I have often thought in the past few years that the small brotherhood/sisterhood of committed orthodox Catholic writers in Spain constitute a 'creative minority' such as that which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had thought would be the catalysts and centers for a genuine renewal of Catholicism after the attritions worked by secularization. I have not had the same feeling about the Italian, Anglophone and Francophone Catholic commentariat, for the simple reason that they range all over the spectrum of ideology and heterodoxy, unlike much of what I have read of the Spanish writers (intellectuals, if you will) who are more forthright - they're either orthodox or not at all, in which case I know whom to avoid and not bother seeking out at all.
I regret that I have never found the time to just seek out all the Spanish sites and writers whose work and thought deserve to be better known outside the Hispanic world. (God knows I have not even begun scratching the potential of similar Catholic 'creative minorities' in the vast Hispanic-speaking world.) But the ferment among the Spanish creative minority is evident in this new book in which 50 prominent Spaniards speak about the legacy of Benedict XVI and various ways in which they personally 'experienced' the phenomenon of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. The fact alone that they thought of doing this is most indicative. The only similar initiative was Mons. Georg Gaenswein's book for the 85th birthday of Benedict XVI, Prominente ueber den Papst, in which he got 20 prominent Germans to write something about the Pope. No one has thought of doing it in Italy and the English-speaking world so far.
Spanish Euro-deputy presents
presents the book 'Speaking with the Pope'
Translated from the Spanish service of
Madrid, April 29, 2013 (Zenit.org) - To show the relevance and appeal of the Magisterium of Benedict XVI in the reflections of 50 Spanish personalities is the purpose of the book
Hablando con el Papa, published by Edutorial Planeta in Madrid.
The idea came from a Spanish deputy in the European Parliament, Jamie Mayor Oreja, a former Interior Minister of Spain, who also wrote the Preface to the book. The work was coordinated by Francisco Jose Contreras and Ignacio Sanchez Camara, both professors of the philosophy of the law, at the universities of La Coruna and Sevilla, respectively.
The Valores y Sociedad (Values and Society) Foundation, of which Mayor Oreja is president, pushed the project through. In a statement, the Foundation says, "The book is a compendium of analysis - and a tribute - to the doctrinal legacy of an intellectual Pope who has left a profound doctrinal and pastoral legacy, and who succeeded to promote a fruitful dialog with the culture of unbelievers on the great questions of our time".
The book is structured by thematic sections on topics like the dialog between faith and reason, secularity, human rights, the relation between Church and State, the compatibility of various economic systems with Christianity, the meaning of suffering, hope and prayer, beauty as a path to transcendence, the family and its present crisis, and the bioethical debates over abortion and euthanasia.
Among the 50 personalities - who include believers as well as agnostics - who took part of the project are philosophers, politicians, scientists, artists, economists, sports figures.
Among them, Jose Maria Aznar (former Prime Minister of Spain), Emilio Butragueno, Alvaro Domecq, Xavi Hernandez, Jose Maria Marco, Pio Moa, Enrique Mugica, Jon Juaristi, Alejandro Llano, Cristina López Schlichting, Rafael Nadal, Alejandro Llano, José Antonio Ortega Lara, Manuel Pizarro, Enrique Rojas, Juan Rosell, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, María San Gil, Isabel San Sebastián, Hermann Tertsch, Jesús Trillo Figueroa, Francisco Vázquez, Alejo Vidal-Quadras and María de Villota. Each of them contributed a commentary on a fragment from a discourse, homily or encyclical of Benedict XVI.
In the Preface, Mayor Oreja says that the renunciation of the Papacy by the emeritus Pope could be interpreted as "a call to the Church to unite and strengthen herself, and to the faithful to dedicate special attention to what our faith demands of us".
In a synopsis about the Pontificate of Benedict XVI, the books says that "In his eight years as Pope, Benedict XVI offered a formulation of Christian hope appropriate to our time. He has shown that one can be Catholic without rejecting rationality, modernity or freedom. He sustained that Christianity has the answer to that yearning for the meaning of life that defines the human being".
Francisco José Contreras recounts the first time he got together with Jaime Mayor Oreja and Ignacio Sánchez Cámara to decide which 50 personalities they would ask to take part.
"We were thinking that perhaps many would decline to participate, because these days, not everyone is willing to be publicly involved in any book about a Pope. But we were surprised that when we began reaching out to make our proposal, the percentage of positive responses was very high... It means, I think, that the thought of Benedict XVI and the magisterium of the Catholic Church possess relevance - they say something to man today, they are relevant to the present cultural context".
At the presentation of the book on April 25, along with Jaime Mayor Oreja and the two coordinators, there were also journalist Isabel San Sebastian, the Socialist ex-Senator Mercedes Aroz, author Jon Juaristi, and the ex-mayor of La Coruna and former Spanish ambassador to the Holy See, Francisco Vazquez.
In his presentation, Mayor Oreja called relativism 'the principal adversary' of society today, which, by "constructing a doctrine of false rights", replacing the right to life with the right to abortion, and the right to die with dignity by the right to die as one pleases".
He said relativism "succeeded in eliminating from the European Constitution any reference to Europe's Christian roots", that one of the reasons it has advanced in the West is that it has met no competition, and that Europe has shown its society no longer has any vigor because it remained oblivious to the consequences of the crisis until it began affect the creature comforts of its citizens.
Which is why, he said, he felt it was important to underscore the legacy of Benedict XVI since he was "the only leader capable of diagnosing that the principal adversary is relativism and its unseen tyranny".
For her part, journalist San Sebastian, who moderated the presentation that, although she was agnostic, she shared the Catholic battle to "defend life from its very beginning at conception to its natural end". She said it was important "to reflect much upon and to embrace the right values" without which Europe would not emerge from its ongoing crisis.
She lamented :the dehumanization of individuals in order to eliminate them more easily, and agreed with Benedict XVI that, beyond religious beliefs, there exist "some universal values like life, truth and dignity, for which it is always worth fighting".
Ignacio Sánchez Cámara, one of the book editors, said he was convinced that "at this time of crisis, the Magisterium of Benedict VXI is fundamental, for Catholics as well as non-Catholics".
He, too, railed against relativism as carrying part of the blame for the moral crisis, because it opens the way for an even greater evil - "the inversion of values, seeking to depict what is crooked as straight, what is evil to be good, what is false to be true", saying that Benedict XVI has been "the most authoritative voice to speak out against the problem".
The other project coordinator, Francisco Javier Contreras, said that "Benedict XVI's teaching interpellates everyone", and that is why the book includes contributors who are agnostic, and that for the same reason, the book will reach a much wider public.
In his intervnetion, former Ambassador Francisco Vazquez said he had been "a professed admirer of Benedict XVI and his thought even long before he became Pope".
"No one," he said, "has done as much as he to overcome the historical divergence between the Catholic Church and the dominant ideas of the modern world, especially in Europe, since the Enlightenment and the French Revolution".
He said that the emeritus Pope was a firm defender of the truth and that "he always sought to demonstrate how Christianity, and the Catholic Church in particular, is the source and determinative origin of all of Western thought".
Ex-Senator Aroz wished to highlight Benedict XVI's "clarity in expressing the Christian message", underscoring how he had promoted dialog with the secular world. She recalled how the Pope had said that "even if there are divisions that may seem irreconcilable, there is a common ground - that of human rights - on which we can all meet, and that above and beyond partisan viewpoints, we must create a single common ethic".
The last intervention was by novelist Jon Juaristi who began by saying he was Jewish. He, too, stressed the importance of Benedict's focus on the dictatorship of relativism - the 'i do as I please' mentality, which, he said, "is the fundamental credo of the good relativist... (and) the most totalitarian of all standards, which its proponents find impossible to disobey".
Isn't it ironic that we have a bunch of secular Spaniards, not all Catholics or believers, who got together in a relatively short time to come up with a book of appreciation and homage like this, whereas if we could anthologize what the cardinals of the Church have said implicitly about Benedict XVI since March 13, 2005, we would have what amounts to a blanket condemnation of his supposed mis-governance which, in their view, totally cancels out anything positive he may have said or done... And yet look, Pope Francis - and the Church - obviously find the situation he left behind 'tolerable' enough to go on as before, and it turns out, lo and behold, as Mons. Becciu has said, that "the reform of the Curia is not an emergency", after all that crying "Fire!" that preceded the 2013 Conclave.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 07/05/2013 10:31]