BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

This is an excellent commentary - the first one I have read that 'explains', in effect, why the book is called 'Light of the World':
The title is the message: Christ - conveyed by his Vicar on earth.

Benedict XVI: Christian Radical
by Samuel Gregg

November 30, 2010


As the condom-wars ignited by Benedict XVI’s Light of the World abate, some attention might finally be paid to the book’s broader themes and what they indicate about Benedict’s pontificate.

In this regard, perhaps the interview’s most revealing aspect is the picture that emerges of Pope Benedict as nothing more and nothing less than a Christian radical.

Those accustomed to cartoon-like depictions of Joseph Ratzinger as a “reactionary” might be surprised by this description. But by “radical,” I don’t mean the type of priest or minister who only wears clerical garb when attending left-wing rallies or publically disputing particular church doctrines.

The word “radical” comes from the Latin radix, meaning “root.” It’s in this sense Benedict is radical. His pontificate is about going back to Christianity’s roots to make, as Benedict says, “visible again the center of Christian life” and then shining that light upon the world so that we might see the truth about ourselves.

At Christianity’s center, Benedict states, is the person of Jesus Christ. But this person, the {ope insists, is not whoever we want him to be. Christ is not the self-help guru proclaimed by the charlatans of the Prosperity Gospel. Nor is he the proto-Marxist beloved by devotees of the now-defunct liberation theologies. Still less is Christ a “compassionate, super-intelligent gay man”, as once opined by that noted biblical scholar, Elton John.

According to Benedict, Christ is who Christ says he is: the Son of God. Hence, there is no contradiction between what some call “the Christ of faith” and “the Christ of history.”

In Light of the World, Benedict confirms that underscoring this point was why he wrote his best-selling Jesus of Nazareth (2007). “The Jesus in whom we believe,” Benedict claims, “is really also the historical Jesus.”

Such observations hardly seem revolutionary for a Christian. But the context of Benedict’s remarks is a world of biblical studies dominated by what’s known as the historical-critical method. Among other things, this involves placing scripture in its historical conditions and exploring the different literary genres used by biblical authors.

In itself, such analysis can help illuminate scripture’s meaning. But from the beginning, many of its practitioners have imposed readings upon biblical texts that explicitly sever the Christian scriptures from the Christian faith from which they emerged.

It has also facilitated the piling-up of tenuous-hypotheses upon tenuous-hypotheses about Christ which are then masqueraded as “facts” that, in Benedict’s words, “eventually lead to absurdity”: Christ-the-guru, Christ-the-revolutionary, Christ-the name-your-fashionable-cause.

Yet, Benedict argues, these “alternative portraits” can’t “explain how within such a short time something could suddenly appear that completely transcends ordinary expectations.”

In short, Benedict states, “the only real, historical personage is the Christ in whom the Gospels believe, and not the figure who has been reconstituted from numerous exegetical studies.”

Before dismissing this as fundamentalism, let’s note that Benedict maintains that the picture of Jesus as one who was really crucified, really died, and really rose from the dead accords not only with faith, but also with reason.

For all their variations, the Gospel accounts are reasonable because they provide the only coherent explanation of what happened. These texts, Benedict notes, provide “direct access to the events.” Some of these writings, he reminds us, “originate literally from the 30s of the first century.”

But why, we might ask, does Benedict belabor the point? One reason is surely the damage done to Christian faith by scholars parading various pet theories as “facts.”

Another reason, however, may be Benedict’s sense that even many faithful Christians have forgotten the radical implications of accepting Christ as whom he says he is.

First, such an acceptance rescues Christianity from becoming what the German philosopher Rüdiger Safranski calls “a cold religious project”: a “mix of social ethics, institutional power thinking, psychotherapy, techniques of meditation, museum curation, cultural project management, and social work.”

That’s a concise description of the “liberal Christianity” that’s helped empty Western Europe’s churches, particularly in Benedict’s German homeland.

Second, it forces us to take seriously aspects of Christianity that have disappeared from public view over the past forty years.

In recent decades, Benedict claims, Christian preaching has stopped mentioning the Last Things revealed by Christ: i.e., heaven, hell, and the fact that all of us will be judged. Instead, preaching has become “one-sided, in that it is largely directed toward the creation of a better world, while hardly anyone talks any more about the other, truly better world.”

For confirmation, just look at the websites of those religious orders which talk endlessly about social justice without relating it to Christian belief in the limits of earthly justice and the reality of divine justice.

This diminishes Christianity to either what Benedict calls “political moralism, as happened in liberation theology” or “psychotherapy and wellness.” It also, some might interject, encourages us to conjure up secular messiahs who, not being God, cannot possibly fulfill religious-like expectations of hope and change.

In the end, it results in the same thing: practical atheism, at the heart of which is a teddy-bear Christ who, as Benedict wrote years ago, “demands nothing, never scolds, who accepts everyone and everything, who no longer does anything but affirm us.”

And therein may be the essence of Benedict’s Light of the World. Yes, Christ always offers us forgiveness. Nonetheless, Benedict adds, Christ also “takes us seriously.” Having stated who he is, Christ leaves us free either to accept him as he really is and order our lives accordingly, or to construct what another Christian scholar, Thomas More, called “worldly fantasies” of our own making.

More radically different paths are hard to imagine.

Dr. Samuel Gregg is Research Director at the Acton Institute. He has authored several books including On Ordered Liberty, his prize-winning The Commercial Society, and Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy.





John Thavis has written a second 'overview' of LOTW...For the Pope's followers and admirers, none of these overviews and reviews are really important nor do they convey the conversation as it is, much less the Pope's thought flow - JUST READ THE BOOK!!!!... And just now, I don't have the energy to replace the silly headline that this story comes with....Nonetheless, Thavis properly underscores the central God message of the book and of this Pontificate, except he relegates it to somewhere in the middle of the article.


Pope stunned by Church’s wretchedness
by JOHN THAVIS



VATICAN CITY, Nov. 29 (CNS) - Pope Benedict's book-length interview is certain to spark global attention, and not only for his comments suggesting that condom use might be acceptable in some circumstances.

In the 219-page book, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times, the German pontiff spoke candidly on the clerical sex abuse scandal, relations with Islam, papal resignation and the "threatening catastrophe" facing humanity.

The wide-ranging interview was conducted by German writer Peter Seewald, who posed questions in six one-hour sessions last summer. The book was released Nov. 23 at the Vatican.

The book reveals a less formal side of the Pope, as he responds simply and directly on topics as diverse as the joy of sex and the ban on burqas. Much of the conversation focuses on the Pope's call for a global "examination of conscience" in the face of economic disparity, environmental disasters and moral slippage.

The Pope repeatedly emphasized that the Church's role in a largely broken world is not to impose a "burden" of moral rules but to open the doors to God.

Even before the book's release, media attention centred on the pope's remarks on condoms in AIDS prevention.

While repeating his view that condoms cannot be the only answer to the AIDS epidemic, the Pope allowed that in some specific cases - for example, that of male prostitutes - use of a condom could be a step toward taking moral responsibility for one's actions.

An entire chapter and parts of others were dedicated to the clerical sex abuse scandal. The Pope called it "a great crisis" that left him "stunned by how wretched the Church is, by how much her members fail to follow Christ."

"It was really almost like the crater of a volcano, out of which suddenly a tremendous cloud of filth came, darkening and soiling everything, so that above all the priesthood suddenly seemed to be a place of shame," he said.

He expressed optimism about the Church's recovery from the scandal, saying God continues to raise up Catholic saints. But he also said he understands why some Catholics, particularly victims, have responded by leaving the Church in protest.

"It is difficult for them to keep believing that the Church is a source of good, that she communicates the light of Christ, that she helps people in life - I can understand that," he said.

The Pope said media coverage of the abuse scandal was partly motivated by a desire to discredit the Church. But he added that the Church must be "grateful for every disclosure" and said the media could not have reported in this way "had there not been evil in the Church."

The Pope pointed to the Church's new rules and policies on sex abuse, but he appeared to acknowledge that more might have been done.

"Would it have been Rome's duty, then, to say to all the countries expressly: Find out whether you are in the same situation? Maybe we should have done that," he said. [He's being charitable, of course, and bending over backwards to take the blame. Because, after all, seeing the bloody debacle arising out of such scandals in the USA, weren't bishops intelligent enough to do this on their own without having to be told?]

The Pope said that in responding to sex abuse allegations against the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, the late Mexican Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, "unfortunately we addressed these things very slowly and late." [Again, he assumes the collective responsibility for a very special case that, to say the least, was not totally under his control!] The allegations were eventually substantiated and the order has been placed under Vatican leadership for a period of reform.

Pope Benedict said Maciel remains for him "a mysterious figure," one who lived an immoral and twisted life but who built up his religious order with dynamism - a "false prophet" who nevertheless had a "positive effect." [I really found the Pope's balanced look at the Maciel-LC situation very admirable.]

As for the future of the Legionaries, the pope said it was basically sound but needed corrections that do not destroy the enthusiasm of its members.

The {ope was asked if he considered resigning in the face of such burdens as the sex abuse crisis. He responded: "When the danger is great one must not run away. For that reason, now is certainly not the time to resign."

But he added that if a Pope is no longer physically, psychologically and spiritually capable of handling the duties of the papacy, he has a right and perhaps an obligation to resign.

The Pope spoke candidly of his age and health, saying his schedule of meetings and trips "really overtaxes an 83-year-old man."

"I trust that our dear Lord will give me as much strength as I need to be able to do what is necessary. But I also notice that my forces are diminishing," he said.

The Pope laughed when Seewald suggested that he looked good enough to be a fitness trainer, and said he has to conserve energy during his busy days. Asked whether he uses an exercise bicycle a doctor had given him, the pope replied: "No, I don't get to it at all - and don't need it at the moment, thank God."

He said he spends his free time reading, praying and sometimes watching DVDs - typically with religious themes - with members of the papal household.

Much of the book dealt with the Pope's strategy for presenting the Church's message in a largely skeptical world. The essential problem today, he said, is that the prevailing model of economic and social progress leaves out God and thus omits the ethical aspect.

Impending climactic disaster actually provides an opportunity to evangelize and promote moral decisions, he said. The problem, though, is that populations and countries seem unwilling to make sacrifices - which is where the Church can make a difference, he said.

It is urgent to "bring the question about God back into the centre," he said. "The important thing today is to see that God exists, that God matters to us and that he answers us."

The Church can do this, he said, only if its own members live the faith in their daily lives. That simple task should be the priority today, rather than embarking on major initiatives like a third Vatican Council.

The Pope said the Church's task is threatened by a "new intolerance" that would limit religious expression in the name of non-discrimination, for example in banning the display of crucifixes in public schools, or in condemning specific Church teachings.

"When, for example, in the name of non-discrimination, people try to force the Catholic Church to change her position on homosexuality or the ordination of women, then that means she is no longer allowed to live out her own identity," he said.

In that regard, the Pope said other religions face similar pressures. He said, for example, that he saw no reason for Western countries to ban the burqa, the Islamic veil, as long as it is worn voluntarily.

On other topics, Pope Benedict had this to say:

He defended the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae (HV), which taught that artificial contraception in marriage is morally wrong, but said the Church needs to find ways to help people live the teaching and show tolerance to those who have problems with it. [I believe that has always been the problem with HV - so many priests found it so contrary to the prevailing mentality that they simply avoided the subject, instead of reading it cum Ecclesiae and devising pastoral approaches to help the faithful deal with its precepts. A pastoral approach recognizes that one size does not necessarily fit all and helps the faithful make informed decisions for which each one must take responsibility.]

The Pope noted the Church accepts natural regulation of conception. That method presupposes that couples take time for each other, and is far different from taking a pill "so that I can jump into bed with a random acquaintance."

In general, he said, the Church has to return to the "genuinely Christian attitude" of joy, as well as discipline and responsibility, in sexuality.

He said dialogue with Muslims has improved during his pontificate, in part because Muslim scholars accept that Islam needs to clarify its relation to violence and its relation to reason.

The Pope took issue with critics of the wartime policies of Pope Pius XII, saying that he "saved more Jews than anyone else" by quietly opening doors to Church institutions.

He said he began distributing Communion on the tongue during papal Masses not because he was opposed to Communion in the hand, but to "send a signal" about respect for the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. [Here, too, I felt he was being charitable about 'communion in the hand'. But it is obvious that if he needs to send a signal about respect for the Eucharist, then 'communion in the hand' is not the best way to show such respect.]





The following was one of the earliest pubished reviews of LOTW, which I missed. Fr. Sweeney does an excellent job of picking out keynotes from the book for this short but beautiful introduction. The Rev. Michael Sweeney is president of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

New book reflects on
Pope's role in the world
by Michael Sweeney

November 24, 2010

"The Pope is, on the one hand, a completely powerless man. On the other hand, he bears a great responsibility. ... The important thing is that I do not present my ideas, but rather try to think and to live the Church's faith, to act in obedience to his [Christ's] mandate."

With these words Pope Benedict XVI reflects upon his role in the Roman Catholic Church and world in a series of conversations with Peter Seewald, newly published in the book Light of the World (Ignatius Press, 2010).

Incisive, candid and occasionally playful, Pope Benedict addresses a wide range of issues, from the scandal of clerical abuse of minors - "Suddenly so much filth. ... It is a particularly serious sin when someone who is actually supposed to help young people toward God ... abuses him instead" - to the crisis in the world economy - "We are living at the expense of future generations. In this respect it is plain that we are living in untruth."

What emerges in the interviews is a man who in his own words is "a simple beggar before God - even more than all other people" who, nonetheless, is deeply confident in the future of the Church and of Christianity.

Questioned about the AIDS crisis, the Pope does not approve the use of condoms, despite what has been widely reported in the world news. In fact, "the sheer fixation on the condom" is itself part of the problem; it "implies a banalization of sexuality, which, after all, is precisely the dangerous source of the attitude of no longer seeing sexuality as the expression of love, but only as a sort of drug that people administer to themselves."

It is possible that in the case of some individuals the use of a condom might indicate "a first assumption of responsibility on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed," but nowhere does he suggest that the use of condoms is objectively effective or morally acceptable.

On the world stage, Benedict speaks of "the clash of two spiritual worlds, the world of faith and the world of secularism." Secularism represents "an abstract negative religion" that is "being made into a tyrannical standard that everyone must follow."

As a consequence, "In the name of tolerance, tolerance is being abolished. ... No one is forced to be a Christian. But no one should be forced to live according to the 'new religion' as though it alone were definitive and obligatory for all mankind."

The Pope is well aware that many Catholics now live "a divided existence," and he poses the question, "to what extent do people still belong to the Church? On the one hand, they want to belong to her and do not wish to lose this foundation. On the other hand, they are of course also shaped and formed interiorly by the modern way of thinking. It is the unfermented coexistence, with and alongside each other, of the basic Christian intention and a new world view, which leaves its mark on all of life. To that extent what remains is a sort of schizophrenia."

Therefore he challenges the Church to meditate with him the way in which Christianity is to be proposed to the modern world: "The question is, Where is secularism right? Where can and must the faith adopt the forms and figures of modernity - and where must it offer resistance?"

The decisive sign of hope for him lies in "the joy of young people. ... In this regard, thanks to what I myself am able to see and experience, I am quite optimistic that Christianity is on the verge of a new dynamic."