Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Problem With Infallibility

When Pope Benedict quoted that 12th Century Byzantine emperor he made a mistake. As top diplomat for over a billion Catholics he should have chosen his words more prudently. It happens. He is, after all, only human. Humans make mistakes and they apologize.

Unfortunately, the Pope is annointed by God; he is supposed to be infallible. The best Benedict could manage was to express sorrow at the reaction to his talk. If I accidently hit you in the nose, I say "I'm sorry." I don't say, "I'm sorry you're still crying because I hit you."

That last one doesn't cut it. It lacks compassion. It's not good, being a Pope without compassion.

5 comments:

Duchess Of Austin said...

Uh, 'scuse me, but don't you find it a bit ironic that the Muslims are using violence (firebombing churches, killing nuns, etc.) and threats of violence (calling for the Pope's assassination) to show that their religion isn't violent?

What are you? Nuts? The Pope should have been MORE direct, instead of quoting a long dead Byzantine emperor (who, by the way was a Dhimmi) and just said it outright that the Muslims are MURDERERS, and the RoP has no more in common with peace than apples have anything in common with straightjackets.

knighterrant said...

The Muslim overreaction is extreme beyond any bounds of reason. Their "You dissed me, I'll kill you" reaction screams an immense inferiority complex probably brought about by immense inferiority.

The Pope is more than just a spiritual leader, more than just the Vicar of Christ. He is the Catholic ambassador to the world. That position requires political discretion and admitting error when that is the politic thing to do.

Cowboy diplomacy ill serves a Pope as badly as it does an American President.

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El Mas Chingón said...

The Pope was out of line. Duchess, we have extremists Christians who use violence to enforce their ideology on those who oppose them. Just ask anyone who works at an abortion clinic.

Knighterrant, I've changed my blog title and location (GFAFC) so you might want to update your blogroll. Thanks.

El Mas Chingón said...

I suppose you've never heard of the Jesus Camp video. Check it out on YouTube and tell me Chrisitanity doesn't have its own subset of lunatics that misinterpret the Bible's teachings.