Tuesday, December 05, 2006
THE BLUE MOSQUE AND THE POPE
A couple of news sources are linking this "Time" analysis of Benedict's visit.
As Jeff Israely has it, the visit to the Blue Mosque was a late decision:
Benedict's late decision to accept an invitation to the Blue Mosque meant Vatican aides and their Muslim hosts would need to work out in advance the basic details of the encounter. Several hours beforehand, word had spread that last Thursday's televised visit would include a moment for silent prayer or reflection. Still, when Istanbul's top cleric, Mustafa Cagrici, told the Pope it was time for a "moment of serenity," Benedict looked for an instant as if he'd been caught off guard. It may well have been that Cagrici had just repeated that they were facing in the direction of the Islamic holy city of Mecca, and the Pope understood immediately that this act might not sit well with some of his diehard followers. But Benedict neither turned away nor turned cold, and simply lost himself in prayer for all to see (he actually prayed twice as long as Cagrici).
The "Time" analysis notes that "Turkish newspapers proclaimed the Pope "prayed like a Muslim."
American Papist has a video of the moment blogged. (You'll have to scroll down through a few newer entries to get to the YouTube video.) Watch it and you will see that immediately before the moment of prayer, both men turn to face a new direction.
The "Time" analysis suggests that Benedict may have been concerned about reactions to this moment. In watching him, he says very little, while there is a good deal of talk on the part of the narrator and on the part of the Imam, none of which is in English. He appears to be simply sightseeing, very much as I would expect an Imam to do in a Catholic church. Up to the point of the prayer, there was no point of controversy.
Justification for his actions rests on the fact that he touched his pectoral cross while he prayed. To me it does not appear to be a conscious action, but rather one of accident. Of course we can't know what he prayed or what in the mosque was in front of him when he did so.
One question that this moment raises--doesn't good manners require that an offer be extended for the Imam to visit the Vatican? Wouldn't those good manners involve a visit to the Sistene Chapel, and to St. Peters?
Both of these churches contain a tabernacle, with presumably the Body of Christ in repose. The precedent has been set in Turkey for a moment of prayer. Presumably Benedict prayed to the Trinitarian God if he in fact did pray. Presumably in a return of courtesies, an Imam would pray to Allah in a Catholic church. It raises the potential for blasphemy unless the tabernacle were emptied before the visit. One cannot invite others to pray to a different god when standing before the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
If, however, the tabernacle were emptied for the occasion of a visit by an Imam, it would raise the potential for a political crisis, because it's unlikely that the news media would fail to take note of this point.
If Benedict were going to extricate himself from this, he might announce that he had chosen to take the moment to reflect on the fact of where he was standing when he paused in the Blue Mosque, that his sincerest wish is for the religions to find a way to co-exist without animosity, that murder in God's name would never happen again. Then he would say that while his heart was heavy with these thoughts, he did not actually pray because to pray to the Trinitarian God while standing in a holy place of Allah, would be disrespectful to those who worship Allah.
