Reason and the sword

Our views as Catholics regarding the repercussions surrounding our Holy Father’s address at the University of Regensburg, Germany last September 12, 2006 may not of course be as objective in the eyes of our Muslim brethren. But I still hope that they can take a second hard look at what the Pope really said before denouncing it with threats of a Jihad and before violently rising up in anger. With no offense meant and without sounding so righteous or appearing to have an exclusive insight on what is right and what is wrong, I sincerely think that some Muslims are over-reacting this time. If they think they are attracting converts to their religion by such kind of attitude they have to think again.

To a man with simple but deep faith in God and a simple mind shorn of any malice, the Pope’s Regensburg address is not controversial at all or in any way damaging to Muslims and the Islamic religion. The main theme of the Pontiff’s address is simply about "faith and reason". He has high regards for Muslims as adoring "the one God living and subsisting in Himself merciful and all powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, Who has spoken to men". And he just reminds the gathering at Regensburg that the "truly divine God is the God who has revealed himself as logos (reason) and, as logos, has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. Certainly, love transcends knowledge and is thereby capable of perceiving more than thought alone (cf Ephesians 3:19); nonetheless it continues to be love of the God who is logos. Consequently, Christian worship is logic latreia-worship in harmony with the eternal Word and with our reason (cf Romans 12:1)".

It is in expounding on the nature of the God we all adore (Muslims included) that the Pope recalled certain parts of the dialogue written by Professor Theodore Khoury which occurred sometime in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara between Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam and the truth regarding them. The core of that dialogue cited by the Pope centered more on God’s nature as being incompatible with violence; that "God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably (syn logo) is contrary to God’s nature..." Thus according to the good Pope, the "decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature". To my mind this is the universal truth that man of every race, color or creed must realize and accept now despite past misconceptions and actions to the contrary. And this is the simple message of the Pope at Regensburg.

I would suggest that our Muslim brethren should consider the whole context of the address in this light rather than pick out some passages in it and give them meaning different from what the Pope intended. Obviously they have been offended by Pope’s reference to the seventh conversation where the emperor touches on the theme of the jihad (holy war). Often quoted in news reports as precipitating the Muslims’ violent reactions, threats of jihad and effigy burning is that question brusquely asked by the Emperor of his Persian interlocutor as follows: "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".

I think our Muslim brethren should not begrudge the Pope for such marginal question and answer coming from a medieval emperor that was merely quoted in passing as part of academic discussion. Indeed the Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. has aptly explained that "the Holy Father did not mean, nor does he mean, to make that opinion his own in any way. He simply used it as a means to undertake — in an academic context, and as is evident from a complete and attentive reading of the text — certain reflections on the theme of relationship between religion and violence in general, and to conclude with a clear and radical rejection of the religious motivation of violence, from whatever side it may come". In further explaining what the Pope really wanted to convey Cardinal Bertone cited the Pontiff’s recent commemorative Message for the 20th anniversary of the Inter-Religious Meeting of Prayer for Peace where he affirmed that, "demonstrations of violence cannot be attributed to religion as such but to the cultural limitations with which it is lived and develops in time. In fact attestations of the close bond that exists between the relationship with God and the ethics of love are recorded in all great religious traditions".

I thought that there was no need for an apology from the Holy Father. But when I learned that he nevertheless expressed his sincere and deep regrets that certain passages from his address could have sounded offensive to the sensitivities of the Muslim faithful, I became more convinced that truly, our Holy Father is the Vicar of Christ on earth. By extending the hand of compassion and manifesting the face of humility, Pope Benedict XVI all the more confirmed that he is the embodiment of Christ-reflecting so vividly Christ’s own words and actions when He walked this earth more than 2000 years ago. Now I am prouder of my Catholic Faith and I resolve to pray more for our Pope.

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