Scottish Catholic Observer

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent a letter to the Pope thanking him for opposing a Florida pastor’s threat to burn the Qu’ran and calling for cooperation against secularism, the Vatican and the Iranian presidency said.

The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI had received the letter during a brief meeting with one of Iran’s vice presidents at the end of his weekly general audience.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi did not release the contents of the message. But the website of the Iranian presidency quoted President Ahmadinejad as thanking the Pope ‘for your condemnation of an unwise move by a Florida church.’ The website also quoted the letter as denouncing ‘secularism, Western extremist humanism and the man’s growing tendency toward material life’ and blaming them for the ‘decline of human society.’

POPE CALLS FOR JOURNALISTS TO SEEK OUT THE TRUTH

“Catholic journalists must seek the truth with impassioned minds and hearts,” Pope Benedict XVI has told a group of journalists at a private audience last week.

Greeting the participants in a Vatican conference on the challenges of contemporary journalism, organised by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the Pope reflected on the dangers of media coverage that can often treat an event ‘as a mere spectacle and not as an occasion for reflection.’

At times, he said, such coverage ‘may distance us from the real world and not stimulate us to seek reality, to seek the truth.’ Catholic journalists must resist that impulse and strive to pursue the truth honestly, he said. Catholic journalists have a special responsibility to promote the Faith in an often hostile culture, the Pontiff continued. He said that this requires an active commitment to promote the Gospel and combat the influence of secularisation.

POPE BENEDICT MEETS FRENCH PRESIDENT AT THE VATICAN

Pope Benedict XVI has met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Vatican.

His visit comes at a time when his popularity is falling and in the wake of harsh criticism from Church leaders over his government’s proposals to deport Gypsies.

The Pope and president spent some time alone together before Mr Sarkozy went on to meet with other Vatican clergy. A Vatican press release said the president’s discussions with the Pope and with the Vatican’s foreign affairs experts focused on ‘themes of international politics, such as the Middle East peace process,’ but also on the importance of dealing with the ethical dimension of the economy.