TO Catholics, the pope is infallable. To the larger mass of humanity he is just another man who represents a particular religious sect. And as such he can make mistakes and he can be wrong on a variety of issues.

Pope Benedict was deliberate and articulate when he quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who regarded some of the prophet Muhammed's teachings as "evil and inhuman". This was not an error. It was plain political arrogance. Now he says that he is "deeply sorry".

I suspect that he may be sorry, not because of what he said but rather because of the response by the world wide Muslim community. As much as the West attempts to separate religion from politics in some instances referring to it as the "separation of church and state" the more obvious it becomes that it is a fraudulent perception.

If we are to believe that religion fosters morality, how then do we respond to the social atrocities perpetuated by Christian leaders upon the masses within their respective jurisdictions who are also Christians?

It would be hypocrital to continue the charade that Politics does not have a morality of its own, it does and it always has. Obeah won't change that. I would suggest to Pope Bennedict XVI that he abandon politics because violence in pursuit of religious domination is nothing new.

A prime example of this observation is the fact the presence of Christianity, Catholicism in particular throughout Latin America was not accomplished peacefully. Generations of Indigenous peoples were slaughtered, and robbed of their langauges as Christianity was forcefully imposed upon them.So it is time for the kettle to stop calling the pot black. Archbishop Gilbert knows only too well of my observations even as he believes that the Pope cannot err.