ROME: A senior Iranian cleric and a Jewish rabbi are among some of the guests invited by Pope Benedict XVI to attend the synod on the Middle East starting on Oct. 10, the news agency i.media said Tuesday.
These "special guests" will attend a 200-strong synod held at the Vatican running from Oct. 10 to 24 to discuss the Middle East.
It will be the first time that Jewish and Muslim representatives take part in the same synod, i.media said, though adding that the guests would not necessarily all meet each other.
To represent Muslims, the Vatican has invited the legal professor Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad from the Iranian Shia clergy, and Mohamed Sammak, secretary general of the Christian-Muslim Committee for Dialogue.
For the Jewish presence the Vatican has called on rabbi David Rosen, head of the inter-religious department of the Jewish international committee, and he is due to address the synod on Oct. 13.
Chief rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen from Haifa in Israel will also be present. In October 2008 the he had slammed the "silence" of some "great religious leaders" over the Holocaust, in a clear reference to pope Pius XII (1939-1958).
In a working document released ahead of synod in January, Roman Catholic prelates had said Christians and Muslims should work together to counter Islamic extremism.
