Papal milestones next week
prompt celebration and speculation
By Francis X. Rocca
VATICAN CITY, April 12 (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI's 85th birthday, April 16, and the seventh anniversary of his election, April 19, are obviously occasions for wishing the Pope well and reflecting on the events of his reign thus far.
Inevitably, however, these milestones also prompt speculation about what Vatican officials and observers refer to diplomatically as "papal transition."
Pope Benedict, after all, is already the sixth-oldest Pope since the 1400s, when records became available. It has been almost two years since he told a German interviewer, "My forces are diminishing" and that, when it comes to public appearances, "I wonder whether I can make it even from a purely physical point of view."
Last fall, the Pope stopped walking in processions up the main aisle of St. Peter's and started riding a mobile platform instead; in March, it was revealed that he sometimes walks with a cane.
The Pope's schedule grew lighter last year, as he stopped meeting one-on-one with most visiting bishops. During this year's Holy Week liturgies, television viewers around the world could see unmistakable signs of fatigue on the pontiff's face.
While none of this suggests that the Pope does not have years of life ahead of him, a number of commentators have asked in print, and many more have done so off the record, if he might be getting ready to step down.
[I personally think all the speculation is intended only to generate headlines and fuel further speculation, rather than a genuine conviction on the part of the speculators that this Pope is contemplating to resign at all, lacking any valid reason or force majeure.]
Pope Benedict himself has said that a Pope might have an "obligation to resign" once he "is no longer physically, psychologically, and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office."
Americans may be especially inclined toward such speculation at the moment, encouraged by last month's English release of the 2010 Italian movie "We Have a Pope," in which a fictional pontiff flees from the demands of office.
As tempting as filmmakers and journalists might find so dramatic a scenario, the evidence for it is less persuasive when seen in proper context.
Consider, for example, that the public first saw Pope Benedict walking with a cane as he was about to board a plane for a 14-hour flight to Mexico, the first stop on a six-day trip that also took him to Cuba.
[And he was never seen using the cane again during the trip itself.]
Less than 78 hours after returning from Havana to Rome, the presumably still-jet-lagged Pope was offering Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, the first celebration in his busiest week of the liturgical year.
No clear-eyed observer can deny that Pope Benedict is unusually robust for his age. He is reportedly at work on the third volume of his bestselling "Jesus of Nazareth" series and is presumed to be writing at least one encyclical: on the theological virtue of faith, to follow his works on charity ("Deus Caritas Est") and hope ("Spe Salvi").
The Pope will be traveling to Lebanon this September, and the Vatican has done nothing to discourage the widespread assumption that he will follow established papal precedent by attending World Youth Day celebrations next summer in Rio de Janeiro.
As the Pope told former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, also 85, at a meeting in Havana in March: "Yes, I'm old, but I can still carry out my duties."
Pope Benedict's vitality is strikingly clear when one compares his physical and mental state with that of his predecessor. The current Pontiff is already older than Blessed John Paul II was when he died in 2005, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease and other ailments.
The contrast between the two men is especially significant when one considers that Blessed John Paul seriously considered resigning on at least two occasions, his 75th and 80th birthdays, according to books by his former personal secretary and the postulator for his canonization.
The postulator, Msgr. Slawomir Oder, has written that Blessed John Paul sought the guidance of experts as he pondered resignation, "consulting in particular then-Cardinal (Joseph) Ratzinger," now Pope Benedict.
Whatever Cardinal Ratzinger may have advised, Blessed John Paul finally decided that it was, in his own words, his "duty to continue to carry out the job for which Christ the Lord has called me, as long as he, in the mysterious designs of his providence, will want."
If a leader as traditional as Pope Benedict does not consider Blessed John Paul's example a binding precedent, he clearly sees it as an inspiring standard for his own conduct. Concluding his homily at Blessed John Paul's beatification Mass last May, Pope Benedict paid a personal tribute to his predecessor's "witness in suffering."
"The Lord gradually stripped him of everything," Pope Benedict recalled, "yet he remained ever a 'rock', as Christ desired. ... In this way he lived out in an extraordinary way the vocation of every priest and bishop to become completely one with Jesus, whom he daily receives and offers in the Church."
[In the only videotaped English language interview he ever gave, Cardinal Ratzinger told EWTN's Raymond Arroyo back in 2004, who asked him about his repeated attempts to resign from the CDF, that seeing how John Paul II was carrying on despite his illness, it was out of the question for him to insist on quitting!]
Bavarians going to Rome
to greet the Pope on
his 85th birthday Monday
by Petr Jerabek
Translated from
April 13, 2012
MUNICH, April 13 - If you are Pope, you cannot just decide to visit your homeland even when you are celebrating a major birthday anniversary.
And so, a significant delegation from Bavaria will be going instead to the Vatican to greet Pope Benedict XVI on his 85th birthday this Monday.
The delegation will be led by Bavarian Minister-President Horst Seehofer (CSU) with his entire cabinet, representatives of the German and Bavarian Parliaments and from the places where Joseph Ratzinger has lived in Bavaria, along with Bavaria's famous Gebirgsschuetzen (Mountain Guards) and Trachtler (women in folk costumes).
Actually, Joseph Ratzinger has not been very keen on birthday celebrations because he was raised in a very Catholic household where name days were more important.
Indeed, his private Secretary, Mons. Georg Gaenswein, said that the Pope asked him to spare him any big fuss, saying "I don't want any large celebration on my 85th birthday".
Next Monday, says Gaenswein, will be a regular work day but "heavily 'cushioned' with Bavarian features".
The guests from Bavaria will attend a Mass celebrated by the Pope in the Apostolic Palace on Monday morning. Then, the Pope will meet privately with the bishops of Bavaria and President Seehofer, before meeting with the entire delegation.
Also present will be the Pope's older brother, Mons. Georg Ratzinger, who was to arrive in Rome Friday. He told a German news agency that he would not be bringing a gift, but "I simply wish that his health will continue to hold out well".
On April 20, the Leipziger Gewandhaus Orchestra, under the musical direction of Riccardo Chailly, will present a concert to honor the Pope at the Aula Paolo VI, featuring Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Symphony Cantata 'Lobgesang' (Song of Praise), which will be streamed live on the Gewandhaus's website. Minister President Stanislaw Tillich of Saxony will accompany the orchestra to Rome.
The Pope has already received a birthday present. A book edited by his secretary, Mons. Gaenswein, in which 20 prominent Germans contribute their thoughts about the person and the work of Benedict XVI. The book was formally presented to the Pope last Monday by Bavaria's former Minister President Edmund Stoiber.
The Pope must wait till August for the gift from the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, when various groups will treat the Pope to an evening of Bavarian music, dancing and other folk traditions at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.
April 13, 2012
AVVENIRE, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, is coming out with a special on Benedict XVI on Monday, April 16, nad has opened a window for readers to post birthday and papal anniversary wishes for the Pope at the ff link:
http://www.avvenire.it/Chiesa/Pagine/compleanno-papa.aspx
On Monday, April 16, Joseph Ratzinger.Benedict XVI - 'simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord", as he called himself shortly after his election to the Chair of Peter - will turn 85.
It is a day of celebration for the Church, for Catholics and for so many who have learned to appreciate a pastor who is gentle but firm, and a man who wins people over by the clarity of his thinking and the kindness of his personality.
To honor the Pope's birthday, many initiatives have been announced. Avvenire, too, wishes to express the gratitude and affection of so many Italians with a special edition which will be in newsstands and in the parish churches on Sunday, April 15.
Visitors to
www.avvenire.it can send their birthday greetings to the Holy Father with a brief text in the window provided for the purpose.
http://www.avvenire.it/Chiesa/Pagine/compleanno-papa.aspx
And there is another, imminent occasion for joy: April 19 will be the seventh anniversary of the Pontificate of Papa Ratzinger - a father to all, and a Pontiff that is ever more loved around the world.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/04/2012 01:23]