The Islamic community of this Italian city wrote a letter praising Pope Benedict XVI as he began a visit marred by a reported attack by Muslims on a Christian convert.The 80-year-old pope began a 24-hour visit on Saturday to this city near Milan with a mass in Vigevano’s Piazza Ducale.
The visit was marred on Friday when a Moroccan man who had married a local Italian woman and converted to Christianity was beaten up by Muslims and needed treatment in hospital, according to Italian media reports.
In a letter given to the city’s bishop for the pope, the Muslim community told him they were committed to “a common path of understanding and reciprocal respect.”
“We too participate in the joy and feasting of those who see in you an important and strong guide for their personal, social and religious lives,” the letter said.
Muslims around the world protested last year after Benedict made a speech that was seen as being critical to Islam because it included a medieval quote about Islam being spread by violence.
The pope later said he was misunderstood.
The pope, who has travelled far less in Italy than his predecessor, said a mass for some 6,000 people in Vigevano and repeated calls in defence of the traditional family.
“It is the element that holds up social life,” he said.
In recent months, the pope and Italian bishops have been at loggerheads with leftist politicians over a government plan to grant some form of legal recognition to unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples.
The pope will spend Sunday in the nearby city of Pavia, where he will visit the tomb of the 5th century theologian St. Augustine, one of the most important figures in Church history.
He will also celebrate an open-air Mass and make an address at a local university.
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