Pope Benedict XVI Watch: Pope Sorry Muslims Have Found Speech Offensive
Pope Benedict XVI waves to pilgrims after a holy mass on the Islinger field near Regensburg, September 12, 2006.
Reuters: Pope sorry his Islam speech found offensive
The Vatican said on Saturday the Pope was sorry Muslims had been offended by a speech whose meaning had been misconstrued, but Morocco withdrew its ambassador as anger at his words flared on.
The Papal Response:
“The Holy Father thus sincerely regrets that certain passages of his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful,” Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in a statement.
The FLAP: Pope’s `jihad’ remarks a sign
The Vatican said Benedict did not intend the remarks to be offensive and sought to draw attention to the incompatibility of faith and violence.
The pope quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.
“The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war,†the pope said. “He said, I quote, ‘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 by the sword the faith he preached.’â€
The full text of the Pope’s speech at the University of Regensburg is here.
The radical Islamic response:
My friend Lorenzo Vidino, counterterrorism expert and author of al Qaeda in Europe, sent the above photo and this note:
Attached is a picture of the Pope that is circulating in Qaeda-friendly chat rooms and websites. Lovely (and predictable) that they call for his beheading.
The script in red calls for the Pope’s beheading. The rest of the translation:
“Swine and servant of the cross, worships a monkey on a cross, hateful evil man, stoned Satan, may Allah curse him, blood-sucking vampire.”
And the New York Times Editorial:
The world listens carefully to the words of any pope. And it is tragic and dangerous when one sows pain, either deliberately or carelessly. He needs to offer a deep and persuasive apology, demonstrating that words can also heal.
BULL – The New York Times and Editor Bill Keller are pathetic Dhimmis who did not have the Cojones to print the Muhammad Cartoons.
The Pope needs to offer no further explanation on what he said.
IT IS THE TRUTH.
And radical Muslims can take the speech for what it was.
If the Muslims want interfaith dialogue then fine.
If they want Jihad, then bring on the CRUSADE.
Previous:
Pope Benedict XVI Watch: The Papal Islamic Comment FLAP
Technorati Tags: Pope Benedict XVI
3 Comments
Jeff
Pope Benedict XVI was very courageous in staying what needs to be said in regards to Islamo-Fascism. And he hasn’t apologized for what he said. He just said he is sorry that the Muslims were offended.
But, I guess the Muslims can’t handle the truth.
By the way, leftists have come out and renounced the Pope’s comments.
Here is what one liberal blogger posted.
http://melt212.livejournal.com/171321.html
“I feel empathy for the muslims who just got bitch slapped by the pope because I had a boyfriend like that once. ”
Spoken like a true member of the Democratic Party base. Treats foreign affairs like it was the Jerry Springer show.
Joe Garcia
BENEDICT XVI REPUDIATES HIS NAMESAKE
The namesake of Pope Benedict XVI, Giacomo Della Chiesa, Benedict XV, served as Pope from 1914 to 1922. As a wartime Pontiff he followed a policy of strict neutrality. He did not condemn any of the warring countries engaged in World War I. Instead, he turned the Church’s attention to ministering to those innocents who suffered the wrath of war.
He tried to broker a peace; however, his attempts were frustrated by pro-Austrian sentiments held by many of members of the College of Cardinals. The entry of the United States and the Allies attitude that a peace could not be won until Germany had been defeated, thwarting Pope Benedict’s principal attempt to mediate a European peace.
By the end of WWI, the Papacy lacked the prestige of bygone eras; Benedict was excluded from peace negotiations. During the last years of his Pontificate he implemented the administrative modifications within the Church brought about by geopolitical changes of the Treaty of Versailles. During his Papacy official relations with France resumed, and a British representative to the Vatican was recognized, the first since the 17th Century.
Upon his succession to the Papacy, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger chose Benedict XV as his namesake. He aspires, through the example of his Papal role model, to dedicate his Pontificate to reconciliation.
Unfortunately, the current Pope Benedict, rather than being the Good Shepherd of Catholics, and moral guide for many others has squandered his spiritual influence.
His anti-Islam remarks last week delivered at Regensburg University did not promote a spirit of reconciliation and religious tolerance. On the contrary, the quote of a 14th-century Byzantine emperor, “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 by the sword the faith he preached.†This, the Pope said, was contrary to God’s nature.
These remarks have been justly met with the religious uproar of the Islamic world and have ignited acts of violence aimed at Churches, caused the death of a nun and reports that the terrorist group al-Qaeda has vowed a war against “the worshippers of the cross.†This remark by Pope Benedict is the opposite message the Prelate delivered at a meeting of Christians and Muslims in Cologne soon after he assumed the Papacy. However, the Pontiff is wary of Islam as a global power and has encouraged moderates in their battle against radical Islam.
Moreover, Vatican insiders report six months into his Papacy and after his profession of moderation, the Pope called a two-day secret session on Islam. At this closed door meeting, the Pope told delegates that unlike Christianity, which distinguished (in Christ’s words) between “that which is God’s and that which is Caesar’s”, Islam sought to “integrate the laws of the Koran into all elements of social life”.
Whereas Jesus and the Gospels offered a model to follow, the Koran was imposed rigidly with “no distinction between civil and religious law”, he told the conference. Christianity could engage with Islam only as a “culture” and remind it to “respect human rights”, including the rights of Christian minorities in Muslim countries.
Remarks made last week were more in keeping with the secret session than the meeting of reconciliation held in Cologne.
Undoubtedly, the Pontiff knew his words would cause uproar in light of the furor over unflattering cartoons appearing in European newspapers of the Prophet Mohammed. Here, rather than a frontal assault, the Pope’s thinly veiled remarks a recount of a conversation on the truths of Christianity and Islam that took place between a 14th-century Byzantine Christian emperor, Manuel II Speleologist, and a Persian scholar, seemed to stray from the theme of Pope’s address “Reason & Faith in the West.†Newspapers throughout the Arab world have been critical of the Pope’s remarks characterizing it as “It was Provocative†a rather diminutive description based upon other pejorative reactions.
In another sign of a tougher policy toward Islam, Benedict abolished the Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, creating a new body of outreach to Egypt and the Arab League.
This obviously obtuse remark delivered by a Prelate well schooled in doctrine, dogma and theology of the Church was no mere oversight. They were included in this Papal message to support a long held belief by this Pontiff. Benedict, as the former head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, in Dominus lesus supported orthodoxy and doctrine of the Catholic faith claiming that other religions “objectively speaking…are in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the Church, have the fullness of the means of salvation.†The document deeply offended other Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists and proved a setback to the ecumenism advocated by of the Second Vatican Council.
Similar Papal flaps may be unavoidable. The Pope’s newly appointed Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone was Benedict’s second in command at his former post. Bertone lacks diplomatic experience. He has explained his new role has helping to spread the spiritual mission of the Church which he says transcends politics and diplomacy. Some Vatican insiders see in Cardinal Bertone a man of action, but wonder if he will have enough patience to occupy himself with the nuances of international affairs
This “orthodox doctrine†of faith had caused a deep rift between western-Catholicism and Vatican conservatism on social issues. However, this return to pre-Vatican II orthodoxy demonstrates the Church’s modification of evangelical mission to a more Third World episcopate where convention and “superstition†are more readily acceptable. The role of this pre-Vatican II Catholicism has increased with the growth of the Opus Dei Movement. (For a more see my upcoming essay, Deserted Catholic.)
The Pope’s current remarks and past writing, wary of Islam rising to the level of a global power seem in keeping with a world view held by the Church since the late 11th Century with the Papacy of Urban II. While Pope Benedict’s remarks do not rise to the level of a Holy War against the “infidels†it does bear a resemblance to the cries of a millennium ago. Bellicose rhetoric aimed at the Islamic World, particularly among fundamentalist, is just another destructive step in a contemporary clash of civilizations.
Pope Benedict’s visit to Turkey in November may ignite another controversy since the Pontiff in 2004 opposed that country’s admission into the EU. A top leader in Turkey’s ruling Islamic party said the Pope was following in the footsteps of Hitler and Mussolini. These two horrific appellations and the ideologies of death they represent have been used to liberally in our contemporary discourse.
However, in keeping with the namesake of his Papacy, Pope Benedict XVI, should be a source of reconciliation not a cause of conflict. His remarks last week seriously endanger the Pontiff’s ability to be a source of neutrality and moral authority. By his actions he may be casting the Vatican into an insignificant role in world affairs at a time when Christ’s teachings of peace, love and tolerance are sorely needed.
mike hunt
As a Christian, I am offended by Jesus being called a slaughtered monkey on a cross, maybe I should see if the rest of the congregation Sunday wants to go behead a muslim and video tape it then upload it to the internet as fear propaganda and then lobby politicians to force people not to speak badly of MY Prophet (Messiah). Or I could be a civilized Christian like the rest of the civilized Christian world and not do that. I find it hilarious that the muslims response to being called violent is to act out violently to prove they are not violent. These people are geniuses.