BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

We'll have more of that as the weeks go by - even though I don't think that this letter will be a big deal, considering it's more than 40 years old - only that it may please the 'two different Ratzingers' crowd.

The media is gearing up for the Papal visit already, and so are the usual suspects: we are church, 'professional catholics', the pro-Jesus-anti Church movement and a few hapless politicians (of all people!).

This visit must NOT be a success!! I think they were all horrified after the UK visit and are now already preparing their battle plans.

If it's the mayor of Berlin, members of the cabinet, or members of catholic dissent, they'll all be pontificating until the day the Holy Father arrives and the media will give them as much room as they want.



In once sense... I do hope that all that will backfire and awaken the slumbering giant formerly known as German Catholicism – at least the active part of it.

I know that we'll have a few fearless Bishops we can count on: Card. Meisner, Bishops Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Gregor Maria Hanke, Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst and possibly Card. Reinhardt Marx.

There will be a LOT of hostility in Berlin - the former capital of the Prussian Empire, home of Bismarck’s Kulturkampf and home of the most ultra-left wing, aggressive, militant Church haters you may find in Europe.




Then you add the notorious anti-Rome attitude Germans have had for centuries... and you have an interesting challenge ahead for our soft spoken, gentle, gracious, impeccably mannered Pope with a VERY detectable Bavarian accent - even when he attempts not to let it show - which is really not possible.

His courage is inspiring!



Thanks for the warning, Heike! I must admit I hadn't even begun to think about the anti-Ratzi campaign that his own fellow Germans will wage against him before and during the visit, much less that this letter out of the blue was some sort of opening salvo. The prospects are frightening, simply because it can all be so nasty, and so unnecessary... Of course, the Holy Spirit will be with him, and he will handle it all with his habitual grace even under pressure... Still, one wishes this was still a world where age at least deserves respect anc consideration.... We can only pray.... BENEDICTS QUI VENIT IN NOMINE DOMINI!


TERESA