One of the unpleasant aspects in the whole Italian media exploitation (I can find no better, more appropriate word) of Cardinal Martini's death is that many commentators, when not indulging in their "Imagine if he had become Pope!" fantasies, have taken to comparing Benedict XVI and the cardinal. I find it an unseemly and unwarranted exercise, for the simple reason that Benedict XVI was elected Pope, and the cardinal was not. That's all one has to say. Punto e basta! And when a man becomes Pope, he becomes sui generis. No point in comparisons, not even to his predecessors.
A one-on-one comparison - as if they were two boxers getting set for a championship fight - might have been appropriate when they were both cardinals and playing on the same field, but despite the many parallels in the lives of the Bavarian and Torinese cardinals, both born in 1927, very few did that then, because very few thought Joseph Ratzinger was even in the running, whereas the wishful thinking of the media was that the time was ripe for their 'champion' in the hierarchy to ascend from being John Paul II's 'ante-Pope' to full-fledged Pope himself.
IMHO, if such a mano-a-mano comparison had been done on the eve of the Conclave, JR would have had the distinct edge in every objective category - academic career, professional recognition, books published and their readership reach, ecclesial milestones, influence within the Church, etc. All, that is, except for favor in the media, because where JR had been built up by the media, since he came to the CDF in 1981, as the Grand Inquisitor and the Big Bad Ogre defending the faith, at about the same time, the new Archbishop of Milan soon became the darling of the media for articulating all their pet liberal causes against the Church - an Italian Hans Kueng, but with far greater cachet, being a cardinal and pastor of the world's largest diocese.
I thought the most interesting story today was this one by Andrea Tornielli. One sees the late cardinal in a new light:
It turns out that Cardinal Martini's
much-applauded 'lectures for non-believers'
in Milan were inspired by Joseph Ratzinger's
'Introduction to Christianity'
And, of course, as Pope, Benedict XVI has universalized
the idea into the Courtyard of the Gentiles
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from the Italian service of
September 3, 2012
And what if Carlo Maria Martini's 'Cathedra for non-Believers' had been inspired unknowingly by Joseph Ratzinger? Reading some notes by the Jesuit cardinal who was buried today, one would say Yes, it was.
Martini first wrote about this in 1977, in a book honoring the Bavarian cardinal
[It would have been the volume commemorating his 70th birthday],and he said so once again for
Il Sole 24 Ore shortly after the Bavarian became Pope.
As he recalls, toward the end of the 1960s, Martini found himself in retreat somewhere in Germany's Black Forest preparing for a conversation with a group of Italian priests.
"I expected to get many questions, contestations, various difficulties. I was looking for a book that could help me lay down my ideas clearly and calmly. That's how I found myself with a copy of the German edition of Joseph Ratzinger's
Introduction to Christianity, which had been published recently (1968)".
"I still remember the pleasure I had in reading those pages. It helped me clear up my ideas, to pacify my heart, and to emerge from confusion... I still have the notes I made then. In particular, it was that reading that gave me the theme 'Perhaps it's true' [about Christianity] that could be an approach for the non-believer, which later led me to realize the 'lectures for non-believers'."
In his book, Ratzinger presented the reasonableness of believing, in the particular light of modern questioning and unbelief. An approach he has never abandoned.
In 2001, when he was Prefect of the CDF, Cardinal Ratzinger said in the interview-book
God and the world: "The nature of faith is not such that starting from a specific moment, one can say, 'I have it, even if others don't'... Faith remains a continuing journey."
He points out that it is also healthy because in this way, it does not run the risk of being transformed into a manipulable ideology. With the consequent danger of making one incapable of sharing the
thinking and suffering of a brother who still doubts and questions.
"Faith can only mature to the degree that it is able to endure and can take responsibility, in every phase of existence, for the anguish and the power of unbelief, and can withstand it enough so that faith continues to be accessible even in another time".
This is an approach, unlike many set cliches, that was common to both Martini and Ratzinger. The Bavarian who became Pope has not changed - just consider the Courtyard of the Gentiles, the initiative he undertook to engage non-believers in dialog.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 04/09/2013 21:35]