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EGYPT-FITZGERALD (UPDATED) Feb-16-2006 (650 words) With photo posted Feb. 15. xxxi
Pope names Vatican's Muslim expert as nuncio to Egypt, Arab League
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI named the head of the Vatican's interreligious dialogue council, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, as the new ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League.
The appointment, announced Feb. 15, placed the Vatican's most experienced Muslim expert in Cairo, where many of the Vatican's Islamic dialogue partners are located.
At the same time, it raised questions about the future of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. No successor was named to head the council, and Vatican sources said the pope was considering combining its functions with another department in a restructuring move.
Archbishop Fitzgerald told Catholic News Service that he knows Cairo well and expects to continue talks with Muslim leaders there "as much as a nuncio does."
"I would hope that as a nuncio I can encourage this," he said.
The archbishop said it was important that he would also be representing the Vatican to the Arab League, which has 22 member states from across the Middle East and North Africa. The Arab League has headquarters in Cairo.
Archbishop Fitzgerald will replace Archbishop Marco Brogi, who has served as nuncio since 2002. Archbishop Brogi will turn 74 March 12; the Vatican recently named him a consultor to the international section of the Vatican's Secretariat of State.
A member of the Missionaries of Africa, Archbishop Fitzgerald, 68, said his interest in interreligious dialogue may have stemmed from having a wide circle of friends while growing up who were "not all Catholics and not all Irish."
Born of Irish parents in a small town north of Birmingham, England, he pursued his dream of becoming a missionary priest and heading to Africa.
He spent four years in Tunisia, studying theology and learning Arabic, and two years teaching Christian-Muslim theology in Kampala, Uganda, during the reign of the dictator Idi Amin. The archbishop also lived for two years in northern Sudan, carrying out dialogue with Muslims and proclaiming the Gospel to a small Christian community there.
During this time he was frequently called back to Rome, either to work at the Pontifical Institute for Islamic and Arabic Studies or to hold offices on the general council of the Missionaries of Africa.
In 1987 he was appointed secretary of the Vatican's Secretariat for Non-Christians, which later became the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue; he was named president of the council in 2002.
The interreligious council grew out of a mandate of the Second Vatican Council, which said the church should enter into "discussions and collaboration with members of other religions." In 1964, Pope Paul VI created the Secretariat for Non-Christians; in 1974, he established the Commission for Religious Relations With the Muslims within the secretariat.
The office has established and nurtured contacts with scholars and leaders of Islam, Eastern religions and traditional religions -- including African and American Indian -- as well as sects and new religious movements. Religious relations with Jews comes under the authority of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
Looking back on his work at the council, Archbishop Fitzgerald said one sign of progress was that the dialogue efforts today "are not just from the Catholic side, but initiatives are taken by people of other religions as well."
At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Benedict held a private audience with religious leaders of other faiths and assured them that "the church wants to continue building bridges of friendship with the followers of all religions, in order to seek the true good of every person and of society as a whole."
At the same audience, the pope said he was particularly pleased at the growth in dialogue between Christians and Muslims on the local and international levels. Last August, the pope met with Muslim and Jewish leaders in special audiences during his visit to Cologne, Germany.
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Contributing to this story was Carol Glatz.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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