He’s right to ask for this. He’s the Bishop of Rome, this is the gig. He has to uphold Church dogma, and he has to uphold the Church in what used to be called Christendom and is now called Europe, and he’s not supposed to just accept that the Church should now be excluded from the community of reason, from university culture and so on in its historic heartland. (Well, the surviving one of its three historic heartlands, the other two being Northern Africa and the Middle East.)

The boogy-man image of the Church, which he has to get past, is that it’s an agency of cruel intolerance and an enemy of free thought.

So he’s making it as clear as it be can that the Church aspires to be reasonable, and to interpret God as reasonable and as not commanding horrors, and he’s linking the Greek legacy of the Church, which he won’t give away, as tightly as he can to what is clearly desirable.

It’s natural for him to contrast this with what is less desirable, such as ostentatious and proud unreasonableness, ready resort to violence, forced conversions and so on. The implication is, wherever that suff comes from, it’s not from the Greek legacy that sees the divine as linked with and not altogether transcending reason – so there’s no reason to require the Church to let all that old stuff go as the price of taking its seat at the table.

The slight dig at Islam in passing was just part of the pitch: you know, in the intolerance stakes, you could do a lot worse than us. And Islam is such a poster boy for the things that Benedict XVI wants the Church to get credit for not being any more that it would be inhuman to expect him not to invite comparisons.

The Pope, making his pitch: Catholic theology is more reasonable.
Suspicious prospective customer: More reasonable than what?
The Pope, stanking on truth certified by current events: more reasonable than jihad.
Customer: OK, you got me there.

All this is fine it’s in his job description – and it’s very far from declaring war.

Benedict’s real foe in this speech was still a severe form of secularism that thinks the Church should be shunned and excluded. It’s for those adversaries he was arming his listeners with his new party line. (For example, on science assuming but not being able to properly explain a correspondence between minds and physical states.)

Because Benedict XVI is making a play for Europe – which as the Bishop of Rome he should, do not be shocked if on a lot of issues he continues to seem weak or silly. Don’t be surprised if he treats Israel and its wars unfairly, after the speech just as much as before it. Enlightened opinion in Europe requires that sort of stuff now: if you don’t agree, you’re an evil neocon pawn of the Jews or worse, and people won’t listen to you.

Benedict XVI needs people to listen to him. The position of the Church is serious. He knows this.

Deputy Sheriff said to me
Tell me what you come here for, boy.
You better get your bags and flee.
You’re in trouble boy,
And you’re heading into more.

CHORUS
It’s the same old story
Everywhere I go,
I get slandered,
Libeled,
I hear words I never heard
In the Bible
And I’m on step ahead of the shoe shine
Two steps away from the county line
Just trying to keep my customers satisfied,
Satisfied.

Evidently, Pope Eggs benedict is as spineless as most of our political leaders.

Sadly there are no Orianna Fallacis around to ask Mr Eggs the following question:

Who is an evil character in religion? Judas or Mohammed?