Just in: The Pope believes in Jesus Christ!

This is a nice birthday present: learning that Pope Benedict XVI is a devout believer in Jesus Christ. The news is provided by The Baltimore Sun, which seems somewhat put out by the revelation:

In his three years as spiritual leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI has alienated other Christians with his repeated assertion that his is the one true church. A 2006 address in which he quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who linked Islam and violence set off riots in Muslim countries. And Jews continue to protest his endorsement of a prayer for their conversion.

To some Catholics, those are the forthright moves of a stalwart defender of the faith. But critics, inside the church and out, say his words and actions may be complicating already delicate relations with other religions.

"He has a very, very high Christology, which is to say there is only one way to God, and that is through Jesus Christ. And the only path to Jesus Christ is the Roman Catholic Church, " said Catholic scholar Rosann Catalano, associate director of the Institute for Christian and Jewish Studies in Baltimore. "If that's your starting point, it seems to me, there is not an openness to the possibility that the other - the one who is not you - can be a blessing."

Terry Mattingly of GetReligion takes the article to task and asks:

It’s amazing, to me, that there are journalists and other public critics who are convinced that Benedict needs to slash away at the doctrines of his faith, yet they would freak out if he made the same demands of the leaders of other world religions.

Yes, but that's only because other religious leaders write endlessly about what and why they believe what they do (as well as travel and gives talks about the same), while Benedict XVI is an authoritarian, rigid, dogmatic, judgmental man who hides in a cave and issues hate-filled rants aimed at those who don't submit to his beliefs. Oops, sorry, I may be confusing him with someone else.

But, seriously, a big part of the problem is a skewed, lacking understanding of authentic tolerance and respect. Benedict believes that vibrant Christian faith informs tolerance, while an attitude of indifference, based in relativism, eventually leads to forms of intolerance €”precisely because it rejects the possibility of knowing what is true, good, and right. Why is this so hard for some people to understand? Because if you don't think anything is objectively true, good, and right, you must base your tolerance upon subjective, shifting elements, which are usually motivated by immediate political and ideological concerns.

Comments

[Mark Brumley]

I am all for the media becoming more tolerant of Catholicism. However, I think the place for the media to begin is with becoming more accurate when it comes to presenting Catholic teaching. If some tendentious or ill-informed person, even someone who is supposedly a theologian, falsely characterizes Catholic teaching, reporters should be sufficiently informed to be able to detect the characterization and report on it. As things stand, many reporters are incompetent when it comes to religion, especially Catholicism. Whatever problems with their stories there are that can be attributed to malice or an agenda, there are many more that are the result of sheer incompetence.

[Augustine II]

Exactly. The incompetence I've heard during the last few days on FOX, CNN, MSNBC, and all the rest is stunning. Go beyond the political, and these people don't have a clue.

[MenTaLguY]

They aren't much better at the political either.