Dept. of Strange Bedfellows
The former Archbishop of Canterbury stands up for the Pope.
by Mark D. Tooley
09/28/2006

SOMETIMES there are pleasant surprises from the much-maligned Church of England. Last week, its former Archbishop of Canterbury defended Pope Benedict's remarks about violence in Islamic history.

Archbishops of Canterbury have not always distinguished themselves politically. Archbishop Laud infamously helped Charles I persecute the Puritans in the 1600s, igniting a revolution, and losing his own head. In more modern times, Archbishop Lang supported British appeasement policies towards Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. Archbishop Runcie often criticized Western resolve against the Soviet Union during the Cold War's final years in the 1980s.

But Archbishop Carey, who led the Church of England from 1991 to 2002, has remained politically temperate. He is so far one of the few major mainline Christian leaders who has dared to defend the Pope's recently articulated concerns about Islamic violence, concerns that in turn ignited violence by some angry Muslims. the rest