The Vatican is responding to Middle Eastern media reports claiming an historic agreement between the Vatican and the Saudi Arabian government to build Christian churches in the Arab Muslim country. However, DailyMail.com reports a Vatican spokesman says no deal took place.
The reports said Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Mohammed bin Abdel Karim Al-Issa of the Muslim World League had reached an agreement, but a Vatican spokesperson said that’s not true, the UK news outlet reported.
Tauran has met the royal family in Saudi Arabia while visiting this year and has called upon government leaders to treat citizens equally.
Saudi Arabia has a Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, known as Etidal in Arabic. The center, which was established last year, hosted the cardinal as part of the crown prince’s goal of different religions interacting in the Sunni kingdom, according to DailyMail.com.
“He (Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman) has been taking steps in the direction of a reform working against violent, radical Islamists in Saudi Arabia,” Travis Weber, director of the Family Research Council’s Center for Religious Liberty, told CBN News.
Right now, no Christian churches exist in Saudi Arabia; it’s the only Middle Eastern country that does not have a church, DailyMail.com reported.
“Of all places it would seem perhaps least likely that we would see any real movement towards freedom of religion in its full and open form as we understand it and what we believe to be a right that all people are entitled to,” Weber said.
“We can hold out hope and point to the other promising developments of openness and a desire to work against violent, radical Muslim ideologies that we’ve seen from some elements of Saudi society,” he went on to say.
The Family Research Council’s Washington Update included an article on Monday about the Vatican’s denial of a deal. The report said, “It sounded too good to be true, and maybe it was.”
“And while Western leaders have been trying to break through on this issue, more work will need to be done,” the FRC article went on to say.
“It seemed plausible, given my own meetings in Egypt and the moderate tone that (Egyptian President Abdel Fattah) el-Sisi and his administration had taken, that momentum was building for more religious liberty in the area,” Tony Perkins, president of FRC, wrote in the article.
“Hopefully, the news was just premature and an agreement to let Christians worship freely in Saudi Arabia will someday be reality,” he continued.
Saudi Arabia is No. 12 on Open Doors USA’s World Watch List, which ranks the top “50 countries where it is most dangerous to follow Jesus”, with No. 1 being the most dangerous.
Open Doors says there is “very high persecution” of Christians in Saudi Arabia.
Written by: Mark Martin
Feature image: cardinaljean-louistauranap_si.jpg
Article source: www1.cbn.com
