Word: pope
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...Benedict's three-year reign. The six-day visit to the United States - which includes a White House visit, an address at the United Nations and a prayer at Ground Zero - may be the best opportunity for the theologian pontiff to define his leadership in international relations. "The Pope per se is simply the custodian of the Catholic tradition," says a senior Vatican official. "He can become a global leader if he manages to embody a battle of ideals that is present in the world...
...almost certain that the Pope will not chide Bush for his decision to invade Iraq, but rather focus - as he did in their Vatican meeting last year - on how to improve the lives of Iraqis, notably the increasingly persecuted Christian minorities. A resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict also remains a priority of the Pope, who wants to see sustained American involvement in negotiations...
...what he sees as the pivotal duality of reason and faith. The Sep. 12, 2006 speech questioned whether Islam's notion of God transcends, and could even defy, reason. If it did, he suggested, it could help explain the spread of Islamist violence in the name of God. The Pope's speech was provocative, and perhaps a necessary dose of high-level theology in the post-9/11 world. But it also provided evidence of his political naivete: Benedict cited an insulting statement by a 14th century Byzantine emperor about the prophet Muhammed. He later clarified that...
...speech, and the violence it provoked from some corners of the Muslim world, became a watershed moment in Benedict's papacy. And though the Pope clearly wanted to speak out about Islamic-inspired violence, Vatican officials pointed out that the Pope's other aim in the Regensberg speech was to challenge the West to rediscover its own religious roots. This twin clarion call - to Christians who have lost their religious passion and Muslims who may have too much - was supposed to create a "more frank" dialogue among the world's two leading faiths. After the uproar quieted, there has indeed...
...approach to Islam, the Church, after years of diplomatic niceties, has made clear that freedom of religion is non-negotiable - for example, that Christians should be free to practice their faith in an unhindered manner in Islamic states. Still, missteps have continued on this and other fronts, including the Pope's high-profile conversion baptism on Easter eve of a controversial Egyptian-born Italian Muslim. The point the Pope wanted to make - that all should be free to change their religion - was again overshadowed by polemic...