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"Let everyone reject the destructive power of hatred and prejudice, which kills men's souls before it kills their bodies!" Pope Benedict told "tens of thousands of adoring followers in Jesus' childhood hometown" of Nazaruth "with a message of reconciliation" Thursday.  (Jack Guez/ AFP/ Getty Images photo of workers preparing site on the aptly named Mount Precipice where Pope Benedict XVI would celebrate Mass on Thursday)

“We cannot do whatever we please with the world,” Pope Benedict XVI told religious leaders of Galilee the other day (full remarks here) during the final leg of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land:

And there's the rub, the tragic vs the utopian view of human nature that we're forever flogging here. Generations of young hearts have been stunted through the soul-deadening p.c. propaganda of the decades-long Gramscian march through the institutions, as blogged here just the other day:

It’s a tragedy that President Obama’s lockstep legions haven't a clue about Papa Ratzi's "subtle yet nonetheless perceptible laws” of the universe. Rodney King's fatuous "Can't we all just get along?" comes to mind, as does Santayana's prescient "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." As military historian-cum-family-farmer Victor Davis Hanson —one who "remembers the past" better than almost anyone — wrote the other day:

The cracks … in Obama’s Pentelic statuary … will widen, because in about six areas he has taken on human nature itself, age-old logic and common-sense opponents that even a Harvard Law degree and Chicago organizing are no match for.

The controversy over Notre Dame's decision to award the president an honorary degree shines a spotlight on the Big Lie that is the commentariat's narrative of the Obama presidency as "Critics Decry Wording of Notre Dame's Honorary Degree for Obama." From the citation:

Through his willingness to engage with those who disagree with him and encourage people of faith to bring their beliefs to the public debate, he is inspiring this nation to heal its divisions of religion, culture, race and politics in the audacious hope for a brighter tomorrow.

While honorary-degree citations are expected to put a well-scrubbed face on the recipient's accomplishments, this one just ain't true. Catholic theologian George Weigel explains:

"I don't see any evidence that President Obama takes the moral arguments of those who disagree with him on the life issues seriously," Weigel told FOXNews.com. "This was most clear in his address at the time he announced the federal government's stance on embryonic destructive stem cell research."

Back to the Holy Father for blogfriend Elizabeth Scalia's (AKA The Anchoress) take:

And a few final words from Benedetto himself in his South Lawn speech at the White Hous last year:

In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, [John Paul II] reminded us that history shows, time and again, that "in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation," and a democracy without values can lose its very soul.

Amen.

Update: "Note this story," writes The Anchoress in the comments:

Israel may be ready for a two-state solution. And the credit goes to ... not Benedict, who Netty just met with, but OBAMA, with whom he will meet soon.

Isn't Obama amazing, though? No credit to Benedict!

As we wrote back:

Exactly what I was thinking as I caught the headline on Drudge this afternoon. Reminds me of the old Christmas story Why the Chimes Rang.

Ronald Reagan would have understood the Lord's -- and the Pope's -- mysterious ways: You can accomplish much if you don't care who gets the credit.

Update: "Even committed secularists need their godlings," writes The Anchoress, who links -- Thanks! -- in "Post Pope, Israel may support 2-state solution - UPDATED."