And They Embraced

By Staff Reporter, *Pope Greets Muslim Leader in Cyprus* - Vatican Radio - Vatican City
Saturday, June 5, 2010

On Saturday Afternoon, ahead of Mass with the priests, deacons, religious and ecclesial movements in Holy Cross Church, Nicosia, Pope Benedict XVI met with the spiritual leader of a Sufi movement in Cyprus.

Vatican Press Office Director, Fr. Federico Lombardi, says that Sheik Mohammed Nazim Abil Al-Haqqani, the spiritual leader of a Sufi movement, was seated along the Pope’s processional route towards the Church of the Holy Cross.

Fr. Lombardi said : “The Pope stopped to greet the 89 year old religious leader, who welcomed him by saying “I am very old” to which the Pope replied “so am I”.

He then told the Pope that he lived close to the Church and had wanted to come to greet him, and he gifted Pope Benedict with an decorated piece of wood, a plaque with an Islamic inscription and a rosary. The Pope gifted the religious leader a medal and they embraced”.

Fr. Lombardi commented that Sheik Mohammed Nazim Abil Al-Haqqani is active in inter faith dialogue and described his gesture as one of “Islamic fraternity”.

Earlier today Fr. Lombardi held a press conference on the progress of the Papal trip so far.

[Picture: Shaykh Nazim of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order and Pope Benedict XVI. Photo: In Dies]