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JOHN ALLEN HAS THE WHOLE TRANSCRIPT!
aboard the Papal Plane
By John Allen Jr.
Posted on May 9, 2007
Shortly after 11:00 am Rome time, roughly two hours into his flight to São Paulo, Brazil, Pope Benedict XVI came back to the press compartment of the papal plane for a brief news conference. The pope was flanked by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, who did not speak.
The pope offered an opening statement, then took a total of 11 questions from reporters, including queries about the excommunication of pro-choice politicians, liberation theology, and the beatification of the late Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.
The questions had not been submitted in advance, and the pope’s replies were extemporaneous. From start to finish, the exchange lasted about 26 minutes. The following is a rush transcript of the exchange.
Most questions were posed in Italian, and Benedict gave all of his replies in Italian; the following is therefore an NCR translation.
Pope Benedict XVI, Opening Remarks
Good morning aboard this plane! We’re now above the Sahara, on our way to the Continent of Hope. I’m going with great joy, with great hope, to this meeting with Latin America.
We have various important moments, first in Sao Paulo, the meeting with the youth, and then this canonization in Sao Paulo. It’s the first saint born in Brazil, and it seems to me also an important expression of the content of this trip.
It’s a Franciscan saint who made real in Brazil the Franciscan charism. He is known as a saint of reconciliation and of peace. This too seems to me an important sign, a personality who knew how to create peace, and therefore also human social coherence.
Then, the visit to the Farm of Hope is also important, a place where the forces of healing which are contained in the faith become clear, to open the horizons of life. All these problems of drugs and so on are born with an absence of hope in the future. A faith which opens to the future also knows how to heal, and this force seems to me important – the force to heal, to give hope, to provide a horizon of the future, is very important.
Finally, the primary aim of this trip is the meeting with the bishops of CELAM, which is the fifth continental conference of the bishops of Latin America, which in and of itself has a content that is predominantly religious – to give life in Christ, and to make ourselves disciples of Christ.
We know that everyone wants to have life, but life is not complete if it does not have content, if it lacks a sense or an orientation about where to go. In this sense, even if the meeting in the first place responds to the religious mission of the church, it also creates the conditions for necessary solutions to the great social and political problems of Latin America.
As such, the church does not practice politics, we respect the secular nature of the state. But we offer conditions in which a healthy politics, and solutions to social problems, can mature.
Thus, we want to promote Christians who are conscious of the gift of the faith, the joy of the faith, who know God and who therefore also know the ‘why’ of our life. In this way, they’ll be capable of being witnesses of Christ, and they’ll learn both the necessary personal virtues as well as social virtues, the sense of legality that is essential for the formation of society.
We know the problems of Latin America, and we want to mobilize the capacity of the church, its moral strength and its religious resources, to respond to the specific mission of the church and to our universal responsibility to the human person as such, and to society as such.
First Question (from O Globo in Brazil):
Holiness, what can the church do with regard to the problem of violence, which in Brazil today has massive proportions?
Whoever has faith in Christ, whoever has faith in this God who is reconciliation and who, with the Cross, gave us the strongest possible sign against violence, is not violent and helps others to overcome violence.
Thus, the best thing we can do is to educate people in faith in Christ, to learn the message of the person of Christ, to be people of faith who automatically resist violence, and who mobilize the force of the faith against violence.
Second Question (from Mexico):
Your Holiness, in Brazil there’s a proposal for a referendum on the subject of abortion. Two weeks, Mexico City decriminalized abortion. What can the church do about this tendency, to ensure that it does not extend to other Latin American countries? As you know, the church has been accused of interference in Mexico. Do you support the position of the Mexican bishops that legislators who approve these laws are excommunicated?
Well, there’s a great struggle of the church on behalf of life. You know that Pope John Paul II made this struggle a fundamental point of his entire pontificate. He wrote a great encyclical on “The Gift of Life.” Naturally, we go forward with this message. Life is a gift, life is not a threat. This seems to me important.
The roots of this legislation lie, in the first place, in a certain egoism, and on the other hand, also in doubt about life as a gift, about the beauty of life, as well as doubt about the future. The church responds to these doubts, above all by saying, ‘Life is beautiful. It’s not something doubtful, but it’s a gift. Even in difficult circumstances, a human life is a gift. Therefore, we have to recreate this awareness of the beauty of the gift of life.’
Regarding doubt about the future, obviously there are many threats in the world, but faith gives us the certainty that God is always more powerful in the reality of history. Thus, we can give life to new human beings with trust, and with the knowledge that faith guarantees the beauty of life. In the future, we can resist this egoism and these fears which stand at the roots of this legislation.
Third Question (from Brazilian television):
Your Holiness, you have spoken often about relativism in Europe, about poverty in Africa, and also the problems of the Middle East. But what’s missing a little bit is a reference to Latin America. Is this because it’s not a real concern for you, or will you say something specific about it?
No, I love Latin America very much. I’ve visited Latin America many times, I have many friends there. I know that it has great problems, but on the other hand I also know the great human resources of this continent.
Of course, recently the problems of the Middle East have been dominant, in the Holy land and Iraq and so on, which gives it a kind of immediate priority. Also, the suffering of Africa is enormous, as we know. But, I don’t think about Latin America any less. I love Latin America.
This is the largest Catholic continent, and therefore in a sense it’s the largest responsibility of the pope. For that reason, I’m happy that finally the moment has arrived when I can be in Latin America, to confirm the commitment of Paul VI and John Paul II and to continue in the same direction.
Naturally, I take to heart in a special way that the largest Catholic continent should also be an exemplary continent, where the great human problems can be resolved and where we work together with the bishops, with priests, religious and laity, so that this great Catholic continent will also be a continent of life and, really, of hope. For me, this is a primordial responsibility.
Fourth Question (from La Repubblica, Italy):
Thank you, your Holiness. In your speech upon arrival, you say that the church forms Christians, provides moral indications, so that people will make free decisions in conscience. Do you agree with the excommunication given to legislators in Mexico City on the question of abortion?
Yes, this excommunication is not something arbitrary, but it’s part of the Code [of Canon Law]. It’s based simply on the principle that the killing of an innocent human child is incompatible with going in communion with the Body of Christ.
Thus, [the bishops] didn’t do anything new, anything surprising or arbitrary. In that light, they simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the church, and the law of the church is based upon the doctrine and the faith of the church, which expresses our appreciation for life, that human individuality, human personality, is present from the first moment [of life].
Fifth Question (from Alex Springer Verlag, Germany):
Do you feel adequately supported by the German people? (The question was asked in German)
I’ll respond in Italian. He asked if I feel sufficiently supported by the Germans, and if I feel any nostalgia for Germany. Yes, I feel sufficiently supported.
Of course, it’s normal that in a country that’s mixed Protestant/Catholic, and where there are many non-baptized persons, not everyone is going to agree with the pope. This is totally normal. But I’ve also felt a great support even from non-Catholic people in Germany. This support is beautiful, and it helps me.
I love my country, but I also love Rome, and now I’m a citizen of the world. Thus, I’m at home everywhere. My country is close to my heart, like all the others.
Sixth Question (from RAI Television, Italy):
In your book Jesus of Nazareth, you referred to a dramatic crisis of faith. In Latin America, maybe what we see is not so much a crisis of faith as a landslide. Liberation theology was substituted by the theology of the Protestant sects, which promise a paradise of faith at a good price. The Catholic Church is losing faithful. How can the church stem this tide, this hemorrhage of Catholic faithful?
This is our common concern precisely in this fifth General Conference of CELAM. We want to find convincing responses.
This success of the sects shows, in the first place, that there’s a thirst for God, a thirst for religion. People want to be close to God, and they seek his closeness.
Naturally, they also hope for and expect solutions to their daily problems of life. We from the Catholic Church have to accept the responsibility in this fifth general conference of making the church more missionary, more dynamic in offering responses to the thirst for God.
We have to be aware that all people, and especially the poor, want to have God close to them. We also must be aware that together with this response to the thirst for God, we also have to help people find the conditions for a just life, both micro-economically, in very concrete situations as they sects do, as well as macro-economically, thinking about all the exigencies of justice.
Seventh Question (from the National Catholic Reporter, United States):
Your Holiness, good morning. There are still many exponents of liberation theology in Brazil. Will you be offering a message specifically for them?
I would say that changes in the political situation have also profoundly changed the situation facing the theology of liberation. By now, it’s evident that these facile forms of millenarianism, which promised, on the basis of an imminent revolution, to produce the complete conditions for a just life, were mistaken. Today, everybody knows this.
Now, the question is exactly how the church should be present in the struggle for the necessary reforms, in the struggle for just conditions of life. On this point, naturally, theologians are divided, like sociologists and political scientists.
We, with our instructions from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, sought to help to give the pope the data for the work of discernment The idea was to liberate ourselves from false forms of millenarianism, also from a mistaken confusion between the church and the political process, between faith and politics.
We wanted to demonstrate the specific mission of the church, which is precisely to respond to the thirst for God, and thus, on the one hand, also to educate people in both personal and social virtues, which are conditions for a sense of legality, and on the other hand to indicate the guidelines for a just kind of politics – a politics which we don’t create ourselves, but for which we must indicate the great principles and determining values. We can also create the human, social and psychological conditions in which such a politics can grow.
Thus, there’s space for legitimate debate over how to do this, over what’s the best way to make the social doctrine of the church effective. In this sense, some liberation theologians are pursuing this avenue, others take other positions. For example, there’s the question of indigenous persons, but obviously we can’t enter into all these details.
In any case, the meaning of the intervention of the magisterium was not to destroy the commitment to justice, but to guide it down the right paths, including the proper distinction between political responsibility and ecclesial responsibility.
Eighth Question (from Colombia):
We know that you’ve been to Colombia twice as a cardinal, and we know that it remains close to your heart. We want to know what you think about how we can go forward, especially facing this situation of internal conflict.
Naturally, I’m not an oracle that automatically has the right answer. I think the bishops are working hard to find responses. I can only confirm the fundamental line of the bishops, which is that of a strong education in the faith, which is the best guarantee against the growth of violence. Education in conscience is essential to exit from this situation.
Naturally, economic situations are also involved. Small farmers, for example, depend upon a market that can do great damage, and they live from one moment to the next. To resolve these various economic, political and ideological intersections, we can only go forward with great determination, based on a decision for the faith, which implies a sense of legality, and implies love and responsibility for others.
To me, it seems that education in the faith is the most secure illumination, also for slowly resolving these very concrete problems.
Ninth Question (from I. Media in France):
Your Holiness, we’re arriving in the continent of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Many people are talking about the process for his beatification. Can you tell us where we’re at? Is he ready for beatification? How do you see this figure?
I don’t have the latest information from the competent congregation. I know there are many cases moving through the process. I know that the cause [of Romero] is going forward very well. Bishop Paglia of Terni has written a very important biography, which clarifies many points that had been in question.
[Romero] was certainly a great witness to the faith. He was a man of great Christian virtue, who was committed to peace and against the dictatorship. He was killed during the moment of consecration, therefore it was a truly incredible death, a testimony to the faith.
The problem is that some political factions wanted to claim Romero for themselves, like a banner, unjustly. As [Paglia] spotlights very well, the figure [of Romero] himself liberates us from these unjust attempts.
That Romero as a person merits beatification, I have no doubt. But we have to look at the context, and I’m waiting for what the congregation says to me.
Tenth Question (from Brazil):
What’s your understanding of cultural formation in Brazil and its relationship to politics? (The question was asked in Portugese)
I’m not sufficiently well informed to answer in depth, and I don’t want to get into politics. As far as my personal approach to Brazil, it’s the largest country of Latin America, which stretches from the Amazon all the way to Argentina, it includes so many indigenous cultures. I heard that more than 80 languages are spoken, and so on. It also has a strong presence of African-Americans, African-Brazilians.
It’s fascinating to see how this people was formed, also how the Catholic faith was formed here over the course of time, with many difficulties. We know that at the end of the 18th century, the church was persecuted by liberal forces.
In my own outlook, it’s important to follow these Catholic-Christians peoples of Latin America. I’m not a specialist, but that it’s here where an important part, a fundamental part, of the future of the Catholic Church will be decided, seems evident to me. I want to deepen even more my awareness of this world.
Tenth Question (from Catholic radio in Portugal):
Your Holiness, good morning. I’m from Portugal. The Portuguese are following and praying for this trip, which coincides with May 13, the 90th anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima. Do you want to offer us a word about this coincidence, also for the Portuguese people?
Yes, for me it’s really a sign of providence that my visit to Aparecida, the great Marian sanctuary of Brazil, coincides with the 90th anniversary of the apparitions of the Madonna of Fatima.
In this way, we see that the same Mother, this Mother of God and Mother of the church, Our Mother, is present to the various continents, that she shows herself to be a mother to the various continents, always in the same way but with a closeness for every people. To me, this is quiet beautiful.
It’s always the Mother of God, always Mary, and yet in a certain sense she’s ‘inculturated,’ with her specific face wherever she is – in Aparecida, in Fatima, in Lourdes, in all the countries of the earth. Thus, she reveals herself as a mother who is close to everyone, and everyone can come close to one another through her maternal love.
This connection which the Madonna creates among the continents, among the cultures, because she’s close to every culture and yet she unites them all, seems important to me – this specificity of the cultures, all of which have their riches, yet leading to communion in the one family of God.
Eleventh Question (from Brazil):
Many Brazilians don’t necessarily want to hear the message of the church. What can you do about that? (The question was asked in Portuguese)
This is not a specific problem of Brazil. In every part of the world, there are lots of people who don’t want to listen. We hope that at least, they hear, so that if they hear, they will also be able to respond. We also seek to convince those who don’t necessarily want to hear us. Naturally, even Our Lord wasn’t able to succeed in getting everyone to listen.
We don’t expect that in any given moment we’ll be able to persuade everyone. But, I’ll try, with the help of my collaborators, to speak to Brazil in this moment with the hope that many people want to listen, and that many can be convinced that this is the path to take. Of course, I’ll leave open, at the level of detail, the possibility for many different options and different opinions.
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Just as an aside, the Vatican Press Office has not learned anything from previous trips about making bulletin releases on time. The Holy Father only had two addresses today - both of them rather short, and both of them provided already this mroning to the journalists under embargo. Why were they not automatically posted as soon as they were delivered?
The only bulletin released today contained the texts of the Pope's telegrams to the heads of government of the countries that his flight was flying over! Interesting matter of protocol, but to my knowledge, something no one has ever bothered to report...
And they never got around to providing anything but the Italian adn Portugues versions of the Missal for this voyage, so I'll have to come up with a translation before the Mass on Friday.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/05/2007 4.50] |
| 10/05/2007 05:21 |
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REVISIONIST REPORTING, AND WORSE
"It took two years for Pope Benedict XVI to give his first full-fledged news conference..." is the lead sentence, which already starts out by seeming to reproach the Pope for not having given a news conference earlier. But what Pope has done that ever?
Sure, they have all these anecdotal stories about John Paul answering their questions in the back of the plane in his younger days, but for 26 minutes??? I was expecting a lead like, "Pope Benedict today held the first papal news conference ever, even if it was impromptu"...And not even any acknowledgment of "Reporters were surprised because they had thought it would be like the previous trips when 3-4 questions were selected beforehand and the Pope answered them..."
Well, this story is reproaching him for more than just 'waiting two years to give a news conference.'
Pope news conference causes stir
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
SAO PAULO, Brazil, May 9 (AP) - It took two years for Pope Benedict XVI to give his first full-fledged news conference. And when he finally held one on Wednesday, he caused a stir with his comments on abortion.
Benedict stood before 70 journalists on his Alitalia jetliner headed to Brazil on the first long trip of his papacy. Responding with quiet certainty, he answered 11 questions in 25 minutes.
Initially he steered clear of controversy — insisting, for example, that "I love Latin America" when asked why it took him two years to make his first papal visit to the region where half of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics live.
But when an Italian reporter pressed him on whether he agreed that Catholic legislators who voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City should rightfully be considered excommunicated, he caused a fury that led his spokesman to try to downplay his response.
[This, of course, is revisionist crap. If you look at the transcript, the question about Latin America didn't come until much later, and there was no question of the reporter "pressing him" about the excomunnication issue, because it was only the fourth question and the first time the issue was brought up! How they can falsify facts which are easily verifiable is beyond me! This is just sheer journalistic irresponsibility.]
"Yes," Benedict replied. "The excommunication was not something arbitrary. It is part of the (canon law) code. It is based simply on the principle that the killing of an innocent human child is incompatible with going in Communion with the body of Christ. Thus, they (the bishops) didn't do anything new or anything surprising. Or arbitrary."
The response seemed to take one side of an active church debate on canon law, and media dispatches filed from the plane caused an uproar of sorts, with some scholars challenging the pope's apparent position.
For example, the Rev. John Coughlin, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said there is no provision in canon law saying that Catholic politicians who vote to legalize abortion automatically excommunicate themselves.
Vatican officials later said the pope might have inferred from the question that the Mexican bishops had issued a formal declaration of excommunication for the legislators, something Mexican Cardinal Norberto Rivera has said he has no intention of doing.
Benedict's spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope was not setting a new policy and did not intend to formally excommunicate anyone — a rare process under church law that is separate from the doctrine of self-excommunication.
"Since excommunication hasn't been declared by the Mexican bishops, the pope has no intention himself of declaring it," Lombardi said in a statement approved by the pope.
But Lombardi added that politicians who vote in favor of abortion should not receive the sacrament of Holy Communion. "Legislative action in favor of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist. ... Politicians exclude themselves from Communion," he said.
It was not the first time that Benedict appeared to speak directly, only to backtrack or refine his original statement.The most controversial example occurred when the pope, speaking in Germany, raised the issue of Islam and violence. After anger spread across the Islamic world, Benedict said he did not intend to offend Muslims. [The way he writes it, you would think it was habitual for the Pope to do - then he uses the single example that could conceivably be cited. What, may I ask, were the others????]
While Benedict frequently condemns violence in the name of religion, he has never again pointed the finger explicitly at Muslims.
But this pope's apparent candor can get him in trouble, said John L. Allen Jr., a reporter with the National Catholic Reporter. "Benedict doesn't seem to distinguish when he is speaking as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and when he is speaking as the head of the Roman Catholic Church," Allen said. [Mr. Allen! I am surprised! How did you come to this conclusion, and can you name other instances in which you think this happened? Or are you just pandering to your colleagues?]
Pope John Paul II answered questions in seven languages during his news conference. [And what is that completely gratuitous statement supposed to mean? That Benedict is a far inferior linguist because he chose to answer all the questions in Italian today? First of all, even the German question he answered in Italian. All the other questions were asked in Portuguese or Italian; even the Spanish reporters apparently used Italian. And is that not the sensible thing to do? One presumes that Italian would be the common language for all newsmen presuming to cover the Vatican?]
He acknowledged that many neither agree with him, nor listen to his teachings.
"In all parts of the world, there are those who don't want to hear," Benedict said. "Naturally, even our Lord did not manage to make everyone hear."
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And if you think Simpson is mean, wait until we read what Marco Politi - yes, him! - will come out with in tomorrow's Repubblica; he was the one who asked the excommunication question. He's always raring to sharpen his knives against this Pope...Just because he co-authored a biography of John Paul II with Carl Bernstein, he seems to overlook that all the moral and ethical positions taken by Benedict were John Paul's positions too, and cannot treat Benedict with enough opprobrium when it comes to these ethical and moral positions. The hypocrisy and obviosu double standard are sickening!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/05/2007 6.06] |
| 10/05/2007 06:01 |
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HOW THE POPE INSPIRED FOUR COLUMNS OUT OF ALLEN TODAY
Pope hits all the expected notes
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
São Paulo, Brazil
Aside from comments on the papal plane about communion for pro-choice politicians, Benedict XVI’s other remarks on day one of his May 9-13 Brazil trip hit all the expected notes.
In his address at São Paulo’s Guarulhos Airport, where the pope was greeted by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and other dignitaries, the pope called for a “renewed missionary impetus to this continent” and for protection of human life from conception to natural death, and committed the church to defending “the poor and abandoned.”
Though Benedict did not spell out the implications, each brief exhortation in his welcome address had as its subtext one or another of the front-burner challenges facing Roman Catholicism in Latin America.
His call for a “missionary impulse,” for example, at least in part refers to the significant losses the Catholic Church has sustained in recent years to Pentecostal and Evangelical Protestants.
His insistence upon protection of human life, as well as a later reference to the family as the “basic cell of society,” comes in the context of moves in several Latin American legislatures, including Brazil, to loosen legal restrictions on abortion and to grant civil recognition to same-sex unions.
Finally, the pope’s invocation of a “future of peace and hope for all,” his commitment of the church to “evangelization at the service of the cause of peace and justice,” as well as his promise that the church will be in solidarity with “the poor and abandoned,” all were meant to reassure wary Brazilian Catholics that the “option for the poor” is alive and well in this pontificate.
Because then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger led the Vatican’s crackdown on liberation theology during the 1980s, some Brazilian Catholics committed to social engagement viewed his election, and now his arrival on their shores, with some apprehension.
Benedict is thus doing everything he can to assure them, and to assure the broader societies of Latin America, that his concern with Catholic fundamentals does not mean a reduced commitment to the church’s social role.
Benedict wasted no time indicating that he wants Brazilian Catholics to stay engaged on behalf of the poor.
“In this geographical area, Catholics are in the majority,” the pope said today in São Paulo. “This means they must make a particular contribution to the common good of the nation. The word solidarity will acquire its full meaning when the living forces of society, each in its own sphere, commit themselves seriously to building a future of peace and hope for all.”
“I am well aware that the soul of this people, as of all of Latin America, safeguards values that are radically Christian, which will never be eradicated,” the pope said. “I am certain at Aparecida, during the Bishops’ General Conference, this identity will be reinforced through the promotion of respect for life, from the moment of conception until natural death, as an integral requirement of human nature. It will also make the promotion of the human person the axis of solidarity, especially towards the poor and abandoned.”
The church, the pope said, “will not fail to take action to ensure that the family, the basic cell of society, is strengthened, and likewise young people, whose formation is a decisive factor for the future of any nation.”
Day One:
Confusion on communion
for pro-choice politicians
nothing new
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
São Paulo, Brazil
Confusion created today on the papal plane – after Pope Benedict XVI appeared to say that politicians who vote in favor of abortion rights should be considered excommunicated, only to have Vatican officials back away from that interpretation – is nothing new. Attempts to discern the mind of Joseph Ratzinger on this question have long been complicated.
During the 2004 presidential election in the United States, roughly 15 American bishops stated publicly that they would not administer communion to the Democratic candidate, U.S. Senator John Kerry, on the grounds that he is politically pro-choice. Several cited a 2003 “doctrinal note” from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, titled “On Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life,” to support their position.
That document asserted that “no Catholic can appeal to the principle of pluralism or to the autonomy of lay involvement in political life to support policies affecting the common good which compromise or undermine fundamental ethical requirements.”
As the debates over Kerry and communion gathered steam, many Catholics naturally cited Ratzinger as their authority for a restrictive position.
In mid-June 2004, Ratzinger sent a confidential letter on the issue to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the head of a task force of the U.S. bishops studying the question, and then-Bishop Wilton Gregory, at the time the president of the conference.
In a presentation to the June 14-19, 2004, meeting of the U.S. bishops, McCarrick characterized the Ratzinger letter as providing flexibility.
“I would emphasize that Cardinal Ratzinger clearly leaves to us as teachers, pastors and leaders whether to pursue this path” of denying Communion, McCarrick told the bishops. In part on the strength of that assurance, the American bishops voted 183 to 6 in favor of a statement titled entitled “Catholics in Political Life,” which left to each individual bishop the decision of whether or not to give communion to pro-choice politicians.
On July 3, 2004, Italian Vatican writer Sandro Magister published the full text of Ratzinger’s confidential letter to McCarrick and Gregory, titled “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion,” which seemed to strike a much more firm line than McCarrick had suggested.
“There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia,” Ratzinger wrote.
“Regarding the grave sin of abortion or euthanasia,” Ratzinger wrote, “when a person´s formal cooperation becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws), his pastor should meet with him, instructing him about the Church’s teaching, informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist.”
“When these precautionary measures have not had their effect or in which they were not possible, and the person in question, with obstinate persistence, still presents himself to receive the Holy Eucharist, the minister of Holy Communion must refuse to distribute it,” Ratzinger continued, citing a ruling of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts regarding communion for Catholics who are divorced and civilly remarried with an annulment.
Based on those statements, some accused McCarrick of having deliberately misled the American bishops about Ratzinger’s position.
The waters were further muddied just a few days later, on July 12, when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released the text of another letter from Ratzinger to McCarrick, this one dated July 9. In it, Ratzinger thanks McCarrick for sending him the text of the statement adopted by the U.S. bishops at their June meeting.
The key line of that July 9 letter was the following: “The statement is very much in harmony with the general principles ‘Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion,’ sent as a fraternal service – to clarify the doctrine of the Church on this specific issue – in order to assist the American Bishops in their related discussion and determinations.”
In other words, the Ratzinger of July 9 appeared to be endorsing the “softer” line pioneered by McCarrick and overwhelmingly endorsed by the American bishops.
The perplexing result is that for the last three years, both sides in the communion controversy have cited Ratzinger in favor of diametrically opposed positions. Today’s developments on the papal plane seem certain to add more heat, if little new light, to this standoff.
Carefully studying the various statements that are now on the record, perhaps the best summary of Benedict XVI’s position can be phrased as follows.
In the abstract, Benedict clearly seems to feel that a Catholic politician who knowingly and consistently supports legislation that expands access to abortion is in violation of church teaching, and thus should not receive communion. Moreover, the pope seems prepared to support bishops who apply this principle to specific cases; that was the premise of his answer to this morning’s question about the Mexican bishops. (Even though Cardinal Norberto Rivera has said he has no intention of excommunicating anyone.) [Hmmm...What about those strong statements made by Carrera's spokesman in Mexico City right after the vote was made, even telling the pro-abortion pols 'not to enter any church anywhere' utnil you vave been properly absolved, or something to that at effect?]
Whether Benedict is ready to impose this position on bishops convinced of the wisdom of a different pastoral course in other cases, however, is the $64,000 question. His July 9 letter to McCarrick, endorsing the stance of the U.S. bishops, indicates that at least so far, he’s not ready to take that step.
That may not be a fully satisfying position for anyone, but it seems the best summation of the pope’s thinking based on the available evidence.
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Sometimes Allen has a penchant for 'catchy' expressions that are not quite right, as 'love-hate' is not in this case. Sentiment or emotion has nothing to with Ratzinger's attitudes towards liberation theology and the many forms it takes - as Allen himself shows in the analysis to which he gives this dubious title!
Day One:
The Love/Hate Relationship
between Benedict and Liberation Theology
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
São Paulo, Brazil
When Benedict headed for Turkey last November, it was in the wake of the backlash across the Muslim world stirred by his citation at the University of Regensburg of a 14th century Byzantine emperor’s views on Islam. Turkey gave the pope an opportunity to put his own “spin” on Regensburg, stressing dialogue and brotherhood, and even pausing for a moment of silent prayer in Istanbul’s Blue Mosque.
Measured against a different arc of time, Benedict’s May 9-13 trip to Brazil once again offers the pope a chance to provide his own gloss on an area of controversy where he carries some political baggage. The issue this time is not Islam, but liberation theology, and the reaction dates back not a couple of months, but a couple of decades.
Right out of the gate, Benedict argued that his crackdown on liberation theology in the 1980s was not about undermining the church’s engagement on behalf of the poor.
“The meaning of the intervention of the magisterium was not to destroy the commitment to justice,” Benedict XVI said in response to a question from NCR during an airborne news conference, “but to guide it down the right paths, including the proper distinction between political responsibility and ecclesial responsibility.”
The response was merely the latest chapter in a love/hate relationship between Joseph Ratzinger and liberation theology which has deep biographical roots.
As early as his study of Bonaventure and Joachim of Fiore in graduate school during the 1950s, Ratzinger had become wary of messianic movements or promises of a “new age” – all of which, he felt, made the mistake of trying to locate salvation inside history. Moreover, when one imparts eschatological significance to some particular political program or dream, Ratzinger felt, then all manner of excesses and barbarisms can be justified in its name.
In terms of church politics, Ratzinger’s involvement with debates over liberation theology began even before he arrived in the Vatican. While still the Archbishop of Munich-Freising, Pope John Paul I dispatched him as a papal legate to a Marian congress in Ecuador in September 1978, where Ratzinger cautioned against Marxist ideologies and the theology of liberation. Upon arriving at the Vatican, his struggles with the liberationists quickly became the stuff of ecclesiastical legend.
Ratzinger always insisted that the problem was not with the motive of liberation theologians, but with efforts to reshape or even bowdlerize the church’s traditional doctrine to make it more “relevant” for desired social outcomes. When one does that, Ratzinger argued, not only is the faith distorted, but the desired social outcomes are never reached.
Here is the most widely quoted paragraph from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 1984 Instruction on Liberation Theology:
The overthrow by means of revolutionary violence of structures which generate violence is not ipso facto the beginning of a just regime.
A major fact of our times ought to evoke the reflection of all those who would sincerely work for the true liberation of their brothers: Millions of our own contemporaries legitimately yearn to recover those basic freedoms of which they were deprived by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power by violent and revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the liberation of the people.
This shame of our time cannot be ignored: While claiming to bring them freedom, these regimes keep whole nations in conditions of servitude which are unworthy of mankind. Those who, perhaps inadvertantly, make themselves accomplices of similar enslavements betray the very poor they mean to help.
At the heart of Ratzinger’s critique of liberation were two key theological motifs, which recur time and again in his writing on other subjects.
(1) Truth: Because the liberationists argued that theological understanding should follow political commitment, Ratzinger believed they were saying that praxis is the standard for judging the rightness of doctrine. In other words, one decides which Christian teachings are “true” on the basis of how well they support political efforts for social justice.
As early as 1968 in his Introduction to Christianity, Ratzinger was resisting the “tyranny of the factum,” the tendency to reduce truth to what one does instead of what reality is. This mistake leads some to present Christianity as a tool for changing the world, and to “transpose belief itself to this place.” Thus all doctrine is suspect unless it is useful for social change.
Ratzinger was not simply projecting this understanding onto the liberationists; some did hold this position. Juan Luis Segundo's famous line from Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity was: “The only truth is the truth that is efficacious for liberation.” Similarly, the Brazilian Hugo Assmann wrote in 1976: “The Bible! It doesn’t exist. The only Bible is the sociological Bible of what I see happening here and now.”
(2) Eschatology: Ratzinger's fundamental complaint about liberation theology is that it embodies a mistaken notion of eschatology. The liberationists, Ratzinger believes, are looking for the Kingdom of God on this earth and in this order of history. This sort of utopianism is not merely wrong, Ratzinger says, it's dangerous.
Whenever a social or political movement makes absolutist claims about what it can deliver, fascism is not far down the road. It is the lesson of Nazi Germany, Ratzinger argues, and it is the lesson of Soviet Russia.
Thus the goal of Christian must be to strip politics out of eschatology. As he put in his 1987 book Church, Ecumenism and Politics: “Where there is no dualism, there is totalitarianism.”
In Ratzinger's judgment, the consequences of liberation theology's warped eschatology show up in at least four ways.
1. Defections from Catholicism: By promising the poor a reign of justice that never comes, Ratzinger believes, liberation theology actually estranged them from Catholicism and led many of them to seek a transcendental faith somewhere else.
2. Terror. If you allow yourself to believe that a perfect society can be the work of human hands, Ratzinger believes, those hands will end up stained with blood.
3. Dissent: Ratzinger has long believed that, inspired by liberation theology, Catholics will perceive a form of “class struggle” between those who hold ecclesial power and those excluded from it, and will thus demand “liberation” from oppressive church structures.
4. Collapse into the culture: Ultimately, what is at stake for Ratzinger is his Augustinian understanding of the distinction between church and culture. To the extent that liberation theology vests its hopes in secular political progress rather than the liberation only Christ can bring, Ratzinger felt, it lost sight of the cross.
None of this means, however, that Ratzinger has an unremittingly bleak view of liberation theology.
In a more positive 1986 document, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Ratzinger declared, “Those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a love of preference on the part of the church, which since her origin and in spite of the failings of many of her members has not ceased to work for their relief, defense and liberation.”
So far, Benedict XVI seems determined to use the Brazil trip to demonstrate the sincerity of his social concern. On the papal plane, the pope even signaled his support for the beatification of the ultimate icon of the liberation theology movement – the late Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, assassinated in 1980 while celebrating Mass.
“That Romero as a person merits beatification, I have no doubt,” he said, while adding that he’s waiting for the decision of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
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CATHOLIC COVERAGE OF THE POPE'S VISIT Osservatore Romano 'covers' the papal visit:
 
Do you see any difference between their 'coverage'
of May 9, the day of departure, and May 10,
the day after the Pope arrived in Brazil?
Here's Avvenire's Papal coverage in today's paper, 5/10/07:
 
NB: The back page, right, advertises FAMILY DAY on Saturday, May 12. Avvenire has been running stories about
this event for weeks and the incredible aprticipation it is drawing from the faithful. Today it has 3 pages
devoted to it. It goes very well with the theme the Pope sounded in his airport address yesterday.
 
Later, I will insert into this post Avvenire's lead story of the Pope's arrival in Sao Paulo, and
korazym.org's chronicle of Day-1, the most detailed account I have seen anywhere. If they keep it up,
their daily chronicle will be a 'must.' (I have to translate first, obviously).
Here is the CNS story on Day 1:
Pope says he wants to help
reinforce Christian values, counter threats
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
SAO PAULO, Brazil, May 9 (CNS) -- Arriving in Brazil on his first papal trip to Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI said he wanted to help reinforce Christian values and counter new threats to the poor, the abandoned and the unborn.
"I am well aware that the soul of this people, as of all Latin America, safeguards values that are radically Christian, which will never be eradicated," the pope said May 9.
The pope addressed several hundred civil and church dignitaries at an airport welcoming ceremony outside Sao Paulo, where his plane touched down after a 12-hour flight from Rome.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva greeted the pope warmly as he descended from the aircraft.
In their brief remarks at the airport, the pontiff and the Brazilian president highlighted the importance of family, the challenges facing young people, and the Catholic Church's contribution to social programs in Latin America's most Catholic and most populous country.
Da Silva told the pope that the country needs spiritual and moral leadership "to face the challenges of this new millennium."
Saying that "the presence of the Catholic Church has been fundamental in Brazil, contributing to the country's spiritual, moral and social life," the president mentioned the church's collaboration in social efforts, especially the government's program to fight hunger.
Noting that his administration has "paid special attention to our youth, especially those who are poorest and most in need," da Silva said it was important to ensure the country's young people "a future that is dignified in every material and spiritual dimension."
The pope said he had come with an essentially religious message that reflected the goals of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, which he was to open May 13.
The pope said he expected the conference to strengthen the subcontinent's Christian identity "through the promotion of respect for life from the moment of conception until natural death as an integral requirement of human nature."
"It will also make the promotion of the human person the axis of solidarity, especially for the poor and abandoned," he said.
The pope emphasized that the majority Catholic populations of Latin America must make a particular contribution for the common good if the region is to solve its problems and build a future of peace and hope.
That means strengthening the family as "the basic cell of society" and promoting the values present in every level of society, especially among the indigenous peoples, he said.
The pope's reference to the unborn was significant in Brazil, where there has been increasingly political pressure to make abortion legal. Officials say clandestine abortions are practiced widely in the country.
On the plane carrying the pope, his entourage and about 70 journalists, the pope spoke warmly about Brazil and said he was happy to return to Latin America, where he had visited several times as a cardinal.
Answering reporters' questions, he said that while he was aware of the immense social and economic problems in the region, he also was acquainted with the rich qualities of the people.
After greeting the Brazilian cardinals, Pope Benedict boarded a helicopter for the short flight to the Campo de Marte Airport where he received a key to the city before boarding the popemobile for the trip to St. Benedict Monastery, where he was to spend the night.
Spending two and a half days in Sao Paulo, the pope was to meet with the Brazilian president in Bandeirantes Palace as well as with representatives of other Christian churches and other religions in St. Benedict Monastery.
He was to meet with young people in Paulo Machado de Carvalho stadium before canonizing a Brazilian Franciscan, Blessed Antonio Galvao, during his May 9-13 visit.
Then he moves to the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady Aparecida, where he will inaugurate the bishops' conference, celebrating Mass and delivering a major speech to participants of the May 13-31 meeting.
The trip turns a spotlight on Latin America, a geographical area that has had little attention from this pope to date, but where 43 percent of the world's Catholics live.
It also broadens the horizons of the pope's two-year pontificate, taking him outside Europe, where four of his previous five trips have occurred.
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DAY 2: SETTING THE SCENE...AND SPREADING THE BIAS
to win back South American followers
by Gina Doggett
SAO PAULO, May 10 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI called for stronger family institutions and condemned abortion as he embarked on a mission to strengthen the Roman Catholic church's following in South America.
On his first full day in Brazil on Thursday, the pope will speak to 40,000 young people from across South America in a Sao Paulo stadium as well as meet the president of Brazil, where there is now a debate on abortion.
As soon as he arrived in Sao Paulo late Wednesday, Pope Benedict sought to get his message across that this four day trip would concentrate on defending traditional family values.
The Roman Catholic Church "will not fail to insist on the need to take action to ensure that the family, the basic cell of society, is strengthened," the 80-year-old pope said.
He also condemned abortion referring to the need to promote "respect for life from the moment of conception until natural death as an integral requirement of human nature."
South America is home to half of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics with Brazil a particular stronghold. But the church has lost ground to rival evangelical faiths in recent years.
The Catholic church also lost a key social battle when Mexico City decriminalized abortion.
Speaking to reporters on the plane taking him to Brazil, Benedict backed a threat by Mexican bishops to excommunicate lawmakers who voted for the bill.
"It is written in the (canon) law that murdering a child is incompatible with communion, and the bishops have done nothing arbitrary. They have only put the spotlight on what is allowed by Church law."
Mexico City is one of the few places in Latin America where abortion is allowed without restrictions in the first three months of pregnancy.
Crowds thronged the route from Sao Paulo airport into the city as Benedict rode by in his Popemobile. He is staying at the 17th-century Sao Bento monastery in the oldest part of the city.
Speaking to pilgrims from a balcony, Benedict said: "In every corner of the world people are praying for the fruits of this journey."
On Sunday, the pope will open a conference of Latin American bishops in the sanctuary town of Aparecida, which is expected to focus on ways to counter the growth of evangelical sects across the region.
In Brazil, 64 percent of the population is Catholic, but the figure has plunged from 74 percent a decade ago, according to a recent study.
Meanwhile the number of evangelicals has risen to 17 percent from 11 percent, said the Datafolha institute study based on 44,642 interviews.
"We should be more missionary, or more dynamic, to offer responses to the thirst for God," Benedict said on the plane. "People want to be close to God ... and at the same time they accept those who promise solutions to their problems of daily lives."
The highlight of the first full day of Benedict's visit will be a speech to 40,000 young people from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Honduras and Mexico to discuss "Youth, Disciples and Missionaries of Jesus Christ".
He will also meet Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who greeted him at the airport on Wednesday, and representatives of other religions at the Sao Bento monastary.
Abortion is now a sensitive topic in Brazil after health minister Jose Gomes Temporao called for a referendum on whether it should be decriminalized, as was held in Portugal in February.
Lula said this week that as an individual he opposes abortion but that it was now a public health issue because of the number of backstreet abortions being risked by teenagers.
Gay and lesbian groups opposed to the pope's pro-family stance wrote an open letter calling for a stronger secular state in Brazil, criticizing the Vatican for wielding pressure against the passage of laws favoring homosexuals.
Pope seeks to win over Brazil's youth
By Terry Wade
SAO PAULO, May 10 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict is appealing directly to Brazil's youth to follow a strict moral code in a country where the government hands out free condoms and many Roman Catholics ignore Church teachings.
His mission on a five-day trip is to reinforce the Church line on traditional family values and to turn back a tide of defections of Catholics to Protestant groups in Latin America, home to nearly half the world's 1.1 billion Catholics.
He will lead a rally of 35,000 young Brazilians on Thursday night in Sao Paulo's Pacaembu soccer stadium with a speech on the theme "Youth - Disciple and Missionary of Jesus."
The Pope delivered a strong anti-abortion message on Wednesday when he arrived in Brazil, the world's most populous Catholic nation, as local bishops and the health minister squabbled over the issue.
He began Thursday with a meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose government has been criticized by Brazilian bishops for distributing millions of condoms for free in an anti-AIDS program.
The event focused on ceremony, and the issues of condoms and abortion were not discussed, officials said.
Polls show many people in this country with a reputation for a lusty and liberal attitude to sex feel that the Church is out of touch with the realities of modern life and that many use birth control.
Others though support the Pope's stance.
"The Church has positions that are tough to abide by in the modern world but we have to uphold these principles," said Lucila Beting, a grandmother in her 60s, who was among a small crowd waiting outside the Sao Paulo state governors' palace on Thursday morning for a glimpse of the Pontiff.
"It's very hard to be a Catholic mom today and teach that you shouldn't use condoms because you shouldn't have sex. Sex is a gift from God. What we are against is promiscuity."
Zelia Matta, standing with her three children with a bouquet of flowers she wanted to give the Pope, said she agreed with his opposition to abortion.
"As a Catholic I expect the Pope to defend the right to life," she said.
But Carlos Santos, 24, working at a bakery in another district of Sao Paulo, said that although he was Catholic "abortion should be a personal opinion."
The issue hit the headlines in Brazil on the eve of the Pope's visit when Lula said it was a public health concern because many women die from clandestine abortions.
Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao, who wants a plebiscite to legalize abortion, said the Church was stifling debate and in return Geraldo Majella, head of Brazil's bishops' council accused the government of promoting promiscuity.
This is the 80-year-old Pope's first visit to Latin America since he took office two years ago following the death of the revered
Pope John Paul. To many Latin Americans he is an enigma, with a reputation as a conservative theologian who has spent most of his career cloistered in the Vatican. [Cloistered! In all of history, no Pope-to-be ever travelled as much as he did as CDF Prefect! None of the MSM stories mentions that he has been to Brazil twice before, twice to Colombia, as well as to Mexico, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. You would think, in doing a story about a Pope visiting Latin America, they might mention that he is definitely the only Pope who has ever been to Macchu Picchu! How can they ignore something which in anyone else's biography would be a distinction in itself, let alone in a Pope's? And to keep saying Latin Americans find him an enigma - how do they know that? At least tell them, look, this is a Pope who has visited this continent several times before, and not as a tourist - it was always on some factfinding or troubleshooting mission for the Church, even if a unviersity in Chile also did give him an honorary degree! You want Latin American/Hispanic credentials? He also has visited Spain several times and also has an honorary degree from there.]
"If it was the previous Pope, me and a lot of other people would be trying to get a glimpse of him but we are just not enthusiastic about this one," said Solange Menezes de Souza, 38, who owns a small food store. [ Yeah, right! Quote someone who is unenthusiastic without quoting someone who is - how's that for fair play and journalistic objectivity?]
Still, more than 1 million people are expected at an outdoor mass on Friday in Sao Paulo, where he will canonize the 18th-century Friar Antonio Galvao, the first Brazilian-born saint.
Pope Benedict is due to give the keynote address on Sunday to a conference of Latin American and Caribbean bishops in the town of Aparecida where finding ways to halt the exodus from Catholicism will be a prime task.
(Additional reporting by Mauricio Savarese and Todd Benson, writing by Angus MacSwan; editing by Kieran Murray; Sao Paulo newsroom +55-11-5644-7714)
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'TIME' PRESENTS THE FIGURES...AND SORT OF 'DISSES' THE POPE AGAIN By ANDREW DOWNIE/RIO DE JANEIRO
Tuesday, May. 08, 2007
Pope John Paul II was the first pontiff ever to visit Brazil, and he was hugely popular here. But each time he visited his adoring flock, he came in the knowledge that his Church was losing followers and influence at a frightening rate. Between 1980 and 2000, the proportion of Catholics in the world's largest Catholic country fell from 89% to 73.9%.
Still, on the eve of his successor's first trip to Brazil — Benedict XVI touches down in Sao Paulo on Wednesday for a five-day visit — there is some encouraging news for the Holy See. New figures show that the exodus of worshipers to Protestantism has stopped.
Government census data show that in 2003 73.8% of Brazilians declared themselves Catholics, almost exactly the same number (73.9%) as three years earlier. The number of Protestants did rise to 17.9% from 16.2%, but those joining Protestant denominations, rather than disaffected Catholics, were unhappy followers of other religions or people who had previously declared themselves to have no religious faith.
The stanching of the flow of believers out of the Catholic Church is great news for the new Pontiff — and an unexpected one, given that the decline has been going on since records began in 1872.
"The surprise is the stabilization of the number of Catholics," said Marcelo Neri, an economist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a top Rio business school who helped author a study based on the government data. "Catholics haven't attracted more faithful, but they are no longer losing their flock."
Neri identified two factors behind the slowdown: The stabilization of Brazil's economy after decades of boom and bust; and the adoption by local Catholic diocese of some of the methods that brought success to the Protestant denominations.
Protestantism, says Neri, takes root quickest in impoverished urban areas where the state is absent. But significant income gains among the poorest sectors of society, combined with a far-reaching government assistance program, have given hope to people who once turned to Protestant Pentecostalism for financial and social aid.
After decades of losing ground to the Protestants, the local Catholic clergy had also noted that these rival churches lured believers not just with promises of rewards more immediate than a place in heaven, but also by offering services that are more joyful, happier, friendlier and more down-to-earth. By comparison with the Protestants' approachable pastor next door, the rock and roll liturgy and the 24-hour service, the Catholic Church could look cold and distant.
In recent years, however, the Vatican has loosened the shackles on Brazilian priests and given its blessing to singers, actors and writers to go after the young and trendy crowd that were flocking to Pentecostalism. Under the title Charismatic Renewal, the Church has accepted, if not wholly embraced, priests who evangelize in song, on surfboards and skateboards, through self-help books and TV shows and on the Internet.
The best example of the trend is Father Marcelo Rossi, a charismatic and media-savvy priest who has sold millions of CDs featuring songs like "Clapping for Jesus," "Raise Your Hands" and the "Jesus Twist."
Rossi has a daily radio show, two weekly TV shows and a busy web portal, and he hosts regular concerts-cum-shows at which thousands of young fans dance to his catchy gospel pop. He once attracted 2.4 million fans to an appearance in Sao Paulo, and his draw is such that he has been invited to give a live performance immediately after Benedict XVI says mass in Sao Paulo on May 11.
"Father Marcelo is one of those people most responsible for halting the loss of followers," said Antonio Miguel Kater Filho, Director of the Brazilian Institute of Catholic Marketing. "He communicates something that might be difficult to communicate in other ways and he attracts people to him. He has charisma."
In the past, the Vatican frowned upon such figures and anything resembling a commercial show of faith, but the success of these methods in fighting the Protestant encroachment has prompted Rome to adopt a more convenient silence on the issue, both in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. The question now is whether that high-energy devotion to Jesus, Mary and Benedict can prevent further erosion of Roman Catholicism in a region that boasts almost half the world's devotees.
Even in Guatemala, Latin America's most Protestant nation, there are signs that the more charismatic approach of the Catholic Church can reverse the trend. The number of Guatemalan Protestants stopped growing at the start of the decade and now numbers between 33% and 40%, according to Dr. Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Interim Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of Texas.
Every nation in this once homogenously Catholic continent has a bedrock of Catholic support that will never be eroded, and the numbers presented in Brazil last week may be a sign that those willing to choose an alternative have already done so. "It doesn't surprise me," Garrard-Burnett said of the study's findings. "You just see Protestant growth plateau and I think that may be true in Brazil."
No one knows whether the plateau means the Vatican's prayers have been answered or whether the numbers will continue to fall again later. But the Pope can be expected to welcome signs of a Catholic resurgence with open arms. Father Rossi might not be able to get Benedict dancing at the altar, but the numbers he has helped produce just might.
==============================================================
Not as welcome is this article by Time's Vatican correspondent, who has somehow become negative about Benedict. Here he stresses jet lag, of all things, as the Pope's main problem.
Brazil Welcomes a Very Different Pope
Wednesday, May. 09, 2007
By JEFF ISRAELY/ROME
Pope Benedict XVI's five-day visit to Brazil, his first as pontiff to the region that is home to half the world's Catholics, is chockfull of critical social and spiritual missions.
But the 80-year-old pontiff's first challenge is much more mundane — coping with jet lag. And he may not be as practiced on that front as his globetrotting predecessor: As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he had preferred to stay home in Rome. His last trans-Atlantic flight was in 1999.
Does this Pope look jet-lagged to you? Taken Thursday morning
in Sao Paulo after his visit with President Lula, 14 hours after
he arrived in Brazil.
As he arrives in Latin America, the Pope will be happy to see that local clergy have fended off the Protestant challenge by adopting the charismatic style of their rivals.
Even as Pope, until now, Benedict has stayed relatively close to Rome, logging four outings in Western Europe, and a politically tense though not particularly far-flung November trip to Turkey.
Indeed, the Pope has made the Church's challenges on its home continent — particularly Europe's growing secularism — the focus of his pontificate. Still, the pastoral needs of Latin America's approximately half-billion Catholics make it necessary for the not-so-frequent flyer to make the 12-hour flight across five time zones.
After touching down in Brazil on Wednesday, Benedict will have scarcely a moment to recuperate, facing a full schedule of encounters with the faithful, Church officials and local political authorities.
Benedict will begin his five-day visit in the pulsating metropolis of Sao Paulo, moving on Friday to the town of Aparecida, home to the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, the country's patron saint, which hosts the Fifth gathering of Latin American and Caribbean bishops that the Pope has specifically come to inaugurate on Sunday.
The issues on the agenda of the Bishops' conference will also be those that guide Benedict's visit to Brazil — the shrinking of congregations in the face of the appeal of evangelical Protestant groups and also as a result of growing secularism, materialism, poverty and priest shortages.
Says one Latin American-born veteran Vatican official: "The problems in Latin America aren't less grave than in Europe, they just manifest differently."
But as much as Catholic officials in Latin America are focused on the future of the Church in the region, the Pope's visit will naturally evokes memories of his predecessor.
John Paul traveled 18 times to Latin America, including his very first trip, in 1979, which brought him to Pueblo, Mexico for the Third meeting of Latin American bishops. When the then 59-year-old Polish Pope traveled by open Popemobile from Mexico City to Pueblo, there were thick crowds gathered literally all along the entire 75-mile route. John Paul would later say the experience shaped his entire papacy.
Benedict, of course, is a different kind of Pope, who came to the job as a 78-year-old with an academic's instincts. His somewhat more limited travels seem to touch, though not necessarily shape him.
His visit to Istanbul's Blue Mosque and joint prayer with a Turkish imam — in the midst of controversy over papal remarks about Islam — was the first sweeping gesture that recalled John Paul's approach.
In Brazil, there is a planned visit to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, and the Pope will no doubt talk about the region's staggering gap between the rich and poor.
Some believe Benedict would benefit from another improvised public display amongst Brazil's emotive flock: a stop in a favela (shanty town) in Sao Paulo, or offering his papal ring at the Aparecida sanctuary.
But Father Javier Magdaleno Cueva, a Mexican-born Vatican official, says the pontiff won't try to imitate John Paul. "Benedict is profoundly European. He doesn't have the same natural affinity with the Latin American approach to Catholicism as John Paul — and he knows it. Still, he too will be conquered by the welcome he receives." [ Come on! You're talking of a Bavarian here - Bavarians cannot have any less 'natural affinity to Catholicism" than the Poles or Latin Americans!]
Indeed, Vatican watchers are already wary of comparing Benedict to John Paul, and the current papacy has clearly begun to create its own narrative. The question, then, is what this elderly European scholar aims to do in the New World.
The South American official in Rome says that Benedict's attempt to reaffirm the Church's historic role in Europe is itself a vital message for Latin American Catholics to hear.
"The clarity of his discourses will be appreciated in Brazil. Catholicism is losing its identity there too," he said.
Jet lag aside — for Benedict appears to be in fine health — this trip may indeed raise the question of age, or better yet: aging. It has been said over the past century that Catholicism in Latin America was vibrant because it was relatively young.
John Paul's own youth in the early years of his papacy sparked a love affair between the Pope and his flock from Mexico to Bolivia, Brazil and Chile — and a particular tenderness once he had grown old.
Now, instead, St. Peter's chair is occupied by an aging man deeply rooted in the Old Continent — and he visits at a moment when Latin American Catholicism is confronting some of the difficulties of its own aging. [ So you are saying that an 'aging' man - one with Benedict's two-years-proven charisma with the crowds - is incapable of 'sparking a love affair' with the faithful!!! And you, Mr. Israely, live in Rome, and should see what takes place at St. Peter's Square every week, twice a week.
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WHAT THE POPE ACTUALLY SAID
Now that the Vatican Press Office has released the Italian transcript, let me quote it here, and then give John Allen's translation in-flight, as well as my translation, in which I try to stay as parallel as possible to the way the Pope formulates his sentences.
POLITI Domanda: Santità, nel suo discorso di arrivo Lei dice che si tratta di formare cristiani dando indicazioni morali, poi loro decidono liberamente e coscientemente. Lei condivide la scomunica data ai deputati di Città del Messico sulla questione dell’aborto?
POLITI's question (Allen's translation):
Thank you, your Holiness. In your speech upon arrival*, you say that the church forms Christians, provides moral indications, so that people will make free decisions in conscience. Do you agree with the excommunication given to legislators in Mexico City on the question of abortion?
[*Referring to the Pope's speech to be delivered at Sao Paulo airport, but which the journalists get ahead of time under embargo - that is, not to be used until it is actually delivered.]
My translation:
Holiness, in your arrival speech you say that it is a matter (for the Church) of forming Christians by giving them moral indications which they may decide on freely and consciously. Do you agree with the excommunication given to the deputies of Mexico City on the question of abortion?
THE ANSWER
La scomunica non è una cosa arbitraria, ma è prevista dal Codice (n.d.r. codice di diritto canonico). Quindi sta semplicemente nel Diritto Canonico che l’uccisione di un bambino innocente è incompatibile con l’andare alla comunione in cui si riceve il Corpo di Cristo.
Non si è quindi inventato qualcosa di nuovo, di sorprendente o di arbitrario. È stato solo ricordato pubblicamente quanto è previsto dal Diritto della Chiesa, da un Diritto che è basato sulla dottrina e sulla fede della Chiesa, sul nostro apprezzamento per la vita e per la individualità umana, sin dal primo momento.
Allen's translation:
Yes, this excommunication is not something arbitrary, but it’s part of the Code [of Canon Law]. It’s based simply on the principle that the killing of an innocent human child is incompatible with going in communion with the Body of Christ.
Thus, [the bishops] didn’t do anything new, anything surprising or arbitrary. In that light, they simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the church, and the law of the church is based upon the doctrine and the faith of the church, which expresses our appreciation for life, that human individuality, human personality, is present from the first moment [of life].
My translation:
Excommunication is not an arbitrary thing, but something provided for in the Code [of Canon Law]. And the Code of Canon Law says simply that killing an innocent child is incompatible with going to Communion in which one receives the Body of Christ.
Therefore, nothing new, or surprising, or arbitrary has been invented. It was simply a public reminder of what Church law provides for, a law that is based on the doctrine and the faith of the Church, on our appreciation of life and for human individuality, from the first moment [of life].
=================================================================
I note that the first word in Allen's translation is "Yes" - directly following therefore the question "Do you agree with..." (I assume he translated listening to his audio recording of the news conference).
The word does not appear in the Vatican transcript, but even if the Pope did say that, it would have been a rhetorical flourish, "Yes, I get your question," "Yes, I get what you mean", not "Yes, I agree they should be excommunicated". The rest of his answer clearly gives the sense of what he meant.
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DAY 2: THE POPE MEETS WITH PRESIDENT LULA  
Left, the Pope greets faithful outside San Bento as he leaves for his appointment with President Lula.
 
Fr. Lombardi says the Pope
and Lula spoke about life
and family issues but not abortion
San Paolo, May 10 (Apcom) - The private meeting between Pope Benedict VXI and President Lula of Brazil lasted half an hour, beyond the scheduled time for the Pope's courtesy call.
Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office, told journalists at a news briefing that the conversation centered on the issue of family and the defense of life "but not explicitly on abortion."
"It was quite a long conversation, in which Lula spoke about the need to support the family, and the youth. They talked about the Church's contribution to the cause of peace, for a peaceful society and for the realization of social programs for the improvement of human life. They also discussed Brazil's international commitment towards helping poorer countries, expecially in Africa."
"For his part," Lombardi said, "the Pope expressed his appreciation of Brazil's commitment in terms of the human and professional formation of its youth." But he did not specifically bring up the question of abortion, he stresed.
"I was very much impressed that Lula's wife was present for the conversation. I think it's a sign of how much imortance Lula gives to the family as an institution," Lombardi said.
He said "the Pope had a good night's sleep, he is in top form, and this morning, he said private Mass at the Monastery." After which came the visit to Lula at the Palacio dos Bandeirantes, Sao Paulo's City Hall. [Lula holds office in Brasilia, the national capital.]
At the meeting with Lula, he said, also present were Mons. Migliorelli of the Secretariat of State and the Brazilian ambassasdor to the Holy See, who both also acted as interpreters.
Meanwhile, the governor of Sao Paulo state and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs met with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Mons. Leonardo Sandri (an undersecretary of State, the Apostolic Nuncio in Brazil, and the Archbishops of Sao Paolo and Campo Limpo.
After the meeting, Benedict XVI met Lula's family, including his 7-year-old grandson. He's the boy who dropped the rosary that the Pope bent to pick up, as recounted by MaryJos in her post below.]
From the meeting, the Pope visited the Museum of Sacred Art, considered Sao Paolo's best museum, containing a wealth of religious art from Brazil's colonial period. This was an unscheduled activity.
 
During the visit with Lula, the President also presented the Pope with the commemorative stamp
issued by the Brazilian post office to mark his visit .
 
Pope meets Brazil's Lula
amid abortion debate
by Gina Doggett
SAO PAULO, May 10 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI met privately with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Thursday after the two traded public words over the contentious issue of abortion.
The closed-door courtesy call took place the day after the conservative pope condemned abortion in his first speech on Brazilian soil at the start of a four-day visit.
Lula, who greeted the pope warmly on the tarmac Wednesday, had said on the eve of Benedict's arrival that he opposes abortion personally, but that as Brazilian head of state he views it as a public health issue, because "otherwise it leads to the death of many girls in this country."
He added: "Today 30 percent of (Brazilian) girls between 15 and 17 years old are out of school because of pregnancy," he said. "I know cases of girls who had their uterus perforated by a knitting needle" during an abortion.
For his part, Benedict went on the offensive even before landing, telling the Vatican press corps aboard the papal plane that he backed a threat by Mexican bishops to ex-communicate lawmakers who voted to decriminalize abortion in Mexico City last month, in a key defeat for the Church. [ How have we evolved overnight to this interpretation of the Pope's words? SEE POST ABOVE for what the Pope actually said.]
"It is written in the (canon) law that murdering a child is incompatible with communion, and the bishops have done nothing arbitrary. They have only put the spotlight on what is allowed by Church law," he said.
Mexico City is one of the few places in Latin America where abortion is allowed without restrictions in the first three months of pregnancy.
Brazilian Health Minister Jose Gomes Temperao is in favor of holding a referendum on abortion similar to one held in Portugal in February that led to its decriminalization.
The voluntary termination of pregnancy is currently allowed only in cases of rape or when the mother's life is in danger.
Temperao is adamant that the Church remain out of the issue. "You can't impose the precepts and dogma of a particular religion on an entire society," he said, adding: "Church and state have been separate in Brazil for centuries."
Underscoring the point, Temperao has decided not to accompany the pope on a visit to a drug rehabilitation center in the nearby town of Guaratingueta on Saturday, the Sao Paulo newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo reported.
The Brazilian government sponsors an aggressive campaign to prevent unwanted pregnancies by distributing millions of free condoms and even morning-after pills, drawing severe criticism from the Church.
On Tuesday, Catholics and evangelists demonstrated against abortion in the Brazilian capital Brasilia, while in Sao Paulo a Catholic pro-choice movement and women's groups called for a protest Thursday against Church policies.
During Thursday's meeting with the 80-year-old pope, the two were not expected to discuss the debate, but Lula reportedly planned to ask the pontiff to help him spread Brazil's social policies - such as a living wage for families - around the world.
The highlight of the first full day of Benedict's visit will be a speech in the early evening to 40,000 young people from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Honduras and Mexico on the theme "Youth, Disciples and Missionaries of Jesus Christ."
On Sunday, the pope will open a conference of Latin American bishops in the sanctuary town of Aparecida, which is expected to focus on ways to counter the growth of evangelical sects across the region.
Latin America is home to nearly half of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics with Brazil a particular stronghold. But the Church has lost ground to rival evangelical faiths in recent years.
In Brazil, 64 percent of the population is Catholic, but the figure has plunged from 74 percent a decade ago, according to a recent study. [ Again, the false figure!]
Meanwhile the number of evangelicals has risen to 17 percent from 11 percent, the Datafolha institute said.
"We should be more missionary, or more dynamic, to offer responses to the thirst for God," Benedict said on the plane. "People want to be close to God ... and at the same time they accept those who promise solutions to their problems of daily lives."
 
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Last night, after EWTN coverage finished, CTV showed the crowds waiting for Papa outside the monastery [small screen, normally used for the webcam]. They were seething and surging about with excitement - I really don't think I'd have wanted to be there.
Today's photos show the ecstasy of those people who had waited so long to see our Papa for the first time! We know how they felt!!!!
This afternoon EWTN covered the meeting with Brazil's president - though we didn't see much. What we did see was moving and glorious - one little child received a gift from Papa [probably a rosary] and promptly dropped it - Papa bent to pick it up!!! There was a similar incident at a recent general audience wasn't there! What a big heart our man has!!!!!! He's going to charm them all and win Brazil back to the "unam sanctam, Catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam"!!!!!!
Holy Father, we LOVE you!!!!!![Modificato da maryjos 10/05/2007 19.25] [Modificato da maryjos 10/05/2007 19.27] |
| 10/05/2007 19:49 |
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DAY 2: MEETING WITH RELIGIOUS LEADERS At San Bento monastery:
 
 
The Pope greets Sheik Armando Hussein Saleh, representative of the Sao Paulo Islamic community, and Rabbi Henry Sobel.
San Paolo, May 10 (Apcom) - Sheikh Armando Hussein Saleh, representing the Muslim community of Sao Paulo, presented the Pope with a white cape (coat) as 'a sign of brotherhood and friendship," according to Fr. Federico Lombardi, who briefed newsmen about the Pope's activities today.
The Pope met with 13 religious representatives, among them, a Lutheran, an Orthodox, an Armenian, a member of the Reformed Christian church, a rabbi, a Muslim, an Anglican, and a Presbyterian.
"It was a simple meeting. The Pope exchanged pleasantries with all of them and thanked them for coming."
 
Earlier, the Pope greets the monks as he returns to the monastery after his meeting with President Lula.
Right, the Pope greets the crowd last night upon arrival at the monastery.
According to ZENIT, the Pope made an unscheduled appearance at the balcony this morning to bless the thousands who were gathered outside the monastery in the hope of seeing him come and go.
Thousands of pilgrims also lined the long 25-minute route of the papal motorcade from the monastery to Palacio dos Bandeirantes.
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INTERVIEW WITH FR. CLODOVIS BOFF Together with his brother Leonardo, he is one of the best-known proponents of liberation theology. Fr. Clodovis Boff has been a missionary in Amazonia [ the Brazilian province where most of the Amazon rainforest is located], has taught in many cities of Brazil, and now 'commutes' between teaching jobs at the Catholic University of Curitiba in Brazil and the Marianum Institute of Rome, where he teaches a course on "Mary in the social dimension."
On the eve of the fifth general conference of Latin American and Caribbean bishops, he wrote an interesting article for the Revista Ecclesiastica Brasileira (Brazilian Church magazine) , in which he says that the Latin-American Church should take off from the experience of faith and not from social analysis, which gives rise to a dialog full of surprises. [I hope John Allen gets hold of this, as he did of the magazine which had a recent article by Sobrino - see Allen's piece on Sobrino a few days back, ont his thread.]
Father Clodovis, what you wrote - does that not represent a radical change in liberation theology?
It is a change but it is not radical. Let me remind you that the 'base communities' in Latin America started from the experience of faith, but then along the way, having encountered the tragedy of the social situation, they sort of forgot where they had come from. So now, we must return to the origin, to the source of social commitment.
Do you still consider yourself a 'liberation theologian'?
I'm not interested in labels. I understand liberation theology not as a reality in itself, but as a current of thought within the tradition of the Church which had the merit of re-proposing a fundamental aspect of the faith, namely the social commitment that arises from it.
So more than 'liberation theology,' I prefer to talk about a Christian theology which consistently develops the liberating dimension of man which is intrinsic in the message of the Gospel. This dimension was fully accepted by the pontifical Magisterium. Neither John Paul II nor his Prefect for the Cogregation of the Doctrine of the Faith ever condemned it.
Allow me - the then-Cardinal Ratzinger issued two Instructions against liberation theology...
The Instructions of 1984 and 1986 responded to two critical points in the theology of liberation: first, the politicalization of faith, and then, the assumption through Marxist methodology of a materialistic concept of history. But the basic proposition itself was not an issue.
What is expected with this visit to Brazil of Benedict XVI?
I expect a reinforcement of the Brazilian people's Catholic identity, which is increasingly challenged by secularization and the advances made by the Pentecostal sects.
The phenomenon of the sects shows that the poor - at whom liberation theology was directed - have chosen to go instead with the theology of success and prosperity*. Is that not a paradox?
It is, unfortunately. In the heat of speaking about long-term change of existing structures, we neglected to attend to the immediate needs of the people. Papa Ratzinger was right when, in his encyclical Deus caritas est, he asked everyone to rediscover the value of social charity.
[*Yet this is something that has never been pointed out in the endless commentaries about the 'rise of the sects' or about Liberation Theology today - which is always referred to as though it were widespread and flourishing. I've read about those 80,000 base communities for the past 20 years - there may have been 80,000 to begin with, but how many are still active? And it's not as if the base communities weere huge aggrupations - from what I understand, they're small groups of 15-20 people who meet for prayer and indoctrination. So do the math.]
Your brother Leonardo says this Pope is 'difficult to love.' Is that the way Brazilians think?
Not at all. The Pope represents a very strong symbol of the Church which the great majority of Brazilians recognize. It is an emotional link, almost visceral. But it's true ( he laughs), he has his critics, like my brother. But we're talking here of a tiny minority.
And what do you think of this Pope?
I think he came at the right time. The Church was in need of a voice like his, simple but strong, to urge a rediscovery of the Catholic identity and the centrality of Christ in our faith.
We are living in a time when people have lost their way, even within the Church, under the challenges of modernity. But Benedict XVI sets things straight.
Father Clodovis, why does your name not appear among the liberation theologians who signed a document of solidarity with Jon Sobrino, after the Notification from the CDF?
There are problems which must be confronted on the doctrinal level that cannot be resolved by proclamations of solidarity. The issue here is not Sobrino as a person, whom I respect, but the contents of some of his theological affirmations which need to be clarified and corrected.
Avvenire, 10 maggio 2007
================================================================
Isn't it amazing how much he managed to say in very few words? God bless Fr. Clodovis - and his brother and other priests who have 'lost their way', as Fr. Clodovis puts it.
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INTERVIEW WITH CARDINAL MARADIAGA (VATICAN CITY, May 10 (ASCA) - "Some have said Benedict XVI was going to Brazil to further 'correct' liberation theology, but that's not so," says Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, in an interview with FAMIGLIA CRISTIANA, in which he also decries the persistence of economic power which still conditions politics in Latin America.
"When I was president of the Latin American bishops conference in 1997," Maradiaga recalls, "we held a meeting in Germany with several liberation theologians, and we met with Cardinals Ratzinger and Bertone. It was an open dialog. Whoever says Ratzinger has a closed mind is simply wrong. He has always encouraged liberation theology. He has disputed some doctrinal problems, but which are not the core of liberation theology, in my view.
"Unfortunately, liberation theology has provoked an ideological confrontation. It is true that there have been doctrinal problems. But 80% of liberation theology is about the option for the poor and working for them. That goes on.
"No one in Latin America forgets that the main problem is increasing poverty and lack of enough efforts to arrive at social justice. Liberation theology is not dead, but now, no one is talking of extraneous matters, only the Gospel. The social doctrine of the Church commits us to this."
That the new democracies in Latin America seem to be predominantly leftist does not bother the cardinal as much.
"It is good that democracy has come to us [in contrast, one supposes, to previous dictatorial regimes for which the continent was notorious]. The danger is not about left or right, but that politics degenerates into nothing more than business, it becomes an industry. Many make use of politics for personal gain.
"Shortly after the last of the military dictatorships, we were happy to be rid of them, but then, we were living in what was formally called democracy, but without democratic leaders. Then we passed on to getting weak leaders, whose decisions were easily bought.
"Actually, the true decision-making centers - economic and military - were never touched. The new democracies have brought to light some forms of corruption, but they have fallen into the vortex of new corruptions themselves - in which losses are socialized and gains are privatized.
"The best men have been entrusted with administering the government but not with the management of power, which rests today with whoever controls the economy and the means of communication.
"The problems of just distribution of resources, of health, of housing, of food, of jobs, of education - these have not been resolved."
What is the Church doing? The cardinal is optimistic about action by the Latin American Church. He thinks that the Church has stepped in at the right time to confront social problems.
"It has been from our end that new policies have started to develop - the movements for land ownership, for indigenous groups, the peace movements. Even in today's democracies, Church leaders and groups continue to promote respect for life, for human rights, and for an equilibrium among the international powers."
Finally, Maradiaga also expressed his trust in Benedict XVI for the eventual beatification of Mons. Oscar Romero.
"John Paul II was convinced that Romero was killed in an act of hatred for the faith. It's just that there is a problem in El Salvador: besides those who already consider Romero a saint, there are also those who continue to portray him as someone who inspired violent class struggle. So we need to be patient."
He says he knows that Ratzinger "has done an investigation in depth into the writings of Mons. Romero, and I know he found nothing in it that was dangerous for the faith."
Coincidentally, the Pope said yesterday that he had no doubt Mons. Romero would be beatified.
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What the Pope Actually Said
La scomunica non è una cosa arbitraria, ma è prevista dal Codice (n.d.r. codice di diritto canonico). Quindi sta semplicemente nel Diritto Canonico che l’uccisione di un bambino innocente è incompatibile con l’andare alla comunione in cui si riceve il Corpo di Cristo.
Teresa, do you agree with me that "la scomunica" in this context simply means 'excommunication", not 'this', 'that' or 'the' excommunication? The Holy Father is very obviously referring to the concept of excommunication, not to the excommunication of a particular group or person. He does not say 'questa scomunica' or 'quella scomunica' which he would have done had he been referring directly to the question asked regarding the Mexicans. ![[SM=x40795]](http://www.vocinelweb.it/faccine/mad/pag4/40.gif)
===========================================================
I agree completely. That is why I translated it - as 'excommunication' without any article, definite or indefinite, nor any demonstrative adjective like 'this' or 'that' (which he did not use) - to indicate that the word is being used in a general sense. I had to edit this answer, because I went back and saw that John Allen translated it as 'this excommunication' - which would have been 'questa scomunica' not 'la scomunica'! (For those who do not read or speak Italian, a noun is always preceded by an article, unlike English where a noun can stand alone; and paradoxically, when an Italian noun is used in the general sense, it usually takes a definite article - il, lo, la - hence 'la scomunica' here.)
But I just read that the Anglophone press is now accusing the Vatican of editing the Italian transcript, because they say the Pope did say, "Si, la scomunica etc..." And I think Fr. Lombardi said, "Yes, the Secretariat of State usually cleans up a transcript before it is released."
Whoever did that, if he thought he was doing the Pope a service, actually did him disservice, because now it looks like they're 'protecting' him after the fact. But it was not necessary to do that! It's perfectly normal when you're answering someone to say "Yes" in a rhetorical manner, as I said in my earlier post, because somehow, I felt someone was going to quibble about that "Si..."!
TERESA
P.S. As the Vatican Press Office has not provided a translation, I will do a full translation to post in the HOMILIES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES thread, where we have all the Holy Father's impromptu Q&A sessions on record.
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DAY 2: CROWDS AWAIT POPE AT PACAEMBU STADIUM   
 
 
 
Pope set to lead youth rally
in Sao Paulo stadium
by Gina Doggett
SAO PAULO (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI was set Thursday to appeal to Latin American youth to lead the way in rebuilding the Catholic Church in the face of the growing challenges of secularism and evangelical sects.
At a rally in the early evening in Sao Paulo's Pacaembu sports stadium, the pope was to address young people from across the region on the theme of "Youth, Disciples and Missionaries of Jesus Christ."
Young people from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Honduras and Mexico were already thronging to the 40,000-seat stadium. Tens of thousands more will be able to watch on giant screens outside, officials said.
Benedict, 80, will speak from a massive podium in the form of a dove in the biggest event so far of his five-day visit that began Wednesday.
Latin America is home to nearly half of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics, with Brazil the largest stronghold with 155,000. But in recent years the Church has lost ground to rival evangelical faiths, as well as a growing number of people who have abandoned religion altogether.
"We should be more missionary, or more dynamic, to offer responses to the thirst for God," said Benedict during a news conference during his flight to Brazil.
"People want to be close to God ... and at the same time they accept those who promise solutions to their problems of daily lives."
In Brazil, 64 percent of the population is Catholic, but the figure has plunged from 74 percent a decade ago, according to a recent study.
Meanwhile, the number of evangelical followers has risen to 17 percent from 11 percent, the Datafolha institute said.
On Sunday, the pope will open a conference of Latin American bishops in the sanctuary town of Aparecida which is expected to focus on ways to counter the growth of evangelical sects across the region.
Earlier Thursday, Benedict paid a courtesy call on Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after the two traded public comments on the sensitive subject of abortion.
The pope condemned abortion and backed Mexican bishops who have threatened to ex-communicate lawmakers who voted in favor of its decriminalization.
Lula, for his part, has described it as a public health issue and lamented the spread of teenage pregnancy preventing girls from attending school.
Brazil's Health Minister Jose Gomes Temperao wants a national referendum on abortion similar to one held in Portugal in February that led to its decriminalization.
Abortion is currently allowed in Brazil only in cases of rape or when the mother's life is in danger.
Temperao is adamant that the Church remain out of the abortion issue. "You can't impose the precepts and dogma of a particular religion on an entire society," he said Wednesday, adding: "Church and state have been separate in Brazil for centuries."
The health minister has pointedly decided not to accompany the pope on a visit to a drug rehabilitation center in the nearby town of Guaratingueta on Saturday, the Sao Paulo newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo reported.
On Friday up to a million people are expected at an open-air mass at Sao Paulo's vast Campo de Marte where a giant wooden cross has been erected for the occasion.
Benedict will canonize Brother Galvao, Brazil's first native-born saint, who who lived from 1739 to 1822. He founded monasteries and convents throughout Brazil, but is best known today because of his reputed healing powers.
In Aparecida on Sunday, 166 bishops and cardinals will gather from the 22 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean for the group's first meeting in 15 years.
And this has been typical of Reuters's reporting about the Pope from Brazil - reminds me of how they cover Iraq:
Young Brazilians rally for Pope,
some skeptical
By Todd Benson
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of young Brazilians crammed into a soccer stadium on Thursday to hear
Pope Benedict tell them to lead pure lives and turn their backs on the sexual freedom their country is famous for.
Many of the some 30,000 young men and women sang and danced with typical Brazilian joyfulness to Christian rock music before the Pope arrived at the Pacaembu stadium in Sao Paulo.
But some couples spent the time kissing and groping each other instead. [ WHAT A GRATUITOUS COMMENT! People do that all the time in stadiums and gatherings, big and small.]
The 80-year-old Pope is in Brazil for a five-day visit to reinforce the Roman Catholic message on traditional family values and try to halt a tide of defections to Protestant religious groups.
Brazil is the world's most populous Catholic nation but many Catholics here ignore Church teachings on sex and birth control, and the government has also upset the Vatican by handing out free condoms.
Pope Benedict was expected to use the soccer stadium rally to call on Brazil's youth to avoid sex before marriage, stay away from drugs and live their lives by a strict moral code.
Despite the enthusiasm at the event, also attended by members of youth groups from across Latin America, some felt the pontiff needs to change his approach.
"The Church should defend the use of condoms and campaign against promiscuity at the same time. They have to be realistic," said Felipe Silveira, 21, an engineering student from Rio de Janeiro who said he regularly attends church.
Asked if he was a virgin, he smiled and said "No."
The Pope delivered a strong anti-abortion message when he arrived in Brazil on Wednesday night, his first visit to Latin America since he was elected two years ago.
Polls show many Brazilians feel the Church is out of touch with modern realities, but others support the Pope's line.
"The Church has positions that are tough to abide by in the modern world but we have to uphold these principles," said Lucila Beting, a grandmother in a small crowd waiting outside the Sao Paulo state governors' palace for a glimpse of the Pontiff.
The Pope met in the morning with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose government has been criticized by Brazilian bishops for distributing millions of free condoms to fight
AIDS.
Brazil's health minister has also clashed with Church leaders recently, calling for a plebiscite to legalize abortion and saying the Church was stifling debate.
In return, the head of Brazil's bishops' council accused the government of promoting promiscuity.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
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DAY 2: ENCOUNTER WITH THE YOUTH  
 
 
 
Pope: Youth must avoid 'snares of evil'
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
SAO PAULO, Brazil, May 10 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI urged tens of thousands of young Catholics packing a soccer stadium Thursday to resist the temptations of wealth, power and other "snares of evil," and told them to promote life from "its beginning to natural end."
The references to church prohibitions against abortion and euthanasia came in Benedict's first major speech since arriving in Brazil, the world's largest Catholic country, on his first pilgrimage to Latin America.
While he made no mention of the church's battle against Brazil's free distribution on condoms to combat AIDS, he touched on sexual themes with a call for fidelity between spouses and chastity "both within and outside marriage" — church language for responsible sex.
"Seek to resist forcefully the snares of evil that are found in many contexts," Benedict told the crowd of some 40,000, with thousands more camped outside the stadium.
His warnings against drug use, violence, corruption and the temptations of wealth and power were sure to sound across the region, while his condemnation of the "devastation of the environment of the Amazon Basin" was particularly important in Brazil, where Catholic activists have been working with the landless — at times at odds with the Vatican.
Before the pope arrived at the stadium, a man clad in a white robe took the stage and asked people in the crowd to stand and raise their right hands. "Yes to life!" the man shouted and the crowd repeated. "No to abortion!"
Traditional Brazilian dancers entertained the 80-year-old pope, who was wearing a red cape against the evening chill. At one point, five young people came up to the stage and hugged the pontiff.
With abortion becoming a major issue on the trip, the Vatican released a transcript Thursday that seemed to roll back the pope's comments a day earlier on the excommunication of lawmakers who vote in favor of legalizing abortion.
Asked during an in-flight news conference Wednesday if legislators who legalized abortion in Mexico City should rightfully be considered excommunicated, Benedict said "Yes."
"The excommunication was not something arbitrary. It is part of the (canon law) code," the pope continued, seemingly siding with the Mexican bishops who said the politicians had excommunicated themselves.
But Benedict's spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, later said Benedict did not intend to formally excommunicate anyone — a rare process under church law — and on Thursday the Vatican released a slightly edited transcript that dropped the word "yes" in the pope's response.
Lombardi told reporters such edits are common. "Every time the pope speaks off-the-cuff the Secretariat of State reviews and cleans up his remarks," he said.
Still, Benedict's comments stoked debate among Catholics who have been arguing whether politicians who approve abortion legislation as well as doctors and nurses who take part in the procedure subject themselves to automatic excommunication under church law.
Some of the Mexican legislators involved said they still consider themselves to be Catholic — no matter what the pope says. And in the United States, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani — a Catholic who favors abortion rights — tried to steer clear of the controversy.
"I do not get into debates with the pope, that is not a good idea," Giuliani said.
Asked again Thursday whether the church will use the threat of excommunication against politicians thinking of legalizing abortion, Lombardi said that the pope has called on all Catholics to have a "Christian behavior, coherent with his faith and vision of life."
"When this is not the case, then comes the problem of the true participation in the life of the church and also in the Eucharist," Lombardi said. "This is the question. Are we coherent with our Christian vision? If yes, we can participate. If no, there is a problem."
The flurry of papal statements and revisions left many puzzled. Some newspapers in Brazil and Mexico declared Benedict approves of excommunication for politicians who support abortion rights, while others said exactly the opposite — that he had ruled it out.
The controversy didn't help persuade some of the Brazilians waiting for a glimpse of the pope.
"I'm totally against his stance on abortion. I have two daughters and we know how Sao Paulo is. If something happened to them, and they were raped, I would never let them have a baby that way," said Roberto Tavares, a retired airline pilot.
Many Catholics share the pope's views, however — polls show Brazilians are overwhelmingly against expanding access to abortion beyond current law, which allows it in cases of rape or when the mother's life is in danger.
Abortion did not come up in Benedict's meeting Thursday with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Lombardi said.
Silva did tell the pope in the close-door meeting that Brazil wants to help Africa develop biofuels as a way to ease poverty, local news media reported.
Brazil's ambassador to the Vatican, Vera Machado, told the Agencia Estado news agency that the pope said he did not know much about biofuels but appreciated any help for Africa.
The pope also met Thursday with Brazilian religious leaders, including members of the local Jewish and Islamic communities. The Muslim representative gave his white cape to the pope, describing the gift as a "gesture of brotherhood," Lombardi said.
There were no representatives from evangelical churches, which have attracted millions of Catholics in recent years.
 
 
 
  
 
 
Stay off sex and drugs,
Pope tells Brazil's youth
By Todd Benson
SAO PAULO, May 10 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict told young Brazilians to avoid sex before marriage and say no to drugs at a huge rally on Thursday in this country renowned for its lusty attitude toward sex.
Young men and women should build their lives around their families and stay faithful to their spouses once married, the Pope told more than 30,000 excited youths packed into a soccer stadium in Sao Paulo.
"Be promoters of life, from its beginning to its natural end," he said, seated on an elaborately carved red throne.
On his first trip to Latin America since taking office, the Pope is reinforcing Roman Catholic teachings against abortion and in support of traditional family values. He is also trying to turn back a tide of defections of Catholics to Protestant groups.
Brazil is the world's most populous Catholic nation but many ignore Church teachings on sex and birth control, and the government has upset the Vatican by handing out free condoms.
At the Pacaembu stadium, young men and women sang and danced with typical Brazilian joyfulness to Christian rock music before the 80-year-old Pope took to the stage. A priest led thousands in a chant of "Life yes, abortion no."
Even so, many teenage couples kissed and groped each other as they waited on the sports field for the Pope to arrive.
In a long speech, he urged them to live their lives by a strict moral code and not to waste their youth.
He decried the violence that scars Brazilian society and the high death rate among its youths, the "deplorable proliferation of drugs" and discrimination.
"I send you out, therefore, on the great mission of evangelizing young men and women who have gone astray in this world like sheep without a shepherd," he said.
Robson de Campos, 20, took a 16-hour bus ride from Minas Gerais state to attend the rally.
"It's great that he's speaking to young people, so many young people in this country need guidance, " he said.
But on the issues of contraception and sex, he said: "It's wrong, the Church needs to be more flexible."
The Pontiff met earlier with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose government has been criticized by Church leaders for distributing millions of condoms in an anti-AIDS program and for questioning the Vatican's tough stance on abortion.
The two men avoided the condom and abortion issues in their meeting, officials said.
Polls show many Brazilians feel the Church is out of touch but others support the Pope's line.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/05/2007 5.31] |
| 11/05/2007 03:10 |
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