Pope Benedict XVI Will Make History

So writes George Weigel in the April 21, 2008 Newsweek, at http://www.newsweek.com/id/131774?GT1=43002.

This Pope is not a superstar like John Paul II, but a master teacher. People came to see John Paul. They come to hear Benedict XVI.

John Paul helped bring the USSR down by his purely religious, non-political visit to Poland in 1979. The USSR took him so seriously that they attempted to assassinate him, but he survived the bullets and lived to see the demise of the USSR.

Now Benedict XVI has opened the issue with the Muslim world. Cries of fear and alarm followed his remarks at Regensburg in 2006, where he merely quoted an historical criticism of Islam during a lecture. But after the turmoil, important parts of the Muslim world began to respond. A year later Muslim religious leaders wrote him.

Now Muslim and Catholic scholars have opened a dialogue on basic issues of conscience, human rights and separation of religion and state authority. They will meet twice yearly, in Amman, Jordan and in Rome.

Recently King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited him in October 2007. Now he has helped him open the first catholic church in Doha, Qatar, and they are discussing building another one in the Saudi Kingdom.

Now in his visit to the U.S., he is expected to open a new era of relations between the Catholic church and its congregations. Even though there are many difficult issues to be addressed, underestimating him would probably be a to miss an understanding of a moment in history.