Professor Bainbridge Disappointed in Vatican's "Tepid Response" to Muslim Violence Over Cartoons

Professor Bainbridge confesses to being "very disappointed with the Vatican's tepid reponse to the violent reaction in the Islamic world to the Danish cartoons":

It reflects a cramped understanding of freedom of speech that seems to blame the victims more than those who commit violence ...

Here is the piece of the Vatican statement with which Professor Bainbridge takes issue:

The freedom of thought and expression, confirmed in the Declaration of Human Rights, can not include the right to offend religious feelings of the faithful. That principle obviously applies to any religion.

The statement also acknowledges that "violent actions of protest are equally deplorable." (emphasis added)

Professor Bainbridge responds:

"Equally deplorable" reflects a deplorable moral relativism.

The professor notes, however, that "there is a hint in some news accounts that the Pope's reaction was more forceful than the official Vatican statement":

In other comments made by the pope on Saturday, he condemned the violent reaction and protests against cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Mohammed.

I share the Professor's sentiments that the Vatican's statement evidences an alarming degree of moral relativism, as well as his hope that the Holy Father seems to "clearly get[] it" when it comes to weighing whose actions are more "deplorable".

UPDATE:
Notre Dame law professor Rick Garnett and UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh are also less than enthusiastic about the Vatican's seeming acceptance of and recommendation for what amounts to censorship in order to avoid offending Muslim sensibilities.