Rapid Response

Rapid Response January 17, 2008

‘The recent protests of Pope Benedict’s planned address to the Roman university La Sapienza demonstrate, yet again, what happens when you open your mind so much that your brains fall out.

The protestors referenced a quote that Pope Benedict cited in a speech in 1990 The quote was from the philosopher Feyerbend, justifying the Church’s actions against Galileo. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to read beyond the quote or they would have seen that he distanced himself from it. Nevertheless, they were in rapid response mode and decided that they would not engage with one of the greatest thinkers of our time. The pope decided to forgo the visit to the university and sent the text of his speech. In this speech, too, he embraces authentic dialogue and shuns the idea that he has any right to tell them what to think. Hmmm…he’s a true intellectual. Fortunately, the protesters only represent a minority of the students and another group of students staged a sort of counter protest by showing up at the Pope’s Wednesday Audience in a gesture of solidarity with him. There’s been a lot of good commentary. Here are some links:

John Allen, expert Vaticanista: http://ncrcafe.org/node/1542

Catholic News Service: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0800287.htm

In the blogoshere:

Curt Jester: http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/archives/008627.php

The Cafeteris Is Closed: http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com/2008/01/roman-students-visit-pope.html


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