I thought it useful to translate this brief review from the Sunday edition of El Diario in New York, the oldest Spanish daily newspaper in the USA, with a daily circulation of about 300,000. That's a significant reach.
The ever-surprising Benedict XVI
by Fr. Tomás del Valle
Translated from
Dec. 5,2010
I still remember the disbelief among many in St. Peter's Square the day Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope. But those in Rome who had known him - or about him - for years said, "Wait and see! He's full of surprises". Now, five years later, we can see that he is full of surprises.
One of these surprises is the new interview book. Even as Pope, he did not give up his habit of writing. And writing clearly and accessibly. Not just his official texts as Popes, but even a book on Jesus. And now
Light of the World.
In this fairly short book, Benedict XVI carries on a dialog with a German journalist during which they review the issues that most preoccupy mankind today. The book has three parts and an appendix.
"Signs of the times", the first part, is clear and simple - and it offers us an aspect of the Pope that is often overlooked: he is a human being who feels and suffers, who has his human limitations, and who has no second thoughts about saying that, of course, he can be wrong in his personal opinions. It is the man, not the Pope, who speaks here.
But as Pope he says that the crisis which has affected the Church greatly is serving to purify the Church, to make her more humble and closer to the faithful.
In Part 2, he reviews his Pontificate so far. It is in this section, while recalling his travels as Pope, that the controversial statements about condom use appear.
In response to a question about statements he had made about condoms and AIDS on his way to Cameroon in March 2009, he makes a schematic discourse about sexuality, in which he says clearly that "the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality which, after all, is precisely the dangerous source of teh attitude of no longer seeing sexuality as the expression of love, but only a sort of drug that people administer to themselves".
"Are you saying then that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?" And he answers, "She of course does not see it as a real or moral solution [to the AIDS problem], but in this or that case, there can be, nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement towards a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality".
Unfortunately, for some, these statements seem to be the only important ones in the book!
In the last part, entitled "Where do we go from here?", the Pope answers a series of questions about issues in the life of the Church and of society today. From the place of the Church in society to the 'last things' [death, the last judgment, purgatory, heaven adn hell), openly confronting questions about homosexuality and celibacy in priests, science and culture, and what is probably the work he loves most, JESUS OF NAZARETH, whose second part will be published early next year.
The book concludes with an appendix of useful excerpts from his pastoral letter of March 2010 to Irish Catholics, the Regensburg lecture, and the part of the inflight interview to Africa where he first speaks of condoms and AIDS. This is followed by a brief chronology of his life and of the significant events in his Pontificate so far.
The impression one is left with after reading the book is one of joy, respect and hope. Joy at seeing how Joseph Ratzinger continues to be vibrant, continues to produce thought!
They said of John Paul II that pilgrims came to Rome to see him. And of Benedict XVI that they come to listen to him. John Paul II was an actor in his youth who later became Pope. Actors usually perform from scripts that have been written for them. Benedict XVI is the author of many such scripts.
In an ideal world, I would have time enough each day to survey what's on in the multi-faith sites like beliefnet and now Patheos, discovered through Elizabeth Scalia, the Anchoress of First Things. But I have trouble enough 'keeping up' with the handful of strictly Catholic sites that I need to check on each day. So here's an early Patheos review of LOTW by Tim Muldoon, a theologian who teaches at Boston College, and whose angle on LOTW is definitely off the beaten path and very welcome...
LOTW: What the Pope says
about ecology and eschatology
By Tim Muldoon
No one on the planet has a feel for history like the 265th Pope. What must it be like to hold an office like his, an office that stretches back two thousand years?
In his latest book,
Light of the World (Ignatius Press), Benedict XVI talks with veteran German journalist Peter Seewald about what it’s like to have that office. The conversations unfolded over six consecutive hour-long sessions during a recent (July 2010) vacation, and offer an unusual glimpse into the mind of a global diplomat and religious leader.
There are eighteen chapters, divided into three sections (“Signs of the Times,” on current global issues facing the Church; “The Pontificate,” on his particular challenges in five years as pope; and “Where Do We Go From Here,” on the role of the Church in shaping the future of faithful response to God).
First, a general comment: this Pope is not afraid to deal with the hard questions straightforwardly. Homosexuality; women’s ordination; dialogue with Islam; the sexual abuse crisis — all these he addresses with candor.
Seewald is clearly a man whom the Pope trusts; his questions are sometimes softballs, and at times more than a little obsequious. But nevertheless he offers the Pope the opportunity to speak about some truly difficult issues, and even those who hate everything the Catholic Church stands for will appreciate the simple, non-technical language with which the Pope spells out what it means to lead a congregation of over a billion people around the world.
Some of the early fireworks have already lit up the blogosphere: most obviously, his comments regarding condoms among prostitutes. For me, those comments are not particularly significant in the scope of the book as a whole.
Rather, it is Benedict’s sense of history which I find is leaving a lingering impression on me. I will focus on two points: first, his more-than-window-dressing position on ecology; and second, his understanding of how we are to understand the age we live in against the backdrop of global history.
The extended treatment of the ecological question was not entirely a surprise, since Benedict’s green credentials are already known. What did surprise me, though, is the way that the Pope situated the question within a much broader understanding of the dynamics of modernity.
Those familiar with modern Church history know that it has had an uneasy (at best) relationship with modernity: progress in the natural and social sciences were met with resistance and uneasein the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
And those who know Benedict also know that he is very wary of a reduction of the Church’s mission to a kind of social service. In answering a question about how the Church has gone wrong in its modernization, he observes that
Either one engages in political moralism, as happened in liberation theology and in other experiments, as a way of giving Christianity what you might call a relevance for the present. Or there is a transformation in the direction of psychotherapy and wellness…. What is left…are self-made projects. They may have a limited vitality, but they do not establish any communion with God…. (p. 140) In light of this critique, then, it is fascinating to read how the Pope regards the pressing nature of ecological concerns. He accepts Seewald’s observations about the dire risk facing the planet because of climate change and ensuing threats to food production; he also shares Seewald’s concerns regarding massive, crushing debt loads. His answer to these and other observations, I think, gives us a clue to the way he envisions the role of the Church today.
She not only has a major responsibility; she is, I would say, often the only hope. For she is so close to people’s consciences that she can move them to particular acts of self-denial and can inculcate basic attitudes in souls. (46)
People around the world are living in untruth, he says (47), and elsewhere he observes that at the root of our problems is the ancient story of the division within the human heart.
As Saint Augustine said: "World history is a battle between two forms of love. Love of self—to the point of destroying the world. And love of others—to the point of renouncing oneself". (59)
The demographics of the Church are rapidly changing, he observes, particularly in Europe where the old structures of the Church are fading and dying. Yet Benedict’s long vision of history allows him perspective, such that he can profess “I am quite optimistic that Christianity is on the verge of a new dynamic” (59), even in the face of aggressive secularism — because human beings crave eternal joy.
And in light of that craving, Benedict proposes a forward-looking Church, and not only a rear-looking one. Yes, the Catholic Church is rooted in the history of the world, and especially of Europe and the Americas; but its gaze is toward the coming Christ (63).
The liturgical and theological dimensions of that “gaze” are what fascinate me. Proponents of liturgical change in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) are very concerned that Benedict is trying to roll back the clock on the changes: priests facing the congregation, rather than the altar; Mass in the vernacular; reception of the communion wafer in the hand rather than on the tongue.
Indeed, in recent years Benedict has indeed allowed for more widespread practice of celebrating Mass ad orientem, toward the East (a metaphor for awaiting Christ’s return); expanded the use of the Latin Tridentine Mass; and expressed a preference for receiving the Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling.
For Benedict, the most apt parable for the Church’s liturgy is that of the ten young women waiting for the bridgroom — it is a situation of breathless anticipation of the Christ who is to come: “Every Mass is therefore an act of going out to meet the One who is coming” (180). The Church, therefore, is similarly poised in anticipation of Christ, making the world a better place until he comes (179).
Those points — about ecology and eschatology — are apt bookends to Benedict’s understanding of his job description. A Pope is successor to a fisherman, not an emperor (71). He must help heal the Church after its sins, especially sexual abuse (ch. 2). He must heal rifts in the history of the Church, first with Judaism (81-82), then with Orthodoxy (86-91); reach out to Protestants, Muslims, and others who can address aggressive secularization (93-100).
Above all, he must keep the Church focused on Christ, and preparing people for the coming of Christ, regardless of how successful he is at any given historical moment.
Beneath this expansive view of history is a man who didn’t want this job, a man who was ready to retire. He is aware that his predecessor’s shadow is a long one, and that his own historic role will be comparatively small.
And yet with his formidable intellect and ecclesiastical résumé, his is a deeply thoughtful approach to the broad contours of Catholic faith.
His latest book, perhaps his most accessible, invites Catholics and those who would understand them to a unique perspective on 21st century faith. The Church is not without serious problems — among them, the staggering oversight of failing to do a google search about the Holocaust-denying Bishop Williamson (see p. 121); and failing to mount a worldwide investigation of sexual abuse after the revelations in the United States (26).
But with humility, this Pontifex Maximus or “great bridge builder” sees his role as reminding the world of the source of its light and its meaning: a God who has dwelt among us, and who has entrusted to a fisherman and his frequently unworthy successors the task of telling that story faithfully.
I thought I would welcome this review because it's by a Protestant who appreciates the Pope's honesty and that he gave this interview at all. Unfortunately she obviously did not think it necessary to check out some of her out-of-line assumptions about the Catholic faith and its practices, which leads her to make quite a few outrageous statements that are outrageous because they are plainly uninformed!
Pope Benedict laments
pedophile ‘cloud of filth'
By Catherine Hickley
Dec 5, 2010
Let’s leave the condoms on the bedside table for now. Pope Benedict XVI has much more to say in his book-length interview with German journalist Peter Seewald.
In
Light of the World, Seewald, an earnest Catholic,
guides the Pope through topics ranging from pedophile priests and drugs to the ordination of women and the Second Coming.
Benedict’s responses, some humorous, are worth reading even after you’ve flipped to the bit where he says condoms may be justified in some cases, as “perhaps” for a male prostitute.
Even as a lapsed Protestant, I was engrossed by the book’s rare insights into a leader who usually appears impossibly aloof -- an elderly, white-robed patriarch viewed from afar, waving to crowds and
speaking Latin.
[Other than a brief saying now and then, when has he ever spoken Latin outside of the liturgy?] (He wears the cassock even at home, he says. No sweaters for him.)
Often seen as a dry academic steeped in dogma,
Benedict is better known for the things he did before, rather than after, his election as Supreme Pontiff in 2005. [You would think that the past five and a half years were totally uneventful and devoid of important events in the life of the Church! But then, this woman has obviously not bothered to research anything other than the cliches of the black legend around Cardinal Ratzinger.]
In his 24 years as John Paul II’s doctrinal enforcer,
he helped oust priests who diverged from orthodoxy [But what an ignorant woman this! He never ousted any priest for diverging from orthodoxy; only one - the Sri Lankan theologian Tissa Balassuriya - was excommunicated by John Paul II, after he refused to retract his heresy casting doubt on original sin and the divinity of Christ, but he later retracted the heresy and re-professed the faith!] and asserted the superiority of the Roman Catholic Church over other Christian religions.
[As he would and should, having been the first-line 'enforcer of the faith' after the Pope himself!]
His hard-line stances on homosexuality, women priests and birth control won him enemies, both within the church and without. [She makes it appear as if he was imposing his own personal views when these are tenets of Catholic taaching!]
Though there’s plenty here to make non-believers balk, his clarity on complex issues is compelling. If nothing else, the book succeeds as a public-relations vehicle for a Pope who has had
his share of PR disasters.
Seewald, who has written for
Der Spiegel,
Stern and the
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, rediscovered his Catholic faith 14 years ago, after an interview with Benedict when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. For this book, he spent one hour a day over six days with the 83-year-old Pope in July -- the most extensive, one-on-one papal interview ever.
Benedict doesn’t play down the damage done by pedophile priests. The scandal was like “the crater of a volcano, out of which suddenly a tremendous cloud of filth came, darkening and soiling everything,” he says. He understands that Catholics who were sexually abused as children may find it hard “to keep believing that the Church is a source of good,” he says.
“Insofar as it is the truth, we must be grateful for every disclosure,” he says, though he voices concern that some news coverage was motivated by pleasure in discrediting the church. He never considered resigning or, as he puts it, “running away.”
His longer-term challenge is to hold on to his flock. The threat, in his view, doesn’t arise from other religions. Unsurprisingly, it comes from the spread of secularism.
Attempts to force the Vatican to change its opposition to homosexuality and the ordination of women would rob the Church of the right “to live out her own identity,” he says. So that’s a “no” to female, married or gay priests anytime soon.
[Or any time at all, if the Church is to remain faithful to her tradition!]
Still, his willingness to address all these subjects and to acknowledge that gay prostitutes even exist is surprising. Which brings us back to condoms.
The Pope has hardly become an enthusiastic supporter overnight. The Church “does not regard it as a real or moral solution” yet accepts that, to prevent the spread of AIDS, it could be “a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way of living sexuality.” What seems a small concession could save thousands of lives in Africa.
Nor is the Pope averse to
a touch of populist outreach in his fight to save souls. Of late, he has taken to putting the sacrament directly on the tongues of communicants at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
[Clearly, this woman has not really bothered to do any homework at all. How could she call communion on the tongue 'a touch of populist outreach'????]
“I have heard,” he confides, “of people who, after receiving communion, stick the Host in their wallet to take home as a kind of souvenir.”
[And clearly, she has no notion at all of sacrilege if she reports this simply as an anecdotal curio!!]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/12/2010 01:36]