Pope Meets Former Iranian President to Ease Islamic Relations

The head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI met with the former Iranian president, Mohammad Khatami, Friday in the hope to heal tensions that came about from the pope's previous controversial comments on Islam.

|PIC1|Khatami, who was the president of Iran from 1997 to 2005, had been scheduled to meet with the pontiff in October 2006, but the meeting was cancelled following the pope's speech in Germany where his comments on Islam sparked worldwide protests in the Muslim world.

Following their meeting on Friday, Khatami reported that the wounds created by Benedict's comments were still very deep.

Before the 30-minute meeting, Khatami visited a Catholic university in Rome, where he said, "Unfortunately the wounds of this world are very deep and they cannot be healed easily and a single meeting may not be enough."

Pope Benedict, during his Germany speech, had quoted a Byzantine emperor who spoke out against some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman".

Following the comments, the pope expressed his regret that he had offended Islam, and stated that he in no way meant for the quotes to be taken as his own words.

In November 2006, Pope Benedict attempted to mend relations somewhat with a visit to Turkey.

During his visit to the Pontifical Gregorian University, Khatami expressed his hope that relations between Islam and Christianity could focus on a "sincere and practical commitment'" to "eliminate terrorism and the great military conflicts".

He said, "We cannot and must not use the name of God, the name of all perfection and generosity and beauty and truth, as a password for war and hate."