ReligionDispatches.org

As I followed Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the Middle East, I felt sorry for the poor man. He was trying his best to be nice to everyone without completely surrendering his dignity and his values and was yet getting consistently bad press. In his eight-day visit to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, the Pope underscored among many things the myth of Christian secularism. His trip to the Holy Land was labeled as a “pilgrimage” but at nearly every stop and in every speech he never strayed from high politics of war and peace. The Holy See is both a head of Church and a head of state. The Vatican is a church as well as a country – albeit tiny. It is ironic that while some Muslims wage jihads to establish a Caliphate – that is unite political and religious authority – the only religious community that actually enjoys such a privilege is Catholics. I find it rather clever that Europeans preach the virtues of secularism to everyone and on the sly enjoy having their own real Caliphate.