Pope: Europe losing faith in its future

By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY - Europe appears to be losing faith in its own future, Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday, warning against "dangerous individualism" on a continent where many people are having fewer children.

"One must unfortunately note that Europe seems to be going down a road which could lead it to take its leave from history," the pontiff told bishops in Rome for ceremonies to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, a major step toward the creation of today's European Union.

Benedict said he was concerned about Europe's "demographic profile" — though he did not describe the trends that have alarmed the continent for decades.

In countries like Italy, where many married couples have one or no children, the population is expected to shrink dramatically in a generation or two unless fertility rates quickly increase.

Benedict expressed concern that Europe's population trends, "besides putting economic growth at risk, can also cause enormous difficulties for social cohesion, and, above all, favor dangerous individualism, careless about the consequences for the future."

"You could almost think that the European continent is in fact losing faith in its own future," Benedict said.

A recent Eurostat survey showed Poland's fertility rate to be the lowest in the EU, at 1.23 children per woman.

Sociologists and economists blame the economy, particularly the unemployment rate — at 14.9 percent the highest in the EU. Worried about losing their jobs, many women in Poland put off having children, often until it is too late.

Earlier this month, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski proposed a new program of tax exemptions and support for working mothers in the hope of encouraging births and ensuring that Poles "continue as a nation."

Italy's fertility rate steadily plunged to a low of 1.25 children per women of childbearing age in 2001, with the last few years seeing a small turnaround, mainly due to births to immigrants.

Italian experts cite Italian's desire for an easier lifestyle, but they also blame shortages of day care centers, expensive housing and a sluggish job market which sees many Italians living at home until well into their 30s as reasons for the country's relatively few children.

Antonio Golini, an Italian demographer, told The Associated Press recently that unless the retirement age is raised, Italy will have more people drawing pensions than it will have workers in 2050.

Spain also has a low fertility rate, while France, with family friendly policies such as cheap day care and generous parental leave, has experienced a baby boom.

France had more babies in 2006 than in any year in the last quarter-century, capping a decade of rising fertility that has bucked Europe's graying trend. Its fertility rate in 2006 was 2.0 children per woman.

A rate of 2.1 children per woman is considered the minimum necessary to keep a population from shrinking.

Associated Press reporter Vanessa Gera in Warsaw contributed to this report.

[Modificato da @Andrea M.@ 24/03/2007 22.11]

Pope criticises EU for excluding God

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict strongly criticized the European Union on Saturday for excluding a mention of God and Europe's Christian roots in declarations marking the 50th anniversary of its founding.

In a toughly-worded speech to European bishops, Benedict said Europe was committing a form of "apostasy of itself" and was thus doubting its own identity.

The Pope, who like his predecessor John Paul often calls for a mention of God and Christianity in the European Constitution, said leaders could not exclude values that helped forge the "very soul" of the continent.

"If on the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome the governments of the union want to get closer to their citizens, how can they exclude an element as essential to the identity of Europe as Christianity, in which the vast majority of its people continue to identify," he said.

"Does not this unique form of apostasy of itself, even before God, lead it (Europe) to doubt its very identity?"

Apostasy is a total desertion of or departure from one's religion.

One of the Pope's compatriots, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, aims to relaunch the EU constitution and last month made a plea for the bloc to include references to Christian roots.

Plans to include such a reference in the original EU treaty, rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, were blocked by French President Jacques Chirac.

Merkel, as holder of the EU's rotating presidency, is now in the process of reviving the constitution. Comments from Merkel, the daughter of a pastor, have encouraged religious leaders around Europe to redouble efforts to modify the constitution.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said he had pushed for inclusion of Catholic roots in the document but that the main task ahead for Catholics was to carry on a dialogue with religions like Islam and Judaism.

But in another sign of disagreement between Europe's leaders, the conservative European People's Party included religious roots in its anniversary declaration, in contrast to the general EU declaration to be adopted on Sunday.

"Europe's Judeo-Christian roots and common cultural heritage, as well as the classic and humanist history of Europe and the achievements of the period of enlightenment, are the foundation of our political family," said the statement, adopted at a meeting attended by Merkel and other EU leaders.

Pope Benedict warned the bloc was headed up a slippery slope of indifference and said it could not deny its "historical, cultural and moral identity" that Christianity helped forge.

"A community that builds itself without respecting the true dignity of the human being, forgetting that each person is created in the image of God, ends up doing good for no one," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Berlin)

NOT NEWS NOW, BUT FOR THE RECORD: Here are the two AsiaNews stories on Sunday, March 25, about the Pope. First, its report on the Pope's address to European bishops last Saturday, and teh about the Pope's Angelus message yesterday. For some reason, ti does not have a story at all about the Pope's pastoral visit to Santa Felicita parish in Rome.

In any case, I posted translations of the Pope's address to the bishops and the homily at Santa Felicitas in HOMILIES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES, and the Angelus message in AUDIENCE AND ANGELUS TEXTS in timely manner.



Pope: Europe’s apostasy,
cynicism and compromises


Vatican City, Mar. 25 (AsiaNews) – Europe is moving towards ‘self-apostasy,” forgetting the “universal and absolute values” which it once sparked. As it demographically implodes, it might have reached its “twilight in history,” “losing its confidence in its own future,” this according to Benedict XV.

In a passionate analysis of the current state of the old continent the Holy Father spoke to participants of a congress about the Treaties of Rome, titled “Values and Perspectives for Europe’s future,” sponsored by the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE).

In his address he highlighted the many positive aspects that European integration has brought about like the fall of the “curtain of injustice” between east and west, the reconciliation of Europe’s eastern and western “lungs”, the search of “economic integration” and an “appropriate institutional structure” for the European Union “which now includes 27 members and aspires to a global role in the world.”

Another important issue that the Pontiff highlighted was “the need for a better balance” between “wealth,” “competitiveness” and “the legitimate expectations of the poor and the marginalised.”

But Benedict XVI also slammed the attempt to build a “common house” by disregarding “the identities of the peoples” of the continent and dismissing Christianity “in which a vast majority continues to identify themselves.”

The Holy Father stressed the ambiguity that characterises the European Union in which the search for moral values and the common good takes place by means of “compromises” that involve agreements that are harmful to man’s nature,” thus betraying the role as “spark” and “yeast” of universal values the continent has always performed.

In the Pope’s opinion among the causes of the current situation, “pragmatism,” “relativism” and especially “secularism” stand out since because of them Christians see themselves denied “the right to intervene in public debates or at least with their contribution [treated] as an attempt to protect unjustified privileges.”

Finally, the Pontiff urged Christians to “strongly defend” the “truth of man” without being discouraged. “You know that with God’s help you must contribute to building a New Europe, one that is realistic without being cynical, rich in ideals, inspired by the everlasting and bright truth of the Gospel.”



VATICAN
Pope: the Annunciation,
Mary’s and the martyrs’ “Yes”


Vatican City, Mar. 25 (AsiaNews) – Mary’s “Yes” to the Angel’s Annunciation and Christ’s “Yes” to fulfilling His Father’s will find renewal in history in the Saints’ “Yes”, especially that of the Martyrs who are killed because of their faith in the Gospel. In a single glance Benedict XVI joined in this Sunday’s Angelus two celebrations, today’s solemnity of the Annunciation which is observed on March 25, and yesterday’s Day of Prayer for Missionary Martyrs.

Because this year it falls on Lent Sunday, the Annunciation, an ancient festivity celebrated nine months before Christmas, will be observed tomorrow. The Pope decided however to mention “this wonderful mystery of the faith which we contemplate every day during the recitation of the Angelus.”

“The Annunciation is a humble, hidden event that no one saw or knew,” the Pope said, “except for Mary. But at the same time it is a decisive moment in the history of humanity. When the Virgin said ‘Yes’ to the Angel’s Annunciation, Jesus was conceived and with Him began a new era in history, which was eventually sanctioned by the ‘new and eternal covenant.”

“In fact,” the Pontiff said, “Mary’s Yes was the perfect reflection of that by Christ when he came into the world as one can read in the way the Letter to the Hebrews interprets Psalm 39: “Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God' (Heb 10: 7).”

The Son’s obedience mirrors that of the Mother and thus, thanks to the meeting of these two “Yes”, God was able to take a human form. Since it celebrates a central mystery of Christ, His incarnation, the Annunciation is also a Christological event.”

”Mary’s response to the Angel continues in the Church, which has been called to make Christ present in history, making itself available so that God may continue to visit humanity with His Mercy.”

In order to stress the Saints’ and Martyrs’ “Yes,” the Pope mentioned the Day of Prayer and Fasting for missionary martyrs, which was commemorated yesterday, the anniversary of the murder of Mgr Oscar Romero, archbishop of San Salvador.

Remembering “bishops, priests, men and women religious and laity struck down in their mission of evangelisation and human promotion,” the Pontiff stressed that “the missionary martyrs . . . are the ‘hope of the world,’ because they bear witness that Christ’s love is stronger than violence and hatred. They did not seek martyrdom, but were ready to give their lives in order to remain faithful to the Gospel. Christian martyrdom can be justified only as a supreme act of love towards God and one’s brothers.”

Finally, the Pope noted that “in this time of Lent, more frequently do we contemplate Our Lady who on Calvary seals the “Yes” she pronounced in Nazareth. United with Jesus, Witness of the Father’s love, Mary experienced the martyrdom of the soul. We invoke with confidence her intercession that the Church, faithful in its mission, may bear courageous witness to God’s love before the whole world.”

After the Angelus prayer but before the traditional multilingual greetings, Benedict XVI invited young people to take part in Holy Week rituals, starting on Palm Sunday, April 1, when World Youth Day will be celebrated. Its theme is: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another (Jn 13: 34).

The Pope also invited young people to join him in the penitential liturgy which he will preside on the afternoon of Thursday, March 29, in St Peter’s Basilica.

“Those who want to,” Benedict XVI explained, “will have the possibility of sharing in the Sacrament of Confession, true encounter with God’s love, which every man needs in order to live in joy and peace.”

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/03/2007 11.31]

Have we seen this before? I would like to think not.

March 25, 2007

Pope says society to fail without Christian conscience

By Deepa Babington

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, speaking as the European Union marked its 50th anniversary without a mention of its religious heritage, said a society that lacks a Christian conscience will end up failing.

The Pope's comments came a day after he lambasted the European Union for not mentioning God and Europe's Christian roots in declarations marking its founding.

"A society in which the Christian conscience does not live anymore loses direction, does not know anymore where to go, ends up empty and bankrupt," the Pope told parish elders on Sunday.

Such a conscience was needed to promote justice and a sense of responsibility among one another, he said. The remarks came as the European Union celebrated its 50th birthday in a Berlin ceremony that included unveiling a broad, aspirational "Berlin Declaration" that left out mention of religion or the continent's Christian roots.

But EU leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- who unveiled Sunday's declaration -- as well as Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, reaffirmed their support for its inclusion in a new EU treaty they want adopted by 2009.

Prodi told reporters on Sunday that he had unsuccessfully fought for the inclusion of Christian roots in an amendment that he hoped would be accepted by countries like France that have historically opposed the move. But positions on the matter have not changed, and were unlikely to do so in the future, he said.

Merkel appeared equally pessimistic that any reference would be included in a new treaty, but said people should be allowed to express their personal views on the matter. "What the result will be, I can't say," Merkel, the daughter of a Protestant pastor, told a news conference. "I am realistic and that means not so optimistic."

The Pope made his displeasure over the matter clear in a strongly worded speech on Saturday, saying excluding values that helped forge its very soul meant Europe was committing a form of apostasy -- a total desertion of one's religion -- and doubting its own identity.

The Pope, like his predecessor John Paul, often calls for including God and Christianity in the European Constitution. Plans to put a reference to Europe's Christian roots in a previous EU constitutional treaty were blocked by French President Jacques Chirac.

The news agency APCOM did report about the Pope's pastoral visit. In this item from Lella's blog, it reports what the Pope said and did before the Mass and the homily.


Rome, March 25 (Apcom) - Benedict XVI arrived at 9:15 at the Roman parish of Santa Felicita e Figli in the Roman district of Fidene to say Mass.

Welcoming the Pope, who is Bishop of Rome, on his fourth pastoral visit in Rome, wEre his Vicar for Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, and a large crowd of faithful.

"You are the living stones of the Church," the Pope told the crowd, giving them an informal homily before he even entered the church.

"Today is the Feast of the Annunciation to Mary, when we remember that Mary with her Yes to God opened Heaven so that God is now with us. She invites us to say yes to God and let Him enter our lives.

"You have this beautiful parochial church, a visible sign that God lives among us. But it is always important to build the living Church, and you - with your faith and your commitment - build this living Church day after day to give life to the edifice itself."

After greeting some mothers with newborn babies, the Pope entered the Church to be greeted by a great applause and singing by a children's choir.

Before going to the sacristy to prepare himself for the Mass, the Pope greeted the old and sick people of the parish who had come for his visit.

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

Avvenire adds something about what the Pope did after the Mass:


After the Mass, the Pope met the parish's pastoral council, whom he addressed, saying that "a society in which the Christian conscience is no longer alive, loses direction, it does not know where to go, it ends up in the void, and fails."

He explained to them the role of the Magisterium in the formation of conscience.

"The Magisterium does not impose," he said. "It indicates elements of reflection so that the individual conscience itself is able to listen to God and understand Him. The Magisterium is simply an aid so that personal responsibility may mature acccording to a properly formed conscience."

The Pope said Christian conscience was necessary in the world today, "so that there may be justice." This does not have to merely with the social phenomenon of globalization, he said, "but with that universality in which we are all responsible for everything."

It was Benedict XVI's fifth visit to a Roman parish since he became Bishop of Rome. For the parish of Santa Felicita, it was their second encounter with a Pope. Although their parish church was inaugurated on December 14, 2003, the parish has existed since July 1958, and on Christmas Day of 1965, they were visited by Paul VI.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/03/2007 18.23]

We now know the Italian newspapers - and the foreign media - will report on anything the Pope says if he mentions any of their favored buzz words like abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research, same-sex marriage, women priests, married priests - the usual laundry list of liberal causes that they would impose on the Church Magisterium. Add a new one - hell!

The Pope mentioned it once in his homily at Santa Felicitas church yesterday - and all the major Italian papers have a story about it today (when they normally ignore Papal homilies that do not touch at all on their 'causes'). And Corriere della Sera even has two - by Vittorio Messori and Luigi Accattoli no less.

Perhaps, despite Italy's growing and media-strident secularization, only there will one find a purely spiritual homily and a theological point discussed on the front pages of the newspapers!

Here is the sentence from the Pope's homily:

---

Jesus came to tell us that He wants us all in Paradise, and that Hell - of which very little is spoken these days - exists, and is eternal for those who close off their hearts to His love.

---

First, here's a translation of Messori's article - I love his description of the Pope "with that boyish face at 80" [or in a strict literal translation of 'quel suo volto da fanciullo ottantenne", 'that face he has of an 80-year-old boy' which sounds weird in English, you must agree!] So, I thought it might be instructive to put a picture of 5-year-old Pepperl in Aschau beside that of almost-80-year-old Benedict in Fridene last Sunday - and well, be amazed!


An unpleasant mysterious reality
but necessary for man's freedom
By VITTORIO MESSORI



"Eminence, why do priests - in their infinite preachifying [more than 25,000 homilies every Sunday in Italy alone] - not speak any more about life after death, and above all, avoid using a word that appears to have become taboo, hell?"

To my question, the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, looked at me somewhat ironically: "The fact is that today everyone, including us in the clergy, believe we are all so good that we deserve nothing but Paradise. We are immersed in a culture which - through alibis and extenuating circumstances - would take away from man any sense of being at fault, s sense of sin. All the modern ideologies agree on a fundamental dogma - the rejection of a reality that faith links to hell - sin."

Well aware that this is a mysterious and unpleasant but not disposable reality (Jesus Himself having said: "The evil are destined for eternal suffering"), Ratzinger - first as cardinal adn now as Pope - does not discount any element of the Christian Creed, and so he has spoken and speaks about hell - in a zealous and didactic tone, with that boyish face at 80.

He spoke about it yesterday at a parish in the Rome periphery, warning those who would keep on sinning, who would close the doors to God. In short, those who seem to want to go to hell!

Because the fact is that it isn't God who condemns us; it is we ourselves when we refuse - for whatever puzzling self-destructive reasons - forgiveness, salvation, joy.

There is something suspicious in the often violent worldly reaction, whenever the Church reaffirms its belief in the existence of a reality which it cannot discard, since it is a point that is quite incisively and clearly stated in Scriptures.

For the non-believer, the idea of hell should remain among the obscurantist myths of religion that one should simply shrug off. But instead, the reaction is often upset and uneasy, invective instead of irony.

So much that in his essay "Why I am not a Christian" - a sort of summa of modernity's rejection of faith - Bertrand Russell concluded by denouncing 'the supreme scandal that was most unacceptable of all' - hell.

Such reactions forget or overlook that the Gospel is called that - it means 'good news' - because it announces, in Jesus Christ, God's pardon, redemption, salvation.

What the Church teaches, through the Gospel, is Paradise, eternal life, the joy and the light in which the Father awaits everyone.

Hell is not a creation of that God of mercy, but man's. God created man to be free - he did not want slaves, he wanted children, and so He does not impose His presence out of respect for their total autonomy.

A respect that goes to its logical end, even to the possibliity of man's rejection, obstinate and perverse, of God's proposal of love and alliance; the possibility that he may prefer shadows to light, evil rather than good.

As someone remarked, with not-unfounded paradox, "Without Hell, Paradise would be a concentration camp." Meaning, it would be an obligatory destination one could not avoid. Life as a single-route railway with only one destination. With the consequent negation of any freedom to choose one's destination.

Out of respect for this mystery, the Church - in proclaiming saints and blessed ones - commits its authority to proclaim that someone is definitely in Paradise. But it has never made 'a list' - nor will it ever - of the damned.

Of course, despite every explanation, the prospect of eternal punishment without rescue has provoked and contuines to provoke questions and reactions within the Church itself.

Some theologians have hypothesized that yes, Hell exists but it is empty. And someone has rightly replied, "It might well be empty, yes, but that does not rule out that you and I could be the first to inaugurate it."



In his article, Luigi Accattoli picks out previous statements made by Joseph Ratzinger about Hell.


'Hell exists, but
few speak about it today'
by Luigi Accattoli


VATICAN CITY - Hell "exists and is eternal" and it may be understood as the condition of those who "close their hearts" to God, thus actualizing the 'failure' of their existence, Benedict XVI, the theologian Pope, said yesterday, speaking as a parish priest in simple language at a parish church in Rome.

But in its simplicity, he summarized all the points of his reflection as a theologian on this burning issue, as he has expressed them over the years in various writings and interviews.

Yesterday, Benedict XVI was visiting a parish in the northern outskirts of Rome, that of Santa Felicita e Figli martiri.

He commented on a key episode in the Gospel of John about the adulterous woman whom Jesus saved from stoning by saying, "Let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone."

From that episode, the Pope drew this 'concrete indication': Jesus was not interested in 'disputing' Mosaic law with the Scribes and the Pharisees who brought the adulterous woman before Him. His 'objective' was to 'save a soul' by way of mercy.

"That is why He came to earth," the Pope continued. "The Lord came to tell us that He wants us all in Paradise, and that Hell - of which very little is spoken these days - exists, and is eternal for those who close off their hearts to His love."

His conclusion: "Even in this episode we understand that our true enemy is attachment to sin, which can lead us to the failure of our existence."

Every time the theologian Ratzinger referred to hell in his writings, he always pointed out that it is an 'article of faith' which modern theology tends to 'eliminate' because it is 'difficult' for the modern mind to accept. And even yesterday, he mentioned it with the remark that today very few talk about hell, or very little is said about it.

The other typical Ratzingerian element was the statement that hell is destined for those 'who close their hearts to love,' and therefore, he said yesterday, actualize a 'failure of existence.'

In his book Introduction to Christianity (Queriniana 1969), Ratzinger refers to the following concepts in the chapteer on Jesus's 'descent to hell': 'the final solitude,' 'the abyss of extreme abandonment,' 'just our deliberate and wilful closing-in on ourselves is hell'.

In the same book, he says that hell is not so much a place as a condition, "that frightening and sinister state that the theologian calls hell."

In the interview-book God and the world (San Paolo 2001), Ratzinger the theologian invites us not to 'resolve' the 'Biblical symbolism" of 'an upper world and a nether world' in an 'ingeuous vision' and a 'physicality which does not help us grasp the essential."

Therefore, no Dantean mobs of the damned nor flames nor ice. Even if the so-called third secret of Fatima speaks of Hell as a 'great sea of fire'. At that time, Cardinal Ratzinger made the distinction about 'private visions' expressed in 'a language of imagery and symbols' tnat should be 'correctly' interpreted. Free, therefore, of 'physicality.'

Ratzinger expresses the hope that those condemned to Hell are not that many: "Let us hope that there are few men whose lives have been a total incurable failure."

The most recent occasion on which Cardinal Raztinger concerned himself with the question of hell was in the preparation of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2005), which he edited as a cardinal and published as Pope.

It contains the question: "What is hell?" with the following answer: "Hell consists of eternal damnation for those who die by their own choice in mortal sin. The main punishment of hell is eternal separation from God."

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

Vatican Radio's Sergio Centofanti interviewed Enzo Bianchi, prior of the Bose community about the idea of Hell. Here is a translation:


BIANCHI: Above all, the Pope has brought up the same message that Paul did, using other terms, in the letter to Timothy: God wishes all men to be saved. This is God's will, and Jesus came to tell us this truth and to indicate to us a road to salvation.

Doubtless however, we must also remember - as the prophets did, as Jesus Himself did - that there will be a last judgment. Without it, then our life would be absurd. It would mean that we can do everything as we please, live as we please, without others, against others, and have the same end.

So the Pope was right to remind us that there is a possibility of Hell, the possibility for man to choose the path that leads him to the absence of God, because Hell is the absence of God, the absence of life, the absence of love.

It is sad that this should surprise people. The problem is that today it is no longer preached about - the last judgment is hardly brought up in our ecclesiastical gatherings.

But without this last universal judgment, how can there be a sense to our life, if the outcome is the same for the oppressor, or the violent, for the assassin or for his victim?
That is why the Pope was right to make this reminder. Even if many saints, many mystics, and in this case, a theologian who is very dear to Benedict XVI, Hans Urs von Blthasar, ask us also to hope for everyone. It doesn't mean negating the idea of Hell, of negating this condition without God - as Jesus Himself said - but it certainly means to hope, to ask God that at the last judgment, His mercy may do what seems to us impossible - save everyone. Without relativizing hell, or thinking that, therefore, there is a common outcome for everyone.

So hell is bouund with the idea of freedom...
Hell is bound with the freedom of each human being, because even if we are attracted, seduced by evil, we can certainly resist it, and in any case, ask for God's mercy. But if one does not resist evil, bur rather gives in freely to it and does not even think he needs the mercy of God, then he will have the absence of God, the absence of life, the absence of love - that which is called within Scriptures hell, where death, not love reigns, where God is not present.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/03/2007 23.51]

The other day, in POPE-POURRI, I posted a book notice from the main forum about this book entitled BENEDICT XVI: the last European Pope, by the French journalist Bernard Lecomte.



Lecomte writes for La Croix (French Catholic newspaper) and L'Express (weekly newsmagazine), and is the editor-in-chief of Figaro magazine. He wrote a 2004 biography of John Paul II.

In the March 25 issue of Avvenire, Lecomte gives an interview commenting on Pope Benedict's Saturday speech about Europe. Here is a translation:



From the Pope:
A shake-up warning
to think of the future
By Daniele Zappalà in Paris



"It is incontestably an appeal for a renewal of Europe, but the pessimistic notes in it also express forcefully the sense of a dramatically urgent message," says French writer Bernard Lecomte, about Pope Benedict XVI's address to the bishops of Europe on Saturday.

Lecomte is the author of the papal biography BENEDICT XVI: the last European Pope.

First, the Pope speaks of the reconciliation between the two 'lungs' of Europe, East and West, after their arbitrary division [by Communism]. What do you think of the metaphor?
This metaphor, a bit like that of the other one he used of 'a common home', is obivously in full continuity with the message of John Paul II, the great theoretician of European values. [It was, in fact, John Paul's metaphor to refer to the Eastern and Western Churches, into which the Catholic Church split up with the Great Schism of 1054.]

In some respects, the personal outlook expressed by Benedict XVI in this address about Europe may seem pessimistic, but in this, the Pope is carrying out his role, which is to provide keys to interpret the future.

Facing the issue of Europe's 'demographic winter' Benedict XVI evokes the terrible hypothesis of a continent bidding farewell to history. How do you interpret this warning?
It is certainly a very negative image, but I don't think it is meant to be an apocalyptic vision of Europe on the verge of disintegration. It was a way of explaining that Europe is an aggregate of values and these values could disappear from history.

The Pope reminds us that the European house cannot be built by ignoring the identity of its peoples. Is this an implicit call to respect the European principle of 'sussidarieta' [I have to find out the exact English equivalent for it - it's the principle of recognizing that despite being in the European Union, each member nation continues to have its national identity] that the European Parliament sometimes seems to forget?
Yes, it could be interpreted in that political key as well. But for the Church, Europe is not just a common market or a political institution. It is all that, but for the Church, the essence and the purpose of Europe go far beyond those objectives: the Common market and the institutions of the European Union are also a means of spreading European values throughout the world, and the identity of its component nations and peoples cannot be suppressed, that it would be an enormous error to transform Europe into a single monolithic state.

The Pope said, Europe's identity is above all 'historical, cultural and moral." why did the Pope choose these three adjectives?
Strictly speaking, European values are not primarily religious, but political, social and universal. For instance, reciprocal respect and juridical equality among all men, cultural and political pluralism, but above all, forgiveness of the enemy. [Excuse me??? What about those centuries-old and lingering, if currently hidden, national enmities such as between France and England, between England and Germany, between France and Germany, between Poland and Russia??? ]

In fact, the principal of reconciliation is fundamental in the definition and construction of Europe - this is both a Gospel truth as well as a political value in the daily life of the Continent. One does not have to be Christian to practice these values, but the Church points out that these are values rooted in Christianity and are the hard and lasting kernel, foundational, for Europe, but that these values are now being rejected.

Along this line, the Pope defined the rejection of universal values as an apostasy of itself by Europe. Is this a reproach?
In some of his books, the Pope has previously criticized a kind of self-hate which Europe has. These words are very strong but they express his profound conviction about the gravity of the risks. Obviously Europe will continue to have the same geography which will continue to be inhabited by Europeans, among others, but if Europe continues to reject its essence and its past, then it is in effect taking leave of history.

Should this very incisive message be interpreted as a warning or an exhortation?
I think it is above all an appeal with reference to the anniversary of the 'foundation' of the European Union. It is an appeal for a renewal of Europe - but of a Europe that can recover its values, its faith in itself, with the primary objective of helping Europeans to realize their potential and therefore, happiness, rather than simply trying to create an economic and political power in the world.

The Pope also observes that in Europe Christians do not always have the freedom to express themselves as Christians. Is the Pope addressing France in particular or the whole Continent?
To all European nations, I think. Secularism is a tendency that has now become widespread in Spain and Italy, even in Poland. The Pope forcefully denounces those who would completely exclude the church and religion in any approach to human problems.

It is also a way of inviting Christians to believe in Europe [by participating actively in the public discourse], much like in 1957 the founding fathers did, almost all of whom were fervent Christians.

============================================================
Lacomte's book -

Benedetto XVI: L'ultimo papa europeo
by Bernard Lacomte
Edizioni San Paolo
Cinisello Balsamo 2007, 1 ed.
128+8 pp, Photos in color and B/W
ISBN 978-88-215-5890-0
Euro 13,00

A translation of the blurb:
Some expected a Latin American to be elected Pope, or even an African, and instead here we have a German Pope, born in 1927 in the Catholic heartland of Europe, Bavaria. A man, like his Polish predecessor, who has gone through Nazism, the war, the Shoah, communism. A European militant who has been calling on all to fight for truth, in the name of love.

He is probably "the last European Pope." This is a book that is illuminating for the general public.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/03/2007 0.26]

Avvenire in its 3/25/07 issue also published this article, translated here:


'The Pope was not pessimistic-
he simply presented dangers realistically'
Da Roma Mimmo Muolo


"I am very grateful to the Holy Father for his address. We had asked him to give us indications for what we have to do in the COMECE [Italian acronym for the Commission on European Episcopal Conferences] - and he has promptly given them to us," said Mons. Adrianus van Luyn, Bishop of Rotterdam, after the bishops met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican last Saturday.

"The whole speech was a grave warning and an invitation for Europe to take into account Christianity which has so strongly influenced the formation of the European identity," van Luyn said.

The Old Continent, he said, needs Christian and human values, otherwise it would find itself in a pradoxical situation.

"We talk a lot about constructing a new Europe, but with the demographic decline, we may end up not having any more Europeans. Then who would be left to promote these values?"

That is why, Van Luyn said, he was deeply impressed by the strong expressions used by the Pope, such as Europe bidding 'to take leave of history' or committing 'an apostasy of itself even before that of the faith'.

"So he has called on us Christians to meet these challenges," he concluded.

The Archbishop of Dublino, Diarmuid Martin, thought likewise.
"But the speech was absolutely not pessimistic," he pointed out. "Benedict XVI always highlights dangers realistically, even as he invites Christians to commitment and hope. And so, I think it is of great help even to us European bishops. The Pope's words lead us not only to look at Europe's successes but to acknowledge its problems and its difficulties."

Martin used the image of a cathedral. "In 50 years, we can say that the European peoples have built a beautiful cathedral. But cathedrals need constant maintenance, and if this is neglected, the situation can lead to great dangers. In the case of Europe, beginning with those that the Pope mentioned."

The great breadth itself of the Pope's proposition was underscored by Mons. Giuseppe Merisi, Archbishop of Lodi and delegate of the Italian bishops conference to the COMECE.

"The Pope invites us to reflect and to use discernment in order to be able to intervene courageously on all issues that concern the dignity of man. Starting with the defense of life at every stage, and of the family, to the efforts for peace and justice, the battle against poverty, and even the commitment to economic development that is sustainable with respect to the environment."

"Of course," Merisi added, "we all hope that these commitments find explicit acknowledgment by the citation of Europe's Christian roots in the Constitution and other official documents."

Other bishops pointed out the Pope's encouragement for the COMECE to carry on and step up its own dialog with the institutions of the European Union.

A dialog, according to Mons. Amandio Jose Tomas, Archbishop of Evora, in Portugal, that should not lose sight of certain firm points. "The Holy Father has once again stressed," he said, "the essential fundamental principles that are irrenounceable, non-negotiable, which we should defend at all costs."

Mons. Marc Stenger, Bishop of Troyes, France, said: "The Pope was right to call attention to the grave dangers facing Europe. That is why European Christians should commit themselves to reaffirm those values that have survived through time and space, and can be used to build the future."

Mons. Hippolyte Simon, Archbishop of Clermont, France, said: "I think the Pope's words are a great encouragement to the various local Churches, because constructing a new Europe is not just the task of public institutions and the State, but of the citizenry and of individuals. The Congress we held here is an example, and we should proceed along this course."

[NB: The COMECE drew up a declaration which they presented to Italian Prime Minister Prodi Saturday to bring with him to the Berlin summit of EU leaders which met this weekend to celebrate the 50th year of the Treaty of Rome. I have not yet found a text of the declaration.]

BIG THANKS to Amy Welborn, amywelborn.typepad.com/
for leading us to this beautiful editorial which goes to the heart of this Pope who places 'nothing before Christ'.

The National Catholic Register, not the National Catholic Reporter (for which John allen writes), is the oldest English-Language national Catholic newspaper in America, marking its 80th year of publication. You know it's not the other NCR because it bills itself not only as "The Flagship Publication for the New Evangelization" but likewise "At the Pope’s Side, in the Center of the Church", with the explicit statement, "The Register’s role is to publicize what Pope Benedict is asking of the Church." We should all bookmark it.

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


BY The Editors
NATIONAL CATHOLIC REGISTER
March 25-31, 2007 Issue


Pope Benedict XVI summed up the meaning of his pontificate and the meaning of his new document on the Eucharist in Rome recently — when he remembered Pope Paul VI.

---

‘Christ, our principle,’ Paul VI said with deep feeling, and I can still hear his voice...Christ, our Way and our Guide! Christ, our hope and our destination. … No other light shines out at this meeting except for Christ’s, Light of the world; no other truth than the words of the Lord, our one Teacher, concerns our hearts; no other aspiration guides us than the desire to be absolutely faithful to him.’

And until he drew his last breath, his thought, his energy and his action were for Christ and for the Church.

---

What Pope Benedict points out about Paul VI can also be said of Pope Benedict.

Paul didn’t have a complicated agenda or serpentine motives that need to be studied and untangled. The truth of Christ is multi-faceted and looks paradoxical to the world, but it’s simple to those who love him, and Benedict knew that Paul was a passionate lover of Jesus Christ.

It takes one to know one.

Pope Benedict, also, is simply and deeply devoted to the person of Christ, in all of his clarity and depth.

When secular newspapers write about Pope Benedict’s new post-synodal apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity), they say things like “Pope Refuses to Yield” or “Benedict Loves Latin” as if the Holy Father were merely imposing his personal preferences on the Church.

But, from the very beginning, Benedict has been telling us exactly what he would do, and why he would do it. He started before the conclave that elected him, when he spoke about friendship with Christ, a concept he has returned to several times.

Noting that Jesus defines friendship as “the communion of wills,” he cited the old Roman definition of friendship — Idem velle idem nolle (same desires, same dislikes) — as the model of our friendship with Christ.

In his first message after becoming pope, he applied that lesson to the Eucharist. “I ask everyone in the coming months to intensify love and devotion for Jesus in the Eucharist,” he said, “and to express courageously and clearly faith in the Real Presence of the Lord, especially by the solemnity and the correctness of the celebrations.”

He wanted us to show our friendship with Jesus in the Eucharist not just by good feelings, but by a communion of wills — “by the solemnity and correctness” of our Masses.

This love for Jesus, which is both practical and passionate — we should say practical because it is passionate — is the key to Pope Benedict’s thinking.

It is front and center in is private works (such as On the Way to Christ Jesus), in his official works before becoming Pope (Dominus Iesus — “The Lord Jesus” — foremost among them), and in his first encyclical and latest document on charity and the Eucharist.

This passionate, practical love explains many aspects of the new document.

It’s the reason why Pope Benedict is so poetic on the Eucharist. “What amazement must the Apostles have felt in witnessing what the Lord did and said during that Supper!” he writes in the introduction, “What wonder must the Eucharistic mystery also awaken in our own hearts!”

It’s also the reason he is so precise: “The Eucharistic celebration is enhanced,” he writes, “when priests and liturgical leaders are committed to making known the current liturgical texts and norms, making available the great riches found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal and the Order of Readings for Mass” (No. 40).

Pope Benedict can be subtle: “It should be kept in mind that nothing is lost when the sign of peace is marked by a sobriety that preserves the proper spirit of the celebration, as, for example, when it is restricted to one’s immediate neighbors.”

He can be blunt: “Given the importance of the word of God, the quality of homilies needs to be improved.”

But the love of Christ pervades it all.

There is much in this document that needs to be brought to light. The Pope has specific words on everything from Communion at funerals and weddings to the proper use of music. He says broadcast Masses should follow the local bishop’s norms, and that tabernacles should be placed in the center of most churches.

But it would be a mistake to look to the document for a list of “winners” and “losers” and try to determine on what issues Pope Benedict is a liturgical “conservative” and on which ones he is a liturgical “liberal.”

Rather, the document is exactly what our front-page headline declares it to be: a love letter to Christ, his friend and ours, the center of the Mass, and our life.


Here is the front-page story referred to in the editorial. A fresh summary of the multi-faceted Exhortation is always welcome:

Benedict’s Love Letter to the Eucharist

The Eucharist is a mystery to be believed, to be celebrated and to be lived. Pope Benedict XVI released his post-synodal exhortation on the Eucharist.

BY EDWARD PENTIN
REGISTER CORRESPONDENT
March 25-31, 2007 Issue


VATICAN CITY — After months of anticipation, Pope Benedict XVI finally released the post-synodal exhortation on the Eucharist. It’s a document intended to strengthen devotion for the Blessed Sacrament. And general reaction to it has been highly favorable.

Entitled Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity), the 130-page document was presented at a Vatican press conference March 13 by Cardinal Angelo Scola of Venice, who served as relator general of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist held in October 2005, and Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, the synod’s secretary general.

The lengthy document, signed by the Pope Feb. 22, is a papal reflection of the synod. Benedict divided his Eucharistic reflections into three parts: the Eucharist as a mystery to be believed, to be celebrated, and to be lived.

Overall, Sacramentum Caritatis contains little that is new, but it highlights and re-articulates the central importance of the Eucharist to the Catholic faith.

Cardinal Scola said the exhortation reaffirms “the Holy Father’s insistence over these two years of his pontificate on the truth of love,” a topic that represents “one of the crucial themes upon which the future of the Church and of humanity depend,” the cardinal said.

Archbishop Eterovic said the document, “in presenting the great truths of Eucharistic faith in a way accessible to modern man, considers various current aspects of [Eucharistic] celebration and calls for a renewed commitment to building a more just and peaceful world, in which the Bread broken for everyone’s life becomes … the exemplary cause in the fight against hunger and all forms of poverty.”

Benedict writes in the introduction to Sacramentum Caritatis that its goal is to encourage the “Christian people to deepen their understanding of the relationship between the Eucharistic mystery, the liturgical action, and the new spiritual worship that derives from the Eucharist as the sacrament of charity.

“Consequently,” the Pope states, “I wish to set the present exhortation alongside my first encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), in which I frequently mentioned the sacrament of the Eucharist and stressed its relationship to Christian love, both of God and of neighbor.”

The message that the Eucharist is both the “food of truth” and the “love of God” runs throughout the document. According to the Holy Father, in the sacrament the Lord “truly becomes food for us, to satisfy our hunger for truth and freedom,” and that since only the truth can make us free, “Christ becomes for us the food of truth.”

Benedict’s renowned theological scholarship is evident throughout Sacramentum Caritatis.

“The main thing to note about this document is its theological depth — the emphasis on unity in the sacramental life, that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the sacramental life, that from there all the other sacraments, particularly baptism, reconciliation and marriage, all flow,” said Father Robert Gahl, professor of moral philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. “But the Holy Father not only reaffirms traditional doctrine, he renders it more beautiful and profound than former expressions.”

The Pope also tackles contentious issues that were extensively discussed at the 2005 synod. Noting the “difficulties and even occasional abuses” in the liturgy since the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the Holy Father stresses that the sound development of the liturgy is an organic process.

“The changes that the council called for need to be understood within the overall unity of the historical development of the rite itself,” Benedict instructs, adding that emphasis on the importance of ars celebrandi (the art of proper celebration) “leads to an appreciation of the value of liturgical norms.”

In many ways, say Vatican observers, the Pope’s post-synodal document provides additional information that can assist in correcting misinterpretations of the Second Vatican Council’s liturgical reforms.

“There are no liturgical police — if people are intent on abuse, no coercive backing will achieve the desired result,” noted one Vatican official speaking on condition of anonymity. “But the vast majority of the faithful will be grateful for this explanation of what the Church’s thinking is.”

Paragraph 83 alludes to the problem of dissenting Catholic politicians receiving holy Communion. “Fundamental values, such as 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: These values are not negotiable,” the Pope writes.

“Consequently,” he states, “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.”

But the paragraph does not specify that bishops are bound to deny Communion to all politicians who openly dissent from Church teachings on crucial moral issues like abortion and homosexual “marriage.”

Instead, it instructs that bishops “are bound to reaffirm constantly these values as part of their responsibility to the flock entrusted to them.” The English translation renders the original Latin praecepta (precepts) as “values.”

Archbishop Bruno Forte, a member of the doctrinal commission of the Italian bishops conference and a member of the 2005 synod, told the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera March 14 that the paragraph underlines the obligation of pastors to “recall” Catholic politicians to the faith so they can be an “inspiration to others.”

But Archbishop Forte also pointed to Paragraph 89 in which the Pope writes: “it is not the proper task of the Church to engage in the political work of bringing about the most just society possible; nonetheless, she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the struggle for justice.”

Ultimately, “each bishop must evaluate [the situation] according to conscience,” said Archbishop Forte, and that “objective criteria” must be taken into account with the individual legislator concerned.

In another section of Sacramentum Caritatis, The Pope upholds the need to bar reception of Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, but he describes the problem as “a complex and troubling pastoral problem, a real scourge for contemporary society.”

At the same time, the Holy Father stressed that the Church encourages couples who are in irregular marriages because of a previous divorce “to live as fully as possible the Christian life through regular participation at Mass,” even if they can’t receive Communion.

In doing so, the Vatican official said, Benedict “articulates the law but at the same time underscores the pastoral reality, that every pastor is gravely bound to reach out to divorced and remarried Catholics in every way possible.”

Priestly celibacy was another frequent topic for discussion at the synod. Reflecting on that discussion, Benedict states, “While respecting the different practice and tradition of the Eastern Churches, there is a need to reaffirm the profound meaning of priestly celibacy, which is rightly considered a priceless treasure.”

Added the Pope, “I therefore confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition. Priestly celibacy lived with maturity, joy and dedication is an immense blessing for the Church and for society itself.”

This affirmation of priestly celibacy “was the strongest I’ve seen in a papal document,” said Father Gahl.

In other sections, the Holy Father “heartily” recommends the practice of Eucharistic adoration “both individually and in community.” Benedict stresses the Eucharist cannot be “relegated to something private and individual,” and also emphasizes that it is important not to “lose a sense of Sunday as the Lord’s Day.”

Sacramentum Caritatis also advocates a greater use of Latin, and expresses the Pope’s desire that Gregorian chant “be suitably esteemed and employed as the chant proper to Roman Liturgy.”

The Holy Father also notes in the document that he has asked relevant Vatican offices to investigate changing the placement of the Sign of Peace to before the Offertory, another matter that was discussed at the synod.

Bishop Reno Fisichella, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, said the Pope deftly handled all of the issues Sacramentum Caritatis addresses.

“On each of these themes, the words of Benedict XVI are to the point, justified, firm and decisive,” he wrote in the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire March 14.

“I am convinced,” Bishop Fisichella said, “a spirituality of the Eucharist will grow [out of the document], and that its complex expressions will bear fruit and support the witness of each believer.”

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/03/2007 23.45]

The schedule released by the Vatican Press Office today comes with liturgical commentary.

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During Holy Week, the church celebrates the mysteries of salvation: the work of human salvation and glorification of God fulfilled by Christ, especially in the last days of His life, through the Paschal mystery. In dying, He defeated death, and in resurrecting, he gave back life to man.

Holy Week, with Palm Sunday 'of the Passion of our Lord' consists of the feast days from Monday to Thursday and culminates in the Paschal Triduum (Friday to Sunday).

April 1
SUNDAY OF THE PALMS AND THE PASSION OF OUR LORD
XXII World Youth Day - on the theme
"As I have loved you, so should you love each other" (Jn 13,34)
9:30 Piazza San Pietro

This feast unites the kingly triumph of Christ and the announcement of His passion.

The Holy Father will bless the palms and olive branches, and at the end of the procession, he will celebrate the Holy Mass of Our Lord's Passion.


5 April
MAUNDY THURSDAY
HOLY MASS OF THE CHRISM
9:30 Basilica Vaticana

The Holy Father will preside at the concelebration of the Mass with cardinals, bishops and priests present in Rome, as a sign of the close communion between the Pastor of the Universal Church and his brothers in the priesthood.

PASCHAL TRIDUUM
The Paschal Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord, 'the summit of the entire liturgical year,' begins with the Mass of the Lord's Supper, has its fulcrum in the Easter Vigil, and ends with the Vespers of Easter Sunday.

5 April
MAUNDY THURSDAY
HOLY MASS OF THE LORD'S SUPPER
5:30 pm Cappella Papale
Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano

With the Mass celebrated on the evening of Maundy Thursday, the Church commemorates the Last Supper, during which Jesus, on the night on which He would be betrayed - loving to the end those who were His disciples - offered to God his Body and Blood in the form of bread and wine, which he gave to the Apostles, and commanded them and their successors in the priesthood to make the same offering.

The Holy Father will preside at a concelebration of the Mass and will wash the feet of 12 chosen men. During the rite, those present will be asked to contribute to the support of a medical dispensary in Baidoa, Somalia. The amount raised will be given to the Holy Father during the presentation of gifts.

At the end of the Mass, there will be a procession to trasnfer the Blessed Sacrament to the Chapel of Reposition.

6 April
GOOD FRIDAY
CELEBRATION OF THE LORD'S PASSION
5 P.M. Cappella Papale
Basilica Vaticana

On this day, on which "Christ our Paschal Lamb was immolated," the Church - with a meditation on the Passion of her Lord and Spouse, and the adoration of the Cross - commemorates the event at which Christ's ribs were pierced, and intercedes for the whole world.

The Holy Father will preside at the Liturgy of the Word, the Adoration of the Cross, and the Communion rite.


VIA CRUCIS
9:15 pm Colosseum

The Holy Father will preside at the pious exercise of the Way of the Cross, at the end of which he will address the faithful and impart his Apostolic Blessing.


7-8 April
EASTER SUNDAY OF THE LORD'S RESURRECTION

By ancient tradition, Paschal Eve is 'in honor of the Lord' and the Vigil celebrated at this time, commemorating the sacred night during which Christ resurrected, is considered 'the mother of all vigils.' Indeed, on this night, the Church remains in waiting for the Resurrection of the Lord and celebrates it with the sacraments of Christian initiation.

With Easter Sunday begins the 'joyous time' of Pentecost, the 50-day Easter period during which the Church celebrates the presence of the Risen Christ and the effusion of the Holy Spirit.


EASTER VIGIL
10:00 P.M. Cappella Papale
Basilica Vaticana

The Holy Father will bless the new flame in the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica. After the processional entry into the Basilica with the Paschal candle and the singing of the Exsulter, he will preside at the Liturgy of the Word, the Baptismal Liturgy and the Eucharistic Liturgy, which he will concelebrate with all cardinals present.


HOLY MASS OF EASTER SUNDAY
10:30 A.M. St. Peter's Square

The Holy Father will celebrate Holy Mass in front of St. Peter's Basilica. Afterwards, he will impart his blessing Urbi et Orbi from the central balcony of St. Peter's.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/03/2007 23.53]

Pope Benedict XVI must be quite happy about the ripples he has caused by that pebble about Hell that he tossed into the stream of public discourse last Sunday. The commentaries continue in the Italian press, and by my count, no one so far has come out to dispute the concept or scoff at it.

In this essay for Libero today, Antonio Socci writes, among other things, of how the fear of Hell does not spare the high and the mighty.


Hell exists for politicians
by ANTONIO SOCCI

Few speak about it, as the Pope said last Sunday, but nevertheless, Hell raises dread in the hearts of men. Faced with the possibility of eternal damnation, everyone cowers, even our politicians.

In recent days, DICO co-author Rosy Bindi admitted to having cold shivers down her spine after she had launched the DICO draft legislation, which is condenmned by the Church. She told a reporter fron Corriere della Sera, "I was afraid I would harm my soul..."

The thought of eternal horrendous suffering disturbs the sleep of even those who call themselves atheists.

Like that super-communist Olivieri Diliberto, who, with intellectual honesty, said in an interview with L'Espresso: "I am not a believer, nor even someone who is 'searching'...but neither am I a hypocrite, and I cannot swear that I will not change my mind on my deathbed. Who knows what the effect of actual imminent death can be? I just hope I have enough time."

The Communist party put this interview online, but it also found its way into the site of the Union of Rational Atheists and Agnostics, where it drew scads of negative comments. One woman said: "So Diliberto fears ending up in hell! This is something I never even imagined."

The truth is that, faced with death, it has happened often that many public personages, who professed atheism or anti-clericalism all their life, end up reconciling with holy Mother Church to avoid a one-way ticket to horrors without end and without bounds.

These days, we are marking the 20th anniversary of the death of Renato Guttuso who set off so many polemical battles with his lucid anti-Church positions, but who came back to the Church and received the Sacraments before he died. Having been one of the leading Communist and atheist intellectuals of his time, his ante-mortem conversion was sensational news.

A less known but equally significant deathbed conversion was the case of the writer Leonardo Sciascia [one of Italy's major postwar novelists and essayists]. In the end, he died holding on to that silver rosary everyone could see in his coffin. Some of his friends, embarassed for him, attributed it to pious relatives.

In fact, during his life, Sciascia the 'illuminist' called on the Church not to degenerate into a humanitarian agency but to speak to men about their eternal destiny as the subject which matters most to everyone: "Without a clear and central proclamation of Transcendence, without offering the hope of eternal life, religion becomes just another humanitarian club, a circle of ethical specialists, but not a message that can quench the profound needs of the human heart."

Evidently, in his final hours, he himself settled his accounts before the supreme question, the definitive choice to make.

The historic case file is huge. Oscar Wilde converted to Catholicism with his dying breath, on November 30 1900, at age 46, after a disordered and provocatory life.

Mario Pannunzio, the mythical founder and editor of Mondo, someone always evoked by Eugenio Scalfari [mercilessly anti-Church editor of Repubblica, Italy's liberal mouthpiece] as his master - despite the fact that his newspaper was 'the banner of militant secularism' - "died after asking for the sacraments in extremis", according to Vittorio Messori, "something that they wanted to keep secret afterwards."

But, to get back to Italian politicians, it is most striking to discover that this same 'red thread' also marked the final hours of the leading secular leaders in Italian history.

Starting with Camillo Benso, count of Cavour, the first Prime Minister of a unified Italy. We know that as a young man, he professed fervent atheism, and there was ample literature afterwards over his presumed membership in the Masons.

In fact, he had very harsh policies for the church of Pius IX, who was persecuted and who answered back with excommunication. But in 1861, in his final hours, Cavour chose to die with the religious consolations administered to him by a Franciscan friar. In the end, he wanted to die in the arms of the Church he had persecuted.

The other ultra-secular Italian Prime Minister was Benito Mussolini, who as a young man walked through the piazzas of Romagna challenging God to strike him down with lightning. But as head of the Fascist government, it was he who signed the Concordat with the Vatican, and after he was deposed in July 1943, having been arrested and jailed in Ponza, he asked to have Riccioti's book on "The Life of Jesus Christ" brought to his cell, reading that presumably filled up his last desperate days.

Then let us look at the two secular leaders of the postwar Republics. Secular atheist Giovanni Spadolini reportedly asked for the last sacrament sbefore he died - although this has not been confirmed. But Bettino Craxi, the socialist who signed the second Concordat, had his funeral Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Tunis in the cathedral of Tunisia, where he died in the early 1990s. We remember the affectionate message from John Paul II who "joins in prayers, invokes Divine Goodness and asks God to give his soul eternal rest" for the Prime Minister who was deposed by bribe scandals.

Let us not forget Napoleon, who was the first great persecutor of the Church and the Pope in modern times. In his final days in exile, he converted, becoming passionately interested in Christ, about whom he left us many moving pages of testimony.

Messori narrates, "He asked the Pope - that same Pope he persecuted - if he could have a Corsican confessor, and the Pope sent him one on a special ship to St. Helena, where the ex-dictator received the last sacraments."

In fact, it seems that everyone [who grows in a Christian culture] must keep in his mind that awareness of how merciful the Father is that Jesus made known to us.

The character Bonconte in Dante needed only a 'teardrop' of repentance as he lay dying, to keep Satan from taking eternal possession of his soul and consign it to eternal torment. That merciful Father who pardons everything and always, till the very last breath, is the hope that we all hold on to.

When Francois Mauriac wrote in L'Express about the death of Andre Gide, there was an outcry from the intellectuals who were sarcastic and more than annoyed by the very idea that Gide finally gave in, something which even now many would condemn as weakness or opportunistic hypocrisy.

Which led Mauriac to remark bitterly: "But what hatred there is for hope among these contemporaries of ours! What fear of being comforted! What horror at the possibility that the last moments of a non-believer's life should not be darkness but an unforeseen light! Why do they fear, above all other dangers, that there is Love, that it comes to us, that it welcomes us despite all our errors and our sins?"

Kierkegaard wrote: "Most men live from cradle to tomb, carried along without respite by the vortices of life...then when death comes and stops their headlong life, they pay attention to Christianity and regret that they had not availed of it earlier."

But Augustine of Hippo converted because he was searching for happiness, not because he feared hell at the moment of death. After a youth of dissipation, his eyes opened to the Beauty of Christ, and he wrote: "Late have I come to love you, o Beauty that is always ancient and always new, late have I loved you. And you were always here within me, but I was out, looking for you. And I in my deformity threw myself into the beautiful things that you had created. You were with me but I was not with you. Those external beauties held me away from you, and yet without you, they would not have existed at all. You have called me and have opened my ears; you have shone upon me and dissipated my blindness. You have emitted your fragrance and I have smelled your perfume, and now I desire you. I have eaten and now I am hungry and thirsty. You have touched me and now I desire your peace."

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

When I read the Italian intellectuals write about theological and spiritual themes in the front pages of their mainstream newspapers, I cannot help wishing Catholic intellectuals writing in English had the same opportunity and scope... Although it is hard for me to imagine any Catholic mainstream writer in the United States taking the initiative to write an essay about hell -on the basis of a single mention of the word in a homily delivered in a parish church even if it was the Pope who said the homily.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/03/2007 0.10]

Taizé leader, Pope spoke on nature of communion among believers

Mar. 27, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI met with Brother Alois, the head of the ecumenical Taizé community, in a private audience on March 26.

Speaking with Vatican Radio after his meeting with the Holy Father, Brother Alois reported that the Pope was "very much interested" in hearing about Taizé, an ecumenical monastic community established in 1940 by the later Brother Roger Schutz. Brother Alois became head of the community after Brother Roger was killed in August 2005.

Brother Alois told Vatican Radio that the purpose of the monastic community was unchanged: to bring people to Christ 'in the communion of the Church." The ecumenical approach of the Taizé group has sometimes given rise to controversy-- for example, last year, when French journalists reported that Brother Roger, a Protestant minister, had been secretly admitted into the Catholic Church in the 1970s. Brother Alois said that report was "inexact," that Brother Roger had received Communion in the Catholic Church "without a 'conversion,' which was not request of him," because such a step would "imply a break with his roots."

Brother Alois said that during his talk with Pope Benedict he was convinced that the Holy Father shared the Taizé community's perspective on the understanding of communion in the Church.

Pope Benedict was meeting with the Taizé leader for the second time during his pontificate. He had previously met with Brother Alois, a fellow Bavarian, in January 2006, shortly after a gathering at which Taizé had hosted 50,000 young people in Milan.

Holy Father to meet with thousands of Roman youth


Rome, Mar 27, 2007 / 01:21 pm (CNA).- As the Church begins the final week of Lent, the young people of the Diocese of Rome will have the opportunity to meet with their bishop – Pope Benedict XVI. The Holy Father will hold a vigil for prayer and penitence on Palm Sunday, April 1st, the day when the Church also celebrates the 22nd World Youth Day.

According to the Fides news service the Holy Father will meet with thousands of young people in St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday, in preparation for the large gathering on Sunday. During the Liturgy, the youth will spend time in prayer and have an opportunity for private confession, during which the Pope himself will hear the confessions of a representative group of young people.

Planners from the Diocese of Rome plan on having around 200 priests present to hear confessions.

The Holy Father chose the theme of this year’s World Youth Day, which is to be celebrated individually in dioceses around the world:“Love one another as I have loved you.”

Msgr. Mauro Parmeggiani, Director of the Diocese of Rome’s Youth Pastoral Services told Fides that penitential Liturgy at St. Peter’s will, “truly an opportunity for young Catholics together with their Bishop to encounter the grace and love of God.”

As noted earlier, yesterday's Vatican press bulletin included the Holy Week schedule and two letters written by the Pope recently. VIS reports on the letters:

THE HOLY FATHER THANKS CARDINAL RUINI

VATICAN CITY, MAR 27, 2007 (VIS) - Benedict XVI has sent a Letter to Cardinal Camillo Ruini thanking him for his long service as president of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI). On March 7, the Pope accepted Cardinal Ruini's resignation from office and appointed in his place Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa.

In his Letter, which is dated March 23, the Holy Father expresses his gratitude for the cardinal's labors over more than 15 years as head of the CEI and, prior to that, as secretary of the organization.

How can we forget," the Pope writes, "that you guided the Italian bishops through a delicate and crucial stage of the history of the Italian people? Over these years your courage and tenacity in supporting the Church's activities have provided a service not only to the People of God but to the entire Italian nation. May God bring the multiple initiatives begun by the Church in Italy to full maturation."

For his part, Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., has sent a message of congratulation to Archbishop Bagnasco, the new president of the CEI. Cardinal Bertone calls upon the Lord to support and illuminate Archbishop Bagnasco in his new office, that he may "help his brother bishops of the Church in Italy to grow in full communion between themselves and with Peter's Successor."

The letter to Ruini was deemed so important that it is the main feature on the front page of Osservatore Romano for 3/28/07





TO CARDINAL STICKLER
ON MARKING 70 YEARS AS PRIEST

VATICAN CITY, MAR 27, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father has sent a Letter, written in Latin and dated March 26, to Cardinal Alfons Maria Stickler S.D.B., archivist and librarian emeritus of Holy Roman Church, for the occasion of the 70th anniversary of his ordination as a priest. The cardinal was ordained in the Roman basilica of St. John Lateran on March 27, 1937.

In his Letter Benedict XVI recalls the "charm and affability" of Cardinal Stickler, who is due to celebrate his 97th birthday in August, as well as the "charity and piety" that characterized his priestly ministry. He also praises the cardinal's efforts towards the expansion and renovation of the Vatican Apostolic Library.

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Magister's belated comment on the Pope's remarks last Saturday to the commission of episcopal conferences of Europe.

An “Apostate” from Itself:
The Lost Europe of Pope Benedict

Even before its separation from God,
Joseph Ratzinger sees the old continent withdrawing from itself, from “its very identity.”
Fifty years after the Treaty of Rome, the most critical assessment is that of the pope. Here it is.

by Sandro Magister


ROMA, March 28, 2007 – Fifty years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which in 1957 brought into life what today is the European Union, Benedict XVI has formulated a very severe diagnosis of the status of the continent. He has even come to the point of stating that Europe is falling into a “remarkable form of apostasy.”

John Paul II also spoke of “apostasy,” in the sense of the abandonment of the faith, in the 2003 apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Europa. But Benedict XVI has gone even further. He has accused Europe of being ever more frequently an apostate “from itself, even before [being an apostate] from God”: to the point of “doubting its very identity.”

The pope formulated this diagnosis while receiving in the Vatican’s Sala Clementina on March 24 the cardinals, bishops, and politicians who were taking part in a conference organized in Rome by the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community, COMECE, dedicated to the theme of “Values and perspectives for the Europe of tomorrow.”

Among the Catholic politicians who spoke at the conference were the president of the Italian council of ministers, Romano Prodi; the president of Ireland, Mary McAleese; and the president of the European parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering.

Meeting the pope in a private audience, Pöttering – a German who in recent years fought unsuccessfully for the insertion of a recognition of the Christian roots of Europe into the constitutional treaty of the Union – invited Benedict XVI to go to Strasbourg to speak before the plenary assembly of the European parliament, as John Paul II did on October 11, 1988.

Joseph Ratzinger dedicated a significant portion of his reflections to Europe even before he was elected pope. Particularly memorable even now is the conference on “Europe in the crisis of cultures” that he held in Subiaco, in the monastery of Saint Benedict, on the evening of April 1, 2005, twenty-four hours before the death of John Paul II.

The address by Benedict XVI last March 24 [See full text in HOMILIES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES] is shorter, but it incorporates the essential traits of the reflections preceding it. Not only in calling on Europe not to become lost, but also in pointing out to it how to find the strength again to be “leaven for the entire world.”

To renew this, its worldwide vocation, Europe must again rely not only on its Christian foundations, but also on those “universal and absolute values” in which it believes less and less: values that are fixed in “a stable and permanent human nature, the source of rights common to all individuals, including those who deny them.”

It is in the rejection of these universal and inviolable principles, inscribed in the heart of every man, that the pope sees the origin of, among other things, the laws that in many countries harm the dignity of life and the family.


To be read in this connection is an interesting commentary from LIBERO yesterday (posted in ODDS AND ENDS) which starts this way:

The Europeans have divorced themselves from Europe. The celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome were a curtain of fog to hide the truth.

But the reality is clear to all. A former French minister for European affairs, Pierre Moscovici, has tried to account for the failure of the European dream originally advocated by one of his compatriots, Jean Monnet.

Monnet's Europe, Moscovici wrote recently in his book "L'Europe est morte, vive l'Europe!", is dead and buried after 50 years. And there's little to sound the trumpets for.

European rhetoric going back to the Christian founding fathers like Monnet, Adenauer and De Gasperi, or the secularists like Altiero Spinelli, will not serve to revive the corpse.

The myopia of politicians has contributed decisively to accelerate the decease of Europe. The intellectuals, especially the progressivists, as usual did not fail to contribute to this.

And in the end, if we have to look for the most convinced advocate of preserving Europe today, we have to look at the austere figure of a Bavarian theologian, Joseph Ratzinger, who has become Benedict XVI.

He was speaking as a defender of the European future in that lecture at Regensburg, in which he went back to ancient Greece to trace the roots of European civilization. And last Saturday, he restated forcefully that Europe outside Christianity has no future.

But the continent appears to prefer a multi-ethnic, multi-religious Europe rather than Benedict's vision. ...

[The writer, Claudio Siniscalchi, goes on to say how it is the United States that is keeping Europe's traditions, and through its commercial epic films based on episodes in Europeanhistory or myth, has projected the European as someone who defends his liberty and his country to the death.]

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CELEBRATION OF PENANCE
PRESIDED BY THE HOLY FATHER
Thusrday, March 29, at 6:00 pm
St. Peter's Basilica

Pope Benedict will preside at the Penitential Liturgy to be attended primarily by the youth of the Diocese of Rome.

All are invited to attend, to conclude the penitential tinerary of Lent at a propitious moment for Reconciliation so that everyone may be purified when they come to celebrate the Paschal sacraments.


CAPPELLA PAPALE
FOR THE LATE POPE JOHN PAUL II
April 2 - Monday of Holy Week
5:30 pm, St. Peter's Square

Pope Benedict XVI will preside at Holy Mass on the second anniversary of the death of the Servant of God, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II.

Here is the AsiaNews report on the Pope's catechesis today. I have posted translation of the full text in AUDIENCE AND ANGELUS TEXTS.


VATICAN
Pope: true faith is taught by bishops,
not by intellectuals




Vatican City. Mar. 28 (AsiaNews) – True Christian faith is taught by the bishops of the Church, in particular the bishop of Rome, the Pope: it is public and unique, not intellectual in nature, insofar as it is inspired by the Holy Spirit and destined for all people.

The principles of the Apostolic tradition and the transmission of faith were addressed by Benedict XVI today in his catechesis to over 30,000 pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square for the weekly general audience.

Continuing in the catechesis on the Church Fathers from the first centuries, today the Pope spoke of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, probably born in Izmir, Turkey between 135 and 140, a follower of bishop Policarp, disciple of John. Irenaeus went on to become the bishop of the Lyons, France, where he died between 202 and 203, perhaps by martyrdom.

“As a writer." said Benedict XVI, "he had the twin aim of defending true doctrine from heretical attacks and of exposing with great clarity the truth of faith”. His works “can be defined as the oldest Catechism of teh Christian doctrine”.

At a time when the Church was threatened by Gnostic doctrine according to which “ the Church’s teachings of faith were merely symbolic for the simple people who were incapable of true comprehension”, and the initiated were the only ones capable of understanding the meaning behind those symbols.

But “in this way a Christianity for the elite, the intelligentsia, was being formed”, which soon diversifed into many different schools of thought with “strange and curious yet attractive elements”.

A common element among the diverse Gnostic sects was their Dualism: The oneness of God was denied while the theory of evil caused by material wealth was counterposed to the idea of a kind God. Irenaeus refuted the Gnostic pessimism which depreciated material reality.

But his work “goes well beyond his confutation of heresy”. In the Popes description he is 'the first great Theologian of the Church' who created 'systematic theology”, at the centre of which is the question of the “rule of faith”, as well as its transmission.

“The rule coincides with the apostles’ creed and gives us the key to interpreting the Gospel”, the Pope said.

The Gospel Irenaeus preached was the Gospel preached by his teacher Polycarp, who in turn received it from the Apostle John in an unbroken line of succession going back to Christ himself, the Pope pointed out

“There is no secret doctrine, a superior Christianity for intellectuals, does not exist”, the faith which is taught is faith for everybody, publicly transmitted by the apostles to their successors the bishops. Among these the teachings of the Church in Rome must be considered above all, as it traces its roots to the apostles Peter and Paul. All other Churches must agree to it.

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Pope's Study of Church Fathers
Not Just for Catholics


CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, MARCH 28, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's Wednesday-audience series on the Apostolic Fathers can give us hope for unity among Christians, says a Catholic theologian who was once an evangelical Protestant minister.

In this interview with ZENIT, David Warner discusses how reading Church Fathers led to his return to the Catholic Church and offers some reflections on the Pope's teachings.

Warner is now a senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in Steubenville, Ohio, and an adjunct professor for the University of Sacramento, California.

How have the early Church Fathers been influential in your own life, first as a Protestant minister and later as a Catholic?
I left the Catholic Church during my high school years. A far-ranging search led me away from the Church and toward a Christianity of my own invention.

After three years of wandering, I re-embraced Trinitarian theology and had an evangelical conversion to the divinity and lordship of Jesus Christ. This was the beginning of what turned out to be a rediscovery of, and return to, what the Nicene Creed calls the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church."

Again and again during my 18-year sojourn through various streams of Protestantism, I kept coming back to study the early centuries of Christianity.

While teaching a survey course in Church history, I became convinced that I was incompletely joined to the one Church directly established by Christ and witnessed to by the Fathers.

Reading the Apostolic Fathers and the second-century apologists forced me to come to grips with the thoroughly "Catholic" elements of early Christianity.

There was no escaping the fact that already in the first generations, Christians believed, for example, in a sacramental theology, a hierarchy led by bishops who were appointed by the first apostles, and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

As a Catholic, my Christian formation was corrected and enriched by studying for three university degrees in Catholic theology. My favorite studies related to patristics.

Whether I was researching biblical, systematic, moral, historical, or pastoral theology; Catholic education or ecumenism; a common point of integration was to discover what the earliest theologians and pastors taught and practiced.

My doctoral studies centered on the 19th-century English convert, Cardinal Newman, who, like so many recent evangelical ministers including myself, returned to the fullness of the ancient Church largely through the influence of the Fathers.

Why would non-Catholic Christians be any more interested in the Fathers of the first couple of centuries than in later saints and doctors of the Church?
In the Apostolic Fathers and the earliest bishops and apologists, we have the earliest links in the chain that connects today's Christians with the Twelve.

Quoting a second-century bishop, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Benedict XVI reminded us that St. Clement, the third bishop of Rome in succession from St. Peter, had the first apostles' "preaching in his ears, and their tradition before his eyes."

Pope Clement had no qualms about asserting his extra-local apostolic authority, teaching and correcting the Church of Corinth, in distant Greece.

Other great bishops whom Benedict XVI explores, like St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Polycarp died as martyrs for the truth they knew they had received directly from the original apostles who had taught them.

I remember reasoning while still a Protestant minister, that if Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp and Irenaeus could not get it right after just one or two generations, then what hope did I have for believing that Jesus was who the New Testament claimed he was, or that he had founded a Church that would kick in the gates of hell, and be led by the Spirit of truth until his return?

In the end, I wearied of trying to be my own pope, and returned to the Church of the Fathers.

How do you think non-Catholic Christians and others will view Benedict XVI's catechesis on the Fathers of the early Church?
It is unlikely that many of them will, in fact, come across these teachings directly. But for those who do, their reactions will be influenced by their preconceived ideas and present convictions.

Those who are of a more socio-historical revisionist persuasion will tend to categorize Benedict's teachings as being nothing more than a repetition of "history as told by the victors" in the ancient battles for orthodoxy.

For them, a seemingly endless stream of "lost gospels" and "new discoveries" are at least complementary to, if not equal or superior to, sacred Scripture and the orthodox writings of the early bishops and saints.

It is a case study for what Cardinal Ratzinger warned of in his homily just before the papal conclave: "Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. … We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as certain."

We have become accustomed, for example, to being bombarded through the media every Christmas and Easter with wild theories regarding Jesus and the varieties of early Christian belief, appealing to so-called suppressed writings.

Typically, these were written by pseudonymous authors claiming to be one of the apostles or their companions. Many of these manuscripts promoted Gnostic teachings that were already being warned against by the New Testament authors in the first century.

They were rejected by the early bishops as being unfaithful to the teachings of Christ, as passed down through the apostles and their successors.

One encouraging sign is the growing interest among some Protestant scholars and pastors who are fascinated with the project of rediscovering and adapting the unique worldview, theology and spirituality of the Fathers.

Seeking to become more "Catholic" without necessarily becoming "Roman," many evangelical theologians and publishers are producing serious studies on the biblical theology of the Fathers.

This is a promising path of potential convergence that could serve Benedict XVI's own ecumenical commitments. I think these brothers and sisters in Christ might find food for thought and an expansion of their religious imagination by the Pope's patristic reflections.

Do you have any thoughts on why Benedict XVI would choose to teach on these early Christian Fathers just now?
The present Wednesday-audience series on the Fathers began on March 7, 2007. It is a continuation of the Pope's catechesis on the mystery of the Church that began a year ago in March 2006, with weekly meditations on each of the Twelve Apostles.

By October, he was ready to draw our attention to St. Paul and his collaborators: apostolic men like Timothy and Titus - early bishops, and lay leaders in the Church like the married couple, Aquila and Priscilla.

Benedict XVI is trying to follow Our Lord's command to Peter to "feed my sheep." The food he has chosen to provide us during this series is the tremendous heritage of holy men and women who lived and died as witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his Church during the first centuries of the Christian era. From their witness, we can better understand the mystery of the Church as the "presence of Christ among men."

For Catholics, salvation history is the drama of God's unfolding plan for his people. This story can be read in the pages of sacred Scripture and Church history. Benedict XVI's reflections are designed to cause us to reconsider the essential nature and mission of the Church in the context of salvation history.

What common ground can Christians find in the Fathers, and how might this help ecumenical efforts?
The Fathers can inform and challenge Christians of every description. Protestants can rediscover their forgotten roots. This in turn often results in an increased appreciation for Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and other episcopal and liturgical traditions.

In other cases, openness to the Fathers becomes a steppingstone toward embracing what we believe to be the fullness of Christian faith and practice found within the Catholic Church.

Catholics can and should rediscover some of the patristic priorities that modern evangelicals are noted for, including: living in and for Christ; reverencing and studying the Bible as the unique, authoritative written word of God; and becoming better informed and enthusiastic witnesses to Jesus Christ, the one and only savior of the world.

We can reaffirm our Catholic tradition of promoting all of the gifts of the Spirit - including the charismatic and hierarchical gifts - toward the end of Christian maturity and unity. All of these distinctive traits are clearly taught and modeled in the Fathers.

We can relearn how to "breathe with both lungs," a phrase Pope John Paul II often used to refer to drawing from both the Western and Eastern Christian traditions of theology and spirituality.

Many of the earliest Fathers were in fact "Eastern"; they lived in the Near East or Northeast Africa, and wrote in Greek and other non-Latin tongues. Our Eastern Orthodox brothers have the highest regard for the same figures the Pope is holding up for our example and instruction.

Benedict XVI gives us hope for Christian unity by directing us to Ignatius of Antioch who was "truly a doctor of unity." He taught the unity of the Trinity, the unity of the Incarnate Logos, and the unity of the Church in the bonds of love.

Ignatius' prescription for authentic spirituality and ecumenism was "a progressive synthesis between configuration to Christ - union with him, life in him - and dedication to his Church - union with the bishop, generous service to the community and the world."

The Second Vatican Council taught that authentic ecumenism begins with individual, interior repentance and renewal. This can lead to a broader institutional humility and renewal, and docility toward the lessons of history.

Through the Fathers' writings, all Christians may learn from these privileged witnesses to the sacred deposit of faith entrusted by Our Lord to the first apostles. The first- and second-century Fathers and apologists serve as windows into the mystery of the Church as "one, holy, catholic and apostolic."

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The following is a composite from ZENIT and APCOM reports (translated).

Fifteen thousand young people from the Diocese of Rome turned up today for the Penitential Liturgy to which the Pope hadinvited them. Half of them had to be accommodated in the Aula Paolo VI, in addition to St. Peter's Basilica.

"There are so many of you the Basilica of St. Peter's cannot hold all of you," a smiling Pope Benedict XVI greeted those who were in the audience hall.

"I thank you for the sacrifice you are making in being here instead of with your friends inside the Basilica," he added.

"But we will be in communion in prayer and through the video link, but above all, thanks to the many priests who will be administering the sacrament of confession, you will all be having the same experience of encountering the mercy of God."

The Pope then proceeded to the Basilica where he celebrated Mass. But the culmination of the day was when he took off his purple chasuble, put on his eyeglasses, and like an ordinary priest, entered one of the wooden confessional boxes in the Basilica to hear confessions from at least six of the young people present.



The penitential vigil was called by the Pope to prepare for the XXII World Youth Day which will take place on the diocesan level on Palm Sunday, April 1. In the past, the pre-WYD event was a song-and-dance celebration held in St. Peter's Square.

More than 200 priests, wearing the violet stole for Lent, heard confessions in the Basilica after the Mass. Some sat in simple chairs because there are not that many confessional booths.

While the confessions took place, the choir and orchestra of the Diocese of Rome performed meditative music for Lent alternating with spiritual readings, including the message of the Pope for this World Youth Day.

Earlier, the Pope described the penitential liturgy as "an encounter around the Cross, a celebration of the mercy of God whom each of you can experience personally through the sacrament of confession."

"God's love for man," the Pope said in his homily, "is best described by the word agape - which is sacrificial love, which seeks only the good of the other."

But it can also be described as eros, he continued, citing his Lenten message. "The heart of God, the omnipotent, waits for the Yes from his creatures as a young husband awaits his wife's yes."

And on this subject, he aded, "Christianity has never rejected eros as such, but only against its destructive misuse."

In the heart of every man, "there is a thirst for love," the Pope said in his homily. "Even more so, the Christian cannot live without love - rather, unless he meets true love in Christ, he cannot even call himself Christian."

"Christ draws us to Him to unite with each of us so that, in turn, we can learn to love our brothers the way He loves them."

"There is such need," he said, "for a renewed ability to love our brothers."

The Pope then went on to the subject of Confession, reminding the faithful that the 'new life' which begins with baptism does not suppress human nature nor the tendency to sin. But from the forgiveness of sins, he said, a new impulse for love is born.

The Pope expressed the hope that "the love and he mercy of God may move your hearts." In confession, he said, "you will experience the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with the Church, the recovery - if you have lost it - of a state of grace."

"Coming out of this celebration," he told them, "with your hearts filled with the experience of God's love, be prepared to dare to love in your families, in your relationship with friends and even with those who have offended you."

Addressing himself to engaged couples, he said, "Live your engagement in true love, which means reciprocal respect that is chaste and responsible."

And to those who may have a vocation, he said, "If the Lord calls any of you to a life of particular consecration, be ready to respond with a generous Yes that allows no compromise."

On Sunday, April 1, the Pope will lead the procession and blessing of palms and olive branches on St. Peter's Square, followed by the celebration of Holy Mass.

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ZENIT's Elizabeth Lev writes from Rome. This is ZENIT's second story today in which an academic remarks on Benedict XVI's 'teaching' sessions.


Seminarians, students and other eager listeners gathered recently at the University of the Holy Cross in Rome listen to American professor Scott Hahn expound the theological vision of Benedict XVI.

The weeklong mini course was just one of several meetings, formal and informal, during which Hahn, a professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio and St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, spoke with laity and religious on a range of topics.

Foremost on Hahn's agenda was the Holy Father's "curriculum" for Catholics, which Hahn believes will also lead many Protestant theologians to discover the answers they have been searching in the Catholic liturgy.

But even more, Hahn said that Benedict XVI's "clarity and classic style of theologizing" make his teaching accessible to the average lay person.

"One of the remarkable things about Benedict XVI," said Hahn, "is that he is almost too straightforward. With a little bit of effort, those who are not schooled in theology will grasp treasures of biblical wisdom in the context of liturgy and the sacraments."

The Pope's writing, Hahn said, has been significant in his own faith journey.

"I started reading Joseph Ratzinger before I realized he was Catholic, let alone a cardinal, now Benedict XVI," he said. "That was 25 years ago; I've only been Catholic for 20."

At a casual reception at the home of a former student now working in Rome, Hahn encouraged old and new students to take advantage of their proximity to the Holy Father as a time of preparation for their own service to the Church.

He said: "This is the hour of the laity. It is a tremendous privilege to be so near Benedict XVI who is a teacher par excellence.

"Those of you who have the privilege of learning from him so directly will be called upon to serve others."

During a visit to the North American College, Hahn encouraged seminarians to remain rooted in prayer and Scripture.

[The rest of the story is about Hahn and his wife]:

American seminarian Johnny Burns was enthusiastic about Hahn's talk: "He spoke about the priesthood in a biblical context and then talked about priestly fatherhood by building on lessons he's learned from being a father.

"His personal stories were quite moving. And when he shared with us what he truly thought of the priesthood, that was also moving, indeed unforgettable."

Scott Hahn was joined by his wife, Kimberly Hahn, who spoke informally with groups of students. She is an author, speaker and home schooling mother of their six children.

Kimberly Hahn, also a convert to Catholicism, is her husband's partner in producing materials for a parish-based Bible study program, as well as helping would-be converts to navigate their entry into Catholicism.

But in addition, she is often a keynote speaker on family issues.

On one occasion during her visit to Rome, Kimberly Hahn held an informal discussion about challenges to Christian marriage, which, she said, is suffering from a divorce rate in the United States that is nearly equivalent to non-sacramental marriages.

"A major culprit in failed marriages is cohabitation," she said. "People fail to recognize that living together prior to marriage is absolutely a recipe for failure. You can't 'try on' a marriage because without sacramental grace, it really is impossible."

Kimberly Hahn said that another challenge is pornography: "Without question, pornography is a major culprit in many failed marriages in the United States.

"It's really a type of infidelity. When a man has been unfaithful to his wife through pornography, it is very hard to recover a foundation of trust. Women are often at a loss to express the sense of betrayal."

She said she sees signs for hope, especially among the many lay students pursuing degrees in theology, and marriage and family studies.

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Pope tells young people penance is sacrament of God's mercy, love

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The sacrament of penance is the sacrament of God's mercy and an outpouring of God's healing love, Pope Benedict XVI told young people from Rome.

"With this sacrament's penitential cleansing, we are readmitted into full communion with God and with the church," the pope told the young people attending a March 29 penance service.

The evening prayer service was held in a packed St. Peter's Basilica where Pope Benedict and some 200 priests heard individual confessions and offered absolution.

So many young people requested the free tickets to the liturgy that hundreds of them had to watch on television screens in the Vatican audience hall; they were joined by dozens of priests who ensured they, too, had an opportunity to receive the sacrament.

In his homily, Pope Benedict said the service was "an encounter around the cross, a celebration of the mercy of God, which each of you can experience personally in the sacrament of confession."

"Yes, the cross reveals the fullness of God's love for us, a crucified love that does not end with the scandal of Good Friday, but culminates in the joy of the Resurrection and Ascension into heaven and in the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of love through whom, including this evening, sins will be forgiven and pardon and peace will be given," he said.

After the communal prayers, Pope Benedict removed his heavy purple cope and, dressed in an alb with a purple stole, went into a confessional where he spent 35 minutes offering the sacrament to penitents behind a screen.

In addition to the pope's homily, the young people were led in their examination of conscience with "requests for forgiveness" based on the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride.

Seven young people took turns reading the prayer while seven of their peers lighted candles at the foot of a crucifix.

Sins connected with lust, the prayer said, "make us slaves of sex," place "individuals, families and society at risk," and fuel prostitution and pedophilia.

It included a plea for forgiveness for watching pornography on video or over the Internet and for believing that "every instinct must find immediate satisfaction."

"Help us to keep our hearts and minds chaste and not to have sexual relations before or outside of matrimony (and) to avoid perversion and the bizarre," it said.

"Teach us modesty and dignity in the way we dress, watch over our gazes and fantasies," it said.

Turning to gluttony, the prayer asked pardon not just for overeating, but also for smoking and for alcohol and drug abuse -- "dependencies that make us slaves."

The prayer asked God's help in practicing abstinence to "detoxify the body and the mind. Help us discover the healthy pleasure of life."

In asking forgiveness for greed, the prayer included a request for pardon for working on Sundays, for being dishonest and for not giving to charity.

"Forgive the terrible consequences of an obsession with money: family fights, anxiety and false fears, betrayal, fraud, cheating, lying, violence and hardness of heart," it said.

"Forgive the injustices of society, the dramatic inequalities between rich and poor countries, the wars, the inhuman exploitation and the confusion of consciences produced by a system of accumulation and consumption that does everything to excite the longing to possess," the prayer said.

In reflecting on sloth and laziness, the prayer asked forgiveness for dependency on "stimuli and exterior pleasures" and for the times when boredom leads to distraction during prayer.

"Forgive us when sloth generates disgust and boredom for every healthy and spiritual activity," it continued.

The prayer of pardon for envy also asked forgiveness for the selfishness that prevents the people from loving others and wanting only the best for them, and for the times "we call envy 'healthy competitiveness.'"

The reflection on wrath also asked forgiveness for anger, animosity, aggressiveness, the desire for vengeance, "the temptation to make those who humiliate us pay" and sharp, cutting remarks made about others.

Asking forgiveness for pride, the prayer also asked God's pardon for times when participants acted only to win praise and approval, for seeking power and fame or for showing off their physical beauty or talents "given to us by God."


If I had been at this service and had been able to get into Papa's confessional, I would have taken up all 35 minutes of his time. I would have invented sins to stay longer. The Swiss Guard would have had to drag me kicking and screaming from the confessional. What lucky young people to have been able to spend time alone and at close range with Papa! I think we senior citizens need to demand equal time with him.

[Modificato da benefan 30/03/2007 5.49]

Here's the AsiaNews report on the Pentitential Liturgy, for the record. A full translation of the Pope's homily has been posted in HOMILIES,DISCOURSES,MESSAGES.

For those who may have come late to this thread, initial stories and pictures of the Penitential Liturgy are found on the preceding page. :

From confession comes
new strength to love
and change the world,
Pope tells young people



Avvenire used the OR photograph of the Pope as confessor on its front page today .


Vatican City, March 29 (AsiaNews) – "Young people: go to confession often so that you shall renew your capacity to love! It will help you change the world and bring to it a civilisation of love," Benedict XVI said in a message he delivered to several thousands of young people who filled St. Peter’s Basilica, so many in fact that some had to stand outside its perimeter. [And some 8,000 were accommodated in Aula Paolo VI.] And yet the Pope was able to greet them all.

For the first time since he became Pope, Benedict XVI also heard confession, from young people, and hence renewed with a tradition that began under John Paul II.

Unlike his predecessor who went down into St Peter’s Basilica on Good Friday to administer the sacrament like any other confessor, Benedict XVI performed it today as part of a penitential celebration leading up to Youth Day. In doing so the Pope underscored the right way to celebrate the ritual, communal part and individuals confessions included.

It was a long liturgy devoted to “experiencing the mercy of God,” according to Benedict XVI’s own definition, one that saw young Catholics from Erbil, Iraq, joiningin prayer.

In speaking to the young people the Pope proposed they reflect upon the Youth Day theme, namely “Love one another as I love you.”

“Today’s meeting has a high and profound meaning,” he said. “It is in fact a meeting about the Cross, a celebration of God’s mercy which each one of you can personally experience in the sacrament of the confession.”

Benedict XVI also said that in the heart of each man, “there is a thirst for love.” Indeed, “Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it,” he said quoting John Paul II from his first encyclical Redemptor Hominis.

“This is even truer for Christians, who, if they do not encounter true love, cannot call themselves Christian.”

Christianity began as “the meeting with the One who gives life,” Benedict XVI noted in Deus Caritas Est. Subsequently, it was the meeting with God’s love for us, “which began at creation, then became visible in the mystery of the Cross” which “revealed the fullness of God’s love for us.”

But faced with the ablative love of God, “who awaits for His creatures’ ‘I do’ the way a young groom waits for his bride’s,” humanity, tempted by Satan from the very beginning, has shut itself off from God’s love under the illusion of its own self-sufficiency.

“But tonight as you approach the sacrament of the confession,” the Pope told the young crowd, “you will be able to experience the free gift God makes of His life,” so that “we can become new beings.”

After that, “be prepared to use love with you families, friends, and even those who have given you offence;” “be prepared to bear witness of the true Christian love wherever you study and work, in parish communities, groups, movements, associations, in every realm of society.”

Addressing young couples, the Pope said that they should live their engagement “in the true love that comes with respect for one another, chaste and responsible.” If “any of you should feel called to a special consecration, be ready to respond with a generous Yes and no compromises.”

“The world,” he concluded, “is waiting for you to contribute to the building of a civilisation of love [. . .] one where the whole world is the horizon. With God’s grace you shall be equal to the arduous task. Do not lose confidence; the Lord is by your side.”

The rite included a liturgy of the Word and a collective request for forgiveness, symbolised by seven young people asking for forgiveness, each one representing each mortal sin. Then, as a sign of the call for mercy, another seven lighted a lamp near the Cross, in this particular case the Crucifix of the Visitine Chapel, which was brought for the occasion. Individual confessions followed, performed in addition to the Pope by 200 priests from the Pontifical basilicas and the diocese.

The ceremony was also a stage before the upcoming Youth Day, symbolised by the final song “Jesus Christ you are my life”, the event’s “hymn”.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 09/04/2007 5.45]

Avvenire today had two excellent editorials on the CEI Pastoral Note and the Penitential Liturgy yesterday. Here are some pages showing Avvenire's coverage of the Penitential Liturgy:

Front and back pages. The back page advertises an exhibit on icons of THE FACE OF CHRIST
in Turin Cathedral, where the Holy Shroud is kept.


Coverage of the Penitential Liturgy:


Here is the editorial on the Penitential Liturgy:

ALL THOSE YOUNG PEOPLE
AT ST. PETER'S FOR CONFESSION!
By Marina Corradi


That more than 15,000 young people gather together in St. Peter's on a day in Lent to make their confessions to the Pope and 200 other priests is very likely not news for newspapers, who these days have teams of newsmen camped out at the city hall in Potenza to report to Italians the latest development in some celebrity couple's troubled life - and through their wealth of detailed reporting, seem to indicate that that's what Italy's all about.

That, as the Pope said, "the basilica of St. Peter's is not big enough to accommodate all of you who have come" was probably unremarked by the editors.

And yet, Benedict's decision to call on the youth of Rome to come to confession before Easter, and the response of those thousands of young people, are strong signs that go against current trends and expectations, and certainly worth paying attention to.

Especially because, since 'sin' has become an unsayable word - being the ridiculous remnant of bigoted obscurantism - confession - at least in the world of monopolar politically correct thinking - is considered a tiresome obsolete idea that doesn't make sense.

It has been decades that modern thinking has been at work to tear down the idea of sin, transforming it into a subjective 'sense of guilt' which it is morally imperative to be rid of right away.

It has been decades that people have been taught to blame the errors of individuals on society - that is, on everyone, and therefore, on no one.

Thus, faced with the most intolerable crimes, we say, "Oh, the assassin must have been crazy" - as if we have forgotten how evil man can be.

In the epicenter of violent explosions of evil that was previously ignored, as in Erba or Cogne [two Italian cities hit by headlined crimes recently] the people are stunned: 'How could that happen among us? We are good people, honest workers, decent men!'

The sin of our time, Pius XII said prophetically, "is to have lost the sense of sin."

Having swept aside the consciousness of original sin like corrosive junk, and having been educated to think that even if there is a God, "it's none of his business what I do" - that He should just stay where He is, nothing to do with the affairs of men - then sin has lost its essence, which is estrangement from God.

At most, it has been reduced to mean non-observance of manmade laws, in a culture of legalism where to abort a child - since it is allowed by the law - is considered far less venial than tax evasion.

Within such a collective denial of that original sin from which no one is exempt, there are always new 'virtuous' persons who emerge to announce the urgency of cleaning out evil from society. But surprisingly, such self-proclaimed virtue, such moralizing ardor, has not succeeded to pass on its 'values' to its own children.

It is a sterile, Pharisaical virtue that flashes on and off amid the daily scandals of society. We are not capable of saving ourselves on our own, not even of forgiving ourselves for the bad things that we do, and then denying - how inconvenient! - that they keep coming back to haunt us.

Then, on a Thursday in Lent, the Pope invites the youth of Rome to confession, and they come to fill St. Peter's to the rafters and beyond. From their faces, as they head back home, they appear happy. As though certain of rediscovered hope, much greater than all that they have been promised before, and in which many of them perhaps never believed in anymore.

Because the genuine hope that many people lack is that one lives, not by chance, but within a course set in the right direction. Which one can always start anew.

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

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 31/03/2007 0.22]

Two days ago, a brief news item first informed us that the magazine Famiglia Cristiana in Italy was giving its readers a tear-off pre-addressed birthday card that they may send the Pope for his 80th birthday. At that time, a brief quotation was made from the editors' statement about the card.

The issue is out on the newsstands this weekend, and Emma in the main forum has shared with us the full text of that editors' statement, which turns out to be a beautiful tribute to Joseph Ratzinger, man and Pope. Here is the card, as well as a translation of the statement.



IN THE HEART OF THE WORLD
AND OF MODERN CULTURE


When he was asked to govern the Catholic Church, Joseph Ratzinger was 78. The world had a false image of him - intransigent, an icy German cardinal, an intellectual rigorist, rigid in demanding observance of Church dogma and moral imperatives, hostage to anti-modernity. No one really knew him well.

And few had really read, with open eyes and unprejudiced minds, the writings of this intellectual who has lived through a time when history has moved faster than it ever has.

Now, the intellectual who became Pope enters our homes everyday. We have learned to value his measured gestures and his powerful words, his gentle character and his narrative charisma, his teaching which is clear, precise and convincing.

On April 16, Joseph Ratzinger turns 80 and a few days later, he will mark the second year of his Pontificate.

What does one give a Pope? The question perhaps has no answer. On the other hand, one can come up with an answer without having to ransack our mind. There is one gift that we can all give him on his birthday: understanding.

It could simply be the intention to dispel, once and for all, the stereotypes that have accumulated about him. It could be a promise to read (or reread) his words, not only as Pope, but what he has wirtten throughout his life.

We can do him honor by going into his words in order to reach the heart of a person who has lived through a century at the turn of a millennium, and who has, through the years, woven together a fabric of thoughts about the faith, never taken for granted but always passionate, never banal or trite, which impels his reader into reflecting on the Word and the significance of God.

Our readers will find a birthday card in this issue. It is a simple way to greet the Pope and wish him well. We can write in a simple thought about him or one of his sentences that has remained impressed in our minds.

Benedict XVI is a man who continues to show passion and love for the cause of God and for that of man. His critics acknowledge his intelligence and courage even if they disagree with him. Because all his life, he has worked for the encounter between faith and reason. His theological work has consisted of giving an answer to those who want a reason for faith -and hope. It is a thread which he has never abandoned - the essence of Christianity as told to us by the theologian, the cardinal, and now the Pope.

In Regensburg last year, he explained, in what has been so far the central discourse of his Pontificate, that "not to act according to reason is contary to the nature of God." It is very much worthwhile to reread that text, over and above the polemics promoted deliberately over what it said about the relation between Islam and Christianity. And without ever forgetting those two words that keep recurring in everything he says: love and joy.

Perhaps the best thought we can address the Pope who turns 80is to thank him for having placed into the heart of the world and of modern culture the 'question of God' and to have said that it cannot be avoided by anyone.

The Editors
Famiglia Cristiana
1 aprile 2007

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

And the way that the editors used a phrase from that last sentence as the title of this editorial - which it is, in effect - leads me to think they meant it two ways: not just that Joseph Ratzinger has placed the qeustion of God into the heart of the world and of modern culture, but that he himself, Joseph Ratzinger, has earned his place in the heart of the world and in the heart of modern culture (at least, the fully reasoning part of it).

P.S. At least two of our Italian sisters who have the magazine and the card have now decided the card is too beautiful not to keep and will be sending the Pope another card of their own choosing. I thought it would be so!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 01/04/2007 20.27]

ZENIT reports the Pope's public activities today, 3/30/07:

Benedict XVI Warns of Syncretism:
Dialogue Doesn't Imply
All Religions Are Same, He Says


VATICAN CITY, MARCH 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says that dialogue between cultures and religions is fundamental, but it must not fall into syncretism, which puts every sort of belief on the same level.

Lasting peace and development depend on this, he said today in an audience with the new Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See, Tetiana Izhevska.

The Holy Father stated: "In our world, evermore conditioned by the urgencies of globalization, a deep and demanding dialogue is necessary between cultures and religions. But this is not to diminish them with an impoverishing syncretism; rather, it is to enable them to develop in a climate of reciprocal respect so that each one works, according to its own charism, for the common good.

"This perspective surely will permit the lessening of ever possible causes of tension and disagreements between groups or nations, and guarantee for all the conditions of lasting peace and development."

Benedict XVI recognized that Ukraine is a "door between the East and the West because of its geographical location." He encouraged "productive exchange … between the two cultural lungs that have forged European history and in particular characterized its Christian history."

The Pope added: "I am certain that Ukraine, deeply imbued with the Gospel in its life, culture and institutions, ever since its baptism more than 1,000 years ago in Kiev, will concern itself with bringing the dynamism of its identity to other nations, maintaining its original characteristics."



Pontiff Praises Freedom in Ukraine
Receives Presidential Invitation to Visit


VATICAN CITY, MARCH 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI thanked the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, for inviting him to visit the nation which he called "a gateway between East and West."

The Pope expressed his gratitude, though did not confirm a visit, in a ceremony today in which he received the credentials for the new Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See, Tetiana Izhevska.

In his speech in French, the Holy Father recalled that the nation has maintained diplomatic relations with the Holy See for 15 years, and mentioned the "pastoral visit by my predecessor, Pope John Paul II, in 2001."

Benedict XVI hailed "the good relations that exist between the government authorities and the Churches and ecclesial communities in Ukraine."

He pointed out that "In your nation, the faithful are blessed with religious freedom, which is an essential dimension of a human being's freedom and therefore a fundamental expression of their dignity."

Due to a "a just distinction between the responsibilities of the religious and civil spheres," the Pope said, "the state recognizes different forms of worship ... ensuring them equal rights before the law and thus allowing each ... to play its specific role for the common good of the nation."

Of the 47 million inhabitants of Ukraine, fewer than 10% are Catholic, mostly of the Eastern and Latin rites. The majority of the population is Orthodox.



Pope Calls for Revaluing Human Side of Work
Sends Message to Young Professionals in Forum


VATICAN CITY, MARCH 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- In a message sent to young professionals gathered to analyze the world of labor, Benedict XVI appeals for a revived appreciation of the human dimension of work.

The Pope's appeal was sent to participants in the 9th International Youth Forum, organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity, on the theme "Witnesses of Christ in the Labor World" being held in Rome through Sunday.

Three hundred 20- to 35-year-olds from about 100 nations are participating in this encounter.

The Holy Father points out in his message: "The process of globalization going on in the world has brought on a need for mobility, which obliges many young people to emigrate and live far away from their birthplace and from their families.

"This generates a disquieting sense of insecurity, with indubitable repercussions on the ability not only to imagine and adopt a plan for the future, but also to concretely commit oneself to marriage and to the formation of a family."

"In a context of economic liberalism conditioned by market pressure, by competence and competitiveness," the Pontiff underlined "the need to value the human dimension of labor and to guarantee the dignity of the human person."

"The final reference point of any human activity can be only the individual, created in the image and likeness of God," he added. "Work is part of God's project for the human being" and implies "a participation in his creative and redemptive work."

Benedict XVI continued: "Therefore, every human activity should be a motive and a place of growth for the individual and for society, a development of personal 'talents' that must be valued, a service oriented toward the common good, with a spirit of justice and solidarity.

"For the faithful, moreover, the ultimate finality of labor is the building up of the Kingdom of God."

To face these "complex issues," the Pope proposed Catholic social doctrine as a reference point for the young professionals.

"Today, more than ever, it is urgent and necessary to proclaim the 'Gospel of work,' to live as Christians in the world of labor and to become apostles among workers," the Holy Father asserted. "But to complete this mission one must stay united to Christ with prayer and an intense sacramental life, and with this objective, to value Sunday, the day dedicated to the Lord."

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 31/03/2007 4.52]

Pope marks Palm Sunday,
asks people to seek God
By Robin Pomeroy

NB: A translation of the Pope's homily has been posted in HOMILIES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES.



VATICAN CITY, April 1 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict commemorated Palm Sunday with a call for people not to let their day-to-day lives get in the way of a search for God.

In a service marking Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem a week before being crucified, Benedict said those who chose to follow Jesus had to give themselves up completely.

"It is about the fundamental decision to no longer think about utility and earnings, career and success as the ultimate aim of my life, but rather to recognize as authentic criteria truth and love," he told worshippers in St. Peter's Square.

Presiding over the second Palm Sunday of his pontificate - John Paul II died just after Easter in 2005 - Benedict told tens of thousands of pilgrims that they had something in common with the crowds that cheered Christ's arrival in Jerusalem.

"Like them we praise the Lord with a strong voice for all the wonders we have seen," said the 79-year-old Pope, seated on a dais in front of St. Peter's basilica, wearing a gold-colored miter and red, gold and white vestments.



"Yes, we also have seen and see still the wonders of Christ, how he leads men and women to give up the comfort of their own lives and put themselves completely at the service of those who are suffering, how he gives men and women the courage to oppose violence and lies and make room in the world for truth."

Benedict sprinkled holy water on palm tree branches placed at the base of the ancient obelisk at the center of St. Peter's Square - a traditional gesture to remember the palm fronds laid down by the crowds welcoming Jesus to Jerusalem.

Palm Sunday marks the start of Holy Week when the Church commemorates the crucifixion of Christ, on Good Friday, and the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Monday is also the second anniversary of the death of Benedict's predecessor John Paul and the Rome diocese will give the Vatican documentation proposing that he be beatified, the last step before sainthood.




Additional details from AsiaNews:

VATICAN
Pope: Young people, search for the face of God;
follow Christ with innocent hands and pure hearts


Vatican City, April 1 (AsiaNews) – In an impassioned appeal, on Palm Sunday which also marked World Youth Day, Benedict XVI asked all young people to “search for the Face of God” and to follow Christ with “innocent hands and pure hearts”, hands “that are not sullied by corruption and bribes”, hearts that are not marked by “lies and hypocrisy”.

With equal feeling the Pope appealed to the world which has “closed” its doors to God to listen to the crucified Christ’s message that tells each one of us: “If God’s words and the Church’s message leave you indifferent – then look to me, to the God who made himself flesh to suffer for you and with you - see that I suffer for your love and open yourself to me and God the Father”. ][NB: The Pope must have improvised the lines after "then look to me", because the latter part of the sentence is not in the text published online by the Vatican press office.]

The Palm Sunday rite, which opens Holy Week and the memory of our Lord’s passion, death and resurrection, began from the giant obelisk of St Peter’s Square, with the blessing of the palm and olive branches, followed by a procession to the altar, in remembrance of Christ’s solemn entry into the city of Jerusalem.

In fact an estimated 40 thousand people took part in the ceremony, for the most part young people from the Rome diocese, gathered to mark the XXII World Youth Day on the theme: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" (Jn 13,34).

After a long reading of Christ’s passion according to the Gospel of St Luke, which was dramatized and put to music, Benedict XVI delivered his homily showing how the rites of the ceremony are linked to the lives of the faithful and the entire world.

[The report proceeds to quote chunks of the homily. Please read the entire text translated in HOMILIES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES]

At the end of the celebration Benedict XVI greeted the young people in diverse languages: French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and Italian.

The Pope struggled to calm the crowds into silence for the Angelus prayer.

The young people’s enthusiasm however, found an outlet at the conclusion of the ceremony when the Pope toured the entire square greeting the crowds from his open-top jeep.




And here's the AP story:

Pope celebrates Palm Sunday Mass
By NICOLE WINFIELD


VATICAN CITY, April 1 (AP)- Pope Benedict XVI, in his Palm Sunday Mass, opened the Roman Catholic Church's most solemn week by urging young people to live pure, innocent lives.

This year, Holy Week also includes the second anniversary of the April 2, 2005, death of Pope John Paul II. On Monday, the Catholic Church will close one phase of its investigation into John Paul's saintliness as it keeps up the momentum to have the beloved pope beatified.

Holding an intricately woven palm frond, Benedict opened the Palm Sunday celebration by processing through the sun-filled St. Peter's Square and up the steps of the basilica. He was preceded by dozens of priests, bishops and cardinals who clutched palms and olive branches as their red vestments fluttered in the breeze.

Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and is the start of the church's Holy Week, which includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion and death and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Benedict continued the tradition started by John Paul and dedicated Palm Sunday to the young, who were out in force in St. Peter's.

He told them that to follow God they should have "innocent hands and pure hearts."

"Innocent hands are hands that are not used for acts of violence," he told them. "They are hands that are not sullied by corruption and bribes."

Hearts are pure when they are not "stained by lies and hypocrisy," he said. "A heart is pure when it is estranged from the intoxication of pleasure; a heart for whom love is true and not just the passion of a moment," he said.

Benedict has an unusually busy schedule this week: In addition to the traditional Holy Week ceremonies, he will preside over a Mass on Monday afternoon in honor of John Paul to mark the second anniversary of the pontiff's death.

He is not expected to attend the ceremony earlier in the day closing the church probe into John Paul's life and virtues. That ceremony will be headed by officials of the Rome diocese, which completed the investigation that will be turned over to the Vatican to decide whether John Paul can be beatified, the last formal step before possible sainthood.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/04/2007 3.01]

From Lella's blog, this APCOM item on a Papal surprise today:


VATICAN CITY, April 1 (APcom) - Benedict XVI surprised everyone by appearing at his study window at noon today to greet once more the pilgrims who had come to attend the Palm Sunday celebrations, 50,000 of them representing young people who had come to mark XXII World Youth Day on the diocesan level.

After the Mass this morning, the Pope had already led in the praying of the Angelus. But he apparently did not want to miss his regular Sunday noon appearance at his study window either.

He had given his usual greetings after the Angelus, and his last words down on St. Peter's Square had been: "I particularly greet the goung people who have come for the observance of World Youth Day. I wish everyone a Holy Week rich in spiritual fruits, and I invite you to experience it in close intimacy with the Virgin Mary. From her, let us learn that internal silence, the seeing heart, the loving faith to follow Jesus on the Way of the Cross which leads to the joyous light of Resurrection."

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 01/04/2007 18.29]

As 'previewed' in the SECTION UPDATE/NEWS ALERT thread, Italian MSM had a field day today playing up a new film by award-winning (and Catholic) veteran director Ermanno Olmi which he claims to be a protest against the church of 'dogma and prohibitions' (the 'Ratzinger church', in the words of those who are using his film to denounce the Pope) - which is, of course, an outrageous premise.

I did find one article, from the selection on Lella's blog, that doesn't join the 'Crucify Ratzinger' chorus, so I have chosen to translate it. And I have chosen to post it on this thread, because the film is being used to pursue the anti-Benedict campaign in the Italian media. It comes from Il Giornale.



OLMI'S TESTAMENT
By Maurizio Caverzan


Yes, it is certainly bound to arouse a widespread and vociferous debate within and outside the Church - this film by Ermanno Olmi, Cento chiodi (100 Nails), that the master filmmaker from Bergamo (who made his name with "The Tree of Wooden Clogs" in the late 1970s) claims to be his artistic and spiritual testament.

The plot is easily summarized: A respected professor of the philosophy of religions (played by Israeli actor Raz Degan), before changing his life radically, decides to a leave a proactive sign of protest. In the night, he enters the immense library which conserves thousands of valuable volumes on philosophy, theology and stored knowledge adored by an colleague of his, and in a scene that is as memorable as it is scandalous, he nails them one by one to the floor.

"No religion has ever saved the world," is the statement that the professor with Nazarene features chooses to leave to his fellow professors and adoring students.

To a student, whose hand he takes between both of his, he says, more or less, that a caress is worth much more than all those books that tower above us.

The librarian finds the nailed books in the morning. But meanwhile, our professor has gotten rid of his cell phone, his BMW, and the draft of an essay that had been ready to send to his publishers, and he moves to somewhere along the banks of the Po river, where he begins a new life of simplicity and 'authenticity', giving unusual accounts of the life of Christ to a group of old people who, as a parallel to the Twelve Apostles, welcome him with curiosity before beginning to gather around him.

With this strongly evocative film, dense with dialog and characters of unusual intensity (an ingenue in love - the Mary Magdalene figure - or the old man who asks the professor to retell the parable of the prodigal son), the director sends a powerful 'J'accuse' against a Christianity that has been reduced to 'religion', a criticism of clergy who consider themselves the bearers of wisdom.

And taking off from the saying that God has hidden the important things from the wise in order to reveal them to the simple, Olmi surgically shows the distinction between religion and faith, between Christianity - the only religion in which God becomes one of us and is can still be encountered in His Church - and religions, understood as rules and dogmas that have been established a priori.

It is true that Olmi's accusation starts from disapproval of that idolatry of knowledge, personified by a monsignor who is always bent in adoration before his books, and ends up attacking a Christianity that is reduced to doctrine and ethics, crystallized in dogma.

Critic Michele Serra has said that Olmi salvages from Christianity only its message of brotherhood, 'the evangelical salt of love for one's fellowmen." And a superficial interpretation could show it is so, even if, when a marshal comes to arrest him for his subversive act at the university, our protagonist re-states his premise by telling him that the theories of all the philosophers and theologians are nothing compared to sitting over a cup of coffee with a friend. ["So why don't we talk this over"?, in short.

By 'friend', the professor means himself, the Christ of the streets. Olmi is saying something here more than just preaching 'love for one's neighbor' which - without the love manifested by Christ in His death on the cross - would simply be a sophisticated re-phrased moralism.

I think Cento chiodi is saying that Christianity is an encounter with someone, and that "even if they are necessary, books alone do not say everything." Someone still has to read them, live them, transmit their ideas and infect others with those ideas. That goes for all books, including the Gospel, and Olmi's warning is addressed to all those who forget the 'incipit' of the Gospel of John, "In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was made flesh."

Without incarnation (being actualized), without living testimony - and this is the vast space for Christian responsibility, suffering and sin - even the Gospel is just a sterile text.

And so I think it is rather exploitative to oppose Olmi's Christianity of love with Benedict XVI's teaching. In fact, I don't think there is a contradiction between the message of the film and Ratzinger's Magisterium.

Whenever I get to hear the Pope - as I did one week ago in St. Peter's Square - I always hear him insist that Christianity is the desire for and the experience of beauty and joy, and that he is grateful because, in an age when Christianity has come to mean for many "something difficult and oppressive," there are those who tesify with their lives that "Christ saves us not by ignoring our humanity but through it."

In the first page of the encyclical Deus caritas est, Benedict XVI writes: "Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction."

I think this is what Olmi wanted to say, and when the other night, Giuliano Ferrara (editor of Il Foglio) asked him on the program Otto e Mezzo what he thought of Papa Ratzinger, the director responded by quoting the Nazarene of his own film: "I would love to have a cup of coffee with him."

Why not? Never say never.

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

Here's a blurb about the film I found (in English yet) on Cineuropa online:

March 26, 2007
Olmi: A revolutionary farewell to cinema

"No religion will ever force me to respect its rules and not respect humankind. Dogmas must not be more important that men": such is the guiding principle behind Ermanno Olmi’s new film, Cento chiodi (One Hundred Nails), which will be distributed on 100 screens by Mikado on March 30.

The film is a Christological apologue that tells the story of a successful, young philosophy professor who abandons his world of books to live on the banks of the river Po, befriending the locals who are under threat from the construction of a river port.

A spiritual testament of sorts, the film also marks the last feature for the 76 year-old master filmmaker from Bergamo, who from now on wants to dedicate his time entirely to making documentaries.

Produced by Luigi Musini and Roberto Cicutto with Cinema11 and RAI Cinema, and a contribution from MiBAC, Cento chiodi stars Israeli actor Raz Degan (as the professor/Christ figure) and a host of superb non-professional actors, whom Olmi has always favoured in his films.

Through poetic and sober images, Olmi suggests a way of life modelled after Jesus ("placing forgiveness at the centre of life, that is, renouncing an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth") and calls for a return to simplicity ("we must distinguish the essential from the superfluous") in a world dominated by fast food.

Citing philosopher Karl Jaspers, Olmi invokes an act of folly: "Even spirituality has become a form of profit and art is the masquerade of the lives we are living. To go beyond all of this we must commit an act of folly, which is not a subversive bomb. A symbolic, rebellious gesture, like Saint Francis and his dispossession".

Ciccutto says that Cento chiodi is currently being considered for the Cannes Film Festival but adds: "I don’t know if it will be selected but it will surely not be in competition, as Olmi himself does not want this".

Camillo de Marco

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

There is MUCH to comment about what we know of Olmi's film so far - not what the commentators have said about it, but the 'facts' we can glean from the reports! I will come back to it.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 01/04/2007 21.34]

In one of my earliest posts in the main forum seeking to clarify my thoughts about Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict II, I mentioned that I felt God must have intended Papa Ratzinger's particular cross to be the media and their seemingly widespread hostility.

That, perhaps, whatever health problems Joseph Ratzinger has are relatively minor compared to the cross God chose Karol Wojtyla to bear. That perhaps there was some sort of providential 'trade-in' - Papa Wojtyla would bask in media glory (the widespread impression now that he is dead, although it was not always so when he was alive) and suffer physical affliction; whereas Papa Ratzinger would be spared the physical affliction, but would be the relentless target of unmerited abuse (going on now for 26 years) in an age when perception - mostly shaped by the media - counts more for most people than fact, or truth.

And this being the start of Holy Week, a broadside against Ratzinger came, on the most unlikely cue. And from someone in the media even, who has been generally objective about him, if not sometimes directly laudatory.

In reply to Cardinal Bertone's criticism of distortion and misinformation in the media in reporting about church news, Marco Tosatti of La Stampa goes on the offensive to say it's all Ratzinger's fault, as the very title of his article indicates!


Ratzinger: The professor
who ignores the media
By MARCO TOSATTI


The Church and the mass media are at daggers drawn. Or at least, that's what the Vatican Secretary of State thinks. An opinion that's also shared by the 'note ' yesterday from the Archdiocese of Genoa against a newspaper for using a headline and a news report that misrepresented statements made earlier by Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, new president of the Italian bishops conference. (See NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH]

But the crisis has been brewing for months. To be precise, starting with the Regensburg lecture which set the Muslim world on fire. And the Catholic hierarchy's intolerance [Intolerance? Because they protest? And since when has any protest kept the media from bullying the Church anyway?] has been growing of the way in which the newspapers and TV are reporting the words and the positions taken by the Pope and his co-workers.

Yesterday, it was an interview by the Pope's right-hand [Cardinal Bwertone] that touched off new polemics. But not too long ago, Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office, denounced an 'affliction', which he reiterated yesterday: "For several months now, anyone who follows the press, and in general, information disseminated in Italy, has faced an uninterrupted stream of interventions of various kinds directly or indirectly connected to the debate over de-facto unions. Whoever works in the world of mass media knows that there often is some objective basis for these reports, but there has also been perceptible amplification, oftentimes, a modification or an exploitation [the Italian word is 'strumentalizzazzione' - using something as an instrument for whatever motives the user has] of the words or texts or intentions of the party being contested [in this case, the Church or the Pope].

[Inveterate media watchdog that I am, I posted Fr. Lombardi's full statement in NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH at the time, lamenting that he only said it in a Vatican Radio broadcast and apparently did not also send it out to every possible media outlet in Italy. This is the first news report I've seen that even shows awareness of its existence! It certainly was not reported nor commented on at the time. Talk about ignoring something when it is convenient to do so, or when it just doesn't fit into your agenda!]

The intention of the man in charge of the Pope's information activities was "not to blame anyone". "Let us all make an effort," he said, "to get out of the vicious cycle. It is necessary to re-launch a dialog of truth in the media to break up the incommunicability which has been growing because of incomprehension on both sides." [Oh, Fr. Lombardi, you are much too kind, but then you are a priest.]

The media simplify. The media under stress and in a hurry sometimes misreport. That is true.

But inside the Vatican, there are also those who note that since Wojtyla's death, the press gaffes at the Vatican have multiplied. ][MULTIPLIED? One would think there were scores! I can remember two - the flap with Israel when the Pope failed to include it among the countries that were victims of terrorism, during an Angelus message; and the mishandling of the Wielgus nomination. Three, if you count Regensburg, which wasn't the Pope's gaffe, but was considered a godsend by all those who couldn't have wished for a better launching pad from which to shoot him down!]

It is whispered that actually, for Benedict XVI, the media are useful only up to a certain point [And how right that is!]. So much so that Fr. Lombardi himself told a media student in Rome, "I never personally telephone the Pope." Apparently, he gets his orders through the Secretariat of State, or sometimes, through the Pope's personal secretary.

So it appears one might suppose that to the reigning Pontiff, relations with the media are not as fundamental as they were for his predecessor. And that maybe Benedict XVI, unlike Karol Wojtyla, does not wish to be helped to navigate the insidious paths through the communications jungle.

It is said that a gigantic disaster was missed by a hair during the Pope's visit to Poland in May 2006. It has been reported that the text for the pope's speech at Auschwitz had not used the word Shoah at all, and it ws only by chance that a lay co-worker took the initiative of point it out to the Pope. And so, the word - whose absence from the Pope's speech would have certainly wounded Jewish sensibilities - was said three times instead. [I would like to go back and review the stories about this in the past. As I recall, it was recounted by Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who says he pointed out the omission to the Pope, so while it may have happened that way, there was perhaps a self-serving motive for 'blabbing' about it to the press.]

But did Cardinal Bertone exaggerate in his statements to Figaro? We asked Vittorio Messori, who answered:

"I remember a very recent incident after Benedict XVI had published his post-synodal exhortation Sacramentum caritatis. The headlines attributed to him the statement 'No to laws against nature' which provoked a multitude of editorials and invective. But in the entire 138 pages of text the words "laws against nature" are not to be found!

"Having said that, let me say I consider myself an old hand at reporting. I have seen how we are forced into rough summaries of things that are said, of a further summary of that summary in headlines which are meant to catch the attention of casual readers, and how we are all subject to the dictatorship of topicality. So I can understand how newsmen can misreport, now and then. But there is also an ideological poisoning." [I wish Messori had gone more into this, because he uses a very strong term for what is actually at the heart of most media misreporting. It's not stress or haste that makes most of them misreport - it's spinning the facts to fall in line with their ideological agenda.]

But why didn't it seem to happen with Wojtyla? A great expert at church communications, who requested anonymity, answered: "Wojtyla had magic - he was felt to be a father in the East as well as in the West - and ultimately, they forgave him anything. Now it seems as if that divine truce has been skipped over. And no one is now willing to pardon the Church for anything."

[Excuse me, Mr. Tosatti. First, why didn't you ask Messori the last question, seeing as it is based on his premise? Or maybe you did ask - how could you not? - but his answer didn't fit your agenda. So you come up with this anonymous 'expert in church communications', whatever that means, to give you an outrageous answer that you simply report without comment!]

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

In effect, Tosatti's answer is: "While it is true that we in the media sometimes do misreport, it is because of stress, or because we have little time, because of which we are forced to make 'rough summaries'. But actually, the problem is with the Pope, who ignores the media and seems to have no need of us, but keeps making monumental gaffes that are multiplying! And unlike with Wojtyla, no one is willing to forgive Ratzinger for anything." That is a defense?

I don't buy the first part of it at all, and I am appalled at his blaming the Pope.

I lived 20 years as a journalist under the most intense of deadline pressures, and I would never have reasoned that way, nor taken that reasoning from any of my reporters. And I worked in all the media - broadcast, press and film.

Radio and TV reporting have much more punishing, immediate and frequent deadlines (think of hourly newcasts on radio, or the TV evening news reported on three different programs between 6 and 10 p.m. every night) than newspapers that only come out once a day. I edited a daily afternoon newspaper which went to press at 8 a.m. so it could be out on the streets at noon - my reporters had all the previous day and night, if they had to, to work on their stories and get it right.

Deadline pressure is no excuse - or if it is, it's only for sissies, which is what most of media these days have turned into. Besides, that is why you have editors, who are supposed to be able to spot and correct glaring errors of fact and bias in news reports, before they approve it for print or broadcast.

But between hostile or sissy reporters, lazy or enabling editors, and the ideological biases each one employs, should we be surprised at the shoddiness of of media reporting these days?

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 03/04/2007 1.01]

The brief excerpts we have seen so far of Cardinal Bertone's interview with Le Figaro magazine were most interesting for what he said about liturgical reform and the Pope's anticipated motu proprio.

As posted earlier today in NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH, here are those particular excerpts (translated):

---

About the liturgical reform by Vatican-II:
"The Pope has often explained that the reform intended by Vatican-II had the true purpose of placing God back in the center of liturgy and to allow Christians to understand the sense of the rites of their religion.

"Vatican-II intended to conserve the intrinsic value of liturgy while allowing the faithful to participate in the celebration of the divine Sacrifice (the Mass).

"And so, the Holy Father calls on the bishops, the priests and the faithful to observe a correct application of the Vatican-II texts...

"The errors have not been the Conciliar texts, but in the actions of those who have presumed to interpret the liturgical reform of Vatican-II according to their own thinking."

On the anticipated Papal 'motu proprio' allowing wider use of the Old Mass:
"The publication of the motu proprio will take place, but it will be the Pope himself who will explain his reasons and the context of his decision. The Supreme Pontiff will convey his personal vision of how to use the old Missal to the Christian people, and in particular, to bishops."

---

In the light of Bertone's statements, let us consider this story by John Thavis for CNS two days ago:


Tridentine Mass:
Pope looks for bridge to tradition
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Sometime soon, Pope Benedict XVI is expected to broaden permission to use the Tridentine Mass, a long-standing request of traditionalists who favor the rite used before the Second Vatican Council.

The move is aimed at ending a liturgical dispute which has simmered for more than 20 years. In the process, it could clarify how the pope intends to implement what he once described as a "liturgical reconciliation" in the modern church.

The pope will enunciate the new policy in a document to be released after more than a year of debate and discussion at the Vatican. The Roman Curia had mixed views on expanding the use of the Tridentine rite, and so did the world's cardinals and bishops - all of which has lent a certain drama to the outcome.

From the outside, allowing the old Mass has been seen primarily as a concession to the followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who was excommunicated in 1988 for his intransigence on liturgical and other reforms of Vatican II.

But some Vatican officials believe that aspect has been overblown. More than making peace with Archbishop Lefebvre's followers, they said, the pope is trying to make peace with the church's own tradition.

One big clue to the pope's thinking came in his 1997 book, titled "Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977" and written when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in which he sharply criticized the drastic manner in which Pope Paul VI reformed the Mass in 1969.

The almost total prohibition of the old missal, which had been used for 400 years, was unprecedented in the history of the liturgy, he said in the book.

In effect, he said, "the old building was demolished" and a new one put in its place. Thus the liturgy ceased to be a living development and was treated as something manufactured by experts, which has caused the church "enormous harm," he said.

Even before he wrote those words, then-Cardinal Ratzinger had caused a stir when he said it made sense for the priest to celebrate Mass facing the same direction as the congregation, in the pre-Vatican II style, although he also said it would be confusing to turn the altar around once again.

Over the years, he has sharply criticized what he sees as a tendency for the worshiping community to celebrate only itself.

All of that led some to presume that, as pope, he would preside over a rollback of liturgical reform.

But the picture is not so clear-cut. As Cardinal Ratzinger, he said he considered the new missal a "real improvement" in many respects, and that the introduction of local languages made sense.

In one revealing speech to Catholic traditionalists in 1998, he said bluntly that the old "low Mass," with its whispered prayers at the altar and its silent congregation, "was not what liturgy should be, which is why it was not painful for many people" when it disappeared.

The most important thing, he said at that time, was to make sure that the liturgy does not divide the Catholic community.

With that in mind, knowledgeable Vatican sources say the pope's new document will no doubt aim to lessen pastoral tension between the Tridentine rite and the new Mass, rather than hand out a victory to traditionalists.

Under Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger conducted the unsuccessful negotiations with Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988, before the archbishop broke off talks and ordained new bishops in defiance of the pope.

Cardinal Ratzinger insisted then that the Lefebvrists accept the new Mass and other major teachings of Vatican II. It's a position he has repeated in his ongoing contacts as pope with Lefebvrist leaders, sources said.

It was Pope John Paul who in 1984 first made it possible for groups of the faithful to worship according to the Latin-language 1962 Roman Missal, the last Vatican-approved missal prior to the post-conciliar reforms.

Pope John Paul set conditions for this special permission, or indult. The main requirement was that those who used the Tridentine rite must make publicly clear "beyond all ambiguity" that they do not call into question the validity of the new Roman Missal.

In 1988, Pope John Paul relaxed the conditions for the indult, but groups still had to accept the new Mass and were still expected to obtain the permission of their local bishop.

The role of the bishop in approving and overseeing use of the Tridentine rite has been a crucial issue in the recent debate. Last fall, when rumors were swirling that a bishop's permission would no longer be needed, the bishops of France issued a statement saying that the return of the pre-Vatican II Mass should be regulated and not left to "personal tastes and choices."

The French bishops also said traditionalist groups that use the Tridentine rite should be expected to give "an unequivocal gesture of assent to the teachings of the church's authentic magisterium," its teaching authority.

For these reasons, many will be looking at Pope Benedict's document not only for a liturgical verdict, but also for a sign of his reconciling skills.