VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican (news - web sites) warned Catholic women on Friday to think hard before marrying a Muslim and urged Muslims to show more respect for human rights, gender equality and democracy.

AP Photo Slideshow: Pope John Paul II

Calling women "the least protected member of the Muslim family," it spoke of the "bitter experience" western Catholics had with Muslim husbands, especially if they married outside the Islamic world and later moved to his country of origin.

The comments in a document about migrants around the world were preceded by remarks about points of agreement between Christians and Muslims but they seemed likely to fuel mistrust between the world's two largest religions.

The document said the Church discouraged marriages between believers in traditionally Catholic countries and non-Christian migrants.

It hoped Muslims would show "a growing awareness that fundamental liberties, the inviolable rights of the person, the equal dignity of man and woman, the democratic principle of government and the healthy lay character of the state are principles that cannot be surrendered."

When a Catholic woman and Muslim man wanted to marry, it said, "bitter experience teaches us that a particularly careful and in-depth preparation is called for."

It said one possible problem was with Muslim in-laws and advised future mothers that they must insist on Church policy that children born of a mixed marriage be baptized and brought up as Catholics.

If the marriage is registered in the consulate of a Muslim country, the document said, the Catholic must be careful not to sign a document or swear an oath including the shahada, the Islamic profession of faith, which would amount to converting.

DIFFERENT APPROACHES

The document highlighted the contrasting approaches the Vatican has taken in recent years toward Islam, which has emerged as a strong rival for souls, especially in Africa.

Pope John Paul (news - web sites) has broken ground in dialogue with Muslims and even prayed in a mosque in Damascus. He won plaudits in the Muslim world for his strong opposition to the Iraq (news - web sites) war.

But Vatican officials and leading Catholic prelates have expressed increasingly critical views about the spread of Islam and the challenge this poses for Catholicism.

The Vatican's top theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, said earlier this week the West "no longer loves itself" and so was unable to respond to the challenge of Islam, which was growing because it expressed "greater spiritual energy."

The migration document also discouraged churches from letting non-Christians use their places of worship.

This issue arose last month when Muslims in Spain asked to be able to pray in Cordoba cathedral, which was once a mosque. A senior Vatican official said this would be "problematic."

-- J. Fernandes (goana@hotmail.com), May 14, 2004

Answers

bumpity bump

-- J. Fernandes (goana@hotmail.com), May 14, 2004.

You ought to know, Mr. Fernandes,
We have said about the same thing here in the past; all of us whom you insisted on calling ''modernists''. Only, for my own part, these concerns are just the tip of an iceberg. (In the middle of the negeb somewhere?)

The real challenge to our civilization for now and for many years to come, is the Koran. Not many know, outside Islam, that their prophet taught them to slay every infidel and particularly the Jew? ''It is written,'' as they like to say.

Why is Nick Berg decapitated by Islamist fundamentalists? Because it is written. Do it to Jews. Do it whenever a non-muslim falls into your hands. Enslave his women. Kill all the males. It is written.

Not only the crazy ones read that. All Muslims are taught from the book; the same book. They ALL love Muhamm dd. They ALL follow his teachings.

But the west carries this heavy burden now, of what's politically correct to think, and do. It is called diversity in our universities. Speak no evil; not even of a book that is HOLY for so many millions today, all over the globe. If some aren't fanatics and Jihadists, that's good. But what's written is written. God help us now; all will come together for this people. They wait for a messiah, I learned long ago. He's called Mahddi (sic.) Bad news, if he turns up one of these days; when all of us are ''against war''.

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), May 14, 2004.

Mr Chavez,

Passages from the Bible can be cited and taked out of context to depict Jews and Christians as bloodthirsty. And if islamists are the major threat to western civilization it makes no sense to destroy secularist arab governments. In the arab world the greatest opponents of radical islam were and are the Baathist governments of Iraq and Syria. Let's not forget the Baathist ideology was the handiwork of arab christians who dreaded the prospect of arab countries governed by islamic law upon gaining independence from european colonial powers. Neocons are under the illusion that the mideast can be made safe for Israel by destroying dictators and establishing democracy. It is a task easier said than done.

-- J. Fernandes (goana@hotmail.com), May 14, 2004.

''Passages from the Bible can be cited and taked out of context to depict Jews and Christians as bloodthirsty.'' But you can't quote a single one which states a gentile ought to have have his head cut off, without having committed any offense. (Old Testament.) Nor a Christian passage endorsing crimes of any sort.

Not long ago, the well-known sect calling itself Nn-ation of Islam made news in our country when its firebrands kept using the phrase, ''cut the heads off'' of offensive white men. You would hear that often. Where did this strange and barbarous idea come from? Today, gang-bangers speak of using automatic weapons, & ''blowing away'' their enemy.

It was from the book they now idolized; required reading for Black Muslims. You can't escape the fact moslems are indoctrinated everywhere in the blessed aspect of violence and murder. It's the will of Allah to the masses. I'm not talking about their mosques, (though there have been dangerous things happening inside of some) I'm saying the BOOK. It leads many millions to condone murder and mayhem, whenever the action is against an ''infidel''. Because, the written word is, clear: all who aren't muslims are offensive to Allah, and it's holy to destroy what offends Allah. Why else would they say, ''holy war''?

Good people didn't write these things, in any book. But many ostensibly good people read the evil doctrine every day, all over the world. It's in the Koran.

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), May 14, 2004.

/ / /

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), May 14, 2004.

I'm afraid that today, with Islam, it is different than with Christianity or Judiasm. Will it change in the future? We can pray for that.

What will Bush and the Pope talk about when they meet, I wonder. Bush really thinks that he can teach the Middle East how to be a democracy. They really want it (see the recent polls), but they don't know how.

The Pope and the President (at least this one) could really work together, if they put their minds to it. Maybe that is the purpose of the meeting?

In Christ,
Bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@Hotmail.com), May 14, 2004.

An interesting entry here from a while back. On today's Opinion Journal:

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/tvaradarajan/

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), May 14, 2004.

>>>Calling women "the least protected member of the Muslim family," it spoke of the "bitter experience" western Catholics had with Muslim husbands, especially if they married outside the Islamic world ***what islamic world?*** and later moved to his country of origin.

i'm beginning to think that it has got more to do with culture shock... NOT being married to a muslim. this article should be more specific, sorry..

culture shock - the anxiety people experience as they encounter and try to adapt to the customs and expectations of another culture. campus.skillnet.ca/course_demos/con1/global/glossary.htm

also, for more definitions, type "define: culture shock" on google.com

islam does not accept a culture if it is un-islamic. unislamic such as slavery to men and women, parents marrying off their daughter without her approval, and so on.

please, do more research before posting. never-the-less, this is my opinion, so i hope i didn't offend anyone :) take care

-- kim (kmk_koolcat@hotmail.com), November 19, 2004.

"encounter and try to adapt to the customs and expectations of another culture."

"islam does not accept a culture if it is un-islamic. unislamic"

Kim,

Offensive -no. Ignorant would seem more appropriate.

Your two statements are contradictory UNLESS you presume 'islam' somehow a the 'superior' 'culture'...

Additionally, the topic specific concerns religion NOT culture Catholic vs. Muslim

Continue your 'studies'... ;)

-- Daniel Hawkenberry (dlm@catholic.org), November 20, 2004.