Keep your eye on tomorrow's Saudi King-Pope Benedict meeting

Update: VIS press release here. Not very informative, in my opinion.

More from CNA, AFP, AP, UPI & BBC.

People more in the international politics know than myself have alerted me that tomorrow's meeting between Pope Benedict and the King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah is both historically and presently very significant, for reasons explained below:

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah will meet Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday in the first encounter between a pope and a Saudi monarch, the Vatican said.

Abdullah is on a European tour and Benedict has been trying to increase dialogue between Catholics and Muslims.

...

The Vatican and Saudi Arabia do not have diplomatic relations, but the Holy See has ties with many other Islamic nations.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam that rejects the possibility of diplomatic relations with a Christian entity. This interpretation would prohibit a Vatican embassy in Saudi Arabia on the grounds it would be equivalent to raising the cross inside the site of Islam’s holiest places.

It is forbidden to practice Christianity inside Saudi Arabia, and it is illegal to bring symbols from religions other than Islam into the country. Bibles and crosses, for instance, are confiscated at the border.

The Vatican has repeatedly stressed its demands for “reciprocity” - meaning that countries such as Saudi Arabia should ease limits on worship by Christians and other non-Muslims. [source.]

More from Iran's Press TV (apparently King Abdullah met with John Paul II when he was the crown prince) and the AFP.

Progress?