The Holy Father has been an advocate of Nostra Aetate, a 1965 declaration of the Church on its openness to develop relations and embrace other religions. This is essentially expanded the 1961 Declaration on Jews ("Decretum de Judaeis") and the initiatives of Isaac Jules.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was Dean of the College of Cardinals and closest and most trusted aide and advisor of John Paul II, the most politically charged leader of The Vatican in recent history. He was also the senior speech writer of John Paul II and was closely involved with fashioning the political direction of the Catholic Church and the Sovereignty of The Vatican State. William Casey, the director of CIA in early 1980s and a special envoy of Ronald Reagan held regular bi-weekly audiences with John Paul II and his aides as part of a strategy to weaken communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

At 79 years old, it now appears that Benedict the XVI wants to craft a similar political legacy. The influence and political teachings of his great uncle, Georg Ratzinger (a priest, author and journalist, a political economist and a politician in southern Germany) may also be a point of influence.

I see parallels here. In this digital age, there may be an attempt to dust off and rewire the old analogue switchboard of The Vatican as a political agent or as the bullhorn of the apocalyptical views of the administration in Washington -- in sequence after the recent flow of speeches by American politicians and their attempt to rank Muslims with extremists, fascists, Nazis, communists and evil.

It all smacks of a politically desperate, and an intellectually bankrupt, march to market the "us and them" confrontation that has unique currency in Washington. It is just another cheap copy of Reagan era policies that omit the globalized world some 25 years later. The renovation of "Evil Empire" and hollow warnings about the end of the world are simply dead on arrival elsewhere in the world.

Religious differences have no bearing on, or link to, security issues or the criminal behavior of a handful of lunatics in Afghan mountains that are financed with trade of narcotics.

The papal speech omitted the necessary fact that his quotation was in context of a debate between a Persian Muslim and a Christian emperor. It is all very unfortunate that, several centuries later, a proponent of ecumenism now wants to set aside his own work over the last half a century and enter a political show. Given his credentials, it was not an error of a clueless man about other religions. The Pope's commentary was a rudimentary and unfortunate way to neutralize dialogue in the global village during the 21st century of Christianity.