BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI









As our beloved Benedict is about to turn 88, his private secretary, Mons. Gaenswein, brings up the subject of death in an interview broadcast last night in Italy. I think two reasons I have not felt particularly distressed when thinking of the inevitable is that I am sure Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI is in God's hands in a very special way, and that St. Joseph, his name saint, is the patron of a happy death. And so I end every daily prayer and thought about B16 with "God grant you more years of a quiet, prayerful and happy life in his service". AD MULTOS ANNOS, SANCTE PATER!

New interview with Mons. Gaenswein:
Benedict XVI at 88 'preparing to meet God',
and Francis is not intimidated by ISIS threats

April 14, 2015

"Pope Benedict XVI thinks about death and is preparing for it - obviously, as he is a man about to turn 88, he thinks of this," says Mons. Georg Gaenswein, private secretary to the emeritus Pope and prefect of the Francis's Pontifical Household.

"We have spoken about this many times, he and I, although he is usually very discreet and reserved. But his attitude is very Christian - to prepare for death means to prepare to meet God, which is, obviously, the conclusive meeting".

Mons. Gaenswein spoke to Mediaset (Italian Channel 4) for the initial presentation of a series called "La Strada dei Miracoli" (The street of miracles) premiering tonight (April 14).

He also spoke about the threats of ISIS against Pope Francis, saying: "The Pope has no fears for himself. He fears for the faithful [wherever they are threatened or actually persecuted], but certainly, the ISIS threat must be taken seriously. He has spoken several times about persons who are persecuted just because they are Christians - they are killed, burned, crucified, or beheaded. For himself, I don't think he has any fear at all of the fundamentalists".

On the question of miracles, Gaenswein said:

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At various times we get letters from persons thanking Benedict XVI - because they had asked him to pray for them in a situation of great difficulty or a serious health crisis, which they subsequently overcame. And they say this was thanks to Pope Benedict's prayers... And so they thank him. I think faith produces miracles, and if the prayer is strong, it can produce miracles. I think that is an experience with all believers....

The most important thing about these phenomena is to distinguish the false from the true - a 'mystic' experience from a true miracle. There are also varied cases of apparitions and private revelations...

Personally, I am very cautious. We must not forget that even Lucifer, the angel of light turned Satan, can deceive masterfully.
Therefore, it is best to keep calm, be prudent and trust in prayer...

However, anyone who prays to receive a private revelation or a special experience is looking for something extraordinary rather than trusting in the power of prayer.

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Gaenswein also talks of the little free time that he has: "I go to the mountains. Certainly I read, I listen to music... I especially like the songs of Gianna Nannini and Eros Ramazzoti [popular Italian songwriter/singers who rose to fame in the 1980s - I liked their music, too!]. Of course I would like to take up tennis again, which I stopped after Pope Benedict retired, but I still have not found the time to do that".



Earlier this week, Beatrice posted a photograph of B16 taken April 9 with seminarians from Munich who had come to Rome for a weeklong field trip. A Danish reader of her site pointed her to the website of the Archdiocesan St. John the Baptist Seminary of Munich, from which I translated the following account:



Meetings and experiences during
our Easter Octave in Rome, April 6-11

On Easter Monday, while we were still brimming with the joy of the Resurrection, the community of the seminary started out after Lauds for Rome. The Eternal City, in which the heart of the Church beats as in no other place, certainly impresses everyone who visits, and for us seminarians, our trip to Rome was truly an impressive experience.

We began with a 'seven churches' pilgrimage which took us over a 25-kilometer walk through the city to visit the seven main churches, and thereby, to revisit the stations of the life of Jesus and various dimensions of the faith, with the help of our Rector. Thus our first day was spiritually and culturally edifying even if it was most tiring for our legs.

Among others, the objective for the trip was also to get to know some of the offices of the Roman Curia. In the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Fr. Hermann Geissler, FSO, explained to us the dicastery's tasks and structure, its experiences and main concerns. At the Secretariat of State, Fr. Martin Linner, SJ, gave us a substantial overview of the secretariat's work, but also spoke to us of his own personal motivation for his vocation and about his life and work, in a way that gave us a closer human look at how the Vatican administers the Church.

One of our first meetings was with Prelate Eugen Kleindienst at the German embassy to the Holy See. He spoke to us about the Church's diplomacy and politics.

But the high point of our trip was certainly our meeting with emeritus Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday. We were tense with anticipation throughout the day, more so while we had to undergo security checks before we were allowed to proceed.

Archbishop Georg Gaenswein greeted us at Mater Ecclesiae and led us to the chapel. Because of the size of our group, it was the only place large enough to accommodate our meeting with the Pope.



The warmth that Benedict XVI radiated quickly put us at ease: he was visibly happy over a visit from his homeland, and was soon relating his own experience as a seminarian. We had a conversation about what is most essential in priestly life: friendship with Christ, fraternity and community with each other, the importance of study, and the spiritual life.

Benedict's personality, the dignity and elegance that he radiates, and above all, the friendliness with which he spoke to each of us, moved us greatly, encouraging us seminarians even more on our way to priesthood.

Then the trip came to an end. We had accomplished our program, and between Masses and meetings, we even had time to discover the fascinations of Rome according to our personal interests. Thus, our community grew even closer this week and we look forward to the new semester with renewed zeal.

I find it noteworthy that the narrator twice used the German verb 'ausstrahlen' - to radiate - when describing the attributes he noted most in Benedict XVI. It is a verb I have always associated with him from the moment he stepped out to greet the world for the first time as Pope almost ten years ago today... It manifests an almost palpable spiritual glow that few people are graced with. Its force struck me directly and irresistibly on April 19, 2005, in an experience that is unrepeatable - certainly, a defining moment in my own spiritual development.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/04/2015 16:38]

Christopher Monckton (born 1952), 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, and therefore, entitled to be called Lord Monckton, is known for his work as a journalist, Conservative political advisor, and a member of the UK Independent Party (UKIP). Starting as a journalist at age 22, in 1978, he became editor of the Catholic newspaper The Universe, and then went on to high-level editorial positions in leading British newspapers. But he has also been passionately engaged in disproving the so-called 'scientific consensus' on man- made global warming (lately renamed climate change) and contributes to a site called CLIMATE CHANGE DISPATCH, about which more later... In 1999, Monckton created 'Eternity', a geometric puzzle that involved tiling a dodecagon [12-sided figure] with 209 irregularly shaped polygons. A £1 million prize was won after 18 months by two Cambridge mathematicians. By that time, 500,000 puzzles had been sold. Monckton launched the Eternity II puzzle in 2007, but, after the four-year prize period, no winner came forward to claim the $2 million prize. He is also director of a pharmaceutical company which claims to have developed a broad-spectrum cure for infectious diseases. In other words, he seems to have the money to back the wager he makes here... His language to denounce the climate-change fanatics is unusually colorful and contemptuous, but he appears to have concrete facts for his arguments...

I challenge climate fascists to a $500,000 bet
by Christopher Monckton

April 13, 2015

The International Union of Climate Fascists, as it prepares to establish a totalitarian world “governing body” over us at the Paris climate yadayadathon this December, with the active support of governments worldwide [and of the spiritual leader of the 1.27 billion-strong Roman Catholic Church, buying into the current secular religion of choice!], slavering at the prospect of bringing the democracy they hate to an end, faces a tiresome problem that just won’t go away.

Totalitarians can push man around and, oh boy, do they long to. But they can’t push nature around.

The climate scare parroted by bed-wetting eco-freako idiots worldwide began when the pseudo-scientific profiteers of doom on the U.N.’s fraudulent and corrupt climate panel, the IPCC (known universally in diplomatic circles as IPeCaC after the well-known emetic) predicted with “substantial confidence” 25 years ago that its useless but gratifyingly expensive climate models had captured the essential features of the climate.

Therefore, it predicted, by now the world would have warmed at – er – exactly double the rate that the thermometers and satellites have measured since. Oops! More grants needed.

In fact, according to the RSS satellite dataset, you have to go back more than 18 years and four months since any global warming was detectable at all. Here are the actual data.



Now, the graphs showing the inexorable lengthening of the “pause” in global warming that the moronic models failed to predict are causing panic in the ranks of the ungodly.

In their desperation to bring every government in the world to heel before December, they are not only redoubling their demands – now appearing almost daily – for skeptical climate researchers like me to be tried, imprisoned and executed for “high crimes against humanity and nature,” or “branded on the forehead with cattle-irons,” as one climate-fascist journalist in Australia put it not so long ago.

They are also reduced to talking complete gibberish. But the worshipers at the temple of Thermageddon in the Marxstream media don’t realize that publishing that gibberish is scarcely going to help what they are prone to call “The Cause.”

For instance, last week the climate-fascist rag, the Melbourne Aaargh, reliably and relentlessly totalitarian in its down-with-democracy editorial policy, carried the following letter, remarkably half-baked even by its own low standards:

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The slowing of atmospheric temperature rise over the past 15 years or so, used by climate change sceptics to debunk the work of the IPCC, is … evidence that the solar energy delivered to the Earth is being absorbed by the oceans.

The Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets are acting as giant dampers to contain temperature rise in the oceans. When both of these ice sheets melt away in the next decade or so, the rise in both ocean and atmospheric temperatures will accelerate rapidly and demonstrate that the passing of … tipping points … has, indeed, occurred.

There can hardly be clearer evidence that the future of our planet is squarely in the hands of our politicians. … I think it will need concerted action by statespeople of both genders and probably all political persuasions to haul us out of the dangerous intellectual lethargy into which we have been led.

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The Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets will melt away in the next decade or so? What are they on? I want some. And, therefore, the oceans are gobbling up the sun’s energy? Oh, come off it. True, the oceans are warming (as best we can measure them, with just one thermometer reading per 200,000 cubic kilometres of sea) – but at a rate equivalent to 0.2 degrees Celsius per century.

Now, did that hysterical, lackwit prediction that the ice-sheets will vanish in the next decade or so come from some balding, pointy-headed, tatty-bejeaned weirdie-beardie with an egg-stained beard and fogged-up Joe90 pebble-lens spectacles?

No, it came from one of Australia’s foremost chemists, one Maurice “call me Maurie” Trewhella, a wealthy man with a string of patents to his name. Or, at least, it came from him, if it was not an April fool’s prank by one of his students that got printed a week late.

The fact is, though, that the editor printed this drivel. Is everyone in Melbourne on something interesting? Perhaps it’s in the water supply. I think we should be told.

Let us suppose, ad argumentum, that Call-Me-Maurie actually wrote the letter. In Australia, every candidate for any sort of degree in chemistry must ace a course in advanced thermodynamics – the study of what happens to heat and how long things take to melt and stuff.

In short, Maurie – if it was he who wrote the letter – must have known that what he was writing could not by any stretch of the most febrile imagination come true while the concentration of CO2 in the air remains so small that, to the nearest tenth of one percent, there isn’t any.

Some 4,000 years ago, the temperature on the summit of the Greenland plateau was 2.5 Celsius degrees warmer than the present. Yet the ice did not melt. And it didn’t melt in the last interglacial period, 110,000 years ago, when again the temperature was 2.5 C degrees warmer than today’s. The last time the Greenland ice sheet melted was 850,000 years ago.

In modern conditions, nothing short of a massive natural cataclysm could make the Earth’s ice-caps melt. Even with nuclear weapons Man can’t do it. And our barely registering change in CO2 concentration certainly can’t do it. Still less can we affect the Antarctic ice sheet, which, the last time I checked, was 8,852 feet deep at the South Pole. That’s at least a mile and a half.

Let Maurie look up the thermal inertia of ice, and concentrate in particular on the minimum sustained ambient temperature necessary to begin the phase-transition (Hint: that’s the scientific name for your infantile “tipping-point,” Maurie) from solid ice to liquid water.

Frankly, the worst that might happen is that for a few weeks in the occasional late summer the Arctic ice-cap might melt, though it would come back quite rapidly in the winter.

In 2007, Al Gore told the Bali climate junket that the Arctic summer sea ice would be all gone by 2013. Like all of Gore’s profitably doom-laden predictions, that one was false.

Just a few months back, the combined extent of sea ice at both Poles reached a record high for the 35-year satellite era. The Melbourne Aaargh failed to report that fact. But Maurie ought to have checked. That’s what scientists do. But then, the “University” of Victoria has something of a reputation as a cross between a jumped-up polytechnic and a lunatic asylum.

So to the bet I propose. Subject to contract, I’m offering to pay Maurie $100,000 if the mean area of the combined Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets averaged over the year 2024 shall be less than 90 percent of the mean area of the two ice sheets averaged over the year 2014, provided that Maurie agrees to pay me $100,000 if the mean area of ice on the two land masses in 2024 shall be 90 percent or more of the mean area in 2014.

That’s the bet, and it’s a very fair and generous bet, Maurie. After all, you say all the ice on the two ice sheets will be gone within a decade or so. I’m offering you the chance to claim a fat $100,000 if more than one-tenth of your predicted ice loss happens by 10 years from now.

But wait. There’s more! Again subject to contract, I’m willing to offer four more climate bed-wetters the same deal. Perhaps the editor of the Melbourne Aaargh would like to take me on. Or some of the various climate-fascist billionaires. Steyer? Gates? Branson? Anyone?

To deter time-wasters: If you want to take up the bet, you must produce a solicitor’s letter to show you have the means to pay out on it when you lose; then, upon signing the legal contract for the bet, you must pay (and so must I) $10,000 up front to the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta in Rome for its charitable work in 140 countries worldwide. The Order keeps the 10% from each of us in any event.

Any takers? No, I thought not. Cowards, the lot of you. All talk and no action. You all know as well as I do that you don’t believe even one-tenth of the lurid predictions you make or publish.

As just about every opinion poll now shows, the rest of the world doesn’t believe you, either. You can repeal freedom and democracy – and, at Paris, you will – but you cannot repeal the truth. Gaia won’t let you.

I think it is useful to read the declaration of purpose on the site CLIMATE CHANGE DISPATCH:

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Climate Change Dispatch (CCD) is a site devoted to showing its visitors the facts behind the theory of global warming, which are not being told by the mainstream media and the global-warming zealots. As noted below, we do not believe in consensus science. Beliefs belong in church, in prayers, but not in the scientific method.

Global Warmists (those who believe man is responsible for any fluctuation in the planet's overall surface temperature) have embraced climate change as a religion and not as a scientific endeavor for answers. We are here to change that. Our goal is not to change your mind, but to share with you all the possibilities that consistently contradict the theory of man-made (or anthropogenic) global warming (AGW).

We endeavor to explain the theory of AGW (in which the principal culprit is CO2 — a trace gas), through facts, articles, multimedia, and other sources not readily accessible through the mainstream media and other "expert" sources.

Another goal is to deconstruct the man-made global theory propagated by ex-VP-turned-green-activist Al Gore and the highly political IPCC. Ten years ago it was a multi-million dollar industry. As of 2013, global warming has become a cottage industry now worth trillions of dollars (IPCC funding, grants, construction, government expansion, emission taxes, failed "green" industries, carbon trading schemes, and more). All of which are hinged on the delicate backbone of consensus science.

As the deceased Michael Crichton, M.D., [also author of Jurassic Park and other mega-bestsellers of science fiction] reminds us:

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The work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world.

In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus… There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.

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Also keep in mind that global warming is a non-partisan issue, or at least it should be, and so is this site. Global warming (climate change) is an important issue that affects us all, regardless of our political leanings, socio-economic status, or any other demographic we happen to belong.

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At about the same time, one of my favorite political commentators in the USA, Thomas Sowell, who is that rarity, a black intellectual who is also conservative, tackles an issue mentioned above by Lord Monckton - a persecution of 'non-consensus' scientists who do not happen to agree with the party line laid down by the climate fascists...

THE NEW INQUISITION
US lawmakers are looking to intimidate
'non-consensus'scientists

April 13, 2015

How long will this country remain free? Probably only as long as the American people value their freedom enough to defend it. But how many people today can stop looking at their electronic devices long enough to even think about such things?

Meanwhile, attempts to shut down people whose free speech interferes with other people’s political agendas go on, with remarkably little notice, much less outrage. The Internal Revenue Service’s targeting the tax-exempt status of conservative groups is just one of these attempts to fight political battles by shutting up the opposition, rather than answering them.

Another insidious attempt to silence voices that dissent from current politically correct crusades is targeting scientists who do not agree with the “global warming” scenario.

Rep. Raul Grijalva has been writing universities, demanding financial records showing who is financing the research of dissenting scientists, and demanding their internal communications as well.

Mr. Grijalva says that financial disclosure needs to be part of the public’s “right to know” who is financing those who express different views.

He is not the only politician pushing the idea that scientists who do not march in lockstep with what is called the “consensus” on man-made global warming could be just hired guns for businesses resisting government regulations.

Sen. Edward Markey has been sending letters to fossil-fuel companies, asking them to hand over details of their financial ties to critics of the “consensus.”

The head of the National Academy of Sciences has chimed in, saying: “Scientists must disclose their sources of financial support to continue to enjoy societal trust and the respect of fellow scientists.”

This is too clever by half. It sounds as if this government bureaucrat is trying to help the dissenting scientists enjoy trust and respect – as if these scientists cannot decide for themselves whether they consider such a practice necessary or desirable.

The idea that you can tell whether a scientist – or anybody else – is “objective” by who is financing that scientist’s research is nonsense. There is money available on many sides of many issues, so no matter what the researcher concludes, there will usually be somebody to financially support those conclusions.

Some of us are old enough to remember when this kind of game was played by Southern segregationist politicians trying to hamstring civil rights organizations like the NAACP by pressuring them to reveal who was contributing money to them. Such revelations would of course then subject NAACP supporters to all sorts of retaliations and dry up contributions.

The public’s “right to know” has often been invoked in attempts to intimidate potential supporters of ideas that the inquisitors want to silence. But have you heard of any groundswell of public demand to know who is financing what research?

Science is not about “consensus” but facts. Not only were some physicists not initially convinced by Einstein’s theory of relativity, Einstein himself said that it should not be accepted until empirical evidence could test it. That test came during an eclipse, when light behaved as Einstein said it would, rather than the way it should have behaved if the existing “consensus” was correct.

That is how scientific questions should be settled, not by political intimidation. There is already plenty of political weight on the scales, on the side of those pushing the “global warming” scenario.

The fact that “global warming” models are not doing a very good job of predicting actual temperatures has led to a shift in rhetoric, with “climate change” now being substituted. This is an issue that needs to be contested by scientists using science, not political muscle.

Too many universities are too willing to be stampeded by pressure groups. Have we forgotten Duke University’s caving in to a lynch mob mentality during the “gang rape” hoax in 2006? Or the University of Virginia doing the same thing more recently?

Politicians determined to get their own way by whatever means necessary may have no grand design to destroy freedom, but what they are doing can amount to totalitarianism on the installment plan.

This is a 'random' lookback, without chronological or thematic relevance to this day, or so I thought - but in Italy, is already April 16, so

A MOST BLESSED AND JOYOUS

88TH BIRTHDAY

TO OUR BELOVED POPE BENEDICT

Anyway, since it is a tribute to Joseph Ratzinger/B16, then it is most serendipitous and relevant that I came upon it at this time!.. I was looking for the post on B16's visit to St. Joseph's Seminary outside New York City when he visited the USA in 2008 and came upon this post-visit editorial from the Daily Star of Lebanon, of all places.

But whoever wrote it obviously appreciates Benedict as he is, not as the media have habitually portrayed him. What struck me this time, however, is what the writer notes about Benedict's emphases on 'acknowledging sin and seeking repentance and forgiveness', and that 'people can move on to build a better world if they acknowledge and accept responsibility for their misdeeds'. In short, those elements that I and others like me have always found lacking in Pope Francis's pontifications about mercy. Not even his 'Bull of Indiction of a Holy Year of Mercy includes those missing elements, without which preaching mercy seems nothing more than touting a welfare state of unending give-aways from God without man doing anything in return.



Pope Benedict offers an impressive
example of courage and humility
Editorial
The Daily Star, Lebanon
Monday, April 21, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States this week has been a timely and needed reminder to the whole world on the importance of morality and ethics as a foundation for human behavior, whether personal or political.

He touched so many bases - literally and figuratively, given his two masses at baseball stadia - that his words and symbolic actions are worth pondering for a long time ahead.

The powerful core theme of his visit was the need for human beings - popes or paupers, it does not matter - to summon the courage to confront evil face-to-face, but to also to acknowledge sin and seek repentance and forgiveness.

This man of faith gets our attention not only because he is the leader of over a billion Catholics in the world, but mainly because he provides a living symbol of the right way to do the hard thing.

Perhaps the most moving gesture he made during the visit was to meet with some of the victims of sexual abuse of children by church officials in years past, apologizing to them and all abused victims, and praying with them.

His forthright act of apology, combined with solidarity and the kind of gesture that can help relieve some of the victims' pain and trauma, stands as a powerful symbol of two facts that are universal and perhaps eternal, but repeatedly compelling to every generation of human beings anywhere in the world: people will sin and commit crimes, resulting in pain, death and suffering; but people can also overcome their own mistakes and move on to build a better world, if they acknowledge and accept responsibility for their misdeeds.

The Pope's visit to Ground Zero in New York was also a reminder that prayer is meaningful and effective for many people, but that prayers for peace and tranquility that are universal have the most meaning.

He prayed at and blessed a place that he described as "the scene of incredible violence and pain." He requested "eternal light and peace" not only for all those who died on September 11, 2001, in the attacks against the United States, but for all those in the world, including those who do evil, foment terror, or make war.

"God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world," he said. "Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred."

The faith and love of God that form the core operative values of the Abrahamic religions are matched by the important imperative of humility - not just before the Divine, but before our fellow men and women also, the Pope has reminded us all once again in his unique way.

Pope Benedict XVI does not do politics. He operates in a world of religion, doctrine and ethics. Where those two meet, we may aspire to work for light and peace.

Emeritus Pope celebrates
his 88th birthday:
He gets a tribute from Bavaria and
the Pope's Mass today was offered for him

April 16, 2015




Photos from L'Osservatore Romano - I am picking them up as they come online.

The Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, marked his 88th birthday on Thursday (April 16th) with a Bavarian-style celebration. He received birthday greetings from a group of Gebirgsschutzen (mountain protection units) from his native Bavaria, dressed in traditional costumes.

The Pope's older brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, 91, is in Rome for the occasion.

Since resigning as Pope in February 2013, Benedict XVI has lived a life of prayer and reclusion at the Mater Ecclesiae situated inside the Vatican Gardens.

Speaking in an interview with Vatican Radio, Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, the former second secretary of Benedict XVI, said affection for the Pope Emeritus has increased over the past two years. He paid tribute to Benedict XVI’s great humility and humanity as well as his deep intellect and his ability to transmit profound thoughts.

Monsignor Xuereb also confirmed that the Pope Emeritus enjoys a “great serenity,” and a clear realization that “he took the right step” (by resigning), describing that move as “an act of great generosity towards the Church.”

In a separate story, Vatican Radio reported:

Pope Francis on Thursday offered the Mass at Casa Santa Marta for his predecessor, the Pope Emeritus, on the occasion of Benedict XVI’s 88th birthday.

“I want to remind you that today is the birthday of Benedict XVI,” Pope Francis said at the liturgy. “I offered the Mass for him, and I invite you to pray for him, that the Lord might sustain him and grant him much joy and happiness.”...

[I will not post the rest of the RV story which is the usual incoherent mishmash purporting to be the papal homilette for the day.]

P.S. Actually, the Italian service of Vatican Radio has the full interview with Mons. Xuereb, as follows:

Mons. Xuereb's birthday wish
for the emeritus Pope:
That he may come to be truly known
by all for who he really is

April 16, 2015

It has been two years since Benedict XVI renounced the Petrine ministry and yet, on the day of his 88th birthday, many have sent birthday wishes to the emeritus Pope. A sign that the affection for Joseph Ratzinger has not faded even if now he lives in prayer 'hidden from the world'.

As a special tribute to the emeritus Pope, AlessandroGisotti interviewed Mons. Alfred Xuereb, now secretary-generla of the Secretariat for the Economy, who, from 2007 to the end of Benedict's Pontificate, served as his second secretary.

MONS XUEREB: The affection for Pope Benedict has grown even more. I see him much less than before, but I pray for him. Whenever I happen to see him in the Vatican Gardens [on his daily walks), he always greets me very gladly. Recently, I drove just a little past the entrance to Mater Ecclesiae to wait for him to pass by after he had finished praying the Rosary, so as not to disturb him. When he got to the gate, he asked the gendarme on duty who was in the car, then he called me to him.

With great affection he said, "Don Alfred, I didn't think that you have started to be afraid of me!" It's the affection he has for me, and for everyone.

Today is a special day, a day of joy. I remember a particular birthday of his, the first I spent since working with him - it it was in 2008, and it was celebrated in the White House, because this was during his visit to the United States - and everyone sang "Happy birthday" to him. I thought Benedict XVI was very very happy with the welcome he got. That was a beautiful memory, but so are all the other birthdays that I spent with him in the papal apartment.

From the anecdote you related, one gets a glimpse of Pope Benedict's present life - prayer but also that delicate, kind and profpund sense of humor that has always characterized Joseph Ratzinger...
Yes, he is as he has always been, ever affectionate. I see that he is well, in apparent good health, frail but not beaten down.

Those who have had the grace to meet him have seen in Pope Benedict's eyes a serenity that is truly striking, a serenity even in the face of the extraordinary decision he made to renounce the Papacy two years ago.
Without a doubt. A great serenity, coming from the conviction that he did the right thing. Yes, that's it - a great serenity knowing that he performed a great act of generosity towards the Church.

What would one wish for Pope Benedict today, or what would he ask of those who are listening to this interview?
I hear from many persons who tell me: "Our affection and our prayers for Benedict XVI continues to grow". My own wish is that the true figure of Pope Benedict may continue to be 'rediscovered' because I fear that he has not always been understood well and in some sectors, has even been misrepresented or distorted.

So my wish is that people may truly discover the beautiful humanity of this man, the contrast between his great humility and his immense capacity to think and to transmit profound thoughts to us.


Fr. Hunwicke remembers:
Our love for a great Pontiff
on this festival of a great Martyr

April 16, 2015

A day of great whooppee for all good men and women and true, a day marked for us by the birthday of our Holy Father the Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, the Pope of Unity to whom we in the Ordinariate owe so much; to whom the Whole State of Christ's Church Militant here on Earth owes so much.

The erudite Pope who was able to set the problematic decades since Vatican II into a conceptual framework which enabled us to make sense of the Divine purpose during those difficult years; the Pope who made clear that it is theologically impossible for a Catholic Rite to be abolished - and went on to legislate that, whatever any nay-sayer of whatever dignity might wish, any presbyter of the Latin Rite has an inalienable right to celebrate the Mass we associate with the name of his great predecessor, St Pius V.

How can any of us tuck into our lunches today without thinking of that gentle old pastor and wise scholar tucking into something Bavarian, in the company, one hopes, of his brother?

This day will always remind me of my unforgettable visit to Papa Stronsay last year; a break in my journey enabled my kind hosts to take me to visit the exquisite rose-coloured Romanesque Cathedral at Kirkwall in the Orkneys. At the Reformation, the relics of the martyred Earl Magnus were removed from their shrine but carefully preserved behind a stone in the transept arch; so his presence is still living in his own Church. Because, you see, today is the Feast of S Magnus the Martyr! I think of my dear friends on Papa Stronsay solemnly celebrating the Patronal Festival of the Orkneys in their wind-swept but immaculate chapel.

It doesn't end there. We in the Ordinariate owe our present laetitia in large measure to the work and witness of Fr Henry Joy Fynes Clinton, Rector of S Magnus the Martyr by London Bridge, Founder of the Catholic League, Apostle of Romanita within the Church of England; Confessor of the Faith; another devoted lover and upholder, against whatever Anglican episcopal persecutions, of the liturgy we used to call "the Western Rite". One of those intimately involved in the restoration of the Holy House of the Mother of God at Walsingham, to whom our Ordinariate is dedicated.

So it is surprisingly unsurprising that, upon this day of days, the Particular Calendar of the Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham offers us this Nordic Saint to celebrate, enabling us
- Caecubum depromere [an allusion from an ode by Horace, referring to drawing vintage wine from the cellar] in honour of a great Pontiff;
- to celebrate our fellowship with the Redemptorists on Papa Stronsay whose regularisation, like ours, is the fruit of that great Pontificate of Christian Unity, and who, like us, suffered in their journey into full canonical status;
- to remember with affection and prayer our own Anglican Fathers in the Faith who did not live to see the the new dawn of Anglicanorum coetibus.

From Father Z:

I am still waiting for an official logo or banner of the HYOM that will show, not Pope Francis front and center, but perhaps the famous image of Divine Mercy that St. Faustina left us.

Rules, Pope Francis,
and the Year of Mercy
By David G Bonagura, Jr.

April 15, 2015

Rules have a very important function in life, and that’s no less true in the life of the Church. Rules provide direction for proper living – what to do and what to avoid – so that we may flourish. A man placed in a junkyard with the single order to build a car would likely fare much better with a set of instructions than if he were left to his own devices.

In this sense, rules, even though they carry certain restrictions – the steering wheel must connect to the axle, not the gas tank – can be liberating, because they are proven ways that aid our pursuit of what is good and true.

Some Catholics like rules, both those given by God and those made by the Church, because they know the rules lead to God. Rules, both negative (the prohibitions) and positive (the commandment to love one another), show us how to live and provide certainty in times of unrest.

Such Catholics, rightly called “conservative” because they desire God’s laws to be conserved, have felt some dissatisfaction with the way some rules have been downplayed, or even undermined, since Vatican II by “liberal” Catholics, clergy and lay alike, who perceive rules as obstacles to an ideal faith life.

Into this broader cultural and theological disparity between conservative and liberal, the pontificate of Pope Francis has been thrust. The media’s caricature of “Francis the Reformer” is now well established. [not a caricature, which only has negative connotations - and the media image of JMB/PF certainly has no negative connotations so far, but rather, a golden myth of the can-do-anything, personally infallible, absolutely irreproachable superman who happens to be Pope today]. Yet it also has to be said that some of the pontiff’s own comments and actions have fueled this perception [Perception of what: A 'reformer' - which he most certainly means to be; or a radical revolutionary, as his most ardent fans like Cardinal Kasper think he is.]

And to this plot Francis has added a new twist: the calling of a rarely seen extraordinary Jubilee, a Holy Year of Mercy, to be celebrated in the Church. The pope hopes that “the whole Church will find in this Jubilee the joy needed to rediscover and make fruitful the mercy of God, with which all of us are called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time.”

Mercy has been at the center of Francis’s priestly life [Yes, but which mercy: divine mercy, as we Catholics have always been taught it is, or 'pastoral mercy' which seems to be what JMB/PF refers to most of the time, although he makes it appear that the pastoral mercy he advocates is a manifestation of divine mercy in what he considers to be the right and only interpretation (his own, and that of his favorite thelogians Fernandez and Kasper) of divine mercy]. Rules and structures do not seem to have been nearly as high a priority.

With the approach of another Synod this fall, at which a particular set of rules – the pastoral care of the divorced and civilly remarried – are to be discussed just before the Year of Mercy begins, it is fair to wonder if Francis will change these rules, considering the change as an act of mercy. [Unless JMB/PF has been cleverly playing a most devious game of indirection - in that all his signals, words and actions so far, up to and including proclaiming a Year of Mercy, all unmistakably seem to be setting the stage for universalizing the pastoral largesse he manifested as Archbishop of Buenos Aires - then yes, we shall be presented with any changes to the sacramental discipline of the Church with regard to Matrimony, Penance and the Eucharist as 'acts of mercy'. Or, miracle of miracles, he will reject any such pastoral leniency as incompatible with what Christ himself taught. A consummation devoutly to be prayed for!]

But just as interpreting Francis’s pontificate falls within a broader narrative, a deeper question underlies the manner in which the coming Synod has been cast. Is mercy antithetical to rules?

When asked this question nearly 800 years ago, St. Thomas Aquinas saw no conflict between them: “A person is said to be merciful” when he is “affected with sorrow at the misery of another as though it were his own. Hence it follows that he endeavors to dispel the misery of this other, as if it were his.”

Dispelling another’s misery neither requires rules to be rewritten, nor undermines what is just to another. St. Thomas describes how both God and man act mercifully in this regard: “God acts mercifully, not indeed by going against His justice, but by doing something more than justice; thus a man who pays another two hundred pieces of money, though owing him only one hundred, does nothing against justice, but acts liberally or mercifully. The case is the same with one who pardons an offence committed against him, for in remitting it he may be said to bestow a gift.”

Thomas thus concludes that “mercy does not destroy justice, but in a sense is the fullness thereof.” To be merciful to another, then, is not a matter of changing the rules so that the miserable one now stands in a new set of circumstances. It is rather to suffuse the miserable one with love and compassion to alleviate the misery in which he finds himself.

The redemption of humanity, triumphantly celebrated at Easter, is the model par excellence of the harmony of rules and mercy. God, in an act of mercy, sent his Son into the world to redeem human beings languishing in the misery of sin.

The Son, though he could have saved mankind in an infinite number of ways, consented to a torturous death because the Father’s own rules demanded that blood was required to expiate sin. As the author of the universe and all rules, God could have changed his own rules to spare his Son.

But instead of changing the rules, God showed us true mercy. The Son descended to our misery, not to take us out of it, but to help us be sanctified within it. And with his grace the misery of our hearts is dispelled, even if the miserable condition in which we live remains the same.

Some Biblical scholarship has depicted Jesus as a modern liberal who battled the rigid, conservative Pharisees’ strict adherence to the law. But Jesus did not overturn a single law, and, in the field where rules are most contested today – sex – he even made the rules stricter. Rather, Jesus challenged the Pharisees to love and heed “the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.” (Mt 23:23)

Jesus’s exhortation is a fine model for the coming Synod on the family and the Year of Mercy: not new rules, but the same rules applied with justice, mercy, and faith.

David Bonagura is a lecturer at St. Joseph's Seminary in Dunwoodie, NY.


Apropos, Father Z had a brief post yesterday on the Bergoglian family synods and what seems to be a rather alarming statement from one of JMB/PF's chief surrogates::



Card. Maradiaga: Ongoing synodal process
until desired result is obtained?
by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

April 15, 2015

At the Italian site Nuova Bussola, we find the observations of Oscar Card. Rodriguez Maradiaga about the possibility of Communion for the divorced and remarried.

Impossible? “No!”, says the Cardinal.

And if the upcoming Synod rejects the proposal, the Kasperite Solution, hey!… maybe there could be a third synod on the question!

And His Eminence seems to be putting a great deal of stock in polls.

So I followed Fr. Z's link to Nuova Bussola - which has a subsite all about the Bergoglian family synods - to find that they picked up the information from INFOVATICANA of Madrid. From which I got the following first-hand information:

Cardinal Maradiaga: For the Pope,
the most important problem today
is the shortage of families
Translated from

April 11, 2015

Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga Rodriguez was in Madrid last week to take part in meetings at the Instituto Teologica de Vida Religiosa, at the end of which he spoke to a limited number of newsmen, of which the INFOVATICANA correspondent was one.

[What follows is a transcript - it seems edited and trucnated to me - of Maradiaga's answers to a number of questions, some of which may perhaps deserve translation and posting later, but he gave the most interesting and intriguing answer to the question that had to do with the Bergoglian family synods.][

---

What steps do you think may be taken regarding pastoral practice in dealing with extraordinary and irreversible situations?
The synodal assembly in October 2014 was the first, following the method of ‘see, judge, and act’. That was to ‘see’, now we must judge. [But I thought the line is: "Who am I to judge?", or "Who are we to judge?"! What a rash and typically half-baked remark that was from JMB/PF, as if he and all of us are not always judging facts and opinions, which we are all entitled to do, and although only God can ultimately judge any man, even courts judge men who are brought to trial!]

That is why the theological problems that have been raised have been referred to theological commissions [REALLY??? Does Cardinal Mueller know about this?], and later, in the questionnaires that were sent out [to all diocesan bishops] which are of great importance in seeing what it is that must be acted on.

We do not know if the end of the October 2015 synodal assembly will close the process, or if the Pope may call a third synod – which he could do – because these are very important matters.

More importantly, from the Pope’s perspective, this is the most important problem in the Church and in the world today: the shortage of families. Because all the surveys (results of the pre-synodal questionnaires) everywhere indicated that today, in general, people do not want to get married – neither in the church nor civilly - yet the gospel of the family must be proclaimed because it is God’s plan, and therefore, it must also be for the Church.

It’s not just what is being said that remarried divorcees will be allowed to receive communion – no, there are more profound things than that which the synodal assemblies must deal with.

---

The cardinal was apparently not asked a follow-up question, but his answer echoes what JMB/PF told La Nacion in an interview last December: that what he wants to do for remarried divorcees goes beyond just allowing them to receive communion but to fully integrate them into the life of the Church.

Which implies that they have been shut off from the life of the Church, which I don't think is the situation with most remarried divorcees who still consider themselves observant Catholics, since
1) divorce and remarriage are such routine events now in Western societies that remarried divorcees are not considered anything out of the ordinary, much less stigmatized; and
2) these observant remarried divorcees probably have been receiving communion all along from priests who really do not care or know about their marital status, and/or who believe in 'communion for everyone' who comes to Mass, which has become a widespread practice after the Vatican II liturgical reform.

So this idea of 'integrating' RCDs in the life of the Church is yet another 'pretext' to manifest pastoral leniency (already very much in practice anyway) in the guise of mercy. Because such pastoral leniency is already very widespread, what was the urgency then to have synodal assemblies act on this issue?

As I have always maintained, it is because JMB/PF wants the bishops of the world - through the synodal assemblies - to formalize his pet notion of 'communion for everyone' (not just RCDs, but practising homosexuals and unmarried cohabiting couples, and anyone who presents for communion without having gone to confession or being otherwise in the requisite 'state of grace' to receive the Lord's Body and Blood). With the 'approval' of the synodal assembly, he can then go ahead and legislate it for the universal Church, so that general Eucharistic leniency is no longer just the arbitrary unilateral action of a local priest or bishop, as it was his when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

A second point I would have raised with Cardinal Maradiaga is that if JMB/PF is so concerned with the shortage of families - or more precisely, with less and less persons wanting to get married - why then does he appear to be encouraging common-law unions and homosexual unions as having 'something positive', in the words of the pre-amendment synodal Relatio in October 2014, and even justifying common-law unions as often financially motivated (as he did in Buenos Aires) which is a strange non-argument. Because unless the couple does not intend to have children at all, how is it any more expensive to live together unmarried than to live together properly married?

Or is it that I have completely misunderstood (and perhaps misrepresented) all of JMB/PF's past actions and statements on these issues?

"WE ARE CLOSE TO YOU - BEST WISHES".
I am making use of the greeting collage above by Beatrice's faithful collagist Gloria from last year.

MORE THAN EVER -

ALL OUR LOVE AND PRAYERS

FOR OUR BELOVED BENEDICT XVI,

ROCK OF THE FAITH,

ON HIS 88th BIRTHDAY.

AD MULTOS ET FELICISSIMOS ANNOS!

Thursday, April 16, 2015

ST. MARIE BERNARDE (BERNADETTE) SOUBIROUS (France, 1844-1879), Visionary and Virgin
One of the most popular of modern saints, Bernadette was a virtuous and sickly peasant girl of 14 who had not even made her first Communion when 'a lady appeared to her on February 11, 1848, in a rocky grotto beside the river Gave in the Pyrenean village of Lourdes. She saw her 17 times more. The Lady identified herself on one of the earlier apparitions, 'I am the Immaculate Conception', a term which meant nothing to the unlettered girl. [Pope Pius IX would not declare the dogma of the Immaculate Conception until 1858). The Marian apparitions at Lourdes attracted worldwide attention. After initial skepticism, the Church gave credence to her story, and she soon was hounded for her fame. She entered a convent in Nevers where she worked humbly despite her chronic sickliness and professed her vows before she died at age 35. Meanwhile, Lourdes had grown into the most visited shrine on earth. Bernadette was canonized in 1935. When her body was exhumed before her beatification, it was found to be incorrupt and is venerated at the convent in Nevers.

Last year on this day...

Benedict XVI turns 87 -
Pope Francis calls to greet him
Translated from the Italian service of

April 16, 2014

The Church today joins Benedict XVI as he marks his 87th birthday. Pope Francis called the emeritus Pope by telephone to express his best wishes, assuring him that he prayed for him specially at Mass this morning.

Since this is Holy Week, Benedict XVI wished to spend the day with his usual meditations and prayers instead of any special celebration, according to a note from Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office.

Joseph Ratzinger was born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, a little town in Bavaria. He wrote about his early life in a book published when he turned 70 in 1997, but on various occasions during his Pontificate, he has spoken about his childhood, a couple of times to children...

In 2013...
Pope Francis offers prayer
and greets Benedict XVI
on his 86th birthday

April 16, 2013

On the occasion of Benedict XVI’s 86th birthday, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, began the celebration of Mass in the chapel of the Domus Santa Maria by inviting all present to pray for the Pope emeritus.

“Today is the birthday of Benedict XVI. Let us offer Mass for him, that the Lord might be with him, comfort him, and give him much consolation,” he said.

Later in the morning, Pope Francis called Benedict to offer him “best wishes” on his birthday. The Holy Father also greeted Benedict’s brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, who has been staying at Castel Gandolfo to celebrate the occasion, and who, like Pope Francis [Jorge Mario Bergoglio] will celebrate his name day on April 23 – the feast of Saint George.

And three years ago, on Benedict XVI's last birthday as Pope...




THE POPE'S BIRTHDAY HOMILY
Translated from

April 17, 2012



On the occasion of his 85th birthday, the Holy Father Benedict XVI presided yesterday morning at a Holy Mass concelebrated in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace with his closest associates and a representative group of German cardinals, bishops and priests, including his brother Georg.

Here is a translation of the homily he delivered extemporaneously in German:

---

Dear Cardinals,
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and sisters:

The liturgy of the Church on April 16, my birthday and baptismal day, had three signposts that showed me where the road would lead and which would help me to find it.

First, there is the commemoration of St. Bernadette Soubirous, the visionary of Lourdes; then, there is one of the most unusual saints in the history of the Church, Benedict Joseph Labre; and above all, this day, always immersed in the Paschal mystery, the mystery of the Cross and the Resurrection - especially so in the year I was born, when it was Holy Saturday, the day of God's silence, of his apparent absence, the death of God, but also the day on which the Resurrection announced itself.

Bernadette Soubirous, the simple girl from the South of France, in the Pyrenees - we all know and love her. She was born in almost unimaginable poverty in 19th century Enlightenment France. A prison structure that had been abandoned because it was considered too unhealthy became the family home after much going back and forth, and that was where she spent her childhood.

She did not have much schooling, just some catechism to prepare for her First Communion. But this simple girl, who remained pure and innocent at heart, therefore had a seeing heart that made her able to see the Mother of the Lord. and in her, a reflection of the beauty and the goodness of God.

Mary could show herself to her, and through her, speak to her century, and to the centuries beyond hers. She could see with her pure and unspoiled heart. So Mary pointed her to the spring - so that she could discover this spring with its living, pure and uncontaminated water - water which is life, water which gives purity and health.

Through the centuries, this living springwater is a sign of Mary, a sign of where to find the waters of life, where one can become pure, where we can find what is not polluted.

In our time, when we see so much need in the world, in which the need for water - pure water - has emerged as a problem, this sign is all the more important. From Mary, from the Mother of the Lord, from her pure heart, comes pure uncontaminated life-giving water which purifies and gives us health.

I think we should also consider water an image for the truth that comes to us from faith: genuine uncontaminated truth. Because in order to be able to live, and to be pure, we need to yearn for pure living itself, for unfalsified truth, to be untainted by corruption, for a spotless existence.

Therefore on this day, this little saint has always been for me a sign of where the living water comes from, that which we need to purify us and give us life, and therefore a sign of what we must be - in all things, for all our knowledge and abilities, though they are necessary, we need a simple heart.

We should not lose the simplicity that makes the heart see what is essential, and we must always pray to the Lord so that he may keep in us the humility that allows the heart to be clear-sighted - to see the simple and the essential, the beauty and the goodness of God. Then we can always find the springs of purifying and life-giving water.

Then there is Benedict Joseph Labre, the pious 'beggar pilgrim', who after various vain attempts, finally found his vocation as a beggar - having nothing, no sustenance, never keeping whatever he received and what he did not need - wandering through Europe, to all the European shrines, from Spain to Poland, and from Germany to Sicily - a truly European saint.

We can say that he was a most unusual saint, who by begging, wandered from shrine to shrine, wanting to do nothing else but to pray and therefore give witness to what really counts in this life: God.

He is certainly not an example to emulate, but rather a road sign, a finger that points to the essential. He shows us that God alone is enough, that beyond everything in the world, everything that we need and everything we do, the decisive thing, the essential is to know God. He alone is enough, and this 'God alone' he showed us in a dramatic way.

At the same time, this truly European man who wandered the European continent from shrine to shrine showed that he who is open to God is not alienated from the world and from men. Rather, he found all men brothers because with God, all barriers fall - only God can do away with barriers, and with God, we are all brothers, we all belong to each other. Unity with God also means the brotherhood and reconciliation of men, bringing down barriers in order to unite and heal us.

And so, Benedict Joseph Labre was a saint of peace, because he was a saint who demanded nothing, who died with nothing, and yet was blessed with everything.

And finally, there is the Paschal mystery. On the day I was born, thanks to the foresight of my parents - I was also born again in water and the Spirit, as we have just heard in today's Gospel. First there is the gift of life, that my parents gave to me in a very difficult time and for which I must thank them.

But man's life itself is not always a gift. Can it really be a good gift? Do we know what can come to him in dark times, or even in the brighter times that may co,e? Can we say what troubles, what terrible events he may be exposed to? Can one just simply give life? Is it reasonable to do so or too uncertain? It is a questionable gift, by itself.

Biological life itself is a gift, but one that is surrounded by so many questions. it becomes a real gift when it is given with a promise that is stronger than every calamity that can threaten it, when it is immersed in a power that guarantees that - yes, it is good to be a man, that it is is good for this person whatever the future may bring.

Thus birth must come with rebirth - the certainty that, in fact, it is good to exist, since the promise is stronger than any threat. This is the sense of rebirth in water and the Spirit - to be immersed in the promise that only God can give: 'It is good that you exist, and you must know this for certain, whatever may happen'. I must live from this certainty, reborn of water and the Spirit.

Nicodemus asked the Lord: "Can an old man be born again?" Now, rebirth is given to us in Baptism, but we must continually grow in it, we must always allow God to immerse us in his promise, so that we are truly born again into the great and new family of God, which is stronger than all the weaker and negative powers that threaten us.

So this is a day to give great thanks. As I said, I was born and baptized on Good Saturday. At that time, the Easter Vigil was observed on Saturday morning, which would still be followed by the darkness of Holy Saturday, and so without the Hallelujah.

It seemed to me that this singular paradox, this rare anticipation of Light on a dark day, could be considered almost an image of the history of our time. On the one hand, there was still the silence of God and his absence. But there is already the anticipation of God's Yes in the Resurrection of Christ.

We live in this anticipation, and beyond the silence of God, we hear his voice. Beyond the darkness of his absence, we see the light. The anticipation of the Resurrection during a story that is still ongoing is the power that shows us the way and that helps us go on.

We thank the dear Lord that he has given us this Light, and we implore him that it may always be with us. I have reasons to give thanks on this day to him and to all who have always allowed me to feel the presence of the Lord and who have accompanied me so I may not lose the light.

I face the final stretch of my journey in life, and I do not know what awaits me. But I know that God's light is there, that Christ has risen, that the light of God is stronger than any darkness, that God's goodness is stronger than all the evil in the world. And that allows me to go on with certainty. It allows us to carry on, and at this time, I thank everyone from the heart who have given me the certainty of God's Yes through their faith.

Finally, I say to you, the dean of Cardinals - my sincere thanks for your words of fraternal unity, for your cooperation during all these years. And I say thank you to all the co-workers who in the 30 years that I have been in Rome have helped me to carry the burden of my responsibilities. Thank you. Amen.

---

It was heartening to note in 2013 that Benedict XVI's first birthday as emeritus Pope was not overlooked by many in the Italian media, in this sampling of headlines from Lella's blog





And this always relevant re-post:
I was re-reading Peter Seewald's September 2005 biography of Joseph Ratzinger entitled BENEDICT XVI: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT, by a man who has known him since 1992, when he was first assigned to write a profile on someone he had to research thoroughly through what the media had written about him and from the testimony of his colleagues, friends and enemies. Eventually, he would come to produce two book-length interviews with Cardinal Ratzinger and the unprecedented sit-down interview with a Pope published in 2010 as LIGHT OF THE WORLD... In INTIMATE PORTRAIT, I keep being surprised by new details I had forgotten, so I thought I would quote some excerpts from time to time, in an opportune way. And I find that his very Preface is most opportune at this time, indeed almost prophetic, in his choice of what he emphasized in the Preface, which corresponds to the very themes evoked by the man who was elected to succeed Benedict XVI as Pope...

---

...I came to know Joseph Ratzinger as a great man for patience, as a spiritual master who can give answers. Here was someone who simply understood people, who had retained the liveliness of youth. Someone who did not burn out quickly but in some way remained whole - and most impressive in his attitude of humility, with which he makes small things in others seem great.

Joseph Ratzinger is a born teacher, but he did not want to become Pope. Even after the Conclave, on the loggia of St. Peter's, his face showed he traces of an inner struggle. And he probably felt like crying, so disturbingly moved was he by the condescension of the great God who entrusted him, at the end of his lifepath, with the keys of the kingdom.

The man from Bavaria - contrary to all the projections dumped onto his shoulders - is a revolutionary of the Christian type. Seeking out what was lost and saving it is the constant element in his life.

An inconvenient man who can seize on the spirit of the times, who warns people against the aberrations of modern life.

Anyone who really wants change, he cries out, needs a change in his consciousness and in his personal behavior - anything else is insufficient.

Now as Benedict XVI, the most powerful German at the beginning of the new millennium may offer a new opportunity for Europe, and especially, for his homeland.

Peter's Successor has given an exciting motto for this: That would mean something like a 'Benedictizing' [referring to St. Benedict] of the Catholic Church, a healthy revitalization of mercy, of the origin of the mystery. [Remember Seewald wrote this in 2005! And note the adjective 'healthy' used for the revitalization of mercy.]

This is an approach cased not on activism or considerations of feasibility, but on faith. And the Pontifex in Rome could find himself helped not only by a reawakened longing for meaning and a new consciousness that truth is indispensable, but also by a new generation of young Christians whose desire is to live out their faith in all its vitality and fullness once more, piously and without inhibitions. [We saw them in Cologne and Sydney and Madrid, and will see them in Rio... and very likely in our own parishes.]

"The Church is certainly not old and immobile", declared the new Pope enthusiastically [in his installation homily]. "No, she is young and alive".

It was also untrue, he said that young people are merely "materialistic and egotistic: young people want and end to be put to injustice. They want inequality to be overcome and for everyone to be given his share of the good things of the world. They want the oppressed to be given their freedom. They want greatness. They desire goodness. And that is why the young... are once again wide open for Christ".

And then he added, just like a rebel of earlier times, "Anyone who has come to Christ seeking what is comfortable has indeed come to the wrong address". And quite certainly, anyone who seeks that with Pope Benedict, too. [Words to remember everyday in these days of a welfare-state mentality even for God's mercy and forgiveness- 'All you have to do is ask and you shall receive'.]

- Peter Seewald
Abbey of Benediktbeuern
September 2005

---

Last year, ROME REPORTS greeted the Emeritus Pope with a little video on his past birthdays as Pope:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqtew8I-BD4


A priest who blogs as SACERDOTUS posted the above.


Mons. Guido Marini posted a birthday greeting on his Facebook page, using a photograph taken on Benedict XVI's 81st birthday, when President and Mrs. Bush greeted him with a birthday cake after the huge outdoor welcome for him in the White House South Lawn at the start of his apostolic visit to Washington, DC and New York in 2008.


Two greetings on the site of GLORIA-TV.


Left, from the UK-based International Business Times; right, from a Dutch blogsite.

While doing the search for birthday greetings this year, I came across this old item from April 2005, which I used during B16's visit to Australia for WYD 2008. It's a heartwarming little article that bears re-reading...


Pope Benedict XVI's cousin
By Felicity Dargan

Archdiocese of Melbourne
April 2005



Pope Benedict XVI’s cousin, Erika Kopp, who lives in Blackburn South and migrated to Australia from Germany with her husband Karl in 1955, recalls visiting a shop with her then six-year-old cousin Joseph and her aunt.

“The shopkeeper was an elderly woman, and she asked Joseph, 'What are you going to be when you grow up?’ Mrs. Kopp said.

“He replied: ‘I am going to be a Bishop’.”

Mrs. Kopp, 79, was not surprised. “That was Joseph’s upbringing,” she said. “There was lots of prayer. His father was a high-ranking policeman, and before he went on patrol, he would always make the sign of the cross.”

So did the shopkeeper ask young Erika what she wanted to be when she grew up? “Yes”, she chuckled. “I said a baker, and I was. I worked in my father’s bakery shop.” [Baking appears to be a continuing tradition among the Riegers, the maternal side of B16's family. His mother was raised as a baker's child, first in the Riegers' hometown in norhtwern Italy, then in upper Bavaria to where they moved.]

The events of the past few weeks have been overwhelming for Mrs. Kopp and her family. Karl died in 2003 at the age of 83, but she is close to her daughter Veronica, and three granddaughters: Laura, 28, Rebecca, 26 and Helen, 23.

A bright and active woman, Mrs. Kopp is delighted that her cousin has been chosen to lead the world’s Catholics and has full confidence in him.

“I think he is the best person,” Mrs. Kopp said. “His mental capacity is still as good as if he were younger.

“I feel very excited and proud. Joseph is such a good man, a simple man, very quiet. He is also such a controlled man, very exact, always on time. I don’t think he can help himself. His father was like that.

“Joseph has studied all his life, and this is the highest thing you can achieve. He was always so clever, such a strong thinker. That is a gift from God. Even as a little boy everyone realised, Joseph was a Wunderkind ['child wonder', a prodigy].

“When we were children I said to Auntie (Joseph’s mother Maria), ‘I wish I could be as clever as Joseph’, and she always said ‘Erika, when you finish school, you will be able to count your money’.

“Auntie meant that I would be bright enough to get on in life. I’m not as clever as Joseph, but I’ve got a good IQ and I’m 79.”

Mrs. Kopp’s father, Benno Rieger, was the brother of Pope Benedict’s mother, Maria, and young Erika spent childhood holidays with Joseph and his siblings Georg and Maria.

“We have heard stories about Grandma’s cousin, the Cardinal, since we were kids,” Laura said. “It’s all a bit manic at the moment.”

Mrs. Kopp has since spoken to her 84-year-old brother, Benno, in Germany. She also has a sister in Germany, Flora, who is 82.

“Benno always thought Joseph would have a better life not being Pope,” she said. “When Joseph was called to Rome (on 25 November, 1981 he was made Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), everyone in Munich was worried that Joseph would be homesick because he and his siblings were so close and were being separated.

“When we were children, Maria, Joseph’s sister, used to say, ‘If Joseph becomes a priest I will cook for him.’ And that is what she did. Maria looked after Joseph in the Vatican. She never married. Joseph had an apartment, and Maria was like his housekeeper.

“When Maria died (on 2 November, 1991, aged 69) Joseph took it very hard. They were so close.”

Mrs. Kopp has many fond memories of childhood holidays with Joseph and his family.

“Joseph wasn’t a sportsperson,” she said. “They had all the music you could imagine and a big piano which Joseph and Maria played a lot. I rode Maria’s bicycle. Uncle spent all his money on their education, and Joseph attended a very exclusive school.

“Joseph’s mother did a lot for him. She was my sponsor when I was confirmed. She was very talented and a hard worker. She made Joseph stuffed teddy bears, animals, rabbits, whatever you can think. She made them by hand.

“I was at Joseph’s ordination (on 29 June, 1951), and he said, ‘Erika, I haven’t seen you for 14 years’. I would never have known how long it had been. Later he said to me, ‘Erika, I’ve still got my stuffed animals’.

“Auntie was also a very good cook. She made these wonderful preserved walnuts, and after our meal we were each given one.”

The childhood playmates last saw each other in 1985 when Mrs. Kopp visited Germany, and her cousin was Cardinal of Munich.

Mrs. Kopp proudly shows off clippings from German newspapers charting her cousin’s rise, along with a letter from her cousin, Maria, when Joseph was appointed Cardinal in June 1977.

Family and friends have suggested Mrs. Kopp visit her cousin in Rome.

“What would I say to a Pope?” she said. “I would say ‘Joseph, I am so proud of you. I hope God helps you carry this hard mission.”



Forgive me that I was unable to come up with a brand-new birthday post this year - I had thought I would look back these days on Benedict XVI's unforgettable visit to the USA in April 2008, the first official day of which began on April 16, his 81st birthday, celebrated in style, courtesy of President George W. Bush, who arranged the largest White House garden reception ever for any visitor (12,000 invitees, compared to 8,000 for Queen Elizabeth) and later had Benedict XVI blow out the candles on a four-tier cake in Vatican yellow and white, before he and his wife had a private moment of prayer in the Oval Office with the spiritual leader of the world's Catholics (prompting many in the media to remark at the time that in many ways, Bush was US's first Catholic President; that he was, in fact, 'a closet Catholic'; and some even went so far as to predict that he might convert to Catholicism as his younger brother Jeb had done years earlier when the latter married a Mexican Catholic)...

In any case, going through the 30 pages or so that we devoted at PAPA RATZINGER FORUM to the Pope's visit to the US and the UN was so engrossing for me - the reception given to Benedict XVI was truly amazing, but even more amazing was the media coverage and commentary - that I lost track of time. So to make up before the day is over for my tardiness, here's a precious snippet from the interview that President Bush granted EWTN's Raymond Arroyo on the eve of Benedict XVI's arrival in Washington, in which Bush explains why he was pulling out all the stops to greet and host Benedict XVI in many unprecedented ways (they had only met once before at the Vatican) ...

---

Mr. President, final question.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, sir.

You said, famously, when you looked into Vladimir Putin's eyes you saw his soul.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

When you look into Benedict XVI's eyes what do you see?
THE PRESIDENT: God.

Good way to end the interview.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, sir.

Thank you, sir. My pleasure.

---

Another 'soundbite' about B16, this time from David Schindler, who has been the editor of the North American edition of Communio since 1981:

---

When you read his homilies, they provoke you into thinking, and when you read his theology, it inclines you to pray. Simply, he does theology in the manner of the great saints and doctors of the Church -- a way of doing theology that is badly needed in our time.

---

Thanks to Scenron of La Vigna del Signore, via Beatrice who re-posted these photos on her site, some more snapshots of the Bavarian delegation's birthday visit to Benedict XVI yesterday:











On the occasion of Benedict XVI's 88th birthday, Paolo Rodari interviewed Mons. Georg Gaenswein for La Repubblica, which is entitled rather melodramatically 'My secret Ratzinger'. It is gratifying to know that Repubblica saw fit to make a nod to the emeritus Pope on his birthday.

Mons. Gaenswein on Benedict at 88
Interview by Paolo Rodari
Translated from

April 16, 2015

"When he renounced the Pontificate, his serenity was stunning. That spirit of serenity remains today, as he spends his days among his beloved books, arranged in the order that he has kept them for over half a century and that only he knows. He reads, he studies, he prays, he plays the piano and he sings".

He sings? "Only at Mass, of course!"

"In these Eastertide, he likes to play the melody of 'Christ has risen', a paschal hymn that was adapted from a Lutheran chorale, Christ is erstanden, which many composers, including Bach, adapted for the organ".

Mons. Georg Gaenswein, 58, takes us into the former convent Mater Ecclesiae and into the 'private' life of Benedict XVI, the Pope emeritus of whom he remains private secretary, into the reasons for his historical renunciation, and his friendship with his successor.

These days are important for Joseph Ratzinger who turned 88 today, and on April 19, will celebrate ten years since he was elected Pope.

Let's start with his reading. What does he read these days?
He loves to read theology but also biographies. He also reads books about faith and reason. He likes Hans Urs von Balthasar, whom he reads in relation to Karl Rahner, Henri de Lubac, the theologians he worked with during Vatican II.

In the convent, he has the large library he had in his apartment at Piazza della Citta Leonina and later in the Apostolic Palace - with all his books arranged exactly as they have always been, and as only he knows. Initially, after he became Pope, when all his books had not yet been transferred to the papal apartment, I would accompany him now and then on an 'escape' to his old apartment in order to get some books that he missed. [When Gerard Mueller came to Rome to be CDF Prefect, Benedict XVI ceded him the use of the apartment at Piazza della Citta Leonina just a few steps away from the Porta Santa Anna gate into St. Peter's Square.]

Other than his few public appearances, has he ever left the convent?
He goes out every day for his daily walk to pray the rosary in the Vatican Gardens - from the convent, he walks to the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, then towards the Torre San Giovanni, and back.

Walking tires him a bit now, because, as he often says, his legs are no longer as strong as before. He uses a walker which he now prefers to a cane because he feels more secure and stable.

What is his day like?
At 7:45, there's Mass in the convent chapel. Usually, I concelebrate, and when I am not there, I ask a priest friend. Attending the Mass are the Memores Domini who live in the convent and who run the household as they did in the Apostolic Palace. The Mass and other prayers of the day [I suppose he means the Daily Office] are all said in a measured way, because Benedict XVI does not like rushing through anything. After the morning Breviary reading, there's breakfast. Then he attends to his mail which has grown lately, and to study. Three or four times a week, towards noontime, he receives visitors.

Lunch is at 1:30 PM, after which he walks a while on the roof terrace of the convent before taking his afternoon siesta. In the afternoon, around 4:15 - sometimes later, in the summer - he takes his walk in the Vatican Gardens. Then he reads and studies.

Dinner is at 7:30, after which he watches TG1 [RAI-TV's primetime newscast], and then he goes to the chapel for Complines [last of the prayers in the Daily Office].

Is he writing a book?
He's not writing anything. He said to me, "JESUS OF NAZARETH was my last book. My scientific work is done. I no longer have the strength to write.... If I still had the strength, I would not have given up the Pontificate".

Why did he decide to remain in the Vatican?
I also asked him that. He said: "Upon reflection, I decided that Mater Ecclesiae would be the ideal retirement site because it is rather isolated, and it provides me with the freedom to live a hidden life in peace". [In practical terms, living in the Vatican ensures his security, at no extra expense on the part of the Vatican, from crazies and other threats.]

He said that he decided to give up the Petrine ministry because on account of his age, he no longer has the necessary strength to carry on. Was this the only reason?
Yes. He said that the Petrine ministry requires vigor of the body and of the spirit - "vigor quidam corporis et animae necessarius est". In fact, in the last months of his Pontificate, it was evident that he needed to exert himself a great deal even just to walk.

It was a difficult time in the Vatican. Did external factors also push him into retirement?
His motivation was just what we said earlier. All other hypotheses are only speculative. Obviously, everything that took place in the two years preceding February 11, 2013, consumed his strength, but that was not a reason to leave. It was not an escape. He always believed that the shepherd should never flee from anything, not even the wolves, if he met them. This is the real key to correctly understand his decision. He did not 'flee' - he simply and humbly admitted that he no longer had the strength to lead the Church of Christ as she should be led. [Also, he did not flee in the middle of any crisis. Vatileaks had been resolved by then, IOR had begun a new lease on life with Moneyval approval, financial transparency measures were in place, and the priest abuse crisis had pretty much settled much earlier.]

Some have written that it is insupportable' to continue calling him 'Pope' even if it is 'emeritus', and that the title of Bishop would have been appropriate...
I cannot understand why the status (and title) of emeritus cannot be used for the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of Peter. Benedict XVI is the emeritus Pope, and he knows that he is so, legitimately.

He spoke to you before February 11, 2013, about his decision to step down?
Yes.

Did you try to dissuade him?
Yes. Right after he had told me, some time before February 11. But I immediately saw and understood that it was not possible to change his mind. That it was a decision he took with such clarity and serenity that all my fears and concerns vanished without him having to say anything more.

On February 28, 2013, you wept as you were leaving the Apostolic Palace with Benedict XVI. Why?
Because I was suffering inside. I knew that it was the last time I would be doing certain acts, certain gestures. And so I cried, but he himself remained most serene. He has incredible internal strength. And he is still that way.

In Castel Gandolfo afterwards, did he speak to you about the Conclave and about his successor?
After February 28, I left Castel Gandolfo every weekday morning to work [at the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household] in the Vatican. In those days, Benedict was a very tired man. He spoke very little.

When I returned from the Vatican in the afternoon, I would tell him what I did, what I saw, what I felt. He acknowledged what I said, but he made no comments and asked no questions.

On the evening of March 13, 2013, did he see on TV when Bergoglio was presented as Pope for the first time from the loggia of St. Peter's?
Yes, but at that time I was in the Vatican. In Castel Gandolfo, Benedict was with Mons. Xuereb and the Memores.

I remember that soon after he was elected, the new Pope asked me if he could call Benedict. No one was expecting any call from the Vatican at Castel Gandolfo, so no one picked up the phone when I called. They were all watching TV. Finally, we reached them, and he and the new Pope spoke on the telephone.

The following day, I asked him about the telephone call. All he said was: "It was very beautiful. I conveyed my best wishes, and I promised him my prayers".

There are also those who say that by his renunciation, Joseph Ratzinger had betrayed the Papacy and even the Church herself.
I find that ridiculous. Ratzinger, as a fine theologian, knew that a sede vacante could result from the death of a Pope or from a renunciation - even if the second possibility had not occurred in recent times.

Cardinal Francis George, 1937-2015

Right, Cardinal George bids farewell to Benedict XVI on February 28, 2013.



Chicago Cardinal Francis George,
once called the ‘American Ratzinger',
succumbs to cancer at 78
The retired archbishop of Chicago had stopped treatment in December

by John Allen Jr.

April 17, 2015

During an era under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, when Catholicism was trying to swim against an increasingly secular tide in the Western world, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago was the American prelate trusted by those two popes, almost above all others, to spearhead that project in the United States.

George, who stepped down in November 2014, died at 10:45 a.m. Friday at his residence in Chicago of a cancer that originated in his bladder but spread to other parts of his body, rendering treatment ineffective. He was 78.

He had been on home care since April 3 after being hospitalized for hydration and pain management issues, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Widely acknowledged as the most intellectually gifted senior US prelate of his generation, George was once dubbed the “American Ratzinger.”

Like German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI, George’s clear and strongly stated positions on issues such as abortion, contraception, and the Catholic liturgy could be either celebrated or reviled — and he drew both reactions, repeatedly — but they could never be ignored.

George’s abiding passion was the relationship between faith and culture, and especially the urgency of a “New Evangelization,” meaning a new missionary zeal in Catholicism.

After his appointment as archbishop of Chicago in 1997, and especially during his three-year term as president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2007 to 2010, George was the Vatican’s go-to figure in the United States and one of just a handful of American prelates whose reputation and influence reached around the Catholic world.

Among other aspects of his résumé, George will be remembered as the architect of the US bishops’ battles with the Obama administration over contraception and health care reform, and the leader who made religious freedom a signature concern for the bishops.

His legacy also will be tied to the child sexual abuse scandals in the American Church, both his championing of a “zero tolerance” policy and allegations that he failed to apply that policy himself in a high-profile Chicago case.

Francis George was born in Chicago in 1937 and attended parochial school on the city’s Northwest Side. At age 13, he came down with polio, which left him with a limp and constant pain in his legs that would never go away.

Because of the ailment, he was rejected as a seminarian by the Archdiocese of Chicago and instead joined the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a religious order founded in France in the early 19th century. He studied theology in Ottawa and Washington, DC, and earned a doctorate in philosophy from Tulane University.

In the 1970s and 1980s, George held a series of leadership positions in his order, culminating in a 12-year run in Rome as the vicar general — the No. 2 official worldwide.

In that role, George came to know the inner workings of the Vatican and also developed a wide network of contacts in the global Church, both of which would serve him well in later assignments.

One of those friendships early in his career was with Cardinal Bernard F. Law of Boston, a friendship forged at a time before Law would be swept up in the Church’s sexual abuse scandals, when he was still at the height of his power and influence.

Many observers believe Law’s sponsorship explains how George was named bishop of Yakima, Washington, in 1990 at the young age of 53, shortly after his return to the United States when he was not yet well known on the American stage.

George would remain in Yakima for five and a half years, becoming involved on the national level as chair of a committee for bishops and scholars, and on the global level as a delegate to a 1994 Synod of Bishops in the Vatican on consecrated life.

George also was active in social justice issues, among other things helping Mexican farm workers organize a union in Yakima. He would later point to that aspect of his record, along with efforts on behalf of migrants, refugees, and the working poor, to rebut charges that he was indifferent to the Church’s social justice tradition.

In April 1996, George was appointed archbishop of Portland, Oregon. Although he wouldn’t hold the post long, he flashed an early signal of his resolve on Catholic identity by strenuously objecting to the tape recording of an inmate’s sacramental confession in a local jail.

A federal court later ruled the recording was unconstitutional.

In a sign of just how much George’s star was on the rise, he was named the eighth archbishop of Chicago on April 7, 1997, after serving in Portland for just one year.

George was fated to follow Chicago’s beloved Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, whose leadership on social issues such as economic justice and anti-nuclear advocacy made him popular both at the Catholic grassroots and in the media, and whose candor about his spiritual preparation for death significantly increased his moral standing.

Bernardin had come into office in 1982 describing himself to Chicagoans as “Joseph, your brother.” In a sign that George wouldn’t be quite the same heart-on-his-sleeve personality, he introduced himself in 1997 as “Francis, your neighbor.”

What George may have lacked in terms of a popular touch, he more than compensated for in brainpower. During the 1990s and 2000s, it was impossible to name a drama in American Catholic life in which George wasn’t a lead actor, often providing the intellectual basis for instincts other bishops might feel, but be unable to articulate.

He was a force in what were known as the “liturgy wars” in the 1990s, an effort to steer Catholic worship in a more traditional, reverent, and sober direction that was celebrated by many conservatives, but seen by liberals as a rollback of the reforming vision of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

George was a member of a special Vatican commission called “Vox Clara” that oversaw a new English translation of the Mass, featuring changes such as having the congregation respond “And with your Spirit” rather than “And also with you” when the priest says, “The Lord be with you.”

While seen as a cultural conservative, George took a moderate position throughout the 2000s on the vexed issue of whether Catholic politicians who supported abortion rights ought to be denied Communion.

In 2004, he said there’s a difference between moral teaching and political strategies, a comment that many American bishops cited at the time to defend staying out of the controversy.

When the sexual abuse scandals blew up in the US Church starting in 2002, George played a central role in framing the American response.

At a high-profile gathering of the US bishops in Dallas in 2002, George supported a “zero tolerance” policy, meaning that a priest would be removed from ministry for life following one credible accusation of abuse of a minor.

Because that policy implied a change to Church law, it had to be sent to Rome for approval. The initial response was negative, so George was tapped to lead an American delegation to meetings with Vatican officials to work out a compromise. Other American prelates looked to George for leadership because of his deep Rome experience and command of Italian.

In the end, the Vatican signed off on the policy for an experimental period, and under Benedict XVI, it became permanent. [The cardinal once recounted that on April 19, 2005, when it was his turn to greet the new Pope - with whom as CDF Prefect, he had held talks about the progress and problems of the USCCB in dealing with the sex abuse crisis - the newly-minted Benedict XVI told him, "I will not forget about what we discussed", or words to that effect.]

George acknowledged in a November 2014 interview with Crux that in effect, he was the one who saved the zero tolerance policy.

“I don’t like to say that as if I’m blowing my own horn, but it’s correct,” he said.

George would later come under criticism for allegedly failing to follow the zero tolerance standard in the case of a former priest named Daniel McCormack, who was arrested on multiple accounts of abuse in 2006.

According to reports, George knew about the rumors in 2005, but did not remove McCormack from ministry.

George would later visit McCormack’s parish to apologize, but also insisted that what he had at the time was a notice from the police that they were questioning McCormack, not an actual allegation, and canonical procedures didn’t allow him to remove the cleric on that basis alone.

In Chicago, George emerged as a leader in interfaith relations, building especially close ties to the city’s Jewish community. He played a similar role internationally, in part because when he became a cardinal in 1998, he was assigned Rome’s Church of San Bartolomeo all’Isola, which is entrusted to the Community of Sant’Egidio and used by the group as a platform for ecumenical and inter-religious outreach. (Cardinals are assigned “titular” churches in Rome and environs, with which they maintain a loose patronal relationship.)

George authored two books as a cardinal, “The Difference God Makes: A Catholic Vision of Faith, Communion, and Culture” in 2009 and “God in Action: How Faith in God Can Address the Challenges of the World” in 2011. He also wrote a regular column for the archdiocesan newspaper in Chicago, the Catholic New World.

Perhaps the highest-profile moment in George’s career on the national stage began in 2007 when he was elected to lead the US bishops’ conference. It was something of a surprise, since in the past, the informal practice within the conference was not to elect cardinals as officers on the grounds they already had enough influence.

The outcome was read as a sign of the respect George enjoyed among his brother bishops, and also gratitude for the role he had played in representing them over the years in Rome.

As it happened, his term overlapped with the rise of another Chicagoan to high office — US President Barack Obama, who was elected to his first term in 2008.

Obama began gearing up to deliver on a campaign promise of health care reform almost immediately, and at first, George and the US bishops were supportive.

The bishops had been on record supporting universal access to health care since 1917, and were credited by American historians with helping to lay the foundation for an expanded social safety net launched under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the New Deal.

As it became clear, however, that Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would cover contraception, including some drugs the US bishops regard as abortion-inducing, George led the bishops into increasingly vocal opposition.

He framed the issue as one of religious freedom, insisting that faith-based groups should not be compelled to offer or pay for procedures that violate their religious beliefs.

Although the bishops’ stance has been criticized in some quarters for fueling America’s culture wars, George insisted in November 2014 that their concerns during his tenure as president have been vindicated.

“Everything the bishops said then has come true,” he claimed. “We said that the exchanges would be used as vehicles to get federal money into the direct funding of abortion, and they are. Go down the line … every criticism that we raised has turned out to be entirely true.”

“Legislators betrayed their own vocation, because they did not act for the common good,” George said.

As the battles over the contraception mandates wore on, some observers perceived that George became steadily more pessimistic about the broader drift of American society, almost seeming to prophesy a Church of the catacombs in the not-too-distant future — that is, one driven underground by increasing secularism.

That perception was set in cement in 2010, when during a talk to a group of priests that George believed was private, he took a question about the impact of mounting secularization.

Part of his response was captured on a smartphone and quickly went viral: “I expect to die in bed,” George said, “my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.”

George would point out that the more upbeat conclusion of his response was omitted in most reports. After referring to the martyred bishop, he had immediately added: “His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the Church has done so often in human history.”

He insisted his answer was intended as a consolation to some deeply worried priests, not a straight-line prediction of the future.

“You’d have to be an utter fool to say something like that as a statement about what’s going to happen next,” he said. “How the heck would I know?”

George also said that he never saw himself as a cultural warrior, pointing to, among other things, his defense of immigrant rights and his frequent insistence that “no Catholic can view the operation of our economy uncritically.”

Fundamentally, George saw himself as a friend of the culture rather than its enemy.

“I’ve seen myself for a long time as engaging culture,” he said. “Engagement is not warfare. I’m not trying to beat anybody up at all; I’m trying to proclaim the truth of the Gospel, which I have an obligation to do.”

When the more center-left Archbishop Blase Cupich was appointed to succeed George in September 2014, many commentators took it as a course correction under Pope Francis, to some extent reflecting a desire to reposition the Church in the political center.

While rejecting that interpretation, George acknowledged there were some aspects of Francis’s emerging direction that left him puzzled.

For instance, George said he’d like to ask Francis if he fully grasped that in some quarters, he’d created the impression that Catholic doctrine is up for grabs. He specifically cited the pontiff’s famous line about gays, “Who am I to judge?”

That soundbite, George said, “has been very misused … because he was talking about someone who has already asked for mercy and been given absolution, whom he knows well,” George said. (Francis uttered the line in 2013, in response to a question about a Vatican cleric accused of gay relationships earlier in his career.)

“That’s entirely different than talking to somebody who demands acceptance rather than asking for forgiveness,” George said.

“Does he not realize the repercussions? Perhaps he doesn’t,” George said. “I don’t know whether he’s conscious of all the consequences of some of the things he’s said and done that raise doubts in people’s minds.”

Yet George insisted that his outlook was not shaped by the politics of left v. right.

“The liberal/conservative thing is destructive of the Church’s mission and her life,” he said in his November 2014 conversation with Crux, the last extended interview he gave before his death.

“You’re taking a definition that comes out of nowhere, as far as we’re concerned, it’s a modern distinction, and making it the judgment of the Church’s life. It’s because we’re lazy. You put a label on people, you put a label on something, and it saves you the trouble of thinking.”

“For us,” he said, “the category that matters is true/false.”

Like the two popes for whom he was a confidante and American interpreter, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, George will be remembered for an unflinching defense of truths he saw as rooted in Catholic teaching and tradition, which he felt needed to be heard by a culture increasingly inclined to spiritual deafness.

His views were not always shared by others, even at times disputed by members of his own flock, but few would question the cogency and resolve with which Cardinal Francis George expressed them.

Now, the cardinal will never be able to ask Pope Francis the questions that have troubled him about the current Pope's statements and apparent tendencies. But now that he is home with God, he can add his intercessions that this Pope may stay on the straight and narrow path of unquestionable Christian rightness.

Someone in the Vatican must have maliciously planned to time this announcement to fall on Benedict XVI's birthday like a slap in the face of the emeritus Pope. The infamously dissident nuns who have 'preached' a heterodox and oftentime near-heretical 'magisterium' of their own for four decades are back in the good graces of the Church thanks to this heterodoxy-tending Pontificate, and it is as if the severe and well-deserved CDF assessment after a five-year investigation during Benedict XVI's Pontificate has come to nothing...SIGN OF THE TIMES, indeed!... Father Z does a commentary/round-up....


Of the LCWR and the end of the CDF 'crackdown'
by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

April 17, 2015

At the conclusion of the CDF investigation of the LCWR, it is interesting to watch the conga line dance threading its delirious way through the liberal catholic MSM led by Fishwrap‘s Tom Fox, AP‘s (not catholic, but liberal) Nicole Winfield and Rachel Zoll, Commonweal‘s Dominic Preziosi, RNS‘s (which takes money from strange sources) David Gibson, and James Martin, SJ, at Amerika who cooed with satisfaction.

Looking at the liberal reactions side-by-side is reminds me of walking into Pompeii’s “Villa of the Mysteries”. Their elation is nearly Bacchic.

Not all online reactions have been so ecstatic.

Phil Lawler at CatholicCulture.org wrote (my emphases):

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“We learned that what we hold in common is much greater than any of our differences.”

That comment did not come from a Presbyterian cleric after a Saturday-afternoon ecumenical meeting. It was made by a leading representative of American Catholic women’s religious orders, at the conclusion of a long, tense exchange with the Vatican.

Shouldn’t we be able to take it for granted that what unites Catholics is greater than their differences? And especially in the case of religious orders, pledged to the service of the Church?

But it could not be taken for granted, in the case of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. That’s why the Vatican stepped in.

Now that the intervention has run its course, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, assures us of the Vatican’s confidence that the LCWR is “fostering a vision of religious life that is centered on the Person of Jesus Christ and is rooted in the Tradition of the Church.”

Again, shouldn’t you be able to take that much for granted? But in 2008, you couldn’t.

Those statements from the two main parties do not guarantee that the Vatican intervention will prove successful. They do, however, demonstrate that the process was necessary.

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That’s something that the other side is going to deny: that the process was necessary.

On a somewhat sharper register, at Creative Minority Report we read:

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So the Vatican has dropped the investigation into the LCWR. Cuz in the Church, the only thing hetero these days is the doxy.

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What is one to make of what happened?

On the one hand, say that the CDF really did back down, on the orders of Pope Francis or not. One possible take is that they determined that it simply wasn’t worth the effort to attempt a reform of the LCWR, in regard to its guiding principles and goals for formation and spirituality. After all, most of the groups whose leadership belong to the LCWR are dying out pretty quickly. If the CDF has closed the file, to quote one of the Left’s darlings, what difference does it make? They have no vocations.

Another point may be that the CDF isn’t the monstrous bogey which liberals delight in reviling. Perhaps the process simply ran its course and ended.

John Allen at Crux as a somewhat less left-skewed view of what happened. He might have joined the Eleusinian conga by clapping a little on the side-lines, but he didn’t strut. His analysis is, in its essentials, right, though his own leanings bleed through.

Over at Catholic World Report, Carl Olson has a good round-up of how the story has been covered, the twisted headlines, etc. [Fr. Z then quotes Olson's report generously, but since Olson's round-up is exhaustive, I will post it in full separately.]

It will be interesting to see what happens when the LCWR has its annual meeting. I wonder if they will again go with a keynote speaker like Barbara Marx Hubbard in 2012 with her snake oil: “I am here to be a voice for the Collective Emergence of humanity as a Co-creative Universal Species!” or Ilia Delio and her view that “There is no cosmos without God, and no God without cosmos.” [They all sound like Hillary Cinton driven nuts by feminist hyper-ambition.] … Lest anyone doubt that the CDF investigation was necessary….

If the CDF process produced some good fruits, I’ll be delighted. We shall see.

Meanwhile, as one of my correspondents wrote to me: "The only Catholic Franciscans left are chased like Jews in 1944 Poland for the grievous sin of attracting vocations while sticking to the rule and using certain liturgical books."

Final point…. The way I see it, the nuns signed a public agreement, not a “fig leaf”, as one of the liberals in the conga line called it.

If they violate the agreement the whole Church and world can be reminded that they signed it.

In one year, in five… whatever. Scriptum manet.

The CDF did not promise to do – or not to do - anything.

The nuns did. Let’s see if they keep their word. [You think? You really think...?]


Making sense of nun-sensical, controversial headlines
Did you read the news? The Vatican caved in! No, wait, the sisters caved in!
Or did they both win? Well, something happened!
by Carl E. Olson

April 16, 2015


Pope Francis meets with representatives of the U.S. Leadership Conference of Women Religious at the Vatican April 16 - the day the Vatican announced the conclusion of a seven-year process of investigation and dialogue with the group to ensure fidelity to Church teachings. The outcome resulted in revised statutes approved by the Vatican.

"In journalism," stated Abp. Fulton Sheen wrote 60 years ago in Thinking Life Through, "the modern man wants controversy, not truth." Plenty of examples abound.

Take, for instance, the news that — as one Catholic news outlet described it — "American Sisters accept Vatican reforms on doctrine, theology". This bit of news is quite interesting, in part, because it lacks the sort of crackling controversy that seemed almost inevitable, considering all of the turbulent water under the ecclesial bridge.

As John Allen, Jr. observed in his piece on the matter:

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Sometimes in the news business, stories run their course without the explosive ending their dramatic arc would seem to merit. Think a nasty lawsuit, for instance, which ends with an amicable settlement, or the early years of the Super Bowl when a matchup that looked like a heavyweight collision on paper ended with a blowout.

Such would appear to be the case with the conclusion announced Thursday of the Vatican’s now six-year-old investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the main umbrella group for the leaders of women’s religious orders in the United States. ...

Purely at the level of perception, this was a made-for-Hollywood standoff between rigid male hierarchs and feisty progressive nuns. Most media outlets and a solid chunk of Catholic opinion at the grassroots, naturally, sided with the nuns.

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As Allen admits, "Despite all of that, the whole thing ended on Thursday with a whimper rather than a bang."

Of course, headlines sell newspapers — or, more accurately, drive traffic — so the headline of Allen's piece avoided the whimper and went for bang: "Why the Vatican’s crackdown on nuns ended happily".

It's a clever juxtoposition: the harshness of a "Vatican crackdown" (ooh!) and the uplift of nuns and happiness (aah!). Associated Press reporters, Nicole Winfield and Rachel Zoll, went for a combination of surprise and conflict: "Vatican unexpectedly ends crackdown of US nun group". After all, no one really expects the angry old men in the Vatican to get along with the sweet old nuns on the bus. That piece indicated that "social justice-minded" Pope Francis had saved the day:

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The Vatican has unexpectedly ended its controversial overhaul of the main umbrella group of U.S. nuns, cementing a shift in tone and treatment of the U.S. sisters under the social justice-minded Pope Francis.

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There are, however, several ways of skinning the controversial Catholic cat, as Reuters reporter Philip Pullella makes evident in a piece titled "Activist U.S. nuns make concessions after Vatican investigation". Instead of reconciliation, Pullella apparently smells capitulation and oppression. And guess who the Bad Guys are?

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A six-year row between activist American nuns and Vatican officials who had branded them radical feminists ended on Thursday with the nuns conceding to demands that they keep within the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church.

The clash with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an umbrella group representing 80 percent of U.S. nuns, became a national issue in America, with many supporters accusing the Vatican of bullying them.

The Vatican investigated the group for three years and then in 2012 issued a stinging report saying the LCWR had "serious doctrinal problems" and promoted "radical feminist themes incompatible with the (Roman) Catholic faith".

The Vatican criticized the group for taking a soft line on issues such as birth control and homosexual activity. (emphasis added for fun)

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Goodness! It's as if the sweet little nuns had been doing nothing but putting band-aids on skinned knees and singing sweet, lilting songs of sisterhood when — wham! — those nasty guys in Rome went all patriarchal on them. Of course, the truth about the history of the LCWR and its various actions in recent years suggest a rather different story. But I don't expect Reuters to tell it.

The New York Times says a "battle" has ended, Seattlepi.com says the "the nuns stand tall", and Slate claims the Vatican tacitly admitted the entire matter was a waste of time.

Slate demonstrates its tenuous grasp on the story by illustrating it with a photo of habit-wearing youthful members of Sisters of Life — an order that belongs to the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, not the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which is the (aging) body in question and which is not known for wearing habits (see photo with the Pope, thank you). For those not versed in these matters, it is analogous to illustrating a story about a Hillary Clinton campaign stop with photos from a Tea Party convention.

A far better balance it struck by veteran reporter Francis Rocca, writing for the Wall Street Journal:

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The Vatican brought to an end a three-year overhaul of a U.S. nuns’ group stemming from a controversial investigation that found the sisters had neglected church teachings on abortion and other issues.

In a final document released Thursday, the Vatican went lightly on the nuns, effectively sparing them from any sanction or further oversight. The outcome represented a markedly more conciliatory tone in a controversy that saw the Vatican widely criticized for its treatment of the sisters.

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His title? "Vatican Ends Overhaul of U.S. Nuns’ Group".

One final thought: Are matters with the LCWR really resolved — with a whimper? Maybe. Frankly, I doubt it. I have a hard time believing that a group whose leadership has thumbed its nose at the CDF and bishops and has so often ignored (or even denied) Church teaching is going to so suddenly change its spots. I'd like to be wrong on that count. But, time will tell. In the meantime, let's hear it for more truth in headlines and the stories beneath them.

Meanwhile, let age take its toll on the fast-aging LCWR harpies! Feminazis like them give all women and nuns a bad name!... Meanwhile, I really see no aesthetic or practical reason why the LCRW sisters choose not to wear a nun's habit, which not only confers unmistakable identity on the wearer, but also dignity and the equalizing sense that all uniforms give (aren't these socially-conscious sisters always going on about 'equality'?). Not any less important, a habit serves to mask any ungainly physical characteristics like weight, girth and bad legs. And imagine all the time and trouble they would save themselves from not having to worry every day, "Now what shall I wear today? And what will go well with what?"


Fr. Lucie-Smith beautifully ties up the LCWR case with that of embattled Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone in San Francisco...


The result is in: Now the LCWR
must prove it can change its ways
by Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith

Friday, 17 Apr 2015

The Vatican and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the umbrella body that represents most American nuns, have announced the conclusion of the seven-year investigation that the Vatican undertook into the LCWR.

Reading the report, everything seems to be happily settled. But only time will tell if the LCWR will now start acting as a recognisably Catholic body, as opposed to one that is Catholic in name only. While I am sure there are many good Sisters in the orders represented by the LCWR, there have certainly been some who have caused grave scandal and damage to the Church.

Some years ago one of them made headlines when her work as an abortion clinic escort came to public attention. Nor is this all: as recently as 2012 she was advocating so-called “choice” with regard to abortion, and, as recently as 2013, advocating same-sex marriage.

All of that is perfectly fine (though profoundly wrong). It is after all, as the saying goes, a free country. But it is absolutely not fine to do so while being a nun.

The investigation into the LCWR was occasioned by people like this, and is really a no-brainer in its conclusions.

The Vatican is now insisting that the LCWR act in a Catholic manner: in other words, they should do what it says on the tin. What could be simpler?

As one case closes, another controversy rages, surrounding the Archbishop of San Francisco, which presents a parallel case. Archbishop Cordileone recently insisted that those who taught in a Catholic school should act as Catholics and sign a behaviour clause to that effect.

As a result of this, he now faces an insurgency in his diocese from some very well-heeled and well-placed people. But all the archbishop is doing is asking that Catholic schools should be Catholic in fact, rather than Catholic in name only. He is just doing his job, and defending the faith.

The behaviour of his critics – claiming he is divisive – recalls opponents of the Vatican’s investigation into the nuns. People who oppose Catholic teaching from within the Catholic Church, particularly from within the institutional Church, always feel a huge amount of pain when challenged, and are never reticent about sharing it. They usually ignore, however, the pain they cause to ordinary believing Catholics in the pew.

May God give Archbishop Cordileone strength as he restores the faith in San Francisco. He is certainly going to need it. He is a brave and good man to take on the entrenched interests in his diocese. And let us pray that the investigation into the LCWR will bear fruit, and not just be a purely cosmetic exercise.

Cardinal Brandmüller: Advocates for changing Catholic teaching
on marriage are ‘heretics’ – even if they are bishops

April 14, 2015


Cardinal Walter Brandmüller has been among the leading voices critical of proposals stemming from the Vatican’s Synod on the Family that risk subverting Catholic teaching on the sacraments and morality.

He was one of five cardinals who contributed to the book Remaining in the Truth of Christ, which focused on criticizing Cardinal Walter Kasper’s proposal to open up Communion to those in irregular sexual unions.

LifeSiteNews contributor Dr. Maike Hickson interviewed Cardinal Brandmüller last month.

Could you present once more for our readers clearly the teaching of the Catholic Church, as it has been consistently taught throughout centuries concerning marriage and its indissolubility?
The answer is to be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church no. 1638-1642.

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CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

IV. The Effects of the Sacrament of Matrimony

1638 "From a valid marriage arises a bond between the spouses which by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive; furthermore, in a Christian marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and the dignity of their state by a special sacrament".

The marriage bond

1639 The consent by which the spouses mutually give and receive one another is sealed by God himself.141 From their covenant arises "an institution, confirmed by the divine law, . . . even in the eyes of society." The covenant between the spouses is integrated into God's covenant with man: "Authentic married love is caught up into divine love."

1640 Thus the marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never be dissolved. This bond, which results from the free human act of the spouses and their consummation of the marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable, and gives rise to a covenant guaranteed by God's fidelity. The Church does not have the power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom.

The grace of the sacrament of Matrimony

1641 "By reason of their state in life and of their order, [Christian spouses] have their own special gifts in the People of God." This grace proper to the sacrament of Matrimony is intended to perfect the couple's love and to strengthen their indissoluble unity. By this grace they "help one another to attain holiness in their married life and in welcoming and educating their children."

1642 Christ is the source of this grace. "Just as of old God encountered his people with a covenant of love and fidelity, so our Savior, the spouse of the Church, now encounters Christian spouses through the sacrament of Matrimony."

Christ dwells with them, gives them the strength to take up their crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another's burdens, to "be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ," and to love one another with supernatural, tender, and fruitful love. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here on earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb:

"How can I ever express the happiness of a marriage joined by the Church, strengthened by an offering, sealed by a blessing, announced by angels, and ratified by the Father? . . . How wonderful the bond between two believers, now one in hope, one in desire, one in discipline, one in the same service! They are both children of one Father and servants of the same Master, undivided in spirit and flesh, truly two in one flesh. Where the flesh is one, one also is the spirit."

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Can the Church admit remarried couples to Holy Communion, even though their second marriage is not valid in the eyes of the Church?
That would be possible if the concerned couples would make the decision to live in the future like brother and sister. This solution is especially worth considering when the care of children disallows a separation. The decision for such a path would be a convincing expression of the penance for the previous and protracted act of adultery.

Can the Church deal with the topic of marriage in a pastoral manner that is different from the continual teaching of the Church? Can the Church at all change the teaching itself without falling herself into heresy?
It is evident that the pastoral practice of the Church cannot stand in opposition to the binding doctrine nor simply ignore it. An architect could perhaps design a most beautiful bridge. However, if he does not pay attention to the laws of structural engineering, he risks the collapse of his construction.

In the same manner, every pastoral practice has to follow the Word of God if it does not want to fail. A change of the teaching, of the dogma, is unthinkable. Who nevertheless consciously does it, or insistently demands it, is a heretic – even if he wears the Roman Purple.

Is not the whole discussion about the admittance of remarried to the Holy Eucharist also an expression of the fact that many Catholics do not believe any more in the Real Presence and rather think that they receive in Holy Communion anyway only a piece of bread?

Indeed, there is an indissoluble inner contradiction in someone who wants to receive the Body and Blood of Christ and to unite himself with Him, while at the same time he consciously disregards His Commandment. How shall this work?

St. Paul says about this matter: 'Who eats and drinks unworthily, is eating and drinking his judgment...' But: You are right. By far, not all Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the consecrated host. One can see this fact already in the way many – even priests – pass the tabernacle without genuflection.

Why is there nowadays such a strong attack on the indissolubility of marriage within the Church? A possible answer could be that the spirit of relativism has entered the Church, but there must be more reasons. Could you name some? And are not all these reasons a sign of the crisis of Faith within the Church herself?
Of course, if certain moral standards that have been valid generally, always, and everywhere, are not recognized anymore, then everybody makes himself his own moral law. That has as a consequence that one does what one pleases.

This individualistic approach regards life as a single chance for self-actualization – and not as a mission of the Creator. It is evident that such attitudes are the expression of a deeply rooted loss of Faith.

In this context, one can state that there has been little talk in the last decades about the teaching about human nature after the Fall. The dominant impression is that man, all in all, is good. In my view, this has led to a lax attitude toward sin. Now, that we see the result of such a lax attitude – an explosion of inhuman conduct in all possible areas of human life – should this not be a reason for the Church to see that the teaching on fallen human nature has been confirmed and to therefore proclaim it again?
That is true, indeed. The topic 'Original Sin' with its consequences, the necessity for Redemption through the suffering, death and Resurrection of Christ, has been largely suppressed and forgotten for a long time. However, one cannot understand the course of the world – and one's own life – without these truths. It is unavoidable that this ignoring of essential truths leads to moral misconduct. You are right: one should finally preach again about this topic, and with clarity.

The high numbers of abortion especially in the West have done great harm, not only for those killed babies, but also for the women (and men) who decided to kill their child. Should the prelates of the Church not take a strong stance about this terrible truth and try to shake the consciences of those women and men, also for the sake of their salvation? And does not the Church have a duty to defend with insistence the Little Ones who cannot defend themselves because they are not even allowed to live? “Let the Little Ones come to Me....”
Here one can say that the Church, especially under the last popes as well as under the Holy Father Francis, has left any room for doubt about the despicable character of the killing of unborn children in the womb. This applies no doubt also to all bishops.

However, the question is whether and in which form the teaching of the Church has been witnessed and presented in the public realm. That is where the hierarchy certainly could do more. One only has to think of the participation of cardinals and bishops at pro-life marches to underscore their witness to the Church's teaching.

Which steps would you recommend for the Church to strengthen the call to holiness and to show the path how to attain it?
One certainly has to witness to the Faith in a way that is fitting for the specific situation. In which form this can happen depends upon the specific circumstances. It opens up a whole field for creative imagination.

What would you say about the recent statements of [German] Bishop Franz-Josef Bode that the Catholic Church has to adapt increasingly to the “life realities” of the people of today and adjust accordingly her moral teaching? I am sure that you as a Church historian have in front of your eyes other examples from the history of the Church, where she was pressured from outside to change the teaching of Christ. Could you name some, and how did the Church in the past respond to such attacks?
It is completely clear and also not new that the proclamation of the teaching of the Church has to be adapted to the concrete life situations of society and of the individual, if the message is to be heard. But this applies only to the way of the proclamation, and not at all to its inviolable content. An adaptation of the moral teaching is not acceptable.

'Do not conform to the world,' said the Apostle St. Paul. If Bishop Bode teaches something different, he finds himself in contradiction to the teaching of the Church. Is he conscious of that?

Is the German Catholic Church permitted to go her own paths in the question of the admittance of remarried couples to the Holy Eucharist, and thereby decide independently of Rome, as Reinhard Cardinal Marx pronounced after the recent meeting of the German Bishops Conference?
The well-known statements of Cardinal Marx are in contradiction with the dogma of the Church. They are irresponsible in a pastoral respect, because they expose the faithful to confusion and doubts. If he thinks that the German Church can take an independent path nationally, he puts the unity of the Church at risk. It remains: the binding standard for all of the teaching and practice of the Church are her clearly defined doctrines.


Polish Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki:
Only those in a state of grace
can make act of spiritual communion

April 15, 2015

Voice of the Family welcomes the recent comments by His Excellency Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, Archbishop of Poznań and President of the Polish Episcopal Conference, explaining why the divorced and “remarried” do not possess the correct dispositions to make an act of spiritual communion.

The Archbishop’s intervention was reported by Corrispondenza Romana (as translated by Rorate Caeli) as follows:

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“The divorced and remarried cannot make spiritual communion” , Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki, President of the Polish Episcopal Conference affirmed in an intervention at the Convention “What God joined together…” Marriage, Family and Sexuality in the Context of the Synod of Bishops 2014-2015” which took place on April 14 tht the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw.

Archbishop Gadecki, who stood out during the Synod of Bishops in 2014 for his defense of Catholic morality, was responding to those like Cardinal Kasper who sustain that "if the divorced and remarried can receive spiritual communion, they can also actually receive the Sacrament".

The use that is made of the term “spiritual communion” in order to justify the admittance of the divorced and remarried to the Sacraments is absolutely improper, explained Archbishop Gadecki. Spiritual communion refers, in fact, to what people in a state of grace can do if, on account of a physical impediment or other justifiable circumstance, cannot receive Communion (as happened for example, in the part of Poland occupied by the Soviets after the Second World War).

But Mons. Gadecki said 'spiritual communion' cannot properly be applied refer to those who are forbidden to receive the Eucharist on account of a moral impediment that they can freely remove, by abandoning the situation of sin they are in.

Therefore, all those who are in a state of God’s grace can make a spiritual communion. Those who are in a state of sin, can pray, attend Mass, and develop their relationship with God, but this relationship cannot be defined as spiritual communion.

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The Archbishop’s words are important because, as noted above, Cardinal Kasper has tried to use this issue to advance his proposal that remarried divorcees should be admitted to the sacrament of Holy Communion.

In his speech to the consistory of cardinals in February 2013 Cardinal Kasper asserted, that 'according to recent ecclesiastical documents', this question was already settled and that the remarried divorcees could make acts of spiritual communion. [This assertion is probably as (un)reliable as his claim in the same consistory that St. Basil the Great and other early Fathers of the Church had no problem with second marriages (if the first spouse is still alive). Pope Francis went out of his way at the end of that consistory to praise Kasper's exposition as 'theology on bended knee' which would seem to ignore the tendentious dishonesties found here and there in Kasper's so-called 'gospel of the family'.]

From this Kasper drew the following conclusions:

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How can he or she then be in contradiction to Christ’s commandments? Why, then, can’t he or she also receive sacramental communion? If we exclude divorced and remarried Christians, who are properly disposed, from the sacraments, and refer them to the extrasacramental way of salvation, do we not then place the fundamental sacramental structure of the Church in question?

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[But what does Kasper mean by 'properly disposed' - that the person concerned wishes to receive communion even if remaining in the 'chronic state of sin' that disqualifies him, to begin with, from receiving communion, and who does not have not the least intention to leave his state of sin? Assuming that they even consider their adulterous second marriage a sin at all!]

A similar argument was introduced into the relatio synodi of the Extraordinary Synod in 2014. In paragraph 53 we read:

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Some synod fathers maintained that divorced and remarried persons or those living together can have fruitful recourse to a spiritual communion. Others raised the question as to why, then, they cannot have access “sacramentally.”

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Voice of the Family explored this question in our analysis of the final report of the synod. We wrote:

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In paragraph 53 the drafters try to find an opening for the admission to Holy Communion of the divorced and “remarried” by asserting that there are synod fathers who find it difficult to understand the difference between spiritual communion and sacramental communion. The traditional understanding of the Church is as follows:

(1) If a person receives Holy Communion with the correct dispositions [i.e., in a state of grace'], then the has Communion both sacramentally and spiritually.

(2) If a person receives Holy Communion, but is not correctly disposed (not in a state of grace), he receives it sacramentally but not spiritually - they may physically partake of the Body and Blood of the Lord but do not receive an increase of sanctifying grace, rather “he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself.”(1 Cor 11:29) [Worse, the person who does receive communion knowing he is not in a state of grace is also committing the mortal sin of sacrilege!]

(3) Finally, a person who is correctly disposed to receive Holy Communion, but is not able to do so physically, receives spiritually but not sacramentally, when they make an act of spiritual communion.

A person who willfully persists in a state of mortal sin is thus not able to make a spiritual communion in the proper sense of the term. Therefore a person who is divorced and “remarried” is not able to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion, or able to make a spiritual communion, until they repent of their sin.

The erroneous view that a person who is in unrepentant mortal sin can make an act of spiritual communion, in the proper sense of the term, is perhaps responsible for the confusion among bishops expressed in paragraph 53.

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If this position is correct, and we are convinced that it is, then the argument of Cardinal Kasper and the insinuation of the relatio synodi are shown to be groundless.

We strongly recommend the excellent article “Is Spiritual Communion for Everyone?” by Paul Jerome Keller O.P, which explains the traditional position in depth.


Finally, a new initiative by VOICE OF THE FAMILY.

Let me reiterate once more that we are witnessing what is probably the first instance in modern times when the faithful - and the clergy, including many cardinals and bishops - have to petition the Pope to preserve the deposit of faith. Which is remarkable because it is the mission of whoever is Pope to preserve the deposit of faith handed down to him. So these petitions being presented by various groups on various platforms indicate the perception by the petitioners that this Pope may tamper with, pilfer from, or otherwise change that deposit of faith.

Other than the petitions addressed to Paul VI in 1969-70 not to discard the traditional Mass, was it ever necessary for the lower orders of the Church to remind or petition Pius IX, Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI 'to preserve the deposit of faith'?

Clearly these petitions today to uphold the Church teaching on marriage and the Eucharist constitute an ecclesial singularity that could very well be stemmed right away by an assurance from the Pope that "I do not intend in any way to tamper with the deposit of faith that I am pledged to preserve, uphold and defend".

Which this Pope cannot do because he has given the green light to his followers to "change pastoral practice but not doctrine" about the leniencies that he convened his 'family synods' to ratify in behalf, ostensibly, of the bishops of the world, but really, in behalf most of all, of the Bishop of Rome who wants to be able to claim 'collegiality' when he formally moves in on the deposit of faith.

VOTF starts US priest initiative
asking the Pope to preserve
the deposit of faith at the family Synod

April 17, 2015

Voice of the Family - a coalition of 23 pro-life and pro-family groups from around the globe - is organizing an American version of the Priests' Initiative. In March, a "Support for Marriage Letter," signed by 461 Catholic priests in England and Wales, was released, reaffirming traditional Catholic doctrine, and urging the Holy See to put an end to growing confusion over Catholic teaching on marriage and human sexuality.

The letter was prompted by events at the October 2014 bishops' synod on the family in Rome, where various prelates, some of whom claimed the support of the Pope, called for the recognition of homosexual unions and for the repeal of Catholic moral prohibitions - rooted in Holy Scripture - against the reception of Holy Communion by those in a state of mortal sin. The synod will conclude with a final session in the Vatican, in October of this year.

The Voice of the Family is headed by John-Henry Westen, Editor-in-Chief of LifeSiteNews, the online pro-life news service known for its vigorous defense of Catholic orthodoxy.

Any members of the clergy wishing to sign the American version of the Voice of the Family letter may do so below. Please forward this email to any priest, diocesan or religious, who you believe might be interested in lending his name to the sacred cause of upholding the Deposit of Faith. Thank you.

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Dear Father,

Will you join the nearly-500 priests in England who recently signed a public statement defending the Church’s teachings on the nature and indissolubility of marriage, and asking for clarity from the upcoming Synod on the Family?

Following the amazing success of the priests initiative in England, Voice of the Family, a lay initiative made up of 23 pro-life and pro-family groups from around the world, is now working to promote the initiative internationally.

To add your name to the letter , simply send an e-mail to voiceofthefamilyusa@gmail.com with your full name, parish and/or religious order, and affirm that you wish to be added as a signatory to the letter.

The full text of the open letter appears below. A fuller explanation of this initiative follows after that.

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FULL TEXT OF THE LETTER TO THE PRESS

Following the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in Rome in October 2014 much confusion has arisen concerning Catholic moral teaching. In this situation we wish, as Catholic priests, to re-state our unwavering fidelity to the traditional doctrines regarding marriage and the true meaning of human sexuality, founded on the Word of God and taught by the Church’s Magisterium for two millennia.

We commit ourselves anew to the task of presenting this teaching in all its fullness, while reaching out with the Lord’s compassion to those struggling to respond to the demands and challenges of the Gospel in an increasingly secular society.

Furthermore we affirm the importance of upholding the Church’s traditional discipline regarding the reception of the sacraments, and that doctrine and practice remain firmly and inseparably in harmony.

We urge all those who will participate in the second Synod in October 2015 to make a clear and firm proclamation of the Church’s unchanging moral teaching, so that confusion may be removed, and faith confirmed.

Yours in Christ,

Your name
Your parish

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It is most likely that, like us, you will have followed the events of last October’s Extraordinary Synod of Bishops and its aftermath with interest. Like us, you may also have been left unsettled and deeply concerned by some of the statements coming out of that Synod, and the manner in which the Synod was at times reported by the media and interpreted by those with a secular ideological agenda.

There is now a distorted general sense that the Church’s moral teaching could be changed and that Catholic practice could be altered regardless of doctrine. Even some committed Catholics are making statements that do not reflect the settled teaching of the Church, nor the clear message of the New Testament.

As pastors of souls you will be only too aware of the confusion this has caused to those to whom you minister. All too often it is those who have been most faithful to the teaching of the Church and have made great sacrifices in order to conform their lives to the Gospel, who have been left in greatest distress.

Pope Francis exhorted the participants of the Extraordinary Synod: 'Speak freely and from the heart. And listen humbly to each other.’ Inspired by the Holy Father’s invitation, we wish to make our voice heard.

The letter we intend and propose to publish in the Catholic/national press states our adherence to the Church’s traditional doctrine and discipline of marriage, and our request that this will be affirmed without ambiguity by the Synod to be held later in 2015.

We also make clear our commitment to serve all those who struggle to live out the demands of the Gospel amidst the often difficult circumstances of modern life. Clarity in teaching is never opposed to good pastoral practice, but is rather its foundation.

Please join your brother priests around the world in making this statement, for which we know many people are longing. We invite you to sign the letter and return it, without delay, to the email address provided.

Yours in Our Lord,

John-Henry Westen
Co-Founder
Voice of the Family
Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
LifeSiteNews.com

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Frankly, I am apprehensive about response to this initiative, not because I do not think there are enough priests who continue to maintain and preach orthodox doctrine and discipline, but because too many priests adopt the herd mentality - and if the herd mentality today seems to be "Go with Pope Francis all the way", they will follow that rather than their own convictions, and in the process, may have changed their convictions already.

In England and Wales, the initial response came from 461 out of 2000 priests and male religious, though I believe another 250 names or so have since joined up. I would be happy if, in the United States, the response was at least 4% of the number of priests and male religious in the USA (38,275 in 2014, according to the latest CARA figures), which would make it 1,531 signatories.

[I picked the 4% figure since it was the percentage of US priests accused of sexual abuses and investigated by the police in 1950-2002, of which, I hasten to add, only 1 out of 10 (actually only 8.7%) were formally charged [the base was 109,800 - cumulative number of priests in those five decades]. Of those 364 who were formally charged and tried, 252 were convicted, representing less than 6% of those who had been accused. In other words, 94% of all charges presented turned out to be not prosecutable, though that doesn't mean that in all such cases, the accused was necessarily innocent. This has nothing to do with the subject on hand, but I just wanted to bring up the figures as a reminder. One offense is one too many, but neither is it right to exaggerate the dimensions of that crisis!]

Thanks to Monique, one of the regular contributors to Beatrice's site, www.benoitetmoi, here are some excerpts from Cardinal Sarah's interview book published in France, which I have translated:

Cardinal Robert Sarah:
John Paul II's 'new springtime of the Church'
is in the holiness of the faithful, especially
the Church's unsung missionaries

---

In Europe, we have always had the impression that Catholicism is in its death throes. But all it takes is a week at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples to understand that, on the contrary, the Church has an extraordinary vitality. And that we are living 'a new springtime of Christianity', as John Paul II loved to say.

In 1900, there were two million Catholics in Africa. Today, there are 185 million. In Asia, Catholicism, provoked and stimulated by indigenous traditions of mysticism, embodies modernity. But I would add that the beauty of the Church does not reside in the number of faithful, but in their holiness.

[As secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples for eight years] I was able to follow the work of more than one thousand dioceses and countless missionaries who have given of themselves generously to others in the world's most arid and remote places. And yet, with ridiculously little means, they have been able to bring to people all the goodness of God.

Often, missionary institutions are the only ones who pay attention to the poor and the sick whom everyone disregards. When irresponsible governments, cruel armies, and lobbies thirsting for profit have sowed terror and despair, all that's left are the open hands of God who, through the courage of these messengers of his Gospel, comes to comfort those who are most in need.

Among these missionaries, there are many saints. Most will remain unknown, and yet their holiness is very impressive...

In this great dicastery, I feel able to understand the fundamental intuitions of John Paul II. In the West, where everything good seems to be dying and Christianity seems to be ineluctably evaporating, there are nonetheless many extraordinary hidden flowers. Because the true springtime of the Church are her saints. And how can we forget John Paul II, Mother Teresa and all the saint of our time?...

I had the opportunity of several work sessions with Pope Benedict XVI, especially for the nomination of bishops. His humility, his capacity to listen, his intelligence have always struck me...

In my life, God has done everything. For my part, I have only wanted to pray. I am sure that the red vestments of my cardinalate are truly the reflection of the blood of suffering of all the missionaries who reached every corner of Africa, including my village, to evangelize us...

Returning from a trip to India for Cor Unum, I had an audience with Benedict XVI, who told me during that meeting words that I will never forget: "Excellency, I named you the president of Cor Unum because I know that among everyone, you have the experience of suffering and of the face of poverty. So you would be the best to express with sensitivity the compassion and nearness of the Church to the poorest and neediest".

---

Monique comments:

---

These excerpts have inspired these thoughts:
o One cannot judge the 'health' of Catholicism simply by focusing on Europe.
o The debates at the 'family synod' are in fact Europist and European. They do not reflect the concerns of the rest of the world. Africa and Asia could provide surprises.
o In many countries, the Catholic church is the only institution capable of helping needy populations materially, morally and spiritually. The Church of the poor and for the poor existed long before March 13, 2013.
o Benedict XVI was always very close to the poor and the needy, but with great discretion. [His great and unique virtue in a time of 'Look at me! I'm different!']
o Among contemporary saints, we can now cite the Christians driven from their homelands in the Middle East. By abjuring their faith, they could have kept their homes, their comfort, their jobs, the schools their kids attended... They chose not to, bearing witness to the extraordinary vitality of Christianity.
o Cardinal Sarah is gifted with a broadness of perspective.

---

Thanks to Gemma who has been patiently and lovingly editing videos of Benedict XVI events during his Pontificate, to Lella who features these videos on her blog, to Anne on Beatrice's site who transcribed the following video in Italian, and to Beatrice who translated the interview to French and published both transcripts on her site, here's a little B16 birthday/anniversary bonus - an interview for RAI by the late Giuseppe de Carli (for years, RAI's chief Vatican correspondent) and Vittorio Messori on April 15, 2007... It's one I had not seen or read about before.

On the eve of B16's 80th birthday,
Vittorio Messori confides he was the first one
surprised by the Ratzinger he interviewed
for the 1984 book THE RATZINGER REPORT
Interview on RAI-TV
April 15, 2007

GDC: Tomorrow, Papa Ratzinger will turn 80 and on April 19, he will celebrate the second anniversary of his election as Pope.

Successor of John Paul II, a German pope after a Polish Pope, a theologian after a philosopher, the architrave of John Paul II's Pontificate, a man who had just turned 78 when he was elected Pope - and was the only Conclavist who was taking part in his third Conclave, also the only remaining cardinal who had been created by Paul VI.

Next to me to comment on these series of events that are so singular and unique is Vittorio Messori, journalist and author, who is known to all of you.

Thank you, Messori, for your participation. It could be said that you form part of Papa Ratzinger's intellectual biography, so much so that in his book JESUS OF NAZARETH, which will be out in bookstores tomorrow, you are cited on page 64.

One cannot speak of Pope Benedict without referring to your RAPPORTO SULLA FEDE in 1984 [published in English as THE RATZINGER REPORT] which represented a kind of turning point for communications in the Church. For the first time, the Prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith broke a taboo and emerged from the absolute privacy that we had been accustomed to in earlier custodians of the Catholic faith. And that RAPPORT) SULLA FEDE became a best-seller many times over.

VM: Well yes, I myself, who was well aware of the mythical secrecy of the Holy Office - a historic name that had been changed to the more politically correct Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - I myself as the chronicler, during the three days that I spent with the then Cardinal Ratzinger for the interviews that became this book, that was only later named RAPPORTO SULLA FEDE, I could hardly believe my ears - in the sense that I had expected a reticent man, a diplomatic man, according to the venerated rules of Vatican diplomacy.

I had expected a clever crafty prelate, but instead, I found myself facing a man of extreme simplicity, who, to my every question, never refused a response that was the most open and the most complete that he could give.

Therefore the first one surprised by Cardinal Ratzinger was myself, but I must say he also surprised the Church, because the book - certainly not through merit but that of its true protagonist, of Cardinal Ratzinger who for the first time came out in the open - that book marked a kind of watershed in the post-Conciliar years. Indeed, it was said outright that it separated a before and after mark in the years after Vatican II....

GDC: After the post-conciliar spring, winter followed...

VM: According to the black myth...

GDC: ...Of Messori's book...

VM: No, not Messori's book. It is Ratzinger's book. I was merely the chronicler who asked provocative questions...

GDC: Nonetheless, the effects of that book were so explosive that you had to drop out of circulation for almost two months. "I hid myself," you said in one interview, "as if it was during the wartime Resistance, in a retreat house of the Barnabites in Alta Brianza." But those who threatened you at the time have probably become Ratzingerians by now!

VM: Well yes. I say that with a smile and with no rancor whatsoever, because it's all in the past now, but I have a chest filled with furious letters written by colleagues, prelates, theologians, all of whom in 1985 attacked not just Ratzinger but even me, as the chronicler who, according to them, was guilty not only of having gone out of my way to interview the cardinal, but above all, of not having contradicted him, for not having pointed out that here was a kind of nazi-clericalism - that was the black legend that was circulated.

And I must say that, in 20 years, I have tried basically to show, in some way, as best as I could, in my little way, that the Cardinal Ratzinger who was presented as a German Inquisitor, is really a good man, a gentle almost shy man that we now know he is.

GDC: Well, 23 years have passed since then. Has Ratzinger changed or has he remained the same?

VM: I asked him that question myself in a different context when I said: "Excuse me, Eminence, you were part of the so-called progressive current in Vatican-II - and in fact, some of your colleagues have not forgiven you for turning into some sort of icon for a 'restoration'." And I remember that he looked at me with those clear eyes and with that face that I like to describe as a boy's face in an 80-year-old man. He looked at me said said in an Italian that was still tentative for he had not been here long then, "But it is not I who changed - it's the others who did". And I think he was right.

Basically, Ratzinger's line, since he was a young theologian, who was considered progressivist in a pejorative sense - his line has not changed. I believe he is a man marked above all, I would say, by a well-known trait: his great love for the Church and his awareness that he Church is the institution that reveals the mystery of Christ.

GDC: The Pope has never referred to his age, almost as if he fears getting all sentimental, but he knows he is old, that he was 78 when he said Yes in the Sistine Chapel, and yet, he did not step back. What is really striking about him is his fundamental serenity...

VM: It's part of his abandonment to the divine will.. Certainly, when I learned he had been elected - which was not something we took for granted, as you know - when I learned he had been elected, I was happy for the Church, I confess, but I also confess with the same sincerity that I was not very happy for him because I knew that he had intended to dedicate the last phase of his life to finishing his work as a theologian.

And I must say that his life has always been marked by obedience to the commands of the Church. I would say that his vocation would have been to spend his time in libraries and in theological studies. But, in effect, he was taken out of his niche by Paul VI who assigned him a difficult diocese, and in difficult times, that of Munich-Freising. After which John Paul II took him out of that niche to entrust him with the most sensitive task in the Church after Vatican II - to guard the orthodoxy of the faith. And then, of course, once again, his own retirement plans were foiled by the Conclave which made him Pope.

Basically, I would say this man's life has been one of sacrifice - sacrificing his true and most profound vocation, which is that of a reflective man, a man who loved his contact with young people in academic halls...

GDC: That is why he placed St. Corbinian's bear on his coat of arms - "I am like a beast of burden..."

VM: Yes, but Corbinian, the sainted bishop, after the bear had transported his baggage to Rome, sent him back home free...

GDC: While he has not been able to go back home free...

VM: Yes, in his case it would be: "They brought me to Rome and loaded burdens on my shoulders, and now no one is taking me back home".

GDC: Listen, the New York Times dedicated the cover story in its Sunday magazine to him, saying: "It is a papacy that has largely disarmed the left wing of the Church. he has been a Pontiff who has been 'softer' than expected, not so much calling the Church to arms against abortion and contraception as to setting out secure positions of high morality."

His primary objective, says the Times, is to tame Western secularization which threatens to obliterate the splendor of the Western Catholic tradition to a geriatric echo chamber though it may be filled with works of art. The idea is expressed crudely but it does have some truth. What do you think?

VM: Yes, but one must specify that one cannot continue using this crude political scheme and apply it to the life of the Church...

GDC: Namely, right and left...

VM: Right, left, progressivist, conservative - in the Church, these are absolutely extraneous schemes. If we had to classify Jesus and the great saints, what are we to say - were they right or left, conservative or progressivist? This is nonsense, a journalistic deformation to apply such schemes.

But there is some truth in the article. For example, my colleague from the Times... confirms precisely what those who know Ratzinger have always said... that as Pope he has showed himself less rigid than expected. And yet those who know Ratzinger know that he was never a sort of Grand Inquisitor seeking to impose inhuman decrees on the People of God!

Ratzinger has always been a man who listens, a man of dialog, a moderate, so to speak.. Therefore, I am happy for the Church, not so much for him, that he was elected to Peter's Chair, precisely because he has been able to show that his true temperament is not that of a repressor or a restorer - his true temperament is that of a man of God who is open to the Catholic logic of 'et-et', namely, always careful to seek balance.

GDC: From the Scala Regia (Grand Staircase of the Apostolic Palace), we are seeing the procession emerge (towards St. Peter's Square). The Pope loves this ritual, we have noticed. He did it it on Palm Sunday and on Easter, and he does it today for the Messa in Albis (the first Sunday after Easter], as it was once called, and now, Sunday of Divine Mercy, as John Paul II decided when he canonized St. Faustina Kowalska in 2000... I shall tell you a small secret. Tomorrow the Pope turns 80 - but it is also the birthday of our illustrious guest, Vittorio Messori. Happy birthday...

VM: Thank you, thank you, But this is not the news...

GDC: April 16 is also the feast day of Bernadette Soubirous, who died on April 16, 1876. We are marking a jubilee year for Fatima, the 90th anniversary of the Marian apparitions there, and we are entering the jubilee year marking 150 years since the apparitions at Lourdes.

VM: Yes, next year (2008) we shall be marking the anniversary of Our Lady's first apparition in Lourdes to Bernadette. At Lourdes, they are already preparing great celebrations, starting this year on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8. It is expected that the usual 5-6 million visitors a year to Lourdes will probably be twice as many next year. And there will be a great affluence to the Grotto.

[As it turned out, Benedict XVI would make an apostolic visit to France in September 2008 to mark the Lourdes jubilee and would spend a memorable two days packed with activities in Lourdes. Messori himself, in 2012, would write a book about Lourdes entitled Bernadette non ci ha ingannati: Un'indagine storica sulla verita di Lourdesdid not deceive us" (Bernadette did not deceive us: A historical inquiry into the truth of Lourdes), which has sicne been translated to English as Lourdes: A Story of faith, science and miracles..]

[IMG]

On what would have been the completion of

THE TENTH FULL YEAR

OF YOUR BLESSED PONTIFICATE...

AD MULTOS ANNOS, SANCTE PATER EMERITE!

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE BEEN

AND CONTINUE TO BE

FOR THE CHURCH, THE WORLD, AND ALL OF US.

WE COULD NEVER LOVE YOU ENOUGH.

April 19, 2015, Third Sunday of Easter
Today's saints:

BLESSED LUCHESIO AND BUONADONNA (Italy, d 1260), Husband and Wife, First Lay Franciscans
Luchesio was said to have been a ‘greedy merchant’ who lived in Poggibonzi near Siena and was probably born in the late 12th century since he met Francis of Assisi in 1213, an event that changed his life. He began to perform acts of charity. This troubled his wife Buonadonna who thought he was giving away too much. One day she answered the door to another stranger in need, and her husband told her to give him bread. Unhappy about this, she went to the pantry anyway, where she found more bread than there had been. This changed her own outlook. They sold their business, turned to farming to provide for their needs and to help others. At that time, some pious couples, with the Church’s consent, separated to become religious, or to join a group like Francis’s, if they were childless or if their children were grown up. Francis set up the secular Franciscan order (the so-called third Order) to accommodate couples like Luchesio and Buonadonna who wanted to share religious life but outside the cloister. The couple from Poggibonzi became the first lay Franciscans. Pope Honorius approved their Rule in 1221. As with many other saints, the couple never seemed to lack for resources to help those who came to them. They died on the same day in 1260, and he was beatified in 1273. She was never formally beatified but she has been venerated as Blessed like her husband.




Those who may want to relive the days that led to the election of Benedict XVI {with pictures and news accounts of the day-to-day events, all the way to the Mass to inaugurate his Petrine Ministry), along with how various individuals experienced it and reacted to it, may want to check out, if they have not seen it before, a special section entitled THE EXPERIENCE OF APRIL 19, 2005 in the PAPA RATZINGER FORUM at this link:
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354517&p=1
It never fails to bring back all the emotions - and floods of joyous and sentimental tears! The scene is indelibly etched in our memory but always worth reliving.

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[IMG]http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt96/MARITER_7/B16-
HISTORY/050419-B16-FWIRSTWORDS-PIX-2_zps3bdff8a2.jpg[/IMG]
A video of Benedict XVI's first appearance to the world as Pope may be seen on youtu.be/RIFn5u_3pyE

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And herewith, my favorite personal recollection about Benedict XVI:


Perhaps of all the words that the Holy Father said during his never-to-be-forgotten visit to the United States and to the United Nations - and every word was precious and significant - what will remain etched in my brain are the spontaneous words he spoke to thank the congregation at St. Patrick's for remembering the third anniversary of his Pontificate. All the more since I heard the words 'directly' as he spoke them, through the front-door speakers of the cathedral's audio system. These were his extemporaneous words delivered in English:

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At this moment I can only thank you for your love of the Church and Our Lord, and for the love which you show to this poor Successor of Saint Peter.

I will try to do all that is possible to be a worthy successor of the great Apostle, who also was a man with faults and sins, but remained in the end the rock for the Church.

And so I too, with all my spiritual poverty, can be for this time, by virtue of the Lord’s grace, the Successor of Peter.

It is also your prayers and your love which give me the certainty that the Lord will help me in this my ministry. I am therefore deeply grateful for your love and for your prayers.

And my answer to all that you have given to me in this moment and this visit is my blessing at the end of the Holy Mass.

- BENEDICT XVI
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
April 19, 2008.

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Seven years ago, Benedict XVI undertook an apostolic visit to the United States on April 15-22, 2007 during which he also addressed the United Nations.


For an extensive coverage of that visit, please visit the special thread dedicated to it in PAPA RATZINGER FORUM, starting on Page 15
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=7092407&p=15
The earlier pages were devoted to all the material leading up to the visit.

As I have been largely out of the loop since yesterday morning, this happens to be the only acknowledgment I have read in the Anglophone media of the tenth anniversary of Benedict XVI's election as Pope. Even if it is written from the perspective of a Briton relating to the Holy Father's most inspiring state visit to the United Kingdom in September 2010, the writer clearly appreciates B16 for who he really is and indirectly pays tribute to his 'transformative papacy'....

How Benedict XVI vanquished
the New Atheists
Ten years ago, he began
his transformative Papacy
by Mary O'Regan

Sunday, 19 Apr 2015



Benedict XVI arrives at Cofton Park, Birmingham, for the beatification of Cardinal Newman.


Ten years ago today, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope, taking the name Benedict XVI. One surprise of the papacy that followed was that his visit to Britain was a such resounding success – so successful, in fact, that the benefits are still felt to this day.

In the months leading up to the papal visit in September 2010, we had militant atheists, campaigning secularists and many sections of the anti-Catholic lobby doing their worst to cast a shadow over the visit.

The National Secular Society launched its (grammatically suspect) “Protest the Pope” campaign, making known to anyone who would listen its beef that the taxpayer was footing some of the bill for the state visit. It ran an online petition, as well as printing T-shirts with the slogan, “Pope Nope”.

The human rights activist Peter Tatchell even threatened to arrest Benedict and put him on trial for “crimes against humanity”.

Then there was that leaked memo, exposed by the Telegraph, in which civil servants lampooned the Pope’s visit by suggesting he should open an abortion ward during his trip and launch a range of papal-branded condoms.

But the British public generally had little sympathy for the protesters. They felt they protested too much, and the Pope’s visit went swimmingly.

Perhaps the turning point was when a young Catholic, Paschal Uche, welcomed Pope Benedict on the steps of Westminster Cathedral. Paschal was training to be a pharmacist at the time, and is now a seminarian. The sight of eloquent and well-adjusted Catholics such as Paschal taking centre stage did a lot to strip away the anti-Catholic prejudice stirred up by the protesters.

Campaigning secularists and self-styled New Atheists lost a lot of credibility during the visit. The campaigners poured so much of their energy into trying to put Benedict on trial, as if he were some base criminal, that they acted as though the British public needed safeguarding from the grandfatherly, gentle man in white.

When Benedict arrived on our shores, the public saw through all the huffing and puffing. Parts of the mainstream media also looked rather silly. Before the visit they had given lots of ink and airtime to anyone with an anti-papal axe to grind.

The fruits of the visit are still being enjoyed today. The profile of Catholics in Britain has been raised and anti-Catholic bigotry has lessened. That explains why Pope Francis’s detractors don’t enjoy much of an audience among ordinary Britons nowadays. And New Atheists have never quite been given the same platform as they were before Benedict’s visit.

Can someone tell me, please, when this photo was taken? I have not seen it before, nor anything like it: B16 and PF having an informal chat with - is it Cardinal Brandmueller? - as the other party to the chat! It couldn't have been after one of the Masses or the consistory B16 attended, because the Pope would have been in Mass vestments. It does not look like it was taken at the Vatican Gardens when the St. Michael statue was unveiled, which is the only informal public occasion I can recall with both Popes present. Did I miss an event? ACISTAMPA (the Italian edition of CNA) used it to illustrate a 10th-anniversary piece which chose to present Benedict XVI in the eyes of his successor - at least, what the latter has said publicly of him in the past two years.

Teresa, the photo was taken on occasion of the encounter with the elderly on 28 September 2014 in St. Peter's Square.

The cardinal next to Papa Ratzinger is not Brandmüller but I haven't been able to find out his name...

[IMG]http://i601.photobucket.com/albums/tt96/MARITER_7/B16-COCCOLESEAL.jpg[/IMG]

Welcome to the Forum and many thanks for the prompt response.
I forgot all about that event. I think I did not see any photos of it before....

TERESA

One day late for this lookback, but here is the first homily ever delivered by Benedict XVI as Pope in the first Mass he ever celebrated as Pope on April 20, 2005...The new Pope, hardly fourteen hours since his election, returned to the Sistine Chapel the next morning to celebrate the traditional Missa pro Ecclesia. He delivered the homily in Latin, which means he wrote the text the previous evening after dinner with his fellow Cardinals at Casa Santa Marta. That's a tour de force for anyone, let alone a 78-year-old as he was at the time. (Imagine the new Papa Benedetto, alone in his small room in Casa Santa Marta - Cardinal Ouellet recalls that Cardinal Ratzinger was assigned a fairly small room - after all the historic excitement of the evening, and sitting down at his desk to compose his homily in Latin, writing it out as he has handwritten all his texts. Burning the midnight oil made literal! (His successor, Pope Francis, opted to celebrate this Mass in the afternoon after his election, and his homily was fairly short and seemed extemporaneous.)... I am thankful I recovered the accompanying [photos online from a CBS News slideshow on 4/20/05.

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MISSA PRO ECCLESIA
FIRST MESSAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT
AT THE END OF THE EUCHARISTIC CONCELEBRATION
WITH THE MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS
IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL
Wednesday, 20 April 2005

Venerable Brother Cardinals,
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
All you men and women of good will,

1. "Favour and peace be yours in abundance" (IPt 1:2)!

At this time, side by side in my heart I feel two contrasting emotions. On the one hand, a sense of inadequacy and human apprehension as I face the responsibility for the universal Church, entrusted to me yesterday as Successor of the Apostle Peter in this See of Rome.

On the other, I have a lively feeling of profound gratitude to God who, as the liturgy makes us sing, never leaves his flock untended but leads it down the ages under the guidance of those whom he himself has chosen as the Vicars of his Son and has made shepherds of the flock (cf. Preface of Apostles I).

Dear friends, this deep gratitude for a gift of divine mercy is uppermost in my heart in spite of all. And I consider it a special grace which my Venerable Predecessor, John Paul II, has obtained for me. I seem to feel his strong hand clasping mine; I seem to see his smiling eyes and hear his words, at this moment addressed specifically to me, "Do not be afraid!".

The death of the Holy Father John Paul II and the days that followed have been an extraordinary period of grace for the Church and for the whole world. Deep sorrow at his departure and the sense of emptiness that it left in everyone have been tempered by the action of the Risen Christ, which was manifested during long days in the unanimous wave of faith, love and spiritual solidarity that culminated in his solemn funeral Mass.

We can say it: John Paul II's funeral was a truly extraordinary experience in which, in a certain way, we glimpsed the power of God who, through his Church, wants to make a great family of all the peoples by means of the unifying power of Truth and Love (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 1).

Conformed to his Master and Lord, John Paul II crowned his long and fruitful Pontificate at the hour of his death, strengthening Christian people in their faith, gathering them around him and making the entire human family feel more closely united.

How can we not feel sustained by this testimony? How can we fail to perceive the encouragement that comes from this event of grace?

2. Surprising all my expectations, through the votes of the Venerable Father Cardinals, divine Providence has called me to succeed this great Pope. I am thinking back at this moment to what happened in the neighbourhood of Caesarea Philippi some 2,000 years ago. I seem to hear Peter's words: "You are the Christ..., the Son of the living God", and the Lord's solemn affirmation: "You are "Peter' and on this rock I will build my Church.... I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (cf. Mt 16:15-19).

You are Christ! You are Peter! I seem to be reliving the same Gospel scene; I, the Successor of Peter, repeat with trepidation the anxious words of the fisherman of Galilee and listen once again with deep emotion to the reassuring promise of the divine Master.

Although the weight of responsibility laid on my own poor shoulders is enormous, there is no doubt that the divine power on which I can count is boundless: "You are "Peter', and on this rock I will build my Church" (Mt 16:18). In choosing me as Bishop of Rome, the Lord wanted me to be his Vicar, he wanted me to be the "rock" on which we can all safely stand.

I ask him to compensate for my limitations so that I may be a courageous and faithful Pastor of his flock, ever docile to the promptings of his Spirit.

I am preparing to undertake this special ministry, the "Petrine" ministry at the service of the universal Church, with humble abandonment into the hands of God's Providence. I first of all renew my total and confident loyalty to Christ: "In Te, Domine, speravi; non confundar in aeternum!"

Your Eminences, with heartfelt gratitude for the trust you have shown me, I ask you to support me with your prayers and with your constant, active and wise collaboration. I also ask all my Brothers in the Episcopate to be close to me with their prayers and advice, so that I may truly be the Servus servorum Dei.

Just as the Lord willed that Peter and the other Apostles make up the one Apostolic College, in the same way the Successor of Peter and the Bishops, successors of the Apostles - the Council has forcefully reasserted this (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 22), must be closely united with one another.

This collegial communion, despite the diversity of roles and functions of the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops, is at the service of the Church and of unity in the faith, on which the efficacy of evangelizing action in the contemporary world largely depends. Therefore, it is on this path, taken by my Venerable Predecessors, that I also intend to set out, with the sole concern of proclaiming the living presence of Christ to the whole world.

3. I have before my eyes in particular the testimony of Pope John Paul II. He leaves a Church that is more courageous, freer, more youthful. She is a Church which, in accordance with his teaching and example, looks serenely at the past and is not afraid of the future.

With the Great Jubilee she entered the new millennium, bearing the Gospel, applied to today's world through the authoritative rereading of the Second Vatican Council. Pope John Paul II rightly pointed out the Council as a "compass" by which to take our bearings in the vast ocean of the third millennium (cf. Apostolic Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, nn. 57-58).

Also, in his spiritual Testament he noted, "I am convinced that it will long be granted to the new generations to draw from the treasures that this 20th-century Council has lavished upon us" (17 March 2000; L'Osservatore Romano English edition [ORE], 13 April 2005, p. 4).

Thus, as I prepare myself for the service that is proper to the Successor of Peter, I also wish to confirm my determination to continue to put the Second Vatican Council into practice, following in the footsteps of my Predecessors and in faithful continuity with the 2,000-year tradition of the Church.

This very year marks the 40th anniversary of the conclusion of the Council (8 December 1965). As the years have passed, the Conciliar Documents have lost none of their timeliness; indeed, their teachings are proving particularly relevant to the new situation of the Church and the current globalized society.

4. My Pontificate begins in a particularly meaningful way as the Church is living the special Year dedicated to the Eucharist. How could I fail to see this providential coincidence as an element that must mark the ministry to which I am called?

The Eucharist, the heart of Christian life and the source of the Church's evangelizing mission, cannot but constitute the permanent centre and source of the Petrine ministry that has been entrusted to me.

The Eucharist makes constantly present the Risen Christ who continues to give himself to us, calling us to participate in the banquet of his Body and his Blood. From full communion with him flows every other element of the Church's life: first of all, communion among all the faithful, the commitment to proclaiming and witnessing to the Gospel, the ardour of love for all, especially the poorest and lowliest.

This year, therefore, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi must be celebrated with special solemnity. Subsequently, the Eucharist will be the center of the World Youth Day in Cologne in August, and in October, also of the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, whose theme will be: "The Eucharist, source and summit of the life and mission of the Church".

I ask everyone in the coming months to intensify love and devotion for Jesus in the Eucharist, and to express courageously and clearly faith in the Real Presence of the Lord, especially by the solemnity and the correctness of the celebrations.

I ask this especially of priests, whom I am thinking of with deep affection at this moment. The ministerial Priesthood was born at the Last Supper, together with the Eucharist, as my Venerable Predecessor John Paul II so frequently emphasized. "All the more then must the life of a priest be "shaped' by the Eucharist"(Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday 2005, n. 1; ORE, 23 March, p. 4). In the first place, the devout, daily celebration of Holy Mass, the centre of the life and mission of every priest, contributes to this goal.

5. Nourished and sustained by the Eucharist, Catholics cannot but feel encouraged to strive for the full unity for which Christ expressed so ardent a hope in the Upper Room. The Successor of Peter knows that he must make himself especially responsible for his Divine Master's supreme aspiration. Indeed, he is entrusted with the task of strengthening his brethren (cf. Lk 22:32).

With full awareness, therefore, at the beginning of his ministry in the Church of Rome which Peter bathed in his blood, Peter's current Successor takes on as his primary task the duty to work tirelessly to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers. This is his ambition, his impelling duty.

He is aware that good intentions do not suffice for this. Concrete gestures that enter hearts and stir consciences are essential, inspiring in everyone that inner conversion that is the prerequisite for all ecumenical progress.

Theological dialogue is necessary; the investigation of the historical reasons for the decisions made in the past is also indispensable. But what is most urgently needed is that "purification of memory", so often recalled by John Paul II, which alone can dispose souls to accept the full truth of Christ.

Each one of us must come before him, the supreme Judge of every living person, and render an account to him of all we have done or have failed to do to further the great good of the full and visible unity of all his disciples.

The current Successor of Peter is allowing himself to be called in the first person by this requirement and is prepared to do everything in his power to promote the fundamental cause of ecumenism.

Following the example of his Predecessors, he is fully determined to encourage every initiative that seems appropriate for promoting contacts and understanding with the representatives of the different Churches and Ecclesial Communities. Indeed, on this occasion he sends them his most cordial greeting in Christ, the one Lord of us all.

6. I am thinking back at this time to the unforgettable experience seen by all of us on the occasion of the death and funeral of the late John Paul II.

The Heads of Nations, people from every social class and especially young people gathered round his mortal remains, laid on the bare ground, in an unforgettable embrace of love and admiration. The whole world looked to him with trust.

To many it seemed that this intense participation, amplified by the media to reach the very ends of the planet, was like a unanimous appeal for help addressed to the Pope by today's humanity which, upset by uncertainties and fears, was questioning itself on its future.

The Church of today must revive her awareness of the duty to repropose to the world the voice of the One who said: "I am the light of the world. No follower of mine shall ever walk in darkness; no, he shall possess the light of life" (Jn 8:12).

In carrying out his ministry, the new Pope knows that his task is to make Christ's light shine out before the men and women of today: not his own light, but Christ's.

Aware of this I address everyone, including the followers of other religions or those who are simply seeking an answer to the fundamental questions of life and have not yet found it. I address all with simplicity and affection, to assure them that the Church wants to continue to weave an open and sincere dialogue with them, in the search for the true good of the human being and of society.

I ask God for unity and peace for the human family, and declare the willingness of all Catholics to cooperate for an authentic social development, respectful of the dignity of every human being.

I will make every conscientious effort to continue the promising dialogue initiated by my Venerable Predecessors with the different civilizations, so that mutual understanding may create the conditions for a better future for all.

I am thinking in particular of the young. I offer my affectionate embrace to them, the privileged partners in dialogue with Pope John Paul II, hoping, please God, to meet them in Cologne on the occasion of the upcoming World Youth Day.

I will continue our dialogue, dear young people, the future and hope of the Church and of humanity, listening to your expectations in the desire to help you encounter in ever greater depth the living Christ, eternally young.

7. Mane nobiscum, Domine! Stay with us, Lord! This invocation, which is the principal topic of the Apostolic Letter of John Paul II for the Year of the Eucharist, is the prayer that wells up spontaneously from my heart as I prepare to begin the ministry to which Christ has called me. Like Peter, I too renew to him my unconditional promise of fidelity. I intend to serve him alone, dedicating myself totally to the service of his Church.

To support me in my promise, I call on the motherly intercession of Mary Most Holy, in whose hands I place the present and future of the Church and of myself. May the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and all the Saints also intercede for us.

With these sentiments I impart to you, Venerable Brother Cardinals, to those who are taking part in this rite and to all who are watching it on television and listening to it on the radio, a special, affectionate Blessing.

---

The new Pope and the College of Cardinals.

Looking back over the pages in the PAPA RATZINGER FORUM ("The Experience of April 19, 2005") when I tried in 2006 to 'reconstruct' as much as I could those heady rapturous days in April 2005 that preceded the election of Benedict XVI, the election itself and the first few days of the Pontificate, I am moved to tears as always by the photos, the news accounts and the commentaries.

This time around, I was particularly struck by a sampling of letters that had been received by Avvenire, the Italian bishops' newspaper, in the first two weeks after April 19. The letters speak for themselves most eloquently and reflects the reactions of the Catholic man (and woman) on the street, not just to the election of a new Pope, but to the man himself who had just become Pope... Their sentiments mirror everything that any Benaddict has ever felt about Joseph Ratzinger... Read and rejoice!




A HARVEST OF IMPRESSIONS
Italian Catholics express
themselves on the new Pope
Translated from


Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops conference published a sampler of the letters that it had received in the days following the election of Benedict XVI. The letters I selected and translated here are from those written in the first two weeks. Although we may not have a similar chance to sample reactions from in other countries, I think these letters would be representative of the positive impressions experienced by the Catholic rank-and file.






In the footsteps of Wojtyla
19 April 2005

A simple look, smiling, joyous… That is what reached me from the man who faced us from the balcony where our Papa Wojtyla had faced us for more than 27 years.

Benedict XVI is a man of charisma. I hope that with this new face of the Papacy, a new peace will come to the world.

Mariantonia Marciano



Holy Father with the sweet look
19 April 2005

Lord, make me sensitive and capable of deepening my faith under the wonderful guidance of Pope Benedict XVI. I praise you, my Lord, for having given us as our Shepherd, this Holy Father with the sweet and gentle look.



Determination in defense of the humble
19 April 2005

Best wishes, Pope Benedict. May the Holy Spirit enlighten you to be ever ready and determined against the “arrogant of the earth” and make them understand with all the force of your sweetness that only God is powerful. With the force of your sweetness, a simple but effective instrument, I am sure that you, our new Holy Father, will know how to confront the anxieties of our age.

Giuseppe Celi



Yes, I like him … very much!
19 April 2005

I like him. Yes. I am certain he will do much good. I won’t say anything else: The Holy Spirit alighted on him, the cardinals elected him quickly which means there was a consensus of itnentions. He will be a great Pope, with clear ideas.

Claudia L.



A gift from the Lord
19 April 2005

I cried with joy as soon as I saw the white smoke. It was the first time I ever followed a Conclave and with all my heart I wish the Holy Father a Pontificate that will be rich with joy.
God has sent us another gift, let us welcome him with open hearts. I am sure the Holy Spirit will support and enlighten him through every moment of his Pontificate.

Irene Righetto



Gentle Shepherd, firm defender of the faith
19 April 2005

I am enthusiastic and moved by the choice that the Holy Spirit made. Thank you, Lord, for having given us a shepherd so kind and gentle, and at the same time, wise and firm in the faith. We young people need a firm guide in these times when no one else seems capable of saying something that is worth listening to. We want to live the Gospel and bear witness to it.

Holy Father, we pray for you, and we will be waiting for you in Cologne.

Laura Semproni



A shy man who will surprise us
19 April 2005

Deo gratias!

Benedict XVI, a shy man, will surprise the Church and the world with the sureness of someone who knows that the Holy Spirit will guide his Petrine ministry. He is the right man for the historic moment which more than ever needs a strong and at the same time fatherly guide.

Maurizio Capone



I did not expect it…
19 April 2005

I did not expect it. Maybe we did not expect who would be chosen Holy Father. Maybe we even wanted someone else. But it is the Holy Spirit that chooses, not us!

And the Spirit chose Pope Benedict, and will bring him close to us in a way that will make us wonder, will bring us closer to God, and light within us the most vivid flame of God’s love.

I pray for the Pope, small though I am. Holy Father, I entrust the world and myself to your prayers… Your sweet humility, your shyness (but how shy you are!) have truly touched me.

I did not expect you, Holy Father, but I already feel that I am your daughter.

Maria A



Regardless we are with you
19 April 2005

It is the first time in my life that I feel the Pope is a father. I feel a deep affection for him, regardless of what he will say or do, because I believe it is the will of God. When I was a child, I did not understand many things, but as an adult, I have been able to look at life with the mysteries which belong to it.

I embrace you warmly, Holy Father.

Cristina Corvo



Best wishes from the heart
19 April 2005

The Holy Spirit and our prayers will make you a great Pope.

Long live the Church… Long live the love which you can give us…

Mimmo Di Giacomo



A gentle and beautiful Pope
20 April 2005

Our most beloved Holy Father who went from us many days ago has left his legacy in the right hands. We have a new Pope. Persons like me who have strayed from the Church have a new chance to return and this time, we will not fail. The Church is our home once again. The death of John Paul II has yielded many wonderful fruits.

Let us pray for this gentle and beautiful Pope so that he may never be discouraged by his difficult task. And I thank him for those smiles that have warned the hearts of so many.

Angela Savina Canalella



God is with us
20 April 2005

The Holy Spirit was the true protagonist today and I am glad that this appears to be accepted by many. We had been prepared for calculated moves and secret ploting by the cardinals . But instead, we have been shown the beauty of the Church!

Look at the eyes of our new Pope! No one can miss seeing that this is a man of God! We believe in God, and we fear nothing. Now let us be with and work with our Pope, and with him, let us live the Church in our daily lives.

Andrea Da Cremona



Blessed in name and in fact
20 April 2005

Welcome among us as the Vicar of Christ! I think you may have been turned off by the explosion of remembrances, anecdotes, sensations, predictions of rupture or continuity that have followed your election. But with your gentle smile and your captivating modesty you have managed to tell us that each person must be himself, unique and irrepeatable.

Thank you for your courage in denouncing the indecorous arrogance of some who are supposed to be in the service of the Crucified One. Thank you for showing us that relativism cannot be valid when one speaks of truth. Thank you for being somewhat unpredictable in a world where everything is taken for granted. Thank you for your reserve with the media in their continuing scenario of invasive spectacle.

Valentino Rovi



The power of the Holy Spirit
20 April 2005

While I waited for the bells to confirm the news, between the initial uncertainty and then the confirmation, I felt myself wrapped in an immense warmth that erupted in tears of joy, I had a lump in my throat and inside me, I felt “It’s Ratzinger”…

And thanks to the power of the Holy Spirit, this face that had become a friend, who had accompanied us from the time John Paul II died, has entered into our hearts. Now, let us help Benedict XVI work in his new vineyard and let us pray for him as he asked us to.

Germana Morettini



A child's face and innocence
20 April 2005

I pray that the new Pope, with the sweet face of a child and innocence in his eyes, will be able to guide the Church with the wisdom of an expert steersman, in this world of madmen and of confusion, in which the loss of ideals and certainties constitutes the most grave problem and may be responsible for the suffering of millions.

As a professor of literature, I share completely the ideas of Benedict XVI, and I hope and wish, as a parent and educator, that the reigning relativism will be completely blown away by the winds of Christian love and truth.

Elio de Franco



Ora et labora
20 April 2005

John Paul II, looking down from a window of the Father’s house, watches over you and blesses you, dear Benedict XVI!

Your first words emphasized prayer and work, the elements of the Benedictine rule. Help us Christians to know how to work humbly in the vineyard of the Lord, in this age which looks at appearances more than substance and does not recognize that what truly counts is very simple: to be friends with Christ and to love him as he loves us…

Giulia Bertero



Thank you for our shepherd
20 April 2005

I thank the Lord for the shepherd he has given us. A shepherd after the heart of Christ, a pastor who is intrepid in defending the Deposit of Faith, a truly humble servant in the vineyard of the Lord, far from TV cameras and the sort of popularity that acclaims one day only to condemn you the next!

Teach us to know and love Christ firmly, without being tossed about by winds of doctrine. Teach us to be faithful to Christ who is merciful to sinners but firm against sin.

The world without faith, today, just a few hours since you were elected, already condemns and crucifies you. But you need not fear anything because Christ, the Good Shpherd, guides his church, and the Mother of Christ is beside you and us.

You have said you will rely on our prayers; we will rely on your heart. Thank you, the Lord our Shepherd, for this shepherd after your heart whom you have given us today.

Giovanni Arienti



What unexplainable joy!
25 April 2005

Excuse me, but I cannot contain myself for joy! The words of the Holy Father go directly to the heart, and the heart cannot seem to hear enough from him. A great joy now feels our hearts. It is something new, pure, inexplicable, which inspires us to crowin faith and in hope. It is wonderful.

Enzo Greco



Pope of friendship and joy
26 April 2005

I have spent the last few days reading articles, homilies and discourses, and discovering that a non-fundamentalist Catholic like me agrees with every word that Cardinal Ratzinger, now our splendid Pope Benedict XVI, has said or placed in writing.
I thank the cardinal electors and the Holy Spirit!

The Pope of friendship and joy, with his sensitive but strong didactic gifts, will help Catholics understand better the essentials of our faith and to be less vulnerable to other persuasions, indoctrinations and idle chatter…

Luciana Blotti



To an exceptional person
26 April 2005

God has given him to us, and I hope He will keep him with us as along as possible and in good health.

I am hardly a Catholic, much less a practising one. But I have been conquered by this person who is sublime, refined, cultured, who fills my heart with joy and peace simply by looking at him.

He is a person of extraordinary greatness, maybe too great to be understood by a Church that may have become too petty, but I pray that the Lord accompanies him and makes his burden as least onerous as possible.

I am glad that someone like him exists. His way of presenting himself, of representing the Church, his humility and refinement, fill me with stupendous emotions.

Gabriella Mercuri



With your sweetness, you will go far
26 April 2005

Dear Holy Father,

When I heard the name of the newly-elected Pope for the first time, I was stunned into silence, as if I had been struck dumb. I had heard many things about you; I thought I knew you from what others said about you. But now, I am realizing more and more each day that it was truly the Lord who chose you.

I appreciate how you relate to everyone: so rich with the word of God, so elegant in manner, so humble in behavior. Stay strong and generous. We all need you. I pray for you and suffer with you. Thank you.

Ma. Teresa Govin



The most beautiful day
26 April 2005

I confess I have always had a great immeasurable admiration for Cardinal Ratzinger. It is an admiration that is hard to explain, considering that it began when I was 9 or 10. At that age, I knew practically nothing of what ot meant to be a Christian. And yet Joseph Ratzinger entered my heart.

I always guarded his image jealously inside me, and later, when I was older, everytime I read any polemics in the newspapers that involved him, before taking any position, I would analyze the text that had provoked the controversy, and most of the time, I ended up taking his side instead of finding any justification for the polemics.

I will be 22 next month, but I have already received my greates gift: Benedict XVI. I cannot describe what I felt when I heard that it was he, “my” cardinal, who had been elected Pope. My telephone kept ringing all the way till the next day. Whoever knew me wanted to find out exactly how I felt.

It may seem absurd, but April 19, 2005 was the most beautiful and happiest day of my life. God bless you, Papa Benedetto. I look forward most expectantly to meeting you in Cologne, along with so many other young people like me.

Eccì



He, too, has entered my heart
26 April 2005

I am 20 years old. When John Paul II died, I thought that no other Pope could possibly enter my heart as he did. Then came April 19 , the white smoke, and the name, Benedict XVI.

At first, I was disoriented because I had thought they would elect a younger Pope, and besides, I had little sympathy for Joseph Ratzinger when he was a cardinal.

But when he came out on the loggia that afternoon and said, “After the great John Paul II, the lord cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord,” all my reserevations dropped away, and I started to weep with joy.

I wish the Pope every good, with the hope that his pontificate may be able to bring the Church back to the origins of the Gospel message.

Laura Licata



Give me a Vatican passport
26 April 2005

Give me a Pontifical passort, because I would like to be your subject.

Lauro Lauri


Benedict, gift of God
27 April 2005

The beauty of a human being is completely expressed when he shares with others the most beautiful discovery in his own life - that which has changed him, guided him, accompanied him, made him dream, made him realize his full humanity – and what joy if that discovery was Christ.

Thank you, Benedict, because you have agreed to share with us your love story with Christ in undertaking the most difficult ministry of all! Thank you because, through your smile and your humility which disarms all polemics, you are restoring to us what we lost briefly and what we feared we would not find again after the death of John Paul II.

At the same time, I thank God for the gift of your person. I do not know you, but already, I wish you all the best. Be strong, papino, take the Church in hand and continue to bring it forward …

With filial affection from one who wishes you the best in Christ,

Pietro Sportelli



That smile and tender look
27 April 2005

Holy Father – Thank you because you came close to us when we lost John Paul II, and without knowing that you would take his place, you consoled us and showed us your love.

I give thanks that the Holy Spirit, who never errs, chose you, and that you pray for us and wish us well – we see that from your smile and from your look, so full of tenderness.

We are with you, under the same Light, the same Cross, to guard the deposit of faith that Christ has left us and to carry it alive and actively in a culture impregnated with relativism and indifference. I assure you of my constant prayers.

Laura Ciamei



You have given us back our wings
27 April 2005

Any comment in your homily on April 24 would detract from it!
I want only to say Thank you!

Thank you for your example.
Thank you for your gentleness and tenderness!
Thank you for giving us back our wings, for showing us the way towards true freedom, true happiness, true joy!

Thanks above all that you have taught us by example what it is to act in total submission to the will of God.

Thanks for having reminded us with your YES that “Christ does not take away anything but gives all!”

Like the disciples at Emmaus, we say: “Stay with us, because night is falling. Stay with us and light our path to God…Stay with us because the road we take will become even darker.”

Thank you because with you, we feel sure we are on the way to true life.

Lorena Bytyci



The greatness of humility
27 April 2005

I have been greatly struck by the gentleness, the smile, the light in the eyes of the Holy Father, whom we know to be a person who is iron-willed in his convictions, strong, cultured and profound. The more we know of his cultural background and his career, the greater he seems, the more touching in his humility and his capacity to listen to others.

Already we love you very much, Holiness. With God’s help and the prayers of your predecessor who is at your side, you will be a great guide for humanity.

I am a medical oncologist and I will be in Rome for a few days on business; I will be watching your windows with great affection.

Mariella Tessa



Thank You, Holiness
29 April 2005

After the most sorrowful days following the death of John Paul II, and the long days of waiting before the Conclave, to see another man robed in white on that loggia on April 19 was truly splendid!

I thank God above all because in the past few weeks, He has made me truly feel part of his Church. And thank you, too, Holiness! With your words, your simple but most eloquent gestures, you are already conquering hearts to bring closer to Jesus.

And thank you also that in your words you continue to keep John Paul II alive! Thank you, because in your words Peter, the Church, Christ himself, become alive.

Best wishes, Papa Benedetto. You have only been two weeks in office and already I love you!

Fernando dello Monaco, seminarian



I, of course, had every good intention of translating many more, but I was never able to return to the task because there was always so much new material to deal with... One has to be a fulltime chronicler to start to do justice to a man like Joseph Ratzinger and his Pontificate. I certainly hope that there are such chroniclers employed by the Stiftung Joseph Ratzinger/Benedikt XVI in Munich, the Institut Papst Benedikt XVI in Regensburg, and the Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger/Benedetto XVI who have been doing just that - and that all such material becomes available to the public, in addition, of course, to his books and writings...

It turns out that the new book to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Benedict XVI's election as Pope was not a Vatican initiative at all, although LEV published it. A couple of modest events to mark the milestone in Rome. including the presentation of the book, were organized by the Institut Papst Benedikt XVI, with the cooperation of the Pontifical German College located in the Vatican, and the Roman Institute of the Goerres Society (founded and housed in 1876 at the Collegium Germanicum) which promotes the dissemination of Church studies. The following information is from the site of the Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger-Benedetto XVI...

Benedict book presented at
German college in the Vatican
College will also house new library dedicated
to publications by and on Benedict XVI
Translated from

April 21, 2015



Mons. Georg Ratzinger was one of the guests at the book presentation. Mons. Gaenswein wrote the Preface to the Book, and Cardinal Mueller contributed an essay on the priesthood.

The book Benedetto XVI: Servo di Dio, e degli uomini, published by the Vatican publishing house LEV in Italian, and in German by Schnell & Steiner, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Joseph Ratzinger’s election as Pope, was presented yesterday evening, April 20, at the Campo Santo Teutonico (German cemetery) in the Vatican.

[The cemetery is only a small feature of the site which is the campus of the Pontificium Collegium Germanicum, the second German institution in Rome for German priests sent for further study in Rome by their dioceses. The college is located across the street from Aula Paolo VI. The other Pontifical German College of Santa Maria dell'Anima, in Rome, dates back to a 14th century hostel to house German pilgrims coming to Rome; it became a pontifical college for German priests in Rome since the 16th century. Joseph Ratzinger boarded at the Anima along with German cardinals and bishops when they attended the Second Vatican Council.]



During the event, it was announced that a Biblioteca Romana Joseph Ratzinger/Benedetto XVI will open this September in the building that also houses the Biblioteca del Collegio Teutonico, the library of the German college, and the Istituto Romano della Societa di Görres. [The society is named for Johann Joseph Görres, 1776-1848, a German writer and pamphleteer who defended the Catholic Church and the authority of Rome.]

The new library will be entirely dedicated to the life and thought of JosephRatzinger as a scholar, theologian and Pope. Initially, the new library will have a thousand volumes in different languages, and will be open to anyone interested in the publications by and about Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, or wishes to know about his life and his theology better. Most of the books were donated by the Pope emeritus himself and by the Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger/Benedetto XVI, which has supported the initiative.

The book itself was presented first by Fr. Christian Schaller , vice-director of the Institut Papst Benedikt XVI in Regensburg, and a co-winner of the Ratzinger Prize for Theology in 2013.

The book consists of essays by many authors in an attempt to portray the work of Benedict XVI in words and images…. Here is a translation of Fr. Schall’s presentation:

---

I. The institute

Before presenting the contents of this book, I would like to say a few words about the Institut Papst Benedikt XVI of Regensburg.

Founded in 2008 by the then Bishop of Regensburg – now Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, its purpose was to compile the complete works of Joseph Ratzinger in 16 volumes, starting with his first major work (his doctoral dissertation in 1951) to his most recent interventions and publications, homilies and catecheses, messages and prefaces, before he was elected pastor of the Universal Church in 2005.

The contents are arranged chronologically as well as thematically in order to be able to offer the reader a complete overview of the thought of Joseph Ratzinger on specified themes. Given the mass of material that has accumulated, three of the nine volumes published so far are each printed in two parts.

The work was initiated at the request of Benedict XVI for then Bishop Mueller to compile and publish all of his writings. But such a project – especially with all the editorial work associated with it – could not be carried out by a diocesan bishop. That is why the institute was established. It was solemnly inaugurated in October 2008 in the presence of Mons. Jean-Claude Périsset, and was entrusted to Prof. Rudolf Voderholzer as administrator. [Subsequently, Fr. Voderholzer was named to succeed Mueller as Bishop of Regensburg.]

The concept for each volume was decided and executed in close collaboration with Benedict XVI himself. The writings are presented in a way that allowed changes to the structure of the texts. When publishing a new edition of his own works, every author has the chance to make updates or clarifications where necessary.

I feel called upon to say that the emeritus Pope has been the best of all those whom I have worked with. His task is to prepare a preface on the topic covered in each book, thus providing the reader, for every specific theme, a key for reading his vast work, and asking the reader to approach the author’s thinking in good faith and without prejudice.

Of course, we have also programmed a series of lectures and conference based on these Opera Omnia, special studies dedicated to his thought, as well as a directory of our institute, in order to offer a discussion platform that allows confronting the work of this great intellectual. Therefore, the institute’s activities are not limited to documentation, but also includes promoting dialog to ensure that the author’s teachings are appropriately ‘received’.

At the same time, we are building a major audio-video archive and a specialized library - two attractions which have already brought guests from around the world to Regensburg, as well as a collection of art works, paintings and sculptures depicting Joseph Ratzinger or Benedict XVI.

We are particularly seeking the cooperation of all initiatives and institutions which – although representing diverse profiles and fields of activity - have had a profound link to the person, the life, and above all, the teachings of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI.

We have always had the closest ties with the Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger-Benedetto XVI under Mons. Scotti, as we do with the Benedict XVI Cultural Institute in Sri Lanka. Our publishing projects are organized in close collaboration with the Vaticann publishing house LEV – and here, I think particularly of its director, Fr. Costa - and with German publishing houses.

This year, two conferences will take place in Poland and in Rome in cooperation with the officials of their respective institutions engaged in promoting the works and thought of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI.

His thinking cannot be represented by just one voice. As theologian and as Pope, his words reach out to the world and to every single person. The task that we all carry out in a relationship of great friendship is to be in the service of a theology that continues to have many novelties to offer and whose treasures have not yet been completely revealed.

Even if personal and biographical references contribute without a doubt to perceiving the greatness of a personality like Benedict XVI, his true worth emerges above all when, distancing ourselves from detail, we see the thread that unites all the parts of his work .

Bearing witness to this, we also find in his work all the theological currents that contributed to form his thought and have characterized it, as well as the line followed by his teachings, which are to be understood as an evolution of Ratzinger’s theology in his search for answers to contemporary challenges.

This is not to be seen as a work of conservation but an undertaking that will bear new fruits in the future.

II. The illustrated book
The realization of an illustrated book on a Pope is an obvious challenge. Not because there is not enough material to work with but because there seems to be an inexhaustible source of photos that have recorded every moment of the Pope’s public appearances.

Great care is needed to find and choose the image that captures a moment uniquely and shows the typical traits of the person photographed. This image must illustrate the occasion and document a particular and unique instant of a meeting, a gesture, a state of mind.

Nonetheless, this book, Benedetto XVI, servo di Dio e degli uomini also has another aim. In the history of the Church, it is not easy to think of another Pope who produced theological work of comparable dimensions. His Opera Omnia in 16 volumes bears witness to 60 years of his activity, dedicated not just to theology but also to social questions and the challenges that men and the whole world must learn to confront in the future.

The book offers the images of a university professor, a bishop, a cardinal, and not least of all, a Pope, who was, above all, a preacher who sees the clear distinction between a professorial chair in the university and the ecclesial pulpit, and who considers theology as the premise of a message oriented and directed towards men – a message capable of arousing their enthusiasm with the goal of giving reason to the hope that is in all of us.

Thus, the idea of an illustrated book evolved during its preparation into a book that seeks out the key points of the thought and message of the emeritus Pope, and their relevance, through less theological arguments, to the most important moments of the issues he had to confront in the eight years of his Pontificate.

And this was precisely the second problem we had to face besides the abundance of photographic material at our disposition, namely, the truly inexhaustible wealth of issues that Benedict XVI faced during his Pontificate.

For the editors of the book – Harmut Constien, Franx Xaver Heible and myself – it was very gratifying that we were able to enlist authors of unquestioned renown to write about the themes closest to their own areas of specialization. And it will undoubtedly be equally gratifying for the emeritus Pope whom we wished to honor affectionately in this way.

For example, an exegete like Robert Vorholt writes about the JESUS trilogy to make the reader understand a work that Pope Francis has defined in these words: “[Benedict XVI] has made a gift to the Church and to all men of that whichis his most precious possession: his knowledge of Jesus, the result of years and years of study, of theological reflection and of prayer”.

Pope Francis’s words are probably the best definition we can find of the genesis and greatness of the JESUS trilogy.

On the other hand, the contributions of Martin Horn are dedicated to the activities of Benedict XVI as a great communicator, in his messages to young people on the occasion of World Youth Day and in his pastoral and apostolic visits, in which he tried to help young people thirsting for knowledge and seeking God to give an orientation to their paths in life.

Stephan Otto Horn [president of the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis] focuses on a rereading of Benedict XVI’s catecheses on the Fathers of the Church, through which the Pope was able to offer his audiences at St. Peter’s Square major points of interest to make them understand the forms and theological teachings in the early centuries of the Church through their most outstanding exponents.

Benedict XVI’s theological interpretation is also based on a profound familiarity with the writings and the history of the Church and the world. His catecheses were an invitation to study the Church Fathers and rediscover their importance. It is clear that Benedict developed his own thought from his own rediscovery of Patristics, and that his love for the liturgy which he continues to have, is the result of his interest in the liturgical renewal movement propagated at the start of the 20th century by theologians like Romano Guardini.

And therefore, that love for liturgy is naturally addressed in this book, and it is Mons. Voderholzer who does it.

Joseph Ratzinger has always been concerned about the fundamental questions, and this is evident in the themes which were constantly at the center of his activities as Pope, like a system of coordinates that helps to understand the essential points of his thought. Particularly important is his effort to seek an equilibrium between faith and reason.

It is in this context that the so-called Regensburg lecture became a milestone for his Pontificate along a course that began much earlier, and that Benedict XVI wished to concretely underscore yet again in the speech that he was supposed to deliver at Rome’s la Spaienza University – one that was unfortunately never given the attention it deserved. Thanks to the work of Hanna Barbara Gerl-Falkowitz, we shall be able to relive that history.

Benedict XVI always had a very strong bond with John Paul II, not just because they worked together for a quarter of a century but because of the friendship that distinguished their relationship. And that is why a whole chapter of the book is dedicated to Benedict XVI’s predecessor, in care of George Weigel, the pope saint’s major biographer. The chapter dedicated to his successor, Pope Francis, is edited by myself, also citing what the Holy Father has said on various occasions about Benedict XVI.

Cardinals Paul-Josef Cordes, Joachim Meisner, Kurt Koch and Reinhard Marx each present some of the central motifs of Pope Benedict’s work as Pastor of the Universal Church: his closeness to ‘spiritual movements’, the concepts emerging from his encyclicals; his predilection for the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council which – because he worked in the heart of the Council during the preparation of its working papers, he collaborated in developing these, and his post-conciliar commentary was meant to facilitate the reception of Vatican-II teachings - always impelled him to commit himself to seeing that Vatican II doctrine would be actualized in a way that is faithful to the texts, in the spirit of ecclesial tradition; and finally, his sense of the universal responsibility for Christians and the Church which has led him on various occasions to reflect on the great political and historical events of the 20th century.

His unitary vision of Christianity is expressed in his dialog with the Reformed churches and the Orthodox churches. To this end, Wolfgang Thönissen outlines Benedict XVI’s ecumenism which could lead to Christian unity only if the orientation for such initiatives is dictated by Christ.

The dialog with ‘our older brothers in faith’ was best expressed during World Youth Day in Cologne, in the address by then Rabbi Teitelbaum who describes in a very personal way his meeting with Benedict XVI.

In Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Pontifical Household, I could count on one of the closest collaborators and companions of the emeritus Pope in the last several years of his public life, whom I entrusted to write the Preface. It is very personal and I would like to cite a statement which I believe grasps and perfectly sums up the eight years of Benedict XVI’s Pontificate. “The crowds wanted to see Benedict XVI, but above all, they wanted to hear his words”.

If I may speak for the emeritus Pope, I can only note that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI never ever placed himself in the center of his own actions, but always considered himself nothing more than a messenger of the faith, whose only aim was to lead men to Christ with great attention and sensitivity. And this can only take place if one can keep away attention from oneself, underplaying his own actions – and, as we all know, he succeeded very well in doing this. {Excellency, I thank you from the heart for having supported our project!)

Also very gratifying is that Cardinal Gerhard Müller took part in the project with a contribution on the priesthood and the priestly identity. Through a structured presentation in your usual systematic way, Eminence, you have drawn up the profile of a priest in the service of the Word, and a witness to God in imitation of Christ, and who takes part in the realization of the Kingdom of God by bringing men close to the living God. For this reminder of the theology of holy orders, I thank you very much, but also for your faithful service to the Institute in Regensburg which you founded and continue to accompany.

I truly hope that the images and themes chosen by us will provide a ‘tour d’horizon’ of the eight years of Benedict XVI's universal pastoral mission.

This illustrated book is an invitation to come closer even more to the legacy of this Pontificate which was very providential for the Church, and to deepen knowledge of Benedict XVI’s teachings and to reflect on them.

We felt a great responsibility about paying tribute to the intellectual heft of a figure as brilliant as Joseph Ratzinger, and we wished to encourage the dialog between his thought and the sciences, offering the latter a platform for discussion and confrontation, while laying the basis so that his teachings may continue to be received in the future. This book was born out of that desire.

It remains for me to thank publisher Albrecht Weiland of the Schnell & Steiner. We are also working together on an Annual journal for the institute, called “Mitteilungen Institut Papst Benedikt XVI” (Communications from the Institut Papst Benedikt XVI), and of the monographs that will be contained therein. Special thanks for the affection, patience and sympathy you have always shown us at the Institute.

And of course, I must thank the authors who contributed to the book on Benedict XVI. For some of them, it was not easy to keep to the 3-4 manuscript pages that we asked them to write. The joy of taking part in this project for Benedict and his Pontificate really ‘gave wings’ to some of our contributors, which we unfortunately had to trim back.

I also hope that this book will be welcomed by readers and that it will be read.

Finally, I thank Prof. Heid for the warm welcome to this venerable site and for having taken the first step towards the collaboration between the Görres Society and the Institut Papst Benedikt XVI.

Congratulations for the inauguration of the library dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI on the premises of the Görres Society. I hope you will be getting many visitors and above all, researchers inspired by profound intellectual curiosity.

Benedetto XVI, servo di Dio e degli uomini: It was not difficult to come up with the title since it is the subtext to the experiences of this man and his activity in the service of the Church of God. Thank you.

---

An earlier event on April 18 is described below:

Cardinal Mueller on
the 10th anniversary
of Benedict XVI's election
Translated from


“Every Pontificate in the history of the Church has always been a specific and personal expression of the unique Primacy of Peter”.

With these words, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and general editor of Joseph Ratzinger’s COMPLETE WRITINGS, marked the tenth anniversary of Benedict XVI’s election as Pope, at a news conference held Friday night at the Campo Santo Teutonico in the Vatican. It was almost a preview of the presentation of the book Benedetto XVI, Servo di Dio e degli uomini” which will be held in the same venue on April 20.

Cardinal Müller said, “Jesus Christ did not wish to found a Church as an abstract, supernatural and therefore inaccessible reality. He did not found an ideal reality in the past, an ideal that has been lost in the course of centuries, nor as a future, remote ideal.

In fact, even today, the Church, in her sacramental holiness, is an instrumental sign of the redemption that Christ brought. But at the same time, she points out, in the sins and errors of her members, the need for redemption that all mankind still needs today”.

Thus, said Müller, even in choosing Peter, Jesus did not call on a ‘perfect’ man. Indeed one cannot separate the most important words of ecclesial vocation that the Lord said to the Apostle (cfr. Mt 16,18; Lk 22,32; Jn 21,15-18), from the personal character of Peter. Rather, the Lord’s call to Peter cannot be dissociated from the latter’s human limits.

In the same way, he pointed out, every Pontificate in the history of the Church is always a specific personal expression of the unique Primacy of Peter.

---

The Petrine ministry is unique but it is always carried out through the very concrete personality of whoever is called to serve in building the house of God.

Already, as a professor of fundamental and dogmatic theology, Joseph Ratzinger had elaborated scientific work – distinguished by an admirable knowledge of the history of theology and dogmatics – that without a doubt made him one of the most eminent theologians of the 20th century and the start of the new millennium. In his works, even the most complex facts are not withheld from common understanding by complicated reflections, but are made transparent through their intrinsic simplicity.

It is to Papa Ratzinger’s merit that he developed the inseparable relation in faith between hearing (auditus) and understanding (intellectus fidei). Faith and reason are not mutually exclusive, but both favor the fulfillment of man in that God, who is love, the title of Benedict XVI’s great first encyclical.

Benedict XVI’s theological work found its culmination in the JESUS OF NAZARETH trilogy: Going beyond mere natural reason, this recapitulative work on the person of Jesus is a confession of revealed faith that Jesus of Nazareth is truly the Messiah, son of he living God.

And it is precisely this that is the common nucleus of every concrete and personal action in the Petrine ministry, throughout the history of the Church: Peter’s confession, offered in the name of the whole Church: “You are the Christ, son of the living God” (Mt 16,16).

---

Among the guests at the event was Mons. Georg Ratzinger, brother of the emeritus Pope, and Cardinals Paul Josef Cordes and Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya. Also present were Mons. Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Pontifical Household and private secretary of Benedict VXI; Mons. Giuseppe Scottin, president of the Fondazione Vaticana Ratzinger-Benedetto XVI, and Benedict’s biographer, Peter Seewald.

Last week, a Vatican Radio headline after the Pope's general audience said
"Pope Francis greets Asia Bibi's family", and I skimmed through the
report to see whether he met with them instead of just greeting them.
But all it said about this 'encounter' was in the first sentence of the report.
"At Wednesday’s General Audience, Pope Francis gave a special
greeting to Asia Bibi’s husband and daughter." - Nothing else.
The rest of the story was a backgrounder on Asia Bibi and an account of
the news conference given by her lawyer in Rome as part of an effort to
obtain more governments to call on the Pakistani government to give her
a 'pardon'.



Then, ROME REPORTS sent out a video clip of the 35-second 'encounter' - in which Asia Bibi's
husband, one of her daughters, and a man who is presumably the lawyer, are behind
the rope line for persons whom the Pope could greet after the audience. The lawyer
appears to have told the Pope who the two were. Here is the video:

This led Antonio Socci to write on his blog:

---

Watch the video – and count how many seconds Papa Bergpglio gives to the family of Asia Bibi (15 seconds!!!) He hardly stops, much less talk to them…

It is striking to note the Pope’s happy mood with the desolate expression of Asia Bibi’s husband and daughter – who have a wife and mother imprisoned for six years under a death sentence because she is Christian. And the Pope does not even deign to give them a caress...

Holy Father, would it have been such an effort to be with them a little bit more – listen to them and perhaps share their sorrow, listen to what they need from you? (and to stop smiling….)?

At the ‘speed’ of this encounter and the ‘distance’ you took from them, it is very difficult that you would have taken on ‘the odor of the sheep’...

---

Since the Pope has given audiences even at Casa Santa Marta to 'special guests' like the transsexual Diego from Madrid and 'his' fiancee, how could he not have met with this family in private - and then, fail to even listen to them at the rope line?

Perhaps he was distracted. Perhaps he did not catch the name 'Asia Bibi' when the lawyer spoke up to present the husband and daughter to him. That can be the only explanation for this 'non-event', especially considering that in his catechesis earlier, he said this:

---

Nowadays, we sense the responsibility to do more in favour of women, recognizing the weight and authority of their voices in society and the Church. We must also ask ourselves to what extent society’s loss of faith in God is related to the crisis of that covenant.

---

Let me add some quibbles about the video: In the few seconds JMB stood before the three persons, he was mostly looking at the lawyer, other than the seconds it took him to shake the hands of the daughter and the father; and that while he was listening to the lawyer, he kept shifting from foot to foot (maybe he does that habitually, or maybe it was a sign of impatience, just wanting to go on to the next persons in the ropeline).

I brought up this story because today, Riccardo Cascioli reports this in LNBQ:

The 'gay' ambassador
remains in France
by Riccardo Cascioli
Translated from

April 22, 2015

“It’s nothing personal, but the Pope was not happy about his (Stefanini's) support for the French law recognizing gay ‘marriage’ nor the attempt by the Elysee (French presidential palace) to force his hand”.

The satirical French weekly Le Canard Enchaine out today reports that this was the sense of the position expressed by Pope Francis in a meeting at the Vatican last Saturday with Laurent Stefanini, a homosexual whom French President Francois Hollande named last January to be his ambassador to the Holy See.

According to Agence France Press, the meeting [at which the Pope, in effect, personally explained to Stefanini why he was rejecting his appointment as ambassador to the Holy See] took place ‘in a very discreet way’.

One can understand the Pope’s desire to explain the negative position he had to take about this nomination which, as even we had noted in an earlier article, was not a lack of respect for Stefanini but a reaction to the clear provocation from the French president.

The meeting at the Vatican, according to AFP, was confirmed by a source in charge of the Stefanini file although he did not reveal its contents. But last night, an Elysee spokesman reiterated Hollande’s firm position on Stefanini, adding that Paris “expects a positive and rapid response”.

Le Canard enchaine – which had first reported on the effective rejection of Stefanini by the Vatican – claims, however, that Hollande is already searching for another name to propose.

As we noted in out last article on this, the public knowledge that Stefanini’s nomination has been stalled since January [and that the lack of an outright response from the Vatican within six weeks of the nomination has usually meant it was rejecting the appointment] has been an embarrassment to the Holy See.

Accepting the appointment would have grave consequences not just for the diplomatic prestige of the Holy See, but above all for the Magisterium of the Church, because it would have been interpreted as a ‘recognition’ of homosexuality as part of natural law. On the part of the Elysee, there was a clear attempt “to force the hand’ of the Pope, an attempt which apparently displeased Pope Francis.

If all this is confirmed, one may expect harsh reactions from LGBT associations and the more secular factions of the European Parliament who have already made their sentiments felt about the Stefanini nomination. More than ever, it is absolutely essential that the Holy See does not yield to ‘blackmail’.

In the first place, it is absolutely unprecedented for a Pope to meet with someone whose appointment he is rejecting! And I find the 'explanation' from the Pope alleged by Le Canard enchaine to be rather self-serving because it avoids the point. One wonders if, in the actual 15-minute meeting, the Pope also managed to remind Stefanini about the Church's teaching on homosexual practice (though some quarters, including, inexplicably, LifeSite News, have claimed that the unmarried Stefanini may not even be homosexual at all, because nothing has been reported about any partners or liaisons. But the French government itself has not denied that Stefanini is homosexual.]

In any case, for the Pope to give the two reasons he reportedly gave for his rejection, if indeed he has rejected the nomination, is a distinct copout - if he did not take the occasion to underscore Catholic doctrine about homosexual practice. As I said earlier, if it is a fact that Stefanini as an 'observant Catholic' has lived a chaste life despite his sexual preferences, then the Pope should accept his nomination and hold him up as a model for Catholic homosexuals. One can only conclude there is no basis for the LifeSite News hypothesis that Stefanini may not even be a homosexual, let alone one who engages in homosexual practice.

Which brings us to why, if JMB/PF finds time to meet with the transsexual Diego - whom he expressly invited to come meet him at the Vatican - and with Stefanini, he could not find time to sit down with Asia Bibi's husband and daughter! Or, for that matter, with someone like Ettore Gotti Tedeschi who has been requesting in vain to see him for the past two years. Or with the family of Fr. Stefano Manelli, founder of the FFI whom the Vatican has placed under house arrest since July 2013.

So the Pope who is open to all and everyone is not really open to those whom he has reason to dislike or avoid for some reason! Yet another application of the double standard he habitually applies in his Casa Santa Marta homilettes.

P.S. On the Asia Bibi case, I must check whether JMB/PF has done his part officially to petition the Pakistani government to grant Asia Bibi a reprieve. Perhaps that is what her husband and daughter hoped to ask him to do, if they had been given a chance. It does not look as if he even replied to the lawyer who accompanied them...

Is this a case of trying to be politically correct at any cost? (Or sheer pusillanimity like refusing to receive the Dalai Lama at the Vatican last year for fear of offending China?) In this case, is it out of fear that a formal appeal to the Pakistani government might be misinterpreted as 'undue intervention' into a sovereign government's judicial processes? Pakistan, after all, is the second largest Muslim country in the world (178 million Muslims, 96% of the population) after Indonesia (205 million Muslims, 88% of the population).