American Lefist has a thoughtful, comprehensive post on the Pope’s recent inflammatory comments about Islam.
One of the themes.
Imperialism is the magic interpretative key to the discovery of the answers. Through imperialism, the Catholic Church spread its faith all around the world at the point of swords held by the soldiers of Spain, Portugal and France. It is rarely recognized that the old adage, the sun never sets on the British Empire, first applied to the Catholic Church.
Thus, a Church that has often spread itself by use of violence, proclaims itself to be non-violent and to abhor those who aren’t. Not that lots of lay Catholics aren’t non-violent, but rather than the history of Church too often has not been.