According to Catholic dogma, when the Pope speaks “ex cathedra”–or “from the chair” with papal authority on doctrines of faith or morals–he is infallible. Obviously, Pope Francis was winging it the other day in Manila when he weighed in on necessary limits of free speech.
We all get the “yelling fire in a crowded theater” proscription. Ditto for a “Viva Fidel” parade down Calle Ocho in the middle of Little Havana. Common sense and the common good take precedence over a principle in the abstract.
But what Pope Francis was defending was free-speech limits when confronting that other major freedom: religion. Specifically, Islam.
“You cannot provoke,” the Pope explained. “You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.” To illustrate, he used an eminently fallible analogy–a friend who curses out someone’s mother can expect a punch–that missed the point in the context of the Charlie Hebdo mass murder.
Of course, the Pope wasn’t justifying that horrific Charlie Hebdo over-reaction by extremists, just issuing a cautionary note to those who would take critical, satiric, poor-taste liberties with a religion. Even if, quite arguably, certain practitioners–in the name of their religion–have more than earned societal opprobrium that includes being lampooned, satirized or condemned.
How ironic and, frankly, civilized that contemporary Christians–even fringe fundamentalists– never slaughtered anyone, not even Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, over “Jesus Christ Superstar” or Tom Lehrer over “The Vatican Rag.” (Google it.)
How’s that for setting the tolerance bar low? Indeed, what would Jesus, if not Mohammad, say?