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So, while I was busy with other things during the day, I see that Beatrice has transcribed the full TG5 videoclip with Mons. Gaenswein and posted the translation on her site. As she knows Italian as much as she does French, I shall take the easy way out and simply translate from her transcript. Thanks a lot for this and many other great leads and tips, Beatrice! And Lella, of course, who first posted the videoclip . You have both helped make this thread more comprehensive about Benedict XVI than it would have been just by myself.
Mons. Gaenswein's TG5 interview
with Alessandra Buzzetti
August 24, 2013
Translated from the video report
transcribed and translated to French
by Beatrice B.
Buzzetti:How is the emeritus Pope?
GG: He is doing very well... He was here recently to visit the Apostolic Palace, to enjoy a beautiful promenade in the Gardens, and then to listen to a little concert.
Thus, Mons. Gaenswein confirms the recent excursion of Benedict XVI who made a very private visit to the pontifical estate in Castel Gandolfo.
Pope Benedict's ex(?)-private secretary lives like Benedict XVI in the Mater Ecclesiae convent in the Vatican, but as Prefect of the Pontifical Household, he works with Pope Francis during the day.
He was back Saturday in the Alban hills outside Rome to lead the evocative celebration of the feast of the Madonna of the Lake (Albano).
The Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo is 'empty' at this time because Pope Francis has decided to stay in the Vatican for the summer, and Mons. Georg does not mask his nostalgia.
GG: For eight years, each year we were here for many weeks. Whether it was the Pope, me or others among us, it was a unique experience that we miss.
Mons. Gaenswein was beside Benedict XVI when, at 8:00 p.m. on February 28, the closing of the front doors of the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo symbolized the end of his Pontificate.
Benedict XVI's renunciation of the papacy is historic, not just for the Church, but it was not motivated by any mystical experience as reported last week in the media.
GG: All invented, from alpha to omega. There is nothing true in that article [the original ZENIT article in which an anonymous source out words into the mouth of Benedict XVI].
Buzzetti: For five months, you yourself have had the totally unprecedented task of serving as a go-between for two Popes. What is their relationship like?
GG: There is an excellent relationship between Pope Benedict and Pope Francis. I would not wish to be a wall but a bridge between the emeritus Pope and the reigning Pope.
Buzzetti: Where do you see the continuity between them?
GG: There is a continuity of substance. Of course, there are some elements of style that are very different because they are two different characters... If one just looks into the thread that runs through the first few months of Pope Francis's Pontificate, one sees that there is a classic continuity.
L'Osservatore Romano published the text of Mons. Gaenswein's homily at the feastday Mass in Castel Gandolfo on Saturday.
The lady who never abandons
by Mons. Georg Gaenswein
Homily on the Feast of
the Madonna del Lago
Castel Gandolfo, August 24, 2013
Translated from the 8/25/13 issue of
The feast of the Madonna del Lago is an optimal occasion to remember the role of Mary as a companion of the Lord and as the example that she is for us Christians.
Theologians teach that a healthy Christology is always accompanied by a healthy Mariology. To know the Lord we should also know his Mother.
The incarnation of God in Jesus Christ was manifested in the divine maternity of Mary. So whoever wishes to be Christian, who wishes to remain Christian, must look to the Mother of the Lord, the Most Blessed Mary.
All her actions, from the moment of the Annunciation by the angel, were oriented towards Christ. Mary did not simply give earthly life to Jesus - she also followed him and accompanied him on his earthly journey.
Mary is the prototype of every Christian vocation, of every call to take part in the work that God expects of men. We are all related to Mary because she intercedes for us with her Son. Everything she does is done with her Son in mind.
Mary introduced Jesus to earthly life. She herself was his first companion. Hidden, without any noise, without seeking applause or merit, she accompanied him in life. The more silent she was, the stronger and the more perceptible her words becAme.
From the beginning, Mary learned that the eternal Word of the Father lives in silence, not in noise. Therefore she kept in her heart and meditated silently on everything that she perceived about this Word. She knew: "From the beginning was the Word". The Word - not chatter - and that at the end, there will be no vain words but once again, only the Word.
Thanks to her contemplation, her activity was no empty activity but powerful and effective action. Therefore, not just her words but her whole behavior has exemplary importance for all those who wish to follow her Son.
Mary makes us see and understand an important Christian rule: "You ananot tell yourself the words that will help you". Mary asks the angel, after hearing his incredible message: "How can this happen when I do not know any man?" (Lk 1,34).
The answer was: "The Holy Spirit will descend upon you" (Lk 1,35). The angel says the words that help Mary to understand. Remembering this exprience, she will say years later at the wedding in Cana: "Do whatever he tells you to do" (Jn 2,5). They, too, the apostles, could not tell themselves the words that would help them. Mary had to tell them.
Mary is like John the Baptist, precursor of Christ in his earthly life. Mary knew this well. In the great icons of Christ that are found in the Oriental churches, representations of the Lord always show him accompanied by Mary and John the Baptist.
But Mary and John are merely the echo, not the Word. Each in his own way, both knew to let the Word resound. And if we are not to keep the word of Christ mute, let us go to Mary. We cannot forget that "You cannot tell yourself the words that can help you".
So the words that can help our society and our Church are those we cannot tell ourselves. On the other hand, all of us, like Mary, are called upon not to remain silent wherever and whenever it is necessary to say the words that will help - namely, to confess our faith courageously.
Mary accompanied Jesus through his earthly life. All his life, she was with him, for him, next to him. Mary was his first cop-ilgrim on the roads of the world. This journey was no stroll through the 'land of plenty' but a courageous walk with the Lord to be with him up to the Cross. Because her Son had come to seek out and rescue those who are lost.
Mary was with Jesus in the poverty of the cave in Bethlehem, she brought him as a baby to be presented in the temple in Jerusalem, she was with him on the flight to Egypt. Later, she was with him at the wedding in Cana, where she acted like a faithful servant, attentive that nothing should be lacking that was needed for the feast.
Mary's following of Christ was a school. Later, other women and men would accompany Jesus to serve him along the roads of Galilee and Judea. The Lord allows himself to be helped in seeking out and saving those who are lost. Jesus has given all of us a great responsibility to help save other men. Like the first disciples, near Mary, we too wish to accompany the Lord through the roads of the world.
But, just as in Jesus's time, today there are those who choose to abandon the company of the Lord. After his discourse on the Bread of Life, it was said, "Many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him" (Jn 6,66).
Today, as then, there are men and women who abandon the company of Jesus. Of Judas Iscariot, it was written, "He took the morsel and left quickly" (Jn 12,30) [It was the Last Supper, and Jesus had just told him, 'What you have to do, go and do quickly". The other apostles thought that since Judas kept the money bag, he Was being sent to buy what they needed for the Passover feast or give money to the poor.]
Judas was one of the Twelve, but he chose to go away from Jesus - towards ruin. To abandon, to leave, to go away are unfortunately key words in our present time, in the Church today.
Jesus abandoned is not the notion of an overheated imagination or of exaggerated piety, but is a serious reality.
Mary went all the way to Calvary in accompanying Jesus. Like Mary, the Church faithfully accompanies her Lord for all time and brings him to everyone. History teaches us that the Lord has 'emigrated' from places where his followers have abandoned him. In the eighth and ninth centuries after Christ [the birth and rise of Islam], so many flourishing nations and regions were lost to the Church this way - in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, in the Middle East.
Whoever goes with Jesus all the way goes with him to Golgotha, but also takes part in the Paschal triumph. Mary, the co-pilgrim of the Lord, became both the Sorrowful Mother and the Victorious Mother.
In her life, she took with her many others directly to Christ - Joseph, Elizabeth, Zachary, Simeon, Anna, the Apostles, her own relatives and friends. Mary did not need admirers but co-pilgrims and companions for Jesus.
Mary followed her son. Following becomes the passage from believing to seeing, but also from seeing to believing. Elizabeth told her, "Blessed are you for you believed". And as a consequence, the Word became flesh. Mary saw it, touched it, felt the Word become flesh, making the passage from believing to seeing.
This was evident on that pilgrimage to the temple of Jeerusalem by Joseph and Mary with the 12-year-old Jesus. All three were pilgrims together. But on the return home, Jesus stayed behind. Mary and Joseph went back, searching for him for three days. The son was no longer with them, but ahead of them. He had become the object of their 'trip'.
It was no longer blood ties that were decisive but the bonds of the Holy Spirit: "Don't you know that I should go about my Father's business?" Not even biological parenthood would guarantee salvation but faith in him. "Blessed are you because you believed".
To follow Christ through Mary is the way from seeing to believing in her Son as the Son of the living God, from the house in Nazareth to the Church of Christ. That is why on the Cross, the Lord draws Mary's attention from himself towards John, and draws the attention of the disciple he loves from himself towards Mary: "Behold your Mother!"
The Lord had created a new bond, a new covenant: the Church. On Pentecost, he gives the Church the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit covers the Church like a shadow, as in Nazareth, he descended upon Mary. And thus Mary became, first, the Mother of Jesus, and then, the Mother of the Church.
After the Holy Mass, we shall accompany the image of the Madonna del Lago in a procession to the lakeshore. Then we shall accompany her on the water and then welcome her back on the beach. But it is really she who accompanies us in our journey.
As we go along our way of faith, Mary already preceded us in it. Mary as companion, teacher and guide invites us all to walk together towards Christ, Light of the world.
Above, videocaps from the TG5 video report on Mons. Gaenswein. So far, I have found no other photos online.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/08/2013 01:17] |