There is in interesting discussion at Paolo Rodari's excellent blog Palazzo Apostolico.it.After reporting on the Pope's decision not to visit Rome's La Sapienza university (see BBC uncritical of manufactured outrage), Rodari put up a one line post:Io, se fossi stato nei panni del Papa, sarei andato.In the ensuing combox discussion, one commenter pointed out the propaganda value to the secularists of a young student being bashed by the riot police for protesting against the Pope.
If I had been in the Pope's shoes, I would have gone.
It seems that the Pope's decision to cancel the visit was the right one. Rodari himself has a thoughtful post with some inside information on how and why the visit was cancelled - Cardinal Bertone and Cardinal Ruini both advised the Holy Father on this, and one important reason was that a confrontation with the Pope within the confines of Rome's largest public university "would not be a pretty sight."
In addition, the cancellation of the visit has in fact brought a fair amount of support for the Pope as Zadok the Roman reports:
Mainstream political opinion in Italy is almost entirely in support of the Pope with reference to the whole Sapienza debacle. Even those who do not agree with him see this as a defeat for the principle of free speech. Amongst ordinary Italians there tends to be an attitude of great embarrassment that the Pope seems to be more welcome in Turkey than he is in the country's largest university. Some of the signatories of the notorious letter which opposed the Pope's attendance are also trying to nuance their position. They claim that the letter should have been private and that it was 'used' by the protesters in a way that was not intended. The rector of the university is speaking of a 'defeat for reason and secularism.'The Reuters photo (above) shows students at this morning's General Audience with a banner that reads "If Benedict doesn't go to the Sapienza, the Sapienza goes to Benedict". Cardinal Ruini has encouraged the people of Rome to give a big show of support for the Holy Father by turning out in large numbers for this Sunday's Angelus. I look forward to the photos of that!
3 comments:
It was a difficult decision, and in the light of the overwhelming media reaction, probably the right one. I had, subject to credible threats to the Holy Father's physical safety, shared Paolo Rodari's initial opinion and so commented yesterday on Fr Z's blog.
Father Tim's and Zadok's excellent reports from Italian media notwithstanding, I am experiencing fustration at the inability of my lame tourist-Italian to cope with anything above the Janet and John level in the Italian media. Does anyone know of a simple and reliable tool which would allow me to translate foreigh language ewb pages into English?
In light of the further and more in-depth articles it would appear that the Pope's decision to stay away was the correct one. It would also appear to be a vindication of his 'right' to speak. I have to admit total suprise that the BBC have reported the fallout of the issue (albeit with an undeniably grudgin tone - or am I just looking for it too hard) "What is interesting is that the anti-Pope protests seem, in some ways, to have backfired."
And what great joy to hear that many of the signatories are back -pedalling as fast as they can. More and more it seems your insightful initial analysis was spot on - this was nothing more than a "manafactured secularist outrage".
Andrew
I couldn`t disagree more. The decision, from the Italian commentator, is based upon the presumption that the media would film riot police bashing secularists over the head. So what. Since when has overwhelming media reaction prevented The Church from speaking the truth. I do wonder if His Holiness's Regensburg lecture was happening NOW instead of a couple of years back, whether he would still go ahead. Scary. Wrong decision, sorry. The media are not judge and jury here. Thank God some of our English and Welsh saints did not worry about "media reaction" when they stood up for the truth.
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