ROME:The Vatican will restore the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, its main conduit for relations with the Muslim world, its secretary of state said yesterday.
Last year, Pope Benedict merged the department with the Vatican's culture ministry and removed its president, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone told La Stampa daily the council would now be reinstated as a department in its own right: "The change highlights the importance of inter-religious dialogue."
Months after Archbishop Fitzgerald's removal, the pope angered Muslims with a lecture that seemed to depict Islam as an irrational religion tainted with violence. The pope later visited Turkey, where he prayed at a mosque and called Islam a peaceful faith.
