The Pope does not 'shrug'
by Lisa Graas
January 20, 2011
In her blog on PATHEOS yesterday, Ms. Graas commented on a Jan. 19 column by the website's Catholic portal editor Elizabeth Scalia in which she reflected on how the Eternal City seemingly shrugs off the daily burdens of humanity in pursuing the traditional rhythm of her days since it became the world center of Christianity. Graas's reply is a thoughtful re-creation of parallels between the situation faced by Pope St. Leo the Great in his time and that faced by Benedict XVI today.... Graas was reacting to this paragraph from Scalia:
Tomorrow a Pope speaks to a hundred thousand souls and that is as usual and normal as a plate of pasta with garlic, or a magnificently inlaid marble tomb; everything is made remarkable by its sheer everyday ordinariness, and that is why Rome can shrug and tell you to sit down and watch the world go by, without a fret or worry. She is a queen bee, reigning within precise dimensions of an improbably serene hive, because she does not fear the constant buzz of ages; they only portend an eventual and inevitable sweetness.
The only thing I have ever seen of Rome (and likely ever will see) is what I find in my books here at home and pages on the internet. In like manner, the only thing I will ever hear from the Vatican is what I read in my books and on the internet, although I do correspond in snail mail with a beloved Cardinal there who shall remain nameless for now. (No, I don’t have any ‘insider’ news on the Vatican. It’s personal. No politics.)
...If we are referring to the Vatican, as I wrote on Sunday, I do not see the Vatican ‘shrugging’ at all.
My heart was sinking as I listened to the Pope today. It sank for him because I know he understands clearly how serious is his duty to be a voice of reason and love in a world that is rejecting both reason and love.
This is not a Pope who ‘shrugs’. Rather, he is a Pope who is fearless, sober-minded, and keenly in tune with the horrible future of the world if we fail in our duty to contend for the Faith. A quiet and fearless voice speaking in somewhat broad terms (if not understood in context) over the heads of a hundred thousand souls may seem as “shrugging” to some. “Rome” has a long history of shrugging. The Vatican, on the other hand, has a long and storied history of refusing to shrug.
This Pope now faces challenges that are similar to those faced by Pope St. Leo. Some of that story can be found in the Catholic Encyclopedia entry for that great Pope. Read with me and see if you can hear ‘echoes’ of the challenges faced by Pope Benedict. It is long because there are so many of these ‘echoes’, in my subjective opinion.
Pope Benedict deals with the reality of the decline of Christendom in Europe.
Leo’s pontificate, next to that of St. Gregory I, is the most significant and important in Christian antiquity. At a tune when the Church was experiencing the greatest obstacles to her progress in consequence of the hastening disintegration of the Western Empire, while the Orient was profoundly agitated over dogmatic controversies, this great pope, with far-seeing sagacity and powerful hand, guided the destiny of the Roman and Universal Church.[...]
Pope Benedict is dealing with serious issues of dissent, though he is delivering a gentler hand than Pope St. Leo did.
[...] Leo’s chief aim was to sustain the unity of the Church. Not long after his elevation to the Chair of Peter, he saw himself compelled to combat energetically the heresies which seriously threatened church unity even in the West. Leo had ascertained through Bishop Septimus of Altinum, that in Aquileia priests, deacons, and clerics, who had been adherents of Pelagius, were admitted to communion without an explicit abjuration of their heresy. The pope sharply censured this procedure, and directed that a provincial synod should be assembled in Aquileia, at which such persons were to be required to abjure Pelagianism publicly and to subscribe to an unequivocal confession of Faith.[...]
Pope Benedict is clearly concerned with the forced migration of Christians from their home countries that are Muslim-majority countries, and also serious immigration issues elsewhere in the world.
[...] The greatly disorganized ecclesiastical condition of certain countries, resulting from national migrations, demanded closer bonds between their episcopate and Rome for the better promotion of ecclesiastical life.[...]
Pope Benedict must deal with the rise of barbaric cultures with abortion in the West, Islamic violence in the Middle East (including far into Africa) and other forms of barbarity. He continually seeks to ensure that our Faith is clearly defined amid this troubling trend.
[...] In Leo’s conception of his duties as supreme pastor, the maintenance of strict ecclesiastical discipline occupied a prominent place. This was particularly important at a time when the continual ravages of the barbarians were introducing disorder into all conditions of life, and the rules of morality were being seriously violated. Leo used his utmost energy in maintaining this discipline, insisted on the exact observance of the ecclesiastical precepts, and did not hesitate to rebuke when necessary. Letters (ep. xvii) relative to these and other matters were sent to the different bishops of the Western Empire—e.g., to the bishops of the Italian provinces (epp. iv, xix, clxvi, clxviii), and to those of Sicily, who had tolerated deviations from the Roman Liturgy in the administration of Baptism (ep. xvi), and concerning other matters (ep. xvii).[...]
Pope Benedict‘s profound gift of intellect is key to ensuring that man’s willingness to appeal to reason will be preserved in our public discourse.
[...] The primacy of the Roman Church was thus manifested under this pope in the most various and distinct ways. But it was especially in his interposition in the confusion of the Christological quarrels, which then so profoundly agitated Eastern Christendom, that Leo most brilliantly revealed himself the wise, learned, and energetic shepherd of the Church.[...]
Pope Benedict must engage regularly in dialogue, mostly in the form of his public addresses, with powerful, barbaric people who have us under their boot heel.
[...] In his far-reaching pastoral care of the Universal Church, in the West and in the East, the pope never neglected the domestic interests of the Church at Rome. When Northern Italy had been devastated by Attila Leo by a personal encounter with the King of the Huns prevented him from marching upon Rome. At the emperor’s wish, Leo, accompanied by the Consul Avienus and the Prefect Trigetius, went in 452 to Upper Italy, and met Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua, obtaining from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the emperor. The pope also succeeded in obtaining another great favor for the inhabitants of Rome. When in 455 the city was captured by the Vandals under Genseric, although for a fortnight the town had been plundered, Leo’s intercession obtained a promise that the city should not be injured and that the lives of the inhabitants should be spared. These incidents show the high moral authority enjoyed by the pope, manifested even in temporal affairs.[...]
Pope Benedict‘s public statements are considerably profound, clear and of elevated intellect.
[...] Leo was no less active in the spiritual elevation of the Roman congregations, and his sermons, of which ninety-six genuine examples have been preserved, are remarkable for their profundity, clearness of diction, and elevated style. The first five of these, which were delivered on the anniversaries of his consecration, manifest his lofty conception of the dignity of his office, as well as his thorough conviction of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, shown forth in so outspoken and decisive a manner by his whole activity as supreme pastor.[...]
I do see ‘Rome’ shrugging. The Vatican, on the other hand, is not shrugging. This refusal to ‘shrug’ has always been, and always will be, part of the greatness of the Catholic Church.
I hope I am not speaking prematurely, but Leo the Great may well be Benedict XVI's direct spiritual predecessor as Pope, Universal Pastor and Doctor of the Church.
Today, Scalia on her Anchroess blog which has transferred from FIRST THINGS to PATHEOS replied to Graas to explain that when she wrote 'Rome shrugs', she meant the city, not the Vatican, much less the Pope:
The burdened do not shrug
by Elizabeth Scalia
January 21, 2011
After taking note of Graas's Jan. 20 blog, she says this...
Whenever I think of Rome, and I do several times a day, I whisper up a prayer for our good Pope in the Vatican, who is such an earnest, hard-working shepherd. He is wise and obedient in ways that continue to leave me almost breathless in humble wondering.
(She goes on to quote from a column she wrote on the Pope's visit to the USA in April 2008):
Although his meeting with some of the victims of the shameful sex abuse scandals was private and unseen, I suspect Benedict wore that same expression, and carried himself in that same resolute manner, as he allowed himself to be led where he would rather not go, placed into the presence of the Church’s deepest wound — a wound of horror, confusion, evil, and betrayal.
The terrible sin of some of our priests, compounded by their bishops, has been a source of sickening and unrelenting shame for us. We have felt the disgust in our bellies and wished we could push the whole story away, because the pain is so abysmal and vast. But it can be pushed away no longer, and Benedict said that even before his plane hit the ground at Andrews AFB, and every day after.
[For some reason, the Pope's visit to the USA is hardly ever described as a state visit, considering all the hooplah over the visit to the UK being one, but it was: President Bush himself came to Andrews Air Force Base to greet him, something Presidents don't do for any other head of state, and the state reception for the Pope in the White House the next day was the best-attended of all such receptions ever.)
But speaking difficult words is easier than looking into the eyes of innocent lambs wounded and left to fend for themselves by neglectful and self-interested shepherds within the family. Benedict trusted and was led to look into those agonized eyes, and to tend the wounds, because it needed to be done if the flock is to survive.
Benedict is like a beast of burden, bearing enormous weight; he shrugs off nothing, and his walk is resolutely forward, his step firm. And all he’s asked for is prayer:
“Pray for me, that I may learn to love the Lord more and more. Pray for me, that I may learn to love his flock more and more. Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”
God bless and keep him.
AMEN!!!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/01/2012 14:07]