Master & Commander


There's a recurring line in Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin series, in which Capt. Aubrey explains his military strategy, which he claims to have gotten from Lord Nelson. "Go straight at 'em."

That is what I adore about Benedict's preaching. He is of course gentle and respectful, but he zeros in like a laser on the heart of the matter --because if we're not going to talk about what matters, why waste our time? I was listening to commentary on EWTN radio in preparation for the papal trip to the UK, and everyone was agreed that the Pope would not discuss Thomas More so as not to antagonize the Anglicans, focusing on what Christians have in common rather than the...unpleasantness.

It sounded reasonable at the time, though I'm not sure how uncontroversial a trip to beatify the most famous convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism could have been. But anyway, it explains why I burst out laughing reading the Pope's meeting with diplomats, businessmen and politicians at Westminster Hall. Here is the opening, after the thanks and acknowledgments:
Second sentence! He went straight at 'em.

There's a lovely bit on what Britannia has given the world, and he makes explicit the connection between the British common law's search for a right understanding of the dignity of the individual and the same principles in Catholic social teaching:
So far, so good, but of course it's not easy to know where to draw the line between the common good and individual liberty, which is why More's problem, whichever side you happen to be on, is all of our problem, always:
Here he gets to the nub: "tolerance" by itself --looking away from moral questions so as not to make anyone uncomfortable-- is inadequate for solving these questions, and rather makes a muddle of them, becoming a form of tyranny itself:
A little more:
Here he lays out his now familiar teaching on the relation between religion and politics. No one is asking for a confessional state or the imposition of religion --religion without reason is subject to its own predations-- but merely the application of right reason -- for which religion, properly understod, is a help not a hindrance.
That's a masterful stroke, there -- bringing things back to slavery. How did we justify slavery in the first place, lads? Answer that and you see the problem.
In that light, there's good news and bad news, first the bad news:
This is clearly a reference to the recent closing of Catholic adoption services, etc.  The good news includes the very fact of the Pope of Rome being invited on a state visit to the UK, entering Westminster Hall (and later Westminster Cathedral), and various international aid and trade efforts he enumerates.

Then this lovely close, invoking the longstanding tradition of the hall:
Later at Westminster Abbey, he was likewise respectful, acknowledging that modern ecumenism began as an initiative of the Edinburgh Conference, but again he goes straight at 'em. What is the source of our hope for unity?
Again, if it's not about that, why bother? This next bit is incredible. He speaks to these separated bishops precisely as Peter, whose authority they may not recognize, but whose primacy they do, at least in theory:
He claimed all present as his flock. 

Straight at 'em!

Update: drawing on B16's address to Catholic bishops, Raymond Arroyo completes the circle on what the Pope was doing in the UK.