” “"Every meeting between the Pope and the Islam community leaders is an important and unique opportunity for improving relations between the Christian and the Muslim worlds". This is the opinion of the Armenian Orthodox Patriarch of Istanbul and Turkey, Mesrob II, about the meeting that tomorrow afternoon at 6.15 pm Pope Benedict XVI will have with some representatives of the communities, in the house of the archbishop of Cologne. "The Pope – explains Mesrob II is for Islam the greatest Christian authority, to the point that he is a symbol of the Christian world. There is no other church or figure that can play such role. Great attention is paid to his statements and his actions on dialogue between different religions. All that the Pope says or does has a very strong impact on the other religious communities". Add to this the fact that "in the Islamic world, there are many distortions on Christianity. The West, above all in the Middle Eastern countries, is regarded as an evil to be fought. It is often confused with the US politics, and all this affects the whole Christianity". This is why every meeting between the Pope and the Islam community leaders is an opportunity for improving relations: "You badmouth and despise and are afraid of someone concluded the Patriarch only when you do not know them".
