Pope Benedict's speech

The situation continues to develop. I'll re-read the speech tonight, and work on additional thoughts and reactions. It is a complicated matter -- to say the least.

The New York Times:

In the southern Iraqi city of Basra, protesters burnt an effigy of the pope, and an Iraqi group linked to Al Qaeda posted a warning on a Web site threatening war against “worshippers of the cross.”

Ayatollah Ali Khameni, the top cleric in Iran, called the pope’s remarks “the latest link” in the “chain of conspiracy to set off a crusade.”

Meantime, as a Vatican official said its ambassadors would seek to explain the pope’s remarks better, a Turkish man with a fake gun tried to storm a Protestant church in the capital of Ankara. He was arrested after worshippers trapped him in the church entryway.