Pope hailed for praying towards Mecca like Muslims

Pope hailed for praying towards Mecca like Muslims
Fri Dec 1, 2006 9:39 AM GMT

By Philip Pullella and Tom Heneghan

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Pope Benedict wound up a fence-mending visit to Turkey on Friday amid praise from the local press for visiting Istanbul's Blue Mosque and praying towards Mecca "like Muslims".
...

"The Pope's dreaded visit was concluded with a wonderful surprise," wrote daily Aksam on its front page.

"In Sultan Ahmet Mosque, he turned towards Mecca and prayed like Muslims," popular daily Hurriyet said, using the building's official name.


More Here:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?storyi...

I hope this gesture goes a long way toward healing that rift. The more we humans can get along and work together on our common goals, the better.

Julie

the outer form, is really immaterial, but I think this gesture helps mend relations with those who are interested only in outer forms.

He is aware of symbolism, as are you, IMO, ayeshahaqqiqa, and the gesture is welcome.

"There are many paths to God", isn't that what Razinger's predecessor held at one point?

and aspect of human psychology. (imo)

She's essentially saying the very same thing you have just said.

"Gestures" and "symbols" are the "outer forms". These "outer forms" are important to many people; therefore, this particular "gesture" is a positive "symbolic" act.

sw

Perhaps of you were more familiar with the tone of her posts overall, you would not have misinterpreted this one.

I can't speak for the Muslim religion, but in Christianity the physical format *is* symbolically important. Being on the knees represents humility, closing the eyes represents concentration on the task at hand, hands clasped together represents contrition and so on.

So I tend to believe it helps mend fences between those who have a somewhat greater-than-surface knowledge of religion.

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they are powerful ententes that are know through tout history for causing trouble in other realms and manipulating and tormenting the Human's. the Actual Gods are too busy being blissed out with pride to be bothered with humans just like we dont give a rats ass what the ants are doing as long as they stay out of our kitchen

they said this too though i can't realy take it litterally, i think are they really demi-gods or from our perspective they look like that but are contained in God somehow. I know some gnostics said this and found in the nature of God explanations that opposites don't contradict they all fit into one idea of God even stuff like jealousy. By praying in a Mosque symbolises they share the same God proving the idea works, we all share the same God who can also seem like different Gods as things get played out on earth. The Pope was still a Catholic, probably never wear panties, I wasn't hopeful when he became pontiff but he handled that well, I noticed that he stode out the plane looking like he meant business.

lightening storm.

disctiptions of the 'Wheel of Life'... you can google that or go to http://www.buddhanet.net search Wheel of life.. it is the pictorial teachings of how the world works.. the outer ring is Dependant rising.. how karma and cyclical rebirth works.. the big circle is the realms of Samsara, the world of suffering

Otherwise you might end up smug and self-righteous! :eyes:

deluded and dangerous. Can't all our imaginary friends just get along?

Careful--people tend to become what they hate.

That's right, religion is such a positive influence in the world. :sarcasm:

Oh, and don't start with the "Stalin and Mao were atheists", because frankly atheism had NOTHING to do with their killings. It was about power and the desire of power and paranoia of challenging them that drove them to that bloodlust.

They were not secular humanists in any sense. They wanted to replace worship of God with worship of themselves.

about rational amazement at the persistence of blood cults, archaic customs and strange belief systems.

I do find religious behaviors odd and the persiestence of religious fervor, fundamentalism and sectarianism downright frightening.

I do somethings ask: What would Jesus think?

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The majority of people will always be convinced that there are sky people that they should worship and be afraid of. Always have, always will. Religions grow wealthy and powerful this way. Religion is the ultimate sales product, makes you feel good when you buy it, and scares the hell out of you if you don't.

And let the details be just details. Every culture has a language, why not look at it as the equivalent expression of another culture, for the same thing?

If people could see it that way, it would go a long way towards all people being seen equally. Fundies of the rabid type of any religion think they are the only ones in the right, that God favored them by having them be born among the right group. It's an extended tribalism. Us versus them.

Astonishingly, you can actually convince people that they will spend an eternity in hell for not following their particular "tribes" rituals. With religious people thus convinced of the terrible things that will happen to them, and with their mandate to go and convert others, society is left with a dangerous and flammable mixture of ignorance, superstition and outright hatred of "others".

Yes can you plz tell me how many of the great scientist and numerous other people through out history,that were Atheists unimaginative. And wow were all purpose lacking I mean were would I be with out your delusion to pray to . It just came to me, I'm some were rational and not suck in a world full of superstition ,mysticism and Fiction plied as fact were bigotry and hate is glossed over by a candy shell, and were ignorance and unthinking is what your supposed to do.

So yea if thats your higher purpose I'm supposed to be striving for I'm happy I'm unimaginative and purpose lacking :)

so better get used to it. Like all addictions someone is always going to be unable to kick it.

Give 'em a dose of Vitamin B16 ...

Bake

during this.

It's just small thing, but it meant a lot even to people who aren't Muslims or Christians.

We should all be glad he did that.

That kind of "it's all good" gesture sends them frothing like almost nothing else.

I guarantee it.

Don't you know that Satan works through the mechanism of the papacy? Don't tell me you missed enjoying that stellar work, Left Behind?

I was into the fundy stuff in college and was sitting at a table for a christian club, with a bunch of tracts and pamphlets various people brought. A catholic friend stopped by and of course picked up the anti-catholic one about how the priests and nuns were having orgies in the tunnels under the vatican. I almost lost that friend.

The sad thing is the Catholic Church did do most of the nasty stuff in the tract--but so did (and do) a lot of protestants. They just don't wear dresses and funny hats when they do it.

The link to Reuters says "story not available."

Pope hailed for praying towards Mecca like Muslims

sw

...can you imagine what Sean Hannity and ilk will think about the Pope, praying in a Mosque, while they debate that Muslim American representative taking his oath of office on the Koran?

I don't have cable tv and the only radio I listen to is NPR; therefore these creatures go unseen and unheard by me.

sw

:thumbsup:

I'm not religious but it was good to see the leader of a religion making a gesture like that towards another...

to get together and worry about the true threat to them - Jews, and better yet pagans (oooh Hindus and Buddhists aren't "people of the book")....oh and of course, don't forget to repress the gays and the womanfolk.

POPE IN TURKEY: "GREAT RESPECT" FOR PATRIARCH BARTOLOMEO I
(AGI) - Ankara, Nov. 28 - During his flight for Turkey, Benedetto XVI wanted to express "great respect" for the Orthodox Patriarch who will welcome his in Istanbul. "Numbers and quantity do not count. It is the symbolic, historical and spiritual weight that counts," stated the Pope and reminded that Bartolomeo I is the heir of an important tradition. He said, "We know that Constantinople, like a second Rome, has always been the reference point of the Orthodoxy, and it gave us the great Orthodox Byzantine culture and it always remains a point of reference for the whole Orthodox world and also for all of Christianity." Therefore, "even if the patriarch does not have a jurisdiction like the Pope, he is still gives a sense of direction for the Orthodox world." And the meeting "between the two sister churches of Rome and Constantinople" is thus a very important moment in the search for Christian unity." The Pontiff is not just coming for a simple courtesy visit but also to discuss with the Greek-Orthodox Patriarch Bartolomeo I about the large problems of humanity such as starvation and world poverty," explained the secretary of the Papal Council, monsignor Brian Farrel, to journalists for the meeting of the Christians. "The presence of Benedetto XGI in Turkey," underlined the archbishop Demetrio d'America, who held a press conference in the press room of Istanbul, "comes during a unique and difficult historical time. After the end of the large totalitarian regimes and especially after September 11th and the start of global terror, the Pope's presence here is the starting sign of a new dialogue for Peace in the world." (AGI) -
281449 NOV 06

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200611281449-1147-RT1-CRO-0-NF51&page=0&id=agionline-eng.arab

I'm not a fan and his elevation to the Papacy will pretty much insure that I'm not going back to the Catholic Church any time soon, but he seems to be someone who is capable of learning from his mistakes. He knows he put his foot in it and is doing a good job of damage control.

If the "infallible" Vicar of Christ can admit he made a mistake why can't the President of the United States?