Pope publishes cancelled speech

The Vatican has released the text of a speech the Pope was due to have given during a visit to Rome University, that was cancelled due to protests.

While some Rome students and faculty members have been crying victory, others have rallied around the pontiff. At Wednesday's general audience, students turned up with banners of support for the Pope.

A senior Vatican cardinal has urged Romans to turn out for next Sunday's Angelus blessing in St Peter's Square.

In the speech that Pope Benedict wrote himself for delivery at the start of the academic year in Rome, he acknowledges that some of the things said by theologians over the centuries have been proven false by history.

But he insists that the search for truth cannot be divorced from the traditional fields of study at universities since the Middle Ages, namely philosophy and Christian theology.

Defeat

The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone told the Rector of Rome University, after students threatened to disrupt the Pope's visit, that the Pontiff would no longer be "guaranteed a dignified and tranquil welcome".

What is interesting is that the anti-Pope protests seem, in some ways, to have backfired. One leading Italian newspaper the Corriere della Sera ran a front page editorial headlined "A defeat for the country", while President Napolitano and politicians of both the right and left have been condemning demonstrations of intolerance towards the Pope.

The fact is that secular Italy, which according to its constitution has no state religion, is deeply conditioned by the historical and physical presence in the centre of Rome of the Pope and the Vatican City State.

And it does guarantee free speech and freedom of religious practice, not only for Catholics but also for members of all other religions.

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