Pope Benedict will reportedly receive King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at the Vatican next Tuesday, in the first meeting ever between a pope and a Saudi monarch.

Saudi Arabia and the Holy See do not have diplomatic relations. And the practice of Christianity (or any religion besides Islam) is forbidden in the kingdom-a matter that Benedict will presumably bring up, at least obliquely, when he meets Abdullah.

The Vatican has long stressed the need for “reciprocity” between the West and the Muslim world in the area of religious freedom. The church’s top official in charge of interreligious dialog, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, pointedly mentioned the need to respect “freedom of religious practice” in his annual greeting to Muslims at the end of Ramadan this past September.