Do-over on interreligious dialogue

As expected, Pope Benedict restored the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue yesterday, just over a year after folding into the Pontifical Council for Culture, according to the Associated Press. That move was a big mistake, and someone in the Vatican seems to have recognized it--it was hard to miss when the pope managed to irritate most of the world's billion Muslims.

Not restored, however, was Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, English-speaking expert who used to serve as president of the council. The new president is the French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, former head of foreign affairs for the Vatican and an outspoken critic of the Iraq war. Tauran is probably good, but Fitzgerald was great--he must have some enemies still in the Vatican who want him exiled to Egypt.