AMMAN, Jordan — Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Jordan today on a three-day pilgrimage to bless a tiny Catholic population and to improve the Vatican’s relations with the Muslim world greeting him with aloofness, anger and a slight hope that he may advance peace in the Palestine-Israeli conflict.
In his first visit to an Arab country, the 82-year-old pontiff is receiving little fanfare. The pope outraged Muslims in 2006 when he quoted a medieval emperor’s condemnation of Islam as a violent religion. Benedict later said he regretted the pain his comments evoked and has since stressed inter-faith dialogue and reconciliation between Catholics and Muslims.
The pope will depart Monday on the next leg of his Holy Land visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Jordan is a moderate Islamic country with a British-educated monarch and a fashion-plate queen. The pope’s intent is to build religious detente here that will bring Muslims and Christians together to help counter the world’s moral and social ills.
But the pope is uneasy over a lack of religious freedom in Arab countries, and many Muslims view the church as another Western institution insensitive to how Islam has been stereotyped since 9/11.
By balancing Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories in his pilgrimage, the pope is venturing onto incendiary religious and political terrain.
