Vatican to Muslims: Practice What You Preach

The Drudge Report is pointing to an article by Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor for Rueters entitled "Vatican to Muslims: practice what you preach."

While the general point is about the Vatican moving from a neutral "let's tolerate other religions" stance on the cartoon riots to a "hey, Muslims - this means you tolerate other religions" stance ... several quotes from the story are particularly noteworthy:

"Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It's our duty to protect ourselves," Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Vatican's supreme court, thundered in the daily La Stampa... "The West has had relations with the Arab countries for half a century, mostly for oil, and has not been able to get the slightest concession on human rights," he said.

And this one:

Bishop Rino Fisichella, head of one of the Roman universities that train young priests from around the world, told Corriere della Sera the Vatican should speak out more.

"Let's drop this diplomatic silence," said the rector of the Pontifical Lateran University. "We should put pressure on international organizations to make the societies and states in majority Muslim countries face up to their responsibilities."

Even Cardinal Sodano is getting pretty frank:

"If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us," Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State (prime minister), told journalists in Rome.

(all underlining is mine of course).

It's interesting to see guys in fairly high positions start to heighten their rhetoric.

The whole article is a decent read, and since it's being highlighted on Drudge I'm sure it is getting bombed with readers now.