With the controversy still swirling over the Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero, New York’s Archbishop is suggesting regular meetings between faith leaders might help build bridges.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Archbishop Timothy Dolan said the church was not trying to tell or suggest to Muslims that they move the proposed mosque and Islamic community center, slated to be built two blocks from the former World Trade Center site.

Rather, he said the idea is to set up habitual meetings similar to those that have taken place for decades between Catholic clerics and rabbinical leaders, during which they hash out differences and try to build understanding between the two faiths.

“I’m afraid we have maybe not been as energetic with fostering relations with our Islamic brothers and sisters,” the archbishop said during an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday in his private office at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers. “Our coming together is not to say we can settle the mosque site issue,” he said, but “the wider issue of Church, Jewish, Islamic tensions.”

His goal, he said, is for leaders to know what to do “when conflict happens.”

He said his staff is working with two rabbis and two imams to identify religious leaders, both clerics and lay people, who should be invited. He wants the first meeting to take place this month.

The imams who have been contacted by the archdiocese, as well as the developers of the mosque, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Abe Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who has been criticized for questioning the appropriateness of situating a mosque near a sight attacked by Muslim terrorists, said the archbishop’s idea was “wonderful…. I think it’s appropriate and necessary.” Mr. Foxman said he would be honored to take part, if asked.

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