The Pope's reaffirmation is simply another statement of what has always been the RC position -- at least for the last century or more.

(In what follows, I speak, naturally, from the Anglican position.)

On the one hand, there have been striking ecumenical advances -- Pope John's giving of his ring to Archbishop Michael Ramsey being a highlight of deep symbolic import. But these haven't been matched, on the other hand, by any real advance in terms of official recognition of Anglican orders and hence of Anglican Eucharists. There is an inconsistency here in that RCs do recognize Anglican (and indeed Methodist, Baptist etc.) baptisms as valid providing they are trinitarian; so if our baptisms are valid, why not our Eucharists? Is that an Achilles heel in Rome's 'fixed' position?

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I have looked at the sites and find myself unable to do more than observe. I have taken part in some Christian-Mulsim dialogues, with great enjoyment and profit, but find myself still very much in the learning stage. It is quite clear that a large number of Muslims in the western world, and indeed a large number elsewhere, are able with clarity and coherence to expound a view of Islam in which it is indeed tolerant, non-compulsory, open to people converting to other faiths, etc. It is equally clear that a large number of Muslims all round the world are able with apparent equal clarity and coherence to expound and propagate other interpretations.

I am not a specialist in the Koran, but I have been present when Muslims have debated with one another the texts which seem to go this way and the texts which seem to go that way. I am not in a position to adjudicate as to which is more central to 'genuine' Islam or indeed whether the Koran genuinely admits of different interpretations. I merely note that such differences do seem to exist, and that large swathes of Muslim-dominated territories seem to live by the more hard-line versions, just as other parts (e.g. Qatar, where I took part in a dialogue for a week in 2003) seem to live by the more open versions.

In other words, No Easy Answers. Sound familiar?