Sydney's Muslims Welcome International Catholic Pilgrims

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14 July 2008

Australia's Muslim leaders have opened their mosques and schools tohouse Roman Catholic pilgrims for World Youth Day as part of efforts toease interfaith tensions. The Australian Federation of IslamicCouncils is also planning mixed-faith sporting competitions and mosqueopen days for the international festival. From Sydney, Phil Mercerreports.

Roman Catholic leaders in Australia sought the help ofother faiths to help house an army of foreign pilgrims arriving for theWorld Youth Day events this week.

Sydney's Muslim community responded with an offer to accommodate young visitors in Islamic schools.

Islamic leaders here see World Youth Day as an opportunity to break down barriers between the faiths.

Father Mark Podesta, a Catholic priest, says the involvement of Islamic schools is an important step forward.

"Onething that really marks Sydney and marks Australia is the fact that wecome from many different backgrounds, many different faiths, manydifferent ethnicities, nationalities and yet we all live alongside oneanother in peace, with goodwill and in harmony and so this is anopportunity to build bridges, to forge friendships and to break downbarriers," he said. "This is an opportunity to show the rest of theworld that people of different backgrounds and different beliefs canlive alongside one another in peace and goodwill and harmony."

PopeBenedict XVI is in Sydney for World Youth Day, which is expected todraw more than 100,000 foreign visitors and tens of thousands ofAustralians to the city.

Relations between Australia Muslimcommunity of 350,000 and its Christian majority at times are strained. In December 2005 groups of young white Australians clashed with thoseof Middle Eastern backgrounds in the Sydney beachside suburb ofCronulla.

In May local officials rejected plans to build anIslamic school on the outskirts of the country's biggest city, Sydney. Critics say the decision was based on racism, but officials say theschool was rejected because of town planning issues, such as trafficflows.

Last year Pope Benedict sparked fury in the Muslim worldwhen he quoted a medieval text that criticized some teachings of theProphet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman".

Sydney's CatholicArchbishop, Cardinal George Pell, defended the pontiff's comments anddrew a link between Islamists and violence.

Church officials have said the pope's visit to Australia has fostered a new spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation.
 

PopeBenedict is taking a few days rest after arriving in Sydney Sunday. Hebegins his official engagements on Thursday, when he travels acrossSydney's iconic harbor.

World Youth Day is expected to attract more foreign visitors than the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.