Growing secularism is another issue the Polish Catholic Church faces. Church observers say the Vatican must focus on contemporary issues and that there needs to be a Christian renewal to counter the secularism.

"Benedict XVI's thinking was shaped by the problems of the 20th century," said Zbigniew Nosowski, editor-in-chief of the Catholic monthly Wiez. "But now we need a pope who will help us face the rapidly emerging problems of the 21st century."

Nosowski said the church lacked a strategy to deal with mounting contemporary problems throughout Benedict's papacy. He foresees the church accepting a married priesthood this century as a way to counteract the decline in men seeking the priesthood. "We will need more priests to fulfill our basic ritual demands - like performance of the Eucharist," he said.

The commission concluded a three-day meeting Thursday. The group was founded by Pope Paul VI in 1974, and it works closely with the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. It includes eight Catholic experts in Christian-Muslim dialogue from countries as diverse as Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Italy, Germany, the UK and the United States.

In his opening remarks to the meeting, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, spoke of the turbulent history of Christian-Muslim relations since the birth of Islam in the 7th century, Vatican Radio reported. History, he said, "is not simply something from the past, but it influences positively or negatively our present and future." Christian and Muslim historians, he stressed, must work together to discern the truth of events, since "objectivity can open the way to asking and giving pardon."