Pope Benedict Roundup - Easter 2006, a Birthday and a One Year Anniversary

An occasional roundup of news, articles and commentary on Pope Benedict XVI

On April 16, 2006, Pope Benedict celebrated Easter services in Rome, marking the resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ:

• From the Vatican website, a recap of Holy Week 2006 -- including the Holy Saturday homily of Pope Benedict XVI, in which he discusses the question: "Of what exactly does this "rising" consist? What does it mean for us, for the whole world and the whole of history?"

  The crucial point is that this man Jesus was not alone, he was not an "I" closed in upon itself. He was one single reality with the living God, so closely united with him as to form one person with him. . . . His own life was not just his own, it was an existential communion with God, a "being taken up" into God, and hence it could not in reality be taken away from him. Out of love, he could allow himself to be killed, but precisely by doing so he broke the definitiveness of death, because in him the definitiveness of life was present. He was one single reality with indestructible life, in such a way that it burst forth anew through death. . . . His death was an act of love. At the Last Supper he anticipated death and transformed it into self-giving. His existential communion with God was concretely an existential communion with God’s love, and this love is the real power against death, it is stronger than death. The Resurrection was like an explosion of light, an explosion of love which dissolved the hitherto indissoluble compenetration of "dying and becoming". It ushered in a new dimension of being, a new dimension of life in which, in a transformed way, matter too was integrated and through which a new world emerges.

  Benedict described the Resurrection as "a qualitative leap in the history of 'evolution' and of life in general," pointing the way toward a new life in Christ that is already "continuously permeating this world of ours, transforming it and drawing it to itself."

  This event manifests itself in the sacrament of Baptism, which is more than an act of "ecclesial socialization," of receiving people into the Church."It is also more than a simple washing, more than a kind of purification and beautification of the soul," said Benedict: "It is truly death and resurrection, rebirth, transformation to a new life":

  But what then happens with us? Paul answers: You have become one in Christ (cf. Gal 3:28). Not just one thing, but one, one only, one single new subject. This liberation of our "I" from its isolation, this finding oneself in a new subject means finding oneself within the vastness of God and being drawn into a life which has now moved out of the context of "dying and becoming". The great explosion of the Resurrection has seized us in Baptism so as to draw us on. Thus we are associated with a new dimension of life into which, amid the tribulations of our day, we are already in some way introduced. To live one’s own life as a continual entry into this open space: this is the meaning of being baptized, of being Christian. This is the joy of the Easter Vigil. The Resurrection is not a thing of the past, the Resurrection has reached us and seized us. We grasp hold of it, we grasp hold of the risen Lord, and we know that he holds us firmly even when our hands grow weak. We grasp hold of his hand, and thus we also hold on to one another’s hands, and we become one single subject, not just one thing. I, but no longer I: this is the formula of Christian life rooted in Baptism, the formula of the Resurrection within time. I, but no longer I: if we live in this way, we transform the world. It is a formula contrary to all ideologies of violence, it is a programme opposed to corruption and to the desire for power and possession.

• At morning Mass in St Peter's Square, Benedict XVI returned to the ancient rite of the Resurrexit, used by Popes since the 1100s but only recently (and sporadically) restored; the ritual reinforces Peter's role as witness of the resurrection. [-- "Benedict, Witness of the Resurrection", Rocco Palmo, Whispers in the Loggia]

• Pictures from Rome, Good Friday 2006, courtesy of American Papist.

  

• Also from the Vatican website is Pope Benedict's Urbi Et Orbi Message ["to the city of Rome and the world"], in which the Holy Father reiterated his call to peace with specific attention to Darfur, Iraq, Israel and Palestine -- with respect to the latter, he affirmed both Israel's just right to exist in peace and expressed wishes that the international community would assist the Palestinian people . . . to build their future, moving towards the constitution of a state that is truly their own."

  Also, in a somewhat veiled statement that might allude to Iran's pursuit of nuclear power (and persistent threats made by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Israel and Britain), the Holy Father also drew attention to "international crises linked to nuclear power":

  . . . may an honourable solution be found for all parties, through serious and honest negotiations, and may the leaders of nations and of International Organizations be strengthened in their will to achieve peaceful coexistence among different races, cultures and religions, in order to remove the threat of terrorism.

  Benedict closed his message with a call to all nations to attend to that which is (or ought to be) the sum of every life:

  May the Risen Lord grant that the strength of his life, peace and freedom be experienced everywhere. Today the words with which the Angel reassured the frightened hearts of the women on Easter morning are addressed to all: “Do not be afraid! ... He is not here; he is risen (Mt 28:5-6)”. Jesus is risen, and he gives us peace; he himself is peace. For this reason the Church repeats insistently: “Christ is risen - Christós anésti.” Let the people of the third millennium not be afraid to open their hearts to him. His Gospel totally quenches the thirst for peace and happiness that is found in every human heart. Christ is now alive and he walks with us. What an immense mystery of love! Christus resurrexit, quia Deus caritas est! Alleluia!

• The Risen SON: Easter Sunday - a timely quote from Ratzinger's Behold, The Pierced One, courtesy of the blog Eagle & Elephant; also, from pazdziernik, an excerpt from God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life on Tearing of the Temple Veil, from a talk at the Chrism Mass April 2,1980 in Munich.

• The Pope's Easter, by Daniel Henninger. Wall Street Journal April 14, 2006. The WSJ editor reflects on the Holy Father's stance against "the excesses of secularization and radical Islam.":

  If we still hold that the news reflects reality, we would be led to believe that Christians enter these final three days of Holy Week preoccupied with whether to credit the new Gospel of Judas that the hallowed National Geographic Society delivered unto the world this month, and whether to attend the imminent film version of "The Da Vinci Code,". . . My guess is that on this Easter Pope Benedict XVI, the new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, feels he has larger fish to fry.

Happy Birthday, Pope Benedict XVI!

Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006 also marked the 79th Birthday of our Holy Father.

• Blogger 'New Catholic (Rorate Cali) posts Canon Georg Ratzinger's birthday message to his brother.

• And according to IOL.com, Pope got a chocolate surprise for his birthday as well:

  Pope Benedict XVI received a piano-shaped chocolate cake on Monday, prepared by students of the conservative Roman Catholic group Opus Dei for his 79th birthday on April 16, reporters witnessed.

  Benedict's fondness for the piano was noted when he had one installed in his quarters in the Vatican after becoming pope last April 19.

• Send Pope Benedict a birthday e-card, courtesy of William H. Sadlier, Inc. (Via Argent by the Tiber.

The Pontificate of Benedict XVI - 1st Year Anniversary

Also this week, the media turned its attention to the one-year anniversary of the Holy Father's pontificate, providing the opportunity for many a "talking head" and respective "men in Rome" to, er, do a little pontificating themselves.

• John Allen, Jr.: "The Last 12 Months" of Benedict XVI "Word from Rome" National Catholic Reporter March 31, 2006. As Allen wisely notes,

  Benedict is a supple thinker, and unpacking his approach on any given question requires nuance. Because his points of departure are the 2,000-year tradition of the church, coupled with his own judgments about the character of people under consideration, rather than the ideological categories of secular politics, his decisions will sometimes strike the outside world as surprising and out of character. Nor has his direction over the first year been entirely uniform, as if one can generalize from a single document or papal act to explain everything else.

  All this, however, constitutes an "insider" perspective, crafted from the point of view of devotees of the papacy and of Vatican politics. Generally speaking, that's not what secular media outlets are after. What they want to know is, in the "biggest picture" sense possible, what are the most striking or surprising aspects of Benedict XVI's first year, and what do they teach us about where things are going?

  It is in response to the latter inquiry that Mr. Allen directs his attention, organizing his reflections under five headings: "What Hasn't Happened" (a draconian crackdown on heresy along the lines of The Inquisition - "one would hear a great flushing sound across the Catholic world as all the dissidents and liberals were washed out of the system"); "Who's Paying Attention?" ("Papal aficionados", yes; "average Catholics", no); The Dictatorship of Relativism:("The beating heart of his pontificate can be expressed in three core concepts: truth, freedom and love. Truth, as the pope sees it, is the doorway a human person must walk through in order to be really free, meaning free to realize one's full human potential; and love is both the ultimate aim of freedom, and the motive for which the church talks about truth and freedom in the first place; Tough Love (with Islam, that is -- "Benedict XVI clearly wants good relations with Islam . . . yet he will not purse that relationship at the expense of what he considers to be the truth"); Benedict the Teacher ("Benedict is shaping up as a great teacher . . . [with] a remarkable capacity to express complex theological ideas with clarity and simplicity").

  Reaction to Allen's column from the ecumenical blog Mere Comments.

• Vatican vetter: The Benedict XVI File, in his own words Kansas City Star April 15, 2006. Bill Tammeus also interviewed John Allen Jr., in which the journalist repeated some of his earlier appraisal as well as some observations about the state of the Catholic Church in America:

  I think sociologically there is no Catholic Church in the United States. What you have are multiple Catholicisms. And the question really facing Benedict, as far as the American church is concerned, is how do you bring those tribes into conversation"

  and interreligious relations

  "Benedict clearly is committed to continuing the dialogue with other religions. On the other hand, I would say that Islam is actually one of the few areas of contrasts between Benedict and John Paul"

  and -- on a sadly comical-but-true note, the prospects of schism:

  The schism in the Catholic left is a multiphase process. First there’s an internal schism, where you just walk around cursing people and (ticked) off at authority, even though you’re going to church on Sunday.

  Then you self-select to be in a “progressive” parish, therefore reinforcing you in that choice, and you become even more alienated. Then what a lot of these people do is to spin off into another religious community, like becoming an Episcopalian.

  The Catholic right, when it goes into schism, it announces it. It finds a bishop.

  

• Faithful to the core, by Stephen Crittenden. The Australian April 15, 2006. According to Crittenden,

  "Benedict appears to have slammed on the brakes and even to be swerving off in a different direction entirely from his predecessor. . . . Anybody who thinks Benedict is a continuation of John Paul II is completely wrong. The former cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is a proper conservative. John Paul was neither a liberal nor a conservative but a revolutionary. And somehow, despite the biggest crowds and the biggest funeral in history, he has left the church exhausted and prostrate.

  Crittenden sticks to the same tortured hermeneutic of his February 2006 reading of Deus Caritas Est, proposing that Benedict is in part cleaning up the "damage" of Pope John Paul II's heavy-handed enforcement of the Church's moral teachings (see (Stephen Crittenden, Charles Curran, Rocco Palmo on 'Deus Caritas Est' Against The Grain February 2, 2006). As he did then, Crittenden again proposes that in Benedict's penning of Deus Caritas Est, "that soft splash you just heard at the back of the boat was Theology of the Body being tossed overboard, when just 12 months ago it was the focus of an entire Catholic academic industry."

  Crittenden goes on to speculate that Benedict's election was the result of a "deal" brokered with the progressive bloc "that [Benedict] would undertake to rule from the centre in a renewed spirit of collegiality with his brother bishops . . . In short, that he would bring to a close the age of Karol Wojtyla and an end to revolutionary Catholicism," -- a deal reflected in Benedict's cracking down on ecumenical movements close to his predecessor (ex. the Neo-Catechumenical Way). Crittenden suggests that Benedict's commitment to collegiality and unity will inevitably bring him into conflict with "the U.S. Catholic Right":

  The Wojtyla papacy thrived on . . . division, and the American Catholic Right supplied the venom and neurosis. John Paul II was their definite champion and they were able to zoom off to Rome to get whatever they wanted, especially in the later years. They always considered Ratzinger to be one of their supporters and they cheered at his election. But it is by no means certain that his view of the church and the world is the same as theirs.

  

• Challenging Crittenden's portrayal on B16's pontificate as one inherently in conflict with his predecessor is Edward Stourton, who evaluates Ratzinger's career as Prefect, "John Paul’s trump card" The Tablet January 4, 2006:

  John Paul made the most significant appointment of his pontificate in late November 1981, as political storm clouds were gathering in Poland. The rapport established between Karol Wojtyla and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger during the conclaves of 1978 had flourished following John Paul’s election, and in early 1980 we find the then Archbishop of Munich expressing admiration for the new pope’s championship of traditional Catholic teaching.

  It was not, he explained during a radio interview, within the pope’s power to change what had been handed down to him: “It is the pope’s duty”, he said, “to preserve the faith intact for our time, and to criticise the ills of Western society.”

  According to Stourton, John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger

  "came to know one another’s minds very well indeed; for more than 20 years the two men would meet each Friday in private to discuss the CDF’s work, and there were regular Thursday lunches at which the conversation ranged more widely over a variety of topics in a freewheeling manner."

  One may wonder if a Prefect who collaborated so closely with his Pope would, in the words of Crittenden, "bring to a close the age of Karol Wojtyla"? -- While we can certainly expect differences in their approach, I don't believe it will be a radical de-emphasization of orthodoxy (and obedience to the Magisterium) that Crittenden and co. anticipate, nor a wholesale abandonment of John Paul II's catechesis in theology of the body.

  

• Likewise, it would appear that Ernesto Cardenal begs to differ as well. The 81 year old former Sandinista Minister of Culture (and ex-priest) gave two talks in Austria, in which he issued the warning:

  Pope Benedict XVI is continuing the course of his predecessor, who already was a disaster for the Church and turned back the clock 100 years. The current Pope was the main force behind the pontifical politics of his predecessor. I think, he will be the same, or even worse.

  (Via "Look what the cat dragged in" The Cafeteria Is Closed March 17, 2006).

• Behind the throne of the iPod pope, by John Cornwell. The Sunday Times April 16, 2006. Cornwell examines "the ultra-orthodox Bavarian theologian, known for two decades as 'God’s rottweiler' and once a member of the Hitler Youth . . . [who] rallied his brother cardinals to choose him at the conclave," pauses to mention papal right-hand Msgr. Ganswein's stint at an Opus Dei university ("the self-flagellating extreme conservative Catholic group"), gives a shout-out to Rocco Palmo ("for a taste of Georg-fever and pin-up pics"), adopts Crittenden's thank-God-he-hasn't-booted-the-liberals approach with a jab at Fr. Neuhaus ("an influential and vociferous hardline Catholic conservative . . . who pontificates like an alternative pope from the pages of First Things"); notes the "expansive girths" of Benedict's "kitchen cabinet" (Angelo Scola, William Levada and Christoph Schonborn -- "like Caesar, Benedict does not favour 'lean and hungry' prelates about him"), chastises Benedict for failing to meet the call of his own encyclical ("despite Benedict’s almsgiving rhetoric he has gone silent on the issue") but ends with cautious praise for his inclusive approach ("by concentrating on unconditional love in his first encyclical, he appears to be invoking an image of the church as a big tent with room for all perspectives"). Yick.

• Of course, when it comes to acerbic commentary about the Pope, Cornwell has some competition. Amy Welborn posts evaluations of Benedict XVI's pontificate from Hans Kung and Charles Curran, with appropriate responses from the Commentariat. From the Swiss theologian,

  "Benedict must choose between an eventual retreat to the pre-modern, pre-Reformation world of the Middle Ages, or a forward-looking long view which will take the Church into the post-modern universe that the rest of the world entered for quite some time."

  God help us all if Kung's wish is granted. A reader of Open Book responds:

  The thing about Kung and Curran (and this would apply to hundreds of other "thinkers") is the absolute predictability of what they are going to say. I mean, not only the substance, but the almost word-for-word nature of what is produced. This was especially striking about Kung's "effort." The man is crowding 80 (!) and he's happy to put out this standing still vs. moving forward vs. return to pre-Reformatiion days garbage. "Und I am tired today [he's addressing his secretary] zo, lizzen, just rrrrelease article number 4 to ze press, okay, Helga?"

• Blessings all round from the iPod Pope, by "leading Catholic writer" Peter Stanford. The Guardian April 16, 2006.

  At this point I have to say every appraisal of Benedict's pontificate by the Mainstream Media (with the exception of John Allen, Jr.) seems to me a repetitive copy of its neighbor: as before, Benedict's "inclusivity" is heralded, and used as a bludgeon against "the divisive policies on matters of personal and sexual morality" by John Paul II and conservative / traditionalist Catholics (Fr. Neuhaus, again).

  Stanford coos(?) over Benedict's fashion sense ("the hem . . . hovered somewhere just below his knee, exposing his dainty feet in white plimsolls and making him look more like a mincing Hercule Poirot than Supreme Roman Pontiff") and Msgr. Ganswein ("Known to Vatican colleagues at 'Don Georgio', to the Italian media as 'the Black Forest Adonis'") . . . and finally gets around to pondering "but does this new style papacy have any substance?" -- he questions some of "the monsignori [in] the bars and restaurants that surround the Vatican" and concludes:

  "There remains undisturbed that fundamental antipathy to change in Catholicism, a reluctance at the highest level to tailor the ideals it preaches for human behaviour with a corresponding understanding that individuals' lives usually fall short of moral perfection."

  "Is there any substance to the papacy"? -- How about reading some of Benedict's writings? For starters, he could review the recently compiled collection of B16's World Youth Day addresses (God's Revolution Ignatius Press, 2006).

  Suffice to say there's little here that differentiates The Guardian's take on Benedict's pontificate from that of Crittenden, Cornwell and Crossan. Although, between Stanford and Cornwell, I have to wonder if "iPod Pope" was purely coincidental? plagiarization? collaboration? -- Or maybe they got it from Rocco.

• Writing for USA Today, Eric J. Lyman believes "Benedict's appeal moves beyond 'caricature'", confounding the stereotypes of both the right and the left and inviting a new type of "fan base":

  Benedict's popularity differs from that of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who was accorded almost rock star status by the legions of banner-waving young fans who turned out to see him. By contrast, Benedict's admirers seem to be older, quieter and more introspective.

  "I loved John Paul and I love Benedict, but the personality of each man appeals to different sides of the faithful," says Carlo Angelo Sanzio, 43, a worker at a coffee bar who says he has attended most of the Sunday Masses at the Vatican over the past 10 years. "The people here now are less likely to shout and cheer (than those who came to see John Paul) and are more likely to pray and reflect. My friends say you would come to experience John Paul, and you come to listen to and learn from Benedict."

  People have been coming to listen to Benedict in large numbers. The crowd at the pope's Easter celebration Sunday — held under clear skies and in cool temperatures — was an estimated 100,000, according to the Carabinieri, one of the police units that provide security at Vatican events. Even Benedict's routine Sunday Masses attract crowds of about 25,000 in good weather, which is similar to the numbers that came to see John Paul before he became ill in the final years of his life. . . .

  "To the extent that the pope's popularity can be judged by straight numbers, the numbers have been growing," police Sgt. Antonio Caldaroni says.

  Benedict's meeting with Hans Kung is mentioned, but without the typical fawning adulation accorded to the latter; likewise, congrats to Lyman for contrasting JPII with B16 without succumbing to the urge to lambast John Paul II's Catholic teaching on sexuality.

• Benedict’s surprising first year, by Kieron Wood. Sunday Business Post (Ireland). April 16, 2006.

• One year on, Pope Benedict confounds critics, by Philip Puella. Boston Globe April 17, 2006.

• Assessing Benedict XVI's First Year, Zenit News Service interviews Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican-watcher for the newspaper Il Giornale, and author of Benedict XVI, Custodian of the Faith.

• Religion & Ethics Newsweekly: One-Year Anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI - PBS Television's March 22, 2006 interview with (who else, but) John Allen Jr. [Extended version here].

In Other News

• On April 3, 2006, Benedict celebrated the first anniversary mass for Pope John Paul II, and in a homily recalled the great faith and witness of his predecessor:

  It was faith, of course, that was at the root of this total offering of himself. In the Second Reading that we have just heard, St Peter too uses the image of the gold tested by fire and applies it to faith (cf. I Pt 1: 7). In fact, in life's difficulties it is especially the quality of the faith of each one of us that is tried and tested: its firmness, its purity, its consistency with life. Well, the late Pontiff, whom God had endowed with multiple human and spiritual gifts, in passing through the crucible of apostolic labours and sickness, appeared more and more as a "rock" of faith.

  To those who had the opportunity to be close to him, that firm and forthright faith was almost tangible. If it impressed the circle of his collaborators, it did not fail during his long Pontificate to spread its beneficial influence throughout the Church in a crescendo that reached its highest point in the last months and days of his life.

  It was a convinced, strong and authentic faith - free of the fears and compromises that have infected the hearts of so many people -, thanks partly to his many Apostolic Pilgrimages in every part of the world, and especially thanks to that last "journey", his agony and his death.

• April 2006 saw the english publication of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which Pope Benedict XVI presented back in June 2005. Amy Welborn gives her first impressions of the Compendium:

  The interest and the yes, dare we say excitement, are totally justified. It is strikingly organic and deeply rooted. It is totally focused on the task at hand: communicating the fundamentals of the Catholic faith in a way that is completely accessible, comfortably confident. There is an ease about it, clarity and simplicty that is the essence of good teaching.

  Jimmy Akin gives his first thoughts as well, illustrating its merits with some comparisons of the Compedium and the original Catechism's treatment of the doctrine of original sin.

  See also A Catechism for the Culture of the Image, by Sandro Magister (L'Espresso May 7, 2005).

• Consistory 2006 Summary complete list of American Papist [blog] posts on the 2006 consistory. March 2006. (See also the listing of 15 new cardinals created by Pope Benedict Vatican Information Service. March 24, 2006.

  On March 24, 2006, Pope Benedict reminded the Cardinals of their calling:

  May the scarlet that you now wear always express the caritas Christi, inspiring you to a passionate love for Christ, for his Church and for all humanity. You now have an additional motive to seek to rekindle in yourselves those same sentiments that led the incarnate Son of God to pour out his blood in atonement for the sins of the whole world. I am counting on you, venerable Brothers, I am counting on the entire College into which you are being incorporated, to proclaim to the world that “Deus caritas est"

• On March 15, 2006, Pope Benedict initiated a new round of Wednesday catechesis, focusing on the relationship between Christ and His Church. Via Amy Welborn. The text of the Holy Father's Wednesday audiences are available at the Vatican website.

• Reorganization begins in Roman Curia Catholic World News. March 11, 2006. Benedict XVI made his first major changes in the organization of the Roman Curia, with two mergers of existing pontifical councils. According to Catholic World News:

  The Pontifical Council for Migrants and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace have been temporarily merged into one unit, to be headed by Cardinal Renato Martino.

  Similarly the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue has been temporarily merged with the Pontifical Council for Culture, with Cardinal Paul Poupard, the current head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, to head the combined effort.

  With the mergers, two top positions in the Roman Curia are eliminated. Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao, who had been president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants. Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, who had been president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, had already received a new assignment in February as apostolic nuncio to Egypt.

  Rorate Caeli relays some speculation from the European press on motives behind a promotion:

  Both Korazym and Andrea Tornielli in today's edition of Il Giornale remind their readers that Fitzgerald was the highest authority in that scandalous interreligious meeting in Fatima, in 2003, whose star was none other than Jacques Dupuis, SJ, highly praised by Fitzgerald at the time as the man who had provided the "theological basis" for interreligious dialogue. Dupuis, as is well remembered, was condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (2001) and was the most important individual theologian who forced the same Congregation to issue one of the most important documents of the previous pontificate, the declaration Dominus Iesus (2000). Il Foglio also regards this as the overwhelming motive for the promotion of Fitzgerald.

• T.S. O'Rama of Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor expresses his gratitude for a Pope:

  Personally, we “have a history” - I read his books seven or eight years ago and in his very familiarity it was like the ascension of a family member to the throne of St. Peter. A father became the Holy Father.

  He seemed to me the realist to Pope John Paul II’s dreamliness and his frankness allowed me to trust. He wasn’t afraid to be controversial in that Age Before Controversy, the era before blogs and polarization. :-)

  But the primary appeal is that he is a Scripture scholar and that is charismatic in and of itself since Scripture = Christ = charisma. Scott Hahn’s ministry prepared the ground for American Catholics to appreciate Pope Benedict, giving us a craving for the experience of scripture and catechesis that Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, is uniquely gifted to satisfy.

• Cardinal Ratzinger, Biblical Exegesis, and the Church, by Stephen Hand (Traditional Catholic Reflections & Reports - TCRNews.com):

  On January 27, 1988, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, dropped something of a large bomb on the neo-modernist Biblical establishment. The Cardinal, theoretically the second most powerful man in the Church, delivered the Erasmus lecture for that year in New York City (1) , sponsored by the Rockford Institute Center on Religion & Society [directed in the 1980's by Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus], entitled Biblical Interpretation in Crisis: On the Question of the Foundations and Approaches of Exegesis Today. Needless to say, any lecture given by the head of what was formerly known as The Holy Office and which promised to be examining and critiquing the very “foundations” of modern exegesis (which today is completely identified with the so-called historical-critical method) was bound to raise eyebrows and cause no little commotion.

  The Cardinal did not disappoint. Surrounded by both friends and foes (including the American exegete Raymond Brown) the Cardinal delivered the most trenchant critique of the erring philosophical and theological presuppositions which lay behind the historical-critical method since the early days of the Pontifical Biblical Institute founded by Pope Leo XIII. . . .

  The full text of the address "Biblical Interpretation in Crisis: On the Question of the Foundations and Approaches of Exegesis Today" is available online, courtesy of the site Christendom Awake.

• Responding to the case of a man in Afghanistan facing the death penalty for convertion to Christianity, retired diplomat Peter Laurie delivered a blistering broadside against "right wing fundamentalism" of all stripes (Nation News April 2, 2006). One of the targets of his criticism was none other than Cardinal Ratzinger, for having defended fundamentalism as "eminently reasonable" in his homily to the college of cardinals in his famous homily a year before.

  In If you're going to call Pope Benedict a "fundamentalist"..., Carl Olson of Insight Scoop demonstrates the value of understanding what you're talking about.

And on a lighter note . . .

• Cambio. Guy Sylvester (Shouts in the Piazza) discusses "a time honored tradition of the Vatican":

  Namely, getting the Pope to exchange the zuchetto on his head for the one you have presented to him. This used to be a frequent occurrence at Papal audiences. In fact, in the days of Pope Pius XII (of happy memory) some zuchetti barely stayed on his head for a few seconds before being switched again with yet another being held up by an enthusiastic member of the faithful.

  Eventually, the custom waned and for much of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II hopeful zuchettos-switchers were politely told no. . . .

  A friend of Sylvester's managed to celebrate the tradition, with the assistance of Mons. Ganswein and a photograph to document the occasion.

• "He looks like the nicest guy you'd never want to get on the wrong side of." - The Many Faces of Benedict XVI Shrine of the Holy Whapping April 16, 2006.

• In honor of the World Youth Day planning meetings being held in Rome this week, Pope Benedict decided to opt for a more contemporary hair style . . . -- PPOTD! (Papist-Picture-of-the-Day) American Papist April 5, 2006.

Pope Benedict XVI Roundup!

An occasional roundup of news, articles and commentary on Pope Benedict XVI

Lent - 2006

• The 2006 Message for Lent, Pope Benedict XVI returns to many themes addressed in his first encyclical. He protests what his predecessor described as the "gradual secularization of salvation" -- the superficial reduction of Christianity to a purely moral humanism, concentrating on the temporal welfare of man to the exclusion of our souls:

  We cannot ignore the fact that many mistakes have been made in the course of history by those who claimed to be disciples of Jesus. Very often, when having to address grave problems, they have thought that they should first improve this world and only afterwards turn their minds to the next. The temptation was to believe that, in the face of urgent needs, the first imperative was to change external structures. The consequence, for some, was that Christianity became a kind of moralism, ‘believing’ was replaced with ‘doing’. Rightly, therefore, my Predecessor, Pope John Paul II, of blessed memory, observed: “The temptation today is to reduce Christianity to merely human wisdom, a pseudo-science of well-being. In our heavily secularized world, a ‘gradual secularization of salvation’ has taken place, so that people strive for the good of man, but man who is truncated…We know, however, that Jesus came to bring integral salvation” (Redemptoris Missio, 11).

  Domenico Bettinelli discusses the Pope's reference to "integral salvation" and its meaning in the writing of John Paul II.

• "A Propitious Moment to Be Converted to Love" - translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered during the general audience today, Ash Wednesday, in St. Peter's Square. March 1, 2006:

  The life of a Christian is a life of faith, founded on the Word of God and nourished by it. In the trials of life and in each temptation, the secret of victory consists in listening to the Word of truth and rejecting with determination the lie of evil.

  This is the authentic and central program of the Lenten Season: to listen to the Word of truth, to live, speak and do the truth, to reject lies that poison humanity and are the door to all evils. It is urgent, therefore, during these 40 days, to again listen to the Gospel, the Lord's Word, Word of truth, so that in every Christian, in each one of us, the awareness be reinforced of the truth that has been given, that he has given us, to live it and be his witnesses.

• "Memento, Ruini, Quia Pulvis es...." - Rocco Palmo has photos of the Holy Father receiving the imposition of ashes.

• From the Philipines, Fr. Odon de Castro has devoted his blog, Gloria Oliva, "to promote the messages of Pope Benedict XVI and harness small monastic Benedictine communities in his and the service of the Church." [Update According to one reader, the community to which this blogger belongs is presently in schism, a legal document noting in part:

  "Unfortunately, the Caryana Movement was denied canonical recognition and its spiritual director [Fr. Odon de Castro] was himself expelled from the Benedictine order and stripped of his priestly functions by the Archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin."

  For further details, see this discussion from Vita Brevis (January 12, 2006)].

  I thank our reader for their word of caution. I guess one can never too be careful. It looks to be a promising blog -- as Vita Brevis noted, there is a certain irony in a schismatic who blogs in support of the Pope. The least we can do is pray for de Castro's reunion with Mother Rome.

Relenquishing of Title "Patriarch of the West"

• The motivation for dropping of the title 'Patriarch of the West' by Benedict XVI has prompted a great deal of speculation and commentary by Catholic bloggers including Domenico Bettinelli, Jr. and Rocco Palmo Whispers in the Loggia.

  This week's "Word from Rome" by Vatican correspondent John Allen Jr. provides an excellent roundup of perspectives on the subject, including Jesuit Fr. Robert Taft, an expert on Eastern Christianity at Rome's Oriental Institute, and Msgr. Michael Magee, an American who recently defended a dissertation on the institution of patriarchs at Rome's Gregorian University.

  According to John Allen Jr., "While initial speculation construed the move as a gesture of ecumenical sensitivity to the Orthodox, most experts say the real logic was almost certainly the exact reverse - a rejection of attempts to impose Eastern concepts upon the ecclesiology of the Catholic Church."

  Also discussed by Allen is the proposition "by theologians who favor greater collegiality . . . that Western Christianity create new patriarchates as a way of assigning greater autonomy and authority to local churches." Allen notes that the very idea was floated by Fr. Joseph Ratzinger in a 1969 essay "Primacy and Episcopacy," which appeared in the book Das neue Volk Gottes -- a translation of which appears here courtesy of Fr. Joseph A. Komonchak. The key passage cited:

  "The image of a centralized state which the Catholic church presented right up to the council does not flow only from the Petrine office, but from its strict amalgamation with the patriarchal function which grew ever stronger in the course of history and which fell to the bishop of Rome for the whole of Latin Christendom. The uniform canon law, the uniform liturgy, the uniform appointment of bishops by the Roman center: all these are things which are not necessarily part of the primacy but result from the close union of the two offices. For that reason, the task to consider for the future will be to distinguish again and more clearly between the proper function of the successor of Peter and the patriarchal office and, where necessary, to create new patriarchates and to detach them from the Latin church. To embrace unity with the pope would then no longer mean being incorporated into a uniform administration, but only being inserted into a unity of faith and communion, in which the pope is acknowledged to have the power to give binding interpretations of the revelation given in Christ, whose authority is accepted whenever it is given in definitive form."

  Ratzinger concluded at the time: "In the not too distant future one could consider whether the churches of Asia and Africa, like those of the East, should not present their own forms as autonomous 'patriarchates' or 'great churches' or whatever such ecclesiae in the Ecclesia might be called in the future."

  Catholic World News also reported this week that Bishop Hilarion of Vienna, spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church, was not impressed by the gesture complaining that it did not advance ecumenical prospects.

Pope Benedict in Print

• Interested in Lenten reading from Pope Benedict XVI? - Pauline Books and Media have published Benedict XVI's The Way of the Cross, presenting the Stations which Cardinal Ratzinger gave for Lent 2005 at the request of his predecessor. (The stations can be found on the Vatican website as well.

  Also appropriate for this season is Journey to Easter : Spiritual Reflections for the Lenten Season, The Crossroad Publishing Company - featuring Cardinal Ratzinger's Lenten meditations for Pope John Paul in 1983. (A brief excerpt of which is available at Gerald Augustinus' The Cafeteria is Closed).

• Book Review: Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam, by Jay at Living Catholicism, on the published lectures by Pope Benedict XVI and Marcello Pera, a philosopher of science and present of the Italian senate, with an introduction by George Weigel:

  Mr. Pera holds his own in the initial discussion. He does an excellent job pointing out the problems of relativism and why they must be avoided going forward. He also goes a little further in talking about the Church. Mr. Pera refers to the “relativism of the theologians” and points out that religious dialogue has become ecumenism, a “inclusiveness often associated with . . . the Second Vatican Council.” This, he says, inhibits us from really dealing with Islam, since we don’t feel correct in saying that Christianity is the better religion – we use ecumenism, rather than apologetics.

  That’s a point I’ve been pondering since reading the book and will probably continue to think about in order to really grasp the significance of his points. Mr. Pera does get a little crazy in his letter to Ratzinger when he actually suggests a new state-version of Christianity, which provides some insight into how he sees the Church. You’ll have to read the book to hear Cardinal Ratzinger’s rebuttal.

  Without Roots arrived in the mail this week and I'm just getting around to reading it. Thanks to Jay it sounds like provocative reading and I'm looking forward to tackling it this week.

Further Commentary on Deus Caritas Est

• The Secret of Love, According to Benedict XVI, Zenit News Service. Feb. 7, 2006. Breaking with tradition, Benedict XVI decided to present personally his encyclical "Deus Caritas Est" to readers of Famiglia Cristiana, the biggest weekly magazine in Italy.

  According to the Holy Father, "I only wished to respond to a couple of very concrete questions for Christian life" -- concerning the first part: Is it possible to love God? Can we really love our "neighbor" when he is strange or even disagreeable? With her commandments and prohibitions, does not the Church embitter the joy of "eros," of feeling ourselves loved, which pushes us toward the other and seeks to be transformed into union?

  And concerning the second: Can the Church leave this service to other philanthropic organizations? Would it not be better to promote an order of justice in which there are no needy, and charity would become something superfluous? -- A good introduction from the Holy Father.

• Philosophy Behind "Deus Caritas Est" - Zenit News Service interviews one of my personal favorites, Monsignor Robert Sokolowski, philosophy professor at Catholic University of America and author of Introduction to Phenomenology (highly recommended) and the soon to be published Christian Faith And Human Understanding: Studies on the Eucharist, Trinity, And the Human Person. Here's a little taste of the interview:

  Q: Why did Benedict XVI mention the philosophers Descartes and Nietzsche in an encyclical about love, both human and divine?

  Monsignor Sokolowski: He also mentions Plato and Aristotle later in the encyclical.

  Descartes is alluded to only in an anecdote, but Nietzsche is mentioned right at the beginning, as saying that Christianity has poisoned "eros." He is mentioned here to provide the counter-position to what the Pope wishes to show -- that Christianity does not neglect the deepest wants and needs of human beings.

  The love that God reveals to us is not gnostic; it reaches into, heals and elevates all our desires, including those involved in sustenance and procreation.

  The Pope uses Nietzsche in the way that St. Thomas Aquinas uses adversaries at the beginning of his treatment of a question: He presents the opposing view fairly as the sharp contrast to what he wants to show. Nietzsche is fundamentally unsound, of course, but he raises very good questions and is always a good foil for philosophical reflection.

  Q: Does Benedict XVI adhere to a particular philosophical tradition in the way the Pope John Paul II was known as a Thomist and personalist?

  Monsignor Sokolowski: I think that the work of Benedict XVI could be said to resemble the Christian Platonism one finds in the Fathers of the Church.

  Also, his extensive and thoughtful survey of the various uses of words, in both current and historical texts and discourse, makes one think of Aristotle's and Heidegger's way of looking for philosophical phenomena in the way people speak about things.

• Pope Benedict featured in America. According to Mark Mossaj, SJ (blogging at You Duped Me, Lord), the March 13 issue of America will focus on Benedict's encyclical Deus Caritas Est. Mossaj posts some excerpts from articles, including this from Fr. Richard Ryscavage, S.J.:

  In the minds of various Catholic social activists, justice should always trump charity. Pope Benedict XVI disagrees. He uses the strongest teaching instrument of the papacy to affirm the intrinsic salience of the Catholic Church’s charitable work.

  , and Fr. Robert Imbelli:

  ". . . the transformation of eros in agape entails the transformation of the subject, the lover. Encounter with the living Christ, especially in the Eucharist, if it takes place in Spirit and in truth, transforms the disciple so that she or he becomes a new self, a eucharistic self.

  Sounds like a good issue, watch for it.

• The Love Behind The Rules, by Mary Beth Bonacci, on Pope Benedict's choice of love as the subject of his encyclical:

  It was my theory that this wonderful, loving, pastoral man is saying "Finally!" Finally he has the opportunity to go beyond the "rules," to explore the heart of the Christian message, which is the Heart of God — love. "Deus Caritas Est" is Latin for "God is Love." That simple truth — the subject of all of those collages we made in CCD back in the ‘70’s — is the guiding principle behind all of those rules. And without understanding the love behind the rules we are, as St. Paul said, no more than "sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."

Other News and Commentary

Via American Papist Source: AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano

• Benedict XVI's Letter on Monsignor Giussani - On February 21, 2006, Benedict XVI sent a letter to the president of Communion and Liberation, to mark the first anniversary of the death of Monsignor Luigi Giussani, founder of the ecclesial movement. Monsignor Giussani died Feb. 22, 2005, in Milan, at age 82.

  David Jones of "La Nouvelle Theologie"; Steven of Being & Nothingness also reflect.

• Benedict XVI, Live. Fifteen Questions, and As Many Responses, by Sandro Magister. L'Espresso. On March 2nd, the priests of the diocese of Rome met their bishop, Benedict XVI, and his cardinal vicar, Camillo Ruini. for a little Q&A:

  For the occasion, the pope did not read from a text prepared ahead of time, but responded spontaneously to the questions that the priests posed to him. He did the same thing last July 25 with the priests of the diocese of Aosta, during his vacation in the Alps. In both cases, the conversation took place behind closed doors, without journalists being present.

  As back then, so also this time the question and answer session brought out the pope’s viewpoints with the freedom typical of an open conversation.

  The complete transcript of the conversation was published by L'Osservatore Romano in Italian, an extract of which appears courtesy of Sandro Magister -- with topics ranging from topics ranging from the Bible and the Qur'an to Pope Pius XVII ("Pius XII was the pope of my youth. We all venerated him. As has rightly been said, he loved the German people very much") to women's participation in the governance of the Church to the relationship between creation and history.

• In 2004, Cardinal Ratzinger visited the cemetary of La Cambe to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy (D-Day). Not much was published about the event, but Timothy Ryback used it in a recent story for the New Yorker. The article is not available online, but you can get the gist of it from a post by Daniel Sauerwein (How Cardinal Ratzinger Dealt with Germany’s Past History News Network, February 13, 2006):

  The pope’s membership in the Hitler Youth when he was a young man became an issue upon his elevation to the papacy. Ryback observes, however, that the pope was enrolled in the group, which may mean that his membership was involuntary. But Ryback argues that the pope was reluctant to reflect critically on his own past (unlike many post-war Germans). This received little media attention, he notes.

  Before he became pope, Benedict served in many capacities. Ryback takes particular interest in his service as archbishop of Munich. Ryback mentions that the Dachau concentration camp was located near Munich and that some people criticized the pope for not visiting the site often while archbishop. However supporters note that the pope was only archbishop for five years, during which there were no notable anniversaries or events that might have warranted a major visit.

  As Mr. goes on to explain, "Ryback's main focus is not the pope, but the relationship between the Vatican and the Nazi state."

  In Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!, Professor Scott Carlson (The Examined Life) takes issue with Ryback, likening his hermeneutic to that used by Daniel Goldhagen in his collective indictment of the German people in Hitler's Willing Executioners (Random House, 1996):

  The upshot of the essay, which runs from page 66 to page 73 with only one large photo and a few cartoons to break the pace, appears to be that Ratzinger/Benedict was morally amiss to say as little as he did about, not Nazi attrocities, but the guilt of the entire German people for allowing those Nazi attrocities. . . .

  Ryback's rant does not foam at the mouth as Goldhagen does, but it labors mighty hard to work up a lather over statements and actions that, upon reflection, seem perfectly harmless and, upon closer inspection still, are evidently benign.

  Carlson sees in both Goldhagen and Ryback a tendency "to conflate individuals and institutions", a "reification of institutional structures" which is unfortunately all too prevalent in our time.

  Cardinal Ratzinger's address was originally published, and later appeared in the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; a translation was later published in the journal Logos: In Search of Freedom; Against Reason Fallen Ill and Religion Abused.

• A Clear and Coherent Direction in the Beginning of Pope Benedict’s Pontificate - Mid February, Italian columnist Sandro Magister (L'Espresso) gave an interview to Catholic leaders in Washington on the first ten months of Benedict XVI's pontificate. The event was sponsored by the Athanasius Conferences -an iniciative of the Morley Institute- and Catholic News Agency. Magister made the case that "it is possible to identify a clear and coherent direction in the beginning of Pope Benedict’s pontificate." The full text of Magister's interview is available here.

• Ratzinger Studies 101, by Joseph Pronechen. National Catholic Register Feb. 12-18, 2006:

  Not even a year has passed since the last wisp of white smoke rose over Rome, and already courses on the thinking of the Holy Father formerly known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, have begun springing up.

  And they’re attracting students by the classful. . . .

On a lighter note . . .

• On March 3, 2006, the Holy Father visited the headquarters of Vatican Radio, which was celebrating it's 75th anniversary. The full text of the Pope's address is available in translation from Zenit News Service (A "Great Family Which Has No Borders").

  The employees of Vatican Radio presented the Pope with an I-Pod Nano:

  Hundreds of radio journalists, sound engineers and support staff lined the radio's hallways to greet the pope and present him with gifts, . . .

  "We don't have a huge gift to give to the pope, but we do have small signs of our work" to give him, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican Radio's general director, told Catholic News Service.

  Though the white iPod nano is tiny, it still made an impression on the pope. When the head of the radio's technical and computer support department, Mauro Milita, identified himself and handed the pope the boxed iPod, the pope was said to have replied, "Computer technology is the future."

  The pope's new 2-gigabyte digital audio player already was loaded with a sampling of the radio's programming in English, Italian and German and musical compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Frederic Chopin, Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky and Igor Stravinsky. The stainless steel back was engraved with the words "To His Holiness, Benedict XVI" in Italian. . . .

  The iPod also contains an English-language radio drama on the life of St. Thomas a Becket and a 10-minute feature on the creation of Vatican Radio, with original sound clips of the inventor of the radio, Guglielmo Marconi, and Vatican Radio's founder, Pope Pius XI.

  As reported by Ananova, the Holy Father has taken a liking to his new toy:

  He has been spotted around the Vatican using his iPod and distinctive white earphones.

  According to The Sun a spokesman said: “He is very pleased with the iPod. The Holy Father likes to unwind listening to it and is of the opinion that this sort of technology is the future.”

  The Queen, President Bush and Tony Blair all own an iPod.

• The House of Benedict, by Rocco Palmo. Whispers in the Loggia educates us in ecclesial fashion and dress -- an expanded version of an article in the New York Times.

Pope Benedict XVI Roundup!

The big news, of course, is the release of Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est. For those who've missed it, I've posted a lengthy roundup of reactions and commentary to the encyclical last week. What follows is the usual roundup of various events and Benedict-related material that caught my eye.

• February 2006 will see the publication of Benedict XVI's latest book, Without Roots: Europe, Relativism, Christianity, Islam, co-authored by Marcello Pera, president of the Italian Senate.

  There was a minor flap on Amy Welborn's over the fact that Ignatius didn't get dibs, but as Mark Brumely clarified: "Ignatius Press was asked to take a pass on the book, notwithstanding our ongoing relationship with B 16. Since we already have half a dozen other B 16 projects in the works, we did as we were asked." (Two of those books "in the works" is God's Revolution, an anthology of the Holy Father's addresses during Youth Day; another being Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures, collecting then-Cardinal Ratzinger's addresses on the erosion of Europe's Christian roots).

  A rather hostile review of Without Roots by Domenico Pacitti has already been posted to justbookreviews.com, while Commonweal's editor(s) provide a brief summary (A Hospitable Place Volume CXXXIII, Number 1. Jan. 13, 2006):

  Benedict’s concern over the secularization of Europe and his hopes for its re-evangelization are widely known. Without Roots developed from a 2004 exchange then-Cardinal Ratzinger had with Marcello Pera, a secular philosopher and president of the Italian Senate. Pera’s analysis of Europe’s moral malaise is essentially compatible with the pope’s own assessment. Both men think Europe’s alleged loss of identity and vitality requires “primarily cultural remedies,” remedies that can shore up social institutions such as marriage and the family while combating the materialistic and utilitarian biases of science and secular morality. To that end, Pera proposes the cultivation of a “nondenominational Christian religion” or “Christian civil religion.” At first blush, one would hardly expect Benedict to warm to what sounds like a doctrinally anemic version of the faith. Yet he welcomes Pera’s advocacy of a “consensus that, irrespective of membership in a specific faith community, accords a public, sustaining value to the fundamental concepts of Christianity.”

  Benedict is too grudging in acknowledging the peace, prosperity, and democracy Europe has achieved over the last sixty years, much of it the work of Christian Social Democratic parties. Still, his discussion of the continent’s religious and secular history is provocative, and his high regard for the American tradition of separation of church and state may also come as a surprise. His feel for the dynamism of religious communities in the United States and his critique of the weaknesses of mainline Protestantism has a familiar neoconservative ring to it, but it is good to hear the pope affirm the need for compromise in the political sphere. “The church,” he writes, “does not wish to impose on others that which they do not understand.”

  Subscribers of First Things have already received a preview, as a chapter was published in the January 2006 issue under the title Europe and Its Discontents.

• On Reading the Pope, Pt. 1 and Part II, by Fr. James V. Schall. Ignatius Insight "Already in reading the remarkable amount of material the present Holy Father writes each week, it is clear, as in the case of his predecessor, that it is a full time job just to keep up with him." Fr. Schall offers a valuable guide to the topics touched on by Pope Benedict in recent letters and addresses.

• Likewise, Providence College assistant professor of biology and adjunct professor of theology Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco lends some assistance Reading Genesis with Cardinal Ratzinger (Homiletic & Pastoral Review).

• Pope Benedict has released his Message for Lent 2006, touching on themes familiar to his first encyclical. Recalling his predecessor's observation that "The temptation today is to reduce Christianity to merely human wisdom, a pseudo-science of well-being." The Holy Father reminds us that

  the primary contribution that the Church offers to the development of mankind and peoples does not consist merely in material means or technical solutions. Rather, it involves the proclamation of the truth of Christ, Who educates consciences and teaches the authentic dignity of the person and of work; it means the promotion of a culture that truly responds to all the questions of humanity. . . .

  The examples of the saints and the long history of the Church's missionary activity provide invaluable indications of the most effective ways to support development. Even in this era of global interdependence, it is clear that no economic, social, or political project can replace that gift of self to another through which charity is expressed. Those who act according to the logic of the Gospel live the faith as friendship with God Incarnate and, like Him, bear the burden of the material and spiritual needs of their neighbors. They see it as an inexhaustible mystery, worthy of infinite care and attention. They know that he who does not give God gives too little; as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta frequently observed, the worst poverty is not to know Christ. Therefore, we must help others to find God in the merciful face of Christ. Without this perspective, civilization lacks a solid foundation.

• The Year of Two Popes, by Paul Elie. Readers might recognize Elie as the author of the biography The Life You Save May Be Your Own (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), an impressive biographical study of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Walker Percy and Flannery O'Connor. Unfortunately, Amy Welborn reviews Elie's article and finds it lacking:

  I think what is missing in this piece is an understanding of how serious Christians understand service and discipleship. No one argues that ego can always get injected into the mix, or that motives, even of good people, are always pure and unmixed. But Elie, while not ascribing outright deviousness to Ratzinger, does indeed imply that he was angling for the job of running the Church his own way. But even based on his own evidence, one can come to a very different conclusion, based, as I said, on a different understanding of what should motivate Christians, and, indeed, does motivate many of them: to discern the call of the Spirit to do what is necessary. So if John Paul was unable to engage substantively with visiting bishops, and if ad limina visits are supposed to serve a certain purpose which and if the Pope cannot engage or make use of the information that might come out of those meetings...why should everything come to a halt? Someone needs to step in and hear those concerns and make sure that the process works the best it can under the circumstances. And if, during those meetings, Ratzinger was, indeed, interested and attentive (which is what I've heard , and what Elie reports) - why does that imply that he's interested because he's trying to curry favor or make a good impression in order to serve his own interests - for that is the implication of this article. Why can't it be that Ratzinger truly was concerned and interested? One of the things that has struck me about this Pope since I started reading and paying attention to him, is not just how intellectually deep and adept he is, but of how understanding he is of the human condition, and not just abstractly, but as it is lived in 2006. That "desert" imagery in his homily at his inaugrual Mass sealed the deal for me on that score, and nothing I've heard since has disappointed me.

  The Catholic Outsider also offers a substantial three-part critical review of the article (The Atlantic and How Benedict was elected January 12, 2006).

  Rocco Palmo, on the other hand, apparently loved it ("It's worth the five bucks. Don't walk -- RUN . . . Elie's dead-on with his analysis, mostly as he's saying a lot of things I've been saying for months") but points out some discrepancies in Elie's rendering of John Paul's opening of the Holy Door at St. Paul Outside the Walls.

• Pope Benedict to visit the United States in 2007? -- The story began with a comment made by Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore during a radio interview. Rocco Palmo (Whispers in the Loggia) has additional speculation as to the time and motivation for the visit.

• The Vatican has recently reasserted its legal ownership of the copyright to works by Pope Benedict XVI. The news that a Milanese publishing house had already been sent a bill for more than $18,000 to a Milanese publisher for the inclusion of 30 lines from B16's speech to the conclave in an anthology has prompted some to charge the Vatican with "cashing in" [on the Pope's words] (Richard Owen, Times UK Jan. 23, 2005), but Catholic News Service has further details:

  . . . in a Jan. 23 statement the Vatican publisher said the introduction to the 124-page book explicitly told readers, "Everything you will find here, after the introduction, comes from the pen or the voice of Joseph Ratzinger," now Pope Benedict.

  The book was being sold for about $12 a copy, and it was published without the knowledge or consent of the Vatican, the Vatican said.

  Francesca Angeletti, who handles copyright permissions for the Vatican, told Catholic News Service the Vatican wanted to ensure the integrity of texts attributed to the pope and to prevent publishers from making money off his works without the knowledge of the Vatican and without giving the Vatican appropriate compensation.

  Newspapers, magazines and bishops' conferences, she said, still may publish papal texts without paying royalties as long as the texts are not changed and a line is included saying the text has been copyrighted by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

  Question: how does this affect the frequent citation of the Holy Father's works by Catholic bloggers and periodicals in the United States?

• On January 8, 2006, Benedict performed the first baptisms of his pontificate, abandoning the prepared texts for the occasion to launch an impassioned denunciation of irresponsible sex and a "culture of death" (Crispian Balmer / Reuters. January 8, 2006). Here is the transcript of Benedict's baptism homily, courtesy of Zenit News Service.

• No place like home: Papal apartment gets extreme makeover, by John Thavis. Catholic News Service January 5, 2006, covering the transformation of the papal apartment, badly in need of renovations. I only mention the article as it notes the Holy Father's reaction to his new library:

  . . . while the pope didn't whoop or jump up and down at the unveiling, he made it clear he was pleased with the results.

  "I can only admire the things you've done . . . I really like my new library, with that antique ceiling. For me it's like being surrounded by friends, now that there are books on the shelf," he said.

  The floors were the original 16th-century marble slabs and inlay, restored to their original luster. The library solved the problem of where to put the pope's 20,000 books, which he did not want to leave in storage somewhere.

  Twenty thousand! -- Oh, to browse the shelves of the Holy Father's personal collection. I know I am not alone in this wish. =)

• Pope Benedict XVI's Emerging Papacy: 'A Service to Joy' - a profile of the Holy Father by Tablet writer Robert Mickens. St. Anthony Messenger February 2006.

• According to a "recent" survey (February 2002), Pope Benedict XVI has written "some 86 books, 471 articles and prefaces, and 32 other contributions." Concentrating on the scholarly works, the Reverend D. Vincent Twomey, SVD, a former doctoral student of the Holy Father, takes on the ambitious task of presenting The Mind of Benedict XVI, The Claremont Review Dec. 23, 2005.

  According to Twomey, the "central question" of Benedict's thought on Christianity and the modern world is: "How can Christianity become a positive force for the political world without [itself] being turned into a political instrument and without on the other hand grabbing the political world for itself?" -- Much of Benedict's thought on the respective boundaries of church and state and their interrelationship as presented in Twomey's summary is reminiscent of the latter half of Deus Caritas Est.

• In February of 2005, Sandro Magister speculated that "Among the typically Wojtylian battles that have distinguished [John Paul II's] pontificate, the defense of life is almost certainly destined to continue with his successor as well, unlike other matters that will slip into the shadows, like the interreligious meetings such as the ones in Assisi and the 'mea culpas.'" (Lent in the Vatican: The Pope, the Curia, and the Conclave, www.chiesa Feb. 2, 2005)

  The prospect of the Assisi gatherings "slipping into the shadows" was discussed by Bill Cork and myself on this blog (John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger and the Lessons of Assisi 1986/2002 Against The Grain Feb. 14, 2005).

  Now, Alejandro Bermudez revisits the issue, with a buzz from "Vatican circles that Pope Benedict is thinking of pulling the plug on the interreligious prayer meetings for peace, the last of which took place in Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis, on January 24, 2002." (Auf Wiedersehen to Assisi? Catholic Outsider January 25, 2006). No sources are cited, but given then-Ratzinger's criticisms of the event as well as the recent conciliatory gestures made towards the SSPX, I wonder if this is indeed a possibility.

• Speaking of the SSPX, John Allen Jr. has The latest on Lefebvrites; Edward N. Peters, JD, JCD (In the Light of the Law) takes a look at the possible reunion and its difficulties from a canon law perspective, and Alejandro Bermudez (Catholic Outsider revits the 2003 expulsion of Father Aulagnier from the SSPX -- suffice to say the reasons don't bode well for those who hope for "a faster, full reconciliation with Rome."

  Nevertheless, it appears that Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) will meet with leaders of the Roman Curia on February 13. "The top item on the agenda for discussion, according to an Italian media report, will be the Vatican efforts to achieve a reconciliation with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX)." (Catholic World News, Feb. 3, 2006).

Pope Benedict XVI Roundup!

• Pope Benedict has "issued a rare decree curbing the autonomy of [Franciscan] monks," guarding the tomb of St. Francis in the central Umbria region, according to the New York Times (Nov. 22, 2005):

  The decree . . . put the monks under control of three people -- the local bishop, a Vatican cardinal, and the head of the Italian bishops conference.

  The move marked the first attempt by Benedict to discipline a religious order and revoked another decree issued by Pope Paul VI in 1969 which gave the Assisi monks wide-ranging autonomy. . . .

  In the past decades, the monks of Assisi, which is one of the holiest and most visited sites in all Christendom, have been associated with leftist political parties and leftist causes.

  The annual Easter season peace march organised by the Assisi monks is frequented by leftist leaders and often boycotted by centre-right politicians.

  They have also hosted highly controversial figures such as former Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, Italian communist party leaders and Oscar-winning actor-director Roberto Benigni, a life-long leftist.

  (Writing from Rome, LifeSiteNews' John Jalsevac provides a detailed report on Benedict's latest decision:

  Almost simultaneous with the announcement that the basilicas were to again answer to the bishop, Benedict announced the appointment of Archbishop Dominico Sorrentino as bishop of the diocese of Assisi. Although slipping by general notice amidst the furor over the controversy surrounding the Franciscan shrines, some commentators are speculating that the appointment of Sorrentino may be the most important development yet in Benedict's papacy. . . .

  Pope Benedict Enforcing Traditional Rules and Orthodoxy LifeSiteNews.com Nov. 24, 2005. See also John Allen, Jr. on the transfer of Sorrentino.

• "The bishops have come to realize that every time they meet Benedict XVI, alone or as a group, they must be ready for anything: accolades, rebukes, surprises," says Sandro Magister ("The Italians Pass, the Austrians Flunk, the Brazilians... The Bishops under Examination" www.Chiesa Nov. 18, 2005). Among those on the receiving end of criticism from the Pope were the Austrian bishops who were read "the riot act":

  “As you well know, the confession of the faith is one of the bishop’s primary duties. ‘I did not draw back’, St. Paul says in Miletus to the pastors of the Church of Ephesus, ‘from the task of proclaiming to you the whole counsel of God’ (Acts 20:27). It is true that we bishops must act with discretion. Nevertheless, this prudence must not prevent us from presenting the Word of God in all its clarity, including those things that are heard less willingly or that consistently provoke reactions of protest and derision. You, dear brothers in the episcopacy, know this well: there are some topics relating to the truth of the faith, and above all to moral doctrine, which are not present in the catechesis and preaching of your dioceses to a sufficient extent, and which sometimes, for example in pastoral outreach to youth in the parishes or groups, are either not confronted at all or are not addressed in the clear sense understood by the Church. Thanks be to God, it is not like this everywhere. Perhaps those who are responsible for the proclamation [of the Gospel] are afraid that people may draw back if they speak too clearly. However, experience in general demonstrates that it is precisely the opposite that happens. Don’t deceive yourselves! Catholic teaching offered in an incomplete manner is a contradiction of itself and cannot be fruitful in the long term. The proclamation of the Kingdom of God goes hand in hand with the demand for conversion and with the love that encourages, that knows the way, that teaches that with the grace of God even that which seemed impossible becomes possible. Think of how, little by little, religious instruction, catechesis on various levels, and preaching can be improved, deepened, and, so to speak, completed! Please, make zealous use of the ‘Compendium’ and the ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church’! Have the priests and catechists adopt these tools, have them explained in the parishes, have them used in families as important reading material! Amid the uncertainty of this period of history and this society, offer to men the certainty of the fullness of the Church‘s faith! The clarity and the beauty of the Catholic faith are what make man’s life shine, even today! This is especially the case when it is presented by enthusiastic and exciting witnesses.”

  Any thoughts on the report card for the American bishops?

• On October 25, 2005 Cardinal Dulles lectured on “Pope Benedict XVI [as] Interpreter of Vatican II". The full text of the lecture is not yet available online, but we'll let you know as soon as we locate it.

• Back in September my father blogged the first part of a discussion on Michael S. Rose' series "The Man Who Was Ratzinger" in New Oxford Review (September 2005) -- see "Pope Benedict & Church Bureaucracy", Musings of a Pertinacious Papist Sept. 16, 2005. This past week he discusses part two, on Pope Benedict's view of bishops, generating a lively discussion.

• Michael Rose himself has recently penned Benedict XVI: The Man Who Was Ratzinger (Spence Publishing, Oct. 2005), which adheres more closely to the "Vatican Enforcer" motif of John Allen's earlier biography:

  Perhaps the most imposing intellectual ever to assume the papacy, Ratzinger has been recognized as a world-class theologian since the time of Vatican II. In two decades as the chief guardian of Catholic doctrine, he addressed every controversy facing the Church: clerical sex abuse, feminism, religious pluralism, sexual revolution and the culture of death, secularism, and militant Islam. This uncommonly rich record, Rose argues, promises a new Counterreformation, purifying and reorienting the Catholic Church.

  Rose reveals that Cardinal Ratzinger, unquestionably John Paul II’s closest collaborator, was privately critical of certain ecumenical, liturgical, and administrative policies of the late pope. While Benedict will undoubtedly follow John Paul’s fundamental path, Rose predicts some critical departures that could enable this supposedly "polarizing" figure to become a powerful unifying force, reviving the Church and reawakening the West’s Christian identity in its moment of crisis.

• Remember Pope Benedict's meeting with Hans Kung? -- Apparently he is not the only dissident theologian to have made friendly overtures to former Prefect of the CDF. Professor Richard McBrien -- presently serving as "consultant" to the cinematized version of The Da Vinci Code -- gave a positive assessment of the pontiff's first months:

  “I have observed little or nothing from my vantage point that would trouble me or other reform-minded Catholics,” McBrien said. . . .

  “Benedict is open and secure,” McBrien said in assessment of the 78-year-old pontiff. “He’s not afraid of discussion. The initial signs are encouraging.”

  Although McBrien said no drastic changes in Catholic doctrine were imminent, the new pope was already doing his best to maintain the legacy of goodwill and interdenominationalism that his predecessor had begun.

  (Source: "ND prof says new pope more open to discussion", by Catherine LaFrance. LaPorte Herald- Argus Nov. 14, 2005. (Of course, as Stephen wonders: Why does anyone give two cents what McBrien thinks of the pope?"

• On October 28, 2005, Pope Benedict commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate by expressing his [Commitment] to Advancing Catholic-Jewish Dialogue Zenit. October 28, 2005:

  "The Jewish-Christian dialogue must continue to enrich and deepen the bonds of friendship which have developed, while preaching and catechesis must be committed to ensuring that our mutual relations are presented in the light of the principles set forth by the council," wrote the Pope.

  "As we look to the future, I express my hope that both in theological dialogue and in everyday contacts and collaboration, Christians and Jews will offer an ever more compelling shared witness to the one God and his commandments, the sanctity of life, the promotion of human dignity, the rights of the family and the need to build a world of justice, reconciliation and peace for future generations," he said.

  Meanwhile, Father Franz Schmidberger, apparently the "right hand man" of Bernard Fellay and member of the traditionalist schismatic organization Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), chastised the Holy Father for his dialogue and fraternization with other religions, urging him to abstain from "false systems" and convert them instead (Ultra-traditionalist says pope should convert Jews Reuters, Nov. 19, 2005).

• Catholic Exchange published the Catechetical Dialogue that took place October 15, 2005, between some children who were preparing to celebrate their First Holy Communion and Pope Benedict XVI.

• L'Osservatore Romano has published its very own gallery of "The most beautiful photos of the Pope":

  The gallery includes a picture of the Holy Father looking out on the lake of Castel Gandolfo from the balcony of the papal summer residence. Another shows him imparting an apostolic blessing during his first appearance as Pope on April 19. And still another shows him, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, embracing Pope John Paul II.

  There are photos of particular events, including one taken Nov. 2 while the Holy Father was praying in the Vatican Grottoes for the deceased Popes; another on Oct. 23 while presiding over the closure of the Synod of Bishops and of the Year of the Eucharist; and one taken Oct. 5 during a celebration with children who made their first Communion.

  According to the website, prints are available from the "L'Osservatore Romano" Photographic Service.

• Back in June, Jacqueline Bassell discussed the wave of "instant-books" that appeared on the shelves soon after the whisp of white smoke from the Sistine Chapel. Michael Walsh reviews the latest wave of the "Benedict biography" cottage industry ("Only One Wry Eye on Benedict XVI" The Tablet October 29, 2005). The books in question:

  - In the Vineyard of the Lord: The Life, Faith and Teachings of Joseph Ratzinger, by Marco Bardazzi. Rizzoli (May 31, 2005)
  - We Have a Pope! Benedict XVI, by Matthew E Bunson. (Our Sunday Visitor, May 19, 2005)
  - Pope Benedict XVI : His Life and Mission, by Stephen Mansfield. Tarcher (July 21, 2005)
  - Benedict XVI: Commander of the Faith, by Rupert Shortt. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (October 24, 2005).
  - Labourer in the Vineyard: a portrait of Pope Benedict XVI, by Greg Watts. Lion Publishing Plc (October 15, 2005).

  Judging by the reviews I'm reading, the various and sundry introductions to the Holy Father that spontaneously appeared in the weeks following the conclave pale in comparison to George Weigel's God’s Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church (the rival being John Allen Jr.'s The Rise of Benedict XVI).

  Justin Nickelsen (Ressourcement - Restoration in Catholic Theology) posts his reflections on Weigel's book, and in keeping with his blog directs our attention to Ratzinger's early years as a ressourcement theologian, his participation in the Second Vatican Council and the co-founding of Communio.

  As Justin noted, Weigel's book follows the same scheme as the rest ("1. the last days of John Paul II with some commentary on his pontificate and coverage of the funeral; 2. the election of a new pope; 3. a short biography of Joseph Ratzinger with predictions for the future"), and with the exception of John Allen Jr's factually-educational but ultimately-flawed-due-to-liberal-prejudice attempt The Vatican Enforcer, we have yet to see a full-fledged papal biography on the scale of JPII's Witness to Hope. Someday . . .

• Say it isn't so! -- Deutsche-Welle reports that the Prada Pope Causes "Cassock War":

  The stylish Benedict has angered many in the holy city by allegedly switching allegiances from the company which has made papal robes for over 200 years to a tailor who has only been in business for a tenth of that time.

  In what is being called the “cassock wars,” both tailors are said to be squaring up for a dispute over the papal contract in a bid to win the pope’s favor. Annibale Gammarelli, of the eponymous firm of outfitters who have been making papal cassocks since 1792, is locked in a struggle with Mancinelli, a small shop that has been operating for a mere 20 years.

  This is what passes for news?

George Weigel: God’s Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church

George Weigel's biography of Pope Benedict XVI is out, and Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus -- enthusiastically getting in the swing of things as a blogger -- posts a review to "On The Square":

George Weigel was by for dinner the other night. He was in town to do the Today show and other promotions for his new book, God’s Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church (HarperCollins) which was released this week. I read the manuscript in advance and can warmly recommend the book. And yes, I would say that even if George were not among my closest friends. It is, quite simply, the most thorough and readable account of the collaboration between John Paul and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, and the legacy of the pontificate of the former and the prospects for the pontificate of the latter. He also has insightfully critical words, combining respect and candor, about the leadership of the U.S. bishops. (The title, by the way, is not meant to suggest as an article of faith that God chose Joseph Ratzinger to be pope. It is to suggest that God had a hand in the process of choosing, and that, as Benedict has said, we have the promise that God would not let anyone be elected pope who would destroy the Church.) If you want to understand what is happening in Catholicism, both in this country and the world, get a copy of God’s Choice.

Since the election, biographies and introductions to Pope Benedict XVI have been quite the rage. I'm curious to see what Weigel brings to the table to differentiate himself from John Allen Jr. (The Rise of Benedict XVI); Robert Moynihan (Let God's Light Shine Forth : The Spiritual Vision of Pope Benedict XVI - founder/editor of Inside the Vatican) and Matthew Bunson (We Have a Pope! Benedict XVI (Our Sunday Visitor), along with a good number of others.

• EXCERPT: "A Pope of Quiet Suprises" Newsweek Nov. 7, 2005.
• VIDEO: Discussion at Princeton's Center for the Study of Religion Oct. 13, 2005. [RealAudio]

Pope Benedict XVI Roundup!

• On October 6, 2005, Pope Benedict honored the centenary of the birth of Hans urs Von Balthasar, the Swiss 'ressourcement' theologian and good friend of the Holy Father, with whom he co-founded the Communio International Catholic Review in the wake of Vatican II:

  . . . [Balthasar] had made the mystery of the Incarnation the preferential object of his studies, and he saw in the Mysterium Paschale–as one of his works in significantly entitled–the most expressive form of this descent of God into human history. Indeed, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the mystery of God’s Trinitarian love is revealed in its fullness. The reality of the faith finds here its unsurpassable beauty. In the drama of the Paschal Mystery, God fully lives out his act of becoming man, but at the same time he makes man’s action meaningful and gives concrete form to the engagement of the Christian in the world. Von Balthasar saw in this the logic of revelation. God becomes man so that man might experience communion of life with God. In Christ is offered the ultimate truth, the definitive answer to the question that everyone asks himself about the meaning of life. Theological aesthetics, dramatics and logic make up the trilogy in which these concepts find ample room [for development] and principled application. I can testify that his life was a genuine search for truth, which he understood as a search for the true Life. He looked everywhere for signs of the presence of God and of his truth: in philosophy, in literature, in religions, always managing to break through the circuitous reasoning that often holds the mind a prisoner of itself, and opening it up to the horizons of the infinite. . . .

  For further information on this great theologian, see:

  - Hans Urs von Balthasar: Author Page from Ignatius Press, the chief english publisher of von Balthasar's works.
  - Hans Urs von Balthasar: An Online Archive Collected online articles and resources on Balthasar.
  - Ressourcement: Restoration in Catholic Theology, a blog by Justin Nickelsen featuring in-depth coverage and discussion of the ressourcement theologians. (See also David Jones' Nouvelle Theologie for similar links).
  - Love Alone is Believable: Hans Urs von Balthasar's Apologetics, by Fr. John R. Cihak @ Ignatius Insight.

• On October 16, 2005, Pope Benedict granted an interview with Polish State Television, conducted by Fr. Andrzej Majewski, head of Catholic programming at TVP. EWTN News has the English translation. Pope Benedict discussed his friendship with John Paul II ("I liked him from the beginning . . . Above all, when I watched him pray, I saw and understood, that he was a man of God"), his appointment to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ("with great frankness and he was very paternal towards me. He gave me time to reflect and said he also wanted to reflect. Finally he convinced me that this was the will of God") and the most significant moments in the pontificate of his predecessor.

• Pope Benedict canonized the first 5 saintsof his pontificate at the close of the Synod on the Eucharist on October 23. Here is the closing homily of the Holy Father.

• Ratzinger’s Revolution Passes with Flying Colors, says Sandro Magister (www.chiesa Oct. 20, 2005), on the compelling witness of Pope Benedict's devotion to the Eucharist:

  Few had believed it when, during his first trip outside Rome, to Bari at the end of May, pope Joseph Ratzinger re-proposed the motto of the martyrs of ancient Rome: “Sine dominico non possumus”; we cannot live without the Mass on the Lord’s day.

  And yet it was the Eucharist that distinguished the first Christians right from the beginning in the pagans’ eyes. The Eucharist was the reason they faced martyrdom. For saint Benedict and pope Gregory the Great, celebrating the liturgy and building up civilization were all of a piece. The greatest event for the Church in the last century, Vatican Council II, left its most visible and lasting (and controversial) mark in the liturgy. As it was in the past, so also now the Mass is the measure of Catholic identity, as it has been since Jesus said the words “ Do this in memory of me” at the last supper. In the worldwide panorama of the Church which has been explored over the three weeks of the synod, from October 2-23, the most flourishing areas of Christianity have been shown to be those where faith in and celebration of the Eucharist are strongest, sometimes flourishing in the face of death.

  Benedict XVI is doing nothing other than taking seriously – very, very seriously – this foundational reality of Christian life.

  Magister goes on to applaud the "doubling of numbers" of those attending B16's Wednesday audience and the Sunday Angelus in St. Peter's Square (also reported by Catholic News Service); the humble nature of his presence ("Benedict XVI doesn’t practice any showmanship, he doesn’t stress any flashy phrases, doesn’t encourage applause or acclamation . . . he arrives only to celebrate the liturgy and preach") and speculations on papal appointments to the Vatican curia.

• Pope Benedict's speeches at Cologne/World Youth Day have been collected and published in a book titled God's Revolution, with an introduction by Cardinal Ruini. "The Italian edition hit bookstores in Italy Oct. 11, while the English edition published by Ignatius Press was expected to be ready for release in the United States and Canada by the end of October." (Catholic News Service).

• Pope Shares Memories of His First Communion Zenit. October 10, 2005. Responding to an invitation of Pope Benedict XVI's predecessor, thousands of children receiving their first communion met with the Holy Father in Rome for a meeting entitled "Bread of Heaven":

  The highlight of the day was their conversation with Benedict XVI who responded to seven of the children, seated close to him, who asked him questions about the Eucharist.

  One of the girls, Andrea, asked the Holy Father about his first Communion.

  It was "a beautiful Sunday in March 1935," he said, "69 years ago."

  "It was a sunny day, the church was very beautiful, there was music," said the Pontiff with a broad smile. "I promised the Lord, in the measure possible: 'I want to be always with you' and I said to him: 'But you must always be with me.'"

  Another of the first communicants, Livia, asked him why she should go to confession before going to Communion when she always commits the same sins. The Pope laughed when he heard the question.

  "It's true, in general our sins are always the same, but we clean our house, our room, at least every week, although the dirt is always the same," he said.

  Confession is necessary "only in the case of grave sin," he explained. "But it is very useful to go to confession regularly to cultivate cleanliness and beauty of soul, and to mature little by little in life."

  To Giulia, who asked what she should do if her parents do not go to Mass on Sunday, he responded that she should speak to them "with great love, with great respect."

  "Tell them," he said, "'Dear mommy, dear daddy, do you know that there is something very important for all of us, and even for you? We will meet with Jesus.'"

  The full text of Pope Benedict's catechesis to children can be found here.
  

• Dialogue Not Monologue: Benedict XVI & Religious Pluralism, by Francis X. Clooney. Commonweal Volume CXXXII, Number 18. Fr. Clooney takes along as reading material on his trip to India several of B16's books and encounters an opportunity for reflection:

  Near the end of my visit to India, I was perhaps providentially visited by some concerned Hindus who accused me-Catholic priest, Jesuit, aficionado of interreligious dialogue, and provocatively named “Francis Xavier”-of being the “pope’s man,” come to fulfill his plan to subvert and convert the subcontinent. Pondering my reading, their questions, and my Jesuit credentials, I had to ask myself, what would it mean to be sent as a missionary to India by the pope responsible for these writings? What follows is not so much a summation of Benedict’s writings as a practical reflection written with Hindu concerns in mind too. . . .

  
• Christendom College of Front Royal, VA commissioned a portraint of Pope Benedict XVI, painted by Tim Langenderfer, a Dayton-based portrait artist. The oil painting was unveiled by Christendom College on Sept. 4th:

  . . . the College was pleased to welcome Mary Popp, from the Society for the Preservation of Roman Catholic Heritage (SPORCH), who, along with College President Dr. Timothy O'Donnell, unveiled the portrait for those present.

  The students responded with great enthusiasm by immediately chanting "Benedetto...Benedetto," led by the group of seniors who spent last semester studying in Rome during the election of Benedict XVI.

  Popp gave a short talk explaining the artist and her organization. Langenderfer, the artist, received his BFA from Ohio University in 1984, said Popp, and has been a Professor of Art at the University of Dayton for 13 years. . . .

  According to Popp, SPORCH, founded in 1993, has the distinct purpose of rescuing endangered Catholic sacred art and artifacts, and providing needed ecclesiastical items to poor parishes and priests. SPORCH also seeks to educate Catholics about the historical and spiritual significance of these items in an effort to preserve Catholic tradition.

  A reproduction of the portrait was delivered to the Vatican by Dr. Tim O'Donnell. The original remains on display at the school, while prints and reproductions may be purchased in various sizes through the website of The Society for the Preservation of Roman Catholic Heritage.