NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT

Posted today (5/13) in the preceding page:

The Italian press reports Benedict XVI's remarks on Italy's abortion law: Luigi Accattoli of Corriere
della Sera points out B16 did not go as far as John Paul II did, who asked for active attempts to repeal the law on its
20th anniversary in 1998...while Giacomo Galleazzi at La Stampa says both the Vatican and the CEI think the new
government may provide the 'historic occasion' to move now for a repeal of the law.

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Sounds Unheard:
China Goes Religious?
By Father Jonathan Morris

Monday, May 12, 2008


Fr. Morris is Fox's special correspondent at the Vatican. He offers here an unusual account of the recent concert homage by China's leading orchestra for Pope Benedict XVI.


This morning buildings in Beijing, Bangkok, and Hanoi shook. It was a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and thousands are dead.

It could be said this was the second time in a week’s span the earth quaked in China. The first time was less dangerous and less dramatic — actually, most people in the West don’t even know it occurred.

But five days after the fact, the diplomatic reverberations of a historic concert performed by the China Philharmonic Orchestra inside the Vatican and in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI can still be heard in the halls of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing, here in Rome, and in diplomatic offices around the world.

When a press representative contacted me about interviewing Chinese “maestro” Long Yu about his upcoming musical performance in the Vatican, I was incredulous.

For almost 60 years official diplomatic ties between the Vatican and China have been broken. The Vatican’s many private and public criticisms of the Communist government for its continued infractions against human rights and against religious liberty in particular, have been rebuffed by Beijing as interference in the country’s internal affairs. The stickiest point of relations has been China’s insistence on appointing (or at least approving) its own Roman Catholic bishops.

Looking again at the interview invitation in my hand, I wondered what could have changed so quickly and quietly in the often frigid relationship. At this point, still no mention of the event was on the Pope’s public calendar. In fact, I found no trace of the upcoming event on the Internet — and the concert was less than two weeks away! Was this hastily planned? No way.

More importantly, I wondered why the Chinese government would now be interested in, and why the Vatican would agree to, such a show of mutual goodwill.

I knew Pope Benedict had set as a major goal of his pontificate improving relations with China while not giving up on demands for religious liberty. Was this a sign of outright diplomatic success, no strings attached? Probably not.

I also knew China was executing a full-court press in the arena of public opinion in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Games. Was Beijing trying to manipulate the Pope and his moral authority by getting the Vatican on its side? Maybe. Were the Pope and his collaborators aware of that possibility? Surely.

I accepted the interview offer with the goal of listening to the maestro’s point of view on all of these quandaries, knowing well his talking points would have only relative significance because of the close supervision of the Chinese government.

We sat together in the lobby of his hotel, on the outskirts of Rome. His press representative — a man with a British accent — sat with us, mostly in attentive silence. I will leave to your own judgment the meaning and value of the following quotes from orchestra conductor, Long Yu, to whom I am grateful for the undeserved kindness he showed to me:

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• “Obviously this is a purely music travel to the Vatican, but I do hope this travel brings a new future to both sides.”

• “I’m not a politician, so I don’t know if what we are doing is necessary for the Olympic Games, because what I am doing has nothing to do with politics. But I have a personal wish for both sides, it doesn’t matter, they should get a better understanding of each other. Misunderstanding makes us lose chances to move things forward.”

• “Sometimes people should understand China more, culturally and philosophically, from China’s side as well. This trip is purely a music trip, but this trip can probably, I hope, make some special meeting point for the future. It will bring people some things to think about, not just the standard of what we think of the other side.”

• “The whole story of how this came about starts about three years ago... We are very lucky to have the concert today... It is very complicated to say how it came about... It’s hard to explain.”

• “People need to understand the generation of Chinese of today is different than when we were born in the 60s or 70s and it is different than the Chinese of tomorrow.”

• “People who are talking about things that need to change in China, I want them to come to China. They will see the past China is different than today’s China and the future China... Of course we have this or that problem, but the major part is that China is developing the country, not only economically... China is definitely going in the right direction.”

• “If you really think you want to discuss things about China, then come to China and talk to the people... I don’t want to say China is perfectly where it should be, but everyone everywhere has problems. We just need to be positive.”

---

The concert has come and gone. Now what?

I waited to write about this event until now because I needed the kind of perspective that comes only with time.

Before going on I must say, leaving all politics aside (a refreshing exercise), the music was brilliant. The orchestra’s execution of Mozart’s “Requiem” was flawless, at least to my untrained ear. Watching and listening to one hundred and fifty Chinese musicians interpret and sing explicitly religious and European music in the Vatican and in the presence of the strongest voice for global Christianity today could have made even the greatest of sceptics suspend judgment about the long term value of this event.

The choir sang in Latin, “Exaudi, exaudi orationem meam (Hear, hear my prayer).” And in the only Greek words preserved from the ancient liturgy, they pleaded melodiously, “Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison (Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy).” And then back to Latin, “Salva me, fons pietatis (Save me, o fount of mercy).”

Diplomatic maneuvers are more cumbersome to evaluate than the sound of music, but as long as we live in this valley of tears, I’m afraid its value cannot be ignored.

Here’s what went down:

At the end of the concert, Pope Benedict directed some words to the musicians, and to the “organizers” of the event. He notes three things in particular: 1) "the interest shown by your orchestra and choir in European religious music"; 2) a special thought for those of your fellow citizens who share faith in Jesus and are united through a particular spiritual bond with the Successor of Peter"; and most poignantly, 3) "I send my greetings, through you, to all the people of China as they prepare for the Olympic Games, an event of great importance for the entire human family."

Pope Benedict XVI had no obligation to mention the Olympics. He did so willingly. In the context of his general approach to diplomacy and dialogue, I think he is sending this message: the best way to get China to open itself to the world (and to human rights and religious liberty), is for the world to open itself to the Chinese people, while never failing to use the new overture to speak the truth in love.

Notice in this vein how his words about the Olympics are directed not to the government host, but rather to “the people of China as they prepare for the Olympic Games, an event of great importance for the entire human family.”

I am sure many millions of Chinese who watched the concert (widely promoted by the government), whether Christian or Communist, are now friends of Benedict. Neither a small nor insignificant feat! Will they now begin to read his writings? I hope so.

The friendly Vatican hand of hospitality which reached out to China received immediate promises of diplomatic payback. The spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Qin Gang, recently issued a statement to the press qualifying the concert as “a big success” and saying China is now willing to improve relations with the Vatican.

In his own words, “we would like to further conduct constructive dialogue with the Vatican based on relative principles so as to push bilateral ties toward normalization.”

Normalization would suggest reform — a better life for Christians in China.

Time will tell whether music and sport can do the work of politicians.

What’s your guess?

I initially posted the dpa item below in POPE-POURRI, but Vatican Radio's Italian service also has an interview with Fr. Lombardi with great detail, so I have decided to put this story here.





Pope's Rosary recital
goes on sale in CD box set


Vatican City, May 13 (dpa) - A recording of Pope Benedict XVI reciting the Rosary in Latin is to go on sale as a four-CD box set, the Vatican announced Tuesday.

"It was born as an answer to listeners and from several Catholic radio stations," Vatican Radio director, Father Federico Lombardi, said explaining the initiative.

Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, on several occasions recited the Rosary live on Vatican Radio, providing the faithful with "great consolation" while "facilitating their prayer and devotion" Lombardi said.

However, John Paul stopped the practice as his health grew frail, and while tape recordings of the late Pontiff's recitals exist, listeners were eager to hear versions of the Rosary by Benedict after his election as Pope in 2005, Lombardi said.

According to Lombardi, who is also the papal spokesman, Latin was chosen because it is "most easily understood for the Rosary" and the universal language of the Catholic Church.

The decision also appears to be in line with Benedict's attempts to revive the use of Latin since he began his pontificate.

The Pontiff last year eased restrictions for priests who wish to celebrate the Latin Mass and last week the Vatican launched a Latin version of its website.

The Rosary mostly consists of repetitions of the Hail Mary, a prayer in which the faithful ask Jesus's mother for her intercession with God, while focusing on different phases of the life of Mary and Jesus.

The CD box set will initially be available from the Vatican official bookshop on St Peter's Square at a cost of 15 euros (23 dollars).


4-CD set now available of Pope Benedict
praying the Rosary in Latin
Translated from the
Italian service of


Th pray the Holy Rosary guided by the voice of Benedict XVI is now possible for all the faithful, thanks to recordings made by Vatican Radio.

Four CDs in a boxed set sold for 15 euros may be ordered directly from Vatican Radio or from Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the Vatican publishing house. Alessandro Gisotti reports:

"The Holy Rosary is not a pious practice relegated to the past as a prayer from olden times to think about with nostalgia. Instead, the Rosary is undergoing almost a new spring". This was underscored by Benedict XVI on May 3, when he led the recitation of the Rosary at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

For so many Roman faithful, it is a joy to be able to recite the Rosary with the Pope. A privilege which is now extended to everyone, beyond the limits of the Urbe, thanks to the recording made by Vatican Radio of all four sets of mysteries.

Our director, Fr. Federico Lombardi, speaks to us of how this initiative came to pass:

FR. LOMBARDI: It was born as a response to requests from our listeners and from various Catholic radio stations. One must remember that during the long Pontificate of John Paul II, he led the recitation of the Rosary many times live over Vatican Radio, to the great appreciation of listeners, and so, many of them know what it is to pray the rosary led by the Holy Father no less.

In his final years, John Paul II could not do that anymore for radio, but since we had several recordings of him praying the rosary, we could offer our listeners audio cassettes that would enable them to pray with the Holy Father.

With the new Pontificate, naturally, the demand has been renewed. Pope Benedict has recited the Rosary many times with the faithful, but they were mostly on special occasions [Marian month homages at the Vatican Gardens or the televised international broadcasts with youth assemblies in various countries] or when the prayer was done in Italian, and the various mysteries were led by other persons.

Therefore, we did not have the Rosary in a form sufficiently 'general' to respond to listeners from different countries and using different languages. But now, thanks to the kindness of the Holy Father, we have been able to do so.


Fr. Lombardi goes on to explain the reason why the Pope says the Rosary in Latin:
Once the Pope said the Rosary in Latin in one of the chapels of the Apostolic Palace, and we were able to tape it. The Pope agreed to help us complete all four sets of mysteries.

It's in Latin because the requests we get do not only come from Italy but from other countries. The Latin for the prayers of the Rosary is easily understood by everyone - or at least familiar to them, and besides, it is the universal language of the Church.

Thus, this is a service that many have been waiting for, and it is right that the CDs should be first released during the Marian month of May.

Fr. Lombardi also says it constitutes the Pope's renewed invitation for everyone to allow himself to be guided by Mary towards an encounter with her Son:
Benedict XVI, like John Paul II, is a great devotee of Mary. He prays the Rosary during his daily walks with his secretary. He recommends to all faithful to make use of the Rosary - a simple, humble prayer, which can be prayed regularly as a devotion by everyone, and which helps us to meditate on the mysteries of the life of Christ and his mother Mary, the human being closest to Christ.

Benedict XVI's Marian devotion is a profound continuity with that which we knew well about John Paul II and his example helps us to pray the Rosary as the Popes do.

GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY

The Pope called for prayers for China's earthquake victims and rescuers, at the end of the General Audience today. In the catechesis, he spoke about dialog with the mystical religions of Asia, which are based on finding God in prayer and praise, and not only through reason.

A full translation of the Holy Father's catechesis and appeal has been posted in AUDIENCE & ANGELUS TEXTS.

Here is how he synthesized his catechesis in English:

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In today’s catechesis we turn to the teaching of a sixth-century author whose writings have been attributed to the first-century disciple of Saint Paul, Dionysius the Areopagite.

His two principal works, The Divine Names and Mystical Theology, strive to present a knowledge of God which surpasses rational understanding and culminates in spiritual perfection and transforming contemplation.

Pseudo-Dionysius stresses the apophatic or "negative" understanding born of pondering God’s infinite transcendence and otherness. By contemplating what God is not, and by entering more deeply into the rich symbolic language of Scripture, we grow in our relationship with the One who reveals himself in hiddenness. Contemplation is thus an ascent leading from purification to illumination, perfection and union with God.

In the West, Dionysius’ writings influenced the early scholastics and Saint Thomas, as well as Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross. His vision of a great cosmic harmony reflecting the beauty of the Creator and the love freely bestowed on us in Christ, can also inspire our efforts to work for unity, reconciliation and peace in our world.

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ON DIALOG WITH ASIA'S MYSTICAL RELIGIONS

Vatican City, May 14 (Adapted from AsiaNews) - The Holy Father said today he is praying for the victims of the earthquake that struck Sichuan, central China, as well as for 'support' to those who are bringing aid to the population.

At the end of today's general audience, Benedict XVI remembered "the population of Sichuan and of the surrounding area hit hard by the earthquake, which has killed and displaced many, and caused incalculable damage".

"I invite you to join me in praying fervently", he continued, "for all who have lost their lives. I am spiritually close to the people suffering from this devastating calamity: let us implore God to sustain them in their suffering. May the Lord grant support to all those who are involved in confronting the immediate needs for assistance".

In his catechesis earlier to some 30,000 people present for the audience, the Pope spoke about dialogue with the mystical religions of Asia. He said these religions are based on the idea that God is found through praising him and praying to him, and not only through reflection, because even the highest concepts that can be expressed about God cannot comprehend his greatness.

Faith and love, he said, are capable of illuminating reason, which imparts the sense of being part of the "cosmic symphony" of praise for the Creator.

The Holy Father illustrated the relevance of this "journey", which was at the center of the work of one of the Church fathers of the sixth century, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a promoter of the encounter between Greek thought and Christianity.

Dionysius responded to the school of thought that sought to transform Plato into a "philosophical religion", with a return to Greek polytheism, which have "the cosmic forces themselves" as divinities in contrast to Christian monotheism.

Dionysius transformed this polytheistic universe into "the harmony of the cosmos of God, into the symphony of the cosmos that spans from the Seraphim to the angels, from the archangels to man....because all creation speaks of God."

The Holy Father said that the true spirit of dialogue is in the search for truth - "the experience of the truth... (When) the truth itself sheds light and overthrows errors... it is possible to speak with one another, or at least draw closer to each other".

Dialogue among Christians or with the other religions, in fact, "is not born from superficiality", but "from the truth", he said, and "precisely where one enters into the profundity of the encounter with Christ, then the space opens wide for the light of the truth, which is light for all; controversies disappear and it becomes possible to approach each other".

Benedict's 'Grey Eminence'

by Samuel Gregg D.Phil.
Acton Commentary
Acton Institute
May 14, 2008

Following Benedict XVI's recent visit to America, there was some grumbling from social justice activists that the pope said relatively little about matters ranging from climate change to third-world debt. This reflects, they suggested, the pope's disinterest in "real" issues.

From his papacy's beginning, Benedict has indeed proved remarkably reluctant to enter into detailed discussion of policy questions. There are two reasons for this. First, just after being elected pope, Benedict reaffirmed that the Catholic Church does have non-negotiable positions on particular matters, most notably the protection of innocent human life, marriage, and religious liberty properly understood.

But Benedict also reaffirmed the Church's teaching that, as far as other policy issues are concerned, lay Catholics are free to make their own prudential judgments, guided, of course, by Catholic principles. Even within the Catholic Church, it is not well-understood that Catholics enjoy remarkable liberty to take a variety of positions on most policy questions.

The second reason for Benedict's disinterest in policy details, however, ultimately reflects his view about how Catholics ought to approach social-political questions.

In this regard, perhaps the greatest influence upon Benedict's social thought--his grey eminence--is a French Jesuit theologian who died 17 years ago. Born in 1896, Henri de Lubac experienced the twentieth century's upheavals at first hand. He fought in the trenches of World War I, participated in the French Resistance during World War II, worked as a theological expert at Vatican II, and served as friend and intellectual interlocutor to both Karol Wojtyla and Joseph Ratzinger.

Like Ratzinger, de Lubac was considered somewhat avant-garde before Vatican II. He consequently experienced considerable unpleasantness at the hands of overzealous church officials.

But after Vatican II, de Lubac--like Ratzinger--emerged as a formidable defender of Catholic orthodoxy. De Lubac also continued to endure harassment for his views. This time, however, the odium theologica came from heterodox theologians such as Hans Kung whose agenda amounted (as it still does) to dissolving Catholicism into a secularized, hyper-politicized, bureaucratized, and doctrinally-empty pseudo-Christianity.

But Ratzinger and de Lubac's similarities go beyond this. They shared the conviction that the road to Church renewal is not immersion in whatever happens to be the latest intellectual fashion.

Authentic renewal, de Lubac held, could only occur by going back to the original sources of Christian inspiration--most notably, Scripture grounded in the Church's Tradition as well as the Church Fathers--and then using this as a basis to think about the present. This, de Lubac argued, was the best way to articulate a distinctly Christian message to the modern world.

A good example of how this applied to social issues is de Lubac's book, Catholicisme: Aspects sociaux du dogme (1938). In his Memoirs, Ratzinger recalls the impact this text had on his own thought. Indeed, it is directly cited in Benedict's encyclical Spe Salvi.

Catholicisme draws upon Scripture and early and medieval Church Fathers to think through what the nature of the Church itself suggests about the individual's place in society. The beauty of this approach is that it brings to the surface ideas that cannot be neatly categorized as "right" or "left." Rather, it produces a distinctly Christian perspective that explodes our increasingly sterile secular political categories.

This method was on display during two recent speeches delivered by Pope Benedict.

One was his United Nations address in which Benedict politely but firmly noted that the very notion of human rights was first conceptualized by Catholic theologians and only ultimately made sense when grounded in a biblical vision of man. This is a way of talking about rights that cuts through the morass of much contemporary rights-talk, which is reflected in the typically incoherent statements about rights produced by most international organizations.

The second speech was Pope Benedict's recent May 3rd address to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Here the pope reflected upon the nature of subsidiarity and solidarity. Drawing upon Scripture and commentaries from Augustine and Aquinas, Benedict reminded his audience that the ultimate purpose of these principles is not efficiency or equality. Rather, it is "to place men and women on the path to discovering their definitive, supernatural destiny."

Neither solidarity nor subsidiarity, Benedict stated, have purely "horizontal" (i.e., earthly) meaning. They also have "vertical" (i.e., transcendental) significance. Solidarity, Benedict wrote, is ultimately about helping others to encounter life in all its fullness, something only completely realized through life in Christ.

Subsidiarity, Benedict maintained, "liberates people from a sense of despondency and hopelessness, granting them the freedom to engage with one another in the spheres of commerce, politics and culture". But above all, Benedict added, subsidiarity makes "space for love... which always remains the most excellent way."

None of this is to suggest that Benedict or de Lubac thinks that politics or public policy is unimportant. Their point is that if you truly believe in the truth found in the sources of orthodox Christianity, then you will think and act as if the transcendental destiny (heaven or hell) that everyone can freely choose for themselves is real, and such considerations will shape every moral decision you make, including your political choices.

That's the core of Benedict's social message. It's hard to imagine a more radical one.

Dr. Samuel Gregg is research director at the Acton Institute and author, most recently, of The Commercial Society (2007).

POPE MOURNS THE DEATH
OF CARDINAL GANTIN



Cardinal Bernardin Gantin of Benin, emeritus Dean of the College of Cardinals, died Tuesday night (3/13) in Paris. He was 86. Hearing the news, the Holy Father secluded himself in prayer and later sent this telegram to the Archbishop of Cotonou. [A full story about him has been posted in NOTABLES.]

Here is a translation of the Pope's telegram which was sent in French:

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MONS. MARCEL HONORAT LEON AGBOTON
ARCHBISHOP OF COTONOU

Having learned with great emotion of the death of Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, emeritus Dean of the College of Cardinals, I express to you my fervent union in prayer with the bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Benin, with the faithful of the Archdiocese of Cotonou and all Benin, as well as with the family of the deceased and all those affected by this loss.

I ask God, the Father from whom all mercy comes, to welcome to his light and peace this eminent son of Benin and Africa, esteemed by all, who was animated with a profoundly apostolic spirit and an elevated sense of the Church and its mission in the world.

I thank the Lord for his fruitful ministry, first as Archbishop of Cotonou, and then during so many years at the Holy See, which he served with generous faithfulness, particularly at the Congregation for Bishops and as member of the College of Cardinals, of which he also became its much appreciated Dean.

As a token of comfort for you, the other bishops of Benin, the family of the deceased, priests, religious, catechists and all the faithful of Benin, as well as all who will take part in his funeral liturgy, I impart an affectionate Apostolic Blessing.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

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Cardinal Gantin was one of five bishops, along with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who were made cardinals in Pope Paul VI's last consistory in June 1977.







The African cardinal's decision in 2002 to retire to his homeland in Africa was accepted by John Paul II, and the remaining cardinal-bishops in Rome elected Cardinal Ratzinger to replace Gantin as Dean of the College of Cardinals.

At the time of the 2005 Conclave, the two friends were the only two surviving cardinals among those appointed by Pope Paul VI.

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Thanks to Lella's blog, here is an interview with Cardinal Gantin published in Avvenire on April 27, 2005 in which he talks about his friend who had just become Pope. Normally, I would have posted this in ENCOUNTER WITH A FUTURE POPE:


'A Pope who is a master of moderation'
by Gianni Cardinale
Translated from
the 4/27/05 issue of




On June 27, 1977, Paul VI held what would be his last Consistory: he created four new cardinals and disclosed the name of one he had named in pectore the previous year.

Among those 5, only two are still alive - the new Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal Bernardin Gantin of Benin, emeritus dean of the College of Cardinals.

We asked the African cardinal, who headed the Congregation for Bishops for 14 years, for his memories and impressions of the new Pope.


Eminence, when did you first meet Benedict XVI?
I knew of Joseph Ratzinger as a theologian of fame since the time of the Second Vatican Council. But I met him personally only after Paul VI named him Archbishop of Munich-Freising. A young priest of mine from Benin graduated in theology under his guidance [in Regensburg] on the day when his nomination as archbishop was announced. [The priest from Benin was mentioned and pictured in one of the news stories from 1977 that Palma shared with us.] So I had the good fortune to take part in his episcopal consecration in the Bavarian capital on May 28, 2977, Pentecost Sunday.


And one month later was the Consistory...
It was a great honor for me to be created a cardinal by the great Pope Paul VI together with really topnotch like Giovanni Benelli, Joseph Ratzinger, Mario Luigi Ciappi and Frantisek Tomasek.

Now there are only one two of us, and whenever we meet each other, Cardinal Ratzinger would tell me, "We are the survivors..."

On that occasion [the consistory], Cardinal Ratzinger met my mother, my dear mamma Anna, who was very impressed by his simplicity and courtesy. In this respect, I cannot forget what happened in 1992. We were together on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, along with Cardinal Josef Tomko. While we were there, my mother returned to the house of the Father. I will not forget the fraternal kindness Cardinals Ratzinger and Tomko showed me during those painful days.


You worked for almost 30 years in the Roman Curia, while the new Pope has been here for more than 20 years. Did you see each other often?
Our paths crossed often because of our activities in the Curia. I was a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and he was a member of the Congregation for Bishops which I headed.

In one of the first meetings he had here at the Vatican, Cardinal Ratzinger, who had not studied in Rome, said: "My Italian is still not good, so with your permission, I would like to give my remarks in Latin...." And he began to speak fluently in the official language of the Church. What an impression he made!


Do you remember other specifics of working together in the Curia?
He was always held in great esteem by his colleagues. He always listened attentively to everyone, after which he would express his opinion, and this did not always coincide with that of the person who preceded him.


Eminence, if you were asked to give a quick portrait of the new Bishop of Rome...
He chose to be called Benedetto, but for me, he is also Bene-dato [literally 'well-given' but more idiomatically, 'a well-chosen gift'] to the Church of Christ. This is a man of superior culture. But above all, a man of great faith and great piety. He is a man of prayer. A man nourished by the Second Vatican Council, but also someone who knows Tradition, who knows the Fathers of the Church very well.

Many have not read what Vatican II really said, choosing to present their own version of it. What they should do is to study it for what it really is and examine it in depth.


What do you expect of Benedict XVI's Pontificate?
Humanly speaking, onecannot say it will be a very long Pontificate like the previous one, even if we will never tire of praying that it may be. Ratzinger is not a man of numbers, but of quality. This will be a Pontificate that is moderate, simple, direct, and focused on the essentials.


But there are those who say that pastorally he would come across as 'cold'...
Every Pope has his individual temperament. It's not necessary that every Pope is a glad-hander. In fact, it is better that he concentrates on the essentials of his mandate. However, I must say that the other night at the Basilica of St. Paul, I saw Benedict XVI caressing the faces of some babies and some sick persons...


You were not a cardinal elector [Gantin was already 82] in this Conclave but you did take part in the general congregations of the cardinals that preceded it - congregations that were presided by the Dean ....
I can tell you that Cardinal Ratzinger led those meetings masterfully, such that many times, he earned the applause of his colleagues.


Some newsmen have speculated that during those meetings, one of the things discussed was the age limit for cardinal electors. Do you think the new Pope will change anything in that respect?
John Paul II said many times that on this point, he feels bound by what his predecessor Paul VI had decided. I do not know if Benedict XVI will feel the same way. Personally, I took part in the two Conclaves of 1978, and that was enough for me.

Voting to elect the Successor of Peter is not an honor as much as a heavy responsibility. Perhaps the new Pope will decide to increase the number of electors beyond 120, since there are so many bishops who already deserve to become cardinals.


Do you think you will meet with Pope Benedict before you return to Benin?
I thank God that the Pope has agreed to give me an audience tomorrow morning. I have been making notes on what I want to tell him, as I do not want to take more of his time than I should. I will speak to him above all about my Africa, and that on Monday I will go back home to resume being the simple missionary that I chose to become when I decided to return to Benin.

Although this article is mostly about Paul VI, I am posting it ont his thread because it is about liturgy, and papal liturgy, in particular, in which a major protagonist in the post-Conciliar liturgical reform testifies to the abuse of liturgical reform that effectively made Summorum Pontificum inevitable. And because the interviewee ends by praising Benedict XVI as an example of correct, dignified liturgy.


Paul VI's liturgical master:
When the Pope denounced the fumes of Satan in the Church,
he meant the liturgical abuses that followed Vatican-II
by Bruno Volpe
Translated from

May 15, 2008



Cardinal Noe (file photo).

VATICAN CITY - He speaks almost in a whisper and sometimes the effort is too much that he has to pause and rest. But Cardinal Virgilio Noe, now 86, keeps a lucid mind and a healthy heart.

Master of pontifical liturgical ceremonies for Paul VI, John Paul I, and the early years of John Paul II, and former Arch Priest of St. Peter's Basilica and the Pope's Vicar for Vatican City, Cardinal Noe makes a revelation in this interview which, he says, he already had in mind to disclose.

Noe retired from public life because of age-related problems , and in this interview, he allows us to have a closer look at a Pope who often seems to be forgotten in haste, Paul VI. Including what Paul VI referred to in a well-quoted 1972 statement about 'the fumes of Satan within the Church. [Since the liturgical reform did not go into effect till 1970, it seems Paul VI quickly realized the nature and extent of the abuses that were being committed in its name!]

Eminence, who was Pope Paul VI as you knew him?
A gentleman and a saint. I still remember how he lived the Mystery of the Eucharist, with passion and participation. When I think of him, I cry, but not crocodile tears. He really moves me to great emotion. I will tell you this - he taught me so much, this man who lived and gave all of himself always for the Church.


You had the privilege of being Master of papal liturgical ceremonies, to which you were first appointed by Papa Montini at the time of the post-Conciliar liturgical reform. How do you remember that time?
Splendidly. One time, the Holy Father told me personally, and very affectionately, that the cerimoniere had an important role to perform in that particular historical period. We were in the sacristy. He came to me and said, "The cerimoniere must provide for everything and be responsible for everything [that has to do with liturgical arrangements] - his task is to make the way easier for the Pope."


Did he say anything else?
Yes. That the cerimoniere's mind must never be clouded by any personal problems, big or small. The papal cerimoniere, he said, should always have mastery of himself and his metier so he can be a shield for the Pope, because the Holy Mass should be celebrated worthily for the glory of God and his people.


It is said that Paul VI was a very sad man - truth or myth?
A lie. He has was good and kind father, a gentleman, and a saint. At the same time, he was saddened by having been kept apart by the Roman Curia. But I would prefer not to talk about this.


Overall then, contrary to what most historians have said so far, you who were one of his closest and most trusted co-workers describe him as serene.
And he was. You know why? Because he always said that to serve the Lord could never be sad. And he served him so well, especially in offering the Sacrifice of the Mass.


Then, of course, there was that unforgettable denunciation he made about the presence of 'the fumes of Satan within the Church'. Even today, that statement appears to have an incredible relevance. But exactly what was Paul VI referring to?
You at PETRUS have scored a hit, because I am able to reveal, for the first time, what Paul VI intended to denounce with that statement.

Papa Montini meant by Satan all those priests, bishops and cardinals who do not worship the Lord properly by celebrating the Mass badly because of a wrong interpretation and application of Vatican-II.

He spoke about Satan's fumes because he believed that those who played with the Mass in the name of creativity were really possessed by vainglory and the arrogance of the Evil One.

Therefore, Satan's fumes refers to none other but the mentality which would distort traditional liturgical canons about the Eucharistic celebration.


And yet, Paul VI is also being blamed for all the bad things about post-conciliar liturgy. Though going by what you said, Eminence, Papa Montini in effect likened - though in a veiled way - the liturgical chaos to something infernal.
He condemned the craving for protagonismo [playing a lead role] and the delirium of omnipotence that developed at the liturgical level after the Council. The Mass is a sacred ceremony, he often said - everything should be prepared and studied adequately, respecting the canons - no one is a lord [dominus] of the Mass [except Jesus].

But unpleasantly, many after Vatican-II did not understand that, and Paul VI suffered the entire phenomenon as an attack by the devil.


Eminence, in conclusion - what is true liturgy?
It is rendering glory to God. In any case, it should always be performed with decorum. Even making the Sign of the Cross badly is synonymous to contempt and sloppiness.

Unfortunately, I repeat, after Vatican-I, it was believed that everything - or almost everything - could be allowed. Now, it is necessary to recover - and fast - the sacredness of the ars celebrandi before Satan's fumes overcome the whole Church.

Thank God we have Pope Benedict XVI: his Mass and liturgical style present examples of correctness and dignity.


=====================================================================

It is striking how Cardinal Noe's definition of liturgy corresponds to what Pope Benedict XVI said about the liturgy in his catechesis about the Pseudo-Dionysius whose theology, he said, was essentially one of cosmic praise.

Unfortunately, it was not perhaps the occasion for PETRUS to press the Cardinal for more details about how Paul VI regarded the laissez-faire implementation of his liturgical reform. Nor, the touchy question of why such a serious man like Paul VI agreed, to begin with, to the 'protestantization' of the Mass, which was the overall effect of his reform.


5/16/08
P.S. Father Z posted his translation of the PETRUS interview on his blog yesterday,
www.wdtprs.com/blog/
but adds first-hand observations and his comments about Cardinal Noe and his own experiences with him. VERRRRY INTERESTING!

As I noted earlier, too bad the cardinal is not now in a condition to be interviewed more comprehensively on this topic.

THE POPE'S DAY, 5/15/08

---

The Holy Father met today with
- Bishops of Thailand on ad-limina visit.
- Participants in the Plenary Session of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants
and Itinerants. Address in Italian.
- Participants of the Congress of Ordo Virginum on the theme "Consecrated virginity: A gift for
the Church and in the Church". Address in Italian.
- Mons. Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Bishop of Regensburg, and delegation.
In the afternoon, he meets with
-Bishops of Thailand, Group 2, on ad limina visit.

---

HUMAN MOBILITY:
A FRONTIER FOR NEW EVANGELISATION




VATICAN CITY, 15 MAY 2008 (VIS) - The Pope today received participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, who have been meeting over the last few days to discuss the theme: "The emigrant and itinerant family".

Benedict XVI recalled how during his recent visit to the United States, he had encouraged people "to continue their commitment to welcoming those brothers and sisters who arrive there, usually from poor countries", and had given particular emphasis to "the serious problem of the reunification of families".

"The Church's solicitude towards emigrant families does not diminish her concern for itinerant families", he noted, highlighting how families of whatever condition "represent the original cell of society which must not be destroyed but courageously and patiently defended".

Once again, he pointed out that the family is "the community in which, from infancy, we are formed to adore and love God, learning the grammar of human and moral values, and discovering how to make good use of freedom in truth. Unfortunately, in no small number of situations this is difficult to achieve, and especially in cases of people affected by the phenomenon of human mobility".

Pope Benedict then went on to examine the "profound bond" between the Sacrament of the Eucharist and that of Marriage, noting how "the liturgy places the celebration of the Sacrament of Marriage at the heart of the celebration of the Eucharist. ... In their daily lives, couples must draw inspiration for their behaviour from the example of Christ Who 'loved the Church and gave Himself up for her'", he said.

"This supreme gesture of love is presented anew in each celebration of the Eucharist; and it is appropriate for the pastoral care of families to refer back to this sacramental fact as a reference point of fundamental importance.

"People who go to Mass - and the celebration of Mass must also be facilitated for migrants and itinerant peoples - find in the Eucharist a powerful allusion to their own family, their own marriage; and they are encouraged to live their lives from the point of view of faith, seeking in divine grace the strength to succeed", the Pope added.

The Holy Father concluded by pointing out that "human mobility represents, in today's globalised world, an important frontier for new evangelisation". In this context, he encouraged the members and consultors of the pontifical council "to continue your pastoral commitment with renewed zeal".



CONSECRATED VIRGINITY:
A LUMINOUS AND FRUITFUL CHARISM



With Cardinal Franc Rode, Prefect of the Congregation for Societies of Consecrated Life, and a novice.


VATICAN CITY, 15 MAY 2008 (VIS) - Five hundred women, members of the "Ordo Virginum" who have come to Rome on pilgrimage to participate in an international congress being held by their order, were received in audience this morning by Benedict XVI.

In his remarks to them the Pope, quoting the theme chosen for the congress, pointed out that consecrated virginity is "a gift in the Church and for the Church". And he invited the women "to develop, from day to day, their understanding of a charism which is as luminous and fruitful in the eyes of the faith as it is obscure and futile in the eyes of the world".

"The Order of Virgins represents a particular form of consecrated life which flowered anew in the Church after Vatican Council II", the Holy Father explained. "However, it has ancient roots that go back to the beginnings of evangelical life when, in an unprecedented novelty, the hearts of certain women began to open to a desire for consecrated virginity: in other words, the desire to give one's entire being to God, which had had its first extraordinary fulfilment in the Virgin of Nazareth and her 'yes'".

"Your charism must reflect the intensity, but also the freshness, of its origins", said Benedict XVI noting how, "when it came into being, the charism did not involve a particular way of life. Little by little, however, it was institutionalised, finally becoming a full public and solemn consecration conferred by the bishop through an inspirational liturgical rite that made the consecrated woman 'sponsa Christi', an image of the Church as bride".

"Your vocation", he told the women, "is profoundly rooted in the particular Church to which you belong. ... From the diocese, with its traditions, its saints, its values, limits and difficulties, you open up to the scope of the Universal Church, sharing particularly in her liturgical prayer. ... In this way your prayerful 'I' progressively broadens out, until in the prayer there is nothing more than a great 'we'. ... In your dialogue with God, open yourselves to dialogue with all creatures".

"The choice of virginal life", the Pope concluded, "is an allusion to the transitory nature of earthly things and an anticipation of future good. Be witnesses of vigilant and industrious hope, of joy, of the peace that belongs to those who abandon themselves to the love of God. Be present in the world, yet pilgrims on the journey to the Kingdom".


Nuns at the General Audience yesterday.

Nuns at the General Audience yesterday.


"Five hundred women, members of the "Ordo Virginum" who have come to Rome on pilgrimage to participate in an international congress being held by their order, were received in audience this morning by Benedict XVI."


OMG, it is a wonder that Papa came out of that alive!

PASTORAL VISIT TO SAVONA AND GENOA


For some reason, Genoa has not posted any welcome poster online so far, so I am using the welcome page in Il Cittadino,
the archdiocesan newspaper.

You've seen this before, but it bears repeating for context: the region to be visited next by Pope Benedict XVI in his pastoral visits as Primate of Italy.


On May 17-18, the Holy Father will visit Savona and Genoa, both in the Italian region of Liguria,
northwestern Italy. Genoa is the capital of Liguria.

---

PROGRAM OF THE VISIT TO SAVONA
Saturday, May 17, 2008



15:30 The Pope leaves Ciampino airport (Rome) for Genoa.

16:20 The papal flight lands at Genoa's Cristoforo Colombo international airport. This is considered a technical stop.
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa and President of the Italian bishops' conference, will join
the papal entourage, which will transfer to a helicopter for the flight to Savona.

16:45 Arrival in Savona.
The Pope will be welcomed by Mons. Vittorio Lupi, Bishop of Savona-Noli; Mons. Giuseppe Bertello, Apostolic Nuncio in Italy;
Antonio Zanardi Landi, Italian ambassador to the Holy See; Claudio Burlando, regional president of Liguria; Nicoletta Frediani,
prefect of Savona; Mayor Federico Berruti, and the president of Savona province, Marco Bertolotto.

16:50 The Pope arrives by Popemobile at the Sanctuary for a brief private prayer.

17:00 The Pope travels by Popemobile to the Piazza del Popolo, where he will pass through the various sectors
of the assembly before proceeding to the altar.

17:45 After a welcome from Mayor Berruti, the Holy Father will celebrate Mass.
HOMILY BY THE HOLY FATHER

18:45 After the Mass, the Pope will take the Popemobile to the Bishop's Palace, passing through Corso Italia,
in front of City Hall, then Via Sta. Maria Maggiore and Piazza Chabrol.
- The Pope will visit the three rooms in which Pope Pius VII was held prisoner for almost three years by Napoleon
Bonaparte in the early 1800s.
- The Popemobile will leave the Bishop's Palace, pass before the Cathedral and will head towards the port area,
to the Palacrociere, where the Holy Father will board a helicopter to proceed to Genoa.

PROGRAM OF THE VISIT TO GENOA
Saturday-Sunday, May 17-18, 2008


SATURDAY, May 17
20:45 The Holy Father arrives by helicopter at the Shrine of Nostra Signora della Guardia, Patroness of Genoa,
where he will be welcomed by local authorities and the rector of the Shrine. He will then proceed to the Shrine's
Hospitality House for dinner and overnight rest.


SUNDAY, May 18
09:00 The Holy Father will make a private visit to the Shrine of Nostra Signora della Guardia.
- He will then proceed to the city center where he will first visit the Giannina Gaslini Pediatric Hospital.

11:20 The Pope arrives at Piazza Matteotti for an encounter with young people.
- He will then be welcomed at the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, for a meeting with the canonical chapter
of the Cathedral and members of religious orders, after which he will lead the Angelus.
- He will proceed to the Seminario Maggiore for lunch with the bishops of Liguria.

16:30 The Holy Father will preside at a Eucharistic Concelebration in Piazza della Vittoria.
HOMILY BY THE POPE

After the Mass, the Pope will proceed to Cristoforo Colombo International Airport to return to Rome.

---

The Archdiocese of Genoa's handout brochure for the visit is available only on PDF:
www.diocesi.genova.it/materiale/diocesi/visitapapa.pdf


STATUS REPORT ON PREPS
FOR THE PAPAL VISIT
by Federico Casabella
Translated from
the 5/15/08 issue of

Genoa edition


Weather not promising
But so far no meteorological alert. The general forecast is bad weather this weekend in Savona and Genoa, but the regional meteorological office says, "We are looking at how the situation is evolving, as requested by the department of Civil Protection, but so far there is no indication that requires an alert of whatever kind."

The forecast is for widespread and persistent rain Saturday and Sunday, but weather officials insist that right now it is a tendency rather than a certainty.

[But the local Curia is less willing to leave things to chance. Both dioceses have told the faithful not to desist from coming to the two papal Masses scheduled because of bad weather, urging them to just come well-prepared with coats and ponchos. Umbrellas may cause a problem with security.]


English 'high tea' for the Pope
Before and after the afternoon Mass in Savona, Pope Benedict may avail himself of refreshments courtesy of the diocesan nuns who plan to offer him an English-style 'high tea' next to the sacristy - with tea or coffee, dainty sandwiches and an assortment of petit fours.


Collection for Myanmar
The diocese has targeted its charitable collection from the faithful as a contribution to the relief effort for cyclone victims in Myanmar. The collection is traditionally offered to the Holy Father for his intentions.


The bishop of Savona
comments on criticism
Mons. Lupi sought to squelch criticisms that the Pope's visit to Savona is too short: "It's not important how long the Pope is with us. What matters is how we are united with him while he is with us."


Cardinal Bagnasco's welcome
"Welcome to Genoa, Holiness! We have awaited you in prayer and meditation of what it means to belong to the Church of Christ" was one of the statements in a welcome letter from Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa, in Il Cittadino, the weekly newspaper of the archdiocese.

Protests against the Pope
Protesters yesterday demonstrated in Genoa against teh Pope's recent statements on Italy's abortion law, distributing flyers, condoms and pink balloons near Genoa's Galliera hospital.


A 'Golden Rose' for
Savona's Our Lady of Mercy
Pope Benedict XVI will offer a Golden Rose at the crypt altar of the Shrine to Savona's Madonna della Misericordia (Our Lady of Mercy) when he visits the shrine for a private prayer on Saturday, May 17.

The crypt altar is where his predecessor Pius VII crowned the image of the Virgin in thanksgiving for his release from house arrest by Napoleon Bonaparte. Shrine officials will decide later where the Golden Rose will be permanently kept.

The tradition of the Golden Rose as a symbol of papal homage to certain shrines goes back to the twelfth century.


Genoa's gift to the Pope
The Archdiocese of Genoa will present Pope Benedict XVI with a painting commissioned from Greek-born artist Giorgio Oikonomoy to commemorate the Pope's visit.

The artist painted Pope Benedict in prayer before the Madonna at the St. Phillip Neri Oratory. It measures 1.3 x 1.5 meters. The painting will be presented to the Pope at the Shrine of Nostra Signora della Guardia (Our Lady of the Watch) which is situated on a hilltop just outside Genoa.



"The focus of the painting is on the Pope's clasped hands intersecting the twisted folds of the Madonna's robes, representing the complex problems of the world for which the Pope prays," the artist said. "The wind that lifts the Pope's capelet is a representation of the hilltop Shrine of Our Lady. And Genoa, its light and industry, is represented by the dark lines outlining the silhouette of the Madonna."

Oikonomoy says his painting is in the spirit of "continuity with the baroque, which is the most noble artistic expression of Genoa."

Il Giornale (Genoa), 15 maggio 2008



Savona ready to welcome Benedict XVI:
Interview with Bishop Vittorio Lupi
Translated from the
Italian service of





The Holy Father's first stop in Savona will be a visit to the shrine of the Madonna della Misericordia (Our Lady of Mercy) for a private prayer. then he will proceed to the Piazza del Popolo to celebrate the Eucharist, after which he will visit the apartment in the Bioshop's Palace where Napoleon Bonaparte held Pope Pius VII under house arrest for almost three years.

Debora Donnini spoke to Mons. Vittorio Lupi, Bishop of Savona-Noli about the visit.

MONS. LUPI: For us, the Pope's visit is a great gift from the Lord. The diocese has been preparing so that the visit will not just be a media event, but experienced as a gift from the Lord of which we are all aware.


May is the Marian month par excellence. On this trip, the Pope will be visiting two shrines dedicated to the Virgin, so it will have a very Marian character....
Certainly, it will be a visit under the sign of devotion to the Madonna. In Savona, there is a greatd evotion to Our Lady of Mercy who appeared in 1536 during a very ugly time for the city - after widespread devastation and enormous economic difficulties, it was reduced from a city of 36,000 to only 8,000 residents. The Virgin of the apparition said "Mercy not justice". That's the origin of her title.

I think the Pope will remind the Savonesi that their life of faith should recommence precisely from this devotion to the Madonna.


The Feast of the Apparition is celebrated on March 18. But this shrine is also very much linked to the story of Pope Pius VII when he was imprisoned in Savona by Napoleon. The Pope called on the Virgin of Mercy to come to his aid, and the notice of his liberation came on the eve of her feast...
It is said that Pius VII already was a devotee of Our Lady of Mercy, so when he was arrested at the Quirinale in Rome to be taken to Savona, a priest made sure to put among his clothes an image of the Virgin.

When he arrived in Savona, he found the image and realized it was that of Our Lady of Mercy. He felt it was a providential sign. He spent almost three years here, during which Napoleon tried to keep him completely without any contact to the outside world. His captors alternated moments of good treatment with deliberate cruelty, such as keeping him without food for days. In his apartment, we can still see all the peepholes that the guards used to spy on him.

There are many stories of how people smuggled mail to him in baskets of vegetables, and the ways in which he was able to be in touch with the outside world despite all of Napoleon's efforts. Above all, he was able to prevent one of Napoleon's goals, which was to nominate bishops himself without the authorization of the Pope. But the Pope was able to send a letter to his bishops warning them about this.


What do you think is the message that the Pius VII episode has for the faithful today?
That the Holy Spirit really comes to the aid of the Church in hermost dificult moments. The year before Pius VII's election, the masters of the French Revolution had boasted that Pius VI - his predecessor - would be the last Pope, because the Church was an institution that was passe and done with.

But then Pius VII succeeded, and he was up to the challenge, governing the Church in the midst of all the intrigue and the difficulties, and he knew how to resist Napoleon. All this says to our world today that the Holy Spirit does not abandon the Church even during those times when Peter's boat seems to be sinking. I think this is a message of great hope for us today.

The Vatican today released the text of a prayer written by the Holy Father for May 24, the first Day of Prayer for China that he decreed in his June 30, 2007 letter to the Catholics of China, a day of homage to the Virgin of Sheshan near Shanghai.

The text of the prayer was released in traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese, as well as in the official languages of the Holy See.

---

Prayer to
OUR LADY OF SHESHAN
MARY, HELP OF CHRISTIANS

Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother,
venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title "Help of Christians",
the entire Church in China looks to you with devout affection.

We come before you today to implore your protection.
Look upon the People of God and, with a mother’s care,
guide them along the paths of truth and love,
so that they may always be
a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens.

When you obediently said "yes" in the house of Nazareth,
you allowed God’s eternal Son to take flesh in your virginal womb
and thus to begin in history the work of our redemption.

You willingly and generously cooperated in that work,
allowing the sword of pain to pierce your soul,
until the supreme hour of the Cross,
when you kept watch on Calvary,
standing beside your Son, who died that we might live.

From that moment, you became, in a new way,
the Mother of all those who receive your Son Jesus in faith
and choose to follow in his footsteps by taking up his Cross.

Mother of hope, in the darkness of Holy Saturday you journeyed
with unfailing trust towards the dawn of Easter.

Grant that your children may discern at all times,
even those that are darkest, the signs of God’s loving presence.

Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain all those in China,
who, amid their daily trials,
continue to believe, to hope, to love.
May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world,
and of the world to Jesus.

In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high,
offering him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love.
Help Catholics always to be credible witnesses to this love,
ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the Church is built.

Mother of China and all Asia,
pray for us, now and for ever. Amen!

---

In an April 9 report from Hongkong (posted on that day in NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH)
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/newpost.aspx?a=edit&c=65482&f=65482&idc=12058&idd=354498&idm=80572...
the diocese of Hongkong announced it was cancelling a pllaned pilgrimage to Sheshan on May 24 because they received a letter from the Bishop of Shanghai saying it would be 'inconvenient' for his diocese to host the pilgrims from Hongkong, after having exhorted his diocese in earlier months to welcome all pilgrims coming to China for the May 24 feast.

It is speculated that the Chinese government had something to do with the 'change of heart'.

======================================================================

In related news earlier:


Pope grants indulgence for novena prayers
for the Church in China



Hong Kong, May 14, 2008 (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI has decreed an indulgence for Catholics in Hong Kong who join a novena to Our Lady, Help of Christians asking for special prayers for the Church in China.

The novena is a response to the Pope’s call for May 24 to become a World Day for Prayer for the Church in China. He announced the day of prayer in his June 2007 letter to mainland Catholics and asked that it be dedicated to “the liturgical memorial of Our Lady, Help of Christians, who is venerated with great devotion at the Marian Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai.”


The Cathedral of Sheshan.

According to UCA News, the Pope offered the indulgence at the request of Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the Archbishop of Hong Kong. The indulgence is available to those who join in the diocese’s May 15-23 novena. Those joining in activities marking the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians on May 24 and the feast of Corpus Christi on May 25 are also eligible for the indulgence.

Cardinal Zen, writing in a message on the novena, said local Catholics are able to actively respond to the call for prayer “as part of the motherland,” asking God to bless their motherland and asking the Blessed Virgin to protect the Church.

Seventeen Hong Kong churches dedicated to Mary are designated venues for the novena prayers and the celebrations of Our Lady, Help of Christians.

According to UCA News, the novena will begin with solemn prayer at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Diocesan Vicar General Father Dominic Chan, who is also a priest at the cathedral, said he would thank God the diocese is blessed with religious freedom.

Over the nine days of the novena, the designated churches will take turns hosting the daily prayers. Prayer sessions will include Eucharistic adoration and recitation of the rosary, while the May 24 and 25 celebrations will feature processions.

Writing in a May 9 notice, diocesan Chancellor Father Lawrence Lee Len said a Catholic must attend at least one of the special prayer functions to qualify for the indulgence. Citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he said they must also make a sacramental confession, receive Communion and pray for the pope's intentions with a pure heart

The Catechism defines an indulgence as “a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.”

Father Lee said Pope Benedict desires that the faithful strive for and practice the supernatural virtues of faith hope and charity, and strengthen their unity with the Pope.

Hong Kong’s two bishops will also deliver talks about the Pope’s letter to mainland Catholics.

=====================================================================

Pope Benedict writes prayer
for Chinese Catholics



VATICAN CITY, May 16 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI has written a special prayer for Chinese Catholics who face "daily trials" in the officially atheistic country, the Vatican said Friday.

The prayer will be uttered across the world on May 24, a day the Pope has dedicated to praying for the Chinese church, which has long had a difficult relationship with the country's communist authorities.

The prayer — released in Chinese and six other languages — invokes the protection of the Virgin Mary and prominently mentions a shrine dedicated to her at Sheshan, in suburban Shanghai.

Chinese authorities have tried to restrict access to the shrine during this year's annual May pilgrimages, apparently out of anxiety over large religious gatherings.

"Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain all those in China, who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love. May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world, and of the world to Jesus," the prayer says.

China's officially atheistic Communist Party forced Chinese Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, and the two sides have not restored formal relations. Beijing sees the Vatican tradition of the Pope naming his own bishops as interference in the country's internal affairs.

China appoints bishops for the state-sanctioned Catholic church. Still, many of the country's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church and often suffer arrests and harassment.

Benedict has made the improvement of relations with Beijing a priority of his papacy. He sent a special letter to Catholics in China last year, praising the underground church, but also urging the faithful to reconcile with followers of the official church.

In the letter, the Pope expressed hope that the yearly May celebration of the Virgin Mary would become a day when Chinese Catholics throughout the world unite in prayer for the church in China.

In the latest sign of a possible warming of relations between Beijing and the Holy See, the China Philharmonic Orchestra last week performed for Benedict in a landmark concert at the Vatican.

The Biblical foundations of 'Spe salvi':
Christian humanism gives hope in modern times
by Cesare Bissoli
Pontifical Salesian University
Translated from
the 5/16/08 issue of



For a reading of Spe salvi which brings to light its Biblical foundations, one must refer to three aspects of it which are particularly significant: its existential approach to the Word of God, the presence and use of the Bible (in the document), and the encyclical's central Biblical motifs.

The attentive reader, as he reads through the paragraphs of the encyclical, will note right away that the reference to the Word of God does not serve the usual role of edifying, as Biblical citations usually do. The citations refer to the duality (binomial) - suggestive as well as necessary - of 'hope and life', in the context of a coherent confrontation between two humanisms - Christian and modern.

The result is a rigorous hermeneutic (interpretative) exercise which guarantees a correct and fruitful understanding both of Scripture and of the human condition which the Word of God addresses.

One thinks in this respect of the weight-bearing importance of Hebrews 11,1, and of Ephesians 2,12, which constitute a pivot for the encyclical.

The Bible can only give serious answers if serious questions are posed. Such as those about hope, in which Biblical thought and human thinking - specifically about God and man - are so intensely interwoven.

One can apply here what was stated in the recent Doctrinal Note on some aspects of evangelization from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: "Every encounter with another person or culture is capable of revealing potentialities of the Gospel which hitherto may not have been fully explicit and which will enrich the life of Christians and the Church" (No. 6).

Indeed, the encyclical has a number of Biblical references.

Starting with Romans, 8,24, which gives the encyclical its title, Spe salvi, saved in hope, there are almost 70 Biblical citations - the great part of it taken from the New Testament, particularly from the Letter to the Hebrews, from various Pauline letters (notably the first and second Letters to the Corinthians and the Letter to the Ephesians), and from the Fourth Gospel.

The Old Testament, which in its turn carries the weight of the reflection on the Letter to the Hebrews, appears most noticeably in the final part of the encyclical, with citations from Psalms, especially in connection with the duality suffering-hope.

The Pope did not intend to present a Biblical theology of hope in all its aspects, but as he does in his book JESUS OF NAZARETH, he focuses on some points he considers central to the overall subject, in this case, hope and salvation. The points he raises are Biblical, theological and anthropological, with notable contributions from the Fathers of the Church, of whom St. Augustine is easily the most cited.

Overall, one can see that the Pope does not use abstract language, he is not constructing a theory of hope, but that he is reflecting on the world of persons who have hope or don't, who show themselves at odds (or at peace) with life because they are at odds (or at peace) with hope.

With his recourse to the Bible, the Pope nourishes that interpersonal dynamic between God and mankind that he points out at the start. This is developed in five instances: first, in the historical example of persons who believe in the God of Jesus Christ and who have positive experiences of hope. Next, he recalls the normative paradigm of a journey to hope that encompasses all the people of the Bible, in contrast to the dramatic historical fact of a world 'without hope and without God in the world', in the words of Ephesians 2,12. Fourth is the Biblical illumination that inspires the none-too-easy apprenticeship of living in hope that each Christian must face in his own time. He concludes with an exceptional Biblical witness to hope, Mary of Nazareth.

For reasons of length, we will dwell on the first three instances.

Starting from the truth - which is necessarily personal and personalizing - that the objective basis for hope is the redemption worked by God through Christ, the Pope begins his exposition by reporting on concrete facts.

To the convincing episode about the slave Bakhita (No. 3), he cites, as an example taken from the 'revealed truth' of Scripture, that of another slave, Onesimus, narrated in the Letter to Philemon (No. 4).

Both stories yield hope, through an acknowledgment of the liberating lordship of Christ, who is described with the dual qualification of philosopher and pastor (No. 6). This redemption, rich in hope, has its normative and reassuring paradigm in Hebrews 11.

This is a Biblical text, unfortunately ignored or dismissed as theological speculation on the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ. Actually, in this letter, Jesus is seen as a priest who is the leader and guide of a people on the road to the Promised Land, a goal that is much awaited and much sought.

The passage from Hebrews 11, to which the Pope devotes a rigorous exegesis, is an elaborated concept that interprets the reasons why the pilgrimage of the People of God is both actual and sustainable: "Faith is the substance (hypostasis) of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen seen."

Faith is 'substance', that is, an objective fact (not just a subjective feeling, as Luther thought), which guarantees to us today what we will be given tomorrow, and thus becomes proof and certainty of the future.

"Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a 'not-yet'." The people of God are not walking in a void nor without direction. "The present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present, and those of the present into the future" (No. 7).

Still in the context of Hebrews 11, the Pope clearly exposes in strong words the injury done to Christian hope because it has been 'privatized' to the individual, annulling in any historical period the social weight that it properly carries, as the hope of a people who bear a shared hope to reach the 'city of God' (cfr 11, 10-16; 12,22; 13,14), the maximum expression of their salvation as a community (cfr No.4).

The Pope insists on this, citing passages from the Letter to the Hebrews, and adding two other luminous Biblical examples: Citing 1 Timothy 2,6, he reminds us that Jesus gave himself to ransom all of us. And then there is 2 Corinthians 5,15, with the comment: "To live for him [Christ] means allowing oneself to be drawn into his being for others" during his entire earthly experience (No. 28).

One cannot hope for oneself unless one also hopes for others and with others, sharing the signs of hope, as good people travelling together do.

Finally, we come to the third instance - about a world of persons "without hope and without God in the world". Benedict XVI's thought is clear from his insistence on Ephesians 2,12, which appears like a connecting thread from start to finish in this encyclical: six times he refers to it (in Paragraphs 2, 3, 5, 23, 27 and 44) in the encyclical.

In it, Paul reminds the Ephesians that before the encounter with Christ, they were "without hope and without God in the world" (No. 2). The Pope sees in this, as in a watermark, the historical path of man in the modern world.

In a severe reckoning of accounts, he notes the collapse of the 'great hope' that man is in need of, a failure caused by plans that are simply restricted to humans, and he concludes: "Man needs God, otherwise, he remains without hope".

"Given the developments of the modern age," the Pope notes, "the quotation from St. Paul with which I began (Eph 2,12) proves to be thoroughly realistic and plainly true" (No. 23).

Whoever does not acknowledge God, even if he has multiple hopes, is at bottom without hope, without that great hope that sustains our whole life (cfr Eph 2,12). "A world without God is a world without hope", the Pope reiterates (No. 44).

Here, the Biblical text is used as a painful prophecy, in which the existence of values even in a world without God is not denied, but neither can such a world be seen as capable of being the way that can bring man to his ultimate goal. In such a world, one does not breathe the 'great hope', that sure and definitive hope that only God can realize. This juxtaposition has been criticized by many.

But one must be aware of the theological perspective from which Ratzinger operates, though without being closed to specific historical and pastoral considerations.

In succession, the Pope uses the Word of God to illuminate the apprenticeship in hope - through prayer, the exercise of hope itself, suffering, and finally, with respect to the Last Judgment, concluding with Mary, Star of Hope.

A good criterion for reading the encyclical would be to keep in mind the historic and concrete existential perspective that comes from the Pope's Biblical understanding of hope. In particular, let us not forget the text of Hebrews 11 within the context of the entire Letter to the Hebrews, as a mirror of our identity as the People of God journeying towards the city of the future, as a people committed to prefiguring it today as a sign of shared fraternal hope, while realistically not forgetting the positive witnesses to hope, the martyrs of hope, like the Vietnamese brothers, nor the short and fragile breath of human hopes that leave out God.

A good pastoral task would be to integrate the Pope's powerful and correct proposition with a more detailed Biblical theology of hope, and with attention to instructional mediation, never forgetting that one can draw the 'consolation of hope' (cfr Rom 15,4) precisely from an encounter with Sacred Scripture.

The Pope in the U.S.

The Tidings
Friday, May 16, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI's pastoral visit to the United States was a remarkable success. The reasons are many and varied, but they perhaps come down to the force of his personality: shy and self-effacing, but at the same time warm and engaging.

Many Catholics on both sides of the ecclesiastical spectrum had been wrong in their original expectations of the pope's visit.

Those in sympathy with the renewal and reforms of Vatican II, whether they were alive at the time of the council or not, had assumed (perhaps "feared" is more accurate) that the pope would speak and act during his visit in accordance with the reputation he had acquired as Pope John Paul II's enforcer of orthodoxy.

Catholics who had welcomed with almost unbridled enthusiasm the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger three years ago were expecting him finally to drop the hammer on their perceived adversaries in the Church.

One of the self-described traditionalist Catholics went so far as to express the hope that, in his address to leaders of Catholic higher education, the pope would insist that the mandatum, or licensing by the local bishop, be required of all Catholic theologians teaching in a Catholic university or college. Needless to say, the pope did not do so.

Catholics in the first category were pleasantly surprised. Pope Benedict XVI came across as someone far different from the former head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In none of his various addresses, homilies and personal appearances did he scold, condemn or strike an unhappy, negative posture.

He was firm in his convictions of faith and of theology (although closely linked, the two are not the same), but never harsh, censorious or threatening. Just the opposite. And a number of editorials and op-ed pieces have noted the same thing.

It is highly probable that many centrist and progressive U.S. Catholics will have a more benign opinion of this pope because of the pastoral visit. Not that they will agree with him on every initiative he takes or pronouncement he makes, but they are likely to see him in a different light.

It is more evident now that Benedict's pontificate is not simply an extension of his predecessor's. He is his own man, so to speak, and will address issues in his own way.

Nowhere is this contrast more apparent than in the open, forthright manner in which Benedict XVI addressed the sexual-abuse scandal that has so deeply wounded not only the Catholic Church and its priesthood, but more importantly the hundreds of its victims and survivors --- men and women scarred for life.

The pope's willingness to meet with five survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of trusted priests was perhaps the major development of the entire visit.

To be sure, this column has no wish to promote Benedict XVI by downgrading his predecessor, to whom many substantial achievements can readily be attached. But Benedict's meeting with these survivors would have been as unthinkable for Pope John Paul II as Benedict's four-hour meeting with the famous Swiss theologian, Hans Küng, in September 2005.

Just as John Paul II had refused to see Professor Küng despite the latter's persistent requests for an audience over the course of 25 years, so John Paul II refused to heed the warnings of some of his closest advisors about certain high-ranking bishops whom he himself had appointed --- the former cardinal-archbishop of Vienna was one; a Polish archbishop, whom the local seminary rectory had to forbid from stepping foot on seminary grounds, was another. The pope eventually removed them from their positions, but only belatedly and reluctantly.

Another striking contrast was in the way each dealt with the case of the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ.

In spite of numerous allegations of sexual misconduct brought against Father Maciel, Pope John Paul II appointed him a delegate to the Synod of the Americas in 1997, and publicly praised him on more than one occasion, proclaiming him, during the papal trip to Mexico in 1994, "an efficacious guide to youth," congratulating him in 2004 on his 60th anniversary of ordination, and again in January 2005, shortly before the pope's own death, thanking him for his "paternal affection and his experience."

In May 2006, however, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the approval of Pope Benedict XVI, formally prohibited Father Maciel from exercising a public ministry in the Church because the Congregation and the pope had found the allegations against Father Maciel to have been credible.

Even at age 81, Benedict XVI seems to have made a promising beginning.

Fr. Richard McBrien is the Crowley-O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.

======================================================================

It is with some shock that I discover the author of this piece to be none other than Fr. McBrien! I have to go back and check, but this is probably the first time he has ever said anything positive about Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Hopefully, yet another sign of the Benedict effect.

And I am glad he acknowledges that citing certain decisions of John Paul II may seem like 'downgrading' him, to use Fr. McBrien's term. But we will never know what may have been behind such far-reaching decisions - including the personal anguish that may have accompanied them - but surely, it could not have been simple and arbitrary personal preference. In the same way, we will perhaps never learn how and why Pope Paul VI made the decisions he did about how the Mass came to be reformed in the way that it was....

TERESA

THE POPE'S DAY, 5/16/08

---

The Holy Father met today with
- Bishops of Thailand, Group 3, on ad limina visit. Address in English.
- Participants in a Forum of Family Associations. Address in Italian.
In the afternoon, he met with
- Mons. Mario Giordana, Apostolic Nuncio to Slovakia
- 2 more bishops of Thailand, on ad limina visit.

---

MESSAGE TO THAI BISHOPS:
THEIR ROLE IN EDUCATION
AND INTER-RELIGIOUS CO-OPERATION



VATICAN CITY, 16 MAY 2008 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received prelates from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Thailand, who are making their "ad limina" visit to Rome.

Speaking to them in English, the Pope pointed out that the mission of their country's small Catholic community "is undertaken within a context of relationships, most especially with Buddhists. In fact, you have readily expressed to me your great respect for the Buddhist monasteries and the esteem you have for the contribution they make to the social and cultural life of the Thai people.

"The coexistence of different religious communities today unfolds against the backdrop of globalisation", he added, noting how "on the one hand there is the growing multitude of economic and cultural bonds which usually enhance a sense of global solidarity and shared responsibility for the well-being of humanity, on the other there are disturbing signs of a fragmentation and a certain individualism, ... pushing the transcendent and the sense of the sacred to the margins and eclipsing the very source of harmony and unity within the universe.

"The negative aspects of this cultural phenomenon, which cause dismay to yourselves and other religious leaders in your country, ... point to the importance of inter-religious co-operation", In this context, the Pope called on the prelates to promote, "in concordance with Buddhists, ... mutual understanding concerning the transmission of traditions to succeeding generations, the articulation of ethical values discernible to reason, reverence for the transcendent, prayer and contemplation".

"The outpouring of the Spirit is both a gift and a task, ... the presentation of Christ and His love to the world", said Pope Benedict, indicating that, "in Thailand, that gift is encountered particularly through the Church's medical clinics and social works as well as through her schools".

"Catholic schools and colleges make a remarkable contribution to the intellectual formation of numerous young Thais. They should also make an outstanding contribution to the spiritual and moral education of the young," Benedict XVI told the bishops.

He also appealed "to the many men and women religious who diligently serve in Catholic institutions of learning in your dioceses. Theirs should not primarily be a role of administration but of mission. ... It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that religious remain close to the students and their families, most especially through their classroom teaching of the catechism for Catholics and others interested, and through moral formation and care for the spiritual needs of all in the school community". He also called on religious congregations to ensure that schools "become increasingly accessible to the poor who so often long for the faithful embrace of Christ".

The Holy Father pointed out that the task of spreading the Word of God cannot be left to catechists alone. "It is the ministry of your priests", he told the prelates, "to 'announce the divine word to all' and to 'labour in preaching and teaching'".

The Pope expressed his appreciation "for the efforts of the entire Catholic community of Thailand to uphold the dignity of every human life, especially the most vulnerable. Of particular concern to you is the scourge of the trafficking of women and children, and prostitution. Undoubtedly poverty is a factor underlying these phenomena, and in this regard I know much is being achieved through the Church's development programmes.

"But there is a further aspect which must be acknowledged and collectively addressed if this abhorrent human exploitation is to be effectively confronted. I am speaking", the Holy Father concluded, "of the trivialisation of sexuality in the media and entertainment industries which fuels a decline in moral values and leads to the degradation of women, the weakening of fidelity in marriage and even the abuse of children".


And what did Sydney's Daily Telegraph and their 'correspondetns in Rome' pick up from all of the above? This!


Pope blames media for moral decline
From Correspondents in Rome
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii232/TERESA7_album/FORUM-2/DAILY-TEL-SYDNEY.jpg
Sydney, May 17, 2008


POPE Benedict XVI has accused the media and entertainment industries of harming society with trivial portrayals of sexuality that he said were partly to blame for social ills such as prostitution and child abuse.

The Pope made the comments during an address to bishops from Thailand, who he said were particularly concerned about the trafficking of women and children as well as prostitution.

"Undoubtedly poverty is a factor underlying these phenomena," the German-born pontiff said.

"But there is a further aspect which must be acknowledged ... I am speaking of the trivialisation of sexuality in the media and entertainment industries which fuels a decline in moral values."

He said media portrayals of sexuality also lead "to the degradation of women, the weakening of fidelity in marriage and even the abuse of children".


Deutsche-Press-Agentur (dpa) has a more proper story:

Pope urges Thailand's bishops
to work with Buddhists


Vatican City,May 16 (dpa) - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday urged Thailand's Roman Catholic bishops to continue working with Buddhists in combating secularism and other "disturbing" aspects of globalization.

"You have readily expressed to me your great respect for the Buddhist monasteries and the esteem you have for the contribution they make to the social and cultural life of the Thai people," Benedict told the visiting bishops in a meeting at the Vatican.

The Pontiff noted how Thailand's "small and scattered" Catholic community coexisted with the Asian nation's Buddhist majority against a backdrop of globalization which forces humanity between "two poles."

"On the one hand there is the growing multitude of economic and cultural bonds which usually enhance a sense of global solidarity and shared responsibility for the well-being of humanity.

"On the other there are disturbing signs of a fragmentation and a certain individualism in which secularism takes a hold, pushing the transcendent and the sense of the sacred to the margins and eclipsing the very source of harmony and unity within the universe," Benedict said.

The Pontiff told the bishops that together with Buddhists, they should promote respect for traditions amongst Thailand's youth and teach ethical values linked to spirituality and prayer.

Benedict also highlighted the "remarkable contribution" by Catholic schools and colleges in Thailand and how Buddhist parents also turned to such institutions for their children.

He praised efforts by Thailand's tiny Catholic community - estimated to number 292,000 or 0.46 per cent of the population - to combat prostitution and the trafficking of women and children.

While poverty was at the root of such human exploitation, Benedict also said another factor should be blamed.

"The trivialization of sexuality in the media and entertainment industries which fuels a decline in moral values and leads to the degradation of women, the weakening of fidelity in marriage and even the abuse of children," he said.

======================================================================


A COMMON COMMITMENT TO SUPPORT FAMILIES




VATICAN CITY, 16 MAY 2008 (VIS) - Today in the Vatican, Benedict XVI received representatives from the Forum of Family Associations and from the European Federation of Catholic Family Associations, who are in Rome to participate in a conference entitled "Alliance for the Family in Europe: Associations in the lead".

In his comments, the Pope recalled how the conference aims "to compare the experiences of various types of family association, and has the objective of raising the awareness of political leaders and public opinion on the central and irreplaceable role that the family plays in our society".

The Holy Father recalled the fact that this year marks the 40th anniversary of Paul VI's Encyclical Humanae vitae, and the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the "Charter of the Rights of the Family", presented by the Holy See in 1983.

"The Charter of the Rights of the Family is principally addressed to political leaders", said the Pope, and it "offers those invested with responsibility for the common good a model and a point of reference upon which to base appropriate political legislation for the family. At the same time, it is addressed to all families, encouraging them to come together in the defence and promotion of their rights".

Benedict XVI then quoted John Paul II, "the Pope of the family", who used to say that "the future of humanity passes by way of the family" and he added: "Biblical revelation is above all an expression of a story of love, a story of alliance with God and with mankind. This is why the story of love and union between a man and a woman in the alliance of marriage was taken up by God as a symbol of the history of salvation".

Turning to consider the difficulties facing families in the modern world, the Pope said: "From so many families, in a worryingly precarious state, we hear a cry for help, often an unconscious one, which clamours for a response from civil authorities, from ecclesial communities and from the various educational agencies. Accordingly, there is an increasingly urgent need for a common commitment to support families by every means available, from the social and economic point of view".

Among the proposals to emerge from the conference, the Holy Father praised that of "the laudable commitment to mobilise citizens in support of the initiative for 'family-friendly fiscal policy'", which aims to urge "governments to promote family-related policies that give parents a real possibility of having children and bringing them up in the family".

"For believers, the family (cell of communion at the very foundations of society) is like a 'small domestic church' called to reveal God's love to the world. ... Help families to be a visible sign of this truth, to defend the values which are written in human nature itself and which are therefore common to all humanity: life, the family and education. These are not principles deriving from a [particular] confession of faith but from the application of a justice respectful of the rights of each human being. This", he concluded, "is your mission, dear Christian families".


And now, watch how an MSM news agency spins the above story:

Pope re-states gay marriage ban
after California vote
By Philip Pullella



VATICAN CITY, May 16 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, speaking a day after a California court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, firmly re-stated on Friday the Roman Catholic Church's position that only unions between a man and a woman are moral.

Benedict made no mention of the California decision in his speech to family groups from throughout Europe, but stressed the Church's position several times. [And count how many times before he has said these things, without need of a court decision to prompt him!]

"The union of love, based on matrimony between a man and a woman, which makes up the family, represents a good for all society that can not be substituted by, confused with, or compared to other types of unions," he said.

The Pope also spoke of the inalienable rights of the traditional family, "founded on matrimony between a man and a woman, to be the natural cradle of human life".

On Thursday, the California Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriages in a major victory for gay rights advocates that will allow homosexual couples to marry in the most populous U.S. state.

Last year, Italy's powerful Catholic Church successfully campaigned against a law proposed by the previous centre-left government that would have given more rights to gay and unmarried couples.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is not sinful but homosexual acts are, and is opposed to gays being allowed to adopt children.

The California court found laws limiting marriage to heterosexual couples are at odds with rights guaranteed by the state's constitution.

U.S. President George W. Bush, who is opposed to gay marriage, prayed "for the family" with the Pope at the White House last month during the Pontiff's visit there.

Last year, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian Bishops Conference, made headlines with comments that critics said equated homosexuality with incest and pedophilia.

After he made the comments -- which Bagnasco said were misunderstood -- graffiti reading "Shame" and "Watch Out Bagnasco" appeared on the door of the cathedral in northern Genoa, where Bagnasco is archbishop.
[Bagnasco did not need to 'say' his words were misunderstood. Anyone who can read, including a Reuters reporter, and who would have bothered to look at what Bagnasco said exactly, would conclude his statement was not only misunderstood but deliberately distorted! And yet it is going to be tendentiously over-simplified statements like Pulella's that will live on in future stories and in most 'historical' accounts that will be based on secondary sources rather than Bagnasco's original statement!]

The Pope, who backed Bagnasco (In what? In 'equating homosexuality with incest and pedophilia?], will visit Genoa this weekend.

Opponents of gay marriage in the United States vowed to contest the ruling with a state-wide ballot measure for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages.

=====================================================================

Reuters editors may well be patting themselves on the back because of their headline, but the Pope's statement today obivously had nothing to do with the California vote.

The meeting with the Family Associations would have been scheduled long before today - not just suddenly, because the California court did something outrageous. Moreover, because of the nature of the assembly (a forum of associations supporting the traditional family), the Pope would have spoken on gay marriages anyway, with or without a screwed-up California court legislating from the bench.

This is a prime example of agenda-driven opportunistic reporting. I think Reuters would not even have bothered to report the story at all - simply because the Pope restates 'non-negotiable principles' that he always does - had not the California court made the news earlier.

Atheist scholar allies himself
(with reservations) in Benedict’s
fight against relativism
All Things Catholic by
John L. Allen, Jr.

Friday, May 16, 2008


Ever since his famous warning about a “dictatorship of relativism” shortly before his election three years ago, Pope Benedict XVI has been trying to kick-start a global conversation about truth.

In particular, Benedict yearns for a new look at truth within the Western secular academy, that exotic region where Jacques Derrida’s relativist maxim “there is nothing outside the text” has, ironically, achieved the status of a near-absolute. [In a relativistic world where nothing is supposed to be absolute!]

This weekend, in the enchanting Alpine setting of Lugano, Switzerland, a cross-section of prominent Western intellectuals is taking up the papal challenge.

Organized by the Balzan Foundation, which each year awards the Swiss-Italian equivalent of the Nobel Prize, this unique gathering of scientists, philosophers, and eggheads of all stripes, most of them without any specific religious conviction, is titled, simply, “The Truth.”

I’m in Lugano covering the event. In effect, the two-day summit represents the most intriguing test to date of how Benedict’s effort to restore confidence in truth is playing among secular makers of opinion.

The guest list features a constellation of intellectual heavy-hitters:
- Simon Blackburn, an atheist philosopher from Cambridge, who literally wrote the book on truth -- 2005’s best-selling Truth: A Guide;
- Geza Vermes, a New Testament exegete born to Jewish parents in Hungary, sometimes called the greatest Jesus scholar of his day [Really??? I didn't come across that in all the Googling I did when Vermes wrote scathingly against the Pope's JESUS OF NAZARETH last year! Besides, never mind how impressive his scholarship may be, but how can an ex- Christian be considered 'the greatest Jesus scholar', considering that Vermes, for instance, wrote his Jesus books as a disaffected Catholic who discounts what is most important about Jesus of Nazareth - that he is the Son of God and Christ, the Messiah????] ;
- Dominique Schnapper, a French sociologist and the daughter of famed French philosopher Raymond Aron;
- Bengt Gustafsson, a Swedish astronomer and a popular writer on matters of science and faith; and
- Emanuele Severino, Italy’s most famous living philosopher, described somewhat colorfully as a “neo-Parmenidian.”

The Vatican is represented by Swiss Cardinal Georges Cottier, former theologian of the papal household, and Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, an Argentine who serves as chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Science and of Social Sciences.

[Why are there no Americans, Asians and Africans in the mix? Or was it deliberately meant to be exclusively European?]

Despite the presence of two prelates, this is definitely not an “orthodox” crowd. Severino, for example, was fired, back in 1970, by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, following an investigation by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of his belief in “the eternity of all being” -- which, among other consequences, renders the idea of a Creator God obsolete.

Vermes is a former Catholic priest who left the church in 1957. His scholarship, while widely respected, wouldn’t pass Vatican muster either. In his latest book, Vermes speculates that Jesus didn’t physically rise from the dead, but rather his followers had visions that account for the resurrection narratives in the New Testament.
[Vermes is best known as one of the leading scholars on the Dead Sea scrolls. For those who might want to refresh what Vermes tossed off hastily - and one suspects, disdainfully, if not contemptuously - as a supposed 'scholar's review' of Pope Benedict's JESUS OF NAZARETH, go to the entry in BOOKS BY AND ON BENEDICT...
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354496&p=5]

As for Blackburn, he regards religion as a delusion. He actually wrote a paper three years ago defending his refusal to put on a yarmulke when invited by a Jewish friend to Friday dinner, on the grounds that it would express a respect for religion he doesn’t feel. (He complained about “respect creep,” saying that he’s willing to tolerate religious believers, but that doesn’t mean he’s obligated to treat their beliefs as anything other than nonsense.)

Yet philosophy, a bit like politics, tends to make strange bedfellows. At least on the subject of truth, Benedict and many of the luminaries in Lugano seem to have some common ground.

Blackburn offers an interesting case in point. In his book Truth, Blackburn acidly denounced “something diabolical in the region of relativism, multiculturalism or postmodernism, something which corrodes and corrupts the universities and the public culture, that sweeps away moral standards, lays waste young people’s minds, and rots our precious civilization from within.”

It’s language that, in another context, easily might have flowed from the papal pen.

In his keynote address this morning, Blackburn returned to the theme.

“Relativism attracts suspicion and hostility for a good reason,” he said. “Suppose I voice an honest and heartfelt opinion about anything, from mathematics to aesthetics. The conversation stopping remark ‘that’s just your opinion’ is not only beside the point, but more importantly dehumanising. It signals that your words do not deserve to be taken seriously, but only taken as symptoms, like signs of a disease.” [But isn't relativism supposed to be - 'That's your opinion. It's as good as any other, because nothing is absolute", regardless of the arguments?]

“It is not only the conservative half of each of us who cannot stand this patronage,” Blackburn said. “It is each of us in toto, agents attempting to reason our way through the practical problems with which life tries to trip us up."

On the other hand, Blackburn was not ready to sign up for Benedict XVI’s muscular sense of absolute truth, and certainly not truth rooted in a personal deity. Instead, he advocated a position known in the philosophical guild as “deflationism.”

In essence, deflationism declares the “truth wars” over, on the grounds that there’s nothing to fight about in the first place. Both relativism and “realism,” the belief in absolute standards of truth, presume that truth is a substantial property that either exists or not. In reality, deflationists say, it’s no such thing.

Take any propositional statement, such as “water is formed by hydrogen and oxygen.” It contributes nothing to the content of that statement, deflationists say, to rephrase it as “it is true that water is formed by hydrogen and oxygen.” Truth is “invisible,” or “transparent” -- it is not a lofty Platonic form, but rather a simple generalization about individual statements that are supported by convincing evidence.

Deflationism thereby refutes relativism, because it holds that statements can be either right or wrong -- not “for you” or “for now,” but right or wrong, period.

It breaks with more robust forms of realism, however, in rejecting the need for an abstract metaphysical theory to support that position. “Truth” is nothing more than a linguistic label given to accurate claims -- not a property or a “meta-reality.”

[In my simple-minded way, I might ask: Isn't describing something as 'accurate' giving it a property? Whether you call it accuracy or truth, it remains a property of the statement in question! Nor does it require 'abstract metaphysical theory to support that position': When has truth ever been defended - or needed to be - by 'abstract metaphysical theory'? Truth - at the level that most of us have to deal with it - is often self-evident, except to self-deluders.]

Thus Blackburn’s advice is to forget the debate between realism and relativism, and just get on with analysis of specific questions. He offers the example of capital punishment: “If we hammer this out, and decide that it should be [abolished], then we do not increase the theoretical temperature by adding ‘what’s more, that’s true.’”
[But in the real world, no one with common sense ever uses that as an argument! Wake up, Mr. Blackburn.]

Blackburn is aware that the deflationist position is likely to seem a bit, well, deflating for realists such as Benedict XVI -- a thin gruel, compared to the meaty stew of absolutes which the Pope likes to dish up. [The 'stew of absolutes' happens to be Christian doctrine! I think to call it that is to demean it. It is unworthy language for John Allen to use.]

Yet Benedict may take comfort that even someone like Blackburn, obviously worlds away from Catholic thought on most matters, is nevertheless on his side in opposing a “dictatorship of relativism.”

Many thinkers here seem to share a similar sense; after all, they have spent lifetimes arguing passionately for particular views of the world, and don’t appreciate the suggestion that their conclusions are the result of nothing more than chemical processes in the brain, or psychological and cultural forces.

While many aren’t persuaded by the content of the Catholic catechism, they nevertheless grudgingly admire Benedict’s defense of truth. Indeed, it may be the first papal cause in a while some of them even noticed, let alone endorsed.

Improbably enough, therefore, the conversations unfolding this weekend in Lugano could betoken a new chapter in the oft-strained relationship between Church and culture.

Stimulating reflection on truth, in a way that softens the normal divide between theists and secularists, could turn out to be Benedict XVI’s most important legacy in the realm of Western intellectual life.

What’s more, that’s true!

* * *

I had the opportunity to sit down with Blackburn on the margins of the Lugano symposium this morning. The following are excerpts from our conversation.

Are you familiar with the writings of the Pope on truth?
I’m afraid that I don’t follow the Pope’s pronouncements very much. Of course, I do mention him in my paper this morning. I am aware of his views on relativism, the danger of relativism.


You’re referring to his warning about a “dictatorship of relativism.”
Yes. Myself, I’m not sure that I share that diagnosis of the modern condition. That is, people may say they’re relativists, but nature is too strong for them. They actually have opinions, quite passionate ones.

My own sense of things, at least as far as morality goes, is that there’s as much passion and commitment as there ever was, even in Western Europe. Of course, it not necessarily passion and commitment in the direction the Pope approves, but that’s another matter.

As far as people being able to take a stand goes, I don’t see that sort of failing in the modern world. I think people find it quite easy to take a stand.

[Of course, people find it easy to take a stand, which is often ideology-driven; in fact, many people define themselves - pitiably - by the stands they take on either side of an ideological divide. But Blackburn is ignoring the most obvious manifestation of relativism in today's world - the stupidity called 'political correctness'! And its pervasiveness is just alarming and distressing! Politically-correct people take the path of least resistance - "Let's not offend anyone; after all, all views are equally valid" - even if in the process, that path means ignoring or violating core values for the sake of 'not offending anyone'.


Yet in your book on truth, you wrote rather acidly about relativism corroding public morality and laying waste to young minds.
I think I got the rhetoric of that passage slightly wrong, because somebody else challenged me on it. I intended it as a quotation of a line of thought, rather than words from my own mouth.


Still, I got the impression that you feel some sympathy with that view.
Oh, yes. I think it’s a real danger. I think in that regard the Pope struck a chord, which is why we’re talking about his words now. In a slightly Aristotelian sense -- and that too is a name we can share -- you’ve got to be very careful how you educate people.

There is a way of educating people in the West, which I don’t approve of, and which allows a certain corrosiveness, a certain extreme skepticism about values, to become part of the discourse. It’s the ‘whatever’ of the British teenager, who just shrugs his shoulders and turns his back on everything the older generation stands for.

When the message is reinforced by television, by the media, by popular idols and celebrities and so on, you see them living careless and foolish lifestyles which are held up as goals, then I am conservative enough to worry about whether there’s something toxic in the body politic.

To that extent, I’m on Aristotle’s side, if not directly that of the Church. People have to practice a sensible discussion of values, sensible realizations that values matter, a sensible realization that public discourse about values is as necessary in their generation as it is in every generation.


Pope Benedict’s desire is to stimulate a broad cultural conversation about truth. Is he succeeding?
I do think there’s a movement which he must approve of, though he might not always approve the particular directions it takes.

It seems to me that ten years ago, what goes loosely under the name of post-modernism was much more an “item” in the general cultural conversation. That is, people like Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida in France, some aspects of Heidegger, had led people in academic and semi-academic conversation to doubt authority and to doubt even their own judgment, to become, as it were, sort of paralyzed because of familiar thoughts about plurality of opinions, the difficulty of proof, cultural relativism. I think it’s fair to say that in the discourse of intellectuals, that was a major wave.

I think its heyday was in the ’80s and ’90s. It’s sometimes said that as far as America goes, it was killed off by the events of September 11. I suspect there’s some truth in that. You know, there comes a time to be serious. The playful, ironic, “anything goes” sort of attitude may have suited the ’90s, but not anymore. [No, it's worse today, when the more entrenched mentality appears to be 'anything goes - except Christianity!']


We see that movement in Europe today even on the left, where there’s a strong re-thinking of the limits of multi-culturalism. The growing sense is that the values of the Enlightenment have to be defended. [But how widespread is it? Meanwhile, the generation that grew up on 'anything goes' is now in charge of all the levers of power in Europe, particularly in the seats of the European Union!]
Exactly right. The problem with “anything goes” is that some fairly nasty characters who come in under that rubric, with some nasty opinions and nasty, threatening ideologies that will take root and fill the vacuum. [They're already trying to, and wanting to suck all the air out to stifle all Catholics wholesale from the public discourse.]


Let me ask a politically incorrect question. Prior to 9/11, the cultural fault line in the West was between Western theists and Western secularists. Is it easier post-9/11 for Western theists and secularists to see themselves as having more in common with one another, meaning commitment to a basic set of Western values, then with those who don’t share those values -- in a special way today, some currents in Islam?
Yes, I do think it is. We share a history. There have been various degrees of rapprochement between the churches and the world of the Enlightenment. I think a lot of people from both secular and religious backgrounds are nervous about seeing an awful lot of that tradition coming under attack, from people who either don’t respect that tradition or actively wish to destroy it.

The extent to which those people represent an “ism” is, I think, tricky. The disaffected terrorist or anarchist, the chap with the bomb, may have his head full of ideas, but the extent to which they form a coherent system is very doubtful, I think.


They don’t need a coherent system to do a lot of harm. [GREAT POINT!]
That’s right. The criminals have to be criminalized, they’re dangerous and we have to do what we can to keep ourselves secure from them. I fully share that government concern. On the other hand, it seems to me that we thinkers can fight our own “war against terror” in a different way.

In just the last couple of months, I’ve had two e-mails that have pleased me more than almost anything else in my academic career. One was from Syria, from an Arab who wanted to translate my little book Think, which is a resolutely secular introduction to philosophy, into Arabic, because he thought it would do a lot of good on the Arab street. Another was from a lonely student in Iraq, who wanted to read some of my books on truth and such matters. I take great pride in that.

It seems to me that this is my little contribution to fighting the battle on behalf of the West.


That’s precisely my point. We’re living in a new world, in which there is a much more clear recognition of the need to fight a battle on behalf of the West, which at least on that canon of issues puts you and the Pope in the same boat.
Yes, that’s right. I don’t mind at all finding myself talking alongside representatives of the Church of England or the Roman Catholic church if that’s the message we’re trying to convey. I’ve often put it slightly mischievously by saying, “Even Christians are human!”

I think there are a lot of values that humanity needs to defend. I’d just have to listen to exactly what they say.


Would you as a secular intellectual with no particular affinity for religious systems nevertheless be prepared to say that it’s helpful to have someone with the cultural standing of the Pope making this argument? [Hmmm...Why not 'cultural and intellectual standing of the Pope'? Would Blackburn have contested that?
It could be, yes. I think it’s important. The defense of values is something that has to be done again and again and again. You can never rest.

Insofar as he’s defending what I would recognize as Enlightenment values, then of course I’m very pleased to hear it. Naturally, as a non-religious and certainly non-Catholic thinker, I’d be worried about whether some of the values he’s defending are ones I can’t subscribe to.


The Pope has written that ultimately, it is only truth that sets limits to power. If there aren’t objective truths about human dignity, for example, what we can and cannot do to other people, then you can justify absolutely anything.
I think that’s a very good argument. Whether it requires a high-powered notion of truth, I don’t know. It certainly requires a value, that’s for sure. It requires that you think of other people in a certain way, acknowledge boundaries to what you can do to them. It requires a commitment of you. Whether that commitment in turn requires a more heavyweight notion of truth is another question, it seems to me.

Now, of course, governments are extremely unlikely to acknowledge that there are limits to what you can do to people. The United States threw that over in the last five years. [And Nazi Germany and the Communist powers never did? And still do, in the case of China and Cuba, or some Muslim states? In far worse ways than Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo? Or Saddam Hussein himself, for that matter, who gassed a whole town to death? Come on, Mr. Blackburn - leave the prejudices aside when stating something that can be objectively verified!]

I don’t think any government, or any religion for that matter, has an unblemished record of respecting the boundaries to what you may do to other people. [There you are! So don't go demonizing the United States...]


But truth does play this role of setting boundaries?
I don’t see it as “truth” that does so. It seems to me that it takes a value to make a value. The value of respect for people, boundaries to what we may do to other people, has to be established by thinking about the conditions of living together, the way in which the vulnerable are to be treated, and so on. You can get an awful long way thinking about those things without thinking about truth.
[The operative and basic 'value' in all that Blacburn cites is the Golden Rule, otherwise known as Christ's commandment of love. Does this not possess 'truth'? Values are truths - otherwise, what are they? The American Declaration of Independence starts out by saying, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, etc..." I find it very paradoxical that an author who has written a book on TRUTH would quibble so much about 'self-evident' concepts. If the Golden Rule is not truth, then what is it?]


Nonetheless, acknowledging at least the possibility of establishing such values does play the role of protecting us from ourselves?
It does indeed.


In your book, you write about the potential mischief in even seemingly innocuous religious beliefs. Catholic belief in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, you wrote, can dispose Catholics to also see Satan in other people and hence feel license to destroy them. In a similar vein, Benedict has written that “the pathology of religion is the most dangerous sickness of the human spirit.” Do you at least admire that commitment to rationality on his part?
Yes, very much so. I think one thing the Catholic church has always had going for it, and I say this as, I guess, a “Protestant secularist,” is a very strong sense of the number of ways in which the unaided human heart can go wrong. That I think is salutary and very healthy. [Something to say, then, for the Catholic insistence on the need for a 'properly formed conscience' - as against those who would claim the 'primacy of conscience' over anything, never mind if that conscience is the manifestation of an 'unaided human heart'.]

All credit to the Pope, especially if he’s also capable of confronting ways in which Christianity has gone wrong. …

For myself, I take a pessimistic view not just of [Christianity’s] past but also its present. Because of the decline in temporal power of religious authority, things feel much better in the West, but I don’t think that can be put down to progress.


From your own point of view, is a form of theism with a principled commitment to reason preferable to one without it?
Yes, it is. I think that it was G.K. Chesterton, who was of course Catholic, who said that the trouble with atheists is not that they believe nothing, but that they’ll believe anything. One has to be very careful about that.

But by “reason,” I’m going to mean not the reason of St. Thomas or the apologetic tradition, but the commitment to discourse that you get in the town hall and the town square … the ability to find common ground and so on. [But what if the prevailing town-square mentality, as it is in Europe, is that God has absolutely no place in the public discourse? Believers will never find common ground with them if they persist.]

These are values I hope I share with the Pope, but he goes an extra yard or two which I won’t follow.


[I think an important element that was not brought up in this interview is the matter of natural law that Benedict XVI sees as the one possible universal basis for a rational human order. It seems to me that natural law itself is among those truths, values, concepts - call it what you will - that are universally self-evident.

But I will keep an open mind about Blackburn until I can learn more of him. His books should be more coherent and convincing than he sounds here, most of the time.]

PASTORAL VISIT TO SAVONA & GENOA, May 17-18, 2008




Interview with Cardinal Bagnasco
Translated from the
Italian service of

May 16, 2008



Collage courtesy of Gloria from Beatrice's site, benoit-et-moi.fr.


Benedict XVI undertakes a pastoral visit to Savona and Genoa tomorrow. He will be leaving in the afternoon. First stage, Savona, with a visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy and Mass at the city's Piazza del Popolo.

He then flies to Genoa, where he will spend the night at the Hospitality House of the Shrine of Nostra Signora della Guardia (Our Lady of the Watch) outside the city.

After a private visit to the image of Genoa's patron saint, he will proceed to the city, where he will first visit a pediatric hospital, then meet with the youth at Piazza Matteotti, and then with the religious at Genoa's main cathedral, San Lorenzo.

The Pope will conclude his 9th apostolic voyage within Italy with a Mass at Piazza della Vittoria. Deborah Donnini interviewed Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa and president of the Italian bishops conference, starting with the significance to the Genoese of Nostra Signora della Guardia.

CARDINAL BAGNASCO: For Genoa, and even for all of Liguria, the Shrine of the Madonna della Guardia is a reference point in terms of history, faith, devotion, prayer, for this city and this diocese.

From that Shrine, located at about 1000 feet altitude on the peak of Monte Vigogna, one can see all of Genoa - therefore, the city feels protected, watched over, and blessed by the Mother of God, our Mother. The fact that the Pope's visit to Genoa will start there tells us that the Pope joins us in our devotion.


The Pope's visit to the pediatric hospital Giannina Gaslini is also noteworthy because it is a place where one has daily experience with the suffering of the littlest ones, but it is also in the vanguard of research on children's diseases...
Yes, we seek in every way that it should be a sanctuary for life - starting with the life to be born, with defenseless life, with babies.
We are very happy that the Pope accepted the invitation to visit the hospital - it will be a great comfort and encouragement for the children and their families, on the one hand, as well as for the medical staff and hospital personnel.

It is particularly important for the families of the patients, because we know what great sacrifice it is for them - in terms of logistics, their work, their fears and suffering for their children ...So although the Gaslini is a sanctuary of life, we also want it to be a hospitality center for these families.

We hope that the Pope will leave behind a double reminder of his visit - and we have been working on these, namely, to strengthen the Center of Aid to Life in our diocese, and to open a hospitality house for pregnant girls and abandoned children.


The diocese of Genoa has given the Church four Popes, the last one having Been Benedict XV, who tried to prevent World War I, and later, to try to limit its consequences. We know the present Pope chose Benedict as his papal name in part as a symbolic link tot eh Peace Pope. Does Benedict XV have a message for today's world?
Certainly, both from his Magisterium and from his person, the great message is one of justice and love, without which there cannot be true pace, neither in families nor in the world.

This ideal spiritual line from Benedict XV to Benedict XVI is very intense, and I would say this is clearly evident in his messages, in his elevated Magisterium, as well as in his personal style, how he relates to individuals and to the crowds.

Whoever meets the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, feels confirmed in the truth of the most human values, and at the same time feels enfolded in a great embrace of affection, of welcome, of sympathy.

I would say that his apostolic trips, whether abroad or here in Italy, testify to this current of benevolence that comes from his person and which softens the hearts of those who meet him.


What about the encounter with the youth?
Even young people feel fascinated by the Holy Father's person and his ministry, because the Pope never minimizes the demands and high standards asked by the Gospel of every Christian. This is something that the Pope always carries across with great clarity - so to the young people, even if the demands are high, he makes them feel it is worth the pain, the sacrifice and whatever effort is necessary to live up to them, because he makes them see it is the way to happiness. They feel that when the Pope sets these high goals for them, it is for their good, out of love for them.


'I am sure that in Genoa, as in the USA,
the Pope's 'dolcezza' will win people over'
Interview with Cardinal Bagnasco
by FRANCESCO OGNIBENE
Translated from
the 5/16/08 issue of





A new impetus for the diocese and the city to overcome the worries of a situation that for some time now - and not only in Genoa - has become complex, namely, a demographic and work crisis: Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa, voices the hopes of the city witht he visit of Pope Benedict XVI this weekend.


Eminence, recently you told the Genoese that the papal visit would be a 'colpo d'ala' (master stroke) for everyone. What did you mean?
That with this event, the city will be called on to reflect on its civic, social, cultural and occupational calling, and to do with an infusion of confidence and hope that the Pope brings everyone, without distinction.

The city should believe in its own capacities and resources, and must make new efforts for cohesion and collaboration among its components, setting aside special interests. With the good of everyone at stake, this is the way to start building a future with wider horizons,


What Church will the Pope see in Genoa?
The situation of the local Church - I have been visiting the parishes, and have already visited 78 this year, adn hope to visit all 278 in another two years - hinges on a priesthood that is solid in the faith and in their priestly identity, industrious as Genoese are, and above all, deeply rooted in the community.

They feel very deeply about their own priests and his presence among them - and this is even more touching when he is old or sick. Then they all rally around him with concern to help him and to share the burden of his work. It is not rare to see this unfortunately, considering that the average age of our clergy is rather high.

The priests themselves, they need a new push for evangelization, they need to call for more responsibility among the youth. The data show that Liguria is among the regions with the oldest average population not only in Italy, and obviously, this reflects on the life of society and the Church. But I see that in every parish, there is always a group of young people who are active, which is encouraging, but we still need a new call to formation and proclaiming the faith.


How have your young people been preparing for the Pope's visit?
Very seriously. Starting from the Vigil of Pentecost, which I led last Saturday at the La Guardia shrine, and throughout this week, they have been in vigil, with continuous Eucharistic adoration, day and night, in several points of the city. It is a sign of great generosity. It is awakening the capacity for dedication and sacrifice that the hearts of the young are capable of, when they have authentic motivations. Therefore, it is up to their parents to bear witness with their own life and by educating their children on the things that count. When this happens, then their children are quite capable of being enthusiastic parishioners.


And how is the city awaiting the Pope?
Genoa needs hope in the field of work, in family life, in the prospects for the future. Too often, young people have to leave town in order to find work, and that leaves the community even older. The Pope among us is a great sign of hope, and I trust that everyone, without distinction, will be able to benefit from it.


But there are also those who intend to protest his visit. What would you tell them?
That they should learn to respect the opinion of others - in fact, not just in words, and learn to cultivate the art of reciprocal listening. To know how to avoid polemical confrontation in words and deeds is a sign of civilization and maturity.

Pope Benedict speaks clearly whatever he has to say but he does not impose anything on anyone. His communication style is one of extreme gentleness, great faith, exceptional rationality. He addresses everyone with arguments of faith and reason that do not exclude anyone, and it is always worthwhile listening to what he has to say.


Every papal visit has its own imprint which usually one starts to sense even before the visit. Do you see anything emerging in Genoa?
Above all, there seems to be a stronger recourse to the spiritual life. The Pope's words and his example always inspire a profound interiority towards a relationship of love and joy with Christ. There is also a new sense of Catholic identity not as a reason for confrontation but as a gift to offer everyone. A new missionary impulse should result from all this.


Can you explain the choice of two initiatives for unborn life as the signal projects for the visit?
The subject of human life is intimately linked to one's concept of the human being, and today, this anthropological question is decisive. It is an epochal turn, because at issue is the definition of what man is. The humanism that inspires social and cultural life determines soceity's approach to life - unborn, suffering, joyous, aging, dying. The foundation and the value of human dignity, the resulting approach of the society to life, especially of the most fragile and defenseless members, concerns everyone, even beyond the boundaries of faith.


It's not difficult to imagine that one of the most intense moments of the Pope's visit will be the one to the children's hospital. What is the significance of this part of the program?
With it, the Pope is showing explicit recognition of the absolute value of life at its most fragile. At the Gaslini hospital, babies are born and the very sick are cared for. The whole place is a hymn to life, since it was established and financed in the past century by Senator. Gerolamo Gaslini, who set it up in memory of his daughter Giannina who died when she was 12. He wanted a hospital managed by the archbishop of Genoa as a guarantee of the Christian inspiration that he wanted the center to have.

The Gaslini is a a tribute to the fruitfulness of the Gospel with respect to promoting the common good and caring for those who suffer. This is a reality that always bears new fruit. For instance, we just laid the cornerstone for a large new complex financed by another generous benefactor. These are the initiatives that spring from the Christian humus, so to speak, of the city.


In your heart, Eminence, what fruits do you hope for from this visit?
A fresh wind of confidence and hope both at the church and civilian levels, which is a prerequisite for a more effective working together, in every field, without divisions. Everyone wants this. Confidence and hope are intimately linked, and the Pope has a particular charism for bringing this wherever he goes.


And then there is the "Benedict factor'...
I am sure that just as in the United States, the personality of the Pope will be able to open up hearts even here in Genoa. The Pope lives in the Lord, and he expresses this in everything he says or does, with a kindness that is bonded to intellectual rigor, and is therefore able to conquer anyone who approaches him without any prejudices.

PASTORAL VISIT TO SAVONA & GENOA, May 17-18, 2008




Benedict XVI in Savona
between memory and the future:
Remembering Pius VII
by Nicola Gori
Translated from
the 5/17/08 issue of



Both the past and the present will be at the center of Benedict XVI's visit to Savona today.



The past, to remember his predecessor Pius VII (Pope from 1800-1823), the Benedictine Pope, Barnaba Gregorio Chiaramonti, who spent three years of his life in Savona as a prisoner of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Benedict XVI will offer a Golden Rose at the crypt altar of the Shrine of the Madonna della Misericordia (Our Lady of Mercy) in memory of the protection of the Virgin and the solidarity and support that the Savonesi gave his predecessor.



For the present, it is to confirm in faith a lively community which gave the Church two Popes: Sixtus IV (Pope from 1471-1484) and Julius II (Pope from 1503-1513).

[Both Savonese Popes are surnamed Della Rovere, but apparently not related. Another coincidence is that they were both responsible for establishing the artistic and cultural heritage of the Vatican. Sixtus IV introduced early Renaissance art to the Vatican and established the Sistine Chapel, named after him, although Michelangelo came to decorate it under Julius II (Giuliano della Rovere) who laid the cornerstone for the present St. Peter's Basilica and built up the Vatican's Renaissance legacy. Julius II was one of history's most colorful Popes, having plotted against the Borgias to gain the Papacy and fathered a child before he became Pope, although reputed to be a homosexual.]

To understand how the diocese prepared for this event, we interviewed Mons, Vittorio Lupi, bishop of Savona-Noli.


Will this visit be an occasion for the diocese to rediscover the sense of continuity between Popes?
Yes. The Pope is making a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Mercy to thank her for her protection of his predecessor in a moment that was very difficult both for his Pontificate and the entire Church.

He will offer the Golden Rose, a papal honor that has been bestowed previously to the shrines in Lourdes, Fatima, Czestochowa, Loreto and Aparecida. He will also offer the Golden Rose to Nostra Signora della Guardia in Genoa.

Here in Savona, he will visit the rooms where Pius VII was kept prisoner at the Bishop's Palace. It must be remembered that the Pope's visit comes just when the beatification process has started for Pius VII, that 'small great man', spiritual son of St. Benedict, who with gentleness and humility, but also with great moral force and firmness, knew how to resist a despot who used all possible psychological techniques to bend him to his will.

Therefore the visit of Benedict XVI is seen in this light also as an acknowledgment to Savona for having supported a Pope in a very difficult time, allowing him to carry out his mission even in extremely difficult circumstances.


Besides this remembrance, the Pope will also encounter the living fabric of the Church in Savona. What will he find?
He will find the same problems, the same difficulties, the same realities faced by many other local Churches. But of course, each Church deals with the same problems according to its own specific history. Savona has a glorious past - not only for having given the Church Sixtus IV and Julius II - but most of all for its canonized saints and for so many holy figures - priests, religious, laymen - who have made the history of the diocese and whose fruitfulness is present even today.

The difficulties are there: family life, relationship problems between spouses, education of their children (parents who are very attentive to the material aspects of their children's growth are far less concerned about educating them in authentic Christian values); the many forms of poverty and marginalization which impacts strongly on the Christian community, which must conquer its indifference and selfishness; the high average age of our priests, even if they are very close to their parishioners, very sensitive to new emergencies requiring charity, and very prepared culturally; the need for new vocations (right now, we only have four seminarians!); a religious indifference which has become much greater these past few years, and therefore, a decreasing presence at our liturgies.

The shadows are many and great, but the lights are promising. We have quite a few bustling parishes. There is great interaction among parish priests; in some quarters they have bonded into pastoral units with very good results. The ecclesial movements act like diamond points to make the Gospel penetrate into the city ambiance. The tradition of confraternities is very much alive - these are rooted in secular tradition, and behind their folkloristic exterior, they exhibit lives of faith, prayer and charity.


What do you expect out of this visit?
The visit of a Pope is always, for every diocese and every individual, a moment of grace. We are aware of the singularity of this occasion and that graces are effective in proportion to how much they are desired and asked for in prayer, so we have been preparing our community with spiritual exercises of reflection and prayer.

The Pope comes as Peter to comfort and confirm his brothers in the faith. We can only expect that this visit will strengthen everyone in the faith, that it will promote the sense of belonging to the Church, that it brings everyone the awareness that God calls each of us to something great, and that it will result in new enthusiasm for the Christian life.


The city of Savona with its surroundings is one of the most visited tourist centers in Liguria. Does the church see this as a good opportunity for evangelization?
There is a pastoral for tourism in every parish, with lectures, encounters and celebrations that are specifically addressed to visitors. The city has had, for some time, a volunteer service to guide visitors through an artistic-religious itinerary which takes them to the Cathedral and its various works of art, particularly its own Sistine Chapel, erected by Sixtus IV; a 16th century choir area that is completely inlaid which was a project of Julius II; and the apartments occupied by Pius VII during his imprisonment. Soon we will have our own diocesan museum.


Considering your problems with evangelization, how do you think things can change?
I have only been here less than three months, but I found a Church that is very sensitive to the problems of its people, close to the neediest among them, that takes part in all the happy and sad events in the lives of the faithful. It is also open to the problems in today's world and proactive, with its plans and dreams for the future.

The dream of every bishop whose diocese receives a visit from the Pope is that it will strengthen the faith. Jesus said "I have come to bring fire on earth" - may this fire enkindle in everyone, warm our hearts, instill a drive for a life that is committed to the common good, and give us the strength to respond with deeds to the love that the Lord shows us every day. I hope that the Pope's visit will be a memorable experience for everyone that will leave a profound and lasting sign in our life.


Have you considered how you will memorialize this visit?
We have not discussed anything in terms of a structure, for instance, But we are thinking of organizing a diocesan pilgrimage to Rome to return the visit. Of course, we already have memorial tablets ready to attach to the places which the Pope will visit. We will ask the schoolchildren to write about their impressions of the visit, and we will certainly remember it on its anniversary.

After our people have seen and heard Benedict XVI first hand, then our relationship with him will be deeper, we will feel him close to us even after he leaves, and we will be more sensitive to what he wants of the Church. Of course, I hope that this will inspire more prayers for him.

L'Osservatore Romano - 17 maggio 2008

PASTORAL VISIT TO SAVONA & GENOA, May 17-18, 2008



An 'open nerve' in
the international community:
Human rights since Benedict XV's
denunciation of 'useless killings'
By Carlo Di Cicco, Deputy Editor
Translated from
the 5/17/08 issue of



Benedict XVI, the Pope of the Golden Rule, has been advocating justice and the recognition of human rights to consolidate hope for peace in the world. He follows in the steps of Benedict XV, whose name he took because of his predecessor's extraordinary service to the cause of peace.

It is a continuity in the social teaching of the Church and a development in the establishment of universal human rights, as discussed in this interview with Prof. Giovanni Maria Flick, vice-president of Italy's Constitutional Court, on the occasion of the Pope's visit to Genoa.

Flick, who is Genoese by adoption, completed his studies in Genoa with the Salesians and the Jesuits before graduating from the Catholic University of Milan.

Between Benedict XV, who first brought the Church to an active defense of human rights, and Benedict XVI, he sees a continuity in the doctrines of peace and human rights, but he also sees in benedict XVI the ability for prompt and constant advocacy of these doctrines in the international community as required in these times of globalization.


When Benedict XVI recalls Benedict XV, the Genoese Pope, in speaking of human rights, is it just cultural archeology or a reference to the continuity of teh Church's social Magisterium?



Cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa was elected Pope one month after the Great War (First World War) began. From his very first documents, he expressed his anguish over 'useless killings' and made a very lucid analysis of the causes of the conflict, which he traced to "injustice in the relationship among social classes... a contempt for authority... the pursuit of material goods as the only goal for human activity".

Above all, however, he was concerned with how to put an end to these conditions. This is where the Genoese Pope showed his extraordinary modernity: not only did he denounce and share the universal grief, but he also pursued an uninterrupted search for concrete 'ways out'.



His Apostolic Exhortation on August 1, 1917 (Des le debut - From the beginning) proposed to the belligerent nations an agreement to end the war, of great firmness and in greast detail. For instance, reciprocal condoning of war debts; total evacuation of occupied territories; the future status of Armenia, the Balkan states and the states that formed the ancient Kingdom of Poland, and the like. It was an avant-garde Magisterium in these terms, and not only for its time.


Benedict XVI chose his papal name, among other things, to indicate a continuity with a predecessor who served peace. Is this strategic choice clear in the teachings of Papa Ratzinger?
His choice of name was particularly significant for a German Pope who - as he himself pointed out in May 2005 - had succeeded a Polish Pope, 60 years after the end of a war whose barbarous prosecution and consequences they had both experienced as young men on different sides. But it was a direction that he had manifested even before he became Pope.

In a lecture that he gave before the Italian Senate in May 2004 on the European constitutional treaty - looking on it as a document for unification and therefore, for peace - the future Benedict XVI had in fact proposed how to 'consider inscribed' the values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity, alongside the fundamental principles of democracy and the rule of law; how to configure an image of man, a moral option and a concept of right that are "not taken for granted, but rather, qualifying marks of the European identity."

Therefore, a peace built not only on the centrality of human dignity but also on the architrave of a democratic state under the rule of law.

Since then, he has spoken several times about the synergy between justice and peace - the first being a condition to even think about the second. Only by having justice can one effectively promote peace - understood not as mere absence of war but as a fulfillment of justice, particularly social justice.

On the other hand, in this Pope's thinking, justice is indivisible from respect for fundamental human rights that must be guaranteed for every person and understood as 'the measure for the common good'.

Therefore, as he told the United Nations last month, the promotion of human rights remains "the most effective strategy for eliminating inequities among nations and social groups" and therefore, to guarantee peace.

There is no peace without this equal guarantee - internal and international - of fundamental rights. On this point, the moral conscience expressed by the Church on the world scene is of fundamental importance, even for laymen.



Pope Benedict's speech to the United Nations drew positive reactions, but there has been no lack of criticism. Was it an intervention with any new elements on this issue?
It is never to be taken for granted, nor is it by chance, to point out, as the Pope did, that both the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights originated from the convergence of cultural and religious traditions "all motivated by the common desire to place the human being at the heart of institutions, laws and social interventions, and to consider the individual human being as the essential subject/object for the world of culture, religion and science."

This centrality of man's dignity and freedom is the key to every approach - juridical or ethical - to the issue of fundamental rights, to the point where no secular consideration could possibly cause an abandonment of this principle, nor of any essential universal precept, to manage what Sartre called 'situational ethics', meaning, the specific defense of any single right that is violated.

In other words, protection of human rights must always have a global sense, though founded on individual human dignity, or it is no protection at all.

The bases and sense of fundamental rights cannot but invite reflection on the part of jurists, at least in terms of the form and effectiveness of protections that can be enforced.

According to Norberto Bobbio [Italian political philosopher], the problem about fundamental rights is not in establishing what they are but in protecting them. At the UN, the Pope pointed out that to proclaim the need to safeguard these rights without examining why they must be protected would be like the 'resounding gong" or and 'clashing cymbals' that St. Paul describes in his hymn to charity.

For the jurist, whether he is a believer or secularist, the Pope's demand requires a delicate and well-thought out response, a 'co-action' that must also be considered in the light of the transcendent.


What would it entail in terms of law to overcome the paradox denounced by the Pope that on the international scene, world affairs are subject to the decision of a few?
That is the 'open nerve' in the international community: the contradiction in a globalized world where there is lip service to democracy but which is at heart, an oligarchy.

The concept of democracy has reached theoretical perfection, but the practice of true democracy among nations remains a chimera. The problems of the world demand, as the Pontiff always says, multilateral consensus and collective interventions, of which so far the international community has shown itself to be incapable. And this crisis demands a rethinking of the forms of international organization.

I think above all of Europe, whose unitary design presupposes equal dignity among its member nations, replicating at the level of the state the principle of equal dignity among individuals. In other words, international law should overcome mere economic criteria which inevitably produce decisional oligarchies.

But from such a solidarity among nation states, from the objective of a planetary distribution of justice, 'we are desperately distant', to use the words of Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. At the same time, in order to go in this direction, there must be effective democracy within the international community.


Is the principle of responsibility to protect fundamental rights a corrective to mere humanitarian intervention?
More than just corrective, I would say it would be a fruitful positive evolution. The traditional characteristics of humanitarian action - neutrality and sovereignty - have progressively faded away. On the other hand, the UN General Assembly stated in December 1988, the principle of direct access to the victims of any natural catastrophe or of emergency situations on the same scale - that is, humanitarian intervention to help the victims, which is a true obligation in the light of the victims' right to assistance. Such intervention is lawful even when it means material and physical intervention, but this presupposes a guaranteed right of access to the affected territory, even if it is against the will of the government concerned.

It is inevitable to think of what is happening in Myanmar, where the catastrophic effects of the recent cyclone have become magnified by the incapacity of the regime in power to do anything on its own and yet insists on isolating the nation even to outside assistance.

But there is also the general inertia of the international community, which has expressed condolences and willingness to give assistance, but has so far failed to bring this matter to the UN Security Council.

Still, although concrete ways are still being sought to carry out the concept, this 'responsibility to protect' represents an evolution in the principle of solidarity applied to the world order.

To avoid the risk of 'humanitarian colonialism', it should be founded on dialog, the shared centrality of the human being, the recognition that violated fundamental rights need to be protected by the international community with juridical instruments of the type already provided for in the Charter of the UN.


What is the possible fallout on governments and parliaments of the Pope's appeal for the primacy of justice over legality so that human rights may properly take root as an institution and will remain untouchable?
The so-called reductionism which characterizes the age we live in is manifested in the field of law by the ingenuous pretext of reducing justice to a right, and right to law. The illusion is that justice can coincide with legality, that respect for the law will suffice so that 'justice will be done".

But - and I will cite St. Paul again - "No one will ever come to justice by the workings of the law." This is valid even in a secular, non-transcendent idea of justice, because it is reality itself, 'hard facts', which belie the pretext that mere observance of the law will result in justice. It is only a precondition for the second, certainly not its fulfillment.

A just man, even in a globalized world, is he who continues "to have hunger and thirst for justice", who is always ready - Gustav Zagrebelsky wrote - to recognize for the weak, the persecuted and the excluded, a legitimate claim to justice, which means recognizing their humanity and dignity.

Governments and parliaments should perceive this universal anxiety for a justice that will always be sought and never quieted down, instead of deluding themselves by resolving demands for justice in the cold form of the law - as if human rights could only be the result of legislative provision.

On the other hand, the impotence to create true justice is also a stumbling block even for the believer. It trips him up, as it did in Job's second quarrel with God. Which goes to show that the search for justice on two sides - secular and religious - cannot be that far apart as we are led to believe.

Benedict XVI has re-proposed the Golden Rule as a measure of international relationships, and not only between persons. Is that sufficient today to favor a future of justice and peace?
The Golden Rule is the non-variable in the principle of justice, in the universal character of fundamental rights, beyond cultural, historic, political and social contingencies.

According to St. Augustine, the principle "Do not do to others what you do not wish done to you" cannot in any way change according to different ways of understanding in the world.

Its analog in secular morality is the Kantian imperative to act by treating man always as an end and never as a means. Such rules, precisely because they are immutable, form the basis of the Universal Charter of Human Rights, which would be unthinkable without them.

But the immutability and universality of fundamental rights would be empty proclamations if the principle of equal rights is not applied not only to individuals but also to states.

Until the smallest state in the world is treated by the more powerful ones as a means and not as an end, the international order will be precarious, and we will continue simply enunciating the concepts of peace and justice among nations without being able to do anything about it.

Unfortunately, this idea is still quite remote from Western consciousness and sensibility, accustomed as we have been - and not only in the West - to live our lives while ignoring rights violations happening right under our eyes.


Do you share the opinion that human rights were more respected concretely by governments in the past than in the present, even as the juridical formulations that have to with protecting these rights have been more and more elaborated?
Not at all. Nostalgia for the past is an affliction typical of epochal crises, a convenient refuge while the problems of the present remain intact.

Calling attention to human rights - despite the effort it takes to recognize them, proclaim them, establish them - helps to protect them. Of course, there is the risk that such an elaboration could lead to indulgence in form, to an aesthetic of rights that is beautiful to behold but incapable of protecting them.

But I am glad there are isolated sources of encouragement: For instance, the European Convention on Human Rights, which is reaching a fruitful equilibrium between the profound recognition of such rights and effective means to protect them. Or the emerging order in the European community which is tr4ying to equilibrate the demands of the market and human rights. There remains a lot of work to be done - we are only seeing the first glimmers of dawn. [The interviewer should have followed up with a question on the appalling tendency in the European institutions to legislate rights for special interests like homosexuals and abortion advocates, at the expense of coercing believers to violate their religious convictions.]


Did Benedict XVI's intervention at the United Nations - focused on the indivisibility of human rights and calling for a strategy of rights to eliminate inequities and improve security in the world - help facilitate the dialog on rights between the secular and Catholic viewpoints?
I believe a synergy between the two viewpoints is useful. The Pope's willingness to act on common ground is evident. In the past few years, there has been a progressive rapprochement between those who advocate the priority of content of the law, and those who argue instead to first establish the inescapable and binding importance of basic principles.

While holding to its principles, the Church has gradually acknowledged that the 'content-oriented' strategy on human rights is not necessarily reductionist. And on the part of secular ethics, there is a growing recognition that far from being anachronistic and 'fundamentalist', religious anthropology as the basis of human rights promotes their effective 'humanization'.

The same convergence was acknowledged by Benedict XVI with respect to European unity, when he stated that "the fathers of unification started off from the fundamental compatibility of Christianity's moral legacy with that of the European enlightenment."

So the realization of justice in peace, I think, is the ideal common ground in the matter of fundamental rights.


Would an atheist or a secularist agree to the rational profile for the right to religious freedom that according to Benedict XVI, should be made explicit in both the individual as well as the communitarian and public dimensions?
I will answer you with the simplicity asnd effectiveness with which our (Italian) Constitution affirms the right to religious freedom, in Article 129: Everyone has the right to freely profess his own religious faith in any form, individual or in association, to publicize it, and to exercise its forms of worship in private or in public, provided such rites are not contrary to good custom.

So religious freedom does not depend on the potential and rational sharing of the idea by an atheist or a secularist - it is much more than that: it is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. [But why do anti-religion Italian politicians persist in ignoring the their Constitution and trying to deny religious freedom to Catholics in terms of 'publicizing' their faith in any form that is not contrary to good custom?]

THE POPE'S DAY

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The Holy Father met this morning with


- Participants of a seminar sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the Laity on the pastoral care
for church movements and new communities. Address in Italian.
- The Superior Council for Pontifical Missionary Works of the Congregation for the Evangelization
of peoples. Address in Italian.

In mid-afternoon, the Holy Father leaves for Savona and Genoa.

---

Pope speaks of the Christian duty
to convert others to the faith



The Pope and Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization
of Peoples, talk to a missionary.



VATICAN CITY, May 17(AFP) - The Roman Catholic Church has the inalienable right and duty to convert any person to Christianity, Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday.

Evangelization is a central mission of the Church, the Pope told a Vatican body that encourages Catholic missionary activity.

The appeal for the conversion of "all nations," attributed to Jesus Christ in the Gospels, remains "an obligatory mandate for the entire Church and for every believer in Christ," the pontiff said.

"This apostolic commitment is both a duty and an inalienable right, the very expression of religious freedom with its moral, social and political dimensions," he said.

Like his predecessors, Pope Benedict is keen to promote missionary zeal among Catholics, most of whom live in a world of religious pluralism and other proselytising faiths such as Islam.

The Pope's message was also addressed to the faithful in countries where religious activity is strictly controlled by the state or even relegated to the private realm.

In December, the Vatican published a doctrinal note reaffirming the mission of all the faithful to seek to convert non-Catholics including members of other Christian denominations, while avoiding placing undue pressure on them.

The note highlighted the need for respect and a spirit of cooperation in dialogue with other Christians, and rejected past accusations of proselytising that have been levelled against it by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Relations between the Orthodox Church and the Holy See have been thorny, with the Moscow Patriarchate accusing the Vatican of proselytising in traditionally Orthodox lands following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Tensions were further aggravated in 2002, after the Vatican established four permanent dioceses in Russia.





PASTORAL VISIT TO SAVONA & GENOA, May 17-18, 2008

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PROGRAM OF THE VISIT TO SAVONA
Saturday, May 17, 2008

15:30 The Pope leaves Ciampino airport (Rome) for Genoa.

16:20 The papal flight lands at Genoa's Cristoforo Colombo international airport. This is considered a technical stop.
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa and President of the Italian bishops' conference, will join
the papal entourage, which will transfer to a helicopter for the flight to Savona.

16:45 Arrival in Savona.

16:50 The Pope arrives by Popemobile at the Sanctuary for a brief private prayer.

17:00 The Pope travels by Popemobile to the Piazza del Popolo, where he will pass through the various sectors
of the assembly before proceeding to the altar.

17:45 After a welcome from Mayor Berruti, the Holy Father will celebrate Mass.
HOMILY BY THE HOLY FATHER

18:45 After the Mass, the Pope will take the Popemobile to the Bishop's Palace, passing through Corso Italia,
in front of City Hall, then Via Sta. Maria Maggiore and Piazza Chabrol.
- The Pope will visit the three rooms in which Pope Pius VII was held prisoner for almost three years by Napoleon
Bonaparte in the early 1800s.
- The Popemobile will leave the Bishop's Palace, pass before the Cathedral and will head towards the port area,
to the Palacrociere, where the Holy Father will board a helicopter to proceed to Genoa.

---

PASTORAL VISIT TO SAVONA & GENOA, May 17-18, 2008




Between Benedict and his flock:
A surprising and profound relationship
like love that comes to full bloom
By Giacomo Galeazzi
Translated from



A surprising angle for Galeazzi, the veteran Vatican correspondent of La Stampa, to take. Perhaps the Pope's American success has finally allowed the Italian media to spell out what has been quite obvious from the record crowds that he has attracted - but they could never say so explicitly, because it contradicts all their past pronouncements about the remote, cold and severe Joseph Ratzinger, and how it was not possible for a successor to John Paul II to even come close to him in terms of popularity and media visibility.

Then, surprisingly for a lay journalis - and possibly to explain the basis for Benedict's ability to communicate and establish rapport - Galeazzi proceeds to reflect on the man and his message in the spiritual terms with which Benedict offers himself and his message.



SAVONA, May 18 - For weeks, there has been much talk of protests and demonstrations against the visit of the Pope to Savona and Genoa.

Meanwhile, the spiritual preparations of the Church in Liguria for this encounter with Benedict XVI was taking place unheeded and unnoticed.

It is, of course, true, that the sound of a big tree falling makes far more noise than a growing forest, but the exaggeration of the opposition to the Pope's visit is almost scandalous.

I have been moving between the places which the Pope will visit in the company of my fellow Vaticanistas Albero Bobbio (Famiglia Cristiana) and Salvatore Mazza (Avvenire) - and everywhere, all we can feel is active expectation and a sense of participation.

That between Joseph Ratzinger and his people is a surprising and profound relationship like a love that buds in silence and then bursts intensely into bloom.

Benedict XVI shows that it is not enough simply to pay homage to the past, no matter how prestigious, but that one must interpret modernity in terms of tradition, with an emphasis, as far as the general public is concerned, on 'positive secularity'.

And that is why, wherever he goes, Papa Ratzinger has the right words to speak about the sense of life with people of diverse faiths, cultures and training that may be very remote from Catholic culture.

With gentle words and firm determination, Benedict XVI makes clear he respects and protects his listeners' freedom to believe or not to believe, to practice one religion or to change it [as he did with the baptism of Magdi Cristiano Allam], the freedom of parents to provide their children with the education that conforms to their beliefs, and the freedom not to be discriminated against because of religion, the same way he insists on the right and obligation to defend human life in all its forms and stages, and the other principles that the Church considers non-negotiable.

In short, whether in Brazil, the United States or Liguria, Benedict XVI knows how to be the supreme voice int eh spiritual desert of this globalized third millennium. Every stage is a goal achieved. Always accompanied by his spiritual master Augustine.

Joseph Ratzinger likes to point out that despite his humility, the sainted Bishop of Hippo was certainly conscious of his intellectual stature. But that for him, far more important than theological works of breath and depth, was to bring the Christian message to ordinary folk. To the point where he eventually stopped writing books because it was "too laborious and understood only by a few".

In the manner of Augustine, Benedict today is more concerned with communicating the faith in ways understandable to all instead of writing great theological works.

The relationship between faith and reason is as central with Benedict XVI as it was with Augustine. According to philosopher Giovanni Reale [consultant to John Paul II in the books he wrote as Pope], one could use a Cartesian syllogism to describe Joseph Ratzinger - I believe, therefore I am - because he places faith at the summit, associating it with reason but not subordinating it.

You will understand if you believe. This is the Pope's conviction: faith is a decision that involves one's whole life and therefore, it is not just important as a value system but carries ontological weight in the sense that your life, if you truly believe, will be changed and transformed. You will behave according to what you believe, and to the degree adn force with which you believe.

The responsibilities that go with proclaiming the Christian message become, for Joseph Ratzinger, a theory and praxis of catechesis.

Benedict XVI says that one cannot dominate history only by material means and doing away with God. If man is not good at heart, then nothing that he does can be good. And this goodness of heart can only come from "He who is Goodness himself".

The Pope's method, Reale observes, often refers to historico-critical analysis which he admits to be important but inadequate. So, if you apply this method impeccably but do not believe, then you will get a historically reconstructed Jesus who seems to be out of focus.

No, Benedict XVI says one must look at the historical Jesus starting from the fact of his communion with the Father. The eyes of faith must go with historico-critical analysis.

The Pope once said that he was very much struck by the words of an Indian missionary who told him that the Church had not succeeded to show Christ to her people, because most of the missionaries, engrossed in and dedicated to their exterior activities, did not seem to know how to pray according to Indian criteria.

And to the Indians, the inability to pray properly prevents one from reaching intimate spiritual union with God, and unless you do that, how can you initiate others into the mystery of Christ?

This seems to be the most profound call of faith in Benedict's Pontificate. Recently he gave an example.

The British doctor Sheila Cassidy, who became Benedictine nun in 1978, had been imprisoned and tortured in Chile because she had given medical services of a revolutionary. Shortly after she was tortured, she was transferred to a cell where she came upon an old Bible. She opened it and the first thing she saw was an image of a man who was assailed by thunder, lightning and a hailstorm. She identified herself with the man. Then she noticed that the upper part of teh illustration also contained a hand, the hand of God, and beside it a passage from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans with its profession of faith in the Resurrection of Christ. "Nothing can ever separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom 8,39).

If first, she had identified with the lower part of the illustration because her torturers had assaulted her as if she were a defenseless worm, she was more powerfully struck now by the 'hand of God', from which 'nothing can separate us".

Subsequently, when she was put into a cell with Marxist women prisoners, she started proposing moments of prayer, and eventually, simple acts of religious worship. Her cellmates somehow overcame hatred and hostility, and soon discovered the interior freedom made possible by prayer.

Joseph Ratzinger is perfectly aware that the prevailing cultural mentality is assailing the very foundations of Church morality, and that if the Church remains faithful to Christ, it risks being seen as an anachronistic and annoying foreign body within society.

That is why, in an attempt to remain 'credible,' Western theologians have found themselves facing a choice: dissent with society or dissent with the Magisterium.

The growing divide between the Magisterium and the 'new' moral theologians has caused wounding consequences, especially since the Church, through its schools and hospitals, continues to plan an important social role (especially in America).

Should the Church find a new purpose and compromise with accepted values in the current society which it wants to continue serving, or should it stay faithful to its own values (which it believes are those that safeguard man best in his deepest needs) and find itself estranged from society.

Benedict XVI proclaims tirelessly that in authentic Catholic morality, there are actions that no reason can ever justify because they contain in themselves a rejection of God the Creator, and therefore a rejection of authentic good for man, his creature. It is obvious that Papa Ratzinger's mission is to overcome this rejection of God.

PASTORAL VISIT TO SAVONA & GENOA, May 17-18, 2008




FIRST STOP: SAVONA





THRONGS WELCOME BENEDICT XVI
UNDER HEAVY RAIN
Translated from the online service of



SAVONA - Benedict XVI is in Savona. He arrived this afternoon in driving rain, greeted by throngs of faithful under a rainbow sea of umbrellas.



He flew in by helicopter from Genoa's main airport at around 4:55 p.m., ten minutes behind schedule, in a square adjacent to the Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy.

The Pontiff was transported in a white heilcopter belonging to Italy's military aeronautics corps.

Welcoming him were the mayor of Savona, Federico Berruti; Bishop Vittorio Lupi, and the regional prefect Nicoletta Frediani.

He first proceeded to the Shrine of the Madonna della Misericordia (Our Lady of Mercy), Savona's patron saint, where he was welcomed by the rector, Mons. Andrea Giusto,and his Vicar, don Domenico Venturetti.


The Basilica of Our Lady of Mercy, and the Crypt Chapel where the image of the Virgin is venerated.

Present at the Shrine were Carmelite nuns from the Convent of St. Teresa of Avila in Savona,
who received a dispensation to leave cloisters for this occasion.

The Pope spent a few minutes of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament on the main altar, then proceeded to the crypt chapel where he prayed before the image of the Virgin of Mercy.

At this chapel in 1815, Pius VII crowned the image of the Virgin in thanksgiving for her protection during the three years he wzas imprisoned in Savona by Napoleon Bonaparte.

After the prayer, the Pope offered a papal Golden Rose on the altar as a pontifical honorific for the shrine and as a sign of his own personal devotion.











From the Shrine, the Pope travelled by Popemobile to Piazza del Popolo in the center of Savona to celebrate Holy Mass, which began at 5:45 p.m.





At the port city's Piazza del Popolo, more than 30,000 pilgrims - an overflow crowd, since only 20,000 tickets were issued - waited under the rain to hear the Holy Mass that the Holy Father was going to celebrate.