Pope's Comments on his Regensburg Lecture

Here is Pope Benedict's comments regarding the uproar many Muslims have created by their angry and violent responses to his lecture in Regensburg:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The pastoral visit which I recently made to Bavaria was a deep spiritual experience, bringing together personal memories linked to places well known to me and pastoral initiatives towards an effective proclamation of the Gospel for today.

I thank God for the interior joy which he made possible, and I am also grateful to all those who worked hard for the success of this pastoral visit. As is the custom, I will speak more of this during next Wednesday's general audience.

At this time, I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims.

These in fact were a quotation from a Medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought.

Yesterday, the Cardinal Secretary of State published a statement in this regard in which he explained the true meaning of my words. I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect.

That is a reasonable statement.  We'll see how many Islamic critics that satisfies. The problem is not with the pope's remarks but with the people who reacted so violently to them. Those people claim Islam has been insulted as a violent, intolerant religion, and then proceed to demonstrate their violent and intolerant interpretation of it by their reactions.

Shall we hear apologies from the Islamic world for some of its people's violent reactions?

Comments

[Ed Peters]

Gee, I'm having trouble squaring this actual statement with the universal secular press headlines saying B16 is "deeply sorry" for his remarks. I see B16 saying, "I'm sorry you guys got so ticked off." that's not the same thing as saying, "I'm sorry I said what I said." Personally, I would leave the word "sorry" out of it, but...

I am reminded of an episode: "Eddie, don't call other people stupid! Now, say you're sorry to Johnny."

Eddie: "Ok. Johnny, I am sorry you're so stupid."

[Fr. Stephanos, O.S.B.]

I listened to the video of this. When the pope said "a Medieval text" some in the crowd began to cheer.

[Mark Brumley]

Greg Burke, on FOX News, said he thought B 16's comment would be better translated "saddened" rather than "sorry". "I am deeply saddened ..." The Vatican doesn't have the Italian text up yet and I don't have time to go through the Italian press to see if it's available. We'll see. In any case, your point stands.

This incident can be summarized: The pope says reason and religion must go together for each to be able to remain true to itself. Some Muslims object and throw a fit, thus proving the pope right.

[Fr. Stephanos, O.S.B.]

Here's the Italian text that I transcribed from the video, plus my translation.

http://monkallover.blogspot.com/2006/09/message-of-pope-1202-pm-on-sunday-17.html

Mark, the Italian "rammaricato" can mean saddened. However, Italian also uses it as an expresssion of "sorry". In English, "sorrow" (sadness) and "sorry" are cognates.

[Ed Peters]

Ah, the confusion goes on. I've never liked it when people say, "I'm sorry your friend died." What does that mean? Maybe better, I feel sorrow that your friend died. But sorry, and sorrow, are not identical. thx folks.

[Mark Brumley]

Sorry, Ed.

[Fr. Stephanos, O.S.B.]

Whatever the sorry/sorrowful/sad case may be ...
the pope said he is "rammaricato" only about the feelings of Muslims.

He did not say he was "rammaricato" for his words.
.

[Mark Brumley]

Not sorry to hear that, Fr. Stephanos.

[Salome]

Western-Islamic dialogue is impossible not only while the West refuses to include faith within reason, but also while the Muslims refuse to include reason within faith. Of course, in Regensburg the Pope quite appropriately emphasised the former point. Let's hope some enlightened imam has the courage to make the latter point to his people.

[Mark Brumley]

Unless "moderate" Muslims emerge publically and begin to condemn at the top of their lungs the violence we have seen in response to Benedict XVI's remarks, there is simply no hope for a peaceful resolution.

The West may go down to defeat as a result of a variety of factors, including its obsession with PC vis-a-vis Islam. Or the West may wake up and begin to defend itself and demand that Islam play by the same rules the West has to play by or suffer the consequences.

Neither outcome is what most of us would prefer. We would prefer a moderate voice within Islam to begin to do something to affect change in the Muslim world. But right now there seems little prospect for that.

We can all hope and pray for it. We can all try to pursue "dialogue" and hope we can persuade some Muslims to be fair and just in their dealings with Christians in their domains--i.e., Benedict's apparent emphasis on reciprocity. Yet no one should be naive about the likelihood of success. It's looking more and more as if Belloc was right. Too bad.

[Jackson]

"The word 'dialogue' has come to mean, not an honorable pursuit of truth to be reached in judgments, but rather an endless altercation based on the proposition that there is no truth. It is politically incorrect to claim that there is. The powers of the democratic state come more and more to enforce the proposition that there can be no truth, especially about how we ought to live."

-James V. Schall, "Is Heresy Heretical?"

[Plato's Stepchild]

You know, with the breathless reaction on the part of MSM to get another scoop as they take down the grievances of the perpetually aggrieved, you would have thought Papa Benedito opened at a swanky British Nightclub and began wailing GK Chesterton's Lepanto from the rooftops.

Crikey.

[Rhadagast]

I believe it is the right time for the Pope to authorize the return of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, also known as the Knights Templar. That should put the fear of God back into the issue.

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