BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Wednesday, November 24, 34th Week in Ordinary Time

ST. ANDREW DUNG-LAC AND COMPANIONS (Vietnam), Martyrs
Born in 1795, Andrew was a priest beheaded in Hanoi in 1839 for teaching the faith.
He is one of 117 martyrs who met death in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. Members
of this group were beatified on four different occasions between 1900 and 1951, and
canonized by John Paul II in 1988. Andrew was beatified on May 27, 1900 by Leo XIII.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/112410.shtml


OR today.

The issue contains a brief note on Page 1 about the audience given by the Holy Father to Peter Seewald and the four others who formally presented his book LIGHT OF THE WORLD at the Vatican yesterday, along with the publishers of the book's 17 language editions so far, and contains the presentation texts by Mons. Rino Fisichella and by former Vaticanista Luigi Accattoli. Page 1 international news: North Korea's artillery attack on a densely inhabited South Korean island; and a UN report saying one billion persons today cannot afford health care, and 100 million persons are reduced to poverty every year by paying for catastrophic medical care. And there is a Page 1 essay on the coming start of the liturgical year by theologian Inos Biffi.


THE POPE'S DAY

General Audience - The Holy Father's catechesis was on St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church and Co-Patron of Europe.

Last rites for Cardinal Navarrete - The Pope delivered the eulogy and performed the final rites for the late Spanish Cardinal
Urbano Navarrete, SJ, after the Memorial Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, concelebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano and cardinals present in Rome. Cardinal Navarrete died Monday at age 90.


The Vatican released a statement expressing the Holy Father's deep regret for the recent unauthorized episcopal ordination
in China, carried out by the so-called 'official' Church under the Patriotic Association despite repeated opposition expressed
earlier in the year by the Holy See to the nomination.


I provisionally posted this sad news earlier on the preceding page:

Death in the papal household:
Say a prayer for Manuela...
Translated and adapted from

Nov. 24, 2010

One of the Pope's four housekeepers, Manuela Camagni, a lay sister of Communione e Liberazione, died early this morning. She was hit by a car last night on via Nomentana in Rome, and suffered severe cranial injury. Attempts to save her by surgery proved futile. She was a native of Cesena on the central eastern coast of Italy.

NB: So it's Manuela, according to the obits on OR tomorrow. All previous reports about her had referred to her as Emanuela - even when the Pope chatted once with a delegation from Cesena to tell them that he knew their region pretty well through 'la mia Emanuela'. Of course, it's just a matter of form. Both are derived from 'Emmanue', Gpd-with-us.

Member of Pope's household
dies after being hit by a car


VATICAN CITY, Nov. 24 (AP)- A member of Pope Benedict XVI's private "papal family" has died.

The Vatican said Wednesday that Manuela Camagni, 56, one of the four consecrated women who tend to the Pope and care for the papal household, was hit by a car Tuesday and died this morning.

In a book released Tuesday, Benedict spoke about how important his "papal family" is to him, saying the women and his two private secretaries share meals together and watch DVDs - moments he said, that were rare times of relaxation.

He said: "We celebrate Christmas together, listen to the holiday music and exchange gifts." He said the group also celebrates feast days and daily Mass together - "an especially important moment in which we are all with each other in a particularly intense way."


adds this:

The Holy Father was informed of the sad event before the celebration of Mass Wednesday morning, and raised a prayer in suffrage of her soul. [The four Memores housekeepers, along with the Pope's two secretaries and his valet, have been the usual attendees of the Pope's daily Mass in his private chapel.]

This is probably the most effective pastoral reaction/clarification I have seen so far on the Pope's most recent 'condom' statement, which moreover and more importantly, does not lose sight of the central message in the Pope's book, and his ministry as a whole.


Not a green light for
indiscriminate condom use

Nov. 23, 2010

Now that I have your attention … One of the stupidest and most dispiriting expressions of the media culture that I have ever encountered is the “coverage” of Pope Benedict’s recently-published interview entitled Light of the World. I can’t really say that I was surprised. [Barron's view of the current 'controversy' as an indicator of today's shoddy media culture echoes what Peter Seewald expressed earlier.]

I had received an advance copy of the book and had prepared a piece on it when I met a woman involved in organizing the publicity for its release. "They’re going to talk about condoms,” I said.

"But it’s such a minor theme and it’s mentioned on, like, a quarter of a page at the end of one chapter,” she said.

"They're going to talk about condoms,” I replied.

Sure enough, prompted by a leak by L’Osservatore Romano (that’s a story for another day), the leading news organizations screamed about “changes in the Church’s teaching” and “the Pope allowing the use of condoms” and “a revolution in Catholic theology.”

Of course, even the most cursory reading of the text and context of the Pope’s remarks would reveal that nothing of the kind was on offer. Benedict remarked that a male prostitute’s willingness to use a condom would signal a first step, on his part, toward a more mature and responsible moral attitude.

Did this imply that the Pope was giving the green light to condom use? Absolutely not. Janet Smith, a respected Catholic moral theologian, provided an apt comparison. A bank robber would indeed be demonstrating a heightened moral consciousness should he resolve to pull off his next robbery using a gun with no bullets.

But applauding such a move, she argues, would hardly be tantamount to “permitting” or “condoning” armed robbery.

The gross misunderstanding of the Pope’s words is actually not the major problem. The biggest difficulty is the obsession with sexual issues which bedevils, not only the secular media, but too many within the Church itself, both on the left and the right.

About 10 years ago, the New York Times Magazine ran a story on the new generation of seminarians. It demonstrated their vigor, their enthusiastic orthodoxy, and their eagerness to preach the Gospel. But when the reporter asked one young man, soon to be ordained to the priesthood, what topic he especially wanted to proclaim from the pulpit, he responded, “I want people to stop masturbating!”

Now say what you want about the morality of masturbation, I think that you’d be hard pressed to read the Gospel of Matthew or Paul to the Romans or the book of Revelation or the book of the prophet Isaiah and conclude that the central point is “don’t masturbate.”

Though you’d never guess it from most discussions in the media (or many in the Church), the central point is grace and divine friendship. In Biblical readings, the spiritual thing always begins with grace — the offer of the divine life — and grace leads to joyful transformation. It doesn’t commence with moralizing.

In his opening speech in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the Good News.” Notice that the kingdom — the inbreaking of God’s love — comes first and the call to moral conversion follows.

In his encounter with the woman at the well, Jesus did not immediately call the woman to change her immoral ways; rather, he invited her into a relationship with him. Then, in the warmth and light provided by that friendship, she was ready to listen and to change. Joyfully, she set down her bucket (symbolic of her addictive patterns of life) and went into the town to proclaim the one “who told her everything she’d ever done.”

When the spiritual project begins with moralizing, it ends in fruitless guilt and resentment. When it begins with grace, it ends in enthusiastic conversion.

The Pope understands this dynamic perfectly — which is precisely why the bulk of his interview is about God and God’s offer of love.

What particularly vexes Benedict XVI is that many in the West have either denied or conveniently forgotten about God. And this has conduced, he sees, to deep alienation, isolation, and spiritual drift — even in the midst of much material wealth.

When God is brought back to the center of our concern, when we enter into friendship with God, then spontaneously we want to change; we want to live lives of radical love. And this is where the moral teaching of the Church — including and especially its sexual teaching — comes in.

Everything that the Church says about human sexuality is designed to conduct people along a path of ever greater self-gift — in response to the God who has given himself to them. But abstracted from grace, the sexual teaching of the Church will seem to most, almost certainly, as fussy, puritanical moralizing.

And this is why it is so tragic that Benedict’s wide-ranging, smart, and spiritually alert book is reduced to the question of condom use.

For the Pope, as for the mainstream of the Catholic tradition, what matters — first and last — is the gift that God gives. Those who have received that gift want to learn how they can become, in turn, more and more conformed to love.


Earlier, Fr. Fessio had this clarification - which is partly linguistic, partly technical - in a guest blog for Reuters. Fr. Fessio si president of ignatius Press, publishers of the North American English and Mexican Spanish editions of LOTW:


Guestview: Did the Pope 'justify'
condom use in some circumstances?
By Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.

Nov. 23, 2010

Did the Pope “justify” condom use in some circumstances?

No. And there was absolutely no change in Church teaching either. Not only because an interview by the Pope does not constitute Church teaching, but because nothing that he said differs from previous Church teaching.

Then why all the headlines saying that he “approves” or “permits” or “justifies” condom use in certain cases?

That’s a good question. So good that the interviewer himself asked virtually the same question during the interview.

The Pope made a statement in the interview, which statement has now been widely quoted in the worldwide media. Immediately, the interviewer, Peter Seewald, posed this question: “Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?”

The Pope clarified and expanded on his previous statement.

So let’s look at the two statements.

After saying that “we cannot solve the problem [of AIDS] by distributing condoms…” and that “the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality…” the Pope says:

---

There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.

---

That is a heavily qualified, very tentative statement. Nevertheless, it prompted Seewald’s question, quoted above. But let’s first take a closer look at this statement.

The original German for “There may be a basis in the case of some individuals…” is “Es mag begründete Einzelfälle geben…”. The English here is a faithful, accurate translation. “Begründete” comes from “Grund” = “ground”, and it means both the soil we stand on and a logical foundation.

There is some ambiguity because it could have the weak sense of “some basis for” or a strong sense of “a logical or ethical foundation for”. This is perhaps why Seewald asked the follow-up question, so we’ll turn to that in a moment.

It is important to note that there are two very serious mistranslations in the Italian version of the Pope’s remarks, upon which many early reports were based, since the embargo was broken by the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. (That’s another story.)

First, the German speak of “ein Prostituierter”, which can only be a male prostitute. The normal German word for prostitute is “ [eine] Prostituierte”, which is feminine and refers only to a woman. The Italian translation “una prostituta” simply reverses what the Pope says.

Equally problematically, “giustificati” = justified, was used in the Italian translation of “begründete”, and arbitrarily resolves the ambiguity one-sidedly.

The Pope responded: “She [the Church] does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality” (italics mine).

In the first place a solution which is not “moral” cannot be “justified”. That is a contradiction and would mean that something in itself morally evil could be “justified” to achieve a good end. Note: the concept of the “lesser evil” is inapplicable here. One may tolerate a lesser evil; one cannot do something which is a lesser evil.

But the crucial distinction here is between the “intention” of the male prostitute, viz. avoiding infecting his client, and the act itself, viz. using a condom. Since this distinction has been missed in almost every report I’ve read, it calls for some elaboration.

This distinction, in moral philosophy, is between the object of an act and the intent of an act. If a man steals in order to fornicate, the intent is to fornicate but the object is the act of theft. There is no necessary connection between stealing and fornicating.

In the case of the Pope’s remark, the intent is preventing infection and the object is use of a condom.

Here’s an example of this distinction that parallels what the Pope said. Muggers are using steel pipes to attack people and the injuries are severe. Some muggers use padded pipes to reduce the injuries, while still disabling the victim enough for the mugging. The Pope says that the intention of reducing injury (in the act of mugging) could be a first step toward greater moral responsibility.

This would not justify the following headlines: “Pope Approves Padded Pipes for Mugging” “Pope Says Use of Padded Pipes Justified in Some Circumstances”, Pope Permits Use of Padded Pipes in Some Cases”.

Of course, one may morally use padded pipes in some circumstances, e.g., as insulated pipes so that hot water flowing through them doesn’t cool as fast. And one may use condoms morally in some cases, e.g. as water balloons. But that also would not justify the headline “Pope Approves Condom Use”, though in this case it could be true. But it would be intentionally misleading.

In sum, the Pope did not “justify” condom use in any circumstances. And Church teaching remains the same as it has always been — both before and after the Pope’s statements.

This is a truly alarming step-back by China's 'official' Church on the issue of bishops' ordinations and a clear defiance of papal authority...

STATEMENT ON THE RECENT
EPISCOPAL ORDINATION IN CHENGDE
(Province of Hebei, Mainland China)

---

With regard to the episcopal ordination of the Reverend Joseph Guo Jincai, which took place last Saturday, November 20, information has been gathered about what happened and it is now possible to state clearly the following.

1. The Holy Father received the news with deep regret, because the above-mentioned episcopal ordination was conferred without the apostolic mandate and, therefore, constitutes a painful wound upon ecclesial communion and a grave violation of Catholic discipline (cf. Letter of Benedict XVI to the Church in China, 2007, n. 9).

2. It is known that, in recent days, various Bishops were subjected to pressures and restrictions on their freedom of movement, with the aim of forcing them to participate and confer the episcopal ordination.

Such constraints, carried out by Chinese government and security Authorities, constitute a grave violation of freedom of religion and conscience. The Holy See intends to carry out a detailed evaluation of what has happened, including consideration of the aspect of validity and the canonical position of the Bishops involved.

3. In any case, this has painful repercussions, in the first case, for the Reverend Joseph Guo Jincai who, because of this episcopal ordination, finds himself in a most serious canonical condition before the Church in China and the universal Church, exposing himself also to the severe sanctions envisaged, in particular, by canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law.

4. This ordination not only does not contribute to the good of the Catholics of Chengde, but places them in a very delicate and difficult condition, also from the canonical point of view, and humiliates them, because the Chinese civil Authorities wish to impose on them a Pastor who is not in full communion, either with the Holy Father or with the other Bishops throughout the world.

5. Several times, during this current year, the Holy See has communicated clearly to the Chinese Authorities its opposition to the episcopal ordination of the Reverend Joseph Guo Jincai.

In spite of this, the said Authorities decided to proceed unilaterally, to the detriment of the atmosphere of respect that had been created with great effort with the Holy See and with the Catholic Church through the recent episcopal ordinations.

This claim to place themselves above the Bishops and to guide the life of the ecclesial community does not correspond to Catholic doctrine; it offends the Holy Father, the Church in China and the universal Church, and further complicates the present pastoral difficulties.

6. Pope Benedict XVI, in the above-mentioned Letter of 2007, expressed the Holy See’s willingness to engage in a respectful and constructive dialogue with the Authorities of the People’s Republic of China, with the aim of overcoming the difficulties and normalizing relations (n. 4).

In reaffirming this willingness, the Holy See notes with regret that the Authorities allow the leadership of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, under the influence of Mr. Liu Bainian, to adopt attitudes that gravely damage the Catholic Church and hamper the aforesaid dialogue.

7. The Catholics of the entire world are following with particular attention the troubled journey of the Church in China: the spiritual solidarity with which they accompany the vicissitudes of their Chinese brothers and sisters becomes a fervent prayer to the Lord of history, so that He may be close to them, increase their hope and fortitude, and give them consolation in moments of trial.

24 November 2010.

---

Vatican denounces China
for bishop ordination
by Nicole Winfield

Nov. 24, 2010

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 24 (AP) — The Vatican on Wednesday denounced China for ordaining a bishop without papal consent, accusing the government-backed church of gravely damaging the faith and warning that the bishop risked excommunication.

The Vatican also accused Chinese authorities of committing "grave violations of freedom of religion and conscience" by forcing Vatican-approved bishops to attend the ordination ceremony of Rev. Joseph Guo Jincai, the Vatican said in a statement.

Pope Benedict XVI learned of the ordination of Rev. Joseph Guo Jincai "with deep regret'' as it constituted a "grave violation'' of church law and hampered reconciliation efforts that have been a priority for the papacy, the Vatican press office said.

Guo was ordained a bishop Saturday in Chengde, China, the first time in five years that the nation had carried out an ordination without Rome's consent. News reports have said Chinese authorities forced at least three Vatican-approved bishops to attend, sequestering them for several days beforehand.

Communist China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, and worship is allowed only in state-backed churches, although millions of Chinese belong to unofficial congregations loyal to Rome.

In recent years under Pope Benedict XVI, relations have improved and Benedict has said that restoring diplomatic relations with Beijing is a priority. Disputes over appointments in China's official church have been avoided by quietly conferring on candidates, leading to several ordinations of bishops with the Holy See's blessing.

But Guo, a deputy secretary of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, the state-controlled group that runs Catholic churches in China, didn't have the Pope's consent. He now risks an automatic excommunication, the harshest punishment in Church law, the Vatican said.

In response, Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, said he believed the Pope cared for Chinese Catholics and didn't think the excommunication would be formalized.

"There are so many followers in China. I believe the Pope loves China. He won't make such a decision," Liu said.

He defended Guo's ordination, saying the diocese needed a bishop and that the Vatican should respect Beijing's authority to appoint one.

"In China, we independently ordain bishops and this should be understood," he said. "There must be a bishop. Without a bishop there's no Church. The announcement made by the Pope will not glorify Christ and it will increase the misunderstanding of nonbelievers in China," Liu said.

While reaffirming its willingness to improve relations, the Vatican said ordinary Catholics in China and Chengde in particular were most harmed by the decision, which it said violated Catholic doctrine.

The ordination "humiliates them because the Chinese civil authorities wish to impose on them a pastor who is not in full communion either with the Holy Father or with the other bishops throughout the world," the Vatican said.

The move by China, the statement continued, "offends the Holy Father, the Church in China and the universal Church, and further complicates the present pastoral difficulties" involved in tending to a flock in both an official and unofficial church.

The Vatican blasted the government for allowing the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, and in particular Bainian, "to adopt attitudes that gravely damage the Catholic Church."

Here is a report on the ordination itself:
Tight security imposed
on Chengde ordination

November 20, 2010


'Bishop' Guo's official ordination picture, and his church in Chengde.

Father Joseph Guo Jincai was today made the first bishop of Chengde in northern Hebei province, without papal approval and under close surveillance of local government officials.

More than 100 faithful and dozens of government officials attended the ordination Mass at the church in the rural town of Pingquan.

The area was surrounded by about 100 uniform and plainclothes police. Cameras were banned in the church and mobile phone signals blocked in the area.

The ceremony proceeded smoothly, Church sources told ucanews.com.

Eight open bishops who are in communion with the pope, laid their hands on the new bishop’s head.

Witnesses said they “looked serious” as they performed the rite.

Bishop Peter Fang Jianping of Tangshan was the main celebrant with co-ordainers, Bishops Joseph Zhao Fengchang of Liaocheng and Joseph Li Shan of Beijing.

Bishops Paul Pei Junmin of Liaoning (Shenyang), Paul Meng Qinglu of Hohhot, Peter Feng Xinmao of Hengshui (Jingxian), Joseph Li Liangui of Cangzhou (Xianxian) and Coadjutor Bishop Francis An Shuxin of Baoding as well as about 20 priests concelebrated.

Many bishops have been taken away by the government officials in the past few days as pressure to take part in the service grew.

Retired Bishop John Liu Jinghe, whom the government still regards as the ordinary of Tangshan, was dismissed from his position on Nov. 17 for refusing to attend the ordination, sources said.

This is the first illicit ordination of a bishop in China in four years, which has sparked controversy over the pressure brought to bear on legitimate prelates to take part in the ceremony.

Bishop Guo also becomes the first illegitimate bishop since Pope Benedict XVI issued his letter to Chinese Catholics in 2007.

That letter reiterated the Vatican’s position that the pope has “supreme spiritual authority” on bishops’ appointments. Many observers see the letter as a watershed in the China Church’s journey back to normal Church life.

Ordained a priest in 1992, Bishop Guo has been vice secretary general of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA) and a Catholic representative of the National People’s Congress, or China’s parliament.

Church sources said the laypeople in Chengde, who are simple in their faith and esteem the Pope, have no choice but to accept their new bishop given the political situation.

“After all, Guo’s reputation among the local faithful is not bad,” a Pingquan Catholic told ucanews.com.

But there are other laypeople who feel the incident has brought shame to the Church.

Since news of the ordination broke out earlier this week, there have been heated discussions in chatrooms while Catholic websites have been ordered to delete news on the subject.

Speaking to ucanews.com after the ceremony, CCPA vice-chairman Anthony Liu Bainian laid the blame for the illicit ordination on the Vatican.

“We have done what we could to improve China-Vatican relations,” Liu referring to the 10 other bishops ordained with both papal approval and government recognition this year.

The Vatican has not shown satisfactory reasons for opposing Bishop Guo’s case, he said. “We have waited for a long time and could not wait any longer.”

GENERAL AUDIENCE
Catechesis on St. Caterina of Siena
Nov. 24, 2010

The Holy Father devoted his catechesis today to St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church and Co-Patron of Europe. Later, he also remembered St. Andrew Dung-Lac of Vietnam and his fellow martyrs, whose liturgical feast he Church marks today.





This is what he said in English:

---

Our catechesis today deals with Saint Catherine of Siena, a Dominican tertiary, a woman of great holiness and a Doctor of the Church. Catherine’s spiritual teachings are centred on our union with Christ, the bridge between earth and heaven. Her own virginal entrustment to Christ the Bridegroom was reflected in her celebrated visions. Catherine’s life also shows us the importance of the spiritual maternity exercised by so many women in every age. From this great saint let us learn to grow in holiness, love for the Lord and fidelity to his body, the Church.

I extend a warm welcome to the Catholic and Greek Orthodox pilgrims from San Francisco, California. I also greet the Superiors of the Missionary Sisters of the Precious Blood meeting in Rome. Upon all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially the pilgrim groups from Japan and the United States of America, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.

---

Loving the Church:
The way of Catherine of Siena


24 NPV. 2010 (RV) - On Wednesday thousands packed the Paul VI audience hall in the Vatican to hear Pope Benedict XVI’s lesson on one of the universal Church;s best- known and loved saints; Catherine of Siena.

Describing her as “courageous, intense and sincere”, the Pope recalled how this 13th century Dominican lay sister, now one of three women Doctors of the Church, was an advisor to princes, popes and paupers.

He said “Catherine’s spiritual teachings are centred on our union with Christ, the bridge between earth and heaven. Her own virginal entrustment to Christ the Bridegroom was reflected in her celebrated visions. Catherine’s life also shows us the importance of the spiritual maternity exercised by so many women in every age”.

He noted that Catherine was born at a time of great trouble in the Church and in Europe. At the age of 16, driven by a vision of St. Dominic, she entered the Dominican Third Order. When fame of her holiness spread, she became spiritual advisor for a wide category of people, including Pope Gregory XI who at that time resided in Avignon, France and whom she urged vigorously and effectively to return to Rome.

Catherine, said Pope Benedict, worked for "internal reform of the Church and to encourage peace between states”.

For this reason, John Paul II declared her a co-Patroness of Europe, so that "the old continent will never forget its Christian roots and so it may continue to draw from the Gospel the core values that ensure justice and harmony".

Concluding, Pope Benedict said: “Even today the Church receives great benefit from the exercise of spiritual motherhood of many women, who strengthen peoples faith and guide them towards ever greater heights”. “From this great saint let us learn to grow in holiness, love for the Lord and fidelity to his body, the Church”.


St. Catherine encouraged priests
'to be faithful to their responsibility'
by CAROL GLATZ



VATICAN CITY, Nov. 24 (CNS) — Despite their human weaknesses, priests bring the saving power of Christ to the faithful through the sacraments and the word of God, Pope Benedict XVI said.

“The Eucharist is an extraordinary gift of love that God continually renews in us to nourish our journey of faith, reinvigorate our hope and arouse our sense of charity in order to become ever more like him,” he said during his weekly general audience Nov. 24.

In his catechesis, the Pope described the life of the 14th-century doctor of the Church, St. Catherine of Siena, a Dominican and a “woman of great holiness.”

Just like St. Catherine, every Catholic should feel compelled to conform one’s life and one’s heart to the heart of Jesus, he said.

He asked that everyone let their hearts be transformed “and learn to love like Christ, in familiarity with him, nourished by prayer, reflection on the word of God and the sacraments,” especially the Eucharist.

People of every social standing were fascinated by St. Catherine’s moral authority, he said. She exercised a “spiritual maternity” like that still benefiting the Church today thanks to the dedication of many lay and consecrated women, said the Pope.

Such spiritual mothers encourage people to keep their thoughts and lives focused on God and prompt people to aim to live holier lives, he said.

St. Catherine’s love for the Lord and his Church was so great that even though she was aware “of priests’ human defects, she always had a great reverence for them: They confer, through the sacraments and the word, the saving power of the blood of Christ,” the Pope said.

Motivated only by her “deep and constant love for the Church,” St. Catherine always encouraged priests and even the Pope “to be faithful to their responsibility,” he said.

St. Catherine teaches people today that authentic spirituality has Christ at its center, the Pope said. Like the Italian saint, “let us learn to love Christ and the Church with courage, intensity and sincerity,” he said.



Here is a full translation of the catechesis:

---

Today I wish to speak to you of a woman who had an eminent role in the history of the Church - St. Caterina of Siena. The century in which she lived - the 14th - was a tormented era for the life of the Church and the entire social fabric of Italy and Europe.

Nonetheless, even in the moment of greatest difficulty, the Lord does not cease blessing his people, inspiring men and women saints who are able to shake minds and hearts, provoking conversion and renewal.

Caterina is one of them, and even today, she speaks to us and sustains us in walking with courage towards holiness in order to be increasingly better disciples of the Lord.

Born in Siena in 1347, to a very large family, she died in Rome in 1380. At the age of 16, urged by a vision of St. Dominic, she entered the third Dominican order, into its female branch called the Mantellate (Cloaked Ones).

Continuing to live with her family, she confirmed the vow of virginity that she had privately made when she was an adolescent. She dedicated herself to prayer, penitence, and works of charity, particularly in behalf of sick people.

When the fame of her holiness became widespread, she was the protagonist of an intense activity of spiritual advice for every category of persons: nobles and political men, artists and the common folk, consecrated persons, ecclesiastics, including Pope Gregory XI, who lived at that time in Avignon, and whom Caterina exhorted energetically and effectively to return to Rome.

She travelled a lot to campaign for internal reform in the Church and to promote peace among States. For this reason, the Venerable John Paul II declared her Co-Patron of Europe - that the Old Continent may never forget the Christian roots that are the basis of her journey, and may continue to draw from the Gospel those fundamental values that assure justice and concord.

Caterina suffered much, as many saints do. There were some who distrusted her so much that in 1374, six years before her death, the Chapter General of the Dominican order called her to Florence for interrogation. That brought her in touch with an educated and humble friar, Raimondo da Capua, future master-General of the order.

He became her confessor and her 'spiritual son', and he would write the first complete biography of the saint, who was canonized in 1461.

Caterina learned to read with difficulty and only learned to write as an adult. Her teaching is contained in the Dialogo della Divina Provvidenza, also called the Book of Divine Doctrine, a masterwork of spiritual literature; in her Epistolary, and in a collection of prayers.

Her teaching is endowed with such richness that the Servant of God, Paul VI, declared her a Doctor of the Church in 1970, a title added to that of co-Patron of Rome, as declared by Pius XI, and Patron of Italy, by the Venerable Pius XII.

In a vision that would never be erased from Caterina's mind and heart, Our Lady presented her to Jesus, who gave her a splendid ring, saying: "I, your Creator and Savior, wed you in the faith, that you will conserve pure until you celebrate our eternal marriage with me in heaven" (Raimondo da Capua, S. Caterina da Siena, Legenda maior, n. 115, Siena 1998).

That ring was visible only to her. In this extraordinary episode, we can grasp the vital center of Caterina's religiosity and that of every authentic spirituality: Christocentrism. Christ was for her as a spouse with whom there is a relationship of intimacy, of communion and of fidelity - he is the well-beloved above all others.

This profound union with the Lord is illustrated by another episode in the life of this distinguished mystic: the exchange of hearts. According to Raimondo da Capua, who transmitted the confidences he received from Caterina, the Lord Jesus appeared to her with a shining red heart in his hand, opened her breast, and put the heart in, saying: "Dearest daughter, since the other day I took the heart that you offered me, I give you my own, and from now on, it will be in the place that your heart was" (ibid.) Caterina truly lived the words of St. Paul: "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2,20).

Like the Sienese saint, every believer feels the need to be formed according to the sentiments of the Heart of Christ in order to love God and neighbor as Christ himself loves. And we all can allow our hearts to be transformed and to learn to love like Christ, in a familiarity with him that is nourished by prayer, by meditation on the Word of God, and by the Sacraments, especially by frequently receiving Holy Communion with devotion. For Caterina too belongs to the ranks of Eucharistic saints with which I concluded my Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis (cfr No. 94).

Dear brothers and sisters, the Ecuharist is an extraordinary gift of God's love that renews us continually in our journey of faith, reinvigorates our hope, and inflames our charity, to make us ever more like him.

Around a personality as strong and authentic as Caterina, there came to be a true and proper spiritual family. They were persons fascinated by the moral authority of this young woman with such an exalted way of life, and sometimes, also impressed by the mystical phenomena that they witnessed, such as her frequent ecstasies.

Many placed themselves at her service, and above all, considered it a privilege to be spiritually guided by Caterina. They called her 'Mamma', since as spiritual children, they drew nourishment for the spirit from her.

Even today, the Church receives great good from the exercise of maternal spirituality by so many women, consecrated and lay, who nourish in other souls the thought of God, strengthen the faith of people, and orient Christian life towards ever higher peaks.

"Children I say to you and I call you," Caterina writes to one of her spiritual children, the Carthusian monk Giovanni Sabatini, "in that I give birth to you for continuous prayer and desire for the presence of God, just as a mother bears her children" (Epistolario, Lettera n. 141: A don Giovanni de' Sabbatini).

She used to address the Dominican friar Bartolomeo da Dominici, with the words "Dearest brother and son in Christ our sweet Jesus".

Another feature of Caterina's spirituality is tied to her gift of tears. They express exquisite and profound sensitivity, a capacity for emotion and tenderness. Not a few saints have had the gift of tears, renewing the emotion of Jesus himself, who never kept back tears nor hid them, as when he wept at the tomb of Lazarus, at the sorrow of Mary and Martha, and at the sight of Jerusalem in his last days on earth.

According to Caterina, the tears of saints are mixed with the Blood of Christ, of which she spoke in vibrant tones and with very effective symbolic images: "Think of Christ crucified, God and man... Make the crucified Christ your object of meditation, hide yourself in the wounds of the crucified Christ, drown in the blood of the crucified Christ" (Epistolario, Lettera n. 16: Ad uno il cui nome si tace).

Here we can understand why Caterina, though aware of the human deficiencies of priests, always had a great reverence for them - they dispense, through the Sacraments and and the Word, the salvific power of the Blood of Christ.

The Sienese saint always invited consecrated ministers, even the Pope, whom she called 'dolce Cristo in terra', to be faithful to their responsibilities, motivated always and only by profound and constant love for the Church.

Before dying she said: "Leaving my body, I, in fact, consumed and gave my life in the Church and for the Holy Church, which for me was a most singular grace" (Raimondo da Capua, S. Caterina da Siena, Legenda maior, n. 363).

Thus, from St. Caterina we learn the most sublime science: to know and love Jesus Christ and his Church. In the Dialog of Divine Providence, she, using a singular image, describes Christ as a bridge between heaven and earth. It has three steps made up of the feet, the rib cage and the mouth of Jesus.

Ascending through these steps, the soul goes through the three stages of every life of sanctification: detachment from sin, practice of virtue and love, and affectionate union with God.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us learn from St. Caterina to love Christ and the Church with courage, intensely and sincerely. Therefore, let us adopt the words of Santa Caterina that we read in the Dialog of Divine Providence. at the conclusion of the chapter that speaks of Christ as bridge: "Out of mercy you washed us in Blood. Out of mercy, you have wanted to speak to your creatures. Oh Fool for love, it was not enough for you to be incarnated, you also wished to die!... Oh mercy! My heart drowns thinking of you: that wherever I think to look, I find only mercy" (cap. 30, pp. 79-80). Grazie.

---

Pope leads final tribute
for Cardinal Navarrete





VATICAN CITY, 24 NOV 2010 (VIS) - Following today's general audience, the Holy Father went to the altar of the Cathedra in the Vatican Basilica, where he presided at the rites of "Ultima Commendatio" and "Valedictio" at the end of the funeral Mass for Cardinal Urbano Navarrete S.J., who died on 22 November at the age of 90. The Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals.



In his homily, the Holy Father described the late Spanish cardinal as a "master of justice. The meticulous study and impassioned teaching of canon law were the central element of his life. Educating the young generations in true justice, the justice of Christ, the justice of the Gospel, was the ministry Cardinal Navarrete accomplished over the course of his life".

Cardinal Navarrete was, "in particular, an expert on marriage law". He was dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and rector of the university itself.

Pope Benedict also highlighted the cardinal's "interest in important ecclesial events, such as the diocesan synod of Rome and Vatican Council II, his competent scholarly contributions to the revision of the Code of Canon Law and his fruitful collaboration with various dicasteries of the Roman Curia as a highly-esteemed consultant".

Cardinal Navarrete "used to say that three fundamental principles guided him in his studies: great love for the past and for tradition; ... sensitivity towards the problems, needs and challenges of the present where God has placed us and, finally, the capacity to look and open oneself to the future, not with fear but with hope, the hope that comes from faith. This profoundly Christian vision guided his efforts for God, for the Church and for man in his teaching and his works".

"The shining truth of faith in eternal life comforts us each time we bid our final farewell to a deceased confrere. Cardinal Urbano Navarrete, spiritual son of St. Ignatius of Loyola, ... loved Christ and lived in intimate union with Him, especially in his prolonged periods of prayer".

As a child, his own parents "created a climate of profound Christian faith in their family, favouring in their six children - of whom three became Jesuits and two nuns - the courage to bear witness to their faith, not putting anything before the love of Christ and doing everything for the greater glory of God".

The Pope mourns
a co-worker
Translated from the 11/25/10 issue of


Tomorrow's issue of L'Osservatore Romano carries touching obituaries for Manuela Camagni, one of the Holy Father's four Memores Domini housekeepers, who was fatally injured in a car accident Tuesday evening and died early Wednesday morning.

The obituaries in the Vatican newspaper are led by the Holy Father's own personal tribute.



Other condolences:

---

From Cardinal Bertone and the Secretariat of State:
Having learned of the tragic death of Signorina MANUELA CAMAGNI, who served in the Pontifical Apartment, the Cardinal Secretary of State, the Superiors and the Officials of the Secretariat of State express their sincere condolences to her family, to the Memores Domini Association, and join them in prayers of suffrage.

From the Swiss Guard:
The commandant and the entire Corps of the Pontifical Swiss Guard
participate in the sorrow of the Camagni family and of the Community of the Memores Domini, express their heartfelt condolences for the death of MANUELA CAMAGNI, and join her family in prayer and in the hope of resurrection.

From the editor of OR:
Giovanni Maria Vian, stricken and moved by the tragic death of MANUELA CAMAGNI, joins Benedict XVI, the pontifical household, the Memores Domini community and her family in their sorrow and prayer.

From the president of Comunione e Liberazione:
The sudden death of our friend MANUELA CAMAGNI of the Memores Domini in the Pontifical Household, is the mysterious way through which the Lord makes us think of Him, renewing in us the certainty that 'not even a hair on your head will be lost' as today's liturgy tells us.

We join the Holy Father even closer in embrace as children who wish to share everything of his human sorrow.

'Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends'.

Her giving herself for others was manifested in obvious and surprising ways, as in her willingness for mission, serving in Tunisia, and in her service to the Holy Father.

May her sacrifice renew in all of us the truth of our Yes to God, so that the victory of Christ may ever be affirmed increasingly in our hearts.

May Don Giussani obtain from Our Lady the gift of eternal happiness for our friend and of comfort for the Pope.

In the name of Comunione e Liberazione and the Memores Domini,
Don Julian Carron
Milan, Nov. 24, 2010

---

Mourning in the
pontifical household
Translated from the 11/25/10 issue of



Manuela Camagni, one of the Memores Domini serving in the Pontifical Apartment, died at dawn Wednesday, Nov. 24, in Rome, following serious head injuries from a street accident Tuesday evening.


Manuela, in videocaps from RAI's 80th-birthday TV special on the Pope. In the right photo, she is with Cristina. The two other Memores are Carmela and Loredana.

She was 56. Since May 2005, shortly after the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope, she has been one of four Memores Domini lay sisters who kept house for the Holy Father.

Wednesday morning, learning sorrowfully about Manuela's death, the Holy Father offered his morning Mass in commemoration, with the rest of the Pontifical Household in his private chapel.

Shortly afterwards, his two secretaries, Monsignors Georg Gaenswein adn Alfred Xuereb, accompanied the three other Memores to the morgue at the Umberto I Polyclinic, where she had been brought after the accident, and operated on.

Born on August 16, 1954 in San Piero in Bagno, in the Romagna region, she worked for years as administrative secretary in various schools in Forli. In 1980, she joined the Memores Domini, a community of lay men and women belonging to Comunione e Liberazione, and which was recognized in 1980 by the Holy See as a 'universal ecclesial association'. In 1996-2001, Manuela served in Tunis when the current Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, was the Apostolic Nuncio to Tunisia.

On Tuesday evening, Nov. 23, Manuela was walking along Via Nomentana in Rome with some Memores Domini colleagues, when she was struck by a car while they were crossing a pedestrian lane, and was struck so hard she bounced into the air and hit her head on the pavement upon landing, sustaining serious cranial injuries.

She was immediately taken to the nearby Umberto I polyclinic where she underwent emergency surgery. She passed away at 5 a.m. Thursday.

In the interview book, Light of the world, the Pope refers to the Memores Domini when he speaks about his private life today: "With the pontifical family - four ladies from the Memores Domini community and the two secretaries - we share moments of relaxation and of prayer", moments that are particularly important "during which, with the Lord, we are together very intensely".

[In an article on "the Pope's guardian angels" in May 2008, Andrea Tornielli described Manuela's main duties: "She is in charge of the apartments of the two secretaries and of the Pope's storehouse of food and other gifts sent to the Vatican. She oversees their redistribution to various charities in Rome."]

My belated translation of Mons. Fisichella's presentation text on November 23...


'LIGHT OF THE WORLD':
A book that reveals the Pope
and points beyond the Pope
Presentation by Archbishop Rino Fisichella
President of the Pontifical Council
for Promoting New Evangelization
Translated from




Mons. Fisichella, Fr. Lombardi,and Luigi Accattoli at the presentation.

Licht der Welt. Luce del mondo.

The Pope's writing is unmistakable and to find it imprinted on the cover and the first pages of this book makes an effect. He himself, it seems most likely, chose the title, and this is significant.

In an interview, the principle subject is, of course, the person interviewed. But not in this case. The title chosen does not allow us to stop at the figure of the Pope - it refers us beyond, to him who after 2000 years continues to illuminate history, because he said he would be the 'Light of the world'.

But it also becomes clear right away that a protagonist in this book is the Church. The many questions that make up the conversation demonstrate the nature of the Church, her presence in history, the service that the Pope is called on to render, and, not secondarily, the mission which he must continue to perform in order to be faithful to the Lord.

"We live in a time which requires a new evangelization. A time in which the only Gospel must be announced in its great and unchanged rationality, and together with the power that transcends this rationality, in a way that reaches our thinking and our understanding in a new way... It is important to understand te Church not as an apparatus which must do everything, but as a living organism which comes from Christ himself" (pp 193-104. NB: All page citations are from the italian edition).

In the light of this citation, it is easy to perceive the objective that marks these years of a Pontificate which intends to show how decisive it is for man today to grasp the presence of God in his life in order to be able to respond freely - this, in effect, is the point of the constant stress on rationality - to the determinative question of the sense of one's own existence.

The radius of activity spanned by the interview is vast - it seems that nothing escaped the curiosity of Peter Seewald, who looked into the personal life of the Pope, the great questions that mark theology today, the various political considerations that always accompany relations among States, and finally, the social questions that occupy a large part of the public debate.

We have a Pope who does not hold back from any question, who is willing to clarify everything in simple language, but nonetheless profound, and accepts with benevolence the provocations that many questions often carry.

But nonetheless, to reduce the entire interview to a statement extrapolated from the entirety of Benedict XVI's thought is an offense to the Pope's intelligence and a gratuitous explotation of his words.

Because what emerges from the overall framework of these pages is the vision of a Church that is called on to be the light of the world, sign of unity for the human race - to use a well-known expression from the Second Vatican Council - and an instrument to help grasp the essence of life.

Even if it may now appeaar to our eyes as a Church that raises scandal, that does not adapt itself to behavior that is in fashion, that appears incomprehensible in its teachings, and which, perhaps, shows possible internal scheming by men who obscure her holiness - it is in any case, acting according to the teaching of her Master who is 'light of the world', to be a shining city on a hill in order to be seen by all.

A sign of contradiction which has the mission to keep alive through the centuries faith in the Risen Lord until his return: "Let us look to the returning Christ. It is in this perspective that we live the faith, living for the future" (p 97).

Licht der Welt is obviously not written by Benedict XVI - but here are condensed his thoughts, his concerns and his sufferings in these years, his pastoral program and his expectations for the future.

The impression one gets is of a Pope who is optimistic about the life of the Church, notwithstanding the difficulties that always accompany her: "The Church grows and is alive - it is very dynamic. In recent years, the number of priests around the world has increased, as well as the number of seminarians" (p 28).

As if to say: the Church cannot be identified only in a fragment of any geographical region - she is an entirety which merges, embraces and transcends every part of her.

It is also a Church made up of sinners. And yet, without minimizing what is evil, the Pope can rightly state that "if the Church were no longer here, entire sectors of life would fall into ruin" (p 54), because the good that she does is before the eyes of everyone, even if people often prefer to look elsewhere.

In page after page, we can see the patience with which he responds with clarity to every question that he is asked. Benedict XVI opens his heart as much in talking about his daily routine as in expressing with the necessary parrhesia [the faculty of making clear that 'I am the one who thinks this'] the problems that have been on the table in the first five years of his Pontificate.

If, on the one hand, he almost invites us into the papal apartment, sharing with the reader the rhythm of his day, on the other hand, he evokes images that describe his state of mind in recent months.

"Yes, it is a great crisis, one must say. It has been an upheaval for all of us. All of a sudden, all that filth. It's as if a volcano had suddenly erupted, spewing this great cloud of filth which has soiled and obscured everything" (p 44).

The simple tone of his answers is strengthened by the plasticity of the images that often recur, allowing us to understand fully the drama of certain facts.

And yet, from the calmness of his answers and the way he develops his arguments, what emerges clearly is, above all, the spirituality that characterizes his life. and it often leaves us dumbfounded.

"From the time that the choice fell on me, all I was capable of saying was, "Lord, what are you doing to me? Now, the responsibility is yours. You must guide me. I am not capable. But if you chose me, then you must help me" (p 18, cfr p 33).

Whoever reads that must succumb. Either to accept the vision of faith as an authentic abandonment of oneself to God who will bring you where he wills, or to proceed to the most fantastic interpretations that often characterize ecclesiastical and other kinds of chatter,

But the truth is all contained in those words. If one wishes to understand Benedict XVI, his life and his Pontificate, one must return to those statements. They condense the vocation of priesthood as a call to discipleship.

Here, one understands the why of a trajectory that cannot be changed in its vision of the world and of how the Church must act. Here, one grasps the perspective through which it is possible to enter into the depth of his thinking and to interpret his actions.

There is a word in German that sythesizes it all: Gelassenheit - a trusting abandonment usque ad cadaver, till death. It expresses the decisive choice of freedom as a radical emptying of oneself to allow one to be formed and led where the Lord wishes. In short, the Pope considers himself, more than any other, as a "a poor beggar before God" (p 35).

The Christocentric spirituality which is evoked several times, nourished by a profound bond to liturgy (cfr pp 153-154), allows us to understand the actions of Benedict XVI.

He himself affirms it elesewhere when he responds to a question about the power that a Pope has: "To be Pope does not mean setting up oneself as a sovereign full of glory, but rather to bear witness to him who was crucified and be ready to exercise one's ministry in the form of union with him" (p 26).

In this perspective, it becomes almost paradoxical to read the following statement which seems to contradict what has just been stated - but instead, sets it in a consistent horizon of understanding: "A common thread has run through all my life 0 Christianity brings joy, it widens the horizons" (p 27).

In short, this is a Pope who remains optimistic, not primarily because of the objective dynamicity of a Churdh made evident by so many forces of spirituality, but above all, because of the love that shapes everything and conquesrs all (pp 90-91).

This is an interview that is in many ways a provocation to carry out a serious examination of conscience within and outside the Church in order to reach a true conversion of hearts and minds.

Social conditions, ecology, sexuality, economy and finance, the Church herself - all are topics that require a special engagement in order to verify the cultural direction of the world today and the perspectives that it opens for the future.

Benedict XVI does not allow hismelf to be intimiated by poll findings, because truth has other criteria: "Statistics are not the measure of morality" (p 204).

He is aware that we face "a poisoning of thought which a priori makes mistaken asseumptions" (p 77), which therefore provokes us to take the necessary path to truth (cfr pp 79-80), in order to be able to bring true progress to the world today (cfr pp 70-71).

These pages, nonetheless, allow the clarity of the Pope's thought to shine through, and must make some change their minds about the rash descriptions made of him in the past as an obscurantist and enemy of modernity:

"It is important that we seek to live and think Christianity in such a way that it takes on what is good and right in modernity" (p 87) with the conquests and values it has reached with such effort: "There are, of course, many issues through which, one might say, the morality of modernity emerges. Modernity does not only consist of negativity. If it were so then we cannot last much longer. It has great human values that come from Christianity herself, which only thanks to Christianity, have entered the conscience of mankind as values. When they are defended - and must be defended - by the Pope, there is adherence in vast areas" (p 40).

These statements make us see why the Pope thinks so often of the subject of new evangelization in order to reach those who find themselves as 'children' of modernity but have only caught aspects of the phenomenon - not always the most positive ones - while they have forgotten the necessary search for truth, and above all, the need to order their own life in a unitary and not contradictory vision (cfr p 87).

This has become one of the programmatic tasks which we are called on to confront: "To face with renewed strength the challenge of announcing the Gospel to the world - to use everything in our power so that it reaches the world - is part of the programmatic tasks that have been entrusted to me" (p 185; cfr 193).

In these pages, Benedict XVI often returns to the relationship between modernity and Christianity. A relationship that cannot be nor should be lived in parallel, but correctly conjoining faith and reason, individual rights and social responsibility.

In a word, "To place God back in first place" (p 96) in order to contradict a great part of the culture of recent decades which have aimed to show that 'the hypothesis of God' is superfluous (p 190).

This is the conversion that Benedict XVI asks of Christians and all who may wish to listen to him: "Once again, bring to light the priority of God. The important thing today is to see anew that God exists, that he matters to us, and that he responds to us. And that, on the contrary, if he is not there, everything can be as rational as one wishes, but man loses his dignity and his specific humanity, and thus, the essential crumbles" (p 100).

This is the task that the Pope has set for his Pontificate, and honestly, it cannot be denied how arduous it seems: "To understand the tragedy of our time, to remain firm in the Word of God as the decisive word, and at the same time, to give Christianity that simplicity and profundity without which it cannot function" (p. 101).

Familiarity, confidence, irony, at some moments sarcasm, but above all, simplicity and truth, are the characteristic traits of this conversation, which was chosen by Benedict XVI to make the larger public take part in how he thinks, his way of being, and his conception of the mission that has been entrusted to him.

Not an easy undertaking in an era of communications which often tends to underscore only some fragments and leaves the totality in shadows. It is a book to read and to meditate upon, in order to understand once more in what way the Church can be, for the world, an announcement of the Good News that brings joy and serenity.

Here is a beautiful short overview of LOTW:

Ultimately, the certainty
that Christianity is joy
by PIERANGELO SEQUERI
Translated from the 11/23/10 issue of


"Now it's falling on me. I cannot escape".

The man of God Joseph Ratzinger confesses to have thought precisely this at that interminable moment just before he was elected to the ministry of Peter.

Because it was Peter's boat that he had to taken on, after all, not a surfboard. One does not get on it to ride mindlessly wherever the wave takes you. In fact, one cannot leave it even if you wished to.

If one then thinks that one must guide this boat in the present "global constellation, with all the forces of destruction in it, with all the contadicitons in it", shock is inevitable.

Pope Benedict XVI, in this interview book with Peter Seewald, Luce del Mondo, which we can now all read in its entirety (and let us truly read it, doing without all exercises in nitpicking), uses the English word 'shock' more than once, or equivalent expressions.

The fundamental tone of his discourse reveals,t more than in other similar conversations, the emotional tone of his personal confrontation with the challenges that must be met and borne by a man of God who finds himself having to be the Pope and to act the Pope.

Here, more than elsewhere, Benedict XVI allows us to share that sense of disproportion that always accompanies a sincere recognition of the weight of the conditions within which Christianity must continue to sow the Gospel.

In such a framework, he affectionately allows us to take part in the passion with which such events must be lived by the believer who has accepted the ministry of Peter in order to honor the mission given to him.

The surprise, which should be of great benefit to us, is precisely this: "Even the Pope has to do certain things". Or better, the Pope, first of all. And the Pope endures dismay at his own human smallness, without hiding it from himself nor feigning to be a superman.

The Pope accepts the hazards of faith and his own best discernment, knowing that he is the first who must honor it and the last who can escape from it.

The Pope knows he is weak, even as he courageously accepts the fact that, as long as he is able to, he cannot pass on to anyone else not even an iota of the mission that pertains to him alone.

The Pope knows that in the narrow point of space and time that he occupies, as the mere human being that he is, he must reflect, without reticences, his awareness of the contradictions that inhabit the world as well as the Church.

The Pope also knows that, because of this, he has every kind of support in the Church - from the smallest gesture of sympathy to the greatest work of collaboration in his ministry.

But he also knows - perfectly well - that he must ask for all of this, he first of all, "like a beggar' before the Lord, 'a friend of long standing'.

The Pope says and allows these things to be written, in the genre of an impromptu conversation, and so he renders his Christian ministry 'real' to us. And the reality of Christianity itself.

The Pope emerges from myth to enter into the realism of the faith. Emotional, sometimes in wonder, sometimes impressed, other times deeply concerned about the enormous responsibilities that worldly powers must face, and sometimes amused at the ways that he tries to be faithful to the ministry he has received, in behalf of us all.

The score for this orchestral improvisation - which vibrates with the counterpoints of a man of God singularly entrusted with the ministry of being Pope - must be heard the first time, in its entirety, with sensitive ears.

The music of this confessio papae is his most original and profound teaching for the present of Christianity and for our time.

To those who can listen, tt has a precise cadence, which harmonizes with its form. "All my life has had a common guideline: Christianity brings joy and widens the horizons. For sure, a life that is lived always and only being 'against' would be unbearable".

For once, let the tireless deconstructors and those who always seek ulterior motives for everything pause and listen to this music. Then we can speak.


Other than Luigi Accattoli, whom the Vatican chose to be the lay presentor of the book when it came out Tueday, Marco Politi is the first veteran Vaticanista (emeritus like Accattoli) to attempt a full review of the book. when he wrote for La Repubblica, Politi was almost always a scathing and often unfair critic of Benedict XVI, but here he shows a sincere appreciation for the man, but then takes time and space to interject his previously well-ventilated and mostly baseless objections to some of the Pope's choices. And of course, the choice of adjective for the headline isn't exactly the one adjective anyone else would have used!

Ratzinger, the fragile Pope
by Marco Politi
Translated from

Nov. 24, 2010

Sincere, fragile, passionate about the faith.

In this interview book with Peter Seewald, Benedict XVI leaves a portrait of himself that is intimate and revealing.

It is an unconventional framework which overturns stereotypes. [But not the first one to do so, except that critics like Politi have always insisted on using the stereotypes. Politi's last major hypothesis about Benedict XVI, which he purveyed insistently in La Repubblica before he retired, was that the Pope lives isolated in his ivory tower. Politi still riffs on a variation of this in this piece.]

Speaking off the cuff, Joseph Ratzinger shows himself in three dimensions. The theologian and intellectual. The reigning Pope. And the man in his most private sphere.

It is especially in this last category that the German Pope lays himself bare and is not afraid to confess his own weakness.

He tells us that the pontificate fell on him like the blade of a guillotine: "Now it is falling and it will hit you!", he exclaims at the start of this conversation, evoking the days of the Conclave. There is no hypocrisy.

Ratzinger was carried to the papal throne by a traditionalist like-minded bloc which was very decided about doing so (a noteworthy role was played by the arch-conservative Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, who died in 2008, and by the Opus Dei*), but he himself never had any ambition and could not wait to retire to 'peace and tranquillity'.

[*Since the Opus Dei has only a few cardinals of its own, I think Politi is over-stating their influence in the 2005 Conclave. The many other prominent traditionalist and conservative cardinals behind the Ratzinger candidacy, like Cardinal Ruini leading the Italians, or Cardinal Rouco Varela among the Spaniards, are hardly Opus Dei puppets.]

Already in the 1990s, Papa Wojtyla had to force him to remain as Prefect of the Holy Office. Awareness of the role of governance so enormous and so remote from his own tendencies is evident in the prayer that he raised to God at that time, as he has in other times: "You must guide me. I cannot do it. If you chose me, then you must help me now".

The work of a Pope, he confesses, is excessive stress for a man of 83. "I hope God will give me enough strength, that which I need to do what is necessary. However, I realize that my strength is waning".

For a man who puts much weight on dossiers, as he has always been, Ratzinger shows an unexpected trait when he speaks on the anxiety he experiences before and after making any nomination.

No one is immune from making mistakes, he points out, and therefore he is "more prudent, more timorous, and make(s) decisions only after repeated consultations".

This candor in making clear admissions is the only truly revolutionary aspect of the book. As in the observation that it would be time for a Pope to resign whenever he feels himself no longer fully able to be Pope for physical, psychological or spiritual reasons.

Paul VI and John Paul II had weighed this possibility in private. But Benedict XVI, in speaking of it publicly, now places the question of resignation for a reason on the agenda of all his successors.

After all is said and done, what prevails about the man-Pope Ratzinger is humility, someone who has reservations about crowds. "I am who I am. I do not seek to be something else [much less his predecessor Wojtyla] [The parenthetical is Politi's]. I give what I can give, and what I cannot give, I do not even try to give".

There is irony when he refers to himself as a professor Pope. Where Papa Wojtyla had speculated on the providentiality of a Slavic Pope, Benedict XVI says drily: "Since God has made a professor Pope, I think he might have wanted to prioritize the element of reflection and the effort to show the unity of faith and reason".

This relationship remains central for Ratzinger. "I am not a mystic," he says, but his idea of the faith is essential, geared to the essential. To believe makes sense only if it is born of a personal decision, and it is not the task of the Church to present a moral system whatsoever, but to open the door to God.

So, in the end, the only thing that matters is an encounter with Christ, and the capacity, as a Christian, to carry out works of love, "to come to the aid of others not for profit nor by occupation".

The chiaroscuro is in his role as Pope. The Second Vatican Council, he recalls, teaches that the Pope 'is not an absolute monarch who takes decisions by himself and wants to do everything by himself".

Actually, Benedict XVI has acted like a monarch in using the interview book as an opening towards the question of condom use after years during which theologians and cardinals pressured him to reconsider the question. He did not call bishops and cardinal to explore the problem together.

[Politi is being extremely disingenuous as he was at La Repubblica. First, how is it 'behaving like a monarch' to express perfectly rational reasoning about instilling a sense of morality in prostitutes? As for the issue itself, Politi knows it was Benedict XVI himself in 2006 who authorized a study on possiblities where the use of condoms may be considered, especially in the case of couples in which one spouse is HIV-positive.

Opinions were sought from Bishops, theologians and lay experts, and whatever their recommendations, obviously Benedict XVI did not think it was timely to make a magisterial pronouncement on it. That is his prerogative as Pope. He can get all the advice from everyone about any issue, but in the end, it is he alone who can and should make the final decision. Consultation does not necessarily mean accepting advice indiscriminately.

Paul VI proved this when, even knowing that he would face universal denunciation, he went against the advice of a commission he had appointed and still decreed in Humanae vitae that Church doctrine does not and cannot approve of artificial contraception.

In both cases, however - artificial contraception, in general, and condom use, in particular - proponents of the easy liberal recourse consistently ignore that there exists a first, though admittedly more difficult, Catholic alternative: natural birth control, in the first case; and abstinence, in the case of a couple with an HIV problem. Yet even in the current furor, the rationale for abstinence rather than condom use in such cases has hardly been advanced, even by those who dispute the liberal interpretaiton of Benedict XVI's words.

One would also think it would be obvious to a veteran reporter on the Church that discussing this issue in public - least of all, between the Pope and his cardinals - would be a serious tactical error that would have exposed the faithful to endless confusion. As the mere partial reporting of the Pope's statements on condoms from the book has already provoked!]

Likewise, he decided, in sovereign solitude, to revoke the excommunication of the Lefebvrian bishops without consulting the episcopate of his Church. [That is crap! In the new book, Benedict explains that at a meeting of Curial officials called by John Paul II, they had all signed off on lifting the excommunication if the Lefebvrians formally asked for it - which they did not do until Mons. Fellay wrote a formal request in 2008. The reasoning is that asking the Pope to lift the excommunication is in itself a recognition of the Pope's authority. And anyway, 1) the objections that followed the revocation of excommunication were not to the revocation itself, but to the fact that one of the beneficiaries was a Holocaust denier! And 2) the question of lifting an excommunication that was incurred because of insubordination to the Pope is a problem for the Pope alone to decide. He is simply following canon law - and no one has accused Benedict XVI of violating that - and he does not need consensus from the bishops of the world to do this! ]

In the conversations with Seewald, there are disconcerting admissions regarding the exercise of papal power.

At Regensburg University, when he spoke about Islam, Benedict says "I was not aware that an academic papal discourse would be read in a political manner".

And on the Williamson case, the Pope reiterates that "unfortunately none of us had checked the Internet". But things weren't that simple.

Forty-eight hours before the publication of the decree, the media had already given ample information about Williamson's negationism. [NOT TRUE. Politi, review the news at the time! A few outlets like Der Spiegel and the Swedish TV that would broadcast Williamson's statements on January 21 highlighted his statements, but the general media did not pick it up until after the decree was published.]

The Vatican could have halted publication of the decree, but instead, a meeting of Vatican curial heads led by Cardinal Bertone decided to go ahead because they believed that the media would calm down after a couple of days. Instead there followed weeks of severe crisis for the Church with the Jewish world and with most Catholics. [A totally manufactured crisis fueled by hypocrisy and political correctness [i.e., My God!, let us not offend the Jews!". And who says it was a crisis for 'most Catholics'? Only for the liberals of the West.]

[The above is a gross misrepresentation by Politi of something that Tornielli and Rodari disclosed in their recent book. In fact, they criticize the fact that at the meeting, the question of Williamson was never even brought up!

The more obvious reason why the Vatican went ahead with its announcement as scheduled, on the Sunday that ended the Week of Christian Unity, was that the decree had been given to Mons. Fellay at the Vatican on January 17, and Politi knows this because Mons. Fellay himself revealed that he received the decree from Cardinal Castrillon. To have halted the announcement a few days later would have done irreparable damage to the trust that was being built up between Fellay and his FSSPX, and the Vatican. The Pope's ultimate objective is to bring back the Lefebvrians to Rome, not to be politically correct and please the liberal press and ecclessiastics who hypocritically protest a fact that has nothing to do with why Williamson was excommunicated to begin with.]

To Seewald's precise questions about the cover-up of sex abuse scandals, the Pope does not always furnish exhaustive answers. [Can't comment on this, as I have not read the book and have only seen published excerpts about this matter.]

On the double life of the man who founded the Legion of Christ, he says that it came to be known "very slowly and late. It was very well covered up, and it was only in 2000 that we acquired concrete reports". The question remains why he he did not intervene right away as prefect or who kept him from doing so. [But from all known accounts, he did order an investigation, which was suspended for a while - he being Cardinal Ratzinger, one can imagine he must have followed higher orders - but then he was allowed to resume it in 2004, which enabled the CDF to make the ruling that it did in 2006. Also, I haven't checked the dates, but the investigation was suspended probably around the time John Paul II publicly praised Maciel in a huge Vatican event. It would have been a rgeat embarrassment for the Pope. Also, it's not as if any Vaticanista - not even Politi at the time - was actively trying to expose Maciel, who wasn't a 'story' for them at the time.

In any case, even candor has its limits. What would it serve for the Pope to say now "I was told to desist investigating", much less to name any names, when, after all, the CDF did finish its investigation, Maciel was severely censured, he is now dead, and a reform of the LC is under way. That is what matters. History will unfold the full back story later.]

On the level of internal reforms, the interview confirms the stasis in which the Church finds itself. No women priests. No possiblity of communion for divorced Catholics who have remarried - still under study after five years of his Pontificate. And homosexuality remains a serious sin against God and nature. [NO, POLITI - it is not homosexuality that is sinful, but the homosexual act. Can you yourself deny that it is an 'unnatural' act?]

Psychologically, it is not even correct that the use of condoms may be considered in the world of prostitutes (male or female), as if that environment represented an example of sexuality that has gone off the tracks. [ISN'T IT????? In the Catholic view, where sexuality can only be exercised as the expression of love between a man and woman, prostitution is the ultimate debasement of sexuality!]

[Politi - who has co-written an autobiography of John Paul II - should know that the liberal causes he brings up do not even deserve consideration in the light of Catholic doctrine as it has been handed down for two millennia. Much less is it within the power of any Pope to change them arbitrarily, since one of his first duties to the faith is to defend its doctrine and practice. These liberal shibboleths do not constitute 'reform' but 'reformation', leading to a different Church, as the 16th century Protestant Reformation did.

But Politi would not be the ultra-libral he is if he did not try to instrumetnalize this book review to rail against his pet objections to the doctrine and practice of the Church. I do not know if he did so during John Paul II's 26-year reign, but if he were consistent, he should have. And I must confess I have not read the biography he co-authored with Carl Bernstein, where he might have revealed himself.]

Then suddenly, Ratzinger surprises us anew for the refinement of his own personal approach. He says, for example, that if a priest has been cohabiting secretly with a woman, it would be logical to examine whether they would make a good married couple. Because if they would, then they should get married. [And the priest must cease being a priest!] In any case, any children must be protected - 'the priority good', he calls it.

Thus, behind the stereotyped mask of the German Pope [which others like Politi have put on him], there emerges the human confessor from the little churches of Bavaria.

When he prays to God, the Pope confides, he does it above all to implore, almost 'begging', but also to thank him.

Thursday, November 25, 34th Week in Ordinary Time
THANKSGIVING DAY (USA)

ST. COLUMBAN (b Ireland 540, d Italy 615)
Missionary, Abbot, Writer, 'Apostle of the Picts'
Considered the greatest of the Irish missionaries, he suffered temptations of the flesh as a youth and decided to become a hermit then a monk after seeking the advice of a nun. With 12 companions, he set forth for Gaul in 590 to spread the Gospel. He set up many monasteries, championed Catholic orthodoxy against heresies like Arianism, professed fierce loyalty to the Pope and wrote a monastic rule. Ordered into exile back to Ireland by the Queen Mother whom he displeased by his moral strictures, he was shipwrecked and landed back in Europe, proceeding to Italy where he befriended the King of the Lombards. He set up the famous monastery of Bobbio where he would
eventually die. He left behind many writings, including poetry, treatises and his famous Rule.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/112510b.shtml


OR today.

Illustration: Exchange of hearts between Jesus and Caterina of Siena, Giovanni da Paolo, 15th-century. Center photo: Asia Bibi; right, Manuela Camagni.
At the General Audience, the Pope spoke of the Saint of Siena:
'The heart of Catherine'
Even today, the Church continues to benefit
from the spiritual maternity of so many women
Other papal stories in this issue: The Pope's eulogy at the last rites for the late Cardinal Urbano Navarrete, and his public note of condolence for Manuela Camagni, one of his housekeepers who died unexpectedly following a fatal accident. [La Repubblica today reported on the OR coverage and obituaries on Manuela, confirming that it was the first time a Pope has ever published an obituary note for anyone.] Page 1 international news: A weeklong conference in Addis Ababa tackles the problem of drinking water for African nations; Berlin expresses alarm over the European Union's rescue of Ireland and its effect on cheapening the euro; in Pakistan, despite a government minister's finding that Asia Bibi is innocent of blasphemy, her fate remains uncertain as Muslim groups insist she must be put to death.

No events announced for the Holy Father today.


Tomorrow, the new Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger-Benedetto XVI will be presented at a news conference
with Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the new foundation's research committee, Fr. Giuseppe Scotti,
president of the Vatican Publishing House and of the new Foundation; and Fr. Stephan Horn, president of the
Ratzinger Schuelerkreis and of the Munich-based Joseph Ratzinger-Papst Benedikt XVI Stiftung, after which
the Vatican foundation is modelled.



A brief comment on some synchronous events:
Surely when the Holy Father prepared his catechesis on St. Catherine of Siena for yesterday, he could not have known that one of his housekeepers would die an untimely death the same morning. And yet, when he spoke about how the Church continues to benefit from the spiritual maternity of so many women, he would have thought of Manuela and her three colleagues, of his sister Maria and his own mother, and so many shining examples of spiritual maternity, past and present.

Yet all the misguided women who insist that their 'mission' in the world is to become 'priests' have never stopped to consider the example of Catherine and of all the women saints, who did not aspire to the unlikely role of priest, but performed great and holy deeds, whatever station or occupation in life they found themselves in. Like Asia Bibi, condemned to death in an intolerant Muslim country for defending her Christian faith, providing a lesson in spiritual maternity to all persecuted Christians.

The second reflection is on the Holy Father's touching tribute to Manuela, expressing his grief and sorrow so publicly and in a precedent-setting way; and the beautiful example set by L'Osservatore Romano in this issue, by giving equal play to the death and obituaries of Manuela as to the papal eulogy and funeral rites for Cardinal Navarrete; and of course, the Secretariat of State, the Swiss Guard and Comunione e Liberazione, for their own tributes to Manuela.

Another reminder to would-be priestettes, if they could only take off their blinkers and shed their ego, that in the eyes of God, a consecrated laywoman's humble daily service is not any less than an eminent cardinal's lifetime of achievement, because both lived for the greater glory of God and in the service of their fellowmen.


My postings today will be rather erratic on account of social obligations.

I actually find this article almost hateful. And enough already with these media 'epiphanies' about the Pope's image. They have regularly announced it after every foreign trip that is a triumph, starting with Cologne in August 2005, and then revert to calling him the same tired and false names all over until the next undeniable triumph... Even worse, the pat assumptions made by the reporter or the resource persons cited are also wrong and misleading...


With 'Light of the World',
Pope sheds ‘rottweiler’ image
By Michele Leridon



Vatican City, Nov. 25 (AFP) - As Pope Benedict XVI's controversial new book is snapped up in bookshops, Vatican experts say he has cast off his reputation as a conservative “rottweiler” in favour of a more compassionate image.

From condom use to child abuse, the burqa and female ordination, Benedict talks candidly in “Light of the World” about the polemical issues that have marked his pontificate since April 2005.

The book is “the fruit of repeated crises” in the Church's relationship “with Jews, Muslims and also with public opinion on delicate issues such as paedophile priests and condoms,” Vatican expert Marco Politi said.

With this collection of interviews, the 83-year-old Pope hopes to open a “new channel of communication with the world,” Politi added.

Benedict caused a global outcry on a trip to Cameroon last year when he said condoms would “aggravate” Aids; in an apparent about-turn, he now says they can be used “in some case” to prevent the spread of disease.

“It's a considerable step forward,” said Politi. “It's the first time that a pope accepts condom use this clearly, even if a number of bishops and cardinals had already said so.”

Sandro Magister, who covers the Vatican for the Italian news weekly L'Espresso, said: “the book completely demolishes the image of retrograde, ultraconservative Ratzinger.”

“He shows a desire to understand the world. The only example he gives for condom use Ä that of a sex worker - shows his goodness, even towards sinners,” he added.

The German Pope also makes tentative inroads into delicate issues such as banning divorced people from receiving communion.

But analysts said the Pope fails to address important topics that drive modern society.

The Church still views sexuality as a means to an end - procreation - and contraception is taboo. Homosexuality is denounced as immoral whilst female ordination is simply out of the question.

However, far from living up to derogatory nicknames conjured up for him by critics such as “Panzer Cardinal” or “Grand Inquisitor,” Joseph Ratzinger admits he doesn't know all the answers, and is sometimes even afraid.

He openly acknowledges that his speech at Regensburg on Islam and violence that sparked religious riots was “more academic than political,” and claims that Catholics and Muslims are “on the same side of a common battle... the defence of major religious values.”

And above all, Benedict says he is aware of his weaknesses, even tackling the subject of a possible resignation “should a Pope realise he is no longer physically, psychologically and spiritually capable.”

“These are questions that had already been addressed by Paul VI and John Paul II, but always in a very muted way,” said Politi.

“For the first time, a Pope is publicly considering not being elected for life, if he feels he no longer has the strength to lead,” he added.

German journalist Peter Seewald, who wrote the book based on 20 hours [SIX!] of interviews with the pope, describes the Benedict he met as “old, tired and weighed down with a heavy workload,” adding another layer of meaning to the pontiff's admission that the job is not always for life [Does Seewald say that in the book? That wasn't the impression he gave in the interview with Paul Badde.]



Media ignores the truth in
reporting on Pope and condoms
by Colin Mason and Steven Mosher


WASHINGTON, DC, Nov, 24 - This past weekend, in a particularly embarrassing journalistic feeding frenzy, the mainstream media fell all over itself to see who could most egregiously misquote Pope Benedict XVI.

For those who are unaware of the “controversy”: On Saturday the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, published an excerpt from Light of the World: The Pope, The Church and The Signs Of The Times. The book, which was slated for release in various language editions worldwide on Nov. 23, is essentially a long interview with Pope Benedict by journalist Peter Seewald. In it, Seewald engages Benedict in a discussion of the Church’s take on condom use, particularly in Africa.

The editors at the usually reliable L’Osservatore Romano made two critical errors.

First, they decided that they would be the only major news source in the world to violate the book’s strict press embargo, releasing Italian-language excerpts from the book before the official launch date.

Secondly, they inexplicably decided that they would only publish a tiny segment of Benedict’s statements on condom usage, without any context whatsoever.

Here is the quote that has drawn so much attention:

---

There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.

---

This paragraph doesn’t strike me as at all ambiguous. Benedict is merely pointing out that when people like prostitutes use a condom, it can be seen as a faint glimmer of responsibility, a tiny baby step on the road to moral recovery.

And he goes on to explicitly rule out condoms as a solution to HIV/AIDS, pointing out that the epidemic will only end when human sexuality is understood in its proper context of faithful and responsible human love.

Of course, for those who delight in mischaracterizing the Church’s position, this was all the opening they needed. The internet was instantly ablaze with headlines like “Pope says condoms acceptable ‘in certain cases’,” and “Pope Endorses Condoms for Male Prostitutes For AIDS Prevention”.

Our personal favorite is this story from Britain’s The Telegraph, which claims, impossibly, that “after decades of fierce opposition to the use of all contraception, the Pontiff will end the Catholic Church’s absolute ban on the use of condoms.” What?

Fortunately, the Catholic World Report [a publication if Ignatius Press, which publishes the North American edition of LOTW] released the full excerpt of Benedict’s remarks with the questions he responded to, which makes the Pope’s original meaning abundantly clear:

---

From Chapter 11, "The Journeys of a Shepherd," pages 117-119:

On the occasion of your trip to Africa in March 2009, the Vatican’s policy on AIDs once again became the target of media criticism.Twenty-five percent of all AIDs victims around the world today are treated in Catholic facilities. In some countries, such as Lesotho, for example, the statistic is 40 percent.

In Africa you stated that the Church’s traditional teaching has proven to be the only sure way to stop the spread of HIV. Critics, including critics from the Church’s own ranks, object that it is madness to forbid a high-risk population to use condoms.
The media coverage completely ignored the rest of the trip to Africa on account of a single statement. Someone had asked me why the Catholic Church adopts an unrealistic and ineffective position on AIDs.

At that point, I really felt that I was being provoked, because the Church does more than anyone else. And I stand by that claim. Because she is the only institution that assists people up close and concretely, with prevention, education, help, counsel, and accompaniment. And because she is second to none in treating so many AIDs victims, especially children with AIDs.

I had the chance to visit one of these wards and to speak with the patients. That was the real answer: The Church does more than anyone else, because she does not speak from the tribunal of the newspapers, but helps her brothers and sisters where they are actually suffering.

In my remarks I was not making a general statement about the condom issue, but merely said, and this is what caused such great offense, that we cannot solve the problem by distributing condoms. Much more needs to be done. We must stand close to the people, we must guide and help them; and we must do this both before and after they contract the disease.

As a matter of fact, you know, people can get condoms when they want them anyway. But this just goes to show that condoms alone do not resolve the question itself. More needs to happen.

Meanwhile, the secular realm itself has developed the so-called ABC Theory: Abstinence-Be Faithful-Condom, where the condom is
understood only as a last resort, when the other two points fail to work.

This means that the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality, which, after all, is precisely the dangerous source of the attitude of no longer seeing sexuality as the expression of love, but only a sort of drug that people administer to themselves.

This is why the fight against the banalization of sexuality is also a part of the struggle to ensure that sexuality is treated as a positive value and to enable it to have a positive effect on the whole of man’s being.

There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.

Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?
She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.

---

There is little mistaking the Pope’s meaning in this quote. He points out that condoms can’t possibly be halting the spread of HIV, since the disease is rampant where condoms are widely available. He notes that even secular sources agree that a condom-only solution is no solution at all, and points to the “banalization of sexuality” as the primary culprit for the spread of AIDS.

But what is truly unacceptable here is the fact that L’Osservatore Romano omitted the clarifying follow-up question, where Benedict assures Seewald that condoms are not “a real or moral solution,” and reiterates that their usage is often just a “first step” toward a truer morality. If that quote had been released along with the more ambiguous preceding one, this entire firestorm might have been avoided.

At any rate, this entire controversy appears to be yet another media frenzy about … nothing. Once again, the Pope made some highly intelligent, nuanced remarks about a controversial subject, remarks that ham-fisted reporters across the globe proved completely incapable of processing.

But don’t expect any retractions from the media anytime soon. It labors under the delusion that the Church stands in the way if a modern, evidence-based solution to the AIDS epidemic.

The reality is that it is the international AIDS Establishment, with its billions of dollars of funding and its rigid sex-at-all-costs ideology, that has not only failed to stop the epidemic, but has actually encouraged its spread.

The Pope and his Church view Man as a creature, only a little lower than the angels, who is capable of sacrificial love and sexual self-control.

The AIDS Establishment (along with the population controllers and the pro-abortion groups) view Man as nothing more than an intelligent ape, subject to the same selfish behavior and uncontrollable ruts as his lower brethren.

The media, unfortunately, is firmly on the side of the apes.


When CWR came out with the full excerpt of the Q&A on condoms, I felt that perhaps Seewald should have added a third question which would have eliminated the perceived ambiguity that has led the liberal media, bishops and priests to interpret the Pope's remarks to mean that he personally approves of the use of condoms specifically to prevent spreading infection.

The logical follow-up question would have been: "Would it then be justifiable for a Catholic couple, in which one spouse is HIV-infected, to use condoms, or is their Catholic option limited only to practising abstinence?" - This is the very question - and the key pastoral question about any possible Catholic exceptions to the prohibition of condom use by a married couple - about which Benedict XVI himself commissioned a study in 2006, and in which case many moral theologians have advocated that condom use should be permissible.

It makes the second obvious question that Seewald did not ask. From the time this interview book was first announced, my first reaction was - "Finally, the Pope will have a chance to talk about the Ulllerman case in Munich". But I just saw another report about the book that says the question was not asked in this book.

I do not mean to quibble, and Seewald by all accounts has done a monumental job, but not to have asked about the Munich case, or thesimple follow-up question on condoms is an 'oversight' that most practising journalists would find hard to understand - and that, frankly, I am surprised neither AP, the New York Times, nor John Allen - who were the most exercised about the Munich case - have, as far as I have read, not even brought it up at all! I suspected therefore that indeed, the Munich question had not been asked, but I wanted to wait until I got my copy from Amazon today to check it out myself.


P.S. Not having been able to do any Forum work yesterday, I am now frantically trying to catch up....so bear with me.

On his blog today, Sandro Magister lists some of the egregious blunders he has spotted in the Italian edition of the book - not just in terms of mistranslation, but in appalling errors of fact in an appendix purporting to give the biographical highlights of Benedict XVI's life. Yesterday, however, he had a long post on www.chiesa that included his summation and reaction to the condom controversy, as well as a reprint of his first review of the book published in L'Espresso. I will begin with that....


The good shepherd
and the lost sheep
by SANDRO MAGISTER
Adapted from Matthew Sherry's translation in www.chiesa



In six hours of conversation with the Bavarian journalist Peter Seewald in the summer quiet of Castel Gandolfo, spread over six days like those of creation, and transcribed just as they took place in a book fresh from the presses, Benedict XVI has given the world the most accurate image of him.

That of a man enchanted by the marvels of creation, joyful, unable to bear a life lived always and only "against," happily [????] convinced that in the Church, "many who seem to be inside, are outside; and many who seem to be outside, are inside."

"We are sinners," Pope Benedict says when the interviewer corners [????] him on the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which prohibits all artiifial means of contraception.

Paul VI wrote and published it in 1968, and it became the emblem of the 'incompatibility' between the Church and modern culture. Joseph Ratzinger does not repudiate one iota of Humanae Vitae. The "truth" is what it is, and remains such.

"Fascinating," he says, for the 'minorities' that are deeply convinced of it. But the Pope immediately turns his attention to the endless masses of men and women who do not live that "high morality" to say that "we should seek to do all the good possible, and sustain and support one another."

This is the Pope who emerges from the book-length interview "Light of the World" - the same who revealed himself in the first Mass he celebrated after his election as Successor of Peter. A shepherd who goes out in search of the lost sheep, and takes it on his shoulders like the lamb's wool of the pallium that he wears, and experiences much more joy over the sheep that is recovered than over the ninety-nine in the sheepfold.

Only few at the time understood this. The Ratzinger of the caricatures was for a long time the frigid professor, the iron inquisitor, the pitiless judge. It took five years after the perfect storm of the pedophile priests to shred this false image definitively. [Magister is way too optimistic, considering the way of the world! Watch what happens at the first papal statement or action after LOTW that meets with the media's disapprocal. In fact, it may come as early as tomorrow, with the Prayer Vigil for Unborn Life.]

Unlike many other Church figures, Benedict XVI does not complain about plotting, he does not twist the accusations back against the accusers. On the contrary, in the book he says that "as long as efforts are being made to bring the truth to light, we must be appreciative."

And he explains: "Truth, united with love when understood correctly, is the number one value. And the media would not have been able to give those accounts if the evil had not been there in the Church itself. It is only because the evil was inside the Church that the others were able to hold it against her."

From the man who was the first in the Catholic hierarchy to diagnose and combat this "filth," and then, as Pope, to bear the burden of faults and omissions that were not his own, these are striking words.

But this is the style in which Benedict XVI treats other controversial questions, in the book. He goes straight to the heart of the issue. Female priesthood? Pius XII and the Jews? Homosexuality? The burqa? The condom? The interviewer presses, and the Pope doesn't dodge.

About the burqa, he says that he does not see the reasons for a generalized prohibition. If it is imposed on women through violence, "it is clear that one cannot agree with this." But if it is worn voluntarily, "I do not see why they should be prevented from doing so."

One might object to the Pope that a veil that completely covers the face poses problems of security in the civilian sphere. A legitimate objection, because he gave the interview in part to open discussions, not to close them.

In the preface to JESUS OF NAZARETH in 2007, Ratzinger wrote that "everyone is free to contradict me." And he was careful to specify that the book was not a "magisterial act," but "only an expression of my personal search."

Where the Magisterium of the Church seems in question, in the interview, is where the Pope talks about the condom, COLORE=#B200FF]justifying its use in particular cases.

No "revolutionary shift," was the speedy clarification from Fr. Federico Lombardi, the official voice of the see of Peter. In fact, many cardinals and bishops and theologians, but above all countless ranks of pastors and missionaries have for some time peacefully 'allowed' the use of the condom, for many persons who are in their care.

But it is one thing for them to do it, and another for a Pope to say it out loud. Benedict XVI is the first Pontiff in history to cross this Rubicon, with disarming tranquility.

[IMHO, I disagree with Magister's (and that of many other friendly commentators) rash conclusions, for the following reasons:
1) Even assuming that the Pope expressed 'justification' for some condom use by his words in the interview, they would still be personal opinion and not the Magisterium at all!
2) But Benedict XVI is too intelligent not to realize that anything he says is bound to be interpreted - not just by the 'ignorant' media but also by simple faithful - as official Church teaching, and not just his personal opinion, even if he labels it as such. Therefore, he would never say anything that would throw confusion about official Church doctrine.

Of course, I could be completely wrong, and he may have committed an unlikely lapse this time, but read his answers!]

And yet, he is the same man, who less than two years ago, unleashed a deafening chorus of worldwide protest for having said, on a flight to Africa, that "AIDS is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems."

It was March of 2009. Benedict XVI was accused of condemning myriads of Africans to death in the name of blind condemnation of latex protection. Actually, the Pope wanted to call attention to the danger – in Africa, backed up by facts – that wider use of the condom would be accompanied not by a drop, but by a rise in casual and promiscuous sex, and in the rates of infection.

In the interview, Ratzinger resumes the thread of this reasoning, at the time widely misunderstood, and observes that even outside of the Church, among the leading worldwide experts on the fight against AIDS, it is increasingly believed that a campaign centered on sexual continence and conjugal fidelity is more effective than the indiscriminate distribution of condoms. [Precisely because of this statement in the interview, Seewald should have asked the simple follow-up question - 'Should Catholic couples in whom one is HIV-infected be allowed to use the condom, or should their only Catholic option be abstinence?' ]

"Sheer fixation on the condom," the Pope continues, "implies a banalization of sexuality, which, after all, is precisely the dangerous source of the attitude of no longer seeing sexuality as the expression of love, but only a sort of drug that people administer to themselves."

At this point, one would expect Benedict XVI to reiterate the absolute condemnation of the condom. And instead no. Taking the reader by surprise, he says that in various cases its use can be justified, for reasons other than contraception. [NO! The Pope never said those words. This is an extrapolation that Magister and likeminded commentators have freely done. Read what the Pope actually said!]

And he gives the example of "a prostitute" who uses the condom to prevent infection: the example, that is, of an action that still remains sinful but in which the sinner has a jolt of responsibility that the Pope sees as "a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality." [So, the example was meant to point towards 'a first step in moralization' in its most unlikely setting - prostitution, which is in itself the greater sin that condom use does not absolve. If the statement had been to justify condom use in general to minimize contagion, he would have used the more obvious and more common example of married Catholic couples in which one spouse is HIV-infected, rather than the unwieldy example of an infected male prostitute and his client! The subsequent clarification that the argument also applies to female prostitutes only underscores that the point of the Pope's example was primarily intended to highlight a possible 'start of moralization', rather than justifying condom use per se.]

If this loving understanding applies to a sinner, it could apply all the more to the classic case encountered in Africa and elsewhere by pastors and missionaries: that of two spouses, one of whom is sick with AIDS and uses a condom to avoid endangering the life of the other.

Among the cardinals who so far have conjectured, more or less surreptitiously[Hardly surreptitious - they have written about it and been interviewed about it], the permissibility of these and other similar behaviors [????] are the Italians Carlo Maria Martini and Dionigi Tettamanzi, the Mexican Javier Lozano Barragán, the Swiss Georges Cottier.
[And yet, are any of these cardinals crowing now that their opinion has prevailed with the Pope? Even granting Magister's assumptions, these cardinals also know the difference between informal opinion and Church Magisterium.]

But in 2006, when La Civiltà Cattolica, the magazine of the Rome Jesuits printed with the imprimatur of the Vatican secretariat of state, entrusted the argument to a great expert in the field, Fr. Michael F. Czerny, director of the Nairobi-based African Jesuit AIDS Network, the article came out purged of the passages that justified the use of condoms to prevent infection. COLORE=#0026FF][In other words, the Church was saying that such teaching was not part of the Magisterium.]

It took Pope Benedict to say what no one had dared to say before, at the top of the Church. And this is enough to make him a humble, meek revolutionary.

While Mr. Magister is one of the most esteemed reporter-commentaros on church affairs and he has been at it for many decades, I am surprised, to say the least, that he makes no distinction at all in this article between what a Pope says informally and what the Church officially teaches. And that he ignores the 'abstinence' option altogether.

Of course, his indiscriminate advocacy may well be due to the fact that he is as passionate in his personal belief that Benedict XVI really intended what Magister believes he intended with his statements, in the same way that I am passionate about believing that Benedict XVI would never knowingly throw confusion about this particular teaching...

Friday, November 26, 34th Week in Ordinary Time

Portraits at left by Carlo Crivelli and Caravaggio; center panel shows scenes from the saint's martyrdom. Other images are uncredited.
ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA (Egypt, 4th century), Virgin and Martyr
Another early saint whose known biography rests on legend. She is said to have converted to Christianity at age 18 after receiving a vision.
Under the Emperor Maximinus, she reportedly debated 50 pagan philosophers, who were so impressed by her wisdom that they became
Christians, as did about 200 soldiers and members of the emperor’s family. All of them were martyred. Sentenced to be executed on
a spiked wheel [which came to be known as the Catherine-wheel], it shattered at her touch. She was beheaded. Centuries later, angels
were said to have carried her body to the monastery built by Emperor Justinian at the foot of Mt. Sinai.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/112610.shtml


No papal stories in today's OR. Page 1 international news concerns:
Financial speculators target Spain as the next object of an EU bailout, but the country's finance minister says Spain won't ask for one; an analysis of the Afghan situation and the gap between the Afghan government and the US-led NATO forces about military strategy against the Taliban; a UN report warning that in the next 40 years Africa will be a nation of megalopolises with all the consequent problems - already 70 cities with a current population of less than 500,000 are growing at an alarming rate. In Church news, Cardinal Sandri's homily at a Mass in St. Peter's basilica on Thursday in behalf of the victims of violence in Iraq and the Christian communities there; an address by Mons. Rino Fisichella on the new evangelization given at an anniversary session in Brussels this week of the Catholic Conference of European Bishops; an essay by Newman biographer Ian Ker on Blessed John Henry's thinking about ecumenical councils; and an interview with the new secretary of the Pontifical Council for Consecrated Life and Apostolic Societies on the 'anti-conformism' of religious orders.



THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Members of the federation of Italian Catholic weekly newspapers. Address in Italian.

- Cardinal Gaudencio B. Rosales, Archbishop of Manila (Philippines), and his two auxiliary bishops,
starting the ad limina visits by the bishops of Asia's largest Catholic country.

- Rev. Geoffrey Rowell, Anglican Bishop for Europe (based in Gibraltar)

- Participants in the General Assembly of the Union of Superiors-General and the administrative committee
of the International Union of Superiors-General. Address in Italian.

In the afternoon, with

- Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (weekly meeting)

One must applaud the UK's Catholic Herald for performing one very obvious service that no one else (as far as I know) has seen fit to do - publish what the Pope says in LOTW about the sexual abuse crisis. Even references to it in the MSM have been fleeting, and always secondary to the condom remarks - I suspect because the Pope comes out very reasonable and compassionate and positive about the issue, and MSM doggedly refuse to concede him that, despite all he has said and done so far... The CH extract was accompanied by the following editorial

The interview with Peter Seewald:
A landmark in the ministry of Pope Benedict XVI
Editorial

24 November 2010

On Tuesday, publishers around the world released the first-ever book based on a face-to-face interview with a Pontiff. The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano printed the first extracts days earlier, generating what one commentator called “the world’s most successful pre-book launch hype”. [Would one really use the adjective 'successful' for what happened?]

That hype, of course, focused on Benedict XVI’s remarks about AIDS and condoms. But there is so much else besides in Light of the World. The interview by the veteran German journalist Peter Seewald offers arguably the most intimate portrait of a serving Pope in history.

The figure that emerges is compelling: Pope Benedict possesses an all too rare combination of humble faith and sparkling intellect, which enlivens even the most commonplace topics. He also displays a bracing realism about the challenges facing the Church, both from within and without.

We want, in particular, to draw your attention to the Pope’s words on the abuse crisis. We hope that these will help the faithful who watched in dismay when, as the Holy Father puts it, “a tremendous cloud of filth” descended on the Church earlier this year.

Benedict XVI’s comments about condoms have disappointed some Catholics and elated others. We believe that, correctly understood, they should be welcomed. The Pope was not, of course, altering Catholic teaching on contraception or setting aside the Church’s conviction that condoms are not a moral solution to the AIDS crisis.

Nevertheless, as the Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said, Pope Benedict was making an important and original contribution to the debate about what the Church should say to those with HIV whose sexual activity exposes others to mortal risk.

In speaking of a “first step in the direction of a moralisation” of sexuality the Holy Father is offering us a new language with which to explain how Church teaching applies to such cases. We encourage everyone to reflect deeply on the Pope’s precise words and to recognise that Benedict XVI is seeking, above all, to show those who are living far beyond the Church the path that leads to God.

No one who reads Light of the World will be left in any doubt about the Pope’s top priority: to make God known to everyone alive today. This book is an important landmark in that mission.


Light of the World:
an extract on the abuse crisis

---

Exactly one year later [after the Williamson affair], the darkest clouds gather over the Catholic Church. As though out of a deep abyss, countless incomprehensible cases of sexual abuse from the past come to light – acts committed by priests and religious. The clouds cast their shadows even on the Chair of Peter. Now no one is talking any more about the moral authority for the world that is usually granted a pope. How great is this crisis? Is it really, as we occasionally read, one of the greatest in the history of the Church?
Yes, it is a great crisis, we have to say that. It was upsetting for all of us. Suddenly so much filth. It was really almost like the crater of a volcano, out of which suddenly a tremendous cloud of filth came, darkening and soiling everything, so that above all, the priesthood suddenly seemed to be a place of shame and every priest was under the suspicion of being one like that too. Many priests declared that they no longer dared to extend a hand to a child, much less go to a summer camp with children.

For me the affair was not entirely unexpected. In the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith I had already dealt with the American cases; I had also seen the situation emerge in Ireland. But on this scale it was nevertheless an unprecedented shock.

Since my election to the Chair of Peter I have already met several times with victims of sexual abuse. Three and a half years ago, in October 2006, in my address to the bishops of Ireland, I had called for them to bring the truth to light, to take whatever steps necessary to prevent such egregious crimes from occurring again, to ensure that the principles of law and justice are fully respected and, above all, to bring healing to the victims.

Suddenly to see the priesthood so defiled, and with it the Catholic Church herself, at the very heart – that was something that we were really just beginning to cope with. But it was imperative not to lose sight of the fact that there is good in the Church and not only those horrible things.

Cases of abuse in the Church are worse than elsewhere. Greater demands must be met by consecrated persons. Already at the beginning of the century, as you said, a series of abuse cases in the United States had become known.

After the Ryan Report revealed the vast extent of sexual abuse in Ireland, too, the Church in another country was in shambles. “It will take generations,” said the Irish religious priest Vincent Twomey, “to make reparation.”

In Ireland the problem is altogether specific – there is a self-enclosed Catholic society, so to speak, which remained true to its faith despite centuries of oppression, but in which, then, evidently certain attitudes were also able to develop. I cannot analyse that in detail now.

To see a country that gave the world so many missionaries, so many saints, which in the history of the missions also stands at the origin of our faith in Germany, now in a situation like this is tremendously upsetting and depressing.

Above all, of course, for the Catholics in Ireland itself, where now as always there are many good priests. We must examine thoroughly how it was possible for that to happen, and at the same time what can be done so that something like that does not happen again.

You are right: it is a particularly serious sin when someone who is actually supposed to help people toward God, to whom a child or a young person is entrusted in order to find the Lord, abuses him instead and leads him away from the Lord. As a result the faith as such becomes unbelievable, and the Church can no longer present herself credibly as the herald of the Lord.

All this shocked us and very deeply upsets me, now as before. However, the Lord told us also that among the wheat there will be weeds — but that the seed, his seed, will nevertheless continue to grow. We are confident of that.

It is not only the abuse that is upsetting, it is also the way of dealing with it. The deeds themselves were hushed up and kept secret for decades. That is a declaration of bankruptcy for an institution that has love written on its banner.
The Archbishop of Dublin told me something very interesting about that. He said that ecclesiastical penal law functioned until the late 1950s; admittedly it was not perfect – there is much to criticise about it – but nevertheless it was applied. After the mid-1960s, however, it was simply not applied any more.

The prevailing mentality was that the Church must not be a Church of laws but, rather, a Church of love; she must not punish. Thus the awareness that punishment can be an act of love ceased to exist. This led to an odd darkening of the mind, even in very good people.

Today we have to learn all over again that love for the sinner and love for the person who has been harmed are correctly balanced if I punish the sinner in the form that is possible and appropriate.

In this respect there was in the past a change of mentality, in which the law and the need for punishment were obscured. Ultimately this also narrowed the concept of love, which in fact is not just being nice or courteous, but is found in the truth. And another component of truth is that I must punish the one who has sinned against real love.

In Germany the avalanche of discoveries of sexual abuse started because now the Church herself went public. A Jesuit preparatory school in Berlin reported the first cases, but very soon crimes from other institutions became known, and not only Catholic ones. But why were the revelations in America and Ireland not taken as the occasion to investigate immediately in other countries as well, to get in touch with victims – so as to eliminate any perpetrators who might still have been at work?

We responded to the matter in America immediately with revised, stricter norms. In addition, collaboration between the secular and ecclesiastical authorities was improved. Would it have been Rome’s duty, then, to say to all the countries expressly: find out whether you are in the same situation? Maybe we should have done that. For me, in any case, it was a surprise that abuse also existed on that scale in Germany.

The fact that newspapers and television reported extensively on such things was in the service of indispensable information. The ideologically tinged one-sidedness and aggressiveness of many in the media, however, took on the form of a propaganda war that exceeded all bounds. Regardless of that, the Pope made it clear: “The greatest persecution of the Church comes not from her enemies without, but arises from sin within the Church.”

There was no overlooking the fact that what guided this press campaign was not only a sincere desire for truth, but there was also some pleasure in exposing the Church and if possible discrediting her.

All that notwithstanding, one thing was always clear: insofar as it is the truth, we must be grateful for every disclosure. The truth, combined with love rightly understood, is the number-one value. And finally, the media could not have reported in this way had there not been evil in the Church herself. Only because there was evil in the Church could it be played off against her by others.

Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, a former German constitutional judge, remarked: “The words that Pope Benedict used years ago in the United States and now in his letter to Irish Catholics could not be harsher.”

The real reason for the decades-long failure, he says, lies in deep-seated patterns of behaviour according to a Church policy that places the welfare and reputation of the Church above all else. The welfare of the victims, on the other hand, automatically becomes a secondary matter, although actually they are first and foremost the ones in need of the Church’s protection.
Analysing this is, of course, not easy. What does Church policy mean? Why didn’t people react formerly in the same way they do now? Even the press formerly did not take up such matters; the mentality back then was different. We know that the victims themselves, too, feel great shame and do not necessarily want to be thrust immediately into the spotlight. Many were able only decades later to talk about what had happened to them.

It is important that we first take care of the victims and do everything that we can to help, support, and heal them; secondly, that such acts be prevented by the proper selection of candidates for the priesthood, as much as possible; and, thirdly, that the perpetrators be punished and be barred from any opportunity to repeat such acts. To what extent the cases must then be made public is, I think, a separate question, which will be answered differently in different stages of public awareness.

It is never permissible, however, to steal away and to wish not to have seen it and to let the perpetrator continue working. It is therefore necessary for the Church to be vigilant, to punish those who have sinned, and above all to exclude them from further access to children.

First and foremost, as we said, comes charity toward the victims and efforts to do everything good to help them cope with what they have experienced.

You had spoken on various occasions about instances of abuse, last but not least in the pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland that was just mentioned. Nevertheless, there was an endless series of headlines like, “Pope Silent on Abuse Cases”, “Pope Wraps Himself in Silence”, “Pope Benedict Silent on Abuse Scandals in the Catholic Church”. Shouldn’t some things have been said more often or louder in a world that has become so noisy and hard of hearing?
Of course one may wonder about that. Objectively, I think, everything essential was said. After all, what was true for Ireland was not said just to Ireland. To that extent the word of the Church and of the Pope was completely clear, unquestionable, and audible everywhere.

In Germany, at first, we also had to leave it up to the bishops to speak. But one can always wonder whether the Pope should not speak more often. I would not venture to decide that now.

But ultimately you have to decide. Better communication might well have improved the situation.
Yes, that is right. But I think that, on the one hand, the essential thing really was said. And the fact that it applies not just to Ireland actually was clear. On the other hand, the bishops, as I already noted, have the first say. In that respect it was surely not wrong to wait.

The great majority of these cases took place decades ago. Nevertheless they burden your pontificate now in particular. Have you thought of resigning?
When the danger is great one must not run away. For that reason, now is certainly not the time to resign. Precisely at a time like this one must stand fast and endure the difficult situation. That is my view. One can resign at a peaceful moment or when one simply cannot go on. But one must not run away from danger and say that someone else should do it.

Is it possible then to imagine a situation in which you would consider a resignation by the Pope appropriate?
Yes. If a Pope clearly realises that he is no longer physically, psychologically, and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right and, under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign.

Anyone who followed the story in the mass media during those days must have had the impression that the Catholic Church is exclusively a system of injustice and sexual crimes. It was immediately said that Catholic teaching on sexuality and celibacy is directly connected with abuse. The fact that there were similar incidents in non-Catholic institutions faded into the background.

The German criminologist Christian Pfeiffer reported that approximately 0.1 per cent of those who committed abuse come from the personnel of the Catholic Church; 99.9 per cent came from other areas.

In the United States, a government report for the year 2008 lists the proportion of priests who were involved in cases of paedophilia at 0.03 per cent. The Protestant Christian Science Monitor published a study according to which the Protestant denominations in America are affected by a much higher rate of paedophilia.

Is the Catholic Church being watched differently and evaluated differently with regard to abuse?
Actually you have already given the answer. If you look at the real statistics, that does not authorise us to look away from the problem or to minimise it. But we must also note that in these matters we are not dealing with something specific to the Catholic priesthood or the Catholic Church. They are, unfortunately, simply rooted in man’s sinful situation, which is also present in the Catholic Church and led to these terrible results.

However, it is also important not to lose sight now of all the good that comes about through the Church. Not to ignore how many people are helped in their suffering, how many sick people, how many children are assisted, how much aid is provided.

I think that whereas we must not minimise the evil and must sorrowfully acknowledge it, by the same token we must also still be grateful for how much light streams forth from the Catholic Church and should make that visible. It would lead to a collapse of entire sectors of social life if she were no longer there.

And nevertheless it is difficult for many people these days to stand by the Church. Can you understand why people respond by leaving in protest?
I can understand it. I am thinking of course above all about the victims themselves. That it is difficult for them to keep believing that the Church is a source of good, that she communicates the light of Christ, that she helps people in life – I can understand that.

And others, who have only these negative perceptions, no longer see then the overall picture, the life of the Church. All the more reason that the Church must strive to make this vitality and greatness visible again, despite all that is negative.

As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, immediately after the cases of abuse in the United States became known, you issued guidelines for dealing with those cases. They also deal with cooperation with the civil authorities and ongoing preventive measures. This should forestall any cover-ups. The guidelines were made even stricter in 2003. What conclusions does the Vatican draw from cases that have recently become known?
These guidelines have now been newly revised once more, and were recently published in the final version. Always as a continuation of the experience that has been gained, so as to be able to respond better, more precisely and correctly to this situation.

Yet penal law alone is not sufficient here. It is one thing to handle these cases in a way that is legally correct. It is another thing to ensure as much as possible that they no longer happen.

To that end we authorised a major visitation of the seminaries in America. Here, there were evidently also instances of neglect, failure to investigate carefully enough young men who did have a special gift for working with youth and seemed also to be religiously inclined, but who should have been recognised as being unsuited for the priesthood. Prevention is therefore an important field.

Then there is the need for positive formation in true chastity and in dealing correctly with one’s own sexuality and that of others.

Then theologically as well there is certainly much to be developed and an appropriate climate to be created.

And then of course the whole faith community should also become involved in thinking about vocations and promoting them and being attentive to individuals. On the one hand, to guide and support them – and, on the other hand, to help the superiors discern whether or not persons are suitable.

And so there must be a whole bundle of measures – on the one hand, preventive, on the other hand, reactive – and finally, positive measures in creating a spiritual climate in which these things can be eliminated, overcome, and as far as possible precluded.

Recently in Malta you met with several victims of abuse. One of them, Joseph Magro, said afterward:“The Pope wept along with me, although he is in no way guilty for what happened to me.” What were you able to say to the victims?
Actually I could not say anything special at all to them. I was able to tell them that it affects me very deeply. That I suffer with them. And that was not just an expression, but it really touches my heart.

And I was able to tell them that the Church will do everything possible so that this does not happen again, and that we intend to help them as well as we can.

And finally, that we keep them in our prayers and ask them not to lose faith in Christ as the true light and in the living communion of the Church.

---

What is obvious, once again, from the above extended extract, is that Benedict XVI does not speak in 'soundbites". He speaks in 'thought bites' that are often a crime to paraphrase or summarize or reduce in any way. I have always maintained that his 'thought flow' is just as important as what he actually says, which is why I try to highlight his full texts whenever possible, as promptly as possible.


Apropos, Fr. Tim sings the praises of the CH in his blog today.


Superb issue of Catholic Herald

Friday, November 26, 2010

The Catholic Herald is the best Catholic paper in Britain but this week I felt that it had excelled itself.



The banner headline "Benedict XVI: the inside story" was exactly right with an excellent summary article by Anna Arco who confessed on Facebook on Tuesday "Grrrrrr. Press day = stress day" I imagine it must have been particularly stressful this week since as well as the front page article, she has several others on pages 2-3 on which she and and colleagues provide good, accurate and concise summary and comments on Light of the World.

Following the Herald on Twitter, I learned that Anna had also got hold of a copy of the German edition. This illustrates the kind of attention to accuracy and detail which puts the Herald out in front.

Ronald Knox once quipped that a typical headline in the Catholic papers was "Nun stung by bee on way to Benediction". I remember once at Oxford when this quote was doing the rounds, that a Catholic paper had the headline "Vicar sends Pope a pair of socks."

Therefore it is perhaps in the genre for the front page to include "Pope give £85,000 truffle to homeless" (to avoid any silly outrage on this matter, let me hasten to add that the truffle in question had been donated to the Pope by an Italian businessman who paid 100,000 euro for it at a charity auction.) [This was a recent bagatelle that I ought to have posted but it was of course, literally overshadowed by LOTW.]

Of course there is "other news" this week and the paper covers the Bishops' Conference, focussing particularly on the setting up of the Ordinariate, it has two good articles on the consistory, and covers the illicit episcopal ordination of Fr Joseph Guo Jincai in China....

Fr. Tim uses this amusing - but old - CH headline to call attention:


In an earlier blog this week, Fr. Tim commented on the condom confusion as follows:

---

Quite a few Catholics fail to understand the distinction between the private opinions of a Pope*(with which we may disagree), his authentic, non-infallible magisterium (to which we should give the religious submission of mind and will), and his extraordinary infallible magisterium in which he enjoys that infallibility which Christ willed His Church to enjoy in defining matters of faith and morals.

It is true that people do not read papal lectures as academic presentations. Unfortunately, it is also true that people do not read unprepared remarks to a journalist as informal comments.

---

*The novelty is that we have not been used to knowing the 'private opinion of a Pope' until John Paul II's non-magisterial books, and in a much less guarded way, in LOTW.

Second visit to Africa:
Pope Benedict to Benin
in November 2011


ROME, Nov. 26 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict will make a three-day visit to Benin in November next year, his second trip as pontiff to Africa where the Catholic Church is growing faster than on any other continent.

According to a Vatican statement on Friday, the Pope will deliver a document to African Catholic leaders that will develop themes discussed at the 2009 synod of bishops on Africa, and serve as a guide to the Church in Africa in coming years.

His visit to the west African state will run from November 18-20.

The Pope made a first trip to Africa as Pontiff in 2009, when he visited Cameroon and Angola. He sparked a storm of criticism from around the world during that trip for saying that the use of condoms was complicating the fight against AIDS. [Hallelujah, the first MSM 'summary' of what the Pope said that is correct! Followed alas by the following rash interpretation of his more recent statements: ]

This month the Pope said condoms are sometimes morally justifiable to stop AIDS, a comment seen as a breakthrough for efforts to fight the disease in Africa, giving health workers and clergy more scope to broach the still taboo subject.

Despite recent progress, the AIDS-causing virus HIV still afflicts 22.5 million Africans -- two-thirds of the world total.


At right, top, the Cathedral of Cotonou, and below, the Grand Mosque of Cotonou (haven't found out why it appears to be a former church!]

Benin, formerly known as Dahomey, was a French colony which gained independence and changed its name in 1960. It has two capitals located close together on the southeastern coast - Porto Novo, the administrative capital, and the larger, better known Cotonou.

Benin has a present population of about 9 million (CIA stats, July 2010). Latest figures for religion come from the 2002 census: 43% are Christian (of which more than hald, 27% of total population, are Catholics); Muslims, 25%; Voodoo, 17%; and other religions, 16%.

The late Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, former prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and the first African papabile, was from Benin, as is the present secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Cardinal Gantin was with Cardinal Ratzinger as one of the five cardinals named by Paul VI in his last consistory, and preceded Cardinal Ratzinger as dean of the College of Cardinals.

---

Updating what we know so far of the Pope's pastoral/apostolic visits in 2011:

May 7-9 Venice and Aquileia
Jun 4-5 CROATIA
Jun 18 San Marino-Montefeltro
Aug 18-21 SPAIN (Madrid World Youth Day)
September GERMANY (Berlin, Erfurt, Freiburg)
Oct 9 Lamezia Terme-Certosa San Bruno
November BENIN

---

Pope tells Catholic journalists
to be fair and serve the Truth




26 NOV 2010 (RV) - On Friday, Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholic journalists to “courageously serve the truth, presenting the reasons for faith beyond ideological visions”. He was speaking to a group of editors and reporters from the Italian Federation of Catholic Weeklies.

In his remarks, he also said: "The unique function of Catholic newspapers” is to “proclaim the Good News” by reporting the concrete facts and real situations that Christian communities experience”....

Here is a full translation of the Holy Father's remarks:

---

Dear brothers and sisters:

I am happy to meet you on the occasion of the assembly of the Federation of Italian Catholic Weekly Newspapers.

My heartfelt greeting goes to Mons. Mariano Crociata, secretary of the Italian bishops' conference, and to don Giorgio Zucchelli, president of the Federation, whom I thank for his kind words.

I greet all the editors and their co-workers in the 188 Catholic newspapers represented in the Federation, along with various other news organs of Catholic inspiration, especially the editor of the news agency SIR and the editor of the newspaper Avvenire.

I am grateful for this encounter, whereby you manifest your loyalty to the Church and her magisterium. I also thank you for your continuing support for the annual collection of Peter's Pence and the good works promoted and supported by the Holy See.

Your Federation brings together the diocesan newspapers and various Catholic news organs throughout the Italian peninsula.

It began in 1966 to respond to the need then to develop synergies and collaborations, aimed at advancing the valuable task of making known the life, activities and teachings of the Church.

By creating channels of communication among the various local press organs spread all over Italy, it was intended to promote collaboration and bring a certain organic character to various intellectual and creative potentials in order to increase the effectiveness and incisiveness of announcing the Gospel message.

This is the unique function of Catholic newspapers: to announce the Good News by recounting the concrete events lived by the Christian communities and the real situations in which they find themselves.

Just as a pinch of yeast mixed with flour ferments the dough, so the Church, present in society, makes everything that is true and good and beautiful grow and mature - and you have the task of calling attention to this presence, which promotes and strengthens all that is authentically human and which brings to men today the message of truth and hope from our Lord Jesus Christ.

You know quite well that, in the post-modern context in which we live, one of the most important cultural challenges involves the way that truth is understood.

The dominant culture, that which is most widespread in the media Areopagus, has a skeptical and relativistic attitude with respect to the truth, considering it equivalent to simple opinion, and consequently, maintaining that it is possible to have multiple 'truths'.

But the desire in the heart of man bears witness to the impossibility of being content with partial truths: That is why the human being seeks "an ulterior truth that would be able to explain the sense of life; therefore, it is a search that cannot find any success except in absolute truth" (John Paul II, Fides et ratio, 33).

The truth, for which man thirsts, is a person: the Lord Jesus. In the encounter with this Truth, in knowing and loving him, we find true peace and true happiness.

The mission of the Church is to create the conditions so that this encounter of man with Christ may take place. Collaborating in this task, the organs of information are called on to serve the truth with courage, to aid public opinion to look at reality and read it from the evangelical point of view.

It means presenting one's reasons for the faith which, as they are, go far beyond any ideological vision and has full citizenship rights in the public debate. From this need arises your constant commitment to give voice and a point of view that reflects Catholic thought in all ethical and social questions.

Dear friends, the importance of your presence is proven by the widespread dissemination of the weekly newspapers that you represent. This dissemination passes through the medium of printed publications which, because of their simplicity, continue to be effective echo chambers of what happens inside the various diocesan entities.

Therefore I exhort you to continue with your service of information on the events which mark the way of your communities, on their daily life, on the many charitable or beneficial initiatives that they promote.

Continue to be newspapers for the people, seeking to promote an authentic dialog among the various social components, arenas for confrontation and loyal debate among different opinions.

By doing so, Catholic newspapers, even as they carry out the important task of informing, carry out at the same time an irreplaceable formative function, promoting an evangelical understanding of complex realities, as well as educating critical Christian consciences.

Thereby, you also respond to the appeal of the Italian bishops' conference which has placed the educational challenge at the center of its pastoral commitment for the coming decade, the need to give the Christian people a solid and robust formation.

Dear brothers and sisters, every Christian, through the sacrament of Baptism, becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit, and, immersed in the death and resurrection of the Lord, is consecrated to him and belongs to him.

You, too, in order to fulfill your important task, must first of all cultivate a constant and profound bond with Christ: Only profound communion with him will make you capable of bringing to men today the announcement of salvation!

In your industry and dedication to your daily work, know how to bear witness to your faith, the great and gratuitous gift of Christian calling.

Continue to maintain yourselves in ecclesial communion with your pastors, in order to be able to cooperate with them, as editors and administrators of Catholic weeklies, in the evangelizing mission of the Church.

As I take leave of you, I wish to assure you that I remember in prayer the lamented Mons. Franco Peradotto, who recently passed away, first president of the Federation, and longtime editor of Turin's Voce del Popolo.

Entrusting your federation ans your work to the heavenly intercession of the Virgin Mary and of St. Francis de Sales, I impart to you and all your co-workers the Apostolic Blessing.

---

Pope to Superiors-General:
Seek God in your brothers




26 NOV 2010 (RV) - Pope Benedict XVI on Friday addressed the participants in the general assembly of the Union of Superiors-General and International Union of Superiors-General.

Speaking to them in the Vatican’s Sala Clementina, the Holy Father XVI reflected on the previous two assemblies, which focused on the future of religious life in Europe. The Holy Father said that considering religious life means rethinking the very meaning of vocation and seeking God.

The Holy Father said: "Seek God in the brethren that He gave you, with whom you share the same life and mission. Seek Him in the men and women to which you are sent to offer the gift of the Gospel. And seek Him in particularly in the poor – the first recipients of the Good News".

The Pope encouraged them to always be passionate seekers and witnesses of God, and to be a living Gospel.

The Holy Father went on to discuss fraternity as a fundamental aspect of religious life, saying that it is what most young people seek when approaching their vocation.

He called on the Superiors-General to be masters of discernment in their positions, to help their communities recognize what is from the Lord and what is not.

Without discernment, the Pope said, consecrated life is in danger of giving in to individualism, consumerism and materialism – worldly criteria that can cause a religious community to fail.

Finally, the Holy Father highlighted the importance of mission. He said that mission, supported by a strong experience of God and a robust training and life in community, is key to understanding and revitalizing consecrated life.

The Pope urged the Superiors-General to renew their presence in the Areopagus of today and to announce, as St. Paul of Athens did, the “unknown” God.

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

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Dearest brothers and sisters:

I am happy to meet you on the occasion of this semestral assembly of the Union of Superiors General, during which you are celebrating, in continuity with your meeting last May, consecrated life in Europe today.

I greet the President, don Pascual Chavez, whom I thank for the words he addressed to me, as well as the Executive Council, with a particular greeting to the Administrative Council of the Internal Union of Superiors General and to all the Superiors General present.

My thoughts go as well to your brothers and sisters spread around the world, especially those who are suffering in bearing witness to the Gospel. I wish to express sincere thanks for what you do in the Church and with the Church in behalf of evangelization and of man.

I think of all your multiple pastoral activities in parishes, in shrines and in centers of worship, in catechesis and in the Christian formation of children, young people and adults, manifesting your passion for Christ and for mankind.

I think of the great work you do in the educational field, in schools and universities, in numerous social works, through which you reach out to our neediest brothers with the love of God himself. And I think of the witness, often risky, of evangelical life in the missio ad gentes under often difficult circumstances.

Your last two assemblies have been dedicated to considering the future of consecrated life in Europe. This has meant rethinking your vocation which entails, first of all, seeking God, quaerere Deum: by vocation, you are searchers of God.

To this search, you have consecrated the best energies of your lives. You must go from secondary things to the essentials, to that which is truly important. You must find the definitive - find God, and keep your gaze fixed on him.

Like the first monks, cultivate an eschatological outlook - behind the provisional, seek that which remains, that which does not pass away (cfr, Address, College des Bernardins, Paris, 9/12/08).

Look for God in the brothers that he has given you, with whom you share life and mission. Look for him in the men and women of our time, to whom you are invited to give, with your life and words, the gift of the Gospel. Look for him especially in the poor, the first for whom the Good News is destined (cfr Lk 4,18).

Look for him in the Church, where the Lord is present, especially in the Eucharist and in the other Sacraments, and in his Word, which is the royal road for seeking God, which introduces us to a conversation with him, and reveals to us his true face.

Always be passionate searchers and witnesses of God!

The profound renewal of consecrated life starts from the centrality of the Word of God, more concretely, of the Gospel, the supreme rule for all of you, as the second Vatican Council states in the decree Perfectae caritatis (cfr n. 2) and as your founders understood so well: Consecrated life is a plant with many branches which is deeply rooted in the Gospel.

This is demonstrated by the history of your institutes, in which the firm desire to live the message of Christ and to configure your own lives to him, has been and remains the fundamental criterion of vocational discernment and of your personal and communitarian discernment.

The Gospel lived daily is the element that gives fascination and beauty to consecrated life and which presents you to the world as a reliable alternative. Present-day society needs this, and the Church expects this of you - to be the living Gospel.

Another fundamental aspect of consecrated life that I wish to underscore is brotherhood: confessio trinitatis (cfr Giovanni Paolo II, Esort. Ap. Vita consecrata, 41) is a parable of Church communion. Indeed, the witness of your consecration passes through it.

Fraternal life is one of the aspects that young people most seek when they approach consecrated life. It is an important prophetic element that you offer to a society that is strongly individualistic.

I know the efforts you are making in this field, just as I know the difficulties that consecrated life entails. There is need for serious and constant discernment in order to hear what the Spirit is saying to the community, to recognize what comes from the Lord and what is contrary to it (cfr Vita consacrata, 73).

Without discernment, accompanied by prayer and reflection, consecrated life runs the risk of accommodating itself to the criteria of the world - individualism, consumerism, materialism - criteria which bring about less brotherhood and cause consecrated life to lose its fascination and its edge.

You must be masters of discernment so that your brothers and sisters may assume this habitus and that your communities may be eloquent signs for the world today.

You who exercise the service of authority, and who have the task of leading and planning the future of your religious institutes, must remember that an important part of spiritual animation and governance is the common search for means that will promote communion, mutual communication, and the warmth and truth of reciprocal relations.

A last element that I wish to highlight is mission. Mission is the way of being of the Church, and within it, the way of consecrated life. It is part of your identity. It urges you to bring the Gospel to everyone, without bounds.

Mission, sustained by a strong experience of God, gives robust formation, and from fraternal life in community, it is a key for understanding and revitalizing consecrated life.

Go forth, therefore, and in creative faithfulness, make the new evangelization your challenge. Renew your presence in the Areopagi of today in order to announce, as St. Paul did in Athens, the 'unknown' God (cfr Address at College des Bernardins).

Dear Superiors-General, the historical moment presents for not a few of the institutes the fact of numerical decrease, particularly in Europe. But these difficulties should not make us forget that consecrated life has its origin in the Lord. He wished it for the edification and holiness of his Church, and that is why the Church herself will never be deprived.

As I encourage you to walk in faith and hope, I also ask you for a renewed commitment to the vocational ministry and to initial and continuing formation.

I entrust you to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to your founder saints and patrons, as I impart to you my Apostolic Blessing which I extend to all your religious families.

---

Here are a couple of articles about Peter Seewald that I missed earlier...


An interview with Peter Seewald


Rome, Italy, Nov 24, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News) - CNA recently spoke exclusively with German journalist Peter Seewald, author of the new book-length interview with Pope Benedict XVI.

Last summer, Seewald interviewed the Pope over a period of several days at Castel Gandolfo. The conversations were compiled in his new book, "Light of the Word: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times."

Seewald previously published two books on then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, "The Salt of the Earth," and "God and the World."

CNA's edited interview with Seewald is below: [The editing appears to be rough, because some of the answers sound repetitive.]

Do you consider yourself a friend of Pope Benedict XVI?
I would not consider it a friendship. I am a journalist, and before Joseph Ratzinger became Pope, we crossed paths in different places, and because of his age he could be my father. I met him as a journalist when my editors charged me with writing his biographical sketch and in doing so I came face to face with his work, his writings and his actions.

I was quite surprised to learn that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was not like how he had been portrayed and how I had imagined him to be, but rather that he was someone very well-equipped to analyze society, who understood very well today’s situation and was capable of profound analysis.

What are the most common misunderstandings about the Pope in the international media?
The first misunderstanding is the idea that Joseph Ratzinger is a Pope who is conservative, harsh, too strict, a man who likes power. None of these characteristics truly reflect the personality of Joseph Ratzinger, a man who, one could say, is one of the greatest minds of the Catholic Church; someone with a great heart and — necessarily so —a fighter by nature, someone who remains standing amidst the storms, someone who is not afraid.

I think it is important to say that one of his goals is to share the Gospel. He is someone who does not get stuck in the past or in the present. He is someone who is very much a part of our times, he understands development, he is always well-informed, he views things clearly from the perspective of the Church, he understands all of the changes in society and is always concerned about the changes of modernity.

Basing himself on the Gospel, the Fathers of the Church, tradition, he always strives to view things critically, he asks questions in order to understand, especially in the framework of these new times.

Joseph Ratzinger is no reactionary. I have always considered him a very modern man, someone who is always accessible, who promotes and seeks dialogue, who is always concerned with understanding other ways of thinking, including those of agnostics, atheists and those of other tendencies. He is someone interested in knowing them and understanding them well as part of our intellectual foundation and as part of our thinking.

If you asked me to describe Joseph Ratzinger, I would say he is an upright man and by far one of the greatest figures of our time. I think he is man with a great heart and at the same time, as far as his personality goes, one could say he is an educator, a man of great love.

He is a very jovial person, although perhaps he does not show it out of timidity. Moreover, he is man who is always willing to listen, because he is not only a great thinker, he is also a great spiritual teacher.

What are the main characteristics of this Pope that go most unnoticed?
In general there is little discussion about the fact that Pope Benedict XVI is a great educator. That is one of his great qualities. He understands the Gospel very clearly, he always finds new facets, and discovers in them ways to deal with secularism and opportunities to discover the position of the Church in these times.

His strong traits as an educator, as a great thinker, and as someone who listens not only to the Catholic world, but to all Christianity is something important that the media needs to see and understand.

I think this is something that is not common, but it is important to point out in this time of crisis in modern society. I say that it is a gift. In a world that is often blind, it is important to have somebody with this unbreakable attitude of openness. I think he will be much better appreciated in the future.

Many in the media have portrayed Benedict XVI as somebody who neither as archbishop, or prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, or as Pope, has ever done enough to prevent the sexual abuse of children. Is this a fair judgment?
Such a stance comes from writers who want these terrible actions to have negative repercussions for the Pope. It has even been said that when he was Archbishop of Munich, a sexual abuse case came before him, and Joseph Ratzinger made a mistake and eventually did nothing.

Ever since his time in Munich, there was no chance that Archbishop Ratzinger would ignore this issue. He has had a proper attitude, and as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he quickly became concerned about this issue. He immediately made the necessary changes and imposed sanctions for these errors.

People said that he let these errors get out of hand, however he has always condemned these actions and as Pope he has sought out the victims. In October of 2006 he met with the bishops of Ireland and told them that the truth needed to be found out, that whatever was necessary to keep these unacceptable situations from happening again had to be done.

An important point for him is that the first thing that needs to happen is for the victim to be helped and to find healing. These things must not be kept hushed, and the guilty must not go unpunished.

Ratzinger, as Archbishop of Munich, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as Pope, has always acted uprightly in response to these errors, even though in reality some in the media have not seen it this way and have taken a stance against him.

It is clear that the Vatican’s efforts to communicate with the secular media in recent times have not been very successful. Many papal actions and decisions have not been accurately conveyed and the Holy Father has often been exposed to harsh criticism by the media. What happened in Regensburg with the Muslims, the case of Lefebvrist bishop Williamson, the distorting of the Pope’s statements on AIDS during his trip to Africa ,are still fresh in our memory. Does this Pope need better PR advice?
My only response can be yes. It is obvious that in this respect, there is much to be done and much to learn from the mishaps. The media needs to receive information in advance so that errors about the Pope are not published. Benedict XVI himself has criticized this situation, and in this new book he mentions that this obviously affects the work that has been carried out.

This must be a comprehensive effort because the Pope does many things in the world, but he needs to be informed about certain situations. For example, if there is a video that they know is going to be aired, or when certain reports are going to be published. I think that in this respect there is much room for improvement.

What issues do you directly address with the Pope in the book "Light of the World?" [Well, DUH!]
The book in general deals with the crisis in the Church, with his pontificate, as well as with the dramatic problems of society. It also addresses the sexual abuse scandal, how this pontificate is directly confronting it and what this will lead to. It addresses how reform in the Church will take place, what the Church’s stance is towards Islam and how this crisis is affecting us today.

The question lies in whether the crisis of our times is something that we have not seen throughout the Church’s history. Even within the Church there are some who will not be pleased that the Pope is so open, but they will be astonished at his prophetic words in this book.


The CNS story is based on answers Seewald gave at the presentation of the book last Tuesday: [It seems like an eternity ago - so many 'rivers of ink' having been written since, and not always for the good, even if there are those who believe any publicity is good publicity. That may be true for showbiz figures, but definitely not for the Pope.]


Seewald: The Pope was open and willing
to talk about every critical issue
by Carol Glatz


VATICAN CITY, Nov. 24 (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI is not a dictator, but a man of dialogue who did not evade any questions or censor any remarks made in his latest book-length interview, said the German journalist who interviewed the Pope.

Peter Seewald said it was a great pleasure to work with the Pope on the book because he was so open and willing to talk.

"He does not come across as a dictator or as the 'Panzer cardinal' or 'Panzer Pope,'" he said.

"He is a Pope who makes you feel welcome, who focuses on every question; a man of dialogue who has no problem tackling critical questions (and) is not afraid of any question," he said.

Seewald said the Pope had been presented before the interview with the list of questions that were answered in German during six one-hour sessions with the Pope in July.

The Pope did add some clarifications to the transcript only where he thought necessary, but otherwise "nothing had been censored before or after" the interview, Seewald said.

The German author took part in a Vatican news conference Nov. 23 to mark the official release of "Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times."

Seewald had earlier sat down with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, for a series of conversations that resulted in "Salt of the Earth," published in 1996, and "God and the World," published in 2002.

When asked how the man he interviewed has changed since becoming Pope, Seewald said, "The good characteristics and wonderful qualities of Joseph Ratzinger are even more evident now as Pope."

"On the one hand, he is a man with enormous intellectual power -- he is very brilliant -- and on the other hand, he has the spiritual strength of a man who has remained very simple and very pious. He has stayed that way and has become even more pious," he said.

Seewald said he believes the book, in its structure as a conversation, lets readers get a true sense of who Pope Benedict is.

He said newspaper headlines are not enough to understand Benedict's pontificate and his thinking, and the book offers the Pope's answers exactly as he gave them "uncut and undistorted."

I thought the best 'objective correlative' to the warm humanity that Benedict XVI displays so generously in LOTW was his public manifestation of grief - unprecedented for a Pope = for one of his housekeepers, a member of his papal family for the past five years. There was more today....


Pope visits the wake
for Manuela Camagni
Translated from

Nov. 26, 2010

The day was fading and the lights of St. Peter's Basilica had come on, when the Pope's car arrived in front of the little church of Santo Stefano degli Abissini in the Vatican, behind St. Peter's Basilica.

But there was no applause nor shouts of acclamation. We were all in prayer. In front of the altar and the simple coffin of Manuela Camagni.

We had just finished reciting the Rosary, led by don Julian Carron, president of Comunione e Liberazione, the movement to which Manuela belonged as a Memores Domini consecrated person.

With us were her family, and also Loredana, Cristina and Carmela, her co-workers in the papal apartment. There were many C&L members as well as Vatican staff and personnel.

The Pope entered, accompanied by Monsignors Gaenswein and Xuereb, and by Suor Cristina, the lay sister who takes care of Georg Ratzinger when he is in Italy. In short, by the rest of Manuela's Vatican family.

The Pope stopped to greet Angelo Gugel, who had been John Paul II's valet and served Benedict XVI likewise during the first several months of his Pontificate, and during his summer vacations in the mountains.

For some minutes, the Pope knelt in front of the coffin and prayed.



Then the 'De profundis' was chanted. The Pope recited prayers for the dead, and the Our Father and Hail Mary.

Mons. Guido Marini, who was also present, closed the book of prayers, and the Pope then spoke to Manuela's family.

Afterwards, with the same solemn and contemplative manner that he entered the church, the Pope left.

They were intense moments for everyone. Some wept, and many knelt in prayer.

Outside, night had fallen, and a chilly wind rattled the trees. The Pope was going back to the papal apartment to resume work - he still had to meet Cardinal Levada for their weekly meeting.

But we can be sure that on Monday, November 29, when Manuela's final funeral Mass will be held in San Pietro in Bagno, her hometown in Romagna, the Pope's heart will be there with her.

November 29 also marks the 30th anniversary of Manuela's consecration.


There's this brief notice in tomorrow's OR, which went to press before the Pope's visit...


'Camera ardente' for Manuela
at Santo Stefano degli Abissini
Translated from the 11/27/10 issue of





A wake ['camera ardente' in Italian] began Friday, November 26, in the church of Santo Stefano degli Abissini at the Vatican, for Manuela Camagni, who had served in the papal apartment since May 2005, and who died Wednesday morning from fatal injuries in a street accident.

The wake was to be open till 8 p.m. Friday night, and resume tomorrow, Saturday, till 2 p.m. At that time, the casket will be taken to her hometown of San Piero in Bagno in central Italy.

Her funeral Mass will be celebrated at the parish church on Monday afternoon by Mons. Antonio Lanfranchi, archbishop of Modena-Nonantola, who is the apostolic administrator of Cesena-Sarsina, Manuela's home diocese.


I finally found an anecdote I had posted on December 20, 2005 in the PRF, which I think is worth re-posting. Note that the story refers to Manuela as 'Emanuela' - which is why I used the formEmanuela when I first made a post about her sudden death on Wednesday:

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The Pope and
'la mia (E)Manuela'
Translated from
Corriere della Romagna

A delegation of about a hundred persons, led by their Bishop and by Giancarlo Barocci, president of the hotel association of Cesenatico, met the Pope last Wednesday.

They asked him to visit Cesenatico: “It’s a small town on the Adriatic, Your Holiness, but well-known and appreciated by tourists from Bavaria.” [The Adriatic beaches of Italy, like other beach areas in southern Europe, are overrun by German tourists in the summer.]

“Ah, Cesenatico!,” the Pope exclaimed. “My Emanuela (la mia Emanuela) often talks to me about it. She is from your diocese.” [Emanuela is one of the 4 C&L lay sisters who run the Pope’s household at the Apostolic Palace. She comes from San Piero in Bagno near Cesenatico.]

To their invitation, the Pope replied: “I would love to. If God gives me time!”

They presented him with a painting by Giuseppe Casali, a noted local artist, showing the Creche of the Marineria, a Christmas event started 20 years ago in which the Nativity scene is recreated on boats.

“Oh, but how beautiful this creche is!”, the Pope remarked. Barocci, who addressed the Pope in German, explained what the Mariniera Creche was all about. The Pope gave a special blessing for the Creche.

Barocci said afterwards: “We saw a Pope who tends to smile readily and who is easy to talk to. In many ways, even, different from what we are shown on TV.”

Of course, our Italian sisters are twittering over how Papa said "la mia Emanuela" (my Emanuela), a very Italian way of referring to a familiar or intimate! Wouldn't each of us wish to be in a position where the Pope would speak of us that way?

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There's another anecdote in the Italian press today:


When the Pope carried a message
to Manuela from her townmates
by Salvatore Izzo


VATICAN CITY, Nov. 26 (Translated from AGI) - [The report begins by giving information about the wake for Manuela at Santo Stefano degli Abissini - but before the Pope's visit.]

...The Pope knew about Manuela's great love for her hometown, and an anecdote was told about this. A few years back, a busload of pilgrims from San Piero in Bagno came to Rome on a Sunday and planned to see Manuela at the Vatican after attending a papal Mass in St. Peter's Square.

As usual, the Pope toured the sectors in the Popemobile before and after the Mass. When he passed by the delegation from San Piero, they acclaimed him and added, "Holiness, we are friends of Manuela from San Piero!"

It is said that as soon as the Pope got back to the papal apartment, he went in search of Manuela and reminded her, "Manuela, your friends from San Piero are waiting in the Piazza".

Second foundation aims to promote
Ratzinger's theology and spirituality



VATICAN CITY, 26 NOV 2010 (VIS) - The Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger-Benedetto XVI was presented today at a news conference in the Vatican Press Office.


Left photos, Cardinal Ruini; top right photo, from left: Mons. Scotti, Cardinal Ruini, Fr. Lombardi, and Fr, Horn; bottom photos, left, Mons. Scotti; right, Fr. Horn.

Presentors were Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the foundation's academic committee; Msgr. Giuseppe Antonio Scotti, president of the foundation, and Fr. Stephan Otto Horn S.D.S, president of the Ratzinger Scheulerkreis and the Joseph Ratzinger-Papst Benedict XVI Stiftung based in Munich.

Msgr. Scotti said that on March 1 this year, the Holy Father had authorized the creation of the new foundation in response to "a desire expressed by many scholars over the course of the years".

The new foundation will start with seed money from the Pope's royalties: "A first ample contribution will come from the Pontiff himself, who has chosen to devolve a large part of the proceeds from his author rights".

Cardinal Ruini said that the Foundation's academic committee also includes Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B.; Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B. prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; Archbishop Jean-Louis Brugues O.P., secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education; and Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer S.J., secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The committee will have three tasks: "first, to draw up criteria and objectives for annual and long-term activities; second, to establish criteria of excellence for the creation and conferral of prizes to scholars who have distinguished themselves in academic publications and/or research; and finally, to organize other cultural and academic initiatives".

"The theology of Joseph Ratzinger moves forward, looking to the present and the future on the basis of an extraordinary knowledge of the origins and history of the Christian faith. His capacity, what I would call his tastefulness, in keeping these two aspects united ... likens Joseph Ratzinger to great teachers of other periods of Christian history. It is no coincidence that the foundation which bears his name will focus particular attention, on the one hand on biblical and patristic studies, and on the other on fundamental theology. The aim is to bring out the truth, significance and beauty of Christianity in its relationship with contemporary culture and society".

Fr. Horn explained that, even before Cardinal Ratzinger's election to the papacy, his students had thought of creating a Joseph Ratzinger Foundation.

"Not only did they feel profound gratitude towards their teacher", he said, "but they were also deeply convinced of the importance of his theology for the Church.... In the 2007 meeting of the Schuelerkreis in 2007, we received the Holy Father's approval to create an autonomous foundation" (the Joseph Ratzinger-Papst Benedikt XVI Stiftung).

This foundation, Fr. Horn went on, "has a clear direction and broad- ranging projects in its goals of promoting the study of Joseph Ratzinger's theology and spirituality, propagating his ideas in the Church and society, and ensuring they are absorbed. Thus will his thought be conserved for the future".

The German foundation's projects so far includes "the creation of chair for a visiting professor in the faculty of theology during the summer term". In September this year a "Benediktakdemie" (Benedict Academy) for young students was held at Salzburg in Austria, while in Rome (in collaboration with the "Casa Balthasar", an institution to discern vocations in young Catholic men), there is a plan to create a study centre for theology and spirituality.

In addition, Fr. Horn concluded, "we have assembled the recollections of more than forty of Joseph Ratzinger's former students in order to establish an oral archive".


The presentation texts, particularly that of Cardinal Ruini, are excellent, and the above VIS report hardly does justice to them. Above all, it completely misses one of the more important items in Cardinal Ruini's presentation, which is properly emphasized in the OR account appearing tomorrow.


New foundation plans annual
Ratzinger Prizes in theology
Translated from the 11/27/10 issue of



The first Ratzinger Prizes for theology will be given out in 2011 - one for Sacred Scripture, one for Patristics, and the third for fundamental theology.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, announcing this Friday at a news conference to present the Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger-Benedetto XVI, said it would represent a kind of 'Nobel prize' in theology.

Cardinal Ruini heads the new Foundation's academic committee which will choose the awardees to be granted "on the basis of authentic excellence in theological study", the promotion of which is one of the objectives of the Foundation.

[The report then mentions the other members of the academic committee.]

Monsignor Giuseppe Antonio Scotti, president of the Vatican publishing house and of the new Foundation, spelled out the objectives: "To promote research and studies on the thought of theologian Joseph Ratzinger; to organize significant conferences on theological matters; and to recognize scholars who distinguish themselves in theological studies".

He recalled that in his concluding homily for the recent Year for Priests, the Pope had called for more attentive reflection on the significance of theology today and 'how to do theology' correctly.

But the actual model for the new Foundation is the Joseph Ratzinger-Papst Benedict XVI Stiftung, established in December 2007 in Munich by the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis.

Fr. Stephan Horn, the Salvatorian father who is president of both associations, said at the news conference that the ultimate objective is "to make known the theological thinking and spirituality of Pope Benedict XVI so it may live on".

Mons. Scotti said that the Foundation will be financed mainly by 50 percent of the Pope's royalties - which he assigned to the Vatican publishing house in a 2005 agreement - while the other 50 percent will go to selected charities.


My addition: In his remarks, Cardinal Ruini says, among other things-

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The objectives of the Foundation may seem ambitious, but they are justified by the significance of the theological work by the man whose name the Foundation bears.

I can express such a judgment because I was one of the first 'users' of Joseph Ratzinger's theology, since 1969 when I had just started to teach theology, and Prof. Ratzinger's famous Introduction to Christianity was published in Italian.

And so, in 1971, as president of the Theological Institute of Reggio Emilia, I invited Prof. Ratzinger to Reggio in order to address the professors and students, an event also attended by the local citizens...

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The Fondazione Ratzinger already has a full-blown website in English, Italian, French and German:
http://www.fondazioneratzinger.va/en_menu_scritti.htm
which also links to the Munich Stiftung.

It makes me wonder why Mons. Fisichella's Pontifical Council for New Evangelization still does not have a website - and he can't use the excuse that he doesn't even have a computer on this desk yet! Since he was rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, one expected he would have experienced people to help set up the site ASAP.

Vatican Radio's Italian service, citing SIR, the news agency of the Italian bishops' conference, had a very good story yesterday which I have not seen elsewhere:


At Anglican Synod opening,
both the Queen and Archbishop Williams
cite the Pope's recent visit
Translated from the Italian service of





24 NOV 2010, LONDON (RV) - In opening the 2010 Anglican Synod Wednesday afternoon, both Queen Elizabeth II, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, referred to Pope Benedict XVI's recent visit.

"At a time of profound financial crisis," Williams said, "the Church is called on to be a Christian presence in the world and to work for the common good."

Recalling the words of Pope Benedict to this effect when he visited the United Kingdom in September, he added: "We are still exploring the positive consequences of this visit with respect to witnessing the Gospel in this country".

For her part, the Queen said: "In our secularized society, the role of religion has become a central question. It is now recognized that men of faith are vehicles for values and that the prosperity of a nation depends on the contributions of individuals and groups of all religions.

"The recent visit of His Holiness the Pope reminded us that the Christian churches and the great religious traditions have great potential to inspire sentiments of great enthusiasm, loyalty, and concern to work for the common good".

Then referring to the 'important decisions' that the Synod must make, the Queen hoped for 'wisdom... to equilibrate change with continuity".

On the agenda of this General Synod - which is the legislative body of the Church of England - is the 'Anglican Communion Covenant, which has been under study for seven years, and seeks to establish a 'pact' within the Anglican Communion that will keep alive the dialog among the various provinces that make up the Communion on questions like homosexual unions and the ordination of homosexual priests.

"It is an illusion to think," Mons. Williams said, "that the Anglican Communion can continue as usual with any changes, and it is an even greater illusion to think that the Church of England can in some way avoid the entire process.

"The fact is that some decisions taken in even one province affects us all. We can think that it should not happen, but it happens. If we ignore this, then we ignore that we are in real danger - the piece-by-piece dissolution of the Communion".

He reminded the Synod that the theologians of 'differing visions' had worked on teh text, "including many from North America".

He also said that the Covenant is "not inventing a new orthodoxy or a new system of doctrinal policy or a 'centralized authority'.."

"It does not intend to ignore the autonomy provided for canonically to every province", he said, and therefore, "it is not an instrument of exclusion and tyranny".

He described the Covenant rather as a 'pact' under which the provinces promise to consult each other before approving theological or doctrinal developments which could provoke opposition from other provinces.

It also recognizes that "even after consultation, disagreements can remain" but the Covenant places responsibility on the provinces to avoid that "such disagreement will cause the rupture of some aspects of the Communion and must be managed with care and orderliness".

subsequently reported the following:

THE Church of England's general assembly yesterday overwhelmingly backed a global covenant intended to unify Anglicans around the world.

However, its passage was set back as both liberals and conservatives condemned the document.

Proposed by a working group set up after the consecration of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in New Hampshire, the Anglican Covenant is intended to provide a basis for agreement between autonomous provinces operating in differing contexts.

The bishops, clergy and laity voted unanimously to send it to all 44 dioceses for debate before final approval in 2012, also the year the synod will have to vote on women bishops.

Liberals in the church said they opposed it because it created a two-tier communion, with provinces that stepped out of line on issues such as homosexuality relegated to a second tier, but conservatives said it did not go far enough: they want provinces acting unilaterally to be expelled....