Pope Benedict Moves Cautiously In Approaching Other Faiths
By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service
Saturday, October 20, 2007

VATICAN CITY -- Twenty-one years ago this month, Pope John Paul II met in Assisi, Italy, with more than 150 leaders of different religions to pray for peace. Images of the white-robed pontiff worshiping in the Basilica of St. Francis alongside colorfully garbed Tibetan Buddhists, Japanese Shintoists and representatives of traditional African and American faiths captivated millions around the world.

Not everyone, however, was pleased -- including the man who would one day succeed John Paul.

"This cannot be the model," said Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), who was then head of the Roman Catholic Church's highest doctrinal body, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Ratzinger later wrote that it was "indisputable that the Assisi meetings, especially in 1986, were misinterpreted by many people." the rest