Non-Catholics' assessment of Pope Benedict puts ex-Catholics to shame

 

James Carroll [ex-priest]: The pope “has seen only a solemn obligation to defend the church.” [Italic added.]

 

Richard Sipe [ex-priest]: “Certainly, he did a lot, but it was all reactionary.” [Italic added.]

 

 

 

Daniel Maguire [ex-priest]: The “scandal of the papacy [is] one of the last absolute monarchies in a democratizing world.”

 

Ronald Lauder, president, World Jewish Congress: “The papacy of Benedict elevated Catholic-Jewish relations to an unprecedented level.”

 

Abraham Foxman, national director, ADL: “He [the pope] was good for the Jews.”

 

Rabbi Yona Metzger, Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi: Benedict’s papacy exhibited “the best relations ever between the church and the chief rabbinate.”

 

Imam Hassan Qazwini, Islamic Center of America: “I have so much admiration for the pope, for being honest and humble.”

 

Nihad Awad, national director, Council on American-Islamic Relations: “We offer the American Muslim community’s best wishes to Pope Benedict XVI.”

 

Geoff Tunnicliffe, secretary general, World Evangelical Alliance: “I appreciate his [the pope’s] courage of ideas…and his boldness in warning us of the dangers of moral relativism….”

 

Rev. R. Albert Mohler, president, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: “Pope Benedict has offered a brave and intelligent defense of truth against a relativist tide.”

 

I could offer many other examples, but the point is obvious: embittered ex-seminarians and ex-priests suffer not only from profound anger—ultimately directed at themselves—but their perception of Catholicism makes them look twisted in comparison to the sentiments of Jews, Muslims, Protestants, and others.