Oh Papa, Papa, what have you done?

I'd be among the first to acknowledge no love for the papacy. Granted, a very very few have been inspirational, but the track record of the bishopric of Rome is hardly a good advertisement for Christianity. And I feel even no empathy for the present incumbent who seems a wonderful cross between a German accountant and a 14-th century scholastician.

But then, all this fuss about what the Pope said or did not say about Islam is a little OTT. Gosh, the Pope doesn't approve of Islam? My, my, what a revelation. I am shocked and disturbed.

Not only do I find the importance attached to what the Pope says shocking, but the reaction is even more shocking and extreme. The Pope the equivalent of Hitler? Hmmm. Not quite, or even close.

Granted, there were quite impressive popes in the past, but the drive since the Council of Trent has been towards greater respectability. And even if one's humanity cries out for Pius XII to have taken bolder steps, cowardice (or extreme prevarication) is hardly an uncommon fault. The leaders of the Islamic world, both theological and political, seem to have taken collective leave of their senses. But then, what's new?