ITALY: The Vatican has instructed its envoys in Muslim countries to explain Pope Benedict's words on Islam but church experts said yesterday the furore has probably set back relations between the two faiths by decades.
Pope Benedict's new secretary of state, who took office only last Friday as Muslims around the world were protesting, said the Holy See's nuncios (ambassadors) in Muslim countries would be visiting government and religious leaders.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said they would illustrate parts of the Pope's speech last week at the University of Regensburg in Germany that the Vatican believed had been "overlooked".
Cardinal Bertone was quoted by Corriere della Sera newspaper as saying there had been a "heavy manipulation of the text, which transformed it into something different than what the Holy Father intended".
The pope on Sunday said he was deeply sorry Muslims had been offended by his use of a medieval quotation on Islam and violence, but his words failed to quell the fury of some Islamic groups demanding a full apology.
In the speech, the pope referred to criticism of the prophet Muhammad by 14th century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus.
The emperor said everything Muhammad brought was evil "such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached".
The pope on Sunday said the quotation did not represent his personal views.
Still, the use of the quotation at all was seen by some Muslims as deeply offensive and some church experts warned of a breakdown in relations with Islam.
Writing in the Turin newspaper La Stampa, Gian Enrico Rusconi, a professor at Turin University, said the consequences of the speech "signal an irreversible break not only in relations between Islam and the Catholic Church but also of the very image of the pope in the West".
Marco Politi, author and Vatican expert for Rome's La Repubblica newspaper, said the pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had set back a quarter of a century of efforts by his predecessor John Paul to improve ties with Islam.