| 22 September, 2006 |
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The pope: out of context, out of touch
With his intelligence and experience, Pope Benedict should have known what his now infamous reference to a quote concerning Islam would bring. Commentary by Eric J. Lyman in Rome for ISN Security Watch (22/09/06) Supporters of Pope Benedict XVI say that the pontiff was taken out of context when he sparked world-wide protests by quoting a 615-year-old letter that called the influence of the prophet Mohammed "evil and inhuman" and opining that he "spread by the sword the faith he preached" - and they are no doubt correct. But what nobody has explained is why as intelligent and learned a figure as Pope Benedict would choose a context with so much potential to inflame. The original comments, made on 12 September, triggered a series of events that included scores of official diplomatic protests, the recall of the Holy See's ambassadors from Morocco and Egypt, hundreds of street protests around the world, and even the shooting death of a Somalia-based nun and her bodyguard. But it was the pope's decision to stop short of a full apology during his Angelus blessing on 17 September and again at his weekly audience on 20 September that exacerbated the situation. In the latter of those two addresses - to a crowd of 40,000 faithful gathered in St Peter's Square on Wednesday - Benedict said his original intention had been to encourage interfaith dialogue. "To an attentive reader of my text it is clear that in no way did I wish to make my own the negative words pronounced by the medieval emperor, and that their polemical content does not express my personal convictions," the pontiff said. He added that his intention had been "to explain that not religion and violence, but rather religion and reason, go together." The "attentive reader" Pope Benedict spoke about would have indeed noticed that the quoted part of the letter - a 1391 missive from newly-crowned Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, written while Constantinople was under siege by Turkish Muslims - went on to make the very point the pope said he had meant to stress. "God is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably is contrary to God’s nature," Pope Benedict quoted the emperor as writing. "Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats. To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death." What is not clear is why the now infamous preamble - “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" - was necessary to make the point made by the less quoted second part of the discourse. Or even why a pontiff regarded as having one of the finest minds of his generation would choose to make a point he had made dozens of times before by quoting an obscure medieval emperor, a leader who was not even Christian. In short, should not Pope Benedict have known better? Is his being technically correct a consolation when his comments have incited hundreds of riots, at least two deaths, and set the interfaith relations the Vatican says are one of the pope's priorities back years if not decades? Not to excuse the absurd notion of some Muslims around the world rioting to protest being called violent, but, to any observer of current events, was not the reaction predictable? The most common explanation given by the faithful is that on 12 September Pope Benedict was playing the professorial role he has played for most of his life, wearing his teacher's hat rather than the papal mitre. Given the setting that day, that argument does - at least at first glance - stand to reason. The pope was speaking at Bavaria's highly regarded Regensburg University to a smallish crowd of students, clerics, academics and other intellectuals, many of whom he had known for a generation. In that context, debate and the free exchange of ideas are essential, the pontiff's allies argue. But being the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics is not a job that allows time for the odd project on the side. When the College of Cardinals voted then-Cardinal Ratzinger to his current position as the most visible religious leader in the world last year, he should have left his teacher's hat - like all his old headwear - behind. Editor's note: A pdf transcript of Pope Benedict XVI's address can be downloaded from ISN's PRIA section. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Eric J Lyman is ISN Security Watch's senior correspondent in Rome. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not the International Relations and Security Network (ISN).  |
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