NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT

Posted earlier today (10/25) in the preceding page:
The Pope's preface to the theology volume of his COLLECTED WRITINGS - Complete text translated from Italian.

THE POPE'S DAY

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The Holy Father met today with
- H.E. Anne Leahy, Ambassador of Canada, who presented her credentials. Address in French.
- Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family
- Mons. Geraldo Lyrio Rocha, Archbishop of Mariana (Brazil), president of the Brazilian bishops conference,
with his vice president and secretary-general.
- Mons. Walter Brandmüller, President of the Pontifical Committe on Historical Sciences
- A delegation from the International Jewish Committee on Inter-Religious Consultations. Address in English.

In the afternoon, he addressed the students of the Pontifical Universities in Rome after a Mass
at St. Peter's Basilica to open the 2008/2009 academic year.

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The banner above is taken from the site of the French bishops conference
www.eglise.catholique.fr/benoit-xvi-en-france/
which Beatrice has called attention to on her site

and which contains an unbelievably comprehensive total multimedia reportage of the Pope's recent visit to France -
with day-by-day accounts from the point of view of the French bishops who organized the whole visit, photos and videos.
It's the sort of effort one would hope every bishops' conference in every place the Pope visits could carry out.

The following account, however, is from a weekly French Catholic magazine, in the form of an interview with its editor,
one of the few French journalists who has always been an admirer of Joseph Ratzinger and has often written about him
since he became Pope.

It is arguably the best annotated summary I have come across of the Pope's visit to France, and it contains much new
information and insight. Here is a translation.


The Pope's visit to France:
A summary
Interview with Gerald LeClerc
Translated from

September 16, 2008


Gerard LeClerc, after four days that have been so intense, it may be difficult to establish a synthesis of this visit to France by Benedict XVI. Could you at least indicate some general impressions?

The first impression that one takes from it is obviously the Pope’s personality.

One had thought to know him well enough. I myself have been focused on Joseph Ratzinger for quite a long time. Yet, I must say that these four days in Paris and Lourdes have allowed me to understand him better and even, sometimes, to ‘discover’ him again.


Thanks to Monica/Pandora for this photograph.

One knew of course what a profound and erudite theologian he is. And one was aware of his great simplicity. But it seems that the fact of having taken on the supreme responsibility in the Church has brought him another dimension thanks to which all his qualities are as if brought to perfection in an process of ultimate self-realization.

All those who saw and heard him were struck by his extreme gentleness which does not subtract from his authority (authoritativeness?) in the true sense of the term.

Even when he spoke principles which may be hard for some to accept, he does in in a way, very interior, that one has the feeling of being in front of a great spiritual master rather than a chief authority.

This was very evident during his meeting with the French bishops.
Basically, Benedict XVI made no concessions to them, and on certain points, he may even have been severe. But the way in which he enunciated the evangelical exigencies was always more in the manner of the Beatitudes.

That is why one could believe that this first visit to France as Pope has truly allowed the French people to get to know John Paul II’s successor.

More than enough has been said about the difference in personality between the two men that we need not go into it. But a prejudice has been overcome.

Benedict XVI, in front of whatever audience, has as much presence as John Paul II had. And people listen to him with the greatest attention.

One must say that his perfect mastery of our language insured an exceptional level of listening. And so he was able to show before audiences of the most diverse types that he can address each of them in a way that he could be perfectly understood.

Thus he made himself understood by the politicians, institutional
officials and diplomats at the Elysee. He made himself understood before his audience of intellectuals and artists at the Bernardins. Most of all, he made himself understood by hundreds of thousands of
faithful during his homilies and spiritual meditations.

So one might say that the French now know this Pope. That it would be difficult to take up the old clichés tagged on him as the intransigent defender of the faith – which he is, but without the harshness that had been attributed to him.

People will know from now on that he is above all an interior man, in the sense that St. Paul meant, one who can speak with authority because this authority comes to him from Another.

Above all, he himself radiates in his person the message which is his responsibility to announce. It was obvious that all those who met him were equally impressed by a personality which is as much uncommon and extraordinary as was that of John Paul II.


How exactly would you describe the audiences he had in Paris and Lourdes?
There is no doubt that the Pope has known assorted audiences in which all age groups as well as all social classes are represented. But it was remarkable that almost everywhere during this trip, it was the young people who predominated. It was so along the quays of the Seine, at the Mass at the Invalides, as well as at Lourdes.

One of our colleagues said that France has perhaps distinguished itself in this way with audiences such as those the Holy Father had in his own country, in Austria and in Brazil.

For some, it was rather an amusing surprise. This Church of France, which has been described as near-moribund, with its declining gatherings of older people who have little hope to pass down their faith, suddenly revealed itself with the colors of youth!

From this angle, the culmination would have been the night of Friday-Saturday, when tens of thousands of young people went in procession from Notre Dame to the esplanade of the Invalides. At least 60,000 of them slept – or hardly slept – on the Esplanade for the Mass the next morning.

The parish priest of St-Etienne du Mont reported his surprise when, expecting to lead a few hundred youth from his church near the Pantheon, he suddenly had four thousand young people showing up, completely unexpected.

I watched the start of the torchlight procession from Notre Dame. It was fascinating. The square in front of the Church was overflowing with young people, among them priests and religious.

In fact, the Holy Father earlier had revealed his joy to see them all. He himself was not expecting the turnout which became evident to him the moment he left the Bernardins to proceed to Notre Dame, and even during the Vespers inside the Church.

As he went down the central aisle of the Cathedral towards the main entrance afterwards, veritable cohorts of seminarians, priests and religious – many noisily enthusiastic - crowded around him and reached out to him.

Of course, in the face of such enthusiasm, he cannot forget the enormous weaknesses of the Church in France today, particularly in the rural dioceses. But one must say this youth participation was a phenomenon that one must examine.

For instance, is a renaissance in vocations foreseeable in this context? Mons. Giraud, the bishop of Soissons and the one responsible for seminaries in France, spoke to us of his apprehensions about the new school year that is about to begin.

We cannot speculate now, but we can ask whether we are entering a new stage in which the Church in France can deploy a new missionary action with these new generations who seem to be available, at a time when its old powers have declined.


But let’s get back to the start of the trip. How do you interpret the words exchanged at the Elysee with the President of the Republic? Not to mention the reaction of the institutional officials present!
It was evident of course that the President calmly resumed the propositions he had set forth in his famous address at the Lateran in Rome, without adding any provocations that could have given rise to more polemics.

That takes nothing away from the fact that Nicolas Sarkozy, ipso facto, has created a new climate for relations between Church and State. It seems that despite some ritual protestations, he has been getting more support from the so-called enlightened circles.

Benedict XVI, for his part, did not miss the chance to use the expression ‘positive laicite’ as Sarkozy had used it. We must note that this is not just about a simple formulation that will mark from now on this new climate. But that it is no longer mutual distrust that dominates the relations between public powers and religious authorities.

Lionel Jospin [Prime Minister] has already institutionalized regular meetings with officers of the French bishops’ conference along with the Apostolic Nuncio. Benedict XVI mentioned this explicitly during his address to the bishops of France in Lourdes.

Moreover, whatever one may think of Nicolas Sarkozy’s other positions, one must note that, simply by words, he has been able to budge the ideological conformism that had settled in in government.

Some carefully pointed out in the President’s speech the very explicit allusion he made to the problems of bioethics. It is difficult, and doubtless hazardous, to draw from all this a definitive conclusion now, but it appears certain that nothing will be done in this area without consulting the Catholic Church and other religious groups.

And that is something that will provoke the ire of some advocates of the old-style secularism who have not failed to object both to the visit of the Pope and to the President’s propositions.

Benedict XVI and Nicolas Sarkozy spoke before some 700 persons representing the nation’s public institutions. It is remarkable that at the end of the Pope’s response to Sarkozy, he entire assembly got to its feet to applaud him.

It was certainly not out of mere courtesy. The propositions he made were sufficiently weighty so that one could interpret the applause as a veritable acquiescence to the new philosophy which had just been expressed so strongly.


The next highlight of the Parisian stage was the address at the Bernardins. What was the background for this?
Let us remember that the restoration of the College des Bernardins itself is a stunning symbol. It was Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger who acquired the property and wanted to restore it to become the showcase for the dialog between Christianity and contemporary culture. It was a daring wager, starting with the financial angle.

But an agreement reached with local authorities, the Mayor of Paris, and the regional council of the Ile de France led to the materialization of this important project, with the help of very talented architects.

And Benedict XVI’s visit was an extraordinary occasion to advertise the place which few Frenchmen were aware of.

I must confess that I myself awaited with enormous interest what the Pope would decide to say at the Bernardins. I knew that he would prepare his intervention with the greatest care, particularly because he is a protagonist in this great debate between Faith and Culture. And I was not disappointed.

Let me say that I had the privilege of being able to read the text in the morning because I had to present the contents to my fellow journalists at a news conference. From my first reading, I was literally gripped by the literary beauty of the Pope’s presentation, by its extreme concentration of substance and the wealth of deductions one could raw from it.

Rather than making a general address about culture, Benedict XVI entered into the heart of culture in its initial process of formation.

It was this very culture that was disseminated at the time in this College des Bernardins,which was dedicated to the formation of young Cistercian monks assembled within this magnificent building from their various abbeys all over France.

It must have been a pleasure for the Pope to evoke the monastic life, to which he has always been attracted. But this monastic life was not directly planning to create a new culture, which they forged nonetheless because of the circumstances, but above all, the dynamism, that are inherent in monastic practice.

Several times, the Pope cited Dom Jean Leclercq, one of the best scholars on St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the Cistercian order. It was he who established the liaison between ‘eschatology and grammar’, to show how much human culture was linked to the search for God.

“The desire for God includes a love for Letters, love for the Word, its exploration in all its dimensions. Since in the Biblical word, God comes to us, and we to him, the monks had to learn to penetrate the secret of words, to understand language in its structure and its uses.

"Thus, because of the search for God, the profane sciences which show us the way to approach language became important. The library became, in this respect, an integral part of the monastery as was the school.”

After the collapse of the ancient culture following the fall of the Roman Empire, the monasteries became the places for the conservation of memory, not simply to save the patrimony but to place it at the service of the search for God.

In choosing this historical point of view, Benedict XVI was following up on his demonstration of the necessary alliance between Faith and Reason. But it was no longer, as in the famous Regensburg lecture, in terms of a systematic study of the question.

Everything was reprised in an original way, starting from the fact if monastic life. And Benedict XVI would draw from it consequences which are very relevant.

So, the Pope once again looked at the interpretation of Sacred Scripture. Which led him to brief but suggestive references to the history of the interpretation of sacred texts. Because the Bible is not one book, but a collection of books. And the very complexity that this represents should be interpreted.

Theologians listening to Benedict will think spontaneously of the four great volumes of Cardinal Henri de Lubac on medieval exegesis.

There is no single meaning in Scripture, and moreover, one speaks of Scriptures in the plural. The effort of comprehension that this complexity requires shows that Christian exegesis is characterized just as much by unbridled subjectivism as by narrow fundamentalism.

This quick evocation shows that the Pope is entering directly in the contemporary debate on scriptural interpretation which is a problem in the Muslim world.

More generally, he cast new light on the relationship between intelligence and Revelation such as the monks were able to grasp it.
But this was just one of the dimensions of the Bernardins lecture.

It is also a very suggestive introduction to anthropology, with a dose of reflections on the word, and eventually, on song and music.
After all, isn’t the monk made to sing the glory of God as it manifests itself in the beauty of the cosmos?

But here, we must once again quote Benedict: “We find expressed here the consciousness of signing, in the community prayer, in the presence of the celestial choir, and therefore, to be subject to the supreme measure. To pray and to sing, to join in the music of the sublime spirits who are considered authors of the harmony of the cosmos, the music of the spheres”.

And yet another dimension. St. Benedict’s Rule establishes the alliance of prayer and work. It was a radical novelty with respect to classic Hellenism. Work was considered for slaves, while thinking was supposed to be for ‘free men’. But the monks worked and prayed, according to the order of Creation.

Benedict XVI shows himself once again to be very original here. He points out that the God of the bible is a God who works in creating the world. And so monastic labor accords with divine labor.

My last remark about this lecture. Modernity did not put an end to the monastic objective of searching for God. To renounce this search would be to abdicate.

“A purely positive culture, which would consign the question of God to the subjective domain, as being non-scientific, would be the capitulation of Reason, the renunciation of its highest possibilities, and therefore a defeat for humanism, whose consequences cannot be other than grave. That which founded the culture of Europe – the search for God and the readiness to listen to him – continues to be the foundation of all true culture.” That was the Holy Father’s conclusion.


How could the rather assorted audience at Bernardins have reacted to such a discourse?
It was indeed an audience that was extraordinarily diverse with so many disciplines represented. The University was represented, as well as the Institute (Institut Francais) which would receive the Holy Father the next day under the Dome [at Institute headquarters].

But there were a great many intellectuals, editorial writers, novelists artists. There were well-known Christians but also non-believers who are less well-known. There were certainly multiple religious confessions represented.

But there were some real surprises. One, for instance, did not expect to see a woman novelist who has a rather sulphurous reputation.

Nonetheless, everyone was unanimous in their applause and the genuine admiration they showed for this exceptional man. Everyone had to wait for his arrival. Guests had to seated at least an hour and half before his arrival,

And yet, with the mere bustle when he arrived, there came an impressive hush. And one could virtually follow on their faces the interest, if not the passion, raised by listening to his discourse.

Certainly, the audience must have received it in multiply diverse ways as well. Theologians and philosophers were taking it all in smoothly, as did specialists in medieval history. For the rest, the exercise was a bit more difficult. It is possible that quite a few may have been completely disconcerted. It doesn’t matter – there was unanimity in the intensity with which they listened.

One can still measure the echo if the Pope’s words in the intellectual world. Thus, France-Culture decided to play the entire speech for its listeners and scheduled two broadcasts of various commentaries afterwards.

Bruno Frappat remarked, between irony and praise, to Robert Badinter, former president of the Constitutional Council, “It was worthy of the College de France!”
[To put this remark in context: The College de France is a unique institute of multi-disciplinary research and higher education that employs only the top researchers in their field as faculty, does not grant degrees, and where ‘students’ are limited to professors and researchers. It was established in 1530 as a school for ‘science in the making’, and although its motto is Docet omnia (It teaches everything), one of its eminent professors said, “Not preconceived notions, but the idea of free thought”.]

What is true is that the new incarnation of the College des Bernardins was inaugurated in the best and most authoritative way possible. Those responsible for it (the Archdiocese of Paris) can develop it with great enthusiasm, being ‘founded’ on a brilliant discourse which by itself expresses their whole program.


The Parisian stage of the trip ended with the Eucharistic celebration at the Esplanade des Invalides…
In this respect, one can remark how much progress there has been since John Paul II’s first trip here in 1980.

I was able to speak to some people who have an emotional memory of the Mass in Le Bourget that year - held in wind and rain, on a disused airfield, with nothing to distinguish it. Even the stage was completely unremarkable. And the anticipated crowd did not turn up.

It took all of John Paul II’s passion and his extraordinary homily to turn the situation around. No one has forgotten his famous cry, “France, eldest daughter of the Church, have you been faithful to your baptismal vows?”

It is true that the Church had negotiated long and hard with authorities for a Mass site within the city, and that none of the Paris venues proposed was acceptable to them.

But this time, at the Invalides, it was extraordinary. One could really call it a ‘cathedral in the open’. One must congratulate the Orphans of Auteuil for the beautiful altar that they set up that was so well suited to the place.

This is the place to remark how well the Holy Father’s trip was admirably planned, down to the smallest details.

An army of volunteers was available to insure that all the utilities and services for the faithful functioned well. And everything done with a smile. All the operations were admirably managed from the top, both in Paris as in Lourdes.

But to get back to the Mass, one must underscore the beauty of the liturgy. With the new touches that the Holy Father has introduced with the help of his ceremonial masters.

The Motu Proprio has not simply facilitated the celebration of the extraordinary form of the Mass. It has already led to a fruitful confrontation of the two forms. It is the Pope’s intention that this can lead to mutual enrichment and a more profound sense of the liturgy.

In Lourdes, with its multinational gatherings, the canon [standard prayers] of the Mass was sung in Latin. This did not disconcert anyone, and the importance of a common language on such international occasions was evident.

But back to the Mass at Invalides, one can say that it was important for the faithful living in the Paris area as a manifestation of the power of their communion.

The Pope devoted his homily to St. John Chrysostom whose feast day it was. As a great connoisseur of Patristics, he pointed out how this great Father of the Church had amplified the meaning of the Eucharist, which is the very center of Christian life.

That is why he laid particular emphasis on the Eucharist as well as an urgent appeal to the generosity of the young in considering the possibility of vocation in the priesthood or the religious life.

“Do not be afraid!” he told them again.

“Do not be afraid to give your life to Christ. Nothing can ever replace the ministry of priests in the heart of the Church. Nothing can ever replace a Mass for the wellbeing of the world. Dear young people – and those less young who are listening – do not fail to answer the call of Christ.

"St. John Chrysostom, in his treatise on the priesthood, showed how man’s response can be slow to come. Nonetheless, it is an example of the action of God in the heart of human freedom which allows itself to be shaped by his grace.”


Benedict XVI left Paris for Lourdes by air on Saturday afternoon, but you took the high-speed express with the Diocese of Paris group, so you arrived in Lourdes while the Pope was addressing the faithful after the evening torchlight procession. How was the Lourdes part of the trip different?
When we arrived in Lourdes, I was very apprehensive because it was raining very hard. But this did not seem to affect the crowds of pilgrims who were teeming on the streets. Then, upon entering the area of the Shrines itself, the density of the crowds made it difficult to get near the Esplanade of the Rosary where the Holy Father was addressing the crowd.

But already, one was into the tonality of the Pope’s preaching in Lourdes which would have Bernadette’s testimony in the center.

Right away, it was clear that Benedict XVI had an intimate knowledge of Lourdes and what happened there. And he had told newsmen on the plane coming to Paris from Rome that he was born on the Bernadette’s feastday, and this necessarily haad great importance for him.

It’s interesting that Benedict XVI has not particularly called attention to his familiarity with our country before this trip.

John Paul II excelled at evoking his links to France, as someone familiar with Paray-le-Monial [the convent where Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque received several visions of Christ in the late 19th century, leading to the establishment of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus], St. Louis Grignon de Montfort, and St. Jean Vianney. He could also refer to the long history of special relations between France and Poland.

One now understands that Benedict has exactly the same relationship with our country, its history and its saints. [But he has always said that he grew up steeped in French culture almost as much as the Bavarian, and French was the first foreign language he learned.] He made numerous references not only to Lourdes, but also to Charles de Foucauld, St. Julein Eymard and the Cure d’Ars.

“I love France,” he said on the plane coming to Paris, And this was very evident in his words and actions, and one can say that France has now reciprocated.

But one must tak of Benedict’s homiletic genius. The homily in Lourdes on Sunday morning was an example of preaching that was transparent to the huge crowd that filled the Meadow. They understood everything.

This refined intellectual does not need to resort to the abstract to teach. Very naturally, he recounted the story of Lourdes, and from that, he drew a catechesis that was accessible to everyone.

Of course, he never hesitates to cite the Fathers of the Church. But his citations are always well chosen and they carry the mind along without embarrassing it.

Moreover, the example of Bernadette herself attests to the truth of the evangelical Word: “That which you hid from the sages and the scholars, you revealed to children”. And so one must follow the example of Bernadette.

As a theologian, he did not fail to evoke the significance of the Immaculate Conception that was so strongly affirmed by the Virgin herself to the seer.

“Mary,” said Benedict, “is beauty transfigured, the image of the new humanity… This privilege also concerns us, because it unveils our own dignity as men and women marked by sin, yes, but saved in hope, a hope that allows us to face our daily life. It is the path opened for man by Mary."

"To give ourselves fully to God is to find the path of true freedom. In turning to God, man becomes himself. He finds again his original calling as a being crated in the image and likeness of God.”


On Sunday afternoon, the Pope met with the bishops of France to whom he gave an address that one has described as ‘without concessions’…
And Benedict XVI did tackle all the most difficult questions facing the bishops of France. It is also true that he stood firm on those positions on social subjects about which the Church has been criticized for being counter-current.

With regard to the family, he used strong terms, reiterating the example of the tempest on the lake: “The waves beat against the boat and it started to fill with water”.

And he commented. “For several decades, laws have relativized, in different countries, the role of the family as the fundamental cell of society. Often, the laws search more to adapt themselves to the morals and claims of individuals or specific groups rather than promoting the common good of society. The stable union of a man and a woman, meant to construct earthly happiness thanks to the birth of children given by God, is no longer, in the eyes of many, the model intended by conjugal engagement.”

But he did not forget to show mercy or understanding for the sorrowful trials undergone bt so many families. He recalled in this connection the instructions in his predecessor’s Familiaris consortio which opened a path respectful of truth and charity.

And yet, he also tackled other subjects with the bishops. In effect, the Pope examined all the aspects of a bishop's ministry, recalling their defining responsibilities as successors to the apostles.

One must note his insistence on catechesis, which is not primarily about method, but of content: “It has to with an organic grasp of the ensemble of Christian revelation, presented in order to make available to minds and hearts the Word of him who gave his life for us.”

He calls St. Paul ‘the greatest catechist of all time’, and he recommends his advice to Timothy: “Proclaim the Word. In good times and bad.. with great patience and the cocern to instruct…”

The Pope could not avoid the subject of priestly vocations in recalling the example of the Cure D’Ars and using an expression of Ignatius of Antioch, for whom “the priest is a bishop’s spiritual crown’.

One was awaiting what Benedict XVI would say about the famous Motu Proprio which allows a much wider urse of the old Mass. The Pope reiterated his desire for unity: “No one is superfluous in the Church”. But he also showed understanding for the dissifculties encountered by the bishops in the field. The ultimate aim is pacification which corresponds to the mission of pastors to foster unity".

He also revisited his intervention at the Elysee: “It is necessary to find a new way to interpret and live daily those fundamental values on which the identity of this nation was built. Your President has evoked the possibility. The socio-political premises of a previous mistrust, or even hostility, are vanishing little by little… A healthy collaboration between the political community and the Church, realized in the awareness and respect for the autonomy of each in its own domain is a service to man for his personal and social development/”

The firmness of tone is integral to the Pope’s habitual language, which is never hard. Benedict XVI speaks from his heart, from beliefs inspired by the Spirit of the Gospel.

It is remarkable that his address to the bishops was followed by an adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during which he delivered an admirable meditation on the Eucharist which was probably the most beautiful text of the entire trip. Which profoundly touched the thousands of pilgrims who had returned to the Meadow.

The Church speaks differently from other human communities. The French would have understood, thanks to the testimony of Benedict XVI, that the language of the Gospel speaks differently from other languages. This does not mean that it is indifferent to other means of expression.

The end of the trip, very much in the spirit of Lourdes, was the Mass for the sick and the imposition of the sacrament intended for them.

And so, the Pope could return to Rome, his mission accomplished, leaving behind a rich fund of teaching that we should meditate on in the coming weeks.





I must add the following which Beatrice rightly considers a companion piece to Gerald Le Clerc's glowing words about Benedict the person in the above interview. Normally, I would have posted this item in ENCOUNTERS WITH THE FUTURE POPE, but it is truly special.

It is by the editor of yet another French Catholic magazine which has come out with a commemorative issue of the Pope's visit.



I LOVE THIS MAN
By Pierre-Marie Varennes
Editor
Translated from



I had the opportunity to be received by Joseph Ratzinger and to have long interviews with him in the past. And like everyone who has done this, I was definitely conquered by his exquisite urbanity.

But what struck me most – or rather, what moved me most – was the sensitive intellectual charity that this great mind always showed to a small mind like mine.

Whenever I came to express my ideas to him, he always listened with a sympathy marked by a sustained interest in what I had to say, even if, without a doubt, it might have been the tenth time he has heard the same arguments as mine.

He never once interrupted me, allowing to go into the last corners of all the ins and outs of whatever I was presenting.

And when I was through, he would synthesize to me what I had said much better than I could have done. He was doing me the courtesy of making sure he had understood me well, and that he had not betrayed my thinking, so that he could give the right response.

Of course, he never misunderstood my thoughts, he clarified them to a point that I would feel I as if I already got the response I needed.

Specifically, he would clear up my doubts in the light of Scripture and Tradition.

It was that exquisite man who came to visit us in Paris and Lourdes, as the Successor of Peter, to confirm us in our faith. And I found once more his lovable modesty which is in him the supreme expression of charity.

If I had not known that this was who he is before he became Pope, I would have thought that this was a man who had gone to the desert for a retreat, where he had learned to conquer all the temptations of success, stardom and power.

In the face of all the enthusiasm and veneration for his person during this apostolic voyage, he seemed to implore those who were inclined to prostrate themselves, in the words of Peter to the centurion, “Arise, I am just a man myself” (Acts 10,26).

For him, true charity is to lead those he loves to the Father through Jesus Christ – the only mediator between God and man – our brother in humanity, our Lord and our Savior.

Yes, it was the same man who came to visit us.

And yet, this man has changed radically. He is the same in everything – but in everything, with a breadth, an elevation, a density, a depth, which are not given except to those to whom the Lord has said, “When you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." (Jn 21,18)

Lord, how good it is to be led, in your name, by such a shepherd.

Pope considering
request on Pius XII,
Jewish leader says





VATICAN CITY, Oct. 30 (Translated from Apcom) - he head of a Jewish delegation received in audience by Pope Benedict XVI this morning said he had requested the Pope to suspend the beatification process for Pope Pius XII until the Vatican opens its archives on his Pontificate.

Rabbi David Rosen, of the International Jewish Committee on Inter-Religious Consultations, who underscored that personally he did not share the request, said the Pope replied: "This is being considered - it's an idea that I am taking into consideration."


Here is how AP reported it on its international wire, with added information that includes a statement from the Vatican Press director:


Report: Pope considering
freeze on Pius sainthood
By FRANCES D'EMILIO and MARTA FALCONI



VATICAN CITY, Oct. 30 (AP) -- A Jewish leader says Pope Benedict XVI is considering a request to freeze the sainthood process for wartime Pope Pius XII, who critics say did not speak out enough during World War II to save Jews amid Hitler's extermination campaign.

Rabbi Ravid Rosen says the Pope was asked to do so during a meeting Thursday with a Jewish group and the Pontiff replied he would give "serious consideration" to the request to wait.

Rosen spoke after the Vatican rejected Jewish groups' requests to immediately open its secret archives on Pius XII's papacy during the Holocaust years.

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said the requests to see the wartime archives were "understandable," but added Thursday that it would take another six or seven years to catalog those 16 million documents.

Currently, the archives can be consulted only up through the papacy of Pius XII's predecessor, Pius XI, which ended in early 1939, a few months before World War II began in Europe.

Pius XII was Pius XI's secretary of state, as Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli. Some scholars who have examined archive documents dealing with the future Pius XII's diplomacy say Pacelli was an indecisive diplomat as Nazism and Fascism took hold in parts of Western Europe.

The Vatican says Benedict has been reflecting on documentation gathered by Church officials about Pius XII's virtues as part of the process toward possible beatification, the last formal step before possible sainthood.

Benedict, marking the 50th anniversary recently of Pius's death, has described him as a great Pope who spared no effort to try to save Jews.

Earlier this month, Israeli President Shimon Peres urged the Vatican not to let a contentious reference to Pius XII stop Benedict from visiting the Holy Land sometime.

A caption accompanying a photograph at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial alleges the wartime pope did not act to save Jews from the Nazi genocide.



Benedict met Thursday with Rosen and others from the International Jewish Committee on Inter-Religious Consultations. The Pontiff called for "sincere dialogue" and called Church condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism a "significant milestone."

Neither Benedict nor Rosen in their speeches mentioned the sainthood controversy.

Rosen said Jews were "profoundly grateful for all that the Holy See has said and done in recent times" to combat anti-Semitism and he expressed thanks for Christians who "saved many Jews" during the Holocaust. [That includes Pius XII!]

"We reiterate our respectful call for full and transparent access of scholars to all archival material from that period, so that assessments regarding actions and policies during this tragic period may have the credibility they deserve," Rosen said.

The late Pope John Paul II made an official visit to Israel in 2000.



Vatican Radio's Italian service carried Fr. Lombardi's statement in full:


FR. LOMBARDI'S STATEMENT
Translated from
the Italian service of

---

With respect to renewed requests for the opening of the Vatican Archives (on matters relating to Pius XII's Pontificate), it is useful to keep the following elements in mind:

Regardless of whether doing that could result in new discoveries relevant to historical facts already known about the Pontificate of Pius XII, the request is understandable in itself and justified from the point of view of the methodology for historical studies.

Nonetheless it must be understood what this entails in terms of preparation. Opening the Secret Vatican Archives to scholars was begun by Leo XIII in 1881 and continued by his successors.

The principle followed in general was to open up the documents 'pontificate by pontificate' and not on the basis of a determined time period (i.e., after 50, 70, 80 years), as is usual with other archives, because the Archive itself is not structured according to a simple chronological system.

To date, the Archives have been opened up to documents pertaining to the entire Pontificate of Pius XI (therefore, to 1939). These documents were made accessible in 2006.

Opening up the Archives to scholars requires a demanding preparation that includes: A description of the material available (protocols, folders, envelops, individual documents); numbering of the pages; stamping each page for security purposes; re-binding folders or binders containing pages that have deteriorated or are delicate.

The work of cataloguing and systematic ordering is long and detailed, and the number of qualified personnel for the various tasks is limited. that is why it takes time.

The archive materials on Pius XII's Pontificate, which are being prepared for eventual opening consist of three groupings, each with its specific characteristics: 1) archives of the Pontifical documents proper;; 2) archives of the Secretariat of state; and 3) archives of the Roman congregations and other offices.

They make up a total of some 16 million pages, if not more. There are 15,430 separate folders and 2,500 binders.

The Prefect of the Archives, Mons. Sergio Pagano, recently said that with his present work force, the preparation will take about 6-7 years. It is therefore unrealistic to expect an earlier opening to scholars.

Of course, once the systematic preparation is done, the actual opening will depend on the Holy Father, since the Archives are properly speaking, the Pope's Archives.

---

CATHOLICISM:
THE CORNERSTONE OF CANADIAN SOCIETY





VATICAN CITY, 30 OCT 2008 (VIS) - This morning the new Canadian Ambassador to the Holy See, Anne Leahy, presented her credential letters to Benedict XVI.

In his address to the diplomat, the Holy Father first noted the words of John Paul II during his visit to Canada in 2002, when he affirmed that the Canadians were "heirs to an extraordinarily rich humanism, enriched even more by the blend of many different cultural elements. But the core of your heritage is the spiritual and transcendent vision of life based on Christian revelation which gave vital impetus to your development as a free, democratic, and caring society, recognized throughout the world as a champion of human rights and human dignity".

The Pope then recalled that Canada and the Holy See will soon celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relations and praised that country's vocation of "encouraging multilateral collaboration in favor of a solution to the many problems that present a challenge for humanity in this age".

The Holy Father noted in this regard, "the agreement of Canada and the Holy See, along with other countries, to support the treaty prohibiting anti-personnel land mines and to promote its adoption throughout the world... At the same time Canada and the Holy See, together with other nations, are making the effort to contribute to the stability, peace, and development in the Great Lakes region of Africa".

Quoting the words of the new ambassador, Benedict XVI reaffirmed that "Catholicism, thanks to its institutions and the culture that it promotes, represents the cornerstone of the building of Canadian society. Nevertheless, profound changes can be noticed today, which are seen in different sectors and at times cause concern to the point of asking ourselves if it does not mean a regression in the understanding of the human being. These changes mainly concern the areas of defense and the promotion of life and the family based on natural marriage".

In this context, "a culture of life can nourish anew the personal and social existence of Canada as a whole".

"For that to happen," the Pope said, "I believe that it is necessary to redefine the meaning of the exercise of liberty... which is perceived more and more as an absolute value, an intangible right of the individual, regardless of the importance of the divine origins of freedom and its communal dimension. . In this interpretation, only the individual can decide and choose the form, characteristics, and ends of life, death, and marriage".

"True freedom," he observed, "is ultimately based on and develops in God. It is a gift that can be accepted as the seed from which the person and society can grow responsibly and be enriched. The exercise of this freedom implies reference to a natural moral law that is universal, which precedes and unifies all rights and duties. In this perspective, I would like to show my support to all the Canadian Bishops' initiatives in favor of family life and thus of the dignity of the human being.

Concluding, Benedict XVI spoke of that country's Catholic schools, which "thanks to their contribution to the transmission of the faith to new generations, preparing them for dialogue among the different components of the nation, carry out a constant need of the Church's mission for the good of all, and enrich Canadian society as a whole".




BENEDICT XVI TELLS JEWISH GROUP
DIALOGUE BETWEEN CULTURES
AND RELIGIONS IS THE DUTY OF ALL





VATICAN CITY, 30 Oct 2008 (VIS) - Benedict XVI received a delegation of the International Jewish Committee on Inter-Religious Consultation today. It is a body with which the Holy See "for over thirty years has had regular and fruitful contacts, which have contributed to greater understanding and acceptance between Catholics and Jews".

"I gladly take this occasion," said the Pope, "to reaffirm the Church's commitment to implementing the principles set forth in the historic declaration Nostra Aetate of the Second Vatican Council. That declaration, which firmly condemned all forms of anti-Semitism, represented both a significant milestone in the long history of Catholic-Jewish relations and a summons to a renewed theological understanding of the relations between the Church and the Jewish People".

"Christians today," the Holy Father continued, "are increasingly conscious of the spiritual patrimony they share with the people of the Torah, the people chosen by God in his inexpressible mercy, a patrimony that calls for greater mutual appreciation, respect, and love. Jews too are challenged to discover what they have in common with all who believe in the Lord, the God of Israel, who first revealed himself through his powerful and life-giving word".

"In our troubled world, so frequently marked by poverty, violence, and exploitation, dialogue between cultures and religions must more and more be seen as a sacred duty incumbent upon all those who are committed to building a world worthy of man.

"The ability to accept and respect one another, and to speak the truth in love, is essential for overcoming differences, preventing misunderstandings, and avoiding needless confrontations. . A sincere dialogue needs both openness and a firm sense of identity on both sides, in order for each to be enriched by the gifts of the other".

Muslim scholars to meet Pope

By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:55pm GMT

PARIS (Reuters) - Muslim scholars make a rare visit to the Vatican next week to discuss with Pope Benedict and Roman Catholic experts how to overcome mutual suspicion and ignorance between Christianity and Islam.

Twenty-four signatories of A Common Word, a Muslim call to dialogue with Christianity issued last year, will assemble in Rome from around the Islamic world for the November 4-6 talks, the first annual meeting of a new Catholic-Muslim Forum.

The meeting, following talks with U.S. Protestants in July and Anglicans earlier this month, will take place one week before Saudi King Abdullah visits the United Nations to promote a parallel interfaith dialogue he launched last summer.

These meetings reflect a new urgency Muslim leaders have felt in recent years after the September 11 attacks, the "clash of civilisations" theory and Pope Benedict's Regensburg speech showed a widening gap between the world's two largest faiths.

Common Word signatories say their meetings have forged new bonds with Christians, including U.S. evangelicals wary about Islam, and helped both sides shed stereotypes to see shared teaching about the need to love God and neighbour.

"We go to Rome with an open heart and good spirit and hope to achieve more and more in the months to come," said Libyan theologian Aref Ali Nayed, senior adviser to the Cambridge Interfaith Programme.

With 1.1 billion followers, Roman Catholicism is by far the largest church among the world's 2 billion Christians. Islam has 1.3 billion faithful but no central authority like the Vatican to speak for itself or its main schools of thought.

CAUTIOUS CATHOLICS

Using the Islamic principle of seeking consensus, the Common Word manifesto has assembled 271 religious leaders and scholars from Sunni, Shi'ite, Sufi and other traditions in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.

Its Rome delegation includes an Iranian ayatollah, Bosnia's grand mufti, a Jordanian prince, academics from across the Muslim world and U.S., Canadian and British converts to Islam.

In contrast to some churches that promptly welcomed A Common Word, the Vatican has been cautious in responding to its call for a theological dialogue aimed at showing common beliefs.

Pope Benedict and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's top official for interfaith dialogue, want to discuss religious freedom, a sensitive issue because some Muslim countries forbid conversion and oppress their Christian minorities.

Catholic bishops from around the world backed that message at a synod in Rome this month, adding any dialogue must stress rights for both men and women -- a challenge to strict Islamic states like Saudi Arabia that limit women's rights.

The Common Word meetings focus on understanding how each faith believes what it does. One way to do this is to read Koran and Bible passages together and explain them to each other.

Rev. Christian Troll, a German Jesuit expert on Islam who will be in the Vatican delegation, described the approach as a kind of interfaith Golden Rule: "Try to understand the other's faith as you would like your faith to be understood."

The Rome meeting will spend two days discussing theology and human dignity in private before a public session the final day.

As Common Word meetings have progressed, participants have stressed the need for practical results. Among their ideas are exchange programs to educate preachers about each other's faith so they avoid spreading false views about them.

They have also invited rabbis to join some discussions, especially about reading scriptures, even though the Common Word manifesto did not initially address Jews.

POPE OPENS ACADEMIC YEAR
FOR PONTIFICAL UNIVERSITIES


Pope Benedict addressed the students of Rome's Pontifical Universities this afternoon at St. Peter's Basilica, after a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski to mark the opening of the academic year 2008/2009.




Pope warns students
against 'temptation of pride'


To be committed "intensely in intellectual work, interiorly free from the temptation of pride" and 'priding oneself always and only in the Lord" - this was Benedict XVI's exhortation this evening to the students of the Roman pontifical universities who gathered at St. Peter's Basilica for the annual Mass to mark the start of the academic year.

The Pontiff took up one of the themes from his catechesis on St. Paul at yesterday's audience: 'the wisdom of the Cross' as "opposed to the wisdom of this world."

St. Paul, he said, "insisted on the contrast existing between the two two wisdoms, of which only one is true, the divine wisdom, whereas the other is really 'foolishness'."

He said the opposition was "not to be identified between the difference between theology, on the one hand, and philosophy and the sciences, on the other."

The wisdom of this world is a way of living and seeing things , doing away with God, and following dominant opinion, according to the criteria of success and power", while "divine wisdom' consists in "following the mind of Christ... who opens the eyes of the heart to follow the path of truth and love".

"To know and understand spiritual things," he told them, "you must be spiritual men and women, because if you are only carnal, then inevitably you fall back into foolishness" even if you become 'educated and subtle logicians in the world".

This is the basis for St. Paul's exhortation to those "who consider themselves wise according to the criteria of the world" - "to make themselves foolish' in order to truly become wise before God".

It is not "an anti-intellectual attitude, not an opposition to recta ratio (right reason)".

Paul, following Jesus, opposed a kind of intellectual pride in which man, though he knows a lot, loses his sensitivity to the truth and the willingness to open up to the novelty of divine action".

In fact, the Pope pointed out, St. Paul "does not intend to under-value the human commitment necessary for knowledge, but to place it on a different plane"; what he denounces is 'the poison of false wisdom which is human pride".

It is not knowledge itself that can be bad but the presumption of boasting about what one has come to know, or presumes one has come to know. This, the Pope said, gives rise to "factions and divisions in the Church, and analogously, in society".

Therefore, he concluded, one must cultivate wisdom "not according to the flesh but to the Spirit", purifying the heart of 'the poison of pride'.




Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address to the students:

---

Eminent Cardinals.
Venerated brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood,
dear brothers and sisters!

This traditional encounter with the Roman ecclesiastical universities at the start of the academic year is always a reason for joy.

I greet you all with great affection, starting with Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, who presided at Holy Mass, and whom I thank for the kinds words that he expressed on your behalf.

I am happy to greet the other cardinals and prelates present, as well as the rectors, professors, officials and superiors of the various seminaries and colleges, and of course, you, dear students, who have come from various countries to complete your studies in Rome.

This year, during which we celebrate the bimillenial jubilee of the birth of the Apostle Paul, I wish to linger briefly with you on one aspect of his message which seems particularly appropriate for you, scholars and students, and on which I spoke yesterday at the catechesis for the General Audience.

This is about what St. Paul wrote on Christian wisdom, particularly in his first Letter to the Corinthians, a community in which rivalries among the disciples had erupted.

The Apostle confronts the problem of such divisions within a community, seeing it as a sign of false wisdom, a mentality that is still immature because it is carnal, not spiritual (cfr 1 Cor 3,1-3). Referring to his own experience, Paul reminded the Corinthians that Christ ordered him to announce the Gospel "not with the wisdom of human eloquence, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning (1,17).

This gives way to a reflection on 'the wisdom of the Cross', that is, on the wisdom of God as opposed to the wisdom of the world. The Apostle insists on the contrast between the two wisdoms, of which only one is true - the divine - whereas the other is really 'foolishness'.

Now, the amazing novelty - which demands always to be rediscovered and grasped - is that, in Christ, divine wisdom has been given to us, has been shared with us.

At the end of Chapter 2 of the Letter to the Corinthians, there is an expression that summarizes this novelty and precisely for this reason, never ceases to amaze. St. Paul writes: "Now we have the mind of Christ" (2,16).

This opposition between the two wisdoms is not to be identified with the difference between theology, on the one hand, and philosophy and the sciences, on the other. It is about two different fundamental attitudes.

The 'wisdom of this world' is a way of living and seeing things that sets God aside, and follows dominant opinions with their criteria of success and power.

'Divine wisdom' consists in following the mind of Christ - it is Christ who opens the eyes of the heart to follow the path of truth and love.

Dear students, you have come to Rome to deepen your knowledge in the theological field, and even if you study subjects other than theology - such as law, history, human sciences, art, etc - it is still spiritual formation according to the mind of Christ that remains fundamental for you - this remains the perspective of your studies.

That is why the words of the Apostle Paul and that which we shall read next, also from the first Letter to the Corinthians, is very important to you: "Who knows what pertains to a person except the spirit of the person that is within? Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God" (2,11-12).

And here we are again within that scheme of opposing human wisdom to divine wisdom. To know and to understand spiritual things, you must be spiritual men and women, because if one is simply carnal, one falls back inevitably into foolishness, even if perhaps one has studied much and has become 'educated' and subtle logicians of this world (1,20).

We can see in this Pauline text a very significant analogy to the verses of the Gospel which report the blessing addressed by Jesus to God the Father, because, says the Lord, "you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike" (Mt 11,25).

The 'wise' that Jesus speaks of are those whom Paul calls 'the wise men of this world', whereas the 'childlike' are those whom the Apostle describes as 'foolish', 'weak', 'ignoble and despised' by the world (1,27-28), but who, in fact, if they accept 'the word of the Cross' (1,18), become the true wise ones.

To the point that Paul exhorts those who consider themselves wise according to the criteria of the world to 'become fools' in order to become truly wise before God (3,18). This is not an anti-intellectual attitude, not a contradiction of recta ratio [correct reason).

Paul, following Jesus, opposes the kind of intellectual arrogance in which man, though he may know a lot, loses his sensitivity for the truth and the readiness to open up to the novelty of divine action.

Dear friends, this Pauline reflection does not intend to undervalue the human commitment necessary for knowledge, but places it on a different level: Paul wants to emphasize - and he does this without half terms - what is really important for salvation and what could instead bring division and ruin.

The Apostle denounces the poison of false wisdom, which is human pride. It is not knowledge in itself that can be bad, but presumption, 'boasting' of what one has come to know - or presumes to have come to know.

It is from this that factions and discords in the Church arise, and analogously, in society. Therefore, it is all about cultivating knowledge, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, We know very well that in St. Paul, the words 'flesh' and 'carnal' do not mean the body, but the way of living for oneself only and according to the criteria of the world.

That is why, according to St. Paul, it is always necessary to purify one's heart of the poison of pride, which is present in each of us. We too should cry out with St. Paul: "Who will free us?" And we too can receive with him the answer: the grace of Jesus Christ, whom the Father has given us through the Holy Spirit (cfr Rom 7,25).

"The mind of Christ', which by grace we have received, is what we receive through the Church and in the Church, in allowing ourselves to be borne along by the river of its living tradition.

This is expressed very well by the iconography which shows Jesus as Wisdom in the lap of Mother Mary, symbol of the Church: In gremio Matris sedet Sapientia Patris - in the lap of the Mother sits the Wisdom of the Father, namely, Christ.

Remaining faithful to that Jesus whom Mary offers us, to the Christ whom the Church presents to us, we can engage ourselves intensely in intellectual work, interiorly free of the temptation to pride and 'boasting' always and only of the Lord.

Dear brothers and sisters, this is the wish that I have for you at the beginning of this academic year, invoking on you all the maternal protection of Mary, Sedes Sapientiae (Seat of Wisdom), and the Apostle Paul.

And with this goes my affectionate Benediction.

---

OR today.

The Pope to the International Jewish Committee on Inter-Religious Consultations:
'Between Jews and Christians, a dialog of respect and truth'

Other Page 1 stories: From the Vatican - the Pope's address to the new ambassador from Canada; and the Vatican
decree on psychological screening for seminarians. (The full text of the decree is published). Elsewhere -
60 million refugees flee Congo area of North Kivu surrounded by rebels; US economy contracts in the third
quarter; and the Italian Senate approves a motion calling on the Indian government to end persecution
of Christians.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with
- General Michel Sleiman, President of the Republic of Lebanon, with his wife and delegation.
- Mons. Jude Thaddeus Okolo, Apostolic Nuncio in Chad and the Central African Republic, with his family
- Participants in the Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Address in English.
- Participants in the encounters organized by the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities
and Fellowships. Address in Italian.



BENEDICT XVI MEETS WITH
PRESIDENT OF LEBANON

---

COMMUNIQUE

This morning, the Holy Father Benedict XVI received in audience the President of the Republic of Lebanon, His Excellency Gen. Michel Sleiman and his entourage.

Following the audience President Sleiman met with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, where they were then joined by His Excellency Mr. Fawzi Salloukh, the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, and His Excellency Msgr. Dominique Mamberti, Secretary for Relations with States.

In the course of cordial conversation, the Holy See's interest in Lebanon and its continual struggle to safeguard its unique identity was reaffirmed.

Vigorous appreciation was then expressed for the effort that the country and its leaders are carrying out with the intention of bringing institutional life back on track of normal political dialogue, in which every component of the Lebanon population might offer its contribution to the common welfare and see their concerns and expectations met with due consideration.

Finally, the delicate regional situation was touched upon, expressing hopes for a rapid and just solution to the Palestinian question and noting the conditions and problems of the Christian communities in the Middle East.

---

CATHOLIC IDENTITY IN
MOVEMENTS AND COMMUNITIES





VATICAN CITY, 31 OCT 2008 (VIS) - The participants in the XIII Conference of the Catholic Fraternity of Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowship" (Hermandad Catolica de las Comunidades y Asociaciones de la Renovacion Carismatica) were received by Benedict XVI this morning in the Vatican.

"As I have stated on other occasions", the Pope said, "ecclesial movements and new communities, which have flourished since Vatican Council II, constitute a unique gift from the Lord and a invaluable resource for the life of the Church. They should be welcomed with confidence and esteemed for their various contributions so that they might be of efficient and fruitful benefit to all".

Referring then to one of the conference's themes, "charisms in the life of the local Church", the Holy Father asserted that "what the New Testament tells us about charisms, which appear as visible signs of the coming of the Holy Spirit, is not a historical event of the past, but an ever-living reality: it is the same Divine Spirit, soul of the Church, which acts in the Church in every age and these works, mysterious and efficacious, are made manifest in our time in a providential manner".

"The movements and new communities are like eruptions of the Holy Spirit in the Church and contemporary society. We can affirm that one of the elements and positive aspects of the Communities of Charismatic Covenant Renewal is the emphasis that the charisms and gifts of the Holy Spirit receive in these and their merit is in having recalled the actuality of these [charisms and gifts] in the Church".

Benedict XVI continually recalled that in various documents Vatican Council II mentioned the theme of new ecclesial communities and that also "the Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights the value and importance of new charisms in the Church, whose authenticity is guaranteed by their openness to submit to the discernment of ecclesial authority. Precisely because there is a promising flourishing of ecclesial movements and community, it is important that pastors practice a prudent and wise discernment process with them ".

"I know that various ways are being studied to give papal recognition to new ecclesial movements and communities and that those who have already received it are not few in number. ... Pastors, above all the bishops, should keep this fact in mind when discerning according to their competency".

The Pope noted that one of the objectives of the Fraternity, "following the indications of ... John Pual II, is safeguarding the Catholic identity of the charismatic communities, encouraging them to maintain close ties to the bishops and the Roman Pontiff", and showing their pleasure for the creation of a permanent center for the formation of members and directors of the charismatic communities.

"Safeguarding fidelity to Catholic identity and an ecclesial nature in your communities", the Pope concluded, "will allow you to give everywhere a living and active witness of the profound mystery of the Church. Thus the ability of the various communities to attract new members will also grow".


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


A triptych - the Holy Father awaiting the arrival of the Lebanese President, thanks to Gloria:

Benedict XVI reiterates:
No opposition between
belief in creation and
evidence of empirical science

In one of those unheralded occasions when he speaks about faith and science, the Holy Father today delivered a beautiful and concise restatement of where the Church stands in an address to the participants in the current plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

As it is a brief speech, it makes more sense to read it in full than to report it disjointedly. It was delivered in English.

---

ADDRESS TO
THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES


Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am happy to greet you, the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, on the occasion of your Plenary Assembly, and I thank Professor Nicola Cabibbo for the words he has kindly addressed to me on your behalf.

In choosing the topic 'Scientific Insight into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life', you seek to focus on an area of enquiry which elicits much interest. In fact, many of our contemporaries today wish to reflect upon the ultimate origin of beings, their cause and their end, and the meaning of human history and the universe.

In this context, questions concerning the relationship between science’s reading of the world and the reading offered by Christian Revelation naturally arise.

My predecessors Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II noted that there is no opposition between faith’s understanding of creation and the evidence of the empirical sciences.

Philosophy in its early stages had proposed images to explain the origin of the cosmos on the basis of one or more elements of the material world. This genesis was not seen as a creation, but rather a mutation or transformation; it involved a somewhat horizontal interpretation of the origin of the world.

A decisive advance in understanding the origin of the cosmos was the consideration of being qua being and the concern of metaphysics with the most basic question of the first or transcendent origin of participated being.

In order to develop and evolve, the world must first be, and thus have come from nothing into being. It must be created, in other words, by the first Being who is such by essence.

To state that the foundation of the cosmos and its developments is the provident wisdom of the Creator is not to say that creation has only to do with the beginning of the history of the world and of life. It implies, rather, that the Creator founds these developments and supports them, underpins them and sustains them continuously.

Thomas Aquinas taught that the notion of creation must transcend the horizontal origin of the unfolding of events, which is history, and consequently all our purely naturalistic ways of thinking and speaking about the evolution of the world.

Thomas observed that creation is neither a movement nor a mutation. It is instead the foundational and continuing relationship that links the creature to the Creator, for he is the cause of every being and all becoming (cf. Summa Theologiae, I, q.45, a. 3).

To "evolve" literally means "to unroll a scroll", that is, to read a book. The imagery of nature as a book has its roots in Christianity and has been held dear by many scientists.

Galileo saw nature as a book whose author is God in the same way that Scripture has God as its author. It is a book whose history, whose evolution, whose "writing" and meaning, we "read" according to the different approaches of the sciences, while all the time presupposing the foundational presence of the author who has wished to reveal himself therein.

This image also helps us to understand that the world, far from originating out of chaos, resembles an ordered book; it is a cosmos. Notwithstanding elements of the irrational, chaotic and the destructive in the long processes of change in the cosmos, matter as such is "legible".

It has an inbuilt "mathematics". The human mind therefore can engage not only in a "cosmography" studying measurable phenomena but also in a "cosmology" discerning the visible inner logic of the cosmos.

We may not at first be able to see the harmony both of the whole and of the relations of the individual parts, or their relationship to the whole.

Yet, there always remains a broad range of intelligible events, and the process is rational in that it reveals an order of evident correspondences and undeniable finalities: in the inorganic world, between microstructure and macrostructure; in the organic and animal world, between structure and function; and in the spiritual world, between knowledge of the truth and the aspiration to freedom.

Experimental and philosophical inquiry gradually discovers these orders; it perceives them working to maintain themselves in being, defending themselves against imbalances, and overcoming obstacles. And thanks to the natural sciences we have greatly increased our understanding of the uniqueness of humanity’s place in the cosmos.

The distinction between a simple living being and a spiritual being that is capax Dei, points to the existence of the intellective soul of a free transcendent subject. Thus the Magisterium of the Church has constantly affirmed that "every spiritual soul is created immediately by God – it is not ‘produced’ by the parents – and also that it is immortal" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 366). This points to the distinctiveness of anthropology, and invites exploration of it by modern thought.

Distinguished Academicians, I wish to conclude by recalling the words addressed to you by my predecessor Pope John Paul II in November 2003: "scientific truth, which is itself a participation in divine Truth, can help philosophy and theology to understand ever more fully the human person and God’s Revelation about man, a Revelation that is completed and perfected in Jesus Christ. For this important mutual enrichment in the search for the truth and the benefit of mankind, I am, with the whole Church, profoundly grateful".

Upon you and your families, and all those associated with the work of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, I cordially invoke God’s blessings of wisdom and peace.

---

Pope sees physicist Hawking
at evolution gathering



VATICAN CITY, Oct. 31 (Reuters) – Pope Benedict told a gathering of scientists including the British cosmologist Stephen Hawking on Friday that there was no contradiction between believing in God and empirical science.


The Pope bends to look at Hawking's computerized voice synthesizer.


Benedict, who briefly met the wheelchair-bound physicist at an event hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, described science as the pursuit of knowledge about God's creation.

"There is no opposition between faith's understanding of creation and the evidence of the empirical sciences," the pontiff said.

"Galileo saw nature as a book whose author is God."

The Catholic Church found the 17th-century astronomer Galileo guilty of heresy for insisting the earth revolved around the sun. It did not rehabilitate him until 1992.

Hawking is a guest at the week-long event, which will explore the theme: "Scientific Insights into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life."

In an interview with Reuters last year, Hawking said he was "not religious in the normal sense."

"I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science," he said. "The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws."

The Catholic Church teaches "theistic evolution," which accepts evolution as scientific theory. Proponents see no reason why God could not have used an evolutionary process in forming the human species.

The Pontiff admired the technology that allows Hawking to speak through a voice synthesizer. Hawking is crippled by a muscle disease and has lost the use of his natural voice.

Hawking, author of the best-selling "A Brief History of Time," will speak about the origin of the universe at the closed-door event. [He is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.]


As usual, L'Eco di Bergamo does more thorough reporting than the news agencies:


'Divine truth and reality
together in the book of God'
Translated from



Science and faith are not in opposition but take part together in divine truth and empirical reality, which is 'a book written by God', Benedict XVI told scientists in Rome Friday.

The Pontiff had encouraged the theme for this year's plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, to discuss the latest discoveries about the origin of the universe, matter and life, and reiterated his vision and that of the Church in his address to Academy members.

The Pope has, of course, addressed the topic on previous occasions, but this time, present in the audience was Academy member Stephen Hawking, the astrophysicist who has been described as "Einstein's heir occupying Newton's chair' of physics in Cambridge University, from which he will soon be retiring.

Hawking has expounded theories that rule out the intervention of a Creator in physical reality. The scientist, who is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, first came to the Vatican 30 years ago, but his encounter with Papa Ratzinger was an exceptional event in many ways.

The conference theme, chosen in view of research that has resulted in completely new postulates of the origins of the universe, is 'less abstruse' than it appears, according to Prof. Nicola Cabibbo, president of the Academy, in his introductory remarks.

He said that "scientific knowledge, together with traditional wisdom, religious faith and educational values, are essential to orientative knowledge that serve as the basis for personal and socio-political decisions" concerning life and death, climate change and the use of planetary resources.

Cabibbo said that despite 'enormous progress' in the sciences, "not only do many important questions remain but new ones have arisen".

The Pope, meanwhile, told the scientists that he applauds all discoveries for man's wellbeing, but insists on the need to overcome false antitheses that he considers 'absurd' such as evolutionism versus creation.

He reiterated concepts he has often enunciated: "Creation and empirical science are not in opposition, but the universe is a book written by God, an ordered intelligible design notwithstanding recent discoveries...."

Next year will be a Galileo year (the 400th anniversary of his invention of the telescope), and the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. The Catholic Church is preparing to observe both commemorations.

But even as it looks back on past scientific milestones, it does not want to be caught unprepared by new advances in science which can come at a fast pace, even if, as Cabibbo observed, on different fronts.

In an essay in today's L'Osservatore Romano, Fiorenzo Facchini notes that evolution "could become the terrain for the encounter between science and faith... not only towards conciliability, but even complementarity and harmony".

But he dismisses 'misleading hypotheses', 'new dogmas' and even the American theory of 'intelligent design' which, he says, "creates new errors... (and) for which there is no need".

How strangely selective news agency reporting can be is proven once again by how AP and Reuters, for instance, reported on the Jewish delegation's visit to the Vatican yesterday - omitting Rabbi David Rosen's qualification that he personally does not share the position about suspending Pius XI's beatification process [which Apcom carried], reducing Fr. Lombardi's detailed statement to a single line, and failing to mention other pertinent information that Rabbi Rosen said about the delegation's visit to the Vatican.

For that matter, neither did L'Osservatore Romano in today's issue - its online presentation only contains the text of the Pope's address to the group, without an accompanying story. But L'Eco di Bergamo has more.

Jewish delegation also met
prefect of Vatican Archives
Translated from



The less intransigent wing of Judaism is calling on the Vatican to open the archives on Pius XII to allow 'a credible historical verdict'.

And the Vatican reply: the work it entails makes it unrealistic to expect this can happen earlier than in 6-7 years time.

And the Pope is said to be 'seriously considering' a request to suspend the beatification process for Pius XII until historians gain access to the files on his Pontificate from the Vatican Archives.

'Said to be' is operative. Benedict XVI has, of course, not manifested any such intention in public, but reportedly gave the answer when the question was brought up to him yesterday, after he addressed a delegation from the Jewish Committee for Inter-Religious Consultations, headed by Tabbi David Rosen.

"in my address to the Pope," Rosen told journalists [It's a deplorable deficiency that the Vatican does not also provide the texts of the introductory remarks made by the Pope's host, or lead guest, during these public occasions, because quite apart from gauging what they think about the Pope through all the diplomatic niceties, these remarks more importantly can clue us in on the individual or group's agenda], "I asked for the opening of the archives, although personally, I would never have asked the Pope that which another representative of the Committee asked him, because even among ourselves, we have different opinions. And that request was to postpone the beatification process until the Archives could be opened. To which the Pope's reply was, 'I am seriously considering it'." [I'd say it was a diplomatic reply. What could he say: "No, that's out of the question!" or "No, that's entirely our decision to make!"?]

Later, the Jewish delegation also met with Mons. Sergio Pagano, Prefect of the Vatican Archives, who, according to Rosen, "explained to us in detail why it is not possible to open the Pius XII archives to researchers earlier than 6-7 years from now. It's all technical - related to the kind and amount of work to be done".

"I was very impressed by Mons. Pagano's sincerity, even if I am disappointed that we have to wait some more time."

Also yesterday afternoon, Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican press director, issued a note explaining all the preparatory work necessary before it can happen. [See full text of Lombardi's statement in one of the earlier posts on this page.]

Pope Benedict XVI has not yet signed the decree on Eugenio Pacelli/Pius XII's 'heroic virtues' unanimously approved last year by the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood, saying recently he has decided on more 'time for reflection'. Signing the decree would allow the process to get on to the next step of diocesan hearings to investigate the late Pope's entire life through witnesses and an examination of everything he wrote or said that has been documented' [In effect, the process is in suspension!], as well as investigation of any miracle(s) attributable to his intercession after his death.

It is not at all clear that the Pope's 'time for reflection' will necessarily coincide with the years it will take before the archives can be opened, just as it is not clear that access to these documents will necessarily confirm or belie accusations by Pius XII's critics that he kept silent about Nazism and the Holocaust.

Rosen, who was a member of the Israeli delegation which negotiated and signed a fundamental accord between the Holy See and Israel, said that the continuing failure of a bilateral panel meeting twice a year for the past 13 years to resolve the economic and financial issues provided for in the accord was not barrier to a papal visit to the Holy Land.

"Cardinal Kasper," he said, "has reiterated that the unresolved issues are not an obstacle to such a visit". [Still, it is hard to justify why Israel is still negotiating these issues which were supposedly resolved in the 'agreement' signed 13 years ago but never implemented! From all accounts, Israel's failure to accommodate the Catholic position on questioned items keeps the Catholic Church in Israel and its priests and religious in a state of second-class citizenship. And we thought only the Muslim states are guilty of such discrimination!]

Not an obstacle, either, according to Rosen (and echoing the Israeli government's position), is the disputed caption to a photograph of Pius XII in the Holocaust Museum's 'Hall of Shame' which the Vatican considers false and offensive. [Caption, shmaption! Just take the photograph out of that 'Hall of Shame'!]

Rosen offered an original possibility: that a visit to the Holy Land - which would necessarily include Palestinian territory, since Bethlehem is on the West Bank - would put the Pope in the position of having to meet with leaders of the unrepentant Hamas terrorist group which dominates the leadership positions in the Palestinian Authority.


I decided to visit the Vatican Archives webpages on the Vatican site, and to my pleasant surprise, it is one of the best kept pages on the site - and multilingual, too, even if the English translations are awkward - with lots of pictures that give us a more exact idea of the work they must deal with.
asv.vatican.va/en/pers/1_pers.htm





Here's what the New York Times correspondent in Rome reported. It is incomplete and has some basic errors in its background reporting.


Group says Pope will weigh
delay of Pius’s beatification
By RACHEL DONADIO

Published: October 30, 2008


VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI told Jewish leaders on Thursday that he was “seriously considering” delaying the beatification of Pius XII, the Pope during World War II, until the archives of his papacy had been opened, a participant at the meeting said.

But the Pope’s spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Benedict’s response was not a “public commitment,” according to The Associated Press.

“You shouldn’t read this response for beyond what it is,” Father Lombardi said. “It is a polite, serious response. He always takes seriously what he is told.”

The meeting followed weeks of controversy over efforts to beatify Pius, who was Pope from 1939 to 1958. [Weeks of controversy? It's been at least two years in its current phase, and 45 years since the Hochhuth-incited anti-Pius campaign, which in fact, most people assume was the reason Paul VI proposed Pius XII's beatification in 1965 along with John XXIII's cause.]

Jewish leaders have said Pius did not do enough to stop the deportation of Jews during the Holocaust, and have asked the Vatican to open the sealed archives of Pius’s papacy to scholars.

Although a Vatican committee passed a decree last year recognizing Pius’s “heroic virtues,” an important step toward sainthood, Benedict has not yet approved it. The Vatican has said the Pope needs time to reflect. Benedict has said Pius worked “secretly and silently” to save Jews.

Rabbi David Rosen, the president of the organization at the meeting, an umbrella group called the International Jewish Committee for Inter-Religious Consultations, told reporters that when asked by an American member, Seymour Reich, to delay the beatification until the archives had been examined, the Pope said he was “seriously considering it.”

“He didn’t clarify what matter he was giving serious consideration and what that means,” Rabbi Rosen said in a later telephone conversation.

Other leaders at the meeting confirmed Rabbi Rosen’s account.

In their papal meeting, Jewish leaders called on the Vatican to open the archives so scholars could create historic assessments “with the credibility they deserve, both within our respective communities and beyond.”

Rabbi Rosen said a Vatican official had explained that “technical challenges” would prevent the cataloging of materials from Pius’s papacy “for at least another five years.” [Not 'prevent the cataloging' - it's the time necessary for all the prepration necessary, including cataloguing, to make the documents accessible to researchers.]

Many consider Benedict’s delay in signing the decree indicative of internal and external diplomatic considerations.

This month, a leading proponent of sainthood said the Pope had halted the beatification process to avoid repercussions from Jewish groups. [Again, a very inexact statement of facts. The postulator for Pius XII used the word's 'hold' and 'standby', not 'halt', to refer to why the Pope has not yet signed the decree recognizing Pius XIII's 'heroic virtues', saying he thought it was a sign of goodwill towards the Jews so that they may reconsider their disregard, in effect, of presently available documentation about what Pius XII did during the war to help the Jews.]

Father Lombardi later denied that assertion and made a rare, forceful statement saying it was not right to submit the Pope “to pressures” for or against beatification.

I'm posting this here rather than in the BOOKS... thread because the subject is Joseph Ratzinger's ecclesiology, which distates Benedict XVI's view and governance of the role of the Church and its relationship to the modern world.


The Introduction to

Joseph Ratzinger: Life in the Church and Living Theology
Fundamentals of Ecclesiology with Reference to 'Lumen Gentium'


www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2008/mhheim_introjr_jan08.asp

---

We cannot return to the past, nor have we any desire to do so. But we must be ready to reflect anew on that which, in the lapse of time, has remained the one constant. To seek it without distraction and to dare to accept, with joyful heart and without diminution, the foolishness of truth—this, I think, is the task for today and for tomorrow. [1]

---

Joseph Ratzinger is considered by some to be the representative of a "petrified theology" [2], whereas for others [3] he is a voice that claims to speak the truth and makes it possible to perceive "the whole in its depth dimension" [4].

This dissertation places him — amid the tensions of present-day disputes within the Church about the patrimony of the Second Vatican Council — as an ecclesiologist at the center of this discourse, by setting forth his statements about the Church as a central aspect of an existential theology.

Because theology and ecclesial life have been melded into one in an unusual way in Ratzinger's work, his theological thought can be characterized as "existential", without thereby relegating it to the realm of the merely subjective.

Ratzinger is in fact concerned about a theology that proceeds, not from a private being, but rather from an existence that has surrendered itself to the Church, [5] in other words, "a theology of ex-sistere, of that exodus by which the human individual goes out from himself and through which alone he can find himself", [6] a theology, therefore, that seeks God in the Church and through the Church as its preexisting center.

Consequently, its task consists of "keeping what is earthly and human so that it is transparent toward the truly fundamental reality, the divine reality that opens itself to us through Christ in the Holy Spirit". [7]

If we understand theology this way, it becomes clear that Ratzinger's thought, in keeping with the patristic tradition, is defined, not by an opposition [8] between salvation history and its ontological unfolding, [9] but rather by a mutual ordering of the two that constantly adheres to the "prae [logical and temporal priority] of God's action". [10]

This means that "faith in an actio Dei is antecedent to all other declarations of faith", because for God, it is precisely relationship and action that are the essential marks; creation and revelation are the two basic statements about him, and when revelation is fulfilled in the Resurrection, it is thus confirmed once again that he is not just one who is timeless but also one who is above time, whose existence is known to us only through his action. [11]

Defending this "primacy of God" [12] brings about a development in Ratzinger's theology — as Dorothee Kaes explains — from a theology that originally had a more pronounced orientation toward salvation history [13] to thinking that is more characteristically metaphysical, [14] and this development occurs as a response to the intellectual debates of a given time period. [15]

Since my dissertation on Ratzinger's ecclesiology is situated within the context of the postconciiar developments in the Church, I was confronted with the question about an adequate reception of that image of the Church that the Second Vatican Council had outlined.

In this regard, Ratzinger is not only a contemporary witness, but also a theologian who, as Thomas Weiler [16] has attempted to demonstrate, was himself able to exert influence on the Council's ecciesiology.

Although it is not my purpose simply to reverse Weiler's approach and to maintain that the Council influenced Ratzinger the theologian, it is still undeniable that there was a reciprocal effect [17] and that consequently Ratzinger must be understood not only as an expert in the conciiar ecclesiology, as one of those who helped to shape it, but at the same time also as one of its most resolute defenders and as someone who continues to interpret and apply it concretely in his writings.

Thus two sets of questions result for the development of my theme: first, an inquiry into the Church's understanding of herself in Lumen gentium and, secondly, an investigation of Ratzinger's ecclesial life and the main lines of his ecciesiology; which has been shaped by his career.

The first part of the dissertation, about Lumen gentium, will set out to provide the conceptual frame of reference for the discussion of Ratzinger's ecclesiological outline in the second part, whereby the fundamental themes of mystery, the People of God, and collegiality, which are structural elements of Lumen gentium, serve as the main coordinates for the systematic development of the subject.

I have chosen them as guidelines for presenting Ratzinger's theology as well, because he himself associates them with the authority of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Church. [18]

In any case the second part does not intend to make a detailed comparison with Lumen gentium; rather, it intends to show the importance of the main ecciesiological themes of the Constitution on the Church in Ratzinger's work, to note points of agreement or differences and modifications, and, where appropriate, to point out changes in Ratzinger's approach.

In this regard, the question of how and when Ratzinger articulated the ambiguities [19] in Lumen gentium will serve as a litmus test for whether or not there was a change in his perspective. For this reason it is necessary to pay special attention to the historical factor in our discussions.

This is accomplished, on the one hand, by tracing the principal stages of development both for Lumen gentium and for Ratzinger and, on the other hand, by explicitly examining the historical context at pivotal points of the systematic treatment of the subject. In this I am guided by the following suggestion of Weiler:

---

A thorough study of Ratzinger's postconciliar ecclesiological writings would of course have to investigate which of Ratzinger's ideas remained unchanged and where, if at all, a change can be noted.

Why did that happen? And with regard to the ideas that remained the same, one should ask whether they, in being brought into a new historical and theological context, do not acquire a different significance.

Finally: Does the fact that Ratzinger's ideas remained the same really correspond thoroughly to the Second Vatican Council, which was, after all, in Ratzinger's view as well, "only the formulation of a task", which is to say, the beginning of a fundamental change, the accomplishment of which was (and is) still in the future? [20]

---

Before I outline the structure and division of my investigation, I should clarify why I take up Lumen gentium and not Gaudium et spes as the frame of reference for my discussion of Ratzinger's ecclesiology, even though the latter, in my opinion, would also be quite possible and reasonable. [21]

The answer is twofold: First, in keeping with Ratzinger's approach, I attempt to shed light on the Church's intrinsic nature. For this purpose Lumen gentium is a suitable reference. Moreover, according to Wolfgang Beinert, the "other fifteen constitutions, decrees, and declarations lead to this Council document or are derived from it". [22]

The second reason for my decision is related to the first. It can be expressed precisely by means of a programmatic statement by Ratzinger of his position in the year 1975:

---

An interpretation of the Council that understands its dogmatic texts as mere preludes to a still unattained conciliar spirit, that regards the whole as just a preparation for Gaudium et spes and that looks upon the latter text as just the beginning of an unswerving course toward an ever greater union with what is called progress — such an interpretation is not only contrary to what the Council Fathers intended and meant, it has been reduced ad absurdum by the course of events.

Where the spirit of the Council is turned against the word of the Council and is vaguely regarded as a distillation from the development that evolved from the "Pastoral Constitution", this spirit becomes a specter and leads to meaninglessness. [23]

---

Ratzinger traces the cause of this subsequent influence of Gaudium et spes, which he regards as problematic, back to the spirit of the preface.[24]

In his opinion, the text of the Pastoral Constitution serves as "a kind of counter-syllabus" for many theologians, who imagine that it "represents, on the part of the Church, an attempt at an official reconciliation with the new era inaugurated in 1789". [25]

But since "the world, in its modern form" cannot be regarded as a homogeneous entity, the Church's progress cannot consist of "a belated embrace of the modern world". [26]

From this insight Ratzinger derives the following basic rule, ten years after the end of the Council: "We must interpret Vatican Council II as a whole and ... our interpretation must be oriented toward the central theological texts." [27]

The two reasons just outlined, Ratzinger's preference for an essential ecciesiology and his partiality for the dogmatic documents of the Council, led me to select Lumen gentium as the background against which to present his ecclesiology.

This means simultaneously, however, that the "outward-looking" perspectives are considered only in passing in this dissertation. This is true, specifically, with regard to Ratzinger's statements on the complicated question of the relation between the Church and the world [28] and his writings concerning ecumenism [29] as well as inter-religious dialogue [30] and, last but not least, concerning the relation between the Church and Judaism. [31]

My subject is further limited by the fact that I concentrate above all on the initiatives Ratzinger has taken as a scholar, and not on the contributions he has made to theological discussion in his official, magisterial capacity, even though it was impossible to avoid some overlapping on certain questions.

After these preliminary remarks concerning methodology, I would like to define now more precisely the principal points of this dissertation and to explain its structure.

Part I, on the Church's self-understanding according to Lumen gentium, comprises two sections, one historical and one systematic. The latter is subdivided, following the sequence of the first three chapters of Lumen gentium, under the headings of "The Mystery of the Church", "The People of God", and "The Hierarchical Structure of the Church and in Particular the Episcopate".

Because of their intrinsic relatedness, the themes of chapters 4 through 8 of Lumen gentium on the laity (4), on the universal call to holiness in the Church (5) on consecrated religious (6), on the eschatological character of the pilgrim Church and her union with the Church in heaven (7), and finally on the Blessed Virgin Mary; the Mother of God, in the mystery of Christ and of the Church (8) are considered in the chapter on the People of God.

In chapter I, on the mystery of the Church, an essential point is the aspect of communio; here the trinitarian communio is presented as the origin and purpose of Church unity.

In chapter 2, in keeping with the Dogmatic Constitution, I will elaborate on the participation of the People of God in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly mission of Christ — an aspect that plays a relatively insignificant role in Ratzinger's ecclesiology.

In chapter 3, the college of bishops takes center stage in my discussion. There I will examine above all the sacramental understanding of the episcopal ministry and inquire about how the "Preliminary Note of Explanation" added, to Lumen gentium should be evaluated, both historically and with regard to its contents — a problem that was of decisive importance especially for Ratzinger as one of the theologians at the Council.

Part 2 of this book deals with Ratzinger's ecclesiology. It is structured along the lines of Lumen gentium and treats in succession the principal themes of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.

In it I intend to show which fundamental ideas Ratzinger adopts in his ecciesiology, which themes he prefers, and which ones he modifies in his presentation or does not take into account at all.

As in the first part of this dissertation, the systematic section is preceded by a historical section I, which discusses the "Outline of the Ecclesiological Plan from a Biographical Perspective".

In this "prelude", the question of the consistency in Ratzinger's theological thought is especially explosive. Section 2 deals at first, in chapter I, with the Church as sign of faith and mystery of faith.

Three central concepts of Ratzinger's ecciesiology are examined therein, namely, Body of Christ, Eucharist, and communio. The chapter concludes with critical reflections on the question of the subsistence of the Catholic Church.

Chapter 2 is devoted to the Church as the People of God. In it I will point out Ratzinger's references to rabbinical theology so as to demonstrate by means of concrete examples the ecciesiological consequences of the scriptural unity of the Old and New Testaments that he insists upon.

In particular, this line of Ratzinger's reasoning is important also for the controversial question of the ontological priority of the universal Church. The chapter goes on to deal with his oft-repeated claim that the term "People of God" has been misunderstood in a sociological sense, and the problem of democratic structures in the Church is discussed along with the themes of "relativism" and "majority rule". Comments on the section "The Universal Call to Holiness" conclude the chapter.

In this context the importance of the mariological declaration for Ratzinger's ecclesiology is stressed, but also the problem of the Church's sinfulness, with reference to the verse from the Song of Solomon "I am black but beautiful", [32] which has been applied to the Church, and with the assistance of the image of the casta meretrix.

The conclusion of the main part of my work is chapter 3, on Ratzinger's understanding of the hierarchical constitution of the Church and, especially, of episcopal collegiality By way of introduction, the latter is set forth as an ecumenical paradigm, and then it is examined with regard to its origin, to the inherent tension between collegiality and primacy, and to its pastoral implications.

The last part of this chapter is devoted to those emphases in Ratzinger's thought that have changed so much over the course of time that one can speak of an early and a later Ratzinger.

Specifically, from his judgments on the value of bishops' conferences and of the synod of bishops, it will become evident how the later Ratzinger assigns a different theological weight to collegial formations than the earlier Ratzinger did.

Part 3 presents a "synoptic" overview. In summarizing, it compares the ecclesiology of Lumen gentium with that of Ratzinger. My concluding essay on the problematic position of modernity in intellectual history, which is behind Ratzinger's ecclesiology, attempts to sketch an outline of his thought against this backdrop and to pave the way toward a more nuanced answer to the question of its continuity or discontinuity.

Finally, in a concluding remark, the liturgy is depicted as the hermeneutic locus of theological ecclesiology, in keeping with the axiom lex orandi-lex credendi, so as tO emphasize and reflect critically on what is distinctive about Ratzinger's markedly eucharistic theology of communio.

ENDNOTES:

[1] J. Ratzinger, "Der Weltdienst der Kirche: Aurwirkungen von Gaudium et spes im letzten Jahrzehnt", IKaZ 4 (1975):439-54. Reprinted in Principles, 373-93, as the epilogue, "Church and World: An Inquiry into the Reception of Vatican Council II". Citation at 393.
[2] HŠring, Ideologie, 21.
[3] We should mention here, for example, Stephan Otto Horn and Vinzenz Pfnuer as representatives of Ratzinger's "circle of students". The names of the members of this SchŸlerkreis ad of those who presented papers at their gatherings were published in Mitte, 316f.
[4] See Stephan Otto Horn and Vinzenz Pfnuer, "Introduction", in Pilgrim Fellowship, 9-16, citation at 12.
[5] See the foreword of W. Baier et al., eds., Weisheit Gottes—Weisheit der Welt: Festschrift fŸr Joseph Kardinal Ratzinger zum 60. Geburtstag (Sankt Ottilien: EOS-Verlag, 1987), I:v.
[6] Principles, 171-90, citation at 189.
[7] Horn and Pfnuer, "Introduction", 9-14, citation at 10.
[8] In this way, Ratzinger decisively distances himself from Bultmann's thesis that "the word, the kerygma, is the real salvation-event, the 'eschatological event', that leads man from the alienation of his existence to its essence. This word is present wherever it makes itself heard; it is the always-present possibility of salvation for mankind. It is clear that, in the last analysis, this primacy of the word that, as such, can always be spoken and thus can be posited as always present, cancels the notion of a continuous series of salvation-historical events" (Principles, 176), in that it separates a theologically insignificant history from a theologically relevant "story". The latter remains, in Bultmann's scheme, a "word-event" unconnected with the historical events. Compare Kaes, 89f. Ratzinger sees in this opposition between salvation history and metaphysics a problem that did not come so acutely to the fore until after the Second Vatican Council. The reason for this may be explained by the fact that "Vatican Council II did not link its debate on salvation to the already existing patristic term dispositio (or dispensatio) but rather coined for itself, as a borrowing from the German, the expression historia salutis. Therewith we have also an indication of the source of the problem that, in our century, has entered Catholic theology by way of Protestant thought" (Principles, 572).
[9] See ibid.
[10] Ibid., 185.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Pilgrim Fellowship, 284-98, citation at 287.
[13] Along with G. Sšhngen, Ratzinger stresses "emphatically that the truth of Christianity is not the truth of a universally accepted idea but the truth of a unique fact" (Principles, 174). Cf. G. Sšhngen, Die Einheit in der Theologie (Munich: Zink, 1952), 347.
[14] For particulars, see Kaes, 86-88.
[15] Pt. 3, sec. 2, of this book, "Ratzinger's Ecciesiology against the Background of Issues in Intellectual History".
[16] Cf. Weiler, 151-283, esp. 281-83.
[17] See J. Ratzinger, "Geleitwort" [preface], in Weiler, xiii; similarly: G. Alberigo, "Die konziliare Erfahrung: SelbstŠndig lernen", in Wittstadt, 2:679-98, esp. 688f.
[18] See Church 3-20; "Ecciesiology", 123-52.
[19] Cf. Pt. 2, sec. 2, chap. 3, ¤ 4, "Aspects during the Council in Tension with the Later Perspective", and pt. 3, sec. I, "Comparison between the Main Lines of Lumen gentium and of Ratzinger's Ecclesiology".
[20] Weiler 315. In the same passage, Weiler cites J. Ratzinger, Die letzte Sitzungsperiode des Konzils (Cologne: Bachem, 1966), 73; cf. Highlights, 183. In 1996, Weiler declared (11f.) that, even though the theme of "Church" is an important focal point in Ratzinger's work as a whole, "it is astounding that so far relatively few publications have been dedicated to this important aspect .... A monograph on Ratzinger's ecclesiology has not yet appeared." Weiler did not consider the unpublished dissertation of K.-J. E. Jeon, Die Kirche bei Joseph Ratzinger: Unter- suchungen zum strukturierten Volk Gottes nach der Kirchenlehre Joseph Ratzingers (unpublished dissertation, Innsbruck, 1995). An extensive list of further publications on Ratzinger's theology can be found in Weiler, 11f. Worth noting also is the bibliography of secondary literature compiled by Helmut Moll under the title "Rezeption und Auseinandersetzung mit dem theologischen Werk von Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger", in Mitte, 309-15.
[21] It seems to me that Ratzinger's stance with regard to Gaudium et spes deserves separate study, since Ratzinger has grappled with this document on several occasions. He declared in 1975, for example, that Gaudium et spes is "the most difficult and, [along] with the 'Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy' and the 'Decree on Ecumenism', also the most [consequential]" Council document, on account of the problem of finding a suitable concept of "the world" (Principles, 378).
[22] Beinert, "Kirchenbilder in der Kirchengeschichte", in Kirchenbilder, Kirchenvisionen: Variationen Ÿber eine Wirklichkeit, ed. Beinert, 58-127, citation at III (Regensburg: Pustet, 1995).
[23] Principles, 390.
[24] Cf. ibid., 379. For a more detailed discussion, see t. 2, sec. I, chap. 3, ¤ 1, Of this book, "The Council: 'The Beginning of the Beginning'?"
[25] Principles, 381, 382.
[26] Ibid., 390.
[27] Ibid.
[28] "See, for example, "Weltoffene Kirche? †berlegungen zur Struktur des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils", in Volk Gottes, 107-28. Cf. also "Der Christ und die Welt von heute: †berlegungen zur Pastoralkonstitution des Zweiten Vatikamschen Konzils", in Dogma, 183-204, along with the commentary on articles 11-22 of Gaudium et spes, in LThK.E, vol. 3 (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1968), 313-54.
29 example is the striking essay entitled "Prognosen fuer die Zukunft des …Ekumenismus", in Mitte, 181-94. It also contains the so-called Ratzinger formula, which states that "Rome must not demand more from the East by way of doctrine on the primacy than was formulated and practiced during the first millennium." We will treat this subject more thoroughly in this book in pt. 2, sec. 2, chap. 3, ¤ 4.2, entitled "Concrete Forms of Episcopal Collegiality, as Variously Interpreted".
[30] See, for example, Salt of the Earth, 243-55.
[31] See the first volume of the Urfelder series, which especially promotes dialogue between Jews and Christians: J. Ratzinger, Many Religions-One Covenant, trans. Graham Harrison (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999).
[32] Song 1:5.


Maximilian Heinrich Heim is a Cistercian priest and the Prior of the Abbey in Stiepel, Germany. He has a doctorate in theology and has taught fundamental theology at the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz in Austria. This study on the theology of Joseph Ratzinger won prestigious awards, the Cardinal Innitzer Prize in Vienna, and the Johann-Kaspar Zeuss Prize in Kronach, Germany.

OR today.

Benedict XVI to the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences:
'No opposition between faith in creation, and science'

Photos: above left, with physicist Stephen Hawking; right, with Lebanese President Sleiman;
below left, with members of Catholic Charismatic movement; right, with university students Thursday evening.

Other Page 1 stories: The Holy Father's audience with the President of Lebanon; his meeting with Catholic Charismatics; his address to pontifical
university students Thursday evening;and in international news - diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in the Democratic Congo's North Kivu region.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father had no scheduled activity on the Feast of All Saints today, but he led the recital
of a noontime Angelus as customary during major religious holidays.

ANGELUS ON ALL SAINTS' DAY

---

The Holy Father's English greeting:

Today’s celebration of the Solemnity of All Saints invites us to rejoice in our communion with
the Saints in heaven, to implore their intercession for the Church on earth, and to follow their footsteps
in the way of holiness.

May the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Saints strengthen us in faith and
fervent hope in the fulfilment of Christ’s promises.

---

Follow the example of the saints,
Pope urges the faithful



Vatican City, Nov. 1 (dpa) - Pope Benedict XVI celebrated All Saints Day Saturday by urging the faithful to follow the example of the Christian martyrs and other men and women who dedicated their lives to God.

Benedict made the appeal when he delivered the noon Angelus blessing before thousands of people gathered in St Peter's Square.

Among those present were participants in the "Race of the Saints", a 10-kilometer run through Rome in which the Italian capital's Mayor Gianni Alemanno also took part.

Benedict, citing the US gospel hymn "When the Saints Go Marching In," said all Christians should aspire to be "in that number" in the "race" for martyrdom.

This the Pontiff said, could be understood as "love without reserve ... for God and one's brethren."

During their earthly life, the saints "were poor in spirit, hurt by sin... hungry and thirsty for justice, clement, pure in their hearts,agents of peace, and persecuted," Benedict said.

In Western Christianity All Saints Day, traditionally held on November 1, commemorates those who have attained a presence before God in heaven.

The feast precedes All Souls' Day on November 2, which commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven.



Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words today:

---

THE HOLY FATHER'S HOMILY

Dear brothers and sisters:

Today we celebrate with great joy the Feast of All Saints.

Visiting a botanical garden, one is amazed amid the variety of plants and flowers, and we spontaneously think of the imagination of the Creator who made the world a wondrous garden.

We feel something analogous when we consider the spectacle of sainthood: The world appears like a garden where the Spirit of God has raised with miraculous imagination a multitude of saints, men and women of every age and social condition, from every race, people and culture.

Each is different from the other, with the singularity of their individual human personalities and their personal spiritual charism. But all bear the 'seal' of Jesus (cfr Ap 7,3), the imprint of his love as he testified it on the Cross.

All are in a state of joy, an endless feast, but like Jesus, they conquered this goal by undergoing great distress and trials (cfr Ap 7, 14), each one facing his part of the sacrifice [of Christ] in order to participate in the glory of Resurrection.

The Solemnity of All Saints arose in the course of the first Christian millennium as a collective celebration of the martyrs. Already in 609, Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon in Rome, dedicating it to the Virgin Mary and all the martyrs.

We can also understand martyrdom in its collateral sense, as a love for Christ without reservations, a love that is expressed in giving oneself totally to God and to our brothers.

This spiritual goal, towards which all baptized persons aspire, is reached following the way of the Gospel 'beatitudes' indicated by the liturgy for today's solemnity (Mt 5,1-12a). It is the same way followed by Jesus, and which the saints attempted to emulate in full awareness of their human limitations.

In fact, in their earthly existence, they were poor in spirit; sorrowful for sin; kind, hungry and thirsty for justice; merciful, pure of heart, makers of peace, persecuted for justice.

And God has shared his happiness with them - they had a foretaste of it on earth, and enjoy it in fullness beyond. Now, they are comforted, heirs of the earth, sated, forgiven - and they are with God, whose children they are. In short, 'theirs is the Kingdom of heaven" (cfr Mt 5,10).

On this day, we feel that attraction to God revived in us, urging us to step up the pace of our earthly pilgrimage. We feel the desire rekindled in our hearts to unite us for always with the family of saints, with whom we already have the grace of communion.

In the words of a famous Gospel spiritual*: "When the saints come marching in, Lord, how I want to be in that number!"

May this beautiful aspiration burn in all Christians and help them to overcome every difficulty, every pear, every tribulation!

Dear friends, let us put our hand in the maternal hand of Mary, Queen of All Saints, and allow ourselves to be led by her towards the heavenly homeland, in the company of the blessed spirits 'from every nation, people and language" (ap 7.9). And let us join to this prayer our dear departed whom we commemorate tomorrow.


During his plurilingual greetings after the prayer, he had a special message for the Italians:

I greet particularly the thousands from every part of Italy who took part in the first 'Corso dei Santi' (Saints' Race) promoted by the Salesian congregation, who are here today with the Mayor of Rome. Gianni Alemanno.

Dear friends, starting from St. Peter's Square and ending here, you have followed a route passing through St. John Lateran, St. Paul outside the Walls and Santa Maria Maggiore [Along with St. Peter's, these are the four Papal Basilicas in Rome]. I am happy for this new initiative, which expresses both the joy and the effort of 'running' together on the way of saintliness.

May all our life be a 'race' in faith and love, inspired by the examples of the great witnesses to the Gospel.

I wish everyone a happy All Saints Day.

---

*Isn't it delightful that our Pope cited an American spiritual that came into popular culture via Louis Armstrong and jazz in the 1930s? I believe it originated in spirituals chanted by American Negros in the 19th century. It has become a jazz staple, but is still played as a funeral hymn in New Orleans's French Quarter.

After Sandro Magister - see 10/27/08 post in NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354498&p=110
Marco Politi is the second journalist in Italian MSM to anticioate next week's first meeting of the Catholic-Muslim Forum established last March, although curiously, he never once refers to it by its formal name.


The Church and Islam:
A formal encounter
by Marco Politi
Translated from

Oct. 31, 2008

VATICAN CITY - Twenty-nine Muslim scholars and an equal number of Catholic theologians are ready to confront each other in closed-door sessions on Monday and Tuesday, November 3-4, at the Vatican, on the subject of love of God and neighbor.

This will be the first official theological encounter between the two religions which together represent almost two and a half billion of the world's population.

It takes place under the aegis of Benedict XVI as a concrete reply to a letter sent by 132 Muslim intellectuals following the 'Regensburg incident' (when it appeared that the Pontiff had brusquely equated Islam and dissemination of faith by violent means*), in which they proposed a mutual exploration of the principles common to both Christianity and Islam.

*[One must take exception to Politi's parenthetical note and his use of the phrase 'Regensburg incident' preceding it, bearing in mind that it was chiefly his initial reporting of the Regensburg lecture - based solely on the Pope's citation from a Byzantine emperor - that became the model for all the distorted reporting and subsequent 'ire of Islam' that followed.

He must be very pleased to have unwittingly 'imposed' an international agenda. His obviously far from benevolent intention in reporting the Regensburg lecture as he did turned out to be a blessing in disguise - it ignited a movement towards meaningful dialog that the previous decades of inter-religious Kumbaya vacuousness had failed to inspire.]

"The future of the world", they wrote, depends on peace among Muslims and Christians".

After the prophetic gestures of Papa Wojtyla - his address to young Muslims in Casablanca, the inter-religious prayer in Assisi, his visit to the mosque in Damascus - it seems the time has come to take each other's measure in concrete terms. [High time, too! Casablanca was in 1985, Assisi in 1986, Damascus in 2001.]

Ratzinger [this tendency by newsmen to refer to a Pope without any honorific is truly deplorable], meeting with his Schuelerkreis in September 2005 (among them, Cardinal Schoenborn of Vienna), had identified three main issues of dialog with Islam:
- the lack of a central authority,
- the lack of any 'secularity' in relations between the religious and civil spheres [Politi's tortuous and euphemistic way of saying that in Islam, there is generally no separation between religious and civilian spheres, or Church and State, as one would more commonly say], and
- the Islamic concept of the Koran as the direct word of God (not inspired by God, as Christians say of the Bible, which therefore allows more flexibility in interpreting Scripture).

[It is significant in itself that the newly-elected Pope chose Islam to be the topic of his first reunion with his Schuelerkreis as Pope.]

Meanwhile, fears about Islam have been growing among the Church hierarchy because of fundamentalist violence against Christians in various parts of the world (documented in a 2008 report by the association Aid to the Church of Suffering) as well as the growth of Islam in European countries.

For several months now, the Italian bishops conference has been weighing the need to issue a definitive statement on the right of Italian Muslims to construct mosques without needing to be subject to the whims of xenophobic local administrations or local referenda which are anti-Constitutional.

At a recent conference, French Cardinal Jean Pierre Ricard, vice president of the Council of European bishops' conferences, stressed that in order to take their right place in Europe, Muslims should undertake a critical examination of their religious traditions in the same way that the Catholic Church did in the Second Vatican Council. [But given that Muslims have no central religious authority, how can they be expected to do this? Cardinal Ricard must have said something more concrete.]

The dialog between Islam and Christianity, Ricard said, is credible only if religious freedom is concretized as a principle that is valid for everyone.

Even Cardinal Scola of Venice has said that one cannot be silent in the face of human rights violations. At the same time, he points out that the world is immersed in a historical process of hybridization among civilizations, for which we are 'condmene4d to dialog' in order to know each other better. [Putting it this way implies - I think erroneously - that Scola, who is promoting his own initiative of Christian-Islam dialog in a project called Oasis - is prepared to compromise or 'overlook' about certain violations in the name of dialog.]

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog, who will be presiding at the bilateral sessions next week, has expressed the hope that the 'true Islam' may be able to emerge in public opinion.

The Muslim world has recently sent out similar new signals of opposition to fundamentalism. Lind Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has been promoting a forum for dialog among Muslims. Jews and Christians.

The Arab emirate of Qatar recently authorized the construction for the first time of a complex for Christian worship with churches for Catholics, Orthodox and Anglicans.

In Jordan, Prince Talal, one of the prime movers behind the 'Letter of the 138', has been very active in promoting dialog among religions. [I am not sure that the initiative currently includes the Jews, for instance. The Prince, Ghazi bin Muhammad, to give him his formal name, currently heads the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought established in 1980 by Jordan's King Hussein 'to serve Jordan, Arabs, Muslims and humanity at large', but the Institute's site,
www.aalalbayt.org/en/index.html
which is in Arabic and English, does not show any activity with the Jews, although it has published Jewish responses to A COMMON WORD.]

But there have been critical voices as well.

The Jesuit theologian Samir Khalil, a Lebanese, who is one of the participants in next week's dialog, and a Muslim expert highly respected by Pope Benedict XVI, says bluntly: "Whoever lives in a country and fails to integrate himself with its culture should choose to live elsewhere".

Such signs are of concern to Muslim representatives who are open to dialog and convinced of the need to construct a European Islam.

Imam Yahya Pallavicini, vice-president of the association of Islamic religious communities in Italy, warns that it would be 'negative' to confuse the difference between civilizations and cultures as 'the difference between good believers and bad ones'.

Doubtless, (Christian-Muslim) dialog is undergoing a crucial transition. The final message of the recent Bishops' Synod assembly stated clearly that relations with Islam must be governed firmly by the principles of
- 'respect for life',
- the protection of human rights and women's rights,
- the distinction between the socio-political order and the religious sphere, as well as
- 'reciprocity and the freedom of conscience and religion'.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Text of the communique announcing the estanishment of the Catholic-Muslim Forum
last March, taken from the site of A COMMON WORD.

The last paragraph gives details about the November 4-6 conference.


The site also continually posts news items related to developments that followed
publication of A COMMON WORD.
www.acommonword.com/

Cardinal Schoenborn presents
Pope's thoughts on creation and evolution
to the plenary session of
the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
Translated from
the Italian service of


It's the second day of the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences dedicated this year to the theme "Scientific approaches to the evolution of the universe and of life", which began yesterday and ends Monday.

In his address to the participants yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI underscored that the cosmos is not a chaotic system but an ordered one in which man, with the help of science, among other things, can grasp the presence of the Creator.

In an afternoon session yesterday, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, Archbishop of Vienna, presented to the assembly the Pope's thinking on creation and evolution. Alessandro Gisotti reports -

Cardinal Schoenborn recalled that the relationship between Creation and evolution has always been of great interest to Benedict XVI, who chose it as the subject for the annual seminar-reunion of the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis in 2006 [whose proceedings were subsequently published in a book, Creation and Evolution'].

He also cited amply from speeches given by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger touching on the subject, such as those in a 1985 Rome symposium on "The Christian Faith and the Theory of Evolution" and a lecture he gave at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1999.

In such discourses, Schoenborn said, as in the famous 2006 lectio magistralis in Regensburg, Benedict XVI has called on scientists to widen the horizons of reason.

At the same time, he points out, the Pope has always warned against
a rationalism that reduces man only to his biological dimension.

Joseph Ratzinger has always maintained, he said, that there is no opposition between the theory of evolution and Creation, but that the conflict is between two difference concepts of man and his rationality.

In this context, let us recall that in July 2007, speaking to the priests of Belluno in Auronzo di Cadore, the Pope had said that to place Creation and evolution in opposition was 'an absurdity'.

On the one hand, the Pope said, "there is a wealth of scientific evidence for evolution", but on the other, although the theory of evolution enriches our knowledge abut life, the theory does not answer the basic philosophical questions, "Where does everything come from, and how did evolution lead finally to man?"

These questions, in turn, lead to the underlying question, which . is 'to discover the idea that preceded everything'.

We are not creatures of chance, the fruit of chaos, the Pope has often said, but rather "we were thought, willed and loved", and that therefore, man's great mission is "to discover this sense of existence, to live it, and add a new element to the great cosmic harmony envisioned by the Creator".

On the importance that the Church has always given to scientific progress, Romilda Ferrauto interviewed Mons. Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences:

MONS. SANCHEZ: The Church is open to what science has to say - it is of great interest to us. And it cannot be otherwise, since science deals with nature. The Church has always understood Nature as what God has created, and we men are part of nature, so the Church cannot but be interested in science. The proof is that it has maintained an Academy of sciences for more than 400 years now.


Therefore, the theory of evolution is not incompatible with God's design in creating man...
Not only is it not incompatible. It is nearer to what we read in the Bible than so many other theories, such as those the Greeks had of an eternal but cyclical world.

It is much closer if we think that the Bible presents the world as having been created in by God in seven days - with each day marking a progress: first, light, then the stars, then life starting with plants, then the animals, and finally man.

That is why the theory of evolution seems close, without making direct comparisons, to the vision presented by the Bible.

Of course, such a scientific theory borders on the philosophical, and so we have philosophies based on evolutionism which are materialistic, according to which only matter exists.

But that is not science, it is philosophy. Anyone can use scientific theories to make philosophical interpretations, and for atheists, to say that everything is chaos. But that is a philosophical opinion as well as an ideology that can be used for certain presentations of the theory of evolution. It is not that of the great scientists who are almost all believers.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Fr. Sorondo wrote a very informative 26-page
historical profile of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
when it marked its 400th anniversary in 2003:

www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdscien/400_ann/storia_en...
Ironically, it traces its beginnings to the Accademia dei Lincei established with the patronage
of Clement VIII in 1603 under the leadership of Galileo Galilei! It has 80 lifetime members,
each new one elected by the Academy and approved by the Pope. Its membership has included
several Nobel Prize laureates, many of them elected members before winning the Nobel.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here's another Vatican Radio interview that I should have translated yesterday.


Evolutionism tackled by
the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
Translated from
the Italian service of



Benedetta Capelli interviewed Prof. Nicolas Cabibbo, president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and a professor of physics at La Sapienza University [67 of his colleagues in the physics department engineered the infamous protest against Pope Benedict's coming to La Sapienza last January]:



What exactly are the objectives for this plenary session?
To take a stand on evolution which is a central issue in science, both from the physico-cosmological and biological viewpoints.


What have been the last contributions from scientific research on the origins and evolution of the universe, of matter, and of life?
In the case of cosmology and the story of the universe, we have new observational knowledge of how the universe functions - with the great discovery that the universe today is not only expanding, as has been postulated for some time, but it is in accelerated expansion, which opens a whole series of new problems on, for instance, the physics of sub-atomic particles.

Then, there have been theoretical developments on the nature of the Big Bang, with some very interesting propositions - that are, I must admit, difficultly verifiable - according to which that initial Big Bang may not be a unique event.

Indeed, it is possible that our universe is just a very small part of the entire physical reality, that there could exist other universes born of other Big Bangs with different physical characteristics...


Is this the sense meant by 'multiple universes'?*
[In fact, the 'multiple-universes' theory, or 'many-worlds interpretation' (MWI) - as described in the first answer of Dr. Cabibbo - claims to resolve all the 'paradoxes' of quantum theory since every possible outcome to every event defines or exists in its own "history" or "world." In layman's terms, this means that there is a very large, perhaps infinite, number of universes and that everything that could possibly happen in our universe (but doesn't) does happen in some other universe(s).]
It is one of the two senses in which the term is used - and that's from the cosmological point of view. The second sense derives from quantum mechanics which postulates the existence of multiple universes.


Benedict XVI has said it is absurd to juxtapose the theory of evolution with the belief in creation...
The Pope refers to creation in the sense that we Catholics understand it - in simplest terms, that God created the world, which is obviously a fact that is not scientifically ascertainable.

The theory of evolution, which is part of scientific knowledge, and divine Creation, which is an article of faith, are on different planes. Scientific knowledge is never complete, and even if we have reached a remarkable level of certainty about biological evolution, there will certainly be further steps in the future which will refine or modify that knowledge.


The Pope recently reiterated the importance of scientific research, but what he said was distorted by some of the media which upset many scientists...
Of course, scientific research is important, and that it is equally important for the Church to support it because in some way, the future of mankind depends on it - the possibility, for instance of controlling the events related to climate change, to cite
an example.


On the 10th anniversary of the encyclical Fides et ratio, the Pope said, "Faith does not fear scientific progress, and the developments to which its conquests lead, when the ultimate end is man and his wellbeing." How much is this idea shared in the scientific world?
I think, for the most part, yes, and not only among Catholic scientists. The Pontifical Academy has many members who are not Catholic who, as far as I can tell, fully share the idea of the centrality of man's future as the basic argument for scientific research.

***

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, who is an honorary member of the Academy, will be addressing the plenary session on an interpretation of the Biblical account of Creation.


Not incidentally, Prof. Cabibbo was the object of significant attention last month when the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics was announced. I have not read enough of the ensuing commentary, but it's not entirely to be ruled out that the Nobel jury snubbed Cabibbo simply because he is the president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The Nobel juries have been notoriously distinguished in the past decade or so by making choices out of 'political correctness' rather than intrinsic merit.


Italian scientist
'robbed' of Nobel



Rome, Oct. 8 (dpa)- Italy's scientific community is up in arms over what it charges as the unfair exclusion of an Italian researcher from this year's Nobel Prize for physics.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday awarded the prize to US researcher Yoichiro Nambu and his Japanese colleagues Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, for discoveries linked to describing the smallest building blocks in nature.

But Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics president Roberto Petronzio slammed the omission of Nicola Cabibbo from honour.

"What a bitter irony, since Kobayashi and Maskawa, have the sole merit of generalizing, moreover in a simple way, the idea of Prof. Cabibbo," Petronzio was quoted as saying by the daily La Repubblica on Wednesday.

The Stockholm-based Academy cited Kobayashi and Maskawa "for the discovery of the origin of broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature."

"An incredible scandal! Cabibbo made the first and fundamental part of the discovery," the honorary president of the Italian Physics association, Renato Angelo Ricci, told the daily Corriere della Sera.

The academy's decision to exclude Cabibbo also drew criticism beyond Italy's borders.

"Physics Nobel snubs key researcher," said the respected British publication, New Scientist, referring to Cabibbo, who it said had "laid the ground work for Kobayashi and Maskawa."

Cabibbo, a professor at Rome's La Sapienza University and president of the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences, was not immediately available for comment on the issue.

"These three people - Cabibbo, Kobayashi and Maskawa - are mentioned so often together that we usually just say C-K-M rather than saying all three of their multi-syllabic names," particle physicist Joe Lykken told US-based National Public Radio.

Half of this year's Nobel prize, worth 10 million kronor (1.5 million dollars) will go to Nambu, while Kobayashi and Maskawa share the other half.

Nobel prizes were endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and the award ceremonies are held December 10, the anniversary of his 1896 death in San Remo, Italy.

No OR today (since yesterday was a religious holiday).


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father led the noontime Angelus today, All Souls' Day.

At the tomb of John Paul II.

At 6:30 p.m., the Holy Father went to the Vatican Grottoes to pray at the tombs of his predecessors
for all the faithful departed.



THE HOLY FATHER'S
PRAYER INTENTIONS
FOR NOVEMBER

---

General intention
"That the testimony of love offered by the Saints may fortify Christians in their devotion to God and their neighbor, imitating Christ who came to serve and not to be served."

Apostolic intention
"That the Christian communities of Asia, contemplating the face of Christ, may know how to find the most suitable ways to announce him, in full faithfulness to the Gospel, to the peoples of that vast continent so rich in culture and ancient forms of spirituality."

---

ANGELUS TODAY -
ALL SOULS' DAY





The Holy Father's English greeting:

---

Today, All Souls Day, the Church commemorates the faithful departed and invites us, the living, to pray for their eternal repose in the peace of Christ’s Kingdom.

Let us pray in a special way not only for our loved ones who have died, but also for all those who count on the charity of our prayers. Upon you and your families I invoke God’s abundant blessings!

---

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's mini-homily before the prayers:

---

Dear brothers and sisters,

Yesterday, the Feast of All Saints allowed us to contemplate "the city of heaven, the celestial Jerusalem which is our mother" (Preface for All Saints' Day).

Today, with our spirit still focused on this ultimate reality, we commemorate all the faithful departed, who "have preceded us in the sign of faith and sleep the sleep of peace" (Eucharistic Prayer I).

it is very important that we Christians live a relationship with the departed in the truth of the faith, and that we look at death and the afterlife in the light of Revelation.

The Apostle Paul, writing to the first Christian communities, exhorted the faithful "not to grieve like those who have no hope".

"For if we believe," he wrote, "that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep" (1 Thess 4,13-14).

It is necessary even today to evangelize on the reality of death and eternal life, a reality that is particularly subject to superstitious beliefs and syncretisms, so that Christian truth does not risk being mixed up with all sorts of mythologies.

In my encyclical on Christian hope, I asked myself about the mystery of eternal life (cfr Spe salvi, 10-12): Is Christian faith still a hope that transforms and sustains the life of men today? (cfr, ivi 10).

More radically, do the men and women of our time still desire eternal life? Or has earthly existence perhaps become their only horizon?

In fact, as St. Augustine has observed, we all want a 'blessed life', happiness. We don't know exactly what it is and how it is, but we are attracted towards it.

And this is a universal hope, common to men of all times and in all places. The expression 'eternal life' is meant to give a name to this irrepressible expectation: which is not of an endless succession, but an immersion into the ocean of infinite love, in which time - before and after - no longer is.

A fullness of life and of joy - this is what we hope for and await from being with Christ (cfr, ivi, 12).

Today let us renew this hope of eternal life which is founded on the death and resurrection of Christ. "I have resurrected and now, I am always with you", the Lord tells us, "and my hand will hold you up."

(He is saying): Wherever you fall, you will fall into my hands, and I will be with you even at the gate of death. Where no one else can accompany you farther and where you cannot bring anyone or anything, there I will await you to transform shadows into light.

But Christian hope is never simply individual - it is always hope also for others. Our lives are so profoundly linked to each other, that the good and evil that each person does always touches others as well. Thus the prayer of a soul still on its earthly pilgrimage can help another soul which is purifying itself after death.

That is why the Church asks us to pray for our dear departed and to pay a visit to their graves.

May Mary, Star of Hope, make our faith in eternal life stronger and more authentic, and sustain our prayer of suffrage for our departed brothers.

---

Let us say a prayer for the Holy Father's parents and sister, too. (Maria died on November 2, 1991). It's very poignant that since he became Pope, he has been unable to visit their graves on All Souls' Day as he used to do every year before 2005.

The Holy Father and his brother pray at the family grave in Ziegetsdorf near Pentling on 9/13/06 during the Pope's visit to Bavaria.

I posted a photo of the grave on the People Around The Pope thread. Seems I got the wrong thread.....again!!!!!!!
Anyway, I'm praying for Papa's sister on her anniversary and our French priest is saying Mass for her soul tomorrow. I'm sure she's already in Heaven - but we can still pray for her. Perhaps we should now be asking her to pray for us.

The article title is really off-putting because it is so condescending, but does not at all reflect the article itself, which is surprisingly fair, coming from Politi - one of those rare times he blows more or less right.


The universe explained to the Pope
by MARCO POLITI
Translated from

November 1, 2008



VATICAN CITY - In the beginning was the Word. In the beginning was the Event. In the beginning was the Big Bang.

In the beginning, perhaps there were many little bubbles expanding, like those little bubbles of water that grow and pop in a kettle of boiling water.

Hunched on his wheelchair, with his head rigidly held to one side by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease], and the tenacious gaze of someone who has lived with it for 46 years, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking narrates - via voice synthesizer - the evolution of the universe as science currently understands it, and the succession of theories about its origins.

It is a fascinating exploration that goes from Aristotle, who believed in an eternal universe that had no beginning, to Immanuel Kant, to Albert Einstein, and the latest researches which try to reconcile the theory of general relativity with quantum theory.

His audience is composed of his fellow members in the Vatican Academy of Pontifical Sciences, believers and non-believers alike. Among them are two cardinals, Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, and George Cottier, former theologian of the Pontifical Household.

"What happened before the world began?", Hawking asks. "What was God doing before he created it? Perhaps preparing hell for those who ask such questions?"

Occasional jocularity like this during his scientific presentation illustrates the spirit in which the Pope's academy has organized its plenary session this year to prepare, in a way, for the 150th anniversary next year of Darwin's Origin of Species [the book in which he first proposed his theory of biological evolution].

The session has been characterized by complete liberty of discussion, and a desire to understand without being bound by ideology or other prejudices.

Says Nicolas Cabibbo, the nuclear physicist who has been the Academy president since 1993, "Darwin's theory has caused some problems in Catholic teaching. It is our intention to present the progress of knowledge in evolution in order to take stock of the situation. Thus, we decided on the theme 'Scientific approaches to the evolution of the universe and of life'."

From the initial presentations at the symposium being held in the Academy headquarters - the Casina Pio IV, a Renaissance palazzo in the Vatican Gardens - it was clear there was no room here for the fanaticism of the creationists (who interpret Genesis literally) nor the daydreaming of Intelligent Design, which would see God as a finicky watchmaker who is intent on fine-tuning his clockwork. [Well, not quite! ID proponents argue that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process, such as natural selection" (which is the basic principle in Darwin's theory). The 'intelligent cause' is widely understood to be the Christian God, but ID was born to 'secularize' the idea of Creation.]

"For some time, creationists sought to find a scientific framework, and that is how they evolved to 'intelligent design'," said Cabibbo in an interview with Avvenire, adding, "But many simply see it as a new edition of creationism dressed up to look like science."

It seems to be the silent interment for a pseudo-theory that has been embraced with enthusiasm by many traditional Catholics in recent years.

"The theory of evolution is scientific, whereas the arguments advanced by the advocates of ID are without foundation", according to a paper prepared by Fr. Jean-Michel Maldame of the Catholic Institute of Toulouse. "The theory of evolution is itself evolving, like a tree that is growing."

Is there room for God in the evolutionary process? Yes, says Maldame, "because the creator is not extraneous to Nature".

"The act of creation is the most intimate part of energy in action," says Hawking, whose presentation does not get into controversies. His paper is neither ideological nor philosophical, nor scientistic, for that matter. Rather, he outlines, in a Socratic manner, the discoveries, hypotheses, errors and consensus outcomes in this field, pointing out that which is definitely known by scientific criteria, and that which is not.

"I have a positivist approach," he says, in which what counts are results that are verifiable and verified.

With Anglo-Saxon irony, he notes that between a model that says 'the world was created recently' and one that says it has existed for some time, "the second has more explanations".

He believes that the discovery of an expanding universe was one of the most important intellectual breakthroughs of the 20th century. He notes that Einstein's theory of relativity continues to be fundamental, but it does not explain everything - "it cannot explain how the universe began, only how it evolves once it has been born".

What then is known at present about the origin of the universe? He believes that both Einstein's relativity and Max Planck's quantum theory both explain certain features, and he thinks that the scenario is much more complex than the Big Bang that has been hypothesized for over half a century now.

"Jim Hartle and I have hypothesized a spontaneous quantistic creation of the universe similar to the formation of bubbles of water vapor in boiling water", he says. Many little bubbles that appear and disappear, analogous to micro-universes alternating between expansion and collapse.

Some of the 'bubbles' grow and expand rapidly, 'analogous to universes that start to expand at an accelerating pace".

Many universes then, not just one. And this expanding universe(s) - will it(they) just go on expanding? Or will they eventually collapse? Those are unanswered questions, and so "cosmology is such a fascinating subject', Hawking says.

Benedict XVI, who received the participants at the start of their plenary, was careful to underscore that there is no opposition between faith in creation, on the one hand, and science on the other, And he points out the rationality of creation.

"Galileo," he recalls, "saw nature as a book whose author was God. This image helps us to understand that the world, far from originating in chaos, is more like an ordered book - it is a cosmos."
[The three primary meanings for cosmos all imply harmony: 1) The universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious whole; 2) An ordered, harmonious whole; 3) Harmony and order as distinct from chaos.]

The Pope has never spoken of Intelligent Design.

And L'Osservatore Romano carried an editorial commentary that says, in effect, the Church does well to confront the limitations of Darwin's theory of evolution rather than other far less sustainable 'inventions'.

"Of course, the doctrine of the Church affirms that God had a plan for creation, but this has nothing to do with the American hypothesis of Intelligent Design which simply creates new confusions and errors."

Papa Ratzinger is clear about one thing. "The distinction between a living being and a spiritual being, which is capax Dei [a capacity for God], indicates the existence of an intellective spirit".

And the Church teaches that "every soul is created directly by God, it is not a 'product' of parents, and it is immortal".

It fell to Cardinal Schoenborn, who gave the first presentation after the audience at the Vatican, to explain that for Papa Ratzinger, the fundamental point is the nexus between 'reason, faith and life'.

Religion without reason, he said, risks falling prey to irrational pathologies. That is the reason Benedict XVI insists repeatedly on the rationality of faith.

Schoenborn adds that in the evolutionary scenario, there is both a rationality of matter as well as a rationality of process. Is there then, an originating Reason that is mirrored in these dimensions? He says the answer is beyond the scope of science, even if the question is rational, and that is why Benedict XVI says "we must dare to believe in a creative Reason and entrust ourselves to it".

In this way, the Church has distanced itself from any rancorous confrontation with science and has given free rein to a debate on Darwin, and more generally, to a stimulating encounter among scientists, philosophers and theologians without encroaching on each other's autonomy.

Perhaps a picture says it best.



The Pope lays an affectionate hand on Hawking's rebellious hair, while the scientist types on his computer keyboard, and the voice synthesizer translates it into "I am vary happy to meet you, Holiness. Today there should be a good encounter between Science and the Church".


Hawking has absolute faith in science, as he affirms in this extract from his lecture at the Vatican symposium, which I have 'translated back' to English from the Italian translation published by Corriere della Sera.


Science will be able to answer
man's age-old questions
by STEPHEN HAWKING
Translated from

Nov. 1, 2008


The first accounts of the origin of the world were attempts to answer the questions which we all ask: Why are we here? Where did we come from?

Nonetheless the idea that the universe had a beginning did not please everyone. For example, Aristotle, the most famous of the Greek philosophers, thought that the universe has always existed, that it is eternal and 'more perfect' than anything ever created.

The expansion of the universe was one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century, or of any century, for that matter. It transformed the debate on whether the universe had a beginning or not. Because if the galaxies are now pulling away from each other, then they must have been closer together before.

Many scientists would not accept that the universe had a beginning because this would imply a failure of physics. To understand how the universe was born, one would require an external agent.

Thus, these same scientists proposed theories according to which, yes, the universe is expanding now but it still did not have a beginning.

Two Russians, Lifshitz and Khalatnikov, claimed to have demonstrated that, at finite density, a general contraction without exact symmetry would always provoke a rebound. This outcome was very convenient for Marxist-Leninist dialectical materialism because it avoided disconcerting questions about the creation of the universe. And so it became a dogma for Soviet scientists.

When Lifshitz and Khalatnikov published their statements, I was a 21-year-old student looking for a suitable subject for my doctorate thesis. Since I did not believe their so-called proofs, I started, with Roger Penrose, to develop new mathematical techniques to study the question.

Together we demonstrated that it was impossible for the universe to rebound. If Einstein's general theory of relativity is correct, there would be a singularity, a point of density in the curvature of infinite time-space, in which time begins.

In this last century, we have made enormous progress in cosmology. The general theory of relativity and the discovery of an expanding universe shattered the old image of a universe that has always existed and will be existent for always.

General relativity predicted that the universe, and time itself, began with the Big Bang. It also predicted that time would come to an end in black holes. The discovery of background microwave radiation in the cosmos and the observation of black holes sustained these predictions.

But even if great steps have been made, not everything has been resolved. We still do not have a good understanding at the theoretical level of the observations that the expansion of the universe has started to speed up after a long period of slowing down. Without such an understanding, we cannot be certain about the future of the universe.

Will it continue to expand forever? Is inflation a law of nature? Or is the universe destined to collapse again? New results based on observation and theoretical progress are coming rapidly. Cosmology is a very exciting and active field. We are ever closer to answering the perennial questions - why are we here, and where do we come from.

I think these questions can find their answers within the field of science.

No OR today.


THE POPE'S DAY

At 11:30, the Holy Father presided at a concelebrated Mass at St. Peter's Basilica for all the cardinals
and bishops who died in the past year. The text of the homily has not been posted yet.

First Catholic-Muslim Forum
sessions open today at the Vatican:
Muslims seek crisis management plan
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor



VATICAN CITY, Nov. 3 (Reuters) – Muslim scholars due to meet Pope Benedict and Roman Catholic officials this week hope the Vatican will agree to a joint crisis management plan to defuse tensions that flare up between Christianity and Islam.

Violent protests in the Islamic world after a Danish newspaper printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad might have been averted if Christians and Muslims had spoken out jointly against such unrest and the provocation behind it, they say. [First, all the riots and demonstrations took place among Muslims. Why did the Muslim leaders not speak out then? If they did not, then what makes them think anything Catholic leadrs say would have any effect on the Muslim protesters?]

This proposal is one of several ideas for better interfaith cooperation that the Common Word group, a broad coalition of Muslim leaders and scholars pursuing dialogue between the world's two largest religions, will present at the November 4-6 talks.

"We should develop a crisis reaction mechanism so if there is another cartoon crisis, we could get together and make a joint statement," said Ibrahim Kalin, an Islam scholar from Turkey who is spokesman for the group.

They would also speak out against religious persecution such as the oppression of Iraq's Christian minority, said delegation member Sohail Nakhooda, editor of the Amman-based magazine Islamica. "We have to look out for each other," he said. [All very well, but does it take a forum or a joint mechanism to do that? Why have they not spoken out so far against what is happening in Iraq and India? Of course, a joint declaration would have s 'stronger' effect in some ways, but what's to stop each side from spekaing up first against any injustice without waiting for a joint 'mechaism' to kick in?]

The Common Word manifesto, which invited Christian churches to a new interfaith dialogue based on shared principles of love of God and neighbor, was issued in October 2007 partly in response to Pope Benedict's Regensburg speech a year earlier.

Bloody protests broke out in Muslim countries after Benedict hinted there that he considered Islam a violent and irrational faith. [Hinted? He cited a historical quotation! More than two years since the event - and with all the positive results it has led to so far, MSM is still unqilling to describe it in the right terms, because that would implicitly 'correct' their initial misreporting.]

The Common Word group said the incident revealed such mutual ignorance that a new cooperation drive was needed.

In meetings this year with mostly Protestant leaders, Common Word delegates have proposed regular dialogue sessions, student exchanges, suggested reading lists and other ideas to help Christians and Muslims learn more about each other.

Kalin, an Islamic studies professor at Georgetown University in Washington, said cooperation between churches and mosques in the Netherlands defused tensions before far-right politician Geert Wilders released his anti-Islam film Fitna early this year.

"That was the first fruit of the kind of cooperation we want to have," he said.

The Common Word manifesto, which now has 271 signatories, brings together leading Muslim officials and scholars from around the world. Its 24-member delegation to the Vatican talks will be led by the Grand Mufti of Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric.

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, will head the Catholic delegation made up of 24 Vatican officials and Catholic experts on Islam.

Christianity has about two billion followers worldwide, just over half of them Catholic, while Muslims number 1.3 billion.

The delegations will hold closed-door talks on theology on Tuesday and issues of mutual respect on Wednesday, including the question of religious freedom in Muslim countries that the Vatican is especially keen to discuss.

They will have an audience with Pope Benedict on Thursday before holding a public discussion session that afternoon.

Tauran told the French Catholic daily La Croix in an interview the delegations should discuss religious freedom, but it was not a Vatican pre-condition for a dialogue. [How can it be, since it does not exist in most Muslim states? If if were, there would be no dialog!]

He said if Muslims could build mosques in Europe, Christians should have the same right in majority Muslim countries. Saudi Arabia, which has launched its own interfaith dialogue this year, bars other religions from operating openly there.

"These dialogue initiatives seem quite out of step with the anti-Christian violence that is reported daily from several countries," he said. "How can we communicate the real openings we are making among elites down to the masses?"

MASS FOR DECEASED
CARDINAL AND BISHOPS

A full translation of the homily has been posted in HOMILIES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES.


The Holy Father presided this morning at a concelebrated Mass in memory of the cardinals and bishops who passed away in the past year.


The Mass was offered, as these Requiem Masses usually are, at the Altar of Peter's Chair. New today is the Novus Ordo altar which replaces a 'modern' altar installed in the 1980s after the original altar that came with Bernini's sculptured altarpiece was 'ripped off'.




Pope speaks about
the lesson of death
Translated from
the Italian service of



Death teaches us an important thing: that we are all merely passing through this world and are destined for eternal happiness to the degree that we enter into the mystery of God.

This was the gist of Benedict XVI's homily today at the Mass he concelebrated with cardinals in memory of the cardinals and bishops who died in the past year.

Yesterday evening, the Pope went to the Vatican Grottoes to pray at the tombs of his predecessors on the Feast of All Souls.

Sergio Centofanti reports on today's Mass.

Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute 'with great affection' for recently deceased bishops and cardinals, among them, Cardinals Stephen Fumio Hamao, Alfons Maria Stickler, Aloisio Lorscheider, Peter Porekuu Dery, Adolfo Antonio Suárez Rivera, Ernesto Corripio Ahumada, Alfonso López Trujillo, Bernardin Gantin, Antonio Innocenti and Antonio José Gonzáles Zumárraga.

"We believe and feel that they are with the God of the living," he said, citing a passage from the Book of Wisdom (4,7-15) that "the age that is honorable comes not with the passing of time, nor can it be measured in terms of years. Rather, understanding is the hoary crown for men, and an unsullied life, the attainment of old age".

He continued: "And if the Lord calls someone 'before one's time'. it is because his plan for him is unknown to us (and) the premature death of a person dear to us becomes an invitation not to continue living in a mediocre way, but to be attentive right away to the fullness of life... The world considers he who lives long as fortunate, but God looks to an upright heart not to one's age. The world gives credit to 'wise' and 'cultured' persons, while God favors the 'little ones'.

Thus, he said, there is 'a contrast between what man's superficial look sees and that which the eyes of God see."

These two dimensions of reality, the Pope explained - that of provisoriness and appearance, and that which is 'profound, true and eternal' - "are not in simple temporal succession as if life only starts after death."

In truth, he said, "true life, eternal life, begins in this world, although within the precariousness of historical events. Eternal life begins to the degree that we open up to the mystery of God and welcome him in our midst. God is the Lord of life, and in him, "we live, we act, and we exist" (Acts 17,29).

"On the other hand", he continued, "in the perspective of evangelical wisdom, death itself is the bearer of a salutary lesson because it forces us to face reality."

"It urges us to recognize the impermanence of that which appears great and strong in the eyes of the world. In the face of death every reason for human pride is of no interest, and what emerges is what really counts. Everything ends, we are all passing through this world.Only God has life in him - he is Life."

Therefore, he said, man can arrive at eternal life only by entering into the logic of giving - just as God gave himself to us in Christ, we too are called on to give ourselves for others - it is the logic of love that allows passage from death to life, despite our human frailty.

"This Word of life and hope," the Pope concluded, " is of profound comfort to us in the face of death, especially when it strikes the person who is most dear to us."

"If to detach ourselves from them has brought us sorrow, and their loss continues to be painful, faith fills us with intimate comfort in the thought that, as it was for our Lord Jesus, and always thanks to him, death no longer has power over them (cf Rom 6,9).

"Passing in this life through the merciful heart of Christ, they have entered 'a place of rest' (Wis 4,7). And now, it is dear to us to think that they are in the company of the saints, finally relieved of life's disappointments, so that we ourselves have the desire to be able to join such a happy company one day."

Posted earlier today (10/25) in the preceding page:

Muslims to seek 'crisis management plan' in meetings at the Vatican this week - Reuters story.

Pope Benedict celebrates Mass for recently deceased bishops and cardinals - News agency photos and
story translated from the Italian service of Vatican Radio.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *






Christians and Muslims
resume dialogue, thanks to the Pope
by Samir Khalil Samir, SJ



Beirut, Nov. 3 (AsiaNews) - From November 4-6, 25 Catholic scholars and 25 Muslims will meet at the Vatican to study the possibilities for collaboration between the two largest religions in the world: 1.4 billion Muslims and 1.18 billion Catholics.

The representatives of more than one third of the planet will meet on the theme of "Love of God and love of neighbor." On the first day, they will address theological-spiritual themes; on the second day, they will turn to "Human dignity," exploring issues related to human rights, religious freedom, religious respect, possibly alluding to the freedom to convert and change religions.

The general theme emerged over the past two years, not without some difficulty. After Benedict XVI's address in Regensburg on September 12, 2006, the Muslim world reacted with violence and rejected the Pope's proposal to recognize that the relationship with God implies reason and excludes violence. Many of the reactions were due to ignorance of the address, and familiarity only with what was reported (often in a distorted manner) by press agencies and newspapers.

Thanks to the Regensburg address, 38 Islamic scholars sent an initial response letter (October 13, 2006), and a second letter one year later (signed by 138 scholars, since expanded to 275) in order to seek out common ground of collaboration between Christians and Muslims.

In turn, on November 19, 2007, Benedict XVI responded to the letter of the 138 by opening a possible collaboration in various areas. On December 12, 2007, a letter to Cardinal Bertone from Jordanian prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal agreed to the collaboration.

On March 4-5, personalities of the Vatican Curia and of the Islamic world met to establish the procedures and content of this dialogue. At the conclusion, the two sides announced the creation of a Catholic-Islamic forum "to develop dialogue between Catholics and Muslims."

It is this forum that is meeting for the first time in Rome from November 4-6. On the 6th, the group will have an audience with Benedict XVI. One of the participants in the meeting is Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, who offers us this analysis:


This encounter between Muslim and Catholic experts in November is a start, and is positive for the mere fact that it is being held: dialogue is better than indifference and reciprocal silence.

In recent years, an important change has taken place. At first, the letters from the Muslim scholars requested a dialogue that would be exclusively, let us say, theological. But this ran the risk of being unproductive.

The Holy Father and Cardinal Tauran stressed that dialogue would have to include the problems of daily life and the rights of conscience. One of the Muslim participants, Tariq Ramadan, agreed on this point.

The relationship between Christians and Muslims has had a tumultuous history. During the 1960s, after Vatican Council II, there was a strong push from the Catholic side. There was also significant, sincere openness on the part of Muslims. Then two things happened:

a) With time, dialogue is extinguished if it is not supported by a permanent structure. The dialogue with the Orthodox and with other Christian confessions is regular: we meet every year, there are mixed commissions . . . With Islam, on the other hand, it has depended on the circumstances: sometimes the leaders have wanted it, other times they haven't . . .

b) The second reason is that during the 1970s, the wave of fundamentalist movements began, with the Islamic world itself being the first to suffer. This development blocked everything, because its stance is rejection of the other [1].

The position of the Salafis (fundamentalists) is, on many points, in opposition to modernity and to the West where it originated; this has led to a diminution of dialogue.

It is worth noting that this resumption is due precisely to the address in Regensburg. And this is acknowledged by some Islamic experts as well [2].

The Pope's address was the beginning of a new movement of rethinking. If it prompted a positive response, this is because he spoke truth, and without hatred. This confirms that if there is no truth in dialogue, it produces nothing.

About fifty people will participate in the forum, in equal numbers, although the names have not been published. But already it is possible to sketch some perspectives for opening a collaboration. I think that we can take many steps forward. But the many points of misunderstanding and friction must be confronted with calm and sincerity.

If we talk about dogmas, we must clarify the Christian position on Islam, the Qur'an, and the person of Mohammed, seeking to understand their position and telling them what we believe and why.

On the Muslim side, it is important that they be clear about the significance of our faith in the Trinity, the incarnation of the Word, the unity of God, etc., in order to avoid launching false accusations. Because if accusations are true, we must change.

In the West, there has been controversy over the opening of Islamic schools or mosques. But this is not a problem that concerns Islamic-Christian dialogue. Prohibitions or bans come from the secular state, and are not intended to defend Catholics.

The problem here is of agreeing on what a place of worship is, which must not be confused with a place of militancy and struggle. The state must clarify what the characteristics of these places must be, and if anyone breaks these rules, it must have the authority to take away this right.

The same is true of the schools. In France, for example, there are rules that the state imposes in order to recognize any school, including Islamic ones. These norms must now be clarified. Until now, the need for this was not felt, because there was an obvious common foundation. But now, with our pluralist and globalized society, this clarification must be made.

For example, the state must specify whether it is the government that grants the land for the building of places of worship or not; whether or not it is permitted to pray in the street [in short, practical matters that have to do with the free practice of one's religion provided such practice does not harm or interfere with the rights of others].

I do not know how fruitful this dialogue can be: the considerable number of participants (more than 50 in all) brings the risk that the discussions may not be deep or productive.

Both religions claim to bear a message of truth, and are called to proclaim it it and spread it in mission. But the ways in which this is to be done must be specified.

Using means unworthy of religion, or that are prohibited, must be excluded. The Muslims, for example, accuse the Christians of conducting proselytism by doing "favors" for the poor, and asking for conversion in exchange. But it is unjust to block advancement while permitting a religion to spread. [????]

The idea that is promoted in the Muslim world, "the truth has all rights, falsehood has no rights," is also unjust. On the basis of this, the possibility for non-Islamic religions to spread is practically excluded [3].

To this is connected the contempt for apostates - as happened with the baptism of Magdi Cristiano Allam - who are viewed as traitors, instead of seekers of truth.

Having schools is also important for both religions, and therefore this right must be defended, and must not be denigrated as proselytism.

Conclusion

My impression is nonetheless that this dialogue can be fruitful if it respects three dimensions:

1) It must begin, and continue for years;

2) At the end, concrete, and documents must be drawn up, and distributed as widely as possible;

3) Maximum authority must be given to these documents. This is easy on the Catholic side: it is enough for a cardinal or another authority to sign it.

On the Muslim side, there must be agreement among religious personalities and Islamic politicians.

The laws that limit religious freedom are made by Islamic governments, not by Muslim scholars. Everyone who participates in this dialogue, and returning to his country, must reach out to his government another Muslim associations.

Furthermore, the decisions that depend on states should be voted on by the "Organization of the Islamic Conference." For this not to happen would be a discouragement. The authority of the document is important.

But the first and most urgent need is for religious freedom: the right of every religion to preach and to spread itself through legitimate and licit means, and not with illicit means, which must be enumerated.

This is a spiritual principle - because it touches on the dignity of man - and also a theological principle, because it touches on the principle of man created in the image of God, free and therefore free to make mistakes.

I hope that this meeting will soon result in a joint document on religious freedom.

Footnotes:

[1] From this point of view, it is worth pointing out that dialogue does not mean "putting one's own beliefs aside." We Catholics, even if we believe that the Catholic Church bears the truth, also believe that there are seeds of the Word, of truth, in other religions.

[2] See Tarik Ramadan: "After causing a wave of shock, the words of Pope Benedict XVI in Regensburg two years ago have doubtlessly had more positive than negative consequences over the long term. Beyond the controversy, this conference prompted an examination of the nature of the respective responsibilities of both Christians and Muslims in the West." Cf. Il Riformista, October 31, 2008.

[3] Every day in the Muslim world, we see the Muslim faith proclaimed (on the radio, television, in newspapers, with megaphones from the mosque), but a Christian cannot even wear a cross, because "the spreading of falsehood" is forbidden.

Benedict the preacher
by Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi
President, Pontifical Council for Culture
Translated from

Nov. 3, 2008

---

Benedetto XVI
«Omelie. L'anno liturgico narrato da Joseph Ratzinger, papa»
('Homilies: the liturgical year narrated by Joseph Ratzinger, Pope'
Edited by Sandro Magister, Libri Scheiwiller, Milan
180 pp, 18 euro.

---

It was most likely a small village synagogue. There, on a Sabbath, a man rose to read a passage from the prophet Isaiah. In the silence of those present, he rolled the scroll closed, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down.

"In the synagogue all eyes were on him". Then he spoke, and it was one of the shortest preachings ever heard.

"Today," he said, "this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."

The uproar that followed the first stunned silence proved that the preacher had succeeded to upset what the skeptic Voltaire would formulate in the words "Sacred eloquence is like Charlemagne's sword, long and flat". A stereotype earlier described by Montesquieu who said that "what they lack in depth, orators make up for in length".

Everyone knows whose homily that was, which was so short and provocative; the evangelist Luke tells us (4,20-21) it was Jesus who, soon after, would be approached by the guard of Jerusalem's Jewish clergy with an arrest order.

But the guards, says the evangelist John (7,45-46), went back to the high priests and the chiefs of the Pharisees with empty hands. "Why did you not bring him?", they asked. The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this one."

Even the recent Bishops Synod assembly voiced the now habitual and unfortunately well-founded complaint about the poor quality of Sunday sermons (one hopes, this was also a self-criticism) and even expressed the wish for a 'manual' on homilies, listing the minimum basis for a method:
- What do the proclaimed Bible readings say?
- What do they say to me (the homilist) personally?
- What should I tell the community, considering the concrete situation?

Well, if anyone wants a homiletic paradigm, here is one at the disposal of 'sacred orators', but most especially, of the listeners, often victims of leaden sermons, 'the torment of the faithful', according to Carlo Bo (though certainly not in the Augustinian sense of being able make consciences uneasy).

These are the 27 homilies delivered by Pope Benedict XVI in the past liturgical year - which, as everyone knows, starts towards the end of November with Advent - in many different contexts, from St. Peter's Basilica to Australia, from Genoa to Paris, from Brindisi to Cagliari, etc.

Whoever has been a habitual reader of this Pope's texts will have discovered right away his unmistakable stylistic and theological brand.

Thus, for example, one will expect to hear the voices of the ancient Fathers of the Church whose homiletic writings often are inlaid in the Ratzingerian text. Not limited to his beloved Augustine or the eminent John Chrysostom ('golden mouth' - a name and a program) [which, one might add, in the German form 'Goldmund' was applied to Joseph Ratzinger early on in his career as priest and professor], or Ignatius of Antioch. But equally present are important figures who are not known to many, like Gregory of Nyssa, Cromatius of Aquileia or Anselm of Canterbury.

Constant in the homilies is that they are rooted in the Biblical text proposed by the liturgy of the day, not disdaining even a philological and semantic approach where appropriate.

For instance, the participle 'symballousa' applied to Mary by Luke (3, 19) is not the simple 'meditate' as it is usually translated, but 'putting together' - as the pieces of a mosaic - "in order to uncover a grand mystery, little by little".

Or, the distinction between bios and zoeas used by the evangelist John leads to the consciousness that the gift offered by Christ cannot be reduced to the biosphere, but extends beyond - to a knowledge, a love and vitality that is transcendent.

Or he might take a particular text which is apparently marginal or descriptive, and shows that it is like an iridescent crystal with further meanings. For instance, in the Johannine sentence "(Jesus) knowing that the hour had come to pass from this world to that of the father...", he extracts the verb 'pass from' and makes it shine with many facets - 'metabainein/metabasis' - which guards theological secrets.

These are the things one might discover listening to the preacher Benedict XVI on the first level of his meditations on Sacred Scripture. But there is also the other dominant dimension to grasp, what he calls 'performative' - since the homily is a message that is born of faith and life, and is meant to generate faith and life.

It is not easy to give examples of this, because we must invite the reader to enter directly in tune with the text, on the same wave length. And he will soon meet up with so many surprises that directly interpellate his conscience.

Often, this could come from a symbol, as last Christmas with the Pope's evocation of certain late medieval artistic representations which transformed the animal stall of Bethlehem 'into a rather crumbling palazzo'.

Or the symbolism in Isaiah's 'thick cloud that envelops nations', which the Pope applied to an illusory globalization.

Or the word 'idol', whose Greek etymology ('image, figure, representation', but also 'spectre, phantasm, a vain appearance"), leads to an intense denunciation of modern idolatries.

Let us linger 'listening' to the preacher Pope, without forgetting that he reminds us of a fundamental fact: the homily is not a commemorative discourse or a lesson, but a sacred act within the liturgy which is a double banquet on the Word of God and the Bread of the Eucharist.

That is why such an elevated occasion cannot be debased into boring theological drivel, nor to a rhetorical instrument used for other explicit or implicit ends, nor to spiritual sentimentalism.

Benedict XVI's voice and example should exorcise these deviancies - a voice which is moderate but not empty, substantial but not merely theoretical.

In his rich and exemplary preface to this volume of papal homilies, editor Sandro Magister - whom many know as a topnotch journalist, but who also has solid academic theological training - shows the significance of the Pope's preaching in the context of his general Magisterium.


NB: The book will be presented at the Palazzo Valdina in Rome on Wednesday, November 5, at 6 p.m., by Giancarlo Cerutti (president of Gruppo Sole 24 Ore), with addresses by Sandro Bondi, the Minister for Cultural Assets, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, and Sandro Magister.

The first meeting of
the Catholic-Muslim forum:
A choice for the future
by Francesco M. Valiante
Translated from
the 11/3-11/4 issue of



When Christians and Muslims sit together to discuss 'love of God' and 'love of neighbor', the stake in play goes far beyond simple good neighborly relations. It is the very future of mankind.

Not simply because a third and a fifth of the world's population belong to the two religions, respectively, but because the new world dynamic, which has brought religion to the center of public discourse, also globalizes the duties and responsibilities of believers.

To the point where many are convinced that dialog can no longer be just a 'seasonal choice' but a 'vital necessity', as three years ago, Benedict XVI had pointed out acutely in Cologne, during the first encounter of his Pontificate with a Muslim community.

"It seems believers are condemned to dialog", quipped Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog (CIRD), at an international congress in Castel Gandolfo last October.

Thus the fate of what Andre Malraux had predicted to be the 'religious century' must pass this challenge. A year ago, this was also grasped by the 138 Muslim representatives who were the original signatories to an open letter addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders and church communities on October 13, 2007.

That letter says at the outset that "if Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace". That letter - and the answer to it by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in the name of the Pope - started the process that has led to the first encounter tomorrow of the Catholic-Muslim Forum which will take place in Rome from Tuesday, Nov. 4, through Thursday, Nov. 6. [The writer forgets, egregiously, that the process started with the Pope's Regensburg lecture, to which the Letter from the 138 was a response that took a year coming.]

Participating will be two delegations composed of 29 persons each (religious authorities, experts and advisers). Heading the Catholic delegation will be Cardinal Tauran, while the Muslim delegation head is the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mustafa Ceric.

The theme of the closed-door seminar, "Love of God and love of neighbor", will be examined in its 'theological and spiritual foundations' on Day 1, and from the viewpoint of "the dignity of the human being and mutual respect' the following day. The concluding day will start with an audience with Benedict XVI and end with a public session at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

The aim and contents of the seminar - revealed by its theme - are traceable to the letter of the 138 and the Pope's response.

The basic intention of the Muslim initiative is tho show that 'the two greatest commandments' of love of God and love of neighbor represent common ground among the three religions that consider Abraham as father of the faith.

The letter was significant in reducing tension following the situation created after the exploitation and misunderstanding of Pope Benedict XVI's lecture on faith and reason at the University of Regensburg in September 2005.

The Pope expressed his appreciation of the 'positive response' in the reply sent by Cardinal Bertone on November 19, 2007, to Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, president of Jordan's Royal Institute for Islamic Thought.

"Without ignoring or minimizing our differences as Christians and Muslims," the Vatican letter said, "we can and should pay attention to what unites us."

The letter exchange led to a series of contacts between the CIRD and the principal Muslim signatories, and a meeting in Rome on March 4-5 this year, at which it was decided to constitute the Catholic-Muslim Forum and to organize this November encounter.

It must be remembered, however, that such Catholic-Muslim interaction is not entirely new. After centuries of conflicts and encounters, efforts at rapprochement started in the 20th century, particularly after Vatican-II.

Of course, there followed new oppositions and misunderstandings, but there were also contacts which became periodic and more frequent. Thus, the series of meetings held in the past year by the CIRD with Islamic institutions and organizations in various parts of the world.

Among the most important, the session in Cairo last February of the mixed commission for dialog, which was instituted by the CIRD in 1998 with Al-Azhar University, one of the oldest Islamic religious academies, founded in the 10th century, and currently the most prestigious theological institution of Sunni Islam.

The Muslims have likewise sent out important signals. Such as the Congress for Inter-Religious Dialog called in Madrid four months ago by Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, custodian of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina.

These are currents that allow us to look at this week's seminar with reasonable hope. Even if a healthy dose of realism is obligatory, the intense preparatory activity seems to be a good point of departure.

But the agenda has crucial unresolved problems such as those related to religious freedom and fundamental human rights for men, and equality for women. A strong commitment to resolve these questions is called for.

Particularly in the name of full and effective religious freedom which continues to be a sore point in relations with Muslim states. In fact, this was one of the propositions presented to the Pope by the recently concluded General Assembly of the Bishops' Synod.

The bishops' text significantly began with a statement from the Vatican-II declaration Nostra aetate on the Church's relationship with non-Christian religions, which 43 years ago, 'condemned any discrimination among men or any persecution perpetrated for religious reasons", with a specific reference to the evangelist John's sentence that 'he who does not love does not know God".

The Council Fathers were right: Christians and Muslims today can meet on the common basis of the 'two great commandments of love'.


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The unspoken problem is, of course, that any concrete actions on giving Christians the same religious freedom and rights that Muslims enjoy in Christian countries can only come from the government of the Muslim states - and it is not at all clear what influence, if any, the Muslin religious leaders and intellectuals have with their respective governments on religious freedom for non-Muslims, since most Islamic states consider it both a religious duty as well as a political necessity to make Islam the only publicly allowable religion!

King Abdullah, for instance, has never made a statement about religious freedom in his initiative for inter-religious dialog that embraces even the Jews. Meanwhile, the million or so Filipino Catholics working in Saudi Arabia cannot worship publicly or wear a cross in public.

Not one of the high-profile Muslim intellectuals involved in this initiative has ever attempted to rationalize the rigid Muslim precept that looks down on 'infidels' and considers them, at best, second-class citizens. [Not incidentally, many of them criticized the public baptism of Magdi Allam by the Pope last Christmas.]

How does all that square with 'love of God and love of neighbor'?

Why I'm going to meet the Pope

It is a matter of greatest urgency that a Christian-Muslim dialogue on theological issues and broader values takes place


Tariq Ramadan
guardian.co.uk
Monday November 03 2008 14.21 GMT

Now that the shock waves touched off by Pope Benedict XVI's remarks at Regensburg on September 12 2006 have subsided, the overall consequences have proven more positive than negative. Above and beyond polemics, the Pope's lecture has heightened general awareness of their respective responsibilities among Christians and Muslims in the west.

It matters little whether the Pope had simply mis-spoken or, as the highest-ranking authority of the Catholic church, was enunciating church policy. Now the issue is one of identifying those areas in which a full-fledged debate between Catholicism and Islam must take place. Papal references to "jihad" and "Islamic violence" came as a shock to Muslims, even though they were drawn from a quotation attributed to Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos. It is clear that the time has come to open debate on the common theological underpinnings and the shared foundations of the two religions. The appeal by Muslim men of religion, "A Common Word", had precisely this intention: our traditions have the same source, the same single God who calls upon us to respect human dignity and liberty. These same traditions raise identical questions concerning the ultimate purpose of human activity, and respect for ethical principles.

In a world that is experiencing an unprecedented global crisis, a world in which politics, finance and relations between humans and the environment suffer from a cruel lack of conscience and ethical integrity, it is a matter of greatest urgency that Christian-Muslim dialogue turn its attention to both theological issues and to those of values and ultimate aims. Our task is not to create a new religious alliance against the "secularised" and "immoral" world order, but to make a constructive contribution to the debate, to prevent the logic of economics and war from destroying what remains of our common humanity.

Our constructive dialogue on shared values and ultimate goals is far more vital and imperative than our rivalries over the number of believers, our contradictory claims about proselytism, and sterile competition over exclusive possession of the truth. Those dogma-ridden individuals who, in both religions, claim truth for themselves, are, in fact, working against their respective beliefs.

Whoever claims that he alone possesses the truth, that "falsehood belongs to everybody else ... " has already fallen into error. Our dialogue must resist the temptation of dogmatism by drawing upon a comprehensive, critical and constantly respectful confrontation of ideas. Ours must be a dialogue whose seriousness requires of us, above all else, humility.

We must delve deep into history the better to engage a true dialogue of civilisations. Fear of the present can impose upon the past its own biased vision. Surprisingly, the Pope asserted that Europe's roots were Greek and Christian, as if responding to the perceived threat of the Muslim presence in Europe. His reading, as I noted after the lecture at Regensburg, is a reductive one. We must return to the factual reality of the past, to the history of ideas. When we do so, it quickly becomes clear that the so-called opposition between the west and Islam is pure projection, an ideological instrument if you will, designed to construct entities that can be opposed or invited to dialogue, depending on circumstances.

But the west has been shaped by Islam, just as Islam has been shaped by the west; it is imperative that a critical internal process of reflection begin: that the west and Europe initiate an internal debate, exactly as must Islam and the Muslims, with a view to reconciling themselves with the diversity and the plurality of their respective pasts.

The debate between faith and reason, and over the virtues of rationalism, is a constant in both civilisations, and is as such far from exclusive to the Greek or Christian heritage; nor is it the sole prerogative of the Enlightenment. The Pope's remarks at Regensburg have opened up new areas of inquiry that must be explored and exploited in a positive way, with a view to building bridges and, working hand in hand, to seeking a common response to the social, cultural and economic challenges of our day.

It is in this spirit that I will be participating on November 4, 5 and 6 in Rome, and in the meeting with the Pope scheduled for November 6. Our task will be to assume our respective and shared responsibilities, and to commit ourselves to working for a more just world, in full respect of beliefs and liberties. It is essential, then, to speak of freedom of conscience, of places of worship, of the "argument of reciprocity"; all questions are possible in an atmosphere of mutual confidence and respect.

Still, it is essential that each of us sit down at the table with the humility that consists of not assuming that we alone possess the truth; with the respect that requires that we listen to our neighbours and recognise their differences; and, finally, the coherence that summons each of us to maintain a critical outlook in accepting the contradictions that may exist between the message and the practice of believers. These are the essential elements to be respected if we are to succeed.

AIDE SAYS PONITFF TO PACK HOPE FOR AFRICA TRIP

Spokesman Expects Whole Church to Focus on Continent

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will make his first trip to Africa to give hope to peoples that suffer violence and poverty, says a Vatican spokesman.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, affirmed this on the most recent edition of Vatican Television's "Octava Dies."

The Holy Father announced at the end of the world Synod of Bishops his plans to travel to Angola and Cameroon next March, an announcement that Father Lombardi called "an important piece of news."

"John Paul II," he said, "who had given Africa his passionate attention -- coming to be called 'John Paul II the African' by [the late] Cardinal Hyacinthe Thiandoum [of Dakar, Sengal] -- was unable to return to the continent during the last years of his pontificate. His last brief trips there were in '98 to Nigeria and in 2000 to Egypt and Sinai."

For his part, Benedict XVI has not yet traveled to Africa in his three and a half years as Pope.

"Certainly, Africa, with its grave problems, has been present in his words and his heart, but a trip always has broad implications of participation, presence and direct contact," Father Lombardi continued. "Moreover, 2009 will be the year of the special assembly of the synod of bishops for Africa, and the Pope's trip will have a fundamental role in its preparation, such that the whole of the Church will direct its gaze toward Africa.

"The spiritual and practical solidarity of the universal community of believers will accompany the renewed commitment of growth in the Catholic communities which -- like that of Angola -- already have five centuries of life, have their history and tradition with their base that serves for looking to the future."

"All of us have in mind the dramatic images of conflict and poverty, but also an extraordinary vitality of the continent, which must be liberated, animated, sustained and oriented, so that Africans can build Africa with dignity and hope," Father Lombardi concluded. "A message of hope: This is certainly what Pope Benedict XVI will bring to African lands."

OR for 11/03-11/04/08:


The main headline is on 'Initial UN aid to the refugees of North Kivu', and there is an editorial commentary, 'A choice for the future', on the first session of the Catholic-Muslim Forum that starts today at the Vatican. The front-page picture shows Benedict XVI at the tomb of Pius XII on November 2, in a story about the Papal 'triduum' that included two Angelus messages on the Feasts of All Saints and All Souls, as well as yesterday's papal Mass for the cardinals and bishops who passed away in the past 12 months.

Significantly, besides the choice of the Pope's picture at Pius II's tomb on Nov. 2 (he visited the tombs of his other predecessors), the inside pages also carries a story about the opening yesterday of an exhbit on 'Pius XII: The man and his Pontificate' at the Charlemagne Arm of the Bernini Colonnade, with three articles taken from the exhibit catalog.


No events scheduled for the Holy Father today,

The Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog has a formal announcement on the opening today of the three-day Catholic-Muslim Forum sessions.

Cardinal Tauran:
'Dialog obliges each side
to be witnesses to their faith'
Interview by
Michel Kubler and Isabelle de Gaulmyn
Translated from

Nov. 3, 2008




Appointed in June 2007 by Benedict XVI to be President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog, Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran talks about what is at stake in the Catholic-Muslim Forum sessions which start at the Vatican Tuesday.


With this Forum, can one say there is a new stage in the Islam-Catholic dialog?
It's an important meeting because the "Letter of the 138" (Muslim intellectuals who wrote the Pope as a response to his Regensburg lecture) was an initiative from the Islamic world which took into account the various sensibilities within Islam.

Moreover, the letter cited from both the Old and New Testaments rather than from the Koran, which was a mark of respect.

However, one must avoid giving the impression that this is the beginning of a new dialog. We have actually been in dialog for more than 1,400 years. More recently, since the Vatican-II declaration Nostra aetate, a regular dialog was instituted which has been fruitful. This Forum represents a new chapter in a long history.


Between John Paul II and Benedict XVI, one senses there has been a change in orientation...
What strikes me most is that this Pope has made inter-religious dialog one of the priorities of his Pontificate. He spoke about it during his visits to the Untied States and to France.

However, Benedict XVI thinks such a dialog must not consist in finding the least common denominator, to say that all religions are equal. He always refers to the demands of truth. And for us, that means Jesus Christ as the only mediator.

As to whether there has been a change of orientation with respect to John Paul II, I think it is more correct to say that the situation with Islam changed after September 12, 2001, requiring more clarity.


Since, according to Benedict XVI, inter-religious dialog must take place with a reaffirmation of the heart of the Christian faith, is this not contradictory?
Dialog cannot take place unless there is no ambiguity whatsoever. One must look at each other, listen to each other, respect each other. And affirm one's identity. Otherwise there is no dialog.

To discover and know the other, to assume we have our differences, there is a risk. If I ask the other who is his God, how does he live his faith, then I take on the risk that he will ask me the same things.

So it is important that I know how to profess my own faith and to measure my life against the faith I profess. Inter-religious dialog is always a call to affirm one's identity. Its aim is not to convert each other, but to get to know each other.


Under what conditions would a theological dialog be possible?
That has not really started. We will see with this Forum what it will be like when we speak about the love of God, up to what point we can go together. It's important to know each other's theological thinking and the differences that come from different religious traditions.


Can this go as far as to speak of the same God?
It's not easy. For us, God is a Father, for them, he is not. And of course, we have different ways of reaching God. Nonetheless, we must remember what Nostra aetate says: "The Church regards the Moslems with esteem. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in himself, merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven adn earth, who has spoken to men" (No. 3). This text is fundamental in answering your question.


Benedict XVI has often insisted on freedom of conscience and religious practice. Will this question be raised at the Forum?
I hope so. We must see how the participants will want to approach it. This comes within the context of the need for reciprocity - what is good for me is good for you. In other words, if a Muslim can freely have a place of worship in Europe, then the same should be true about a Christian living in a Muslim society.

But we have not made the principle of reciprocity a condition for dialog - in which we don't follow the logic of 'Do ut des' (I give so that you may give back), because that would be anti-Christian.

I believe, however, that by being clear and firm, we can arrive gradually at a change in attitudes. For instance, the Saudi Arabian King came to visit the Pope, and one feels that things can evolve.

At the Madrid interfaith meeting (last July at the Saudi King's initiative), the religious leaders present underscored the need in a globalized world to live in reciprocity.

The problem is that these initiatives for dialog appear displaced in the face of daily reports about anti-Christian violence or persecution in many countries. And how do we pass on genuine openings in dialog among leaders to the masses?


How do you distinguish between Islam and Islamism?
Islamism is the work of Muslims who have gone astray. Killing in the name of Islam is an act that majority of Muslims reject. But is Islamism inherent within Islam? That's a question that one should ask the Muslims themselves, because they have different interpretations about this.


In Europe, how does the Church view the 'competition' from Islam?
I would avoid using the term 'competition'. The high-profile visibility that the Muslims have taken has led entire populations to take a position on the subject of religion.

In France until recently, one tended to consider religion as a completely private matter - that one could practice it as long as it was not seen.

Today, believers demand to be able to practice their faith in private and in public, respecting traditional limits. This goes just beyond freedom of worship. Freedom of religion should also include participating in the public dialog, to have one's own schools hospitals and social institutions...

Religion has a social dimension. In the West, the Muslims are now a significant minority, and it is normal to guarantee their freedom of religion as one does for other believers. In the face of this, it is important for Christians to know the content of their own faith so that dialog is possible in a coherent and sensible way.

Because in the end, inter-religious dialog obliges both sides to be witnesses for their faith. All believers have the responsibility to remind their brothers and sisters in humanity that 'man does not live by bread alone' (Dt 8,3; Mt 4,4).


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


In Cardinal Tauran, Benedict XVI has chosen a firm and clear-minded 'minister' for inter-religious dialog who, like him, goes beyond insubstantial Kumbaya platitudes to the heart of genuine dialog. Deo gratias.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Earlier last week, La Croix attempted to summarize the history of Islamo-Christian dialog in modern times, and although it is necessarily told from the French point of view, it is nonetheless useful because the French have worked on it in a more focused way - due to their colonial history in both the Near East aND North Africa.


The stages towards a common path
for Islamo-Christian dialog
that still has to be delineated
By Martine de SAUTO
Translated from

Oct. 26, 2008


Earlier pioneers may have opened the way, but the Islamo-Christian dialog did not get engaged until after Vatican-II, and it was amplified thereafter by John Paul II.

Benedict XVI is engaged in the effort, but with more clarity and firmness.

In September 2006, after Benedict's Regensburg lecture, the dialog between Christians and Muslims seemed to have reached an acute crisis. Muslims, including the more moderate, considered it as a rupture of the initiatives undertaken by John Paul I. And some Catholic circles also saw a change in tone.

Later however, as Maurice Borrmans (1) recalls, "a lot of things have happened". Between the two religious communities that each have more than a billion members, the stakes are too important to break off dialog.

For centuries, the relationship between Muslims and Christians, shaped by historical circumstances, has been one of confrontation. Starting in the 19th century, the Christian attitude towards Islam started to be more flexible. Protestant and Catholic missionaries established friendly relations with Muslim communities and even rendered service to them.

Around the same time, Emir Abd el Kadr, who distinguihsed himself in 1860 by defending the Christians of Damascus, contributed to change the Christian image of Muslims. By the end of the century, Charles de Foucauld (canonized in 2006 by Benedict XVI), with his work in North Africa, embodied evangelical respect for the Muslim faith.

It was a time when local churches tended to favor better knolwedge of Islam. Since the 1920s, courses on Islam have been offered at the pontifical universities.

In 1937, three young Dominicans - Georges Anawati, Jacques Jomier and Serge de Beaurecueil – agreed to a suggestion by Fr. Marie–Dominique Chenu to undertake sudies of Islam and Arab culture in Muslim countries. They initiated a theological and spiritual dialog with Muslims in Egypt, and thus in 1945, the Dominican Isntitute for Oriental Studies in Cairo was born.

Then the Peres Blancs* (White Fathers) created a house for study and research in Tunisia, which gave birth to PISAI, the Pontifical Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies, in which Fr. Borrmans would be an essential figure until recent years.

*[The Peres Blancs are a Society of Apostolic Life founded in 1868 by the first Archbishop of Algiers, later Cardinal Lavigerie, as the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa of Algeria, now known also as the Society of the Missionaries of Africa, with the post-nominal initials M. Afr.]

Things began to move on the ground. Christian missionaries in Africa became involved in standing up for Muslim rights. In Algeria, this solidarity was expressed through a figure like Mons. Duval. At the same time, in France, Christians were working to help Muslim immigrants from North Africa.

An important threshold was crossed after Vatican-II with Nostra aetate, the formal declaration of Church relations with non-Christian religions that was promulgated by Paul VI on October 28, 1965, stating that:

---

"The Catholic Church regards Muslims with esteem (who)adore one God... Since in the course of centuries, not a few wuarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, thie sacred synod urges all toforget the past... and to promoe together for the benefit of all mankind, social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom."

---

Institutions have been created to organize dialog and facilitate its development. Beginning with the Pontifical Secretariat for relations with non-Christians, which became the Council for Itner-Religous Dialog (CIRD) in 1987.

In France, the bishops instituted a secretariat for relations with Islam (SRI) in 1973, and in practice, every bishops' conference in Europe has done the same. The COE [the article doesn't spell out the acronym!] which has been building bridges to Islam, has a specialized office for this in Geneva. Publications have accompanied these developments. Theological considerations have been promoted by men like Robert Caspar.

In 1967, the Catholic Institute of Paris created an Institute for the sciences and theology of religions (ISTR) which is, of course, involved in the Islamo-Christian dialog. Other similar institutes have followed. Many Anglican and Protestant theology faculties have done the same.

The Christian churches of Near Africa and the Near East have been publishing texts promoting spiritual encounters. The Group for Islamo-Christian Research (GRIC), was formed in Tunisia in 1977, bringing together universities from many nations that ar engaged in the field.

Various non-religious organizations have also been born, like the Group for Islamo-Christian Friendship (GAIC) which organizes yearly weeklong encounters in Europe between Muslims and Christians.

But the 1960s and 1970s were marked by irenism (conciliatory peaceableness). John Paul II would prove to be more realistic. In 1985, at Casablanca, before 80,000 young Moroccans, he expressed the hope for collaboration as a dialog of cultures and spiritualities, and a common effort for development.

But he also insisted on the need for 'reciprocity' in favor of Christian minorities. His visit to Cairo's Al-Azhar University, Sunni Islam's most prestigious academic institution, then to the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus, and his addresses in different Muslim countries allowed establishing a channel of dialog with theological and pastoral content.

Official encounters took place between local churches and Muslim leaders, even as some Muslim institutions like the University of Tunis and the Royal Academy of Jordan took similar initiatives for dialog.

"But even if dialog did acquire a certain poplarity," says the Jesuit priest Christian Van Nispen (2), "after about two decades of effort, some evidence of fatigue, and even of mistrust, has set in. In fact, long before Sept. 11, 2001, revived reciprocal mistrust, skepticism was growing among Christian communities".

The reasons, he says, were rising extremism in the Near East, the assassination of Christian missionaries in Algeria and the persecution of non-Muslim minorities in the Sudan and Nigeria. Since then, the exodus of Christians from Palestine and Iraq has underscored the limits of dialog and the impact of socio-political contexts.

In view of all these difficulties, Benedict XVI has placed the issue on a new basis. While he remains faithful to the spirit of Nostro aetate and encourages progress along its lines, he subscribes to a different kind of dialog which exphaszies two points: a dialog of cultures, which is indispensable for the good of mankind, rather than theological dialog [which is really pointless except about beliefs held in common, but what practical good does that do, except to keep theologians and scholars busy?]]; and freedom of conscience and religious practice.


NOTES:
(1) A White Father, who wrote Dialogue islamo-chrétien à temps et contretemps, Éd. Saint-Paul, 254 pp.
(2) Author of Chrétiens et musulmans. Frères devant Dieu, Éd. de l’Atelier, 188 pp.

First-ever Catholic-Muslim forum
opens at the Vatican today




Photo taken before the opening session this morning. Cardinal Tauran and Muslim delegation head Mustafa Ceric are at the head of the confrence table.



VATICAN CITY, Nov. 4 (AFP) – The Vatican's first-ever Catholic-Muslim forum kicks off Tuesday, two years after Pope Benedict XVI sparked outrage among Muslims for a speech seen as linking Islam with violence.

The three-day forum opens "a new chapter in the long history" of dialogue between the two faiths, the head of the Catholic delegation, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, told the French Catholic daily La Croix.

Benedict will meet with the delegations on Thursday.

The Muslim side is led by the mufti of Bosnia, Mustafa Ceric, whose spokesman Yahya Pallavicini told AFP the delegates "represent no state and no ideological tendency."

The delegation includes Swiss-based intellectual Tariq Ramadan, an outspoken and controversial Muslim figure in Europe, along with Aref Ali Nayed of the Islamic Centre of Strategic Studies in Amman, Jordan, and Iranian ayatollah Seyyed Mustafa Manegheg Damad.

Several women in the delegation include Ingrid Mary Mattson, a professor of Islamic studies at the Hartford (Connecticut) Seminary in the United States.

The Vatican seminar was organised in response to a Muslim call for dialogue issued in October 2006, a month after Benedict's speech in Regensburg, Germany. [It was October 13, 2007 - 13 months after Regensburg. How can AFP make such a blatant mistake?]

The call titled "A Common World" was signed by 138 Muslim religious figures and scholars.

"Now that the shock waves touched off by Pope Benedict XVI's remarks ... have subsided, the overall consequences have proven more positive than negative," Ramadan commented in the British daily The Guardian's online edition.

"Above and beyond polemics, the Pope's lecture has heightened general awareness of their respective responsibilities among Christians and Muslims in the West," he added.

The Regensburg lecture sparked days of sometimes violent protests in Muslim countries, prompting the pontiff to say that he was "deeply sorry" for any offence and to attribute Muslim anger to an "unfortunate misunderstanding."

The closed-door discussions at the Vatican will focus Tuesday on "God's love" and Wednesday on "loving your neighbour," a theme that touches on two Vatican priorities, human rights and religious freedom. [Again, AFP has its wrong; The two 'commandments of love' are the subject today; tomorrow, it's the application to the principles of hman dignity adn mutual respect.]

The Vatican is however cautious over opening a purely theological dialogue, with Tauran telling La Croix: "We'll see ... how far we can go together."

Muslims and Christians differ in their concept of God, and follow "different paths to reach this God," said Tauran, the Roman Catholic Church's pointman for dialogue with Islam.




Islamic scholars arrive in Rome
for landmark Muslim-Catholic talks
By Eric Young



ROME, Nov. 3 - A team of Muslim scholars arrived in Rome Monday ahead of a landmark meeting with top Catholic officials.

The Muslim scholars, who will meet Pope Benedict XVI and Vatican officials for a series of talks starting Tuesday, hope the Nov. 4-6 meeting will help defuse ongoing tensions between Islam and Christianity.

"It is clear that the time has come to open debate on the common theological underpinnings and the shared foundations of the two religions," wrote Professor Tariq Ramadan, president of the European Muslim Network (EMN), in a commentary appearing in the U.K.-based Guardian. Ramadan is part of the delegation of Muslim scholars taking part in the first round of interfaith talks with the Vatican.

“Our task is not to create a new religious alliance against the ‘secularized’ and ‘immoral’ world order, but to make a constructive contribution to the debate, to prevent the logic of economics and war from destroying what remains of our common humanity,” the Brussels-based professor continued.

“Our task will be to assume our respective and shared responsibilities, and to commit ourselves to working for a more just world, in full respect of beliefs and liberties.”

It has been over two years since Catholic-Muslim relations notably soured following Pope Benedict XVI’s speech in Regensburg, Germany, in which he quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor's criticism of Islam, linking it to violence.

One year earlier, violent protest broke out in Muslim countries after a Danish newspaper printed a series of cartoons of Islam’s most revered prophet, Mohammad. Over 50 people died in the ensuing deadly clashes, which some say could have been averted had Christians and Muslims jointly denounced the violence.

"We should develop a crisis reaction mechanism so if there is another cartoon crisis, we could get together and make a joint statement," said Ibrahim Kalin, an Islamic scholar from Turkey who is spokesman for the group attending this week’s closed-doors talks, according to Reuters.

Led by Mustafa Ceric, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the 24 Muslim scholars attending the Nov. 4-6 gathering will represent the Common Word Group, a broad coalition of Muslim leaders and scholars who are pursuing dialogue between the world's two largest religions.

Since the group issued The Common Word Manifesto last October, a total 275 prominent Muslims have signed the document urging Christian churches to reach mutual understanding to safeguard global security, based on shared principles of loving God and their neighbors.

Common Word delegates have also met this year with a number of Protestant leaders, proposing regular dialogue sessions, student exchanges, suggested reading lists and other ideas to help Christians and Muslims learn more about each other.

At the most recent Muslim-Christian conference, hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 17 prominent Muslims met with 19 Christian leaders and denounced the persecution of Iraqi Christians, saying that there was no justification in Islam for the attacks.

During their Oct. 12-15 meeting, participants addressed issues such as the global economic crisis, interfaith education, different understandings of scriptures, shared moral values, respect for foundational figures in the respective faiths, religious freedom, and the persecution of minorities in Iraq.

Pope Benedict, who will address the Rome gathering, is expected to deplore prejudice against Muslim minorities and immigrants in Europe while also calling on Muslims to help defend Christian minorities persecuted or endangered in the Middle East, including Iraq.

At the talks, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Vatican's top interfaith body, the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, will lead the Catholic delegation that will be comprised of 24 Vatican officials and Catholic experts on Islam, including Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, president of Italy's top Islamic studies institute, the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI).

The team of delegates will meet on the theme of "Love of God and love of neighbor" and will address theological-spiritual themes on the first day.
On the second day, they will turn to "Human dignity," exploring issues related to human rights, religious freedom, and religious respect, possibly alluding to the freedom to convert and change religions.

And on Thursday, the delegates will have an audience with Pope Benedict before holding a public discussion session that afternoon.

The gathering concludes Thursday.


Cardinal Tauran and Mustafa Ceric before this morning's opening session of the Forum.



Who are the participants
in the Forum sessions?



VATICAN CITY, Nov. 4 (Translated from Apcom) - An Iranian ayatollah, a Jordanian prince, and the Grand Mufti of Bosnia are among the Muslims taking part in the first convocation of the Catholic-Muslim Forum established last March to institutionalize dialog between thw two religions.

In the Catholic delegation, there are two cardinals (Tauran and McCarrick), along with representatives of various dicasteries of the Roman Curia, including the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and three Jesuit Islamologues.

The Muslim delegation, led by the Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mustafa Ceric, and coordinated by Jordanian Parince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, has six 'no-shows' due to age and ill health.

The rest of the delegation includes a number of acdemics: Aref Ali Nayed (Libya), Seyyed Hossein Nasr (USA), Suleiman Abdallah Schleifer (Egypt), Anas Al-Shaikh-Ali (United Kingdom), Abderrahmane Taha (Morocco), Muhammad Sirajuddin Syamsuddin (Indonesia), Hamza Yusuf Hanson (USA), Abdal Hakim Murad Winter (United Kingdom), Ingrid Mary Mattson (Canada), Amina Rasul Burnardo, and controversial Islamologue Tariq Ramadan, who holds Swiss citizenship.

The Muslim authorities are the Iranian ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Ahmad; ex-Minister Mustapha Cherif of Algeria; Mohamed Bechari (France), secretary-general of the European Islamic Conference; Seyyed Javad Khoei (Iraq; Habib Faisal Al Kaff (Saudi Arabia), and Sohail Nakhooda (Portugal).

Italy-based Muslims are represented by Yahya Pallavicini, vice-president of COREIS (Comunità religiosa islamica) Prof. Adnane Mokrani (Tunisia), who teaches at the Pontifical Gregorian Unviersity; Ibrahim Kalin (Turkey), teaching assistant at the Gregorian; and Ahmad Gianpiero Vincenzo of the Associazione Intelletuali Musulmani.

The Catholic panel is headed by Cardinal jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog (CIRD). The members are Mons. Piero Celata, secretary-general and assistant secretary-general of the CIRD; Cardinal Theodore Edgar MaCarrick , emeritus archbishop of Washington; from the Roman Curia - Mons. Luis Ladaria, a Jesuit, secretary of the CDF; Mons. Antonio Vegliò, secretary of the Congregation for Oriental Churches; Fr. Francois Aki, from the same dicastery; Mons. Bernard Ardura, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture; Mons. Bernard Munono Muyembe of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; Fr. Crispin Kimbeni of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; and Mons. Paul Hinder, Apostolic Vicar in Saudi Arabia; Bishops Jean-Clement Jeanbart (Syria), Louis Sako (Iraq), Michel Santier (France), and Andrew Francis (Pakistan); Jesuits and Islam scholars Christian Troll, Felix Koerner, and Samir Khalil; Miguel Angel Ayuso Guxot, president of the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI); Fr. Jean Marie Gaudeul, also fo PISAI; and Professors Emilio Platti (Belgium), Lamin Sanneh (USA), Jane Dammen McAuliffe (USA), Routraud Wielandt (Germany), Joseph Maila (France) and Francesco Botturi (Milano).

NB: The article parenthetically notes - without comment - three names who are not part of the Catholic panel, who were leading Vatican experts on Islam in the previous Papacy:
- the Jesuit priests Thomas Michel and Daniel Madigan [both of whom had harsh words for Benedict XVI over the Regensburg lecture, virtually accusing him of ruining everything that John Paul II had done to improve Muslim-Catholic relations - with Fr. Michel's line that "This (Regensburg) would never have happened under John Paul when we were there at the Vatican"]; and
- Mons. Michael Fitzgerald, former president of the CIRD, whom Benedict XVI reassigned to be Apostolic Nuncio to Egypt and observer-representative of the Holy See in the Arab League].

All three have been known to bend over backwards in accommodating Muslim views to the disadvantage of the Catholic position.

The liturgical year in
the homilies of Benedict XVI:
Servant of a cosmic liturgy
by SANDRO MAGISTER
Translated from
the 11/5/08 issue of





The book Omelie. L'anno liturgico narrato da Joseph Ratzinger, Papa (Milano, Scheiwiller, 2008, 280 pp, 18 euro) will be presented Wednesday evening, Nov. 5, in Rome at the Palazzo Valdino in Rome, bu Sandro Bondi, Italian Minister for Cultural Asset and Activities; Cardinal Camillo Ruini, emeritus Vicar-General of Rome – whose address we are printing in this issue [see below]; and by the editor of the book, Sandro Magister, whose Preface we are reprinting.




Liturgical homilies constitute are an important peak in the Pontificate of Benedict XVI. But the least known and least read. He has made waves worldwide with writings such as the Regensburg lecture, the book on Jesus, the encyclical on hope.

But much less, and too little, with the homilies that he addresses to the faithful in the Masses that he celebrates in public. And yet, without the homilies, the Magisterium of this theologian Pope would be incomprehensible. [That’s a rather sweeping statement to make! A serious deficiency to the average reader's awareness, yes, at the very least, but he has other ways of communicating his Magisterium.]

Just as without their homilies, one would not understand a St. Leo the Great, the first Pope whose liturgical preaching has come down to us, a St. Ambrose, a St. Augustine, and all those great pastor-theologians - pillars of the Church – who have been Joseph Ratzinger’s teachers.

First of all, his homilies are genuinely from Pope Benedict’s mind. He writes them all by hand, and sometimes, he even extemporizes. But above all, he imprints them with that unmistakable feature that distinguishes his homilies from any other act of his Magisterium – he makes it clear they are part of the liturgical act, that they constitute liturgy themselves.



Benedict XVI clearly said so in his homily on June 29, 2008, on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul: that his calling is to ‘serve as the liturgist of Christ for the people”. The ardent expression is St. Paul’s in Chapter 15 of the Letter to the Romans. Which the Pope has made his.

He has identified his mission as Successor of the Apostles precisely by considering himself the servant of a ‘cosmic liturgy’. Because “when the world in its entirety will have become a liturgy of God, then it will have reached its goal, then it will be safe and well”.

It’s a vertiginous vision. But Papa Ratzinger has this firm certainty: when he celebrates the Mass, he knows that in it, all of God’s action is woven into the ultimate destinies of man and the world.

For him the Mass is not a simple rite officiated by the Church. It is the Church itself, inhabited by the Trinitarian God. It is both the image and reality of the entire Christian adventure. The educated pagans of the first century were not wrong when they identified Christians by describing them in the act of celebration. This, too, was what the first Christians believed.

Sine dominico non possumus - without the Eucharist of Sunday, we cannot live – this was the response of the martyrs of Abitene in Africa to the Emperor Diocletian who prohibited them from worshipping. For this they sacrificed their lives.

Benedict XVI recalled this episode in the homily for the first Mass he celebrated outside Rome as Pope, on May 29, 2005, in Bari [where he closed the national Eucharistic Congress].

In that same homily, the Pope defined Sunday as the ‘weekly Easter’, thus identifying it as the axis of Christian time. Easter – which includes the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus – is a unique event in time, which took place once and for all, but it is also an act that is always being fulfilled, as St. Paul underscores in the Letter to the Hebrews.

This contemporaneity is realized in the liturgical act, where “the historical Easter of Jesus enters our present, and invests the life of those who celebrate it, and thus, enters the entire historical reality.”

As a cardinal, Ratzinger wrote evocative pages on ‘Church time’ in the book Introduction to the spirit of liturgy - a time, he wrote, “in which past, present and future compenetrate and touch eternity”.

The rhythm and seasons of Church time are dictated by Sundays. It is ‘the first day of the week’ (Mt 28,1), and therefore, the first of the seven days of creation. But it is also the eighth day of the new time, which began with the Resurrection of Jesus.

Thus, Sunday is, for Christians, ‘the true measure of time, the unit of measure of their life’, because ‘the new Creation’ bursts anew in every Sunday Mass, in which, every time, the Word of God becomes flesh.

This is shown in the paintings found in medieval and Renaissance churches: on the one side, the angel of the Annunciation, on the other, the Virgin to whom the announcement is made, and in the center, the altar on which, in every Mass, Verbum caro factum est – the Word is made flesh - by the Holy Spirit.

But even the structure of the Mass makes this crystal clear, as Pope Benedict pointed out in his comment on the supper of the Risen Christ with the disciples at Emmaus, in the Sunday Angelus on April 6, 2008.

The first part of the Mass is listening to Sacred Scripture [the Liturgy of the Word], and the second is “the liturgy of the Eucharist, and communion with Christ present in the Sacrament in Body and Blood”. The two banquets – of the Word and of Bread – are indissolubly connected.

The homily is the bridge between the two. The model is Jesus in the Synagogue at Capharnaum, in Chapter 4 of the Gospel of St. Luke. After Jesus rolled up the scroll (from which he had read Scripture), “the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed intently on him’. And he told them: "Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."

In his homilies, Pope Benedict does the same thing. He comments on the Scriptures and says that ‘today’, they are fulfilled in the Eucharistic act that is being celebrated. With its consequent reverberation in the life of everyone because, he has written, “celebration is not just ritual, it is not a liturgical game, if is intended to be ‘logike latreia’, the transformation of my existence in the direction of the Logos, the interior contemporaneity between Christ and myself”.

The Scriptures illustrated by Benedict XVI in every homily are naturally those of the Mass of the day, which give the day its imprint. What comes into play here is the other great articulation of Church time, which is the cycle of the liturgical year.

On the basic rhythm set by Sunday Mass, a second rhythm was imposed by Christians from the very first century, with an annual cyclicity, having Easter as its pivot, and Christmas and Pentecost as the two other centers of gravity.

This second rhythm allows the Christian mystery to shine in the distinct aspects and moments of its entire sacred history (the history of the faith). It starts with the weeks of Advent, to Christmas time and the Epiphany, the 40 days of Lent, Easter, the 50 days of Eastertide, and Pentecost.

The Sundays outside these ‘high’ seasons are called the Sundays of ordinary time. Then there are the great holidays celebrating Ascension, the Trinity, Corpus Domini, Saints Peter and Paul, the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception.

But the liturgical year is much more than just the serial narration of the one great story and its protagonists. Advent, for instance, is not just a commemoration of the waiting for the Messiah, because he has already come, and will come again at the end of time.

Lent is preparation for Easter, but also for Baptism, as the matrix of Christian life for everyone, the sacrament that was administered in ancient times during the Easter vigil.

The human and the divine, time and eternity, Christ and the Church, the experiences of everyone and of each one, are surprisingly interwoven in every moment of the liturgical year.

This is affirmed in a wonderful antiphon for the Feast of the Epiphany: “Today the Church is joined to the celestial spouse, because in the Jordan, Christ washed her sins. The Magi hurry with their gifts to the royal wedding, and the guests rejoice because the water has been turned to wine.”

The Magi, the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, the marriage at Cana - everything becomes an ‘epiphany’, a manifestation of the nuptial union between God and man, of which the Church is the sign. and the Eucharist is the Sacrament.

This book puts together for the first time a cycle of homilies by Benedict XVI. They cover the liturgical year which starts with the first Sunday of Advent in 2007, or more precisely, with the Vespers on the eve of that First Sunday. This first homily and that on December 31, 2007, were delivered by the Pope at Vespers, before the Magnificat.

All the others were delivered at Mass, after the Gospel. Most of them were delivered at St. Peter’s – in the Basilica or on the Square; one in the Sistine chapel; one at St. John Lateran; one at St Paul outside the Walls; four in other churches of Rome; one in Castel Gandolfo; one in Albano; the rest in other Italian or foreign cities during a visit – New York, Genoa, Brindisi, Sydney, Cagliari and Paris.

On two occasions, Benedict XVI, besides celebrating Mass, also administered Baptism to children and adults. Once, he gave Confirmation to young people. Once, he ordained priests. Another time, he consecrated oils for the administration of sacraments. Once he consecrated a new parish church, and in another parish, a new altar. In all these special cases, the Pope also devoted part of the homily to illustrate the specific acts.

Three times, the Mass was preceded or followed by a procession: on Ash Wednesday, on Palm Sunday, and on Corpus Domini. On the evening of Maundy Thursday, the Pope washed the feet of 12 Roman men. On Easter night, he presided at the liturgy of light, with the lighting of the Easter candle and the singing of the Exultet.

On June 29, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, participated with the Pope at Mass – but not at the Consecration nor did he receive Communion, but he did take part in the homily, speaking before the Pope. [The technical description given by Vatican Radio at the time is that "the Patriarch participated fully in the Liturgy of the Word but not in the Liturgy of the Eucharist", at which he was an onlooker, However, he rejoined the Pope for the Final Blessing, which he also gave in Greek. I’m surprised Magister missed this.]

In any case, Benedict XVI always based his homilies on the Scriptural passages read during the Mass of the Day, or at Vespers. The reader will find the readings at the end of each homily – an indispensable accessory to situate the homily in its liturgical context. The passages almost always coincide with the readings from the Roman Missal as proclaimed that day in almost all the Catholic churches around the world.

After the homilies for the Vespers of the first Sunday of Advent and December 31st, the reader will also find the texts of the Magnificat and the Te Deum.

When read continuously, the homilies cover the liturgical year, and thus the Christian mystery, with exemplary clarity. There are a few gaps here and there, because the Pope does not celebrate a public Mass on most Sundays and feast days. But he himself fills up these gaps by dedicating the messages he delivers to the faithful and to the world on Sundays at noon, before praying the Angelus (or the Regina caeli, at Eastertide), to the Scripture of the day.

These messages are often mini-homilies in which Benedict XVI comments on the reading for the Mass of the day. They are unmistakably in his own writing and are true gems of minor homiletics.

In the appendix, the reader will find a collection of some of these mini-homilies, which will further enrich the vision of that masterpiece which is the liturgical year narrated by Pope Benedict.

---

NB: Magister today has also posted the Preface and translations on in his regular site

chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/209107?eng=y
along with the text of the Pope's homily on the Feast of Assumption, given at the parish church of Castel Gandolfo on August 15, 2007, a homily that was extemporaneous,and that is not included in his book.
My translation of the homily is on
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354537&p=16

---

The spirit of liturgy: A new photo-portrait executed by Caterina

The radical unity
between exegesis and theology
by CARDINAL CAMILLO RUINI
Translated from
the 11/5/08 issue of



To frame and understand the significance, the objectives and the personal and existential context of the homilies of Benedict XVI, it is very important to read the Preface which he himself wrote for the first volume of his Opera omnia, which came out recently in German, with the Italian edition coming in a new months.

The Pope explains above all why he chose that the first volume to come out should be his writing on liturgy, conforming to the order followed by the Second Vatican Council, whose first Constitution was that on liturgy.

Benedict XVI wrote: "The liturgy of the Church has been, for me, from childhood, the central activity of my life, and became, in the theological school of teachers like Schmaus, Söhngen, Pascher e Guardini, also the center of my theological work".

He explains that he chose fundamental theology as the specific subject of his teaching because he "wanted above all to go to the very depths of the question: why do we believe?", a question which also includes "the other question on the right reply to give God, and therefore, also the question of divine service", which is, liturgy.

He adds: "It is from this perspective that my works on liturgy should be understood. The specific problems of liturgical science did not interest me, but rather, always the anchorage of liturgy in the fundamental act of our faith, and therefore, its place in our entire human existence".

And so, his interest became centered on three fundamental areas concerning liturgy: the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, the relationship with the religions of the world, and the cosmic character of liturgy, "which represents something more than the simple gathering, great or small, of human beings. Liturgy, in fact, must be celebrated within the breadth of the cosmos, embracing creation and history at the same time".

Sandro Magister, in his Preface, cites in this regard the homily given by Benedict XVI on June 29 this year for the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, in which the Pope cites Verse 1,6 from the Letter to the Romans, where Paul himself expresses the essence of his mission, saying he was called "to be a minister [leitourgos] of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in performing the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the holy Spirit".

Magister maintains, rightly, that in those words of St. Paul, Benedict XVI identifies his own vocation and mission, and he also specifies the distinctive feature of the homilies with respect to the rest of the Pope's Magisterium: in that the homilies "are part of a liturgical act, they are liturgy themselves".

In truth, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI - not only because of his profound sense of liturgical mystery and therefore of liturgical action - is on all counts extraordinarily equipped. and so to speak, particularly 'oriented', for the ministry of preaching.

In his extemporaneous intervention on October 14 at the Bishop's Synod on the Word of God, he maintained that the lack of a hermeneutic of faith in present exegesis - replaced by a profane philosophical hermeneutic 'which negates the possibility of the entry and real presence of the Divine in history" - provokes "a form of perplexity even in the preparation of homilies".

In fact, he added, "where exegesis is not theology, Scripture cannot be the soul of theology, and vice versa, where theology is not essentially the interpretation of Scripture within the Church, then such a theology no longer has a foundation."

That is why, for the life and mission of the Church and for the future of the faith, it is absolutely necessary, he said to overcome the dualism between exegesis and theology.

Before he affirmed it as Pope, Joseph Ratzinger as a theologian had put into practice this intimate unity between exegesis and theology .

In his book La mia vita (Milestones, in English], referring to the profound diversity between his theology and that of Karl Rahner, he wrote: "For my part, my whole intellectual formation had been shaped by Scriptures and the Fathers, and profoundly historical thinking" (p. 129, Milestones).

This essentially Biblical, patristic, liturgical and historical character of his theology has made of Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI an extraordinary homiletist and catechist who, with the simplicity and substance of his words, in a way comprehensible to everyone, breaks the bread, for all of us, of the Word of God and the mystery of our salvation.

I wish to add a specification to avoid the risk of any equivocation. The essentially historical temperament of Ratzinger the theologian must not be understood at all as a historical approach which leaves the words of Sacred Scripture closed in the past when they were written.

On the contrary, as he himself amply explains in the book JESUS OF NAZARETH, in the words of the past, one can and must perceive the question about one's present: in the words of man, specifically that of the single sacred Author, something greater resounds - God who makes his true face known for our salvation.

In fact, Joseph Ratzinger elaborates and brings alive the great patrimony of Biblical and ecclesial faith in a fecund interchange with the great problems of our time, a faith whose sense, origins and dynamism he profoundly grasps.

That is why his homilies, like his theological works and his magisterial interventions, interpellate and involve us, peoviding light and nourishment for our journey through life.

Concretely, the homilies collected in this volume show how the texts of the Biblical readings in each liturgical celebration can be understood in their full and authentic significance, historical as well as theological, as an integral part of the liturgical act; and how in such fullness, they continue to live in the faith and speak to us.

That is why reading and meditating on the homilies of Benedict XVI has become for many priests a precious aid and almost a paradigm for their personal homiletic preaching. In this respect, I myself have experienced how, having heard most of these homilies when they were delivered, they have helped my own preaching, insofar as I could improve Biblical and liturgical associations to stimulate the attention and participation of the assembly.

This book is a practical aid that every priest can easily acquire as a model for inspiration in his own homilies, not through repetition or servile imitation, but as reference point for one's personal commitment in assimilating and communicating the Word of our salvation.






I beg your indulgence for a personal note that is relevant to all this.

As one who has had the unparalelled pleasure of translating regularly over the past three years much of what the Holy Father says and writes, I have a profound and widening personal experience of what it means to be exposed so thoroughly to his thinking.

Because of time considerations, and as a way of deepening my own process of personal discovery - the unfolding of each particular thought of the Holy Father as expressed in individual occasions - I have found that the most rewarding way to translate his texts is to do so line by line, without reading through the entire text first. And this is possible and easy because his thought flows and is expressed so linearly, without convolutions.

After I have translated the last line of the particular piece, I then go over the whole translation to correct spelling errors and adjust where necessary to make phrases more idiomatic or use a more appropriate word, referring back to the original text as needed.

After I have cleaned it up this way, I go back and read the entire original text for its unfiltered impact. Then I can re-read through my entire translation and make sure that it all holds together, and is as faithful to the original text as it can possibly be. [I use the New American Bible for translations of the Scriptures he cites, and I use equivalent English idioms instead of literal translations for transitional passages or comments, as necessary, without affecting or violating the substance and spirit of the text.]

The process means going through an individual text word for word at least four times. When the text is as rich and as beautiful as the Holy Father writes, the spiritual and intellectual pleasure of the task is ineffable and immeasurable.

It is as if I am receiving now all the religious instruction on the meaning of Scriptures that I never had, and at the feet of someone who is equipped to do this as no other living person is. Every new text is an education for me.

And that is why I live to translate each text as it comes along, when they are his homilies, catecheses, spiritual messages, or extemporaneous discourses. Each translation task becomes a spiritual experience that provides me with fresh inspiration and Christian zeal.

For this, I am thankful to the Forum, because otherwise, I would never have to write out translations and experience the Holy Father's thought in such an involved way - which is different, but not any less exhilarating than listening to him deliver his texts, or even just re-reading his original texts, which I often do aloud, believe it or not.