BOB ABERNETHY, host: The Vatican announced plans to make it easier for disaffected Anglicans to convert to Catholicism. Cardinal William Levada, head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, said new structures will be created to accommodate growing numbers of Anglicans who want to leave the worldwide Anglican Communion because of disputes over homosexuality and female clergy. Under the new plan, those Anglicans can become Catholics while still maintaining some of their distinctive beliefs and practices, including the tradition of married priests. Our managing editor, Kim Lawton, is here, and so, from Denver, is John Allen, longtime Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. Welcome to you both. John, what’s the Vatican up to here? Is it fishing for converts?

JOHN L. ALLEN, JR (National Catholic Reporter): Well, officially, Bob, the answer to that question is no. I mean, some Anglicans may see it that way, but the Vatican’s position is we didn’t go looking for these folks. They came to us. That is, there is a small but significant number of more traditionalist Anglicans who very publicly have asked to be received into the Catholic Church, and the Vatican’s line is that even though we didn’t solicit them, when people knock on our door we have a responsibility to open it up.

Cardinal William Levada

ABERNETHY: And Kim, what do you hear—reaction from the Anglicans?

KIM LAWTON: Well, officially, the spiritual head of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, has been, you know, somewhat positive about this. He says he does not see it as an act of aggression from the Catholic Church, but certainly his church body has been under enormous pressure from a lot of fronts, and this one more front, one more sort of exit possibility for many Anglicans who are unhappy with what’s been going on in their church.

ABERNETHY: What do you both think, John first, what do you think about the numbers that will be involved here? Will it be a lot of people that are switching, or just a few?

ALLEN: Well, the signals from the Catholic side, at least, is that expectations are this is going to be a fairly small number of folks. When Cardinal Levada was asked this question at a Vatican briefing earlier in the week, he said that there were 20 or 30 Anglican bishops in various parts of the world who had put out feelers, but of course putting out feelers is different than signing on the bottom line. And at the grassroots the expectation is that at least in the early stages you’re talking about fairly small pockets of people who will be coming over.

LAWTON: And especially, well, here in the United States, the people that are unhappy with the Episcopal Church, which is the US branch of the Anglican Communion—they come from two different wings of the church. One certainly are those who are more Catholic in their traditions and their style of worship, but there are also evangelicals, who are conservative theologically but not so comfortable with the idea of Rome and the pope, and those two groups here in the US have come together. They’ve formed their own structure, the Anglican Church of North America, and they’re really focusing on building that. So I think a lot of the traditionalist Anglicans here in the US may not immediately head to the Catholic Church.

ABERNETHY: But is there a possibility that out of this, Kim, will come a more conservative Catholic Church and a more liberal Anglican Communion?

LAWTON: Well, of course, if a lot of conservatives leave the Anglican Communion it will become more liberal overall, but another scenario is that it puts more pressure on the worldwide Anglican Communion to itself become more conservative so it doesn’t lose more members.

ABERNETHY: John, what about the effect on the Catholic Church of having more Anglicans in it, and especially with regard to married priests? I mean, is it a step, inevitably, toward a change in that position? If you let in a lot of married Anglicans, don’t you then have to change your position about existing Catholic priests?

ALLEN: Well, that’s certainly an argument some people are going to make. I mean, what we know for right now is the Vatican has clearly said that current Anglican ministers who become Catholics and become ordained as Catholic priests, if they’re currently married can remain married. The Vatican has also clearly ruled out married bishops. But what the policy is going to be going forward we don’t know. I mean, we should say that while the Vatican has made this announcement, they haven’t yet given us the legal document that provides all the fine points, and this is certainly one of those fine points people will have their eyeballs on. What Vatican officials are saying on background is that, whatever happens, they want to make sure that this doesn’t become a loophole that in the short term erodes the broader discipline of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church.

ABERNETHY: And, John and Kim, very quickly, Kim first, what do you see as any larger effects, very quickly?

LAWTON: Well, certainly Christianity is realigning in many ways around the world, and you’re finding people grouping together in new and different ways than they had in the past.

ABERNETHY: John, what do you see?

ALLEN: Well, I think in many ways ideology has replaced theology as the thing that drives Christian behavior at the grassroots. I mean, in the old days it was debates over things like the authority of the pope versus the Bible. These days it tends to be where do you stand on the culture wars, and that in many ways is what’s in play here.

LAWTON: Although a lot of the traditionalists would say those are theological issues, too.

ABERNETHY: Yeah. Kim Lawton, John Allen—many thanks.

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: For the past 50 years, many churches and health organizations have observed the last Sunday in January as the World Day of Leprosy. Hansen’s disease, as it’s also known, is now curable, but it still strikes a quarter of a million people each year. Remembering leprosy victims recalls the life of Father Damien, a Belgian priest who cared for the outcasts in a leprosy colony in Hawaii, and who eventually died of leprosy himself. Father Damien is expected to be named a saint later this year [Editor's note: Father Damien will be canonized in Rome on October 11, 2009] and Lucky Severson tells his story.

LUCKY SEVERSON: This place may look like a slice of heaven, but to many who lived here it was hell on earth. This is Kalaupapa, which was and still is a leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. It is an extremely isolated place, forgotten by the civilized world for over 100 years. That may soon change because of the honor about to be bestowed on a priest long ago who helped the diseased of Kalaupapa when no one else would. His name was Father Damien de Veuster, a missionary priest from Belgium. He is remembered by another Catholic priest, Father Clyde Guerreiro.

Father Clyde Guerreiro

Father CLYDE GUERREIRO: It’s the story, the classic story of heroic virtue versus the worst we can be as human beings.

SEVERSON: Father Damien called the numerous cemeteries on Kalaupapa “gardens of the dead.” Almost all of the 8,000 souls buried in these gardens were victims of Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy. Its victims were first exiled here beginning in 1866, forcefully separated from their loved ones, treated as criminals, literally thrown off the boat near this rocky beach.

Fr. GUERREIRO: The schooner would park out there, and they’d just throw them over, and if they survived, well, then they lived here.

SEVERSON: When Father Damien arrived in 1873, those thrown from the boat — the castaways — lived under the most primitive conditions, without potable drinking water, in shacks they constructed out of sticks and dried leaves. Food was scarce. Doctors would occasionally leave medicine but refuse to touch the patients. Survival was all that mattered, and the place became a lawless wild land. Father Damien would change all of that. Father Lane Akiona grew up on Molokai, and grew up admiring Father Damien.

Father LANE AKIONA: He was the builder. He was the coffin builder. He was the grave digger. He did the services. He anointed them. He was their nurse and doctor. He did practically everything for them.

SEVERSON: And when Father Damien was 49, he died for them, a victim of leprosy. He had simply treated too many sores and infections. His grave is located next to a church he preached in. Most of those buried on Kalaupapa died in the early 1940s, before the new sulfone drugs were developed that controlled the infectious disease and stopped its contagion. Still, it wasn’t until 1969, a quarter of a century later, that the law ordering forced exile was finally lifted. Dr. Walter Chang says victims of Hansen’s disease have always been treated with callous disregard.

Dr. Walter Chang

Dr. WALTER CHANG: From the Bible and from historical accounts, leprosy was considered a very ghastly disease. Lepers were detested. They were stoned. They were even killed.

SEVERSON: Today, there are only about 20 patients living in Kalaupapa where there is now a hospital, and care is always available for those still afflicted with the disease. They were sentenced here. Some don’t need to stay here any longer, but they do. Others stay because they can’t leave the stigma behind. Melly Watanuki has been here since 1969 because it’s her home.

(to Melly Watanauki): Are you still sick?

MELLY WATANUKI: No.

SEVERSON: But you have to take medicine every day, right?

Ms. WATANUKI: Yeah, that was way before when I would get sick, I got to take the medicine for cure.

SEVERSON: But you don’t have to take the medicine anymore?

Ms. WATANUKI: No.

SEVERSON: The place is still almost as inaccessible as it was in the 1800s. No one is allowed in without government permission. There are only two ways onto the peninsula: an up-and-down eight-minute flight over the worlds tallest sea cliffs, which separate the colony from the outside world, or a steep mule train ride down from what is known as topside. Audrey Toguchi, a retired schoolteacher, has made the journey from her home in Honolulu five times, always to pray at Father Damien’s gravesite.

AUDREY TOGUCHI: Oh, he’s helped me a lot. He really has. And so how else can I look at him but as my hero?

Dr. CHANG (pointing to x-ray): See how vicious it looks? They look like all kinds of different criminals.

SEVERSON: If Father Damien was Audrey’s hero before, she’s convinced he became her lifesaver after Dr. Walter Chang, a general surgeon, diagnosed her with a very rare kind of aggressive cancer of the fat tissues 10 years ago.

Audrey Toguchi

Dr. CHANG: You know, I told her, “You need chemotherapy. Without chemotherapy,” I said, “the likelihood of you surviving a long time is extremely small.”

(to Ms. Toguchi): How long did he give you to live?

Ms. TOGUCHI: Well, probably about five or six months.

Dr. CHANG: Well, she told me very calmly, “Doctor, I’m not going to accept chemotherapy. I’m going to Molokai to pray to Father Damien.” And I replied, “Mrs. Toguchi, prayers are very nice, but you still need chemotherapy.” And she said, “Doctor, I’m going to pray only.”

SEVERSON: And so Audrey made one more trip to Father Damien’s grave, and here’s what she said.

Ms. TOGUCHI: “Father Damien, I have all these problems, and I really need your help to intercede, and dear Lord please, please help me.”

Dr. CHANG (pointing to x-rays): OK, this is Mrs. Toguchi’s x-ray before she went to Molokai. This is the cancer spread to her lungs.

SEVERSON: But after she returned from Father Damien’s graveside, the x-rays showed her cancer was receding. Eventually it disappeared altogether.

Ms. TOGUCHI: And Dr. Chang said, “What did you do?” I said I asked Father Damien for help.

Dr. CHANG: I said to myself, “This is a very remarkable event. It has never happened before in as far as I can detect from the history of medicine.” So I said to myself, “You know, Mrs. Toguchi,” I said, “this is so remarkable you ought to report it to your — people in your religion.”

SEVERSON: So Mrs. Toguchi contacted the Vatican and sent along Dr. Chang’s meticulously detailed record of her recovery, which was thoroughly investigated by church authorities, who eventually declared it a miracle. Now Father Damien is scheduled to become, officially, Saint Damien.

Dr. CHANG: The true skeptic will call this a random coincidence. The true believer, the truly faithful, will call this a miracle. I think I’ll have to straddle that line and call it a complete spontaneous or complete and permanent spontaneous regression of cancer.

Father Lane Akiona

SEVERSON: The canonization process is not quick or easy. Father Damien was first officially venerated for his work in Kalaupapa over 100 years ago. Then, to become a saint, he needed to perform two miracle healings authenticated by the best science of the times. The first, many years ago, was a French nun. The second, in 1999, was Audrey Toguchi.

The news that Father Damien was going to become Saint Damien did not come as a surprise to the patients still living here. To them, he’s always been a saint, one who would not recognize Kalaupapa today. The place seems like an island paradise with well-groomed bungalows, a grocery store, and gas station. It’s a quiet place, but that may change after the Vatican formally canonizes Father Damien.

SEVERSON: Kalaupapa has always been considered a special place. There are stories of natives making spiritual pilgrimages here 500 years ago. Clarence and Ivy Kahilihaiwa have been here more than 50 years, and they agree with their ancestors.

(to Clarence Kahilihiwa): Is this a spiritual place here?

CLARENCE KAHILIHIWA: It is more than that. The “manna,” the spirit is here, I guess, because of our ancestors who died here way back.

Fr. AKIONA: To know that so many people went there, feeling helpless — no sense of hope. And here comes this missionary from a foreign land and was willing to do everything for them. It is a spiritual place.

SEVERSON: As long as there are patients here, the government will continue to restrict the number of visitors. But the patients are getting older. The youngest is almost 70, and when they’re gone, only the “gardens of the dead” will speak of Kalaupapa’s dark, painful history.

For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I’m Lucky Severson in Kaluapapa, Hawaii.

Rabbi RON KRONISH (Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel): Every step that the pope takes in every place he goes, including the Temple Mount or the Western Wall, is a gesture of reconciliation to both sides, and he’s tried during the week he’s here to play a balancing act, and it never quite works out perfect for everybody.

LAWTON: Pilgrims came from around the world to be part of the pope’s visit here, but his main focus was on the local Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The visit certainly encouraged the region’s shrinking Christian population. In 1948, Christians made up about 20 percent of the population here. Today, because of emigration and declining birth rates, they represent less than two percent.

Reverend IBRAHIM FALTAS (Latin Parish of Jerusalem): We are worried about the Christians here in Jerusalem and all the Holy Land. To be here is our mission, to be here, to continue to be here in this land.

LAWTON: Benedict urged the Christian population, predominantly Palestinian, to persevere. His support meant a lot to local Christians.

HANAN NASRALLAH: He is the big man, the holy — well, you consider the holy man and representing the Catholic Church over the world, so for him to come in an area where there is a conflict — a very small country, but it’s a big issue here, I think it’s very important for his visit.

KHALIL ANSARA: The talk is always about the relationship with the Muslims and the Jews, but it’s very important for the pope to come here too with the relations with the Christians.

LAWTON: Meanwhile, many Jewish leaders had high expectations that this visit would be a visual demonstration that their community still has strong relations with the Vatican, despite recent tensions after Benedict lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist bishop who denies the Holocaust.

Rabbi DAVID ROSEN (American Jewish Committee in Israel): Most people don’t know about statements and declarations. Most people don’t read properly, but nevertheless people do view the visual images.

LAWTON: Benedict met with Israel’s chief rabbis and visited the Western Wall, where he left a prayer for peace in the Middle East. He also visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial. But his speech there generated controversy. Some Israelis were upset that he did not acknowledge the role Christian anti-Semitism played in the Holocaust, and he did not refer to his own background as a German growing up in the Nazi era.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the pope had addressed those points before and didn’t feel the need to repeat them.

Reverend FEDERICO LOMBARDI (Vatican Spokesman): He had already spoken many times about these problems.

LAWTON: Rabbi Ron Kronish of the Interreligious Coordinating Council of Israel said he believes, overall, the visit was a positive thing for the Jewish community.

Rabbi KRONISH: It strengthens Israel’s place in the family of nations and in the world community. So I think that people are going to be happy about it when they look back. He went to Yad Vashem; he went to the Western Wall; he went to all the right places. He’s made all the right gestures that count for both peoples, and I think we ought to not focus on all the things he could have said or not said.

LAWTON: Benedict also did some fence-mending with the Muslim community, where tensions linger after his controversial speech in 2006 where he quoted a Byzantine emperor who linked the Prophet Muhammad and violence. Benedict was the first pope to visit the compound of Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest sites in Islam and a place of deep contention between Muslims and Jews.

Muslim leader Issa Jaber is an Israeli Arab who helps coordinate interfaith dialogue.

ISSA JABER (Association for Jewish-Arab Coexistence in the Judean Hills): We believe that His Holiness’ visit to the Mosque of Al Aqsa and the Dome Rock was very important and may open new dimensions of dialogue — a new dialogue between the different religions, especially Islam and Christianity.

LAWTON: But the complexities of interreligious dialogue here were also evident. At an interfaith gathering, Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi, an Islamic court judge in the Palestinian Authority, made an impromptu 10-minute-long diatribe against Israeli occupation, prompting some of the Jewish representatives to walk out of the meeting.

Mr. JABER: Maybe it was not exactly on the agenda of the program, but for Sheik Tamimi it was very important to show the pope and to let him understand the painful — the pains of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and outside of Jerusalem.

ELANA ROZENMAN (Trust-Emun Group): It demonstrated our reality here, and if things were simple and the religions could easily get together and meet together without any problems we would already have peace.

LAWTON: Elana Rozenman is part of an interfaith movement called the Abrahamic Renunion, which seeks to build personal relationships and trust among people of the three major religions.

Ms. ROZENMAN: Yes, the reality of conflict and war and killing exists daily. Right now people are being victims of violent acts here. We know that, but also there is another level of reality that exists of peaceful, harmonious, loving relationships between Muslims, Christians, and Jews.

LAWTON: She works closely with her friends, Eliyahu McLean, a fellow Jew, and Ibrahim Ahmad Abu El-Hawa, a Muslim.

IBRAHIM AMAD ABU EL-WAWA: We are stubborn people. We are the children of Abraham. We are from the same seed. Okay?

ELIYAHU MCLEAN (Jerusalem Peacemakers): This is a point that Ibrahaim always makes, that God chose two of the most stubborn people in the world, the Arabs and the Jews, to live in this land, and it is actually God’s decision, and this is why it’s also so difficult to make peace, because we’re both very stubborn. But at the same time we need to be stubborn to be peacemakers.

LAWTON: The three say the pope’s visit encouraged them in their work.

Mr. MCLEAN: I really felt personally empowered when the pope gave a specific blessing to the peacemakers, to the Jews and Arabs, Israelis and the Palestinians who are working to make a better future for the children of Abraham in the land of the prophets, in the Holy Land.

LAWTON: The pope may have urged the religious community to be a force for peace, but many leaders in the movement for interfaith dialogue acknowledge that politics can’t be separated out.

Rabbi KRONISH: The road ahead is bumpy. It’s not a smooth road, because we are linked to the political processes. We try to keep a flicker of hope alive in a sometimes desperate situation, and we believe that when the peace process moves forward, we will be able to move, in cooperation with governments, in bigger and more systematic ways in the future.

LAWTON: Benedict prayed for peace at every stop in this week-long Holy Land pilgrimage, and in spite of everything else, Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike said they hope that message of peace is the ultimate legacy of this trip.

I’m Kim Lawton in Jerusalem.

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Pope Benedict XVI apparently chastised Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi over her views on abortion. Pelosi is Catholic and pro-choice. After a private meeting with Pelosi at the Vatican this week, Benedict issued a statement saying all Catholics, especially lawmakers, should work to protect all human life. Meanwhile, there’s been sharp criticism of the pope for his appearance of insensitivity to Jews when he reinstated an excommunicated bishop who denies the Holocaust.

We have perspective on all this from John Allen, longtime Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter. He joins us from Denver. John, welcome. Let’s start with the Pelosi visit. What struck you about that?

JOHN ALLEN (Vatican Correspondent, National Catholic Reporter): Well Bob, I think it was a classic Vatican balancing act. On the one hand, by giving the meeting to Pelosi over some criticism from some pro-life groups in the States who thought she had no business seeing the pope, Benedict signaled the desire to keep lines of communication open with the new leadership in the States. On the other hand, by publicly rapping her on the knuckles, he also called pro-choice legislators in the States to task. So it was their attempt to cover all the bases. Whether it will leave everyone fully satisfied remains to be seen.

ABERNETHY: And then, John, there’s been this strong, sharp criticism of the Vatican process, the bureaucracy, for permitting the pope to say things recently that were offensive, perhaps unnecessarily so. What do you make of that? I’ve read words like “chaos” and “incompetence” and “fatal flaw.” What’s going on?

Mr. ALLEN: Well, I think what we’re seeing is the culmination of a series of events. I mean it didn’t just begin with this controversy having to do with this Holocaust-denying traditionalist bishop. I mean we can roll the clock back three years when the pope triggered a firestorm of protests in the Islamic world with a lecture he gave in Germany; to last year’s controversy over a Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews. In recent days, there’s been a controversy regarding a bishop who was appointed in Austria. It had to be withdrawn when it became clear he had fairly extremist views. Basically, I think what’s happened is there’s a growing consensus in the Catholic world left, right, and center. But the Vatican simply has to get its communications act together, because what is happening is that the pope’s message is not getting through because it is repeatedly being obscured by these unnecessary public relations meltdowns.

ABERNETHY: And what would that involve? I mean, the pope knows the bureaucracy. He came out of it. What would it involve now?

Mr. ALLEN: Well look, Benedict XVI is one of the great intellectuals ever to occupy the papacy. He’s a brilliant theologian. He is not a public relations expert. There needs to be someone in his inner circle who can bring that kind of savvy.

ABERNETHY: And then there’s the pope’s coming trip to the Holy Land. How does all this affect that?

Mr. ALLEN: Well, it recalibrates that trip significantly. It was supposed to be about advancing Catholic-Jewish relationships, in addition to the Vatican’s diplomatic relationship with Israel. I think now it becomes almost exclusively about damage control. I think the perception in the Vatican is that Benedict desperately needs this trip in order to send signals to the Jewish community that he remains committed to good working relationships.

ABERNETHY: John Allen of National Catholic Reporter, many thanks.

DEBORAH POTTER, guest anchor: Benedict XVI heads to the U.S. this coming week (April 15-20) for his first visit here since being elected pope three years ago. He’ll be spending a total of five days in Washington, D.C. and New York. The Vatican released a video message from Benedict urging Americans to pray for the trip:

Pope BENEDICT XVI: I am very much looking forward to being with you. I want you to know that, even if my itinerary is short, with just a few engagements, my heart is close to all of you, especially to the sick, the weak and the lonely.

Benedict arrives in Washington Tuesday (April 15). The next day, he’ll have a private meeting with President Bush at the White House, where the war in Iraq is expected to be high on the agenda. On Friday (April 18), Benedict travels to New York, where he will address the United Nations General Assembly. The UN event was his original reason for coming to the US, and many experts believe that speech could be the most important of his trip. Kim Lawton takes a look at the unique role the pope and the Vatican play on the world stage.

KIM LAWTON: Soviet leader Josef Stalin was once questioned about the influence of the Vatican. Stalin is famously said to have replied, “The pope? How many divisions has he got?” The answer, as it turns out, is more than Stalin and many others might have guessed. Experts say the pope and the Vatican wield considerable global influence.

JAMES NICHOLSON: (Former U.S. Ambassador): They don’t have economic engines they have to feed. They don’t have armies. They don’t have land. The Vatican is only 106 acres. It’s the smallest nation-state in the world, but it is a huge moral, spiritual superpower.

LAWTON: As the Bishop of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI is the spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. But he also wears another hat: head of state for the independent territory of Vatican City and the Catholic Church’s government, called the Holy See.

Professor J. PETER PHAM (Director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs, James Madison University): It’s the tension between those two roles that actually gives him a resilience on the international stage, that he doesn’t just speak for a geopolitical unit but also for a demographic within the world.

LAWTON: The Holy See has played an active global role for centuries. It has permanent observer status at the United Nations and has all the rights of full UN membership except voting. The Holy See has formal diplomatic relations with 177 countries around the world, including the US. Ambassadors, called apostolic nuncios, represent the Holy See from embassies like this one in Washington, DC. The US has sent an ambassador to the Holy See since 1984. The current U.S. ambassador at the Vatican is Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon, who took up her post in February. James Nicholson held the position from 2001 to 2005.

Ambassador James Nicholson

Mr. NICHOLSON: I always said I practiced moral diplomacy.

LAWTON: During the more than 25 years of his pontificate, John Paul II dramatically raised the profile of the papacy on the international level and played a key role on many fronts, such as helping to bring down communism in Eastern Europe. Throughout his extensive travels, he was a vigorous global voice for freedom, human rights, peace, the alleviation of poverty, and fostering what he called “a culture of life.” Benedict has continued that advocacy, which experts say reflects foundational Catholic beliefs.

Reverend THOMAS REESE, S.J. (Senior Fellow, Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University): We have a moral obligation. Jesus told us to feed the hungry, care for the sick. These are things that are — impact international relations. It’s not just about economics and power. It’s about moral and ethical issues.

LAWTON: The policy goals may be the same, but times have changed since John Paul became pope.

Rev. REESE: We don’t have the Soviet Union anymore. What we have is the problem, problems in the Middle East, which is where Pope Benedict has been directing his attention.

LAWTON: The personalities have also changed.

Prof. PHAM: Whereas John Paul, if you look at the entire pontificate, was very much outwardly oriented toward the Church and the world, I think Benedict is inwardly focused — that in order to engage the world Benedict’s view is the Church has to be stronger from within.

Mr. NICHOLSON: Benedict is more cerebral, no question, more professorial. If he wasn’t being pope he would probably be a professor.

LAWTON: Some analysts believe that academic impulse has created a foreign relations challenge.

Rev. REESE: Benedict has had some problems on the world stage, because I think sometimes he thinks he’s still in a classroom where he can use words that have technical meanings that he has defined and that students are supposed to understand and know. But when he says them on the world stage, people take them at their street level meaning, and as a result there’s misunderstanding.

Professor J. Peter Pham

LAWTON: The most obvious example was his 2006 speech at the University of Regensburg in Germany, where he quoted a 14th-century emperor who criticized the Prophet Muhammad and accused Muslims of spreading their faith by the sword.

Rev. REESE: He spoke about Islam as being irrational. Well, what he meant was that it’s a religion based on faith, where faith is much more important than reason, you know. He wasn’t saying that Muslims are irrational, you know, but that’s the way it was heard.

LAWTON: The speech set off violent protests in several Muslim nations, a vivid demonstration of the impact a pope’s words can have. The Vatican issued a clarification, and during a visit to Turkey Benedict made a high profile visit to a mosque.

Prof. PHAM: On one hand, a great deal of setback in dialogue certainly occurred. On the other hand, after the initial setback a number of moderate Muslim scholars actually wrote to the pope, 138 of them, and said, “Well, we have some differences clearly, but now that they’re highlighted maybe we should engage in a dialogue,” and so a process of dialogue has begun.

LAWTON: But Benedict again generated controversy in the Islamic world on the Saturday before Easter, when he baptized a prominent Muslim journalist at a service in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Prof. PHAM: It could have occurred anywhere. The parish priest could’ve done it very quietly, discreetly. But I think the pope chose to do it himself and highlight it to emphasize the principle of religious freedom. Religious freedom cuts both ways. It’s not just freedom to practice one’s faith, but also freedom to change it.

LAWTON: The Iraq war has been another foreign policy challenge, beginning with John Paul’s papacy. John Paul strongly opposed the U.S. invasion.

Mr. NICHOLSON: He saw Iraq differently, there was no question about that, and spoke in January of ‘03 saying no to war — a real challenge for me as the interlocutor between the president and our government and him and his government.

LAWTON: Benedict also opposed the invasion and has sharply criticized its humanitarian consequences, especially for Iraq’s minority Christian community.

Prof. PHAM: Christians are leaving Iraq in huge numbers. This is a community that’s been there since the time of the apostles, and so I think Benedict’s concern now is the survival of Christianity in this ancient land and the fate of those Christians who are now refugees.

LAWTON: Other foreign policy priorities for Benedict include pushing for peace in the Holy Land and decrying rising secularism in Europe. On another diplomatic front, even though Benedict has criticized human rights abuses in China, he’s also been quietly working to establish relations, something that was not possible during the last papacy largely because of John Paul’s role in the fall of communism in Poland.

Father Thomas Reese SJ

Rev. REESE: The Chinese obviously didn’t want John Paul II running around China doing the same thing. Pope Benedict is not that kind of a threat to China, so I think they’re more comfortable in working out some kind of an arrangement.

LAWTON: Most of the time in places around the world, Vatican diplomats work outside the spotlight, where experts say they often have an advantage.

Prof. PHAM: They’re also there as religious representatives of the pope and therefore have close contacts with the local church, and the local church is often, in many countries, the closest to the people, and so their sources of information are often much better than that of, say, an embassy of a large Western country where for security reasons most of the diplomats are essentially living in a fortress.

LAWTON: Some question how much government leaders of today truly listen to what the pope has to say.

Mr. NICHOLSON: The pope will also say that we’re in an era of what he calls the “dictatorship of relativism,” and that indicates that there will be too many people, probably in his view and in mine, that won’t listen. But many will.

Prof. PHAM: Even if diplomats reject the Holy See’s position, which they often do on a number of issues, at least it gets them thinking that perhaps they will look to their own faith traditions or perhaps they’ll look to their own ethical systems, that there is another calculus involved other than the strict material calculus of power, security, and influence.

LAWTON: And that, observers say, is a moral authority that can’t be measured by economic strength or military divisions — a moral authority Benedict hopes to draw upon when meeting with US officials and speaking before the United Nations.

I’m Kim Lawton in Washington.