A Pilgrim’s Lack of Progress

It was nice that Pope Benedict XVI visited a mosque in Jordan and professed his “deep respect” for Islam. I’m glad he’s going to Yad Vashem, the profoundly moving memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. But overall, I’ve been underwhelmed so far by this papal pilgrimage to the Middle East–only the second such [...]

Why The Pope Can’t Help Middle Eastern Christians

Ever since the year 1204 AD, when the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade sacked the Christian city of Constantinople instead of “liberating” Jerusalem from Muslim rule, Christians in the Middle East have been understandably wary of emissaries of Rome. Today, as Christians in the Middle East prepare for the arrival of Pope Benedict on his [...]

The off-message pontiff

If there is one leader on earth who ought to be sending out clear and unequivocal messages, then it is surely the pope. Yet, once again, the signals from Benedict and the Vatican this week have been oddly confusing. In his written clarification of the pope’s remarks aboard the plane taking him to Africa, his spokesman, Father [...]

Pope stirs up Jewish fury over bishop

“The Vatican is reinstating a British priest who denies millions died at the hands of the Nazis. - Tension between the Vatican and Jewish groups looked set to explode yesterday after Pope Benedict XVI rehabilitated a British bishop who has claimed no Jews died in gas chambers during the second world war.” > more.
picture: uzvards,flickr.com

Pope Addresses Secularism in France

“PARIS — In his first visit to France as pope on Friday, Benedict XVI touched on central themes of his papacy — the tensions between faith and reason and church and state, as well as his efforts to reach out to Muslims and Jews — and urged an increasingly irreligious Europe to look back to its intellectual roots [...]