“Ecce homo,” “Behold the man!” These were the words spoken by Pontius Pilate when he presented a scourged Jesus Christ to a hostile mob shortly before his crucifixion. The same words aptly apply today to Pope Benedict XVI, as he is being held up to unprecedented ridicule and scorn by a hateful press and a world so out of touch with its spiritual nature and moral being. One can almost hear Jesus saying to the peaceful and benevolent pope: “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first” (John 15:18).