ESBVM

On June 29th 2006, ZENIT, the Catholic online news service (www.zenit.org), published the following piece on Our Lady as a meeting point of cultures. It is reproduced here by kind permission.

Mary a Meeting Point of Cultures, Says Muslim, Encourages Pilgrimages to Marian Shrines

ROME, JUNE 29, 2006 (Zenit.org).- An Egyptian Muslim and deputy director of a prominent Italian newspaper suggested that Mary could be the figure who brings Christians and Muslims together.

Magdi Allam of Il Corriere della Sera spoke to ZENIT about the appeal he launched in the pages of the national daily newspaper to Muslims living in Italy to visit the Marian shrines in their host country.

The journalist said that he is convinced that the Virgin Mary is a meeting point between Christians and Muslims.

‘Mary is a figure present in the Koran, which dedicates an entire sura [chapter ed.n.] to her and mentions her some thirty times. In Muslim countries there are Marian shrines that are the object of veneration and pilgrimage by Christian and Muslim faithful,’ he said.

‘Therefore, I believe that if this happens in Muslim countries, why can’t it happen in a Christian country, especially in a historical phase in which we need to define symbols, values and figures that unite religions, spiritualities and cultures?’ he asked.

In Allam’s opinion, ‘the Marian pilgrimage of Loreto — Italy’s National Shrine — could represent a moment of meeting and spiritual gathering between Muslims and Catholics, around Mary, a religious figure that is venerated by both religions.’

Vittorio Messori, author of book-interviews with Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI), also wrote in Il Corriere della Sera on June 15 in support of Allam.

He said that the dialogue between Christians and Muslims ‘can begin afresh from Mary.’

RESPONSE FROM ESBVM

Concerning the piece on Mary & Islam above. Caution would be wise. In the desire to find common ground, contributors sometimes blur the point and sometimes compare apples with pears rather than like with like.

Indeed it is true, Muslims do venerate and visit Marian shrines. When Allam said ‘In Muslim countries there are Marian shrines that are the object of veneration and pilgrimage by Christian and Muslim faithful’, it has to be clear that those shrines are for Christians but they are visited by Muslims. Visits to Marian Christian shrines is one thing, the fact that there cannot be Marian Islamic shrines as such is another. As far as young Christian/Catholics from predominantly Islamic countries know, there are no Islamic Marian shrines in any country. In Lebanon and Syria many Muslims from different denominations (Sunnis, Shia, etc.) visit Marian shrines all year around especially during the month of May.

Concerning ‘the dialogue between Christians and Muslims ‘can begin afresh from Mary” one has to be careful with such statements. We venerate Mary as the mother of God, whereas Islam consider her a Holy woman for different reasons (which are still debatable and need to be clearly defined). The fundamental difference in starting point in regard to the Blessed Virgin means dialogue is not what one might first think.

It seems clear that Mary is the figure who brings ordinary Christians and Muslims together but maybe not so easily or successfully theologians. She may bring ordinary people together before theologians. Our Lord’s words that His Father was revealing these things not to the learned and the clever applies very much to this.

Fr Bill Mcloughlin, OSM
Hon. General Secretary, ESBVM