Pendragon_6
09-28-2005, 02:00 PM
No nonsense Pope strikes again.
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The press, especially in Europe, characterized Pope Benedict’s Saturday address to Muslim leaders in Germany, as blunt. By recent Vatican standards, it perhaps was; but by any worldly standards, or even those of the Papacy in, say, the 15th century, it was quite understated. One thinks of the remarks made by Pius II (the great humanist), shortly after ascending the throne of St. Peter, in 1458. In particular, the bull, in which he announced a new Crusade, to check the advance on Europe of ye Infidel Turk. Now, that was blunt.
The question today is whether we have achieved any advance in relations between Muslim East and (formerly) Christian West, in the intervening centuries. Have the Muslims given up on their project of conquering Europe, or the Christians on reconquering the territories they lost to the Arabs in the 7th century of our era?
It is always worth looking at things on an historical scale larger than the one that can be fit on a newspaper’s front page. One of the advantages of having a Pope, is that we can expect him to think not only of the moment, the way conventional power politicians must think. Though of course, he must also think of the moment, as Pope Benedict was undoubtedly doing in Germany -- a country which, when he left it some years ago for Rome, did not yet have 3.5 million Muslims living in it.
In Full
David Warren Online (http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/index.php?artID=503)
__________________________________________________ ________________
The press, especially in Europe, characterized Pope Benedict’s Saturday address to Muslim leaders in Germany, as blunt. By recent Vatican standards, it perhaps was; but by any worldly standards, or even those of the Papacy in, say, the 15th century, it was quite understated. One thinks of the remarks made by Pius II (the great humanist), shortly after ascending the throne of St. Peter, in 1458. In particular, the bull, in which he announced a new Crusade, to check the advance on Europe of ye Infidel Turk. Now, that was blunt.
The question today is whether we have achieved any advance in relations between Muslim East and (formerly) Christian West, in the intervening centuries. Have the Muslims given up on their project of conquering Europe, or the Christians on reconquering the territories they lost to the Arabs in the 7th century of our era?
It is always worth looking at things on an historical scale larger than the one that can be fit on a newspaper’s front page. One of the advantages of having a Pope, is that we can expect him to think not only of the moment, the way conventional power politicians must think. Though of course, he must also think of the moment, as Pope Benedict was undoubtedly doing in Germany -- a country which, when he left it some years ago for Rome, did not yet have 3.5 million Muslims living in it.
In Full
David Warren Online (http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/index.php?artID=503)