NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT

Four years of service towards
the encounter of man with God:
Interview with Sandro Magister
Translated from

April 20, 2009


Four years of a Pontificate are difficult to summarize in a few words. Especially a Pontificate such as that of Benedict XVI that has been dense with events, with content, and unfortunately, also with controversies.

Sandro Magister, Vaticanista for L'Espresso, helps us make an examination in depth on these four years that Joseph Ratzinger has been at the head of the Catholic Church.


In your articles, you have often observed the distance between the real Pope and that whom the newspapers describe. What does this difference consist of?

Very often, the media speak of a Pope at the head of a Church of 'No', who pronounces prohibitions on everything that is considered today as the frontiers of individual self-determination. This gives rise to all the anti-papal polemics, the latest having been his statements on condoms and AIDS.

And these polemics almost completely obscure everything about the singular and absolute originality of this Pope, the essence of the task he intends to carry out.

The accusations against him, including those from within the Church, can be summarized thus: a Pope who says No too much on morals, but is too silent on announcing the Gospel. Which is, of course, the complete opposite of the essence of this Pontificate. [DIM]8pt[=DIM][I agree that whenever Benedict XVI reaffirms basic Christian teaching on how men should act, he is accused, in effect, of making unrealistic prohibitions; but I have never gotten the impression he is accused of missing out on announcing the Gospel. His critics simply ignore what he says about the Gospel.]


How would you synthesize the essential aspect of this Pontificate?

That it is a Pontificate extraordinarily focused on the announcement of the Gospel, on transmitting the Word of God, and what he himself defined as his priority mission as Pope: In the face of the weakening of the faith, which is in danger everywhere, it is necessary to bring God to man and lead man toward God. Not any God - he always says - but the God who spoke on Sinai and then became flesh in Jesus who died and was resurrected.

Those words come from one of his most unusual texts, the letter he wrote on March 10 to the bishops of the world, following the episode regarding the Lefebvrian bishops. Formally, it was a letter to clarify misunderstandings; in reality, it was an occasion to reaffirm with extreme clarity his intentions in carrying out his Petrine mission.


You have also described the Pope as a great 'liturgist and homilist'.

Yes. he is a great proclaimer of the Word of God in a way that takes account of and is made contemporary for the man of today, and one who celebrates rites which bring God into our midst, sacramentally, in the presence of Jesus, true God and true man. And that is the essence of his actions.


In reviewing these four years of the Pontificate, what would you consider the theological cornerstones of Benedict XVI's message?

The reference points for an outside observer who wants to approach who this Pope is are easily identifiable. He is a Pope who has written a lot: and anything he writes with his own hand best brings out his personality, his sensibility, his plans.

In order of chronology, I would start with his address to the Roman Curia on December 22, 2005, when he spelled out the correct reading and execution of Vatican-II. Then, the Regensburg lecture which, I hasten to note, was not a mishap, as has been universally written.


In what way was it not a mishap, seeing what reactions it unleashed?

If one looks at the results in terms of the relationship of Islam and Christianity, there cannot be the least doubt that the steps accomplished by Benedict XVI in this respect have been unprecedented.

It has resulted in setting out for the first time on a diligent dialog, which is, of course, still incipient, but this all started from zero. And it started,not despite the Regensburg lecture,but because of it.

Benedict XVI, as he often does, showed the daring and courage to say forceful but truthful things, to call things by name. He identified the neural point that made the encounter between Islam and Christianity difficult, an issue that can be synthesized in three words: faith, reason, violence.

Where there is no fruitful interaction between faith and reason, there, the field is wide open for violence. And so, the antidote to violence is to maintain a living relationship between faith and reason - something that Christianity has achieved with great effort, and which, as he said, Islam has yet to do.

True dialog begins this way, with honesty, not otherwise.


Besides the Regensburg lecture, what were the other key texts you meant?

Naturally, there is his book JESUS OF NAZARETH, and the two encyclicals. About the book on Jesus, the Pope is working on the second volume - it seems he is quite advanced with his draft - which will be dedicated to the passion and resurrection of Christ [also to his birth and childhood].

The first volume was a great international success, even if it is a very demanding text [I did not find it demanding at all, compared to say, Introduction to Christianity, which was much more 'academic' in language and approach], and I think it succeeded to establish a direct rapport between the author and his reader [That it certainly does - and that is why it reads so 'easily'; it's like listening to a wise man patiently explaining things to you so they become crystal clear, making you see wonderful new aspects in things you had taken for granted, like the Lord's Prayer]

Benedict XVI shows in all these his great abilities as a communicator. Then the encyclical on hope, perhaps even more representative of him than the first, Deus caritas est, because this was divided in two parts, the second of which was produced by Vatican bureaucrats even if the Pontiff, of course, edited it.

But the encyclical on hope was totally his from the first line to the last, and was not even written in the usual style of encyclicals. [I thought Part 1 of Deus caritas est was not, too.] It is an extraordinary text for understanding this Pope.

But he had many other major speeches, for example, his address to the Italian Church in Verona [the 'mini-encyclical' for the Church in Italy - it was an amazing programmatic pastoral text]; and lastly, as I said, the letter to the bishops on the Lefebvrian case.

[For some reason, Magister omits mentioning the Pope's homilies, especially considering he recently collected Benedict's homilies in the space of a liturgical year into a book.]


And what is the content of this Pontificate in pastoral terms, particularly with reference to his trips and to the direct contact between the Pope and the faithful?

Of course, from this angle, his agenda cannot be compared to that of John Paul II - who, when he was still in good health, made continuous trips, long ones, and imposing even in terms of organization.

Benedict's trips have been fewer in number, and more concentrated in time as well as in the programs. Nonetheless, he has shown on these occasions an ability to establish direct rapport with the persons he encounters.

His journeys have met with a success far beyond what was expected. Huge Masses with festive crowds, but above all, very attentive to his words. Think of his trip to France: During his homily on that great esplanade, before 250,000 persons, there was a very impressive silence and close attention. This was not a common occurrence; it was never that way even with John Paul II.

In the same way that every Sunday, people come to St. Peter's Square [and every Wednesday for his catechesis] - and yet he does not say easy things - his lessons are always very dense with meaning, demanding, powerful. And I think it is precisely because of this that people listen to him with great attention. Even from those who are not Catholic, or those who have been quite detached from the Church, there is great respect and admiration for his preaching.


Now he is about to travel to the Holy Land. What can we expect of this very important engagement?

It is difficult to hazard any predictions. But one can say that this trip, which the Pope actively wanted to make, was not thought about in 'illusory' terms of, say, a political pacification in that tormented land.

Benedict XVI is making a religious pilgrimage in the full sense of the word. He wants to go the Holy Land, in the footsteps of Jesus, and i think that his words there will be strongly centered on the Word of God which took substance and flesh in that very land. This reflects his vision, that only an encounter with God can make a change of heart possible, and in this way, peace.



Here is the second of three articles in ilsussidfiario.net yesterday to mark the fourth anniversary of Benedict XVI's Pontificate:


The method of Benedict XVI
by Mons. Massimo Camisasca
Superior General
Missionary Order of St. Carlos Borromeo
[Priestly Fraternity of Comunione e Liberazione)
Translated from

April 20, 2009


Four years ago, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope and took on the name Benedict XVI.

Four years are really too few to allow a judgment, even a summary one, on the dawn of a Pontificate. One thinks immediately of John Paul II's 27-year reign.

But we must not forget that Papa Ratzinger is now 82, that he is very much aware of this, and that therefore he may well have imposed right away a precise course for his ministry, knowing he must act on the essential things and very incisively.

Perhaps he does not believe that moving men from one post to another in the hierarchy is necessarily effective. He did some of this initially, but he has not made it habitual.

He prefers that changes occur interiorly, within the person, as he clearly called for in his surprising letter of March 10 to the Catholic episcopate.

He is, however, convinced that God can do everything, including opening up the hearts of jaded ecclesiastics to a more authentic consideration of what is good for the Church and for their own lives.

What are the lines of his focus as Pope?

There is the major attention he gives to liturgical events. If one were to reread today one of his last books published before becoming Pope, Introduction to the spirit of liturgy, one would find it a useful key for interpreting his Pontificate as it has developed so far.

I will not dwell here on the Motu Proprio which 'rehabilitated' the Mass of St. Pius X [in its John XXIII version] but on something more profound - Papa Ratzinger's concept itself of the liturgical event as the moment which manifests the absolute priority of God's initiative in the life of man, his grace, his mercy, and at the same time, his capacity to intervene in history, to give form to existence, to direct cosmic processes, visibly or invisibly, towards their recapitulation.

But whoever wishes to understand this Pontificate would do well to read and reread attentively Benedict XVI's homilies, especially those he gives during major liturgical seasons, Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter, Pentecost. Someone like Sandro Magister regularly calls attention to them.

In these texts, Joseph Ratzinger clearly appears like a new Leo the Great, a new Ambrose, a new Augustine - someone who can draw from the liturgical itinerary an existential pedagogy that reveals man's entire path to God, and God's to man.

Nor do these homilies lack a profound look at the history of the church, and at ancient liturgical prayers, especially in Latin - from all of which Papa Ratzinger draws fully to show the continuity of Tradition in the Church and its efficacy.

Not just the prayers, of course, but liturgical gestures, timing, spaces. For him, all this constitute a pedagogy of a world renewed by Christ.

It is as if Benedict XVI has renounced depending on actions that can bring immediate changes. He knows that the crisis of the Church and in the Church is profound, and that is why he knows he must sow very deeply to plants the seeds for change.

In the light of these considerations, one can understand two other initiatives which I would put on the same level as his attention to the liturgy, namely his proclamation of the Pauline Year and now, the Year of the Priest.

Through the Pauline Year which is ongoing, Benedict XVI has gone back to the roots of the Church to favor an exposition of the faith that is absolutely focused on the Christ of Christian faith and doctrine.

In his writings, Paul never dwelt on the infancy of Jesus, concentrating everything about this in the statement "He was born of a woman". He never spoke about Jesus's life in Nazareth, not even of the three years of his public ministry.

The Jesus that interested Paul was the Jesus of the passion, death and resurrection, who ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father - the Son of God made man. The Pauline Year has allowed sensitive and attentive pastors to re-propose in a vivid manner the core of the Christian experience.

At the same time, and with the same radicalness, Benedict XVI knows that the most serious aspect of the crisis in the Church even today is the priesthood.

Good orthodox teachers are rare; the teachings imparted in many schools of theology are uncertain and confused; and many priests remain in emotional conflict nourished by loneliness and a secular environment that encourages 'falling back'.

But above all, there is a progressive reduction in many countries of
the people of God, whose Christian formation and development is the primary objective of a priest's life.

That is why it is not a coincidence that Benedict XVI has proclaimed a Year of the Priest, linked to the 150th death anniversary of the Curate of Ars, St. John Vianney.

A last observation: the Pope looks to the east, to Russia and to China.

In his book on Benedict XVI, written soon after his election - which nonetheless remains the only truly interesting book on this Pontificate [Benedict XVI: God's Choice] - George Weigel anticipated the new Pope's interest in this matter: "Asia is the continent which has seen the greatest failure of Christian mission in two millennia... (Yet) China could be the greatest missionary field in the 21st century".

But even India, where we have been witnessing an atrocious persecution by Hindu fundamentalists of a very tiny Christian minority, is an important reference point. Its profound Hindu and Buddhist culture interpellates Christian wisdom and its faith in the salvation that can only come from Jesus Christ.