To His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI:

I went to church angry today for the first time in quite a while, perhaps since 9/11. We are called to humble ourselves when we worship God, and while I'm far from being the world's best example of Catholicism, I usually prepare myself by recalling my sins and my flaws before Mass begins -- not usually a difficult task, I'm afraid to say.

Unfortunately, today my anger got the best of me, and I struggled through an otherwise excellent service by our pastor.

Why should this be so? Before I went to Mass, I read about the senseless murder of Sister Leonella Sgorbati, who got shot three times by Islamists in Mogadishu, where she worked as a volunteer nurse to the Somalian poor. The shooting came in response to the outrage and violence that sprang from protests over your speech last week at the University of Regensburg. Christian Churches have been firebombed and taken gunfire, and we will probably see even greater escalations of violence until you meet their demands to withdraw your remarks about the irreligious nature of violent conversion.

I'm angry about the fact that a speech given by you has been manipulated by Muslims into rationales for their violence. I'm also angry because your apology this morning -- which at least did not extend to withdrawing your main point of the speech -- seems to give credence to their rationales.

In this, you appear to have withdrawn at least partially from your main point -- that the rejection of reason and dialogue amounts to a rejection of God, within whom reason and faith finally meet. You bravely attempted to open a Socratic dialogue with Muslims on this very point, inviting them to move away from violence and extortion in the spread of their faith and encouraging them to use rhetoric and reason to support their doctrines.

They answered you by murdering one of your flock, and if we're lucky, we'll only lose one.

If Islam is ever to peacefully co-exist with other faiths in the manner that Christendom finally learned how to do, then it has to start abiding questions and criticisms without resorting to violence. Islam has to learn to persuade and to attract people through reason, not through forced conversions and coexistence through violent supremacy. Muslim leaders around the world still believe that our faith can only exist at their sufferance, and any question of their doctrinal beliefs has to be met with violence or demands for apologies, not with rhetoric, facts, and reason.

We cannot enable that to continue. We must demand that they renounce violence and intimidation. When you apologize and retreat, they understand that as a triumph for their religion, a victory won with force and threats rather than through intellectual engagement. This encourages more of the same. The West had the opportunity to stand up to the same angry hordes earlier this year during the controversy over the Danish editorial cartoons that depicted Mohammed, and many of us gave into the threats and violence rather than stand up for the freedom of speech, religious practice, and editorial commentary. In both cases, Muslims ironically proved the point of the criticism leveled at them.

Do not apologize for speaking the truth. Stand up to the threats and violence and make the world understand that no one of any faith or of no faith at all has to be cowed or intimidated into silence. Your predecessor, John Paul the Great, risked his life by providing a beacon of courage against the might and will of Communism, and he outlived it in the end. We won't outlive the violent nature of radical Islam, but we can provide the basis for Christianity's survival by standing against it now.

As always, we hold you in our prayers and recognize the awesome responsibilities on your shoulders as the defender of Christianity. We pray that the Holy Spirit strengthens you in this most difficult mission.

Your brother in Christ,

Ed Morrissey

MIchelle Malkin notes that messages of support can be sent to Benedict XVI at benedictxvi-at-vatican.va. I will send this as a message to him, and I encourage CQ readers to send your own thoughts to Benedict as well.

UPDATE: Misspelled "Catholicism" earlier, as Amy Proctor noted in the comments. D'oh! Well, just another item on my long list for my next confession...

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