Pope's former students to discuss
Vatican-II in August 27-30 seminar
Translated from the 8/27/10 issue of
The hermeneutic of the Second Vatican Council is the focus this year of the traditional summer seminar held by former students of Benedict XVI known as the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis.
The seminar takes place August 27-30 at the Mariapoli convention center in Castel Gandolfo. Some 40 theologians, lay and religious, who obtained their doctorates from various German universities, with Prof. Joseph Ratzinger as their thesis adviser, have taken part in these yearly reunions since 1977.
The principal speaker this year is Archbishop Kurt Koch, former Bishop of Basel, and since July 1, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
(He was chosen for this assignment long before he was named to his new position.)
He will be giving two lectures entitled "Vatican II between tradition and innovation: The hermeneutic of reform between that of continuity with rupture and ahistorical continuity"; and "
Sacrosanctum concilium and the post-conciliar reform of the liturgy".
Salvatorian Fr. Stephan Horn, president of the Schuelerkreis, told the OR that the choice of the principal speaker and of the seminar theme were chosen, as usual, by Benedict XVI himself, from short lists submitted to him by the seminar organizers.
Most of the Schuelerkreis members are from Germany and Austria, but it also includes an Italian, an Irishman, a Dutchman, a Korean lady, and an Indian.
[Also an American, Fr. Joseph Fessio, and an African, the monsignor from Benin, now in the Roman Curia, whose successful defense of his thesis was being celebrated with Prof. Ratzinger and his sister on the day the nomination as Archbishop of Munich was announced.]
Two bishops are in the Schuelerkreis - Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, and the auxiliary Bishop of Hamburg, Hans-Jochen Jaschke; the rest are professors, parish priests, members of religious orders, and lay theologians.
As usual, the seminar sessions are not open to outsiders. Fr. Horn, who recently celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood, said that Mons. Koch's lectures on Friday and Saturday will be followed by free discussions, at which the Pope is expected to participate.
In the past three years, a group of theology students specializing in Joseph Ratzinger's theology have also been invited to the seminar.
On Sunday, the Holy Father will concelebrate a Mass with the Schuelerkreis priests at the Mariapoli center, after which all participants will have breakfast with the Pope at the Apostolic Palace. They will then take part in the noon Angelus.
Fr. Horn says that the Schuelerkreis will be presenting the Pope this year with the book based on the acts of the 2008 seminar, entitled 'Conversations on Jesus', published by the Munich-based Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation (Stiftung).
The Foundation institutionalizes the Schuelerkreis with the aim not just of organizing the annual seminar and publishing its acts, but generally to promote and disseminate the theology and spirituality of Joseph Ratzinger and his spirituality.
The first Schuelerkreis seminar was held in the summer of 1977 shortly after Prof. Ratzinger became Archbishop of Munich, and has taken place annually since then.