Pope John Paul's visit to Damascus at the weekend, like his visit to Jerusalem last year, has broken new ground in inter-faith relations. In Jerusalem, the Pope won the hearts of Jews as he prayed at the Western Wall and expressed his sorrow for the tragedy of the Holocaust. Now, in Damascus, the Pope has visited the Omayyad Mosque - one of the finest places of worship in the Islamic world - and when he took off his shoes he became the first Pope to enter a mosque.
The visit was more than a symbolic gesture of goodwill by a visiting religious leader. It was a genuine and heart-felt effort to reach out to Muslims by Pope John Paul, who 16 years ago also became the first Pope to visit a synagogue. It has been central to the style of this Papacy to seek a more open dialogue between the three great monotheistic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and to bring the "Children of Abraham" closer to one another.
Syria was an appropriate venue for reaching out to the Islamic world - Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ, is still heard in a few places in Syria, which has a sizeable minority of over two million Christians and is the only Arab country with a Muslim majority not to declare Islam the official religion of the state. Damascus, like Jerusalem, contains many faiths within its walls. The Apostle Paul became a Christian after a dramatic experience on the road to Damascus, and over the centuries the world's oldest inhabited city has given Christendom six popes, five emperors, and countless saints, priests and theologians.
The Pope's visit to Damascus - like his visits to Athens at the end of last week and to Malta later this week - is part of a lengthy, life-long pilgrimage following the steps of Saint Paul. However, despite apologies and gestures of reconciliation, the Papal visit to Athens can hardly be regarded as a significant success. The Pope reached out across a gulf that has separated Catholic West and Orthodox East for almost 1,000 years, and offered a sweeping statement of regret for the "sins of action and omission" against "Orthodox brothers and sisters" since the Great Schism of 1054, including the sacking of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204. And yet that gulf remains as deep and as divisive as ever. The talks at the weekend between Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow indicate the Orthodox world remains unconvinced if not sceptical about the Pope's intentions.
It has been a hallmark of this Papacy that while the Pope has been able to win hearts and minds in his efforts to promote inter-faith dialogue, he has been unable to make significant progress in promoting inter-church dialogue. Despite sincere gestures towards the Orthodox and other Churches, his words often fall short when it comes to action by senior Vatican officials, and documents such as Dominus Iesus and last year's condemnation by the Vatican of terms such as "sister church" continue to hurt many Christians.
The Pope's words and gestures in recent days are welcome advances in the process of both inter-faith dialogue and inter-church relations. But while other Churches and other faiths may welcome the Pope's words at times like these, their warmth and generosity, if they are to have a lasting impact, must be reflected in the documents and directives issued in the Pope's name in the Vatican.