The Black Madonna

The Holy Father is looking for ways.

By now you must have heard that Benedict "insulted Islam". But you probably haven't heard anyone ask why he did, nevermind gotten an answer to that question. Here's one:

I repeat the question I posed yesterday: what did the Pope intend to achieve by saying what he said? Tucked away in Jon Meacham’s predictable isn’t-there-enough-religious-anger critique for Newsweek lies this passage:

[W]hy did Benedict quote the emperor in the first place? The most likely answer is that, no matter what the Vatican says now, the pope believes in having what the Catholic theologian and papal biographer George Weigel calls “a hard-headed conversation” about the role of faith in the life of the world. “He knew exactly what he was doing,” says Weigel. “He is saying that irrational violence is displeasing to God. The question Benedict is putting on the table is: ‘Does a significant part of Islam have the capacity to be self-critical?’”

Precisely. And in choosing to do so in such blunt terms, he’s injected himself into the central cultural conflict of the age. For this week, at least, the papacy is relevant to non-Catholics (and many Catholics, too) in ways it hasn’t been in years. He’s risking life and limb, but it’s a brilliant political maneuver.

Remember that our dear Father Ratzinger was a theologian before he became the Vicar of Christ. And so while it is very possible for him to take the role of the pastoral shepherd and spiritual advisor (roles so preferred by John Paul the Great, many of us may have forgotten that's not always what a pope is about), Benedict is probably quite a bit more proficient in identifying the temporal needs of the physical church and her people right now.

John Paul - Great though he was - was no longer prepared to arm the Church to defend herself. The former anti-Nazi Polish partisan had guided us to the end of the Cold War, and upon the triumph of Our Lady of Victory, had turned his - and our - reflections inward. The champion of peace through strength began preaching the gospel of the strength of inner peace.

Benedict is not burdened by 25 years of the papacy growing to envelop him. He saw the devastation of 9/11, the bloody conflicts perpetuating the War on Terror, and the hopeful message of freedom offered by the President in his second inaugural as a member of the curia and not as a pontiff. He has watched as Islamic radicals have blown up mosques and burned churches. He may be willing to risk martyrdom, but may not be fond of the idea of allowing Islamofascism to establish an empire through which it can oppress - and more importantly, defile - the entire Church. And in order for him to justify the offering to Caesar what belongs to him, he has to clearly establish the credentials of the enemy as enemy of the whole Church and the freedom-loving States entrusted with the defense of Her people.

I suspect this is just a beginning.

UPDATES: Kathy is all over the story. (scroll back for earlier posts)

Rod Dreher takes on the Left, and it's sometimes non-reaction, sometimes anti-Catholic response.

Fr. Raymond J. de Souza defends the Holy Father.