A Pope Speaks, The World Listens and Reacts

Benedict the XVI is not just the Head of the Catholic Church but also the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and as such meets with the ambassadors of nations with diplomatic relations with the Vatican. As of this moment, the Vatican has diplomatic relations with 178 countries as well as the European Union, The Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine. On Monday his Holiness addressed the diplomatic corps and pulled no punches. It was the regular annual address by the pope to the Vatican accredited emissaries and it centred on the issue of Religious Freedom, also the subject of the message for World Peace Day.

“The right to religious freedom is indeed the first of human rights, not only because it was historically the first to be recognized but also because it touches the constitutive dimension of man, his relation with his Creator. Yet is this fundamental right not all too often called into question or violated?”

He went on to speak of the attacks on Christians in the Middle East, the assault on Copts in Egypt, the horrid effects of Pakistan’s Blasphemy law, the stand-off between the Church and the Chinese Government, mandatory sex education programs in European schools and other instances of the failure to protect “the forms of religious expression [that] are so universal that one may call man a religious being.”

John Allen at the National Catholic Reporter has a nice analysis of the address, as does Cindy Wooden at the Catholic Herald.

Needless to say, the Pope’s words were heard around the world and not universally welcomed. Egypt immediately recalled its ambassador insisting that the Vatican was treading on territory that was forbidden, “Egypt will not allow any non-Egyptian faction to interfere in its internal affairs under any pretext. The Coptic question is specifically an internal Egyptian affair.” China is still quiet on Monday’s address but given its reaction to the Pope’s comments in December, it is unlikely to be pleased: “ We hope the Vatican can face the facts of China’s religious freedom and the development of Catholicism in China and take concrete actions to promote positive conditions for China-Vatican relations.” Pakistan officials, hours after the Pope’s comments made it clear what it thought: “Yousaf Raza Gillani, Prime Minister of Pakistan, announced here today that Pakistan Peoples Party PPP government have no intentions to repeal or revise blasphemy law.”

Oddly, or perhaps not so, while numerous European media outlets reported on and commented on the issues in the Middle East and Pakistan, most remained silent on the shot fired at European actions.