In contrast to the 'deafening silence' this year - understandable by the criteria of those who lose all interest in an 'old model' (in this case version 265.0 of the Successor of Peter) the moment there is a new version - regarding the eighth anniversary of Benedict XVI's election as Pope, I am re-posting a number of the media assessments made last year, starting with the viewpoints of Reuters and AP. Though Reuters's Pulella did underscore Benedict XVi's 'frailty' and seeming health problems, I think it is safe to say that very few thought at the time that it would be the last anniversary he would mark as Pope.
I was certainly among those who bristled most at any suggestion that he would resign as Pope, not because I did not think he was capable of doing that, but because I blithely assumed that he would continue to be able to soldier on, physically (often imagining he would live on as Pope as long as Leo XIII did). Forgetting, of course, that a sharp physical decline in his 80s was already presaged by the experience of his brother Georg, three years older than he, and always the more robust one of the two, who nonetheless began to exhibit this age=induced physical decline at an age at least five years earlier than Benedict XVI was at the time he stepped down from the Papacy.... Anyway, the following posts and the running comments I made at the time capture the media climate around Benedict XVI this time last year.
I have been dreading the inevitable analysis-commentary pieces from the major news agencies on the Pope's milestones this week because one could only be certain of encountering a string of platitudes rehashing and recycling all the prejudices and idee-fixe criticisms they have of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. And sure enough, the first one to come along is Reuters's 'trouble-making' chief Vatican correspondent. With a headline that cues us to what MSM's drumbeat will be this week - they all agree on their herd approach but making it appear that the ideas are not theirs.
Name me an 85-year-old man or woman who does not show signs of frailty, and what succession talk? I suspect MSM are using 'resignation' as a euphemism for 'death', because they're really not watching out for his resignation, are they? They have the indecency to show that they can't wait to get on and think about the next Pope. And note that not once in the entire lengthy piece does Pullella even pay lip service to wishing Benedict more years!... And of course, no reference, no matter how fleeting, to anything he has achieved in seven years, just everything his critics think he did wrong!
Pope marks milestones amid signs
of frailty and succession talk
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY, April 15 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict marks two milestones this week and while his health appears stable, signs of frailty have again prompted speculation over whether he will be the first Pontiff in seven centuries to resign.
Benedict, one of the oldest Popes in history, turns 85 on Monday, and on Thursday he marks the seventh anniversary of his election as
successor to the immensely popular John Paul II.
[Actually, he is the Successor to Peter, Mr. Pulella, and what does his predecessor's 'immense' popularity have to do with him, who is immensely popular himself! I am still awaiting the first truthful journalist who will not fear to say that "Benedict XVI is at least as popular as John Paul II was", because after all, he proved in the first few months of his Pontificate, that he was drawing greater crowds to the Vatican. Let's not even mention Mexico, where all the MSM expected the Mexicans to turn away in droves!]
Speaking to pilgrims and tourists in St Peter's Square on Sunday, he noted Thursday's anniversary and asked for prayers "so that the Lord may give me the strength to carry out the mission he has entrusted to me".
Benedict is already older than John Paul was when he died in 2005 and is now the oldest reigning pope since Leo XIII, who died aged 93 in 1903 after reigning for 25 years.
"His health at 85 is better than John Paul's was at 75," said one high-ranking Vatican official who reports to the Pope regularly. "He is a very methodical man. He looks after himself and feels that he still has much to do," the official said.
The Vatican has announced that he will visit Lebanon in September and he may go to Brazil in 2013.
"I'm old but I can still carry out my duties," the pope told Fidel Castro during his trip to Cuba last month.
Still, Benedict is increasingly showing signs of frailty and fatigue, signs that are being watched carefully for their possible effect on the future of the 1.2 billion member Roman Catholic Church.
When he left for Mexico and Cuba, he used a cane at the airport for the first time in public, though sources say he has been using it in private for some time.
Last year, to conserve his strength, he began using a mobile platform instead of walking up the aisle of St Peter's Basilica.
The Vatican says it is to spare him fatigue and there is no concern about his overall health. His brother has said Benedict suffered two mild strokes before his election in 2005 and he reportedly suffers from high blood pressure and arthritis.
[So do at least 70% of men his age!]
Where Benedict differs from his predecessors is that he is the only Pope in living memory to discuss publicly the possibility of resignation, though others have done so privately.
In a book in 2010, Benedict said he would not hesitate to become the first Pontiff to resign willingly in more than 700 years if he felt no longer able, "physically, psychologically and spiritually" to run the Catholic Church.
"Those of us who are over 75 are not allowed to run even a small diocese, and cardinals over 80 are not allowed to elect a Pope. I can understand why one day the Pope might say 'even I can't do my job any more,'" said retired Archbishop Luigi Bettazzi of the north Italian city of Ivrea.
"I wish him a long life and lasting lucidity but I think that if the moment arrives when he sees that things are changing, I think he has the courage to resign," Bettazzi told Italian television on Saturday.
The last Pope to resign willingly was Celestine V in 1294 after reigning for only five months. Gregory XII reluctantly abdicated in 1415 to end a dispute with a rival claimant to the papacy.
Every papal birthday or anniversary sparks talk of succession but there is no clear front runner to succeed Benedict, who has now appointed more than half the cardinals who will choose a new Pope from among their ranks. Most are Europeans.
Since his election on April 19, 2005, succeeding one of history's most popular pontiffs, Benedict has been hailed as a hero by conservative Catholics and viewed with suspicion by liberals.
Elected when he was 78 - 20 years older than John Paul was when he was elected - he has ruled over a slower-paced, more cerebral and less impulsive Vatican.
While conservatives have cheered him for trying to reaffirm traditional Catholic identity, his critics accuse him of
turning back the clock on reforms by nearly half a century and hurting dialogue with Muslims, Jews and other Christians. [If Pullela mentions criticisms, he should at least substantiate them - but he can't because they are false. Hurting dialog with other religions? No one has been more effective in dialog with them - Muslims, Jews, Anglicans, Lutherans - because he is not content with ritual pleasantries but with substantive talk and action on what people of faith can do together to help solve humanity's pressing problems.]
He also has made a series of missteps that angered Jews and Muslims and lowered his popularity among Catholics themselves. [Again, taking the easy way out and not citing what these supposed 'missteps' - which, from a seven-year familiarity now with the ways of MSM, would be identical to the 'hurting dialog' earlier referred to!]
Before he was elected Pope, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was known by such critical epithets as "God's rottweiler" because of his stern stand on theological issues.
[It was never his personal positions he was defending, but the positions of the Church through its 2000-year history, which as an obedient Catholic, are also his positions. Upholding and defending these positions was also his primary duty as head of the CDF!]
A quiet, professorial type who relaxes by playing the piano, the first German Pope for some 1,000 years and the second non-Italian in a row has managed to show the world the gentle side of the man who was the Vatican's chief doctrinal enforcer for nearly a quarter of a century.
But two weeks ago
he showed his resolve again, warning rebellious priests that he would not tolerate disobedience on fundamental teachings such as compulsory celibacy and a ban on female priests.
[Pullella obviously thinks that gentleness is an absence of resolve!]
His papacy has been
hounded most by the child sex abuse scandals.
[And who has been leading the pack of hounds but the media, setting off firecrackers in the tails of assorted mongrels like faux victims' advocate groups and Vatican-baiting lawyers??] He has apologized to victims several times for the criminal behavior of priests years before his election but victims' groups say
he has still not done enough to make bishops accountable. [Once again, a sweeping statement to which Pullella does not bother to even cite any facts to substantiate the charge.]
The AP version is benign in comparison. While its themes are still the Pope's physical status at 85 and the possibility of resignation, it is surprisingly even-handed, and although it does not bother to say anything of his achievements thus far as Pope, neither does it indulge in the usual fault-finding and miraculously does not contain the words 'sex abuse scandal' or 'pedophilia' at all!
Pope seeks prayers for strength
ahead of 7th anniversary
By NICOLE WINFIELD
VATICAN CITY, April 15 (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI prayed Sunday for the strength to carry on as he marks two major milestones this week: his 85th birthday and the seventh anniversary of his election to the papacy.
The comments, while innocuous, were the clearest sign yet that Benedict has no intention of resigning anytime soon despite his age and increasing frailty.
"Next Thursday, on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of my election to the See of Peter, I ask for your prayers, so that the Lord gives me the strength to fulfill the mission he entrusted to me," he said in French to thousands of people in St. Peter's Square.
Benedict has slowed down recently - he was seen in public for the first time using a cane when he boarded his plane for Mexico last month. During the long, six-day trip to Mexico and Cuba, he at times looked exhausted. He looked similarly tired during the busy Holy Week services that greeted him upon his return to Rome.
But Benedict's health is remarkably strong for someone his age. He has never canceled a planned event due to illness and suffers from no known chronic illnesses. Few men his age go to work every day, run a 1-billion strong church, write books, deliver speeches and meet with visiting heads of state.
And Benedict has some very pressing issues on his agenda. The Vatican is expected to receive word soon from a breakaway group of traditionalist Catholics on whether they will accept the Holy See's terms for reconciliation.
The group, the Society of St. Pius X, opposes some of the core teachings of the Second Vatican Council, particularly its outreach to Jews. Benedict, who is not unsympathetic to some of their concerns, has worked since the start of his pontificate to try to bring them back under Rome's wing out of fear that they are essentially creating a parallel church.
On the other side of the spectrum are hundreds of dissident priests who are making their voices heard in Europe: Priest movements in Austria and Ireland are calling for a relaxation of the celibacy requirement for priests and for the church to ordain women - two things the Vatican has ruled out.
Benedict appeared so concerned by the Austrian initiative in particular that he dedicated much of his Holy Thursday homily to reminding its members that he had no authority whatsoever to allow women priests since an all-male priesthood was an "irrevocable" Church teaching.
Other big events on the Pope's agenda include a trip to Lebanon in September, a meeting of the world's bishops in Rome the following month, and farther ahead, World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 2013.
While he was in Cuba last month meeting with Fidel Castro, Benedict was asked by the 85-year-old retired Cuban president how he can manage to keep doing his job. Castro noted that at his age, he spends his time reading and reflecting.
"I am old but I still manage to carry out my duty," Benedict told him, according to a Vatican spokesman.
That said, Benedict has greatly cut back his schedule. And his birthday Monday will be a rather small-scale affair: His older
brother Monsignor Georg Ratzinger flew in from Germany over the weekend, and Benedict will meet with the governor of his native Bavaria and some Bavarian bishops in town who want to wish him well.
Benedict himself asked to keep the birthday celebrations low-key, his secretary Monsignor Georg Gaenswein told Italian weekly
Gente. "Just a family party. As he requested: 'Please I don't want any big celebrations,'" Gaenswein quoted the Pope as telling his aides.
Popes are allowed to resign; Church law specifies only that the resignation be "freely made and properly manifested." Only a handful have done so, however. The last one was Pope Gregory XII, who stepped down in 1415 in a deal to end the Great Western Schism among competing papal claimants.
Benedict himself raised the possibility of resigning if he were simply too old or sick to continue when he was interviewed for the book
Light of the World, which was released in November 2010.
"If a Pope clearly realizes that he is no longer physically, psychologically and spiritually capable of handling the duties of his office, then he has a right, and under some circumstances, also an obligation to resign," Benedict said.
The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger also had an intimate view of Pope John Paul II's suffering through the debilitating end of his papacy.
Benedict is now older than John Paul when he died. He was also the oldest Pope in 300 years when he was elected at age 78 in 2005, and will soon be one of only a handful of popes over the past half-millennia to reign past age 85.
But if his requests for prayers to carry on his mission are any indication, a resignation is unlikely any time soon.
[Because the resignation hypothesis was always a media-manufactured issue, to begin with! In any case - see, Nicole? It is possible to write about Benedict XVI withput tacking on the AP codicil on sex abuses by priests!]
Thankfully, the media outlets appeared to have picked up the AP story overwhelmingly compared to Reuters, if one goes by the Daylife headline summaries so far, the following being one of three such pages...Actually, AP does have many more subscriber outlets than Reuters.
I hope no one other than me was stupid enough to look into what DeutscheWelle - Germany's state radio-TV broadcasting network - would say about the German Pope on this occasion. I have rarely ever cited DW, because from the start, its reporting and commentary on Benedict XVI was obviously and markedly from a liberal bias that has no scruples about misrepresenting facts to advance the liberal cause.
In many ways, DW is worse than America's NPR or the BBC in this respect. Not the least because you would expect from the Germans "that initial goodwill without which there can be no understanding", as the Holy Father writes in his Foreword to Jesus of Nazareth. Sorry to inflict this piece, but this is the kind of asymmetric warfare masquerading as news that is habitually waged against Benedict XVI, day in and day out, in the liberal secular MSM, regardless of nationality....
At 85, Pope Benedict XVI
stays his course
by Antje Dechert
from the English service of
April 15, 2012
As the world celebrates his 85th birthday, Pope Benedict XVI holds fast to his principles.
He continues to stand for tradition over reform - whether you like it or not.
"A bit of peace and quiet, God's blessing and health:" according to Georg Ratzinger, that's all his brother, Pope Benedict XVI, wants for his 85th birthday.
It's unlikely, however, that he'll get peace and quiet, as visitors from all over the world will be flocking to the Vatican.
A tiring birthday schedule [What birthday schedule? he will be meeting various groups from Bavaria - that's all on his public calendar tomorrow!] - though the Pope is in good health, as his press spokesman Federico Lombardi never tires of emphasizing.
Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger - the given name of Pope Benedict XVI - was born into a religious family on April 16, 1927 in southern Germany.
He grew up in the town of Marktl am Inn in Upper Bavaria. [He was only born there and stayed until he was 3. How can the German national broadcast network get such a basic thing wrong?]
After being ordained into the priesthood and earning his doctorate in Theology, he began teaching at the universities in Bonn, Münster, Tübingen and Regensburg.
He quickly rose through the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. [NO! He was a simple priest until he was 50 and then, his rise in the hierarchy began!]
In 1977, he became the archbishop of Munich and Freising. Pope John Paul II appointed him prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican, a position laden with responsibility. His task was to safeguard the official teachings of the Church.
Many were surprised when, of all people, the seemingly demure Joseph Ratzinger succeeded
[he was elected!] the more charismatic Karol Wojtzyla as Pope. The election took place quickly and he was initially named a "transitional Pope."
Ratzinger nevertheless managed to win over his own die-hard critics. The headline of the biggest German tabloid, Bild, read: "We Are Pope." But how much of the initial euphoria is left after the Pope's seven years in office?
[Even in Germany, that euphoria lasted a few weeks at most!]
Benedict XVI entered with a vision that encompassed many ideas. He intended to promote dialogue between Christian denominations - commonly referred to as ecumenical dialogue -and between the Catholic Church and other world religions.
The newly elected Pope didn't want to leave ecumenism at "sincere feelings." Instead, he aimed to make "concrete gestures," as he said in Latin in his first papal address.
As a Pope from the homeland of the German Reformation theologian Martin Luther, Benedict XVI wanted to end the ice age of ecumenism.
This awakened hopes of possibly even celebrating Mass together and sharing communion, but this notion repeatedly ended in disappointment, the most recent example occurring during Benedict's trip to Germany in 2011.
In Erfurt, Germany, where Luther lived for many years, the Pope made clear that he was not willing to make any quick changes in the name of ecumenism. [A clear example of how liberal reporters project their own wishes to their reporting of events, with the result that they distort the news. Benedict XVI never ever proposed that celebrating Mass and the Eucharist together was a foreseeable prospect, and he said very clearly befor going to Germany, "Don't expect anything sensational". But this obstinately liberal reporter will persist in her own bullheaded perspective and blame the Pope for not acting according to her expectations! Nor does she take into account that year after year, the heads of the most important Protestant federations, including the World Council of Churches and the World Lutheran Federation make it a point to call on the Pope. And of course, she ignores the relations with the Anglican Church - and Anglicanorum coetibus - altogether!]]
In contrast, he has made progress in talks with Orthodox churches. He resumed the Catholic-Orthodox dialogue in the fall of 2006 and held a historic meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Istanbul.
[That meeting was not the significant point about relations with the Orthodox - they have met on several other occasions in Rome. But the reporter seems unaware of the most important development in this area - that the theological dialog between the Roman and Orthodox Churches has reached the point of discussing the primacy of the Bishop of Rome in a reunified Christianity!]
But despite the good will Pope Benedict XVI encountered, one controversy followed another. After finally smoothing over the waves caused by his contentious speech in Regensburg, in which he linked Islam with violence, a new scandal followed.
The Pontiff attempted to build bridges with the ultraconservative Society of Pius X. Meanwhile, his ties to Judaism and the Catholic base threatened to crumble behind him. [Good Lord! Such ado about nothing! This reporter has absolutely no sense of proportion whatsoever!]
The cause stemmed from the introduction of a new version of a Good Friday prayer, in which Christians can pray for the conversion of the Jews, a crucial test for the Pope.
[And she compounds her appalling and unabashed bias with abysmal ignorance - does she even understand exactly what the Good Friday prayer is?]
As if that weren't enough, in 2009 Benedict lifted the ban on four bishops of the Society of Pius X who had been illegally ordained outside of the Church, including the Holocaust denier Richard Williamson. The storm of protest, most especially coming from Germany, revealed the chasm that had grown between himself and his base. [Have you ever heard such unfounded hyperbole? Not even John Allen goes that far!]
The most challenging scandal followed in 2010, as a wave of newly discovered abuse cases gripped Catholic organizations in Germany, then in Ireland and the US. While child abuse by Catholic priests outraged all of Germany, Benedict XVI did not rush to issue a public admission of guilt on behalf of the Church. [Will someone please stifle this moron now?]
The irony of a slow response from a Pope that had always preached zero-tolerance only further worsened the crisis. Through meeting with abuse victims and asking for their forgiveness, the Pope tried to restore honor to his Church. [This commentary gets more embarassingly crude, amateur and sophomoric by the line!]
To many, the old man behind the Vatican walls is just an out-of-touch conservative, yet Benedict has still been able to enthuse people again and again on his trips around the world, even if big crowds aren't exactly his thing.
He's a star despite himself. During most of his international visits, he is a noteworthy political presence, even in anti-papist England. He conquered the people's hearts in much the same way during his last visit to Latin America. [Gee, thanks! I am shocked you could concede that at all! But you couldn't concede the same thing about him in Germany, could you?]
Fidel Castro and his brother Raul even seemed to have been won over, too, as they agreed to recognize Good Friday as a national holiday in communist Cuba.
Joseph Ratzinger entered onto the scene as a Pope who strove to make the Church ready for the future and attractive and to steer it in a pluralistic world - no easy task for someone who insists on responding to "every possible contemporary movement" with a "clear set of beliefs." With this approach, he risks getting stuck in outdated structures. [Party line! Same-old, same-old yada-yada... You'd think he had not specifically criticized this obsession with structures rather than individual faith and true individual conversion, when he was in Germany last!]
His goal is to safeguard tradition rather than reform institutions. [A complete mis-statement that mixes up the apples of tradition with the oranges of institution! This reporter has absolutely no clue about the spiritual message of Christianity!]
This is why many Christians in Germany have left the Church. In response to issues that affect local churches, such as what should happen to the vow of celibacy or whether divorcees should be allowed to marry a second time in the Church, Rome hasn't given any answers[/ [None are so deaf as those who do not want to listen! Of course, Rome has answered again and again - NO! It's just not the answer that you liberals want to hear. Misrepresenting facts about the Church won't make her change her doctrine to suit the pick-and-choose Catholics. Just-get-up-and-go would be the best advice to them.]
But this is clear: Joseph Ratzinger is no "transitional pope." The shepherd of Rome strives to impart his own values onto the Catholic Church, whether it suits his sheep or not. [That is hands-down the dumbest statement in this litany of dumbness! The Pope trying "to impart his own values on to the Church"???? The Pope's values and teachings are the Church's, never his own. And for that, I am writing DeutscheWelle to prohibit this person from ever reporting again on the Church, and to get some editors who know something about the Church to process dumb copy like this one!]
