My piece was not a «lament,» but essentially a defense
of Pope Benedict (as was my brief
follow - up here) against just the
type of over-the-top
criticisms cited elsewhere in Allen's article, even as I raised one respectful question about the pope's prudential decision not to meet with leading dissidents — a legitimate, good - faith debate among sincere Catholics.
(Although a
follow - up report by the National Research Council «found that Wegman report - style
criticisms of the
type of statistics used in 1998 and 1999 papers reasonable but beside the point, as many subsequent studies had reproduced their finding that the 20th century was likely the warmest one in centuries.»)