Claridad moral

Más de los dichos del Papa, o atribuidos al Papa, o el libelo sobre el Papa, o la leyenda urbana sobre lo que el Papa habría dicho que pero que nunca dijo o no quiso decir (enviado por Monseñor Liberty Bell). Creo que nunca en mi vida me ocupé tanto de un dignatario de la Iglesia Católica. En cualquier momento le doy con el gusto a mi abuela y tomo la primera comunión.

Les digo honestamente que soy el primero en desear que tanto el Papa como Kissinger estén equivocados de cabo a rabo en sus apreciaciones. Porque si no lo están, tenemos problemas muy serios.

Any fair and careful reading of the pope's lecture must conclude that it was not an inadvertent insult to Islam. Rather it was a firm assertion that the Judeo-Christian God acts in accordance with reason (In the beginning was the logos — word and reason.), and thus Christians and Jews can undertake a rational debate about the morality of violence. He quotes, now famously, Emperor Manuel II's assertion in 1391 that Islam spreads its faith through violence — which, he says, is unreasonable and incompatible with the nature of God. He then cites an 11th-century Arab Muslim theologian, Ibn Hazn, who argued that Allah is transcendent of reason.

After criticizing secular Christians for not giving reason its proper place in understanding faith and God, he concludes his lecture by again quoting the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II on his same criticism of Islam. Then the pope finishes his lecture with the following words: "It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university."

In other words, he is inviting Islam to explain whether its God is like ours — inherently understandable by reason (and thus, is their God opposed to violence, as ours is?)

He was also, I strongly suspect, speaking to his own flock, both to return to proper Christianity and to consider the nature of Islam. And, I suspect, the pope did not inadvertently quote the now inflammatory passage. If he had not included that quote, the world would not now be debating his lecture. While the pope surely did not want to see violence, he just as surely wanted to engage the world in this vital search for clarity.

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