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Pope and Saudi king to hold talks Historic Saudi visit to Vatican
(about 5 hours later)
A Saudi monarch is set to meet the head of the Roman Catholic Church at the Vatican for the first time. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is at the Vatican for what will be the first audience by the head of the Roman Catholic Church with a Saudi monarch.
King Abdullah arrived in Italy on Monday for a two-day visit that also involves meetings with Italian government officials. The two sides have no diplomatic ties, though Abdullah met the late Pope John Paul II when he was crown prince.
But all eyes are on Tuesday's encounter between Pope Benedict XVI and the custodian of Islam's most holy sites. Pope Benedict is expected to raise the issue of non-Muslim worship in the kingdom, which faces strict curbs.
The Vatican has diplomatic ties with Muslim states, but not Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's most sacred mosques. Vatican sources said the agenda for talks would include the Middle East conflict and inter-faith dialogue.
The historic encounter is expected to focus on two issues: the rights of Christians in Saudi Arabia and the wider relations between Christianity and Islam. Correspondents say the visit comes as relations between the Vatican and the Muslim world are improving, more than a year after the crisis caused by a papal speech appearing to associate Islam with violence.
The 84-year-old king is on the third leg of a European tour after London and Geneva. He will travel next to Germany and Turkey.
ReciprocityReciprocity
Most of the 1.2 million Christians in the kingdom are Catholics who are allowed to worship only in private places. About a million Catholics, many of them migrant workers from the Philippines, live in the conservative desert kingdom, which is the home of Islam's holiest shrines.
The Vatican has often stressed the need for reciprocity in its request to build churches, noting that Muslims are free to worship in many Christian countries. The most important thing is to get the possibility to gather in freedom and security for our worship Bishop Paul Hinder class="" href="/1/hi/world/europe/7040774.stm">Emerging voice of Islam They are allowed to worship in private, mostly in people's homes, but worship in public places and outward signs of faith, such as crucifixes, are forbidden.
In September last year, the pontiff incurred the wrath of many Muslims around the world for comments associating Islam with violence. Christians complain that rules are not clear and hardline Muslim authorities sometimes crack down on legitimate congregations.
He later apologised and made efforts to reach out to other religions. "The most important thing is to get the possibility to gather in freedom and security for our worship, our masses and our activities," said Bishop Paul Hinder, responsible for Catholics in Arabia, in an interview with Reuters.
Last month, 138 Muslim religious leaders wrote to the Pope, stressing that the time for polite ecumenical dialogue had passed, with religious violence on the rise, and saying that the common future of the two faiths was at stake. The Saudi authorities cite a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad that only Islam can be practised in the Arabian peninsula.
King Abdullah, who is styled the Custodian of the Two Sacred Mosques - in Mecca and Medina - is an advocate of cautious reform in Saudi Arabia, often against the wishes of the powerful conservative religious establishment.
After the pontiff's controversial September 2006 speech at Regensburg University, he apologised and made efforts to reach out to other religions.
He had quoted Emperor Manuel II Paleologos of the Byzantine Empire, who said in the 14th Century that the Prophet Muhammad had brought only "evil and inhuman" things.
The pope stressed that these were not his own words and later expressed regret for any offence his words caused.