Though not Roman Catholic myself, I maintain great respect for Pope Benedict XVI. His grasp of the modern world and the European situation impresses almost all observers. I suspect he is the right Pope at the right time. I learned from today's New York Times that the Pope will turn 80 on April 16th. From the article:
Benedict is one of the most intellectual men ever to serve as pope — and surely one of the most intellectual of current world leaders — and he has pinpointed the problem of the age, as well as its solution, at the level of philosophy. His argument, elaborated in the years leading up to
his election and continuing through his daily speeches and pronouncements, reduces to something like this: Secularism may be one of the great developments in history, but the secularism that holds sway in much of the West — that is, in Western Europe — is flawed; it has a bug in its programming. The mistaken conviction that reason and faith are two distinct realms has weakened Europe and has brought it to the verge of catastrophic collapse. As he said in a speech in 2004: “There exist pathologies in religion that are extremely dangerous and that make it necessary to see the divine light of reason as a ‘controlling organ.’ . . . However . . . there are also pathologies of reason . . . there is a hubris of reason that is no less dangerous.”
This is a long, informative article. It touches not only on the Pope, but also post-Christian Europe. It is well worth reading. (HT: See-Dubya)
** Update 4/10/07 - Michael Novak finds things not to like about Pope Benedict's Easter talk:
Benedict XVI's Easter Sunday remarks in St Peter Square hit a low point, I would think. He said that "nothing positive comes from Iraq." This is a very skewed report on the realities on the ground. (more)
Read Novak's comments for his critique of the Vatican's perspective on American engagement in Iraq.