Schall The Jesuit, Benedict The Pope And Franz Jagerstater The Saint

In September 2006, Pope Benedict delivered a lecture in Regensburg, Germany -- a talk that subsequently received a great deal of attention. The Pope asked whether it is reasonable to spread one's religion by violence. Fr. James Schall, SJ a professor of political philosophy at Georgetown University, in his book The Regensburg Lecture, says that Islamic jihadism was not the primary target of the Pope's question. The larger issue involves the destruction of innocent life for any purpose -- with God's will serving as the ultimate justification. The Pope was asserting that God created the human intellect with the power and duty to discern right and wrong. Franz Jagerstatter, the "blessed" of St. Radegund, could rightly be called "the saint of Regens­burg." He personifies the argument made by Pope Benedict at Regensburg. Franz Jagerstatter knew it was never right to do wrong, to have even a minor role in destroying innocent human life.

Link (here) to the full story in The New Oxford Review