Rereading Regensburg

The National Review Online ^ | 1/17/15

[marshmallow]

Questions that need to be asked about Islam were asked by Pope Benedict nearly ten years ago.

On a plane ride between Sri Lanka and the Philippines this week, Pope Francis made headlines while talking with reporters about the moral limits to free expression. The issue came up, of course, in the wake of the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in France, which Pope Francis has strongly condemned. The attacks in Paris — including one at a kosher deli — along with the slaughter that Boko Haram inflicts in Nigeria, the terrorist attack in the Lindt café in Sydney before Christmas, and so much other violence inflicted in the name of Islam brings to mind the famous/infamous address that Pope Benedict XVI delivered at the University of Regensburg in 2006, where he raised questions about faith and reason and Islam, which of course drew ire. Samuel Gregg is research director at the Acton Institute and author of Becoming Europe and has written about both the address and the future of Europe. He talks with National Review Online about faith, reason, Regensburg, and violence in the name of Islam. — KJL

Kathryn Jean Lopez: What do you make of the controversy over Pope Francis’s comments, on the plane ride to the Philippines, about free expression?

Samuel Gregg: The context, of course, was his remarks about the unacceptability of violence in the name of religion. The pope affirmed that such violence is indeed unacceptable. Pope Francis also indicated that he thinks freedom of expression is essential. The difficulty, to my mind, surrounds his comments that freedom of expression cannot be a basis for offending other people with regard to religious matters. We all know that freedom of expression isn’t absolute. There are good reasons why we have laws.....

[piusv]

Let's not forget that Benedict apologized for his Regensburg comments:

I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims.

These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought. I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect.

[left that other site]

Though I am not a Catholic, I found pope Benedict’s remarks refreshing, and his apology disappointing.

Oh Well.

I do miss him, though.