At Mirror of Justice, Robert Araujo, S.J., has a rather lengthy post on the Vatican Press Office’s statement on the Mohammed cartoons:

Clerics, men and women religious, and many laity have been physically targeted, sometimes with deadly force. Why? Because of their faith. The Holy See’s diplomatic service is well aware of this and, in its typically discreet way, tries to alleviate matters in dangerous, hostile environments. Sometimes this careful and prudential activity has led to the death of papal diplomats as the assassination of Archbishop Michael Courtney, the then papal nuncio in Burundi, demonstrated just a little over a couple of years ago. Early this week a Jesuit priest was assassinated in the same country. Last week another priest was assassinated in Turkey. In sub-Continent countries, Catholics—lay and clerics alike—have suffered harassment, torture, threats of death and death itself, and the reason for this is simple: they are Catholic. In these environments strong diplomatic rebukes uttering outrage and indignation may help but outright condemnations can increase the suffering and intensify dangers rather than curb hostility and bring calm. The papal diplomatic corps found this to be the case in Europe during the 1930s and early 1940s. One’s words must be carefully crafted because good intentions do not always ensure the desired results in this far-from-perfect world of human relations. Put simply, the mission of papal diplomacy in these contexts is simple: try to do good, and avoid evil, to borrow from Thomas Aquinas. The opportunity for criticism for pursuing this task can be manifold.