Pope Benedict XVI puts his life on the line

a blog about news and politics by steve janke

Pope Benedict XVI puts his life on the line

Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 10:20 PM

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Pope Benedict XVI has performed the traditional Easter baptism of adults, but the tradition is not well known. When adults enter into the Church, it is traditional to do all the baptisms on Easter Saturday (infants are baptized soon after birth). The pope will perform a number of baptisms as any priest is called upon to do.

But this Easter, the pope has stood apart, performing a baptism that any priest could perform, but that the pope has taken onto himself to do. It was a surprise -- a well-known Muslim has abandoned Allah for Christ.

In the eyes of many Muslims, that is a crime punishable by death, and it would not be a surprise if the priest who performed the ceremony might be targeted as well. That is a risk any Catholic priest would be willing to take. It is clearly a risk the pope was not going ask anyone else to take.

Magdi Allam is a critic of radical Islam. He has already done much to infuriate Muslims:

An Egyptian-born, non-practicing Muslim, Magdi Allam has infuriated some fellow Muslims with his criticism of extremism and support for Israel. He also supports a ban against building new mosques and upholds complex, personal theories upon alleged underground relationships between Italian mosques and international terrorist groups. These radical views caused several of his original supporters to eventually oppose him.

Well, now he's done it. He can add apostasy to his list of offences against Islam:

The pope traditionally baptises newborns on Jan. 1 and adult converts to Catholicism on Easter eve.

One of the seven adults he baptised tonight was Magdi Allam, 55, an Egyptian-born journalist who, as deputy director of the leading newspaper Corriere della Sera, is one of Italy's best-known intellectuals.

His conversion to Christianity was a well-kept secret, disclosed by the Vatican in a statement less than an hour before the Easter eve service started.

"For the Catholic Church, each person who asks to receive baptism after a deep personal search, a fully free choice and adequate preparation, has a right to receive it," it said.

Allam defended the pope in 2006 when the pontiff made a speech in Regensburg, Germany, that many Muslims perceived as depicting Islam as a violent faith.

One observer made a point about the fact that the pope conducted this baptism:

"What amazes me is the high profile the Vatican has given this conversion," Yaha Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, vice-president of the Italian Islamic Religious Community, told Reuters.

What amazes me is that Yaha Sergio Yahe Pallavicini is amazed. This is not about making a spectacle of baptism.

There are layers of messages in all of this.

There is a message to radical Muslims, but not a message intended to aggravate or intimidate them. It is likely that will be the effect, unfortunately, but that can't be helped.

The message to the radicals is that the pope did this. Not some local parish priest. A radical Muslim looking deliver his own message is going to target the convert and the priest.

The convert will die to warn other Muslims that apostasy earns you a cut throat.

The priest will die to warn other priests that baptizing a Muslim earns you a cut throat.

Well, that priest is Pope Benedict himself, surrounded by 100 Swiss Guards trained in modern armed and unarmed combat and in the art of close personal protection. There is a risk inherent in this conversion. The pope is the priest best equipped to take on that risk.

And that leads to another message. It is a message to priests, to Catholics at large, and to the entire Christian community. There is a concept in Catholicism of the Church Militant, the body of the faithful here on Earth fighting against sin and evil. Hold that martial metaphor in your mind for a moment. A great general protects the troops that are supposed to follow them. A great general does not ask a soldier under his command to perform any task that the general would not be willing to perform or to face any danger that the general would not be willing to face.

As the general of the Church, the pope has stepped up to the line, at the head of his troops, and showed them how it's done. He is also positioning himself to take the risk. To take the bullet, if it comes to that.

Some might wonder if Magdi Allam, seen by many as a troublemaker, is worth the danger. I guess that's the final message to take from this. Any soul is worth it, and that's the story of Easter, of course.