Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI said that mutual respect for the world's religions and their symbols was "urgent and necessary" for peace and understanding, in the wake of Muslim outrage over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
"In the current international context, the Catholic Church remains convinced that to encourage peace and understanding between peoples and individuals it is necessary and urgent that religions and their symbols be respected, and that the faithful not be subjected to provocations injuring their outlook and religious feelings," he said Monday.
The pope's comments, made in French while speaking to Morocco's new ambassador to the Vatican, were his first public remarks about the controversy over a set of 12 Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed.
Originally published in September, the drawings were reprinted in Europe earlier this month, sparking furious reactions across the Muslim world including riots that have left dozens dead in Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria and elsewhere.
Protests in Nigeria over the weekend were the deadliest yet, with 16 people killed in sectarian violence that saw crowds in the mainly Muslim north attack Christian churches and businesses.
Benedict said that "intolerance and violence are never justifiable responses to the offense (to religion), since they are not compatible with the sacred principles of religion."
The pontiff also denounced "the actions of those who deliberately take advantage of the offense to religious feeling to foment violence".
"For the faithful as well as for all people of goodwill, the only path that leads to peace and brotherhood is that of respect for other people's convictions and religious practices, in order to ensure that all societies ensure the free exercise of religion."
In an interview published Monday, a senior Vatican official condemned the lack of any international official reaction the anti-Christian violence in Nigeria.
"The current silence of states and international organisms is unacceptable. They should be firm on the principle of reciprocity. What are the Arab League, the European Union, the United Nations doing?" Pontifical University rector Rino Risichella told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
"At stake is not only the fate of the Christian minorities which live in the Muslim world but the freedom of everyone," he said.