Papal evangelism

After noting the political import of the Pope’s recent speech (eg, its implicit warning against including Turks in the European Union – in which context the citation of Manuel II Paleologus, who spent his life fighting Turks, was particularly apt), David Nirenberg (TNR, October 9) concludes that Benedict XIV’s speech on faith and reason “disturbing, not only for Muslims but for adherents of other religions as well.” Nirenberg rightly notes that Benedict found not only Islam but Judaism and even Protestant Christianity deficient in their balance of faith and reason. As a result, the Pope’s claim to be inviting Muslims to dialogue cannot be accepted “without contradiction or hypocrisy.” After all, “What kind of invitation begins by denying its guests the qualifications for attendance at the part? The pope’s ‘invitation’ at Regensburg was not to a ‘dialogue of cultures’ at all. What he was advocating was a kind of conversion, or at least a convergence of all religions and cultures toward a logos that is explicitly characterized as Catholic and European.”

That seems exactly right. And one suspects the Pope is calling for conversion because he happens to believe the Catholic faith is true.