Bishop Mueller speaks
of the Pope's suffering
because of pedophile crimes
by Fausta Speranza
Translated from
August 24, 2010
"The Pope is suffering very much because of all the pedophile offenses that have made the Church less credible and have eclipsed the image of the priest as the good shepherd".
[Surely he is suffering just as much for all the innocent victims of these predator priests! I am shocked that Mons. Mueller has left that out.]
He does not mince his words - Mons. Gerhard Mueller, Bishop of Regensburg, the German prelate whom Benedict XVI entrusted with publishing his complete works before he became Pope.
At Rimini, on the opening day of the 31st Meeting for Friendship among peoples, Mons. Mueller was among those who presented the first volume in Italian of Joseph Ratzinger's Complete works, but agreed to talk about the current situation of the Catholic Church as well.
He says "the circumstances are a benchmark test for priests and for the sense of the priesthood", and that "Benedict XVI is profoundly saddened and pained, especially because the latest outbreak of the scandal came during the Year for Priests which was so close to his heart".
Nonetheless, he said, "The Church is not founded on an ideology, it is not built on ideas - it is Peter's boat on which Christ is always present and guarantees that it will never sink, despite man's failings."
That explains, he said, "the Pope's certainty that after the storms, the Church will be stronger than before".
The important point is not to lose confidence in the "efficacy of the presence of God in the life of men".
He then goes on to the heart of the scholarly work of Joseph Ratzinger. The volume presented here is one of 16 volumes comprising more than 20,000 pages published by the Benedict XVI before he became Pope.
Mueller points out that because the first volume is about liturgy, the author discusses man and his relationship to God, man and the mystery of God.
In it, the theologian Ratzinger explains that modernity seeks to rob human experience of mystery. And the liturgy is the ground on which Cardinal Ratzinger then and Benedict XVI today has chosen to take the most conservative positions.
He believes that unwarranted 'creativity' in the liturgy leads to a 'personalism' and a 'banalization' that tend to keep God out of the field of human vision. Which have been evident in some post-Conciliar liturgical expressions that have incorporated all kinds of novelties that have nothing to do with authentic liturgy.
Cardinal Ratzinger was convinced that such novelties embody the modern sensibility which exalt man's 'virtuosity' rather than God, whereas the object of liturgy is a sacramental worship of God.
For this reason, certain elements of the traditional Mass are essential to this worship and sense of sacredness. Mons. Mueller cites the physical orientation of churches which were generally oriented towards the east, and the fact that priests celebrated Mass facing the altar, in the same direction as the congregation.
Mons. Mueller shares the Pope's lament that "today, the liturgical education of priests and laymen is very deficient".
This line was much applauded when he said it at the roundtable discussion held in the main hall of the venue.
Also a presentor of the book was Don Giuseppe Costa, director of the Vatican publishing house which is publishing the Complete Works in Italian.
Don Costa also said that he expects Volume 2 of Benedict XVI's JESUS OF NAZARETH to come out in the first week of Lent next year simultaneously in more than a dozen languages.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/08/2010 09:27]