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“These (words) were in fact a quotation from a Medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought,” Benedict told pilgrims at his summer palace outside Rome.

“At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims,” the pope said Sunday.

The new Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said in a Sept. 16 statement that Benedict’s position is “unequivocally” in line with Vatican teaching that the church respects Islam as one of the great religions that worships the one living God and is “equally unequivocal” in “favor of interreligious and intercultural dialogue.”

“The holy father,” Cardinal Bertone said one day after his installation in his new post, “sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful, and should have been interpreted in a manner that in no way corresponds to his intentions.”

The pope’s speech at the University of Regensburg on Sept. 12 unleashed a torrent of rage among Muslims and stirred fears of violent anti-Western protests around the world like those that followed the Danish publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

In a talk rejecting any religious motivation for violence, Benedict quoted the 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus’ characterization of some teachings of Islam’s founder, the Prophet Muhammad, including about jihad or holy war.

“’God,’" the emperor, as the pope quoted, said, "’is not pleased by blood – and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature.’"

"He said, I quote,” said the pope, “'Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'"

And while the pope did not endorse that description, neither did he reject it.

But Cardinal Bertone stressed that “a complete and attentive reading of the text” reveals that “the holy father did not mean, nor does he mean, to make that opinion his own in any way.”

The pope, the cardinal added in the statement, sought to reflect upon the “relationship between religion and violence in general, and to conclude with a clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation for violence, from whatever side it may come.”

“In reiterating his respect and esteem for those who profess Islam,” Cardinal Bertone said, Pope Benedict hopes Muslims “will be helped to understand the correct meaning of his words so that, quickly surmounting this present uneasy moment.”

In an initial Vatican statement about the pope’s remarks, Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican press office director, said on Sept. 14 that what the pope “has to heart - and which emerges from an attentive reading of the text - is a clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation for violence.”

"It was certainly not the intention of the holy father to undertake a comprehensive study of the jihad and of Muslim ideas on the subject, still less to offend the sensibilities of Muslim faithful.

"Quite the contrary,” Father Lombardi said in the statement, “what emerges clearly from the holy father's discourses is a warning, addressed to Western culture, to avoid 'the contempt for God and the cynicism that considers mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom.'”

The pope, he added, desires “to cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue towards other religions and cultures, including, of course, Islam."

Yet, the reaction from Muslim countries seemed to indicate that the furor caused by the pope’s remarks is unlikely to be quieted quickly.

There is doubt being cast about the pontiff’s planned visit to Turkey in November. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Sept. 16, according to Reuters that the pope’s comments were "ugly and unfortunate" and that he “needs to take a step back to preserve interreligious peace."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the pope made “a big mistake” and “contradicted his own leadership of a divine religion,” reported AFP.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said the Vatican's statement was insufficient. "We feel he has committed a grave error against us and that this mistake will only be removed through a personal apology," Brotherhood deputy leader Mohammed Habib said, according to Reuters.

“We do not accept the apology through Vatican channels,” Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon’s most senior Shiite cleric, told worshipers Sept. 15 in Beirut, “and ask him (Benedict) to offer a personal apology – not through his officials.”

A day after Palestinian protests against the pope’s remarks, there were ...