I just hope they get the right man. In the 21st century inter-religious dialogue is too important not to have experts advising the Pope so that we don't have the kind of disaster that we had in Regensburg," Reese told Reuters.