Recasting Europe, recasting Chist

The legendary stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce knew how to make his audiences uncomfortable; occasionally he liked to talk about religion. 

More specifically, about an unsaid, but nonetheless existing prejudice, that to many he was still seen as a “Christkiller”. 

There may have been some self-mocking laughter, but the concept hit close to home: to succeed in America, you needed to be WASP all the way.

Bruce, of course, did not actually believe that to Christians all Jewish people were responsible for the death of Christ, but if such prejudices have been dormant in the years since Bruce's death in 1966, indeed if they are still understood at all, then in some ways this idea has been revived by Pope Benedict.

The Pope has written a book, Jesus of Nazareth, in which he, on behalf of the faithful worldwide, said that Catholics did in no way consider Jews responsible for the death of Christ. 

This probably came as a shock to most Catholics, who didn't realise that they had been laying blame all these years, but no matter; all have been absolved. Actually, that’s not entirely true. 

For Pope Benedict certain Jewish people, namely the temple leaders, were very much responsible. But that's OK; they were a breed apart, they represented the “aristocracy”.

In addition, he has also decide to recast Christ himself, who, according to the Pope, was not a revolutionary, but instead a simple man spreading messages of love. Whether or not historically Jesus Christ existed is not the issue. 

If he did, and the story of the gospels is a largely faithful historical record, then it is hard to see Christ as anything but a revolutionary; his evangelism was as much political as spiritual. 

That the aristocrat and the revolutionary are also traditional enemies is apparently lost on the Pope; his Jesus is a conservative figure made over in his own image.

There is more than a little irony of one potentate criticising the aristocratic leanings of others, condemning their distance from the congregation while all the while echoing around a marble palace. 

The Pope also, and with some topicality, condemns the “ideological lies” of dictators. 

As Lord of all He Surveys, Pope Benedict most likely knows a thing or two about the easy lure of despotism, even it that was not his own particular path.

But what the Pope has done is reinforce a kind of tribalism in world religion. 

Utterly convinced of his rightness, those other hordes can be patronised or pitied occasionally, but never accepted. 

His version stretches back to the crusades; a Christian Europe luminous in a dark hinterland of heathen benediction.

This week, the media in Ireland was reminding us of the myth that Saint Patrick, with one pious wave of the hand, brought Christianity to Ireland. 

One newspaper even suggested that the Irish take the Saint as their moral guide in these tough times, as though Christian morality is the only kind that exists, and that secular or other views are wayward and historically incompatible with the official narrative. 

Also this week, we were told by one European Commissioner that the fate of Japan is “in the hands of God” (this was not  meant literally, of course, but the choice of language is interesting), and moonwatchers are predicting disasters of biblical proportions.

Old habits, indeed, die hard, and no doubt this new work by Joseph Ratzinger (as the Pope signed it for extra man of the people credentials) will be a big seller.

That religion is a decisive issue that still ferments prejudice is sad. 

That one who claims infallibility should continue to resist the times we live in is sadder still.  

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