September 13, 2006

News Flash: Pope Still Catholic

It always amazes me when some people become concerned or alarmed when the Pope says anything critical of another religion. It's almost as if they expect religious leaders to not really believe that they have the truth and that the other guys are wrong.

We'll see how much flack the Pope gets for this statement, even if he was quoting another source. NY Times:

He began his speech, which ran over half an hour, by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologus, in a conversation with a “learned Persian” on Christianity and Islam — “and the truth of both.”

“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread the sword by the faith he preached,” the pope quoted the emperor, in a speech to 1,500 students and faculty.

He went on to say that violent conversion to Islam was contrary to reason and thus “contrary to God’s nature.”

And look at some of the reactions:
Several experts on the Catholic Church and Islam agreed that the speech — in which Benedict made clear he was quoting other sources on Islam — did not appear to be a major statement on, or condemnation of, Islam.
Not a major one, just a minor one.
Still, they said that the strong words he used in describing Islam, even that of the 14th century, ran the risk of offense.
Wouldn't want to offend those Muslims. Those guys are loco esse. However, no word yet on whether the Pope's stance on Protestantism might be offensive to, you know, Protestants.
“Certainly he closes the door to an idea which was very dear to John Paul II — the idea that Christians, Jews and Muslims have the same God and have to pray together to the same God,” [Marco Politi, the Vatican expert for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica ] said.
I love how a simple statement about the wrongness of forced conversions and the silliness of citing Islam as the source for unique ideas now becomes we don't worship the same God.
At the end of that summer, he devoted an annual weekend of study with former graduate students to Islam. In that meeting, and since, he has reportedly expressed skepticism about Islam’s openness to change, given its view of the Koran as the unchangeable word of God.
The shock! The horror! The eye-clawing madness of learning that the Pope is not a Unitarian-Universalist minister!

Hat tip: Alex

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 09:52 AM | |