I've translated today's catechesis and posted the translation above, but meanwhile, the Vatican finally posted the transcript of the Pope's homily at the Lutheran Church, and Marcello Pera has written Corriere della Sera a letter in defense of the Pope, so HK will have to wait.
Meanwhile, here is an interview with Cardinal Ruini from yesterday that I translated last night but was to sleepy to post. He's the first cardinal to come out openly and speak about this dreadful mess. Fittingly, Benedict XVI showed his appreciation of this under-appreciated cardinal earlier by asking him to write the Via Crucis meditations and prayers for this year and naming thim to head the international commission of inquiry on Medjugorje.
Cardinal Ruini denounces
the defamatory attempts
against the Pope and the Church
by PAOLO RODARI
Translated from
March 16, 2010
ROME - He has agreed to talk about pedophilia among priests. He defends the Pope, accuses the media and all who fan the flames of defamation against the Catholic Church – because when defamation exceeds the limits, it is time to speak up.
In his residence just outside the Vatican’s Leonine Wall, Cardinal Camillo Ruini had just returned from the Benedictine abbey in Subiaco where he received the St. Benedict Prize for 2010
[the same prize Cardinal Ratzinger received in 2005 on the eve of John Paul II’s death].
Recently turned 79, Ruini looks with mistrust on the emphasis that the information media – newspapers, TV and Internet – have given to pedophile crimes involving priests.
“Although the crime of pedophilia is abominable,” says the Pope’s emeritus Vicar for Rome, “it is time to point out some necessary considerations”.
He is not surprised at all by the media campaign which has now targeted the Pope himself.
“Pedophile crimes are always an infamy, especially when committed by a priest. And it is more than right that they should be denounced and repressed while, insofar as it is possible, to help their victims overcome the consequences. Moreover, it is absolutely necessary for the Church to make all the provisions that can prevent recurrences.
“That said, one cannot pretend not to see that the attention of many newspapers and those who express themselves through the press has focused exclusively on the offenses committed by Catholic priests, which at the very least, is certainly not more frequent than in other categories of persons.
“Nor can one ignore the tenacious attempts to target the person of the Pope himself, notwithstanding all the clarifications by the Vatican press office and other reliable sources.”
For years, Ruini has followed the reverberations in the Italian and international press on the issue of the sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests, from the first scandals which hogged headlines around the world – that which erupted in 2002 with the disclosure of sexual abuses by a number of priests in the diocese of Boston – up to the headlines today which, like leopard spots, have turned up to blot the images of the Church in Germany, Austria, Holland, Ireland and Switzerland.
Two expressions occur frequently in his conversation: “defamatory campaign’ and ‘strategy’.
“In my opinion,” he says, ”the defamatory campaign against the Catholic Church and the Pope by the media fits into the strategy that has been in place for centuries, and about which Friedrich Nietzsche in the 19th century theorized in detail".
“According to him, the definitive attack on Christianity cannot be waged on the level of truth but, on Christian ethics as the enemy to the joy of living. And so I ask: who is at the receiving end of all these headlines of pedophilia flung mainly against the Catholic Church, while also targeting the rule of priestly celibacy?
"Would it not be more honest and realistic to acknowledge that certainly these and other deviancies linked to sexuality have always been part of human history, but that in our time, these deviancies have also been stimulated by the much-touted ‘sexual revolution’?"
It is not a rhetorical question, he says, and it is a question that probably many bishops and cardinals would put forward, though they may lack the courage to do so or to find the right occasion to say it.
“When the exaltation of sex pervades every space of life today and when the autonomy of the sexual instinct from every moral criterion is advocated [as a right!], it becomes difficult to carry across the fact that certain abuses are absolutely condemnable.
“In fact, human sexuality has not been simply instinctive and is not identical to animal sexuality in that regard. It is, like all of the human being, something upon which reason and morality are ‘imposed’, which can be experienced humanly and bring real happiness only if it is lived according to such ‘rules’.
“On the other hand, the claim that human sexuality is independent of any moral criterion is a narcissistic imposition and therefore, self-referential, which is the opposite of what the Church teaches.”
Some of these libertine radicalisms are represented in the coming regional lections in Lazio
[the Italian region to which Rome belongs, where the leading candidate for regional president is a former lady senator, Emma Bonino, who 'distinguished' herself in the previous Prodi government by professing herself to be an adult Catholic in favor of abortion, contraception, euthanasia and same-sex marriage, among other things]. An ‘appetizing’ subject for argument. So what does Cardinal Ruini think about these elections?
“I completely share the contents and the tone of the note
[from the Italian bishops’ conference, which he led for 15 years] published Sunday in Romasette
[the online journal of the Diocese of Rome]. In view of the candidates who are competing, not just in Lazio but in other regions, it is indispensable to call attention to the truly fundamental issues at stake which the note presents with clarity and precision. Among these, the defense of life in every stage of existence, the support of the family based on matrimony between a man and a woman, and more generally, the rejection of a permissiveness that undermines the very foundations of society”.
Ruini, like all priests and his brother bishops, adheres to the dispositions that prohibit them from giving any instructions on how the faithful should vote. But he also fully supports that part of the note that says, “it is not possible [for Catholics] to consider all political platforms as equivalent to each other because not all of them represent the values we believe in”.
He says:
“Citizens who live by Christian ethics, and even those who wish to safeguard the foundations of our civilization have, in this statement, a precise criterion when exercising their right and duty to vote.
“After the tumultuous events during the presentation of the electoral lists [candidates], it is time to concentrate attention on substance, in this case, the judicious choice of the persons who should lead the region of Lazio”.
German district head of
FSSPX defends the Pope -
and exposes the German
Justice Minister
Translated from
STUTTGART, March 15 - „The Pope is not guilty of anything, so there is no need for him to apologize,‘ said Fr. Franz Schmidberger, the superior of the German district of the FSPPX, to the regional newspaper
Leipziger Volkszeitung.
Asked to comment on the fact that Pope Benedict XVI has been dragged into the current controversy over sexual abuses against children by priests, he said that these incidents were a welcome pretext for those who want to undermine the papacy and to discredit the German Pope in Germany itself.
He criticized Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP) who belongs to the church-hating Humanistic Union, saying: „Today, those who scream the loudest against priest pedophiles were only yesterday demanding that child abusers be exempted from punishment. Among them was precisely this Humanistic Union of which the Justice Minister is a member. There is a word for that in German: hypocrisy. The shoe fits.“
Fr. Schmidberger also criticized those who make a general accusation against all priests because of these incidents: „Let us be more careful of all this dragging-out-in-public of sins and guilt, because perhaps further investigation will show that some accusations are false.“
He thinks society is partly to blame for the evolution of sexual crimes: „When people have constant access to pornographic writing, or obscene shows on TV and lewd pictures on the Internet, they are no longer able to grasp that sexual desire must be coupled with responsibllity.“
He said man is born with a hunger instinct which enables the individual to survive, and with a sex drive which enables the human race to reproduce, and therefore, „To uncouple these instincts from their purposes, as contemporary hedonism does, is an abuse and distortion of the divine order".
He is convinced that Catholic dissenters and former priests are using the current controversy to push their respective agendas: „The Catholic left welcomes it like fresh morning air, because what is important for them is to obtain structural changes in the Church, not the conversion of hearts“.
As for priestly celibacy, he points out that in the course of centuries, this particular charism has born much good fruit. He adds: „One advantage of celibacy was evident under the Nazis and the Communists. Protestant ministers were easily theatened because they had families, and in this respect, Catholic priests were more free“.
He says he expects the German bishops‘ conference to look after accused priests also. „Bishops must strenghten these priests in the faith, and make sure they are not subjected to show trials.“
At the same time, the sacrament of penance must regain its place in Christian life and the life of the Church. „Confession is the most effective measure against sin and the impulse to sin.“
KUENG STRIKES WHILE
THE IRON IS RED-HOT
And now, some nasty news. Sueddeutsche Zeitung today posted online a 'guest article' by Hans Kueng in which, in effect, he unloads 43 years of resentment against his former colleague... and Joseph Ratzinger's old 'hometown newspaper' was just too happy to accommodate him:
Let me just translate the titles first:
Church debate over abuse cases
RATZINGER'S RESPONSIBILITY
A guest article by Hans Kueng
March 17, 2017 08:53
The road to change must pass through penitence.
After the sex abuse cases in the Church,
it is time for a 'mea culpa' from former Archbishop Ratzinger
His rant reads, in part:
"Five years as Pope without ever changing anything about this pernicious situation. Decency requires that the main person responsible for the decades-long dissimulation [of abuse cases], namely, Joseph Ratzinger, should make a 'mea culpa'. No other person in the Church has seen so many cases of abuse pass through his desk..."
I would wait for a news wrap-up instead of having to translate Kueng directly, but every so often, one has to read him as he expresses himself, unfiltered, and this is one of those times. I will translate later.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/03/2010 01:07]