IF YOU only skim-read the headlines of last weekend's newspapers, you might have got the impression that Pope Francis made a remarkable breakthrough in inter-religious relations in Turkey last week, by praying with his Muslim hosts in a mosque and jointly celebrating a communion service with the senior bishop of the Orthodox Christian church. In fact, it was nothing like that simple.
When visiting a mosque, the pope took a moment to offer his own silent supplications, whose content was strictly his own business; but the visit was carefully arranged to avoid coinciding with a Muslim prayer-time to which he would have had to react in some way. And at the Orthodox Patriarchate, he was treated as an honoured guest, and memorably asked the Orthodox Patriarch to bless him; but he did not join in consecrating bread and wine—the most solemn moment of the service—because unresolved doctrinal differences make such a thing impossible. When they make the effort, religious leaders can, in other words, be dab hands at diplomacy. They know how to choreograph events in ways that respect each other's integrity without causing offence. What about the other way round? How much do diplomats know about religion?
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