Pope Benedict XVI , in his weekly Wednesday audience, reflected on his recent six-day trip to our shores and has concluded that we’re not insane after all. Or, rather, that we are in fact sane.

B16 (as he’s known in the press) commended the US as a “valid example of sane secularism, where the religious dimension in the diversity of its expressions is not only tolerated but valued as the ‘soul’ of the nation and the fundamental guarantee of man’s rights and duties.”

He seemed positively effusive in his praise for the US:

During the meeting with President George Bush in the White House, said the Pope, “I had the opportunity to pay homage to that great country, which from its beginnings was built on the foundation of a harmonious union between religious, ethical and political principles, and which still constitutes a valid example of healthy laicism, where the religious dimension, in the diversity of its expressions, is not only tolerated but turned to advantage as the ‘soul’ of the nation and the fundamental guarantee of the rights and duties of human beings”.

The full Vatican summary is available here.