Cardinal Tauran notes significant step forward in talks with Muslim leaders
December 05, 2014
The president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue said that he saw new signs of progress in talks with Islamic leaders, after a meeting this week in Rome.
Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran told Vatican Radio that the 3rd Catholic-Muslim Summit broke new ground because “the participants were coming from all over the world.”
Perhaps more important, the cardinal said, Shi’ite Muslims participated in the talks, and accepted “the necessity of putting the sacred Scriptures in the framework of history.” This was a very significant step, since Islamic leaders generally claim that the Qu’ran must be seen as an authoritative text that stands alone, and cannot be subjected to historical study. The willingness to consider the historic context, Cardinal Tauran said, is “the beginning of hermeneutics” and “very new and very courageous, coming from Shia from Iran.”
The cardinal said that the Catholic-Muslim summit found a clear consensus on the importance of educating young people in moral principles.
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