The clarity of Benedict XVI
in defense of the natural order:
Interview with Sandro Magister
Translated from
December 23, 2008
Benedict XVI's address yesterday to the Roman Curia at their traditional pre-Christmas exchange of greetings was a sort of year-end review. An occasion to review the most important events for the Pope and the Church in 2008, along with some of the fundamental elements of his Magisterium.
So there was no lack of passages open to discussion: particularly, that about the natural order of human beings, male and female, which obviously has drawn much of the initial attention.
But even more important, according to Vatican observer Sandro Magister of
L'Espresso magazine, were the Pope's references to some criticisms within the Church itself about which Benedict XVI evidently welcomed the occasion to make himself clear.
The Pope, reviewing the events of the past year, emphasized the importance of occasions when the Church could make itself "visible to the world" (World Youth Day in Sydney and the papal trips to the United States and France). What exactly does 'making the Church visible' mean?
The Pope is bringing up one of the concepts that he considers very important - namely, that the Church should show itself to the world through specific actions and words, and this can be done through its celebrations.
[And better yet, through each individual Catholic living the Gospel message in his own life - the importance of Christian witness, which Benedict XVI has always invoked].
The trips and WYD, as the Pope cited, were not brought up to recall his travels, but as moments when the Church showed its true face - in the proclamation of the Word of God and the celebration of that Word which becomes reality through the Sacraments.
Indeed, speaking of WYD in Sydney, the Pope singled out two specific events which are emblematic in this respect: the first is the Way of the Cross [
presented as a moving pageant through the streets of Sydney], at which the Pope was not a participant at all, much less a leading player, but simply the Vicar who introduced the true protagonist, Christ who was crucified; and the other was the great solemn liturgies, at which, as the Pope says, something happens which we by ourselves cannot achieve, but by the workings of the Word, the revelations from God, which the Church passes on to the world.
Why do you think he decided to say explicitly that World Youth Day is not to be seen as a youth festival with the Pope as a star?
His concern about criticisms which are not only from outside the Church - and which we can take for granted - but even from within the Catholic world.
In fact, there is a current of thought among some Catholics - from the time John Paul II 'invented' WYD - that has directly criticized this kind of gatherings, saying they are manifestations that have nothing substantial to add to the profession of the faith, but are simply mass phenomena not different from huge secular gatherings such as rock concerts.
Benedict XVI decided to rebut this criticism forcefully. And not in the manner of someone who is simply putting up with something inherited from his predecessor, an event, some people would say Cardinal Ratzinger
[at least, their idea of Cardinal Ratzinger] probably tolerated poorly. In fact, there are those who think that.
Instead, Benedict XVI showed what he sees significant in these World Youth Day events: that they are moments of faith, visible in acts like the Via Crucis and the liturgies, and he sees these as the sowing of new communitarian forms of living the faith for the young people who take part in these events. That faith is built also through such direct experiences of the proclamation and visibility of the faith itself. And Benedict XVI does all he can so that this is indeed what the World Youth Days promote.
In fact, he has not limited himself to the previous models of WYD; In Cologne as in Sydney, he made the prayer vigil [preceding the grand Concluding Mass of every WYD] an occasion for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament - with he himself setting the example, kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament and remaining for some time in silent adoration.
That was not done in previous WYDs. But he does it deliberately to show what actions count during these mass gatherings, compared to those that don't.
Then there's the part of the Pope's address yesterday most reported by the media - about the human being as male and female, saying this was not 'outdated metaphysics'. What did he mean?
The Pope started out by speaking about the Holy Spirit as Creator, which is an essential element of the Christian Creed. This led to the observation that the Creator Spirit imposed on creation (nature) a mathematical structure, a rational and ordered design.
[In the Catholic view], the world is not an accumulation of elements put together at random but is held together by a grand design, which has itself allowed modern sciences to learn more about the laws of nature, and without which man would be less able to predict natural phenomena and to make calculations about them.
So from this great cosmic order
['cosmos' means order - the opposite of 'chaos', disorder], the Pope proceeded to speak of the human order, which is male or female in structure - a concept that is literally 'meta-physics', namely not something manipulable, not something that can be changed at will.
And that therefore, to presume to change this human order means to attack human nature itself, which amounts to self-destruction. So, the Pope concluded, creation (nature) must be defended, but all of it - not only the air, water, tropical forests, but man himself.
The Pope's reference to cosmic equilibrium and the mathematical rules that explain it appeared to continue the scientific references he made in his Angelus message the day before. What is the cultural value of the Pope's statements on science?
The Pope, of course, could not discuss science in detail during the Angelus message, but he did indicate his thoughts about it.
He began with the liturgical fact that the celebration of the Lord's Nativity coincides with the winter solstice - that the light of Jesus as 'Sol iustitiae', the Sun of Justice, comes to the world at a time when the period of daylight starts to lengthen again.
Then he pointed out that the Obelisk on St. Peter's Square marks a great meridian which runs through the Vatican, and that it casts its longest shadow on the winter solstice, which led him to remark on the World Astronomy year in 2009 to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of an astronomical telescope, and going on to recount the psalm which says 'the heavens declare the glory of God'.
This glory is, of course, not disordered - it is a marvelous symphony of lights and colors and the mathematical structures that govern the cosmos.
What other elements of the speech to the Curia are particularly important?
Yes, one very relevant element which must be underscored. During his reflections on the natural order of things and man, and on the metaphysical value of such an order, the Pope once again came to a vigorous defense of
Humanae vitae.
Just as the Pope answered criticism by some Catholic circles of mass events like WYD, here he answers direct attacks within the Catholic world against
Humanae Vitae, not just from laymen but from bishops and even some cardinals.
Such criticism, for instance - and let's not hide the fact - from Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, whose latest book, which now tops the best-seller lists in Italy, dedicates an entire chapter against
Humanae Vitae.
So this criticism is current, not a thing of the past. And the Pope made it clear where he stands.
[
Magister also devoted his blog yesterday to more comments about this Ratzinger-Martini divergence [more correctly a Church-Martini divergence] on Humanae Vitae.
'Humanae Vitae':
Benedict XVI's defense,
Cardinal Martini's offense
Translated from
Dec. 22, 2008
In his important pre-Christmas address to Roman Curia yesterday (Dec. 22), Benedict XVI cast himself in defense of
Humanae Vitae, the most contested encyclical of the 20th century, within the Church and out of it.
Part of the announcement that the Church should bring to men is a testimonial for the Creator Spirit present in all of nature, but specially in the nature of man, who was created in the image of God.
One must reread the encyclical Humanae vitae with this perspective: the intention of Pope Paul VI was to defend love against consumer sex, the future against the exclusive claim of the moment, and human nature against manipulation.
The last attack on
Humanae Vitae, a frontal one, came from Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini in his book
Conversazioni notturne a Gerusalemme, a best-selling book with strong ecclesiastical support, since it is being given as a bonus to subscribers of the Milan-based Jesuit magazines
Popoli(Peoples) and
Aggiornamenti Sociali(Social Updates). The editor of the latter magazine gave it a most enthusiastic review.
The other enthusiastic reviewer of Martini's book is that major secular ideologue Eugenio Scalfari
[founder and publisher of the ultra-liberal, virulently anti-Church, anti-Pope La Repubblica newspaper, who sanctions blatantly false reporting - and is not above making false though easily verifiable statements himself - if he sees any opening at all to lambaste the Church and deride Benedict XVI].
Interviewed by TG-1
[the premier newscast of Itaalian state TV-s first channel], Scalfari said Martini's book was
an authentic 'bomb' capable of making the Church explode to pieces, with Martini's attack on
Humanae Vitae as a trigger.
But Martini himself claims to have no such incendiary intentions. In an interview published in the latest issue of the
Rivista del Clero Italiano (Magazine of the Italian Clergy), published by the Catholic University of Milan, he repeated what he has said several times since he retired from active ministry: "Rather than working myself over in thinking about the Church, about its forms today and in the future, I prefer to concentrate on praying for it."
[Maybe it's just me, but doesn't that sound quite sanctimonious?]
Ora et non labora... Or perhaps we should gather that 'prayer' for Martini is not opposed to, but coincides with, 'work' on a new church that he seems to suggest in every page of this last book - to replace the Church as it was and is under Montini, Wojtyla and Ratzinger?
In the book, Martini attributes to Paul VI having adopted the following attitude
[to rationalize his decision about sayign NO to artificial contraception in Humanae Vitae]: "
Even if one should not lie, sometimes it is not possible to do otherwise - in which case one must hide the truth, or inevitably tell a lie."
[Takes great Jesuit chutzpah to accuse a Pope of lying in order to make his point!]
I have not sought out other reviews of the book after Magister's own review in www.chiesa, posted in NOTABLES on 11/3/08
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=355175&p=23
and the direct attack on the book by Archbishop Hector Aguer in far-off La Plata, Argentina (report posted on the next page of NOTABLES) who minced no words and said, among other things -
It is noteworthy that such an important, intelligent and outstanding cardinal such as Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, has echoed and made his own the criticisms that the secularized culture and those elements within the Church that have embraced dissent against the Magisterium have aimed at the Church for decades.
Meanwhile, as Magister pointed out in November, neither L'Osservatore Romano nor Avvenire have said a word about the book - and probably never will... And where's John Allen in all this? Or Father Z, for that matter? They read Italian!
Maybe Marco Politi has reviewed it. He could well be a charter member of the 'Martinian Church'. Hans Kueng could be another, but he's setting up his own church - the world ethos thing.... But perhaps no one in Italy who disagrees with the cardinal's views will ever speak up, for the same reason OR and Avvenire don't: Martini is 82 (will be shortly).
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 24/12/2008 13:48]