Reflection on Pope Benedict XVI's quest for religious freedom

Conservative Catholic George Weigel corrected The New York Times in his syndicated column that was published in San Francisco Archdiocesan newspaper last week. Weigel wrote that Times reporters did not investigate sufficiently their assertion that Pope Benedict XVI has changed his position regarding Turkey's entry into the European Union.

Before he was made pope, the then Cardinal Ratzinger went on record as disfavoring Turkey’s entrance because the country lacks the same values of the countries making up the union. However, according to the reporters, Pope Benedict told the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he now favors Turkey’s entry when the two met during the pope’s visit to his country at the end of November. But the reporters’ only source of information was source for the pope’s change of mind was Mr. Erdogan himself who needed a concession from the pope for political reasons. Weigel claims that if the reporters had taken seriously the statement of the Vatican spokesman, they would have recognized the prime minister’s misleading statement. The official Vatican stance is that the Holy See promotes dialogue as a way to reaching common values. Dialogue, then, and not immediate entry is what the Vatican is endorsing for Turkey.

Pope Benedict’s position in these affairs is critical to peace in the world. From the beginning he has called for reciprocity in Muslim countries. This means that as the religious rights of Muslims must be protected where they are in the minority, so the religious rights of non-Muslims must be protected where Muslims are in the majority. Furthermore, if a Muslim under no coercion wishes to convert to another religion, he or she should be allowed to do so. Religious liberty is critical since the Church believes strongly in the sacredness of the human conscience. A person has to follow the religion that the he or she believes right. Unless these rights are respected, injustice will prevail without true peace.