Word: visitations
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...cereal and somehow pull out what looked to be a medium rare filet mignon 45 seconds later. I’m jealous that you’re even allowed to use the microwave, a device that my parents have banned me from operating ever since the firemen had to visit my house in 9th grade...
...means sometimes letting yourself be moved. Benedict's late decision to accept an invitation to the Blue Mosque meant Vatican aides and their Muslim hosts would need to work out in advance the basic details of the encounter. Several hours beforehand, word had spread that last Thursday's televised visit would include a moment for silent prayer or reflection. Still, when Istanbul's top cleric, Mustafa Cagrici, told the Pope it was time for a "moment of serenity," Benedict looked for an instant as if he'd been caught off guard. It may well have been that Cagrici had just...
...didn't change much that Church officials insisted that it was a "personal" prayer, unrelated to any Christian liturgy, while Turkish newspapers proclaimed the Pope "prayed like a Muslim." The mosque visit will go down as a watershed in a papacy that just two months earlier had nearly drowned in a speech critical of Islam. Benedict, long doubtful of different faiths praying together, got lost in the moment. Don't expect such papal adventures to happen often in the future, but as an old Italian Vatican hand put it last week: "Traveling changes people...
...Turkey trip will be hailed as a great success of Vatican diplomacy, and the Holy See's new Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, can take a chunk of the credit. The softer tones on Islam, the visit to the mosque, openly warm exchanges with Benedict's Orthodox counterpart, the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I - and no major glitches - means the Pope returns to Rome with a new dose of what he sorely needed when he left: consensus. The Regensburg speech, and the risk it might incite violence, divided many Catholics - even those who may have instinctively agreed with...
...total of Benedict's speech in Regensburg and his visit to the mosque is that he is relevant on the Islam-and-the-West debate. But how can he stay relevant? Most Church insiders agree that ultimately this Pope's greatest gift is his intellect rather than his showmanship. This means that his next big act on Islam will likely be with words rather than gestures. But no one in Vatican circles I've spoken with can imagine how he can pick back up where he left off in Regensburg, directly questioning the historical and philosophical foundations of Islam, without...