NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT

Fellow Benaddicts - Do you know we are listed in the New York Times's Home Page for BENEDICT XVI NEWS [their list of archival material on him]

topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/benedict_xvi/index....
under Related Sites, thus:

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Related Sites

American Papist, Theology student in Detroit
The Benedict Blog, Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club
Catholic News Service, Top-rate news and analysis
Catholic World News, Conservative updates and commentary
Chiesa, Analysis from Sandro Magister
Council on Foreign Relations: Pope Benedict's First Twelve Months
National Catholic Reporter, Senior correspondent John L. Allen Jr.'s blog
Papa Ratzinger Forum, With English translations from Italian press
The Tablet, Venerable, liberal Catholic magazine from Britain
Amy Welborn, American Catholic blogger
Whispers in the Loggia, Vatican gossip blog from Philadelphia

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AIN'T THAT NICE????

WAY TO GO TERESA!!!


You notice your translations are mentioned prominently in the NY Times listing. That is one HUGE benefit our forum has that others don't--news about Benedict and the church translated from a variety of other language sources.

I wonder how Rocco feels about his blog being called a gossip column.

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Rocco brought that on himself, because when he writes about the Vatican, he almost always make it sound like it's some scuttlebutt he picked up, even if he is just 'interpreting' the bare announcements made on RINUNCE E NOMINE in the daily Vatican bulletin. And his fellow bloggers were not too happy he broke the story on what was in the MP and the Pope's letter the night before the official release, violating the embargo.....He's a kid, a precocious one, but a kid at 22.

I came across that site list because I was looking for the NYT report on the Motu Proprio as I wanted to post it here for the record - after all, I think it is a profoundly historic action B16 has taken in behalf of the Church.

If Paul VI in 1969, with a stroke of the pen, consigned the traditional Mass to a limbo where it languished for the past 47 years, then Benedict just reversed that, with a stroke of a pen as well - but instead of a negative effect, he has restored a millennial patrimony to the Church and corrected a grave historical injustice.

It's awesome, literally - and yet MSM is treating it as just another curious, marginally significant action! Moreover, how can they fail to see it in the context of everything else he has done in the past two weeks - and what he has managed to do in 26 months????

And look how 'weak' the Times headline is! 'Eases restrictions' indeed!!!! That's even one degree less than the favorite verb everyone else is using - that he has 'liberalized' the use of the Latin mass. It's more than just liberalization - it's a literal liberation! He has unshackled it from the unlegislated chains with which the progressives have managed to bind it in the past 5 decades almost, and singlehandedly rescued this treasure of the Church's tradition from fading to oblivion. [A prejudicial and unwarranted obsession about Latin has also tended to skew MSM perception on this issue, of course - as though the use of Latin was the essence rather than the vehicle of traditional liturgy.]

Even if we all knew the Pope wanted to carry out this 'reform of the reform', did anyone really expect it would be such a total revalidation of the old Mass? The media certainly did not. The only limitation on it now is beyond anyone's control after 47 years of having been reduced to inconsequence - finding enough priests who are qualified to celebrate it!

The first part of the MP leading to the executory provisions is a riveting resume of what Popes have done through history in order to preserve the liturgy, from Gregory the Great to John Paul II. How masterfully he framed his opening sentence the way he did, so that the first words of the MP would be Summorum Pontificum cura adhoc tempus usque semper fuit... "The concern of the Supreme Pontiffs up to the present has always been to ensure that the Church of Christ offers a worthy worship to the Divine Majesty, to the 'praise and glory of His name', and to the 'benefit of all His Holy Church.'"

The sentence says everything. It is both the basic rationale for acting as he did, as well as the criterion against which to judge any liturgy - 'worthy worship', cultus dignus. And it is the context against which media should have reported it to appreciate its full historical impact.

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Pope eases restrictions
on Latin Mass
By IAN FISHER
Published: July 8, 2007


ROME, July 7 - Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday authorized a wider use of the old Latin Mass, dismissing fears that its revival could divide the church or dilute the reforms of the Second Vatican Council that made standard worship in the languages of Catholics around the world.

In gentle but firm language, the pope acknowledged in an accompanying letter to bishops the depth of opposition to the change, voiced in recent months by European bishops and Jewish groups. He proposed, in fact, a review after three years to determine "if truly serious difficulties come to light".

He stressed that the current Mass that was approved in 1970 would remain the standard one - and that he did not expect any widespread return to the old rite, known as the Tridentine Mass. In it, the priest faces away from the congregation and prays, sometimes in a whisper, in Latin, a language unfamiliar to most of the worlds one billion Roman Catholics.

But the pope said that the change could both heal rifts with traditionalist groups that favor the Latin Mass as well as reconnect the church with a 1,500-year-old form of worship that faded since the Second Vatican Council, which ended in 1965.

"What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us, too, and it cannot be, all of a sudden, entirely forbidden or even considered harmful," he wrote.

He noted "that young persons too have discovered this liturgical form, felt its attraction and found in it a form of encounter with the Mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, particularly suited to them".

Amid opposition from other Jewish groups, the Anti-Defamation League condemned the change on Saturday, calling it a 'body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations'. While an earlier reference to 'perfidious Jews' was removed officially from the Tridentine Mass just before the council, which set the stage for progressively better relations between Jews and Catholics, the group condemned a remaining prayer on Good Friday calling for Jews' conversion.

"We are extremely disappointed and deeply offended that nearly 40 years after the Vatican rightly removed insulting anti-Jewish language from the Good Friday Mass, that it would now permit Catholics to utter such hurtful and insulting words by praying for Jews to be converted," Abraham H. Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League's president, said in a statement. [Foxman has become such a professional anti-Catholic carper - he shoots from the lip the first chance he gets and doesn't even bother to check his facts. But then neither does Mr. Fisher, who reports a false statement unchallenged, when there is objective fact to belie it!]

For several months, church officials have signaled the pope's decision, and so the announcement on Saturday was expected and more notable for the specifics.

As expected, the pope removed a rule requiring a local bishop's permission to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, approved in its current form in 1962.

In his letter, Pope Benedict took pains to assure bishops that the decision would not "in any way lessen your own authority and responsibility", though priests or parishioners could under the decision say the Latin Mass even if a bishop opposed it. The pope said in his letter that the local bishop remained 'the moderator' of the form of worship in their dioceses.

The Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, a French group that broke with the Vatican over the Latin Mass and other issues surrounding the council, hailed the decision, saying in a statement that it 'rejoices' in seeing the church 'regain her liturgical tradition'.

Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, chairman of the bishops' conference in France, where the opposition to the wider use of the Mass was strongest, told reporters that he did not expect many more requests for the Latin Mass.

"I don't see a tsunami coming," he said, according to Agence France-Presse.

[In fairness to Cardinal Ricard, I just read an account of a news conference he gave today and of his written statement about the MP - and even if interspersed with some dismissive remarks like the above that betray his anti-MP bias, he does convey what the Pope does in his explanatory letter.]



And here's the LA Times story - out of the same cookie-cutter, except it gives even more play to that character Foxman's misplaced paranoia:


Pope elevates Latin Mass

Benedict authorizes wider use.
Traditionalists are pleased,
but others see an erosion of Vatican II reforms.

By Tracy Wilkinson and Rebecca Trounson
Times Staff Writers
July 8, 2007


Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday authorized wider use of the long-marginalized Latin Mass, a move that delighted Roman Catholic traditionalists but worried others who fear the erosion of important church reforms.

Revival of the old service, which had been largely supplanted by the modernizing spirit of the Second Vatican Council, also angered Jewish groups because it contains a passage calling for the conversion of Jews.

In a decree known as a motu propio, essentially a personal decision, the pope urged priests to celebrate a 1962 version of the 16th century Tridentine Mass when their congregations request it.

Until now, priests could use the Latin Mass only with permission from their bishops, which was not always forthcoming.

The much-anticipated decision, nearly two years in the making, is an attempt to win back disaffected conservatives and to unite the church, Vatican officials said. It is also a reflection of Benedict's personal preference for traditional liturgy and incantations in Latin, a language he extols as beautiful and holy.

"What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful," the pope wrote in the decree.

But his announcement risks alienating some faithful. It could sow rather than mend divisions, undermine other reforms and harm interfaith relations, several church leaders and Catholic experts said. [How exactly will it alienate more faithful? The ones who favor tradition are happy. And the ones who are invested in the New Mass aren't affected in any way at all- the Pope's not imposing anything on them or having them change anything in their own habits or taking anything away from them! So how does ii sow divisions? How does it 'harm interfaith relations'? What do other faiths have to do with how Catholics worship? We don't tell them how to worship!]

The Tridentine Mass was largely replaced by newer liturgy approved during the Second Vatican Council, which took place from 1962 to 1965. In the newer rite, local languages replaced Latin, priests faced their congregations instead of turning their backs on them, and some wording deemed offensive to Jews was changed.

Attempting to reassure the doubters, Benedict said Saturday that since both the Tridentine Mass and the more modern liturgy would be available, there should be no concern that the church was turning back the clock.

"This fear is unfounded," he said in a letter to the world's bishops that accompanied his decree.

Benedict noted that the older liturgy was never outlawed; rather, he wrote, it fell out of favor in part because some bishops thought its use would challenge the broader Vatican II reforms.

But the reforms were sometimes misinterpreted as "authorizing or even requiring creativity," he wrote, deforming the liturgy and driving people from the church.

"I am speaking from experience, since I too lived through that period with all its hopes and its confusion," wrote the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, longtime watchdog of church dogma. "And I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the church."

The Tridentine Mass, named for the 1545 Council of Trent, which spent two decades codifying the Latin rite from earlier liturgies, will not become common, the pope said, because so few people can speak or work in Latin. The Vatican II version remains the predominant form.

Benedict dismissed arguments that the existence of two versions might splinter the church.

"It is not appropriate to speak of these two versions of the Roman Missal as if they were 'two rites.' Rather, it is a matter of a twofold use of one and the same rite," he wrote.

The pope has long held that suppressing the old liturgy essentially set one version against the other, said Father Thomas Rausch, a theologian at Loyola Marymount University who is writing a book about Benedict's theological outlook.

"He sees that as a wound and he wants to heal it," Rausch said.

Some of the strongest criticism Saturday came from proponents of interfaith dialogue and from Jewish organizations. Although references to "perfidious Jews" have been removed from the old liturgy, its Good Friday prayers contain a call for the conversion of the Jews and for God to lift the "veil from their hearts" so that they might know Jesus Christ. [WRONG, WRONG, WRONG - That, too, has been superseded. Please do your homework and not sow more misinformation!]

"This is a theological setback in the religious life of Catholics and a body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations," Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who is in Rome for meetings with Vatican officials, said in a prepared statement. "It is the wrong decision at the wrong time." [And you sir, are a sanctimonious blabbermouth who should check your facts first before being so sententious. We also have a Catholic Anti-Defamation League now. You, of all people, should be careful before defaming others!]

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Has anyone seen if Newsweek has weighed in already? I couldn't find anything in their current online edition.

This is a most helpful local map of the Cadore area which also shows its location relative to the rest of the Italian
northeast. I picked it up from Beatrice's blog and have gone in retrospectively to post it at least once on every page
containing accounts of the Pope's vacation in Lorenzago, for everyone's orientation whenever place names are mentioned.

Thanks to Lella's blog for these items from the regional newspapers of the Italian Northeast.

Here are translations:

This morning in Corriere delle Alpi:

Pope Benedict arrives at Treviso airport today, a little after 11 a.m. He was to be welcomed by the president of the Veneto region, Giancarlo Galan; the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo Scola, and the Bishop of Treviso, Mons. Andrea Mazzocato.

Then he was to transfer to a helicopter for the flight to Lorenzago, expected to touch down at a tennis court around 12 noon. In Lorenzago to welcome him : the Bishop of Belluno-Feltre, Mons. Giuseppe Andrich; the president of Belluno province, the mayor of Lorenzago, the parish priest and other town officials.

The papal motorcade will proceed to the center of town, where the Pope will be welcomed by children. And then on to the villa inside the grounds of Castello Mirabello, owned by the diocese of Treviso.

Accredited jorunalists and cameramen will be allowed to accompany him so they can take pictures of the vacation house, where John Paul II stayed during his six vacations in Lorenzago.

His private secretary and two sisters in charge of his household will stay in the villa with the Pope. Serving as his valet during this vacation is his former valet (and John Paul's) - Angelo Gugel, who retired last year. But he is from Treviso and apparently is taking over the during this vacation from Paolo who replaced him.


From Gazzettino del Nordest, 7/8/07:


Children in traditional costumes of the Cadore, with rhododendrons and St. John lilies, will join officials to welcome Benedict XVI who has chosen Lorenzago di Cadore for his summer vacations this year. Today and tomorrow, church bells in all the region will peal at noon.

Starting at noon tomorrow, the Pope will be resting and relaxing in the shadow of the Dolomite Alps as a guest of our province. On a vacation which, as the Bishop of Belluno-Feltre, Mons. Giuseppe Andrich, said, is a three-week period of rest. In near-monastic style.

But this is not his first time here. The Pope himself recalled, during a recent meeting at the Vatican with Mons. Giorgio Lise, that he first visited Pedavena as a young priest with three other colleagues, because the manager of a brewery was a family friend.

The second time he was in Belluno itself, the capital, and stayed at the Gregorian seminary. And by chance, as he learned later, he was given the room that used to be that of Mons. Albino Luciani (who became John Paul I) when he was a lecturer at the seminary.

And the most recent was in 2004 when the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made a two-day visit. It was October 16 and he came to the Papa Luciani Center at Col Cumano, to present his book "Fede, verita, tolleranza" (Faith, truth, tolerance) before a huge audience.

He had been invited to the center by its cultural coordinator, Fr. Michelangelo de Dona, who, along with journalist Antonio Socci, introduced the cardinal to the crowd.

The following day, Sunday, the Bavarian cardinal - whose mother's family comes from Val Pusteria in Alto Adige - came to Belluno to concelebrate a Tridentine Mass in the cathedral at Belluno. After an interview with some journalists and a meeting with priests, he proceeded to visit the diocesan sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes at 1000 meters altitude in the Nevegal.

Before that, he spent some time in the piazza by the cathedral where he watched children playing football, part of an autumn sports festival.

He mixed with the crowd and he was heard to say, "The most beautiful vacations are those spent in the mountains." Noticing that many houses had boats in the front yard, he asked if there were many lakes around.

Meanwhile, a Parliament deputy representing Belluno says that in September 2005, he had written the Pope "in the name of the people of Cadore, province of Belluno" inviting him to spend his next vacation 'amidst our mountains', recalling the peaceful vacations spent by John Paul II at Lorenzago. But he also said, "Your presence here would benefit a territory which has just had a terrible economic downfall and need some encouragement so they can recover self-confidence in the tourism potential of the province."

On Sept. 29, Paniz received a reply from Arcbishop Leonardo Sandri, who was then the deputy Secretary of State or Sostituto. Sandri said the Holy Father appreciated the invitation, thanked him for it and would keep it in mind.

In 2006, however, the Pope returned to Les Combes in Val d'Aosta. This time, even if one year later than Paniz had expected, he will be in Cadore for three weeks
.

From Corriere delle Alpi:

LORENZAGO - Exactly 30 years ago, papa Wojtyla came to Lorenzago for the first time. Tomorrow, Benedict XVI will be arriving here for the first time.

Mayor Tremonti, who had welcomed John Paul II for six vacations, is emotional about welcoming another Pope. He said that he ad assured Vatican officials who had visited earlier to look at security and housing arrangements, "We will leave him in peace to enjoy the monastic-style vacation he has said he wishes to have."

Nevertheless, Tremonti says he has received over a thousand letters from local people requesting a private audience with the Pope.

Lorenzago, at the foot of Mount Cridola, is at its festive best. A rcord number of summer visitors have arrived. The town is all decked in the flags of the Vatican and Italy, yellow and white flowers for the papal colors, and red geraniums all over the place.

Yesterday, a giant billboard with the pictures of the two Popes against Mt. Cridola in the background was set up at the main highway into town with the words, "Lorenzago di Cadore, summer destination of the Popes".

The patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo Scola, the top Catholic prelate in the northeastern region called the Tri-Veneto area, published a letter of welcome for the Holy Father today:

"Beatissmo Padre, Most Blessed Father, all of us, men and women of the Northeast, are very proud to be your hosts for several days of well-earned rest in our territory. You will be able to enjoy once more the fascination of the Dolomites, authentic cathedrals of nature; to admire the infinite nuances of the greenery in our woods; to look at the flowers, listen to birds, meet our people - although we assure you that we are most conscious as hosts that our first duty is to leave you in peace."

Scola thanked everyone who has been working to prepare for the Pope's visit: the dioceses of Treviso and Belluno, the civil and military authorities of the region, and the people.

"How can the Successor of Peter, physically present in our midst, not exercise by his presence alone, a beneficial effect by making us come to terms with the sense of life, of our individual lives? Holiness, we will not waste this great occasion for spiritual development during your time with us."

A press center in Lorenzago opened yesterday. The local government asked Mons. Andrich's spokesman, Fr. Giuseppe Bratti, to take charge of it. Bratti said there are already many European correspondents in Lorenzago, 'especially from Germany'.




Lorenzago is on the upper right margin of the green area (Belluno province)
about 1 cm on this map from the Austrian border.
Brown area on the right map is the Veneto region.
www.multimap.com/maps/?&t=l&map=46.4786,12.4577|15|4&loc=IT:46.4786:12.4577:15#t=l&map=45.68848,11.73706|8|4&loc=IT:46.4786:12...
The nearest big city to Lorenzago is Venice.


The villa where the Pope will be staying in Lorenzago
is at the site of the Castello di Mirabello (lower right part of town map, marked #17).

Lella provides us with a video link of the arrival:
www.skylife.it/application/html/443/singolo_cronaca_44...








And PETRUS has the first bulletin from ASCA, translated here:

LORENZAGO DI CADORE - "My thoughts go every day to Fr. Bossi," Pope Benedict told newsmen who welcomed him on his arrival here for his annual summer vacation.

"I spoke with the Sostituto [the new Deputy Secretary of State, Mons. Fernando Filone, who was the Nuncio the Philippines until his new appointment last month] the other day and he gave me the latest available news. Let us hope and pray that the Lord helps us."

Fr. Gianfranco Bossi, a missionary from the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, was abducted by armed men from his parish in Zamboanga, southern Philippines, on June 10. [Yesterday, the Philippine government said it had reason to believe Bossi was in the hands of an Al Qaeda faction based in southern Philippines. The abductors sent photographs of a notably thinner Fr. Bossi to one of his friends by cellphone last week.]



The Pope arrived in Lorenzago by helicopter around 12:30 after a flyover reconnaissance of the little town at the foot of the Dolomites and the nearby grounds of Castello Mirabello where the Pope will be staying during his vacation which lasts till July 27.

He was greeted by hundreds of townspeople and tourists. He stopped to greet many of them, including the children who welcomed him with flowers, and the newsmen who were present.


Other bits and pieces reported by the ANSA and ASCA so far:

Is he writing Part 2 of the JESUS book?
"I hope I can write some pages here....It's in God's hands. I don't know."

Is he working on a new encyclical?
"Yes, that too."

So there will be a new encyclical?
"Oh yes, eventually!"

To the children who welcomed him:
"Finally, here in the mountains! Away from the city, away from daily routine.
Here I will study and pray, I will meditate and rest."


[See preparatory stories from Lorenzago in preceding post]


AP makes the most of the snippets above to file this report:

Pope to write new book while on vacation
BY NICOLE WINFIELD



LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy, July 9 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI said Monday he plans to use his nearly three-week-long vacation in the Italian mountains to write a new book and said he was also preparing a new encyclical.

Benedict spoke briefly to reporters as he arrived at a church-owned villa in Lorenzago di Cadore, in the mountains near Italy's border with Austria. He said he hopes to work on the second volume of the book JESUS OF NAZARETH. The first volume was published earlier this year.

"It's in God's hands," he said. "I hope to write some pages here."

The first volume, Benedict's first book as pontiff, offers a personal meditation on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The second volume is expected to explore the birth of Christ, his crucifixion and resurrection.

Benedict was asked if he would use his time in between hikes through the mountains to also prepare a new encyclical. He laughed in response but said, "Yes, eventually."

Encyclicals are the most authoritative documents popes can issue. Benedict has only written one to date: "God is Love," an exploration of love and charity that focused on the different types of love  erotic and unconditional  that Benedict says are joined in marriage between man and woman.

The vacation comes after a busy few weeks for the 80-year-old pontiff. Over the weekend, he issued his eagerly expected document liberalizing the old Latin Mass, and a week before that he issued a letter to the Catholic faithful in China, urging them to unite.

On his first full day of vacation, another important document will be issued as well, this one from his old office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

As he arrived during a break in thunderstorms, the pope was also asked if he was thinking of the Rev. Giancarlo Bossi, an Italian missionary kidnapped in the Philippines. Benedict said the priest, seized by gunmen in the southern Mindanao region on June 10, was in his daily prayers.

"We hope and pray that the Lord helps us," he said.

Pope John Paul II frequently visited the home in the Dolomite mountains, although in his later years he moved west, to the Alps close to Italy's border with France. Benedict spent his first two summers as pope at that retreat in Valle D'Aosta, but this year he chose to come to Lorenzago, which had not hosted a pope since 1998.

Benedict said he was glad to be in the mountains "far from the city and all the things that go on every day."

"I can rest, study and pray," he said.

He can also play the piano. The house where he is staying has been recently renovated  and it has been outfitted with a baby grand piano. Benedict is an accomplished pianist; his favorite composer is Mozart.

Benedict's vacation here continues until July 27, after which he moves to the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, in the hills south of Rome. While here, he will have two public appearances to recite his traditional Sunday noon blessings.

Joaquin Navarro-Valls who was with Pope Benedict XVI as Vatican press director during the Pope's first vacation in Les Combes, Val D'Aosta, in July 2005, was also a guest of the Pope for a few days in July 2006, after Navarro-Valls had retired the position he occupied for 22 years. He wrote this article for today's issue of La Repubblica. Here is a translation.




The style of his vacations:
Music, books and nature
By JOAQUIN NAVARRO-VALLS



People who take walks in the mountains are generally advised to walk with a steady rhythm, without losing pace or stopping too often. This expert advice is a splendid metaphor for living, and it is the same impression that I observed most of the time during the days I spent with Benedict XVI in Val d'Aosta - in the silence that envelops the villa where the Holy Father spent his first two summer vacations as Pope.

The cool mountain air and the extensive panorama of the Alps, dominated by Mont Blanc, were most pleasant aspects of the limited time the Pope has for a holiday. But in a way, one might say, he followed the sage advice to mountain walkers to the letter`- days of tranquillity and perseverance. And will be doing so again this year.

In Les Combes, the Pope woke up very early, spending much time in prayer before celebrating morning Mass. After breakfast, he would spend at least 10 minutes at his piano - something he does not do at the Vatican. And throughout the day, one was likely to hear a few minutes of melody coming from that modest little upright piano in the villa. And then again at night, before he went to bed.

But most of his day was dedicated to his other passion: writing. Although it is true that this may have to do with his work as Pope and as theologian, I think that the time he devotes to writing is never just, for him, compliance with duty, but something more profound, something constitutive of his intellectual character, of what I have called his pastoral ministry of intelligence.

It is true that on those Alpine slopes, Benedict XVI wrapped up work on a book he started as a cardinal three summers earlier on vacation in Bressanone, another Alpine resort, resulting in the book on Jesus we now all know about. But one can say with certainty that his writing activity was not limited to that.

Afternoons were also spent reading and writing, with a 'work interruption' to deal with important correspondence from the Vatican - documents to sign, or dossiers to review.

Of course, on vacation, he does not have his private library nor immediate access to rare references such as are available when he is at the Vatican. But this provides the intellectual with valuable opportunities to use the lack of texts and ready references, for more concentrated reflection and to synthesize his thoughts - an ideal situation for finishing off works that are already under way.

The Pope stopped working in the early evenings to take a a long walk in the mountains - further opportunity to reflect further on his work or for meditating in the woods. Time to pray the rosary. Stopping often to pick wild fruits - blueberries, raspberries, wild currants. Even those of us who sometimes went with him on these walks derived childlike pleasure from these.

These daily excursions were also an opportunity for the Pope for unexpected encounters - making small talk with villagers - or chatting with us about current events till dinnertime.

His apparent distance from any center of activity was by no means a cut-off from reality. Benedict's constant interest in what takes place in the world is, of course, more than just his personal attitude or character trait, but something that corresponds to a fundamental element of his mission as Pope.

A Pope on vacation demonstrates the impossibility of separating the person and his role even for a moment. His institutional role necessarily defines him interiorly as well.

And this was clearly felt at the Sunday Angelus, his only scheduled public activity on vacation. He projects his constant interest and concern for the drama of humanity, something he does not abandon at all during the private moments on vacation.

Over the years, I have realized that a Pope is really never on vacation. He carries the institution within him, firmly imprinted
from the time he assumes it to the last moment of his life.

Before John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Leo the Great referred several times in his letters to this unique relationship between the immutable nature of the papacy and the historic individual identity of the man who represents it. Being the Pope is something tattooed indelibly on the soul, and is not a garment one takes off at night then puts back on in the morning.

St. Pier Damiani has said this means it is impossible for the Pope to detach his personal "I" from the universal "We" of the Church. This arises from the intimate union that indissolubly ties the mission of the Pope to the personal history of an individual. That is why no Pope can be considered transitional, or rather all Popes are, in the way all men are, having to live out the days we are allotted, not one minute more or less.

In Lorenzago, Benedict will keep his habits of serenity and perseverance. What pages will he write, in what scenery and in what ways will he be reflecting these days on that mystery that he carries in him, from which he cannot and would not ever be detached?


Repubblica, 9 luglio 2007

The white baseball cap

Thanks for the photo of Papa in the quilted jacket and baseball cap, Teresa. I always thought he looked really cute in that outfit.

It's that time of year when papal vacation attire becomes the news of the day. We've seen the ball cap, the quilted jacket, the sunglasses, the hiking boots. Will there be something new on the scene this year? Clean off your binoculars, girls. Time to do a little spying.

Quite by chance, there's an article in today's La Stampa, thanks to Lella's blog, that talks about Pope Benedict's style - but not his casual wear. Rather, his deliberate choices in papal wear and external forms are seen as an objective correlative to his adherence to tradition. An analogy is suggested to Paul VI's decision to dump a number of medieval Papal perks.


Benedict's quiet revolution:
The power of symbols
in the age of global TV
By FILIPPO DI GIACOMO

That Papa Ratzinger always intended to convey a Catholic message even in external forms has been quite clear from the first days of his Pontificate.

Even if the papal tailors did not have a ceremonial surplice with sleeves long enough to hide the sleeves of the ordinary black sweater the new Pope was wearing on April 19, 2005. There was never going to be another sartorial hitch after the Pope's first special audience two days later when his cassock was too short.

In his first winter as Pope, Benedict dusted off the galero or saturno (the wide-brimmed red hat with tasteful gold trim that had been Roman ecclesiastic tradition); the camauro and winter mozzetta (the ermine-trimmed Papal bonnet and capelet, respectively); and the greca (the long white cashmere overcoat much favored by Pius XII).
The camauro was last worn by John XXIII, and the winter mozzetta by Paul VI, although John Paul II had used the galero and the greca on rare occasions.

It was as if Benedict wished to project visibly the external signs of a pontifical tradition that was unsuitable for the media whirlwind of John Paul II's pontificate.

And there was Vatican gossip about it too. The winter mozzetta was supposedly a gift from three monsignor-friends of Georg Gaenswein (or alternatively from the Princesses Borghese and Thurn--und-Taxis). The gold-trimmed ceremonial stole from a 'liturgy master' seeking to curry favor. The surplices from the lacemakers of Cantu...
[One would think the Church did not have a budget to provide for its Pope's garments.]

Gossip which, even if true, would simple be matter of fact for any member of the Roman Curia. But regardless of their provenance, when these are worn by the Pope, they come under the scrutiny of the world, through the merciless eye of TV, that unwitting historical witness that has enabled the faithful around the world to follow and participate in the life of the Church and their Pope.

Had there been global TV on December 8, 1965, at the closing ceremonies of the Second Vatican Council, the world would have noted that Paul VI had chosen to complete his abandonment of Pontifical Roman liturgy in favor of something purely episcopal. In the preceding years since he became Pope in 1963, Papa Montini had gradually done away with the Pontifical court, reduced the papal cortege to purely liturgical use, simplified the honorific vestments of prelates, and decreed liturgical garments patterned after those in use before the Council of Trent.

On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1965, Paul VI presented himself to the world simply as the Bishop of Rome, an austere pastoral image of the papacy. [How exactly did he do that? The Bishop of Rome is the Pope, and he has no distinctive garments as such. Did he choose to preside at the Marian prayers in Piazza Spagna without stole and mozzetta?]

Flash forward to December 22, 2005, at the Pauline Hall of the Apostolic Palace. Benedict XVI presided at his first Christmas meeting with the Roman Curia from a golden 'throne' from which, in the past, dignitaries came forward to kiss Pius XII's ring in traditional homage.

He was dressed in ceremonial surplice, winter mozzetta, a jeweled pectoral Cross from the treasury of St. Peter's Sacristy, and a wine-red ceremonial stole gold-embroidered with the Keys of St. Peter and the papal coat of arms. The only post-conciliar item of papal wear were the red leather moccasins - which, contrary to gossip that they are designer shoes, are handcrafted by a Vincenzan cobbler patronized by Paul VI after he decided not to use the buckled red satin slippers that had been prescribed papal shoes for liturgical ceremonies.

No one in the Curia was surprised at Benedict's sartorial choices. They complemented the quiet changes he had been working on papal liturgies.

From the very beginning, it was obvious Benedict would never put up with, much less participate, in the kind of babbling confusion of styles that had characterized some Vatican ceremonies that had been broadcast on global TV in the past.

For example, he chose to say his inaugural Mass in Latin, with polyphonic music composed for the occasion by the Sistine Chapel choirmaster. Antiphons and hymns were in magnificent Gregorian chant, and the Mass ended with Bach's great Toccata and Fugue.

In the Catholic Church, rite and ritual mean discipline. Canonists could not restrain from smiling while reading the normative parts of the Pope's Motu Proprio on the Mass. It was the first papal document in 40 years - drawing from the pluralism of tradition as well as Vatican-II - to elicit a Thank-You from the tradition-bound followers of Mons. Lefebvfre. It may not seem very much, but it was the first time it happened in four decades.

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

Fr. Di Giacomo has an interesting premise, but I wish he had developed it more linearly and directly, rather than elliptically and suggestively as he did. Lella points out, by the way, that the RAI birthday documentary on Benedict had a similar analysis in its section about 'the style of Benedict."

An Underground Priest's
First Impressions On Papal Letter

HONG KONG, July 6 (UCAN) - A Catholic priest in his 30s, who asks to be identified as "a Priest from the Underground Church," has written his impressions of the letter Pope Benedict XVI recently issued for Catholics in mainland China.

The writer in northern China was trained in underground seminaries in China and has studied abroad. He asked not to be named in the commentary he wrote for UCA News on July 2, two days after the pope's letter was published.

The priest analyzes the situation and expresses thanks for the papal letter. He supports the pope's call for unity and reconciliation among all Catholics in China, and draws special attention to the vexing issue of clergy from open and underground Catholic communities concelebrating the Eucharist.

For the priest, the papal letter's only disappointment is that it fails to mention a single word about the clergy who continue to suffer in prison.

UCA News has translated the original Chinese text as follows:


First impressions about
"Letter of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI
to the Bishops, Priests, Consecrated persons
and Lay Faithful of the Catholic Church
in the People's Republic of China"


The long awaited papal letter has finally been released. The pope's letter touches on various aspects of Church life in China. It cannot be simply summarized in a few articles of reflection, nor can its impact on the Church in China be explained in a few commentaries.

This letter undoubtedly will have a decisive impact on the future development of the Church in China. Now, I would like to express some of my personal feelings and views.


1. All through the letter, the pastor of the Universal Church and the successor of Saint Peter expresses concern for the faithful in China. He is willing to share the joy and hope, worries and anxieties of the Church there.

This will bring about much spiritual happiness to the Chinese Catholics. We can feel we are an important part of the Universal Church. We can feel his pastoral care and deeply feel that communion of the Church is not an empty concept. We know that we actually live in the communion of the Church.

2. For more than 50 years, the Church in China could not experience normal development. Therefore, the pope in this letter hopes to see the Church in China, in the process of overcoming many difficulties, slowly moving toward normal and full development.

Whether in revoking the faculties or in teaching various sectors among the faithful (bishops, priests, families), he expresses concern about the urgent problems the Church in China faces and points out how the Church can move toward healthy and normal development.

3. The most urgent mission of the Church in China is now reconciliation. Reconciliation means we look to Jesus Christ together in truth and charity. Such adoration and focus demand that we abandon past prejudices so as to sit down and engage in true dialogue.

If the Church is like a real person and we are to live together in communion with Christ, then the present situation in the Church in China can and must be altered first by you and me. We have to sit down and listen to one another. In communion with Christ, we must accept one another. We actually are one body.

Our quarrels and confrontation are definitely not what Christ wants. We need to sit down in love and truth - even better, in the truth of love and in the love of truth - so that we can pursue sincere dialogue. We should not look at each other's attitude.

I must first sit down unconditionally. To have the other sit down, I first must sit down. The only way to have the other listen to me is for me first to listen to the other. The only way to avoid quarrel is for me not to quarrel. Of course, I do this not to make the other sit down but because he and I are in communion with Christ and we live in the same Church of Christ.

In such dialogue of unity, it is equally dreadful to forget about love and to forget about truth. The pope has reiterated the truth of the Church in this letter. At the same time, he points out the concrete demand of love.

To brothers in communion with the pope and the bishops' conferences of the Universal Church, I should open my heart completely. This carries us to the question of "concelebration." Perhaps some members of the "underground" Church will find this hard to accept for the present. We should put aside personal prejudices and personal views and bear in mind the Church of Christ.

4. Regarding the legal aspect and actual reality, objectively speaking, it is clear that religious freedom (including freedom of belief and freedom of movement) promulgated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not yet fully observed in China.

As a priest in the "unofficial" Church, I personally believe the reason for our existence is to uphold human beings' vocation and continuous struggle for the fundamental rights of religious freedom. Different voices should be allowed and even encouraged within the Church. Diversity will only enrich Church life.

The true value of the "underground" Church's existence is the weak but real voice it utters. It is the voice of human conscience. While not denying the government's efforts to achieve religious freedom in the past 30 years, we have to admit that China still has a long way to go to achieve the generally accepted international standard.

5. As part of its normal development, a religious community will definitely relate to the local government directly or indirectly. Normal Church life cannot lack contact with the government authorities. Examples include recognition of the clergy and granting permission for venues of religious activities. However, the prerequisite is that the government should protect normal religious activities rather than control them.

6. As for Sino-Vatican relations, the pope clearly expresses his sincere desire to dialogue with Chinese authorities. The ball is now in the hands of the Chinese government to decide whether to express the same sincerity for dialogue.

From a practical point of view, if the government continues to use the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) - nominally an internal organization of the Church in China but actually a tool the government uses to control the Church - to lead the China Church, this would clearly indicate that the government is unwilling to have real dialogue. In the long run, if China and the Vatican are to establish diplomatic relations, the CCPA is a card that the government can afford to sacrifice.

7. The papal letter mentions not a single word about bishops and priests still in prison. I personally think this is really an imperfection.

We do not call on the pope to give much support to these suffering brothers in his letter since Church history tells us that those who give their lives and blood for their faith in any country subsequently have no important position at the negotiation table. Nor do we want to fight for anything in particular. For the sake of unity and for the good of the Church, we can put that aside and endure in silence.

However, the fact that the pope, as pastor of the Universal Church, does not even mention those still suffering in his letter is frustrating and shocking. We would not ask the pope to offend the Chinese government by mentioning it, nor request any special rights. We only want assurance that the Universal Church has not totally abandoned these people who are suffering, in silence. This is just a humble request.

Two reactions reported by UCAN to Pope Benedict XVI's two most important initiatives in the past two weeks - and in his young Pontificate so far - called my attention to the fact that both the Pope's letter to Chinese Catholics and the Motu Proprio on the Mass had the common - and very passionately articulated - theme of unity and reconciliation within the Catholic Church itself.

First, UCAN reports on Indian Cardinal Toppo's reaction to the MP, and there follows two excellent reactions to the Chinese letter.

I find the analysis by a Belgian expert on the problems of the Church in China very informative and illuminating - and leads me to wonder about recent statements made by Cardinal Zen of Hongkong which appear to contradict the papal letter on a very important point - the need for the Chinese underground to surface.

UCAN also has an analysis by an 'underground' priest in China who gets the point about 'unity and reconciliation' but faults the Pope for failing to mention anything about Chinese priests in prison.

I must thank Lori for posting UCAN (Union of Catholic Asian News) stories lately that have called my attention to the valuable service that this agency is doing in Asia and for reporting of Church news in Asia - an excellent complement actually to the AsiaNews service.



VATICAN
Pope Wants To Bring About Unity In Church
With Motu Proprio, Says Indian Cardinal
By Gerard O'Connell, Special Correspondent in Rome

ROME, July 9 (UCAN) -- Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi sees Pope Benedict XVI's decree authorizing wide use of the Latin-language liturgy in use before the Second Vatican Council as inspired by God's desire for unity in the Church.

"I think the motu proprio is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is moving the Church, through the Holy Father, to bring about unity and harmony among Catholics," he told UCA News in Rome.

Cardinal Toppo heads the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, which comprises bishops from the Latin-rite and two Oriental Churches -- Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara -- that form the Indian Catholic Church.

He spoke to UCA News in Rome, where he heard Pope Benedict explain the motu proprio on June 27 at a Vatican meeting called by Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

The Vatican published the decree, which the pope issued "on his own initiative," the literal meaning of motu proprio, on July 7. It takes effect on Sept. 14 and allows priests to celebrate the earlier liturgy, often called the Tridentine Mass, as an "extraordinary form" of the Roman rite without requiring their bishops' permission.

"I think the Holy Father is trying to find a solution to accommodate all the different groups in the Church," Cardinal Toppo said.

"He wants all believers, especially this group, the Saint Pius X Society, which was once part of the Catholic Church but broke away, to be reconciled with the successor of Peter. He feels convinced that with this accommodation there will be unity," the cardinal explained.

In this way, he qualified, no one needs to lose. "Rather, it is to find a solution acceptable to all concerned, a 'win-win' situation."

Some charge the motu proprio takes power from bishops.

It "may create problems in some places," Cardinal Toppo acknowledged, but "the intent is pastoral, not juridical." He said the pope as leader of the college of bishops "is highlighting certain things for the sake of unity and harmony, for the good of the whole Church."

Furthermore, the cardinal called the decree "encouraging" for ecumenism because it affirms "unity in diversity."

In his view, the Holy Father is affirming "there was nothing wrong with" the way all Catholics worshipped before Vatican Council II. But while the pope accepts the way of worship that emerged from the post-conciliar reforms, the cardinal continued, "there are groups who are still sticking to the Tridentine Mass."

According to the Indian prelate, "the Holy Father is telling us, 'Let us for the sake of unity allow this group to worship the way it wants and encourage it to preserve the treasures of the Church we had in the past.'"

The cardinal does not see the motu proprio creating a problem in India, where it might even help in "forestalling or preventing certain problems."

He cited the example of opposing groups in the Syro-Malabar Church. One group "is traditional or conservative - the original grouping -- and one is like the post-Vatican II Latin rite."

With the pope's decree, he said, "you can see how to accommodate both, since both are authentic ways of worshipping." Nothing is lost this way, he continued. "It is one rite, not two rites. It is one rite with two ways of expression."

Nonetheless, the cardinal does not see much interest for the Tridentine Mass among Catholics in India except in Mumbai, "where there is a small group that has such an interest." But he pointed out they "were already allowed to celebrate, so it never created a problem."

He also does not foresee any great push for a return to the pre-Vatican II liturgy in the rest of the continent. "In Asia we have been living in diversity, with so many religions and cultures and ethnic groups. Consequently, this kind of issue would not create a problem. It is not a question of uniformity; it is a question of unity in diversity," he added.

"Most of Asia has moved with Vatican II, so we look ahead, Cardinal Toppo said. "Wherever we have these groups who appreciate and like the Tridentine Mass and that way of worship, they will be accommodated. That is what the Holy Father is asking. I see no problem here."



Pope's Letter Begins New Phase
in China Church History

LEUVEN, Belgium, July 6 (UCAN) -- An expert on the Catholic Church in China says the letter that Pope Benedict XVI recently issued to Chinese Catholics has opened a new page of Church history in the mainland.

Father Jeroom Heyndrickx, a member of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and director of Ferdinand Verbiest Institute at Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, applauds the letter for clearly answering important pastoral questions that have long perplexed mainland Catholics.

The priest, who often visits China, says in a UCA News commentary that China's Catholics and government have awaited the letter anxiously, and many Church people now find its pastoral guidelines even more concrete than they had anticipated.

The commentary Father Heyndrickx wrote for UCA News follows:


The Beginning of a New Phase
in the History of the Church in China:
Reflections on Letter of Pope Benedict XVI
to the Church in China



The pastoral letter of Pope Benedict XVI to the Catholic Church in China, published on June 30, is remarkable and historic for its content and style.

The pope speaks like a father to the Chinese Catholics and with respect to Chinese authorities, and he puts forward clear principles to both of them.

In carefully chosen words, he expresses his understanding of the sufferings of the "underground community," which refuses to cooperate with the government, but also for the "official community" and for its decision to cooperate.

He expresses some fundamental theological principles asking both communities to reconcile, and he calls on civil authorities to enter into dialogue beyond the misunderstandings of the past.

The letter is remarkable for its content because it gives a clear answer to the burning pastoral questions that have divided the Chinese Church internally for 20 years. Only Rome can clarify the confusing discussions of the past.

I understand the meaning of the pope's letter as follows:

There is only one Chinese Catholic Church and it is faithful to the Holy See. Bishops and priests of both communities may concelebrate, but the pope encourages them first to express among themselves their unity by a profession of faith. For the Church to live underground is not a normal situation. There is at present no longer any reason to keep an underground Church community going in China. The pope, therefore, revokes all privileges that were conferred to China's underground community in the past. Chinese faithful may also take part in the Eucharist of priests of the official Church community.

The pope expresses these pastoral guidelines after he, in the first part of his 26-page text (English version), exposes at length some basic theological principles on the communion of particular Churches with the universal Church, reconciliation, and the need for dialogue and cooperation in charity and truth between Church and state, while giving to God and to Caesar respectively what belongs to each.

The pope promised in January that he would write a letter to the Catholic Church in China. Since then, they awaited this letter impatiently, and so did civil authorities. There was even some tension. All planned ordinations and other important Church activities were postponed "until after the letter of the pope," even if it was not said in just those words.

The causes of this uncertainty in China were calls expressed outside the mainland for confrontation with Chinese authorities, as well as last year's illicit episcopal ordinations in China at which Chinese bishops recognized by Rome had been forced to participate.

Everybody wondered: will the pope's letter threaten to apply canonical sanctions for illicit ordinations that may happen in the future? Or will the letter instead be a friendly though urgent call for unity and dialogue?

The large majority of Catholics in remote places in China's countryside had other concerns. The vital question for them has existed for decades: yes or no, may we participate in the Eucharistic celebration of the "open" (official) Church communities? Do we commit a mortal sin if we do, as we were taught?

So much confusion has been caused by what was said, preached and written about these questions that only the highest Church authority could give a clear answer. This is what happened in the pastoral letter. The pope says there: only one Catholic Church exists in China. Let Chinese Catholics peacefully celebrate the Eucharist together.

But there is more in the letter. The pope admonishes the official bishops appointed by the Holy See to make their appointment public. They apparently did not make that sufficiently clear in the past. The pope does not speak a warning language to bishops ordained without papal appointment, but he does ask them to clarify their relation to Successor of Peter now. Underground bishops are encouraged to apply for recognition by civil authorities.

An underground Church "is not a normal feature of the Church's life" for the Catholic Church, says the pope. All bishops should now unite so that Rome can finally recognize officially the already existing Chinese Bishops' Conference. This could not be done until now because the underground bishops are not members, while some other members of the conference are not appointed by Rome.

The pastoral letter touches here upon an extremely delicate point related to Church-state relations. It suggests that the present statutes of the Chinese Bishops' Conference still need to be amended.

In the present situation, one entity "desired by the State" -- apparently referring to the Patriotic Association -- stands above the bishops and makes important pastoral decisions, some even related to the appointment of bishops. Doing so, it in fact directs the Church. This situation takes the pastoral authority away from the bishops, which is against Catholic teaching: "Only a legitimate Episcopal Conference can formulate pastoral guidelines, valid for the entire Catholic community of the country concerned."

The pastoral letter contains more concrete pastoral guidelines than many of us may have anticipated. But they are all important, useful guidelines urgently needed in the Chinese local Church and they are included in Canon Law.

Priests are reminded that they should be incardinated in one clearly defined diocese. Dioceses that have a limited number of priests and experience difficulty in finding a suitable candidate-bishop are encouraged to ask neighboring bishops to help find alternative candidates. Bishops are reminded to set up structures required in their dioceses to promote cooperation and dialogue in pastoral work, such as: diocesan curia, presbyteral council, college of consultors, diocesan pastoral council and financial commission.

The letter even refers to the importance of registering Church properties in the name of the Church, not of individuals. It all shows how well the Holy See is informed about and concerned with the concrete needs of the Church in China.

The pope pleads for the principle of separation between Church and state, a relation in charity and truth to be realized through open dialogue. However, he introduces some points that, from the side of the Church, are not discussable.

The proposal to set up a Church independent from the Holy See is incompatible with Catholic doctrine. The principle that bishops must be appointed by the successor of Peter is crucial for the Church, since only appointments by the pope assure the unity of the Church and the apostolic succession of bishops. These appointments have no political character at all. The pope refers to internationally accepted documents that state the appointment of Catholic bishops by the pope is part of true freedom of religion.

For some readers, the letter may create the impression of being "too clear" and "too explicit," leaving nothing to be discussed and clarified in the dialogue with diplomats. This is the opinion of some friends in China who stress that in China one should leave some things to be cleared up by private bargaining. But here, too, the problem is that years of discussion have created confusion around matters of principle that are crucial for the Church.

Just as pastoral guidelines were urgently needed for the Chinese Church, so too is there need to make clear what is and is not discussable with regard to relations of the Church with the state.

Some people would have criticized the pope if he did not clarify these points. But he repeatedly expresses his hope and trust that, through dialogue, all these questions can be clarified and agreed upon.

As a concrete example, the pope cites the new division of dioceses that civil authorities introduced over the past 50 years but never previously agreed upon with Rome. The pope says this can be discussed whenever opportune and helpful.

This is the beginning of a new phase in the history of the Chinese Catholic Church. Together with the letter in which Pope John Paul II offered excuses for what happened in the 19th century, this pastoral letter is undoubtedly the most important and historical document ever written by Rome to the Chinese Church.

The key words are: reconciliation, unity and dialogue. Nowhere in this letter does the pope call for confrontation. Marked by reconciliation and unity inside the Church and dialogue with civil authorities on the basis of equality and mutual respect, it initiates a new phase in Chinese Catholic Church history.

This is the document released today by the Vatican with clear unequivocal statements on the doctrine of the Church about the Catholic Church as the 'one true Church of Christ' and how other Christian churches stand in relation to it.

It is, of course, posted in NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH, but I am posting it here, as well, without the footnotes, because I see it as yet another way in which Pope Benedict XVI is systematically going about to take down the web of inaccuracies and often willful misinterpretation of Vatican-II documents, just as he did with the Motu Proprio on the matter of liturgical reform.

He made his intention very clear in the December 22, 2005, address to the Roman Curia about interpreting Vatican-II as a continuity and evolution of Church doctrine and tradition, not as the rupture with the past advocated and often put into practice by the exponents of the much-abused expression 'spirit of Vatican II'.

Not surprisingly, that 'hermeneutic of discontinuity' led to a relativistic view of religions in the name of 'ecumenism' and 'inter-religious dialog' - a view Pope Benedict XVI referred to in Assisi recently as 'religious indifferentism.' This relativist view of religions directly contradicts the doctrine of the 'one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church' professed in the Nicene Creed.

The CDF statement today re-states this doctrine unequivocally. It's not saying anything new, but given how the MSM tend to use Catholic statements about the Church's unchanging dogma and doctrine into as fuel to stoke the fires of resentment and hostility among non-Catholic Christians, this may well bring on the firestorm that DOMINE IESUS did in 2000. It's a similar re-statement of the basic tenet of the faith.


CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

RESPONSES TO SOME QUESTIONS
REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS
OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH

Introduction

The Second Vatican Council, with its Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, and its Decrees on Ecumenism (Unitatis redintegratio) and the Oriental Churches (Orientalium Ecclesiarum), has contributed in a decisive way to the renewal of Catholic ecclesiology.

The Supreme Pontiffs have also contributed to this renewal by offering their own insights and orientations for praxis: Paul VI in his Encyclical Letter Ecclesiam suam (1964) and John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter Ut unum sint (1995).

The consequent duty of theologians to expound with greater clarity the diverse aspects of ecclesiology has resulted in a flowering of writing in this field. In fact it has become evident that this theme is a most fruitful one which, however, has also at times required clarification by way of precise definition and correction, for instance in the declaration Mysterium Ecclesiae (1973), the Letter addressed to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Communionis notio (1992), and the declaration Dominus Iesus (2000), all published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The vastness of the subject matter and the novelty of many of the themes involved continue to provoke theological reflection. Among the many new contributions to the field, some are not immune from erroneous interpretation which in turn give rise to confusion and doubt. A number of these interpretations have been referred to the attention of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Given the universality of Catholic doctrine on the Church, the Congregation wishes to respond to these questions by clarifying the authentic meaning of some ecclesiological expressions used by the magisterium which are open to misunderstanding in the theological debate.

RESPONSES TO THE QUESTIONS

First Question: Did the Second Vatican Council change the Catholic doctrine on the Church?

Response: The Second Vatican Council neither changed nor intended to change this doctrine, rather it developed, deepened and more fully explained it.

This was exactly what John XXIII said at the beginning of the Council(1). Paul VI affirmed it (2) and commented in the act of promulgating the Constitution Lumen gentium: "There is no better comment to make than to say that this promulgation really changes nothing of the traditional doctrine. What Christ willed, we also will. What was, still is. What the Church has taught down through the centuries, we also teach. In simple terms that which was assumed, is now explicit; that which was uncertain, is now clarified; that which was meditated upon, discussed and sometimes argued over, is now put together in one clear formulation" (3). The Bishops repeatedly expressed and fulfilled this intention (4).

Second Question: What is the meaning of the affirmation that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church?

Response: Christ "established here on earth" only one Church and instituted it as a "visible and spiritual community" (5), that from its beginning and throughout the centuries has always existed and will always exist, and in which alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted.(6)

"This one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic [...]. This Church, constituted and organised in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him" (7).

In number 8 of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium subsistence means this perduring, historical continuity and the permanence of all the elements instituted by Christ in the Catholic Church (8), in which the Church of Christ is concretely found on this earth.

It is possible, according to Catholic doctrine, to affirm correctly that the Church of Christ is present and operative in the churches and ecclesial Communities not yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church, on account of the elements of sanctification and truth that are present in them. (9)

Nevertheless, the word "subsists" can only be attributed to the Catholic Church alone precisely because it refers to the mark of unity that we profess in the symbols of the faith (I believe... in the "one" Church); and this "one" Church subsists in the Catholic Church.10

Third Question: Why was the expression "subsists in" adopted instead of the simple word "is"?

Response: The use of this expression, which indicates the full identity of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church, does not change the doctrine on the Church. Rather, it comes from and brings out more clearly the fact that there are "numerous elements of sanctification and of truth" which are found outside her structure, but which "as gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, impel towards Catholic Unity" (11).

"It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church" (12).

Fourth Question: Why does the Second Vatican Council use the term "Church" in reference to the oriental Churches separated from full communion with the Catholic Church?

Response: The Council wanted to adopt the traditional use of the term. "Because these Churches, although separated, have true sacraments and above all  because of the apostolic succession  the priesthood and the Eucharist, by means of which they remain linked to us by very close bonds" (13), they merit the title of "particular or local Churches" (14), and are called sister Churches of the particular Catholic Churches (15).

"It is through the celebration of the Eucharist of the Lord in each of these Churches that the Church of God is built up and grows in stature" (16). However, since communion with the Catholic Church, the visible head of which is the Bishop of Rome and the Successor of Peter, is not some external complement to a particular Church but rather one of its internal constitutive principles, these venerable Christian communities lack something in their condition as particular churches (17).

On the other hand, because of the division between Christians, the fullness of universality, which is proper to the Church governed by the Successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him, is not fully realised in history(18).

Fifth Question: Why do the texts of the Council and those of the Magisterium since the Council not use the title of "Church" with regard to those Christian Communities born out of the Reformation of the sixteenth century?

Response: According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery (19) cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called "Churches" in the proper sense (20).

The Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ratified and confirmed these Responses, adopted in the Plenary Session of the Congregation, and ordered their publication.

Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, June 29, 2007, the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.

William Cardinal Levada
Prefect

Angelo Amato, S.D.B.
Titular Archbishop of Sila
Secretary

The Pope may be on vacation, but with the epochal moves and decisions he made in the last two weeks, he has left the world heaping servings to digest - which will take far more than the next three weeks to do!

Here's Fr. Neuhaus's very on-the-mark commentary on the Mass MP:

The Pope's Liturgical Liberalism
By Richard John Neuhaus
First Things
Monday, July 9, 2007

One of the more deft moves in Benedict'S apostolic letter motu proprio, titled Summorum Pontificum, is in referring to the 1962 form of the Roman Rite as the Mass of Blessed John XXIII. It is not the Tridentine Mass or the Mass of Pius V but the Mass of John XXIII. It is the form of the Mass that was celebrated daily at the Second Vatican Council.

Benedict notes that, over the many centuries of the Roman Rite, popes have from time to time made modest changes. Pius V did so in 1570, John XXIII did so in 1962, and Paul VI did so in 1970, the last producing what is called the Novus Ordo. Benedict notes that John Paul II also made small but important emendations regarding references to the Jews in the Good Friday Liturgy. (More on that below.)

By associating the Latin Mass that is now universally approved with John XXIII, Benedict steals a card from the deck of liberals and progressives, for whom John XXIII is always “good Pope John,” in contrast to his successors. But this is much more than a deft rhetorical move.

Summorum Pontificum is a thoroughly liberal document in substance and spirit, remembering that liberal means, as once was more commonly understood, generosity of spirit.

In his letter to the bishops, Benedict is directing them to be generous in embracing the fullness of the Catholic tradition and responding to the desires of the Catholic faithful. This is proposed in contrast to the rigidity, bordering sometimes on tyranny, of a liturgical guild that mistakenly thought that the Second Vatican Council gave them a mandate to impose their ideas of liturgical reform on the entire Church.

Benedict writes of the Mass of 1962 and that of 1970: "It is not appropriate to speak of these two versions of the Roman Missal as if they were 'two Rites' Rather, it is a matter of a twofold use of one and the same rite."

This is of a piece with Benedict's longstanding campaign against the idea that there is a 'pre-Vatican II Church' and a 'post-Vatican II Church'. There is one Catholic Church, Benedict insists, and its liturgy is the Roman Rite.

I discuss Benedict's understanding of continuity in the December 2006 issue of First Things in connection with Klaus Gamber’s The Reform of the Roman Liturgy, for which then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote an introduction. There were many things done in the name of liturgical reform for which the claim was made that such changes were mandated by the council. Excluding the Mass in Latin was one of them.

Benedict writes: "As for the use of the 1962 Missal as a forma extraordinaria of the liturgy of the Mass, I would like to draw attention to the fact that this Missal was never juridically abrogated and, consequently, in principle, was always permitted".

In other words, were it not for the presumption of some liturgical reformers, there would have been no need for this apostolic letter.

For decades following the council, experimentation was in, tradition was out, and the Catholic faithful were subjected to a long period of what is politely called liturgical destabilization - and not only liturgical destabilization - which alienated many. The pope is, with great care, trying to remedy that destabilization without causing additional destabilization.

As he notes in his letter, there is a close connection between lex credendi and lex orandi — between the way of faith and the way of worship.

Of the problem to be remedied, he writes: "This occurred above all because in many places celebrations were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal, but the latter actually was understood as authorizing or even requiring creativity, which frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear. I am speaking from experience, since I too lived through that period with all its hopes and its confusion. And I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the Church"

The letter underscores that the desire for the Latin rite of John XXIII is not only on the part of nostalgic old folks. There is, he says, a notable desire on the part of young people to experience the richness of the Church's ways of worship, a richness of which they were deprived but are now encountering with a sense of fresh discovery. The bishops, he says, should respond positively to this discovery in a spirit of pastoral generosity.

The purpose of the pope in issuing this pastoral letter will come as no surprise to those familiar with Cardinal Ratzinger's writing on liturgy over the years.

He says again: "There is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of the liturgy there is growth and progress, but no rupture. What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church’s faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place."

Part of the purpose of the letter, as Benedict says, is to ease the way toward reconciliation with the Lefebvrists of the Society of St. Pius X. He recognizes that their schism involves deeper theological questions, including the recognition of the authority of the Second Vatican Council, but this is one step toward healing the wound of schism.

One consequence of Summorum Pontificum will almost certainly be the more widespread use of the Missal of 1962. And perhaps of the Missal of 1970 in Latin rather than the vernacular, which has always been permitted.

I do not expect that there will be a great or immediate increase in the number of parishes celebrating Mass in the 1962 form. Most bishops and priests say there is no great demand for it, although that could now change. Moreover, most priests and bishops do not have the language skills for it, although some may start digging around for those Latin textbooks from college and seminary days.

What it seems to me that Benedict has most importantly done with this apostolic letter is to strengthen the continuity of the Catholic tradition in matters pertaining to lex orandi, as John Paul II's hermeneutic of the Second Vatican Council strengthened that continuity in matters pertaining to lex credendi.

As a result, the weary language about a pre-Vatican II Church and a post-Vatican II Church is increasingly antiquated, although there are still those of an older generation who believe the council was a call for revolution and who will continue to use that language. But these twenty-eight years of pontifical leadership have made it obvious to all but the willfully obtuse that there is, in lex credendi and lex orandi, one Catholic Church.

In keeping with the spirit of pastoral generosity and sensitivity that marks this document, Benedict recognizes that in the one Church there will always be poblems. Three years after the implementation of Summorum Pontificum this September, he says, there will be a study of the successes and difficulties encountered in putting it into effect.

There is no suggestion that these provisions might be rescinded at that time. Any modifications required will have as their purpose the effective implementation of the apostolic letter.

With the possible exception of those who are incorrigibly nostalgic for the good old days of the revolution that was not to be, I believe that the pope’s initiative will be recognized for what it is - a generous and hopeful proposal for a future in which Catholics are freed to celebrate the rich variety of the tradition that is theirs.

Benedict expresses the hope that even those who decline to use the Missal of John XXIII will be encouraged to celebrate the Novus Ordo of 1970 with the reverence and solemnity that befits the ineffable mystery of the Mass. We can only pray that his hope will be vindicated.

********

And now to the aforementioned piece of nastiness.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) immediately issued a blistering statement claiming that a prayer for the conversion of the Jews in the Latin Mass is "a theological setback in the religious life of Catholics and a body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations, after 40 years of progress between the Church and the Jewish people."

Abraham Foxman, national director of ADL said: "We are extremely disappointed and deeply offended that nearly 40 years after the Vatican rightly removed insulting anti-Jewish language from the Good Friday Mass, that it would now permit Catholics to utter such hurtful and insulting words by praying for Jews to be converted. This is a theological setback in the religious life of Catholics and a body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations. It is the wrong decision at the wrong time. It appears the Vatican has chosen to satisfy a right-wing faction in the Church that rejects change and reconciliation."

That statement is a mix of ignorance and bellicosity, a combination that is, unfortunately, not infrequent in ADL alarums.

In the 1570 form of the Roman Rite for Good Friday there was this: 'Oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis'(Let us pray for the perfidious Jews).

On the first Good Friday after his election to the papacy in 1959, Pope John XXIII eliminated the adjective 'perfidious' from the prayer.

That same year, he also eliminated from the rite of baptism the phrase used for Jewish catechumens: "Horresce Judaicam perfidiam, respue Hebraicam superstitionem" (Disavow Jewish unbelieving, deny Hebrew superstition). Also eliminated were similar formulas for those converting from idolatry, Islam, or a heretical sect.

The Roman Missal modified by Pope Paul VI in 1969, and put into effect in 1970, has this formulation: "Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant."

The following prayer is this: "Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your Church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption."

Of course some Jews may be offended at the suggestion that the fullness of redemption is found in Jesus Christ, but their problem is with Christianity as such. They certainly are not interested in respectful dialogue between Jews who adhere to Judaism and Christians who adhere to Christianity.

As I say, the ADL reaction is a mix of bellicosity and ignorance.

The 1962 Missal does not say what Mr. Foxman says it says.

And, if he had read Benedict’s apostolic letter before attacking it, he would know that it explicitly says that the Missal of 1970 will be used exclusively in the Triduum of Holy Week, which of course includes Good Friday.

An apology is in order but I fear it is not to be expected from an organization that is prone to making reckless and publicity-grabbing statements. It is a sadness.
==================================================================

I just wish Fr. Neuhaus had also denounced those in the MSM like the Reuters reporters [to take this most recent case] who have willingly and willfully fomented the histrionic 'outrage' of the Foxmans of the world - alike, they are deliberately playing blind to objective fact to score cheap points against the Catholic Church.

Here it comes, the first blaze in the firestorm! Of course, Reuters is first to ignite the flame....And I just finished writng a comment about how Reuters had been typical of MSM's wilful blindness to look at objective fact in fomenting and playing up the totally unwarranted Jewish outrage over the MP! [I was commenting on Fr. Neuhaus's strong statements about the Jewish ADL's Foxman who shoots first without ever asking - but the whole post is frozen, so meanwhile let me post this first].



Vatican says other Christian churches 'wounded'
By Phil Stewart



VATICAN CITY, July 10(Reuters) - The Vatican on Tuesday said Christian denominations outside the Roman Catholic Church were not full churches of Jesus Christ.

A 16-page document, prepared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Pope Benedict used to head, described Christian Orthodox churches as true churches, but suffering from a "wound" since they do not recognize the primacy of the Pope.

But the document said the "wound is still more profound" in the Protestant denominations - a view likely to further complicate relations with Protestants.

"Despite the fact that this teaching has created no little distress ... it is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to them," it said.

The Vatican text, which restates the controversial document Dominus Iesus issued by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 2000, said the Church wanted to stress this point because some Catholic theologians continued to misunderstand it.

Ratzinger was elected Pope in April 2005. The document is his second strong reaffirmation of Catholic tradition in four days, following a decree on Saturday restoring the old Latin Mass alongside the modern liturgy.

The document stressed that dialogue with other Christians remained "one of the priorities of the Catholic Church."

The document, issued by Benedict's successor in doctrinal matters, Cardinal William Levada, complemented the Latin Mass decree in aiming to correct what it called "erroneous or ambiguous" interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, which took place from 1962 to 1965. [Oh thanks, you got that right!]

Church modernizers interpreted the Council as a break from the past while conservatives, like Benedict, see it in continuity with 2,000 years of Catholic tradition.

The document said the Council's opening to other faiths recognized there were "many elements of sanctification and truth" in other Christian denominations, but stressed only Catholicism had all the elements to be Christ's Church fully.

The text refers to "ecclesial communities originating from the Reformation," a term used to refer to Protestants and Anglicans.

Father Augustine Di Noia, Under-Secretary for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the document did not alter the commitment for ecumenical dialogue, but aimed to assert Catholic identity in those talks.

"The Church is not backtracking on ecumenical commitment," Di Noia told Vatican radio.

"But, as you know, it is fundamental to any kind of dialogue that the participants are clear about their own identity. That is, dialogue cannot be an occasion to accommodate or soften what you actually understand yourself to be."

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

Just to put things in perspective:

The Great Schism was in 1054 - when the Eastern Church broke off from Rome.

The Protestant Reformation began with Martin Luther's activities in 1517 and concluded with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 - an attempt to reform the Catholic Church that led instead to the fracturing of Christendom.

Now, how can any Church founded 1500 years after Christ pretend to be the 'one true Church' and why should they be offended if the Catholic Church restates what has always been its doctrine?

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

Pope: Other Christians not true churches
By NICOLE WINFIELD




LORENZAGO DI CADORE, Italy, July 10 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted the universal primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says Orthodox churches were defective and that other Christian denominations were not true churches.

Benedict approved a document from his old offices at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that restates church teaching on relations with other Christians. It was the second time in a week the pope has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that modernized the church.

On Saturday, Benedict revisited another key aspect of Vatican II by reviving the old Latin Mass. Traditional Catholics cheered the move, but more liberal ones called it a step back from Vatican II.

Benedict, who attended Vatican II as a young theologian, has long complained about what he considers the erroneous interpretation of the council by liberals, saying it was not a break from the past but rather a renewal of church tradition.

In the latest document  formulated as five questions and answers  the Vatican seeks to set the record straight on Vatican II's ecumenical intent, saying some contemporary theological interpretation had been "erroneous or ambiguous" and had prompted confusion and doubt.

It restates key sections of a 2000 document the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, "Dominus Iesus," which set off a firestorm of criticism among Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the "means of salvation."

In the new document and an accompanying commentary, which were released as the pope vacations here in Italy's Dolomite mountains, the Vatican repeated that position.

"Christ 'established here on earth' only one church," the document said. The other communities "cannot be called 'churches' in the proper sense" because they do not have apostolic succession  the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles.

The Rev. Sara MacVane of the Anglican Centre in Rome, said there was nothing new in the document.

"I don't know what motivated it at this time," she said. "But it's important always to point out that there's the official position and there's the huge amount of friendship and fellowship and worshipping together that goes on at all levels, certainly between Anglican and Catholics and all the other groups and Catholics."

The document said Orthodox churches were indeed "churches" because they have apostolic succession and that they enjoyed "many elements of sanctification and of truth." But it said they lack something because they do not recognize the primacy of the pope  a defect, or a "wound" that harmed them, it said.

"This is obviously not compatible with the doctrine of primacy which, according to the Catholic faith, is an 'internal constitutive principle' of the very existence of a particular church," the commentary said.

Despite the harsh tone of the document, it stresses that Benedict remains committed to ecumenical dialogue.

"However, if such dialogue is to be truly constructive, it must involve not just the mutual openness of the participants but also fidelity to the identity of the Catholic faith," the commentary said.

The document, signed by the congregation prefect, U.S. Cardinal William Levada, was approved by Benedict on June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul  a major ecumenical feast day.

There was no indication about why the pope felt it necessary to release the document, particularly since his 2000 document summed up the same principles. Some analysts suggested it could be a question of internal church politics, or that it could simply be an indication of Benedict using his office as pope to again stress key doctrinal issues from his time at the congregation. [DUH! And I thought she 'got it', from her statement in Paragraph 2 of her report - see above!]

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

There oughta be a law requiring that - if they can't be orthodox Catholics who 'think with the Church' - then newsmen reporting on the Vatican should at least acquaint themselves well with what the Catholic Church is all about. That way, they will not be prone to raising unwarranted polemics everytime the Church re-states her doctrine....The reporter's duty is to report fact, and if opinion is reported, the opposite side should be expressed as well.


P.S. I've seen two references so far to 'a 16-page document issued today' but the daily BOLLETTINO from the Vatican only contains the 'statement' itself. On the CDF site under 'Dichiarazioni dottrinali' - there's where one sees an"'ARTICOLO DI COMMENTO AI 'RESPONSA'" , but ONLY IN ITALIAN. And it's not 15 pages or anywhere near that - its 4-1/4 pages of text on a WORD printout and a page and a half of references. Don't have time to read it just yet.


Here's the AFP story:



Vatican reiterates hardline
on primacy of Catholic Church


The Vatican set itself on a collision course with other Christian faiths Tuesday, reaffirming the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church in a corrective document designed to clear up recent "erroneous" doctrine.

The document's central claim that the Catholic Church is "the one true Church of Christ", is likely to revive a debate which has dogged the Vatican's dealings with other Christian faiths for decades.

Other Christian faiths "lack elements considered essential to the Catholic Church," it said.

The 16-page text - released by the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and ratified by the pope - "constitutes a clear reaffirmation of Catholic doctrine on the Church," according to an attached commentary.

Basically a restatement of bedrock Vatican doctrine [BTW, not 'Vatican doctrine' - the Vatican is not a religion! - it's CATHOLIC DOCTRINE, thank you] , its release was prompted "because some contemporary theological research has been erroneous or ambiguous," the commentary said.

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

So if it's a 'restatement of bedrock...doctrine', how is the Church 'setting itself for a collision course'???? The metaphor's is all wrong, to begin with, because the one and only course has been the Church's - and then, in 1054, the Orthodox veered off, and in the 16th-17th centuries, the Protestants went and started their own paths - and have continued to diverge increasingly among gthemselves since then. The ecumenical movement was never intended to homogenize all existing Christian 'confessions' into a consensus one-size-fits-all artificial faith - the idea is to bring them all back to the one true faith.


Meanwhile, here is how Catholic News Service reported the CDF statement:


Vatican congregation reaffirms truth,
oneness of Catholic Church
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY, July 10 (CNS) -- In a brief document, the Vatican's doctrinal congregation reaffirmed that the Catholic Church is the one, true Church, even if elements of truth can be found in separated Churches and communities.

Touching an ecumenical sore point, the document said some of the separated Christian communities, such as Protestant communities, should not properly be called "Churches" according to Catholic doctrine because of major differences over the ordained priesthood and the Eucharist.

The Vatican released the text July 10. Titled "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church," it was signed by U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and approved by Pope Benedict XVI before publication.

In a cover letter, Cardinal Levada asked the world's bishops to do all they can to promote and present the document to the wider public.

The text was the latest chapter in a long-simmering discussion on what the Second Vatican Council intended when it stated that the Church founded by Christ "subsists in the Catholic Church," but that elements of "sanctification and truth" are found outside the Catholic Church's visible confines.

The related discussion over the term "Churches" surfaced publicly in 2000, when the doctrinal congregation - then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict - said the term "sister Churches" was being misused in ecumenical dialogue.

In a format of five questions and answers, the new document stated that Vatican II did not change Catholic doctrine on the Church. It said use of the phrase "subsists in" was intended to show that all the elements instituted by Christ endure in the Catholic Church.

The sanctifying elements that exist outside the structure of the Catholic Church can be used as instruments of salvation, but their value derives from the "fullness of grace and truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church," it said, quoting from Vatican II's "Decree on Ecumenism."

The text said the Second Vatican Council used the term "Church" in reference to Orthodox Churches because, although separated from the Catholic Church, they have preserved apostolic succession, the ordained priesthood and the Eucharist. Nevertheless, they "lack something in their condition as particular Churches" because they are not in union with the Pope, it said.

The Christian communities born out of the Reformation, on the other hand, do not enjoy apostolic succession - the unbroken succession of bishops going back to St. Peter - and therefore "cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called 'Churches' in the proper sense," it said.

In his cover letter, Cardinal Levada said the document came in response to critical reactions to the teaching of Dominus Iesus, another doctrinal congregation document of 2000, which said the Catholic Church was necessary for salvation, and to ongoing confusion over interpretations of the phrase "subsists in."

An authoritative commentary published July 10 in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said the congregation had acted to protect the unity and uniqueness of the Church. The document, the commentary said, took aim at the notion that the "Church of Christ" was "the sum total of the Churches or the ecclesial communities" or that it exists only as a future goal.

"If this were the case, the Church of Christ would not any longer exist in history, or would exist only in some ideal form emerging either through some future convergence or through the reunification of the diverse sister churches," it said.

What Vatican II intended was to recognize ecclesial elements in non-Catholic communities, it said.

"It does not follow that the identification of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church no longer holds, nor that outside the Catholic Church there is a complete absence of ecclesial elements, a 'Churchless void,'" it said.

The council's wording does not signify that the Catholic Church has ceased to regard itself as the one true Church of Christ but that it recognizes that true ecclesial realities exist beyond its own visible boundaries, it said.

Regarding the doctrinal congregation's insistence that communities originating from the Reformation are not Churches, the article said: "Despite the fact that this teaching has created no little distress in the communities concerned and even among some Catholics, it is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to them, given that they do not accept the theological notion of the Church in the Catholic sense and that they lack elements considered essential to the Catholic Church."

The commentary said that, at first glance, Catholic ecumenism might seem somewhat paradoxical, because it holds that the Catholic Church has the "fullness" of the means for salvation, but recognizes the value of elements in other Churches.

The Catholic Church's teaching, it said, is that the fullness of the Church "already exists, but still has to grow in the brethren who are not yet in full communion with it and also in its own members who are sinners."

U.S. Dominican Father J. Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary of the doctrinal congregation, said the document does not call into question Pope Benedict's pledge to work for ecumenical progress.

"The Church is not backtracking on its ecumenical commitment. But ... it is fundamental to any kind of dialogue that the participants are clear about their own identity," he told Vatican Radio.

Father Di Noia said the document touches on a very important experiential point: that when people go into a Catholic Church and participate in Mass, the sacraments and everything else that goes on there, they will find "everything that Christ intended the Church to be."

Gianni Baget Bozzo offers a theological context to the Mass MP that very much ties in with the CDF reaffirmation of the literal uniqueness of the Church.

A Church that does not compromise
By Gianni Baget Bozzo


The decision of the Pope to recognize the Mass of Pius V [more correctly, the Mass of John XXIII] as the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, which exists in its ordinary form as the Mass of Paul VI, is, of course, being debated.

A widespread opinion in the Church at all levels has held that Vatican-II was a radical reinterpretation of Catholic doctrine, that had been re-thought as a compromise with modernity. Or what Jacques Maritain called 'genuflecting to the world.'

In that view, the Church is seen as immanent in history, something that must re-invent itself according to the times, and therefore historically diverse through the ages. That the essence of the Church is in space and time, and therefore, it should change according to space and time.

This all happened when 'inculturation' was a buzz word, according to which it is possible for the Church to make itself present within any culture in a way that was homogeneous to such culture.

Ratzinger instead thinks of the Church within the theology of the Church Fathers as a 'communion with divine life', according to the Second Letter of Peter, and therefore, the bearer of a doctrinal identity expressed at all times and in all places as a function of the revelation whereby God made man a participant in his uncreated mystery. An identity that is beyond time and place.

If Ratzinger ended up dedicating his life to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith against his own personal wishes, it is because he understood that the Church and the Papacy subsist within the unity of such a doctrine beyond time and place (meta-temporal and meta-spatial].

The Church is a reality that is both divine and human, participating through the Holy Spirit in the mystery of Christ. And so, this does not allow its transcription into any and all cultures without taking away the primacy of Rome. Peter's primacy exists only if there is a truth beyond time and place, of which the primary expression is in the continuity of the Catholic liturgy.

Doctrinal unity is expressed in liturgical unity. Or lex orandi, lex credendi. One prays as one believes. Therefore to think that a liturgy that served the Church for centuries could be annulled by a new one was only possible within the context of 'inculturating' the Church in Western modernity, largely an influence of that great modern myth that was Marxism.

It wasn't by chance that Ratzinger opposed liberation theology, which based itself on 'inculturating' the Church of Latin America.

But if traditional liturgy is repealed and prohibited de facto, then it becomes inevitable that the primacy of Rome is also disputed because it does not conform to the culture of the modern age. Paul VI and John Paul II defended the Church from the doctrine of inculturation that was particularly promoted by the Jesuits.

But at the same time, John Paul II left open the possibility of this thesis of inculturation, with its many political and mediatic consequences, starting from anti-West ideology and pacifism at all costs.

Pope Benedict has therefore posed a fundamental issue to the bishops of the world: the papacy can continue to exist only if the language of the Church communicates God absolutely, and not as a cultural adaptation to history and to geography.

This is the context within which the Pope frames the liturgical issue: traditional liturgy cannot simply be annulled without rupturing the very continuity of the Church within and beyond space and time, therefore, its oneness with the Holy Spirit in the mystery of Christ.

There is far more than just consideration for the Lefebvrians in the principle of identity between the traditional liturgy and Paul VI's reform. The Pope intends that the old rites may be used not only for the Mass (John Paul's indult Ecclesia Dei allowed bishops to decide at their discretion only about the Mass) but for all the sacraments in the communities that choose to use them.

This would indeed affirm the identity of the Church in its liturgy through all the ages and in all places. Certainly, this would give rise to difficulties not because of using the old Mass in itself, but because Benedict's reform highlights that the primacy of Rome is unquestioned only if the Church speaks a language founded on divine revelation and not on the vagaries of human history.

The particular application in liturgy of the motu proprio has a universal significance because it upholds the universality of the Church and the function of the papacy as a guarantee of the institution's communion with the divine mystery.

Il Giornale, 10 luglio 2007

From Sandro Magister, I was hoping for a more contextual appreciation or critique of the CDF statement, not just this routine prediction of the disputes it will stir up all over.


Summer Assignment:
Restudy the Doctrine of the Church

This is what is prescribed by a new document from the congregation for the doctrine of the faith.
The Orthodox and Protestants are cautioned:
the Catholic Church is the only one in which subsist the "essential constitutive elements"
of the Church intended by Christ.
Expect turbulence in the ecumenical dialogue.

by Sandro Magister



ROMA, July 10, 2007 - Benedict XVI departed yesterday for his vacation in the Alps, leaving an assignment for the congregation for the doctrine of the faith: the task of refreshing for the bishops, faithful, and above all the theologians, some of the controversial points of the doctrine on the Church, in order to avert 'errors and ambiguities'.

The congregation carried out this assignment with the document published today. [Full English text posted a few posts above on this page]

The document is formulated in five questions and answers. The first three restate that the Catholic Church "governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him" is the only one that is fully identified with the Church instituted on earth by Jesus Christ.

The fourth and fifth answers explain to what extent the Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Protestant 'ecclesial communities' lack - the latter more so than the former - the 'essential constitutive elements' of the Church intended by Christ.

Over the past few decades, rivers of ink have flowed over these topics touched upon by Vatican Council II. The congregation for the doctrine of the faith notes this in an article of commentary released together with today's document.

But it is unlikely that the document will end the debate within and outside of the Church. It's enough to remember the polemics that followed a previous document released by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith with the same intention of clarifying an essential point of Church teaching, the declaration Dominus Iesus in 2000.

The controversy will impact, above all, the ecumenical dialogue among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants. The congregation for the doctrine of the faith is aware of this, and says so in writing.

But it also writes - fully reflecting the thought of Benedict XVI - that "if such dialogue is to be truly constructive it must involve not just the mutual openness of the participants but also fidelity to the identity of the Catholic faith."

[Magister then posts the text of the statement, but does not yet have a translation of the commentary that accompanies it.]

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

I think there's a semantic assumption - very wrong - that the purpose of inter-religious dialog is to get everyone to agree on everything. It's a contradiction in terms. The participants would have to be weak of faith to concede anything.

The purpose of inter-religious dialog is not at all to proselytize each other. If anything, it is to agree to disagree, but amicably and reasonably and peacefully, to listen to what the other side has to say so that one gets to know and maybe understand an alien point of view better. So, to stand up for one's faith - which will necessarily contradict other faiths one way or the other - should not be cause for offense; it is a condition for dialog.

Catholics are not 'offended' - it's nothing personal - because the Jews, for instance, do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah, and even less, the Son of God. Or that Muslims deny his divinity. Or that Buddhists think he was just another great man like Siddartha was.

Silly us - we pray instead that they`may change their minds and believe as we do! And the Jews are outraged we should even think of praying they would come to the 'fullness of redemption.'

Have Catholics ever presumed to dictate what people of other faiths should pray and how they should do it? No. We try to evangelize when we can but we don't interfere in anyone's practice of their own religion.

We do unto others what we would have them do unto us. And in return, we are always being asked not just to offer to be slapped on the other cheek as well but to make ourselves the doormat for everyone to trample on!

Here's a much more satisfactory and forcefully expressed reaction/commentary to the CDF statement written by Pietro Siffi, president of the Catholic Anti-Defamation League of Italy, for PETRUS, and translated here.



We believe in one Church only
By Pietro Siffi


When during Sunday Mass the faithful recite the Apostles Creed and say, "Credo... in unam, sanctam, cattolicam et apostolicam ecclesiam", they are solemnly affirming that the Church is one alone, that it is holy, that it is universal (catholic), and that it has maintained the apostolic succession intact.

One Church, as the Bride of Christ. One Church with one spiritual leader.

The priest asks our godparents at Baptism, "Do you believe in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church?"

The Bishop asks it again at Confirmation, "Do you believe in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church?"

And every year during the Easter vigil, the Mass celebrant asks us: "Do you believe in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church?"

Each time, we answer "Credo - I believe." And that statement means, "With an act of will, I submit and adhere to this truth because the Lord himself taught it and commanded his church to transmit it intact."

And now the Pope, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is really asking each of us again: "Do you believe in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church?"

With which he reaffirms a constant teaching, not because he is acting at his pleasure, but because he has received from Christ, through the Prince of Apostles, the mandate to rule and govern the Church by confirming it in truth.

It is what the Pope does when he reminds us of the doctrine on the Eucharist, on the Mass, on the communion of saints, on the human and divine nature of Christ. He is the shepherd, and he must tend the flock entrusted to him by the Savior.

One is rather amazed at the reactions by authoritative representatives of non-Catholic communities. What do they expect? That the Pope would say the Church of Christ is torn apart and that in order to achieve unity with other confessions, the Church of Rome is ready to compromise its basic teachings to satisfy everyone? Do they really expect the Supreme Pontiff to 'negotiate' and bargain about the Magisterium?

So, he should forget about the doctrine of 'Filioque' and the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome to please the Orthodox. He would have to deny trans-substantiation, the doctrine of grace, of the Sacraments, of the Mass, of indulgences, the communion of saints, the ministerial priesthood, the Immaculate Conception, papal infallibity on doctrine, Catholic interpretation of Scriptures - everything that is specifically Catholic - in order to please the Protestants and the Anglicans.

And then, so as not to offend anyone by leaving them out, ask him to forget about the Trinity and the divinity of Christ to please the Jews and the Muslims. And somehow worship Nature as the animists do.

Or alternatively, not to talk about Catholic doctrine at all, going by that mythical 'spirit of Assisi' that would have us believe all religions are equivalent, or that unity at the expense of truth is nevertheless desirable.

Let's face it. Every time the Holy Father says something that is directly a function of his ministry, he is attacked, condemned, reviled. He's OK, as long as he limits himself to greeting pilgrims in their native tongues, or when he talks about peace and solidarity. But anyone can do that. You don't have to be the Vicar or Christ to say wars are bad and that we ought to love each other.

What really angers those who are against the Church and against religion is that this 80-year-old man is loved and venerated by hundreds of millions of Catholics as their Supreme Pontiff; that when he speaks ex-cathedra of faith and morals, the Lord infallibly assures him the assistance of the Holy Spirit; that to him, as Successor of Peter, God has given the power to open or close the gates of Heaven.

That's the real 'scandal' for the arrogant and rebellious minds of our time, who claim absolute freedom to rebel against God, to trample or ignore his law, to take his name in vain.

The parable of the Good Shepherd tells us of Christ's love and concern in going out of his way to look for the lost sheep. But it also tells us objectively that the sheep is lost, it has strayed, and it should come back to the fold where all the others are gathered safely. It also teaches us that`paid help don't care about the sheep because they are not their own; only the shepherd loves his own flock and they in turn recognize his voice.

To be reminded by Benedict XVI that the Church is unique, the only Church of Christ, unleashes the spirit of rebellion that has led schismatics and heretics of every age to disobey her and to leave the one flock in order to wander in the shadows.

And anyone who thinks that the Church would renounce its faith just to satisfy the spirit of the times; who chooses to believe that 2000 years of Catholicism could melt away like snow under a hot sun after 40 years of miserable doctrinal deviations, should think again. The divine element of the Church has more than demonstrated itself again and again in the past by confronting worse crises and more fearsome enemies than those who now cry outrage outside the Church and within it.

Yep! I very much like Siffi's arguing. Nice to see something strong and clear. Only one little point struck me as wrong, and that appears in his list of what Protestants in his opinion may have against the Catholic doctrine(s): he mentions inter alia the doctrine of grace as though that is not to be found in Protestantism. But it is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, doctrines in all Protestant denominations. Does it differ from that of Catholicism? Can't think it does. It is based on the gospel, St Paul and the early church fathers' theology and has always been part of all Christian traditions.

A few Orthodox and Protestant leaders will croak and snort for a short while about this document and then it will just become quiet again. Everyone knows the Catholic view about the one, true Church. It seems that only some progressive Catholics have forgotten it a bit.

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Trust you to catch that major slip by Siffi! That was careless of him. He's not exactly a moron - one of those European types educated at the Sorbonne and all. From his CV, he's a computer technology executive, but he recently came out with a modern edition of this book

a reissue of Ludovico Trimeloni's Compendio di Liturgia Pratica (Milano: Marietti 1829, 2007), 865 pp., which according to Father Z, "teaches you how to do everything liturgical... as it was in 1962... It is organized with the sort of analytical precision that was possible, perhaps, only in the mind of pre-Conciliar Roman clerics. You just don't see this degree of articulation any more. There are six pages on how to bow...There is a preface by H.E. Dario Cardinal. Castrillon Hoyos. It is dedicated to the Holy Father. Benedict XVI's Sacramentum caritatis is quoted at the beginning..."

And all this was last May. Siffi also runs a liturgical archive whose main site is in Latin, with Italian, French and English versions. And I see from the site they have updated the Trimeloni with the MP!

TERESA

Lorenzago di Cadore, July 10 lug. (Apcom) - A walk within the grounds of the Castello Mirabello, away from any curious eyes. Security has decided no excursions outside the compound will be allowed the first 72 hours.

But that's fine by him because has said he just wants to pray, meditate, read and write - and play the piano.

After a tour de force of major moves and initiatives in the past two weeks, culminating in a statement today from the CDF, Pope Benedict's three-week vacation started in utmost tranquillity.

"He had a good night's rest," said Fr. Giuseppe Bratti, who is running the press center for the Diocese of Belluno. The night was marked with rain, thunder and lightning that also brought a veil of snow on the nearby peaks of Cridola, Tudaio and Marmarole.

The townspeople were hoping he would attend an organ concert Tuesday evening at the parish church to inaugurate a recently restored 18th century organ. The concert also marks the feast of St. Benedict, and so, a name day for the Pope. But he probably won't be there.

Fr. Bratti said that on the helicopter flight from Treviso to Lorenzago, the Pope had asked the pilot to fly over the Vajont Dam, which has burst open in 1963 due to a landslide and drowned an entire village at the foot of the mountain.

Earlier yesterday, it had been feared that because of bad weather, the Pope would be unable to come to Lorenzago by chopper. But after a morning downpour, the weather cleared, and by noontime, the welcomers hasd filled up the church square, the street in front of the town hall and the main street.

They were joined by some 150 journalists and photographers, as well as some 200 policemen and gendarmes. Sharpshooters were stationed on strategic rooftops.

At noon, after the church bells rung the hour, they continued pealing in celebration, as requested by the Bishop of Belluno, Mons. Giuseppe Andrich, from all the churches of the Cadore region.

Shortly before 12:30, the Pope's helicopter landed on a tennis court. After a crewmember waved the all-clear, five children in traditional costumes walked forward with a basket of wild flowers for the Pope. So did Mons. Andrich, the president of Belluno province, and the mayor and parish priest of Lorenzago.

The moment the helicopter landed, the church bells started ringing again and went on for another half hour until the Pope had reached Castello Mirabello, where he will be occupying a villa owned by the Diocese of Treviso, and where John Paul II had stayed for six vacations.

As he stepped out of the helicopter, the Pope was greeted by a wave of chanting, "VIVA IL PAPA' and 'IL CADORE TI SALUTA'. He waved and smiled, then got into the car for the ride to Mirabello, past ranks of welcomers along the street that cuts the town in half.

Earlier, the Pope received an enthusiastic welcome from the military and their families at the Istrana airbase in Treviso, where his plane from Rome landed.

"If we had allowed the public to come, we could easily have had 20,000," said the base commandant.

The Pope's plane, a Falcon 900, landed around 11:17 a.m. Istrana was welcoming a Pope for the seventh time, Papa Ratzinger for the first time. Welcome and applause from the adults. Hugs and kisses from children. Leading the welcome was the Bishop of Treviso, Andrea Bruno Mazzocato, who would join the Pope oin the helicopter flight to Lorenzago.

Benedict signed the guest book. He received a souvenir gift of crystal and a bouquet of yellow-and-white flowers from the eight-year-old son of the base commandant.

Then he walked alongside the police trestles that kept the crowd in line. A forest of cellphone cameras were held up to record the occasion. The trestles rocked and threatened to topple as the crowd surged forward. Children called to him. Mothers held out their babies.

He lingered with an old man, then gave him a blessing. The man said later, "My wife is gravely ill, and I asked for some comfort."
Five Salesian sisters who came from out of town for this occasion were rewarded with a greeting from the Pope.

And as he got into the helicopter, someone shouted "Ciao, papa! Buone vacanze."

Just as predictable as the negative reactions on the part of non-Catholic Christians, are those of Catholic dissidents who choose to interpret everything Pope Benedict does as a return to the past, a reversal of Vatican II and a negation of its reforms. What reforms has he negated or even questioned? Name one!

What he has always questioned is the misinterpretation of Vatican-II as a 'revolution' that overturned everything that came before it. He did so as a private theologian. He did so as Prefect of the CDF - restating, clarifying and interpreting the Magisterium for everyone in the name of the Church and with the approval of the Pope he served.

He is doing so now that he is Pope. Why shouldn't the spiritual leader of the Church have the right to restate the teachings of the Church as often and as forcefully as he can? To 'make nice' to others? How is it being offensive to state the identity of the Church without equivocation?

In any case, he speaks for a Church that is at least 1054 years older than its earliest 'offshoot' and at least 1500 years older than any of the Protestant confessions. How can they deny history?

As for the usual Catholic dissidents, they will always be implacably hostile to this Pope, or to any Pope, for that matter, who will not subvert the Magisterium to accommodate anything anti-orthodox, no matter how convinced the proponents are of 'knowing better' than the Magisterium.

So I have decided it is not worthwhile to go over ground which was amply plowed over again last week after motu proprio on the Mass.

Meanwhile, here is a translation of an article written by Vittorio Messori for the Corriere della Sera today stating the obvious facts for the record.


Another step in Ratzinger's strategy
against misinterpreting Vatican-II
By Vittorio Messori


Even if journalists have provoked polemics in soliciting opinions from the representatives of other Christian confessions, it is difficult to find anything new or scandalous about the statement yesterday from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith called "Answers to questions on certain aspects of the doctrine on the Church."

Seven years ago, the same things were reaffirmed by the Church in a much lengthier document, the declaration Dominus Iesus. And I say reaffirmed, because even then, nothing new was said, simply a restatement of the constant teaching of the Magisterium, put together in a text under the principle that 'repetition helps.'

This document focuses the lens on - and magnifies - an expression used in a Vatican-II document over which, as the CDF commentary yesterday said, 'rivers of ink' have flowed.

The Vatican-II conciliar constitution Lumen gentium states that the true Church founded by Christ 'subsists in the Catholic Church.' The Council Fathers clearly did not use the verb 'est' - which simply says 'is' - but chose to use 'subsist': which, however, many theologians choose to read as an attenuation of the Roman Catholic claim to uniqueness, as though the true Church intended by Christ also 'subsists' in other communities.

This is an interpretation that the Magisterium has rejected time and again, and which is confronted again this time but more amply.

The verb 'subsists', the CDF says, was chosen not to diminish the uniqueness of the Catholic Church, but to indicate that elements of truth could be found elsewhere, while making it clear that the fullness of truth and the power of Christ reside only in the apostolic succession led by the Roman Pontiff.

It is the classic explanation, but it needs to be reasserted because some theologians have built ecumenical castles over that verb 'subsists' - and the CDF statement shows they are cardboard castles.

Similarly deja vu is the distinction between, on the one hand, the ancient Eastern communities who have the right to be called churches - even if they have split from Rome - because they have kept the apostolic succession (and so also, the priesthood, the Eucharist and other sacraments); and on the other, the groups born out of the Protestant Reformation who were not only schismatic but heretic, and can therefore be only called 'Christian ecclesiastic communities.'

This then is a document that is but another wedge in the strategy that has always been Joseph Ratzinger's: to show that Vatican-II was not a rupture with the past but an evolution and deeper reading of a faith which has remained the same, a faith that does not distinguish between a pre-Conciliar Church and a post-Conciliar Church.

Pope OKs Aparecida Document
Gives Priority to Eucharist and Formation



VATICAN CITY, JULY 11, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI authorized the publication of the document that is fruit of the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean, held last May in Brazil.

The Pope opened the conference in Aparecida during his first apostolic journey to South America.

A letter signed June 29 and authorizing the publication of "The Aparecida Document" was released today by the Vatican press office. Meanwhile, the ordinary assembly of the Latin American bishops' council is underway in Havana, Cuba, where the bishops are discussing how best to apply the conclusions of the general conference.

The Holy Father's letter to the bishops expresses his gratitude for having been at the conference, "in which I was united with you in your affection for your beloved people and in the shared concern to help them be disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ, so that they might have life in him."

The Pontiff recalled "the spirit of communion that characterized this general conference." And he said: "I authorize the publication of the final document, asking the Lord that, in communion with the Holy See and with respect for the responsibility of every bishop in his own Church, it may be a light and a stimulus for fruitful pastoral and evangelizing work in the years to come."

Benedict XVI affirmed that the 130-page document contains "numerous pastoral indications, motivated by thoughtful reflections in light of the faith and the current social context."

"I read with particular appreciation the exhortation for priority to be given, in pastoral programs, to the Eucharist and the sanctification of the day of the Lord," he said, referring to points 251 and 252 of the document.

The Pope also underlined the importance the text gives to strengthening "the Christian formation of the faithful in general and of pastoral workers in particular."

"In this context," the Holy Father said, "I was happy to learn of the desire to create a 'continental mission,' which episcopal conferences and dioceses are all called to study and put into effect, channeling all their vital energies to this end."

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HOW CELAM TRIED
TO PULL A FAST ONE ON THE HOLY FATHER


Thanks to Rorate caeli for this great addendum to the Vatican's release today of the Holy Father's letter authorizing publication of the final document of the Aparecida Conference (the "Fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops" (CELAM), opened by Pope Benedict on May 13, 2007).

Rorate caeli is a great site because they also access Spanish, French and Italian sources, and were probably the only major Anglophone site that followed the proceedings and documents of the Aparecida conference closely by simply going to the CELAM site, which has all the documentation in Spanish.

They note with pleasure that a paragraph they had found very troubling in the draft document has apparently been edited by the Vatican in the approved document. A look at the changes shows it may well have been the Pope himself who wrote them in.

In a very particular and specific way, this amended paragraph illustrates - as dramatically as did the Motu Proprio on the Mass and the CDF statement yesterday - that Benedict is determined to put his Pontificate on the record as reforming the 'reforms' imagined by proponents of the so-called 'spirit of Vatican-II' as the 'true' interpretation of the Council.

Here is Rorate caeli's story:


Let us recall the extremely troubling paragraph 109, which, in the final draft sent by the Bishops to Rome, was:

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109. We regret a certain clericalism, certain intents to return to an ecclesiology and a spirituality prior to the Second Vatican Council, certain reductionist readings and applications of the Conciliar renewal, the absence of a sense of self-criticism, of an authentic obedience and of the evangelical exercise of authority, the moralisms which weaken the centrality of Jesus Christ, the infidelities to the doctrine, to morals and to communion, our feeble experiences of the preferential option for the poor, not a few secularizing falls in consecrated life, the discrimination of women and their frequent absence from pastoral organizations. As the Holy Father spoke in the Inaugural Speech of our Conference, "one can detect a certain weakening of Christian life in society overall and of participation in the life of the Catholic Church".

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This paragraph, which has now become paragraph 100 b (Final Document in Spanish: PDF), was changed to this:

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100. b) We regret both the intents to return to a kind of ecclesiology opposite to the renewal of the Second Vatican Council(41), and some reductionist readings and applications of the Conciliar renewal; we regret the absence of an authentic obedience and of an evangelical exercise of authority, the infidelities to the doctrine, to morals and to communion, our feeble experiences of the preferential option for the poor, not a few secularizing falls in consecrated life, influenced by a merely sociological, and not evangelical, anthropology. As the Holy Father spoke in the Inaugural Speech of our Conference, "one can detect a certain weakening of Christian life in society overall and of participation in the life of the Catholic Church".

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The changes made by the Holy See to this previously disturbing paragraph were these:

1. The regret for "a certain clericalism" was removed.

2. The criticism of "intents to return to an ecclesiology and a spirituality prior [anteriores] to the Second Vatican Council" was substituted with a criticism of "intents to return to a kind of ecclesiology opposite to the renewal of the Second Vatican Council".

Adding to the irony of this substitution, note 41 was added: "Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, December 22, 2005".

Yes... the Latin American Bishops' criticism of pre-Conciliar "spirituality and ecclesiology" was turned against them with the help of Benedict's epoch-making speech... and became a criticism of the Bishops' own hermeneutics of rupture and discontinuity.

3. Also removed were criticisms to "the absence of a sense of self-criticism", "the moralisms which weaken the centrality of Jesus Christ" and to "the discrimination of women and their frequent absence from pastoral organization.

4. This other great gem was added to the "regret" for the secularization of consecrated life: "influenced by a merely sociological, and not evangelical, anthropology".

Could a more scathing rebuke of the orders and societies which have been undermining the mission of the Church in Latin America be found?

In these Petrine changes, it is possible to sense the same reprimand which the Holy Father addressed to the Bishops of Brazil in the most relevant address of his journey to Latin America (and one of the most remarkable texts of his entire pontificate) - a papal reprimand which has gone unheeded, as the silent reception of Summorum Pontificum by almost all Latin American Bishops and Episcopal Conferences has made clear once again.


Here was their original June 12 note on the paragraph:

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Aparecida Notes:
Latin American bishops
"regret intents to return to pre-Conciliar spirituality"

A very confusing paragraph of the unofficial final document of the Fifth General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate, in Aparecida, Brazil, is a good summary of all that is wrong with the Church in Latin America.

In it, we see not only a clear expression of the hermeneutic of rupture, but an honest regret that the rupture of the "Conciliar" Church with the past has not been even greater and more decisive. Naturally, in the end, they sneak in a sentence of Pope Benedict's opening address which is not in any way related to what they have just affirmed - shameless "progressive" modus operandi:

[They quote the original Paragraph 109 - as above]

Here are the exact words of the Holy Father, maliciously quoted (since the words were taken out of their exact context) by the Bishops at Aparecida:

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In the ecclesial communities of Latin America there is a notable degree of maturity in faith among the many active lay men and women devoted to the Lord, and there are also many generous catechists, many young people, new ecclesial movements and recently established Institutes of consecrated life. Many Catholic educational, charitable or housing initiatives have proved essential. Yet it is true that one can detect a certain weakening of Christian life in society overall and of participation in the life of the Catholic Church, due to secularism, hedonism, indifferentism and proselytism by numerous sects, animist religions and new pseudo-religious phenomena.

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In the picture, a fine example of the success
of Conciliar Renewal in Latin America.