“With Islam, dialogue is progressing well.”Pope Francis sat down twice with French journalist Dominique Wolton for a book-length interview that will be released in French on Wednesday. The 432-page volume is titled Politique et société : un dialogue inédit, or Politics and Society: Conversations with Dominique Wolton.
Wolton conducted the 20 interview sessions over the span of two years, in the first time that the pope has given such a lengthy amount of time to a project like this.
Wolton is a sociologist and the director of France’s National Institute of Communication Science (l’Institut des sciences de la communication), known for a book-length interview with the former archbishop of Paris, Jean-Marie Lustiger.
The French periodical Le Figaro has published some excerpts of the book; Aleteia offers you a provisional translation of some of these.
See others here:
Pope Francis on celibacy, child abusers, same-sex unions, secularism, and traditionalists
Pope Francis on the roots of the migration issue, and how and why we’re all migrants
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Wolton: Isn’t there a need to request a bit of reciprocity in the dialogue with Islam? True religious liberty doesn’t exist for Christians in Saudi Arabia, nor in certain Muslim countries. It’s difficult for the Christians. And the Islamic fundamentalists kill in the name of God.
Pope Francis: They don’t accept the principle of reciprocity. Some of the Gulf countries are open and they help us to build churches. Why are they open? Because they have Filipino, Catholic, Indian workers … The problem with Saudi Arabia is truly a question of mentality. Now then, with Islam, dialogue is progressing well; I don’t know if you know that the imam from Al-Azhar has come to visit us. There will be [also be] a meeting there; I will go (in reference to the recent papal visit to Egypt, -Ed.).
I think that it would help them to do a critical study of the Quran, as we have done with our Scriptures. The historical-critical method of interpretation would bring them to evolve.
