The types of momentos for sale in Gaza. The twin towers - aflame - are at the mullah's feet. He is holding the Pentagon.
December 4, 2006
Posted Monday, Dec. 04, 2006
A two-way Roman truism says that every new Pope changes the papacy, and the papacy changes every new Pope. In the case of Benedict XVI, a casual observer might wonder if the man who once was an iron-clad Cardinal has recently gone soft. Back in September, Benedict broke fresh ground for his ancient office by delivering an intellectually charged — and baldly controversial — lecture on faith, reason and violence. It was the young papacy's quintessential Ratzinger moment, as the 79-year-old professor-turned-pope returned to his old university in Regensburg to draw a theological line in the sand that set off a worldwide debate about how Islam and the West should talk to each other. Yet last week, that same man, who as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was famous for his doctrinal rigidity, was in Turkey doing and saying things on the same issue, Islam, that few could have ever imagined.
What's more, after his return to Rome, word came over the weekend that Benedict's pick to take over the Vatican office for the clergy, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, had opened the door to a future discussion on celibacy in the priesthood. This came just weeks after the Pope held a meeting with Vatican cardinals that explicitly reaffirmed the Roman Church's longstanding ban on married clergy.
Is the Pope flip-flopping on Islam and celibacy? A closer look simply shows a world religious leader wading through our troubled times with all the skills, limitations and serendipity that come with being human. An analysis of his past week may offer clues to where the papacy is headed...
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