RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman met French cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran in Riyadh on Wednesday during the first visit to the kingdom by such a senior Catholic authority, Saudi state news agency SPA reported. The meeting between the king and Tauran, who heads the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, is the first between the current Saudi ruler and a Catholic official. Lebanon’s Christian Maronite Patriarch visited Saudi Arabia in November. Patriarch Beshara al-Rai heads the Maronite church, which has a presence in Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus and follows an Eastern rite of the Roman Catholic church.
