LESSONS FROM 'MR. RATZINGER'
One of our favorite Italian commentators, author and veteran Vatican correspondent Renato Farina, has written one of his usual off-the-beaten-track commentaries on current papal news for the online journal Libero (7/30/06). Here is a translation of the item posted by Emma in the main forum:
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I'll tell you what
Mr. Ratzinger wants
By Renato Farina
«Signor Ratzinger»! What does «Signor Ratzinger» want? That's how a regional councillor in Val d'Aosta expressed himself in a recent speech before his council.
This representative to the regional assembly, a leftist, was protesting because this white-robed character he called Mr. Ratzinger was being honored in Val d'Aosta. He was just another religious leader - why all the ballyhoo and even a gift of a wooden statue of St. Orso [
apparently a popularly venerated local saint] from the regional government?
In contrast, the man called Alessandro Bortot said, [
Teresa's note: The first time we reported on this I noted that he had an appropriate-sounding surname, especially if one does not pronounce it the French way!], the region had refused to allow Muslim intellectual Tariq Ramadan to participate in a conference at the University of Aosta last year.
Why, he asks, was "the warm welcome given to Mr. Ratzinger denied to Ramadan"? For background, Ramadan is a most intelligent man and his positions have authoritative ambiguity, but Magdi Allam [
Corriere della Sera's deputy editor and resident Islamist has shown that the right key to read Ramadan's statements is his desire to ‘islamize” Europe, to turn it into a subsidiary of Arabia.
[
Further on Ramadan: According to the first story we posted on this, he was denied permission to give a lecture in Aosta last year because he had just made some openly anti-Semitic statements.]
But right now, this is not about Tariq Ramadan. Let's stay with Mr. Ratzinger.
Have we really come to this in Italy? That a supporter of the Prodi government can speak this way, with not one of his colleagues in the Prodi coalition speaking up to object to it?
It is not by chance that the motion presented to express the regional council's support for the Pope and its censure of Bortot's discourtesy to the Pope was
not voted for by the leftists. Their way of saying: " Well, yes, religious pluralism also calls for a slap at Mr. Ratzinger if anyone so desires."
But beyond this absurd analogy drawn between the Pope and a Muslim fundamentalist, what is most striking is the refusal even to acknowledge the Pope for who he is, as the leader of the world's Catholics.
Let's see where we have encountered something similar before. In 1979, when John Paul II first came to Mexico, the president of Mexico addressed him as "Mr. Pope" (Signor Papa). Which was at least more respectful than Bortot's expression. It reflected Mexico's anti-clerical Constitution which was the result of long persecution against the Catholic Church in that country.
Not addressing the Pope as "Holy Father" [
the protocol recommendation for how to address the Pope directly] is to say that the Catholic Church has no civilian status, no citizen rights, that only the State counts, that there cannot be any religious tradition, much less Christian, that can be proposed as a conceptual backbone for the people.
I also found a reference to "Signor Wojtyla' in a document from one of the satellites of the Red Brigades in 2000, when they carried out one of their assassination attempts in Rome. The document questioned precisely the prerogatives of the man it called 'Signor Wojtyla.'
At which time, writer Giovanni Falcone, who had co-authored a book about a Mafiosi called "Signor Falcone" commented on that document: "Please call me Dottore," [
Dottore is an Italian honorific for anyone who has an advanced degree or is an academic] - not because, he pointed out, he needs a title, but because names or titles often convey the substance of the persons spoken of or spoken to.
By calling Papa Ratzinger "Signor", this leftist councillor (anti-Catholic, radical, in any case typical of those who have coalesced around Prodi) is not just violating etiquette but cuts to the heart of the people.
To think that this week I had intended simply to write about a Pope's vacation! The value that he gives to rest. The way in which he enjoys Nature. Of how, at the same time, he does not neglect anything, above all, not the war.
What an occasion he has lost, this poor little figure of the left, to learn something about the simple things of life!
Benedict XVI spent his summer vacation at Les Combes, an isolated village which houses a small Salesian vacation colony. Only one road leads into this colony [
which simplifies arrangements for the Pope’s security], so the Pope’s stay really caused no significant bother either to the locals nor to tourists.
Up there, the Pope had privacy to take a walk in an adjoining birch and larch forest, where towards sunset, he walked with his secretary, Don Georg, chatting or praying the rosary. With only the rustling of leaves and an occasional bird flying overhead. Prhaps occasionally picking berries from a roadside bush. A bit of peace.
During the day, he may have worked on a book, one about Jesus, the Great Forgotten One of our time, when everyone talks about inter-religious dialog or about Allah, but hardly ever of Christ so as not to ‘offend’ non-Christians.
This time, the Pope’s excursions were made to monasteries and churches, speaking with sisters, brothers and priests. His thinking is that peace does not come about by obscuring the Church’s distinction from other religions but precisely in bearing public witness of its identity.
I will quote something a bit long but quite important which tells us about this Pope’s vision of God and Christianity.
“Today in the world, many men of culture, many religious persons, many are tempted to say: It is better for the peace of the world among religions and cultures not to speak too much of the specifics of Christianity, that is, not speak too much of Christ, of the Church, of the sacraments. It is better, they say, to limit ourselves to the things that can be common to everyone.
“But that is not true. Precisely at this time, which is also a time of great abuse of the name of God, we need the God who triumphs on the Cross, who wins not through violence but through His love. Precisely at this time, we need the face of Christ so we may recognize the true face of God and thus bring reconciliation and light to the world.
“That is why, together with the message of love, with all that we can possibly do for those who suffer in our world, we should also bear witness on behalf of this God, for the victory of God in non-violence on His Cross. “
This was not a prepared text. He spoke in a small parish church in the mountains, on Sunday, July 23, at Rhemes-St. Georges.
His idea of vacation is tied up with doing some work as well, not total escape from work but a time to recharge himself in the contemplation of beauty.
Leaving Val d’Aosta, he said, “During this time I have also worked, because only with some work can a vacation also be good. Doing nothing is not a vacation.”
These weren’t the words of a Bavarian workaholic, but of a man who knows that one never stops working on oneself, otherwise one ‘dies,’ becomes nothing but a cog in a machine.
There’s another sentence to quote from Benedict XVI this time around: “To look at the mountains is like looking at the Creator.” We could say the same thing about the sea. “The sea is immense,” said Chekhov, and I challenge anyone to find a different adjective.
In the chalet where he vacationed,0 his hosts had placed an upright piano (“clean and well-tuned”), where the Pope could play his favorite pieces by Bach and Mozart [
Teresa’s note: although as perhaps our Forum members - particularly Maklara who recognized the sheet music first - were the only ones ever to point out, in the pictures released by the Vatican of the Pope at the piano, he was playing a Schubert sonata.]
His friendship with (Hans Urs) von Balthasar and with don Giussani [
founder of Communione e Liberazione, who died last year] was born, among other things, out of their shared identification of music with the sense of religion.
To cultivate this corner of the heart that we may often neglect is among the more important things, along with family, friends, smiles, laughter, good wine.
And what about those pictures with the St. Bernards? He’s the first Pope since 1306 to have visited the Hospice of the canons of Great St. Bernard. He recited Vespers with the four monks and resident nun, along with other guests.
Then, he walked along the
via francigena [
medieval pilgrims route from France and Switzerland towards Rome] over the Swiss border into Italy. “I took a little walk up there, up to the lake,” he said later.
He also wanted to see the dogs. He loves animals. He petted some of them. He said of them, “They were very good, very smart.”
It was a papal magisterium on vacations. Or, if you wish, the teachings of Mr. Ratzinger.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/08/2006 6.39]