Thanks to Gerald Augustinus at http://closedcafeteria.blogspot.com for his translation of the following statement from Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn,
Archbishop of Vienna, on the Pope's encyclical:
--------------------------------------------------------------

The Apostle John, in his old age, had only one thing to say in his letters, only one thing was dear to his heart and he returns to it time and time again: "God is love" (1 John 4,16). Pope Benedict XVI, as his first and most important statement of his pontificate, has only that to say, that which encompasses all and gives meaning to everything: "Deus Caritas Est". My first impression of this Encyclical is: full of strength, clarity and hope.

For 23 years Cardinal Ratzinger was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. All erroneous teachings, moral aberrations, conflicts of teachings and morals of our age landed on his desk, had to be studied, discussed, clarified and sometimes sanctioned by him. He has not become bitter over it. His view of the world and of humans has not been darkened by all those difficulties. His first Encyclical is fresh and brimming with confidence, its realism is devoid of pessimism. For this, there is only one reason for the 78-year-old successor of Peter: With the favorite disciple John, he says. "We have believed love."

This faith in love is radiating from the Encyclical from beginning to end. This faith is contagious, is deeply convincing and entirely rational. It would not be "Papa Ratzinger" wielding the quill, if it were not wisely argued from A to Z. The heart speaks as well as reason and it is not easy to escape the convincing force of his train of thought. The two parts of the Encyclical are like the two lungs of which Pope John Paul II spoke so often. They are like two hands that form a whole only upon cooperation.

How the Bible views love is what the first part talks about - it is about the "love story" between God and His people. The love between humans flows from the original font, the love of God. The seeking of one another of lovers is the image of God seeking man, His creature. As distinctly as rarely before, this Encyclical lays out how Agape, the love of neighbor, has its origin in Eros. In Christ, the Incarnation of God's love, this seeking takes on dramatic form. God follows, in Jesus, the lost sheep, the suffering and lost mankind. The Church can and must not act differently - that is what the second part of the Encyclical is about. It talks about "Caritas", as charity, the active service of love of the Church. A "Charity-Encyclical"? Maybe the first in the history of Encyclicals? Certainly, but also more. Charity belongs inseparably to the Church, as do Sacrament and Word, from the very beginning.

THEY JUST DON'T SEEM TO KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF HIM

Benedict: A Man of His Words

By IAN FISHER
New York Times
January 29, 2006

THE old pope was dead. And a potential new one, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a man who somehow combined scholarly humility and a muscular certainty, gave a speech now famous among many Catholics.

"We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires," Cardinal Ratzinger said at St. Peter's Basilica, the morning last April before he and his fellow cardinals retreated into the majesty of the Sistine Chapel to decide who among them would become the leader of the world's billion Catholics.

It was, for one priest who knows Cardinal Ratzinger, a "hold your hats" moment — not a campaign speech, but a warning, expressed typically vividly, that, should they choose him, the church would be in for an action-packed ride.

He did become pope, Benedict XVI. But to general surprise, the nine months that have followed have been marked less by action than by words — a flow of clear, rational, often lovely words — no less vivid than his "dictatorship of relativism" speech but usually more gentle.

At the moment, Benedict seems more, in the words of one Vatican watcher, "the teaching pope." Call him, maybe, the "lucid pope."

This perhaps unexpected turn was summed up last week in his first encyclical, the highest form of papal pronouncement. He set out no specific program for his papacy to re-evangelize an increasingly godless Europe, for example, or to denounce homosexuality, abortion or secularism.

He spoke, instead, of love.

And not just love in the abstract, but in the first place of carnal love, between man and woman — if they are married, monogamous and committed to each other for life.

"While the biblical narrative does not speak of punishment, the idea is certainly present that man is somehow incomplete, driven by nature to seek in another the part that can make him whole, the idea that only in communion with the opposite sex can he become 'complete,' " Benedict wrote. (This led the conservative Italian newspaper, Il Foglio, to run a front page scribble of what looked like the pope dancing with a nun over the caption: "The encyclical: Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll!")

For the many keen watchers of Benedict, a number of questions are surfacing: Are words enough in a papacy? Do the words themselves constitute a plan? Is it simply still too early to judge the reign of Benedict?

After his election, supporters spoke of Benedict's "clarity," expressed in decades of writings as a popular theology professor in Germany, then for two decades as Pope John Paul II's defender of the faith. His writing style, as many people have noted, is remarkably clear and down to earth, especially for a German academic handling the most complicated, really unknowable, subjects on earth.

Some of his most often cited words tend toward the harsh: for example, his worries about "filth" in the church expressed last year. But more than one middle-aged priest in Rome can remember as a student reading Joseph Ratzinger's best-regarded book, "Introduction to Christianity," and marveling at his comparison between the problems faced by believer and the atheist.

"Just as the believer knows himself to be constantly threatened by unbelief, which he must experience as a constant temptation, so for the unbeliever, faith remains a temptation and a threat to his apparently permanently closed world," he wrote. "In short, there is no escape from the dilemma of being a man."

In comparison with John Paul, often referred to here in Rome as sort of mystic, Benedict is unfailingly rational, realistic and clear-eyed about the problems in the church. Last summer, he said that for many people in the world "the church seems to be outdated, our proposals unnecessary."

There are a number of theories about the strategy behind Benedict's so far low-key focus on the word.

The Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, a leading voice against abortion, noted that some conservatives in the church would prefer more action, especially in the internal governance. But, he said, Benedict seems to have decided first to state clearly the overall value of the church and its teachings in terms that most Catholics can agree on.

"He has to put in front of people's eyes something positive," he said. "Following from that he can systematically dismantle the cultures of death, cultural decadence and moral relativism."

For John L. Allen Jr., a reporter for National Catholic Reporter, the words fit into Benedict's familiar concerns that the church may shrink, since it is less these days a faith of culture and tradition than a choice of a smaller number of more fervent believers.

It is those people, Mr. Allen said, who will seek out those words, as opposed to simply being inspired by something like John Paul's broader charismatic appeal.

There is another theory: that Benedict has decided on a papacy that falls, in fact, less into the world-event-shaping office of John Paul than on a more traditional one where the pope's is one of many voices in the church.

"Quite deliberately, Benedict has said, 'I am not going to say as much,' " said Nicholas Lash, an eminent British Catholic theologian. "There has been a delicious silence for the most part."

its absolutely brilliant!!! thanks for all the articles about his encyclical!

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has already come out with the English version of the Pope's first encyclical, available at
www.aquinasandmore.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/store.ItemDetails/SKU/544/Cat...



OOPS! SORRY...Just checked the USCCB site itself
www.usccbpublishing.org/productdetails.cfm?sku=5-758
and it says, as you will see, that the product will not be available till February 14 - but you may place your orders now.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/01/2006 23.01]

Papa's media critics painted themselves into a corner from which they are now trying to extricate themselves with as much grace as they can manage. What a different tone Ian Fisher's New York Times weekend review article has from his original
report on the encyclical (which was thoroughly 'fisked' - i.e., refuted or commented on point by point - by a conscientious pro-B16 blogger as we referred to in an earlier post)!

And now here are accounts from the Guardian newspapers of the UK, Guardian and Observer, whose writers and editors cannot hide they are 'pleased" over the encyclical and yet another surprise from Benedict yesterday.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Pope's olive branch to divorcees
Benedict surprises critics with decision to help fast-track annulments of failed marriages
Barbara McMahon in Rome and David Smith in London
Sunday January 29, 2006
The Observer

Pope Benedict signalled a dramatic break with the past yesterday when he acknowledged the plight of divorcees who are banned from taking communion after remarriage and appealed to a Vatican tribunal to issue 'rapid' rulings on annulment requests.
It was the second time this week that the newly elected Pope has displayed strong liberal leanings, confounding his critics and the world's Catholics and showing another side to his previously stern image, which has been unfavourably compared with his predecessor, John Paul II.

On Wednesday his long-awaited first encyclical - a message to the 1.1 billion members of the Roman Catholic church - was a warm meditation on the power of love and was greeted with astonishment and relief by senior Catholics.

In Rome yesterday he directly addressed a central tenet of Catholic doctrine that has caused distress to many followers of the church, which states that remarried divorcees are regarded as being in a permanent state of sin and cannot receive communion.

The 78-year-old pontiff, in a speech to the Roman Rota - the tribunal that decides annulments - acknowledged that there was 'pastoral concern' about the predicament of these Catholics.

He told the panel that its decisions should come quickly for the sake of the faithful. An annulment means that a marriage was invalid, leaving the faithful free to remarry and receive communion.

In his speech to the tribunal yesterday, the Pope said it was very important that annulment rulings emerge in a reasonable amount of time. Some couples who apply for annulments have to wait four or five years for a decision, meaning their lives as Catholics are essentially on hold.

The Pope said, however, that it was also important that couples were helped to try to work out their problems and 'to find the path of reconciliation'.

The pontiff's comments came after it was revealed in the Italian press this week that Vatican granted nine out of every 10 annulments requested. In 2004, the last year for which figures are available, 46,060 annulments were requested, of which, 42,920 were granted.

Leading British Catholics hailed the comments. Cristina Odone, The Observer columnist and former editor of the Catholic Herald, said: 'This is a huge sea change. Just the fact that he mentions it is important. Only a few days he issued the first encyclical... about something we're all obsessed with, which is love. He acknowledged that sexual love can be the springboard for spiritual happiness, which is a very bold move for any Pope. Here he is saying ... compassion is more important than dogma. It's an incredible change of the mood.'

Odone said the Pope had surprised Catholic commentators, including herself. 'He is more open minded than any of us thought... With these steps, he seems to be liberating Catholics from the guilt that they always bring to sex.'

Monsignor Andrew Faley, assistant general secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said: 'He was portrayed as "German Rottweiler to German shepherd". The media based that assumption on him as Joseph Ratzinger the Cardinal Prefect, when he had to be more 'hardline'. He is now more pastorally focused because he is pontiff. He is showing himself to be a bridge builder, which is what pontiff means.'
-------------------------------------------------------------
Here is how the Guardian first reported on the encyclical:
Pope surprises Catholics with warm words on power of love
First message to flock warns against word being reduced to a sexual commodity
Stephen Bates, religious affairs correspondent
Thursday January 26, 2006
The Guardian


Pope Benedict XVI thawed his previously chilly image yesterday by producing as his first message to his worldwide flock a notably warm rumination on the nature of love. Deus Caritas Est - God is Love - marked Benedict's first encyclical or pastoral letter to the 1.1 billion members of the Roman Catholic Church since his election last April and was greeted last night with some astonishment and relief among senior Catholics.

The 71-page document spoke of love between men and women and also of the need for unconditional love towards all mankind. But it also warned against the word becoming reduced to a sexual commodity. "I wish ... to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others ... In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant. Love is free; it is not practised as a way of achieving other ends."

Its central message was far from the finger-wagging, "thou shalt not" tone that characterised some of his predecessor's pronouncements and contrasted with Benedict's own stern reputation during his 24 years as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's enforcer of doctrinal orthodoxy. Catholic observers suggested that the document, written largely by the Pope himself during the latter half of last year, represented a truer indication of his nature than his image would suggest. Monsignor Andrew Faley, assistant general secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, said: "I think it is a wonderful document. It is much more reflective and conversational in tone and less prescriptive than some past encyclicals. He is calling on people to reflect on the central truth of love. We are seeing the substance of the man as a pastor and shepherd of the flock. A cuddly Benedict? Well, well."

Catherine Pepinster, editor of the Catholic weekly The Tablet, said: "I am delighted: it is very direct, idealistic and warm-hearted. We are struggling not to be too gushing in this week's editorial." [Note: We posted the Tablet editorial
earlier]
.......

While the encyclical did not break new ground or revise Church policy on sexual issues - towards gays or on birth control for instance - it was certainly more emollient than many Vatican documents in the recent past and its message is likely to determine the character of Benedict XVI's papacy....

----------------------------------------------------------------

Of course, the line is still: "Oh, so there's another side to Ratzinger!" Come now, the whole man was there all along, but you guys only wanted to see him as your bete noire, so you deliberately ignored who he is because it doesn't square with how you wished to paint him! Now, let's see how long this new-found goodwill will last.!

Here is the statement released by the Focolare founder Chiara Lubitsch commenting on Deus caritas est.
--------------------------------------------------------------
‘God is Love’: new hope for the world
By Chiara Lubich


“God is Love.” What great gratitude we felt for Pope Benedict XVI from the moment that the title of his first encyclical was announced! He enkindled in us the flame of hope – the hope that the great announcement, “God is Love,” that the word “love” brought back to its “original splendor,” may overflow to infinity, like a stone that is thrown into the water and causes wider and wider circles. The interest shown by the media, even before its presentation and much more so now, is a prediction of what will come.

“God is Love” is most certainly the Word that Jesus wants to say today in this new millennium.

Yes, love is inscribed in the very nature of the Church, as the Pope writes. To the rich heritage of Church history new charisms have been added, brought about by the Holy Spirit in recent decades. The message - “God is Love! God loves you just as you are!” – has been passed from person to person, on the strength of personal testimonies, transforming the lives of millions of people.

For us, it was a light that shone out in the darkest hour of history, during the Second World War, illuminating the whole Gospel, making us discover that Jesus was not afraid of pronouncing the word “love.” Actually, we understood that it is love itself which is the heart of His message, and, yes, “the primordial creative power that moves the universe,” moving our own little personal histories as well as the great history of the world.

I am certain that the encyclical of the Pope will arouse a spontaneous echo from the entire Church, and even beyond. If living love is not limited to helping our neighbor concretely, but also urges us to “communicate to others the love of God that we ourselves have received,” what will emerge is the great wealth of that love that is often lived heroically, in silence, within the family, in governments and factories, in universities and neighborhoods, in the most depressed areas of the world, among those whose face reflects the very face of the God-Man himself who cries out the abandonment by His Father.

In this way, we will make “visible in some way the living God” and his action in our times, as is the hope of Benedict XVI.

And God, who is rediscovered as Love, will attract the whole world.

It will be the first – and perhaps the only – mega-assembly at St. Peter’s Square with Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.

On Pentecost Saturday, June 3, he will meet representatives of all the church movements from around the world, Apcom reports, citing authoritative Vatican sources. Some 300,000 are expected to attend, including movements ike Communion and Liberation (CL), the Focolari, Catholic Action and the Neo-Catechumenal Way.

The event has been given the name “Surprised by Christ”, and reprises the first such world assembly held on May 30, 1998, with John Paul II. The World Congress of Ecclesiastical Movements was organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity. On that day, Don Giussani, founder of CL; Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolari; and Kiko Arguello, founder of the Neo-Cathechumenal Way, gave witness in the presence of John Paul II.

“These movements represent one of the most significant fruits of that springtime of the Church anticipated by Vatican II,“ John Paul II said at the time.

On the same day that the Guardian published the story mentioned above on the Pope offering "an olive branch to divorcees", Corriere della Sera, the leading Italian newspaper, and Catholic World News published their own reading of the Pope's prepared remarks to the Roman Rota, the basis for this story.

Comparing the three stories, Corriere hazards the most forward interpretation, while CWN has the most conservative. The Guardian story is halfway between the two extremes.
----------------------------------------------------------------
First, from Corriere della Sera - in translation :

"Faithless" marriages, new rules
A Papal document to authorize grounds for annulment

Benedict XVI is preparing a document to answer the problem of whether to authorize church tribunals to mullify marriages which were contracted “without faith.”

The pope appesred to indicate this when he addressed priests, officials and advocates of the Holy Rota when receiving them at the start of the judicial year. He said he did not intend to address the problem directly “in the present circumstance”.

If indeed this problem is resolved positively, then it would constitute a true revolution. It would allow many situations to be regularized and allow Catholic couples, now in irregular unions, to receive Communion.

The Synodal fathers rhemselves proposed to the Pope last October a pastoral “re-visitation” of canon law to find “new areas of flexibility” in the matter of marriage annulments. It will not be easy for Papa Ratzinger to find the right formula for the anticipated document.

As he emphasized in July to the parish priests of Val d’Aosta, it has to do with resolving “the situation of those who had a Church wedding no being true believers but merely to follow tradition, and who later find themselves in a new state of matrimony – which is non-valid (having had an earlier ‘valid’ marriage in Church) – but who have since found the faith or convert to Catholicism and feel excluded from the Sacraments. “

“On the one hand, “ the Pope told the Rota yesterday, “it seems that the Synodal fathers have invited the church tribunals to work so that the faithful who are not canoically married
may regularize their matrimonial situation as soon as possible and rejoin the Eucharistic rite.”

“On the other hand, canon law and the recent instruction (Dignitatis Connubii – last document issued by John Paul II) would seem to impose limits to such pastoral initiative, as though the principal concern was simply to follow the prescribed juridical formalities, with the risk of forgetting the pastoral objective of the whole process.”

How to find the middle way? The Pope continued: “Such a formulation places the law and pastoral duty in contraposition…(but) in this first meeting, I prefer to concentrate on that which represents the fundamental point of intersection between law and pastoral duty: love for the truth.”

He then proceeded to urge more speed in processing such cases: “The canonical process of annulling matrimony is an instrument to determine the truth about the conjugal link. Its constitutive purpose is therefore not to unnecessarily complicate the life of those involved, much less to exacerbate litigiousness, but only to do service to the truth.”

The problem on which Benedict XVI will issue what may be a motu proprio is complicated by the possibility that the tribunals, in acting generously, may encourage even non-Christians to use this channel to get a “Catholic divorce.” Therefore, yesterday, he said that “it would be deceptive to think of this service as available, even implicitly, to Catholics and their non-Christian spouses who find their marriage in dificulty, thus strengthening any tendency to forget the principle of indissolubility of marriage.”

Until his document comes out, however, he advised priests to be very attentive that couples who present themselves for marriage truly have the faith: “Pastoral sensitivity should seek to prevent eventual annulments by being exercised at the start, during the process of admitting couples for matrimony.”
---------------------------------------------------------------

And here's the report from Catholic World News:
www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=42129

Tribunals should work quickly, defend marriage, Pope says

Vatican, Jan. 30 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI underlined the indissolubility of marriage, and rued the fact that "this truth is so often forgotten," as he spoke on January 28 to officials of the Roman Rota.

The Holy Father said that couples seeking annulments of their marriages have a right to a reasonable fast response from Church tribunals. However, he stressed that annulments should be granted only when the evidence indicates that a true marriage never took place. The Pope strongly denied that a "pastoral" approach could overlook the requirements of the Church's legal process.

The work of the Roman Rota is dominated by marital issues, and as he met with the official of the Vatican tribunal in a private audience, at the start of their judicial year, the Pope asked them to adhere carefully to the terms of Dignitatis Connubii, the Vatican document released in 2005 to guide the work of marriage tribunals.

Pope Benedict acknowledged the lively public discussion of the Church's discipline barring Catholics who are divorced and remarried from receiving the Eucharist. He observed that the Synod of Bishops, meeting last October to discuss the Eucharist, had "called on ecclesiastical courts to make every effort to ensure that members of the faithful not canonically married may, as soon as possible, regularize their domestic situations," and thus be admitted to communion.

But the Pope flatly rejected the idea that the canonical process involved in annulment is merely a matter of "legal formalities." That idea, he said, implies "a supposed conflict between law and pastoral care in general." To counter that notion, Pope Benedict reminded the officials of the Roman Rota that the purpose of Church tribunals is to arrive at a "declaration of truth by an impartial third party."

Marriage, the Holy Father continued, is an indissoluble contract, "not something of which the spouses can dispose at will." Thus when a couple brings a petition for annulment, the goal of the tribunal must be to determine whether or not, in fact, a valid marriage occurred.

In assessing each case, the Pope continued, the tribunal should be guided by the search for truth. He cautioned strongly against any tendency to compromise the rigor of that search, in a misguided effort to find serve the needs of individuals. "Such attitudes may seem pastoral," the Pope admitted; "but in reality they do not respond to the good of the individuals, or that of the ecclesial community."

As he concluded his remarks, Pope Benedict said that the Church should also be working "to prevent nullity of marriage," by preparing couples more fully for Christian matrimony and by helping married couples to resolve conflicts and form a deeper mutual commitment.

The Pontiff's talk to the Roman Rota followed the same lines as remarks he had given last July, in an informal address to Italian priests with whom he met during his vacation in the Italian Alps. At that time Pope Benedict had acknowledged the complexity involved in many marriage cases, and the pain felt by couples who are unable to receive Communion because of a divorce and remarriage. But he argued that the Church cannot change her discipline without compromising the integrity of marriage.

The Vatican instruction Dignitatis Connubii, to which the Pope referred in his talk, was prepared as a guide to diocesan tribunals in handling marriage cases. The Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts released the instruction in response to reports of wide discrepancies between the way annulment petitions were handled in different diocesan tribunals.

The tribunal of the Roman Rota acts as an appeals court in marriage cases (and other canonical proceedings), hearing appeals of judgments that have been rendered by any of the 3,000 canonical tribunals around the world. In 2004 (the last year for which full statistics are available) the Roman Rota received 246 appeals regarding marriage annulments. Of these, 163 came from dioceses in Europe, 73 from the Americas, and 10 from Asia; there were no such appeals from Africa, Australia, or Oceania.

With only 20 judges hearing the cases, an appeal to the Roman Rota can be a time-consuming process; the average case lasts nearly two years. These long processes, however, involve only those cases in which an appeal is sent to the Vatican. The vast majority of annulment petitions are resolved by local diocesan tribunals.

First Musings on Benedict XVI's First Encyclical
By Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J.


Benedict has done for magisterial documents what J.R.R. Tolkien did for literature: drawn on his immense erudition to express in clear and beautiful language the longings of the human heart.

Who would have thought that the first encyclical of the "Panzerkardinal" would have as a centerpiece the exaltation of the love of eros between a man and a woman? Here is the man who has been portrayed for decades as the great nay-sayer, the enforcer of doctrine, a successor to the Holy Inquisition.

But to those who have read his works, are familiar with his life, or have had the privilege of knowing him, the encyclical is no surprise. He has a penetrating intellect which always goes to the heart of the matter. He has a sense of the poetry of life and of revelation, which gives his writing clarity, depth and beauty. And he is someone who listens both to the living and those whose thoughts come to us through their books and works of art. Then from all that he's seen and heard, he's able to synthesize and organize and present an idea or position in a coherent way that always illuminates.

I see this as a foundational encyclical. And I hope he has a long enough papacy to build on this strong foundation. He has taken the very heart of Christian revelation as a starting point, the central truth of the Christian faith: God is love.

As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he would periodically issue statements that were responses to controversial issues. By the very nature of what he was doing, there was less willingness on the part of readers to listen with an open mind when the principles behind a decision were being elaborated. Here, he develops unpolemically the most fundamental of principles: the human love of eros as an image of divine love.

He develops the historical understanding of this love and its transformation in the light of Christian revelation in a way that is, at least on the surface, uncontroversial. However, the consequences of what he says clearly are controversial.

For example, he maintains that Christianity did not destroy eros (#4) but disciplined and purified it, restoring it to its true grandeur (#5). "It is part of love's growth toward higher levels and inward purification that it now seeks to become definitive, and it does so in a twofold sense: both in the sense of exclusivity (this particular person alone) and in the sense of being 'forever'" (#6).

But this beautiful reflection implies a very controversial consequence: genuine eros leads to an exclusive and permanent relationship between a man and a woman. That is, it excludes homosexual unions, multiple wives, divorce and remarriage, and promiscuity.

Later he shows that in the Biblical vision "eros is...supremely ennobled, yet at the same time it is so purified as to become one with agape" (#10). The Biblical account shows that "eros is somehow rooted in man's very nature...[It] directs man towards marriage, to a bond which is unique and definitive. Corresponding to the image of the monotheistic God is monogamous marriage" (#11).

In this encyclical, Benedict XVI both gets beneath and transcends the controversies. He establishes a genuine "common ground" and shows how its "inner logic" (a phrase which he uses often) leads to the same conclusions that the Catholic Church teaches as authoritative.

I found it interesting to look at his citations. Within the text, he quotes or alludes to Sacred Scripture frequently. But here is the exact sequence of the authors he cites in the endnotes: Nietzsche, Virgil, Descartes, Gregory the Great (two times), Aristotle, Pseudo-Dionysius the Aereopagite, Plato, Sallust, St. Augustine (two times), Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Ambrose, Julian the Apostate. Only then does he cite a recent ecclesiastical document: the Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops, issued by the congregation for bishops in 2004.

He is speaking to bishops, priests, religious and the Catholic laity. But he is speaking to all of humanity and he is speaking from the deepest wellsprings of human culture. The document, like the man, is a distillation and expression of a universal wisdom.

The professor has become a Pope. You note in the document many enumerations of aspects or consequences of a particular thought. He will summarize at the end of a section what he considers he has achieved in the foregoing elaboration. He will speak of the "inner logic" of the subject he is treating. And he will show the coherence of all the elements in a higher synthesis (eros/agape; divine/human love; soul/body; love/service). That is to say, it is truly "catholic".

I noted with particular interest that he has definitely taken stand in the debate on the so-called "inclusive" language. The document in its English translation is dominated by ordinary English usage: man, the generic masculine pronoun, mankind, brethren. But he does use "he or she", "men and women", where it is appropriate, though sparingly.

From www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2006/jfessio_encyclical_j...

Papa wrote a letter about the encyclical for the readers of FAMIGLIA CRISTIANA in the issue that finally has the first encyclical as a handout - and I am working on a translation, which I will post ASAP.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 01/02/2006 4.28]

WHAT A GREAT LOOKING MAGAZINE COVER!!!!

Why can't one of ours in the U.S. look like that instead of always with Brad Pitt or some blond du jour on it?

Here is a translation of an article that appears in this week's Panorama (Italian magazine) -
----------------------------------------------------------------

BENEDICT - LONE WOLF AT ST. PETER'S
To rediscover love of God and love of neighbor - all else is secondary to Benedict. He writes, studies, eats without guests and does not delegate.

”What’s the difference between St. Peter and his current successor, Benedetto XVI? The first was a fisherman, the second does not know which fish to go after.” That is the ungenerous joke that is reported to be circulating the past few weeks in the Vatican.

Those behind it are people who profess themselves disappointed by the first nine months of Benedict’s pontificate. Those who had counted on a massive ‘settlement of accounts” in the heart of the Roman Curia after 27 years of Karol Wojtyla’s ponitificate. Those who cannot wait for a consistory in which new cardinals will be named. Those who are hoping for promotion and those who are fearful of being removed from office. None of their expectations has happened so far.

Papa Ratzinger works more by subtraction than by addition, faithful to what he had told journalist Peter Seewald 10 years ago in the interview-book Salt of the Earth: “The big traditional Churches are perhaps suffocated by their excessive institutionalization and the consequent excess of power, by the weight of their own history.” To streamline and simplify in order to make the freshness and simplicity of the faith re-emerge: that is Benedict XVI’s program of government, but it is being mistaken for immobility.

In this light, even the first encyclical, Deus caritas est, is in its way programmatic. It indicates what is essential for the Pope: rediscovering love for God and love for one’s neighbor as the guiding principle of the Christian faith. All the rest is secondary, including the reorganization of the Curia.

The nominations will come, but one must wait a bit longer, if it is true that Benedict XVI had told his ex-secretary, Mons. Josef Clemens, that he wanted to wait one year befor making the most important decisions. In this light, one sees a profound analogy between John Paul II and his successor. The first was distant from the Curia because he projected himself towards the whole world, the second because he is faithful to another priority: to re-invoke for the faithful the radicality of the Christian premise.

The Curia had (largely) pushed for Ratzinger’s election but he has remained distant from them, just as he was when he was Prefect of the Cognregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He trusts some of the Curia prelates, starting with Secretary of State Angelo Sodano. But he does not belong to the curial world. He remains a loner, a lover of study. A theologian without a school and without pupils. He was Wojtyla’s friend more than he was the powerful and feared Prefect of the Holy See’s most important dicastery. He did not place his power in the service of Curial political games. And now, at the head of the Church, he paradoxically finds himself perhaps even more isolated.

Compared to Wojtyla, he has reduced the nhmber of meetings, audiences and interventions by the Pope. He spends a lot of time writing and polishing his speeches. He lunches and dines without guests. John Paul II entrusted his secretary, Mons. Stanislaw Dziwisz, with managing much of his private affairs, and even the preparation of some of his most sensitive decisions. ‘Stasciu,’ as he was called, was like a son to Wojtyla. The relationship between Benedict and his secretary is more formal. Georg Gaenswein prepares the files and writes in the agenda, but his surface cordiality hides the strictness of a canon law expert who perhaps intimidates and keeps away many who would want to knock on the doors of the Apostoilic Palace.

However, on the matters which Benedict XVI has deemed priority, he has shown himself far from inactive: above all, on ecumenism, particularly the dialog with the Orthodox Church. As soon as he could, he restarted the work of the commision for dialog between Catholics and Orthodox, and was prepared to go to Turkey to meet the Patriarch of Constantinople. A future meeting with the Patriach of Moscow, Alexis II, cannot be ruled out, either.

He has shown the same firmess and speed with respect to dialog with the Jews. He has shown himself largely open to the bishops around the world, even modifying the Papal coat of arms [replacing the papal tiara with the bishops miter] and his installation ceremony [new emphasis on the pallium] to underscore his role as Bishop of Rome.

Equally clear are the lines he has drawn to redirect distorted interpretations of Vatican II. One of his earliest decisions was to reserve only canonization rites to be presided by the Pope, entrusting beatification rites to the Cardinals.

Meanwhile, he may be preparing a major coup: enlarging the College of the Cardinals and raising the age limit for cardinals to continue being active. As it stands today, the cardinals lose the right to take part in electing a Pope once they reach 80 years of age. John Paul II left it to whoever would follow him to change a rule that was set by Paul VI.

Meanwhile, Ratzinger has already granted ample dispensations to the rule that would require the heads of the curial dicasteries to retire when they reach age 75. [After all, he himself served 3 years beyond the retirement age.] It adds more to an impetus of greater collegiality within the Church, with a greater appreciation for the role of the patriarchs in different countries of the world as during the first millennium of the Church. There will be surprises, but probably not those which many are expecting or hoping for.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/02/2006 14.32]

The Italian news agency APcom reports today on the itinerary for Pope Benedict's visit to Poland in May. Here in translation-
---------------------------------------------------------------

The second foreign trip of Benedict XVI – which will be to Poland from May 25-28 – will be in the footsteps of his predecessor.

Korazym. Org reports that the German Pope will visit John Paul II’s birth place in Wadowice, where he will visit the house where the Polish Pope was born and meet with citizens of the little town near Cracow. He will then visit the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy, dedicated to St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish nun canonized by John Paul II.

The trip begins Thursday, May 25. The Pope will fly Alitalia from Rome international airport to Warsaw, where he will be welcomed by President Lech Kaczynski. He will then travel by Popemobile to the cathedral of St. John, through the streets of the Warsaw diocese, passing in front of the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene and the Catholic cathedral of St. Florian.

At the Cathedral of St. John, the Pope will meet with the local clergy, in the presence of the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Josef Glemp, and members of the Polish bishops conference. The Pope will then visit the tombs of Cardinals August Mlond and Stefan Wyszynski, who led Church opposition to Communism in Poland.

In the afternoon, the Pope will visit the Presidential Palace where he will meet with the President, the Prime Minister, the leaders of Parliament, and the presidents of Poland’s Courts of Justice. In the late afternoon, he will meet with representatives of the Lutheran Church and the president of Poland’s Ecumenical Council at the Lutheran Church of the Most Holy Trinity.

On Friday, May 26, Benedict XVI celebrates his first Mass as Pope on Polish soil, along with Polish cardinals at Warsaw’s Victory Square, where John Paul II also said Mass during his first visit to Poland as Pope in June 1979.

In the afternoon, he will travel by helicopter to Czestochowa to visit the Marian sanctuary at Jasna Gora, home of the Black Madonna, Poland’s most venerated religious icon. He will be meeting there with seminarians and members of religious orders. Afterwards, there will be a public meeting highlighted by the recitation of the Marian litany.

He will then be flown by helicopter to Cracow, where he will be staying at the Archbishop’s Palace, from where John Paul II had exercised his ministry as Archbishop of Cracow.

Saturday, May 27, will be dedicated to remembering John Paul II. Benedict starts the day with a private Mass at the Crypt of Wawel Cathedral, where he will pray at the tombs of St. Stanislaw and St. Hedwig. Then he will travel by car to Wadowice, Karool Wojtyla’s birthplace. He will meet the citizens at the public square then visit the house where John Paul was born, now a museum.

Returning to Cracow, he will stop at the Chapel of the Madonna of Kalwaria, a favorite pilgrimage place for Wojtyla in his youth. Back in Cracow, the Pope will meet young people at the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Lagiewniki, which was consecrated by John Paul II during his last visit to Poland in 2002. The sanctuary is dedicated to St. Faustina Kowalska, a figure very dear to John Paul, who died on the feast of Divine Mercy. About 100,000 people, including many who are sick and disabled, are expected at this meeting.

On his last day in Poland, the Pope will preside at an open-air Mass in Blonie, at which a million people are expected. In the afternoon, he will visit the site of the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The program includes a visit to the Center for Dialog and Prayer, a prayer in front of the Wall of the Dead, and a visit to Block 11, symbol of the martyrdom of millions of Jews as well as gypsies, Jehovah’s witnesses, homosexuals, religious and dissidents exterminated by the Nazis. In the cellars of the cellblock are found the isolation and torture cells, in one of which St. Maximilian Kolbe died.

Before leaving Auschwitz, the Pope will meet with Carmelite nuns coming from a convent near Auschwitz. He will then proceed to Birkenau to pray at the International Monument to Victims, erected near Crematorium #2 of the extermination camp. He will be joined by groups of survivors and a delegation from the Jewish community of Poland. Prayers will be said in the various languages of the Birkenau vistims, then the Pope will address the group.

The Pope will leave Poland in late afternoon aboard a Polish LOT special flight for Rome’s Ciampino airport.

Catholic blogsites have been buzzing the past few days about new developments affecting the Lefebvrists. Today, in the Italian newspaper Il Gironale, Vatican correspondent and papal biographer Andrea Tornielli has this story. In translation -
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Pope wishes to revoke excommunication of Lefebvrists
by Andrea Tornielli

The news has been circulating on traditionalist sites online. Something is moving in the relations between the Vatiocan and the St. Pius X Fraternity (aka Lefebvrists). It is expected that the Pope may soon reverse the excommunication of the fraternity‘s leadership. The group was founded by the late Monsignor Lefbevre and has 4 bishops, 480 priests and thousands of followers around the world.

On Monday morning, February 13, Benedict XVI will meet with top Curial cardinals, and it is expected that the possibility of revoking the excommunication order will be discussed. In particular, this refers to the four bishops who were ordained by Lefebvre in 1988 without the Vatican’s permission.

But it is also said that the February 13 meeting will consider the entire question of Catholic traditionalists, including those who are in full communion with Rome. Specifically, how to liberalize the use of the pre-Vatican II Mass. On paper, this is already possible, a concession granted by John Paul II, who however, gave the discretion to allow the celebration of the old Mass to the local bishop. In practice, many of these bishops have turned down requests made by the traditionalists.

The strictest secrecy has been observed in the meetings held over the past few months between Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect of the Cognregation for the Clergy, and the Lefebvrists, while his colleague, Cardinal Julian Herranz, has been attending to legislative texts which would allow the institution of a special apostolic administration for the Lefebvrists. The group would thus be directly under the Vatican, while maintaining their internal structure and their use of the old missal.

The meetings with the Curial cardinals followed the Pope’s meeting in August at Castel Gandolfo with the two top administrators of the Fraternity, Mons. Bernard Fellay and Franz Schmidberger. A Vatican communique after the meeting said it took place “in a climate of love for the Church and a desire to arrive at perfect coimmunion” proceeding “gradually and within a reasonable time”.

Previously, in March 2001, John Paul II presided at a meeting of cardinals at which the Lefebvrist question was discussed. Afterwards, the Pope said, “I understand that the time is not ripe yet.” In January 2002, an agreement was reached with the Lefebvrist community of Campos, in Brazil, which was granted the status of a special apostolic administration.

The situation is different today. The Fraternity has manifested its desire for full communion with Rome, and the Pope’s Christmas message to the Curia referred to misrepresentations in the interpretation of Vatican II. But the Pope also said that religious freedom should not mean a “canonization of relativism” but is “a need arising from human coexistence, and an intrinsic consequence of truth which cannot be imposed from outside.”

Traditionalists have great expectations for a partial liberalization of the use of the old missal, particularly since the Pope, when he was a cardinal, was always attentive to their concerns. They expect that he will facilitate the celebration of the old rite for those traditionalists who request it.

oohhh,too many issues and workload for Papa

thanks for all the news!

COMMENTS FROM CARDINAL GEORGE


Cardinal discusses Vatican

By Amanda Sheaffer
Marquette Tribune Staff

Chicago's Cardinal Francis George provided an inside perspective on the funeral of Pope John Paul II and subsequent election of Pope Benedict XVI Tuesday night, as the Archdiocese of Milwaukee kicked off its fourth annual Pallium Lecture Series.

George's lecture, titled "At the Holy Center: Pope Benedict XVI" addressed the new pope's role as leader of the Catholic Church and what issues he is likely to address.

George, who was ordained a priest in 1963 and was named a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1998, is both respected and loved by the clergy, according to Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of Milwaukee.

"He's certainly one of the most respected individuals that we bishops look up to," Dolan said.

George began his speech by discussing the funeral of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI. He focused his lecture on providing the audience with an "inside" perspective on the inner workings of the Vatican.

The cardinal touched on the impact the late pope had on the young people of the world.

"John Paul II was a person bigger than life," George said. "We didn't thoroughly understand the impact he had until people began pouring into St. Peter's Square" during the pope's illness and subsequent funeral.

George said the crowd was mostly young people, veterans of various World Youth Day celebrations--an event Pope John Paul II started in 1986. During the funeral, the Litany of Saints was recited and "they became very present," George said.

"Everyone was united... saints unseen and seen," George said. "They said, 'We came because he came to us.'"

After the pope's funeral George, as a member of the College of Cardinals, was involved in the conclave. He described the process of electing a new pope as "very choreographed."

"People sometimes try to put a political template on the conclave," George said. "They think people are getting up and giving speeches. Really we just pray and vote."

The decision to elect Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, 78, as pope was based on his preparedness for the office of pope.

"Questions about health and age gave us reason to pause, not his qualifications," George said.

After addressing the process of electing a new pope, George outlined what Benedict's mission will be during his papacy.

"Pope Benedict XVI wants to be a peacemaker," George said. "He is concerned with unity."

It is the theme of unity, held together by love, that is the basis for the pope's first encyclical, according to George.

"It is no wonder his first encyclical is about love," George said. "It comes from his desire for peace."

The encyclical, titled "Deus Caritas Est" or "On Christian Love-God is Love" was released Jan. 25. It discusses the self-giving love of God and how humans can practice that type of love in their earthly relationships, according to George.

The pope, motivated by love, points out that the Church must work with other charities for the well being of all humans, George said.

"He will be a servant of the truth, a servant of unity. A witness of God's love to the world and divine charity," George said.

The Pallium Lecture series started in 2003 when Bishop Dolan went to Rome to receive his pallium — a garment symbolizing his position as an Archbishop. The Archdiocese wanted to teach people from the diocese, who were accompaining the bishop, about the importance and significance of the event, accordig to Kathleen Hohl, communications director for the archdiocese.

"We thought it was a good opportunity to have well known academic theologians speak on a variety of topics," Hohl said.

The series is aimed at strengthening ties with the Holy See, according to Dolan.

"This has already become a cherished event in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee," Dolan said.

This year's theme ties into the vatican exhibit going on display Feb. 4 at the Milwaukee Public Museum, where the last lecture in the series will be held, Hohl said.

"All the speakers have some connection to the Vatican and have different insights on a common theme," Hohl said.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on Thursday, February 2, 2006.

The news agency ADN-Kronos reports today that according to cources in the Roman Curia, Benedict's first consistory to name new members to the College of Cardinals will be called on March 25, Feast of the Annunciation, and that the Pope is expected to announce this on February 22, feast of the Chair of St. Peter.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 03/02/2006 21.33]

From John Allen's Word from Rome, 2/3/06:

During the Cor Unum conference last week prior to the release of Deus Caritas Est, I ran into Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, the elected president of both the Nigerian bishops' conference and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).

I caught up with him Saturday morning, Jan. 28, at the generalate of the Society for African Missions, for a wide-ranging interview about the challenges and opportunities facing African Catholicism. The full text of our exchange will appear in a forthcoming issue of the National Catholic Reporter, so here I'll offer a few highlights.

Do you look forward to a day when a papal encyclical will begin by citing an African proverb rather than a line from Nietzsche?
"I don't see anything stopping the pope from citing African proverbs. This will come as we have some good Africans among the drafters of the encyclicals who are familiar with our traditional wisdom. …

"When Benedict quotes Nietzsche and Descartes, these are the people with whom he's familiar, and I don't believe that's an accident. We must start with the faith position that, apart from anything else, it's the Holy Spirit who is behind who emerges as pope. As soon as this pope was elected, the first thing that came to my mind was that the greatest challenge facing the Catholic church today is how to restore the spirit of the church to this technological, advanced, powerful Western world. It's as if the Holy Spirit chose somebody who can address the culture in its own language, drawing on its own philosophers, both good and bad. …

"To be blunt, when Ratzinger critiques German theological currents or the European Union and its philosophical positions, it has an impact. If an African pope were to say the same things, people would say, 'He's an African, he doesn't know what he's talking about.' Even with John Paul II, there was sometimes an undercurrent of dismissal. People said he's been in Poland all this time, he's trying to force the church into a kind of Polish model. I don't think that was true, but it was said. No one will be able to make such a case for Benedict XVI.

"If this pope can find a way to help the Western world recover a sense of God, and to try to reflect it in public life, it would be a great blessing for Europe and for the rest of us."
....

Bishop Onaiyekan had other things to say about the Church in Africa, which I am posting in NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 03/02/2006 20.56]

A FREQUENT CRITIC OF THE CHURCH ON BENEDICT


Pope sets a tone of moderation

BY ANDREW GREELEY SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
February 3, 2006
From the Chicago Sun-Times

Pope Benedict's new encyclical, "God is Love," surprised everyone, both those who expected (gleefully) condemnations and those who feared them.

Instead the pope offered a meditation on love -- the love that is God, God's love for us, the intimate connection between God's love and the love of a man and woman for one another, the connection between justice and charity and between church and state in establishing a just society. He wrote on these delicate and complex issues with clarity and assurance that are impressive. I'm not sure whether one should call it a homily or a theological meditation or a deft blend of the two.

If a pope's first encyclical sets the tone of his pastorate, then Papa Benedeto appears to be setting a course for moderation and healing in the years to come, a course that the Catholic church desperately needs. The Catholic "culture wars" between a minority who would reverse the Second Vatican Council and a minority that invokes it for their own agenda have created an atmosphere of rage with which the Church can do without. Certainly the citations from the Council in "God is Love" indicate that the pope has no intention of revoking the Council.

Moreover, the explicit link between divine love and sexual love, would have been impossible without the Council (though of course it has been implicit in the Catholic tradition since St. Paul). John Paul II in the audience talks during his early pastorate spoke on the same subject, but without the incisive clarity of the encyclical. I apologize to the pope for my doubts that German theologians can ever speak clearly (shanty Irish prejudice!).

"God is Love" offers a model, a paradigm, an ideal type for relationships among Catholics -- God and humans, man and woman, parents and children, priests and parishioners, bishops and priests, the pope and bishops, everyone and everyone else. There can be no pretense that Catholics have lived up to that model down through the ages or do so even today. Weak and flawed human beings that we are, we often fail badly. I receive large batches of e-mail every day from laity complaining about their pastors and bishops, from abuse victims who want justice, and from gays who believe that the Church hates them.

We have failed to honor the ideals of love, especially in our attitudes toward divorced and remarried Catholics, homosexuals, victims of abuse and their families, "fallen away" Catholics, immigrant workers, women, the poor and the oppressed, married priests, the emotionally troubled, the elderly, teens and young adults -- the list goes on.

To create this list is not to suggest in the present context solutions, other than to ask whether we should consider them from the perspective of the God who is love. If one considers these folk in the light of "God is Love," it becomes clear that there is a lot of work to do.

A conclusion one might draw from the pope's analysis is that the love between man and wife should in some sense be a model for all relationships where love is required. The pope says love is the act of the self-giving, from God on down. It is essential to the marital gift of self that spouses listen to one another, patiently, constantly, sensitively. Many in the list above feel church leaders do not listen to them, do not give themselves in the relationship. A listening church would be far more attractive to its members and to others than the present church, which sometimes seems incapable of listening.

Benedict has disappointed many of those who were enthusiastic about his election and who are now demanding that he reform his policies. They object to his failure to "clean out" the curia, to his appointments (both to his own previous office and to San Francisco), to his reluctance to deal with those who say that gays may still be priests, and especially to his tolerance toward the Jesuits. The rants of such folk are certainly within their rights to express personal opinions to the pope.

Nor is it for me to say how he will react to such claims of special access to the pope. That is between him and them. Father Hans Kung, a one-time and now-again personal friend of the pope, argued after his election that one should give him time before making judgments. This refusal to rush to judgment was excellent advice. Benedict seems likely to follow his own insights, hopefully after listening.

Dear Father Greeley:

I am glad you now acknowledge some merit in Pope Benedict and that you now say no one must to rush to judgment about him.

However, I must take exception to your using Deus caritas est as a pretext for 'bleeding heart' histrionics such as this:
"We have failed to honor the ideals of love, especially in our attitudes toward divorced and remarried Catholics, homosexuals, victims of abuse and their families, 'fallen away' Catholics, immigrant workers, women, the poor and the oppressed, married priests, the emotionally troubled, the elderly, teens and young adults -- the list goes on....Many in the list above feel church leaders do not listen to them, do not give themselves in the relationship. A listening church would be far more attractive to its members and to others than the present church, which sometimes seems incapable of listening."

First, you lump together two widely disparate groups of those you would consider "victims", I suppose, of the Church's "failure to love", namely: 1) "divorced and remarried Catholics, homosexuals, 'fallen away' Catholics, married priests" and 2) "victims of abuse and their families, immigrant workers, women, the poor and the oppressed, the emotionally troubled, the elderly, teens and young adults".

The first are being denied love by the Church in what way? Because the Church, keeping to its 2000-year magisterium, tells them "You can't have your cake and eat it, too"? If I, as a Catholic, choose to break a commandment or a sacrament, I know the consequences, so I must be prepared to live with such consequences. What gives me the right to be exempted from the consequences? But I would also know that grace is possible even if one cannot receive the Eucharist. The Church loves me, as it loves everyone, but love also means justice - Church teaching must apply equally to everyone; love also means discipline, having to say no- not condoning defiance of Church teaching.

And the second group are denied love in what way? Except for the "victims of abuse and their families" ( by which I think you, Fr. Greeley, mean the minor-age victims of sexual abuse by priests), the rest are what we might call "victims of society."
I don't think the Church can be accused of ignoring them - it does what it can to redress their material needs while providing the necessary spiritual support. But, as Deus caritas est makes clear, the Church cannot be primarily responsible for social justice.

You also include "women" in your list of victims. How exactly has the Church ignored women or denied them love? Because it does not believe women should be priests? And why would a Church with over a billion members change its bimillennial practice overnight for the sake of a few women (surely there are not hundreds even out of a billion!) who take the arrogant attitude that their rights are denied or that their lives can have no meaning unless they are made priests!

Then, you say that the Church does not listen to these groups, or worse, is "incapable of listening." Sure, the Church is capable of listening, and it listens. Except that after it has heard what your interest groups have to say (primarily those in the first category), it gives a principled answer which happens to be "No." When you say the Church is "not listening," what you really mean is the Church isn't giving in to demands that are contrary to its teaching.

Love also means having to say No, as one Joseph Ratzinger famously said once.

Respectfully,

Teresa Benedetta

Well done, Teresa. I think you should send it to him. It's people like him who do not listen. They are in a spirit of disobedience and regard their own views as a magisterium instead.

Alejandro Bermudez, the Catholic Outsider,
www.catholicnewsagency.com/blog/
has the first report on the Pope's second parochial visit as Bishop of Rome.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Today, Pope Benedict visited the Parish of Sant’Anna, the only parish located inside the Vatican.

The Church is well known to Vatican visitors: it is the Church located immediately next to the Porta Sant’Anna, the best- known access to the Vatican City, since it leads to most of the services: the L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Postal service, the duty free market (sorry, only for Vatican employees,) and the incredibly cheap and well stocked Vatican drugstore (again, only for Vatican employees.)

The Church visited by the Pontiff this Sunday was originally known as “Sant’Anna dei Palafrenieri.” The Palafrenieri, the old servants of the Pontiff and his court, built the Church in 1575.

In today’s homily, Pope Benedict said there are two ways to see the mystery of human life:

“One believes that human life is in the hands of man, the other recognizes that it is in the hands of God. Our modern culture has legitimately underscored the autonomy of man and secular matters, thus developing a perspective that is cherished by Christianity, which is the incarnation of God. Nevertheless, as the II Vatican Council has said if this autonomy brings to believe that “all created things do not depend on God, and that man can use them without any reference to their Creator, anyone who acknowledges God will see how false such a meaning is. For without the Creator the creature would disappear. ” (Gaudium et spes, 36)…”

“We can conclude then that the full respect for life is connected to the religious sense, to the inner attitude with which the human person approaches reality: either as a master or an administrator…”

I agree with Wulfrune, Teresa: you should send that letter.
So many reviews of Deus Caritas Est, which I have read in the past few days, have quibbled that our Papa didn't mention women priests, homosexuals, fallen away Catholics, those in extra-ecclesial marital situations, abortion, trade justice..... He has already addressed all of these and his stance on them is well known; this encyclical is about something different, for a change. It's about love.
-----------------------------------------------------------
How beautiful that celebration of Mass in the Church of Santa Ana must have been today! I WISH I had been there!!!!!!!

Love always - Mary x

AsiaNews reported today with its usual efficiency on Pope Benedict's homily at his parochial visit to St. Anne's Church and on his Angelus message, with an exception which I will point out afterwards.
From asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=5300 -
--------------------------------------------------------------
5 February, 2006
Pope: a clash of cultures on the issue of life

Vatican City (AsiaNews) –A clash of cultures is manifest in the division between who believes that human life, in the end, is at the mercy of man’s “autonomy” and who recognizes that “it is in the hands of God” motive of the Church’s essential mission: to proclaim “the God of life”. This was the heart of Pope Benedict’s message today, twice underlined : firstly during his visit this morning to the parish of St Anna and again in his midday Angelus address, delivered to a crowd of over 40 thousand.

The Pope’s speeches reflected today’s celebration of Day for Life in Italy, for which numerous delegations from catholic pro life movements were present in St Peter’s square, lead by the president of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference, Card. Camillo Ruini.

In his proclamation of the right to life, which entails respect for human life in each of it’s phases, Pope Benedict made reference to two encyclicals: Evangelium vitae, by John Paul II, defined “a milestone in Church ministry” and his own Deus caritas est, underlining “the importance of charity in supporting and promoting human life. On this issue – he added – it is fundamental to promote just behaviour towards each other, before taking practical initiatives: the culture of life is in fact based on our care for one another privy of exclusion or discrimination. Each human life, such as it is – he underlined – deserves and demands that it be protected and promoted. we know only too well, he said, that this truth is often put at risk by today’s widespread hedonism, our pursuit of a so-called society of well being. When this happens human life is exalted as long as it faScinates us and gives us pleasure, but when it is shadowed by illness or when it is no longer attractive, then it is no longer respected. if we are motivated by a profound love for others then it is possible to effectively promote and protect the beauty of life, from the unborn, to the ill and imarginalized above all life in its final stages”.

Earlier this morning during a visit to the “Vatican parish church," otherwise known as the parish of St. Anna , which also lends it’s name to one of the entrances into the small state, the Pope had spoken about the Day for Life, from the point of view that Christ’s mission was to “completely and radically heal humanity. A message of this beauty – he added – cannot be kept hidden, it must be proclaimed. In this context the exclamation of the Apostle Paul in the second reading is echoed: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! (1 Cor 9,16)”. “This dear brothers and sisters – he added is the vocation and mission of the : to proclaim to the world that God is love and that He loves life and He vanquished, through Christ ,death and sin, freeing man from the slavery of physical, mental and spiritual evil”.

Referring to the message issued to mark the Day for Life, Benedict XVI underlined that “ in their message the Italian bishops wished to draw attention to the need to prioritize 'respect for life', which is “chief among human values” : man is not the owner of life, he is only the custodian. This truth which constitutes a primary point of natural law and which is illuminated by biblical revelation, today manifests itself as a “point of contradiction” in the light of the ruling mentality. We notice that while there is a in general an ample convergence on the value of life, when the 'availability' of life is under discussion the two mentalities are irreconcilably opposed. Simplified : one maintains that human life is in the hands of man, the other in the hands of God. Modern culture has legitimately emphasized man's autonomy and earthly reality, in this way developing a perspective dear to the heart of Christianity, that of the Incarnation of God. But, as Vatican II clearly stated if this leads to the opinion that “all things created do not depend on God and that man can adapt them without reference to the creator”, then, the origins for profound instability are laid.

Because “the creature without the creator vanishes ” (Gaudium et spes, 36)”. (FP)
---------------------------------------------------------------
The part of the story which I underlined in italics does not appear in the texts published by the Vatican online. It must have been from a previously prepared text which was distributed beforehand, but which the Pope decided not to use, preferring to speak extemporaneously. And I know the Vatican waited till it had a transcript of the Pope's actual homily before it published it online - the homily for the 10AM Mass was published several hours after the text of the 12 noon Angelus message.

Also, I would refer you to the translations I posted in HOMILIES, DISCOURSES AND MESSAGES for the complete texts.

send that letter teresa! ..haha,im sure so many ppl were surprised upon Papa's encyclical subject..Maryjo's right,he has already addressed his stance and the Church stance on those sensitive issues.

From www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=83981-

Benedict XVI's Revolutionary Encyclical
Interview With Philosopher, Father Jesús Villagrasa

ROME, FEB. 5, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est," just might spark a revolution of love, says philosopher Father Jesús Villagrasa.

In this interview with ZENIT, Father Villagrasa, who is finishing a book on the life and thought of Joseph Ratzinger, comments on the encyclical which he calls a philosophical work that confronts head-on the gravest challenges of modern times.

What was your first impression on reading the encyclical?
Father Villagrasa: Admiration and joy. Benedict XVI gave us a big present, a masterpiece of clarity and depth and, in addition, brief. It is as its author, and as the sea: clear and transparent, but fathomless.

It can be read without difficulty by anyone with a middling education. Professional philosophers and theologians will discover better its extraordinary wealth of thought.

What have you discovered in this encyclical?
Father Villagrasa: That Joseph Ratzinger has placed his cultural, philosophical and theological formation at the service of the magisterium. On reading this encyclical his articles, lectures and books came to mind. It is a very mature personal synthesis, a treasure of wisdom.

Can you give an example?
Father Villagrasa: The first part is entitled "The Unity of Love in Creation and in Salvation History," an analogy that is applied to the concepts that have "weak but real unity."

Love is an analogous concept because it is expressed with different meanings that, however, have some relation among themselves. The analogy expresses the unity preserved despite the real differences.

Divine love and the different forms of human love are not the same, but neither are they entirely different. There are relations and similarities which the first part of the encyclical tries to explain.

Could you show explain more specifically some of these fundamental structures?
Father Villagrasa: I look at the theological-philosophical-religious structure present in the first part of the encyclical when the concept of love is worked out in the light of religions, first, and of philosophy and the Bible afterward.

Philosophy has helped to purify the negative elements present in religions, but it is unable to give the ultimate answer to the human aspiration to love. Only the Incarnate Word illuminates the mystery of man and of human love.

The great theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar organized his thought making use of this structure. In his book, "Epilogue," he wished to give a general view of his monumental work.

He made use of the image of the cathedral and its three parts. The "atrium" is occupied by the religions and cosmo-visions that express the search for the meaning of reality and of human existence. The "threshold," constituted by philosophy, leads to the "sanctuary" of theology where the Christian mysteries of the Incarnation and the Trinity are contemplated.

I think this structure is present in the first part of the encyclical.

Were you surprised that the encyclical mentioned several philosophers?
Father Villagrasa: In a certain sense yes, because it has not been something common in this type of document.

Suffice it to see that the first quotation of the encyclical is of Friedrich Nietzsche: It is a provocation of this philosopher of suspicion and denunciation, of this father of contemporary nihilism. From the beginning of the encyclical, Benedict XVI places himself before the great challenges of contemporary culture.

I am amused to see how the initial ample philosophical reflection of this encyclical breaks certain clichés, such as "Wojtyla the philosopher-Pope and Ratzinger the theologian-Pope."

These formulas are good for newspaper headlines, but they do not grasp the reality. Already in his doctoral thesis on St. Augustine, Ratzinger said that the Christian faith of the first centuries was not contiguous with earlier religions, but rather with philosophy, understood as the victory of reason over superstition. Philosophy, in turn, is purified and elevated by faith.

How would you describe this encyclical?
Father Villagrasa: Revolutionary. In Cologne, Benedict XVI spoke to young people of a revolution. God's revolution is love. Only a great explosion of good can defeat evil and transform man and the world. Only God and his love can transform the world.

But this divine revolution comes through human collaboration, also by associated and institutional collaboration. Hence the importance that charitable associations have the characteristics that the Pope indicates in the second part of the encyclical.

If a Christian lives love, he will light the world with this fire.

Andrea Tornielli, papal biographer and Vatican correspondent for Il Giornale, filed this story today about a possible consistory in March, as speculated this weekend by the news agency adnkronos, as well as curial changes to take place later. In translation -
---------------------------------------------------------------

The first consistory to create new cardinals in the pontificate of Benedict XVI may be announced towards the end of the month and take place on March 25.

If the stories from Vatican sources are confirmed, it would mean that Papa Ratzinger has decided to name new cardinals before making changes in the leadership of the Curia, now expected to take place between April and June. Many observers had predicted what they called a “tsunami” of curial changes to take place last autumn.

Actually, Benedict XVI has established in the past few weeks that he would leave matters as they are in the Curia for at least a year before making changes. These changes would involve the heads of the Secretariat of State and other important Vatican offices whose superiors have long passed the canonical retirement age of 75.

Both in Munich when he was Archbishop and at the Vatican when he came to head the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger always waited at least a year before moving his chess pieces. A year to reflect and to pray over the changes.

As for the consistory, Paul VI had established a maximum of 120 cardinal-electors, namely, cardinals below 80 years old. John Paul II through his nominations exceeded the limit without formally changing the rules, but despite that, only 115 cardinals participated in the last conclave.

Benedict XVI, on the other hand, may want to observe that maximum. A story at the Vatican has it that a few days after the Conclave, one of his closest co-workers had asked the new Pope when he would call a new consistory. He reportedly answered: “Not so fast – we already have too many cardinals as it is.” Therefore, he is not expected to name more than a dozen or so new cardinals. But he is always capable of surprises.

The list of new cardinals is already long. From the Curia itself – Angelo Comastri, archbishop at St. Peter’s Basilica; Agostino Vallin, Prefect of the Tribunal for 'Segnatura Apostolica' (the Vatican website does not carry an English translation for this office, but it is in charge of annulments, among other things); William Levada, Prefect of the CDF; Franc Rode, the Slovenian Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy; Stanislaw Rylko, the Polish Prefect of the Pontifical Council for the Laity; and Paul Cordes, the German president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

From the dioceses: Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna; Andre Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris; Pierre Richard, Archbishop of Bordeaux; Stanislaw Dsizwisz, Archbishop of Cracow; Sean O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston; and Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin.

Future cardinals at the threshold of 80 or beyond may include Bishop Luigi de Magistris (who turns 80 this month) and who has directed the Apostolic Penitentiary but was not named in the last consistory of October 2003; as well as other venerable theologians and scholars who may be honord with a red hat as Papa Wojtyla did, often at the suggestion of Cardinal Ratzinger.

Statistically, it is not possible to see a precise trend, among the Popes of the last half-century, on when they have called their first consistories. Pius XII, elected in March 1939, waited until February 1946, after World War II was over. John XXIII, elected in October 1958, created his first cardinals by December of that year, but at that time, there were really many vacant posts. Paul VI, elected in June 1963, waited until February 1965 – after Vatican-II ended. And John Paul II, elected in October 1978, called his first consistory in June 1979.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 06/02/2006 17.57]

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 07/02/2006 2.41]

Face to faith
Pope Benedict's latest encyclical
hints at the possibility he could
turn out to be the feminists' friend

By Catherine Pepinster
Saturday February 4, 2006
The Guardian

Few would have guessed last April, when Joseph Ratzinger, the notorious hardman and "enforcer" of the Catholic church was elected Pope Benedict, that the first teaching document of his pontificate would be a hymn to love. Last week when he published his encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is love), all thoughts of Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, were banished.

Rather than a finger-wagging edict of disapproval, here was a lucid celebration of love, both human and divine. There was even a paean of praise for sexual love. When it comes to sex, the Catholic church is more likely to be associated with inducing guilt, but here the Pope instead confirmed erotic love as the most joyous form of love [he doesn't say that!], and contested Nietzsche's claim that Christianity destroyed eros, with its loathing of the body.

Rather, Benedict sees love in much the same way as the writer of the most erotic book of the Bible, the Song of Songs: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for thy love is better than wine." It is a form of love which can lead us to beyond ourselves, and after the first intoxication goes on to the seek the good of the beloved. It is ready for renunciation and sacrifice. It reflects the mystical encounter between humanity and God.

Yet before we get carried away with this idealised vision, Benedict also issues a warning, one that will surely resonate with women today. He writes that there is a danger sex can be reduced to a mere thing to be bought and sold and exploited. This commodification of sex serves to be a debasement of the body.

I was reminded of this when I spotted a young teenage girl on the London Underground wearing a T-shirt with the legend "crack whore". Perhaps this is a postmodern statement about contemporary culture. Or does it reveal that we have come so far in our debasement of ourselves that we think the selling of a body to feed an addiction is such a laugh that it's something with which we want to be identified?

This commodification of sex happens all around us, and is particularly apparent in the treatment of women and their bodies: the number of men using prostitutes is at an all-time high; the trafficking of women from poorer developing and eastern European countries to the west is one of the most dismal growth industries of our time; the female form continues to be exploited to sell goods; the sexiness of a woman remains a priority for onscreen TV work; tabloid papers continue to focus on women's sexual prowess in their promotion of particular celebrities; teenage girls and young women feel under continual pressure to dress in a highly sexual way and be sexual. Yet while women among themselves express grave disquiet about this, particularly its impact on their daughters, few public figures, other than the Pope, raise their voices in protest.

Nor is this the first time that Benedict has made a ringing endorsement of the woman's role in society and the need for the world to acknowledge her. Eighteen months ago, a Vatican document, for which he was responsible, endorsed the need for women to achieve positions of responsibility in the workplace, for social policies to be used to combat unjust discrimination and for women to have a right to a decent homelife and not endure a long-hours workplace culture.

As Pope, Benedict has so far surprised most Catholics, with a warmer, more compassionate approach than was ever expected from him. Could this Pope yet turn out to be the feminists' friend? To do that would require not only a development of these ideas about women's role at work, and the commodification of sex, but a theology of the body for our times. That would mean renewed exploration of what remains one of the most contentious Catholic teaching for women - its thinking on birth control. For 40 years the highest officials in the church have refused to budge, or even reconsider their position. But this Pope, I suspect, would not be afraid of doing so.

From www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1702034,00.html
Catherine Pepinster is editor of The Tablet, the Catholic weekly
----------------------------------------------------------------
I find it significant and perhaps even, gratifying in a way, that the editor of an unabashedly liberal Catholic publication (that has not been sympathetic to Joseph Ratzinger as Cardinal or as Pope) follows up an unusually positive editorial in praise of the Pope's first encyclical with an equally positive article written for a general newspaper.

However, I think Ms. Pepinster may be letting her enthusiasm over B16's first encyclical get the better of her. To even conjecture, as she does in the last paragraph above, that Benedict's views may yet change on the subject of birth control is to completely ignore 2000 years of Church Magisterium and what Benedict himself has repeatedly stressed about the sanctity of human life.

For one thing, birth control also involves other issues such as sex outside marriage or sex for pleasure only and not for procreation. While the encyclical exults eros shared by a married couple as what would seem to be "the very epitome of love", the same married couple may not practise artificial means of birth control.

Liberals may scoff at natural means because it involves some discipline. But if one considers that a woman's fertile period (the days during which it is possible to conceive) probably covers 3-5 days* every month at most, surely abstention (or withdrawal) during those 3-5 days in order to avoid an unwanted pregnancy is not such a major sacrifice, is it?

*[Forgive the technical digression, but: The fertile period is determined by the fact that the woman ovulates an egg once a month, more or less, and that the ovulated egg, if it is picked up by the woman's fallopian tube, will be fertilizable in the tube for up to 48 hours, if there are any living sperm present at the same time.]

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 07/02/2006 1.47]

THE SECRET IS GETTING OUT

I am afraid that Papa's very popular encyclical on love has let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, about what he is really like--sensitive, passionate, loving, etc., etc., in other words, what every woman is looking for in a man. As more women become aware of this, the competition for his attention is going to escalate, ladies. I guess it was too good to be true to assume that we could keep him to ourselves for very long. Just watch the numbers of women at the audiences explode.

MORE ON THE LOVE LETTER


For the Love of God

By LORENZO ALBACETE
Published: February 3, 2006
The New York Times

WHEN Pope Benedict XVI issued his first encyclical ("Deus Caritas Est" or "God Is Love") last month, it took some people by surprise. Many expected the document to focus on the "dictatorship of relativism," which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had denounced in a speech to his fellow cardinals before his election as pope. But love?

After all, the study of human love had never really been a central topic in the cardinal's personal academic work. In that sense, it was surprising that he would choose it as the subject of his first encyclical. I suspect, however, that behind his choice lies a concern that has characterized much of his theological work for the past 40 years or so: the role of religion — or, more precisely, fundamentalism — in the threats we face today.

The encyclical's release coincided with the publication in English of a book about the future of Western civilization by Marcello Pera, the president of the Italian Senate and an atheist, in which he argues, perhaps surprisingly, that European civilization is no longer able or willing to defend its commitment to freedom and the dignity of the individual because of the weakening of its Jewish and Christian roots. The book also contains a supportive response from Cardinal Ratzinger, who makes the point that the rejection of this heritage stems from a fear of the intolerance of religious fundamentalism. This is an argument he has advanced before, most notably in a debate with Paolo Flores d'Arcais, an Italian scholar, before an overflow crowd in Rome a few years ago.

I believe that interpreted against the background of these discussions, the encyclical offers an important view of where Benedict intends to situate the church in the cultural clashes threatening world peace today.

Benedict's conversations with nonbelievers have convinced him that their major concern about Christianity is not its "other-worldiness" but the very opposite. For them, what makes Christianity potentially dangerous as a source of conflict and intolerance in a pluralistic society is its insistence that faith is reasonable — that is, that it is the source of knowledge about this world and that, therefore, its teaching should apply to all, believers and nonbelievers alike.

The Christian faith faced a similar criticism before, Benedict has argued, when it first came into contact with the religious and philosophical world of the Roman Empire. The Roman world celebrated religious pluralism and was willing to welcome Christianity as an ethical or "spiritual" option, but not as a source of truth about this world — that was considered to be the realm of the philosophers.

At that time, Christianity would not accept a place with the religions of the empire. It saw itself as a philosophy, as a path to knowledge about reality, and not primarily as a source of spiritual or ethical inspiration. The problem was that it claimed to be the only path to full knowledge about the meaning and purpose of life.

Indeed, throughout history Christians have used this claim to justify their intolerance of other views, even turning to violence in order to affirm and defend their idea of what is true. The events of Sept. 11, 2001, reminded us that this unhappy tendency was not limited to the Christian faith, but seems inherent in religious belief. If a god offers absolute truth, then those who disagree with that god's teachings are enemies of the truth, and thus harmful to society. It makes no difference whether the intolerance comes from a Christian god, who punishes countries and cities with natural disasters, or a Muslim god, who encourages terrorists to kill the innocent.

Hence the pope's insistence on the importance of emphasizing that God is, above all, love, and that love and truth are inseparable. "In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred, this message is both timely and significant," he wrote. "For this reason I wish in my first encyclical to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us, and which we in turn must share with others."

For Benedict, God "loves with a personal love." In fact, human love (eros) and divine love for us (agape) are intertwined. "God loves, and his love may certainly be called eros, yet it is also totally agape." That is why God's passionate love can be described "using boldly erotic images." Faith reveals God's love to be a "turning of God against himself" that replaces the demands of justice with the demands of mercy.

It's worth noting that in the second part of the encyclical, Benedict says that the charitable mission of the church is informed by the belief that human and divine love are inseparable. This is why believers and nonbelievers can come together to fight poverty and injustice — and why the church can be trusted not to impose its social teachings on "political life."

It is for this reason that believers and nonbelievers alike should welcome Benedict's reflection on love. In a time when we are rightfully suspicious of the power of religion to stir violence, Benedict has sent a clear message: No one has anything to fear from a God who is love.

Lorenzo Albacete is a Roman Catholic priest.