BOOKS BY AND ON BENEDICT

Forgive me please. I have been reading the threads over the last week that had updates while I was gone. I finally got to this 1. Well I must say that 19/3/2006 was a very busy and distressing day for many!!! But I feel I must reply.

Last summer, after I had read the Catechism, I was reading on the RFC about Dominus Iesus. I had to read it for myself. So I went to Google and found it. I looked at it... and made the mistake of skimming it... reading only what caught my eye. I was angry and confused. But then I realized I was not being fair to myself or to Cardinal Ratzinger. I had to sit down to read it, point by point, nuance by nuance, word by word. I had to read it with respect to who I was - a Protestant as well as with respect to who the author was - a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. I was captivated! My favorite point by far is #17 which reads:

Therefore, there exists a single Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him.58 The Churches which, while not existing in perfect communion with the Catholic Church, remain united to her by means of the closest bonds, that is, by apostolic succession and a valid Eucharist, are true particular Churches.59 Therefore, the Church of Christ is present and operative also in these Churches, even though they lack full communion with the Catholic Church, since they do not accept the Catholic doctrine of the Primacy, which, according to the will of God, the Bishop of Rome objectively has and exercises over the entire Church.60
On the other hand, the ecclesial communities which have not preserved the valid Episcopate and the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic mystery,61 are not Churches in the proper sense; however, those who are baptized in these communities are, by Baptism, incorporated in Christ and thus are in a certain communion, albeit imperfect, with the Church.62 Baptism in fact tends per se toward the full development of life in Christ, through the integral profession of faith, the Eucharist, and full communion in the Church.63
“The Christian faithful are therefore not permitted to imagine that the Church of Christ is nothing more than a collection — divided, yet in some way one — of Churches and ecclesial communities; nor are they free to hold that today the Church of Christ nowhere really exists, and must be considered only as a goal which all Churches and ecclesial communities must strive to reach”.64 In fact, “the elements of this already-given Church exist, joined together in their fullness in the Catholic Church and, without this fullness, in the other communities”.65 “Therefore, these separated Churches and communities as such, though we believe they suffer from defects, have by no means been deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church”.66
The lack of unity among Christians is certainly a wound for the Church; not in the sense that she is deprived of her unity, but “in that it hinders the complete fulfillment of her universality in history”.67

The problem many Protestants have with this document is that they don't read it in its fullness. They splinter it apart and become outraged. They forget that for the 1st 1,500 years Christianity meant Catholic. I know when I went through Confirmation class, history went only as far back as when John Wesley founded the Methodists. We never touched the Reformation, or the Catholic Church. To me point #17 states that although the Catholic Church was founded by Christ, other denominations also lead people to Christ. The Catholic Church is like Mother and Protestant denominations are her daughters... beautiful daughters of a beautiful mother!!!

I like your comments on Dominus Iesus. In my mind there is always the sadness that the Church of Christ doesn't present itself as a unity, especially in our times. Another thing that bugs me is why God/Christ "allowed" His Church to split. AS you know the first important schism already happened 500 years before the Reformation. And going back to the early Church: differences of opinion were rife on doctrinal beliefs, even at the way believers perceived the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

I have once read a philosopher's viewe on the lack of "churchly" unity in Christianity. In short he seemed to think that Jesus' life and message in itself form a kind of a "matrix" that naturally leads to multiple interpretations and therefore manifests in multiple "churches". I understand someof what this man means, but I don't want to agree with that view: Jesus wanted one church - his Body. His followers readily forget it.

I have just been going over a number of B16-Year1-in-review articles that have started to come out in the German press, and one of the biggies of the Evangelical conference in Germany came back to Dominus Iesus, bewailing its statement (and Cardinal Ratzinger's at the time) that all the other Christian churches are daughter churches of the Catholic Church rather than sister churches.

But what is wrong with that? It is historically accurate: All the Protestant churches came 15 centuries after the Catholic Church - they are daughter churches, beautiful but 'disobedient daughter' churches who have gone off on their own!...But I remember strongly positive support for Dominus Iesus from a number of leading Protestant theologians and pastors in the United States at the time of its release - they read the whole document, obviously, and did not just isolate certain statements out of context as its detractors do.

On a much happier note:
If you know someone in Italy who can get it for you, Ratzigirl says the Italian parishes are selling a new book called "DIO NON AMA LE RIPETIZIONI" ('God does not like repetition', although perhaps a more idiomatic translation might be 'God does not like clones'), for only 5 Euros.

Mons. Angelo Comastri, author of the 2006 Via Crucis meditations and Papa's Vicar at the Vatican, wrote the introduction and points out that every Pope has the same mission, and responds to the same call from Christ, but that each Pope also brings to his office his own story and his own personal sensibility.

The book contains more than 100 photos taken by Alessia Giuliani for Catholic Press Photo. The text includes articles written during Benedict's first 12 months as Pope by journalists of FAMIGLIA CRISTIANA, as well as some important texts by the Pope himself, including the letter he wrote to the magazine readers with the release of his encyclical, his Christmas greetings to all Christian families also published in the magzine, and his address to the staff of Societa San Paolo (mother company of both Famiglia Cristiana and Libreria San Paolo, one of the leading book publishers in Italy) when he met thema nd their family members in an audience last fall.

It also includes a detailed chronology of the events in the first year of Benedict's Pontificate.

If you have no access to an Italian parish priest, Ratzigirl also gives other numbers/addresses to contact:
tel. 02/48.02.75.75; fax: 0173/29.64.23; or
e-mail: vpc@stpauls.it.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/04/2006 21.56]

Interistingly enough, when Benedict was elected, I started to count Polish translations of His books...but when I came to 20, I gave it up...

[Modificato da Tomasso Gaetano 28/04/2006 18.31]

See also: www.lideria.pl/sklep/szukaj_aut?tekst=Joseph%20Ratzinger%20(Benedykt%20XVI)&liczod=1&sort=AZ&st=normal&id=1249l...
and further sites

[Modificato da Tomasso Gaetano 28/04/2006 19.02]

[Modificato da Tomasso Gaetano 28/04/2006 19.03]

In the main forum, Ratzigirl calls attention to the fact that this book of photographs is coming out in Italy. From the blurb, I am hoping that it will simultaneously come out in English as well.



€ 19,50
The book's title translates as-
BENEDICT XVI: The Dawn of a New Papacy

Format cm 28 X 32,5
Pages 176 in color
Issue 2006
ISBN 88-540-0500-2
Edizioni White Star®
€ 19,50

Here's a translation of the blurb:

After the death of John Paul II, the ascent to the papacy of Benedict XVI was welcomed by all Christians with the affection and participation that a great Pope deserves.

Gianni Giansanti, who has witnessed Vatican events for the oast 20 years, has photographed the new Pope on varied public and private occasions.

From his reportage, with text and commentary by the journalist Jeff Israely [Vatican correpondent for Time magazine], this volume was born. It offers a previously unseen and and accurate portrait of one of the most relevant personalities at the beginning of this century.

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I don't remember if I mentioned it on the forum, but when Time magazine published its '100 names that shape the world' for 2006, one of the online features was a 12-picture gallery of photographs by Gianni Giansanti, of which the photograph that is on the book cover was also the 'series cover.'

At the time, I asked Nessuna if there was anyway she could reproduce the pictures, because they were programmed to be "uncopiable" - by disabling the mouse 'copy' function - but she couldn't do anything either. At the time, we agreed the only way to do it was to print out the pictures and then scan them and save them. Well, now there's a whole book of pictures to do that with!

The reason I am hoping it will be coming out in English, too, is Jeff Israely's participation. Benefan and I had been remarking how Israely, like John Allen, has developed into one of our Papa's best 'fans' in mainstream media since he became Pope,compared to their relative hostility before then.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/05/2006 5.08]

This week's issue of Famiglia Cristiana carries a review of two books that have come out recently about Benedict XVI. Here is a translation -

IN TWO ILLUMINATING ESSAYS:
THE MANY SURPRISES OF BENEDICT XVI
The first year of Joseph Ratzinger's Papacy
analyzed by Alberto Melloni and Carlo Di Cicco
By Alberto Bobbio

To understand better Benedict XVI and the pontificate of Joseph Ratzinger, two books have come out that should not be missed and if possible, read in parallel. The first was written by Alberto Melloni, professor at the University of Bologna, expert on Church history and commentarist for Corriere della Sera, in the style of a lecture, enriched by historical research and a political analysis of the surprises that have come from the new Pope.

The second was written by Carlo Di Cicco, Vatican correspondent for the news agency Asca. He is not known to many newspaper readers, but he has been an authoritative chronicler and commentator on religious matters for over 30 years, and is considered to be one of the best prepared and observant among the Vaticanistas.

The books are different, starting with the title. Melloni’s is L’inizio di Papa Ratzinger [The beginnings of Papa Ratzinger, Einaudi). Di Cicco’s immediately sets forth his thesis: Benedetto XVI e le conseguenze dell’amore (Benedict XVI and the consequences of love, edizioni Memori).

The Conclave and its proceedings are described in minute detail by Melloni, using unpublished texts as sources. For instance, the meditation of April 14 - four days before the Conclave opened - by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household. Melloni believes this text had a decisive influence on the cardinals’ decision to elect Joseph Ratzinger.

Both books devote many pages to the man himself, to the cardinal who was known as the “guardian of the faith,” to that man who had such an unfavorable image, and who has begun to surprise everyone.

Di Cicco’s book is a lengthy gallop through the surprises of this first year of the Benedictine Papacy. It is punctilious in pointing out what is new and in grasping theological formulations and doctrinal methods which, with curious interest. have caught the attention of many commentators within the Church and outside it.

The Asca Vaticanist adopts a premise from the text of the theologian Rosino Gibellini, author of a book on the history of theology in the 20th century, which shows the pillars of Joseph Ratzinger’s theology and the structure of his Christian faith.

But Gibellini also explains that everything about the personality of the German theologian who became Pope leads back to one single principle: “the principle of love.”

Di Cicco lingers on the ‘unknown’ Ratzinger, enumerating the important ideas of the first year of the Papacy and tracing their connections to the studies and ideas of Ratzinger the scholar and theologian.

His book is less political than Melloni’s. He does not seek out unpublished texts or behind-the-scenes stories, but sees in what the Pope has said and done in the past year the connecting threads and reasoning behind Papa Ratzinger’s surprises up to the point when, Di Cicco says, the Pope “shuffles the cards” and issues an encyclical on love!

“What a text!” Di Cicco writes. “It came from the remote past, deep in the roots of his childhood, hibernating inside him for decades and coming to light after being elected Successor to Peter, which liberated him from the function of being the 'inspector-general'”.
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For a better idea of Mr. Melloni's book, I am re-posting here a book review that I translated from Corriere della Sera and posted in NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT on 4/11/06, the day the book first came out. Melloni has been one of the leading advocates of Vatican-II as a discontinuity (and therefore against the Pope's stand in this matter) but this divergence of view has apparently not kept him from writing objectively about Year-1 of B16.

From Wojtyla to Ratzinger:
The silent revolution
Moderate style, more collegiality -
How Benedict XVI stands out from his predecessor
By Sergio Romano

In the story of the Roman Church there is an interesting personage, not strictly institutional, who takes on considerable importance at certain moments. He is the preacher of the Pontifical household. I am not thinking of the great medieval orators who were in any case also the leaders of the Christian movements of their time.

I am thinking of the court preachers, who imparted advanced lessons in theology and church politics to the sovereign, his family and the politico-administrative leadrs of the State, especially during Holy Week.

One of the most famous, in the second part of the 19th century, was the Sicilian priest Gioacchino Ventura, exponent of a progressivist and liberal Catholicism, who became, toward the end of his life, a sort of spiritual adviser to the court of Napoleon III.

From Alberto Melloni’s new book (L’inizio di papa Ratzinger , Einaudi), I learn that even the Papal court, i.e., the Curia, has its preacher. At present it is the Franciscan priest Raniero Cantalamessa (a leading figure in the movement called ‘Renewal of the spirit’), who was tasked with preaching a 'meditation for the cardinals’ before the meetings that preceded the actual Conclave after the death of John Paul II.

To judge from the pages which Melloni dedicates to this episode, the “meditation,” generally ignored by the media, even those that specialize in the Vatican, was not a conventional sermon marked by religious piety and ecclesiastical rhetoric.

The court preacher does not have powers, he does not direct any congregation, he doesn’t govern a dicastery, and has an inferior rank compared to his audience. But he can suggest what the layman whould call a line or a strategy.

Cantalamessa began by giving the cardinals a lesson in humility by telling them: God has already elected Papa Wojtyla’s successor; your task is not to choose the new Pope but “to make God's choice emerge". After this premise, the preacher indicated some themes which, in his judgment, should dominate the agenda for the Conclave.

I will try to summarize some of these themes, with some personal interpretation, even if I fear that my take will be necessarily worldly and will not reflect all the spiritual importance of the ‘meditation.”

1) The Church should be an exemplary minority.
It is right that it fights laws which endanger its principles with regard to some important questions in our time (divorce, abortion, euthanasia, genetic manipulation). But it is even more important that it offers the world the example of an alternative society in which the truths of the Church are lived and practiced by the body of the faithful.

If I understand correctly, these words mean that actual example, shown consistently to the world, is better than some public interventions of the Church such as those, for instance, that Cardinal Ruini has made.

[Is the writer saying that, at least in Italy, the vast majority of Catholics get divorced, pratise abortion, support euthanasia and genetic manipulation? In the world of 1.1 billion Catholics, they don't. That's an example!]

2) It is necessary that the new Pope does not try to imitate his predecessor.
It is a sensible suggestion behind which, nevertheless, one senses a reservation about the style of a Pope who neglected the Roman Curia and became, according to an irreverent definition, “a globetrotter for the faith.”

3) It is also necessary to re-emphasize “the uniqueness of Christ as (the only way) to salvation”.
This is something that could be taken for granted, but the statement may also imply the reservations many Catholics had about what they thought to be John Paul II’s excessive tendencies in inter-religious dialog.

5) Finally it is necessary to return to the Church agenda the question of “collegiality in the governing of the universal Church.”
In current language, this is understood to suggest a return to the spirit of Vatican-II to give the bishops powers which the autocrats in Rome never gave up despite the stated objective of the Council.

Back to Melloni’s book. Professor of contemporary history in Modena and Reggio Emilia, member of the Foundation for Religious Sciences in Bologna (the institution founded by Giuseppe Dossett and directed by Giuseppe Alberigo*] and author of a recent much–discused essay (Mother Church, Stepmother Church, Einaudi), Melloni examines the “politics” of a Pope who should be in many ways an open book.

Few men of the Church, before becoming Pope, have ever published so many books, gave so many interviews, spoken so frequently in public (as Joseph Ratzinger). And very few (in fact, only one, if I am not mistaken) came to the Papacy after having directed the “police ministry” of the Roman Church which is the Holy Office, now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Therefore, there is a very strong temptation to think that Benedict XVI would resemble Joseph Ratzinger and that the contents of his future encyclicals would necessarily all be found already in his previously published works.

But the author of this book is not convinced that is so. After reconstructing Ratzinger’s scientific development, from his university teachings to certain pronouncements of the CDF against liberation theology, Melloni gives the impression that he believes (or hopes) that this new Papacy could represent a true change or turning point (svolta).

This conviction implies an unconventional judgment on Wojtyla’s Papacy. I don’t think Melloni was happy with all the traveling, the preoccupation with media, the indifference to the workings of the Roman Curia, an autocracy founded on popularity, the “crowd of God” assembled in St. Peter’s Square after the Pope's death, nor the demonstrations for immediate sainthood poromoted by the Focolari movement.

When Melloni describes the conditions of the Church during John Paul II’s papacy, he speaks of a “suspended unity,” an expression that is not quite positive.

Could Benedict XVI open a new chapter? I cannot summarize here the part of the book in which Melloni sees in certain acts and words of Ratzinger, before and after his election to the papacy, the signs of some important ‘novelty' or change.

But I am struck by the importance that he attributes to the changes that have already been apparent in the style of the new Pope: “All the characteristics of ‘public Wojtylism’ have been abandoned without need of polemical explanation, but with a clear decisiveness that could not have pleased all those who elected Benedict. The big flirt with the public is over…Benedict XVI’s eloquence is fluidly academic, even when it is harsh; he’s almost uneasy with applause and seems unwilling to court applause by those appropriate pauses common to pontifical oratory but which is not his style at all… The pattern of trips have certainly changed… TV visibility has been toned down.”

What does Melloni expect of Ratzinger? Again, it is better to let him say it: “The man’s intellectual credibility is such that we can expect the most obvious moves: repair the damages wrought by the Wojtylian court [as in royal court]; bring not just gestures but intelligence as well to the ecumenical dilemma; and above all, reform the central institutions of the Church, especially in the synodal sense, reforms that a candidate of the Italian politicians would certainly have ignored and that a candidate of the progressives would perhaps not have dared to impose.”

Only time will tell if these predictions are realistic and well-founded, or whether they are more like “meditations for the Pope” proposed by Melloni to Wojtyla’s successor in the first months of his pontificate.


Alberto Melloni
«L’inizio di papa Ratzinger»
Einaudi, 161 pp., 9 E.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/05/2006 16.06]

Earlier this year, Beatrice called attention in the French section to a special issue of the journal KEPHAS (Jan-Mar 2006) dedicated to the thought of Joseph Ratzinger. She has just received a copy that she ordered (above) and cites the following hommage written by Dominique Ponnau, honorary director of the Ecole du Louvre, about the man who is now Pope Benedict XVI. Here is a translation -
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An artist's look...
and that of a Christian on his Pope
By Dominique Ponnau

Wit, gentleness, humor, intelligence, freedom, prayer.

Small measured steps, unhurried, the hand lifting the cassock as he takes the stairs so as not to trip on it.

A mischievous look under the camauro, that little furlined cap that protect the ears from cold, a remembrance of ancient papacies.

Benedict, 16th of the name, like the Blessed John XXIII, who also wore the camauro – is he being over-protective of himself? Possibly. If he is, he has every right to be. He has every right to protect himself. The duty, in fact. We want to keep him long!

You remember: it wasn’t as Father Christmas that he was presented to us before this, rather as the father with the whip! This Ratzinger a future Pope? You would never have thought so! What a regression it would be!

Nevertheless, the cardinals knew what they were doing! To begin with, they were the scribes of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is not regressive – he always goes forward!

"The wind blows where it will,” the Gospel says; and no one knows whence it comes or where it is going. And so it is with every man born of the Spirit. Whence the Holy Spirit caused Benedict XVI to be born from Joseph Ratzinger….

That is what the Spirit did – and well done, indeed!

Already one felt something indefinable in him – something serious, simple, majestic - during the unforgettable funeral Mass for John Paul II. The pages of the Gospel atop the coffin, obedient to the wind from heaven. The Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, impressive in his humility and nobility, pausing at the cries of “Santo subito!” rising from the entire esplanade.

In the presence of all the leaders of the world gathered around the living memory of John Paul II, in the presence of the Gospel pages turned by the Holy Spirit atop the coffin, in the presence of all the people proclaiming the saitliness of the departed Pontiff – following the saying “vox populi, vox Dei”, Cardinal Ratzinger pauses, looks over the immense square where the crowd receives that look – discreet, grave, gentle, penetrating, moved, also surprised. Suddenly I asked myself, as did milions of others perhaps, “Is this the next Pope?”

It was him! And the path that he opens is a path of light. It is a straight path, the right path. The path of love.

“God is love,” he has just reminded us in an encyclical letter toitally free of all cerebrality, which is to say, full of true itnelligence, in which each of us, from the smallest to the greatest, can perceive that it is in God-Love that the first among his servants and the first among ours lives fully and it is God-Love which he radiates fully.

Indeed the title which Benedict XVI appears to hold most dearly is that of servus servorum Dei, servant of the servants of God.

And then, Benedict places Mozart in the seventh heaven of music.
He has recognized in this incomparable genius the genius of childhood.
Benedict XVI, I think, has this genius himself: the best genius of all.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/05/2006 11.53]

From the Italian news agencies AGE and AGI today, thanks to Discipula and Ratzi-Lella in the main forum -

The consensus was divided between Ratzinger and Martini in the first ballot, with few dispersions. Then the Dean of the College of Cardinals took the lead in the second ballot. Only on the morning of April 19, with the third ballot, did Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina enter the picture in place of Martini. But then Ratzinger was elected in the fourth vote with more than 90 votes out of a possible 115.

This version of the Conclave is given by Emmanuele Roncalli, a great-grand-nephew of John XXIII, in his book Benedetto XVI: dalla Baviera al mondo, [Benedict XVI: From Bavaria to the world] published by Editoriale Borlotti.

It differs from the account of Lucio Brunelli in Limes magazine [reportedly based on a secret diary kept by an unnamed cardinal during the conclave] last summer, which claims that Bergoglio was in contention from the second ballot on, and that Ratzinger was elected with only 84 votes.

Roncalli says that on the eve of the conclave, the Polish Cardinal Glemp had supported the candidacy of the cardinal from Buenos Aires, and that although they failed to achieve their goal, Bergoglio managed to shuffle the cards and produced an unexpected turn in the convergence of enough votes to put Ratzinger over the top.

Roncalli’s sources confirm that when the 77th vote for Ratzinger was announced, meaning he had reached the quorum, the other cardinals greeted it with long applause.

Roncalli’s book traces the entire career of Joseph Ratzinger from his native Bavaria to the Vatican up to the Chair of Peter, starting with his north Italian (Alto-Adige region) origin, since his maternal grandmother Maria Taubner, was born in Rio Pusteria, in southern Tyrol.

“The profile of the new Pope,” writes Giulio Andreotti [ex Italian Prime minister and publisher of 30 Giorni] in a foreword to Roncalli’s book, “is an objective description of the itinerary which has brought this great Bavarian theologian to succeed John Paul II. who called him in one of his autobigraphical books 'my trusted friend Ratzinger'.

“The gifted personality,” Andreotti writes, “who soars in the most elevated cultural dimension also has a deep pastoral sensibility forged in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising, then enriched and refined by more than twenty years living in Rome, in the Curia and among the genuine people of the borgo."

"...Cardinal Ratzinger pauses, looks over the immense square where the crowd receives that look – discreet, grave, gentle, penetrating, moved, also surprised. Suddenly I asked myself, as did milions of others perhaps, “Is this the next Pope?”


This quote from Dominique Ponnau in a post above summarizes "the Benedict effect" that we all have felt. It hit me within the first few minutes of the funeral Mass, even before Papa delivered his famous homily. But I didn't ask the question, Is this the next pope? I heard the answer, This IS the next pope.

BENEFAN! - You had the perfect reaction! "...the answer, not a question: 'THIS is the next Pope!'" I've read and reread your post about 10 times today and I "tear up" every time, a really deep 'tearing up" that starts at the top of the skull like a wave of pressure that then seems to push behind the eyes and squeezes out the tears and overwhelms the heart - you cannot imagine. And because of course, tears always lead to blowing the nose, our secretary has been looking at me all day and saying, "But it has been raining very hard, there's no pollen in the air, why are you still having this allergic reaction?" She has no idea!

Ponnau wrote a lovely essay but in one sentence you said it all!!!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/05/2006 1.30]

____________________________________________________________

From Benefan: This quote from Dominique Ponnau in a post above summarizes "the Benedict effect" that we all have felt. It hit me within the first few minutes of the funeral Mass, even before Papa delivered his famous homily. But I didn't ask the question, Is this the next pope? I heard the answer, This IS the next pope.
_______________________________________________________________

@ Benefan,it hit me exactly the same way too. I heard, "This is the next pope"! Although not Catholic, this thought consumed my entire life, and it was hard to focus on anything else! I was shocked and dismayed when the media hardly mentioned his name in the Papabile - at that time, I didn't know any better!

After an eternity of waiting, at the moment of that "Josephum" it was as if a sound burst forth from Heaven. All the choirs of angels sounded the magnificent opening chord of a new heavenly chorus, joining in with our cries of joy and thanks to God.
This IS the new pope.

So, after a difficult Friday and Monday (what an ordeal it was to sit with a state inspector on his biennial visit while he scruitinizes every single bit of testing and paperwork your lab has done in the two years since his last visit!), I am back to being able to sneak some forum work during the day at my PC.

I posted a brief review of the book "LA BAVIERA DI JOSEF RATZINGER' by the Italian Jeanne Perego who has been a resident of Bavaria the past few years. Beatrice from our French section actually got a copy of the book on her last trip to Rome, and shares with us some of the anecdotes from it. Here is a translation -



Beatrice starts with this:
It is essentially a guide to help one discover Bavaria, a magnificent region, with a strong cultural identity, a land that is still largely rural, discreet, almost ‘secret’ insofar as the part that is less ‘polluted’ by mass tourism (therefore, away from Munich, the banks of the Danube, Ludwig’s castles and the ski resorts).

If one wishes to see this other Bavaria, ‘in the footsteps of Joseph” and his family, this guide provides valuable practical information. It also contains a number of anecdotes like this one:

JOSEPH AND MARY

In Pentling everyone remembers their famous neighbor with great affection. Ratzinger was someone whom ohers loved, because he always greeted everyone courteously and, for friends or colleagues from the university, often agreed to stop for coffee or a small glass of port (always accepted as an “exception.”). He was welcome for his simplicity and modesty, and in fact, many thought he was too shy.

Anna Maria Schurr, wife of one of the professors of philosophy at the Faculty of Theology (in Regensburg University) and a neighbor of Ratzinger, has this story:

“The small church of St. John in Pentling did not have (and still does not) a parish priest because it is dependent on the Parish of St. Joseph in Ziegetsdorf [the village where the Pop’s parents and sister are buried]. But in that little church, Ratzinger said Mass every morning at 7, giving simple and clear homilies that were not in the least academic. He did not have to say the Mass there, but for him it was a pleasure and a duty he felt he owed the community.

"Every morning, whatever the weather, he would leave the house at 6:30 a.m. with his sister Maria to walk to the church which is found in the old part of town. People waited for him along the road and as soon as they saw the siblings, they would exclaim, 'Here they come – Joseph and Mary!'.”

HERE, HE KNOWS EVERYONE

Johann Pelg, parish priest of St. Joseph in Ziegetsdorf remembers his celebrated parishioner:

“When he was on vacation as Archbishop of Munich-Freising, he often came here. When he went to visit his parents’ tomb, he would often stop by for coffee. As a man, he is simple, modest, without pretension. A striking thing was how he always greeted everyone by name. Here, he knew everyone…"

HE IS FROM HERE!

Professor Wolfgang Natainczyk, dean of the faculty of Catholic theology in Regensburg, succeeding Joseph Ratzinger in that position, remembers his colleague thus:

“One could say he felt at home here in Regensburg, also because of his brother. He came gladly to this university, but he was not known by many in the city, because he was always very reserved and led a very private life.

"As a professor, he was brilliant, fascinating. He was never rigid, although he demanded a lot of his students. His lectures were always of a very high quality while remaining perfectly understandable and appealing."

CONGRATULATIONS!

The telegram sent by the Faculty of Catholic Theology of Regensburg to the new Pope on his election:

“The faculty of Catholic theology at the Unversity of Regensburg expresses its great joy at the election as Pope of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, ex-Professor of Dogma and History of Dogma and vice-president of the University, who remains to this day an honorary professor.

"As Pope, Benedict XVI will be the Pastor of the Universal Church, while remaining an exceptional theologian, who will always be linked to the University, to the Diocese and to the city of Regensburg…

“The faculty congratulates him from the heart and welcomes with pride, admiration and esteem the news that this important position has been conferred on him.”

Address of the Mayor of Marktl
on the election of Benedict XVI

Dear fellow citizens of Marktl:
“Habemus Papam.” We have a Pope. That is the news that the media has transmitted to us from Rome, which made us all very very happy. But when we learned that the new Pontiff is none other than a man born in Marktl, our joy became even more enthusiastic.

Filled with pride and recognition, I say: today, we are here in front of the Pope’s natal house , #11 Marktplatz, where on April 16, 1927, at 4:15 a.m. Joseph Alois Ratzinger was born.

When on July 13, 1997, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became an honorary citizen of our community, I said, “We citizens of Marktl, we are proud to honor a representative of the Catholic Church who is this important, this well-known throughout the world.”

And today, with all respect, I add: “We have just realized that what we had so hoped for, desired, and even dreamed of during these past few days, which we have lived in trepidation and anticipation, has finally come to pass. We have just realized that the new Pope is a native of Marktl.”

We, the citizens of Marktl, are very happy and we express every good wish from the heart for Pope Joseph Ratzinger.

Your Holiness, we are filled with respect for all that you have accomplished up to now, for the success you have achieved in life. We knew the difficulties and the problems linked to your task as Cardinal. We also know that this new ecclesiastical mission, with new duties and new questions, represents a much greater challenge.

Despite that, I believe, and we all do, that your experience, your conscience, your intelligence and your authority, but above all, your deep faith, will make it possible for you to lead the Catholic Church to a good future.

With the greatest respect, acknowledgment and great gratitude, we present to you, Holy Father, the best wishes of every man and woman in Marktl. At the same time, I invite you to visit your natal village when you can.

We wish you all possible good, but above all, health, strength and God’s blessing.

Congratulations from
St. Michael Seminary

Dear Holy Father Benedict,

Filled with joy at your election as Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Universal Church, we transmit to you, in the name of the community at St. Michael’s Seminary in Traunstein, our most fervent wishes of good luck and for blessings on you.

We know you well, and we have appreciated for so many years the man whom the world is discovering with such surprise: someone open and always available, kind, with a noble soul, intelligent but at the same time cordial.

It is true that youth “want big things, desire the good.” We have experienced that every day here in the seminary, and I am personally convinced that you must be reminded often of your meetings with the youth of your own country.

We gladly accompany you with our thoughts of gratitude and our intense prayers, as you carry out your countless duties. And even if it will now be more difficult for us to reach you, we will continue to be linked in the heart by friendship.

Thomas Frauenlob
Director of the Seminary

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/05/2006 6.16]

This book, too, we 'plugged' on this thread when it first came out. Beatrice bought a copy in Rome, and the two sample spreads she shares with us make us want to see the rest of the book.




BENEDETTO XVI
Parola e Immagini
del I° anno di pontificato
[Words and Images
from the first year of his pontificate]
By Mons. Tommaso Stenico

The blurb on the book jacket reads, in translation:

150 evocative photos recall the first year of the Pontificate of the Successor of Peter whom the Holy Spirit has installed to lead the Church at the start of the Third Millennium. In addition, the book contains more than 60 reports, in the Pope's own words, of his teachings as Vicar of Christ.

Some of you may be interested in this:
"Pocket Dictionay of Popes" edited by Michael Walsh [Burns and Oates paperback, £10 or 15 Euros]
The Popes are listed alphabetically according to their Papal names and there's plenty of information about their lives and family backgrounds. I think many of us have become interest in the Papacy in general, since the election of our Benedict XVI.

I'd love to buy the book which Beatrice bought in Rome! The photos look lovely. I wonder, did she buy it in Papa's bookshop in the Via dei Corridori? That's where I got my "La Baviera di Joseph Ratzinger" - only in Italian, though. So, thank you for the translations, Teresa.

Love and Peace always - Mary x

[Modificato da maryjos 23/05/2006 15.21]

Book Offers Papal Messages to Elderly


VALENCIA, Spain, JULY 7, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A book containing messages to the elderly from Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II is meant to contribute to the defense of the dignity of the aging.

On Thursday, Caritas Spain, the Crescendo Network and the Ascendant Life Movement presented the book "The Pope and the Elderly."

The volume was presented during the International Fair of Families being held in Valencia in the context of the 5th World Meeting of Families, which the Pope will visit July 8-9.

The book, published by Caritas-Spain, is meant to contribute to the "defense of the dignity" of the elderly and to sensitize public opinion on the "need to promote a Christian and human aging process," said Concha Guillén, director of Valencia's diocesan Caritas.

Those presenting the book lamented that at present, "the economic view prevails, in which the person who doesn't produce doesn't count." However, the elderly "have much to contribute and to transmit to society, in collaboration with the Church."

For devotees of the Holy Spirit like me, this is a welcome compilation. I have checked the catalogs, and I do not think it has been translated into English - someone correct me if I am wrong. It has recently come out in Italian, tranlated from the original German. But even if you can't read it just yet, it's good to know what it contains.




From the blurb on the book jacket (thanks to Ratzigirl):

This volume gathers some of Joseph Ratzinger's most significant homilies dedicated to the Holy Spirit and delivered before he became Pope. They are homilies from Pentecost in 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1989, 1990, 1995, 1996 and 2002.

“Vieni, Spirito Creatore” – a translation of the German original, "Komm, Heilige Geist!" - is a new publication by the Lindau publishing house of Turin. (95 pp, 13 euro).

The homilies are entitled:
The Church's Profession of Faith and the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit as Tempest and Fire
The Spirit of Pardon
The Lord and the Spirit
Spirit of Life - Spirit in Flesh
The Holy Spirit - The Power of Unity
Spirit and Fire
Spirit and Freedom, Freedom and Bondage
God's Spirit in Creation and Redemption

The book contains a preface written by Cardinal Ratzinger in 2004, in which the then-Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith explains the reason for the collection:
"Obviously the Pentecost homilies presented here cannot and are not intended to be a theological treatise on the Holy Spirit."

The sense of these homilies on the Holy Spirit, he writes, is "to illuminate some aspects of faith in the Holy Spirit and to situate the Spirit in direct relation to our lives."

The theologian who became Pope expresses the hope that the book may help to better understand the Trinitarian God: "May all of this, incomplete as it is, bring about a deeper knowledge of the trinitarian God."
---------------------------------------------------------------
Discipula then contributes an online review of the book from
www.zammerumaskil.com - Here is a translation :


This is a collection of precious previously unpublished homilies of Cardinal Ratzinger which brings pure fresh air to philosophical and theological reflections on the Holy Spirit.

"Our lungs function to the degree in which it gets the air which is necessary for brething. In the same way, man can live as a spiritual being only if he has the spiritual air that can make him live - if there is a truth that makes sense, that satisfies him, that is good, if there is true love....Only in this atmosphere of truth can creation be completed and realized. It is therefore only in the breath of Jesus Christ, the crucified one, that one reaches truth - He is our justification and our redemption.

"[The Spirit] is the good truth, the fresh wind, the pure air, which man needs to be able to breathe and live spiritually according to his humanity. The resurrected Christ has brought us the breath of life. And so, we breathe the air we need to live if we live believing in His resurrection."

This is a gust of pure air to illuminate our daily life, the choices we make, small and big, to be credible witnesses for our faith in today's world. To make us bear, in the Holy Spirit, that image of God in which we were created, the Spirit that we need not only for ourselves, but for our community and the daily setting which God has assigned us to be witnesses of His love.

Especially since the Satanic design of cancelling God's image from history and in degrading God to a mere relativism is constantly present, within us and around us.

"This has become precisely the program of modernity: not wishing any longer to be the image of God but of ourselves, to confer on ourselves power in this world, not to respect the power of God any longer, and not to expect anything from Him."

May these texts - so profound, so true, so intensely felt - stimulate us to prevent a further growth of decadent modernity but rather to mature the image of Christ in our lives. With enthusiasm and the joyous effort that befits the chidlren of God.

Do not miss this book!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/07/2006 19.00]

From The Universe, Sunday October 15th 2006:
Pope Benedict has nearly finished his book on Jesus Christ, a book on which he has been working for several years. He told his publishers, the Vatican Publishing House, that he has written the preface and is preparing the bibliography. He has asked them to have "a little more patience".
The book is expected to be published early in 2007.
Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was the first to reveal the existence of the text, which is now hotly anticipated.
In an interview in Argentina last summer, the cardinal said the Pope was completing a book on Jesus Christ and what he meant for humanity

The Universe could have used a more recent authority about the book coming out - the Pope himself! On 10/3, I posted the following item in NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT - deciding to put it there instead of on this thread, because the Pope himself was 'giving out' the news. So, for the record, here it is -
-------------------------------------------------------------

POPE SAYS HE'S 'ALMOST DONE' WITH HIS NEW BOOK

Ratz-Lella in the main forum shares this exciting news agency item, translated here:


VATICAN CITY, Oct. 2, 2006 (Apcom) - Benedict XVI is putting final touches to what will be his first book as Pope (written as a book, that is, not a compilation of his homilies and messages).

He confirmed this in a meeting today with Mons. Antonio Scotti, president of the board of Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV), the Vatican publishing house.

"I'm working on it," the Pope reportedly said. "It lacks the final elements - I've written the preface and I'm working on the bibliography. Then I will let you know."

Under an agreement signed when he became Pope, LEV has sole publishing rights to all works by the Pope.

Someone reportedly asked the Pope at the end of the meeting how much time it would take? And he said, "Be patient!"

During the summer, it was reported that the Pope was writing a theological narrative on the life of Jesus. When he was asked about it in Les Combes, he said, "I don't know if I will get to finish it."

The occasion for the audience was the presentation of an illustrated version of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which contains much more than the 14 art works originally chose by the Pope to illustrate the chapters.

"Beauty is important to call attention to content," the Pope said as he looked through the new book. "These are beautiful images. It's a true contribution to the catechism. Beauty, of course, is a fundamental dimension of the faith."
--------------------------------------------------------------

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/10/2006 23.12]

Well, you can't expect the British press to be quick off the mark - we take things steadily here! I saw this in "The Universe" and hadn't read our Benedict thread. It does appear that Papa has finished the book, despite saying while at Les Combes that he wasn't sure if it would ever get finished.
Now we just have to wait!
Luff, Mary x

This book review appeared in the 10/6/06 issue of National Catholic Reporter. Thanks to Christopher Blosser's BENEDICT BLOG for the lead.
================================================================


WITHOUT ROOTS:
THE WEST, RELATIVISM, CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM
By Joseph Ratzinger and Marcello Pera
Basic Books, 159 pages, $22

Ratzinger and Pera warn
of the new dogma of relativism
Reviewed by JOHN JAY HUGHES

“A foul wind is blowing through Europe. ... The same wind blew through Munich in 1938.” So said Marcello Pera, secularist, professor of political science at the University of Pisa and president of the Italian Senate in this 2004 exchange of views with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

In May of that year, Cardinal Ratzinger addressed the Italian Senate on the state of Europe. The day before, Dr. Pera gave a lecture at the Lateran Pontifical University. The two leaders arrived at similar conclusions about the spiritual, cultural and political crisis facing the West. They then developed their ideas into the dialogue that is Without Roots, a book that quickly became an Italian bestseller.

Though only 10 in 1938, I was already reading the newspaper and remember the crisis in 1938 that Dr. Pera refers to. After “a campaign of lies visible even to the half-blind,” as Cardinal Ratzinger writes in his memoir Milestones, the French and British prime ministers handed over to Hitler the only militarily defensible part of Czechoslovakia while that country’s prime minister was forced to sit in an anteroom until he was invited in to sign the document that sealed his country’s fate and guaranteed the outbreak of World War II the following year.

This foul wind, Dr. Pera writes, “could turn out to be the death rattle of a continent that no longer understands what principles to believe. ... A continent whose population is decreasing; whose economy cannot compete; that does not invest in research; that thinks the protective social state is an institution free of charge; that is unwilling to shoulder the responsibilities attendant upon its history and its role; that seeks to be a counterweight without carrying its own weight; that, when called upon to fight, always replies that fighting is the extrema ratio, as if to say that war is a ratio that should never be used.”

A devastating indictment indeed -- and Cardinal Ratzinger agreed with it. While declining to make a judgment about the Iraq war, the cardinal tells Pera: “You and I are of a single mind in rejecting a pacifism that does not recognize that some values are worthy of being defended and that assigns the same value to everything.”

Assigning the same value to everything is another name for relativism, which Cardinal Ratzinger castigated forcefully in his sermon at the Mass preceding the conclave that elected him pope. “He’s queered the pitch,” I thought, as I listened to my old teacher, thinking that a man who laid his cards so openly on the table had forfeited whatever chance he had of election. Fortunately, I was wrong.

“The more relativism becomes the generally accepted way of thinking,” Cardinal Ratzinger writes, “the more it tends toward intolerance, thereby becoming a new dogmatism. ... Being faithful to traditional values and to the knowledge that upholds them is labeled intolerance, and relativism becomes the required norm.”

Cardinal Ratzinger praises European laws that punish those who dishonor Judaism and Islam. “But when it comes to Jesus Christ and that which is sacred to Christians, instead, freedom of speech becomes the supreme good.”

Is the situation in the United States today so different?

Of course Europe, and the West in general, have made many mistakes. But the West’s most significant merit, Dr. Pera writes, quoting the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, “has been its ability to be self-critical.”

Today, however, self-criticism has become “a peculiar Western self-hatred that is nothing short of pathological,” Cardinal Ratzinger writes. “It is commendable that the West is trying to be more open, to be more understanding of the values of outsiders, but it has lost all capacity for self-love. All that it sees in its own history is the despicable and the destructive; it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure.”

One would have to be fully blind not to perceive the parallels in our own country: in the media, and throughout the educational establishment.

While acknowledging this, Cardinal Ratzinger sees America as still the great exception. His pages about the continuing strength of religious faith in the United States are an overdue recognition that American separation of church and state is a blessing for the church, and not an attack on it, as European Catholics have long charged.

Cardinal Ratzinger’s words also refute the claim by Paul Elie in an otherwise excellent article in The Atlantic Monthly for January-February 2006 that Pope Benedict’s grasp of the American religious situation is inferior to that of his predecessor. Exactly the opposite is true.

The book, modest in size, is bracing indeed. One can only hope that it will be widely read.

Fr. John Jay Hughes is a priest of the St. Louis archdiocese and a church historian. His memoir No Ordinary Fool: A Testimony to Grace will be published in 2007.

And soon to come out, from Ignatius Press - still via Christopher:

The Way of Love
Reflections on Pope Benedict XVI's Encyclical,
Deus Caritas Est
Availability: On Back Order
ISBN: 1586171674
Author: Livio, Carl / Melina (ed.), Anderson (ed.)
Length: 375 pages
Edition: Hardcover
Your Price: $24.95
Order it at
www.ignatius.com/ViewProduct.aspx?SID=1&Product_ID=2923&AID=10273785&PID...


In response to Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies and Marriage and Family reflects, together with the Holy Father, on love.

From the very beginning, the fundamental work of the Institute has been pursuing a deeper understanding of God’s plan for marriage and family.

In these twenty-five years, various generations of students and professors, following the legacy of John Paul II, have been able to discover and communicate the beauty of the vocation for which all men have been created: the call to love.

Twenty-six professors from the Institute’s various sessions express what in their understanding are the main themes of the document, approaching the topics raised by the Holy Father with different theological and philosophical perspectives; by so doing they have highlighted the significance and fecundity of the lines of thought suggested by the Pope.

This book is offered as a path towards a fuller understanding of the profundity and richness of the love with which God fills us and wants us to communicate in our turn.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 07/11/2006 14.22]

A new edition of Joseph Ratzinger's 1985 book about creation has been published in Italy. In the main forum, Discipula has a very informative post about it, which starts out with the blurb translated here.



Joseph Ratzinger/Benedetto XVI
In principio Dio creò il cielo e la terra
Riflessioni sulla creazione e il peccato
[In the beginning God created heaven and earth:
Reflections on creation and sin]
«I Pellicani» - religione, cristianesimo, spiritualità – Edizioni Lindau, Turin, October 2006
Translated from German by Carlo Danna
EURO 12.50
142 pp
ISBN 88-7180-597-6

Profound but simple and incredibly topical, this book allows us to understand what could be the points of cotnact, as well as the differences, between the most advanced scientific theories (the Big Bang, evolutionism) and faith.

It consists of five reflections on the Christian significance of creation and its intrinsic rationality.

The text expresses the sense of the creative process not only as a causative explanation but above all as a mission that God has entrusted to mankind. Thus, the meaning of original sin as a betrayal of that mission.

The last of the five reflections concentrates on the implications for man of believing in a world created by God and not reduced to blind matter.

The texts go back to when the Pope was cardinal, but one can trace in them the same penetrating arguments and spiritual breadth that characterize his discourses as Pope.

---

"The threat to life from man's own actions, which is now and again in the news, has given a new urgency to the subject matter of creation. Paradoxically, at the same time, we are assisting at the almost total disappearance of the announcement of Creation from catecheses, from preaching and ultimately, from theology.

"The accounts of the Creation are being silenced (as though) their affirmations are no longer proposable. Because of this situation, I decided in the spring of 1981 to hold four Lenten homilies at the Cathedral of Our Lady in Munich as a catechism for adults about the Creation.

"At that time, I could not satisfy the wishes expressed by many to publish those homilies in a book, because I did not have the time to re-elaborate the transcriptions from tapes that had been made by the faithful.

"In the succeeding years, from the viewpoint of my new responsibilities [at the CDF], it became more evident to me how the media practically ignored the subject in their reporting. Thus, I was impelled to take up those old transcripts and re-edit them for publication, without altering their character as homilies, with the limitations of the genre.

"I hope that these pages will stimulate others to better efforts in order to restitute to the message of God the Creator the prominence that it deserves in our preaching."

Rome, The feast of St. Augustine, 1985
Joseph Ratzinger

---

That came from the preface to his 1985 book, in which he asks whether the accounts of Creation in Genesis no longer have any value. In fact, a theologian recently said that cretion would soon be an unreal concept and that one needed to talk in a more intellectually honest manner not about creation but only about mutation and natural selection.

The Pope has welcomed the new edition of his book "in order to recall once more the essential moments of the Christian faith in the Creation and to encourage others to further speak on these in preaching and in theology."

The texts contained in the book are:

7 Premises
13 God the Creator
37 The sense of thE Biblical narrative of Creation
61 The creation of man
83 Sin and redemption
107 Consequences of belief in Creation
(The numbers indicate the page on which the text begins).
================================================================


Discipula's post ends with a substantial excerpt from the book on creation and evolution. [When I have translated it, I will post it in IN HIS OWN WORDS.]

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/11/2006 14.23]

Emma shares with us from La Repubblica, a review of a new German biography of Joseph Ratzinger written by one of his ex-students.
=============================================================

By Paola Sorge

'A critical biography' is the subtitle of the book dedicated to him by one of his former students in Regensburg, Christian Feldmann, now 68.

It purports to reveal the more hidden aspects of Joseph Ratzinger's complex personality with its contradictions, its unexpected changes, its conflicts and fears.

Son of a police officer in a little Bavarian town, the boy Joseph, who initially wanted to be a housepainter, hated uniforms and as a member of the Hitler Youth, was excused by an understanding teacher from taking part in parades.

From childhood, he had a horror of any kind of sport, considered himself not gifted with any practical spirit, and loved studying.

A 'fateful development' transformed a brilliant professor gifted with humor and much loved by his students - who, in the 1960s-1970s fascinated his audiences with his eloquence and inspired his students with his criticism of the Church hierarchy and his desire for a 'new' Church as a community withhout privileges - into the intransigent Panzerkardinal who became more pessimistic and diffident, pitiless in persecuting presumed dissidents.

His enemies, and they are not few, considered him "an aggressive German who carries the Cross as if it were a sword" and have attributed to him a long list of 'sins,' not theleast of them that he does not understand women and why some of them wish to say Mass!

But now as Pope, Feldmann concludes with relief, Joseph Ratzinger has returned to showing the gentleness, affection adn sense of humor which are innate in him.

His intransigence, Feldmann thinks, concealed existential fears which he has not totally overcome: fear of anything new, fear of losing control, fear of betraying the spirit of the Church.
The book "Pope Benedict VXI: A Critical Biography", more than just biography, is a psychological portrait of the Pope written by a hypercritical theologian who remains his affectionate admirer.
================================================================

I don't know about that last sentence. It seems to me as though Feldmann wrote the book primarily to be critical, because his judgment on Ratzinger's CDF years is just unbelievably unacceptable from anyone who purports to know and love Ratzinger.

For example:
I can't say if the words were actually used by Feldmann or whether they are the reviewer's conclusion from Feldmann's presentation, but either way, to say that his appointment as Prefect of the CDF transformed him into the "intransigent Panzerkardinal who became more pessimistic and diffident, pitiless in persecuting presumed dissidents" is outrageously unacceptable!

Such a characterization buys into all the worst stereotypes that the media had about Ratzinger but is not borne out by the record - not by all the words he said and wrote at the time, nor by his recorded actions [in which the most severe discipline he imposed was demanding a period of silence and a retraction of statements incompatible with the Magisterium from the dissident priest, or prohibiting them from teaching theology in a Catholic university if they chose to persist in preaching against the Magisterium].

I cannot believe how anyone who was his student and who professes to love him can make a judgment that is not borne out by the facts. We have thousands of photographs of the Cardinal during those years, dozens of recorded and written interviews, his own voluminous writings [which have never been characterized by hostile or provocative language, no matter how firmly in defense of the Magisterium], and the testimony of everyone who met him in that time, to show that he continued to be the gentle, smiling, ready-to-listen person that his students remember him to be.

Where was Feldmann all those years? Did he not even meet him once in Regensburg? What 'transformation' is he talking about? Any intransigence he showed had doctrinal grounds - not the result of his personal judgment!

I know I should not inveigh against Feldmann on the basis of a book review, but I read a similar assessment of his book at the time it came out during the Frankfurt Book Fair this summer [it was tucked into a rundown of new 'religious' books that were presented at the book fair], so the Italian reviewer cannot be totally off the mark!

Perhaps Feldmann is a qualified psychologist in addition to being the theologian by profession that he is described to be, but as a theologian, he could have confined himself to examining Ratzinger's theology - as hypercritically as he wants to - but it is not his business to psychoanalyze him. And falsely at that, if we are to judge from his superficial statements about Ratzinger's 'existential fears.'

But to be fair, if anyone among our German members has read the book or has come across other reviews about it, please let us know and share with us.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/11/2006 20.50]

I have taken the liberty to re-post here an item posted by Benefan last week in NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT. It is a commentary of the Pope in the guise of a book review, on which I had wanted to comment.

Father Andrew M. Greeley, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, is the author of The Catholic Revolution: New Wine in Old Wineskins; Priests: A Calling in Crisis; and The Truth about Conservative Christians, with Michael Hout. I believe he has also written several best-selling novels about priests.
==============================================================

Puzzling pope? – Author explores
continuing enigma of Benedict XVI
By Father Andrew M. Greeley
11/7/2006
Commonweal Magazine


The Rule of Benedict, by David Gibson.
HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, 2006)
400 pp. $24.95

CHICAGO, Ill. (Commonweal Magazine) – Recently, Vatican postage stamps, adorned from time immemorial with the papal triple crown, conveyed a different note: “Episcopus Romae,” Bishop of Rome. An ecumenist in the curia explained to Zenit News Service that it was a nod to the Orthodox, who prefer that title. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn’t.

Yet a year and a half after his election, Papa Benedetto remains an enigma. Who is he really? After the generally hostile reaction to his election in the European and American media, he does not seem to fit their initial fears. Nor does he fit the happy dreams of observers, like Father Richard John Neuhaus or George Weigel who waited eagerly for the purges that have not happened. [Greeley's commentary is tainted, among other things, by this insistent chortling about Neuhaus and Weigel!]

Instead, the pope suspended the founder of the Legionaries of Christ because of sexual-abuse charges, and replaced Joaquin Navarro-Valls, head of the Vatican Press Office, with a Jesuit, Frederico Lombardi of Vatican Radio, a change, one hears, stoutly resisted by Opus Dei.

*Is Benedict the liberal conciliar adviser to Cologne’s Cardinal Joseph Frings? Or the disciple of St. Augustine who was horrified [He was??? I would like to see where this 'horror' is documented!] at the Vatican II document, The Church in the Modern World, because he believed modern secularism constituted the greatest threat to the church?

*Is he the frightened scholar who fled Tübingen and its unruly students in 1968, convinced of the need for order in the church? Or the zealous hammer of heretics who presided over the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), née the Inquisition? Or the theologian who argued that the council did not really represent drastic change in the church?

*Does the new pope really want a “smaller and purer church”? Or is he the author of the first half of the extraordinary encyclical Deus caritas est (God is love)? Will the real Benedetto please raise his hand? When is the other Prada slipper going to drop? [Please. Fr. Greeley, spare us the cliches which are neither clever nor right!]

David Gibson, author and onetime reporter for Vatican Radio, wrestles with these questions in The Rule of Benedict, a sympathetic yet not uncritical examination of the pope’s career.

Gibson traces Joseph Ratzinger’s life through the Hitler years in Germany (Ratzinger was 5 years old when the Nazis took power), his seminary training, his choice of Augustine’s pessimism over Aquinas’ optimism as a theological paradigm, his disillusion following the Second Vatican Council, his brief term at Munich, and then the long years at the CDF.

Augustinianism, Gibson contends, resonates with Raztzinger’s pessimistic personality and his deep skepticism about modernity.

I don’t doubt this, yet it would be a mistake to overlook the grief in Germany in the decades after the war. In Jazz Age Catholicism, Jesuit Father Stephen Schloesser reminds us that the great Catholic writers (literary and musical) in France during the 1920s lived and worked in an atmosphere of profound sorrow over the terrible losses of the Great War. Yet they retained a spirit of engagement with their times and a sense of Christian hope.

A sensitive young man who grew up in the much deeper pain in Germany after 1945 might have found it difficult to be optimistic about the modern world. (Is Mozart part of the modern world? “The Magic Flute” is an Enlightenment opera, and Benedict is known to be a Mozart aficionado.)

Benedict, Gibson suggests, sees the modern world as a dark, dangerous place for the church and for Catholics.

[He sees the dangers, describes them and warns against them, but he is also always telling us to appreciate and love the world itself as God's creation, and preaching a Gospel of love and joy to dispel the troubling shadows cast by modern thinking. So what is this pessimism most of his critics always harp on? Pessimism is sitting on your hands and saying - everything's bad, there's nothing to be done. I don't think either Augustine or Benedict are guilty of that in any way!]

Gibson also seems to understand Cardinal Ratzinger’s dislike of liberation theology, but is unsympathetic toward his attack on it. Still, Marxism and Christianity don’t blend well, and by now it seems clear that Marxism doesn’t work.

The romance with Marxism in South America and among some political theologians in Europe, one might argue, was a perilous fad. Social democracy may be a difficult course, but the only one that has even a remote chance of working.

The cardinal’s suspicion about dialogue with Eastern religions seems to reveal the same fear of contamination. Doubtless, there were some shallow faddists in that field, though Jacques Dupuis was not one of them. The persecution of Dupuis by the CDF was hardly one of Ratzinger’s finest hours, even if Dupuis was cleared, more or less. [Again, I would like to see the documented record of such 'persecution.' And was Dupuis 'cleared'? I don't think so! He persisted in teaching his 'religious pluralism' - in effect, that one religion is as good as the other.]

The most interesting chapter in the book – “Pontifex Maximus, Pontifex Minimus” – compares the papal styles of John Paul II and Benedict, the latter far more low-key than the former. There will be no cult of personality during the present incumbency, and many will think this an improvement. [I always cringe when these superficial comparisons are made because they make unspoken implications. In this case, as though John Paul II were guilty of promoting a 'cult of personality' - these things develop without the active effort of the 'cult' object, even though his personality itself may inspire the cult.]

Benedict seems to understand his role as that of telling the truth, not, as he says, his personal opinions, but the agreed Catholic truth. He sees himself preaching as a pastoral minister rather than as a theologian, a task that would require tact and self-discipline of any theologian who was also pope.

It would also appear that Benedict’s vision of a smaller church is not a prediction, much less something he will create by a purge, but rather something that he fears as possibly an inevitable development.

After his election, as I pondered in Rome the hit lists that Weigel and Father Neuhaus were probably preparing, I read on the net Father Hans Küng’s remarkable plea that we give the new pope a chance, especially to produce his first encyclical. Since Father Küng knew him well as a friend, colleague, rival and adversary, I figured that we too ought to give Benedict a chance. [Gee thanks, how condescending of both Fathers Kueng and Greeley!]

Two events since then have confirmed that inclination: Benedict’s reconciliation with Father Küng, a remarkably gracious event; and Deus caritas est, Benedict’s astonishing first encyclical.

The latter, which Gibson dismisses as not new and not pertinent to reform and renewal astonishes, especially as perhaps a theme-setting document for Benedict’s time in office.
[I can understand 'not new' because 'Deus caritas est' as a concept is right out of the Gospel, but 'not pertinent to reform and renewal'? To re-state as Benedict did - freshly and memorably - in DCE all the underpinnings of the faith and how faith must be expressed in concrete actualization of our love of God and love fo fellowmen?]

In the erotic love of husband and wife, the pope sees an image of the love between God and humankind, a hint of the presence of grace in the dark and threatening modern world. Given St. Augustine’s disgust with sexual love, this hopeful view of the human condition can hardly be described as Augustinian pessimism.

It could provide a perspective through which, over the long run, Benedict and his successors could charm Europe back to the faith. The idea does not originate with Benedict. St. Paul clearly understood it. Moreover John Paul II in his early audience talks developed a similar theme. But the clear and lapidary style of Deus caritas est made it a document for the modern world.

Nor does Gibson consider Father Neuhaus’s cri de coeur in First Things against Benedict’s failure to be more vigorous in ridding the church of homosexual priests and seminarians, especially if they are Jesuits. If First Things and even more conservative perspectives, represented by groups like the Remnant, are disappointed in the pope, there are grounds yet to suspend judgment.

The Rule of Benedict is a more sophisticated and nuanced analysis of the new pope than many others. Unfortunately, it does not leave room for the possibility that the papacy changes the man who occupies it, a prospect that Father Küng suggested a year and a half ago.

Room should be left to consider that the data might fit such a model. For example, Benedict’s mix of discretion and firmness during his visit to Spain, where the government behaves as if the loyalists had won the civil war, suggests that the pope is not one who looks for fights (though his remarks about Islam at Regensburg – pulled out of context as they were – might better have been left unsaid). The returns, it seems, are not in yet. Perhaps they never will be. Benedict may always be an enigma. That wouldn’t be all bad.

Gibson’s least successful chapter is about the church in America. He subscribes to the media analysis that sees the church in this country as deeply polarized with only a small center remaining. But the polarization model fits neither the American nation as a whole nor the church in particular. The center still holds, and strongly. American Catholics are not divided between, say, First Things and Commonweal (alas, most U.S. Catholics have heard of neither).

While there have been some losses to the church in the last several decades, it seems impossible to drive out most of the laity, no matter how much the leadership tries. At every level - pope, curia, diocese, parish – the leadership does not understand the faith and the spiritual depth of its people. [The Pope does not? What was the great discourse in Verona all about but faith in those who make up the Church itinerant? The Pope trusts the faithful - he just wants them to be better taught and better guided by their ministers.

As CDF prefect, he famously said that it was his duty to defend the faith in behalf of the ordinary Catholic, who has no access to talk shows and newspaper columns to make himself heard over the polemical babble devoted to side issues that are not essential to the faith.]

Hence the laity become an inkblot onto which those in power can project their personal opinions and biases. Social research might be a help, but who needs social research?

In a similar vein of empiricism, I would hope (perhaps foolishly) that as the pope and his colleagues ponder a long-term strategy for winning Europe back to the faith – a contest for which the church has enormous resources, if it would only recognize them – they might postpone faulting the laity for the decline of faith and reifying abstractions, such as secularism, materialism, relativism, Marxism.
[The long-term strategy is getting back to the essentials of the faith as Benedict is doing, and forming or re-educating priests, religious and catechists who can transmit these essentials in words and in actions, as he wants the Church to do. Benedict cannot be clearer on these points. Is it foolish to hope this can be done?]

Instead, they might begin, in prayerful and humble examinations of conscience, to wonder how they themselves or their predecessors might have contributed to the loss of Europe (should it really be lost). They might even ask quietly, “What have we done wrong?”

[OH, PUH-LEEZE! Whether Greeley is directing these last two paragraphs to the Church in general or to Benedict in particular, they are cheap shots to imply that the Church has not 'examined its conscience'! For God's sake, what was Vatican-II about, in more ways than one? And just listen to Benedict whenever he addresses any gathering of includes priests!

Nor is Benedict blaming 'the laity' in general for the terrible trends of today that tend to work against faith. He is blaming the lay intellectuals (and their advocates among the clergy) who peddle these ideas relentlessly, and who, through the alas-inevitable consequences of communications domination, have succeeded in making their ideas dominate Western culture and dictate its manifestations!]
================================================================

My initial reaction to Greeley's piece was exasperation, by now quite familiar, at this desire to label or categorize the Pope. Like most individuals who exercise their intellect actively, he cannot be reduced to simplistic labels and categories.

What matters is that he is consistent about the doctrine of the Faith and the Magisterium. And that is the minimum we expect of any priest.

The series of contrasting questions Greeley poses in the paragraphs I marked with an asterisk are indicative of a useless and unnecessary attempt to pigeonhole the Pope. He is not necessarily one or the other, once and for always, because he is one or the other depending on the subject matter and the circumstances.

And he is an enigma only if you choose to pigeonhole him as 'conservative' or whatever tag you may choose, because one-tag-fits-all will not apply to everything he thinks, says, writes and does.

And to continue using contemporary jargon, Benedict shows such an open personality one might truly say he is WYSIWYG (pronounced "wi-si-wig" - for 'what you see is what you get'- for our readers who may not be familiar with English computerspeak).

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/11/2006 23.13]

In the German section, benedetto.fan tells us that Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the Munich newspaper, has come out with a book on the Pope's recent visit to Bavaria - one of the many that came out soon after that visit and went on sale at the giant Frankfurt Book Fiar at the beginning of October!



BAEYER ROEMER PAPST:
Seine Leben, Seine Theologie und
der Besuch in der bayerischen Heimat
{THE BAVARIAN ROMAN POPE:
His life, his theology, and
the visit to his Bavarian homeland)
Bookbound, 192 pp.
24.90 Euro
Published in German
By Sueddeutsche Zeitung
ISBN: 3866153694

Even if one does not read German, it would be worth ordering for the photos. Try going to
sueddeutschezeitung.de

Ratzigirl tells us there's a new photo book on the Holy Father out in Italy. It's called "BENEDETTO XVI. L'alba di un nuovo Papato" (BENEDICT XVI: The dawn of a new Papacy") and sells for 19.40 Euros.

This is the same book advertised a few months ago posted here in May!
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/viewmessaggi.aspx?f=65482&idd...

Paparatzifan writes to say she had made a reservation for it in her hometown bookstore but it never came, and it still was not out the last time she was in Rome and checked. It certainly has one of the best-chosen covers ever for a B16 book.

As the May post said, the photographs are by Gianni Giansanti, and the text was provided by TIME's Jeff Israely.

Ratzigirl gives us a teaser - that one of the photos inside shows the Pope (she doesn't say whether it is him as Pope or before he was Pope) reading a newspaper, and on the armchair next to him sits a teddy bear!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/11/2006 0.41]

I was checking out 30 GIORNI to see if they have resumed the biographical series on Joseph Ratzinger, but they're publishing the Regensburg lecture so I suppose that takes up the Ratzinger space for the issue.

However, I did come across this little prayer book that they are selling with a foreword by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The prayer book first cmae out in February 2005. It is called 'CHI PREGA, SI SALVA' - literally, "he who prays saves himself'. But I guess a more idiomatic rendering into English would simply be 'Prayer saves!'



Here's part of what the cardinal wrote:

From the beginning, man has prayed. Always and everywhere, man has realized that he is not alone in the world, that there is someone who listens to him. He has always realized that he needs an OTHER who is greater, to whom he must address himself so his life may be what it ought to be.

But God's face was always hidden uuntil Jesus showed us the true Face of God. Whoever sees Him sees the Father (cfr Jn 14,9). Therefore, while it is natural for us to pray (asking for help in times of need or thanking the Lord in moments of joy), we are also incapable of praying and talking to a hidden God. We do not know what would be proper to ask him, says St. Paul (cfr Rm 8,26). And so we should always say to the Lord, as His disciples did: "Lord, teach us how to pray' (Lk 11,1).

The Lord taught us the 'Our Father" as a model of authentic prayer and has given us a Mother, the Church, who helps us to pray.

The Church has received from Sacred Scriptures a great treasury of prayers. In the course of centuries, numerous prayers have arisen from the hearts of the faithful who address themselves to God in new ways all the time. In praying with Mother Church, we ourselves learn to pray.

So I am very happy that 30 GIORNI has decided to come out with a new edition of this little book which contains the basic prayers of Christians as they have developed over the centuries.

May these prayers accompany us through all the events of our life and help us to celebrate the liturgy of the Church. I hope this little book can become a travelling companion for many Christians.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
Rome, February 18, 2005

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/11/2006 0.32]

From the korazym.org story following announcement of publication of the Pope's book on Jesus. The statement by Fr. Lombardi is a composite of direct quotes used by the korazym.org story augmented by the quotes cited in the Vatican Information Services press release today about Fr. Lombardi's statement. [I really don't know why they didn't just release the full text!]

The Pope's work is a great fresco in two volumes on what the Pope himself defines as "the mystery of Jesus." The first volume, recently completed, goes against the maelstrom of the world debate on the figure of Jesus.

Pope Benedict XVI offers here his most original reading and historico-theological analysis of the basis of Christian faith, in a career that has seen him produce in the last 50 years more than 600 articles and a hundred books translated in many languages.

In the book, which is the first published by the Pope writing as Joseph Ratzinger [as distinguished from those that have been published as Benedict XVI - the encyclical, the collected speeches from Cologne, the texts of all his Papal discourses in 2005], the Pope invites the reader to approach Jesus as Christ the Savior, and like his disciples, to trace the itinerary of the Nazarene's public life, from His baptism in the river Jordan until the Transfiguration, a time and place at which the Master allowed his disciples Peter, James and John to start their initiation into the Mystery of His being.

Benedict XVI narrates the life of Jesus with a passion that will make it easy for the reader to become involved and allow himself to be touched by Christ. At the same time, the text observes the rigorous scientific discipline of a scholar.

So it is in this double key that the encounter with Jesus recounted here is even more fascinating, because it passes through the prism of the very personal experience of a refined theologian who has been called to become the Successor of Peter.

Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office, expressed his enthusiasm for the book in a note released to the media.

It begins: "The fact that Benedict XVI has succeeded in completing the first part of his great work on Jesus which will be in our hands within a few months, is very very good news indeed."

"I find it extraordinary that despite the commitments and concerns of the Papacy, he found the time to bring to maturation a work of such great scientific challenge, besides its spiritual value.

"He said that he devoted all of his free time to the task. That in itself says something very significant about the importance and the urgency that this work has for him.

"With his habitual simplicity and humility, the Pope explains that this is not a 'work of Magisterium' but the fruit of his own research, and as such it can be freely discussed and criticized. This is a very important observation, because it makes clear that what he writes in the book in no way binds the research of exegetes and theologians.

"It is not a long encyclical on Jesus, but a personal presentation of the figure of Jesus by the theologian Joseph Ratzinger, who has been elected as Bishop of Rome.

"At the same time, the fact that he was elected Bishop of Rome with the task of maintaining the faith of his brothers, he would have felt the strong call to give the faithful a new presentation of the figure of Jesus."

"The long Preface, whose beginning and end we have been shown, explains very well that inthe present cultural situation and in many presentations of the figure of Jesus, the distance between the 'historical Jesus' and the "Christ of the faith' has become ever greater, and the impression is widespread that we know very little for certain about Jesus, and that only much later was His image formed by faith in His divinity.

"The Pope says this situation dramatically impacts the faith because it makes its very point of reference uncertain, that it leaves us groping in the void about a friendhsip with Jesus on which everything depends.

"Joseph Ratzinger, taking into account all the results of modern research means to show us the Jesus of the Gospels as the true 'historical Jesus', a sensible and convincing figure whom we may confidently use as our reference point and on whom our faith and our Christian life can rest upon.

"With his book, the Pope therefore intends to render a fundamental service to sustain the faith of his brothers, and he does this ont he central point of that faith, Jesus Chist."

"From what we read in the excerpt that we have been given from the Introduction, Jesus is presented as the new Moses, the new prophet who speaks with God 'face to face', who is the Son profoundly united with the Father. If this central aspect of the figure of Jesus is set aside, then He becomes contradictory and incomprehensible. Joseph Ratzinger speaks to us with passion of the intimate union of Jesus with the Father and wishes to involve the disciple who follows Jesus in this communion.

"We will therefore be reading a great work of exegesis and theology but also of spirituality. I think of the great impression and the spiritual fruit that I gained as a young man from reading Ratzinger's first great expositional work, Introduction to Christianity, (and) I am certain that even this time, we will not be disappointed, and whether we are believers or not - all persons who are truly willing to understand more profoundly the figure of Jesus Christ - we will be immensely grateful to the Pope for his great testimony as a thinker, a scholar and a man of faith on the most essential point of the Christian faith."

http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com/2006/12/new-book-on-pope-benedict.html
Gerald writes: ..out in paperback - "Let God's Light Shine Forth - The Spiritual Vision of Pope Benedict XVI". It's by Robert Moynihan, the editor of Inside the Vatican. It combines thoughts on, an interview with and quotes by Pope Benedict. At 200 pages, it's perfect even for lazy readers. It gives a great, concise overview of the Pope's thinking on countless topics, thus making it the perfect introduction to his vast work. Here a quote from the interview I found interesting:





"Are they right." I asked, "those who say that you are an ultra-conservative?"
"I would say that the work is conservative," Ratzinger replied, "in the sense that we must preserve the deposit of the faith, as Holy Scripture says. We must conserve it. But conserving the deposit of the faith is always to nourish an explosive force against the powers of this world that threaten justice, and threaten the poor."
"That sounds as if you are conservative and radical at once. But few would say that about you. Do you think you have been misunderstood?"
"By a certain part of the media, certainly, yes."
"Does this cause you to suffer?"
"Up to a certain point, yes," Ratzinger said. "But, on the other hand, I am a bit of a fatalist. The world is what it is. And it lives on the basis of simplified images..."

I gOt the impression this is a new (recent at any rate) release from Ignatius Press because otherwise they would not feature an excerpt of it on their online magazine, Ignatius Insight. But a look at what appears to be a chronological list of the Ignatius publications on Joseph Ratzinger indicates this may simply be a re-issue. It's frustrating that their catalog and product descriptions do not include piblication dates.


Here is what their blurb, in the 'product' portion of their catalog, says about the book. It seems like it would make a very nice Christmas gift:


“All sacred images are, without exception, in a certain sense images of the Resurrection, history read in the light of the Resurrection, and for that very reason they are images of hope, giving us the assurance of the world to come, of the final coming of Christ.” —Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger From The Spirit of the Liturgy

In Images of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) masterfully weaves together Scripture, history, literature and theology as he reflects on major feasts of the liturgical calendar. In each chapter, he examines works of sacred art that illustrate the hope we celebrate in our most important Christian holy days.

What do the humble ox and ass at the manger of the Christ Child tell us about Christmas? In an icon of Christ's Ascension, what do the Savior's hands held in blessing promise us? What is the meaning of the sword held by the great statue of Saint Paul before the Roman church that bears his name?

These and many other questions are explored with depth and sensitivity in this collection of meditations by the man who became Pope Benedict XVI. Several beautiful colored images of the relevant paintings, mosaics and sculptures accompany the rich and detailed text.

A sample of some of the images seen within the pages of Images of Hope pictured below:




And an excerpt from one of the chapters is provided:



From Images of Hope

Anyone who, after wandering through the massive nave of Saint Peter's Basilica, at last arrives at the final altar in the apse would probably expect here a triumphal depiction of Saint Peter, around whose tomb the church is built.

But nothing of the kind is the case. The figure of the Apostle does not appear among the sculptures of this altar. Instead, we stand before an empty throne that almost seems to float but is supported by the four figures of the great Church teachers of the West and the East. The muted light over the throne emanates from the window surrounded by floating angels, who conduct the rays of light downward.

What is this whole composition trying to express? What does it tell us? It seems to me that a deep analysis of the essence of the Church lies hidden here, is contained here, an analysis of the office of Peter.

Let us begin with the window, with its muted colors, which both gathers in to the center and opens outward and upward. It unites the Church with creation as a whole. It signifies through the dove of the Holy Spirit that God is the actual source of all light.

But it tells us also something else) the Church herself is in essence, so to speak, a window, a place of contact between the other-worldly mystery of God and our world, the place where the world is permeable to the radiance of his light.

The Church is not there for herself, she is not an end, but rather a point of departure beyond herself and us. The more transparent she becomes for the other, from whom she comes and to whom she leads, the more she fulfills her true essence. Through the window of her faith God enters this world and awakens in us the longing for what is greater.

The Church is the place of encounter where God meets us and we find God. It is her task to open up a world closing in on itself, to give it the light without which it would be unlivable.

Let us look now at the next level of the altar: the empty cathedra made of gilded bronze, in which a wooden chair from the ninth century is embedded, held for a long time to be the cathedra of the Apostle Peter and for this reason placed in this location. The meaning of this part of the altar is thereby made clear.

The teaching chair of Peter says more than a picture could say. It expresses the abiding presence of the Apostle, who as teacher remains present in his successors. The chair of the Apostle is a sign of nobility - it is the throne of truth, which in that hour at Caesarea became his and his successors' charge.

The seat of the one who teaches re-echoes, so to speak, for our memory the word of the Lord from the room of the Last Supper: "I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren" (Lk 22:32).

But there is also another remembrance connected to the chair of the Apostle: the saying of Ignatius of Antioch, who in the year 110 in his Letter to the Romans called the Church of Rome "the primacy of love".

Primacy in faith must be primacy in love. The two are not to be separated from each other. A faith without love would no longer be the faith of Jesus Christ.

The idea of Saint Ignatius was however still more concrete: the word "love" is in the language of the early Church also an expression for the Eucharist.

Eucharist originates in the love of Jesus Christ, who gave his life for us. In the Eucharist, he evermore shares himself with us; he places himself in our hands. Through the Eucharist he fulfills evermore his promise that from the Cross he will draw us into his open arms (see Jn 12:32).

In Christ's embrace we are led to one another. We are taken into the one Christ, and thereby we now also belong reciprocally together. I can no longer consider anyone a stranger who stands in the same contact with Christ.

These are all, however, in no way remote mystical thoughts. Eucharist is the basic form of the Church. The Church is formed in the eucharistic assembly. And since all assemblies of all places and all times always belong only to the one Christ, it follows that they all form only one single Church.

They lay, so to speak, a net of brotherhood across the world and join the near and the far to one another so that through Christ they are all near.

Now we usually tend to think that love and order are opposites. Where there is love, order is no longer needed because all has become self-evident. But that is a misunderstanding of love as well as of order.

True human order is something different from the bars one places before beasts of prey so that they are restrained. Order is respect for the other and for one's own, which is then most loved when it is taken in its correct sense. Thus order belongs to the Eucharist, and its order is the actual core of the order of the Church.

The empty chair that points to the primacy in love speaks to us accordingly of the harmony between love and order. It points in its deepest aspect to Christ as the true primate, the true presider in love.

It points to the fact that the Church has her center in the liturgy. It tells us that the Church can remain one only from communion with the crucified Christ. No organizational efficiency can guarantee her unity. She can be and remain world Church only when her unity is more than that of an organization
- when she lives from Christ.

Only the eucharistic faith, only the assembly around the present Lord can she keep for the long term. And from here she receives her order. The Church is not ruled by majority decisions but rather through the faith that matures in the encounter with Christ in the liturgy.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/12/2006 13.42]