Defending reason, from David Warren online

There is more, far more, to be said about Pope Benedict’s speech at Universität Regensburg last week. It was an important statement, not only for Catholics. But what he said has almost dissolved in the international fracas over a quotation of a quotation, taken maliciously out of context. The Pope was speaking about the ground rules for “dialogue”, not only between Muslims and Catholics. He was saying that Reason -- let’s give that a capital letter -- was the only ground on which we could discuss anything, since in matters of Faith, we are bound to disagree. But even our respective beliefs may be examined in the light of reason, and must be, if our dialogue is not to be a sham, an imposture, a dissemblance, a cheat.

The first thing is to note that the speech was only obliquely about Islam. Angry Muslims who think it was all about them have been badly misinformed. The Pope was addressing the intellectuals of the West, through a fine old institution of higher education where he used to teach. He was offering a “Selbstkritik der modernen Vernunft” -- a critique “from within” of modern reason. He was very careful to take no article of Catholic faith for granted, to play by the rules of strict reason...

Tolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth…or principals. About these things we must be intolerant…right is right if nobody is right; and wrong is wrong if everybody is wrong. And in this day and age we need not a church that is right when the world is right, but a church that is right when the world is wrong.

-Bishop Fulton Sheen

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