Pope: Stirring the hornet's nest
14-09-2006

Pope Benedict XVI has really no remit to speak about Mohammed and Islam in the manner he did. Why don't people who preside over mighty religious organisations turn the eye inward and look at the failings and foibles of their own faith? The reform impulse that Christianity has exhibited has always come from outside the church. Whether from the days of Martin Luther and Galileo, and down the ages, this has always been the case. The Roman Catholic church has also often failed to provide moral leadership in times of international crises as, for instance, when the Nazis cast their shadow over the world.
It would have been far more useful if the Pope had provided some clarity to issues that have long benighted society, especially Roman Catholic society, such as contraception, celibacy for priests, the relevance of a concept like 'intelligent design' , and so on. The Vatican needs to emerge as an institution willing to reform itself, rather than one providing spiritual ballast to the clash-of-civilisation-wallahs.

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