Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Pope Benedict XVI, known as El Papa in Spain, recently concluded a visit there, but it seems that he left more negative feelings behind than warm relations. In his first visit to this increasingly secular nation, El Papa quickly dematured into El Bambino, throwing a temper tantrum of the highest magnitude.

When Pope Benedict was informed that Spain’s Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, would not be attending his ritual of Mass, Benedict threw a fit. The Pope said that if he could get Communist leaders Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro to attend Mass, Zapatero surely must attend as well.

It was the equivalent of Kruschev pounding his shoe on the table at the United Nations.

What Pope Benedict seems most angry at is that he and his church have become marginal political players in Spain, which used to be a solidly Catholic nation. Only 18 percent of Spaniards regularly attend Mass or observe Catholic holy days. So, if most of Spain is secular, what right does the Pope have to come barging into the country making demands that the government’s leader submit himself to the Pope’s authority by participating in the Pope’s religious rituals? If the Prime Minister doesn’t want to attend, let him attend to more important business.

It’s not as if Zapatero snubbed the Pope. The Prime Minister met with Benedict XVI in a more appropriate setting.

This brouhaha is yet another indication that this new Pope doesn’t understand the world in which he lives. He seems to be trying to fight battles that the Catholic Church lost long ago. The Pope has no business behaving like an Ayatollah, trying to impose his religious power to interfere with the proper functioning of democratically elected governments.