Thanks to Lella and her invaluable blog
for this item which was provided to her way ahead of the scheduled Dec. 21 presentation of the new book in question.
'BENEDICT XVI:
BEYOND FASHIONS IN THOUGHT'
by Cardinal Michele Giordano
Emeritus Archbishop of Naples
Preface to the new book by Francesco Antonio Grana
Left, Grana's new book on Benedict XVI; right, his first B16 book in 2007, 'Compromettiti con Dio' [Commit yourself to God: The revolution of Benedict XVI].
It is with joy that I present this book by Francesco Antonio Grana which puts together the interventions of Benedict XVI in the past two years.
The Holy Father's intense and farsighted Petrine ministry represents a singular way of expressing the charism unique to the Successors of the Apostle Peter, which is 'to confirm their brothers in their faith'.
It does not only mean reproposing revealed truths with clarity and fullness, but helping the faithful understand coherently, with the eyes of faith, the events and figures of contemporary history which would otherwise lose their genuine sense.
That is what our dearest Francesco Antonio has done, in reviewing the elevated Magisterium of the Pontiff, with the prophetic actions that complement his words, never tiring in exemplary fashion of repeating that our God is not remote but dwells in the heart of man.
Acknowledging the primacy of God carries with it the urgency of communicating it to the world and, wiht it, the need of living our charity, which must be universal as well as concrete, towards our neighbor.
Benedict XVI's apostolic trips, with his gentle and clear preaching, are sowing that universal connotation of love which begins the divinization of man.
The author faithfully conveys the thinking of the Pope, who underscores the absolute importance of the divine design expressed in the creation of man, and exhorts, beyond the spiritual atrophy of today, to overcoming the practical materialism that weighs on Western societies and the religious fundamentalism which uses the divine name to wreak intolerance and violence.
Believers and non-believers alike have responded to the Pope's openness, with joy and visible emotion, and always with exemplary respect, made aware that the urgency of truth defeats every form of dictatorship over the body and the spirit.
Even Pope Benedict XVI's liturgies demonstrate that the Christian faith is not an ideology, but the encounter with the person of Jesus.
The author presents the Pope's travels under its external signs of his smiling face and his open arms, with the discourses always focused on the concept of truth - a word which Christians identify with the name of God and that must be addressed to all the nations of the earth.
The book elicits, in a clear and correct way, those questions raised by religion, faith and ethics that Benedict XVI himself addresses, in order that the Christian message may continue to be one of the pillars on which to build European society and lay down the peace.
To the world, but especially to Europe, Christianity offers much, provided reason does not close its ears to the message of faith, and as long as Christians do not yield to the temptation of closing in on themselves, but rather, open up to dialog with other cultures and religions.
With the passion of a fervent believer, Francesco Antonio Grana hopes for a great intellectual, ethical and human dialog that will open new ways of reciprocal understanding, working together in concord and for the progress of the common good, in the service of consolidating the family of peoples.
Benedict XVI helps us to evaluate as protagonists the phenomenon of globalization - understood not only as a socio-economic process, but as an ethical criterion for relatedness, communion and sharing among peoples and persons (cfr. Benedetto XVI, Caritas in veritate, 42).
Proceeding rationally and guided by charity and truth, the world will develop global responsibility and brotherliness, rooted in natural law as the basis for the unity of the human species.
This work becomes a service to man with a view to a society that is more equitable and wise - service that makes the human and Christian riches of our nation more credible and authoritative.
The world of the third millennium has extreme need of a new humanism, which finds its most fertile roots in the coherence of ecclesial communion.
To repair the damage in the net of Christ that the Church is: that, too, is the purpose of many initiatives by Benedict XVI, cited in the text ,towards reconciliation and unity among Catholics and Christians.
This is how one must read the Pope's liberalization of the use of the Roman rite as practised before the liturgical reform by Paul VI, and the recall of the excommunication of the four bishops ordained without papal authority by Mons. Marcel Lefebvre.
The book makes evident the current Pontiff's incessant impulse towards ecumenism and patient intercultural and inter-religious dialog, which must resist yielding to relativism and syncretism if such efforts are to be authentic.
Benedict XVI faces his challenges with confidence in reason as a common principle and in responsibility as something stronger than any selfishness.
Like Francesco Antonio, we make this our hope as well, knowing that it will be possible with the help of prayer and the witness of our charity.
The reflections contained in this book will give more and better to anyone who reads it with love.
Michele Card. Giordano
The introduction to the Grana's book, by Ermanno Corsi, says:
With this new book, Francesco Antonio Grana presents Benedict XVI to the reader in his authenticity, minus the cliches which are customarily applied to him - from the statement on AIDS and condoms to the excommunication recall for the Lefebvrians, from the scandal of pedohpile priests to the encyclical Caritas in veritate.
Grana clearly highlights the limits of journalism today, too often prejudicially lined up in favor of a readymade thesis to the detriment of anything differentnand too often schematic, imprisoned in commonplaces and facile categorizations.
Mr. Grana obviously has close ties with Cardinal Giordano, who also wrote the preface for his first book. I first came across Grana's name because of a short vignette he contributed to Petrus early in 2008, and which I translated in the PRF. It was based on an exceptional firsthand narrative from Mons. Giordano and it very much bears re-posting:
HOW JOSEPH RATZINGER SAID 'YES'
ON APRIL 19, 2005
By Francesco Antonio Grana
Translated from
January 18, 2008
In his first encyclical,
Redemptor hominis, John Paul II revealed, one year after his election as Pope, the answer he gave when he accepted his election in the sealed Sistine Chapel.
Benedict XVI has not done so, but Cardinal Michele Giordano, emeritus Archbishop of Naples, recounted how Cardinal Ratzinger accepted his election, at the recent presentation of my book
Compromettiti con Dio. La rivoluzione di Benedetto XVI (Commit yourself to God: the rev0lution of Benedict XVI), L’Orientale Editrice.
"Before he was elected", Giordano recalled, "since I already thought he would be the next Pope, I approached him and said, full of confidence, even though like me, he was already past 75: 'If something happens in your favor, I hope you don't surprise us!' His face showed disturbance and he answered, 'Eminence, I cannot, I could not accept. Please, don't think of me! Don't think of me!"
"Then, after he was elected, he answered,
'Propter voluntatem Dei accepto' [Because it is the will of God, I accept], with the serenity that came with knowing that God had now chosen him."
The two cardinals are linked by a long friendship. Every time Cardinal Ratzinger came to Naples or passed through on his way to Capri or Ischia, he never failed to visit his brother cardinal, of whom he was a house guest many times.
Similarly, Benedict XVI has high esteem for two bishops who were auxiliaries to Cardinal Giordano in Naples: Mons. Vincenzo Pelvi, whom he recently named Military Archbishop Chaplain for Italy (his predecessor was Cardinal Bagnasco), and Cardinal Agostino Vallini, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Segnatura, who is said to be most likely to be named the Pope's Vicar in Rome, to succeed Cardinal Camillo Ruini when he retires in February or March.
[And indeed, Vallini is now Vicar in Rome.]
I have been unable to find any online biodata of Grana, but if he is the person on the Facebook entry with his name, it appears he graduated from the Catholic University of Milan and works for an international bank in London. He contributes to Avanti, the daily newspaper of the Italian Socialist Party, and last Sept. 28, I translated an article by him on "Benedict XVI: the teacher Pope" on Page 32 of this thread -
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=8527207&p=32&#idm...
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/11/2009 21:18]