Posted by
Michael on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 5:10:50 PM
I don't feel the compulsion to add any more commentary to the issue of the Pope's remarks, but I do feel the need to put forth some resources pertaining to the issue.
First, read the actual speech. Catholic World News has been nice enough to provide it for us. I'm pretty confident that a large amount of the Muslims that have gone up in arms over this latest outrage have not read the offending speech.
Second, get some informed knowledge. The Pope has been placed to a role so high that what he says seems to speak for all the faithful in the West. Christopher Hitchens' latest
Slate column pointed this out well:
There are many popes within Christianity—the Coptic Church has one, and
the Eastern Orthodox Church also boasts a patriarch or holy father—but
we have acquired the habit of using the term to describe only the
bishop of Rome (as the
39 Articles
of the Anglican Church describe him), and this is a pity for many
reasons. It confers a sort of supreme authority on the leader of only
one Christian sect, and it therefore helps to give non-Christians the
impression that the representative of Roman Catholicism represents
rather more of the "West" than he actually does.
Michael Medved is not nearly as critical of Pope Benedict XVI as Hitchens, but his
commentary is also worth reading.