What is going on in the world? – The Roman ecclesiastics have been avoiding answering this question since the second Vatican meeting. In the times of the previous pontificate guys under the green colors had made a lot – including the September 11[5], but Vatican successfully evaded that problem, nearly related to it[6]. It was Benedict XVI who didn’t evade this problem and touched upon it with a Bavarian rudeness. “It becomes clear that even the Bavarian rudeness gains a strong support, proving that there should be someone able to ask questions simple as bleat». ().
Certainly, it is a great pity and incredibly dangerous for the future of the humankind that the Muslim world represented by its ruling “elite” hasn’t given a substantial answer to the question, asked by the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos[7] in the 14th century and cited by the Pope of Rome. It is frightening that the Muslim states preferred official expression of indignation and threats addressed to Benedict XVI in particular and to the West in general.
All facts mentioned above prove that most of the Muslims over the last 600 years are far from Koran understanding: otherwise the truly Muslim world would have given a substantial answer even to Manuel II Palaiologos. And if that answer were lost, the contemporary Pope of Rome would have got an adequate answer.
On the other hand it’s equally important that in the 21st century both Western and Russian intelligentsia still remain ignorant in issues concerning the differences of historically set confessions and that’s why stay incapable to develop the dialogue of cultures.
Benedict XVI has given a proper ground in his speech: “A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures”.
But he hasn’t mentioned the second reason, because he is deaf himself: It is historically set traditions of culture, including the culture (the procedure) of confession, that make the reason deaf to the divine and divide religion and science, leading them to antagonism.
One of the hierarchs of the Russian orthodoxy – Theophanous, the bishop of Stavropoulos and Vladicaucasus and the member of Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on the issues of tolerance and the freedom of conscience, indirectly admits the last assertion.
On the 18th of September, 2006 during the press conference on the site of educational Internet-portal “Mediakratia” we found the following dialogue:
«Marina Zubareva, Kurskaya obl.: Good afternoon! As you remember the 4th of November is considered to be the Day of good deeds. I wonder if the people in our country (even in the world) do understand what “good things” are. Is it possible to have the common perception of good deeds within different nationalities and confessions? And do young people have the same understanding?
The Sovereign[8] Theophanous: In my opinion it is quite possible. The best criteria to define the good deed – is to listen to your conscience, this is the instrument given to us from the God. If we listen to it we will understand which deeds good are. Still small voice is the voice of the God and is beyond confessional character (marked with bold by us when citing). There is the common answer in different nations concerning such issues as murder, stealing, betrayal and etc. I have talked to the followers of different religions in different parts of the world and I was incredibly interested in this problem». ().
In case we agree with Theophanous’s point of view that “the conscience – is the voice of the God”, we should take in consideration that if the confessional creed is false in some aspects or, even worse, if it is wittingly false in general, and herewith dignified as the revelation, it is namely that factor, that deafens the conscience – the voice of the God and deafens the reason respectively, turning the faithful into donkeys.
If not for this fact, first of all, Benedict XVI would have paid attention to the points that differ the two religions and would have tried to find the reasons of these discords. In this case he would have been able to answer his rhetorical question on his own, given in the form of quotation taken from the dialogue of Manuel II Palaiologos with a Persian interlocutor. But his conscience is not free: he is the main hostage of historically set traditions of Catholicism.
Today in the times of an overall literacy (i.e. the ability to write and to read) and with a free access to the Holy texts, Benedict XVI could have read Bible and Koran in original and comments on them of other authors to define differences and to think of their significance in order to give an answer to the question put by Manuel II Palaiologos to make the representatives of Muslim world think over the problem – how does their life differ from those laws given in Koran and from the way of life preached by Muhammad? Nevertheless, the duty of a professional theologian and ecclesiastic is to make listen to reason not only Roman Catholic flock but other people all around the world either.
So, to set the dialogue of cultures, first of all, Benedict XVI is supposed to find intelligibility on his own and after that to make his flock listen to reason. That will definitely cause discontent within the circles of light-headed and gutless followers of the traditions of Roman Catholicism and lead to the serious problems in the hierarchy.
The same problem regards the journalists as well, including cited above Maxim Sokolov. But it seems that:
Traditionally faithful Jews, Christians, Muslims, public and backstage authorities of these confessions, journalists and sociologists are not interested in the answers for such questions.
The publication entitled “The prior of the church of the Moscow State University supports Benedict XVI” on the site NEWSRU.COM informs:
«Benedict XVI and the Vatican administration have given various explanations and comments, but refused to apologize and moreover to recognize Muhammad as a prophet of the true religion, which we, Christians, are supposed to honor and respect him (marked with bold by us when citing)[9]. There is made a step forward presenting a hope to every Christian: we can observe a shift from a black, false and devious ecumenism of last decades to another kind of ecumenism, which Alexander Solzhenitsyn told about during his Templeton’s Speech.
Actually, the words taken from the book “The Rage and the Pride” written by Oriana Fallaci can’t be addressed to Benedict XVI despite of his predecessor:
“Tell me, the Pope, is it true that recently you have asked the sons of Allah[10] to forgive the jihads where your predecessors were fighting in order to return the God’s coffin? And have the sons of Allah asked for forgiveness for taking the God’s coffin? And have they apologized for enslaving the Catholic Iberian Peninsula, Portugal and the most territory of Spain for more than 7 centuries? And if it not for Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, who sent them away in 1490, we would speak Arabic nowadays.
I am incredibly concerned about this problem as they have never asked me to forgive them for the crime committed by Saracens in the 17th and 18th centuries on the coasts of Toscana and Tyrrhenian Sea. I mean the times when they kidnapped my predecessors and then fettered, took them to Algeria, Tunisia, Tangier and Constantinople and sold them on marketplace. They enslaved them for the rest of their life, locked the young women in harems and brutally punished them for attempts to whip away through jugulating, remember this? Certainly, you do. The Community of white slaves liberation was founded by Italian monks, wasn’t it? It was the Church conducting negotiations to liberate those, who had enough money for ransom[11]”.