Holy Father how you are defying expectations!!!

Not mine, of course. I knew he would knock this visit to the UK out of the park.

Here's some interesting commentary from Father Z about the Holy Father's visit to Westminster Abbey:

Rowan Williams is clearly smart and eloquent. You have the sense in listening to him that he is so smart and eloquent that he doesn’t have to rely on anything other than his eloquence. Anglicans don’t have teaching authority. They are left with being persuasive, eloquent, charming. The C of E is lucky to have him right now. If they didn’t, if they had someone who wasn’t eloquent, they would be flying apart even faster than they are.

On the other hand, Pope Benedict, who is clearly able and willing and happy to rely on the authority of his office, doesn’t have to worry about the sound of his mellifluous tones floating back to him, or seeing the rapt attention in the faces of his listeners. All he does is deliver his straight forward message, eloquent in its authority and force, if not in its delivery. Pope’s have an advantage that way.

Williams today spoke of the need to be persuasive through the example of lifestyle, etc., and not through political organization or clout in the public square. He seems to shy from clear articulation of what Pope Benedict is perfectly comfortable with saying in the public square. I am open to correction if I am wrong about this, but this is my impression.

In that speech at Lambeth Palace, Benedict said "we Christians must never hesitate to proclaim our faith in the uniqueness of the salvation won for us by Christ". In the paragraph before Benedict was taking about pluralism and other religions. In making his interfaith point, he points to what secularist humanists do (deny the transcendent, holiness, the true grounds of human dignity, etc.). Then Benedict did something that, it seems to me, Williams won’t do. Benedict said, I repeat…: "At the same time, "we Christians must never hesitate to proclaim our faith in the uniqueness of the salvation won for us by Christ." Williams’ talk does not say anything like that.

I am not saying that Archbp. Williams doesn’t believe in Christ. I am not saying or hinting at all that he is shy about naming Christ. It is just that when it comes to the issue of the Christian voice in the public square, the Archbishop of Canterbury doesn’t talk at all like the Bishop of Rome. He will name Christ, truly, but he won’t make Benedict’s claim.

We must make that claim. We must. Or people will be lost. I pray that I will never be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.