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Historic Saudi visit to Vatican | |
(about 5 hours later) | |
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. | |
The two sides have no diplomatic ties, though Abdullah met the late Pope John Paul II when he was crown prince. | |
Pope Benedict is expected to raise the issue of non-Muslim worship in the kingdom, which faces strict curbs. | |
Vatican sources said the agenda for talks would include the Middle East conflict and inter-faith dialogue. | |
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. | |
Reciprocity | Reciprocity |
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 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. | |
Christians complain that rules are not clear and hardline Muslim authorities sometimes crack down on legitimate congregations. | |
"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. | |
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. |