As the Pope was praying the rosary with young people at the Vatican and in 11 other cities worldwide through satellite link yesterday, thousands of Italian homosexuals and their supporters staged a demonstration at a downtown square to protest the Catholic Church's stand against any law that would grant quasi-marital rights to homosexual couples, thus institutionalizing an alternative form of 'marriage'. Police estimated the corwd at 20,000; its organizers claim 50,000. Either way, the number is hardly impressive.



The written and spoken personal insults against the Pope and Cardinal Camillo Ruini, his Vicar in Rome, were so unbridled and offensive that it does not pay to cite the detailed news reports about it. Here however is a translation of a commentary from Il Giornale today:


THE DOUBlE DEFEAT
by Mario Sechi



A demonstration 'for' turned into a demonstration 'against.' Against the church, against Christian tradition, against Clemente Mastella [Catholic minister of Justice in the Prodi government, who has declared himself against DICO, the proposed gay rights bill].

Seen through the eyes of this layman, what happened at Piazza Farnese in Rome yesterday was a double defeat: that of the movement which is fighting to gain rights for de facto unions and that of the center-left politicians.

The first is paradoxical, because the very people who accuse the church of intolerance yesterday expressed an extremist culture that hinders any dialog in society and forces millions of Italians - even those who are most open-minded - to a position of outrage in defense of their own identity.

To make the Pope and the community of believers the object of scorn is an error, because when a culture is attacked, it 'castles' itself and pulls in the drawbridge. And the position of the Church is reinforced by the very people who are aiming to weaken it.

The second defeat is a political boomerang because a conflict of cultures has opened up within Prime Minister Prodi's coalition. The abyss between Udeur [the party of centrist Catholics like Mastella] and the other parties of the coalition has widened and the results will be felt soon.

In this center-left coalition, Mastella's party is the only one that fully subscribes to its Christian inspiration - its political program is in full continuity with that of the definct Christian Democratic Party, its leaders adhere with conviction to those principles of the Church Magisterium that are considered non-negotiable.

This division at the center of the coalition is serious because while the Margherita (a 'centrist liberal' Christian party) is 'multi-faceted', Udeur is monolithic. The so-called 'theo-dems' are a minority in Margherita - they do not have a political plan and they are inspired only by 'moral categories' (e.g., the plan to 'convert the left').

Whereas Mastella's party acts on 'political categories' within a space that can translate action into law, parlimanetary acts, governance, power.

If this space is reduced, if the translation of Udeur's platform into actual politics is also reduced to nothing more than words, then another fissure will develop in this already very fragile coalition.

Because whereas the theo-dems will never renounce their position on the political left, Mastella and his party consider their present affiliation to that coalition as empirical, something that has to be reviewed daily.

And that is why yesterday Mastella could speak about the possibility of this government collapsing and the specter of a political left that 'will not come back to power till 2300".

The day after his government was forced to resign two weeks ago, Prime Minister Prodi tried to anesthetize Udeur's dissent by omitting DICO from the 12 essential points he said his government would prioritize if it was asked to come back (which it was).

But Prodi's fiction was useless. Just a few days after his 'new' government was back in place, his ministers resurrected DICO and have thus kept this government in the febrile state in which it has been from the beginning and which is consuming it slowly but inexorably.


PETRUS carries an item, translated here, about Mastella:

'Shameless anti-clericalism
in Prodi's government'
according to Mastella

To attack the Pope because of the friction between the Church and the majority in this government about a proposed law for couples in de-facto unions only leads to 'useless wars,' according to Justice Minister Clemente Mastella after the mocking criticisms levelled at Pope Benedict XVI by gay-rights demonstrators yesterday.

"And they cannot ask for tolerance while they themselves are so intolerant," he added.

And he commented on what he considers to be widespread anti-clericalism among most members of the Prodi coalition. "It's an anti-clericalism that is laready being expressed shamelessly."

About DICO, he said simply, "Udeur will vote against it. I don't think the government has the numbers to make it pass the Senate."


P.S. Three of Prodi's cabinet ministers spoke at the gay-rights demonstration, and not one of them, including DICO co-author and supposedly Catholic Bindi saw fit to say a single word about the unwarranted insults to the Pope and the Church by her crowd....Later Prodi was quoted as saying he was 'perplexed' by the appearance of his three ministers at the demo! Come on, don't be disingenuous! Oh, neither did he think it fit to say a single word about the verbal abuses indulged in by his crowd (after all, this is the minuscule percentage of Italians to whom he promised this law when he was campaigning to get into power again].

La Repubblica has an interview with Cardinal Herranz who typifies the response by Catholic prelates to the gay demonstration:


'I will not argue against their slogans,
but the Church has a right to speak out'
by ORAZIO LA ROCCA


VATICAN CITY - The first response from the VAtican to the gay dmeonstration attacking the Pope and the Church yesterday comes from Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and of the disciplinary commission of the Roman Curia - in effect, the minister of justice at the Vatican.

"In a democracy, demonstrating is always allowed within the limits of laws governing public order and of respect for persons and institutions. And so, the demonstration organized yesterday in favor of DICO was legitimate, but it is equally legitimate for the Church to express its position in defense of the traditional family based on marriage between a man and a woman," he said.

"This ecclesiastical truth comes from a doctrine that does not discrminate against anyone, least of all co-habiting homosexuals and common-law unions, for whom it is only right to provide rights and obligations under the Civil Code, without having to launch new categories of matrimony."

Herranz sought to avoid a direct attack against the demonstrators who reviled the Pope and the Church with scornful words but chose to speak of Christian morality with regard to the family.


Cardinal Herranz, what did you think of the insults yesterday against the Church and the Pope?
I don't intend to argue with them - it serves nothing. They wanted to demonstrate in favor of the proposed DICO. Very well. That's legitimate in a democracy. Btu I can only say what the Church has already said time and again about this issue - by the Pope, by the neww president of the CEI, Mons. Bagnasco, and by his predecessor, Cardinal Ruini.

What do you say to their accusation that the Church is hostile to any recognition of rights for those who coose to live together out of wedlock?
It's not a question of hostility against anyone. We are defending the social good, an asset for society, the family, which can be considered such only if it is based on a man and a woman who join together in assuming specific tasks in society in mutual assistance, for the procreation and care of children.

Throughout the world, the family has been a tradition universally chosen by all civilizations, and for the church, it haws a sacramental value. To make a new law such as DICO would mean creating a Class-B marriage which, in the eyes of the Church, will not be good for the community.

But nations like France, Spain, the Netherlands and Sweden have passed ad-hoc laws for common-law partners and homosexual couples.
I think those countries have simply launched measures that will be counter-productive - they are not for the good of society as a whole but simply to satisfy the desires of a few. And they have, in fact, created these Class-B marriages without thinking of the consequences, especially for children who have the right to have a father and a mother.


But how can you ignore all those people who choose to live together informally? Shouldn't the state take care of all its citizens, regardless of politics, religion or sex?
No one, in the Church or in civilian society, denies that every person has certain rights and obligations. That is why we have the Civil Code. It simply needs to be applied - or in this case, amended - so that it can guarantee, through private agreements, the rights of citizens who do choose extra-marital ways of living together.

But to create alternative forms of marriage is wrong. Just as it is wrong to talk about 'homosexual marriage" - it's a contradiction. But unfortunately, the present cultural tendency is to relativize and transform personal desires into rights.

The church has nothing against homosexuals, it does not discriminate against anyone. But it is defending its moral principles for the good of the entire society, and as everyone knows, these principles are the defense of human rights, the promotion of the human being, the protection of life from conception to its natural end, the family based on the union of a man and a woman, and preferential attention to the neediest. This is not interference. This is service.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/03/2007 23.39]

March 10, 2007

Pope's envoy hails Putin meeting

VATICAN CITY - A meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Russian President Vladimir Putin next week will benefit Russia's small Catholic community, the pope's envoy to Moscow said on Vatican radio Saturday. He declined to say in a separate interview whether he expected Putin to invite Benedict to Moscow.

Benedict's talks with Putin at the Vatican on Tuesday will be the first meeting between the pope and the Russian leader. Putin twice met Pope John Paul II but issued no invitation to Moscow.

That meant that the late pope's dream of going to Moscow never overcame tensions between Catholic and Orthodox Christians following the fall of Soviet-bloc communism. The Russian Orthodox church suspects Catholics of looking for converts in its traditional territory, an accusation the Vatican denies. Long-running property disputes between the churches have also hurt relations between the two churches.

The meeting between Benedict and Putin "certainly will be a portent of good fruits in further relations between the Holy See and the Russian Federation, to the advantage as well of the Catholic Church in Russia," Monsignor Antonio Mennini told Vatican Radio.

Putin's predecessors, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, had invited John Paul to Russia.

Mennini, who is the apostolic nuncio in Moscow, was asked in an interview published Saturday in the Catholic daily Avvenire if he thought Putin would hold talks at the Vatican without extending an invitation to Russia. The envoy sidestepped the question.

Tuesday's meeting "will certainly be a significant event" with ecumenical effects, the envoy told the daily published by the Italian bishops conference.

"In this sense, it seems clear that the priority isn't identifying with a visit by the Holy Father to Moscow, but with progress in dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox," Mennini was quoted as saying.

Mennini told Vatican Radio that Putin and Benedict would speak in German.

"It was a courteous gesture by the president, who let us know that he was ready to speak directly in the Holy Father's mother tongue, which Putin knows very well," Mennini said.

[Modificato da @Andrea M.@ 11/03/2007 22.02]

Hello Ladies

I hve a hunch that President Putin will invite His Holiness to Russia at their Tuesday meeting. If this happens, it will be a great breakthrough in frosty relations. Schools in Russia are teaching Orthodox Church doctrines and there is an obvious revitalization of Christianity in Russia. There seems to be so much more hope and cheer for the church there than in old continental Europe.

Simply can't wait for B16 to step foot in Moscow.

Ratzinger Joseph - Benedetto XVI
Giovanni Paolo II - Il mio amato predecessore
Ed. SAN PAOLO € 9,00, 128 pp.

Another first in publishing history and in papal history!

Hopes High for Putin's Visit

Observers Expect a Boost in Ecumenical Relations

ROME, MARCH 12, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The first visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Benedict XVI, scheduled for Tuesday, has fanned hopes for ecumenical advances.

The Russian president's upcoming visit to the Vatican will strengthen cooperation between Orthodox and Catholics in preserving morals and spirituality, said Bishop Hilarion Alfeev of Vienna and Austria, the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow to the European Community.

"Some positive changes in relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church are about to happen during the current pontificate," asserted the prelate in statements published by Interfax.

"Nothing prevents us from intensifying our cooperation in order to defend traditional Christian values in Europe and worldwide even before theological dialogue comes to a result or all existing problems are solved," Bishop Alfeev added.

The day after his visit to the Vatican, in the name of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate, Putin will ask the municipality of Bari, a city traditionally dear to the Russian Orthodox, to hand over possession of the Church of St. Nicholas. The structure was built by the Russian Orthodox early last century.

Helpful

Robert Moynihan, director of the magazine Inside the Vatican, also expressed optimism about Putin's visit in Rome.

"Russia faces the same problems that are widespread in the West: a demographic crisis, a crisis in family life, a loss of a sense of national identity," Moynihan told ZENIT. "And he is looking toward Christianity, the faith which was so influential in shaping Russia's history, identity and culture, to help him face Russia's problems."

"I believe he is actually eager for there to be better relations between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church," he added. "He sees the problems of families, and of society -- problems like alcoholism, drug use -- as something the Churches can help him to address.

"So I think he is privately quite anxious for there to be progress made on the specific issues which divide the Orthodox from the Catholics, if it is theologically possible."

Moynihan recalled Putin's second and last visit with Pope John Paul II in 2003.

"On that trip Putin was quoted as saying that he wanted to do what he could to improve relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodoxy," he said. "That, indeed, he wanted to be of any assistance possible to bring Christians together.

"So this trip will be a new chapter in an ongoing relationship between the Russian leader and the Bishops of Rome, John Paul II and now Benedict."

Enriching

Putin's meeting with Benedict XVI "will contribute to the strengthening of the relationship between the Vatican and the Russian Federation," said Father Igor Kovalevski, secretary-general of the Catholic bishops' conference of Russia.

Father Kovalevski explained that "both the Vatican and the Russian Federation share many points in common on problems that affect humanity" and, in this respect, the meeting will be very enriching.

However, "the improvement of the relationship between the Catholic and Orthodox Church, as well as the resolution of their problems, are tasks that fall exclusively to both Churches," he clarified.

Asked if the meeting would help to resolve some delicate points that concern laws of the Russian state directly, such as the case of the granting of visas and residence permits to aides of the Catholic clergy in the country, Father Kovalevski answered that "the transactions and relationship have improved notably."

"Lately we haven't had any difficulty within the territory of the Russian Federation to grant visas and corresponding permits," noted the secretary-general of the bishops' conference.

For his part, Father Igor Vyzhanov, secretary of Inter-Christian Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, told ZENIT that the Orthodox Church "hopes that in this meeting there will be a dialogue of civilizations and that, as two heads of state, topics would be touched upon such as universal values and equality in the world."

Asked if the meeting would contribute to rapprochement between the Catholic and Orthodox Church, Father Vyzhanov said that this was a meeting between state representatives and not between confessions.

"Both Churches have the means to speak in an open context," he said. "It seems to me that each should act within its area: The Church should engage in dialogue with other Churches, and the state with other states."

'SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS' is out - it's 160 pages long and may be found in English on
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20070222_sacramentum-caritatis...

The formal title is:

POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS
OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY, CONSECRATED PERSONS AND THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE EUCHARIST
AS THE SOURCE AND SUMMIT
OF THE CHURCH'S LIFE AND MISSION



The book-size document was signed by the Holy Father on Feb. 22,
Feast of the Chair of Peter. And its scope is apparent from the
following Index of its contents:


INDEX

Introduction [1]

The food of truth [2]
The development of the eucharistic rite [3]
The Synod of Bishops and the Year of the Eucharist [4]
The purpose of the present Exhortation [5]

PART ONE:
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE BELIEVED

The Church's eucharistic faith [6]

The blessed Trinity and the Eucharist

The bread come down from heaven [7]
A free gift of the Blessed Trinity [8]

The Eucharist: Jesus the true Sacrificial Lamb

The new and eternal covenant in the blood of the Lamb [9]
The institution of the Eucharist [10]
Figura transit in veritatem [11]

The Holy Spirit and the Eucharist

Jesus and the Holy Spirit [12]
The Holy Spirit and the eucharistic celebration [13]

The Eucharist and the Church

The Eucharist, causal principle of the Church [14]
The Eucharist and ecclesial communion [15]

The Eucharist and the Sacraments

The sacramentality of the Church [16]

I. The Eucharist and Christian initiation
The Eucharist, the fullness of Christian initiation [17]
The order of the sacraments of initiation [18]
Initiation, the ecclesial community and the family [19]

II. The Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation
Their intrinsic connection [20]
Some pastoral concerns [21]

III. The Eucharist and the anointing of the sick [22]

IV. The Eucharist and the Sacrament of Holy Orders
In persona Christi capitis [23]
The Eucharist and priestly celibacy [24]
The clergy shortage and the pastoral care of vocations [25]
Gratitude and hope [26]

V. The Eucharist and matrimony
The Eucharist, a nuptial sacrament [27]
The Eucharist and the unicity of marriage [28]
The Eucharist and the indissolubility of marriage [29]

The Eucharist and Eschatology

The Eucharist: a gift to men and women on their journey [30]
The eschatological banquet [31]
Prayer for the dead [32]

The Eucharist and the Virgin Mary [33]

PART TWO:
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE CELEBRATED

Lex orandi and lex credendi [34]
Beauty and the liturgy [35]

The Eucharistic celebration, the work of “Christus Totus”

Christus totus in capite et in corpore [36]
The Eucharist and the risen Christ [37]

Ars celebrandi [38]

The Bishop, celebrant par excellence [39]
Respect for the liturgical books and the richness of signs [40]
Art at the service of the liturgy [41]
Liturgical song [42]

The Structure of the Eucharistic Celebration [43]

The intrinsic unity of the liturgical action [44]
The liturgy of the word [45]
The homily [46]
The presentation of the gifts [47]
The Eucharistic Prayer [48]
The sign of peace [49]
The distribution and reception of the Eucharist [50]
The dismissal: “Ite, missa est” [51]

Actuosa participatio [52]

Authentic participation [53]
Participation and the priestly ministry [53]
The eucharistic celebration and inculturation [54]
Personal conditions for an “active participation” [55]
Participation by Christians who are not Catholic [56]
Participation through the communications media [57]
Active participation by the sick [58]
Care for prisoners [59]
Migrants and participation in the Eucharist [60]
Large-scale celebrations [61]
The Latin language [62]
Eucharistic celebrations in small groups [63]

Interior participation in the celebration

Mystagogical catechesis [64]
Reverence for the Eucharist [65]

Adoration and Eucharistic devotion

The intrinsic relationship between celebration and adoration [66]
The practice of eucharistic adoration [67]
Forms of eucharistic devotion [68]
The location of the tabernacle [69]

PART THREE:
THE EUCHARIST, A MYSTERY TO BE LIVED

The Eucharistic form of the Christian life

Spiritual worship – logiké latreía (Rom 12:1) [70]
The all-encompassing effect of eucharistic worship [71]
Iuxta dominicam viventes – living in accordance with the Lord's Day [72]
Living the Sunday obligation [73]
The meaning of rest and of work [74]
Sunday assemblies in the absence of a priest [75]
A eucharistic form of Christian life, membership in the Church [76]
Spirituality and eucharistic culture [77]
The Eucharistic and the evangelization of cultures [78]
The Eucharist and the lay faithful [79]
The Eucharist and priestly spirituality [80]
The Eucharist and the consecrated life [81]
The Eucharist and moral transformation [82]
Eucharistic consistency [83]

The Eucharist, a mystery to be proclaimed

The Eucharist and mission [84]
The Eucharist and witness [85]
Christ Jesus, the one Saviour [86]
Freedom of worship [87]

The Eucharist, a mystery to be offered to the world

The Eucharist, bread broken for the life of the world [88]
The social implications of the eucharistic mystery [89]
The food of truth and human need [90]
The Church's social teaching [91]
The sanctification of the world and the protection of creation [92]
The usefulness of a Eucharistic Compendium [93]

Conclusion [94]

===============================================================

I am looking for an English story that will summarize the salient points of this wide-ranging exhortation, or failing that, translate the first available Italian article.

It is very significant that the second major document to emerge from the Benedictine Pontificate also has to do with love, caritas. Deus caritas est, now Sacramentum caritatis.

Indeed, the Holy Father points out in the Introduction to the Exhortation:

Conscious of the immense patrimony of doctrine and discipline accumulated over the centuries with regard to this sacrament, I wish here to endorse the wishes expressed by the Synod Fathers by encouraging the Christian people to deepen their understanding of the relationship between the eucharistic mystery, the liturgical action, and the new spiritual worship which derives from the Eucharist as the sacrament of charity.

Consequently, I wish to set the present Exhortation alongside my first Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas Est, in which I frequently mentioned the sacrament of the Eucharist and stressed its relationship to Christian love, both of God and of neighbour: "God incarnate draws us all to himself. We can thus understand how agape also became a term for the Eucharist: there God's own agape comes to us bodily, in order to continue his work in us and through us".

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/03/2007 21.49]

A Catechism in Images:
A Very Special Edition of the “Compendium”

It’s printed by FMR, one of the most prominent art publishers in the world.
With forty-nine magnificent reproductions of Christian art masterpieces,
selected according to Benedict XVI’s guidelines

by Sandro Magister



ROMA, March 12, 2007 – The image above is the “Salvator Mundi” by Antonello da Messina, painted in 1475 and kept at the National Gallery in London. It is the first of forty-nine images that illustrate a sumptuous new edition of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, printed by FMR, one of the world’s most illustrious art publishers.

The volume itself is a work of art. It’s in large format with red silk binding and inscriptions in gold; the paper is cotton fiber and bears the papal watermark; the printing and reproductions are of the highest quality. It’s a limited edition, with a correspondingly high price: 1,500 euros.

The text of the Compendium of the Catechism is identical to the one issued by Benedict on June 28, 2005, in one of the first defining actions of his pontificate. Even in the mainstream edition, released in multiple languages and millions of copies, the text is accompanied by images. These were selected by Joseph Ratzinger himself, who as a cardinal was the chief architect of both the Catechism and its Compendium.

The images are not accessories. They are an integral part of the Compendium. It is obligatory that they be reproduced in all its printings. And they must always be placed in the same position relative to the text. For example, the “Sermon on the Mount” by Fra Angelico must always appear beneath the title of the section dedicated to the ten commandments.

The difference between the mainstream edition and the one by FMR is the number of images. There are fourteen in the former case, and forty-nine in the latter.

As in the mainstream edition, the selection of images for the luxury edition was also made according to Benedict XVI’s guidelines.

But in concrete terms, they were selected and presented to the pope by Timothy Verdon, American by birth, an art historian and a priest in the diocese of Florence, director of the office for catechesis through art there and the author of important books on Christian art.

In an article entitled “Immagini della Fede [Images of the Faith],” Verdon explains the meaning of this connection between word and image in the catechesis of the Catholic Church. His is the lead article in the first edition of a new magazine also published by FMR, “Eikon.”

“Eikon” is the Greek word meaning “icon” or “image.” And Verdon cites Paul, who in the letter to the Colossians describes Christ as “eikon of the invisible God.”

The Compendium of the Catechism, at question number 240, precisely echoes this Pauline assertion in stating that “the image of Christ is the liturgical icon par excellence,” and that his image encompasses all other sacred images, and all of Sacred Scripture.

The Church has believed in this truth so strongly that over the centuries it has dedicated extravagant resources to creating works of liturgical art and architecture, and to crushing the iconoclastic tendencies that have tempted it on occasion.

Thus it is natural that the Compendium of the Catechism should open with the image of Jesus. In the FMR edition, there are two of these images rather than one. Beside the image of Christ painted by Theophane of Crete in 1456 for the Stavronikita monastery on Mount Athos, there is the "Salvator Mundi” by Antonello da Messina. Church of the East, Church of the West.

With Verdon’s article in the magazine “Eikon” are reproduced some of the additional images that illustrate FMR’s edition of the Compendium of the Catechism. These include an extraordinary “God with compass creating heaven and earth,” a miniature from an eighth century Bible, and a marvelous “Adoration of the shepherds” by Domenico Ghirlandaio, from 1480.

In one passage of his article Verdon writes about the catechetical efficacy of Christian art, even in a secularized society:

“Believers and nonbelievers are still fascinated by the heritage of painting, sculpture, and architecture generated by Christians over the centuries, not only because of the formal beauty of the works, but because in them one finds oneself face to face with themes that correspond to urgent contemporary questions. I

"In the Europe of legalized abortion, which is considering the admissibility of euthanasia, typical images of the Christian tradition like the Madonna with Child or Christ on the Cross rattle consciences, insisting with quiet power on the irreplaceable value of life, and even of suffering life.”

“Eikon,” the new magazine by FMR, directed by Flaminio Gualdoni, is dedicated to “contemporary visual culture,” and therefore also to how man today sees the art of the past.

The theme of the first issue is “Faith and the arts,” and Verdon’s article is followed by, among others, two articles concerning masterpieces very well known to Rome’s visitors: the “Pietà” by Michelangelo, in St. Peter’s Basilica, and the modern “Risen Christ” by Pericle Fazzini that dominates the papal audience hall.

A splendid photo of Michelangelo’s “Pietà,” taken by Aurelio Amendola, is on the cover of the magazine’s first issue.

Moreover, again for FMR, Timothy Verdon has edited the large-format volume “Bellezza e identità. L'Europa e le sue cattedrali [Beauty and identity: Europe and its cathedrals],” dedicated to Benedict XVI on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, which falls next April 16th.

Its cost, which is double that of the Compendium of the Catechism, gives an idea of the extraordinary quality of the work, dedicated to the Christian imprint on Europe that can be discerned in its cathedrals.

____________


The multilingual website of the publisher FMR, an acronym of Franco Maria Ricci:
> FMR
www.fmrspa.it/index.php?idLingua=eng

The first issue of the new magazine “Eikon,” dedicated to faith and art:
> Eikon
www.fmrspa.it/editoria.php?op=sommarioRivista&idrivista=188

The promotional release of the large-format volume of the Compendium:
> Compendio del Catechismo della Chiesa Cattolica
www.fmrspa.it/editoria.php?op=visualizzaLibro&idcollana=72&idlibro=506&tipologia_c...


The promotional release of the volume for Benedict XVI’s 80th birthday:
> Bellezza e Identità. L’Europa e le sue Cattedrali
www.fmrspa.it/editoria.php?op=visualizzaLibro&idcollana=72&idlibro=508&tipologia_c...

Two 'practical' details I sought out in a first cursory review of the Exhortation have to dowith the use of Latin and the location of the tabernacle:


The Latin language

... I am thinking here particularly of celebrations at international gatherings, which nowadays are held with greater frequency. The most should be made of these occasions.

In order to express more clearly the unity and universality of the Church, I wish to endorse the proposal made by the Synod of Bishops, in harmony with the directives of the Second Vatican Council, that, with the exception of the readings, the homily and the prayer of the faithful, such liturgies could be celebrated in Latin.

Similarly, the better-known prayers of the Church's tradition should be recited in Latin and, if possible, selections of Gregorian chant should be sung.

Speaking more generally, I ask that future priests, from their time in the seminary, receive the preparation needed to understand and to celebrate Mass in Latin, and also to use Latin texts and execute Gregorian chant; nor should we forget that the faithful can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and also to sing parts of the liturgy to Gregorian chant.

The location of the tabernacle

In considering the importance of eucharistic reservation and adoration, and reverence for the sacrament of Christ's sacrifice, the Synod of Bishops also discussed the question of the proper placement of the tabernacle in our churches.

The correct positioning of the tabernacle contributes to the recognition of Christ's real presence in the Blessed Sacrament. Therefore, the place where the eucharistic species are reserved, marked by a sanctuary lamp, should be readily visible to everyone entering the church.

It is therefore necessary to take into account the building's architecture: in churches which do not have a Blessed Sacrament chapel, and where the high altar with its tabernacle is still in place, it is appropriate to continue to use this structure for the reservation and adoration of the Eucharist, taking care not to place the celebrant's chair in front of it.

In new churches, it is good to position the Blessed Sacrament chapel close to the sanctuary; where this is not possible, it is preferable to locate the tabernacle in the sanctuary, in a sufficiently elevated place, at the centre of the apse area, or in another place where it will be equally conspicuous.

Attention to these considerations will lend dignity to the tabernacle, which must always be cared for, also from an artistic standpoint. Obviously it is necessary to follow the provisions of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal in this regard. In any event, final judgment on these matters belongs to the Diocesan Bishop.

And this one, on priestly celibacy:

The Eucharist and the consecrated life

The relationship of the Eucharist to the various ecclesial vocations is seen in a particularly vivid way in "the prophetic witness of consecrated men and women, who find in the celebration of the Eucharist and in eucharistic adoration the strength necessary for the radical following of Christ, obedient, poor and chaste."

Though they provide many services in the area of human formation and care for the poor, education and health care, consecrated men and women know that the principal purpose of their lives is "the contemplation of things divine and constant union with God in prayer."

The essential contribution that the Church expects from consecrated persons is much more in the order of being than of doing. Here I wish to reaffirm the importance of the witness of virginity, precisely in relation to the mystery of the Eucharist.

In addition to its connection to priestly celibacy, the eucharistic mystery also has an intrinsic relationship to consecrated virginity, inasmuch as the latter is an expression of the Church's exclusive devotion to Christ, whom she accepts as her Bridegroom with a radical and fruitful fidelity.

In the Eucharist, consecrated virginity finds inspiration and nourishment for its complete dedication to Christ. From the Eucharist, moreover, it draws encouragement and strength to be a sign, in our own times too, of God's gracious and fruitful love for humanity.

Finally, by its specific witness, consecrated life becomes an objective sign and foreshadowing of the "wedding-feast of the Lamb" (Rev 19:7-9) which is the goal of all salvation history. In this sense, it points to that eschatological horizon against which the choices and life decisions of every man and woman should be situated.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/03/2007 13.09]

And here are the first stories on the Exhortation in the Anglophone press:


Pope confirms celibacy 'obligatory'
for Catholic priests

VATICAN CITY, Mar. 13 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday confirmed in a letter to the Roman Catholic Church that priestly celibacy "remains obligatory," invoking Christ's example.

"I reaffirm the beauty and importance of a priestly life lived in celibacy as a sign expressing total and exclusive devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God," reads the apostolic exhortation, the first of Benedict's papacy.

"I therefore confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition," the pope wrote in the document issued by the Vatican.

"There is a need to reaffirm the profound meaning of priestly celibacy, which is rightly considered a priceless treasure," he said.

"The fact that Christ himself, the eternal priest, lived his mission even to the sacrifice of the Cross in the state of virginity constitutes the sure point of reference for understanding the meaning of the tradition of the Latin Church," the pope's exhortation said.

The text, reflecting the conclusions of an October 2005 synod (assembly) of bishops, also reaffirms that Catholics who divorce and remarry are barred from taking communion, unless they "commit to living their relationship ... as friends, as brother and sister."

In addition, the pope exhorts "Catholic politicans and legislators ... to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature," and urges them to reject legislation in favour of abortion, euthanasia or homosexual unions. "These values are not negotiable," he wrote.

The exhortation comes as draft leglislation is before parliament that would give legal status to unmarried couples including gays, an issue that is deeply divisive for the ruling centre-left government in mainly Catholic Italy.


Catholic politicians can't back gay marriage: Pope
By Philip Pullella


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Church's opposition to gay marriage is "non-negotiable" and Catholic politicians have a moral duty to oppose it, as well as laws on abortion and euthanasia, Pope Benedict said in a document issued on Tuesday.


In a 140-page booklet on the workings of a synod that took place at the Vatican in 2005 on the theme of the Eucharist, the 79-year-old German Pope also re-affirmed the Catholic rule of celibacy for priests.

In the document, known as an "Apostolic Exhortation," Benedict says all believers had to defend what he calls fundamental values but that the duty was "especially incumbent" for those in positions of power.

He said these included "respect for human life, its defense from conception to natural death, the family built on marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms."

"These values are not negotiable," he said.

"Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce laws inspired by values grounded in human nature," he said.

Gay marriage is legal in several European countries, including predominantly Catholic Spain, and Italy is currently severely divided over the issue of whether to give more rights to unmarried couples, including homosexuals.

The Pope's words in the document were also applicable to countries such as the United States, where some Catholic politicians have said they are personally opposed to abortion but felt bound to support pro-choice legislation because they represent many people.

Some bishops in the United States have refused to give communion to Catholic politicians who back abortion rights.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/03/2007 13.30]

Osservatore Romano is online early (it's not yet 6 p.m. of March 13 thereabouts in Italy right now)
with tomorrow's issue (March 14) which features SACRAMENTUM CARITATIS:





The Holy Father actually signed the Apostolic Exhortation on February 22, 2007, Feast of the Chair of Peter.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/03/2007 18.08]

Since the visit of Russian President Putin was scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Vatican today, we are not likely to get any first reports about it for at least another hour or so. The Italian newspapers have been giving major play to the meeting, in antiCIpation of it. This English item report, from a valuable news-and-analysis site I just 'discovered', that of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, www. rferl.org, reportd the brunt of that speculation.

Putin Visits Vatican
As Catholic-Orthodox Ties Warm


Putin photographed at a rite celebrating Orthodox
Christmas last January 7 [the Orthodox Church
follows the Julian calendar].


March 13, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Pope Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, visited more than 120 countries in his 26-year papacy.

But he wasn't welcome everywhere.

Russia refused to invite the Polish-born pontiff, accusing the Catholic Church of seeking to undermine Russian Orthodoxy through aggressive proselytizing.

Since John Paul's death and Benedict's election in the spring of 2005, however, there have been signs of a thaw.

A high-ranking Catholic envoy has held talks in Moscow with Patriarch Aleksy II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Benedict himself has called the millenium-old division of the two churches a "scandal."

It's unlikely, however, that Putin will use his first meeting with Benedict to extend an invitation to the pontiff to visit Russia.

"I think the Vatican doesn't expect much from this meeting in terms of ecumenical dialogue," said Paolo Rodari, Vatican correspondent for Italy's Il Riformista newspaper. "I'm not sure the talks between Putin and the pope will contribute to a future meeting between the two churches. The pope will continue to develop his relations with the Russian Orthodox Church directly through Aleksy II and the Moscow Patriarchate. I don't think that Putin will offer the pontiff an invitation to come to Moscow, as [former Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev did."

The two churches share mutual concerns about growing secularism and the rise of radical Islam.

But Rodari says Putin, despite his own professed religious beliefs, is approaching today's Vatican meeting as a head of state - not as a representative of Russian Orthodoxy:

"He and the pope will discuss issues related to Russia, Islam, the situations in Kosovo, Chechnya, the Middle East," Rodari said. "I think the discussion will be more about international politics than about religion."

The two men are expected to speak German - the pope's native tongue and the language spoken by Putin during his years as a KGB officer in former East Germany.


Here's a realistic analysis offered on the state of Vatican-Moscow relations by RFE/RL's correspondent Clare Biggs from Moscow last December.

Moscow, 22 December 2005 (RFE/RL) -- In October, the Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, traveled to Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and Metropolitan Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church's foreign-relations department.

This month, another Vatican official, Cardinal Renato Martino, was in the Russian capital to present the newly published Russian-language translation of the "Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church." This document lays out the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on social issues.

?ardinal Martino also met with Foreign Minister Lavrov and Metropolitan Kirill, and gave a press conference.

Pope Benedict XVI, speaking shortly after his election in April, had pledged to make dialogue with other religions his "primary task."

And these two visits by high-ranking Vatican officials came as a clear indication that the Holy See has set its sights on improving its ties with Moscow's officialdom and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Relations between both churches, which split during the Great Schism of 1054, have been rocky. The Moscow Patriarchate regularly accuses the Catholic Church of poaching for converts in Russia and other traditionally Orthodox countries in the former Soviet Union.

The Vatican prelates' recent visits to Moscow have shown that the rift is far from being healed.

Speaking to reporters ahead of his trip to Russia, Archbishop Lajolo had voiced hope that his visit would help mend what he called the "difficult relations" between the two churches.

Back at the Vatican, however, he said it was still too early for a significant rapprochement.

Cardinal Martino, although a touch more diplomatic, appeared to share this view by the end of his Moscow visit.

Asked by reporters whether Benedict XVI would soon be able to visit Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksii II, Cardinal Martino indicated that such a meeting could not take place immediately.

"We begin with small steps. And then, definitely. I have already spoken on several occasions about the success of the cordial understanding that Metropolitan Kirill and I found during our meeting, and about the pleasure we had to see that there are things in common, that we can do more together," Martino said. "We have stated this collaboration, and this is a beginning - after that, we'll see, and we hope that things will go very well."

Disputes with the Orthodox Church had barred Benedict's predecessor, the late John Paul II, from fulfilling his dream of visiting Russia following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Cardinal Martino, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, was himself scheduled to meet with Patriarch Aleksii II. But the meeting was abruptly canceled, with the Patriarchate citing "technical reasons." It was later announced that Aleksii II had fallen ill.

The Russian government has sought to ease the tensions between the two churches and pave the way for a papal visit to Moscow. President Vladimir Putin has personally backed the idea, and Foreign Minister Lavrov traveled to the Vatican in June.

Aleksii II, however, has consistently accused the Catholic Church of proselytizing in Russia and insisted that he will not meet the pope unless the Vatican curbs what he describes as its aggressive missionary activities in the country.

Reverend Wilfried Wehling is a German chaplain who has been in Russia since 1999. He says tensions largely stem from the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church views itself as the only legitimate representative of Christianity in Russia.

"It is clear that there is an effort to make the Orthodox Church the official Church," Wehling said. "There is a document that recognizes, together with the Orthodox Church, the Jews, the Muslims, and the Buddhists as Russia's four historical religious communities. And of course, as far as the Christians are concerned, the Orthodox Church sees itself as the representative of Christians." The Russian government has sought to ease the tensions between the two churches and pave the way for a papal visit to Moscow.

Relations hit rock bottom in 2002, when Pope John Paul II raised the status of the Catholic Church in Russia by establishing four new permanent dioceses.

The Moscow Patriarchate reacted with outrage, calling the move an "unfriendly act" and canceling a meeting with a senior Vatican envoy, Cardinal Walter Casper.

The Vatican denies any wrongdoing, saying it is merely catering to Russia's small Catholic community.

Over the past few years, a number of Catholic representatives have been denied visas to Russia, prompting some observers to talk of "repression," or of a "campaign" against Catholics in Russia.

Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, the Roman Catholic Metropolitan in Moscow, says repression is too strong a term. But he tells RFE/RL that governmental and religious authorities in Russia have certainly created hurdles for the Catholic Church.

"There is definitely a very difficult bureaucratic aspect here -there are problems with visas, problems on the field, problems to obtain churches," Kondrusiewicz said. "We were not included in the Interreligious Council [of Russia], they won't take us, we are constantly trying. They've also failed to include us into the Public Chamber. There are certain inconveniences, although I wouldn't call it repression."

Despite these difficulties, the Catholic Church continues to actively minister to its growing community and to conduct charitable activities throughout the country.

This activeness has led some observers to interpret the Russian Orthodox Church's repeated complaints against Catholics as a sign that it feels threatened by a better organized, better financed rival.

At any rate, the Vatican's current efforts to mend fences suggest that relations between both churches will now depend largely on the Russian Orthodox Church -- on its ability not only to put past grievances behind, but also to build up the loyalty of its believers.

Here's how the BBC anticipated the visit, providing as well this photograph of President Putin visitng the Orthodox monks in Mt. Athos, Greece in 2005. Putin is the first post-USSR Russian official to demonstrate publicly that he still adheres to the religion in which he ws baptized. :




Putin seeks fresh start with Pope
By Robert Pigott
BBC religious affairs correspondent


Russian President Vladimir Putin is about to pay his first visit to the Vatican of Pope Benedict XVI.

He wants the Pope on his side as he restores Russia as a global force.

It will be Mr Putin's third visit to the Vatican and his second pope. He went to see Pope John Paul II in 2000 and 2003, coming face-to-face with a man who had contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet bloc.

But he was one of the few heads of state who did not attend John Paul II's funeral. That absence is perhaps partly explained by the long deep-freeze in relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church, and the remarkable church-state alliance that has sprung up in Russia.

The Moscow branch of Orthodoxy has often accused the Vatican of seeking to poach its members in Russia.

John Paul II reinforced the Roman Catholic Church's structure in Russia, despite the evident damage to his heartfelt wish to visit Moscow.

At the same time, the Russian Orthodox Church was being recruited by President Putin to fill the gap left by Communism.

The Church is patriotic to the point of being nationalistic - a useful organising principle for a society suddenly cast adrift, and a valuable source of moral support for the Putin government.

In return it has had financial support and, some argue, state intervention to protect its leading role in society against potential competitors - including the Roman Catholic Church.

Perhaps that is why President Putin did not - unlike his predecessors Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin - invite John Paul II to Russia.

But there has been a noticeable thaw in relations since Pope Benedict's election in April 2005.

Senior clergy from the Vatican attended an inter-faith summit in Moscow last July, and an Orthodox official is thought likely to be among the Russian delegation with President Putin on Tuesday.

The president - himself baptised as a Russian Orthodox - has said he can mediate between the two churches.

There are other hopeful signs. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II welcomed what he called the Pope's "willingness to develop ties with the Orthodox Church".

But there remains plenty to do.

Mr Gorbachev, just after a visit to the Vatican, granted freedom of operation to all religious groups in 1990, when the Soviet Union still existed.

However, seven years later, a new law limited that freedom to what were described as "traditional" religions. "Non-traditional" religions were impeded or blocked altogether, and the Roman Catholic Church was among them.

Relations reached a new low in 2002, when Roman Catholic priests were refused renewal for their visas, despite working in Russia for many years.

There are signs that the special relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and state will prevent a significant relaxation in the Vatican's freedom of movement there.

Pope Benedict has shown himself less of a traveller than John Paul II, but - judging by his efforts to mend troubled relations with the Greek Orthodox Church - he would probably prize an invitation to Moscow highly.

Since Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin sarcastically asked "How many divisions does the Pope have?" Russian leaders have come to realise the moral and "soft" political power that resides in the Vatican.

It is a tribute to the continuing influence of a Church that claims more than a billion members that President Putin wishes to visit Pope Benedict.

President Putin has ambitions for his country as a global power. Russia will encounter many influential Roman Catholics in the globalised world, and will not want to have made an enemy of their spiritual leader.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/03/2007 18.46]

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila,arrived at Rome's Ciampino military airport today. Putin is welcomed (left) by Papal Nuncio Archbishop Giovanni Coppa. (Photos from AP and Reuters, respectively).

Pope reaffirms traditional views
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
Associated Press Writer


VATICAN CITY, Mar. 13 - Pope Benedict XVI rebuffed calls to let divorced Catholics who remarry receive Communion in a new document Tuesday and told Catholic politicians they are expected to wage the church's fight against abortion and gay marriage.

Putting his conservative stamp on his nearly 2-year-old papacy, Benedict also reaffirmed that priests must be celibate and included a nostalgic call for Latin use by rank-and-file faithful.

A worldwide meeting of bishops, held at the Vatican in 2005, endorsed the celibacy requirement, and Benedict embraced their call, despite shortages of priests in some places.

The 131-page "exhortation" is part of the pope's vigorous campaign to ensure bishops, priests and the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics strictly follow church teaching.

Before becoming pontiff in April 2005, Benedict, a German theologian, led the Vatican's drive to safeguard church teaching from doctrinal error.

Laced throughout the document are calls for more "sobriety" during Mass, including an endorsement of celebrating some parts of the Mass in Latin on certain occasions.

Russell Shaw, a conservative Catholic writer in the United States, described it as "certainly consistent with the pattern of this pontiff to date, a highly intelligent, highly thoughtful document which says nothing surprising, but which reaffirms the traditional positions of the church."

The question of whether Catholic politicians whose policies conflict with church teaching should be denied Communion grabbed attention during the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, when St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke said he would deny the Eucharist to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic who supports abortion rights.

Benedict wrote that public witness to one's faith was especially required of politicians who decide matters such as abortion, euthanasia, "the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman ... and the promotion of the common good in all its values."

"These values are not negotiable. Consequently Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature," Benedict wrote.

He indicated he was leaving the matter of wayward Catholic politicians to local bishops.

"Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them," the pope said.

Referring to Benedict's leaving the matter to bishops, Lisa Sowle Cahill, a theologian at Boston College, said liberals might be "grateful he's not more aggressively insisting that pastoral flexibility be curtailed."

The plight of divorced Catholics who remarry is a concern for many faithful in the United States, where divorce and remarriage are common.

While Benedict acknowledged "the painful situations" of those remarried Catholics, he also reiterated the church's stance that they cannot receive Communion because the church holds they are living in sin if they consummate their new marriages.

The church "encourages these members of the faithful to commit themselves to living their relationship ... as friends, as brother and sister," Benedict said.

Benedict sounded rueful about some of the changes in the Mass since the liberalizing reforms in the 1960s after the Second Vatican Council, including a switch from celebrating Mass in Latin to local languages.

The pope wrote that he agreed with bishops at the 2005 meeting that parts of Masses on international occasions should be celebrated in Latin.

Faithful can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, Benedict wrote.

Lately, on Wednesdays when the pope meets with thousands of pilgrims and tourists, the faithful have been invited to recite the Lord's Prayer in Latin, with the text printed in the audience's program.

The 1960s reforms also inspired some congregations to replace somber hymns with foot-tapping folk music and, in the name of peace, to exchange kisses or energetic hugs during Mass.

"Certainly, as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another," wrote Benedict, who plays classical music on the piano.

He suggested the "Gregorian chant be suitably esteemed and employed" at Mass and said gestures of peace should be "restricted to one's immediate neighbors" in the pews.


Conservative pope sets out
'non-negotiable values' in key document
by Martine Nouaille



VATICAN CITY, Mar. 13 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday set out "non-negotiable values" as he urged Catholic lawmakers to oppose laws favouring divorce, abortion and euthanasia and dashed any hope for a relaxation of the requirement of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests.

In a long-awaited text, the pope exhorted "Catholic politicians and legislators... to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature."

"These values are not negotiable," he wrote, listing "respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death (and) the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman."

Benedict's first such apostolic exhortation came as draft legislation is before Italy's parliament that would give legal status to unmarried couples including gays, an issue that is deeply divisive for the ruling centre-left government in the mainly Catholic country.

The document, which reflects the conclusions of an October 2005 synod of bishops, also comes as efforts to break the taboo against euthanasia are spreading across Europe.

The Vatican and the pope himself have spoken out repeatedly against Italy's draft law on civil unions, drawing accusations of interference from the Italian left.

Franco Grillini, a gay lawmaker of Italy's Democrats of the Left party, immediately slammed the document, scoffing at the "pope's pretension to being the depositary of the absolute truth."

But Domenico di Virgilio of the conservative Forza Italia party said: "Today's appeal by the holy father... is not interference but profound concern for the future of our society."

In the document, Benedict also stated that celibacy "remains obligatory" for Roman Catholic priests even as the Church faces ever-shrinking numbers of men joining the priesthood.

"I reaffirm the beauty and importance of a priestly life lived in celibacy as a sign expressing total and exclusive devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God," the text reads, adding: "I therefore confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition."

The 79-year-old pontiff pope also reaffirmed that Catholics who divorce and remarry are barred from taking communion, unless they "commit to living their relationship... as friends, as brother and sister."

Pope Benedict, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was the late John Paul II's top doctrinal enforcer as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and has consolidated his friend and mentor's arch-conservative line since his election as pope in April 2005.

The document, second in importance only to an encyclical, does not address the thorny question of whether the 16th-century "Tridentine" mass may return to more common use. [What the writer overlooks with this statement is that Sacramentum caritatis is the Pope's 'summary' of the deliberations and conclusions reached by the October 2005 Synod of Bishops, in which the 'return' of the pre-Conciliar Mass was not an issue. It would therefore be out of place for the Pope to interject his own personal decision on an extra-Synodal matter in the final document about that Synod. That is why he is widely expected to issue his decision on the pre-Conciliar Mass in the form of a 'motu proprio' ('his own words')].

Traditionalist supporters of the late Marcel Lefebvre have been pressing for the restoration of the Latin mass, which was abandoned as part of the sweeping changes wrought by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in the 1960s.

John Paul II allowed the Tridentine mass under certain conditions and with the prior permission of the bishop of the diocese where it was to be used.

Benedict, who admires the old liturgy and has decried "abuses" in the modern mass, is said to want to go much further and Vatican sources said a pronouncement on the issue was still under consideration.

In the exhortation, the pope said the bishops had "reaffirmed the beneficial influence" of the Vatican II reforms, despite "occasional abuses."

However the pope encouraged more frequent use of Latin, the universal language of the Catholic Church, notably at international gatherings.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/03/2007 6.33]

Putin meets with pope
at the Vatican
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
Associated Press Writer


VATICAN CITY, Mar. 13 - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pope Benedict XVI met Tuesday for the highest-level Kremlin-Vatican talks in more than three years, focusing on easing tension between Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians and finding common ground in denouncing intolerance and extremism.

A Vatican statement issued after the meeting — which included 25 minutes of private talks — made no mention of an invitation by Putin for the pope to visit Russia. Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said a visit had not come up.

Still, the talks appeared to have met Vatican expectations, with the statement saying they were held in a "very positive climate."

Benedict wished Putin "a warm welcome to the Vatican" in the pope's native German, the language of their talks.

The meeting — the first between Benedict and Putin — is part of a visit that takes the Russian leader to Italy and Greece this week.

Tension with the Russian Orthodox Church has stood in the way of a papal visit to Russia. The Russian church accuses Roman Catholics of improperly seeking converts in areas that traditionally would be Russian Orthodox. The Vatican has rejected the accusations, saying it is only ministering to Russia's tiny Catholic community of about 600,000 people in a country of 144 million.

Property disputes between the churches have also put them at odds.

The late Pope John Paul II's hopes of going to Moscow were thwarted by lack of agreement with the Orthodox Church leadership.

Putin's predecessors, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, invited John Paul to Russia. Putin, in two meetings at the Vatican with John Paul, did not issue an invitation. The Russian president last came to the Vatican in November 2003.

The Vatican communique said among the themes discussed Tuesday were "relations between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church" as well as the leaders' interest in improving ties between the Vatican and Russia.

The communique called extremism and intolerance "grave threats to peaceful coexistence among nations" and urged a "negotiated and peaceful resolution" of conflicts. They also discussed the Middle East, but no details were given.






Angela Ambrogetti of Vatican Radio reports for PETRUS, translated here:

No invitation to Moscow]
but a good visit by Putin

VATICAN CITY - A 25-minute tete-a-tete in German between Pope Benedict XVI and Russian President Valdimir Putin. Cordiality and smiles breaking the tension of the waiting. But President Putin arrived right on the dot for this official visit - not a state visit - accompanied by his foreign minister Srghey Lavrov.

The Kremlin leader was welcomed at the Courtyard of San Damaso by ons. James Harvey, prefect of the Pontifical Household, and by a Guard of Honor composed of Swiss Guards.

In the Little Throne Room of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Benedict XVI walked forward to meet him, and the two greeted each other in German, Putin's second language as a KGB officer posted in East Germany in the 1980s.

The Pope wore the mozzetta for official occasions, and Putin was in a blue suit with a red tie.

"Let's have them take the photographs," the Pope said, and the flashbulbs took over for the next minute or so - the Pope smiling, Putin his usual reserved self, as the Pope pointed out the historical and artistic features of the Apostolic Library.

They then proceeded to sit at opposite sides of the Pope's desk, and the doors were closed. The press and the world waited outside.

A few meters away, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, and Mons. Dominique Mamberti, Vatican 'foreign minister,' sat down with Minister Lavrov for their part of the talks.

A bell rang, and that was the signal for the rest of the Russian delegation to join the Pope and his guest of honor. There was no representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in the delegation, as some had speculated there might be. [Obviously, no invitation to Moscow, either.]

At the exchange of gifts, Putin spoke in Russian, presenting his gifts of an icon of St. Nicholas painted on wood and two volumes of the Catholic Encyclopedia in Russian.

The Pope gave him a valuable print from 1663 of a projected third part of the colonnade in front of St. Peter, a project that was never realized. [Teresa's comment: Where could that third part have been located? Certainly not to close off St. Peter's Square! Those two elliptical Bernini colonnades so perfectly sumbolize welcoming arms!]

"There were no funds," said a monsignor. The Pope laughed, but not the glacial Putin.

There was nothing but warmheartedness and joy on the Pope's face, as he held Putin's hand when they said goodbye. The rest of his delegation stayed behind as the Pope gave them a souvenir of their visit - medallionss commemoratinghis Pontificate.

The official statement issued later by the Vatican Press Office (which did not stay open after office hours - the visit started at 6 p.m.) spoke of a "very positive climate", and "cordial relations existing between the Holy See and the Russian Federation", and the "reciprocal desire to develop these further, even with specific initiatives of a cultural character."

"Issues of bilateral interest were examined," the statement went on, "relevant to relations between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, and current questions, particularly those relating to the Middle East, were also examined."

Further: "The problems of extremism and intolerance, which constitue a grave threat to the nations of the world, werre discussed, underscroing the need to keep the peace and to favor a negotiated and peaceful settlement of conflicts."

Shortly upon arrivving in Rome, Putin met with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano at the Quirinale Palace. After meeting the Pope, he proceeded to Palazzo Chigi for a meeting and dinner with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.

[Tomorrow, he proceeds to Bari in southern Italy on a mission for the Russian Orthodox Church - seeking to recover possession of a church built by the Russian church in the early part of the 20th century but which was acquired under still vague circumstances by the city of Bari in the late 1930s. Bari is an imortant city for Russian Orthodoxy because its protector, St, Nicholas of Myra, is buried there.]





The AsiaNews story contains other additional information:

VATICAN - RUSSIA
The Middle East and extremism,
but also ecumenism, in talks
between Putin and Pope.


Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Relations between Catholics and Orthodox were also on the agenda of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Benedict XVI, which took place this evening in the Vatican, in a “very positive climate”.

The “cordial relations” between the Vatican and Federation as well as international concerns, in particular the current Middle East crises, were other themes broached in discussions, which also touched upon the “problems of intolerance and extremism”, according to a press office statement released by the Holy See.

The Vatican, then has judged the first meeting between Benedict XVI and Putin to as positive, which also saw a parallel encounter between Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone.

“The meeting – reads the Vatican note – which took place in a very positive atmosphere, highlights existing relations between the Holy See and the Russian Federation, as well as the shared desire to further develop said relations, through specific cultural initiatives.

"In light of this, bilateral themes of common interest were discussed with careful consideration also paid to relations between the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church.

"Current international questions were also analyzed, in particular the Middle East. Finally, the problems of intolerance and extremism were addressed, which constitute a grave threat to civil relations between Nations, underlining the necessity to preserve and favour peace through negotiated solutions to ongoing conflicts”.

Even Russian journalists in the presidential cortege speak of a “climate of great cordiality, beyond protocol, sign of a significant event”.

The Russian Presidential spokesman, Aleksiei Gromov, told the press that Putin had referred greetings from the Patriarch of Moscow Alexi II to the Pope, who likewise extended a salute to the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Putin arrived at the Vatican shortly before 6 pm, dressed in a blue suit and red tie. He was met in the St Damascus courtyard by the Papal gentlemen; he was escorted to the third floor, passing through the halls which lead to the private library and the Pope’s study.

Benedict XVI greeted the Russian President moving forward to meet him in the library, in the adjacent Throne room. “I warmly welcome you to the Vatican”, he said to him in German, a language which Putin knows well, and a handshake which journalist present describe as “long and cordial”.

“Now, we must allow for photographs” added the Pope, after Putin positioned himself at the desk, the same place occupied by Gorbachev in his historic visit with John Paul II and then the doors closed on the private meeting which lasted over 25 minutes. Putin and Benedict XVI spoke in German assisted by two interpreters.

Following the encounter, there was the presentation of the delegations and the exchange of gifts. The Russian President presented the Pope with a modern icon of St Nicolas. The Pope for his part, gifted the premier with an incision of a view of St Peter dated to 1662.

The possibility that the issue of relations between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Catholic Church be addressed had been substantially excluded by Orthodox sources, who maintained that the nature of the meeting was “between two heads of State”.

However this morning, a long analyses published by the Russian Interfax agency, began by recalling that “previous meetings between Pontiffs and Russian leaders have not always produced stability or peace in Catholic Orthodox relations”. As in the case of Gorbachev in 1990.

The article continued by noting that in the current climate of rapprochement, the sister Churches “have discovered a common ground for the development projects of a social and ethical nature”,“ the first’ and ‘the third’ Romes now have a unique chance to pursue the ecumenical movement and to secure a future for traditional values in Eurasia. And the president of Russia’s visit may be very helpful to achieve this goal.”

In the end it is hoped that “the current political warming and constructive voices sounding from the leadership be adequately, unlike they were before, reflected in the church policies, including the level of local parishes and laity groups”.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/03/2007 17.23]

See Eucharist as real presence, live faith fully, pope says in exhortation

By Cindy Wooden
3/13/2007
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Catholics must believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, celebrate the liturgy with devotion and live in a way that demonstrates their faith, Pope Benedict XVI said.

In a 31,000-word apostolic exhortation, “Sacramentum Caritatis” (“The Sacrament of Charity”), Pope Benedict said “the celebration and worship of the Eucharist enable us to draw near to God's love and to persevere in that love." The exhortation, dated Feb. 22, the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, serves as the final document of the Oct. 2 – 23, 2005, world Synod of Bishops. The document, was released by the Vatican press office on March 13. It has been published in Latin, Italian, English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Polish.
When Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, he did not simply thank God for the ways he had acted throughout history to save people, the pope said. Rather, Jesus revealed that he himself was the sacrifice that would bring salvation to fulfillment, he added.

"The institution of the Eucharist demonstrates how Jesus' death, for all its violence and absurdity, became in him a supreme act of love and mankind's definitive deliverance from evil," Pope Benedict wrote.

Celebrating the Eucharist, he said, "the church is able to celebrate and adore the mystery of Christ" who is present in the bread and wine through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In addition to offering a spiritual reflection on the meaning of the Eucharist, the liturgy and eucharistic adoration, Pope Benedict made several concrete suggestions for further study and for celebrating the Mass in the Latin rite:

- While he encouraged wider knowledge and use of the Mass prayers in Latin and of Gregorian chant, he also repeated the synod's affirmation of the "beneficial influence" of the liturgical changes made by the Second Vatican Council on the life of the church.

However, he also endorsed the synod's suggestion that at Masses with a large, international congregation, the liturgy be celebrated in Latin "with the exception of the readings, the homily and the prayer of the faithful."

- He encouraged bishops' conferences, in collaboration with the Vatican, to examine their practices for the order and timing of the sacraments of Christian initiation: baptism, confirmation and Eucharist.

The three sacraments are administered together for infants and adults in many of the Eastern churches and for adults joining the Latin rite, while children in the Latin rite usually are baptized as infants, receive first Communion around the age of 7 and are confirmed several years later.

"It needs to be seen which practice better enables the faithful to put the sacrament of the Eucharist at the center, as the goal of the whole process of initiation," the pope said.

- In expressing his concern for the number of Catholics unable to receive Communion because of irregular marital situations, Pope Benedict confirmed church teaching that those who have been divorced and civilly remarried without having obtained an annulment are not to receive Communion.

However, the pope encouraged bishops to ensure they have fully trained and staffed marriage tribunals to deal with annulment requests "in an expeditious manner."

- Pope Benedict said the sign of peace at Mass "has great value," especially in demonstrating the church's responsibility to pray for peace and unity in a world too often troubled by division, violence and hatred.

While Catholics at Mass should exchange a sign of peace with those near them, he also called for "greater restraint" to ensure the moment does not become one of irreparable distraction.

The pope said, "I have asked the competent curial offices to study the possibility of moving the sign of peace to another place (in the Mass), such as before the presentation of the gifts at the altar. To do so would also serve as a significant reminder of the Lord's insistence that we be reconciled with others before presenting our gifts to God."

- The pope also said the church should consider providing new texts for the rite of dismissal at the end of Mass so that Catholics would understand better the connection between what they have just celebrated and the fact that they are sent out in a mission to bring God's love and truth to the world.

- Pope Benedict said in order to help Catholics "believe, celebrate and live ever more fully the mystery of the Eucharist," several Vatican offices are preparing a compendium of texts, prayers and explanations of the church teaching on the Eucharist and of the eucharistic prayers used at Mass.

- He called for a general improvement in the quality of homilies and said bishops have a particular responsibility to ensure that the liturgies they celebrate provide an example for the whole diocese of a liturgy celebrated with dignity, beauty and fidelity to the approved rites.

- The pope asked Catholics to pay more attention to how their postures and gestures at Mass communicate their faith in the Eucharist, particularly by "kneeling during the central moments of the eucharistic prayer."

"Amid the legitimate diversity of signs used in the context of different cultures, everyone should be able to experience and express the awareness that at each celebration we stand before the infinite majesty of God, who comes to us in the lowliness of the sacramental signs."

- As for church architecture, Pope Benedict encouraged parishes to ensure their facilities are fully accessible to people with disabilities and that the tabernacle containing the blessed sacrament is "readily visible to everyone entering the church."

"In churches which do not have a Blessed Sacrament chapel and where the high altar with its tabernacle is still in place, it is appropriate to continue to use this structure for the reservation and adoration of the Eucharist," he said.

"In new churches, it is good to position the Blessed Sacrament chapel close to the sanctuary; where this is not possible, it is preferable to locate the tabernacle in the sanctuary, in a sufficiently elevated place," he said.

However, the pope said, the "final judgment on these matters belongs to the diocesan bishop."

In the letter, Pope Benedict also formally reaffirmed the obligation of celibacy for priests in the Latin rite and the fact that, in most cases, Catholics and other Christians should not share the Eucharist, which is a sign of full unity in faith.

He reminded Catholics of the obligation to be in a "state of grace," free from serious sin, before receiving Communion, and of the fact that by receiving Communion they are publicly proclaiming their unity with the teaching of the church.

"Respect for human life, its defense from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms ... are not negotiable," he said.

Politicians and lawmakers must introduce and support laws inspired by those values, the pope said.

Pope Benedict said, "bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them."

But the pope did not mention his position on whether or not bishops should declare publicly that they would withhold Communion from a politician who did not fully accept church teaching.

At the Vatican press conference presenting the document, Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice was asked what the papal position was.

"He does not want to say that which he does not say," the cardinal responded.

The pope reminded bishops that they must call all Catholics, particularly politicians, to coherence of faith and action, "but he cannot substitute himself for the pastoral prudence of the bishop," the cardinal said.

Interesting to read about the specifics of the exhortation and the responses to it. To the politican who scoffed at the "pope's (supposed) pretension to being the depositary of the absolute truth," did you really expect him not to reaffirm centuries of faith? Its not anything you haven't heard before, just that the Pope is encouraging others to remember these things and do them. Should he do a total reversal to please you?:Great to hear about Putin's visit, glad to see it went well. It'll be interesting to see how things will work out, hopefully one day Pope Benedict can visit Russia.

---

Pope Benedict said, "bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them."

But the pope did not mention his position on whether or not bishops should declare publicly that they would withhold Communion from a politician who did not fully accept church teaching.

At the Vatican press conference presenting the document, Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice was asked what the papal position was.

"He does not want to say that which he does not say," the cardinal responded.

---

I found that statement by the Pope hitting me in the eye when I did my first cursory run-through of the document. A post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation is possibly the most collegial type of document there is in the Church today, because it distills the consensus of all the bishops of the world meeting for 2-3 weeks intesively at the Vatican.

And as the Exhortation is addressed primarily to bishops, hierarchically at the top of all those addressed, the Pope is simply reminding the dissidents - of which there are not a few (in Italy alone about 10 of them) that they have a duty to toe the line, to respect the consensus of the overwhelming majority of their brothers, regardless of their personal opinions.

As politiciams may not and should not substitute their personal judgment for that of their bishop, the bishops in turn may not and should not substitute their personal judgment for that of the Magisterium - and Sacramentum Caritatis is Magisterium.

Collegiality implies consensus, not selfish autonomy by dissident bishops.

And Cardinal Scola had a great line: "He does not want to say that which he does not say."

He, the Pope, does not need to spell it out. He simply says, Obey the Magisterium. He lays the responsibility on the bishops, rightly. I hope that dissident bishops take note and have the humility to examine their conscience, see the selgishness and arrogance of their dissidence, and act accordingly.

I decided to translate the AsiaNews report in its Italian service on today's audience, since the vAtican has not yet published the ext online and AsiaNews has not yet posted its English translation:

VATICAN
Ignatius of Antioch:
The irrepressible urge
towards unity among Christians

VATICAN CITY, Mar. 14 (AsiaNews) - A strong yearning for unity in the church and among believers, of 'an irresistible urge towards union', makred the Pope's general audience today, through the Pope's discussion of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, 'the doctor of unity." From his example, the Pope "implored the Lord for this grace of unity."

The audience was held at St. Peter's Square on a spring-like day, in which colored hats with flowers were sported by many in the audience of about 30,000, who applauded the Pope lengthily as he went through the crowds in the Popemobile before holding his catechesis.



Proceeding with his new cycle on the Fathers of the early Church, Benedict XVI chose Ignatius of Antioch for today's topic. He was the third bishop of Antioch - Peter himself was the first - from 70 A.D. to his martyrdom in 107.

In what was then a great matropolis of the Roman empire, there was a flowering Christian community, and it was there where Christ's disciples were first called 'Christians.'

"Sent to Rome to be fed to the beasts, because of his loytalto to Christ," Ignatius wrote seven letters to different churches during the voyage, letters in which he "defined all of Christian life as an imitation of Christ."

"In the cities where he made a stopover, he persisted in solidifying the Churches...especially exhorting them to guard against heresies with which Rome was swarming at the time" and not to "separate themselves from the apostolic tradition."

"St. Ignatius is the doctor of unity: the unity of God, the unity of Christ, unity of the Church and unity among its disciples," the Pope said.

He expressed this even when speaking of his imminent martyrdom, saying he was "impatient to rejoin Christ - let me imitate the Passion of my God."

"Ignatius's irresistible tension towards union with Christ is a true 'mystique* of unity,' which is "above all a prerogative of God," and therefore, for Christians, an imitation of God. [P.S. The AsiaNews report had this word as 'mistero' - mystery; in the Pope's text it is 'mistica', and the phrase 'mistica dell'unita' is used between quotation marks.]

But he also has a vision of unity in the Church, for whom he asks "not to undertake anything regarding the Church without its bishop."

Benedict XVI underscored how even in the language of Ignatius, one finds expressions which are linked to unity: "the chords of a guitar, the unison of voices in a chori, the harmony of instruments."

But he also had a concept of unity between communion and mission. The Pope said Ignatius has the credit of having been "the first in Christian writing to attribute to the Church the adjective 'catholic', which means universal."

And he was convinced that the Christian community of Rome (the Church of Rome) "exercised a sort of primacy of love, it presides in love."


And of course, just as I finished doing my translation, AsiaNews posts its own translation of tis Italian report, which I post here for comparison.

VATICAN
Pope: Ignatius of Antioch,
the irrepressible desire of Christians for Unity


Vatican City (AsiaNews) – A strong urge within the Church and believers, their “intense desire for union” was the central theme of today’s general audience, in which Benedict XVI reflected on the figure of St Ignatius, “Doctor of unity”. Following on from his example the Pope “beseeched the Lord for the grace of unity”.

The audience returned to St Peter’s Square, where a multitude of coloured caps marked the sunny spring day. Over 30 thousand people were present applauding the Pope at great length as he made his way around the square to greet them before beginning his weekly address, on board his white open top car.

Continuing his reflections on the lives of the figures of the early Church, Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis to St Ignatius of Antioch. The Pope noted that he was the third bishop of Antioch – the first bishop was Peter – from 70 to 107 the date of his martyrdom.

There was a flowering Christian Community in that great metropolis of the Empire, and it was there that the disciples were first called Christians.

“While travelling to Rome to face martyrdom”, he wrote the seven letters to different Churches, in which “he defines Christian life as an imitation of the divine”. “In the towns where he stopped along the way he strengthened the Churches”, “urging believers to be on their guard against emerging heresies, to remain faithful to the apostolic tradition, and to maintain ecclesial harmony and co-operation”.

“St. Ignatius is called the ‘doctor of unity’” : “unity in God, unity in Christ, unity of the Church and unity among believers”. “Among the Fathers of the Church, Ignatius is renowned for his intense desire for union with Christ”.

He even expresses when pleading that his martyrdom “come quickly in order to be with Jesus. Let me imitate the passion of my Lord”.

“His intense desire for union with Christ, taught that unity is a prerogative of God, and so for Christians is an imitation of the divine”. But there is a vision of unity in the Church too, he insists on communion among believers and with their Bishops. “Such harmony precludes any sense of opposition between ecclesial roles”. [Sentence not in Italian report].

Benedict XVI underlined how in the very language used by Ignatius terms linked to unity can be found: “the guitar cords, the unity of voices in a choir, the harmony of instruments”. But there is also the concept of unity between communion and mission.

The Pope recalled that we also owe Ignatius respect for being the first to attribute the term “Catholic” that is “Universal” to the Church. And he was also convinced that the Roman Christian Community “exercises a type of primacy in love and presides over charity”.

=============================================================

But as I always say, it's usually better to just go read what the Pope said in full translation, rather than seeing snippets of it. This catechesis on Ignatius was not one of those that can be synthesized perfunctorily. A full translation ihas been posted in AUDIENCE AND ANGELUS TEXTS.

For a short version, here is the text of the brief synthesis the Pope delivered in English today:



Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The subject of today’s catechesis is Saint Ignatius of Antioch. He was the third Bishop of Antioch in Syria, from the year 70 to 107. While travelling to Rome to face martyrdom, he urged the Christian communities, through preaching and letters, to be on their guard against emerging heresies, to remain faithful to the apostolic tradition, and to maintain ecclesial harmony and co-operation.

Among the Fathers of the Church, Ignatius is renowned for his intense desire for union with Christ, even pleading that his martyrdom come quickly in order to be with Jesus. Ignatius taught that unity is a prerogative of God, and so for Christians is an imitation of the divine. In his letters, he insists on communion among believers and with their Bishops. Such harmony precludes any sense of opposition between ecclesial roles and instead echoes Christ’s prayer: ‘that they may be one’ (cf. Jn 17).

Little wonder that Ignatius is called the ‘doctor of unity’. His ‘realism’ still prompts believers today to seek configuration to Christ and dedication to his Church through communion with our Bishops and generous service to our communities and the world. Let us beseech the Lord for the grace of unity, and strive to live the fullness of communion and mission!

I welcome all the English speaking visitors present today, including the Cardinals and Bishops of the Vox Clara committee, gathered in Rome to advise the Congregation for Divine Worship on the new English translation of the Roman Missal. I thank them and their assistants for their important work. Upon all of you I invoke God’s abundant blessings of joy and peace.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/03/2007 9.15]

Here is Sandro Magister's take on the Apostolic Exhortation - and his notes on what he found most interesting and significant about it.

“Sacramentum Caritatis”:
Everyone to Mass on Sunday
A Christian cannot live without the Eucharist, Benedict XVI writes.
In it, “the Lord truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom.”
With the duty that stems from this, and in the political realm as well: to give “public witness to our faith”

by Sandro Magister


ROMA, March 14, 2007 – Benedict XVI released yesterday the apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, as the concluding act of the synod of bishops held in Rome in October of 2005 on the topic of the Eucharist.

The document has the breadth of an encyclical. And it has a lot in common with pope Joseph Ratzinger’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est, beginning with the key word in each title. Benedict XVI himself writes in the introduction, “I wish to set the present exhortation alongside my first encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est.”

Sacramentum Caritatis should therefore be read in its entirety. Because on the one hand it summarizes the index of topics discussed at the synod, but on the other it bears the unifying mark of Benedict XVI’s vision, a vision in which “the eucharistic celebration appears in all its power as the source and summit of the Church's life.”

It is the reader’s task to savor this unifying vision, which can be reached only through a continual and complete reading

What follows here is, instead, a humbler set of crib notes on the many questions that Benedict XVI addresses or touches upon, page by page, in his apostolic exhortation:


THE MISSAL OF SAINT PIUS V
Benedict XVI cites this in paragraph 3, recalling with admiration and gratitude "the orderly development of the ritual forms" in which the Mass was celebrated (and still is) until the liturgical reform of Vatican Council II, "whose riches are yet to be fully explored".

And he observes: "Concretely, the changes which the Council called for need to be understood within the overall unity of the historical development of the rite itself, without the introduction of artificial discontinuities."

The rejection of these “artificial discontinuities” – according to what the pope said to the Roman curia on December 22, 2005, in the address he gave on the correct interpretation of the Council, which is cited in the footnotes of this apostolic exhortation – is one of the reasons that, for Joseph Ratzinger, justify the continued use of the Tridentine Rite.

THE LAST SUPPER
In paragraph 11, after describing the last supper Jesus shared with the apostles according to the ancient Jewish rite, Benedict XVI warns: “For us Christians, that meal no longer need be repeated,” because with respect to it the Eucharist signals a radically new reality, and Jesus referred to this new reality in saying: “Do this in memory of me.”

The pope’s reminder is for those communities – for example, the Neocatechumenals – that insist upon celebrating the Mass as a banquet, imitating the last supper.

TRANSUBSTANTIATION
This word appears in paragraph 13. It is accompanied by an appeal to the faithful to have “a better appreciation” for the richness of the words of consecration and of the “epiclesis,” the invocation “to the Father to send down the gift of the Spirit so that the bread and the wine will become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.”

THE ORTHODOX AND PROTESTANTS
In paragraph 14, Benedict XVI emphasizes that it is the Eucharist that builds up the Church. And in fact, in the following paragraph, he calls “Churches” both the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches, precisely because they “have preserved the authentic and integral nature of the eucharistic mystery,” unlike the simple “Communities” created by the Protestant Reformation, with which the “ecclesial character of the Eucharist” is, instead, a matter of ecumenical dialogue.

CONFIRMATION AND FIRST COMMUNION
In paragraph 18, the pope writes that attention must be paid to the order in which the sacraments of initiation – Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist – are administered. In effect, in many parishes and dioceses all over the world, Confirmation is given last. For Benedict XVI, this practice “should be examined,” because it risks depriving the Eucharist of its rightful place “as the goal of the whole process of initiation.”

COMMUNION AND CONFESSION
In paragraph 20, and again in paragraph 55, Benedict XVI cautions against going to communion all the time, automatically, as if “the mere fact of their being present in church during the liturgy gives them a right or even an obligation to approach the table of the Eucharist.” One reason for this “superficial approach,” he writes, is the widespread loss of the sense of sin. In order to go to communion, one must be “in a state of grace.” In the following paragraph, the pope encourages the faithful to go to confession frequently. And he warns that individual confession must be the ordinary form, “limiting the practice of general absolution exclusively to the cases permitted.”

VIATICUM
In paragraph 22, the pope urges that the Eucharist be brought to the sick, a practice that in many places risks falling into disuse.

HOLY ORDINATION
In paragraph 23, Benedict XVI directs a severe rebuke toward those who maintain that being baptized is all that is needed to be able to celebrate the Mass, and act accordingly, doing without a priest: “The Church teaches that priestly ordination is the indispensable condition for the valid celebration of the Eucharist.”

But immediately after this, the pope cautions priests not to substitute themselves for Jesus. He exhorts them to celebrate the Mass with humility, “avoiding anything that might give the impression of an inordinate emphasis on his own personality.”

PRIESTLY CELIBACY
"It is not sufficient to understand priestly celibacy in purely functional terms", Benedict XVI writes in paragraph 24. "The fact that Christ himself, the eternal priest, lived his mission even to the sacrifice of the Cross in the state of virginity constitutes the sure point of reference for understanding the meaning of the tradition of the Latin Church".

"While respecting the different practice and tradition of the Eastern Churches," the pope confirms that priestly celibacy "remains obligatory in the Latin tradition, [...] as a sign expressing total and exclusive devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God."

In order to attract valid vocations – the pope says in the following paragraphs – we "must have the courage to set before young people the radical decision to follow Christ, showing them how deeply rewarding it is."

POLYGAMY
In paragraph 28, Benedict XVI touches upon the problem posed by those who become Christian “coming to the Gospel from cultures in which polygamy is practised.” For them, Eucharistic Communion may be permitted only when they have arrived at “the full truth of love” with just one woman, “making whatever sacrifices are necessary.”

DIVORCED AND REMARRIED PERSONS
Benedict writes in paragraph 29: "This represents a complex and troubling pastoral problem, a real scourge for contemporary society, and one which increasingly affects the Catholic community as well. The Church's pastors, out of love for the truth, are obliged to discern different situations carefully, in order to be able to offer appropriate spiritual guidance to the faithful involved.(92)

The synod of bishops confirmed the Church's practice, based on Sacred Scripture (cf. Mk 10:2- 12), of not admitting the divorced and remarried to the sacraments, since their state and their condition of life objectively contradict the loving union of Christ and the Church signified and made present in the Eucharist.

Yet the divorced and remarried continue to belong to the Church, which accompanies them with special concern and encourages them to live as fully as possible the Christian life through regular participation at Mass, albeit without receiving communion, listening to the word of God, eucharistic adoration, prayer, participation in the life of the community, honest dialogue with a priest or spiritual director, dedication to the life of charity, works of penance, and commitment to the education of their children.

When legitimate doubts exist about the validity of the prior sacramental marriage, the necessary investigation must be carried out to establish if these are well-founded. Consequently there is a need to ensure, in full respect for canon law), the presence of local ecclesiastical tribunals, their pastoral character, and their correct and prompt functioning.

Each diocese should have a sufficient number of persons with the necessary preparation, so that the ecclesiastical tribunals can operate in an expeditious manner. I repeat that it is a grave obligation to bring the Church's institutional activity in her tribunals ever closer to the faithful.

At the same time, pastoral care must not be understood as if it were somehow in conflict with the law. Rather, one should begin by assuming that the fundamental point of encounter between the law and pastoral care is love for the truth: truth is never something purely abstract, but a real part of the human and Christian journey of every member of the faithful.

Finally, where the nullity of the marriage bond is not declared and objective circumstances make it impossible to cease cohabitation, the Church encourages these members of the faithful to commit themselves to living their relationship in fidelity to the demands of God's law, as friends, as brother and sister; in this way they will be able to return to the table of the Eucharist, taking care to observe the Church's established and approved practice in this regard.

This path, if it is to be possible and fruitful, must be supported by pastors and by adequate ecclesial initiatives, nor can it ever involve the blessing of these relations, lest confusion arise among the faithful concerning the value of marriage.

Given the complex cultural context which the Church today encounters in many countries, the Synod also recommended devoting maximum pastoral attention to training couples preparing for marriage and to ascertaining beforehand their convictions regarding the obligations required for the validity of the sacrament of matrimony.

Serious discernment in this matter will help to avoid situations where impulsive decisions or superficial reasons lead two young people to take on responsibilities that they are then incapable of honouring. The good that the Church and society as a whole expect from marriage and from the family founded upon marriage is so great as to call for full pastoral commitment to this particular area.

Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself.

BEAUTY
Benedict XVI dedicates paragraph 35 to the beauty of the celebration and of liturgical art: "This is no mere aestheticism, but the concrete way in which the truth of God's love in Christ encounters us, attracts us and delights us." And again: "Beauty is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation. These considerations should make us realize the care which is needed, if the liturgical action is to reflect its innate splendour."

SACRED ART
In paragraph 40, after having called for respect for the liturgical guidelines in force, the pope emphasizes – against the frequent abuses – that “the simplicity of its gestures and the sobriety of its orderly sequence of signs communicate and inspire more than any contrived and inappropriate additions."

And in the following paragraph, he writes: “A solid knowledge of the history of sacred art can be advantageous for those responsible for commissioning artists and architects to create works of art for the liturgy. Consequently it is essential that the education of seminarians and priests include the study of art history, with special reference to sacred buildings and the corresponding liturgical norms. Everything related to the Eucharist should be marked by beauty."

SACRED MUSIC
In paragraph 42, Benedict XVI warns against the bad music that has invaded too many celebrations, and defends Gregorian chant:

"In the course of her two-thousand-year history, the Church has created, and still creates, music and songs which represent a rich patrimony of faith and love. This heritage must not be lost. Certainly as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another. Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy should be avoided. As an element of the liturgy, song should be well integrated into the overall celebration.

"Consequently everything – texts, music, execution – ought to correspond to the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, the structure of the rite and the liturgical seasons. Finally, while respecting various styles and different and highly praiseworthy traditions, I desire, in accordance with the request advanced by the synod fathers, that Gregorian chant be suitably esteemed and employed as the chant proper to the Roman liturgy."

THE LITURGY OF THE WORD AND THE HOMILY
In paragraph 45, the pope urges “that every effort be made to ensure that the liturgical proclamation of the word of God is entrusted to well-prepared readers,” and that the faithful be taught “to appreciate the riches of Sacred Scripture” by reading it and praying with it.

In the following paragraph, he asks priests to prepare adequately for the homily, and to avoid making it “generic and abstract.” And to expound the pillars of Catholic doctrine, he advises them to draw from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

THE OFFERTORY
The act of bringing the gifts forward to the altar, the pope writes in paragraph 47, “can be clearly expressed in its authentic meaning without the need for undue emphasis or complexity.” This brings back to mind some of the theatrical and folk version of the rite, which were in vogue for John Paul II’s voyages.

THE EXCHANGE OF PEACE
In paragraph 49, Benedict XVI recalls that “during the synod of bishops there was discussion about the appropriateness of greater restraint in this gesture, which can be exaggerated and cause a certain distraction in the assembly just before the reception of communion.” In a footnote, the pope adds that he has “asked the competent curial offices to study the possibility of moving the sign of peace to another place, such as before the presentation of the gifts at the altar”: this is what already happens, for example, in the Ambrosian Rite that is celebrated in the archdiocese of Milan.

COMMUNION IS NOT FOR ALL
In paragraph 50, Benedict XVI calls attention back to the frequent presence at Mass of non-practicing Catholics, outside visitors, non-Catholics, members of other religions, and also of persons who “are living in a situation which does not permit them to receive the sacraments.” In these cases, he urges that there be found “a brief and clear way to remind those present of the meaning of sacramental communion and the conditions required for its reception.” Whenever it is not possible “to ensure that the meaning of the Eucharist is duly appreciated," the pope suggests replacing the Mass with "a celebration of the word of God.”

ITE, MISSA EST
In paragraph 51, taking his cue from the concluding formula of the Latin Mass, Benedict XVI exhorts drawing from this an invitation for the faithful to be missionaries in the world, with new and “duly approved” texts for the final prayer and blessing that make this meaning plain.

INTERCOMMUNION
In paragraph 56, Benedict XVI restates the ban on celebrating the Eucharist together with Christians belonging to non-Catholic Churches and communities. "Yet it remains true that, for the sake of their eternal salvation, individual non-Catholic Christians can be admitted to the Eucharist, the sacrament of reconciliation and the anointing of the sick. But this is possible only in specific, exceptional situations and requires that certain precisely defined conditions be met. These are clearly indicated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church."

THE LATIN LANGUAGE
In paragraph 62, Benedict XVI writes that when the congregation is composed of faithful from different countries, there should be no fear of celebrating Mass in Latin and in Gregorian Chant. And he adds: “Speaking more generally, I ask that future priests, from their time in the seminary, receive the preparation needed to understand and to celebrate Mass in Latin, and also to use Latin texts and execute Gregorian chant; nor should we forget that the faithful can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and also to sing parts of the liturgy to Gregorian chant."

GROUP MASSES
In paragraph 63, the pope warns against the risks of liturgical celebrations in small groups, as happens above all in the Neocatechumenal Way: “While acknowledging the formative value of this approach, it must be stated that such celebrations should always be consonant with the overall pastoral activity of the diocese. These celebrations would actually lose their catechetical value if they were felt to be in competition with, or parallel to, the life of the particular Church."

EUCHARISTIC ADORATION
Benedict XVI dedicates four paragraphs to the adoration of the consecrated host, from number 66 to number 69. He recalls that immediately after the Second Vatican Council, the objection against adoration was that “the eucharistic bread was given to us not to be looked at, but to be eaten.”

The pope explains that this is an unfounded objection. In effect, on several occasions Benedict XVI has shown that he wants to restore Eucharistic adoration to a central place. He also urges that the tabernacle should be placed in a visible and dignified place in the church, “taking care not to place the celebrant's chair in front of it.”

THE SUNDAY PRECEPT
In paragraphs 72-74, the pope restates the precept of going to Mass on Sunday. Already in the first century, Ignatius of Antioch described Christians as “iuxta dominicam viventes,” those living in accordance with the Lord's Day. Not sanctifying this day "is symptomatic of the loss of an authentic sense of Christian freedom, the freedom of the children of God."

IN ABSENCE OF A PRIEST
In those regions where the scarce number of priests makes it impossible to celebrate Sunday Mass everywhere, Benedict XVI, in paragraph 75, exhorts the Christian communities to come together anyway, to read the Scriptures and to pray: "This needs, however, to be accompanied by an adequate instruction about the difference between Mass and Sunday assemblies in the absence of a priest."

CONSISTENCY BETWEEN THE EUCHARIST AND POLITICS
In paragraph 83, the pope writes: "Here it is important to consider what the synod fathers described as eucharistic consistency, a quality which our lives are objectively called to embody.

"Worship pleasing to God can never be a purely private matter, without consequences for our relationships with others: it demands a public witness to our faith. Evidently, this is true for all the baptized, yet it is especially incumbent upon those who, by virtue of their social or political position, must make decisions regarding fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms. These values are not negotiable.

"Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature. There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:27-29). Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them."

AT THE COST OF ONE’S LIFE
In paragraph 87, Benedict XVI writes that in certain countries, going to Mass requires great courage: “In not a few parts of the world, simply going to church represents a heroic witness that can result in marginalization and violence. Here too, I would like to reaffirm the solidarity of the whole Church with those who are denied freedom of worship. As we know, wherever religious freedom is lacking, people lack the most meaningful freedom of all, since it is through faith that men and women express their deepest decision about the ultimate meaning of their lives."

"SINE DOMINICO NON POSSUMUS"
In conclusion, in paragraph 95, Benedict XVI returns to the vital importance of going to Mass. He recalls: "At the beginning of the fourth century, Christian worship was still forbidden by the imperial authorities. Some Christians in North Africa, who felt bound to celebrate the Lord's Day, defied the prohibition. They were martyred after declaring that it was not possible for them to live without the Eucharist, the food of the Lord: Sine dominico non possumus".

And he continues: “We too cannot live without partaking of the sacrament of our salvation; we too desire to be iuxta dominicam viventes, to reflect in our lives what we celebrate on the Lord's Day. That day is the day of our definitive deliverance. Is it surprising, then, that we should wish to live every day in that newness of life which Christ has brought us in the mystery of the Eucharist?"

From Vatican Radio:



The extraordinary influx of faithful to Pope Benedict XVI's appearances at the Vatican continues.

Yesterday, the 'general audience' returned to St. Peter's Square for the first time since winter because
the crowd could not be accommodated in both St. Peter's Basilica and the Aula Paolo VI where audiences
are held indoors during the cold months.

The Pontifical Household said that 25,000 tickets were issued for yesterday's audience, but the actual
presence at St. Peter's Square was estimated to be at least 40,000, among them some 10,000 pilgrims
alone from Italy's southeastern Puglia region. They came with their bishops who are making their
ad limina visit to Rome.



The statistics show that on the average, attendance at the audiences have been, on the average,
25-40% greater than the number of tickets issued to each audience.

This was confirmed by yesterday's crowd which gathered on a springlike day and welcomed the Pope
and his words with great enthusiasm.



Yesterday's crowd was enlivened by groups of young people wearing red, yellow and orange caps who entertained the crowd earlier with dancing and music.

Here's a translation of a commentary yesterday in the Italian journal Libero, posted by Lella in her blog.

Last call for Catholics
on their way out!
By DREYFUS


Papa Ratzinger insists. He is not inventing anything new. What's obvious is the determination not to change the message. As in the Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis.

In it, he speaks about the Mass and the liturgy. On Jesus, and the wonder He evokes. But the public square is also there, very much there, in the center of common life , where society has to deal with laws, the family, education.

More forcefuly than ever, this exhortation takes the measure of Catholic politicians, their duty not to disobey the Church through passing laws that are against nature, if they wish to be called Catholic. Above all, the Pope calls on the bishops never to give in - a topic to which we shall return.

Benedict XVI shows such consistency, like a contant in physics. He sounds the alarm over 'non-negotiable principles' at every occasion possible, daily almost. This was very clear Tuesday at the news conference presided by Cardinal Angelo Scola to present the Exhortation.

Just an observation, though. How is it that this Italian government does not just govern by its secular sacrosanct autonomy from the Vatican instead of active opposition to the Catholic Church and the Pope?

We can now say that the bugbear of the Italian center-left is no longer Silvio Berlusconi nor even George W. Bush, but rather Joseph Ratzinger. In this government, Mastella and Binetti are perhaps the only two politicians to dstance themselves in this respect, but everyone else has united to disdain the Pope's appeals in favor of the traditional family.

Obviously, there is a range of reasons - from the self-defined 'adult Catholics' like Prime Minister Prodi who claim to have a better understanding of Christianity, to those who take part in demonstrations by people who dress up as bishops or the Pope to ridicule that which, whether they like it or not, is a central symbol of Catholicism: the Papacy and the devotion to the Successor of Peter, 'sweet Christ on earth', as Catherine of Siena put it. [Among these willing participants to a mocking crowd were three of Prodi's ministers, including the two lady ministers, both Catholic, who co-authored the draft law to grant quasi-marital rights to couples in de-facto unions, including homosexuals.]

It doesn't even cross the minds of the latter that Catholics - perhaps not all, but my mother, for instance, yes! - could be offended. And this has nothing to do with what the Pope has to say about DICO.

Although as far as I am concerned, the Great Bavarian [il Grande Bavarese] is right - it's not necessary to be Papist or even a believer to see that. But let's leave our personal judgments out for now.

Let us limit ourselves to factual observations. When Roberto Calderoli [a Cabinet member in the Berlusconi government] wore a sweater that simply pictured Mohammed - without any comments, without malice - he was forced to resign as minister. Even if ultimately, it was admitted that there was nothing wrong in what he did - simply that he may have offended the Muslims. Some of whom reacted by thrashing the Italian consulate in Benghazi, Libya, even after Calderoli had apologized. And Italians blamed him for the Libya incident. He apologized to the Italians. He got a worse reaction - and so he was forced to resign.

In the past few days, the Osservatore Romano criticized the demonstrations by pro-gay marriage homosexuals at Piazza Farnese in Rome last Saturday, referring to the 'questionable costumes and similar carnival acts' by the demonstrators.

Let's say the Vatican newspaper was being too sensitive, that mocking the Pope and bishops in was not questionable nor carnivalesque. But what about the sensibilities of most Italians [who are still largely Catholic] - don't they deserve some consideration?

We're not saying, we don't dare say, that the Pope of Rome is someone as great and as deserving of consideration as say Mullah Omar or the Imam of Milan - oh no, not at all! Compared to such eminences, we know Ratzinger is small potatoes! But we do have a minimum right to reply, don't we, even us, the minus habens?

All the newspapers and the TV newscasts gave great play to the mocking miters and their insulting slogans, but are aghast that those who disagree with such rudeness should even express disappointment!

Imagine that! When Prodi has not even dreamed of asking for the resignation of his three minsietrs who shared the stage with the demonstators on Saturday. [Nor has he censured them in any way! Worse, nor have these ministers said a word to denounce the insults on the Pope committed at that demonstration!]

On the contrary, the leftist organs ran headlines aginst the Osservatore Romano saying "The Vatican now turns to insult" 0or "The Vatican is insulting" - the same newspapers that headlined after the Regensburg ruckus, "The Pope apologizes, but that's not enough", speaking in behalf of offended Muslims.

In short, if the Pope were an imam, or at least an ulema, he would certainly have better treatment.

And you may want to go read the entire text of Sacramentum caritatis and make up your own mind, but here's what the Pope wrote in Paragraph 83 of the Exhortation:

"Here it is important to consider what the Synod Fathers described as eucharistic consistency, a quality which our lives are objectively called to embody.

"Worship pleasing to God can never be a purely private matter, without consequences for our relationships with others: it demands a public witness to our faith. Evidently, this is true for all the baptized, yet it is especially incumbent upon those who, by virtue of their social or political position, must make decisions regarding fundamental values, such as respect for human life, its defence from conception to natural death, the family built upon marriage between a man and a woman, the freedom to educate one's children and the promotion of the common good in all its forms. These values are not negotiable.

"Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature. There is an objective connection here with the Eucharist (cf. 1 Cor 11:27-29). Bishops are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them."

Conscience, responsibility, freedom. These are key words in the papal vocabulary. Is anyone listening?

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/03/2007 14.12]

Here's a translation of how Corriere della Sera reports the notification on Fr. Jon Sobrino in today's issue:

Document without sanctions
on Jon Sobrino -
Liberation theologist censured
By Luigi Accattoli


ROME -Papa Ratzinger has censured a Spanish-born Jesuit theologian, Jon Sobrino, but has not applied any sanctions. The vatican says two of Sobrino's books contain 'imprecisions and errors' - in particular concerning the divinity of Jesus - which could 'harm the faithful.'

The censure is contained in a Notification from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made public yesterday.

The proceedings against Sobrino, a pioneer exponent of liberation theology, began in 2001 when Cardinal Ratzinger was Prefect of the CDF.

It is remarkable that the Pope authorized release of the document at this time, two months before a scheduled trip to Latin America, where he will be visiting Brazil from May 9-13. This is not going to help him with the local media*. [Since when have media considerations prompted what this Pope does nor does not do?] But maybe the Pope feels it is an opportunity to speak about this to the bishops of Latin America amd the Caribbean, whose fifth general conference he will be opening in Aparecida.

Equally remarkable is that the censure of Sobrino has not been accompanied by sanctions. Is this a sign of the 'gentle but firm' attitude that Benedict XVI asked for as a gift from God when he marked the first anniversary of his papacy?

The CDF document is pinctilious in listing the Sobrino's theological deviations, but the man himself is treated with respect: the document takes note of his 'concern' for the poor; it acknowledges that alongside his erroneous statements, there are others, within his own works, that 'contadict' them.

According to the CDF, Sobrino's Jesus is reduced to just 'another believer like us' who came to consider himself 'son of God' through his faith. Sobrino affirms that the divinity of Jesus is only found 'in seed' within the New Testament and was affirmed only by later councils.

Of course, for the Chistian faith, Jesus is God and He knew it, and the Councils simply elaborated on what is already clear in the Scriptures.

Sobrino's books are said to be widely read in Latin America [where they are supposedly used as textbooks in seminaries] and have been translated from Spanish into Italian. He is considered a symbolic figure among those in Latin America who nourish a cult of martyrdom.

Sobrino survived the assaassination of six of his fellow Jesuits at the University of Central America in San Salvador in 1989, only because he happened to be out of the country. The kilings were believed to be a rightist plot because of the Jesuits' social commitment to the cause of El Salvador's poor people.


On the other hand, there are those who cannot just report the notification for what it was, but must find a way to make the CDF look bad somehow despite this sanctionless rebuke, as this report in La Repubblica:

Ratzinger warns a friend of Romero:
Your Christ is hardly holy
By ORAZIO LA ROCCA


VATICAN CITY - A Christ who is close to the needs of the poor but devoid of divinity and too far from the teachings of the Church. That's the severe jugdment that the Vatican has against two books written by Fr. Jon Sobrino, 69, one of the fathers of liberation theology.

"It's a reprimand, not a condemnation," said Fr. Federico Lombardi, himself a Jesuit, director of the Vatican press office, upon the release yesterday of a Notification to the faithful regarding the Sobrino books.

It came the day after Pope Benedict released his Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis in which he reaffirms the principal teachings of the Catholic faith 'in the light of tradition.'

The reprimand, however, could be followed by sanctions to be decided by Sobrino's own order or by his bishop in El Salvador, where he was worked for the past several decades.

Sobrino is reputedly well-known and respected throughout Latin America for his social engagement in behalf of Salvador's poor, and was a friend of El Salvador's Bishop Oscar Romero who was assasinated by a death squad (supposedly sent by rightist politicians) while saying Mass in 1980. In 1989, six of Sobrino's fellow Jesuits were killed, also supposedly by rightist aassassins.

The reprimand from the CDF limits itself to alerting bishops and the faithful about problems raised by some questionable doctrinal points made by Sobrino in his two books. But the document also says it is up to the local bishop to decide whether Sobrino can still teach or lecture on Catholic theology in their jurisdictions....

Father Lombardi, while manifesting "respect for the work Sobrino does and his intentions...as a theologian who lives his faith by participating in the most difficult experiences of the poor," also points out that Sobrino's 'low-level Christology' has critical points which "place in question the integrity and stability of the bridge that allows communication between God and man, including the poor in all eras."

The spokesman for the Jesuit order, Fr. Jose de Vera, claimed that Sobrino wanted 'to open a dialog with the CDF to show that his faith remained Catholic, but this was not possible." [Another misrepresentation?]

But even he admits that the notification does not 'indicate any specific punishment.' As if to say that his fellow Jesuit's fate has not yet truly been sealed. But could be later. [Come on! Didn't you just report a few sentences earlier that it is up th the local bishop to decide whether to sanction Sobrino? How pathetic that editors allow their reporters to editorialize within a news story!]

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/03/2007 11.50]

Here's a helpful way to look at Sacramentum caritatis (or SacCar, as the following author prefers to shorten it) by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, who blogs from Rome on wdtprs.com/blog/
and who attended the news conference at which the document was presented last Tuesday.


The Exhortation is out:
My first observations

By Fr. John Zuhlsdorf


I am still in the process of absorbing the document but I can make some observations.

First and foremost, if you were expecting Pope Benedict to "hammer" someone or let his inner Vader out, you were as naive as you are unfamiliar with Pope Benedict.

Second, this document has a purpose, that is, the respond to and re-propose things which the 2005 Synod of Bishops offered to the Pope for whatever use he might decide to make of them. Benedict was not obliged to write anything at all, much less anything innovative.

Third, while the Pope did not make sweeping changes, or legislate anything, or blacken any eyes, he did in fact offer some theological point which when considered in themselves are innovative. I will get to those below.

Fourth, Pope Benedict has been reflecting on liturgy for a long time and he has said on more than one occasion that a) he wants a "new liturgical movement" to breath life into the Church’s worship and life, but he knows that this must be done through a hermeneutic of continuity, which phrase he uses in the Exhortation (hereafter SacCar).

Here are some comments, not necessarily in order of importance, but interesting to me.

The document is huge, covering a vast number of topics. This reflects the work of the 2005 Synod, which discussed a wide range of topics and made offered many propositions to the Holy Father for his consideration. The Pope glosses the Synod’s propositions in his own way and uses them, along with some of his own reflections, as starting points. This is the value of the document.

Since the Eucharistic is the "source and summit" of the Church’s life (and this was precisely the theme of that 2005 Synod of Bishops), there is not a single aspect of the Church’s life which the Eucharist does not impact. This is one reason why the document seems to cover so much ground. Also, each Congregation was able to stick their nose in with suggestions as well. Without providing specific legislation, Benedict expresses his desires concerning different matters.

If those desires are taken at face value and read in a spirit of filial obedience, rather than the spirit of a bratty tantrum, what the Pope says is good.

The Pope explicitly links SacCar to his encyclical Deus caritas est. SacCar is in three main parts. The three parts reflect the Pope’s presentation of a paradigm. This is the main structure of the document and it reveals where his mind is going. There is a relationship (par. 5) between "the eucharistic mystery, the liturgical action, and the new spiritual worship which derives from the Eucharist as the sacrament of charity."

My own observation is that years ago Joseph Ratzinger wrote in a book reprising the title of Romano Guardini’s The Spirit of the Liturgy that he desires to respark a new liturgical movement. Let’s call if a "reform of the reform" to use a common phrase.

There is an innovation in SacCar from the point of view of the direction of Benedict’s structure, which aims at "the new spiritual worship". Keep in mind that Joseph Ratzinger openly desired to spark a new liturgical movement. This hinge in the Exhortation seems to be a part of this program.

For Benedict the "new liturgical worship" is the "liturgical action" itself. On the surface that might seem circular, but there is more going on here than meets first impressions.

Benedict is forcefully underscoring the importance of the liturgical action itself. The action is the rite. Thus the celebration of the Eucharist conforms Christian life. It conforms the Christian through participation in a mystery which is to be lived. So, there is a direct connection between the way the rite, the actio, is celebrated and living like a Christian.

This logically leads to the necessary of a reform of the way the Church is celebrating the actio. The idea is this: celebrate the liturgy well (I would add especially Holy Mass, the Eucharist) and it forms us to live better. The impact of good liturgical celebration on Christian living requires, therefore, great vigilance and fidelity. Thus, there is both a qualitative dimension to the effect of good liturgical celebration (actio) and even the quantitative dimension!

This is a wonderful thing to pick up from the Pope’s document. It is something I have written about not a few times here and in print. Remember the Save The Liturgy, Save The World argument? This is precisely what the Pope is driving at!

Thus the ars celebrandi or "art of celebrating" has a direct influence on "active participation" in the actio. Benedict argues for a direct dependence of actuosa participatio on the ars celebrandi. This is not so new, if you think about it with common sense.

The Pope says that to go into the depths of the ars celebrandi (and thus create the proper impact on the Church through active "personal" participation, there must be close fidelity to the rite itself which is the the actio and which makes the actio happen. The ars celebrandi flows from obedience to all liturgical norms! (par 38)

The document then applies this principle to over dozens of questions. Pay attention to this: The document appears to be a laundry list of topics. However, when the Pope looks at all the elements, he is looking at them through the lens the "hermeneutic" I laid out above. If you don’t get what his theological starting points are, the document just seems like spaghetti thrown against the wall. (As a matter of fact, that was pretty much the reaction of the journalists in the press office.)

Fr. Z then goes into detail, picking out the sections of SacCar that illustrate his points. Read on...
wdtprs.com/blog/2007/03/the-exhortation-is-out-my-first-obser...


============================================================

And a useful appendix to differentiate the diffrent types of Vatican documents and their importance, from the Catholic site Second Exodus:

Apostolic Exhortation:
A letter written by the Pope to the Church encouraging its people to take some particular action.

Because apostolic exhortations do not define the development of doctrine, they are lower in formal authority than encyclical letters, which are directed to the whole Church and which may define development of doctrine.

A recent example would be Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation, Ecclesia in America, January 22, 1999, encouraging the faithful to seek the living Christ and find conversion, communion and solidarity within the context of the Great Jubilee and the new evangelization.

Vatican documents include, in descending order of formal authority: apostolic constitutions, encyclical letters, encyclical epistles, apostolic exhortations, apostolic letters, letters and messages.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/03/2007 13.05]

An editorial in Avvenire today both presents and refutes the reflex outcry in response to the Pope's Apostolic Exhortation from anti-church elements in Italy, including the usual Caholic progressivist mix of leftist intellectuals and polticians. Here is a translation:


This exhortation is not repressive
By Francesco D'Agostino

To present the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis as the expression of "A Church that prohibits" (the unhappy title that la Repubblica gave yesterday to a commentary by Giuseppe Alberigo) is so misleading that one must ask whether the writer has in fact read the text.

[Of course, he has. But he's Alberigo, leader of the 'Bologna school' of progressivists who claim to be the sole repository and interpreters of the 'spirit of Vatican-II' and will therfore never see anything positive in a Church that follows the continuity of tradition.]

Just reflect on the title which, as well-read Catholics know, is the sxpression St. Thomas Aquinas used to refer to the Eucharist, the sign that God has not abandoned the world, but loving mankind, continues to be present in the world.

It is absurd reduce the gift of eucharistic grace, which in our imaginative poverty we can only refer to using the metaphor of infinite warmth that is capable of lighting up any heart that wants to open up to God, to the cold if not frigid interpretation of prohibition.

The Eucharist is a gift of love. He who loves us does not wish to prohibit us from anything, except that which would mislead us into losing our identity. But this, rather than a prohibition, is the greatest gift that God can make us.

Therefore, to think, like Alberigo does, that the exhortation only tends to reinforce 'the conservative function that the Church exercises in many contemporary societies" means persisting in paradigms that we had thought were past gone - namely, that 'to conserve' is always bad and to "innovate' is reciprocally always good.

Do we have to point out again that it's not that way at all? But St. Paul already said, once and for all: "Examine every thing!" and then consequently, "Keep that which is good" (1 Thes 5,21). So if the 'conservative function' of the Church is manifested by "keeping what is good" , then it is a sacrosanct function.

The objective ill-will with which secular circles have presented the Exhortation is equally demonstrated in another bold headline in the same issue of Repubblica, on Page 6, in which the expression "NO to laws against nature" is directly attributed to the Pope.

In and by itself, the expression should not elicit a protest, except that the peremptory NO attributed to the Pope is meant to show the 'repressive' nature of the exhortation.

But this expression itself, placed within quotation marks in the headline and its story - so that the reader would automatically attribute it to the Pope - is not to be found in the Exhortation at all!

What there is, instead, is a positive invitation to Catholic politicians and legislators "to present and support legislation inspired by the values inherent in human nature" (Section 83).

This invitation has a very clear and undisputable doctrinal basis: Eucharistic consistency, which we are called upon to observe in our daily life.

The Eucharist is not an esoteric ritual practice which functions only inside the Church. Christian worship, eays the Exhortation, 'is never merely a private act, without consequences on our social relations: it calls for public testimony of our faith.

And how best to bear witness to this faith if not by defending its fundamental values such as "human life, the family founded on matrimony between man and woman, the freedom to educate children in the faith, and the promotion of the common good in all its forms"?

In the Exhortation, the non-negotiability of these values - which are otherwise rational and can be defended on purely rational grounds - are seen to lead consistently to the Eurcharistic faith of the Church. If acknowledging fundamental human values can result from a correct, even if cold, application of reason, defending them is proof and effect of a profound love for man, that love which becomes a sacrament in the Eucharist.

For whoever wants to read it in good faith, this Exhortation does not manifest a Church that prohibits but a Church that loves.

========================================================

I think Mr. D'Agostino should have pointed out at the start that nothing in this Exhortation is new - the Pope has been saying the same things almost daily since he became Pope. For the critics to treat it as if it were some new outrage perpetrated by a retrograde Pope is simply dishonest and wrong.

Lella provides us with the Alberigo article that prompted the above. Here is a translation:


The Church that prohibits
By GIUSEPPE ALBERIGO


The document published today by the Holy See carries the signature of Benedict XVI and is presented as a synthesis of the 'orientations' expressed at the Synod of Bishops held several months ago. It refers to many complex aspects of the life of the Church - almsot all of them the subject of lively debate within and outside the Catholic world.

Because of the authority carried by the text and the variety of problems that it deals with, it requires a profound analysis commensurate to the long gestation that this 'exhortation' had.

At first reading, one cannot help ask how much this text effectively reflects the positions expressed in the Synod, which included bishops from all over the world, inevitably carrying with them different experiences and orientations. [But the position paper given to the Pope on which to base his exhortation was based on consensus reached by votation on every point discussed, Mr. Alberigo. Are you now accusing the Pope of misrepresenting the consensus of the bishops? And do you really think that the opinions of the minority should be included in an Exhortation? Would that not be an outright contradiction in terms? ]

In the second place, one must ask how it will be received by the common faithful and the priests in charge of their spiritual care. In fact, it is well-known that many of the practices censured by the Pope are practised by the great majority of Catholics (for example, the divorcees who are excluded from the sacraments), even those who consider themselves 'committed Catholics", nor are they censured by their local priests. [What kind of reasoning is this? If the Pope were to tailor his exhortation to the common practice among some Catholics - I could not say by 'the great majority of committed Catholics' as Alberigo claims - then he does not deserve to be Pope!]

One thinks of the unhappy outcome of another act analogous in many ways, the encyclical Humanae vitae by Paul VI, which was met with a generalized rejection in the entire Catholic world. [Again, the implication that whatever is unpopular is wrong, and therefore, whatever is popular must be right, and that is what the Church should advocate. The encyclical, in effect, was against contraception. A conviction or a belief is no longer such if it changes with popular opinion.]

Of course, it is easy to predict that there will be 'theo-con' circles who will engage in validating these orientations which all seem to tend - in varying measures - to reinforce the conservative function that the Catholic church exercises in many contemporary societies.

But have the advisers of the Holy Father asked themselves what
the pastoral impact would be of an act like this? Are they sure that it will not introduce seeds of dissolution rather than reinforcement in the ecclesiastical body?
[But Mr. Alberigo, what do they have to ask themselves? What is new about the situation? As always, the Catholics who are obedient to the Magisterium will follow; and those who choose to pick only what they want, like you and your fellow progressivists, will ignore what the Pope says and mock him. You can't stand it that the Church persists in restating its age-old truths. Well, there are Catholics like me who can't stand it that you and your ilk want to impose your magisterium on the Church. What apostolic succession do you claim?]

It's obvious that not everything is going well in the Catholic Church [Tell me any multinational with more than billion members - or for that matter, any human society - that would have everything going well! What a condescending but utterly stupid statement!], but is it really its ethical aspects that are most deficient? Is it not rather the blurring of evangelical transparency that makes it so difficult for many to recognize Christ and his Gospel through the encumberuing presence of the Church? [What? who is blurring the Gospel if not people like you? And what should the Catholic Church be - a society of autonomous individuals each professing to follow only the 'primacy' of their own conscience? The Church administers continuity with Christ - how else has Catholicism survived two centuries?]

The Exhortation has general application and does not focus directly on any Italian problem. Nevertheless, one cannot ignore - after the discussion in recent weeks - the part that refers anew to how Catholic legislators should behave.

Opportunely, the Papal text exhorts them to be "conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce and support laws inspired by values grounded in human nature."

It is a timely appeal, although a bit redundant since these politicians are all adult, and who can doubt that they are guided by their conscience? [To reaffirm the basic truths of a religion is never redundant, and the self-defined 'adult Catholics' of Italy like Prodi and Bindi are certainly guided by ther conscience, but the Exhortation refers to 'properly formed conscience', not just any willful conscience!

I find it difficult to see any Catholic lawmakers - in Italy or anywhere else - who do not obey their conscience [But is such conscience properly-formed? That is the question], even encountering external difficulties and internal struggles because of this. Don't these Christians deserve more trust and sympathy? [But how does appealing to them to observe the doctrine of the Church violate that trust and sympathy in any way? The Pope is the pastor of the universal flock, and he is simply doing his duty. He is doing his part - let those concerned do theirs. If they insist on doing as they please, and not as the Church teaches, it is sad for the Church, but it is not the first nor the last time that this happens.]

Anyone who reads the exhortation would think these politicians were nothing but hardened sinners. [Excuse me? Read the sentence again, and the whole section if you please! Freud would have a lot to say about people like you who project their own ill-will onto everything they see.]

Nevertheless, it is far from the threats aired a month ago by the president of the Italian bishops coference. [What threats, Mr. Alberigo? Cardinal Ruini said the CEI would come out with a statement to guide Catholic politicians, and that the statement should be 'binding on those who believe in the Magisterium". How can that be a threat to people who, as you yourself have said, have long since practised abortion, contraception, divorce and other practices the Church disapproves of, and therefore, obviously do not believe in the Magisterium? The CEI statement, when it comes, will be just be another Church teaching that they will choose to ignore. What threat is the Church capable of making anyway - the threat of hell? I I doubt that people who don't even think that killing a baby in the womb is a crime believe in heaven or hell, anyway! ?]

These reflections should not and cannot be considered - unless in bad faith - as a suggestion to the Church and its ministers to shut up. It is good and healthy that such authoritative convictions are expressed. [Oh how condescending - to the Pope, no less! Not only is it good and healthy, but right and obligatory, Sir, on the part of the spiritual leader of the world's Catholics!]

Still it is not clear that a negative tone of prohibition is the most convicing andappropriate way to communicate the Gospel!
[Hello, where have you been? How many times has this Pope said that the message of the Gospel is first and foremost the joy of being friends with Christ, that what people like you choose to see as NO signs, like the Ten Commandments, rather than a prohibition from doing bad things, are a commitment to doing the right things, a YES to what is true, good and beautiful. It's all in the eye of the beholder, Sir, and you have obviously world-weary and jaundiced eyes! .]

============================================================

I apologize to anyone who may be irritated by my 'fisking' -
As I have separated my comments by italicizing them, just skip over them. But it is articles like these, written by intellectuals of some reputation like Alberigo has - who state one unchallenged fallacy after another so facilely - that are read by thousands if not tens of thousands, of simple readers who have been conditioned to believe that anything they see in the media must be true. And almost every statement that Alberigo makes in this article is patently and objectively disputable if not outright fallacious!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/03/2007 1.19]

Oh, I had a very uncomfortable feeling in my gut when I noticed this passage in the interview that Cardinal Dsiwisz gave to Corriere della Sera, a translation of which I posted 3/10/07 in REMEMBERING JOHN PAUL II:

---

On April 2, on the second anniversary of Pope John Paul's death, the diocesan phase of the beatification process ends. What will happen next?
Now it is up to Rome, to the Curia. I am not impatient. I am in absolutely no hurry. Beatification, juridically, means allowing local veneration, which means in this case, only in the diocese of Cracow. But there may be a contradiction here because veneration for the late Pope has transcended all barriers and is worldwide.

It is certainly possible to 'skip' the beatification process altogether and proceed directly to canonization. But all this depends on the Holy Father. For a long time, there was only the canonization process. Beatification was introduced as a juridical step.

Canonization is very different from the theological point of view: to declare sainthood is the prerogative solely of the Pope, because it is linked to Papal infallibility.

---

And I had very much wanted to comment, does this mean Dsiwisz wants the Pope to skip the beatification process and just proceed straight to canonization - even if, curiously, he precedes everything by saying "I am not impatient; I am absolutely in no hurry'? - Well, that is indeed what he meant! Here's the story today in the Italian papers. I am translating the one by Andrea Tornielli in Il Giornale.


'Pressing' on Benedict XVI:
«Proclaim Wojtyla a saint now"
[NB: The English term 'pressing', as in basketball, is used by the Italians to denote just what it means]

By Andrea Tornielli

"We don't want to impose anything on the Holy Father but our true desire is that John Paul II be proclamied a saint now," Cardinal Stanislaw Dsiwisz says without mincing words, asking publicly for a further shortening of the route to sainthood prescribed by Church law.

[Benedict XVI had already advanced the process by waiving the normal 5-year period and authorizing immediate commencement of beatification proceedings for his predecessor a month after his death.]

In the past few days, after the announcement that the diocesan phase of the beatification profess would formally close on April 2, second anniversary of the Pope's death, Dsiwisz - in several statements and interviews - already spoke of the fast route to canonization as well, saying at the same time he "was in absolutely no hurry."

But in a statement yesterday to Polskie Radio and in an interview with the Polish newspaper Dziennik, Dsiwisz came out openly to say he had requested Pope Benedict to skip the beatification process and proceed straight to canonization.

He repeated what he has said on earlier occasions [as in the 3/10 interview I cited]: "Beatification, juridically, means allowing local veneration, which means in this case, only in the diocese of Cracow. But you cannot speak of a local cult here because veneration for the late Pope has transcended all barriers and is worldwide."

According to canon law, the file on John Paul-II's cause for beatification now goes to the Congregation for the Cause of Sainthood, for appropriate review and verification of at least one post-mortem miracle attributed to the candidate, before beatification. A second verified miracle would be needed for canonization.

Well-informed sources say that Dsiwisz has repeatedly asked Pope Benedict XVI to proclaim John Paul II's sainthood right away and that he had wanted this to happen when Pope Benedict travelled to Poland last year.

In 2003, two years before he died, John Paul II faced a situation similar to what Dsiwisz has now placed Benedict in: A few months before the scheduled beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta (for whom John Paul II had already waived the normal waiting period to commence the beatification process), he received a petition from the late nun's congregation to proclaim her a saint right away without going through beatification.

Wojtyla consulted his Curia, and the majority voted against it.
Therefore, in October 2003, Mother Teresa was proclaimed "Blessed" but not "Saint."

Pope Paul VI was confronted with a similar case during the second Vatican Council. After John XXIII died, some bishops recommended that the Council itself canonize him by acclamation. Paul VI decided to follow canonical law and authorized the start of the beatification process for both his predecessors - Pius XIII and John XXIII. The latter was beatified in 2000; Pius XII's case is still pending.

Benedict XVI will therefore have precedents to take into account, including Wojtyla's own decision with regard to Mother Teresa.

Dsiwisz has said in the past few months, following the spate of accusations against alleged collaboration by Polish clergy with the Communists that it was one way for John Paul's enemies to block his beatification. [How? All witnesses, pro and con, must be formally heard by the canonical tribunals, and both Cracow and Rome have closed their diocesan inquiries.]

==============================================================

Now, although I personally have considered John Paul II a saint since he died and pray for his intercession as if he were already a formally proclaimed saint, my discomfort at first seeing Dsiwisz's declaration was that he was imposing, precisely, on Benedict XVI - much as he says he doesn't 'want to impose.' Now he has done so directly and openly, which I truly believe is not right. Did he, in his time, publicize the fact that Mother Teresa's congregation asked John Paul II to proceed directly to her canonization?

What is his hurry? John Paul will be formally a saint in time, and there are probably millions like me who already pray to him as a canonized saint. Why this public pressure on Benedict? I don't know about you, but I truly find it all improper and unseemly. And the feeling in my gut is worse!

I withheld comment when I first read the Corriere della Sera interview because you know how it is when you wish something were not happening - you don't acknowledge it. Well, here we are....

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/03/2007 13.28]

As Pope Benedict XVI is probably not capable of feeling outrage the way we lesser mortals do, let me undertake the outrage in his behalf. What - in God's name, literally - is Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini trying to do? Establish a parallel Papacy in which every time the Pope pronounces himself on something doctrinally basic to the Catholic Church, Martini must say otherwise, in the guise of saying 'the Church must listen to people'? Is that what the Magisterium has been doing the past 2000 years? Listening to public opinion and acting according to it?

Here's a translation of a Corriere della Sera article today on Martini's latest 'parallel Magisterium', or should I say, anti-Magisterium.

'One must listen to people
and tell them what they can understand'


BETHLEHEM - Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini walks forward slowly with a cane in the Church of St. Catherine, next to the Basilica of the Nativity. To celebrate Martini's 80th birthday, Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi of Milan has accompanied 1200 Milanese pilgrims to the Holy Land who are now chanting "Carlo Maria" and clapping to acclaim their former archbishop.

And he, Martini, despite eyebrows as white now as the snowy rooftops of Bethlehem ("It has never happened before - a birthday Mass in March and it's snowing!"), has a habitual gleam of irony in his eyes as he thanks the faithful and calls on the Church to "listen to the people".

"We have a great mission to carry forward, for which I pray daily: that the Church in Italy be given the gift to say what the people understand - not a command from on high that should be accepted because it is ordered from above, but because it has a reason, a sense, that says something to them..." [Does he mean the Pope's address in Verona that was specifically addressed to the Church in Italy, and the subsequent messages from the Pope and other bishops on the sanctity of the family based on the union of man and woman? None of those messages had a reason and a sense that says something to the Italian people?]

Two days earlier, in Nazareth, Cardinal Tettamanzi, Martini's successor in Milan, spoke about the family and the need to attract non-believers and common-law couples through 'the evangelical manner...because if the Church doesn't do it, the Lord will". [And now, the acolyte chimes in. When a few weeks ago, in Milan, he delivered a long address in support of the Church postion on the family and why DICO is wrong for the family!]

Now Biblical scholar Martini cites St. Paul's letter to Titus, in which he advises to "live in moderation, justice and piety", commenting: "These strike me a secular words."

And that is the point, he explains: "The Church must make itself understood by listening to the people - their needs, their problems, their sufferings - allowing their words to echo in our hearts so that they will be reflected in what we say, and so, our words will not come from on high, from a theory, but derive directly from what people feel and live, the truth of experience, and this can bring them to the Gospel."

Not "strange and incomprehensible discourses," he says, "but words which everyone can understand - even those who do not practise any religion or those who have another, because this is the first step [to attracting them to Jesus, presumably]. [What 'strange and incomprehensible discourses'? The Regensburg lecture, maybe? About whose theme of 'faith and reason' the Pope has spoken enough in clear and simple terms on so many occasions?]

He said he does not believe much in 'inter-religious dialog' because "each religion is somewhat pigeonholed into its own system of values, which tend to be repetitive" ['le schemi si ripetono']. But 'there's a level of truth in words that is valid for everyone, believers or not, and in which everyone feels involved and part of a common responsibility." [I think Pope Benedict XVI and his bishops have been spelling this out repeatedly and calling it by its name, natural law!]

The cardinal talks of his age: "I have reached the waiting list for the final call" and he's doing so "without regrets, serenely", because as St. Paul says, "There is no comparison between the sufferings of the present and the glory which awaits us."

He asks the Church to be trustful. Is there a hostile climate to it? "Our communities often complain about this, with some reason, but without realizing it, they have become somewhat imprisoned in a complaining attitude - and that's Satan's game!"

He recalls that he used to tell unhappy parish priests: "But don't you have any good things to thank the Lord for? Start listing the good things, because keeping your faith in a situation that has become so secularized is a miracle in itself, a gift of God. We must start with the good things, even if there are few, and try to amplify them. Because, on the toehr hand, the list of things we lack is endless, and all pastoral plans thaty begin with a list of the things one lacks
is destined to cause frustration rather than hope". [Now that's something very sensible and deserves to be told to every parish priest!]

About the relation between the Church and modernity: "Modernity is not an abstract thing, we are within it, and each of us is modern if we live authentically. It's not a question of the times, but of being truly present in it, listening."

About the family: "I remember that I delivered a St. Ambrose Day address about it - we should go back to that today." In it he said, the Church must guard against "the panic of being under siege" and from "trying to impose, as by authority, our concept of the family."

But the family should be promoted, he said: "It is an institution that has an intrinsic strength - this force does not come from outside, from whatever agency that might be. We need to emphasize this strength so that the people can desire it, love it, and make sacrifices for it." [But how does the Church do that if not as an external agency? The Magisterium is not automatically in the hearts of believers. Like the Gospel, it has to be proclaimed again and again, and reinforced. We are humans, alas, and therefore, such messages are not always self-reinforcing.]

He will probably be disputed. But it is Martini himself who talks of the "need" to discuss freely. [Meaning no one else in the Church has done that? What was Regensburg all about?}

And now he smiles and confirms it: "But it wasn't even me who said it first. Karl Rahner already said it - that there must be public opinion within the Church. But if that has since increased or decreased, I couldn't say because coming to Jerusalem, without any public duties, I have adopted and rigorously observe Matthew 7,1: don't judge others and you will not be judged. So I don't judge others, because I will be judged in the same measure."

==============================================================

But judgments are not always explicit, and Cardinal Martini, in choosing deliberately to contest the Church's 'way', if not actually its doctrine, during the past two years, has been openly judging this Papacy, if not the Pope himself.

I've read back this article a few times to see if there is any way one could interpret the cardinal's implicit and explicit criticisms of the Church as being simply general statements not necessarily applicable to the present situation under Benedict XVI. I hope others can see it, but I can't.

What I can't explain is, if Martini is referring to the 5% or less of Italians who are the presumed beneficiaries of DICO, why would he advocate that the Church do as the defeatist multi-culturalists of Europe do, who bend their laws and even their Constitution, to accommodate minorities?

What exactly does he mean by 'listening' to people and 'public opinion within the Church'? The same thing liberals mean when they say it, that is, 'listen to what we say and follow it'?

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/03/2007 13.44]

The Vatican Press Office has released the itinerary for the papal trip to Brazil:

Wednesday, 5/9/07
Rome - São Paolo

Thursday, 5/10
São Paolo

Friday, 5/11
São Paolo - Aparecida

Saturday, 5/12
Aparecida - Guaratinguetá - Aparecida

Sunday, 5/13
Aparecida - São Paolo

Monday, 5/14
Roma


Brazil time is 5 hours behind Itaian time.

The detailed schedule will be released later.

THE POPE'S ACTIVITIES TODAY:

- Attended the second Lenten sermon by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa at the Redemptoris Mater chapel of the Apostolic Palace

- Received the credentials of the new ambassador from Peru (Spanish address for translation)

- Received the participants in a course for the Official Penitentiaries of the Vatican (Italian text for translation)

The Vatican also released today -
the Final Declaration of the XIII General Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Life which discussed this year thetheme "Christian conscience in support of the the right to life" (Italian text for translation]

=============================================================
Here are the VIS reports:

VATICAN CITY, MAR 16, 2007 (VIS) - Today in the Vatican, the Holy Father received the Letters of Credence of Alfonso Rivero Monsalve, the new ambassador of Peru to the Holy See, asking the diplomat to pass on his "respectful greetings to Alan Garcia Perez," Peruvian president, and "to the beloved people of Peru."

"This meeting calls to mind the profound ties that have existed and continue to exist between your nation and the Church," said Benedict XVI. And he recalled how "the Catholic faith, taken there by evangelizers such as St. Toribio de Mogrovejo, ... became accepted and slowly penetrated the cultural and social fabric of that blessed people among whom the first saints of Latin America soon appeared," such as "Rose of Lima, Martin de Porres, Francis Solano, Juan Macias, and the Blessed Ana de los Angeles Monteagudo."

The Pope went on to refer to "the profound changes" that Peru is facing in the context of "social, political and economic transformations," observing that such processes "have a direct effect upon people and their values."

"We know," he said, "that Peru wishes to respond effectively to the phenomenon of globalization, taking advantage of the opportunities presented by economic growth to ensure that the resulting wealth and other social advantages reach everyone in an equitable way. Peruvians ... also hope that health services may serve all social categories, that education may be available to everyone, ... and that corruption may be contrasted with an integrity that enables the effective operation of public institutions, thus helping to overcome so many situations of hunger and misery."

"Furthermore," the Holy Father continued, "there is a pressing need for unity of intent among leaders to ensure they face the challenges of a globalized world ... with true solidarity. The Church, which recognizes the State's role in social, political and economic questions, assumes as her duty - deriving from her evangelizing mission - the protection and proclamation of the truth about human beings, about the meaning of life and its final destiny, which is God. She is the source of inspiration ensuring that the dignity of the person and of life, from conception to natural end, is recognized and protected, as guaranteed by the Peruvian Constitution."

"From the Apostolic See," Pope Benedict continued, "we will continue to support all social efforts currently being made in favor of equality of opportunity," and to ensure "that each Peruvian feels their inalienable rights are respected," and that "the Peruvian episcopate continues to foment, in the light of the Gospel and the Church's social doctrine, the search for truth in the family, the workplace and the socio-political field."

"The Church, aware of her religious mission (and for that reason sublimely human), and of her duty to propose the truth to all mankind (who as children of God have a superior dignity that comes before all positive law), will continue to work to reach these objectives," the Pope concluded. Moreover, as "an expert in humanity she teaches that only by respecting moral law which defends and protects the dignity of the human person, can peace by built, favoring stable social progress."

=============================================================
PETRUS reports this appropriate sidebar to the above:

On March 25, Peru will celebrate the Day of the Unborn Child, at the initiative of the Commission for the Family and the Defense of Life of teh latin ameriocan bishops conference.

The news release says it will be 'an occasion to launch a new appeal to Christians and all men and women of goodwill to the great and mysterious gift of life which shines in every man, especially those who are waiting to be born."

"Love, defend and celebrate life" is the theme chosen byteh bishops who say: There is no circumstance that can change the scientific fact which is intact and unchanged, that we are dealing with a human being, as precious as if ti were already born, from the moment of conception itself.

Recalling words by the Pope - "Life, which is a work of God, cannot be denied to anyone, not even to the smallest and most defenseless of babies waiting to be born, much less if trhey have severe handicaps" - the bishops underscore the importance of the meswasage for teh entire Latin American continent.

But especially Peru, where there is an ever more aggressive and insistent threat to depenalize and legalize abortion, ostensibly for 'therapeutic' reasons, prposed as a 'solution' to pregnancies resulting in congenital malformation or the outcome of rape.

"But even in the guise of therapeutic abortion, it is still the killing of a human being with the help of another,"t teh bishops said.

The celebration will be preceded the previous day by a march planned by the Archbishop of Cuzco 'to give a voice to the voiceless."

Organizers said, "We will be saying NO not only to abortion, but also to any genetic manipulation, conraception, euthanasia, and the use of any treatment that would threaten human life at any stage."

==============================================================
Pope reiterates importawnce
sacramental confession


VATICAN CITY, MAR 16, 2007 (VIS) - At midday today, the Pope received participants in the annual course on the internal forum promoted by the Apostolic Penitentiary.

In his address, Benedict XVI considered the importance of the Sacrament of Penance and the need for priests to prepare themselves to administer it with devotion and faithfulness to God, for the sanctification of Christian people.

"We all," said the Holy Father, "need to draw from the inexhaustible spring of divine love, which was made totally manifest to us in the mystery of the Cross, in order to find true peace with God, with ourselves and with our fellow man. Only from this spiritual spring is it possible to draw the interior energy indispensable for defeating evil and sin in the ceaseless struggle that marks our earthly pilgrimage towards the heavenly homeland."

The Pope highlighted how in the modern world "we see a humanity that wishes for self sufficiency, where no small number of people almost feel they can do without God to live well; and yet, how many seem sadly condemned to face ... empty lives, how much violence there still is on the earth, how much solitude weighs upon the soul of man in the era of communication! In a word, it seems today that we have lost a 'sense of sin' ... but have increased our 'complex of guilt'."

"May priests, ministers of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, always feel that their task is to make known the merciful love of God, both through words and in their approach to penitents. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, welcome penitent sinners, help them to arise from their sin and encourage them to make amends, never compromising with evil but resuming the journey towards evangelical perfection."

Priests, said the Holy Father, must be animated by a constant longing for sanctity. In order to carry out their "important mission," as confessors they "must remain faithful to the Church's Magisterium in matters of moral doctrine, aware that the law of good and evil is not determined by situations, but by God."

The Holy Father concluded by calling upon the Virgin, Mother of Mercy, "to support the ministry of priest confessors and to help Christian communities to understand the value and importance of the Sacrament of Penance for the spiritual growth of all the faithful."

========================================================


VATICAN CITY, MAR 16, 2007 (VIS) - The Vatican released today the final declaration of the 13th General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, which held an international congress from February 23 to 24 on the theme "Christian conscience in support of the right to life."

Among other things, the assembly declared that the "test bed" of Christian conscience "is in the healthcare profession when it faces the duty of protecting human life and the risk of finding itself in situations of cooperation with evil in the application of professional duties." In such situations "the due exercise of 'decided contentious objection' assumes great importance."

The declaration highlights the need "for mobilization of all those concerned with human life, a mobilization that must also extend to the political field. An indispensable requirement of justice is respect for the principle of equality, which requires the protection of everyone's rights, especially of the weakest and most defenseless."

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/03/2007 8.07]

Now, all the pro-DICO elements in Italy are hailing Cardinal Martini's statements - and just because it appears that he is on their side, they do not consider his statements INTERFERENCE, whereas anything the Pope or his bishops say against their pet project is considered INTERFERENCE....When will all these immature and irresponsible politicans grow up and reocgnize that FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION is for everyone, for or against them???? WHY THIS GLARING AND BLATANT DOUBLE STANDARD THAT WOULD HAVE THE CHURCH - MEANING THE POPE AND HIS SYNOD OF ACTIVE BISHOPS (NOT A RETIRED CARDINAL WHO NO LONGER HAS ANY OFFICIAL POSITION IN THE CHURCH) - SHUT UP WHEN THEY DON'T LIKE WHAT IT IS SAYING?

THE CHURCH AND ITS MAGISTERIUM - and this does not mean one retired cardinal whom the media have anointed their pope - HAVE THE DUTY AND THE RIGHT TO SPEAK UP ABOUT CHURCH TEACHING ANY TIME THEY PLEASE! Just as others have the right to speak up whenever they please, as Cardinal Martini does.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/03/2007 5.21]

I am so glad Allen is making the point he makes here, because clearly the Notification warning aginst Sobrino's ideas ahad nothing to do with liberation theology and everything to do with the figure of Christ. When even a priest who calls himself Catholic teaches and preaches essentially that Christ is not God, then in effect, you havE a Dan Brown spreading his false 'gospel' in Latin America! Where the bomming evangelicals are all Christ-centered Christ as God, that is!

================================================================

Sobrino's notification:
a sign of things to come
All Things Catholic
by John L. Allen, Jr.
Friday, Mar. 16, 2007


I suspect the most common reaction to news this week that the Vatican has censured Jesuit Fr. Jon Sobrino, a pioneer of liberation theology and a former advisor to Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, will be, "Why now?" After all, the titanic battles over liberation theology were fought during the 1970s and '80s. Should we also expect the Holy See, some may wryly ask, to condemn eight-track tapes, or "Miami Vice"?

Given how anachronistic the move seems, some have been tempted to read it as a "shot across the bow" prior to Pope Benedict XVI's May 9-13 visit to Brazil for the meeting of CELAM, the Latin American bishops' conference.

In fact, however, the Notification from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Sobrino is not quite as "retro" as it appears. A close reading reveals that its main concern is not really old arguments over liberation theology and Marxism, but rather more recent debates over the uniqueness and singularity of Jesus Christ.

The text is of a piece, therefore, not with the 1984 "Instruction on Certain Aspects of the Theology of Liberation," but rather the 2001 document Dominus Iesus, and the proper analogy is not to 1980s-era investigations of Leonardo Boff or Gustavo Gutiérrez, but rather to notifications over the last six years regarding Jesuits Roger Haight and the late Jacques Dupuis.

Surveying the contemporary scene, the Vatican's core theological concern is that, in the name of cultural and religious pluralism, traditional doctrines about Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the World gradually will be drained of their content. Theologians may continue to use the old vocabulary, but what they mean by it will mutate, and over time the Second Person of the Trinity will be replaced with a merely human Jesus analogous to other great religious founders and prophets.

Christology is, to this way of thinking, the "canary in the coal mine" for the impact of religious relativism on Catholic doctrine. Once the decision is made that it's arrogant to impute a special truth value to Christianity, then traditional claims about Christ have to be understood as "metaphors" or "symbols," rather than as statements of fact. If that's allowed to happen, then Christian doctrines become a sort of religious poetry, rather than a body of teaching grounded in ultimate reality.

This scenario has been an idée fixe of Benedict XVI, the pope who famously declared war against a "dictatorship of relativism," for at least the last two decades.

In a 1996 address in Mexico City, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger identified the struggle against the pluralist theology of religion as the central challenge for Catholicism today, taking "the place occupied by the theology of liberation in the preceding decade." Moreover, Ratzinger warned, it would be in debates over Christology where the battle lines would be drawn.

At a 2002 Congress on Christology in Spain, Ratzinger again emphasized the need to accent Christ's singularity.

"Christ is totally different from all the founders of other religions, and he cannot be reduced to a Buddha, a Socrates or a Confucius," he said. "He is really the bridge between heaven and earth, the light of truth who has appeared to us."

Confusion on Christology, as the pope sees it, ultimately brings us back to liberation theology. If the objective truth of teachings on Christ is set aside, Ratzinger has observed, then some other reason has to be found for holding onto them. Usually, that reason is their purported social utility - that they promote liberation of the poor and oppressed. As Ratzinger has put it, such a move marks the triumph of orthopraxis over orthodoxy. Religious relativism, he believes, ends in a kind of liberation theology by default.

Understandably, Sobrino's personal instinct has been to link this week's notification with older battles over liberation theology, what he has termed a "30-year campaign of defamation" from elements in the hierarchy.

In a December letter to Fr. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, Superior General of the Jesuits, Sobrino identifies himself with other leading lights in liberation theology who have been targeted over the years, including Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador and Bishops Helder Camara of Brazil, Leonidas Eduardo Proaño of Ecuador, and Samuel Ruiz of Mexico, as well as the Latin American Confederation of Religious (CLAR).

No doubt, that history played a role in disposing the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to take a critical look. The issues involved this time around, however, are nonetheless different.

It's telling that the book which got Boff into trouble back in 1985, triggering a formal year-long order of silence, was on ecclesiology: Church, Charism and Power. At the time, the Vatican found that by over-stressing a distinction between the "church from above" and the "church from below," Boff risked smuggling Marxist concepts of class struggle into the church, thereby undermining its unity and its hierarchical structure.

The two books by Sobrino that triggered this week's notification, on the other hand, are concerned with Christology: Jesus the Liberator, originally released in 1991, and Christ the Liberator, first issued in 1999. Both were published in English by Orbis Books.

The six categories of concern set out by the Vatican are focused on Sobrino's approach to Christ. He's accused of giving insufficient attention to the New Testament's teaching on the divinity of Christ, even of tending towards the ancient heresy of "assumptionism," meaning the notion that the historical Jesus was originally a human being who was later "assumed" by the Son of God.

It's worth noting that the investigation which produced the notification on Sobrino began in 2001, the same year that Dominus Iesus was published, and that the inquiry against Dupuis reached its crescendo.

Coincidentally, Benedict XVI this week issued his long-awaited apostolic exhortation, formally collecting the results of the 2005 Synod on the Eucharist. News headlines focused on the pope's language on celibacy, reaffirming that it remains obligatory in the Latin Rite. At a deeper level, however, Sacramentum caritatis also reflects the pope's concern for vigilance about Christological doctrine.

"The Eucharist, as the sacrament of our salvation, inevitably reminds us of the unicity of Christ and the salvation that he won for us by his blood," Benedict writes in paragraph 86. "The mystery of the Eucharist, believed in and celebrated, demands a constant catechesis on the need for all to engage in a missionary effort centered on the proclamation of Jesus as the one Savior."

Benedict's concern is not just a matter of defending what he regards as a core truth of the faith. He also believes that defective Christological doctrines can have two dangerous consequences:

If Christ is not understood as the lone and unique savior of the world, then Christian missionary efforts may be undercut, something the pope believes has already happened to some extent in the post-Vatican II church;

If Christ is seen as merely a human being, then Christian service to the world could be reduced to a "purely sociological" endeavor, as opposed to something that points to a spiritual message about supernatural redemption and salvation.

Given all that Benedict XVI and his team at the CDF believes to be at stake, this is likely not the last time we'll hear from the Holy See about debates in Christology. In that sense, this week's notification on Sobrino is not so much a remembrance of things past, but a sign of things to come.