To,
His Royal Highness
Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal
The Royal Palace
Amman, Jordan
From the Vatican, November 19, 2007
Your Royal Highness,
On October 13, 2007 an open letter addressed to his holiness Pope
Benedict XVI and to other Christian leaders was signed by 138 Muslim
religious leaders, including your royal highness. You, in turn, were kind
enough to present it to Bishop Salim Sayegh, vicar of the Latin Patriarch
of Jerusalem in Jordan, with the request that it be forwarded to his
holiness.
The pope has asked me to convey his gratitude to your royal highness
and to all who signed the letter. He also wishes to express his deep
appreciation for this gesture, for the positive spirit which inspired the
text and for the call for a common commitment to promoting peace in the
world.
Without ignoring or downplaying our differences as Christians and
Muslims, we can and therefore should look to what unites us, namely,
belief in the one god, the provident creator and universal judge who at
the end of time will deal with each person according to his or her
actions. We are all called to commit ourselves totally to him and to obey
his sacred will.
Mindful of the content of his encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est ("God
is Love"), his holiness was particularly impressed by the attention given
in the letter to the twofold commandment to love god and one’s neighbour.
As you may know, at the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI
stated: "I am profoundly convinced that we must not yield to the negative
pressures in our midst but must affirm the values of mutual respect,
solidarity and peace. The life of every human being is sacred, both for
Christians and for Muslims. There is plenty of scope for us to act
together in the service of fundamental moral values" ("Address to
Representatives of Some Muslim Communities", Cologne, August 20, 2005).
Such common ground allows us to base dialogue on effective respect for the
dignity of every human person, on objective knowledge of the religion of
the other, on the sharing of religious experience and, finally, on common
commitment to promoting mutual respect and acceptance among the younger
generation. The pope is confident that once this is achieved it will be
possible to cooperate in a productive way in the areas of culture and
society, and for the promotion of justice and peace in society and
throughout the world.
With a view to encouraging your praiseworthy initiative, I am pleased
to communicate that his holiness would be most willing to receive your
royal highness and a restricted group of signatories of the open letter,
chosen by you. At the same time, a working meeting could be organised
between your delegation and the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious
Dialogue, with the cooperation of some specialised pontifical institutes
(such as the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies and the
Pontifical Gregorian University). The precise details of these meetings
could be decided later, should this proposal prove acceptable to you in
principle.
I avail myself of the occasion to renew to your royal highness the
assurance of my highest consideration.
Tarcisio Card. Bertone
Secretary of State