When I posted above, I hadn't found the remark in full context - all I'd seen is what other people said about it. Freightdawg is correct in suggesting I should have done my homework a bit more thoroughly. The entire text of the lecture is here (click) at the Vatican Website. It seems clear from the text of the lecture that he had no intent whatsoever to slander Islam. In fact, it seems to me that the Pope was making a good attempt to explore and explain the difference between Islamic thinking and the Greek thinking that has dominated Christianity since its inception. Greek thinking sees God as bound by reason. To Muslims, God is "absolutely transcendent, [whose] will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality." The Pope seems to indicate that it may be time to move away from the pigeonholes of Hellenistic thought and explore the Christian faith from different perspectives. In the end, though, Benedict concludes that it would be foolhardy to completely divorce the Christian faith from Greek thinking, since the New Testament itself was written in Greek. However, he speaks of a "genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today." All in all, it was a balanced, thorough exploration of the philosophical underpinnings of religion. I'm sure there are valid reasons to disagree with his conclusions, but I certainly don't see any intent to slander Islam in this lecture.


I suppose it may be a hopeless endeavor for an intellectual Pope to attempt to speak intelligently in a world of sound bites and propaganda. The previous Pope was very good at sound bites and photo opportunities, and that made him very popular - but he didn't really have much to say that was satisfying to the intelligence. John Paul wrote extensively, but his writing wasn't particularly scholarly. He was wordy and stilted, and tended to spend a fair amount of time quoting his own previous statements. But he WAS good at sound bites.

I think it was proper for the pope to express regret at the response to his statement - but I don't believe he has any reason to apologize for what he said in the lecture.

---

Here's an Associate Press story about the murder of a nun in Somalia. The murder may or may not be associated with reaction to the pope's statement.

Catholic nun forgave killers as she lay dying
Sep. 19, 2006. 01:00 AM
ANTHONY MITCHELL
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NAIROBI, Kenya—Sister Leonella, a Catholic nun who devoted her life to helping the sick in Africa, used to joke there was a bullet with her name engraved on it in Somalia. When the bullet came, she used her last breaths to forgive those responsible.

"I forgive, I forgive," she whispered in her native Italian just before she died Sunday in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, Rev. Maloba Wesonga said at her memorial mass in Nairobi yesterday.

Sister Leonella's slaying, outside the hospital where she worked, raised concerns she and other foreigners killed in Somalia recently are victims of growing Islamic radicalism in the Horn of Africa country, where a hardline Muslim militia has been expanding its reach.

The shooting was not a random attack and could have been sparked by Muslim anger over recent remarks by Pope Benedict linking Islam and violence, said Willy Huber, regional head of the Austrian-financed hospital where the nun worked.

Several Somalis who witnessed Sunday's attack by two gunmen also speculated the killing was related to the Pope. But Abdurahman Mohamed Farah, deputy leader of the Islamic militia, disputed that, blaming it instead on Somali warlords.

Sister Leonella, whose birth name was Rosa Sgorbati, had lived and worked in Kenya and Somalia for 38 years.