How Will Rome Face Mecca?

FrontPageMagazine.com April 6, 2006
One of the Catholic Church’s most controversial figures inflamed public debate in Italy with a typically off-handed comment — and inadvertently exposed the Vatican’s problems in crafting a coherent, comprehensive response to Islamic imperialism.

Cardinal Renato Martino — the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United Nations — said that the Italian government should allow the Koran to be taught during the hour mandated for Catholic religious instruction.

“If there are 100 Muslim children in a school, I don’t see why they shouldn’t be taught their religion,” Martino said in a press conference March 9. “If we said ‘no’ until we saw equivalent treatment for the Christian minorities in Muslim countries, I would say that we were placing ourselves on their level.”

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Thanks to FWD from Fr Miguel Grave De Peralta.