The Pope's cancelled visit to La Sapienza university created a major controversy and a lot of discussion. The Pope’s speech received maximum reportage. This would not have happened had everything gone on as was planned. Those who cared to read the full text and not just read the newspaper headlines would have noticed once more the intellectual finesse and depth of Pope Benedict.

One can agree or disagree, no problem there. For example: aspects of Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth were criticised by Cardinal Martini. But, even if you disagree with Pope Benedict, you cannot not feel his depth and feel positively challenged by it. Besides being a theologian of the first degree he is an academician of great depth.

My piece on the subject attracted some interest as well. Thirteen comments were posted putting forward diverse and greatly contrasting views. It seems that religion is hotter than other more mundane though perhaps more down to earth and basic human activities. Al buon intenditor …..

Discussion is healthy and I would like to continue it further.

I am disappointed when people bark at each other. What’s the point in doing that? Getting a bit hot under the collar is not a big problem. It can spice up things when not overdone. Such a person who got very hot under the collar was Dr Andrew Azzopardi. While commenting on newspapers on Campus FM he went on a rampage.

Unlike ex-communist stalwart President Napoletano and other left wing Italian politicians he (Dr Azzopardi) did not feel that the action of a tiny fraction of La Sapienza academic cream was an intolerant action. He is entitled for his opinion. Definitions differ, it seems. Or better still; perhaps Napolitano should be sent on a crash course on the meaning of tolerance and lack thereof.

He (Andrew not Napolitano) lost me with his comments on the Coliseum unless he wanted to compare the dons of La Sapienza to voracious lions and lionesses. They are of tamer stuff I suppose. He expressed his fear that Pope Benedict will bring to nought a lot of what John Paul II did. If he is losing any sleep because of this fear, I advice him not to worry.

During the controversy one could notice that disagreement extended from opinions to facts.

John Thavis is the Vatican correspondent of the Catholic News Service which is considered to be a liberally minded press service. One of his pieces was entitled

"Do the homework: University fiasco shows scholars miss Pope's point."

Thavis wrote that as the controversy progressed "it became apparent that many of the protesting professors had very little knowledge of what the Pope has actually said or written."

He said that the position of the Italian academics that the Pope was against Galileo "was apparently based on an erroneous page on the Italian Wikipedia (My comment: It’s not the first times that this fantastic instrument proved to be a Wickedpedia!). The page, which has since been corrected, said that in a 1990 speech the future Pope endorsed a modern philosopher's opinion that the church's trial of Galileo Galilei was 'reasonable and just.' In fact, the Pope cited the quotation but called it 'drastic'."

In a talk to young people at the Vatican in 2006, the Pope referred to Galileo as "the great Galileo" who had understood mathematics as the language of God the creator.

Onward Christian soldiers

Many entered the fray including our University's Theology Students' Association (TSA). I read their statement a short while after it was posted on www.timesofmalta.com on Thursday, 17th January 2008 - 22:30pm. It surfaced again in a very short report published on The Times earlier on this week. I was shocked by their statement. They showed a similar kind of intolerance that was shown by the students who opposed the visit of the Pope to La Sapienza. I was tempted to write nothing, attributing what was written to excessive youthful zeal in defending the Big Boss. But on more reflection I decided to write. The conservative and siege mentality projected in this statement is characteristic of the mentality of several theology students including seminarians. It is also the mentality of many Maltese Christians. So I decided to comment.

I am no exegete but I guess that their reference to the gospel of St Matthew is misguided. The statement said: "In St Matthew's gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ tells the Twelve, "if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town " (Mt 10, 14). The quotation would perhaps have been in place had the staff and students of La Sapienza en masse refused the Pope. Here we had a tiny minority. The Pope shook no dust from no shoes or feet. He did not physically go but was present because his speech was read during the ceremony. The decision of the Vatican was one guided by simple prudence and not Evangelical introspection.

But the worse is still to come. The following was the last paragraph of the report in timesofmalta.com: "The time is over for the Church to keep accepting everything and being apologetic in order to be accepted by the masses; now is the time for each one to show where his values truly are, whether with Christ or with the secularised world," the association said.

You see, the Church should stop being apologetic! The Pope who will go down in history for making apologies was John Paul II. For our theology students now that is the ice age. Now it’s time for something more recent than that. What about a crusade? On one side there will be the forces of darkness and evil i.e. the secularised world while in the other corner there will be the Templar Soldiers Association (TSA).

The vision of these students of theology is theologically myopic and strategically suicidal. Instead of putting in a wedge between the intolerant minority and the members of the secularised world who opposed them our TSA lumped all together while declaring this mother of all crusades to annihilate the secularists.

A theologically enlightened approach would emphasise dialogue, mutual understanding, building bridges, tolerance and love.

Our TSA has no place for rubbish of this sort. They want to declare a fatwa and burn them at the stake.

What a pity! As some one who teaches at the Faculty of Theology I bow my head in shame and rest my case.