Catholic officials, Muslim scholars to meet in Rome

A landmark meeting between Catholic officials and Muslim scholars that aims to spur dialogue between Christianity and Islam is planned to take place in Rome this spring, a senior Vatican official said.
The top Vatican official in charge of relations with Islam, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, said he expected an advanced group of three Muslim representatives in February or March to lay the groundwork for the meeting.
"In a certain sense, (the meeting) can be defined as historic," Tauran was quoted by Reuters as telling the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, in an edition published earlier this week.
Some 138 Muslim scholars wrote to Pope Benedict and other Christian leaders in October, saying "the very survival of the world itself" might depend on dialogue.