Prophetic Intelligence Briefings
'Remarkable congruence' between pope and president about Islam · June 15, 2009
On June 5, 2009 the U.S. National Catholic Reporter published an article by the well-known Catholic commentator John Allen who wrote that Father James Massa, the U.S. bishops’ top official for inter-faith dialogue noted that Obama’s speech in Cairo to Muslims had a “remarkable congruence” with Benedict XVI’s message to Muslims while in Jordan in May.
The Vatican did not get into the controversy over U.S. President Obama’s speech at Notre Dame. Nor has the Vatican allowed is relationship to Obama be “defined by obvious differences over abortion.” The reason said John Allen, is because the Vatican sees much on which to agree, sparticularly in its relations with Muslims.
“The coincidence of Benedict and Obama both visiting the Middle East at roughly the same time, and both delivering much the same pitch, hints at a beguiling geopolitical prospect: That just as John Paul II and Ronald Reagan joined forces a quarter-century ago to vanquish Communism, so a pope and president might stand shoulder-to-shoulder once again, this time to engineer a historic rapprochement between Islam and the West,” wrote Allen.
Despite differences in frame of reference and rhetorical style… Benedict’s message to the Islamic world three weeks ago and Obama’s speech [in Cairo] nonetheless intersect on several important points” including “urging dialogue with Islam, proposing peaceful co-existence in the Holy Land among Jews, Muslims and Christians, seeing violence and extremism as a perversion of Islam, etc.
Referring to the combined effect of the pope’s trip and Obama’s speech, Bishop Thomas of the El-Qussia and Mair diocese of the Coptic Church was succinct: “It’s made the atmosphere much lighter,” he said.
The pope has even coined a new phrase to refer to the peaceful co-existence and positive interchange and cooperation between cultures. The “alliance of civilizations,” has become Benedict’s “top inter-faith priority and the leading example of his shift from “inter-religious” to “inter-cultural” dialogue.
“The intersection between pope and president helps explain rave Vatican reviews for the Obama speech,” wrote Allen. “The president hadn’t even left the building in Cairo before the Vatican spokesperson, Fr. Federico Lombardi, expressed “great appreciation” for the speech back in Rome. Lombardi called it “very important,” not just for relations between the United States and Islam, but for international peace. Meanwhile, L’Osservatore Romano called the speech ‘a new beginning in relations between the United States and the Arab world,” and Vatican Radio enthused that the speech “exceeded expectations’ and created ‘the foundation of a real common platform.’”
‘The president’s address touches on many important points that were made by Pope Benedict XVI during his recent visit to the Holy Land,’ Archbishop Gregory of Atlanta. ‘Both the pope and president concur that a dialogue of civilizations must supplant the specter of a clash of civilizations … All Catholic Americans who hope for a more secure world, and peace among the religions, can feel grateful that the president underscored the indispensable role of religion in advancing educational, economic, and scientific goals.’” Of course Rome expects to be recognized as the leading force behind these religious efforts.
“This clearly seems to be a turning point,” said John Esposito, director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding the Jesuit-run Georgetown University in Washington DC. “You’ve got the head of the largest Christian church in the world, and the most powerful nation in the world, both offsetting the strong sense among Muslims that they’re not respected as equal partners. That’s a pretty impressive one-two combination,” Esposito said.
Putting it all together, Massa suggested the parallel with John Paul and Reagan. “The last time a pope and a president were allies in one of these titanic shifts going on in the world, it was Reagan and John Paul II vis-à-vis communism,” Massa said. “That alliance proved to be very, very effective.”
Imam Yahaya Hendi, a native Palestinian who serves as the Muslim chaplain at Georgetown, said, “The outreach from Benedict and Obama “may not change the minds of the terrorists… but it will influence young Muslims who aren’t sure what to think,” and it “gives the moderates in the Islamic world some ground to stand on.”
“In terms of where things go from here, Hendi said what he’s waiting for is a ‘well-known Muslim religious personality to reach out to the West and to America,’ in effect reciprocating the one-two gestures from the pope and the president.”
Who might that be? “That,” Hendi said, is “the million dollar question.”
“The tantalizing prospect of a partnership between the pope and the president on Islam helps explain why the Vatican isn’t ready to join the most ardently pro-life Catholics in America on the anti-Obama barricades. When a President of the United States travels to the heart of the Muslim world and essentially echoes the pope, or so the thinking seems to go, he can’t be all bad.”
There can be no real, deeper understanding and ecumenical progress between the Vatican and Islam if the “Christian West,” as Muslims see western nations, if tensions between cultures remain deep. Keep the Faith Ministry has been saying for some time now that should President Obama reduce tensions between Islam and the “Christian West,” he may well hand the Vatican a powerful victory in its ecumenical dialog. Obama is playing into Rome’s hand concerning its inter-faith relations with Islam.
The “remarkable congruence” between pope and president should be marked by every student of prophecy. Remember that by peace, he “shall destroy many.” Daniel 8:25.
Congruence between pope and president
