Oh, bloody hell:

Pope Benedict XVI held a meeting at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo with Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, a strident critic of Islam, Vatican sources confirmed.

The 76-year-old writer, who describes herself as an atheist Christian and was sued in Italy for insulting the Muslim faith in one of her books, asked to meet the pope, a source said....

Based in the United States where she is being treated for cancer, Fallaci once said in a newspaper interview that she was comforted by the writings of German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became pope after the death of John Paul II....

"I feel less alone when I read Ratzinger's books," the journalist added....

--AFP

Some of Fallaci's greatest hits:

"... Islam is a pond. And a pond is a trough of stagnant water ... it is never purified ... it is easily polluted, like a watering hole for livestock of little value. The pond does not love life: It loves death...” (Source.)

“to believe in the existence of a good Islam and a bad Islam goes against all reason”; “the Islamic faith sows hatred in the place of love and slavery in the place of freedom.” (Source.)

"It [Islam] is a tyranny, a dictatorship -- the only religion on earth that has never committed a work of self-criticism .... It is immovable. It becomes worse and worse .... It is 1,400 years and these people never review themselves, and now they want to come impose it on me, on us?..." (Source.)

Sorry -- whatever you think of the lawsuit (which I discussed here), and regardless of the state of her health (she's dying of cancer), she's a hater, period.

According to this Reuters article, we're not supposed to take this as an endorsement:

...Italian politicians said Benedict had been right to accept Fallaci's request for a private audience.

"The Holy Father has acted as the Vicar of Christ and acted like Christ himself, who never refused to talk to anyone," said former Italian president Francesco Cossiga.

Yeah? Well, let's see what happens the next time a pro-choice American Catholic Democrat wants to meet with the Pope. Or, say, a pro-gay marriage Canadian Catholic politician. Or a Catholic politician from any country who belons to a left-of-center party and who favoirs embryonic stem-cell research.