The shrewd maxim teaches us: "Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you who you are." If we make this test with Benedict XVI, we can surely affirm that he likes to be with Buddhists and Hinduists, as he was on April 17, 2008, at the inter-faith meeting in Washington, DC.

We see him, above, joyfully greeting representatives of different Buddhist sects; below first row at left, with a Buddhist of the Japanese Amida sect, and at right, with a Hindu representative.

It would seem that Benedict is also adopting a Buddhist style of greeting, as we can see in the second row below. He took the pose at the same Washington gathering.

Internet photos

Related Topics of Interest

  Statue of Buddha over a tabernacle in Assisi

  Benedict XVI greeting Buddhist monks

  Benedict meets Buddhists at St. Peter's Square

  Pope Wojtyla paying homage to Buddhist guru

  JPII praises Buddhist wisdom and interior purification

  JPII blessed by a Hindu religious woman

  Is Benedict XVI advancing a Buddhist agenda?

  Mother Teresa worshipping Buddha

  Catholic-Buddhist syncretism in France

  Cardinal Ivan Dias burns incense to a Hindu deity

  The Vatican wishes Hindus a happy Dwali

  Heathen prayer at Cathedral in Mexico

  Buddhism taught at Loyola University

  Pagan divities worshipped in a Catholic Church

  Hindu dancers at the Wurzburg Cathedral

  A feminine-looking Jesuit performs a Hindu liturgical dance