"He's also clear inside the Catholic community, he's pretty clear, that Catholics have it right: We have the truth, we have the proper revelation, we have Jesus and nothing trumps that," said Chester Gillis, chairman of the theology department at Georgetown University. "He's not going to give any ground, I can tell you that. But is he willing to dialogue and interested in other religions? Yes, but with very strong parameters."
After today's meeting, the pontiff will offer Passover greetings to the Jewish leaders. He has also added a brief synagogue visit, his second as pope, to the New York leg of his itinerary.
Jewish and Muslim participants in today's meeting say their conversations with the church remain productive.
"We've seen an utter transformation in this critical relationship in just four decades without parallel in the 2,000 years prior," said David Michaels, director of intercommunal affairs for B'nai B'rith International. "We've seen so much progress in such a relatively short period of time that I think the Catholic-Jewish relationship can and should serve as a model."
Still, he called Pope Benedict's approval of the prayer for the conversion of the Jews for the Latin Mass on Good Friday "a cause for real hurt and concern. ... We will be raising it, moving forward, with our Catholic partners at various levels."
Not all Jews are as concerned. Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, who will be representing the Orthodox Union at the meeting, sees the prayer as an internal matter.
"We would not be so brazen as to tamper with another religion's liturgy, and we would expect that other religions would not tamper with our liturgy," the former leader of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Baltimore said.
Much of the world knows Pope Benedict for the stir caused by his comments on Islam. In a 2006 address at the University of Regensburg, Germany, on the relationship between faith and reason - a focus of his scholarship as a theologian - he quoted the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus: "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
The reference provoked demonstrations in several Muslim countries. A nun was shot to death in Somalia, churches in the West Bank were firebombed, and the pope was burned in effigy in Iraq.
