Magister on a recent gathering to discuss the historical relations between Christianity and Islam

But the analysis at the December 13 meeting at the Lateran concentrated above all on the history of the relationship between Christianity and Islam. The occasion for the meeting was the fifth centenary of the birth of saint Pius V, the pope of the battle of Lepanto in 1571 (see the illustration), at which a league of Europe’s Christian states inflicted a decisive defeat upon the Turkish fleet.

The topic was explored by an authoritative specialist in Church history, monsignor Walter Brandmüller, president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences.

Delivered in the presence of cardinal Sodano, his address represented the Holy See’s current point of view on the question: a point of view that is certainly less pliant than the one that prevailed during the pontificate of John Paul II.

Brandmüller’s address is reproduced in its entirely below on this page.

But there’s more. At this same meeting sponsored and concluded by the Vatican secretary of state, an important representative of Muslim thought also spoke: Khaled Fouad Allam – Algerian by birth, Parisian by education, and Italian by citizenship – a professor of Islamic studies at the University of Trieste, editorialist for the major liberal Italian daily “la Repubblica,” and author of two books indispensable for understanding the Islam of today: “Global Islam” and “Letter to a Suicide Bomber.”

Allam expressed himself in terms very critical of the current state of Islam:

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