Because the Pope did not have a prepared text for this event, we won't get the Vatican's transcript until tomorrow, there are no English stories available of the event, and even initial reports in the Italian media are sketchy. I have opted to use the INSIDER report to begin with.
In 'lectio divina' to seminarians,
Benedict makes an indirect reference
to media concerns that ignore
the Church's first mission - the faith
Translated from the Italian service of
February 15, 2015
"Everyone seems to be talking about the Church of Rome these days. We can only hope they can also talk about her faith," Benedict XVI remarked in an extemporaneous lectio divina to the students of Rome's seminaries this afternoon, in his annual meeting with them at Rome's major diocesan seminary, the Pontificio Collegio Seminario at the Lateran.
[In the past several years, he has chosen the form of a lectio divina to address them, leading them to reflect on a Bible passage of his choice, This year, it is verses 1-2 from Chapter 12 of St. Paul's Letter to the Romans:
["Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect".]
"Let us hope", he said, indirectly alluding to the new wave of negative stories in the media about the Roman Curia, "that they would speak not of these things but of the faith of the Church".
About Paul's words, he told the seminarians, "Paul speaks to us because he was speaking to the Romans of all time".
He warned them of "the power of finance and the media" which, he said, "are necessary and even useful, but sometimes abusive to the point of being contrary to man's interests".
He said that financial powers have transformed money into the 'instrument of Mammon', and said that in this way, they oppress man, and "the Christian is against such conformism of subjection".
Referring to 'public opinion', he said, "We need to be informed, but information cannot be 'the power of image', in which ultimately what is said or what is perceived matters more than reality, and men seek image only".
The Pope said the 'non-conformism' of the Christian is that of he who desires 'freedom in truth' and rebels against 'the oppression of image', and he pointed out that God . helps man be free.
I will not forget his very powerful and likewise extemporaneous lectio to the seminarians in 2009, when he commented on Galatians 5, emphasizing verses 15-16, as follows: "For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you go on biting and devouring one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another. "Just a few weeks later, in his unprecedented letter to the bishops of the world - a historical first in the modern era and a very Pauline letter in itself - he used the very citation from Galatians to describe the situation of dissent in the Church today.
And this is the man his detractors insist has chosen to isolate himself from reality and leave the job of leadership to his subordinates! My blood pressure shoots up whenever I think about such accusations by supposedly intelligent men in the media who make these claims repeatedly - against all common sense!
How can they say that of a man who begins his working day by reading a variety of newspapers, not just the press round-up that some flunky in the Secretariat of State prepares? He would have to be a certified idiot not to notice if the newspapers (German, English and Italian) that he reads daily came to him with large cutouts to keep him from reading certain stories or commentaries! He also takes time in the evenings to watch the primetime news on Italian and German TV - surely, George Gaenswein is not holding the remote ready to 'mute' the audio promptly to spare the Pope from hearing himself and the Church being trashed on Italian state TV! {GG would have to keep it mute every time there was some news about the Church!].
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/02/2012 01:06]