NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT

This essay is rather long and it isn't exactly "news" about Benedict but it does tell how Benedict had an astounding and immediate effect on one person in a way that many of us have also felt.


Pope Benedict XVI’s “First Convert”

The story of how a New York Jew wrestled with Christ and became Catholic

by Roger Dubin
Catholic World Report
April 16, 2013

Groucho Marx once said, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have a guy like me as a member.”

So began my witness testimony at the Easter Vigil on April 7, 2007, when my wife Barbara and I entered the Catholic Church. For a New York Jew, who’d detested the name “Jesus” for as long as he could remember, to be standing before a packed congregation at Sacred Heart Church in Prescott, Arizona, having to recount in three minutes how he got there—well, you can imagine what a surreal a moment that was.

Yet now, when instead of three minutes I have three thousand words, plus six years as a Catholic, the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of Pope Francis for perspective, the task is, if anything, even more daunting. But Carl E. Olson, editor of Catholic World Report, asked me to give it a shot, so here goes.

On April 2, 2005, there came the news of the death of Pope John Paul II. I’d always admired the pope for his courage in confronting the horrors of communism, and for aligning with President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher in a united front that led to the downfall of the Soviet Union. Yet as a spiritual leader he meant nothing to me.

Nevertheless, Barbara and I found ourselves becoming involved in the events and the funeral as they unfolded on television. Even the typically skewed commercial coverage couldn’t disguise the tributes from all corners of the globe, and the love for the pope and grief at losing him from Catholics and people of every faith. At some point in the two weeks following, Barbara—a long-lapsed Protestant who’d never lost her regard for Christianity—turned to me and said, “You’ve got to get religion, Roger. You’ve been drifting way too long.”

Early on the morning of April 19, I left on a business trip, first taking the commuter flight from Prescott, our home since 2001, to the Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. There was a wait before my next flight to the west coast, so I stopped for coffee, and soon after I arrived at the gate, the white smoke appeared over the roof of the Sistine Chapel on the television monitor. Sipping my cappuccino, I watched with a large group of travelers, interested—as a news hound mostly—in who’d been chosen. From my casual observation, however, quite a few in the crowd were Catholics, and far more invested in the outcome than I.

When the announcement was made that Cardinal Ratzinger had been elected, people around me seemed to register either shock or joy. I had a pretty good sense of the reason for the split. In the days following Pope John Paul’s passing, I’d noted the avuncular and, to all appearances, mild-mannered cardinal playing a high-profile role in the funeral and related proceedings. I’d also heard quite a bit of commentary about his staunchly conservative stance as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, set in contrast to the “modernization” and “progress” many were hoping for and demanding. That hoary theme, complete with groan-inducing code words and liberal shibboleths straight out of American politics, brought on a depressing sense of déjÀ vu. “God’s Rottweiler,” some even called him, a denigration that struck me as both outrageous and naïve, though I knew almost nothing about him.

I’d been a senior corporate executive for many years, I’ve had my own consulting business since 1996, and I understood that the cardinal, like the centurion in Matthew 8:9, was “ a man under authority.” Which meant that whatever he’d done to garner his reputation had been undertaken with the guidance and approval of his boss. Yet the criticism fell on him, which also told me he was a loyal lieutenant, willing to do his superior’s will and take the hit himself without complaint. People who viewed it otherwise, I grumbled, likely had an axe to grind, or were reluctant to criticize Pope John Paul, or were simply fools.

That’s not very charitable, I admit. But remember, I was nowhere near being “Christian” in my judgments at the time. (Actually, I’m still nowhere near where I should be, yet I’m trying.) How often I’ve marveled since then at Pope Benedict’s kindness to everyone, even as he took on the agonizing work of expunging the “filth” from the Church and laying the foundation for renewal. How often I’ve wished I could feel his Christian charity towards the enemies within. But the rockiest rise on the road to becoming Christian, at least for someone like me, is learning to love as Pope Benedict loves—especially those whom you’d much rather smack upside the head and who richly deserve far worse. I suspect I’ll be wrestling with that one for a long time.

So there I was at the gate—standing now, with just a few minutes left before I’d need to board my flight. If I had to miss the introduction of the new pope, it was no big deal, though I was vaguely hoping I wouldn’t. And then Pope Benedict XVI walked onto the balcony. The camera zoomed in, his eyes seemed to look right at me and through me, and that’s the exact instant my conversion happened.

I’ll tell you more about that a little later, but first I want to affirm what I bet some of you are already thinking. I, too, have seen reruns of the video of that moment, and the reality is, the camera does not zoom in, certainly not in the way I experienced it. Nor do the pope’s eyes appear to look right at me, much less through me. I guess that was just one more minor miracle of that miraculous morning.

In the years since, I’ve enjoyed saying that I’m Pope Benedict’s first convert, or tied for first, which marked an inauspicious beginning indeed to his pontificate. I’ve also joked numerous times that my conversion was like Saint Paul’s—one of my huge heroes—minus the saint part. I suppose I tend to make light of it all because the event remains utterly inexplicable to me. Indeed, with the passage of time, I’ve wondered occasionally if it actually occurred. The only concrete evidence is that I am Catholic, though that’s evidence enough for anyone who’s ever known me.

I was raised in a family of Russian heritage that was troubled, dark, and often violent—thanks to my poor late father’s volcanic temper—among wealthy, successful relatives whose Judaism was solely about tradition, survival, and identity, not God. My little sister was born autistic, my elder sister and I fought, and my mother was completely overwhelmed. Not at all a happy home, and when I could escape, I would shut myself away and read—searching, I came to realize later, for something beyond, for truth, for understanding, for what it all meant. Because somehow, despite my parents’ agnosticism and my father’s draconian regime, I believed in God. Though I didn’t like him much.

For the sake of tradition, my mother attempted—risking derision and explosions from her husband—to have us observe the High Holy Days, and urged me to become Bar-Mitzvahed for the same reason. The ceremony was rather a sham: a long-suffering rabbi crash-tutored me, taught me my Hebrew phonetically, and walked me through a Cliff Notes version of the Old Testament and the Torah. But it pleased my mother and my relatives.

As for the New Testament, that was another matter entirely. My rabbi never once mentioned it, I knew little about it, and what I did know I viewed with suspicion. Yet I’d picked up the basics from my own reading and the movies—the big Technicolor sword-and-sandal epics of the time in particular, which I liked because they were, well, big, and in most cases about God in some fashion, and offered something more nourishing than popcorn to chew on. I understood how Jesus Christ came to be crucified, and the role of the Jewish leaders of the day in the show trial and sentence. Nevertheless, it was still bizarre and infuriating when I had several encounters regarding that general topic with Catholic boys. Evidently, I’d personally murdered their Lord (guess I must have dozed off there, for a couple thousand years), and they were none too pleased about it. Fists flew on both sides, despite the insanity of it all.

To say I developed an antipathy towards Christianity would be an understatement. It was a prejudice shared by most among my relatives, though especially towards Catholics—who were blamed for the medieval passion plays, the pogroms, the worldwide discrimination, even some aspects of the Holocaust. I don’t recall whether it ever occurred to me that this prejudice was as irrational as the one that held me responsible for killing Jesus, but probably not.

Being Jewish in my clan was more about what we were against, than what we were for—except for supporting Israel; about huddling together, not reaching out—except to help other Jews; about grim fatalism, not faith in God—except to complain about him. Perhaps understandably, as I became a young adult, I would rarely mention my being Jewish unless I sensed someone might be anti-Semitic. Then I’d drop the potential bomb to gauge the reaction. Words, by that point, had taken the place of fists, and I learned to wield them like a lepidopterist, leaving the moths pinned to their hatred and illogic.

But the truth is, I never felt Jewish, in any God-centric way, until I became Catholic.

All the foregoing, though, still doesn’t explain my loathing for the name “Jesus.” The reason I acquired that was the manner in which popular Christianity had abused it, and overused it, and commercialized it, and exploited it; and the way—in art, movies, and written depictions—the person of Jesus Christ himself was so often feminized: like some long-haired, blue-eyed flower child, floating just above the ground, spouting weightless fluff about peace and love. Maybe that’s unfair, but it’s how it came across to me and it made me ill.

After all, he was a Jew, I reasoned, and a carpenter’s son to boot. That was hard work in a hard time; you needed to be tough and strong to do it. In fact, I figured the Yeshua who strode the dusty earth of ancient Israel had to have been a powerhouse—with one hand holding a dove, but the other a hammer, and always the smartest guy in the room. Otherwise, what Jew would have followed him? And where was the Christ who said in Matthew 10:34—yes, even I couldn’t avoid picking up some actual quotes from the New Testament, as long as they fit my viewpoint: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

I liked that mental picture a lot: a muscular Jesus wielding a sword. Evidently no one else did, though, at least not since the good old days of the Knights Templar and such. Whoever Jesus really was I assumed was unknowable, given all the myths and hoo-hah about him, but my guess was that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob probably felt much the same as I did about who he’d become in modern times. Kind of like Brando in The Godfather, when he uncovers James Caan’s body at the undertaker’s and weeps, “Look how they massacred my boy.”

In any case, at the age of 16 and just graduated from high school, I’d had enough of everything. I lied my way into the Merchant Marine and shipped out as an ordinary seaman on a decrepit tramp freighter bound for North Africa. When I came home, I embarked on what became a series of regrettable forays into several colleges—the regret was mutual, mine and the colleges’—and then, at the age of 22, I drifted “east.” What I found in the concepts of karma and reincarnation, and the moral relativism inherent in eastern mysticism and the New Age, was a way to understand God that let me off the hook, so to speak, for my sins and transgressions. Which, unfortunately, were legion.

Following a first marriage that produced no children and failed in four years, and a rootless life as a professional musician, writer, and editor, in 1981 I met my wife Barbara—a gifted and inspired fine artist, and a guileless and giving human being. She had two children from her former marriage and had been a single parent for three years. Although fatherhood was not something I’d ever desired, her children—ages three and six at the time—were well mannered and charming. Barbara and I fell in love, got married, and I legally adopted the little ones.

At around the same time that I’d drifted east, Barbara had experienced a sudden and intense pull to Christ—toward the very source of the forgiveness, kindness, and optimism that was the gentle Christianity she’d grown up with. Yet without a church to fulfill her needs, she was soon seduced by the New Age as well, though her reasons were nothing like mine. She was attracted to the emphasis on creativity that matched her fire and joy for life, the sense of freedom within God’s kingdom, and the concept of being a co-worker with God throughout eternity. Her Christian values, ethics, and view of humanity, however, never left her; indeed, as the years went by, her main goal was to help other New Agers become more Christ-like, for she discovered that so many of them were off-track. Perhaps not surprisingly, in the 1990s she felt herself drawn again to Jesus. One time—and one time only, she tells me—she dared, after all these years away, to speak personally to him and pray fervently for my conversion, certain that if she came back to Christianity on her own, our marriage would end and our children would suffer.

I know without ambiguity that the detour she made into the New Age was made for my sake. Had she been Christian, we never would have met, and in order for the Holy Spirit to save me, he needed Barbara to reach her hand into my hell, take mine and never let go. I could be glib and call this sacrifice but another of the many she constantly, and quietly, makes for the sake of others, except that this one almost destroyed her. And yet, she has thanked me endlessly for the sole gift I gave her in return: bringing her into the Catholic Church, the very church she’d always imagined was more closed in and confined than any other on earth.

So now, a guy who’d never wanted kids had an instant family. I embarked on a successful, though nomadic, business career, and struggled to make myself a better man. I loved the children dearly, yet couldn’t stop the rages of my father becoming my own. Over and over, the demons of the past would rise up and bring darkness to our family, and over and over the eastern teachings had no answers. The so-called “spiritual exercises” were all me-centered and ego-centered, and the last thing in the universe I needed was more selfishness. It fell to Barbara to hold everything together and bring the light back to our home. Of course, there were many beautiful times too, now glittering memories of their wonderful childhood and adolescence, and we remain to this day a very close and loving family. Yet it’s only because of Barbara’s strength and wisdom that our kids were able to grow into such exceptional adults.

Roughly drawn, then, this is a sketch of the angry and deeply anti-Christian Jew who stood at the gate in Sky Harbor Airport on April 19, 2005, when Pope Benedict XVI greeted the world for the first time. I had neither the slightest inkling of, nor the remotest desire for, what was about to occur. But I had been given a warning.

Almost exactly a year before—I wrote it down—I experienced a dream so vivid that I remember it now just as I did then. I was in a business suit, walking the empty street of a city, going to work. Waiting for me at the entrance of a building, also in a business suit, was Jesus Christ—and he didn’t have to introduce himself. He looked a lot like I’d always thought he must: tough, no nonsense, all man, all-knowing. He certainly seemed to know everything about me, but didn’t care.

We shook hands and he said, “I need you to do something. Go up to the top floor of this building and kill Satan.” Why me? I asked. “Why not?” he replied. I had no answer for that, so in I went. It was ultra-plush—marble and chrome and polished wood. I took the elevator to the top and there, at his massive desk in a huge office, was a handsome, well-groomed executive with a pleasant expression. Still, I knew who it was. He knew who I was too, and who’d sent me, because he stood and came over, intimidating except for the fear in his eyes. I laid my hands on his shoulders and said: “In the name of Jesus Christ…” The next words formed in my mind as “I kill you,” but they came out, “I kiss you.” His face went white, I kissed him on the forehead, and he crumpled down dead.

Clearly, I thought on awakening, this had been some colossal cosmic mistake, as if I’d opened the wrong hotel room door and seen things I shouldn’t have. But I know now that the Body of Christ requires all sorts of parts for all sorts of purposes, and when Our Lord decides—for whatever arcane reason of his own—that he wants to get you, you’re got. Resistance is futile, so you might as well make the best of it.

Because as Pope Benedict walked onto the balcony and raised his arms, and the camera appeared to zoom in, an unstoppable power and presence came through his eyes and sliced me open. I burst into tears, and everything I ever thought I was, or wasn’t, poured out.

It was the Sword of Christ, and there would be no peace in me until I offered him mine.

So ended, with those exact words, my witness testimony on April 7, 2007. I wish I could say that, in the years since, I’ve fulfilled the promise of my conversion, or returned a fraction of the priceless treasure I was given. But I can’t.

I’ve served on the RCIA team every year. I’m on the Pastoral Council. I never miss Sunday Mass, pray every day, sit a weekly hour in the Perpetual Adoration Chapel, and support charities. I could check a few more boxes as well, but why bother? Because on the morning I heard that Pope Benedict had resigned, I was struck with the most crushing sense of personal failure and shame. This profoundly holy, heroic, and humble man—in whose luminous thoughts and words I’ve tried to immerse myself, and whom Barbara and I were blessed to see in person twice, and whose pontificate has been so historic and revolutionary—what have I done to help him? Have I ever really kissed and killed Satan, either in the wide world or my own soul? And as for Saint Paul—have I even attempted to follow his footprints?

It’s all been too easy, being Catholic. Hardly any trouble at all. But no more.

Ever since Pope Benedict’s resignation, I’ve been like Kevin Costner in the movie The Untouchables, and a bullet-riddled Sean Connery is grabbing me by the shirt and crying out with his last breath: “What are you prepared to DO?”

We shall see.

This was probably among the packets of paperwork Benedict gave to Francis during their meeting at Castel Gandolfo. In pics showing them seated and talking to each other, there was a stack of materials on the table near them. I hope Francis gives Benedict ample credit for the work he had already done on the encyclical. I'll bet he had it nearly finished.


Vatican: Pope Francis' first encyclical might be out this year

Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
Apr. 25, 2013

Pope Francis may publish his first encyclical this year, the Vatican spokesman said.

Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi said he "would not exclude" the possibility of the publication of the pope's first encyclical "within this year," Vatican Radio reported.

The spokesman told reporters Thursday that retired Pope Benedict XVI had already "fleshed out material on the theme of faith" for an encyclical.

Vatican officials had said Pope Benedict completed work in late 2012 on what would have been his fourth encyclical -- a letter on the theological virtue of faith. Its release was expected in the first half of 2013, but the pope resigned Feb. 28 before its publication.

It is not unusual for a pope to pick up work begun by his predecessor, make changes and publish it in his own name. The second part of Pope Benedict's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est ("God is Love"), was a discussion of Catholic charitable activity prepared under Blessed John Paul II. Nine months after Pope Benedict was elected, the document was released after the new pope reworked that section.

Lombardi also said that Pope Benedict, who has been living at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo since his retirement, would soon be moving -- as expected -- to a renovated building in the Vatican Gardens.

The retired pope should be moving to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery between the end of April and early May, the spokesman said.

In the meantime, he said Pope Francis will continue to reside in the Vatican guesthouse where he has been staying since the beginning of the conclave that elected him, instead of the papal apartment in the apostolic palace.

The Domus Sanctae Marthae houses permanent residents as well as some guests who come to the Vatican for meetings.

Pope Francis "likes it there very much," the spokesman said, and, at the moment, it doesn't seem he wants to change his accommodations, even though no "final decision" has been made.

Thanks, Gabriella. Here is the English version of that story.



Ratzinger to return to the Vatican on May 1st

The Pope Emeritus will be leaving Castel Gandolfo in a few days and returning to the Vatican

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN INSIDER
April 26, 2013

Benedict XVI returns to the Vatican. He left the Holy See on 28 February, the last day of his pontificate, which ended officially on the evening of that same day, following his resignation. Unless there is last minute change of plan, the Pope Emeritus is expected to return to the Vatican on 1 May. The former cloistered monastery where the former Pope will be living, is now ready for him to move in. The monastery is a four story building, with communal areas and twelve monastic cells, a new wing measuring approximately 450 metres squared, a chapel, the cloistered nuns’ choir, a library, a gallery, an evergreen hedge, a heavy gate that separates the cloistered area from the other parts of the monastery and a large garden where peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, cabbages, lemons and oranges are grown.

Benedict XVI will be living with the four members of the “Memores Domini” association and his personal secretary, Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Papal Household. Others who are allowed to stay in the monastery are the Pope Emeritus’ brother and the German deacon who joined the small former “papal family” and assists Ratzinger when Fr. Georg is busy in the Apostolic Palace. The move will make Mgr. Gänswein’s life much easier as, up until now, he has had to go back and forth from Castel Gandolfo to the Vatican every day. It will also make it easier for Francis to visit his predecessor.

Ratzinger’s frailty was apparent during Pope Francis’ visit to the Pope Emeritus just a few days after his election. But Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, who has confirmed the former Pope’s imminent return to the Vatican, had denied that Benedict XVI was suffering from any major illness.

Slight change in plans.


Retired Pope Benedict set to return to Vatican May 2

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
April 30, 2013

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Retired Pope Benedict XVI is scheduled to move into a remodeled convent at the Vatican May 2, the Vatican spokesman said.

The spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, said Pope Benedict would arrive at the Vatican in the early evening by helicopter, "weather permitting."

Pope Benedict has been living at the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, since Feb. 28, the date his resignation took effect. Pope Francis traveled to the villa March 23 to talk, pray and eat lunch with the retired pope.

Father Lombardi said a group of Vatican officials would welcome Pope Benedict at the Vatican helipad, but he would not specify further.

Pope Benedict will live in the remodeled Mater Ecclesiae Monastery with Archbishop Georg Ganswein, his secretary, who also serves Pope Francis as prefect of the papal household; and with four laywomen who are consecrated members of the Memores Domini group, Father Lombardi said.

Serving as a residence for a retired pope is only the latest use of the building. A small portion of the current building had been a gardener's house. In 1960, it became the headquarters of a Vatican archaeological research institute, then was used for a time by Vatican Radio.

Pope John Paul II had the building expanded to about 4,300 square feet and in 1994 established it as a monastery for contemplative nuns. For 19 years, different contemplative orders took turns living in the monastery with a mission focused on praying for the pope and the church.


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


Vatican monastery prepares for Benedict XVI's return

Vatican City, Apr 30, 2013 / 08:30 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Benedict XVI will return to the Vatican on May 2 by helicopter, coming back the same way he left just two months ago when he resigned as Pope.

The return of a former Pope is something that has no historical precedent, making everything a new one for the Vatican’s staff.

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican’s press office, told CNA April 30 that “there will be someone there to welcome Benedict XVI” but he is not yet sure who that will be.

The former Pope will arrive by helicopter around 4:30 or 5:00 in the afternoon, and after a brief greeting will head to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, where he will live a life of prayer and meditation.

Since he resigned from the papacy on Feb. 28, Benedict XVI has been living at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

Blessed John Paul II opened the cloistered monastery in May 1994 as a place dedicated solely to prayer for the Pope, his ministry and the cardinals.

It contains a chapel, a choir room, a library, a semi-basement, a terrace and a visiting room.

Different groups of nuns have lived in the monastery since it was created, rotating out every three years.

But when Benedict XVI announced Feb. 11 that he would abdicate the papacy, the building was empty.

The last group of religious to live in Mater Ecclesiae left in Nov. 2012 when the Vatican began renovations on the building to take replace old windows, fix a problem with humidity in the basement and make repairs to a rooftop terrace.

Mater Ecclesiae will also be home to four consecrated women who have taken care of the papal household since Benedict became pontiff in 2005, and his personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who is also the head of the Prefecture of the Papal Household.

BENEDICT XVI RETURNS TO THE VATICAN THIS AFTERNOON

Vatican City, 2 May 2013 (VIS) – Shortly before 5:00pm this afternoon, Pope Francis will go to receive Pope emeritus Benedict XVI who is returning to the Vatican after his two month stay at Castel Gandolfo.

Benedict XVI will leave Castel Gandolfo by helicopter around 4:30pm and will arrive some 20 minutes later at the Vatican heliport. From this afternoon on, the Pope emeritus will take up permanent residence at the “Mater Ecclesiae” convent, which has been recently restored. Joining him will be his secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, prefect of the Prefecture of the Papal Household, and the four women of the “Memores Domini” lay association who have been part of the Papal Household for years, cleaning and cooking. The monastery, built over 20 years ago at the bequest of Blessed John Paul II, has housed four different cloistered orders over the years: Poor Claires, Discalced Carmelites, Benedictine nuns, and Visitandine nuns.

In these past two months, Pope Francis and the Pope emeritus have spoken several times by telephone, such as on 19 March and 16 April, respectively Benedict XVI's saint's day and his birthday. The two also met on 23 March in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo.

BENTORNATO BENEDETTO!!!

Pope Francis welcomes Pope Benedict XVIth home

Vatican Radio
May 2, 2013

Pope Francis had words of welcome today as he greeted Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus, who returned to take up residence inside Vatican city.

In style with his own personal manner, Pope Francis left the formalities of a welcoming ceremony to Vatican authorities, who awaited the arrival of the Pope Emeritus at the Vatican heliport. These included Cardinals Bertello - President of the Governatorate, Bertone - Secretary of State, and Sodano - the deacon of the College of Cardinals as well as some bishops.

But Pope Francis was awaiting his predecessor at the entrance to the “Mater Ecclesiae” Monastery in the Vatican Gardens where Benedict will be residing. Together they preceded to the chapel for a brief moment of prayer.

The Pope Emeritus left the Vatican on February 28th after his resignation, and had been staying at the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo in the Alban Hills.
He chose to leave the Vatican immediately after his resignation to physically remove himself from the process of electing his successor.

His absence also gave workers time to finish up renovations on the monastery on the edge of the Vatican gardens that until last year housed groups of cloistered nuns who were invited for a few years at a time to live inside the Vatican to pray for the Pontiff and Church at large.

In the small building, with a chapel attached, Benedict will live with his personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, and the four consecrated women who do the housekeeping and prepare his meals. Inside the building, Benedict has at his disposal a small library and a study. A guest room is available for when his brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, comes to visit.

Today’s was not the first meeting between the Pope and the Pope Emeritus. In fact Francis visited Benedict in March in Castel Gandolfo, and they have spoken by telephone. It is however the first time in history that two Popes will be next-door neighbours!

Thanks to Teresa, the latest news


An 'open arms' welcome
from Pope Francis for
the returning pilgrim
by Salvatore Izzo


VATICAN CITY, May 2, 2013 (Translated from AGI) - Even if any video shot by CTV has not been released, the photographs from L'Osservatore Romano are reassuring about the state of Benedict XVI's health.

The emeritus Pope returned to the Vatican Thursday afternoon from Castel Gandolfo where he had spent the two months following his historic resignation on February 28. He was personally welcomed by his successor, Pope Francis, who has used every occasion to express affection and esteem for his 'venerated predecessor'.

And as they did in Castel Gandolfo when the Pope visited Benedict XVI last March 23, this time too, they prayed together in the chapel of the Mater Ecclesiae convent, intended to be Benedict XVI's permanent retirement home.

Regarding the spirits of the emeritus Pope, also reassuring was his remark about his new home: "It is very welcoming - one can work well here".

Words that indicate we may hope for new publications from Joseph Ratzinger, theologian, no longer Roman Pontiff. A couple of hours before his resignation took effect on February 28, he had said farewell to the faithful who gathered in Castel Gandolfo to wish him well with their customary affection, he described himself as being "a pilgrim on the last stage of his pilgrimage on earth".

When, this afternoon, the white helicopter that carried him from Castel Gandolfo flew over the Vatican, a great number of faithful who wished to greet him were present in St. Peter's Square and were happy just to see him flying in.

Leaving the welcome formalities to other Vatican officials who welcomed Papa Ratzinger at the heliport - three cardinals and their number-2 men - Pope Francis arrived by car at the Mater Ecclesiae convent before his predecessor, accompanied by the secretary he inherited from him, Mons. Alfred Xuereb, and the regent of the Pontifical Household, Mons. Leonardo Sapienza.

As they waited for the emeritus Pope, Francis thanked Benedict's Memores Domini housekeepers, remarking that they had prepared Benedict's new home very well, attentive to every detail.

Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told newsmen afterwards that Pope Francis appeared very happy at the return of Benedict XVI.

Thus, Benedict's return to the Vatican was characterized by a serene and cordial atmosphere and a profound communion between Francis and Benedict, which was underscored when they prayed together at the Mater Ecclesiae chapel.

From hereon, the two men will be living within a few hundred meters apart, which makes more frequent but discreet contacts possible. Besides, both like to walk in the Vatican Gardens, and both are devoted to Mary, whose shrine as Our Lady of Lourdes is located halfway between Domus Sancta Marthae, where Francis lives, and the Mater Ecclesiae convent.

But the greatest assistance Benedict is making to his successor is the support of prayer. Indeed, with Benedict XVI, the convent that was vacated last year by the last of a rotating community of contemplative nuns dedicated to praying for the Church and the Pope, will continue to be a certain of spiritual irradiation, and not just for the Vatican.

Far from curious eyes and cameras, however, the dialog will presumably continue between the new Pope and his predecessor - it begun with Francis's telephone call to Benedict XVI after his election on March 13, a few more calls afterwards and the visit to Castel Gandolfo ten days later, when the emeritus Pope handed over a box of documents for his information (presumably including the cardinals' report on Vatileaks and the Curial circumstances that led to that breach of confidence).

One presumes that if he wants it, Francis can count on advice from his great predecessor [Thank you, Mr. Izzo, for using the adjective!] who can always informally express himself directly to the Pope. Just as Francis has been getting the views of the eight cardinals he named as his advisory council.

With respect to Curial reform, everything will be done with maximum discretion, according to the deputy Secretary of State Mons. Angelo Becciu, speaking to Vatican Radio, "so that the decisions made by Pope Francis will not be interpreted as punitive measures against any cardinals or bishops who may not be reappointed, nor against Curial employees in case restructuring the Curia will mean combining certain offices or abolishing some". [It must be added that Becciu also indicated in his interview with L'Osservatore Romano, that no changes are imminent because the Pope will take time to reflect before making his decisions.]

Mater Ecclesiae is a small building with a main four-story structure (including a substantial basement) and only 200 square meters of livable space (much space is taken up by stairways and by the elevator).

Its renovation took some time because it included putting in a new roof, since leaks plagued the last community of nuns which occupied the convent.

Residing with Papa Ratzinger will be Mons. Gaenswein and the four Memores Domini. The emeritus Pope's decades-long transcribing secretary, Birgit Wansing, will report for work every day but will go back to living at the Schoenstatt motherhouse in Rome. And even the Flemish German-speaking deacon hired to assist the emeritus Pope in the daytime, will not be a resident.

Ratzinger the reformer returns to his roots

Those who criticise Francis for the supposed discontinuity he has shown with Benedict XVI’s papacy, forget the historic importance of his resignation

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN INSIDER
May 3, 2013

Since yesterday, the Vatican has had two popes, who are living within the same square kilometre of land, in the world’s smallest state. The Bishop of Rome, Francis and his predecessor now live practically side by side: the first has full papal powers after his election last 13 March and the second is now Pope Emeritus, in other words retired and will spend his time out of the world spotlight, praying and studying.

No one really considered this problem while the Pope Emeritus was living in the papal palace in Castel Gandolfo. But the minute Benedict XVI stepped foot in the Vatican yesterday, moving into the former cloistered monastery, Mater Ecclesiae, he became a felt presence again and point of reference within the tiny state. The fact he did not want his arrival to be recorded on camera, allowing just one photo, in order to reassure those who fear for his health (it should be remembered that his physical weakness was the reason why he resigned), is perfectly understandable. But although Benedict XVI will not be appearing in public or holding meetings, he will nevertheless continue to be a presence.

This is the first time in the history of the Church that a Pope steps down as Bishop of Rome because of old age. Ratzinger’s humility and discretion are guarantees that he will not be a burden to his successor and will avoid being used as a reference point by those who are displeased by or disappointed with the new papacy.

Some of Pope Francis’ choices have been the subject of criticism among certain traditionalist circles. They accuse him of an overly sober style and a failure to use certain insignia and old or old-style vestments. He has even been accused of undermining the Petrine ministry by accentuating his Bishop of Rome role – the Pope’s first and oldest title – and of forming the 8-strong commission of cardinals who are supposed to advise the Pope on questions of Curia reform and Church government. Francis’ critics place a great deal of emphasis on the discontinuity with Benedict XVI’s papacy, fearing the destruction of the papacy itself and the loss of the sacred meaning of the papal figure.

These critics are too quick to interpret any of Francis’ gestures as a sign of discontinuity with the work of his predecessor. What they forget is that more than any of the choices made by Francis, it was Benedict XVI’s resignation that represented the greatest act of deconsecration of the papal figure. His abandonment of the Throne of Peter due to physical and spiritual weakness stripped the Curia of its duties and created the unprecedented situation of two popes now living a short distance from one another.

However, Ratzinger’s decision also contributed to bringing the role of the Bishop of Rome back to its origins and its real nature: the Pope is Peter’s successor , the Church’s shepherd and a living example of charity, guardian of a treasure that does not belong to him: the depositum fidei which it is his responsibility to pass on to others. The Pope is not an emperor for life, nor is he a super-governor of Churches. Certain historical or historically justified forms which sacralise the figure of Pope to the point of going beyond the essence of its origins. The decision to bring the papal figure closer to its origins and distance it from the oversacralised image it has been given – an image that is not really in tune with the Vatican’s current situation - does not in any way undermine the papacy.

In the end, it makes little difference whether the Pope wears tall and lavishly decorated mitres or chooses not to, whether he brings the papal fanon back to life, uses golden papal crosses from times gone by or sits on great big thrones made of gold painted wood. All of which emphasis the sacredness, uniqueness and universality of the papal ministry. Benedict XVI’s resignation shows he does not see the still sacredness of a reigning Pope as something of supreme importance. He chose to retire, just as other bishops do in dioceses across the world when they reach a certain age. By stepping down as Pope and Bishop of Rome, he brought the figure of Pope closer to bishops’ figures, without in any way undermining the importance and prerogatives of the Petrine primacy.

So there is clearly continuity between Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome. And is manifested in their outlook on faith and their awareness that it is the Lord who leads the Church, not the Pope.

Benedict XVI and Education

BY FATHER C. J. MCCLOSKEY
National Catholic Register
5/20/13

-------------------------
A REASON OPEN TO GOD

On Universities, Education and Culture

By Pope Benedict XVI
The Catholic University of America Press, 2013

336 pages, $24.95

To order: cuapress.cua.edu

-------------------------

In May comes graduation days. Commencement time offers a moment for reflection on the purpose of higher education — especially in our Catholic universities.

And every year we watch the Catholic universities to see who the commencement speakers are, and we dissect the ways they honor or detract from a university’s mission.

What a Catholic university’s mission should be is an oft-debated topic, but we needn’t look far to find a guide to measure our critique.

All three of our most recent popes, from Blessed John Paul II to Pope Francis, have had extensive experience in higher Catholic education as professors. Indeed, John Paul may well be considered the finest philosopher in the history of the papacy, and Pope Benedict XVI certainly ranks high as a theologian, particularly in his work of the ongoing rediscovery of the Fathers of the Church. In one way or another, we could refer to them as “university men.”

The Catholic University of America Press has done us a great service by publishing A Reason Open to God, with Pope Benedict’s teachings during his pontificate. The book has a foreword by the president of Catholic University, John Garvey, who has continued the fine work of his predecessor (now-Bishop David O’Connell of Trenton, N.J.) in reconstructing CUA into a truly Catholic university.

This collection is of particular value to Catholic Americans, as one of our finest boasts was that we had by far the largest collection of Catholic universities in the world, at least through the decade of the tumultuous ’60s. The majority of these universities were staffed by thriving religious congregations, both male and female.

Then, out of the blue, a revolution took place in 1967 that changed Catholic higher education radically, but we hope not forever. It was known as the Land O’ Lakes Conference, for that is where a group of Catholic college presidents and academics undertook a revolution in Catholic education that hopefully will someday (soon) be rolled back.

The Land O’ Lakes document began this way:

“The Catholic university today must be a university in the full modern sense of the word, with a strong commitment to and concern for academic excellence. To perform its teaching and research functions effectively, the Catholic university must have a true autonomy and academic freedom in the face of authority of whatever kind, lay or clerical, external to the academic community itself. To say this is simply to assert that institutional autonomy and academic freedom are essential conditions of life and growth and indeed of survival for Catholic universities, as for all universities.”

Now compare this with Pope Benedict’s address to Catholic educators at Catholic University in Washington on April 17, 2008:

“It is the case that any appeal to the principle of academic freedom to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the Church would obstruct or even betray the university’s freedom and identity and mission: a mission at the heart of the Church’s munus docendi and not somehow autonomous or independent of it.”

The contrast is clear. We can only hope that our bishops in each diocese with at least a nominally Catholic college or university will address the matter under the leadership of our new Pope Francis.

This book contains all of Pope Benedict’s talks on the subjects mentioned in the title, with the great majority being given in the context of pastoral visits throughout the world. I found most interesting those talks in England, on the occasion of his trip to beatify Blessed John Henry Newman, with whom Pope Benedict had a special relation as a fellow theologian. In his homily, Pope Benedict, used Blessed John Henry’s own words to describe the goal of Catholic university professors:

“I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious — but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.”

Would that all of our universities yielded such young men and women, the earth would be ablaze with the truths of our faith!

All in all, this book deserves a place on the bookshelves of every Catholic teacher, student and parent — and its words a place in their hearts.

Papal encyclicals expected on faith and poverty, bishop reveals

Vatican City, May 24, 2013 / 02:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- According to an Italian bishop, Benedict XVI is concluding work on what was to have been his encyclical on faith, and Pope Francis will be writing an encyclical on poverty.

“Benedict XVI is finishing writing the encyclical on faith which will be signed by Pope Francis. Following this, he himself will prepare his first encyclical on the poor: Beati pauperes,” Bishop Luigi Martella of the Molfetta-Ruvo-Giovinazzo-Terlizzi diocese wrote May 23 on his diocesan website.

“Beati pauperes” is Latin for “Blessed are the poor,” and Bishop Martella added that it is to be about poverty “understood not in an ideological and political sense, but in the sense of the Gospel.”

Bishop Martella learned of these developments from Pope Francis earlier this month, while meeting with him. The bishops of the Italian region of Puglia travelled to Rome for their “ad limina” meeting with the Roman Pontiff from May 13 to 16.

The Bishop of Rome “wished to make a confidence, almost a revelation,” to the Puglian episcopacy, Bishop Martella wrote, in telling them of the encyclicals.

In April, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi had said he “would not exclude” the possibility of Pope Francis issuing his first encyclical “within this year.”

Benedict's had been preparing an encyclical on the virtue of faith when he announced his abdication on Feb. 11.

The following day, Fr. Lombardi said it “remains an awaited document, but one that we will not have in the way we expected, perhaps we will have it in a different way.”

Should Pope Francis promulgate Benedict's faith encyclical, it would not be the first time that one Pope has signed off on the work of another. It is reported that “Deus Caritas est,” Benedict's first encyclical, was based on unfinished writings of John Paul II.

In October, a high-ranking curial official told “Vatican Insider” that the text, even unfinished, “is beautiful. Benedict XVI manages to express even the most complex and very deep truths using simple language which has a widespread reach that goes beyond all imagination.”

The initial intention of the encyclical on faith was to form a trilogy with two of Benedict's other encyclicals on the theological virtues, “Spe salvi” and “Deus Caritas est.”

Before Benedict's decision to abdicate his role as Bishop of Rome, a Vatican official said “we expect it will be published during the Year of Faith.”

In his revelatory post on his diocesan website, Bishop Martella discussed the general topics touched on at the Puglian ad limina. He called Pope Francis an “extraordinary man” of “disarming simplicity.”

The Roman Pontiff spoke of his predecessor with “great kindness,” saying Benedict is “doing much better now,” after looking rather exhausted during their first meeting at Castelgandolfo, shortly after Pope Francis' election.

During ad liminas, bishops relate to the Roman Bishop the situation in their dioceses. Bishop Martella says he stressed to Pope Francis the goodness of the people of Molfetta, and that the area is “a land of welcome and of immigration.”

“I spontaneously told him: 'Your Holiness, visit Molfetta, we would be very happy,'” Bishop Martella wrote. “In response I got a beautiful smile, and I realized that the request was premature.”

This is odd news because recently Vatican Radio and Bild magazine in Germany carried comments from a German psychiatrist friend of Benedict that contradicts the views in this article. The psychiatrist said Benedict was mentally sharp and physically fit, although moving slowly.



Benedict XVI in declining health, visitors say

Eric Lyman
Religion News Service
Jun. 10, 2013

Just months after becoming the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign, reports are surfacing that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is in poor health with diminished stature and energy.

After a brief hiatus at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Benedict returned to live in a converted monastery on the edge of the Vatican gardens last month. Already, some of his visitors have commented on the former pope's physical deterioration.

"Benedict is in a very bad way," said Paloma Gomez Borrero, a veteran Vatican correspondent for Spain's Telecinco television network who visited the former pope in late May. "We won't have him with us much longer."

Cardinal Joachim Meisner, the archbishop of Cologne, Germany, and a personal friend of Benedict's, visited the former pope in April.

"I was shocked at how thin he had become," Meisner said at the time. "Mentally, he is quite fit, his old self. But he had halved in size."

Vatican officials have admitted Benedict has weakened since stepping down, but they deny his physical condition has become critical.

Although the physical deterioration of Pope John Paul II from 2003 to 2005 was well documented, the fact that no pope has resigned from office since Gregory XII in 1415 means there is no protocol for dealing with or reporting on the physical state of a former pontiff, especially one who has vowed to stay out of the public eye.

"There haven't been many popes to resign, but in the previous instances the popes did not live long after abdicating," said Alistair Sear, a priest and church historian. "Gregory XII didn't even live long enough to see his successor named."

But the lack of visibility does not mean Benedict is out of the thoughts of the faithful.

"He is in our prayers every day," said Maria Paoloa Santo Stefano, part of a community of Sisters of Mercy nuns based in Rome. "Pope John Paul suffered in public, and Benedict chose to suffer in private. But that does not make his mission less important and less brave."

www.donaukurier.de/nachrichten/bayern/Riedenburg-Das-ist-Unsinn;art155371...

This article is about an interview with Big G.
He says, the rumors about Papa's bad health are nonsense.
Big G. said, that Papa feels the burden of is age which is normal, but that he feels very happy at his new domicil.
They are talking on the phone every day.
Even though there is a separate room for Big G. he regrets that he hasn't visited Papa yet.
Asked about a visit of Papa in Bavaria, Big G. said "Such a trip is impossible".

Sorry for my pitiful summary but I am a bit in a hurry.

Benedict and Francis: How much difference is there?

Alessandro Speciale
Religion News Service
June 20, 2013

As a millennia-old institution, the Vatican is accustomed to change at a glacial pace. But in the eyes of many outside the church -- and even of some within it -- the arrival of Pope Francis on the throne of St. Peter seems to have started nothing short of a revolution.

Even Francis himself, in his speech to Rome's diocese Monday, said Christians not only can, but should, be "revolutionaries."

Now, 100 days into his pontificate, a debate is brewing in Rome over whether Francis has set a distinctly different course from his predecessor, or whether the visible differences in style and personality between Francis and Benedict XVI mask a deeper theological and ideological continuity.

One thing's for sure. All of the hand-wringing about the novelty and potential difficulty of having two popes living just yards apart has all but disappeared.

So far, Benedict XVI has maintained his promise to live "hidden from the world" in retirement, while Francis quickly demonstrated there's little risk of him being overshadowed by his predecessor.

A change in style and substance

Those who see a significant break between the two popes point to what Francis has said, how he's said it and, more importantly, what he hasn't said. Under the new pope, the issues that dominated Benedict's papacy have been downplayed, sidelined or hardly mentioned at all.
Celebrating a "Gospel of Life" Mass in St. Peter's square on Sunday, the Argentine pope defined the church's mission to protect life in a different way from what his two predecessors would have done.

"The Living God sets us free. Let us say 'Yes' to love and not selfishness. Let us say 'Yes' to life and not death. Let us say 'Yes' to freedom and not enslavement to the many idols of our time," he said. Not mentioned were words like "abortion" or "unborn," and neither were alluded to.

Luigi Accattoli, a veteran Vatican analyst with Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper, sees a "new way of being pope" in the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio: "Francis doesn't lash out against laws that violate 'non-negotiable values,' " as the Vatican usually classifies issues like the protection of life or marriage.

As French bishops organized mass rallies against a law that legalized gay marriage, Francis skirted any mention of it, even during a recent meeting with French lawmakers.

What's more, Francis has embraced a much more low-brow view of the papacy, shunning Benedict's red slippers, ermine capes and papal apartments for a simpler lifestyle that finds him sleeping in a Vatican guesthouse and wearing simple black shoes beneath his white papal cassock.

Carrying on his predecessor's work

Yet those who recognize a continuity between Benedict and Francis say such signals are negligible.

Francis has announced that his first encyclical will be, in fact, written "with four hands," meaning together with his predecessor. Benedict had almost finished the text ahead of his resignation, and the new pope said he will be happy to complete it.

Moreover, according to Vatican commentator Sandro Magister, Francis' focus on poverty in the church follows a course set out by Benedict in a major speech during his 2011 visit to Germany.

"Once liberated from material and political burdens and privileges, the church can reach out more effectively and in a truly Christian way to the whole world, she can be truly open to the world," Benedict said at the time.

An old friend and confidante of the German pope recently reported that Benedict said that "from the theological point of view," he and Francis "are perfectly in agreement." That opinion is shared even by some liberals within the church, who often said media portrayals of Benedict as a dour conservative missed the core of his teachings.

"Perhaps there is less discontinuity between these two popes than the press would have us believe. Much of what Francis is doing can be seen as an attempt to put flesh and blood on a theology which Benedict had already at least in part articulated," said Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, a former head of the Dominicans, in a recent interview with the "Pray Tell" website.

Indeed, a popular Internet meme places Francis as the logical conclusion to his two predecessors in articulating Christian faith. John Paul II crystallized the essence of hope, Benedict encapsulated faith, and now Francis throws the spotlight on charity.

'He is not a liberal Catholic'

John Thavis, a former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service and a frequent Vatican commentator, said "there is tremendous continuity between popes," which he says makes "even slight differences stand out."

Both Francis and Benedict, of course, want the same thing: to lead people to "understand and accept" the church's teachings, even when pronouncements on abortion or gay marriage run against popular culture, he said. But they go about it in a very different way.

"Benedict tended to view these issues in culture war terms, as part of a political effort to keep the church's voice out of public affairs. Francis, so far at least, is framing it more in terms of the human conscience battling the powerful pull of selfishness," Thavis said.

For Massimo Faggioli, a church historian at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., today's global Catholic church is like a large cargo ship. "To change course, it requires plenty of time and strength," he said, "and at the beginning people don't notice because a pope must act gradually and slowly."

One reason some Catholics may not want to admit -- or see -- much change on the throne is that they're afraid any admission of change will lead to even louder requests for change or reform on issues like married priests, homosexuality or divorce.

"It'd be an illusion to expect radical change from Francis," Faggioli said. "He is not a liberal Catholic, but a 'social' Catholic, with the old and the new mixed in a much more complex way than in a straightforward 'progressive vs. conservative' polarity."

Another Papal Withdrawal

June 30, 2013

Apparently Papa has decided not to attend the annual meeting of his former students this summer. Even after he resigned as pope, it was reported that he would be at the meeting but, according to one of our forum members in Europe, he has cancelled.

I hope his withdrawal from the event is not due to health problems. More likely, he is concerned that his appearance will put him back in the news when he really wants to stay out of public view and not upstage Pope Francis. Hopefully nobody pressured him to withdraw.

I was hoping that we would hear more about his current condition at the annual meeting but I guess not unless some of his former students meet with him privately and blab afterwards.

In an article posted on the Benedetto XVI Forum, Papa met with the president of the group and confirmed he will not attend. However, it was reported that his eyes were bright and joyous ... as always. It was reported that he also helped choose the topic.

Oh, that is a cute photo, flo. Thank you.
I am so glad to see Papa looking fairly well.

Thanks, Flo!

I am really glad to see that Papa is still receiving lots of visitors.

Gabriella posted a photo of this event in the Pics and Videos thread.


Benedict XVI joins Pope Francis in consecrating Vatican to St Michael Archangel

Vatican Radio
July 5, 2013

To the joy of Vatican City State workers, Friday morning Pope Francis was joined by Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in the gardens for a ceremony during which the Holy Father blessed a statue of St Michael Archangel, at the same time consecrating the Vatican to the Archangel’s protection.

Following a brief ceremony, Pope Francis addressed those present noting how St. Michael defends the People of God from its enemy par excellence, the devil. He said even if the devil attempts to disfigure the face of the Archangel and thus the face of humanity, St Michael wins, because God acts in him and is stronger:

"In the Vatican Gardens there are several works of art. But this, which has now been added, takes on particular importance, in its location as well as the meaning it expresses. In fact it is not just celebratory work but an invitation to reflection and prayer, that fits well into the Year of Faith. Michael - which means "Who is like God" - is the champion of the primacy of God, of His transcendence and power. Michael struggles to restore divine justice and defends the People of God from his enemies, above all by the enemy par excellence, the devil. And St. Michael wins because in him, there is He God who acts. This sculpture reminds us then that evil is overcome, the accuser is unmasked, his head crushed, because salvation was accomplished once and for all in the blood of Christ. Though the devil always tries to disfigure the face of the Archangel and that of humanity, God is stronger, it is His victory and His salvation that is offered to all men. We are not alone on the journey or in the trials of life, we are accompanied and supported by the Angels of God, who offer, so to speak, their wings to help us overcome so many dangers, in order to fly high compared to those realities that can weigh down our lives or drag us down. In consecrating Vatican City State to St. Michael the Archangel, I ask him to defend us from the evil one and banish him."

"We also consecrate Vatican City State in St. Joseph, guardian of Jesus, the guardian of the Holy Family. May his presence make us stronger and more courageous in making space for God in our lives to always defeat evil with good. We ask Him to protect, take care of us, so that a life of grace grows stronger in each of us every day."

A Faithful Light: Benedict’s Brilliance Illuminates New Encyclical (1480)
NEWS ANALYSIS: With his first encyclical, Pope Francis facilitates the completion of his predecessor’s trilogy about the theological virtues.


by FATHER RAYMOND J. DE SOUZA 07/10/2013 Comment

Pope Benedict XVI in 2006
– Wikicommons
On the eve of his election to the papacy in 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger spoke of the “dictatorship of relativism.” He spent the following eight years returning to the theme, explaining how, if nothing is acknowledged as objectively real, then competing views cannot be evaluated against the standard of truth to judge, which is valid. Instead, the only way to resolve disputes becomes an assertion of power — whether tyrannical or clothed in democratic processes — and, hence, the door to dictatorship is opened.
What, then, can liberate us from this dictatorship? The truth can set us free, and to know the fullness of truth about man and his place in the world requires faith or knowledge of those truths which need to be revealed to us.
At the end of his pontificate, Benedict XVI was working on an encyclical on faith, to complete the “trilogy” on the theological virtues, having written previous ones on love (Deus Caritas Est, 2005) and hope (Spe Salvi, 2007). After his renunciation of the papacy, he left the text to his successor, and Pope Francis, having made some minor emendations, published it as his first encyclical under the title Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith).
Lumen Fidei is clearly Benedict’s work, written in the sublime style perfected by Joseph Ratzinger over a lifetime of limpid theological work and biblical preaching. It is “Benedict’s” finest encyclical, even though it carries Francis’ name. Much has been made of Pope Francis’ humility in irrelevant things, like what shoes he wears or whether he does tasks his staff could handle for him. A more impressive mark of humility is publishing as his first encyclical the work of another man, a man whose writing and insight is singular in his generation.

Relativism’s Bleak Landscape
Lumen Fidei first sketches the bleak landscape left by the dictatorship of relativism, which regards faith with suspicion, as it sees as a threat any claim to know the truth with certainty.
“It would become evident that the light of autonomous reason is not enough to illumine the future; ultimately, the future remains shadowy and fraught with fear of the unknown,” the Holy Father writes. “As a result, humanity renounced the search for a great light, Truth itself, in order to be content with smaller lights which illumine the fleeting moment yet prove incapable of showing the way. Yet, in the absence of light, everything becomes confused; it is impossible to tell good from evil or the road to our destination from other roads which take us in endless circles, going nowhere.”
If, in the absence of truth, there can only be conflict between those wandering in confusing and contradictory directions, what can liberate us from the limits of our own reason and depredations of our will?
“There is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim,” Lumen Fidei continues. “The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves, but from a more primordial source: In a word, it must come from God. Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love, a love which precedes us and upon which we can lean for security and for building our lives. Transformed by this love, we gain fresh vision, new eyes to see; we realize that it contains a great promise of fulfilment and that a vision of the future opens up before us. Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time.”
Here, the Holy Father weaves together the three theological virtues as part of one vision. Faith is born from an encounter with God, which in turn provides confidence for our journey through history. Faith is not a mere shortcut to knowledge, a quicker way to assemble dry facts. It embraces the whole person, as it arises from meeting the God who is love and, therefore, provides a future full of hope.

Reasons to Believe
Taking up a theme articulated by Blessed John Paul in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, that “at the heart of every culture is the attitude that man takes toward the greatest mystery: the mystery of God,” Lumen Fidei makes the observation that every person and every culture has to live by faith in something. Faith is knowledge that we accept because we trust the one passing it on to us, without the capacity to verify it entirely on our own. We cannot choose to live without faith, but we can choose in what or whom we put our faith.
“In many areas in our lives, we trust others who know more than we do,” observes Lumen Fidei. “We trust the architect who builds our home, the pharmacist who gives us medicine for healing, the lawyer who defends us in court. We also need someone trustworthy and knowledgeable where God is concerned. Jesus, the Son of God, is the one who makes God known to us.”
The specific difference of Christian faith is that we trust not because of credentials or expertise or authority, but because of the revelation of God’s love. God is love, and because he loves us — fully revealed on the cross — then we can trust him to teach us the truth. Everyone needs faith in something, but only Christian faith proceeds from a perfectly reliable love.
Faith that proposes truth without love is not reliable, which is why the world is suspicious of it, and for good reason, given the experience of recent centuries.
“Truth nowadays is often reduced to the subjective authenticity of the individual, valid only for the life of the individual,” notes Lumen Fidei, explaining why relativism might be attractive. “A common truth intimidates us, for we identify it with the intransigent demands of totalitarian systems.”

‘A Truth of Love’
Christian faith is not this threatening truth, though, as Lumen Fidei explains in perhaps the passage that is most directly addressed to a world afraid to believe and afraid of religious believers:
“But if truth is a truth of love, if it is a truth disclosed in personal encounter with the Other and with others, then it can be set free from its enclosure in individuals and become part of the common good. As a truth of love, it is not one that can be imposed by force; it is not a truth that stifles the individual. Since it is born of love, it can penetrate to the heart, to the personal core of each man and woman. Clearly, then, faith is not intransigent, but grows in respectful coexistence with others. One who believes may not be presumptuous; on the contrary, truth leads to humility, since believers know that, rather than ourselves possessing truth, it is truth which embraces and possesses us. Far from making us inflexible, the security of faith sets us on a journey; it enables witness and dialogue with all.”
Lumen Fidei makes an attractive and compelling contribution to that dialogue. Whether a world that is suspicious of faith is interested remains to be seen. Suspicion and fear are the allies of dictatorships, including the dictatorship of relativism, from which Benedict, and now Francis, wishes to free us.
Father Raymond J. de Souza is editor in chief of Convivium magazine

“It would be foolish to turn down Benedict’s advice,” Francis tells former pupil

Pope Francis talks about his fondness for his predecessor, Benedict XVI, in a phone call with friend and former pupil, Jorge Milia

ANDREA TORNIELLI
VATICAN INSIDER
July 11, 2013

“You cannot begin to imagine how humble and wise this man is … there is no way I would turn down advice from someone like him, it would be foolish of me to do so!” Pope Francis said referring to his predecessor, Benedict XVI. The comment was made during a telephone conversation with Jorge Milia, journalist, writer and a former pupil of Bergoglio’s. Milia quote Francis’ words in an article published on Italian journalist Alver Metalli’s blog, Terre d’America.

The writer starts by saying that the Pope complained about receiving a twelve page letter from him. “But you can’t say I didn’t make you laugh…” Milia replied. “He laughed. For reasons not even I can understand, he still puts up with my writing, just as he did all those years ago when he was still my teacher. I told him I had started reading the Lumen Fidei encyclical and he would not take any credit for it. He said Benedict XVI had done most of the work, that he was a sublime thinker and that most people did not really know or understand him.

The writer quoted the Pope saying: “Today I spent the day with el viejo [the old man, Ed.]. We talked a lot; it is always a pleasure to exchange ideas with him.” Naturally, Francis used the Spanish term for “old man” in an affectionate way.

“Whenever he talks about Ratzinger, he does so with respect and tenderness,” Milia said. “He sounds like someone who has bumped into an old friend, an old classmate; one of those people who pop up now and again, who used to attend a course or two after ours and who we admired.”

In his telephone conversation with Milia, Francis said: “You cannot begin to imagine how humble and wise this man is.” To which Milia replied: “Then keep him close…” “There is no way I would turn down advice from someone like him, it would be foolish of me to do so!” Francis said.

Francis also confided in Milia about the fact that it is hard for the Pope to have contact with people: “It was not easy, Jorge. The Pope has many “masters” who have served for a long time here.”

“He went on to say that every change he has introduced has involved a great deal of work (and has earned him enemies no doubt). The thing he found most difficult was objecting to them managing his agenda. This is why he didn’t want to live in the Apostolic Palace, because many others ended up becoming “prisoners” of their secretaries, Milia wrote.

“I will decide who I see, not my secretaries … Sometimes I can’t see the people I would like to because I have to wait and see who asks to meet with me,” Francis told his former pupil.

“This comment really struck me. I’m not the Pope and I don’t have his power but I can feel the excitement at the prospect of seeing a dear friend and I don’t know if I would give precedence to someone else,” Milia said.

But he deprives himself from seeing he wants to see, to be with those who ask to see him. He told me that Popes have been isolated for centuries and that this is not good. A shepherd’s place is with his sheep…”

Pope Francis Meets Benedict, Asks for His Prayers During WYD

by Edward Pentin
National Catholic Register
July 19, 2013

Pope Francis visited Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI this afternoon to ask the former Pontiff to “spiritually accompany him in prayer” during his visit to Brazil for World Youth Day next week.

The Vatican said the Holy Father called in on the Pope Emeritus shortly after 4pm and brought with him a booklet covering the program of the trip so that Benedict can participate spiritually and follow the transmission of the events.

Benedict XVI, who was originaly scheduled to go to Rio until he announced his retirement in February, "assured him of his prayers, recalling the intense and wonderful experiences of his past world meetings with young people in Cologne, Sydney and Madrid.” The Vatican said the meeting started “with a moment of prayer” in the chapel, followed by a “cordial conversation” that lasted half an hour.

Pope Francis leaves for Rio on July 22th and returns on 28th. Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi has said the visit will be "a bit of an adventure", particularly as Francis is known to be "full of surprises".

It's also been announced that the Pope will not be giving the customary news conference on the papal plane, but does intend to personally greet each of the 71 journalists and media personnel on board.

A Faithful Light: Benedict’s Brilliance Illuminates New Encyclical (6120)
NEWS ANALYSIS: With his first encyclical, Pope Francis facilitates the completion of his predecessor’s trilogy about the theological virtues.


by FATHER RAYMOND J. DE SOUZA 07/10/2013 Comments (23)
Wikicommons
Pope Benedict XVI in 2006
– Wikicommons
On the eve of his election to the papacy in 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger spoke of the “dictatorship of relativism.” He spent the following eight years returning to the theme, explaining how, if nothing is acknowledged as objectively real, then competing views cannot be evaluated against the standard of truth, to judge which is valid. Instead, the only way to resolve disputes becomes an assertion of power — whether tyrannical or clothed in democratic processes — and, hence, the door to dictatorship is opened.
What, then, can liberate us from this dictatorship? The truth can set us free, and to know the fullness of truth about man and his place in the world requires faith or knowledge of those truths which need to be revealed to us.
At the end of his pontificate, Benedict XVI was working on an encyclical on faith, to complete the “trilogy” on the theological virtues, having written previous ones on love (Deus Caritas Est, 2005) and hope (Spe Salvi, 2007). After his renunciation of the papacy, he left the text to his successor, and Pope Francis, having made some minor emendations, published it as his first encyclical under the title Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith).
Lumen Fidei is clearly Benedict’s work, written in the sublime style perfected by Joseph Ratzinger over a lifetime of limpid theological work and biblical preaching. It is “Benedict’s” finest encyclical, even though it carries Francis’ name. Much has been made of Pope Francis’ humility in irrelevant things, like what shoes he wears or whether he does tasks his staff could handle for him. A more impressive mark of humility is publishing as his first encyclical the work of another man, a man whose writing and insight is singular in his generation.

Relativism’s Bleak Landscape
Lumen Fidei first sketches the bleak landscape left by the dictatorship of relativism, which regards faith with suspicion, as it sees as a threat any claim to know the truth with certainty.
“It would become evident that the light of autonomous reason is not enough to illumine the future; ultimately, the future remains shadowy and fraught with fear of the unknown,” the Holy Father writes. “As a result, humanity renounced the search for a great light, Truth itself, in order to be content with smaller lights which illumine the fleeting moment yet prove incapable of showing the way. Yet, in the absence of light, everything becomes confused; it is impossible to tell good from evil or the road to our destination from other roads which take us in endless circles, going nowhere.”
If, in the absence of truth, there can only be conflict between those wandering in confusing and contradictory directions, what can liberate us from the limits of our own reason and depredations of our will?
“There is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim,” Lumen Fidei continues. “The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves, but from a more primordial source: In a word, it must come from God. Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love, a love which precedes us and upon which we can lean for security and for building our lives. Transformed by this love, we gain fresh vision, new eyes to see; we realize that it contains a great promise of fulfilment and that a vision of the future opens up before us. Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time.”
Here, the Holy Father weaves together the three theological virtues as part of one vision. Faith is born from an encounter with God, which in turn provides confidence for our journey through history. Faith is not a mere shortcut to knowledge, a quicker way to assemble dry facts. It embraces the whole person, as it arises from meeting the God who is love and, therefore, provides a future full of hope.

Reasons to Believe
Taking up a theme articulated by Blessed John Paul in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, that “at the heart of every culture is the attitude that man takes toward the greatest mystery: the mystery of God,” Lumen Fidei makes the observation that every person and every culture has to live by faith in something. Faith is knowledge that we accept because we trust the one passing it on to us, without the capacity to verify it entirely on our own. We cannot choose to live without faith, but we can choose in what or whom we put our faith.
“In many areas in our lives, we trust others who know more than we do,” observes Lumen Fidei. “We trust the architect who builds our home, the pharmacist who gives us medicine for healing, the lawyer who defends us in court. We also need someone trustworthy and knowledgeable where God is concerned. Jesus, the Son of God, is the one who makes God known to us.”
The specific difference of Christian faith is that we trust not because of credentials or expertise or authority, but because of the revelation of God’s love. God is love, and because he loves us — fully revealed on the cross — then we can trust him to teach us the truth. Everyone needs faith in something, but only Christian faith proceeds from a perfectly reliable love.
Faith that proposes truth without love is not reliable, which is why the world is suspicious of it, and for good reason, given the experience of recent centuries.
“Truth nowadays is often reduced to the subjective authenticity of the individual, valid only for the life of the individual,” notes Lumen Fidei, explaining why relativism might be attractive. “A common truth intimidates us, for we identify it with the intransigent demands of totalitarian systems.”

‘A Truth of Love’
Christian faith is not this threatening truth, though, as Lumen Fidei explains in perhaps the passage that is most directly addressed to a world afraid to believe and afraid of religious believers:
“But if truth is a truth of love, if it is a truth disclosed in personal encounter with the Other and with others, then it can be set free from its enclosure in individuals and become part of the common good. As a truth of love, it is not one that can be imposed by force; it is not a truth that stifles the individual. Since it is born of love, it can penetrate to the heart, to the personal core of each man and woman. Clearly, then, faith is not intransigent, but grows in respectful coexistence with others. One who believes may not be presumptuous; on the contrary, truth leads to humility, since believers know that, rather than ourselves possessing truth, it is truth which embraces and possesses us. Far from making us inflexible, the security of faith sets us on a journey; it enables witness and dialogue with all.”
Lumen Fidei makes an attractive and compelling contribution to that dialogue. Whether a world that is suspicious of faith is interested remains to be seen. Suspicion and fear are the allies of dictatorships, including the dictatorship of relativism, from which Benedict, and now Francis, wishes to free us.

Father Raymond J. de Souza is editor in chief of Convivium magazine.

Ignatius Press has published a new book of Benedict's weekly catecheses. The description appears below.


Benedict XVI on Faith

Ignatius Press
Aug. 10, 2013

"Faith in a God who is love, who makes himself close to man by incarnating himself and by giving himself on the Cross, who saves us and opens the doors of Heaven to us once again, clearly indicates that man's fullness consists solely in love." -Pope Benedict XVI, Year of the Faith catecheses

Now available for the first time in one volume, read all sixteen of Pope Benedict's catecheses for the Year of the Faith! The Transforming Power of Faith is a compilation of the series of talks Pope Benedict XVI gave at his weekly audience from October 2012 to the end of his papacy in February 2013. These talks explore how and why faith is relevant in the contemporary world.

Benedict XVI has granted a Sunday stroll walk in the gardens of Castel Gandolfo. Pope Emeritus visited the summer residence of the popes, reached by "Memores Domini" for a visit of about three hours, including the time to act, as usual, the Holy Rosary. And participate in a short concert of classical music on the piano in his honor.
During the evening, Benedict XVI returned to the Vatican.

Published August 21, 2013
AFP

VATICAN CITY (AFP) – Benedict XVI has said God told him to resign as pope and that his successor's "charisma" reflected this divine inspiration, Catholic news agency Zenit has reported.

"God told me" to step down, the pope emeritus was quoted as saying by a visitor who met him recently, Zenit said in a report in Italian media on Wednesday.

The 86-year-old Benedict XVI, who has retained his papal name, now lives in a former monastery inside the Vatican walls and has made no public appearances.

He only very rarely meets with visitors, Zenit said.

Benedict shocked the world with his resignation announcement on February 11, when he said he was stepping down because he felt his weak physical and mental state no longer let him fulfil his duties.

Rumours of a serious illness were quickly denied by the Vatican, as was speculation that a far-reaching scandal over a series of leaks revealing intrigue in the Vatican had forced him to leave.

But Benedict was quoted by Zenit as saying he had a "mystical experience" in which he received a divine message that fostered the "absolute desire" to be with God in private prayer.

He was also quoted as saying that the "charisma" shown by successor Pope Francis showed that the resignation was indeed "God's will".

Benedict on Sunday visited the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo for a short walk in its sprawling grounds but usually lives in virtual seclusion.

Francis has said Benedict is like "a live-in grandfather" and informed sources say he regularly consults his predecessor.

Read more: www.foxnews.com/world/2013/08/21/benedict-xvi-says-god-told-me-to-resign-report/#ixzz2...

After reading the news item Simone posted above, I looked at some U.S. Catholic news sites and found the following article, which seems a bit at odds with the report above.


Officials dubious of retired pope's extraordinary 'mystical experience'

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Aug. 21, 2013

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation in February, he made it very clear that he had done so only after intense prayer and that he intended to live the rest of his life praying and studying.

Vatican officials and Vatican watchers were surprised in late August when a report circulated that Pope Benedict had told an anonymous visitor that his decision was the result of some form of extraordinary "mystical experience" rather than a decision made after long and careful thought and deep prayer. Catholics traditionally would consider that kind of intense prayer a "mystical experience," although not something extraordinary.

Those skeptical of the report, carried in the Italian service of the Zenit news agency, quoted Pope Benedict's explanation in his own announcement Feb. 11: "After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry."

He also told the cardinals that he wanted to dedicate the rest of his life to serving the church through his prayers.

Since stepping down Feb. 28, retired Pope Benedict has led a very quiet life, far from the public eye, although he did accept Pope Francis' invitation to be present July 5 for the dedication of a statue in the Vatican Gardens.

Living in a remodeled monastery in the Vatican Gardens, he occasionally welcomes visitors, especially friends, former students and small groups accompanying former students. The meetings are private and rarely reported in the news.

In a report Aug. 19, Zenit said someone who had visited Pope Benedict "a few weeks ago" had asked him why he resigned. "God told me to," the retired pope was quoted as responding before "immediately clarifying that it was not any kind of apparition of phenomenon of that kind, but rather 'a mystical experience' in which the Lord gave rise in his heart to an 'absolute desire' to remain alone with him in prayer."

Benedict XVI's students will meet to discuss God, secularism

Rome, Italy, Aug 21, 2013 / 10:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The annual meeting of Benedict XVI's students from his time at the University of Regensburg will gather next week to discuss “the question of God,” though the former Pope will not be joining them.

“Since he is retired, he does not want to attend any more public meetings,” Father Joseph Fessio, founder of Ignatius Press and a member of the group, told CNA Aug. 20.

“The circle of students will meet in Castel Gandolfo, as usual, and then they will all go to the Vatican,” he explained, “where they will participate in a Mass celebrated by the Pope Emeritus in the monastery of Mater Ecclesiae.”

The “Ratzinger Schuelerkreis,” or “students' circle,” has met to discuss topics in theology and the life of the Church since 1978, when their professor was pulled from academia to become a bishop.

This year's meeting will be held Aug. 29 to Sept. 2, and will discuss the topic of “the question of God against the background of secularization.” Benedict XVI chose the topic, as well as a guest speaker, the philosopher Rémi Brague.

Fr. Fessio said that “the idea of the annual meetings arose when Joseph Ratzinger was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising” in 1977.

When he moved to Rome to take up the post of prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981, the annual event continued.

When in the spring of 2005, Cardinal Ratzinger was chosen as Pope, his former students thought that their annual tradition would stop, but were proved wrong.

Fr. Fessio recounted that “Pope Benedict said he was pleased to continue meeting with us.”

The Ratzinger Schuelerkreis is formed by about 50 people who studied for their doctorates under Ratzinger, but usually between 25 and 30 are able to make it to any year's meeting.

However, the 2005 meeting was “crowded with all the members, and so it was a little more formal because there were more people than usual.”

The schuelerkreis discusses a different topic of their mentor's choosing each year; the last meeting discussed ecumenism.

Fr. Fessio became a pupil of Ratzinger during the 1970s, when he went to Regensburg to conclude his studies in theology.

He had earned a master's in theology in 1972 under the supervision of Henri de Lubac, whose thought greatly shaped the Second Vatican Council.

After completing his studies in Lyon with de Lubac, Fr. Fessio asked for a suggestion of what to write this doctoral dissertation on, as well as under whom.

“De Lubac told me that one of the most important theologians of history, and maybe the most important theologian ever, was Hans Urs von Balthasar.”

“And he added that the best person who could supervise a thesis on von Balthasar was the young professor Ratzinger in Regensburg, and he sent him a recommendation letter to receive me among his students.”

The year Fr. Fessio completed his studies under de Lubac, the three professors – de Lubac, von Balthasar, and Ratzinger – founded the theological journal “Communio,” which is now published in 14 international editions and stands for a renewal of theology in continuity with the living Christian tradition.

Under Ratzinger's supervision, Fr. Fessio wrote his dissertation “The Ecclesiology of Hans Urs von Balthasar” and graduated with a Ph.D. in 1976.

“Professor Ratzinger was exactly the way we learned to know him as Pope: simple, humble, clear in exposition, cultivated. One of the best professors I have ever met.”

Discussing Benedict XVI's resignation this spring, Fr. Fessio said, “I was not surprised, since he spoke about this option with the journalist Peter Seewald, in the book ‘Light of the World’.”

Fr. Fessio maintained that the “decision to resign has been a decision of great 'modernity', and the Pope showed humility and courage in making it.”

He added that “none of us in the circle could be in any way surprised by the modernity of Benedict XVI. I attended several meetings of the schuelerkreis, and every time Joseph Ratzinger had something new to say, something that no one had explored, or ever thought before.”