Papal foot in mouth?

DallasNews Religion | Bruce Tomaso: "

“John L. Allen Jr. of National Catholic Reporter writes that during his Brazil trip, Pope Benedict XVI needlessly angered indigenous groups by saying that the arrival of Christianity did not amount to 'the imposition of a foreign culture' upon the native peoples of the New World. ... Allen cites many examples over the years where the pope's rhetoric could have been more effective had he just chosen a few words more carefully.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

As Allen says, "Benedict is an exceptionally lucid communicator." Why does anyone think that he doesn't mean what he says, whether it's condemning Mohammed for bringing only things that are evil and inhuman into the world, or whether it's dictating to foreign elected officials how they must vote on abortion laws, or whether it's his view that the European conquest of the Americas wasn't a case of imposing a foreign culture? In all these cases, the "clarifications" issued later by the Pope's small army of aides do not contradict what the Pope said. They only fudge the language to make it arguable that the Pope meant something else. It's more likely that this lucid communicator says exactly what he means and means what he says.