What Did the Pope Say?
Did anyone actually read the Pope's speech? Trust neither angry mobs nor shallow journalism to accurately portray what is said in a theological lecture. Check it out for yourself.
I found it interesting that he essentially describes Islam as teaching of a God unbound by Reason and secular humanism (seen as a descendant of the "error" of the Reformation's doctrine of sola scriptura) as worshipping Reason unrestrained by any God, and then tries to put Christianity in the sweet spot in between the two.
It's true that Christianity—and western culture in general—has historically felt the need to struggle with its own logic in a way that other cultures and faiths have generally not valued in the same way, but in the end it (old christianity, that is) just couldn't help but eventually fall back on what is called "voluntarism" in order to defend the extremely anti-logical idea of the trinity of persons. It's ironic and a little sad (or maybe a little hopeful?) that he says Christianity is distinguished as teaching that it is contrary to God's nature to not act according to reason. Truth is beautiful, but to see this light shrouded in the ugly Christological darkness is to see a terrible contrast.
For some non-shallow and interesting thoughts on what the reactions to the Pope's remarks mean, see Daoud Kuttab at the Washington Post.