Pope baptizes prominent Muslim editor

VATICAN CITY - Italy's most prominent Muslim commentator, who has long spoken out against Islamic fanaticism and received death threats as a result, converted to Roman Catholicism on Saturday during the Vatican's Easter vigil service presided over by the pope.

Magdi Allam, 55, is the deputy editor of the Corriere della Sera newspaper and writes often on Muslim and Arab affairs. He was born a Muslim in Egypt, but was educated by Catholics and says he has never been a practicing Muslim. Allam's criticism of Palestinian terrorism prompted the Italian government to provide him with a sizable security detail in 2003, after Hamas singled him out for elimination, Allam told the Il Giornale newspaper in a December interview.

Pope Benedict XVI baptized Allam and six other adults during the service in St. Peter's Basilica. The Easter vigil marks the period between Good Friday, which commemorates Jesus' crucifixion, and Easter Sunday, which marks his resurrection. As a choir sang, Benedict poured holy water over Allam's head and said a brief prayer in Latin.

No longer 'in opposition'In his homily, Benedict reflected on the meaning of baptism, saying through the sacrament, the Lord enters into the heart of the new Catholic.

"We no longer stand alongside or in opposition to one another," Benedict said.

"Thus faith is a force for peace and reconciliation in the world: distances between people are overcome, in the Lord we have become close."

As he pronounced the words, Vatican television zoomed in on Allam, who sat in the front row of the basilica along with the other candidates for baptism.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said of Allam before the service that anyone who chooses to become a Catholic of his or her own free will has the right to receive the sacrament.

Lombardi said the pope administers the sacrament "without making any 'difference of people,' that is, considering all equally important before the love of God and welcoming all in the community of the Church."