A Sacred Space, Shared

by Zoe Pollock

Paul Moses has a nice roundup of how Pope John Paul II's withdrawal of a convent near Auschwitz has been used in arguments against the Cordoba Mosque. He then offers a different anecdote about the Pope, celebrating Mass in Manger Square in Bethlehem, in 2000:

The pope had just finished his homily, ending with "Assalamu alaikum," when the Muslim call to prayer broke forth from the loudspeakers at a mosque that bordered on Manger Square. It seemed, at first, like a rude...