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Who is Joseph Ratzinger?
You’re the Pope of the Catholic Church, the Bishop of Rome, a successor to the chair of St. Peter, your words are followed more than those of any other man on the planet with the possible exception of the President of the United States. You’re addressing one of the most important issues of our time, the clash between Islam and the non-Muslim world. You make what sounds like the most carefully considered statement about the arbitrary will and the spiritual violence that reside at the heart of Islam. The world is fascinated, intellectuals and journalists in every country analyze and explain what you have said, millions of people in the West are roused to a new hope that the Catholic Church, after decades of dhimmitude (that is, self-imposed mental dhimmitude), is finally speaking the truth about this grave threat. And then, with a flick of the wrist and a winsome smile, you come out with a different statement expressing your total approval, respect, and esteem for the religion of Islam, essentially canceling out your earlier statement. My question for you is: Who are you? Are you the most important religious figure in the world, whose words carry a unique authority and must be chosen carefully, or are you a vain and feckless academic, enjoying the play (dare I say the jouissance?) of ever-changing ideas and perspectives, the indeterminability of all language? At the moment, the answer clearly seems to be the latter.
(If readers feel my indignation is inordinate, in a later entry I demonstrate how the pope has totally contradicted himself.) Email entry |