PAPAL POINT

PAPAL POINT


Inquirer
Last updated 05:55am (Mla time) 09/24/2006

Published on page A10 of the September 24, 2006 issue of the
Philippine Daily Inquirer




POPE BENEDICT XVI HAD INTENDED HIS SIX-DAY visit to his native Germany
to be a restful but meaningful homecoming. Like his great predecessor
who had been the first non-Italian in 400 years to become pope and who
had made a moving homecoming to his native Poland a year after his
election to the papacy in 1979, Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, had wanted to make his Bavarian visit a symbolic "return of
the native," a reaffirmation of the roots of his person and the roots
of the faith.

The visit turned out to be too meaningful for comfort; and it was
anything but restful. By quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor on
Islam�"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you
will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread
by the sword the faith he preached"�during a university address,
Benedict has riled Muslims and even some Christians and sparked a
global conflagration. Catholic churches and Catholics in Islamic
countries have been attacked.

The Pope has said he is "deeply sorry" (some linguists say the English
translation should have been "deeply saddened") that Muslims have been
offended by the quotation. He clarified that in no way does the
quotation reflect his opinion. He has also explained that his
university address has been misinterpreted and that he has a "deep
respect" for Islam.

In hindsight, the "misinterpretation" seems a "miscontextualization."
The quote from the emperor of Constantinople, Manuel II Paleologus,
consists of 32 words out of a text of more than 3,000 words (at least
in the English translation of the German original)!

To be sure, the overall text must balance and complement those 32
words, which everyone must be reminded is a quotation that merely
served to illustrate a point. And what was the point of the address?
It was about the rationality of faith, about the Hellenic or rational
influence on Christianity that makes of the religion a marriage of
faith and reason. Definitely the hysterical reaction in the Muslim
world and some sectors of Christianity is an ironic counterpoint to
what the Pope was trying to say in an eminently academic,
level-headed, and, yes, rational way.

But was the Pope irresponsible in using the controversial quotation?
However incendiary the import of the quotation, the Pope indicated he
did not share the opinion of the emperor about the evil and inhumanity
of Islam. But he indicated that the quotation from the "erudite"
emperor should show that rationality plays an essential role in the
faith, and this rationality is translated into peaceful resolution of
differences; in short, in dialogue.

That rationality is eminently dialogical and peaceful was demonstrated
by the fact that the Pope was delivering an address to his old
university of Regensburg. In fact, he opened his address to the
students and faculty with a fond recollection of those days in the
academe when "despite our specializations which at times make it
difficult to communicate with each other, we made up a whole, working
in everything on the basis of a single rationality with its various
aspects and sharing responsibility for the right use of reason."

And the dialogical rationality of the faith was also embodied by the
Pope's quotation of the emperor that was uttered in the context of a
discussion with a Persian scholar�and a Muslim at that!

The Pope, in fact, said that the remark about Islam as "evil and
inhuman" was delivered with "startling brusqueness." The severity of
the remark then was merely a dramatic flourish to what the emperor was
trying to point out:

"The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to
explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence
is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of
God and the nature of the soul. `God,' he says, `is not pleased by
blood�and not acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is
born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith
needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without
violence and threats.'"

The pre-eminent rationality of the faith, the Pope went on to expound,
must be maintained amid a Europe that has lost all sense of faith
because of extreme rationality and secularity. He said rational faith
is needed in the discussion with the great cultures and religions of
the world.

It is the tragedy of our time that a great address that exalts reason
and dialogue should be drowned in the din and blare of hatred and
irrationality.