In recent weeks Pope Benedict XVI has unnerved liberal Catholics as well as many Protestants and Jews with two pronouncements. The first removed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass which since Vatican II has been replaced by a more accessible version of this core Catholic rite. The second pronouncement reasserted that the Roman Catholic Church is the one and only true church through which salvation can be achieved. Many people, both within and outside the Catholic community, are perplexed and apprehensive that the Pope is taking the Church back to its exclusivist and even intolerant pre-Vatican II days.

But perhaps something very different is transpiring. Anyone familiar with Pope Benedict’s work knows that while he is indeed a deeply traditional thinker he is not some pre-modern religious fanatic. He is a genuine intellectual and theologian. Strikingly, in these pronouncements, he repeatedly points out that these decisions are “continuous with Vatican II” and that he remains “deeply committed to ecumenical dialogue” and the “mutual openness” necessary for such dialogue to be “truly constructive”. As if to make clear that he not be misunderstood regarding these commitments, the Pope approved the document on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul — a major ecumenical feast day.

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At different moments in my life different passages have spiritually defined and pushed me to grow. In these days of nasty religious polarization and culture wars, the passage that most animates my life is a passage from the Talmud, the classic Jewish wisdom text, describing the intense debates between two ancient philosophers and theologians Hillel and Shammai, who lived during the time of Jesus.

Each had his own academy and approach, much like contemporary think tanks or schools that differ philosophically, religiously, and politically. The schools of Hillel and Shammai disagreed on just about everything – from how to ensure economic justice to the nature of our deepest, most committed and loving relationships, from how to treat the other to what it means to sincerely be part of a community, from how to transform ordinary time into sacred time to how to increase light and meaning in the world.

One might think that clear decisions would be necessary given the weightiness of these matters but rather than provide answers or simple rules to follow, the Talmud invites us into the debates and reveals the multiple and contradictory perspectives at the heart of all genuine disagreements.

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Ah…the recently invented liberal war on Christmas, a war created and nurtured by a few conservative media folks like O’Reilly, Limbaugh, and Malkin, with the support of religious or is it political leaders like Dobson, Robertson, and Bauer, who seem to like nothing more than to exacerbate the animosity between Americans and exacerbate a culture war that itself is a product of a minority of ideologues on both sides. What a shame that a season that should be about Light and Love and Life has become one more place for our religious fundamentalists and secular fundamentalists to play out their insecurities and fears, and their inability to even imagine that there is some partial truth in the opinions of those with whom they disagree. It seems that the only way those inflaming our culture wars can be right is if those with whom they disagree are not only completely wrong but iare seen, in some paroxysm of paranoia, as out to destroy them and so need to be destroyed. Of course, the fierceness of their absolutism simply masks their own repressed uncertainty about their own views.

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The Question: Pope Benedict's recent baptism of a well-known Italian Muslim has prompted criticism in much of the Islamic world. Has Benedict done enough to build bridges to Islam?

So here we go again – a religious act that polarizes. The Pope, a leader of 1.1 billion people decides to officially convert to Catholicism a well known Italian Moslem journalist on Easter, one of the holiest days of the Christian calendar, in front of millions of people. While the Vatican proclaimed the innocence of this international act it is not surprising that the reactions were swift and harsh. On all sides opinions were predictable with every opinion containing a partial truth that ignored, either consciously or unconsciously, other truths.

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