In an unexpected about-face, Pope Benedict will restore power and prestige to the Vatican department that oversees dialogue with Islam a year after he controversially downgraded it.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in an interview at the weekend with La Stampa newspaper that the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue would again become “a separate department”.
In March, 2006, Benedict downgraded the office by putting it under joint presidency with the Vatican’s culture ministry and removing its president, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, a Briton.
I’m not convinced that the streamlining (or whatever Benedict was trying to accomplish by downgrading the office) was a mistake. However, the poor performance in dialoguing with the Muslim world since that time certainly required a new change be made, both for symbolic and practical reasons. This was probably the easiest way to do so.
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