Pope Benedict XVI - 'Deus Caritas Est' - Reactions & Commentary

"Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us. In a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence, this message is both timely and significant. For this reason, I wish in my first Encyclical to speak of the love which God lavishes upon us and which we in turn must share with others."

Deus Caritas Est is essentially the meditation of Pope Benedict XVI on love -- love as it is (sometimes erroneously) considered to be by the world and love as expressed in all its richness in the biblical tradition, in the love of God for Israel and as it is exemplified in the Eucharistic sacrifice of our Savior.

The second part of the encyclical is an explication of how love is to be embodied in our daily life as Christians, -- in our love of (and service to) our neighbor, and what that entails in light of our faith.

Question: Why did he choose love as his theme? -- The Holy Father answered this question in an address he gave on January 23, 2006, to participants in a meeting organized by the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" on the theme "But the Greatest of These Is Love" (1 Corinthians 13:13). Zenit News Agency provides the translation:

Today the word "love" is so tarnished, so spoiled and so abused, that one is almost afraid to pronounce it with one's lips. And yet it is a primordial word, expression of the primordial reality; we cannot simply abandon it, we must take it up again, purify it and give back to it its original splendor so that it might illuminate our life and lead it on the right path. This awareness led me to choose love as the theme of my first encyclical.

I wished to express to our time and to our existence something of what Dante audaciously recapitulated in his vision. He speaks of his "sight" that "was enriched" when looking at it, changing him interiorly [The textual quotation in English is: "But through the sight, that fortified itself in me by looking, one appearance only to me was ever changing as I changed" (cf. "Paradise," XXXIII, verses 112-114)]. It is precisely this: that faith might become a vision-comprehension that transforms us.

I wished to underline the centrality of faith in God, in that God who has assumed a human face and a human heart. Faith is not a theory that one can take up or lay aside. It is something very concrete: It is the criterion that decides our lifestyle. In an age in which hostility and greed have become superpowers, an age in which we witness the abuse of religion to the point of culminating in hatred, neutral rationality on its own is unable to protect us. We are in need of the living God who has loved us unto death.

There is simply no excuse for not reading the encyclical in full. I quickly realized (reading it over a Saturday afternoon) that it's one of those texts where, if I went after it with a highlighter, I'd quickly run out of ink. =) So if you haven't read it already, I strongly recommend taking the time to do so -- and especially before you read this roundup and any "commentary" or reaction from bloggers, journalists and pundits.

General Observations

Tom of Disputations refers to Vatican documents as having a particularly high Ginger Factor: most of it will make no sense at all to the journalists reporting on it.

Unfortunately, papal encyclicals are no exception to this rule. Give them something as elementary as the Christian view of love, and not suprisingly, there are always some who will completely botch it.

• Fr. Richard Neuhaus reviews Deus Caritas Est ("The style is that of the Ratzinger whom we have known over the years: precise, almost crisp, and relentlessly Christocentric") and notes with humor the predictable response of a journalist:

  In intellectual rankings at universities, journalism is just a notch above education, which is, unfortunately, at the bottom. . . .

  What prompts me to mention this today is that I’m just off the phone with a reporter from the same national paper. He’s doing a story on Pope Benedict’s new encyclical. In the course of discussing the pontificate, I referred to the pope as the bishop of Rome. “That raises an interesting point,” he said. “Is it unusual that this pope is also the bishop of Rome?” He obviously thought he was on to a new angle. Once again, I tried to be gentle. Toward the end of our talk, he said with manifest sincerity, “My job is not only to get the story right but to explain what it means.” Ah yes, he is just the fellow to explain what this pontificate and the encyclical really mean. It is poignant.

• The Encyclical “Shuns Strictures of Orthodoxy”? - Alejandro Bermudez' Catholic Outsider responds to Ian Fisher's ridiculous reading of the encyclical in The New York Times Jan. 26, 2006, noting that it "did not mention abortion, homosexuality, contraception or divorce, issues that often divide Catholics"; to which the Outsider adds:

  Fisher list stops too short. He forgot to mention that the encyclical did not mention other highly divisive issues among Catholics: cars, restaurants, yoga and who should win the Superbowl, a very, very divisive question now that the Broncos are out of the picture (snif!)

  Ah! The Pope did not mention dish washing machines either. You can’t imagine how divisive this issue can be among Catholic households.

  Carl Olson fisks Ian Fisher's article as well, wondering Did I read the same encyclical as The New York Times? (Insight Scoop January 26, 2006).

• Passionate prose is a real revelation - Times [UK] columnist Ruth Gledhill finds her preconceptions of the Panzerkardinal abruptly shattered:

  I STARTED reading Deus Caritas Est expecting to be disappointed, chastised and generally laid low. An encyclical on love from a right-wing pope could only contain more damning condemnations of our materialistic, westernised society, more evocations of the “intrinsic evil” of contraception, married priests, homosexuality. It would surely continue the Church’s grand tradition of contempt for the erotic, a tradition that ensures a guilty hangover in any Roman Catholic who dares to indulge in lovemaking for any reason other than the primary one of reproduction. How wonderful it is to be proven wrong.

  To which Insight Scoop's Mark Brumhill comments: "It is always good to see bigotry and prejudice destroyed--or at least diminished. More helpful still would be for commentator Gledhill to get biblical and pause (selah) to consider how it is that her expectations could have been so far off the mark (hamartia) to begin with and whether, perhaps, it isn't really Benedict XVI's fault that they were." One would hope.

• The Pope's Labor of Love, by Alexander Smoltczyk (Der Spiegel January 25, 2006) starts off on a good note:

  Benedict XVI has decided to follow directly in the steps of his predecessor. Until just before his death, John Paul II had been working on an encyclical about Christian love. Benedict XVI's treatise, addressed to "men and women religious and all the lay faithful," completes that project and begins with a reference to love as "one of the most frequently used and misused of words."

  but can't resist the opportunity to take a condescending tone:

  . . . the pope quickly turns it down a notch to make it clear he's only talking about one type of erotic love -- that between a man and his wife in the marriage bed. "From the standpoint of creation," the pope writes, "eros directs man towards marriage, to a bond which is unique and definitive; thus, and only thus, does it fulfil its deepest purpose." A God, a husband and his wife. It may not quite represent the most up-to-date ideas of gender research -- much less the scenes in some seminaries -- but it does have the advantage of dogmatic precision.

• The Tablet hails the encyclical as "the true face of Catholicism":

  Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical confirms him as a man of humour, warmth, humility and compassion, eager to share the love that God “lavishes” on humanity and display it as the answer to the world’s deepest needs. On his election last spring, the former Cardinal Ratzinger was widely assumed to have as his papal agenda the hammering of heretics and a war on secularist relativism, subjects with which he was associated as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Instead he has produced a profound, lucid, poignant and at times witty discussion of the relationship between sexual love and the love of God, the fruit no doubt of a lifetime’s meditation. This is a document that presents the most attractive face of the Catholic faith and could be put without hesitation into the hands of any inquirer.

  Funny how the author sees a radical disjuncture between the "kindler, gentler" Ratzinger and the "hammerer of heretics".

• Whispers in the Loggia reports that Deus Caritas Est is "Ratzinger-Written, Kung-Approved", at least insofar as Kung perceives that the encyclical "isn't a manifesto of cultural pessimism or of restrictive sexual morality towards love, but to the contrary takes on central themes under the profile of theology and anthropology."

  Meanwhile, Reuters reports that

  "The Catholic Church's leading dissident theologian praised Pope Benedict for his encyclical on love on Wednesday and asked for a second one showing the same kindness concerning birth control, divorce and other Christians.

  The Swiss theologian then urged the German-born Pontiff, the Vatican's stern doctrinal watchdog for 23 years before his election last April, to be kinder to his Catholic critics and to Protestants offended by frank statements he has made about them.

  "Joseph Ratzinger would be a great Pope if he drew courageous consequences for Church structures and legal decisions from his correct and important words about love," Kueng wrote in a statement, using the Pope's real name.

  Alongside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Inquisition office that Ratzinger used to head, the Pope needed "Congregation of Love" to vet Vatican documents and ensure they are truly Christian in outlook, he suggested.

  Via Curt Jester, who retorts:

  "Congregation of Love" is right up there with Dennis Kucinich wanting of a "Department of Peace". Though I would argue that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is already a congregation of love. If you love someone you tell them when they are doing something that endangers your eternal life or can lead others astray. What Kueng is really suggesting is a Congregation of Indifference where you can just do whatever you want and being its prefect would be the world's easiest job.

• The Surprising Message Behind 'God Is Love', January 25, 2005. Rocco Palmo (Whispers in the Loggia) reviews the encyclical for Beliefnet.com. Overall a good plug, although I'd take issue with this:

  While conservative Catholics will agree that the concept of human love, eros "reduced to pure 'sex,' has become a commodity, a mere 'thing' to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself becomes a commodity," the absence of the divisive doctrinal questions of sexuality, contraception, and abortion from the document might further add to the suspicion, already aired in some quarters, that their man has "gone soft." It is not what they would have expected--or, perhaps, wished. . . .

  Oh, I'd say that Pope Benedict XVI has been making his views on the "divisive doctrinal questions" of contraception, abortion and sexuality explicitly known for some time. I certainly don't need (nor would I expect) him to mention it with every given opportunity.

  The "progressive" interpretations of the Deus Caritas Est (for example, by Andrew Sullivan and Hans Kung) try to pit Benedict's teaching on love in opposition to the Church's prohibitions against sexual immorality. I would suggest, rather, that in choosing love as the topic of his first encyclical, Benedict is offering a necessary reminder to us that the moral teaching of the Church is best understood in its proper context, as issuing from the love of God and His vision for humanity. (Further reference, John Paul II's theology of the body).

• On a better note, from Zenit News Agency -- interviews with Legionary of Christ Father Thomas D. Williams, a dean at Rome's Regina Apostolorum university; Sister Maria Gloria Riva, a contemplative religious of the Perpetual Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament, and film director Liliana Cavani.

• And from Ignatius Insight, commentary by Fr. James V. Schall:

  Walking along the corridor of our department just hours after Deus Caritas Est was issued, I ran into a young man I did not know. He asked me if I had seen the new document. I was impressed that he ever heard of it. I had not seen it, though I knew about it. He told me its title. He added that he had hoped for something more "relevant," like bio-ethics.

  I replied that I thought charity was a pretty good topic since it is central to the Church’s teaching about who God is and what our lives are about. And it has not a little to do even with such a perplexing topic as bio-ethics, such as addressing the foundations of bio-ethics. One of the reason some bio-ethicists get things wrong when they do is, I suspect, because they do not understand the primacy–even the physical primacy–of charity, in its full theological and philosophical meaning, even as applies to the fact that we, as individual persons have both minds and bodies to be what we are.

  and Fr. Joseph Fessio:

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

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

Part I: "The reconciliation of Eros & Agape"

• Clairity provides a good summary of "the marriage of eros and agape, with mention of the influence of Luigi Guissani. More reflections from Ancient & Future Catholic Musings.

• Neil at Catholic Sensibility also contributes with some related strands of thought by Antonio Socci and the Dutch Protestant minister W.A. Visser 't Hooft.

• Liberal Catholic JCecil (In Today's News) addresses Pope Benedict's views on "ecstacy," or "the ecstatic experience":

  I suppose if you've never experienced the intoxicating beauty of deep prayer or sacramental married love or the ecstatic joy of the birth of a child, or the ecstatic joy of knowing you really helped another human person in a way that will effect the course of their life, and so forth, the first line might sound puzzlingly prohibitive in an otherwise joyous letter.

  All I hear the Holy Father saying is that if you want ecstasy, there are far better ways to achieve it than with temple prostitutes or drugs and such.

• In "Unity in Difference", Daniel (Cosmos, Liturgy, Sex) responds to a commentator at Amy Welborn's who "sees this Encyclical as an olive branch to “gays” because B16 does not explicitly limit eros to heterosexuality and limit “gays” to agape. This sad thinking, besides being delusional, completely misunderstands the faith and the Trinitarian foundation of love." Daniel responds:

  Self-gift can only be rooted in Trinitarian love. The Father’s total gift of Himself to the Son and the Son’s reciprocation are fruitful. This mutual Love is a Person . . . the Holy Spirit. Being the Source of everything that exists, this total self-giving establishes the framework for creation and so it is the interpretive key for understanding creation and most especially the human person who is created in the image of this Self-giving God.

  This framework shows that love must be true to the order of creation. This is where those who mistakenly believe that B16 is somehow now saying that same-sex genital relations are suddenly not a disorder, completely miss the Trinitarian nature of creation. The Encyclical says that “…man is somehow incomplete, driven by nature to seek in another the part that can make him whole, the idea that only in communion with the opposite sex can he become ‘complete’” (DCE 11). Here B16 follows JPTG’s theology of the body in which the latter shows that man is made, male and female, in the Trinitarian image. Husband and wife are a unity in difference, made complementarily for one another. The structure of heterosexual anatomy demonstrates their complementarity and their having been ordered to the one-flesh union which is the only genital union that has the capacity to be fruitful in a life-giving way.

  B16 uses the phrase unity and difference also to describe the hylomorphic union of body and soul. Because the soul is the substantial form of the body, the body expresses something in the soul. This includes sex differences. Sex differences are ontological and created for the unity in difference of love, manifested in its dimensions of eros and agape.

  (Readers of The Pertinacious Papist will recognize the commentator in question as being one Fr. O'Leary, aka. "The Spirit of Vatican II").

• Fr. O'Leary is not alone in his illusions -- Andrew Sullivan, now blogging for Time magazine, writes: "I also, obviously, share Benedict's wonder at conjugal love. I see no conflict between the love of two homosexual men or women for each other and the mystery of heterosexual love." And of his delighted remark that the encyclical "is not as extreme or as repressive as Benedict's well-earned reputation", Amy Welborn counters:

  The "well-earned" reputation for repression is getting so old. Sing that to the institutions of higher learning in the Jesuit tradition that have flourished, repression-free, for the past thirty years. Better yet, read some of this pope's theology. As I mentioned, anyone familiar with Ratzinger will find no surprises in Benedict.

• John Heard (aka. Dreadnought), on the other hand, asks What if anything, does the Pope call same sex attracted men to via this Encyclical?, and arrives at an answer:

  What of gay men? The Pope speaks eloquently of the love that animates heterosexual unions via the proper balancing of eros and agape (love that 'goes up' and the love that 'comes down') but he leaves a small section, surely enough, to describe the understanding of philia or brotherly love much respected by the ancients.

  Philia describes a love no less significant than that which expresses 'the relationship between Jesus and His disciples'. It is this love, somewhat removed from the central animating focus of the Encyclical, that same sex attracted men must desire, pursue and celebrate. Twisted eros, described by the Pope as previously subsisting in 'sacred prostitutes' and other degraded forms of sexuality in the Pagan world, too often stalks the edges of the 'gay community' today.

  (Probably not the kind of answer O'Leary and Sullivan were looking for, but hey).

• Oswald Sobrino praises the encyclical for "going on the offensive"):

  The Pope, as those before him, is seeking to capture all things for Christ precisely because all things were made through Christ and find their fulfillment in Christ. So the eros that is so central to us as human beings, the eros that is so distorted, falsified, and misused, the eros that has the potential for so much flourishing and for so much self-destruction certainly can never be left out of the Christian equation. The Pope, so to speak, parachutes the Gospel into territory that has been ceded for far too long to pagans, secular or otherwise. Eros was made by God through Christ to unite with agape.

  As someone with a graduate degree in economics, let me offer some mathematical analogies. If we take eros (the intense mutual attraction of male and female) and add agape (the selfless love focused on the good of the other) we then get true Christian philia (the love of friendship). If agape is left out of the equation, then eros is left adrift like an orphan with no constructive horizon. And what we get is disaster: jealousies, conflict, and eventually mutual hatred. It happens all the time.

  Another analogy: if we take philia (the love of friendship) and add agape, we end up with a transformed friendship, a Christian philia that ennobles both. Without agape, friendship can easily become simply a conspiracy in mutual self-destruction or manipulation. Again, it happens all the time.

Part II - on the meaning and obligation of Christian charity

In the second part of his encyclical, Deis Caritas Est Benedict discusses the meaning of charity in the mission of the Church. The ministry of charity is placed alongside the proclamation of the Word of God and the celebration of the sacraments as expressions of God's love: "For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being." This obligation encompasses both our fellow Christians -- those within our ecclesial family -- and the world at large:

The Church is God's family in the world. In this family . Yet at the same time caritas- agape extends beyond the frontiers of the Church. The parable of the Good Samaritan remains as a standard which imposes universal love towards the needy whom we encounter “by chance” (cf. Lk 10:31), whoever they may be. Without in any way detracting from this commandment of universal love, the Church also has a specific responsibility: within the ecclesial family no member should suffer through being in need. The teaching of the Letter to the Galatians is emphatic: “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (6:10).

Responding to the argument of Marxism (and certain proponents of "liberation theology") -- that "works of charity are in effect a way for the rich to shirk their obligation to work for justice and a means of soothing their consciences, while preserving their own status and robbing the poor of their rights"; that the poor do not need charity but rather justice, and a just social order in which all will share the world's goods -- Pope Benedict responds:

There is admittedly some truth to this argument, but also much that is mistaken. It is true that the pursuit of justice must be a fundamental norm of the State and that the aim of a just social order is to guarantee to each person, according to the principle of subsidiarity, his share of the community's goods. This has always been emphasized by Christian teaching on the State and by the Church's social doctrine.

This goal, however, cannot be found through Marxism ("revolution and the subsequent collectivization of the means of production") -- "such an illusion has vanished today." Rather, "the Church's social doctrine has become a set of fundamental guidelines offering approaches that are valid even beyond the confines of the Church," as encompassed in the social encyclicals of Benedict's predecessors and which "has now found a comprehensive presentation in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church."

The responsibility for the just ordering of society properly belongs to the realm of politics, "the sphere of the autonomous use of reason." At the same time, insofar as the origin and goal of politics is justice, it is naturally concerned with ethics -- and it is likewise here that the Church can exercise its influence through the formation of conscience by appeal to natural law:

This is where Catholic social doctrine has its place: it has no intention of giving the Church power over the State. Even less is it an attempt to impose on those who do not share the faith ways of thinking and modes of conduct proper to faith. Its aim is simply to help purify reason and to contribute, here and now, to the acknowledgment and attainment of what is just.

The Church's social teaching argues on the basis of reason and natural law, namely, on the basis of what is in accord with the nature of every human being. It recognizes that it is not the Church's responsibility to make this teaching prevail in political life. Rather, the Church wishes to help form consciences in political life and to stimulate greater insight into the authentic requirements of justice as well as greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest. Building a just social and civil order, wherein each person receives what is his or her due, is an essential task which every generation must take up anew. As a political task, this cannot be the Church's immediate responsibility. Yet, since it is also a most important human responsibility, the Church is duty-bound to offer, through the purification of reason and through ethical formation, her own specific contribution towards understanding the requirements of justice and achieving them politically.

The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice. She has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifice, cannot prevail and prosper. A just society must be the achievement of politics, not of the Church. Yet the promotion of justice through efforts to bring about openness of mind and will to the demands of the common good is something which concerns the Church deeply.

While the Church must not usurp the proper role and end of the State, Benedict also reminds us of the inherent limitations of the State in the satisfaction of man's fundamenal needs:

Love—caritas—will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love. Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such. There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable.[20] The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. The Church is one of those living forces: she is alive with the love enkindled by the Spirit of Christ. This love does not simply offer people material help, but refreshment and care for their souls, something which often is even more necessary than material support. In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live “by bread alone” (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3)—a conviction that demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human.

• As Kishore Jayabalan of The Acton Institute puts it: "This is the Catholic case for limited government par excellence. Justice and politics are necessary and good objectives to pursue, but they are not what human life is ultimately about. Divine love transcends politics. This is the language of a political philosophy that points beyond itself to theology, and it’s perfectly fitting as Benedict’s first encyclical. ("Pope Benedict on Limited Government" Acton Institute Powerblog January 25, 2006).

• Gregory Popcak (Heart, Mind & Strength) praises Benedict's recognition of the difference between social work and social justice.

• Michael Liccione (Sacramentum Vitate) comments:

  That will probably be the most controversial aspect of the encyclical among those who care what popes think. It has something to please everybody and something to offend everybody. The Church must not control or replace the State, but neither can she "remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice." Her social teaching plays a valid political role with its "rational arguments" yet, at the same time, she "purifies reason" with insights made possible only by faith. And whatever the political situation, her vast charitable works will always witness to Christ in civil society. They can never be replaced by just "structures" of the kind that government can create and regulate.

• Amy Welborn agrees:

  To me, the most interesting point of this section was what will doubtlessly be referenced as Benedict's Augustinian pessimism - he says outright that those who carry out the Church's charitable activity "must not be inspired by ideologies aimed at improving the world..." (33), and should be wary of at trying to do "what God's governance of the world apparently cannot: fully resolve every problem." (36) It gives those of us reared in the "we're helping build the Kingdom" mentality something to think about, that's certain.

  It's pretty bracing and clarifying, and I'm placing bets that this will be the most contentious part of the document. Benedict say, additionally, that professional competence is fine, but is not the standard by which charity operates - person-to-person compassionate love is. He says quite directly that the "growing secularism of many Christians engaged in charitable work" is a problem.

  What does this mean? Does this mean don't try to change things? To just hand out water and be done with it? Far from it. . . .

  It is persons that are at the center here. From the very beginning of the document, as Benedict explains what faith is, in very CL [Communion and Liberation] kind of lingo, I believe:

  We have come to believe in God's love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.

  And it ends with a person - you and me as part of the Body of Christ, having encountered the total love of God in Jesus, being graced over and over again as we meet him in Eucharist, being joined every more intimately to our brothers and sisters through that same Eucharist, and not only able, but moved by the Spirit to live in that reality in which eros and agape merge, nourish each other, and it becomes simply who we are, because we are in Christ.

Updates!

First, I'd like to extend a welcome to readers of Mark Shea, Amy Welborn, Get Religion, First Things and "The Daily Dish" (Andrew Sullivan), and thank the authors for their graciously linking to this post. Here are some additional posts and commentary for your consideration:

• Oh, to be a "Catholic Scholar", exclaims Amy Welborn, responding to the latest piece of journalistic coverage (An unexpected letter of love, by Michael Valpy Minneopolis Star Tribune January 27, 2005):

  Few Catholic scholars contacted this week had read the encyclical or planned to do so. Two professed amusement at the notion that the pope had written about love. And what puzzled some scholars is why Benedict had chosen the subject.

  Amy responds:

  to address an issue that's popped up down below. I'm not suggesting that a papal encyclical should immediately be at the center of every Catholic's - even Catholic scholar's - consciousness and concern. I actually spent some time musing - although I never blogged on it - about why I was interested and why I should care.

  But you know, this is the first papal encyclical since 2003, it's the first from this new Pope, who also happens to be a renowned theologian, who has been an object of controversy in the past and whose papacy so far has confounded some. So yeah, it's of interest, it's not very long at all, and any "Catholic scholar" who's on the newsroom rolodex (and once you get on, you learn to expect calls for reactions regularly), you'd think might have something to say besides, "Sniff." If that is, indeed, an accurate metaphor for what they said.

  Michael Valpy, take note.

• Greg Sisk (Mirror of Justice) concludes that Deus Caritas Est is A Continuity With, Not a Departure From, the Witness of John Paul II:

  In emphasizing the proper role of the Church in the awakening and formation of conscience, while insisting that the Church must not enter into the “political battle” that remains instead the separate vocation of the laity, Pope Benedict XVI’s words have been portrayed by some as a departure from the public witness of his predecessor. After all, John Paul II addressed civil authorities regularly with boldness and spoke with prophetic directness on issues of human rights, pointedly including the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.

  I submit that these observers both have misread Benedict XVI as foreshadowing something of a withdrawal by the Church on direct engagement with civil regimes on basic matters of human rights (including sanctity of life issues) and have misunderstood the non-political nature of John Paul II in his forthrightly religious witness in the public square. In other words, I see Benedict XVI's first encyclical as steadily in continuity with John Paul II in the understanding of the appropriate role of the Catholic Church when it encounters the temporal civil order. . . .

  Read the rest here; discussion (as usual) by Amy Welborn's Commentariat here.

• Pope B16 & CL - David Jones (Nouvelle Theologie) provides the background on Pope Benedict's relationship with Fr. Giussani and Communion & Liberation.

• A Commentary on "Deus Caritas Est" by Pastor John Wright. Jan. 29, 2006:

  It might surprise some to find a theologian and pastor in the Church of the Nazarene not only caring, yet positively endorsing, the writings of the contemporary bishop of Rome. I am convinced, however, that the commitment to holiness of heart and life in the tradition of the Church of the Nazarene must drive us to conversation and shared life with those within the Roman Catholic church, even or especially the bishop of Rome. We must because our Lord prayed that we be sancified in truth so that we might be one as the Father and the Son are One. Secondly, the message of holiness finds its most consistent teaching and embodiment in the Christian tradition within the teachings of the Catholic Church and the bodies of the saints. Thus I offer this series of essays, as I can get to them, in hope that the fragmented body of Christ may some day be healed so that the world may know the God who is Love.

  (See also Part II of Pastor Wright's Commentary).

• "What is this thing called love?" January 31, 2006. (You can also find Maggie at the Institute for Marriage & Public Policy's MarriageDebate.com).

• "Benedict Genius Est" - Panel discussion on "The Religion Report," headed by Stephen Crittenden religion correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The show features "Leading Catholic moral theologian Charles E Curran" -- did he say "leading?" -- journalist Rocco Palmo of “Whispers in the Loggia," and the Jack de Groot- the National Campaign Director of Caritas Australia. A review of the Crittenden interview here by yours truly.

• "For the Love of God", by Lorenzo Albacete. New York Times Feb. 3, 2006.

• The Controversy of Love and Love and the Will of God, two excellent reflections on the encyclical by Teresa Polk (Blog by the Sea.

• The Discipline Love Requires, by Al Kimel (Pontifications). Feb. 3rd, 2006:

  "I have not yet read Pope Benedict’s new encylical; but when one finds Hans Küng, Charles Curran, Luke Timothy Johnson, Joseph O’Leary, and Andrew Sullivan applauding the document, one gets a bit nervous . . ."

Pope Benedict XVI Roundup!

In the News

• Speaking after a concert given at the Sistine Chapel on Saturday, June 24, Pope Benedict XVI called for an authentic updating of sacred music that takes into account the tradition of the Church (Zenit News):

  "Sacred polyphony," the Holy Father said Saturday after a concert held in his honor by the Domenico Bartolucci Foundation, "especially the so-called 'Roman school,' is a legacy that must be carefully conserved, maintained alive and made known."

  It will be of "benefit not only to scholars and enthusiasts, but to the ecclesial community as a whole, for which it represents an inestimable spiritual, artistic and cultural heritage," the Pope said, after the concert in the Sistine Chapel.

  "An authentic updating of sacred music cannot occur except in line with the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian Chant, and of sacred polyphony," the Pontiff added.

  The members of the Society for a Moratorium on the Music of Marty Haugen and David Haas will no doubt be overjoyed at the news.

  For detailed background on the concert and the significance of its conductor, maestro monsignor Domenico Bartolucci, see A Change of Tune in the Vatican – And Not Only in the Secretariat of State, by Sandro Magister. www.chiesa June 27, 2006, while Get Religion examines the usual disconnect between what was said and what's being reported by the mainstream press (Pope demands end to crappy church music June 30, 2006):

  Pope Benedict XVI has harshed on guitars in Mass, according to various media reports. I don’t see why you need the Pope to tell you that if you walk into a sanctuary and see a drum riser where the altar should be that you may want to get the heck out of dodge, but I guess some of us do need a bit of guidance. . . .

  For more on Pope Benedict's views on music, see Music and Liturgy: Excerpts from The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, courtesy of Ignatius Press, and Pope Benedict XVI on Sacred Music, additional excerpts compiled by St. Michael's Catholic Church in Auburn, Alabama.

• Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, a member of the International Theological Commission, recently presented 8 Keys to Reading Joseph Ratzinger's Work at the closing the first course of Specialization in Religious Information, organized by the University of the Holy Cross (Zenit News, June 25, 2006).

• On June 23, 2006, Pope Benedict explained to the archdiocese of Genoa, Italy, reasons for appointing Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. as secretary of State (Catholic News Agency, June 23, 2006):

  During the three years Cardinal Bertone has led the diocese, the Holy Father tells the faithful in his letter, "you have learned to appreciate those gifts and qualities that make him a faithful pastor, especially capable of combining pastoral care and doctrinal wisdom.

  "It is precisely these characteristics, together with the mutual understanding and trust we developed over our years of shared service at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, that have induced me to choose him for this exalted and delicate task in the service of the Universal Church at the Holy See.

  "I know that I have asked a great sacrifice of Cardinal Bertone; and I know that the sacrifice of the faithful entrusted to his care in Genoa is no less, but I am certain that his affection and his prayers for your community will be brought 'ad Petri sedem.' The history of your diocese demonstrates your generous fidelity to the Vicar of Christ, to which I appeal also by virtue of the name I chose for my own Petrine ministry: the name of the last Genovese Pope, so devoted to the 'Madonna della Guardia.' To her I entrust you all in this moment of change, delicate but full of grace, because 'in everything God works for good with those who love Him.'

  Meanwhile, Richard Owen of the London Times notes some lamentation of the appointment: "Critics said that putting a Ratzinger-Bertone alliance at the top of the Vatican hierarchy meant that the Church would be in the hands of "arch-conservatives" at a time when many Catholics, especially in the Third World, are calling for reform." (Pope promotes 'hardliner' in reshuffle of his top team June 22, 2006).

• On June 21, 2006, Pope Benedict was made "honorary citizen" of Regensburg, Germany (Source: Zenit News).

• Pope Benedict will travel to Valencia, Spain next month for the World Meeting of Families. Zenit News Service interviewed Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City on Benedict's concern for the renewal of the family (Zenit News. June 11, 2006):

  His decision to attend the World Meeting of Families is a public affirmation of the invaluable worth he places on the family. We have already seen in just the year since his election that renewing the family is a priority of his pontificate.

  His first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, gives much attention to the love between a man and a woman, how human love, especially eros, must be connected to divine love and the good of children, and the important role of love in the public life.

  And since the family is the first school of love, we can infer that a healthy family is essential to a healthy society.

• In late May 2006, Pope Benedict devoted his weekly audience to the topic of the primacy of St. Peter. Teresa Polk (Blog by the Sea) provides us with a roundup of links to B16's addresses and commentary.

Elsewhere . . .

• It came as no suprise that, with the death of Pope John Paul II, vociferous critics of the traditionalist right turned their sights on Pope Benedict, with groups like the comical Novus Ordo Watch predicting the worst. Pope or Heretic? An Evaluation of Benedict XVI and "trueCatholic.org" touting the alleged Heresies of Anti-Pope Benedict XVI.

  In Pope or Heretic? An Evaluation of Benedict XVI, Jacob Michael of LumenGentleman Apologetics, examines some of the quotations from Benedict (whether Pope or Cardinal Ratzinger) which are cited as "proof" of heresy, and finds them wanting. According to Jacob:

  . . . the problem lies in the "hermeneutic of suspicion" that so many well-intentioned Catholics fall into; a kind of cynicism that takes a defensive approach to any Church document issued after the reign of Pope Pius XII. Heresy hunting is easy; words by their very nature require interpretation, and most words can be bent, twisted, and taken to conclusions that the speaker or author never intended. As a former Protestant, I am more than well-acquainted with this fact; this "hermeneutic of suspicion" is the grid through which I learned to read the Catholic Church's teachings. The worst possible motive is always assumed; if something can be interpreted in either a good sense or a bad sense, the bad sense is presumed to be the sense intended, and false conclusions are drawn. . . . It is not difficult to see this principle at work in the way some choose to receive and deal with the council, and especially with papal teachings and actions. . . .

  Concludes Jacob: "I have yet to see a quote that wasn't ripped from its context, squeezed through the filter of deep suspicion, interpreted in the worst possible light, and isolated from other statements within the body of Benedict XVI's work." As it was for John Paul II, so it is for Benedict XVI. Pray for the Pope, and his enemies as well. (Article via Rorate Caeli).

  In Benedict XVI and the "Real Presence", the blog Hallowed Ground diffuses a charge that Benedict "once taught against the practice of eucharistic adoration and has even promoted heresy with respect to the Real Presence" with further citation from his writings.

• Series of Reflections on Deus Caritas Est Since early May, L'Osservatore Romano has been running a series of reflections on Benedict XVI's first encyclical, with contributions by Cardinal Renato Martino, Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, Bishop Rino Fisichella, Cardinal Angelo Scola and Archbishop Paul Cordes. Zenit News Service has a roundup of commentary with the highlights.

• Orthodoxy and Islam: Benedict XVI Prepares for His Trip to Turkey, by Sandro Magister. www.chiesa June 16, 2006.

• A new volume published in Italian by Libreria Editrice Vaticana gathers key phrases pronounced by Benedict XVI in the first year of his papacy. Pensieri Spirituali (Spiritual Thoughts) gathers phrases chosen from his encyclical, homilies, meetings and audiences, and from moments when he spoke without notes. [Source: Zenit News. June 13, 2006].

• From the Vol 9:2 -- Spring 2006 edition of LOGOS: Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture: The Church and the Secular Establishment: A Philosophical Dialog between Joseph Ratzinger and Jürgen Habermas, by Virgil Nemoianu. [.pdf format]

• Lajolo and Kasper, Two New Additions to Team Ratzinger www.Chiesa June 7, 2006. Sandro Magister profiles archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, Secretary for Relations with States (or the Vatican's foreign minister) and Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, discussing how their thought has developed in relation to "new course charted by pope Ratzinger."

  Those familiar with the RatzingerFanClub's archive will remember the frequent intellectual disputes between Ratzinger and Kasper on ecumenism (provoked by the publication of Dominus Iesus) and ecclesiology (see our special compilation on The Ratzinger-Kasper Debate). Consequently, to hear Magister speak of "the new “ratzingerian” course" charted by Kasper and a convergence of thought, particularly on ecumenism, is indeed an occasion for hope. Magister covered this same issue back in March 2005, in which he described an address by Kasper as "a cold shower for the Church's left wing." (Kasper and Kolvenbach, Converts to the Neocon Way www.Chiesa March 8, 2005).

  Incidentally, the Ratzinger Fan Club, was inspired by the outcry over Dominus Iesus, rallying in defense of the Cardinal against the vehement criticism of Cardinal Ratzinger which followed. Earlier this month, Gerald Augustinus (Closed Cafeteria) reminds us just what was so important about that document).

• Even the Pope has Rights: The Vatican and Copyright Privileges, by Philip F. Lawler. Ignatius Insight May 2006. The editor of the Catholic World Report provides much-needed clarification on a topic about which there was much confusion and misinformation:

  In January a Vatican correspondent for La Stampa, Marco Tosatti, had received a bill from LEV, demanding payment of 15,000 pounds (at the time, about $18,400) for the use of material by Pope Benedict. Not coincidentally, it was Tosatti who led the editorial charge when La Stampa criticized the Vatican for asserting control of the Pope's intellectual-property rights.

  But Tosatti's use of Pope Benedict's written work was not a matter of a simple quotation or two. The Italian journalist had published a book entitled The Dictionary of Pope Ratzinger, composed almost entirely of the Pope's spoken and written words. In his preface to the book, Tosatti had assured readers: "Everything you will find here, beyond this introduction, comes from the pen or the voice of Joseph Ratzinger." In short, Tossati had tried to do precisely what he now charged Vatican officials with doing: make a profit by publishing the Pope's work.

  Lawler clarifies the nature and demands of the copyright policy of the Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV) and its affect on papal press and journalism.

• Benedict Contra Nietzsche: A Reflection on Deus Caritas Est, by Benjamin D. Wiker. Crisis May 9, 2006:

  Deus Caritas Est is a declaration of war, and it is loaded with ammunition—much of it stealth in design, and of such power that the Church under Benedict XVI will certainly be the Church Militant. For while on the surface Benedict only seems to be offering a theological platitude, that “God is love,” hidden to the hasty eyes of the press, buried in the intricacies of his philosophical and theological analysis, obscured from all but those initiated into Benedict’s inner circle, he really is declaring that God is love.

  It will become clear—as we dig into the encyclical—that a more dangerous and constructive idea for our culture could not be imagined. It’s a brilliant strategy on Benedict’s part to hide so explosive a truth under a simple truism.

• Meekness and courage of the Pope in Poland: Benedict XVI in the land of Karol Wojtyla, by Marco Tosatti. 30 Giorni [30 Days] May 2006. "Of Benedict XVI’s visit many different images remain in the memory: from the homage to his predecessor to the human warmth of the crowd. From the defense of Tradition to the solicitude of the visit to Auschwitz. An account by the Vatican expert of La Stampa."

  Also on trip to Poland: Pope Benedict's Apostolic Journey to Poland (May 25-28, 2006) - Compilation of papal addresses and photo gallery from the Vatican website.

  The American Papist of course offers a magnificent and extensive roundup in The Great Poland Post of 2006, while we took a concentrated look at Pope Benedict XVI, Auschwitz, and the Nature of Anti-Semitism Against The Grain May 30, 2006 (and will likely devote another post to follow-up discussion of the issue).

• The Story of Joseph Ratzinger: "The difficult years", by Gianni Valente (in collaboration with Pierluca Azzaro). 30 Giorni [30 Days] May 2006. "Former colleagues and students speak of Professor Ratzinger on the theological campus of Tübingen. Where his unrepentant adhesion to the reforms of the Council was put to the test by clerical triumphalism and middle-class foot-dragging."

• Pope to India; India to Pope - Interesting discussion on Amy Welborn's Open Book on Pope Benedict's May 18, 2006 address to Amitava Tripathi, India's new ambassador to the Holy See (in which he noted "the disturbing signs of religious intolerance which have troubled some regions [in India], including the reprehensible attempt to legislate clearly discriminatory restrictions on the fundamental right of religious freedom"); the indignant protest of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP); and the papal appointment of Cardinal Ivan Dias, formerly the Archbishop of Bombay, to Prefect of Evangelization of Peoples.

  If Cardinal Dias' personal opinion of Dominus Iesus is any indication, he is a man after Benedict's heart and the perfect guy for the job (Source: AmericanCatholic.Org:

  . . . Speaking to reporters in Rome shortly after [Dominus Iesus] was released, the then-archbishop said, "It is a reaffirmation of what we believe and what we think," namely that "Jesus is the only savior of the world."

  "We have a right to say who we are, and others can accept it or not," he said.

  Giving strength to the suspicion that the document was prompted particularly by the interreligious efforts of Asian theologians, and especially those working in India, he said clarity was needed in countries where the vast majority of people are not Christian.

  Sandro Magister has more:

  As the new prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the pope has called an Indian, cardinal Ivan Dias, 70, who has been archbishop of Bombay for ten years, but before that served at the secretariat of state and as a diplomat in many countries, including Albania (his last diplomatic post), and before that South Korea, Ghana, Indonesia, and Sweden, without counting the dozens of countries he followed as a Vatican observer, including Russia, China, Vietnam, and South Africa. He has learned many languages, speaking eighteen fluently having some familiarity with others.

  But even though this skill is very much adapted to his role, it is not the only reason why Benedict XVI chose him as the new prefect of “Propaganda Fide.” Much more influential was the fact that cardinal Dias, who has an excellent understanding of the Eastern religions, has never surrendered to that “relativism” of faiths that Ratzinger condemned in 2000 with the most important of his actions as the cardinal custodian of doctrine, the declaration “Dominus Iesus.”

  As archbishop of Bombay, Dias has on a number of occasions complained of the fact that the Jesuits, excessively enthusiastic supporters of interreligious dialogue, play the master in the seminaries of India. His goal was to evangelize and convert, and each year he administered many baptisms. Before the last conclave he was listed among the candidates for the papacy, but in reality he was one of Ratzinger’s most resolute supporters.

  (The New Curia of Benedict XVI Looks toward Asia. www.Chiesa May 26, 2006; via Domenico Bettinelli, Jr.).

• Pope Benedict, the Holy Grail and El Cid, by Robert Duncan. Spero News July 6, 2006. "Truth is, Benedict has a tough row to how in Valencia. He doesn't only have to worry about just the Holy Grail, but the whole Cathedral for that matter is fraught with imagery . . ."

  More from Robert on Pope Benedict's trip: Benedict in Spain: Church-State tensions heat up SperoForum.com [reprinted from National Catholic Register July 2-8, 2006]; while in Valencia, Benedict will be visiting the site of a tragic subway accident in Valencia, Spain that claimed the lives of 41 people.

On a Lighter Note . . .

• Fr. Andrew Greeley:"Give B16 A Break!" - Jimmy Akin wonders, "is it just me or does it seem to anyone else that Fr. Andrew Greeley -- priest, novelist, sociologist, Catholic progressive -- is mellowing in his old age? A few months ago, he was in the press defending Francis Cardinal George of Chicago against unfounded allegations of apathy on the priest abuse issue; now he's come out swinging for Pope Benedict XVI."

• Just another day at the square with some friends . . . San Peter's Square, that is, as Pope Benedict XVI leads a liturgy of Vespers on the eve of Pentecost Sunday. June 3, 2006. Argent by the Tiber has some great photographs, both of the Holy Father and the crowd's reaction.

• Shouts in the Piazza has a great photo and caption of the Holy Father Outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw.

• Baby Benedict gets Letter from Pope "The personalised note on Vatican headed-notepaper arrived on baby Benedict's doorstep after officials in Rome learned the tot had been named after the Pope, with whom he also shares a birthday." Lancanshire Evening Post June 28, 2006.

• That's One Happy Pope - serene in the peace and love of Christ. Inspiring photos from Closed Cafeteria.

• Another Pope Forum - Amy Welborn, longtime follower of The Papa Ratzinger Forum, announces her discovery of The Ratzinger Forum -- not exactly "run" by yours truly, the forum took on a life of its own with the election of Pope Benedict XVI and pretty much runs itself. Forum participation requires a (free) EzBoard account registration and formal application to the RFC Forum -- requiring a bit of patience, but verification measures were instituted due to some extremely perverse attempts at sabotage by those irate over the new Pope.

  Amy also points us to a darling photograph of the Pope's visit with the Polish president and a great video of the Pope with the Polish president's family and 3-year old granddaughter. Speaking of kids, Amy has another link to a photo and .mp3 of Jeremy Gabriel - the Canadian boy who sang for the Pope in May 2006.

• Rocco Palmo on the question of who does the Pope root for in the World Cup?:

  . . . the Pope, together with his trusty secretary, Msgr Georg Ganswein, and the four laywomen of the Memores Domini who assist in the papal apartment, will be spending Tuesday night watching the World Cup semifinal pitting the German pontiff's native side against the Italians.

  This news comes from no less a source than Ganswein, who told the ADNKronos news agency that, indeed, Germany-Italy "is at the center" of discussion and interest in the papal apartments. A big-screen television is being brought in just for the occasion, to boot.

  But who's the Ratzi-Bear rooting for? While Ganswein readily admitted to waving the flag for Germany, and the MD contingent are hard-core Italy fans, he made it known that "The Pope is always impartial and will have as great a heart on Tuesday for Germany as for the team of blue," a reference to the Italian side.

  

• And now for the latest bit of sheer idiocy from the "Catholic" fringe: What does Pope Benedict XVI have in common with President George Bush, Prince William, Paul McCartney, Bill Clinton, Metallica, The Beatles, and Spiderman?!? (Source: PrisonPlanet.com)?

  Pope Benedict XVI stands accused by the "Most Holy Family Monastery" of giving [the] El Diablo satanic sign [scroll down]:

  Below we see Benedict XVI giving El Diablo (the devil) sign. This satanic gesture is popular among Satanists and satanic rock groups. Many give this satanic hand gesture without knowing it because they’re taken over by the evil spirit. Some point out that the devil sign is similar to the hand gesture for “I love you” in sign language. That’s true, but that’s probably because the inventor of the deaf signing system, Helen Keller, was herself an occultist . . . Some believe that she designed the “I love you” sign to correspond with the devil sign so that one making it would be saying that he or she loves Satan.

  Regardless, we believe that below Benedict XVI is giving the devil sign – the double devil sign, in fact – and that he knows what he’s doing.

  Yeeeeeaaahhh.

That's all for this edition, folks. Be sure to check out regular coverage of Pope Benedict XVI by Michael Rose of the Papa Ratzi Post; coverage of Vatican affairs by Whispers in the Loggia and Shouts in the Piazza; John Allen Jr.'s Word from Rome and Sandro Magister (www.Chiesa).

Pope Benedict XVI, Auschwitz, and the Nature of Anti-Semitism

For comprehensive coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Poland, I refer you to American Papist's "The Great Poland Post of 2006".

On Sunday, May 28, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI walked in silence under the iron gate bearing the Nazi slogan, "Arbeit Macht Frei," or "Work Makes You Free," and into the concentration camp of Auschwitz:

As church bells rang in the southern town of Oswiecim -- the Polish name for Auschwitz -- a solemn Benedict, his hands clasped in prayer, walked in silence the 200 metres to the execution wall wedged between prisoner blocks 10 and 11, where the Nazis summarily shot thousands of prisoners.

His face grave, Benedict stood a few moments in prayer, removing his hat before bowing solemnly and placing a bowl containing a lighted candle before the grim wall.

The pope then greeted a line of 32 camp survivors waiting to meet him. Some grasped his hands warmly, some knelt to kiss his papal ring, many seemed eager to thank him for visiting the camp.

Benedict clasped the hands of the first survivor waiting in line, a woman, wearing the striped scarf that Polish political prisoners wore at the camp.

An elderly Polish man kissed the pope on both cheeks, a gypsy survivor of the camp pressed the pope’s hand to his lips.

Henryk Mandelbaum, 83, wearing the distinctive striped cap of the Sonderkommando -- Jewish prisoners who emptied the gas chambers where their fellow Jews perished -- kissed the papal ring.

(German-born Pope Benedict XVI in Auschwitz, by Denis Barnett. European Jewish Press May 28, 2006.

Afterward, Benedict visited the cell which housed the Polish Catholic martyr Maximilian Kolbe, executed in 1941 after taking the place of a prisoner sentenced to die by starvation, and recognized as a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1982. He also paused for reflection next to the line of 22 plaques at Birkenau's International Monument to the Victims of Fascism, established between former crematoria II and III, where -- in German -- he prayed for peace and reconciliaton.

According to the Deutsche-Welle, Pope Benedict "shattered a taboo in the often-blighted relationship between Christians and Jews by using his native German language" to pray for Jewish-Christian reconciliation:

Throughout his four-day pilgrimage to Poland, a sentimental tribute to his predecessor and mentor John Paul II, Pope Benedict has avoided speaking German, aware that the older generation still regard it as the language of the old oppressor. But, the paper continued, the choice of German in Auschwitz was a deliberate gesture — a recognition that he had come to the camp not just as the Head of the Roman Catholic Church, but as a German and as an individual.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Few places on this earth rival the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as a testament to "man's inhumanity to man" -- a pervasive symbol of terror, genocide and the incomparable abomination of the Holocaust. According to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Website (auschwitz.org.pl), it is "the site of the greatest mass murder in the history of humanity":

Auschwitz functioned throughout its existence as a concentration camp, and over time became the largest such Nazi camp. In the first period of the existence of the camp, it was primarily Poles who were sent here by the German occupation authorities [...] political, civic, and spiritual leaders, members of the intelligentsia, cultural and scientific figures, and [members of the resistance movement]. Over time, the Nazis also began to send groups of prisoners from other occupied countries to Auschwitz. Beginning in 1942, Jews whom the SS physicians classified as fit for labor were also registered in the camp.

From among all the people deported to Auschwitz, approximately 400,000 people were registered and placed in the camp and its sub-camps (200,000 Jews, more than 140,000 Poles, approximately 20,000 Gypsies from various countries, more than 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and more than 10,000 prisoners of other nationalities).

Over 50% of the registered prisoners died as a result of starvation, labor that exceeded their physical capacity, the terror that raged in the camp, executions, the inhuman living conditions, disease and epidemics, punishment, torture, and criminal medical experiments.

Beginning in 1942, Auschwitz began to function in another way. It became the center of the mass destruction of the European Jews. The Nazis marked all the Jews living in Europe for total extermination, regardless of their age, sex, occupation, citizenship, or political views. They died only because they were Jews. After the selections conducted on the railroad platform, or ramp, newly arrived persons classified by the SS physicians as unfit for labor were sent to the gas chambers: the ill, the elderly, pregnant women, children. In most cases, 70-75% of each transport was sent to immediate death. These people were not entered in the camp records; that is, they received no serial numbers and were not registered. This is why it is possible only to estimate the total number of victims.

Historians estimate that among the people sent to Auschwitz there were at least 1,100,000 Jews from all the countries of occupied Europe, over 140,000 Poles (mostly political prisoners), approximately 20,000 Gypsies from several European countries, over 10,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and over ten thousand prisoners of other nationalities. The majority of the Jewish deportees died in the gas chambers immediately after arrival.

The overall number of victims of Auschwitz in the years 1940-1945 is estimated at between 1,100,000 and 1,500,000 people. The majority of them, and above all the mass transports of Jews who arrived beginning in 1942, died in the gas chambers.

This was the third time Pope Benedict had visited Auschwitz and the neighboring camp at Birkenau -- on June 7, 1979, Benedict, then archbishop of Munich-Freising, was among those bishops who accompanied Pope John Paul II on his visit. He returned a year later, "with a delegation of German bishops, appalled by its evil, yet grateful for the fact that above its dark clouds the star of reconciliation had emerged."

Pope Benedict's Birkenau Address

A translation of Pope Benedict XVI's address at the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp is provided by Zenit News Service. It is, as the rest of Benedict's addresses, worth reading in full -- particularly before the selective, sound-byte presentations of the media.

Just as his predecessor came as a son of the Polish people, said Benedict, "I come here today as a son of the German people. For this very reason, I can and must echo his words: I could not fail to come here.":

I had to come. It is a duty before the truth and the just due of all who suffered here, a duty before God, for me to come here as the successor of Pope John Paul II and as a son of the German people -- a son of that people over which a ring of criminals rose to power by false promises of future greatness and the recovery of the nation's honor, prominence and prosperity, but also through terror and intimidation, with the result that our people was used and abused as an instrument of their thirst for destruction and power.

Yes, I could not fail to come here. On June 7, 1979, I came as the archbishop of Munich-Freising, along with many other bishops who accompanied the Pope, listened to his words and joined in his prayer. In 1980, I came back to this dreadful place with a delegation of German bishops, appalled by its evil, yet grateful for the fact that above its dark clouds the star of reconciliation had emerged.

This is the same reason why I have come here today: to implore the grace of reconciliation -- first of all from God, who alone can open and purify our hearts, from the men and women who suffered here, and finally the grace of reconciliation for all those who, at this hour of our history, are suffering in new ways from the power of hatred and the violence which hatred spawns.

A German pope addressing the horrors of National Socialism and the Holocaust is a ripe subject for controversy and misunderstanding, so it is no small wonder that not all in Benedict's worldwide audience were satisfied by his words.

The New York Times' Ian Fisher (A German Pope Confronts a Nazi Past May 29, 2006) criticized Benedict for his failure "[to] beg pardon for the sins of Germans or of the Roman Catholic church during World War II," and for "[laying] the blame squarely on the Nazi regime, avoiding the painful but now common acknowledgment among many Germans that ordinary citizens also shared responsibility."

Fisher's sentiment is echoed by the German newspaper Der Speigel (German Silence in Auschwitz May 29, 2006), which notes that Benedict's characterization of Germans as recipients of Nazi exploitation "will probably be associated with him for a long time to come."

Writing for LifeSiteNews.com, Peter J. Smith interprets the Pope's portrayal of his people in a different light, more as a recognition of what Germany truly lost in succumbing to the worldly promises of National Socialism:

Although John Paul and Benedict experienced the horror of the Nazi ideology, each experienced it from different perspectives, and at Auschwitz these perspectives are united. John Paul experienced the most violent effects of the atheist ideology forged by Hitler, as a clandestine young seminarian in Krakow, where the omnipresent stench of burning flesh from Auschwitz-Birkenau constantly reminded Poles of the death sentence that the Nazis had ordered for the whole people. However, Benedict, who was conscripted forcibly into the German army, and then deserted as a teenager saw from the inside the forces that carried away his countrymen from faith in God to a faith in man that embraced death and wrecked terrible havoc on the world.

The European Jewish Press noted Mixed reactions to Pope's Birkenau speech by Jewish leaders. On the one hand, Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, found the "accent . . . on the absence of God and not on the silence of man and its responsibilities" problematic, as his characterization of the German people as more the victim "and not on the side of the persecutors."

On one other hand, Israeli Ambassador David Peleg praised the Pope's recognition of the distinctiveness of the Holocaust:

"The most important sentence in the speech is that ’the rulers of the Third Reich wanted to crush the entire Jewish people, to cancel us from the register of peoples.'"

"This is a strong sentence to come from the pope in Birkenau. I think it’s important to remember that in the place where he spoke, 95 percent of those who were murdered -- more than one million people -- were Jews."

And Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich -- whom the EJP notes was the victim of an anti-Semitic attack only the day before he intoned the Kaddish at the ceremony with Benedict at Birkenau -- praised the speech as "a great moment in the process of reconciling" Jews and Christians."

Although he said the pope "could have said things a bit more strongly ... his mere presence here was very important. It was a cry against anti-Semitism."

Giuseppe Laras, president of Italy's rabbis, stated on Vatican Radio that "this visit is a warning to humanity and a word of hope and consolation for all those who suffered." (Jewish Leaders Reflect on Pope's Auschwitz Visit, May 29, 2006).

And US Rabbi Benjamin Blech described the Pope's visit as "historic for all Jewish people and for the world":

Asked if the pope should have apologised for crimes committed by Germany’s Nazis, Blech said: "His very presence here is an apology. It speaks volumes."

Neither was Blech disturbed, as some Jews had been, over Benedict’s decision to recite a prayer in German at Birkenau. "The pope’s presence speaks a universal language," he told Agence France Presse.

I found the citation of Blech interesting, and perhaps something more than a coincidence: Rabbi Blech happens to be author of If God is Good, Why is the World so Bad?, a popular book on theodicy conceived as a Jewish corrective to the classic work by Rabbi Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. The two rabbis in their own way respond to the question the Holy Father posed in his own address: Where was God in those days? Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil? (See Blech on Blech Jewsweek Sept. 25, 2003).

* * *

In the Der Speigel article I cited above, Alexander Smoltczyk bemoaned Benedict's uttering "not a word about anti-semitism" -- that he had chosen to speak "about metaphysics" rather than guilt.

Reading the text of Benedict's address, however, it is hard not to see a more stinging rebuke and condemnation of those who persecute the Jews, or a clearer recognition of what anti-semitism truly is, especially as it was manifested in the horrors of Auschwitz:

Deep down, those vicious criminals, by wiping out this people, wanted to kill the God who called Abraham, who spoke on Sinai and laid down principles to serve as a guide for mankind, principles that are eternally valid. If this people, by its very existence, was a witness to the God who spoke to humanity and took us to himself, then that God finally had to die and power had to belong to man alone—to those men, who thought that by force they had made themselves masters of the world. By destroying Israel, they ultimately wanted to tear up the taproot of the Christian faith and to replace it with a faith of their own invention: faith in the rule of man, the rule of the powerful.

Benedict's words called to my mind the closing thoughts of Fr. Edward Flannery, in his classic study The Anguish of the Jews. In his final chapter, on "The Roots of Anti-Semitism," Fr. Flannery states:

. . . antisemitism is at its deepest root a unified phenomenon and from all angles an anti-religious one. In the pagan racist, it is rooted in a revolt against the acceptance of a transcendental or divine moral order that would limit human freedom,a nd focuses on the Jews as the historical source of moral order. In the Christian, it derives from the same source, but channels the revolt against Christ, the Jewish God who brought the Jewish concept of God's reign to all nations.

In the perspective of this twofold subliminal revolt the data of history -- the contrasting forms of antisemitism and its inexplicable permanence -- acquire a measure of coherence and consistency. The positive side of the phenomenon, the attaction the Jews and Judaism have wielded as bearers of God's word among the nations, and the anti-God impulse in the depths of human consciousness and culture are joined in permanent enmity and conflict. Antisemitism is as much a subjective as an objective fact, as much a conflict within a person as among persons. . . .

According to Fr. Flannery, "the sin of anti-semitism contains many sins, but in the end it is a denial of Christian faith, a failure of Christian hope, and a malady of Christian love."

Contemplating the horrors of Auschwitz and the inscriptions of the victims -- Jew, Polish, German, Russian -- the world is confronted by the diagnosis of our Holy Father, and with his prescription as well:

. . . in the words that Sophocles placed on the lips of Antigone, as she contemplated the horror all around her: My nature is not to join in hate but to join in love."

Related Coverage

• Pope Benedict's Auschwitz Prayer, by Jeff Israel. Time May 29, 2006:

  he sight of a German Pope crossing into the death camp beneath the infamously false Nazi sign, "Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Will Set You Free), is arguably the most striking image of Benedict’s 14-month-old papacy. Walking alone with his hands clasped in front of him, an utterly grim expression fixed across his face, the 79-year-old pontiff entered as both the leader of the billion-strong Roman Catholic Church, and a World War II-generation German citizen.

• Joseph Bottum (First Things "On The Square" May 29, 2006):

  It’s as though nearly everyone wants to use the Holocaust for something: to advance some modern political purpose or thicken some contemporary moral claim. The temptation is almost overwhelming—and understandably so, for Auschwitz truly is a lesson, and it seems to demand that we apply that lesson, here and now. It seems to demand that we change our lives, here and now.

  In itself, that ought to be a warning. The examples are endless: A few decades ago, the anti-Western Soviets declared that the Nazi death camps demonstrated Communism’s superiority to the bourgeois West; a few years ago, a popular anti-Christian historian wrote a book claiming that the Holocaust proved that organized Christianity must dissolve itself. If the Holocaust merely confirms you in the stands you already have, then you haven’t learned the lesson of the Holocaust.

• Attempting to slay God was Auschwitz's greatest evil, pope says , by John Allen Jr. National Catholic Reporter reporting on Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Poland May 25-28.
• Pope’s Auschwitz visit unifies faiths, even as Poland battles anti-Semitism, by Dinah A. Spritzer. JTA [Global News Service of the Jewish People]. May 29, 2006.
• Missed Opportunity - Piotr Kadl?ik, chairman of the Union Of the Jewish Communities in Poland, had attempted to arrange for Benedict to bless Poles who received the title “Just Among the Nations” during his visit to the monument for the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising -- such was not to be, as the papal motorcade passed quickly by (just long enough for a a sign of blessing. (European Jewish Press Report).
• Survivor braves Auschwitz return BBC News. May 25, 2006. Coverage of one survivor's return to Poland -- and memories of Auschwitz.
• Auschwitz-Birkenau. Photos by Alan Jacobs.
• Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. "A Chronological Exploration of the Largest Mass Murder Site in History", by PBS Television.

Pope Benedict and the Jews - Related Links

Any criticism of Pope Benedict's address at Auschwitz-Birkenau can only be examined in relation to the ongoing witness of the life, words and actions of Pope Benedict to date:

• Papal Reprimand for Catholic Radio, by Jan Puhl in Torun. Der Spiegel May 2, 2006. (On the Vatican's efforts to rein in the Polish Catholic radio station Radio Maryja for anti-semitic / xenophobic commentary.
• Pope, meeting with Rome rabbi, expresses worry over fresh anti-Semitism Associated Press. January 17, 2006. (Meeting with Rome's chief rabbi, Benedict expressed concern over outbreaks of anti-semitism in Europe).
• Jewish-Catholic Ties Advancing, Says Benedict XVI: Receives a Delegation From Simon Wiesenthal Center Zenit. November 14, 2005.
• Benedict XVI Proposes Increased Dialogue With Jews Zenit. August 19, 2005. - "In his visit to the synagogue of Cologne, Benedict XVI expressed his concern regarding a resurgence of new signs of anti-Semitism and racism."
• Pope Benedict and Father Leon Dehon, Against The Grain June 25, 2005. On Pope Benedict's decision to halt the "fast track beatification" of French priest Father Leon Dehon (1843-1925) due to allegations of anti-semitism, prompting a formal inquiry by the Church.
• Pope Benedict and the Jews Against The Grain April 26, 2005. A study of Pope Benedict's thought on the subject until the time of his election.
• Pope Benedict XVI, Child of Abraham , by Rabbi David Rosen, nternational Director of Interreligious Affairs of the American Jewish Committee. Beliefnet.com.

Pope Benedict XVI Roundup!

Benedict XVI's First Year

On April 27, 2006, Pope Benedict used his Wednesday general audience as an opportunity to reflect on the first anniversary of his pontificate:

How quickly time passes! A year has already elapsed since the cardinals gathered in conclave and, in a way I found absolutely unexpected and surprising, desired to choose my poor self to succeed the late and beloved Servant of God, the great Pope John Paul II. I remember with emotion my first impact with the faithful gathered in this same square, from the central loggia of the basilica, immediately after my election.

That meeting is still impressed upon my mind and heart. It was followed by many others that have given me an opportunity to experience the deep truth of my words at the solemn concelebration with which I formally began to exercise my Petrine ministry: "I too can say with renewed conviction: I am not alone. I do not have to carry alone what in truth I could never carry alone" (L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, April 27, 2005, p. 2).

And I feel more and more that alone I could not carry out this task, this mission. But I also feel that you are carrying it with me: Thus, I am in a great communion and together we can go ahead with the Lord's mission. The heavenly protection of God and of the saints is an irreplaceable support to me and I am comforted by your closeness, dear friends, who do not let me do without the gift of your indulgence and your love. I offer very warm thanks to all those who in various ways support me from close at hand or follow me from afar in spirit with their affection and their prayers. I ask each one to continue to support me, praying to God to grant that I may be a gentle and firm Pastor of his Church. . . .

Courtesy of the Vatican, you can watch video of Pope John Paul II's funeral, the Conclave, and the election of Pope Benedict XVI. . . . Ratzenfreude, anyone?

* * *

Catholic bloggers, pundits and the world continue to assess the one-year anniversary of Benedict XVI's pontificate and his election on April 19, 2005.

In our April 2006 Benedict Roundup, we took a look at some rather mediocre (hence, disappointing) reviews by the likes of Stephen Crittenden, John Cornwell and Hans Kung -- with USA Today's Eric Lyman distinguishing himself by being able to mention JPII and B16 in the same paragraph without succumbing to the urge to lambast John Paul II's teaching on sexuality. This time around we'll see what some of our Catholic pundits and members of St. Blog's Parish have to say.

• Is B16 nasty enough?, by Michael Liccione (Sacramentum Vitae April 20, 2006):

  The Pope appears unlikely to clean house by showing the door to unruly family members. As I've often suggested before, demographics are at least as likely to winnow the chaff as juridical measures and would be far less costly. Instead, Benedict proposes the true, the good, and the beautiful; he calls the false, the evil, and the ugly by their right names; and he invites all, by example as well as word, to conversion of heart. Unlike some of my fellow conservative Catholics, I've come to believe that, for the moment at least, that's about as nasty as he needs to be.

• One year later, by Amy Welborn (Open Book April 19, 2006):

  That day a year ago is impossible to forget. It was thrilling and mystifying. Why were we all so fascinated, even the secular media? I was watching one of the nets and an anchor said, "I'm getting chills" - it's sobering, really, to think about it - that the election of a Pope could produce so much interest in what we thought was such a cynical world. . . .

  Great recollections of that amazing day, together with some great memories from her readers.

• Remarking on the tendency of many pundits to note that the Pope turned out to be not what they had expected -- which is to say, a far cry from his former incarnation as "God's Rottweiler," Guy Selvester (Shouts in the Piazza) wonders "Who is different?"

• " Pope and Abbot", by Christopher Ruddy. America Vol. 194 No. 19. May 29, 2006:

  . . . If his pontificate remains embryonic, a clear portrait of the man has begun to emerge: Pope Benedict the abbot. If John Paul II was above all a witness, carrying the truth about Christ and humanity to all peoples and places, I suggest that Benedict can be summed up as an abbot concerned with leading his community to a deeper encounter with God through prayer and service. Where John Paul was a “sender,” concerned primarily with the church’s mission, Benedict is a “gatherer,” concerned primarily with its communion.

• Pope Benedict made it into Time Magazine's "100 People Who Shape Our World", with contributions by Jeff Israely (The Pope's First Year: How He Simplified His Role) and Peggy Noonan (Pope Benedict XVI: The New Pontiff Finds His Voice):

  This is God's Rottweiler? John Paul's enforcer? The man who bluntly told the Cardinals last year that they must clean the stables of the "filth" that had entered the church? According to those who have followed the work and life of Joseph Ratzinger—now Pope Benedict—this is the real him: the teacher, the thinker, the ponderer of deepest meanings.

  See also Time's impressive Photo Essay: The Pope's First Year.

• Benedict XVI, One Year Later: What’s New, by Sandro Magister. L'Espresso April 18, 2006:

  Among the novelties he has introduced during his first year as pope – which comes to completion this Easter week – there is one that Joseph Ratzinger has a special fondness for. So much so that has repeated it several times.

  It is the practice of public discussions in question and answer format. Benedict XVI arrives and greets those present, but doesn’t speak from a prepared text. He simply fields questions. And he responds to each of them, spontaneously. . . .

  Magister posts the text of five answers to the five questions posed to him by the young people in St. Peter’s Square on April 6, and links to other "spontaneous Q&A sessions" -- with priests of the diocese of Rome, on March 3, 2006; children who had received first communion, in St. Peter’s Square on October 5, 2005; and priests of the diocese of Aosta, July 25, 2005.

• Zenit News Service has published numerous interviews with various members of the clergy and the press, on their impressions of the Pope's first year, including journalist Marco Tosatti of the Italian newspaper La Stampa, on "Benedict XVI's Analytical-Rational Style" April 24, 2006; Salesian Sister Marcellina Farina of the Educational Sciences Auxilium on "Benedict XVI and the Dignity of Women" (April 25, 2006) and Bishop Luigi Negri on "Benedict XVI's Greatest Strength" (May 7, 2006).

• Habemus Papam! - a nice photo presentation from Argent by the Tiber.

• Pope Benedict XVI's Rookie Year?, by Mark Brumley (Insight Scoop ) -- a convenient roundup of "the deluge of articles" from the mainstream media.

• Assessing the first year of Pope Benedict XVI - ReligionLink.org provides a helpful "cheat sheet" for pundits covering the issue, with an overview of the major events and issues in B16's first year, a list of the books on Benedict XVI published during his first year, and a contact list of Catholic pundits and talking heads.

• Finally, an appraisal of Benedict's First Twelve Months by Lee Hudson Teslik of the Council on Foreign Relations turns out to be (unintentionally) amusing/disturbing, assessing Benedict's pontificate with chief attention given to the Church's stance on contraception and condom-use in Africa.

In Other News . . .

• By way of the Houston Catholic Worker, May-June 2006 issue comes Benedict's Deus Caritas Est: The Way of Love in the Church's Mission to the World, by David Schindler, Dean and Gagnon Professor of Fundamental Theology, Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family (Catholic University of America).

  

• From the March 2006 issue of 30 Giorni [30 Days], Tradition and freedom: the lectures of the young Joseph, by Gianni Valente, on "the first years of Professor Ratzinger’s teaching in Bonn and Münster, as remembered by his students":

  In his autobiography Ratzinger depicts the first months of teaching in Bonn as "a feast of first love". All his students from that time well remember the undergraduate grapevine that made them crowd to the lessons of the enfant prodige theologian. The scholar of Judaism Peter Kuhn, who was to become assistant lecturer under Professor Ratzinger in the years of teaching at Tubingen, says:

  "I was then a twenty-year-old Lutheran. I was attending the Evangelical Theological Faculty, after following the lessons of Karl Barth in Basle. I knew the Bavarian Vinzenz Pfnür, who had followed Ratzinger straight from Freising. He told me: listen, we have an interesting professor, he’s worth the trouble of listening to, even if you are a Protestant. At the first seminar, I thought immediately: this man is really not like the other Catholic teachers I know."

  In his manuscript Horst Ferdinand goes on:

  "The lectures were prepared down to the millimeter. He gave them by paraphrasing the text that he’d prepared with formulations that at times seemed to fit together like a mosaic, with a wealth of images that reminded me of Romano Guardini. In some lectures, as in the pauses in a concert, you could have heard a pin drop"

  The Redemptorist Viktor Hahn, who was the first student to “doctor” himself with Ratzinger, adds:

  "The room was always packed, the students adored him. He had a beautiful and simple language. The language of a believer".

  What was it that so gripped the students in those lessons given out in a soft, concentrated tone, without theatrical gestures? It’s clear that what the young professor had to say was not of his making. That he was not the protagonist. "I have never sought," Ratzinger himself explains in the book-interview The Salt of the Earth, "to create a system of my own, my own particular theology. If one really wants to speak of specificity, it’s a matter simply of the fact that I set myself to think together with the faith of the Church, and that means thinking above all with the great thinkers of the faith."

• The March 2006 issue of the Communion & Liberation periodical Traces includes a special section on Deus Caritas Est, reprinting the encyclical in full along with several supplements: "The Splendor of Charity", commentary on the second part of the encyclical by Massimo Camisasca (see also his commentary on part I: "The Humanity of Faith"); "Gratuitousness in action", a collection of comments from C&L members inspired by the encyclical; From Evangelization to Education, by Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete. (Thanks to Fred of Deep Furrows).

• Vocation in the mystery of the Church, May 7, 2006. A Penitent Blogger posts the Message of the Holy Father for the 43rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations, accompanied by some appropriate and moving images.

• Pope Benedict XVI, Mozart and the Quest of Beauty, AD2000 Vol 19 No 3 (April 2006). "His music is by no means just entertainment; it contains the whole tragedy of human existence." Mark Freer, organist and choirmaster for the Latin Mass at Holy Name Church in Adelaide, Australia, discusses the classical composer held in mutual esteem by Benedict XVI, Hans Urs von Balthasar and Benedict's brother Georg.

  This past April, a "visibly happy" Pope had the opportunity to enjoy a Saturday evening concert featuring music by his favorite composer, courtesy of the mayor of Rome. The program featured arias from Le nozze di Figaro and Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail, after which the Pope spoke briefly on the subject. Kath.net reported the story, and Closed Cafeteria's Gerald Augustinus provides a translation.

• Benedict XVI and Islam, by Samir Khalil Samir, SJ. AsiaNews.it April 26, 2006:

  While the Pope is asking Islam for dialogue based on culture, human rights, the refusal of violence, he is asking the West, at the same time, to go back to a vision of human nature and rationality in which the religious dimension is not excluded. In this way – and perhaps only in this way – a clash of civilizations can be avoided, transforming it instead into a dialogue between civilizations.

  

• "Everyone needs love. Everyone desires love. But not everyone understands love. In fact, love is probably the most misunderstood subject in history. . . ." Thanks to Ignatius Press, this problem can be remedied by the publication of a Deluxe Hardcover Collectors' Edition of Deus Caritas Est.

  Why a deluxe HARDCOVER edition of the encyclical? -- American Papist has the answer.

• German Pope having an impact on his native land Catholic World News. April 27, 2006. Passauer Neue Presse interviewed German journalist Peter Seewald (best known for his book-length interviews with the Pope, Salt of the Earth and God and the World). The article was published on Kath.net and CWNews provides a translation for those of us ignorant of our Holy Father's native language. =)

  Seewald shares his thoughts on Benedict XVI's teaching style:

  Ratzinger has found a quite distinctive, very subtle style. Reserved, calm, almost shy, and yet he very firmly goes his own way. There is an air of meekness that you recognize from the Gospels. The new Pope makes himself little-- and gives the impression of being that much greater, and as a result his office is all the more accessible. In a certain way Benedict is a born teacher, and what he has started with his new school of faith may be the greatest catechesis since the time of the apostles.

  and goes on to comment on the Pope's effect on Germany, including the Protestant reaction. See also: Germany Sees Benedict XVI Differently Now Zenit News, May 4, 2006. (On a humorous note, Gerald Augustinus posts some photos of Pope Benedict sweets, made in Marktl am Inn, his birthplace).

• Canonization and the emerging Benedict XVI, by Dr. Edward Peters. In The Light of the Law April 27, 2006:

  Benedict XVI's letter to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints seems to me to be one of the most important things he's done to date. It certainly shows the clearest difference between him and John Paul II to emerge so far. Benedict XVI could have communicated his concerns about the beatification and canonization process in a simple telephone call; instead he wrote a short treatise on the topic. The world was meant to take notice. . . .

• This year marks the 450th anniversary of the death of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, and the 500th anniversary of the births of his closest companions, St. Francis Xavier and Blessed Peter Faber. On April 22nd, 2006 -- "the feast of Mary, Mother of the Society, marking the day in 1541 when the three saints and the other original members of the Jesuits took their solemn vows in Rome" -- members of "The Company of Jesus" gathered in St. Peter's Basilica to commemorate the historical event. [Source: Catholic News Service April 19, 2006]. Mark Mossas, SJ (You Duped Me, Lord) posts the text of Benedict's address to the Jesuits following the Mass.

• Bilder : Bildergalerie Pontifikalamt 1999 in Weimar mit Kard. Ratzinger (heute Papst Benedikt XVI.) Participation of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger at a Tridentine Mass in Weimar. 1999.

And on a Lighter Note . . .

• Dancing IPope Commercial. In the words of American Papist: "It had to happen."

• Vatican official warns against people posing as pope's organist, by Cindy Wooden. Catholic News Service. May 19, 2006. Consider yourself warned.