A shrewd and ruthless pope : Mail & Guardian Online

'n Agtergrond artikel oor die kontroversie wat Pous Benedictus XVI se opmerking oor die Moslem geloof veroorsaak het en die gevolge daarvan.

Only 18 months into his papacy and already Pope Benedict XVI has stirred up unprecedented controversy. As the explanations and apologies pour out of the Vatican -- and thousands of Catholic churches around the world -- the questions about what exactly this man intended by quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor’s insult of the Prophet Muhammad have only multiplied.

Some say this was a case of naivety, of a scholarly theologian stumbling into the glare of a global media storm, blinking with surprise at the outrage he had inadvertently triggered. The learned man’s thoughtful reasoning, say some, has been misconstrued and distorted by troublemakers, and the context ignored.

But such explanations are unconvincing. This is a man who has been at the heart of one of the world’s multinational institutions for a very long time. He has been privy to how pontifical messages get distorted and magnified by a global media. Shy he may be, but no one has ever before accused this pope of being a remote theologian sitting in an ivory tower.

On the contrary, he is a determined, shrewd operator whose track record indicates a man who is not remotely afraid of controversy. He has long been famous for his bruising, ruthless condemnation of those he disagrees with.

Senior Catholic theologians such as the German Hans Kung are well familiar with the sharpness of his judgements.