NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT

Because there is a page change in the thread at this point, I am re-posting here the last post on the preceding page so it will not be missed.

It was a post from MARYJOS reacting to a comment Crotchet made about a picture of 'New Mass' participants somewhere in Latin America. MaryJos ended her post with this:

---

I would like to get a discussion going about Summorum Pontificum and also the latest letter from the CDF. Would this be an appropriate thread or not? What do you all think?

---

TO WHICH I REPLIED WITH ALACRITY AS SOON AS I SAW IT - AND THIS IS MY REPLY. I WAS HOPING FOR AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE ABLE TO EXPRESS THIS, SO THANK YOU, MARYJOS, FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY:

Dear MaryJos and everyone else who participates in the English section: - Obviously Yes! The idea for all these threads - and reporting any news item - is not only to provide information but to be a take-off point for any comments or discussion! So what's stopping anyone from such discussions????

As I told you (MaryJos) in a long e-mail recently, I have been so frustrated that the English section is turning out to be a newsmagazine rather than a forum - which it is supposed to be - because nobody seems to want to comment or discuss anything except pictures or Concetta or ... I"m sure you all get what I mean...

And yet, as I have been pointing out, Pope Benedict XVI has just had the most densely significant two weeks of any Papacy in recent historical memory - but no one has commented! Not on Inter-Religious Dialog, or the Conclave rule, or the China letter, or the Motu Proprio, or the CDF statement, despite all the items and commentary I have tried to bring into the Forum from all sources I can tap!

I have been venting myself blue in the face to start off any discussion, but without any luck so far, except now and then with Crotchet. And not only with my own posts. Everytime someone posts something I feel needs comment or further discussion, I immediately post a comment, but it seems it all falls into a void. Will someone tell me what the problem is, PLEASE????

And please remember, I brought up this issue a few months back about a lack of genuine forum activity in terms of discussing things. That didn't get anywhere, did it? Despite the seeming lack of reaction, I have not slackened in sharing whatever I can get that I feel is worth sharing. Because I look at the hits of each thread at the start of the day and at the end of the day, and I see that even a thread like THE WORD OF GOD gets an average of 70-100 visits a day.

Since we can count on both hands the number of 'active' participants in the English section, I can only conclude that most of the visits are from casual visitors. This keeps me going - that, and the fact that some reputable bloggers refer to us for certain things only we can provide.

I am glad I was given an opportunity to come out with all this - and pray it may lead to more participation by everyone.

THANK YOU ALL.

Teresa

DAYS 2-4, VARIOUS ACCOUNTS

THE POPE ON VACATION, LORENZAGO DI CADORE, JULY 9-27



This morning, I translated the Osservatore Romano account of the Pope's visit to the little church in Lozzo di Cadore - which had the added detail, unreported the previous day, that the Pope had also walked through the woods around the Church to pray the Rosary before heading back to Lorenzago.

Other reports in the Italian papers today also straighten out some of the facts that were 'telescoped' together in the initial wire-service bulletins about the Pope's excursion.

But let me start with this one - which refers to Thursday evening and go backwards in time.

A 'private audience' in the woods:
The Pope sits down to chat with
two retirees on one of his walks
Thuraday, July 12


Lorenzago di Cadore, July 13 (Apcom) - The Pope is settling into Cadore and feeling quite at home. Meeting a retiree and his wife on his evening walk yesterday, he told them "It's a paradise here!"

Lino Fontanile and his wife Celestina were walking by the Mauria Pass not far from Castello Mirabello when they came upon the Pope unexpectedly.

Fontanile said the Pope beckoned them to approach him, and they did`-he had them sit down next to him on the park bench - and they chatted for some 20 minutes.

He said the Pope first asked information about the place. "How high are we? How many meters altitude? What's the weather usually like at this time of year?"

Georg Gaenswein joined the conversation, and asked what crops were grown in the area. "Kartoeffeln," said Fontanile, using the German word for 'potatoes'. And the German Pope said, "No, you say 'patate'!"

The Pope asked Fontanile what the words 'al me tabia' meant. It's in the local dialect, and Fontanile said it means 'my little hut.' But he pointed out, "It's not really my hut - it belongs to whoever arrives and needs to use it."

We don't know what else they talked about for 20 minutes, but the papal photographers took pictures, and after that, the couple took their leave.

[I just checked the Vatican photo site and they have not yet updated it from the last ones we have seen.

[7/14 P.S. Now that we have Francesco del Mas's account Lino Fontanive's chat with the Pope (see DAY-5 IN LORENZAGO post farther below], we can tell the inaccuracies in the APCOM story above starting with Lino's last name, spelled with a v, not an l.]

FRANCESCO DEL MAS of Corriere delle Alpi offers slightly different accounts:

Thursday, July 12????
He says he was among the journalists the Pope spoke to yesterday - and it wasn't at the church.

"We intercepted him at the Mauria Pass. It was his second excursion away from the Castello grounds. The Vatican security had thought to
bring him to this forest path which leads to Stabie, in front of a roadside shrine. It is closed to regular traffic by the Forest Service.


I think this OR picture shows that.

Then he tells the story about the two girls and their parents a bit differently. It didn't happen near the Church at Lozzo, apparently, but along this Passo Mauria road.

Two girls and their parents
Thursday, July 12???

"Two girls, Camilla and Chandra, had gathered wildflowers. The Pope's car stopped, The Pope came out. 'What beautiful flowers! Are you here for vacation too?', he asks. But the girl is too dumbfounded to answer. And the Pope makes light of it, "You're too emotional." Equally awed into silence was their father, Francisco, a disabled person, and his wife Maria who burst into tears. The Pope approached them to speak to them. Before he left, he gave each of them a rosary.

Jogger meets the Pope -
Wednesday, July 11
LOZZO DI CADORE - What do you do when you're out jogging in the woods and all of a sudden, there's the Pope in front of you?

Silvio Zanella, a 38-year-old resident of Lozzo, had gone jogging Wednesday evening, as he usually does. He was running in the direction of the little Church of Our Lady of Loreto along a road that was closed to traffic near the Church because of a landslide.

"I noticed two motorcycles coming and I wanted to stop and tell them they could not go further because the road was blocked. Instead, I ran on till where the road ended, then turned back...Then all of a sudden, there was the Pope in front of me!"

What did he do? "I stopped and greeted him, and I shook hands with him and his secretary. The Pope asked if I was a vacationer, and I said, no, I am a native of Lozzo. 'Bravo!,' he said,'You're an athlete!' We exchanged a few more pleasantries. I asked him if he was warm enough because it was a bit chilly." Then he took his leave.

He ran home to get a camera and turned back. Meanwhile, the rest of the town had realized the Pope was there. "There was a veritable tam-tam of telephone calls and dozens of people were walking towards the church. My eight-year-old son Alex was among them. At one point, security stopped us and allowed only the children to go on. I gave the camera to Alex and he went on. Later, I heard the security telling people not to take photos, but Alex disobeyed. The Pope had stopped to speak to the children. After he got into his car, he rolled down the window so he could greet the crowd that already gathered."

Three sisters and the Pope -
Wednesday, July 11
"Holiness, I am an old nun from the retirement home. Please give your blessing to us old people," asked Suor Maria Basso, who has been vacationing in Lozzo.

"But I, too, am an old man", the Pope answered smiling, as he shook her hand. Suor Maria, from Florence, is a guest of her sister, Suor Bertilla, at the retirement home in Lozzo, along with their sister Eufrasia, who is a married woman and comes from Alexandria (?). All three sisters were able to shake hands with the Pope.

They said only the parish priest knew the Pope was coming but didn't tell anyone. Sister Bertilla said: "We learned about it from an old man who said he saw the Pope inside a black car. The news spread and we all headed to the church, but obvious security reasons, we were not able to come close. On leaving, the Pope waved to the crowd from the car. But when Father Georg saw a nun - that was Maria - he had the car slow down."

Sister Maria recalls: "I shook the Pope's hand and kissed his ring. I only regret I didnt have the courage to ask him for a rosary."
[He doesn't say how her two sisters shook hands with the Pope, too. Presumably they were next to her? Wasn't Suor Bertilla in nun's habit, too?]

Today, the little Church of Loreto started getting 'pilgrims' already even if it is closed on weekdays. But it is built so that one can look into the church from the 'atrium' and one can even light candles through a grilled gate.

Lozzo is a town of 1700 people, including 150 Chinese who work in a local eyeglass factory.

Passing through Lorenzago -
coming back from Lozzo, July 11
At the entrance to town, the papal motorcade was almost blocked by the waiting crowds. The Pope rolled down his car window, waved, smiled, gave his blessing. Women were weeping with emotion, some held out their babies so the Pope could bless them with a sign of the cross on the forehead, men protested they were being held back by security.

Watching tennis and pingpong -
Tuesday, July 10
The Pope, seated on a wooden bench, and watching two games for a while. It happened during his first walk through the woods.

"I was playing pingpong with Anna Erica," recalled Antonio Tramonte, a Venetian who settled down in Lorenzago 4 years ago. "Then Diego Ronzan who was playing tennis with Libero da Rin, suddenly said, 'Look over there, by the bend in the road. It's the Pope!' He was seated on this bench with a priest and a security escort. He was looking at the peaks - at Tudaio and the Cridola. Anna Erica stopped playing and wanted to go up to the Pope and kiss his ring. But the Pope's security team stopped he and said, 'Just go on playing. Pretend there's nothing unusual.' The Pope watched the games a bit, then got up and walked slowly towards where the cars were waiting."

---

NEWS ALERT!
Cardinal Bertone coming to Lorenzago
The Vatican Secretary of State will be in Lorenzago next Wednesday, July 18, to visit the Pope, according to don Giuseppe Bratti, spokesman for the Bishop of Belluno who is also in charge of the press center in Lorenzago. He said that Bertone would have a news conference in Pieve di Cadore in the afternoon, to report on his first year as Secretary of State.

---

Greetings to all on the Forum! I understand your frustration Teresa and admit that I have been among those who have not contributed what I could in the past few months. I should add that I used to write under the name |lily|. However, when I tried to login under that name just now, I was unable. I am now using the Croatian equivalent. (It's tough finding a username that's not already in use!)
In way of explanation for my absence, school work kept me greatly occupied in recent months until a couple of weeks ago. I hope to participate more freely from now on.
About that motu propio.... At Christmas, 2005 Papa gave a speech before the Curia in which he talked about the "hermeneutic of rupture and discontinuity" the "hermeneutic of reform and continuity". Not much attention was paid to that speech in the MSM as i recall, but I think it gave a good indication of the direction His Holiness planned to take during his pontificate. Having lived through the turbulence of change in the Church in the 60s, 70s and 80s, as many of our readers have, I can state that it certainly did seem like a near-complete rupture with the pre-VII Church. So many practices that had been around for ages were all of a sudden considered passe...Stations of the Cross, Eucharistic Adoration, even lighting votive candles.. But the most evident change, of course, was in the Mass. I think that by allowing the 1962 Mass more freely the Pope is hoping to emphasize that the Church, pre-and post-Council, was and is one and the same. What was beautiful and good before is the same today. I think it's a very important document because, even if it doesnt result in a Mass according to the 1962 Missal being said in my town, at least that connection to the Old Rite and the pre-1962 Church has been re-established.
Not long ago I attended an Old Rite Mass for the first time in many years. The difference in the amount of reverence evident in the old one compared with the new is striking. There are some very beautiful prayers, for example at the foot of the altar at the beginning, that have no correlate in the Novus Ordu. My 18-year old daughter is a very big fan of this Mass. So who knows? Perhaps young people will find something in it that is missing in the new rite.
Thank you Papa!


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

Welcome back, Lily! 'THE SAINTS...' thread, too, has been languishing without you and our other friends... I think that blasted 'update' of the FFZ system screwed up a lot of things, so your log-in was just one of the many 'victims.'

You are so right about that December 2005 address to the Roman Curia. Cardinal Ruini has been saying every chance he gets that the Pope's three most significant addresses after his inauguration were that speech to the Curia about the true interpretation of Vatican-II, the Regensburg lecture on faith and reason, and the address to the Italian Church in Verona where he proposed a concrete program of pastoral action for a specific church, the Church of Italy, as a model [which the Spanish bishops did adopt].

In fairness to the Italian media, they did realize the enormous significance of the Curia speech. It was the Anglophone media that glossed it over because most of them advocate the 'hermeneutic of discontinuity'... And still today, I haven't seen anyone in the Anglophone media [outside of Catholic writers who 'think with the Church'] who unconditionally sees in the Mass MP and the CDF statement Benedict's one-two punch to 'institutionalize' the hermeneutic of continuity. That's why all this evasive and diversionary action making too much of Latin - that's not the point; in fact, it's beside the point, so to speak, but they're pretending it is, so they can trivialize the Pope's action.

By the way, I've asked this before, but no one minded me, of course: On what occasion do you think the Pope will celebrate his first public traditional Mass as Pope? On what occasion do you think he [S]should[/S]?

I am so happy your daughter loves the Mass. You obviously brought her up well....

TERESA

I think it is only right to pay recognition these days to the organizations and individuals in the Catholic world who have patiently labored all these years to keep the traditional Mass alive.

Here's an English translation from UNA VOCE AMERICA of a letter circulated by the International Una Voce Federation (FIUV- Federatio Internationalis Una Voce) on the Motu Proprio SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM:


STATEMENT BY INTERNATIONAL
UNA VOCE FOUNDATION

With great joy and overwhelming feelings of thankfulness, the International Federation Una Voce welcomes the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificem of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

For many months we have waited in prayerful patience and expectation. During this long period of waiting the President, Secretary, and Treasurer of the International Federation had numerous meetings in Rome with curial heads and officials and we were encouraged always to pray for our Holy Father; that the Motu Proprio would come, and it would be good for the whole Church.

We were privileged to meet the Holy Father on 13th June 2007 and he assured us personally that the motu proprio would be published "soon, before summer:. Our patience has been rewarded and the Church has been given a great gift from the Successor of Peter.

In his Apostolic Letter SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM and the accompanying letter to his Brother Bishops, our Holy Father has not only released the use of the traditional Roman Rite, he is also teaching the Church some important lessons.

With great courage he has declared what many in authority (including our hierarchies) have known for many years; that the Missal of 1962 was never juridically abrogated and, consequently, has always been valid.

This statement, carrying as it does the full authority of the Sovereign Pontiff, effectively puts an end to the debate that has been ongoing since 1970. We can all now move forward in a much more constructive manner for the good of the entire Church.

Also, with great clarity, he has defined the position of the Missal of John XXIII and that of Paul VI. By declaring these Missals as the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the same Roman Rite, he has arrived at a solution that can be embraced, with due charity, by everyone in the Church - bishops, priests, and laity - and hopes that these "two Forms of the usage of the Roman Rite can be mutually enriching."

Pope Benedict has stated that the positive reason which motivated his decision to issue this Motu Proprio was to come 'to an interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church'. At critical moments in the history of the Church when divisions have rent the Body of Christ he admits that "not enough was done by the Church's leaders to maintain or regain reconciliation and unity."

The International Federation Una Voce is deeply grateful to our Holy Father for his courage and wisdom and will do all it can to assist him in his desire for 'reconciliation and unity'. The Federation is convinced that this document and the release of the traditional Roman Rite will be a source for renewal in the spiritual life of the Church.

Therefore we ask all the faithful to accept this document as a sign of conciliation and as an important step forward to liturgical peace. Furthermore we ask all our association members to offer the Holy Father, the local bishops, priests and faithful all possible help to achieve the objectives of this Motu Proprio.

Renewing our deepest expressions of devotion for the august Person of the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth and beseeching the favour of an Apostolic Blessing for our Federation, we remain His Holiness's obedient children and we assure him of our loyalty, love and prayers.

J.P. Oostveen, President
International Federation Una Voce.
Delft, The Netherlands
July 9th, 2007


Una Voce America Expresses Thanks
to Pope Benedict for the Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum


Representing over 60 chapters, several priests and religious and thousands of Catholic laity across North America, Una Voce America rejoices with gratitude for the publication of Pope Benedict XVI's, Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, extending the use of the traditional Roman liturgy for the good of the Church.

It has been the constant prayer and hope of all Una Voce members that the traditional Mass would be more widely available to those who desire it, and we find that hope realized in the generous and confident statements of the Holy Father on the importance of the traditional Latin Mass in the life of the Church.

Many Una Voce America supporters can fully appreciate the Holy Father's personal statement included in his letter accompanying the Motu Proprio where he said that he, himself, experienced difficulties in the liturgical life of the Church that were "hard to bear" and that he has "seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the Church".

His words of encouragement can help heal our own pains, and more importantly help give some hope that Catholics will have greater access to the liturgical tradition of the Church in their parishes.

We believe that the traditional Latin Mass will be a benefit to the entire Church and help enrich the Catholic spiritual and cultural landscape. It will be an important means of re-connecting the Catholic faithful with the spiritual tradition of the past and it will provide a tremendous encouragement for those who have been estranged from the Church over the years.

Many younger Catholics have never attended a traditional Roman Mass and a responsible application of Summorum Pontificum will open the opportunity for many to experience this liturgical usage.

Based upon the experiences of the priestly societies who celebrate the classical rite exclusively, we anticipate that the Holy Father's far-sighted decision will also increase vocations to the priesthood and religious life throughout the Church.

We invite all Catholics to take this opportunity to support the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass in your diocese or home parish wherever there is enough support to sustain the Mass on a weekly (or even more frequent) basis.

Our thanks is also extended to all the priests who have celebrated the traditional Mass through the past decades, and for the growing number of priests who have recently expressed new interest in offering the traditional Roman liturgy for their flocks.

For our part, we pledge our continued support to all who are interested in learning about the tradtional Latin Mass and for those who need help in any way in establishing and maintaining these Masses. We invite any interested parties to email the Una Voce Board of directors (info@unavoce.org) with questions or concerns.

Una Voce America will be working to promote the correct understanding of Summorum Pontificum and to help promote an unobstructed implementation of the Pope's will. Una Voce will continue to work closely with the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei in Rome to ensure that all those who appeal to the manifest will of the Pope will be granted access to the traditional Mass as provided in the motu proprio.

As always, Una Voce America expresses its support to our bishops in helping to promote and foster the celebration of the traditional Mass across the United States.

With heartfelt trust and our prayerful we extend our most sincere thanks to Pope Benedict XVI for his pastoral care and consideration of the needs of all the faithful.

Una Voce America
Board of Directors and Chapter Leaders

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

What is Una Voce?
Una Voce (from the Preface of the Most Holy Trinity - 'with one voice - is an international federation of associations, founded in 1966 in Rome, that now includes national associations in 17 nations on every continent.

It is dedicated to ensuring that the Roman Mass codified by St. Pius V is maintained as one of the forms of eucharistic worship which are honored in universal liturgical life, and to restoring the use of Latin, Gregorian Chant, and sacred polyphony in Catholic liturgy.

The Una Voce International website provides information about officers and national associations: www.ifuv.org

Members believe that use of Latin in the Mass and Sacraments is a unifying force, needed by the Church in these days of widespread controversy. They believe that using the rites which were the form of Catholic worship for over 1,500 years will preserve the traditional emphasis on the Mass as Sacrifice, with its central teaching of transubstantiation.

This, in turn, will help reverse the decline in vocations as altar boys, charged with difficult and meaningful duties, will be imbued from an early age with a sense of the sacred.

We Catholics possess a living heritage. We owe a duty to our posterity to transmit it in its fullness, and as a living tradition, This is not only the feeling of Una Voce, it is the teaching of all the postconciliar Popes.

Addressing the Federation in 1996, Cardinal Ratzinger said:
"The International Una Voce Federation has played an important role in supporting the use of the 1962 edition of the Roman Missal in obedience to the directives of the Holy See. For this valuable service I express my gratitude to the members of the Federation and extend my blessing."

In IN HIS OWN WORDS, I recently posted the English translation of an address by Cardinal Ratzinger given in Rome on the 10th anniversary of the Pontifical Council Ecclesia Dei in 1998. It was translated by an Una Voce priest in Britain and posted on the Una Voce website. It was a beautiful speech that recapitulates all the arguments underpinning the Pope's decision to issue the Motu Proprio. But I would like to quote these sentences in particular. Joseph Ratzinger always knew that antagonistic bishops were the main obstacle to the 'peaceful coexistence' of the two liturgies:

---

In many places difficulties persist, and these continue because some bishops, priests and faithful consider this attachment to the old liturgy as an element of division which only disturbs the ecclesial community and which gives rise to suspicions regarding an acceptance of the Council made "with reservations", and more generally concerning obedience towards the legitimate pastors of the Church...

It is very important to observe the essential criteria of the [Vatican-II] Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, which I quoted above, including when one celebrates according to the old Missal! The moment when this liturgy truly touches the faithful with its beauty and its richness, then it will be loved, then it will no longer be irreconcilably opposed to the new Liturgy, providing that these criteria are indeed applied as the Council wished.

Different spiritual and theological emphases will certainly continue to exist, but there will no longer be two contradictory ways of being a Christian; there will instead be that richness which pertains to the same single Catholic faith...

If the unity of faith and the oneness of the mystery appear clearly within the two forms of celebration, that can only be a reason for everybody to rejoice and to thank the good Lord.

Inasmuch as we all believe, live and act with these intentions, we shall also be able to persuade the Bishops that the presence of the old liturgy does not disturb or break the unity of their diocese, but is rather a gift destined to build-up the Body of Christ, of which we are all the servants.

---

By happy 'coincidence', note how Benedictine communities were among the most well-represented in the list of traditional Mass flame-keepers all these years:

Priestly Societies and Religious Orders
using Traditional Missals

Male Priestly Societies & Religious Orders
Apostolic Administration of St. John Mary Vianney
Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest
Fraternity of St. Vincent Ferrer
Institute of St. Philip Neri
Institute of the Good Shepherd
Benedictines - Monastery of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek
Benedictines - Abbaye Notre-Dame de Fontgombault
Benedictines - Monastère Notre-Dame de Gaussan
Benedictines - Abbaye Saint-Madeleine (Le Barroux)
Benedictines - Abbaye Notre-Dame de Randol
Benedictines - Monastère Sainte-Marie de la Garde (St. Pierre de Clairac)
Benedictines - Abbaye Notre-Dame de Triors
Religious Institute of the Holy Cross of Riaumont
Canons Regular of the Mother of God
Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem
Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel

Female Religious Orders
Benedictines - Abbaye Notre-Dame-de-Fidelite (Jouques)
Benedictines - Abbaye Notre-Dame de L'Annonciation (Le Barroux)
Benedictines - Monastère Notre Dame de Misericorde (Rosans)
Canonesses of the Mother of God
Sisters of the Precious Blood (Schellenberg)
Sisters of the Precious Blood (St. Pelagiberg)
Oblates of Mary, Queen of Apostles
Adoratrices du Coeur Royal de Jesus-Christ Souveraine Pretre
Discalced Carmelitesses - Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (Valparaiso)
Dominicans of the Holy Ghost - Institution Saint Dominique (Baffe)
Dominicans of the Holy Ghost - Institution Saint Joseph (Draguignan)
Dominicans of the Holy Ghost - Ecole Sainte Catherine de Siena (Nantes)
Dominicans of the Holy Ghost - Couvent Notre-Dame-de-Joie (Pontcalec)
Dominicans of the Holy Ghost - Institution Saint-Pie X (Saint Cloud)
Religious Victims of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Marseille)
Institute of Servants of the Queen of Apostles

Was not Cardinal Barbarin among the French bishops most prominently mentioned as being particularly against the Motu Proprio? If he was, his pastoral letter to explain Summorum Pontificum is a model for the bishops of the world. The resistance, hostility and even indications of defiant disobedience shown by some Italian bishops after the Motu Proprio have been very distressing, and I have simply not translated them out of distaste. Cardinal Barbarin's letter makes up for all that - and more.


Cardinal Barbarin:
Document Invites Reconciliation


ROME, JULY 13, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI has made a clear gesture to traditionalists so that division does not become irreparable schism, says a French cardinal.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, archbishop of Lyon and the primate of France, wrote this in "An Invitation for Reconciliation," a reflection on Benedict XVI's liturgical document, Summorum Pontificum.

"To understand the Pope's decision" to write this letter, explained Cardinal Barbarin, "we remember what he shared with the cardinals just after his election."

"While the doors of the Sistine Chapel were still closed," the cardinal said, "Benedict XVI explained the choice of his name. Referring to Benedict XV, the great craftsman of peace, he said, 'I would like to live, above all, a pontificate of reconciliation and peace.'

"Today, the Pope thinks that if we don't make a gesture now, the division with the traditionalists will become an irreparable schism."

"He confirms, therefore, John Paul II's preparations in this regard: If they want to stay faithful to Rome, they know the doors are open to them and that their attachment to the older liturgy is not an obstacle."

Cardinal Barbarin says the only new element in Summorum Pontificum "is the decision to comply with the wishes of the faithful, depending henceforth on the priests' authority."

He explained: "As John Paul II had done for the bishops in 1988, Benedict XVI invites priests to welcome 'voluntarily the requests to celebrate the Mass according to the rite of the Roman Missal edited in 1962.'

"Additionally, the Pope invites traditionalists to recognize the value and the sanctity of the Roman Missal instituted by Paul VI.

"The priests attached to the liturgy from before Vatican II, such as those of the Institute of the Good Shepard, the Fraternity of St. Peter, or in the Society of St. Pius X, will certainly be touched by this strong demand of Benedict XVI."

"Bishop Felley, himself, responsible for the Society of St. Pius X, said it was impossible to be Catholic and continue to be separated from Rome," added the 56-year-old prelate.

Cardinal Barbarin continued: "This will be, therefore, true progress for the unity [of the Church] if they agree to recognize 'the value and the holiness' of Paul VI's Missal, that with which I have celebrated Mass every day since my ordination.

"Benedict XVI asks everyone to penetrate the divine and sacred dimension of the Eucharist. For my part, I hope that all will reread attentively the constitution of Vatican II on the liturgy. This will be the best way to bring unity, always fragile in the Church."

"In effect," the cardinal explained, "the liturgy is an essential expression of the faith of the Church according to the well known principle, 'lex orandi, lex credendi.'

"The celebration of the Eucharist gathers together all of the paschal mystery.

"We always pass it, but it is the time of joy of Holy Thursday - communion; the drama of Holy Friday - sacrifice; and the mystery of the Resurrection on Easter morning - presence. In sum, it is essential for our faith."

"My hope," he remarked, "is that this clear gesture of the Holy Father will lead the reticent to rediscover the texts of the Council."

Cardinal Barbarin concluded, "We always need to go deeper into these teachings. I regard them as the source for renewal and unity in the Church."


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

I thought Cardinal Barbarin's recollection of those moments in the Sistine Chapel was particularly poignant. I'm one of those who cry easily - sometimes just hearing the national anthem makes me cry - but Cardinal Barbarin's words have tapped the wellsprings, and it's gushing uncontrollably! I am as deeply moved by the simple, direct humanity of Benedict at that moment, as I was when he paid tribute to his family at his Birthday Mass homily last April. And almost as profoundly shaken in my being as I was, after reading those marvellous pages in JESUS OF NAZARETH (pp 300-305) when Joseph Ratzinger tells us simply in a few well-chosen episodes how it gradually dawned on the Apostles that they had been living with God himself!

When some cardinals had referred to Benedict's statements in their postr-Conclave remarks, I assumed the new Pope had referred only to the ecumenical reconciliation of all Christians. But I see now, that being the man of the Church that he is, he did not forget - at the moment he had just been elected Pope - the tiny but not insignificant minority of Catholics who had been ostracized because of loyalty to a rite that was never invalidated.

I cannot thank Cardinal Barbarin enough for what he has written - both with regard to the Motu Proprio itself, and for what he chose wisely to remind his priests about Benedict.

Some simple statements become emblematic - and to me, all of a sudden, I can imagine - as I could not before - the new Benedict XVI speaking from wherever he was seated at the time he was formally asked, "Do you accept?" and he said, "Accepto". And in my mind, I hear him explain why he chose the name Benedict, and I believe he must have explained it all in Latin.

I do not know if it is customary for the new Pope to say his homily in Latin during his first Mass as Pope, but Benedict XVI did the day after his election. My veneration has no bounds!

To be perfectly honest I'm a bit timid in regard to contributing to this discussion because I'm very young (18) and I've never been to a Tridentine Mass. My parents were unable to relate anything to me about it simply because they are not Catholics, I am the convert in the family. But I do appreciate the articles being posted by everyone and I'm trying to get through them all. So, I'm new to the Tridentine Mass you might say. Despite this all, the liturgical "creativeness" I've read about and seen pictures off is distrubing. I have heard that its is more reverent/more Eucharist centered because there's less room for goofing off, Bravo! I am interesting in going to one as well.

I'll add this though. After a cell group meeting, I mentioned what I had read about the upcoming Moto Proprio (this was before it had came out) & what it was rumored to contain to two friends. (The cell group ranges b/w the ages of 18-30.) The response was positive towards the Tridentine Mass, no whining. More encouraged about how it could bring us together, beauty of the mass, etc. So, I think there are young people interested & more could be if informed. Point taken though Teresa, I'll do my best to add to the discussion from here on in.


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

Dear Lori - First, let me reiterate how much your news posts are appreciated. Keep 'em coming - is all we can say!...As for the discussions, you could start or join anything even about topics you know little of precisely to ask for questions or clarifications...Or to explain your personal circumstances with regard to the issue, as you do here about the trad-Mass...Forum discussions and comments should be free-wheeling; it's the moderator's task to keep things 'orderly', i.e. - that the posts are relevant and that nothing is offensive...Please carry on, and thanks in behalf of everyone. Teresa

P.S. On the trad-Mass, take a look at the Father Jim Tucker links I posted in REFLECTIONS ON THE FAITH ... They are very authoritative, clear and informative. Plus he has a nice video of a Mass.

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

Teresa, thank you. I probably will have many questions relating to the Latin Mass. I did skim by the post on Fr. Tucker tips, it looks to be very helpful & I'll go over them more indepth soon. At my cell meeting tonight, I mentioned the document on TLM again, but this time to the entire cell group. Again, no whining. One had heard a report that implied more that Latin would be used in the Mass or more Latin Masses would be held. Not that she said anything negative towards this though. I was glad to be able to clarify, and I think this forum definitely helps me to be much more informed than I would be. -Lauren

Teresa, I think what might also be putting people off commenting is the layout of the forum, about which there is very little that can be done. I often see posts I'd like to comment on, but by the time I have got in to read them, a number of other posts have been inserted, the subject of which may or may not be relevant. Any comments that are made are then dislocated from the original article. On the rare occasion when a comment is made, I have to go back quite a way to find the origin of it. Crochet's post on the weird mass being a prime example - you needed to insert the photograph to put it in context. It's actually a pity that we cannot insert comments directly underneath the posts, as you are able to do. I think that sort of format would be far more conducive to comment and discussion.

I know it would be extra work, but it might be worth considering starting a blog for those who would like to participate in more serious discussion, so that any comments that are made are situated directly underneath the article. Or is there a setting in one's Profilo that allows you to view the threads in this forum in a 'nested' form?

With regard to the motu proprio, I'm very excited about it, but what I know about the Tridentine Rite is extremely dangerous. To give you an example, I have only ever attended one Latin Mass and I have grave suspicions that that is just what it was, the Novus Ordo said in Latin. Not the Tridentine Rite. At the time, about twenty years ago, I was so uninformed about what it was all about that I went up and received communion in my hand. If looks could have killed I would have been dead on the Church floor. Being one of the younger participants in the Mass I was completely unaware that one should not receive the host in one's hand. Still, given the brevity of that particular mass and the fact that the celebrant continued to face the congregation throughout, I think it was not really intended to be a true Tridentine Mass.

To be honest, I'm not sure how well it will go down in South Africa, particularly with regard to Latin. Most people here consider it not only dead, but dead and buried and, language wise, the majority have absolutely no point of reference when it comes to this Classical language. To give you an example, twenty years ago there were only four of us in 2nd year Latin at the university I attended here in Jo'burg. It was also a subject that was not offered at the Catholic convent that I attended, so it was quite an uphill battle for me at Uni. Sad, but true.


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

Dear Paxvobiscum - Thanks for the thoughtful reply - and your remarks about the Tridentine Mass.

First, about the technical question. You are talking to someone here who is relatively illiterate about Forums. I don't know that a blog format could be accommodated within a Forum.

However, this particular Forum - I don't know about others, as I was never even aware there were such things as Forums online till I started searching everything RATZINGER on April 19, 2005 - has a mechanism for the 'problem' you pose:

Go to the post that you wish to comment on; on the line next to the name of the person who posted, you will see the choice 'email -profilo - edit - canc - quota'. When you click on 'quota', it will take you to a reply box in which the entire post is 'quoted', including any pictures in it. You can now go inside this 'quotation' and just choose the porti0n(s) you want to comment on, deleting the rest. You can then type in your comments/discussion below the 'quotation' and proceed as usual.

This way, your comment is always tied to the post your are commenting on, no matter how much later you comment on it - and it will post in the usual chronological order, so there is no way it will be missed. (If you post today, for example, commenting on a 7/7/07 post, your post will appear with the 7/14 posts). Try it, and see what happens.

Of course, if what you are commenting on is the post directly above you or fairly near to your post on the same page, sometimes it's not necessary to use the 'quota' method.

****

Now, about the Tridentine Mass- I don't think we should 'bother' about 'how it will go down' with anyone because it is not being imposed on anyone! Everyone is perfectly free to ignore it completely, if the Novus Ordo meets what they want. Only people who are interested in the traditional Mass will go to it.

That is the simple genius of the Motu Proprio - it gives people a free choice between two valid forms of one rite. And it did not take a rocket scientist to figure it out. The genius was in having the courage to make it so.

It seems to me so obvious that I truly continue to be completely stumped as to how a highly intelligent human being like Paul VI could not have seen from the very beginning that yes, he could impose a New Mass as the ordinary (in the sense of normal) rite, but that should not outlaw or invalidate the Old Mass.

He lived with the New Mass at least 8 years until he died, so there was more than enough time for him to reconsider. When he allowed Padre Pio a personal indult to say the traditional Mass as the sainted man's personal privilege, why did that incident not clue him in as to how he could 'resolve' the needless problem once and for all?

The same inexplicable hesitation to do anything definitive about it marked the John Paul years. What is the reason that, in 27 years, he could not go beyond the indults he gave and do what Benedict has just done?

Is that how 'powerful' the proponents of discontinuity were, that they could effectively paralyze the Church and two super-intelligent Popes into a paradigm that was wrong and senseless to begin with?

So it really is very important that local bishops and priests understand what the Motu Proprio says and makes it clear to their flock - it does not impose anything on anyone; it just allows a choice.

The widespread hostility against Latin is something else. Right now, opponents of the trad-Mass are using that as a major issue for opposing the MP.

It's a non-issue! First of all, because NO ONE IS BEING FORCED NOR EVEN ASKED TO ATTEND A MASS IN LATIN. So those who find Latin anathema, for whatever reason, need not even think about it!

Second, if the use of Latin was never a problem for the universal Church in 1970 years, why did it become a problem overnight? Ritual is ritual - those who think 'form' does not matter ought to think again - and faith is a discipline: Part of the discipline is obedience to ritual, seen as a manner of expressing the faith, as the Mass is. That discipline was in place for 1970 years; it was never invalidated.

Third, the so-called 'typical' form of the Roman Missal - namely, the basis for all vernacular translations - remains written in Latin, even for the Novus Ordo. Contrary to what some people believe, the 'original' form of the Novus Ordo was and continues to be Latin. (Therefore, it can be said in Latin, as the Pope said his Inaugural Mass in the Latin form of the Novus Ordo.] All others are simply translations of the Latin - and if questions arise, as in the now-famous 'pro multis' translated into English as 'for all' when it obviously is 'for many', then the Latin text is the only basis for adjudication, as it is with all official Church documents. Hence, the recent statement about the verb 'subsistit in' used in the Latin original of Lumen gentium, not 'est'.

When the New Mass became the norm, Catholics of course owed obedience to it. Indeed it was universally obeyed, as no one literally had a choice - except those who were loyal to the traditional Mass and kept it alive.

Thank God even Paul VI, however much he was personally committed to 'reform' at any cost, could not have formally 'abolished' the traditional Mass, if only because Sacrosanctum Concilium - the document used as the basis for the Novus Ordo reform - was very clear about it:

---

From Sacrosanctum Concilium, Paragraph 4:

..in faithful obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that holy Mother Church holds all lawfully acknowledged rites to be of equal right and dignity; that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way. The Council also desires that, where necessary, the rites be revised carefully in the light of sound tradition, and that they be given new vigor to meet the circumstances and needs of modern times.

---

But seeing that provision in all its clarity and unequivocation brings us back to the question of why Paul VI acted as drastically as he did, virtually throwing out the baby with the bathwater!

"All lawfully acknowledged rites" - not even the most diehard progressive can argue that the traditional Mass was lawfully dis-acknowledged! And why should it be any of their concern if some Catholics choose to attend the traditional Mass - it's no skin off their teeth! EXCEPT - and this is the crux! - that they are so wounded in their pride because their willfully wrong view of Vatican-II as a complete break from the past is now institutionally rejected by the Church! It's a 'defeat' they cannot bear, and that's why so many of them - including many bishops and priests who should know better - are now being more vicious than ever about Benedict.

So, forget about any side issues or non-issues. If the traditional Mass is available where you are, and you are interested, see for yourself. If you find you detest it, or it leaves you BLAH!, then that's OK, too - stay with the Novus Ordo. It's all a matter of personal choice now.

Let me just hasten to add: choice is possible for this, only because it involves a choice between two equally valid rites - external symbols. It's not at all the same as the so-called 'freedom of conscience' to choose, for instance, whether one should abort or not abort, which is a question of doctrine - internal essence - and in the Church, doctrine is given, laid down - we are not given a choice: that is the basic discipline of faith, because faith means you accept the doctrine totally.

BTW, the fact that you even took up Latin at Uni is already a big personal plus. My Catholic school did not offer Latin for high-school girls, either, although the Jesuit Atheneum for boys that my brother went to required it for all 4 years of high school.

TERESA

Thanks, Teresa, for keeping us up to date on Papa's time in Lorenzago di Cadore. I really enjoy the little glimpses we get of Papa's vacation.

That having been said, is there anyone else here who feels that the press should leave him completely alone now for a couple of days. I really felt for him the other day when he made the remark to the press at the Loreto chapel that he had only come there to pray. It was obvious that he was looking for some genuine peace and quiet. I really think it is not too much to ask that he be left alone, if only for a day or two ... Then again, compared to what usually happens in Rome, this is 'quiet'.

DAY 4-5 IN LORENZAGO / CORRECTIONS TO PREVIOUS DAYS


THE POPE ON VACATION, LORENZAGO DI CADORE, JULY 9-27




The trouble with the reports from Lorenzago is that they are always initially sketchy, and then subsequent details are often different from the initial reports. I can only post translations as the available dispatches come. For now, let me begin with this, from PETRUS, because it is the most 'recent' in terms of the events it describes. P.S. It seems now the '20-minute chat' took place on Day 4, Thursday.

Visit to Clarenza:
Friday, July 13

LORENZAGO DI CADORE - The Pope made a brief excursion outside villa Mirabello yesterday evening (Friday) around 6 p.m.

He went to Villa Clarenza, about 1-1/2 kilometers from Lorenzago - a building that was razed to the ground by the German forces in retreat during the Second World War, and after rebuilding, now houses the Stella Matutina (Morning Star) Alpine Lodging, a summer camp for children run by the Jesuits of Gorizia.

He stayed for about 25 minutes.

Four vacationers from Venice later reported seeing him as he prayed at the little church of St. Anthony Abbot nearby. It was built in 1775, fell into disrepair, and was restored in 1981 by the parish priest of Lorenzago.

After praying, the Pope walked a bit through the surrounding woods, then got back into the car to return to Mirabello.

Everyone is anticipating the Pope's first Angelus during this vacation. He will lead the Marian prayer at noon tomorrow from Mirabello Castle. It will be the only time the public is allowed into the grounds during the Pope's vacation. The event will be telecast and available for worldwide transmission.

Saturday dawned warm and decisively sunny, after days of uncertain and occasionally bad weather. A giant TV screen has been set up in the town piazza of Lorenzago for people who are unable to go up to the Castle.

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

About leaving the Pope in peace while he is on vacation, I think he understands that people will always want to know what he's doing, and that's why Osservatore Romano makes pictures available and even some stories. And it obviously does not bother him when people see him while he is on one of his outings. From all the stories, he welcomes it - he stops to talk to them. His remark to the newsmen was banter, not reproach. I think, by and large, the Cadorans - and even the media - do respect his privacy on vacation. There are no reports of paparazzi stalking the grounds of Mirabello, for instance.

And what would we do if everyone kept totally silent about him - and worse, no pictures at all - during the whole three weeks of his vacation??? I for one would go crazy!!!! So, for now, let's be happy for what we can learn.

Which is not very much. Often sketchy, sometimes contradictory. Meanwhile, here's what should be the definitive story on the Pope's unusual chat with a local farmer who lives not far from Castello Mirabello:


Lino Fontanive reconstructs
hus 20-minute chat with the Pope:
Thursday, July 12
By Francesco Dal Mas



LORENZAGO - "It's a Paradise here." Words said by the Pope. Thursday evening, around 6:30, by 'Al me tabia' in Stabie, on the Mauria Pass not far from the Castello Mirabello.

Celestina de Zordo, looking out her window, saw two cars with dark windshields, followed by a motorcycle in the valley below. She called her friend Valentina Dolmen, and they both wondered, "How strange to see anyone in these parts at this time! What would they be here for?"

Shortly afterwards, her husband Lino Fontanive, who was working in the meadow in front of their 'tabia' (mountain cottage) with his friend Paolo de Bernardin, looked up towards the road, and exclaimed: "Holy cow, what am I seeing?"

He recalls now: "Walking up the road was a man dressed like the Pope. I told myself - no, the figure looks too small, it can't be him! But it is him. As he comes nearer, he beckons to me with his hand to approach him. Next to him was a priest. I would learn later it was his secretary, Fr. Georg. I kissed the Pope's hand and I realized I had to keep him there until my wife could come. Paolo had gone to the house to call her. After some pleasantries, the Pope started to walk again, and I said, 'Please don't leave until my wife has a chance to greet you.'

And at that moment, Lino says, he did something unexpected. "He had seemed to me so simple and so human that spontaneously, I put up my arm to embrace him, and stroked his back with my right hand, as one does with a friend. And he did not mind at all!"

Maggie, the family dog, who is usually agitated in the presence of any stranger, was inexplicably quiet and docile, Lino noted.

Meanwhile, he led the Pope towards a roadside crucifix, where the Pope spent a few moments in prayer. Then followed a most unusual conversation. With the Pope seated on a wooden chair that John Paul II had sat on when he passed this way on one of his walks during his vacation in 1988.

Lino: Holiness, this seat was also used by your predecessor.

The Pope: Really? Tell me.

Lino: Unfortunately, we were not home at the time. But this seat has always been here outside, for anyone who passes by.

The Pope: Did you make the Crucifix yourself?

Lino: No, I only built the wooden support. The ironwork was done by someone else. The crucifix itself I had bought in Austria, after I recovered from a cerebral stroke in 1995.

The Pope: What does the sign mean 'Al me tabia'?

Fr. Georg: It looks as if it's written in Cyrillic characters.

Lino: No, no. It's in the local dialect. It means 'il mio tabia' (my mountain hut). But it's not an expression of ownership. It means the house belongs to the guest, to whoever comes to visit us, or simply, whoever passes this way. Therefore, now, it's also your house.

The Pope: What about the other sign, 'Aga furba'?

Lino: It means 'acqua furba' (trick water).

The Pope: Why tricky?

Lino: It's a joke on my friends. Or whoever passes by. The sign is on a fake fountain. Do you see it? But then they will try to drink from it anyway and they will find out it's fake!

The Pope: Who are these faces carved in wood? [He refers to tree stumps on the top of which faces have been sculptured]


Osservatore Romano released this picture
but without any descriptive caption.
Part of the Crucifix and some of the
'sculptures' can be seen.

Lino: Mostly friends.

The Pope: But the one with the eyeglasses is you!

Lino: How did you guess, Holiness? Yes, there are also my children Tatiana and Lara, my father-in-law, my wife....These were all carved by Renzo, a friend who comes from Forni.

The Pope: This is a Paradise!

Lino: You have brought the good weather, Holiness!

Then he is overcome with emotion, realizing for the first time what has been happening, and be bursts into tears. He asks the Pope if he can go to the house and get a camera to get at least one photograph.
When he comes back -

The Pope: Are you sure there's a roll of film in it?

Lino: Actually, I'm not. It's an old camera - I rarely use it. But if it turns out it has no film, then you will simply have to come back here, Your Holiness.

The Pope, smiling: Of course, why not?

Fr. Georg took one picture, the security escort took a couple more. In one picture, the Pope is holding Celestina's hand.


Lella posts this picture on her blog.
It has no attribution, however.

The Pope, looking beyond the house: What's out there?

Lino: My vegetable garden.

Fr. Georg: What do you grow?

Lino: Kartoeffeln. [German for potatoes]

The Pope: No, you say 'patate.'... How much snow do you get here?

Lino: Sometimes as much as two meters.

The Pope: What about the flag? [A Vatican flag on the house window.]

Lino: Holiness, as you see, it's still the old one from Papa Wojtyla's time. But I have the new one. I will put it up as soon as I can. You will see it the next time you come by...May I offer you something to drink?

The Pope: Well...

Fr. Georg: Maybe next time.

The Pope and his companions left after giving rosaries to their hosts.

Now, Celestina. "The Holy Father hugged me and kissed me. I did not know what to do! I was so emotional I could not say a word!"

According to Celestina and her friend, they had been watching from the house. "We were apprehensive because we saw some men with two cars hidden behind one of the houses. We wondered if they had bad intentions. Especially when one of them went to a tree, plucked a peach and started eating it! But when he noticed us, he walked over and said, 'Ladies, I was well camouflaged, true?' And I answered, 'Yes, well, when you ate the peach...' He smiled, 'Even the Pope's security eat peaches.'"

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

One of the wire agency snippets earlier this week mentioned in passing that a package had arrived at Villa Mirabello for the Pope from Introd, the municpality to which Les Combes belongs - with noother details. APCOM sought out the mayor of Introd for the story:


GIFT FROM INTROD

Introd, July 13 (Apcom) - "I thought it would make the Pope happy to receive something from Val D'Aosta to let him know that the memory of his presence with us here is alive among our people."

That's why, said Osvaldo Maudin, mayor of Introd, the municipality sent him a gift pack on the occasion of his name day, the feast of St. Benedict last July 11.

"We sent him 6 bottles of wine, red and white, our local honey which he liked a lot, and decorative tiles with our greetings. This way, he may remember the beautiful weeks he spent with us the past two summers."


Andrea Tornielli, alone among the MSM Vaticanistas, filed a story today in Il Giornale about the Pope's vacation, but the details about the Pope's excursions all come from the local reports, starting with Lino Fonarive's story. He does say something about the Pope's typical schedule this past week:
.
The Pope wakes up before 7 a.m.. At 7:30, he celebrates Mass, attended by his secretary, the lay sisters of his household and his vacation valet, Angelo Gugel.

After the Mass, he remains for another half-hour of prayer in the chapel of his vacation villa.

Breakfast is served at 8:30. Then the Pope works.

Lunch is at 1:00. He takes a little walk before his habitual early afternoon nap.

He resumes working at 4; and at 6, he sets off for an evening excursion, which usually includes a walk in the woods to pray the rosary.

He is driven in a black car with darkened windshields asccompanied by 2-3 other cars with Vatican security.

Pope states obvious

Of course the top Catholic in the world believes his church is No. 1


By MICHAEL COREN
Edmunton (Canada) Sun

Unless we start a nice little revolution I suppose it's pretty much inevitable that the Western world will crash down in flames and failure, splashing around in its own decadence and materialism as it does so. Our opponents have absolute faith and are willing to die. We have the Spice Girls, global warming documentaries and socialized medicine.

And while the fundamentalist foot crunches down on our fleshy necks, we will scream in polished and rehearsed tones, "We're offended, we're offended." The rallying cry of the liberal, modernist world. "I'm offended. Please feel my pain. I'm offended."

CLARIFIED

Which is precisely what various critics, some of them conservative evangelical Christians, said this week when Pope Benedict XVI merely clarified and emphasized Roman Catholic teaching concerning the truth of Catholicism and the place of non-Catholics.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church had the audacity to say that, wait for it, Roman Catholicism was right.

But in the 21st century it is not nice for anybody to say that truth is truth and therefore lack of truth is lack of truth. Everything has to be tolerated. Apart, of course, from intolerance. Unless the intolerant ones are homosexual activists, pro-abortion students or leftist zealots banning and silencing their critics.

Just in case any of us are foolish enough to believe the headlines, all the Pope said was that the full understanding of Jesus Christ and the road to salvation is to be found within Catholicism. Anyone who is baptized is still a Christian and non-Christians are also loved by God. Neither of these groups are, contrary to what some pundits yelled, condemned to hell.

But the Church, the Pope continued, offers the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus. This and Papal supremacy and the Sacraments make it unique.

Not particularly surprising. What, one wonders, did people expect the Pope to say? "Well, Catholicism is quite fun but then so is Islam. I also hear that Hindus have great parties and as for Zoroastrianism, it's really cool, man."

Give us a break here. He's a Catholic. He's the Catholic! Nobody is obliged to be Catholic, but if they say they are they should live as though they are. Which means they have to observe Catholic teaching. Requiring that they know what Catholic teaching is in the first place.

It's precisely because so many Catholics have been confused by decades of dreadful education and poor formation that they need reminding of basic Catholicism. Who better to do that than the Pope?

One of the reasons his latest statement has caused offence is because so many people, Catholic or otherwise, have all too often lost any sense of what constitutes a claim to truth.

GRASP THE CONCEPT

Not that it's a difficult concept. If I believe in the exclusive truth of something, I cannot believe in the exclusive truth of something that contradicts it.

If I hated someone for not agreeing with me, that would be another issue.

But the only hatred that seems to be so fashionable these days is hatred for Catholicism, which we witnessed most of last week.

This whole issue also exposed just how ignorant and irresponsible the media has become.

A brief interview with a good priest would have told them all they had to know, but it's far more fun printing another anti-Catholic headline.

And that is, by the way, the absolute truth.

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

WHAT A FANTASTIC PIECE! If only we could put it into a 'worm' that would get into everyone's e-mail, especially the 'ignorant, irresponsible media!!! Oh, I forgot - they only read what they`want to read, and they only write what they want to believe, not things as they are!

I am glad John Allen emerged from his deadline-burrow to contribute this piece. It isn't quite the overview I was expecting, but given his obvious present limitations, it's a good start.

However, while it certainly hits the mark about reasserting Catholic identity, it overlooks - at least in the way it is presented here - the more significant fact that the Pope is taking the lead in reasserting this identity by laying down the law, as it were, as far as interpreting Vatican-II. Because it is the mis-interpretation of Vatican II - by secularizing liberal elements of the Church - that has caused all the identity-weakening problems among Catholics, not secularization per se.

To quote from the excellent short piece posted by Benefan just before this:

---

It's precisely because so many Catholics have been confused by decades of dreadful education and poor formation that they need reminding of basic Catholicism. Who better to do that than the Pope?

One of the reasons his latest statement has caused offence is because so many people, Catholic or otherwise, have all too often lost any sense of what constitutes a claim to truth.

---

Again, it surprises me that Allen, buzzword master par excellence, has not thought to use 'reform of the reform' in this connection! That buzzword did not apply to liturgical reform alone, but to the whole concept of a secularly-inspired 'spirit of Vatican-II' imposing its idea of 'reform' on the Church.


Struggle to reassert
traditional Catholic identity
scores two wins
All Things Catholic
by John L. Allen, Jr.
Friday, July 13, 2007


In the forty-plus years since the close of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), two schools of thought have circled one another in Catholicism about how to interpret what the council meant.

For lack of a better vocabulary, what we might call the "change" school sees Vatican II as a significant innovation in Catholic life, ushering in a new period of reform in liturgy, doctrine, and pastoral practice. The "continuity" school instead stresses a smooth continuum between Vatican II and previous councils.

[Why does not Mr. Allen simply use the terms Benedict uses - discontinuity and continuity? To use 'change' for the one trend implies that the other, 'continuity', is closed off to change. It obviously is not: but it sees change as evolutionary/conservative-of-what-is-good, organic and coherent - not revolutionary/throw-out-everything-old, imposed, and arbitrary, as the Vatican-II discontinuity advocates would have it!]

In early July, the continuity school notched up two big wins. [This colloquial expression trivializes the historic significance of these two events. This is not a 'competition' between two points of view. It's an assertion by the Church of right over wrong. Period.]

On July 7, Pope Benedict XVI released his long-awaited motu proprio liberalizing permission for the pre-Vatican II Mass, insisting that the council never meant to suppress the earlier rite.

On July 10, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith put out an interpretation of the famous Vatican II statement that the church of Christ "subsists in" the Catholic church, rather than simply "is" the Catholic church.

Ecumenists had long taken this phrasing as a recognition that no existing church, including Catholicism, can claim to be the one true church, but the congregation rejected that reading. Instead, the congregation said, the phrase was intended to show that all the elements instituted by Christ endure in the Catholic church.

In addition to Catholics troubled by the resuscitation of the Tridentine Mass, many Jews were offended by the fact that a prayer for the conversion of Jews was not deleted from the Good Friday liturgy.

Meanwhile, many Protestants have called the declaration on the "true" church hurtful, though Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, who heads the Department for External church Relations of the Russian Orthodox church, welcomed it: "For an honest theological dialogue to happen, one should have a clear view of the position of the other side," he said. Kirill said he prefers its blunt tone to "so-called church diplomacy."

The logical question many reporters and ordinary Catholics alike are asking is, "Why now?" What's prompting the Vatican to re-open such sensitive questions?

My answer is that these moves cannot be seen in isolation. They are part of what I have identified as one of the ten "Mega-Trends" in Catholicism today, which is the reassertion of a strong sense of traditional Catholic identity.[And, more important, the determination of this Pope to lead this reassertion, in a huge unmistakeable, un-ignorable way!]

In light of this week's events, it seemed a good time to share a selection from the chapter of my upcoming book, Mega-Trends in Catholicism, devoted to Catholic identity. I hope it provides some context to understand what's happening.

* * *

Anyone who regards the statement, "I'm a card-carrying Catholic" as a mere metaphor clearly has never met Marian Mulhall.

An advertising and communications executive in Dublin, Ireland, Mulhall decided in 2005 to combine her professional skills with her commitment to the church. Her aim is to develop programs to support priests, but first she had to come up with a product that would generate revenue.

Thus she began pitching what she calls the "Catholic Identity Card." For $44 individually, or $173 for a "family pack" of five, a Catholic can obtain a credit-card sized piece of plastic bearing the holder's name, a picture of Pope Benedict XVI, a holographic icon showing the hands of a priest breaking the Eucharistic host, and a phrase in bold letters stating: "I am a Catholic. In the event of an accident or emergency, please contact a priest."

Mulhall explains the appeal this way: "It should be carried with you always. In doing so it makes a clear statement that you are a Catholic, that you make no apologies for being a Catholic, and that in fact you are proud to be a Catholic."

Historically speaking, it says a great deal about social change in contemporary Ireland that it would occur to anyone that a card might be necessary to identify the bearer as a member of the Catholic church. Even a generation ago, Ireland was still a largely homogenous Catholic culture, with rates of weekly Mass attendance in excess of 80 percent. The mere fact someone was moving about generally was sufficient to fix their religious affiliation.

Marketing a card to remind people they're Catholic would have been akin to selling them a card to remind them that they're Irish, and since the British would never let them forget it, one cannot imagine the sales potential would have been terribly strong.

Mulhall's brainstorm is among the paradoxes of secularization in today's Europe, where there's money to be made selling people tokens of an identity that their peers, or their parents, chucked away for nothing.

Whatever its fate on the open market, the Catholic Identity Card is one of the most literal expressions of the powerful "Catholic identity" movement coursing through the global church, particularly in the affluent North. External symbols of Catholic belonging, the more distinctive the better, are in vogue. Sociologists say that groups assert their identity in this manner when they can no longer take it for granted. The Catholic identity movement is therefore an effect, of which runaway secularization in the global North, especially Europe, is the immediate cause.

Post-Vatican II, any teaching or behavior that made Catholics seem alien was frowned upon, and a good bit of it was cast aside. In 1967, for example, the bishops of England and Wales eliminated the requirement of abstaining from meat on Fridays with this explanation: "Non-Catholics know and accept that we do not eat meat on Fridays, but often they do not understand why we do not, and in consequence regard us as odd." Given the temper of the times, this was understood as an argument against the practice.

Today, the winds are blowing the other way. A perception of Catholic singularity has become an argument in favor of doing things, such as wearing religious habits and saying the Mass in Latin.

It's little mystery why practicing Catholics, or for that matter religious believers of any sort, feel compelled to affirm their identity in today's Europe. The ethos of secular European opinion found its epigrammatic expression in 2003, when journalist David Margolick interviewed then-Prime Minister Tony Blair of England for a piece in Vanity Fair magazine, and asked Blair about the impact of his Christian faith on his politics. Blair's spin doctor at the time, Alistair Campbell, cut the conversation short: "I'm sorry," he said, "but we don't do God."

Sociological data lends credence to Campbell's assertion. Today, just 21 percent of Europeans say religion is "very important" to them, according to the most recent European Values Study. According to the same study, while attendance at religious services varies across the continent, overall just 15 percent of Europeans attend church at least once a week, as opposed to 44 percent of Americans. The most extreme example is France, where only five percent say they attend religious services regularly, and a whopping 60 percent said "never or almost never."

The impact of secularization can also be located in steep declines in vocations to the priesthood and religious life, as well as the vanishing public influence of the church across Europe and in other parts of the developed world. Cultural elites in Europe and elsewhere are increasingly hostile to what they perceive the Catholic church to represent.

In 21st century Europe, Catholicism perceives itself as an embattled minority. The same sensation obtains to varying degrees in other parts of the developed world, such as Australia and New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.

In response, Catholicism in these zones is doing what embattled minorities always do, practicing what sociologists call the "politics of identity" - aggressively reinforcing traditional markers of thought, language, dress, and behavior, in order to resist assimilation to what Benedict XVI calls this "dictatorship of relativism."

New translations of the rites and rituals of the Catholic church which are closer to Roman patterns, and dusting off the pre-Vatican II Mass, illustrate the trend, along with a growing emphasis on individual confession and Eucharistic adoration.

Marian devotion is also staging a strong comeback, measured in part by the success of pilgrimage sites such as Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje. In the priesthood and religious life, one finds a return to habits and Roman collars, especially among younger priests, deacons, brothers, and sisters.

Debates in Catholic universities and hospitals about what makes them "Catholic," as well as efforts to tighten up on admissions and curricula in Catholic seminaries, are also part of this picture.

Bishops insisting that Catholic politicians cannot defy church teaching and still wear the label "Catholic" likewise expresses the identity impulse.

The idea that defense of Catholic identity constitutes a core force in the church is not mere journalistic extrapolation. In March 2007, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State and hence the number two official in the church after the pope himself,
addressed the Ethics and Finance Association in the city of Milan.

Speaking just ahead of the second anniversary of the election of Benedict XVI to the papacy, Bertone offered this formula to characterize the "main objective" of Benedict's pontificate: "To recover the authentic Christian identity and to explain and confirm the intelligibility of the faith in the context of widespread secularism."

A more classic expression of the Roman Catholic "politics of identity" is difficult to imagine.

To employ an inter-faith metaphor that captures the spirit of what I'm describing, Catholicism today is engaged in the same project that gripped Judaism after the destruction of the Temple and the dispersal of the Jewish people into a worldwide diaspora - that is, "building a fence around the Law."

The idea is that by making the external markers of one's religious identity clear and absolute, those who observe them will also preserve the deep spiritual values those markers are meant to embody, even when there's little support for doing so in the surrounding cultural universe.

In the language of sociologist Rodney Stark, it is an option for a "high tension" form of religion, deliberately set apart from the values of the larger society. Whatever one makes of its merits or prospects for success, the construction of this fence is driving policy in virtually every area of Catholic life, above all in the global North, and will continue to do so throughout the 21st century.

There are, I should note, at least two possible objections to this way of surveying the lay of the land.

Some will complain that what I'm calling "Catholic identity" is really only one form of Catholic identity, and a fairly narrow one at that, perhaps held only by the hierarchy and a small cluster of traditionalists. At the grass roots, they say, Catholic identity is worked out by the laity in a variety of ways, drawing upon church teaching and tradition, but also their life experience and common sense.

In 2005, American Catholic sociologist Dean Hoge published an extensive survey [1] about how American Catholics define what it means to be Catholic. At the top of their list was belief in the resurrection of Jesus, the Eucharist and the other sacraments, and helping the poor.

Other traditional markers of identity were sidelined - only 29 percent said a celibate male clergy was important, and just 42 percent said that about the teaching authority of the Vatican. Seventy-six percent said one could be a good Catholic without going to Mass on Sunday, and 75 percent said the same about following church teaching on birth control.

Looking at those results, some would conclude that Catholic identity can't be imposed from on high, and that the church ought to listen more to what its people are saying. [But the Church is not a 'democracy' in this sense. "The people" cannot dictate what its doctrine should be. How can they represent the doctrine of the faith better - or more correctly - than the Vicar of Christ? The Magisterium is not subject to referendum and majority vote! Besides, people of any faith are obligated by that very faith to accept its teachings totally. Otherwise, why call it 'faith'?]

As Hoge put it, "Boundaries that make no sense to young adults cannot be maintained over the long haul."

Others will be happy to concede that what I'm calling "Catholic identity" is the real deal, but will complain that I'm making it sound like a purely defensive reaction against the threat of secularism, when historically it's the other way around - secularism is a modern defection from the vision of human life taught by the Catholic church, one which is progressively running out of gas.

Reaffirmation of traditional aspects of church life and practice is not just nostalgia or fear, these Catholics insist, but the fruit of deep reflection on how Catholicism should engage modernity that goes back at least as far as Pope Leo XIII in the late 19th century.

That project may have gone off the rails a bit following the Second Vatican Council, they say, but what happened under Pope John Paul II and now under Benedict XVI is the resumption of a historical process with a compelling logic of its own, not an irrational stampede set off by panic that the French aren't going to church, or that the Italians aren't having babies.

Let me be clear: either, or both, of these arguments may be absolutely correct. My aim is not to settle the normative question of what Catholic identity ought to be, but rather to describe the version of Catholic identity that is currently driving policy.

Neither am I trying to analyze the intellectual history out of which this understanding of Catholic identity emerged. Of course it's not purely random; if all the identity movement were about is ensuring that Catholics are different, we might as well wear kilts and speak Esperanto.

Rather, I'm trying to explain why the church is emphasizing traditional expressions of its identity now with a greater intensity than 30 or 40 years ago. To say that the Catholic identity movement is a reaction to secularization is not to assert that it doesn't have deeper intellectual and spiritual roots.

Because of the ideological and political freight it carries, the "Catholic identity" mega-trend uniquely inspires prescriptive debate: "Is this the way we ought to go, or not?" While that's a worthwhile matter to ponder, it's not what this chapter is about, which aims instead to outline what's happening and to anticipate some of its consequences.

I do so in the spirit of Nelson Mandela, who once said that debating the desirability of globalization is a bit like debating winter -- whether you like it or not, it's coming. Today's press for Catholic identity is a lot like that.

[It isn't just 'it's coming.' Not for the Pope, not for any Pope - for whom a clear assertion of Catholic identity is a constant basic concern, in good times or bad!]

I must post this on this thread! Thanks to Curt Jester
for pointing it out and to Paul Nichols for a truly
classic cartoon!
P.S. Don't know when I'll come down from the high.....




On the other hand, if you're looking for an excuse
to go on a destructive, scorched-earth, mow-down-
everything rampage, you couldn't do better than
this venomous pus-pool of bigotry which CNN sees
fit to publish as a commentary.
www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/13/martin/index.html

Paxvobiscum - I thought the same. Teresa, yes, I know we do want discussion, but it breaks the continuity if you have to reply to someone miles down the page,after several news items dealing with other subjects have been posted. I gave up trying to discuss, because the news items were coming in so rapidly. This was why I suggested - perhaps - we could have a special thread for discussions. I'd also like to see the news and photos of Papa's holiday in a separate thread. It's being covered so heavily by the press - more so than Les Combes - that perhaps a special thread is justified.
Mary x

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

Dear MaryJos:

I just explained in the note to PaxVobiscum how comments can be made on something that is several posts/pages/days behind. I think it is a very sensible mechanism for Forums.

I am sorry to sound contrary, but please let me explain:

1) If one quotes the post being commented on - by the simple expedient of pushing a button on that post - then nobody gets confused, and the chronology is not violated. If we opened a separate thread for discussions, then we would have the same problem - only now, the reader would have to go to another thread to find out what is being referred to, because we cannot use the 'quote' mechanism unless we are referring to something in the same thread. I hope you see that. However, if you really think an autonomous DISCUSSION thread is necessary, please go ahead and start one. Anyone can start a thread - my 'permission' is not needed. That's not how Forums work.

Any suggestions or opinions I have about running the section are presented here only in my capacity as 'moderator' of the section, and therefore responsible for some order in it, that's all. Especially since the English Section is really just one 'thread' in the whole forum, which can only be subdivided one step further - into the subthreads we now have. I thought at the beginning that we could have sub-subthreads, like several categories under NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT,as they do in the main forum.

But Ratzigirl explained it does not work that way, because the English Section is really just a thread - equivalent to say, FOTO IMMAGINE or ECCLESIA or any of the other threads on the main Forum. We are simply guests here - given one thread - that's why we have to use general categories for the sub-threads, instead of anything that's too specific. Otherwise we would have a proliferation of secondary threads that maybe get used only once or twice and then are forgotten.

2) I decided to post the Lorenzago stories on this thread because while the Pope is on vacation, they are the only direct news we have on him. And in any case, everyone goes to the NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT thread first. I did debate about whether to post the vacation stories in POPE-POURRI but decided against it for the same reasons.

Also, it's not being 'heavily covered' at all - it just happens there's one regional newspaper that's reporting on it, whereas in Val D'Aosta, the Forum did not have access to anything similar. But if you have seen coverage elsewhere that has not appeared here, then please, WE CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO SHARE IT WITH US!

As you can see, the reports available to me are rather sketchy. The wire agency reports are usually snippets that are then later modified or completely changed. It's harder than reporting straight news because I waste a lot of time trying to make heads and tails of the material. Anyone who wants to have a go at it can check out Lella's blog throughout the day - and you will see it's not easy.

The photographs are similarly not all that many. I just post everything I can see - plus the ones Palma and Benevolens get from the professional photoshops. For example, Osservatore Romano has not posted anything since the visit to Lozzo on Wednesday.

I don't think opening a separate thread serves a purpose now, except to split attention. That's my opinion, respectfully. But again, if you feel that strongly about having a separate thread, then please go ahead and start it - it's not my place to give 'permission.' Obviously, feel free to use any posts from this thread that may be useful.


P.S. Mary, in your original post, you said you wanted to start a discussion, and was this the appropriate post. And I said right away, OBVIOUSLY YES. I was really hoping that your next post was going to be the start of your discussion. Please, let us all hear what you have to say on the issues - wherever you may want to do it! OK?

New threads, etc.

It almost seems that we should have a Traditional Mass thread to cope with all the stories and remarks that have appeared already on the Benedict, Church, and Faith threads on this subject. But then there is all the uproar about Papa's comments about only one church. That is worth some discussion too.

I do understand how Pax and Mary feel about interrupted discussions but, though I have thought about this problem for some time now, I can't figure out a fool-proof solution. Even a separate "discussion only" thread would probably end up with some posts talking about the Latin Mass interrupted by comments about the criticism over the one church document interrupted by something else so discussions could be chopped up and redirected repeatedly.

I'm eager to see us try anything at this point. I like very much seeing all the up-to-date news reports but I don't want the volume of them to discourage discussion. We have very well educated, well traveled, and experienced forum members whose views are often much more intelligent and interesting than the media reports. I would like to see us strike a healthy balance. Right now, I find that I enjoy reading Teresa's editorial remarks more than the news items she is commenting about. In fact, I have found myself deliberately posting stories that I know she will react violently to just to see what she will say.

On that subject, Teresa, one reason I sometimes hesitate to post any of my personal thoughts about a topic is that, despite the fact that you are small, short, and cry easily, you intimidate the hell out of me with your intelligence, educational background, world travels, wide-ranging knowledge of world religions and all things Catholic, art and even opera. Here I am sitting in the swamps of Louisiana still trying to figure out what's going on in the outside world and how to use a computer properly.

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

Aw, Benefan, I'm probably the most computer-illiterate and gauche member of this forum. I just lost the entire answer I typed out here for no reason I can figure out - as I earlier lost my entire translation of the Pope's conversation with Lino and had to do it all over.

I do feel terrible that you would in any way feel 'intimidated' by me - you, of all people! Everything I think and feel is obviously conditioned by my personal experience - in this case, having been a journalist - which is why I am also able to type out lengthy comments instantaneously because that's just how I was trained to work (having to meet multiple deadlines throughout the day, every day). So I only happen to have some 'stock in trade' different from others who do not have the same background.

But it is still only only my personal opinion of what is happening, and everybody else will have a different opinion depending on their own individual background and experience. Everyone's opinion is equally valid and equally interesting, because it is something uniquely personal. And more important than just experience and knowledge is every individual's inherent wisdom, obviously. All this constitute what makes a Forum interesting. Why do I have to read the ComBoxes of some bloggers, as I now have to do, to be exposed to other opinions, when I am in a Forum?

As you rightly say, "We have very well educated, well traveled, and experienced forum members whose views are often much more intelligent and interesting than the media reports." And all I have been asking is to hear more from them, and from everyone.

About 'striking a balance'. Since no one can possibly want us to report 'less' - or does anyone?, please let me know - the balance has to be struck by people commenting and discussing more.

I have already explained how a Forum mechanism does facilitate commenting or starting a discussion on anything that has ever been posted, whenever it was posted, and still have the comment appear in the current page of whichever thread it is. And of course, anyone can start a discussion spontaneously with any comment that is relevant to the thread.

Right now, the problem of 'interrupted discussions' has not come up for the simple reason that there have been virtually no discussions! I understand it is not possible for most members to devote daily time to the Forum as you and I do, but for more reason, when anyone logs on and sees something he/she needs to react to, then just go ahead and do so.

My views are only those of a 56-year-old childless Filipino woman, raised Catholic and loving it (despite a temporary lapse), with a decided media orientation and some scientific background, because it is what I studied and because I now work in the medical field. That's pretty limiting and limited: it's a decidedly idiosyncratic Asian perspective altogether -in a forum that is, after all, necessarily dominated by Westerners.

What about the views of a very well-educated, well-read lady from Louisiana who is a university administrator, who expresses herself so beautifully and clearly, whose husband was a newspaper editor himself, mother to a priest and other children, who has been doing apostolate work with the underprivileged, and God knows what else I don't know about her obviously full and rich Christian life?

Or Mary, who is British, with her librarian and university background, her active parish life, her many travels, her catholic interests?

Or Wulfrune, mother of a model Catholic family like you, with wide-ranging interests and travel experience, whose participation has been lamentably missed the past few months [until that video of Fr. Finigan]?

Or Crotchet, in South Africa, with her music accomplishments, her experience as the daughter of a Protestant minister, her longstanding interest in theological studies and Biblical research, her exposure to the music establishments in Europe, and her perspective as a non-Catholic interested in our religion?

Or Nan, a recent convert, whose stories about her conversion and her former life have always been edifying, who, as a nurse, brings a scientific perspective to considering the bioethical issues of the day, who has a gift for expression?

Or Maklara, with her law background and recent university experience, who is particularly unique for us because she is our Czech connection?

Or Lori, whom I did not realize was so young until her post last night, a young girl still in formation but who decided enough to know she would convert to Catholicism and did - how wonderful it is to hear from the young people! Which is why I have been so fascinated by Lady R. in the main forum who is not yet 18, but whose comments show a maturity beyond calendar age (and it also helps that she is in a Church movement, of course).

Yvonne, Sue, LutheranGuest, Lily, name anyone... Whose views wouldn't be welcome and salutary for this Forum?

Everyone can continue ignoring what I say - unless it is to protest or oppose, then by all means. But please react directly to the news and the media commentary of which there is more than enough.

About the question of new threads, I discussed that in my reply to Mary's last post.

Benedict the Brander muscles his message

The Pope's focus on Catholic fundamentals scares reformers but works miracles, marketers say


July 14, 2007
Catherine Mulroney
Special to the Star (Toronto)

Call him the Bill Gates of the Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict XVI, leader of more than 1 billion Roman Catholics worldwide, is no stranger to controversy. Last Tuesday, he reasserted the primacy of the Catholic Church, stating it is the one true church. This following his approval of the broader use of the Latin Mass, has set critics' tongues wagging and refocused attention on church politics and practise

Benedict's edicts, issued just before his summer vacation, have naysayers expressing concerns about everything from the political correctness of claiming church supremacy to fears it will soon become impossible to attend mass in the vernacular.

But numbers tell a different tale regarding his appeal to a core population of Catholics. The Vatican's financial statements for 2006, Benedict's first full year as pope, show a huge leap in donations to the papal charity known as Peter's Pence, ($101 million U.S. in 2006 versus $64.4 million the year before) in 2006, and the numbers of faithful flocking to St. Peter's Square in Rome are soaring. While marketing is likely the last thing on the Pope's mind, experts in that worldly field say Benedict's actions serve very powerfully to brand the Catholic Church in the eyes of the world, bringing a muscular "take-it-or-leave-it" approach to church positioning.

"Benedict is very progressive about his brand," says Patrick McGovern, vice-president of Blade Creative Branding, a Toronto-based marketing agency, who gives the Pope credit for clearly expressing the values a core constituency holds dear. "If everybody is wishy-washy, (the institution) will wash away."

For many people, belonging to a church with a unique chain of command leading up to the papacy has great appeal and reassurance, McGovern argues. Windows has Bill Gates. The Catholic Church has Benedict."

The Pope's forceful personality cannot be neglected in a discussion about how the church is perceived, says Clive Veroni, president of Leap Consulting of Toronto. "A few brands are linked to a person. Virgin is not a brand without Richard Branson."

But more powerful than the person are brand values, Veroni states, noting a growing trend in marketing to attract customers by appealing to shared values, such as the environment.

"You will hear, `Choose our brand not because of how our coffee tastes but because we share values with you about how the people picking the coffee are treated.'"

Nothing speaks more strongly of values than religion, he adds, because "religion is all about values."

The road ahead for Pope Benedict is difficult because of concerns the church has lost focus, Veroni argues, and success means clearly defining and communicating institutional values and beliefs.

"The church must be clear about its own identity," he says.

But ensuring that message is expressed properly and interpreted correctly is critical, Veroni stresses, adding Benedict's reputation as an intellectual works against him. While his predecessor, John Paul II, was a populist who came across as a warm grandfather, Benedict remains burdened with the image of a stern teacher.

Even before his election as pope, in 2005, then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's very name sent a chill through the left wing of the church. As a Vatican theologian, he was known for hardline stands on a number of hot-button issues, ranging from homosexuality through to the ordination of women.

"Trying to create a sense of community can be a problem if you define yourself by criticizing others," Veroni says.

"Consumers don't like it and long-term loyalty must be created in other ways," he says in reference to Benedict's statement on the primacy of the Catholic Church.

But Benedict might be taking a little too much heat on how this viewpoint has been received, argue theologians, who say the Pope's most recent statements are not new and not designed to drag the church back to the Dark Ages.

"This is not a moment of discontinuity but of continuity for the church," says Fr. Thomas Rosica, CEO of Salt and Light Media Foundation and Television Network. While popular perception may be that the Pope is taking the church in a retrograde direction, his statements are in keeping with the spirit and the directives of the Second Vatican Council, which saw the introduction of the mass in local languages in addition to the traditional Latin Mass, Rosica explains.

Benedict is concerned with the unity of the church and divisions within it, he adds, noting that renewed emphasis on the choice of a Latin mass means appeasing those who miss what they saw as a beautiful tradition, as long as the desire for Latin is for the language alone and not for any political, divisive reasons, he adds.

"This is nothing new," agrees Gord Heath, assistant professor of church history at McMaster University's divinity school in Hamilton. "It's Vatican II all over again, and the discussion of church primacy has been an issue for more than a thousand years."

If there's a problem in perception, Heath argues, it's one of timing. Asserting the Catholic Church as the heart of Christianity while at the same time talking of the Latin mass, a symbol for some Catholics of the bad old days, has caused undue concern about a dramatic shift in church thinking.

"This is not a radical departure, not the end of ecumenism, and not the sky falling," he says.

What may upset people most is the assuredness with which the Pope speaks, he adds.

"We don't like claims of absolute truth in postmodern Western society because we become immediately suspicious," Heath says. "This is Benedict saying `This is who we are.'"

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

Very interesting perspective. And from people who have made a science and giga-industry out of marketing messages. Ties up very well with John Allen's essay on the Catholic identity. [Though I detest the facile totally inappropriate sloganeering, "Bill Gates of CAtholicism", PUH-LEEZE!]

Of course, I vehemently question Veroni applying Ratzinger-CDF Prefect's built-in role to 'criticize' - he was pointing out doctrinal errors, not criticizing for the sake of criticizing - to Ratzinger-Pope by saying "Trying to create a sense of community can be a problem if you define yourself by criticizing others." Has Benedict XVI done that?

Even the recent CDF clarification - which of course was nothing new at all, but media just has to make a firestorm of it - was not a criticism of other Churches. It defines what the Catholic Church is -and if it is 'the only true Church of Christ', it just follows that all other churches who claim to be are not. Simple logic. Simple statement of fact. Not criticism.

In the language of the advertisers, Benedict is on message, stays on message, has been on message all his life. And he is also well able to follow the second Golden Rule of marketing, "Keep it simple."

P.S. Since these men were analyzing the situation purely as marketing experts, without any particular Catholic grounding at all, they have also missed - like most of Anglophone MSM - the quite obvious significance and deliberation of the 'timing' they criticize. 'Dramatic shift in Church thinking' is way off the mark - 'dramatic assertion' is more like it, because that's what Benedict XVI with his message muscle is doing.

The MP and the CDF statement were both unequivocal assertions that Vatican-II represented continuity, albeit with necessary changes, within the Catholic tradition, not a complete rupture with the past as the liberals have always made it out to be.

CDF could have issued its statement any time much earlier or much later than the Mass MP - it was nothing new, after all, merely a reaffirmation and a reclarification. To anyone following the Vatican scene in general over the years, only the most obtuse could have missed the fact it wasn't by chance the Vatican chose to release the CDF statement the weekday after the MP was released.

For obvious practical reasons: 1) it reinforced both the continuity message of the MP and the identity message of the Church; 2)if you're going to stir up hostility among the usual suspects, stir them up with a double dose now and let them get over it, so we can move on.

Pope urges Peres to push for Mideast peace


JERUSALEM, July 14 AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI urged Israel's president-elect Shimon Peres on Saturday to work for peace with the Palestinians, in a message ahead of Peres being sworn in on Sunday.

"Many people around the world, as well as Israel's citizens, expect you to push the government and other relevant bodies to do everything to advance peace," the pope wrote in his message, a spokesman for Peres said.

He said he was "sure you will continue to influence and incite courage in other leaders to deal with the challenges of the future."

"This will be the best way to defeat the deadly terror and violence that are condemned by the whole world. The terrorists are betraying humanity," the message said.

Peres, 83, was elected Israel's ninth president on June 13 and succeeds Moshe Katsav who is accused of rape.

The Nobel peace laureate will be sworn in at a ceremony in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, on Sunday evening.

"From this moment on, I intend to be the representative of the entire nation and I will devote myself entirely to its service," he said after his election last month as he bade farewell to parliament where he was a member for 48 consecutive years.

THE POPE ON VACATION, LORENZAGO DI CADORE, JULY 9-27




Today is for Treviso:
Interview with Mons. Mazzocato
By Francesco del Mas

LORENZAGO - "We are ready to host the Pope every summer," says the Bishop of Treviso, Mons. Andrea Bruno Mazzocato, who will welcome the Pope this noon at Castello Mirabello.

Prior to the Angelus, the bishop will say Mass at the Castle Square, where the altar has been set up beneath one of the castle towers, facing the peak of Mt. Antelao.

The first shuttles were to start taking up pilgrims to the castle from 7 a.m. onwards. This first Angelus during the Pope's vacation is especially for members of the Diocese of Treviso, led by the presideent of the region, Giancarlo Galan, who will later have a private audience with the Pope.

A giant TV screen has been set up at the main square in Lorenzago, so the public can follow the events in the Castle.

Monsignor Mazzocato, the people have been looking forward to this.

Yes. For the diocese of Treviso, this Angelus is the most significant moment of the Pope's visit. All our parishes have been preparing for this with prayer activities. Some 1500 are coming here from Treviso for the Angelus, including those who have been most active in diocesan work. It wasn't easy to choose. Some of them will be presented to the Pope.

What has been yopur impression so far?

I was with him coming from Treviso airport in the helicpter to Lorenzago, and of course, accompanied him to Villa Mirabello. In Treviso, I was very impressed that he dispensed with protocol and decided to spend at least 20 minutes greeting the people who were there, which was not at all provided for in the program. It was quite a sight to see all those mothers holding out babies and children to him.' [These were the families of the military who live on the Istrana airbase where the Pope's plane from Rome landed.]

Did he have any particular comments about the dam at Vajont? [The Pope had asked the helicopter pilot to fly over the dam which had burst open in 1963 and buried an entire village at the foot of the mountain].

Both the Holy Father and his secretary were well-informed about that incident. It was a great way to introduce the Pope to the scenery of the area which greatly interests him. It was particuarly nice to show him the Mirabello estate from the air - the castle, his villa, the woods.

How does he like the place?

He loves the woods - I think maybe they remind him of those in his homeland. He says all the greenery gives him a sense of wellbeing and peace. Both he and his secretary are very happy about the housing arrangements. And we are glad that we have succeeded in preparing modest but refined accommodations.

Good reason then for him to come back.
Oh, we are ready to host the Pope every year he wishes to come here, but it's absolutely premature to talk about that now.

Has he been impressed, being a Teutonic, with the warmth of the people in this region?

I don't think this Pope has ever been 'Teutonic'! One gets the sense he is always profoundly himself, which is characteristic of truly great personalities. It would be good to get rid of these interpretative categories which the newspapers are fond of.

The Pope is someone who is very integral, with an interior unity, who immediately connects with other people. If you're in front of him, he 'knows' you, whoever you are. This means he is profoundly human, beyond just being a pastor, beyond any classifications.

You cannot, as some newspapers have said, say he has ever looked 'icy'!

Corriere delle Alpi, 15 luglio 2007


[I am glad the bishop rebuked the reporter. How narrow-minded and prejudiced it is to assume the Pope is 'being a Teutonic' - after all the anecdotes that Del Mas himself has been reporting about the Pope's spontaneous interaction with the local folk!]


Thanking the local folk:
Saturday, July 14

LORENZAGO - Everything is in place for the Angelus which Pope Benedict XVI will lead today from the Castello Mirabello, first of only two pre-announced public events during his current summer vacation. The second one will be next Duany's Angelus, which he will lead from the main square of Lorenzago.

Yesterday afternoon, he met the entire municipal leadership of Lorenzago, along with their families, in the garden of the Villa Mirabello.

Leading the guests was Mayor Mario Tremonti with the entire municipal council, including opposition members. Joining them were all the persons who had anything to do with preparing for the Pope's visit, including those who made improvements on the villa and its surrouinding gardens.

"The beauty you have created," the Pope told them, "harmonizes with the beauty that the Creator has given your land. Let us thank the Lord for this, for the Dolomites, for the pure air we breathe here."

Details of the meeting were reported to the press by Don Giuseppe Bratti, spokesman of the Bishop of Belluno and in charge of the temporary press center at Lorenzago.

Meanwhile, Mayor Tremonti said he was "very happy" about the meeting, and that the Pope had assured him he felt 'very well' in Lorenzago. "He was in a very joyful mood, very serene," Tremonti felt. He thanked the Pope for deciding to come to Lorenzago this year and asked him to return next year.

The mayor gave the Pope a set of books on Lorenzago, including a fascimile of a 16th century herbarium of the Dolomites, in which the alpine plants of the area were first classified.

Then he presented his officials to the Pope one by one, telling them what their duties were and what each one did to prepare for the visit.

Mon. Andrea Bruno Mazzocato, Bishop of Treviso, described to the Pope the various agencies that had worked on restoring the villa and the gardens, which belong to the diocese of Treviso.

The Pope spoke extemporaneously afterwards, expressing 'heartfelt thanks' to everyone, and listing all the things that have impressed him most - the house and its fixtures, the meadow and surrounding gardens, the papal coat-of-arms laid out with flowering plants on the lawn, a fresco of the Annunciation, and even the piano they had provided for him. "There's a sense of beauty that breathes in everything," he told them.

When the Pope greeted the guests one by one later, one of the workers' children played with his pectoral cross, which amused the Pontiff, who exchanged small talk with everyone. Each of the guests received a rosary.

The other councilors variously described their impressions of the Pope as "very human" , "affectionate", "extraordinary".

After this meeting, the Pope left around 7 pm, for his now-habitual evening promenade. This time it was by the tennis courts near Mirabello, where he walked through the so-called Park of Dreams, with its firs and larches which the Cadorans claim are 'the most beautiful woods in the Dolomites.'

Many tourists and residents lined the road to the Park to greet the Pope. Some were still around when he drove back to his villa. His car slowed down so he could give them a blessing.

Meanwhile, Fr. Bratti also confirmed that many gifts had arrived for the Holy Father on his name day, the Feast of St. Benedict, last Wednesday, including the gift package in silver-flecked red wrapping paper that arrived from the mayor of Introd, Val D'Aosta.

The Diocese itself presented the Pope with four volumes of art treasures found in Belluno.

Otherwise, said Bratti, there was no special celebration at the villa.


Earlier today, SKY-TV had this videoclip showing footage from the Vatican of the Pope's visit to the church in Lozzo alst Wednesday, and then walking a mountain path afterwards, praying the rosary with Giorgio. They are accompanied by one security escort.
www.skylife.it/videoTg24Single/44927

On the same 'page' as the above videoclip, on the right, are three other videos of the Pope in Lorenzago, that you may click on to view. One shows the Pope's car driving back to Lorenzago from Lzoo, then Girgio delivering the Pope's message at the Church before trhe organ concert. In another one, SKY-TV interviews veteran Vaticanista Andrea Tornielli.

Pope Benedict's XVI most recent documents
refresh the values of Vatican-II,
says Mons. Forte of Chieti-Vasto



Speaking to Alessandro Gisotti of Radio Vatican's Italian service, Mons. Bruno Forte, Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto, emphasized the strong references to Vatican-II in the Pope's recent Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and in the subsequent CDF statement about Catholic doctrine on the Church. Here is a translation:


First, he comments on the CDF statement:

The document says exactly what Vatican-II said, distinguishing between the non-Catholic Christian 'churches' and ecclesiastical communities. The usage of the term 'Church' in the Catholic sense is meant to distinguish those communities that have kept the catholic nature of the church and have kept their priesthood within the apostolic succession and the Eucharist, and those who have not. The distinction helps the cause of ecumenism in which the various Christian elements have different ideas about themselves.

The Protestant 'churches' born of the Reformation underline these same differences in their own documents. The CDF document simply restates this self-appraisal by the Protestants in the language of the Church.


From the very beginning of his Pontificate, Benedict XVI has called for an ecumenical dialog that should run along truth and charity. How does the CDF statement fit in that context?

It goes directly into the truth, because it makes clear the fundamental difference about the concept of the Church, which cannot be ignored, unless one is only interested in facile irenism, which doesn't help anyone.

It involves charity in dialog, pointing to the provision of Lumen gentium, Paragraph 8 - that says "the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church subsists in the Catholic Church, under the guidance of the Successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him" - emphasizing the meaning of the verb 'subsists', recalling the reasons why Vatican-II used verb 'subsistit in' rather than the simple 'est".

If the statement had simply been 'is', that would have affirmed an identity that excludes, outside of the Catholic Church, any other degree of communion or presence of the means for grace.

Excellency, many criticisms however, both of Summorum Pontificum and the CDF statement, claim the Holy Father is turning the Church backwards from Vatican-II. And yet, even in the letter to China, for instance, Pope Benedict XVI never cite4s any documents other than those of Vatican-II. Are the criticisms then simply superficial?

I am convinced that all that Pope Benedict has said since he became Pope, addressed to other 'churches' and to the world, has been oriented to Vatican-II. In the Motu Proprio on the Mass, he underscores with great clarity the irrenunciable value of Vatican-II in pointing out that the resulting liturgical reform is now the ordinary, normal form of the Roman rite.

I don't see anything in it that betrays the Council. Whoever interprets Summorum Pontificum as a contradiction or break with the Council commits exactly the same error that Mons. Lefebvre and his followers did in disputing the doctrinal authenticity of Vatican-II.

LORENZAGO UPDATE - 7/15/07


THE POPE ON VACATION, LORENZAGO DI CADORE, JULY 9-27



The Holy Father led Angelus prayers at noontime today from the Castello Mirabello in Lorenzago. A translation of the Holy Father's words at the Angelus today has been posted in AUDIENCE AND ANGELUS TEXTS.








FR. LOMBARDI CONFIRMS PAPAL TRIPS
TO LOURDES, U.N. IN 2008

Here is a composite translation of separate bulletins filed by the Italian news agency Apcom, conveniently and promply posted by Lella on her blog.


LORENZAGO DI CADORE, July 15 (Apcom) - Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, confirmed today that the Pope will be travelling to Lourdes, France, as well as to the United Nations in 2008, but dates have not yet been established.

He spoke to newsman in Lorenzago del Cadore after the Pope's Angelus at Castello Mirabello today.

Fr. Lombardi also commented on recent developments:
He said the letter of the Pope to the Catholics of China will have "a very great impact on the history of the Church"

About the Motu Proprio on the Mass:
"It was obviously not a step backward nor does it question the reforms made by the Second Vatican Council which all of us have been expeiencing all these years." He said the gesture was intended for "all those who want to express their Christian life through the traditional ways in which they were raised."

"The Pope is saying the Church welcomes everyone, and asks that all Catholics live in harmony and reciprocal understanding."

On the Pope's writings:
Fr. Lombardi confirmed the Pope plans a second encyclical, "But it is in its initial stages - he is still reflecting how it should be presented, he has not started to write it. But the social issue will be at its heart."

As for the second volume of the book on Jesus, "This vacation is also a period of intense intellectual work. The Pope definitely wants to get on with the second book."

Fr. Lombardi spoke about the Pope's coming scheduled trips: to Loreto on September 1-2; to Austria on September 7-9; to Naples on October 21; and to Sydney, Australia in July 2008, for World Youth Day.

Lombardi brought up the trips to France and to the UN in speaking about the Pope's travel plans next year. So far, only the trip to Australia is definitely scheduled.

"It will be a very long trip, but we are all convinced that the Pope will be able to face it and carry out his apostolic journey in full serenity," Lombardi said.

Then he cited "other appointments which do not yet have a calendar date but are in planning." He mentioned Lourdes, for the 150th anniversary of the first Marian apaprition to Bernadette Soubirous - "We know the Pope is a devotee of Mary, and Lourdes was the last trip made by John Paul II" - as well as the United Nations in New York.

The occasion for the Austrian trip is the 850th anniversary of the Marian sacntuary in Mariazell, but Fr. Lombardi said that the Pope would also be speaking with the heads of the United Nations agencies based in Vienna, "so it will be an occasion of great international significance."

As for the Pope's trip to Naples on October 21, Fr. Lombardi said that it would be taking place during an ecumenical and inter-religious encounter sponsored by the Sant'Egidio community. But he did not say if the Pope would take part in the encounter.

Thanks to Amy Welborn, for pointing out this rare reaction to the CDF statement and to Pope Benedict's moves. Not only is this Protestant minister not offended - he also sees the big picture of
Benedict's Pontificate, although of course, he stands up for the Reformation idea of the 'true church'.

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., serves as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary  the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention and one of the largest seminaries in the world. He is a theologian and ordained minister, as well as an author, speaker and host of his own radio program The Albert Mohler Program.


No, I'm Not Offended
Posted: Friday, July 13, 2007

Aren't you offended? That is the question many Evangelicals are being asked in the wake of a recent document released by the Vatican. The document declares that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church - or, in words the Vatican would prefer to use, the only institutional form in which the Church of Christ subsists.

No, I am not offended.

In the first place, I am not offended because this is not an issue in which emotion should play a key role. This is a theological question, and our response should be theological, not emotional.

Secondly, I am not offended because I am not surprised. No one familiar with the statements of the Roman Catholic Magisterium should be surprised by this development. This is not news in any genuine sense. It is news only in the current context of Vatican statements and ecumenical relations.

Thirdly, I am not offended because this new document actually brings attention to the crucial issues of ecclesiology, and thus it presents us with an opportunity.

The Vatican document is very brief - just a few paragraphs in fact. Its official title is "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church," and it was released by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on June 29 of this year.

Though many media sources have identified the document as a papal statement from Pope Benedict XVI, it is actually a statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that was later approved for release by the Pope (who, as Cardinal Ratzinger, headed this Congregation prior to assuming the papacy).

The document claims a unique legitimacy for the Roman Catholic Church as the church established by Christ. The document stakes this identity on a claim to apostolic succession, centered in the papacy itself. As the document states, "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."

Lest anyone miss the point, the document then goes on to acknowledge that the churches of Eastern Orthodoxy also stake a claim to apostolic succession, and thus they are referred to as "Churches" by the Vatican. As for the churches born in whatever form out of the Reformation - they are not true churches at all, only "ecclesial communities."

Look at this:

---

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 cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called "Churches" in the proper sense.

---

Pope Benedict was already in hot water with the media because of his recent decision related to the (limited) reinstitution of the Latin mass, complete with a call for the conversion of the Jews. He was not likely to be named "Ecumenist of the Year" anyway. This latest controversy just adds to the media impression of big changes at the Vatican under the current papacy.

There have been changes for sure. Benedict is truly a doctrinal theologian, whereas his popular predecessor, Pope John Paul II, was more a philosopher by academic training.

Those familiar with the current pope know of his frustration with the tendency of liberal Catholic theologians and laypersons to insist that the Second Vatican Council (known popularly as "Vatican II") represented a massive shift (to the left) in Catholic doctrine. Not so, insisted Cardinal Ratzinger as head of the Congregation for the Defense of the Faith.

Now, as Pope, Benedict is in a position to shape his argument into a universal policy for his church. Vatican II, he insists, represented only a deepening and reapplication of unchanging Catholic doctrine.

Evangelicals should appreciate the candor reflected in this document. There is no effort here to confuse the issues. To the contrary, the document is an obvious attempt to set the record straight.

The Roman Catholic Church does not deny that Christ is working redemptively through Protestant and evangelical churches, but it does deny that these churches which deny the authority of the papacy are true churches in the most important sense. The true church, in other words, is that church identified through the recognition of the papacy. Those churches that deny or fail to recognize the papacy are "ecclesial Communities," not churches "in the proper sense."

I appreciate the document's clarity on this issue. It all comes down to this - the claim of the Roman Catholic Church to the primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the Pope as the universal monarch of the church is the defining issue. Roman Catholics and Evangelicals should together recognize the importance of that claim. We should together realize and admit that this is an issue worthy of division.

The Roman Catholic Church is willing to go so far as to assert that any church that denies the papacy is no true church. Evangelicals should be equally candid in asserting that any church defined by the claims of the papacy is no true church. This is not a theological game for children, it is the honest recognition of the importance of the question.

The Reformers and their heirs put their lives on the line in order to stake this claim. In this era of confusion and theological laxity we often forget that this was one of the defining issues of the Reformation itself. Both the Reformers and the Roman Catholic Church staked their claim to be the true church - and both revealed their most essential convictions in making their argument.

As Martin Luther and John Calvin both made clear, the first mark of the true Church is the ministry of the Word - the preaching of the Gospel. The Reformers indicted the Roman Catholic Church for failing to exhibit this mark, and thus failing to be a true Church. The Catholic church returned the favor, defining the church in terms of the papacy and magisterial authority. Those claims have not changed.

I also appreciate the spiritual concern reflected in this document. The artificial and deadly dangerous game of ecumenical confusion has obscured issues of grave concern for our souls. I truly believe that Pope Benedict and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are concerned for our evangelical souls and our evangelical congregations.

Pope Benedict is not playing a game. He is not asserting a claim to primacy on the playground. He, along with the Magisterium of his church, believes that Protestant churches are gravely defective and that our souls are in danger. His sacramental theology plays a large role in this concern, for he believes and teaches that a church without submission to the papacy has no guaranteed efficacy for its sacraments. (This point, by the way, explains why the Protestant churches that claim a sacramental theology are more concerned about this Vatican statement - it denies the basic validity of their sacraments.)

I actually appreciate the Pope's concern. If he is right, we are endangering our souls and the souls of our church members. Of course, I am convinced that he is not right - not right on the papacy, not right on the sacraments, not right on the priesthood, not right on the Gospel, not right on the church.

The Roman Catholic Church believes we are in spiritual danger for obstinately and disobediently excluding ourselves from submission to its universal claims and its papacy. Evangelicals should be concerned that Catholics are in spiritual danger for their submission to these very claims. We both understand what is at stake.

The Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, responded to the press by saying that the Vatican's "exclusive claims" are "troubling." He also said, "what may have been meant to clarify has caused pain." I will let Bishop Hanson explain his pain.

I do not see this new Vatican statement as an innovation or an insult. I see it as a clarification and a helpful demarcation of the issues at stake.

I appreciate the Roman Catholic Church's candor on this issue, and I believe that Evangelical Christians, with equal respect and clarity, should respond in kind. This is a time to be respectfully candid -- not a time to be offended.