In contrast to the almost 'deafening' and inexplicable silence in the Anglophone media about the Holy Father's emblematic double-barreled mission to Spain this weekend - even the usually ubiquitous John Allen has not been heard from, and Father Z has said nothing about it on his blog [Where were they this weekend???] - the Spanish and Italian media have been churning out substantial commentary. I am limited by time constraints and paywall blocks in the Spanish media from posting more than I have posted so far, but I will try to post what I can as soon as I can of those that are most significant and interesting, such as the following:
Following the Pope on TV -
and discovering the man and his method
by Fernando de Haro
Translated from
Nov. 10, 2010
Haro is Information Editor of Spain's TV Popular.
Television has an advantage - informational TV that broadcats events live, not the kind that dispenses misleading news reports. Live TV has the advantage of conveying to viewers much of what is happening without the filter or bias of 'published' opinion.
Thus many millions availed well of it this weekend when Benedict XVI was in Spain. And yet, our country became an exception in the case of the press reportage about the Pope.
In other countries that he has visited, even the most secular press, as in the United Kingdom, acknowledged the stature and the truth represented by the Pope.
But ours, confirming the words of the Pope himself, clung to old anti-clerical schemes. While most print media, which are increasingly less read, stuck to their old prejudices, and as the more convervative press, in promoting the trip, defended their own schemes in favor of certain values and plans for re-Christianization plans, regular folk were glued to the TV screens, magnetized by the images showing the movements, the words and the look of the man in white.
And what they watched was something rare and exceptional.
During the 32 hours that the Pope was among us, we saw a man who was humble but clear - one cound understand everything he said
[it helps a lot that. along with French, Spanish is the foreign language he speaks most beautifully] - in whom words and gestures coincided.
It is even easier to understand who he is when one sees how he enjoys beauty and uses it as a teaching tool, how he looks at children with Downs syndrome, how he greets those who have stood for hours just to have a glimpse of him, how he proposes - without tangling himself up in futile confrontations - that God is not an enemy to man, that "between truth and freedom, there is a close and necessary relation".
His words do not contain pious projects or necessarily 'religious' reflections, but are rather a description of the contemporary situation, what is happening around us.
It was easy to understand that the truth is not an enemy of freedom because in front of us, we could see that Ratzinger the man is clearly a free man - free to speak the truth.
We saw in him a European who recognizes that "God exists and it is he who gave us life".
We saw in him a German, who has studied and knows the grandeur as well as the limitations of Europe, affirm that "only God is absolute, faithful and unfailing love, that infinite goal that is glimpsed behind the good, the true and the beautiful things of this world, admirable indeed, but insufficient for the human heart" (Homily in Santiago).
We have seen a man who has 'overcome the division between human consciousness and Christian conscience' (Homily at Sagrada Familia).
And all that is what kept us glued to our TV screens.
In effect, when pointing to the Christ Pantocrator in Compostela's Portico of Glory, he was showing us the origin of his compelling humanity that so captivated us for all of 32 hours.
Benedict, father and teacher, also taught us his method. Plans to recover the Christian roots of Europe are futile unless... The real challenge is to see the Church as a pilgrim Church, and to be a pilgrim means "to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe" (Remarks during his visit to teh Cathedral of Compostela).
And that is Benedict XVI's surprising 'method': to move ahead towards an encounter with what God does and has done.
I had earlier translated the first post-visit commentary from Jose Luis Restan but working on it late last night, I was obviously too woozy to be fully functional and lost the translation while posting it - then realized that I had not copied it to the mouse first, so there was no way to salvage it...
The following interview is with Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, emeritus president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts He was one of three Rome-based Spanish cardinals who accompanied the Holy Father this weekend from Rome, along with - Cardinal Canizares of CDW and emeritus proto-chamberlain Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo:
The Pope's trip to Spain:
A time of grace
Interview with Cardinal Julian Herranz
by Mario Ponzi
Translated from the 11/10 issue of
A time of grace which Spain should avail of to reflect on her destiny and future. Therefore, although the Pope's Magisterium is addressed to the common good of all men, "it is a good thing that the Spanish people have heard the words of Benedict XVI as words directed to them especially, words that have struck a chord to the point of opening a national debate about what he said".
These are the primary impressions of Cardinal Julian Herranz, emeritus president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, who travelled with the Pope to Spain this weekend.
A native of Baena in the diocese of Cordoba, the cardinal knows his people well. He considers the Pope's visit 'extremely positive' because it can serve to rekindle the flame of a faith that has been subdued but never extinguished in the hearts of the Spanish people.
"The welcome that they showed Benedict XVI was a clear signal in this respect," the cardinal said in an interview with us on the flight back to Rome from Barcelona.
What did it feel like to be with the Pope on your native soil?
The first sensation I felt was the need to thank God for having granted my country a time of grace that was so intense. With this visit, Spain has been enriched with the affection, and above all, the magisterium of Benedict XVI.
We all know his ability to offer the profundity of his teaching in a way that is extraordinarily intelligible. He always says the right words at the right moment - that is one of his gifts. And in Spain, he did just that.
What kind of discourse between the Pope and Spain do you think will come out of this trip?
The Pope's magisterium, like Christ's doctrine, is profoundly constructive. He always seeks what is good for man, harmonizing things that should be harmonized and not kept in opposition. If he insists on the harmony between science and faith, for example, he obviously thinks the world needs that harmony today.
Likewise, it was not the first time he spoke of the challenge from secularism, and he has renewed the invitation for a constructive encounter with religion. So it was natural that he emphasized these themes in Spain.
Like the rest of Europe, Spain has been engulfed in a wave of secularism, a fact that cannot be denied. So it is best to confront it, starting from the premise that dialog is possible.
Why is it that the Holy Father chose the visit to Spain in order to reaffirm these themes? [DUH! Where else would it have been more appropriate?]
The vist had two specific destinations - Santiago de Compostela, to pay homage to the Apostle of Europe on a Jubilee year; and Barcelona, for the dedication of the Sagrada Familia. So the themes of Europe and of the family were obvious.
He spoke to Spain because he was in Spain, but it would be narrowminded to deny the European dimension of his discourses. He underscored some evident facts, but he was not speaking of any one particular society.
Moreover, in the exercise of his ministry, he places himself beyond political systems. He is on the side of the Lord, of life, of absolute objective values that must be counterposed to a subjectivity which seeks to make laws out of personal desires, thus causing so much woe.
The Pope defends rights which derive from the dignity of the human being, and are therefore undeniable rights. And his Magisterium is always constructive, never polemical. So all the themes he presented on this trip must be read and interpreted in that perspective. In Compostela, he adressed Europe, as John Paul II did before him. And like him, he spoke of the Christian roots of Europe.
Equally significant is that at the Sagrada FAmilia he spoke of the dignity of the natural family, fundamental cell of society as it is always pointed out, and not only for Spain. Because it is evident that in Spain as elsewhere in Europe, the family as an institution is going through a very critical period.
What message did he leave behind?
I would say that his discourses developed fundamentally around three points. First of all, the need to harmonize faith and reason, a subject that has a European
[and universal!] dimension, simply because he spoke about it from a place that has long been a symbol for the evangelization of Europe, as Santiago de Compostela is.
And then in Barcelona, he underscord two fundamental themes: the richness of the family and the harmony between art and faith. He had the opportunity to speak from a place with is a poem in stone, the work of an architect genius who was above all a profoundly Christian man, who was capable of translating faith into art, something which has happened regularly throughout the 2000 years of the history of our faith, resulting in a patrimony of world-class art.
And his third theme was dedicated to the defense of life. In a purely materialistic view, life can seem poor, especially for those who have to live in extremely difficult conditions, as the disabled children whom he visited before leaving Barcelona. We are all children of God. But even for those who do not believe in God, man is a creature above all others and therefore deserves the maximum respect. This is the message that the Pope brings to the world.
[Unfortunately, there are non-believers who have deluded themselves that the earth and plants and animals are more deserving to be protected than man himself, without seeing the absurd fallacy of their ideology!]
Before the visit, there were doubts about how highly secularized Barcelona would greet the Holy Father. But things went very well...
It was no surprise to me. I know that deep in their soul, the Spanish people have faith. And so many faithful came to Barcelona from all over Spain. What most gratified me was the fact that for the most part, they were young people. It means that they were looking to him, the Pope, to feed their hunger and quench their thirst for ideals, in a world where the dominant culture can only offer them earthly paradises that do not satisfy their need for greater things. Above all, for a love that has a greater dimension and is not characterized only by materialness. In Papa Ratzinger, they see a person who can infuse them with new enthusiasm for life.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/11/2010 23:54]