Some Good Friday thoughts.

Most people (including until yesterday myself included) do not know that it is only quite recently that the USA established full diplomatic relations with the Vatican, namely in 1984 under President Reagan.

The issue was controversial in US domestic terms and even provoked litigation. Did establishment of diplomatic relations with the Vatican somehow compromise the core US constitutional principle of the separation of State and Church? Was the USA recognising the Vatican as a political or religious authority? What about the USA’s relations with the UK, HM The Queen being the Head of the Church of England?

Somehow it all settled down. But a tricky new issue may (or may not) be arising over the appointment by President Obama of the next US Ambassador and that person’s views on abortion – will the Pope accept a ‘pro-choice’ candidate for that position? 

If ‘informal’ signals are being sent to the White House that certain candidates are best not put forward, what is President Obama to do, caught as he is between vociferous pro-choice anti-Catholic Left-Democrats and a large bloc of moderate Catholic voters and religiously inclined centrists who also voted for him?

Both President Obama and the Pope know that beneath this current skirmish lie rivalry between huge ideas and principles to do with God and Man echoing on down the decades and centuries. In this case the Vatican has the advantage that it was there long before the USA came along, and it expects to be there long after it has gone.

Diplomacy moves to a very different slow rhythm in Vatican Time. Issues are considered and mulled over and pronounced on laboriously within two titanic struggles: one against militant atheistic secularism as it evolved following the French Revolution; the other against the machinations of other religions striving for members and some sort of sustained moral and political supremacy.

On the first front, the Church scored a stunning philosophical victory in helping overthrow Communism through the witness of Pope John Paul II (with a little help from his friends). Another battleground is Evolution – how can any religion cope with all that science? Knowledge v Belief? The Vatican manoeuvres carefully. 

In the Catholic Church’s relations with other faiths, things are trundling along.

The various Orthodox churches are too nationalistic and self-absorbed to have wider appeal. Catholic numbers are waning in Europe, but flourishing in Africa and Latin America and parts of Asia. China is a big prize. As seen from the balcony of St Paul’s in Rome, the puny Church of England experiment falls into the category of nice try – but after 500 years they have not really pulled it off.

On the other hand, Islam’s numbers and energy are impressive these days. Plus there are various Islamic strictures against apostasy. Such as death. So a more assertive position might be called for.

Hence the Pope’s very public baptism of Italian journalist and author Magdi Cristiano Allam during Easter a year ago – a powerful signal that Pope Benedict was ready openly – and actively – to welcome people who have renounced Islam into the Catholic fold. Strong meat (emphasis added):

Magdi Allam has a powerful voice as deputy editor of Italy’s newspaper of record, Corriere della Sera, and a bestselling author. For years he was the exemplar of "moderate Islam" in Europe, and now he has decided that Islam cannot be "moderate".

Since September 2001, the would-be wizards of Western strategy have tried to conjure an "Islamic reformation", or a "moderate Islam", or "Islamic democracy". None of this matters now, for as Magdi Allam tells us, the matter on the agenda is not to persuade Muslims to act like liberal Westerners, but instead to convince them to cease to be Muslims.

The use of the world "revolution" is Magdi Allam’s:

His Holiness has sent an explicit and revolutionary message to a Church that until now has been too prudent in the conversion of Muslims, abstaining from proselytizing in majority Muslim countries and keeping quiet about the reality of converts in Christian countries. Out of fear.

The fear of not being able to protect converts in the face of their being condemned to death for apostasy and fear of reprisals against Christians living in Islamic countries. Well, today Benedict XVI, with his witness, tells us that we must overcome fear and not be afraid to affirm the truth of Jesus even with Muslims. 

For Diplomacy on a Grand Scale, look at the Vatican.