Vatican spokesman: Muslim convert has right to express
his own ideas

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

   

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI welcomed
into the Catholic Church a Muslim-born journalist
often critical of Islam, it was not a sign that the
pope accepts everything the journalist believes, said
the Vatican spokesman.

The Italian journalist, Magdi Allam, "has the right to
express his own ideas. They remain his personal
opinions without in any way becoming the official
expression of the positions of the pope or the Holy
See," said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi.

Father Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, made his
comments March 27 in response to a statement from Aref
Ali Nayed, a spokesman for the 138 Muslim scholars who
initiated the Common Word dialogue project in October
and who established the Catholic-Muslim Forum for
dialogue with the Vatican in early March.

Father Lombardi said baptism is a recognition that the
person entering the church "has freely and sincerely
accepted the Christian faith in its fundamental
articles" as expressed in the creed.

"Of course, believers are free to maintain their own
ideas on a vast range of questions and problems on
which legitimate pluralism exists among Christians,"
he said. "Welcoming a new believer into the church
clearly does not mean espousing all that person's
ideas and opinions, especially on political and social
matters."

Nayed questioned the pope's decision to baptize Allam
March 22 during the globally televised Easter Vigil
from St. Peter's Basilica.

"It is sad that the intimate and personal act of a
religious conversion is made into a triumphalist tool
for scoring points," Nayed said.

"It is sad that the particular person chosen for such
a highly public gesture has a history of generating,
and continues to generate, hateful discourse," he
added.

In a March 25 interview with Il Giornale, an Italian
newspaper, Allam said his decision to convert grew as
he became convinced that it was impossible to believe
in a moderate form of Islam because "a substantial
ambiguity found in the Quran and in the concrete
actions of Mohammed" feeds violent tendencies.

Nayed said, "The basic message of Allam's most recent
article is the very message of the Byzantine emperor
quoted by the pope in his infamous Regensburg
lecture," given in Germany in 2006. The pope quoted a
medieval emperor asserting that Islam spread its faith
through violence.

The Muslim scholar said, "It is not far-fetched to see
this (Allam's baptism) as another way of reasserting
the message of Regensburg, which the Vatican keeps
insisting was not intended. It is now important for
the Vatican to distance itself from Allam's
discourse."

Father Lombardi's statement also strongly objected to
the way Nayed referred to Allam's early education in
Catholic schools in Egypt, implying that Catholic
schools try to proselytize non-Christian students.

The Catholic Church's commitment to the education of
all children deserves praise and not suspicion, Father
Lombardi said.

In countries where Christians are a minority --
including Egypt, India and Japan, for example -- "the
great majority of students in Catholic schools and
universities are non-Christians and have happily
remained so, while showing great appreciation for the
education they received," he said.

Father Lombardi said the Catholic Church today does
not deserve an accusation that it lacks respect for
human dignity and freedom, but there are many
situations in the world where such respect is lacking
and which need attention.

"Maybe this is why the pope accepted the risk of this
baptism: to affirm the freedom of religious choice
which derives from the dignity of the human person,"
he said.