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Saturday, April 26, 2003

By Ann Rodgers-Melnick, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Opposition from Christian leaders failed to prevent the U.S.-led war on Iraq, but it may have stopped Muslim retaliation against Christians in the Middle East, something that had been widely predicted before the war.

That is the view of Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Vatican's Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and an international expert on relationships between Christians and Muslims. Fitzgerald spoke last night at St. Vincent College in Latrobe.

Despite predictions that Islamic extremists would attack Middle Eastern Christians because they associated them with the invaders, no such violence has been reported. That stands in stark contrast to the war in Afghanistan, which provoked several deadly attacks on churches, Christian schools and Christian hospitals.

"I think [the lack of retaliation] is in great measure due to the forthright opposition to war by religious leaders. I put that in the plural, but I am thinking first of all of His Holiness Pope John Paul II," Fitzgerald said.

John Paul was by far the most prominent and visible Christian opponent of the war but many Protestant and Orthodox leaders also spoke out. On Fitzgerald's recent trip to Lebanon, many political and religious leaders told him they believed John Paul's statements had quelled any temptation toward violence against Christians.

"I think the statements by the religious leaders have made it clear that it was not a religious war -- it was not a war of Christians against Muslims, but had political motivation," he said.

Fitzgerald, 65, was born in England and ordained for the Society of Missionaries of Africa in 1961. In addition to a doctorate in theology, he holds a degree in Arabic, and has taught at Makerere University in Uganda and the Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Rome. Last year the pope appointed him to his current post.

Now that the war is over, he admits to "a certain amount of anxiety as to what form of government will be installed in Iraq and whether religious freedom will be respected or not."

He wants to see the Shiites, who were brutally repressed by Saddam Hussein, free to follow their faith. But he also hopes to see the same for Iraq's small Christian minority, who Saddam treated well.

Most predominantly Muslim nations have "limited religious freedom," allowing Christians to gather for worship but not to offer their faith to Muslims.

"In most countries where Muslims are the majority, the freedom to embrace Christianity is not there. We continue to talk about it with our Muslim partners in dialogue. We hope one day there will not be such a great fear and that freedom will be given to individual people to follow their consciences," he said.

Fitzgerald spends much of his time preparing for and engaging in dialogues with Muslim religious leaders. The goal is to eradicate misunderstanding and violence between the faiths. The Muslim-Christian Liaison Committee has worked since 1995 to promote fair portrayals of the two faiths in the media and in textbooks.

Other dialogues are held with representatives from various Islamic countries. One of the best has been with Iranian theologians, he said. So far they have held forums on the culture of modernity and on religion and youth.