If the world's media did not have such a negative bias against Benedict XVI, worse now than when he was Cardinal Ratzinger depicted as a completely unpleasant Rottweiler by his detractors, what he has said and done in the past 18 months alone - from lifting the excommunication of the Lefebvrian bishops and his epochal letter to the bishops of the world, right down to his recent 'mesi mirabili' (that could have been 'mesi orribili' for anyone else) starting with the NYT-AP secular crusade to make him the scapegoat for all the sexual abuses ever committed by priests in the Church - would have earned him encomiums galore. And in an ideal world, even acclamation as a Pope who has been as courageous and tenacious a Successor of Peter as predecessors like Gregory the Great and Leo the Great.
Meanwhile, we can comfort ourselves with articles like this. Fortunately, Corriere's Vaticanista, like his predecessor Luigi Accattoli, does not always take his editors' rigidly secular biases against Benedict XVI...
The theologian Pope
is also captain of his ship
by Gian Guido Vecchi
Translated from
June 29, 2010
Scandals, controversies, divisions. But beyond those, 'the eclipse of a sense of God' in societies with the most ancient Christian tradition.
"The challenges of the present era are certainly far above human capacities," Benedict XVI observed on June 29 at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls.
Nonetheless, he said, to the apostles "who showed their own impotence', Jesus 'demonstrated that with faith in God, nothing is impossible.
It was quite a day for Benedict XVI.
In the morning, he held a 'clarificatory meeting' between Cardinals Angelo Sodano, retired from office but still Dean of Cardinals, and the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn - who had accused the former Secretary of State of offending victims of priestly sex abuse because he used the Italian word for 'idle talk' in an Easter Sunday tribute to the Holy Father
[and worse, of colluding to shield the late Austrian Cardinal Hans Herman Groer from being investigated by the Vatican for alleged sex abuses].
According to an unprecedented note from the Vatican, Schoenborn had expressed his 'displeasure' at the 'misinterpretation' of his words.
[More equivocation from Schoenborn, considering that there was nothing to interpret about accusations he expressed directly! BTW, the note does not say whether he apologized at all for his lapses in judgment and in elementary courtesy to a fellow cardinal!]
The Vatican note pointedly said that "in the Church, the competence regarding accusations against a cardinal lies exclusively with the Pope".
The same day, the Pope also authorized a note "to protect the good name" of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in view of the ongoing Italian government investigations of possible corruption among Italian government officials who had business dealings with that Congregation between 2000 to the early part of 2006.
And Monday night, at St. Paul's, the Pope announced the creation of a new Pontifical Council for 'new evangelization' of the West. In doing so, Benedict XVI recalled Paul VI's program for executing Vatican-II, John Paul II's missionary zeal (he also coined the term 'new evangelization'), and his own inaugural homily when he said, "The Church is young - it is open to the future".
"I repeat it now," he said, "at the tomb of St. Paul - the Church is an immense force for renewal in the world, certainly not by its own powers, but by the power of the Gospel".
At the Vatican, they are saying that more 'strong statements' will be made by Benedict XVI, after the Pope's letter deploring the way in which police raids were conducted against the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels while reaffirming that "justice us take its course...but with respect for everyone concerned".
Starting with the most obvious. Contrary to the stereotypes that this Pope is a theologian isolated in the papal apartment, preferring to play the piano and remote or untouched by the problems of the Church, Benedict XVI is more than ever in charge at the Vatican and governs 'surely and serenely'.
Consider his new appointments to the Curia [now almost 100% his men], recent diplomatic successes with Russia and Vietnam, a rapprochement with Cuba, his attention to the Middle East and to China. (Yesterday, following online publication in Chinese of the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the Code of Canon Law, the Vatican published the documents of Vatican-II.)
In fact, just consider how he dealt with the Schoenborn problem which was "a strong affirmation of Petrine primacy", Vatican sources said.
[Vecchi goes on to cite the circumstances of the confrontation arranged by the Pope between Schoenborn and Cardinals Bertone and Sodano last Monday, and to cite from the Vatican note on the meeting.]
In short, Benedict XVI wanted both parties to resolve the problem and close the issue. These are difficult times and not the moment for a split along factional lines: the only 'line' is the Pope's, and he knows to correct what needs to be corrected.
Meanwhile, neither the note on Schoenborn or the one on Propaganda Fide appears to interest MSM in the least - because they do not fit the narrative they wish to impose on the Church and the Vatican - they have been terribly underplayed if not ignored! Though I am expecting some belated commentary from the Anglophone chattering class in defense of Schoenborn, their new liberal hero [i.e., 'Pupil turns against Pope'] and against Benedict XVI and the 'Vatican establishment'....
Even the normally forthcoming and voluble John Allen has not yet commented on what is surely a master tactical and strategic stroke by Benedict XVI - and totally unexpected (one expected the reprimand would have been kept private) - with respect to Schoenborn's insubordination, though Sandro Magister, who has not made a secret of where his sympathies lie, promises an examination in depth of the issue. Perhaps Allen is still trying to figure out how to 'justify' Schoenborn while trying to appear 'objective'!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 01/07/2010 03:33]