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ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI
See preceding page for earlier entries today, 4/14/13...
Two days away from B16's 86th birthday, we look back at the countdown last year to his 85th:
A book for the Pope's 85th birthday
Translated from the 4/10-4/11/12 issue of
Benedikt XVI — Prominente über den Papst (Benedict XVI: Famous people speak about the Pope) is the title of a book presented to the Pontiff on Angel's Monday, April 9 in Castel Gandolfo after the Regina calei prayers, by Edmund Stoiber, who was Minister President of Bavaria from 1993-2007.
We publish herewith a translation [in Italian, from the German] of the Preface of Mons. Georg gaenswein, Benedict XVI's private secretary, who wrote one of the testimonials and edited the book published by Media Maria Verlag of Germany.
NB: As this book was conceived for the German market, the prominent personalities who give their testimonials in the book are all German.
Twenty persons speak out
about Pope Benedict XVI
Foreword
by Georg Gaenswein
On April 19, 2005, three days after his 78th birthday, cardinals assembled in Conclave in the Sistine Chapel elected the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, to be the head of the Catholic Church. He chose to be called Benedict XVI.
On April 16, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI will turn 85 and will then be completing seven years of his Pontificate.
This book - which some readers may find rather sweeping and 'promotional' - was not meant to be anything showy or sensational, but simply a modest birthday gift for the Holy Father.
Twenty personalities from the Church, politics, culture, economy and sports each agreed to write a short contribution expressing their personal view of the person and work of the Pontiff.
As diverse as the biographies and activities of the authors are their experiences and perspectives from which emerge a portrait of the Supreme Pastor of the Church.
Appropriately, not just Catholics have expressed themselves but also evangelical Christians. They do not hide their religious faith, nor do they fear to indicate certain desiderata from their own personal viewpoints.
Every contribution is like a piece in a mosaic which ultimately contributes to a multicolored image in which it is possible to identify the essential contours of Pope Benedict XVI's Pontificate.
The titles of the various essays follow a thread and offer a panoramic view of the contents. The presentations are such that the reader will not just take note of the book but become truly immersed in what it says. And I cannot but invite you from the heart to do so. It is certainly worth reading.
It might be superfluous to note but for reasons of correctness, it must be underscored expressly that this work is not anything obliging produced by commission 'from the top'.
The writers were not given any instructions - everyone had full freedom to say what they wished. Nor was there any censorship at all. Each one wrote what he had in his mind and in his heart, and each naturally takes responsibility for what he says.
But one thing that they all had in common was the sincere desire to do justice to Pope Benedict, but without blinders. Moreover, there was no room here for 'political correctness'.
Stated positively, what served as an orientation for the authors was 'that initial goodwill without which there can be no understanding', to use the words of the Holy Father in his Foreword to Jesus of Nazareth, Volume 1.
All the contributors did feel themselves committed to such a request by conviction and by inclination.
The authors wish the Holy Father, on his 85th birthday, health in body and in spirit, and the abundant blessings of God in everything he does: Beatissimo Pater, ad multos annos, ad multos et felicissimos annos!
The following article this time last year was almost typical of the standard commentary made in connection with Benedict XVI's double annivereary which considered the possibility of his resignation but concluded it was most unlikely. [As did most of us Benaddicts, I think...]
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.
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!]
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 16/04/2013 18:04] |