Happy Birthday (and Second Anniversary) to Pope Benedict XVI

Joseph Ratzinger was born on April 16, Holy Saturday in Marktl am Inn, and was baptized the same day. Reflecting on this experience in his memoirs, he recalls:

To be the first person baptized with the new water was seen as a significant act of Providence. I have always been filled with thanksgiving for having had my life immersed in this way in the Easter Mystery . . . the more I reflect on it, the more this seems fitting for the nature of our human life: we are still waiting for Easter; we are not yet standing in the full light but walking toward it full of trust. [p. 8, Milestones]

On Sunday April 16, Joseph Ratzinger will celebrate his 80th birthday. * * *

• Stamps issued by Germany in honor of Benedict's birthday. Hat tip Amy Welborn.

  Pope’s 80th birthday: “A particularly happy day,” says Cardinal Ruini Catholic News Agency April 13, 2007:

  Vatican City, Apr 13, 2007 / 11:55 am (CNA).- In a letter the faithful of Rome regarding the celebration of the Pope’s 80th birthday and the second anniversary of his pontificate, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Vicar of the Diocese of Rome, said the Pope’s birthday would be “a particularly happy day in which we will thank the Lord for the gift of our bishop and Pope Benedict XVI.”

  It will also be a day in which we will pray with the Pope and for the Pope, imploring an abundance of divine blessings upon him, to sustain him and comfort him in spirit and body, so that he can be our model and sure guide in the faith,” the cardinal said.

  This Sunday, he continued, “dedicated to the Divine Mercy, we will also pray with the Pope for our Church in Rome, that she will bear witness with generosity to the joy of the faith and strive to educate the young generations and promote Christian love, life and the family.”

  He invited the faithful of Rome to pray for the Pope, especially on April 19, when he celebrates the second anniversary of his pontificate.

• "Pope Benedict at 80: Blowing on the coals of faith", John Thavis Catholic News Service. April 13, 2007:

  "When Pope John Paul II turned 80 in 2000, it fueled yet another round of speculation about whether the ailing pontiff might break with tradition and resign.

  In contrast, Pope Benedict XVI's 80th birthday April 16 finds him with the wind in his sails. . . ."

• Mass for the Pope's 80th birthday - Closed Cafeteria April 15, 2007. Gerald Augustinus was there, and has plenty of photos.

• Send an E-Birthday Card to the Holy Father courtesy of the Vatican.

A Second Anniversary

On April 19th, Pope Benedict will also mark the second anniversary of his pontificate as Pope Benedict XVI, and appraisals of his pontificate -- some laudable, some laughable -- are flowing in from the press . . .

• Benedict at 80: Truth, Love and Liturgy: The Surprising Pontificate of the Man Who Was Ratzinger, by Edward Pentin. National Catholic Register April 15-21, 2007 Issue:

  The Holy Father has already made his mark, powerfully reminding the world in his first encyclical that Christianity is primarily about God’s love, reaching out to a spiritually stricken Europe and Islam, and taking careful but firm steps toward Christian unity.

• Benedict puts conservative stamp on his papacy International Herald Tribune April 5, 2007 - The Associated Press greets Benedict's 80th with a litany of complaints about his "conservatism":

  With his 80th birthday and the second anniversary of his election as pope approaching this month, he has rebuffed calls — including by bishops in his native Germany — to let divorced Catholics who remarry participate fully in the Church. He has warned Catholic politicians who must decide on such issues as abortion, euthanasia and marriage that Catholic values are "not negotiable." And he has closed the door on any relaxation of the celibacy requirement for priests.

  Truly, a Pope who knows how to Pope.

• The Missing Pope: Benedict has been almost invisible in the places he's needed most, by Joseph Contreras. Newsweek April 16, 2007. Lecturing Benedict on his lack of style, Newsweek dredges up a disgruntled Milanese housewife Maria Novella Dall'Aglio ("Ratzinger is getting too intrusive on [subjects] such as civil rights for unwed couples and is too out of date") and David Gibson ("author of an acclaimed 2006 biography of the pope"):

  "He's an old-fashioned guy who wants to go back to what [the church] was before," says David Gibson, the author of an acclaimed 2006 biography of the pope.

  The problem, according to Gibson, is that Benedict "doesn't seem to realize that he's a world leader and not an academic."

  (Hat tip: the ever-sharp Curt Jester).

• A Step Backward for Pope Benedict?, by Jeff Israeli (Time April 13, 2007):

  Two years into his papacy, Benedict XVI may be about to reclaim his reputation as a no-holds-barred traditionalist. Thanks to Benedict's thoughtful manner, Church progressives had believed that the man who was once the hard-line Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger would cut some slack on areas of doctrinal contention — using his intellectual heft and traditional credentials as necessary cover. But as Benedict turns 80 on April 16 and marks two years as Pope on April 19, the once hopeful progressives have all but given up their fantasy of Benedict the Reformer.

  Carl Olson @ Insight Scoop responds:

  If only the Pope would read (nay, study!) The New Yorker, pursue a policy of indifferentism and relativism, and follow the lead of hip and happening Anglican divines, the world would be a much better place."

  The New Republic's Marty Peretz didn't like it much either ("It gives off the unsettling aura of term-paper research.")

  

• Keeping the Faith, by Russel Shorto. New York Times Magazine April 8, 2007: "Pope Benedict XVI says he believes that the Roman Catholic Church in Europe faces a dire threat in secularism and that re-Christianizing the Continent is critical not only to the fate of the church but to the fate of Europe itself." A fairly long (8,294 word) and suprisingly substantial piece on the Holy Father from the Times.

  Good enough at least to merit a commendation from GetReligion.org ("better than, well, the average New York Times Sunday Magazine author"); and Amy Welborn sez "It's not horrible -- There are a few big holes in it, reflective of both blind spots and an not-surprisingly shallow Rolodex pool, but I'd say it's as good a long-form treatment of Benedict as we've seen in the mainstream secular media."

  See also Robert Araujo 's analysis @ Mirror of Justice).

• Celebrating two years as pontiff, Benedict XVI assumes new role by Ann Rodgers. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Sunday, April 15, 2007.
• Benedict's Magnificat - Wheat & Weeds blogs on Benedict's birthday homily and responds to the naysayers:

  Basic facts force the conclusion that Benedict is in fact quite popular and reaching many people. But that doesn't exactly fit the aloof-scholar- out-of-touch-with-the-world trope. In any case, no reporters ever open their minds for two seconds to consider that that Benedict XVI is neither a prude nor a disciplinarian, but a servant.

Benedict Roundup! (January - Easter 2007)

As Catholic News Agency tells us, 2007 promises "a world of busyness" for Pope Benedict, with "ad limina" visits by bishops from four continents, including Italy, Ukraine, Slovakia, Portugal, Serbia, Kenya, Togo, Benin, Gabon, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea and Laos; a May visit to Brazil (his first across an ocean); a June visit to Assisi to the birthplace of St. Francis, and a prospective visit to address the United Nations General Assembly in September.

What follows is a (by no means comprehensive) roundup noting some of the significant events in the Holy Father's pontificate from January-2007 to the present. Apologies for not getting around to this sooner (I'd given up blogging for the most part during Lent).

In the News
Sacramentum Caritatis
Interviews (Q&A with the Pontiff)
Key Addresses
Articles & Commentary on Pope Benedict
On a Lighter Note . . .

Significant Events

• January 4, 2007 - Pope: true joy comes from God’s love and is not that extolled in adverts (AsiaNews.it):

  In his first visit outside the Vatican of 2007, Benedict XVI today went to a Caritas soup kitchen in the Colle Oppio neighbourhood not far from Termini station, described by the pope as a “symbol, somehow, of the Roman Caritas”. The soup kitchen of Colle Oppio is the first reception centre for homeless people set up in Rome. (Photos of Benedict XVI's visit to the Colle Oppio soup kitchen, courtesy of Argent by the Tiber; Vatican translation of Benedict XVI's address at the soup kitchen, courtesy of ZENIT):

  The Christmas message is simple: God came among us because he loves us and expects our love. God is love: not a sentimental love, but a love that became a total gift to the point of the sacrifice on the Cross, starting from his birth in the grotto in Bethlehem.

  The beautiful crib that you have chosen to set up in your Soup Kitchen and which I have just had the opportunity to admire, speaks to us of this real and divine love. In its simplicity, the crib tells us that love and poverty go together . . .

  In mid-January, Stanislaw Wielgus, the newly-installed Bishop of Warsaw, caused an ecclesial scandal after revelations broke that he had collaborated with the Communist secret police in Poland. The news came as a bitter disappointment to Benedict, who accepted his subsequent resignation. (Source: Zenit News, Jan. 7, 2007).

  On February 12th, Benedict XVI expressed his closeness and fraternity to Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus in a letter he sent to the prelate after his resignation, in which he stated:

  In this last period I have shared in your sufferings and wish to assure you of my spiritual closeness and fraternal understanding. . . .

  When you presented your resignation a month ago, aware that the situation created did not allow you to begin the episcopal service with the indispensable authority, I saw clearly in this act a profound sensitivity for the good of the Church of Warsaw and of Poland, and also your humility and detachment from offices.

  Above all I would like to encourage you to continue with confidence and serenity in your heart. I express the desire that you resume your activity at the service of Christ, in the way that is possible, so that you use your vast and profound knowledge and priestly devotion for the good of the beloved Church in Poland.

  Today, as in the past, the episcopal mission is marked by suffering. May Our Lord sustain you with his grace.

  The Bishops of Poland had designated Ash Wednesday aday of prayer and repentance for Polish clergy.

  Related Commentary:

  • "Not Up to Us to Judge a Man, a Brother, Who Has Served the Church" (January 14, 2007) - translation of the statement released by the Polish bishops' conference after the resignation of Archbishop Wielgus of Warsaw.
    
  • The Wielgus Case: The Reasons for His Resignation, by Sandro Magister. January 11. 2007. www.Chiesa.
  • Lessons from an Archbishop’s Fall, by George Weigel: "To take control of its own history, the Catholic Church in Poland needs to vet miles of communist-era police records." (Newsweek MSNBC January 8, 2007).

• Religious freedom and ecumenism remains a furvent concern for Pope Benedict. On January 19, Benedict asked the Turkish government to grant religious freedom to all believers, and to legally recognize the Catholic Church. .
  On January 22nd, Benedict encouraged dialogue between Orthodox and Muslim communities in Montenegro, while receiving the country's first ambassador to the Holy See.
  In his Wednesday January 24 general audience, he surveyed the most significant ecumenical events that took place in 2006.

  And on March 28, 2007, Benedict expressed words of appreciation for the work done in ecumenism by the Lutheran World Federation, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its foundation.

  Further Commentary

  • The Ecumenical Adventure" - Interview with Father Massa, executive director of the U.S. episcopal conference's Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs. Zenit News. February 23, 2007: "Ecumenical and interreligious dialogue doesn't mean that Catholics have to compromise their beliefs, actually, quite the opposite is true."

• Ratzinger and Aquinas Much is made of then-Cardinal Ratzinger's preference for Augustine over Aquinas, as in when he admitted in Milestones that "I had difficulties in penetrating the thought of Thomas Aquinas, whose crystal-clear logic seemed to be too closed in on itself, too impersonal and ready-made."

  Although Ratzinger attributed his negative impression not so much to the good doctor himself as having been presented with "a rigid, neoscholastic Thomism that was simply too far afield from my own questions," it hardly restrains his critics from using it as a cudgel to his head, as when the SSPX publication The Angelus berated him ("The Memories of a Destructive Mind" March 1999 No. 31):

  "This opinion is enunciated by a prince of the Church whose function it is to safeguard the purity of the doctrine of the Faith! Why, then, should anyone be surprised at the current disastrous crisis of Catholicism!"

  Perhaps it will ease the concerns of such critics to note that in his January 28 Angelus, Pope Benedict paid tribute to the great Doctor of the Church:

  When Christian faith is authentic, it does not diminish freedom and human reason; so, why should faith and reason fear one another if the best way for them to express themselves is by meeting and entering into dialogue? Faith presupposes reason and perfects it, and reason, enlightened by faith, finds the strength to rise to knowledge of God and spiritual realities. Human reason loses nothing by opening itself to the content of faith, which, indeed, requires its free and conscious adherence.

  St Thomas Aquinas, with farsighted wisdom, succeeded in establishing a fruitful confrontation with the Arab and Hebrew thought of his time, to the point that he was considered an ever up-to-date teacher of dialogue with other cultures and religions. He knew how to present that wonderful Christian synthesis of reason and faith which today too, for the Western civilization, is a precious patrimony to draw from for an effective dialogue with the great cultural and religious traditions of the East and South of the world.

  Let us pray that Christians, especially those who work in an academic and cultural context, are able to express the reasonableness of their faith and witness to it in a dialogue inspired by love. Let us ask the Lord for this gift through the intercession of St Thomas Aquinas and above all, through Mary, Seat of Wisdom.

  See also: Benedict on Aquinas: "Faith Implies Reason" Part I | Part II Ignatius Insight, by Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. | February 1, 2007.

• On February 14th, 2007, Benedict XVI dedicated his Wednesday general audience address to "Women of the Early Church", affirming that "the female presence in the sphere of the primitive Church was [in no way] secondary." The Pope examines the testimony of St. Paul on the contribution of women in the early Church. The Pope had dedicated his prior Wednesday audience to the role of Aquila and Priscilla, a married couple active in the early Church.

• On March 2nd, Pope Benedict gave a tribute to Pope Paul VI - "A Firm and Wise Helmsman of the Barque of Peter":

  In thinking back over the years of his Pontificate, it is striking to note the missionary zeal that motivated him and impelled him to undertake demanding Apostolic Journeys even to distant nations in order to make prophetic gestures of great ecclesial, missionary and ecumenical importance.

  He was the first Pope to go to the Land where Christ lived and from which Peter set out on his journey to Rome. That Visit, only six months after his election as Supreme Pastor of the People of God and while the Second Vatican Council was underway, had a clear symbolic meaning. He showed the Church that the path of her mission is to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

  This was precisely what Pope Paul VI sought to do during his Petrine ministry, which he always exercised with wisdom and prudence in complete fidelity to the Lord's command.

• Praying with the Pope. On Saturday, Pope Benedict gathered with European and Asian university students, both in reality and virtually, to pray the rosary. The event was held to mark the fifth European Day for Universities. Amy Welborn (Open Book rounds up coverage of the event, including video footage on YouTube.com.

• At the Holy Thursday Chrism Mass, Pope Benedict used a story from Leo Tolstoy to explain the Incarnation of Jesus Christ (Zenit. April 5, 2007):

  Leo Tolstoi, the Russian writer, tells in a short story of a harsh sovereign who asked his priests and sages to show him God so that he might see him. The wise men were unable to satisfy his desire.

  Then a shepherd, who was just coming in from the fields, volunteered to take on the task of the priests and sages. From him the king learned that his eyes were not good enough to see God. Then, however, he wanted to know at least what God does. "To be able to answer your question", the shepherd said to the king, "we must exchange our clothes".

  Somewhat hesitant but impelled by curiosity about the information he was expecting, the king consented; he gave the shepherd his royal robes and had himself dressed in the simple clothes of the poor man.

  Then came the answer: "This is what God does".

• Pope Set to Make Mark on U.S. Church, by Eric Gorski. ABC News. April 12, 2002. "Two years into his reign, Pope Benedict XVI is finally poised to make a major mark on American Catholicism with a string of key bishop appointments and important decisions about the future of U.S. seminaries and bishops' involvement in politics. . . ."

Sacramentum Caritatis

On March 13, 2007, Benedict XVI released his second major document -- Sacramentum Caritatis (Sacrament of Charity) -- an apostolic exhortation that reflects the conclusions of the 2005 synod on the Eucharist:

The document, dated Feb. 22, reflects the conclusions of the 11th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops held in Rome from Oct. 2 to 23, 2005.

Cardinal Scola, who was the relator general of the synodal assembly, said the title of the apostolic exhortation reaffirms "the Holy Father's insistence over these two years of his pontificate on the truth of love."

The cardinal said that this clearly indicates that this is "one of the crucial themes upon which the future of the Church and of humanity depend."

Text and Commentary

• Sacramentum Caritatis: Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist as the Source and Summit of the Church's Life and Mission February 22, 2007.
• A Look at "Sacramentum Caritatis" (Interview With Cardinal Angelo Scola) Zenit News. March 15, 2007.
• The Exhortations of "Sacramentum Caritatis" (Interview With Archbishop Nicola Eterovic) March 16, 2007.
• "Sacramentum Caritatis" a New Step, Aide Says March 18, 2007.
• "Sacramentum Caritatis" and Liturgical Beauty - Interview with Father McNamara, a professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university in Rome. March 19, 2007.
• The Key to "Sacramentum Caritatis" - Interview with Father Nicola Bux, author of Il Signore dei Misteri: Eucaristia e Relativismo [The Lord of the Mysteries: Eucharist and Relativism].
• “Sacramentum Caritatis”: Everyone to Mass on Sunday www.Chiesa. March 14, 2007. - Sandro Magister offers "a humble set of crib notes on the many questions that Benedict XVI addresses or touches upon, page by page, in his apostolic exhortation."
• Bill Cork notes some odd coverage of the apostolic exhortation; Off the Record's Diogenes observes:

  What's the most important aspect of the Pope's new apostolic exhortation? A quick Google search brought up 8 different newspaper headlines that gave top billing to the Pope's insistence that Catholic politicians must oppose same-sex marriage.

  That topic is not mentioned once in the text of the Sacramentum Caritatis.

  Somebody is obsessed with issues of sexuality, and it isn't the Pope.

Interviews

• On February 17th, 2007 Pope Benedict participated in a Q&A session with seminarians of the Roman Major Seminary. The Holy Father spoke of the discernment of God's voice and spiritual direction ("through his Word, in Sacred Scripture, read in the communion of the Church and read personally in conversation with God"); elements of his own priestly formation and his influences ("it was above all the figure of St Augustine who fascinated me from the very start, then also the Augustinian current in the Middle Ages: St Bonaventure, the great Franciscans, the figure of St Francis of Assisi").

  There is a simplicity and beauty in the Holy Father's words and advice, for instance, in persisting in one's vocation despite our very human frailness and inconsistency:

  It is good to recognize one's weakness because in this way we know that we stand in need of the Lord's grace. The Lord comforts us. In the Apostolic College there was not only Judas but also the good Apostles; yet, Peter fell and many times the Lord reprimanded the Apostles for their slowness, the closure of their hearts and their scant faith. He therefore simply shows us that none of us is equal to this great yes, equal to celebrating "in persona Christi", to living coherently in this context, to being united to Christ in his priestly mission.

  To console us, the Lord has also given us these parables of the net with the good fish and the bad fish, of the field where wheat but also tares grow. He makes us realize that he came precisely to help us in our weakness, and that he did not come, as he says, to call the just, those who claim they are righteous through and through and are not in need of grace, those who pray praising themselves; but he came to call those who know they are lacking, to provoke those who know they need the Lord's forgiveness every day, that they need his grace in order to progress.

  I think this is very important: to recognize that we need an ongoing conversion, that we are simply not there yet. St Augustine, at the moment of his conversion, thought he had reached the heights of life with God, of the beauty of the sun that is his Word. He then had to understand that the journey after conversion is still a journey of conversion, that it remains a journey where the broad perspectives, joys and lights of the Lord are not absent; but nor are dark valleys absent through which we must wend our way with trust, relying on the goodness of the Lord.

  On bearing witness to Christ in suffering:

  It was not by chance that the Lord told his disciples: the Son of Man must go to Jerusalem to suffer; therefore, anyone who wants to be a disciple of mine must shoulder his cross so he can follow me. In fact, we are always somewhat similar to Peter, who said to the Lord: "No, Lord, this cannot happen to you, you must not suffer". We do not want to carry the Cross, we want to create a kingdom that is more human, more beautiful, on this earth.

  This is totally mistaken: the Lord teaches it. However, Peter needed a lot of time, perhaps his entire life, in order to understand it; why is there this legend of the Quo Vadis? There is something true in it: learning that it is precisely in walking with the Lord's Cross that the journey will bear fruit. Thus, I would say that before talking to others, we ourselves must understand the mystery of the Cross.

  Of course, Christianity gives us joy, for love gives joy. But love is also always a process of losing oneself, hence, a process of coming out of oneself; in this regard, it is also a painful process. Only in this way is it beautiful and helps us to mature and to attain true joy.

  Anyone who seeks to affirm or to promise a life that is only happy and easy is a liar, because this is not the truth about man; the result is that one then has to flee to false paradises. And in this way one does not attain joy but self-destruction.

  Christianity proclaims joy to us, indeed; this joy, however, only develops on the path of love, and this path of love has to do with the Cross, with communion with the Crucified Christ. And it is presented through the grain of wheat that fell to the ground. When we begin to understand and accept this -- every day, because every day brings some disappointment or other, some burden that may also cause pain --, when we accept this lesson of following Christ, just as the Apostles had to learn at this school, so we too will become capable of helping the suffering.

  Zenit News provided a translation of the exchange: Part I: "We Must Accept Our Frailty But Keep On Going"; Part II: "A Day Without the Eucharist Is Incomplete". March 2, 2007.

• On February 22, Pope Benedict met with the Roman Clergy for a session of questions-and-answers as well. Here is a three part translation, also courtesy of Zenit: Part I: "Contemplation Is Expressed in Works of Charity"; Part II: "Do Not Extinguish Charisms ... the Church Is One" and Part III: "The Pastor Leads the Way" -- which touches on the meaning of reparation in Eucharistic adoration.

Key Addresses January - April 2007

• Message of Benedict XVI for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace January 1, 2007.

  Commentary

  Benedict XVI on the Path to Peace (Part 1); Part II - interview with Paolo Carozza, law professor at the University of Notre Dame and a member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. (Zenit News January 8, 2007):

  Where Benedict XVI goes much further than the prevailing mentality is in his insistence that it is not enough to simply assert -- however correctly -- the link between peace and human dignity. To make that connection real and concrete, not just an abstract ideal or intuition of the truth, one needs to cultivate an adequate and objective understanding of what the human person is, and what human dignity requires.

  Benedict XVI thus takes us back to what Mary Ann Glendon has referred to as the "unfinished business" of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the question of its foundations. For 60 years the international community has largely proceeded to try to develop and realize human rights though positive law while prescinding from any sustained effort to reach common understandings of their underlying source and scope.

  In short, the difference between the vision in Benedict XVI's message and the conventional wisdom of international affairs is not so much in the affirmation that the dignity and rights of the human person are the path to peace, but rather in the Pope's warning that that path will be uncertain, unstable and wayward without a "true integral humanism" that embraces the whole human person as a concrete, given reality -- without reduction, without manipulation, and without ideology.

• Pope's 2007 Address to the Diplomatic Corps on the State of the World Delivered in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. January 8, 2007.
• Pope's Homily on Feast of Baptism of the Lord Zenit News Service. January 15, 2007.
• Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for Lent 2007
• Easter Vigil - Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI April 7, 2007.

  Commentary

  • "Dying so as to rise . . ." - commentary on the Pope's Easter homily from the blog Wheat and Weeds

• Urbi Et Orbi - Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI. Easter Sunday April 8, 2007.

  Commentary

  • Explaining Benedict's focus on Africa, by John Allen, Jr. National Catholic Reporter April 9, 2007:

    Benedict XVI, this most European of popes, once again exhibited a notable concern with Africa during the Easter season. In his traditional urbi et orbi greeting, Benedict spoke in greater detail about the political and humanitarian struggles of Africa than any other part of the world. . . .

  • On Easter, pope laments wars, horrors, 'continual slaughter' in Iraq, by Carol Glatz. Catholic News Service. April 9, 2007.

  • Out of Pope Benedict XVI's 1,444 word Urbi Et Orbi Easter Message for 2007 devoted to an observation of all manner of human suffering throughout the world and the response of the Gospel, much is being made of the following sentence:

    In the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees.

    Amy Welborn has a roundup of pundit's reactions to the Pope's remark (along with the usual raging debate in the combox); for further commentary and reflections on the reaction, and the attempt by some to decipher a critique of U.S. foreign policy from the Pope's words, click here.

Articles & Commentary

• Exercises in Disinformation: The Pope According to the Leading Newspapers January 5, 2007 - Sandro Magister and Anton Smitsendonk, the former Dutch ambassador to China, examine how the press (including the New York Times and other major newspapers) "deformed Benedict XVI’s position on the entry of Turkey into the European Union."

• Lost in translation: Pope's asides might be changed in official texts, by John Thavis. Catholic News Service. February 2, 2007:

  Rarely is a general audience talk interrupted by spontaneous applause, and Pope Benedict XVI seemed as surprised as anyone when the clapping began in the Vatican's audience hall.

  The pope had been talking about the church's early times, and he set aside his text to drive home a point: The apostles and first disciples weren't perfect, but had their own arguments and controversies.

  "This appears very consoling to me, because we see that the saints did not drop as saints from heaven. They were men like us with problems and even with sins," he said Jan. 31.

  That's when the applause erupted among the 6,000 people in attendance. The pope paused, looked up and smiled awkwardly, then continued to ad lib about how holiness doesn't mean never making a mistake.

  The moment marked a milestone for Pope Benedict as a communicator and demonstrated two important facts: First, the scholarly pontiff is focusing on uncomplicated lessons about the church and the faith. Second, when he talks, people listen.

• McBrien: B16 doesn't really understand Vatican II, by Carl Olson. Insight Scoop February 4, 2007:

  Fr. Richard McBrien, former consultant to The Da Vinci Code movie and former head of the theology department at Notre Dame, has it on good authority—his own!—that Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI doesn't really understand Vatican II or how to correctly interpret it. . . .

• The "most hyperbolic journalism ever" award goes to Nick Pisa, who makes no attempt to conceal his anti-papal bias in penning 'Hell exists - deny it and you'll end up there'. The Scotsman March 27, 2007:

  POPE BENEDICT XVI has reiterated the existence of Hell and condemned society for not talking about eternal damnation enough.

  A furious Pope Benedict unleashed a bitter attack during a sermon while on a visit to a parish church and said: "Hell exists and there is eternal punishment for those who sin and do not repent."

  Sounding "more of a parish priest than a Pope" the leader of the world's one billion Roman Catholics added: "The problem today is society does not talk about Hell. It's as if it did not exist, but it does."

  Pope Benedict unleashed his fury during a visit to the tiny parish church of St Felicity and the Martyr Children at Fidene on the outskirts of Rome, in his capacity as bishop of the Italian capital.

  One churchgoer said: "The Holy Father was really having a go. It was a typical fire-and-brimstone sermon that you would have expected from a parish priest years ago."

  Zenit News' reporting of the homily is a tad more . . . restrained:

  Hell consists in closing oneself off from the love of God, and sin is the true enemy of the human person, Benedict XVI says.

  The Pope made that comment on Sunday when celebrating Mass at the Parish of St. Felicity and Martyred Sons in the northern sector of the Diocese of Rome.

  "If it is true that God is justice, then we should not forget that he is above all love; if he hates sin it is because he has an infinite love for all human beings," the Holy Father explained.

• Pope's Study of Church Fathers Not Just for Catholics Zenit. March 28, 2007 - Benedict XVI's Wednesday-audience series on the Apostolic Fathers can give us hope for unity among Christians, says David Warner, a Catholic theologian who was once an evangelical Protestant minister and who is now a senior fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in Steubenville, Ohio.

• "Catholic politicians get strict orders from pope", observes Ian Fisher (International Herald Tribune March 13, 2007):

  Pope Benedict XVI strongly reasserted Tuesday the church's opposition to abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage, saying that Catholic politicians were "especially" obligated to defend the church's stance in their public duties.

  "These values are non-negotiable," the pope wrote in a 130-page "apostolic exhortation" issued in Rome, forming a distillation of opinion from a worldwide meeting of bishops at the Vatican in 2005. . . .

  In the document, the pope also repeated that celibacy remains "obligatory" for Catholic priests.

  So sorry to disappoint.

• Scott Hahn on Benedict XVI's "Curriculum" Zenit News. March 29, 2007:

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

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

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

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

• An “Apostate” from Itself: The Lost Europe of Pope Benedict - From Sandro Magister, "L’Europa nella crisi delle culture" -- an address given by then-Cardinal Ratzinger before the plenary assembly of the European parliament. April 1, 2004.

• The Pope and Islam, by Jane Cramer. The New Yorker April 2, 2007.

  It is well known that Benedict wants to transform the Church of Rome, which is not to say that he wants to make it more responsive to the realities of modern life as it is lived by Catholic women in the West, or by Catholic homosexuals, or even by the millions of desperately poor Catholic families in the Third World who are still waiting for some merciful dispensation on the use of contraception. He wants to purify the Church, to make it more definitively Christian, more observant, obedient, and disciplined—you could say more like the way he sees Islam. And never mind that he doesn’t seem to like much about Islam, or that he has doubts about Islam’s direction. . . .

• According to the Catholic News Service, Pope Benedict XVI had a hand in Iran's decision to release the British hostages:

  The Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI had sent a written appeal to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, urging the release of the 14 men and one woman captured by Iran in contested waters March 23.

  An informed Vatican source said that in an effort to quell increasing international tensions over the crew's seizure Pope Benedict sent the letter for "exclusively humanitarian" reasons. The Vatican would provide no details on the contents of the letter or when it was sent. . . .

  Bishop Burns, who earlier had appealed for the release of the service personnel, said April 4 that the decision by the Iranian government to free them was "not just as the result of diplomacy," but was "an act of mercy" in accordance with Islam.

  Writing for FrontPageMag.com, Micah Halpern takes a somewhat different view of the Pope's request, noting to whom the correspondence was directed (A Pope Who Gets It, by Micah Halpern. FrontPageMag. April 7, 2007:

  Pope Benedict penned this letter to put forth and articulate a humanitarian objective.

  Note that the letter was sent not to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

  It was sent directly to the Ayatollah Khamenei. Ahmadinejad might be the public presenter, the face of Iran to the outside world, but inside Iran, he is second fiddle.

  The Ayatollah is just as his title describes, the Ayatollah is absolute supreme leader.

  Whatever the Ayatollah wants, happens. Whatever the Ayatollah decrees, is implemented.

  As much policy freedom as we are now seeing from Ahmadinejad, his personal survival depends on doing just as he is told. . . .

  The actions of the Ayatollah Khamenei are calculated by their ability to showcase Iran's honor.

  Khamenei's ploys, his actions, his decisions, even his bluster are calculated to showcase Iran's place of honor among Muslim nations.

  It is the eyes of his fellow Muslims that he is watching, it is the hearts of Islam that he is seeking.

  Pope Benedict XVI put aside his bigger battle to try to solve the little issue.

  The message that the Pope put forth to the supreme leader of Iran was simple: if you are really interested in the message of God, if you are really interested in relieving pain and suffering, you will release your captives.

  This time, the Pope called the Ayatollah's bluff.

• On April 10, 2007 Dr. Samuel Gregg delivered an address entitled "The Crisis of Europe: Benedict XVI’s Analysis and Solution" as part of the Acton Institute's 2007 Lecture Series. Click the link for audio (mp3). Text will be posted as soon as it becomes available.

• "Easter in Rome: The Secret Homilies of the Successor of Peter", by Sandro Magister. www.Chiesa. April 11, 2007. Commenting on an ongoing problem in the Vatican of Benedict XVI:

  There is a limit beyond which the words of Benedict XVI do not go. They reach completely only those who listen to them in person, whether present physically or thanks to a live television broadcast. The number of these persons is substantial, more than for any earlier pontificate. The Easter “urbi et orbi” message and the Way of the Cross on Good Friday were followed by huge crowds and retransmitted in more than forty countries. But even more vast is the number of persons who receive the pope’s message in an incomplete form – or not at all.

  Benedict XVI experienced this communications block to an even greater extent in the other celebrations of last Holy Week. . . .

  among those present at these Masses, only those who understood Italian were able to listen fruitfully to the pope’s homilies. The Catholic media outlets that translated and distributed the texts in various countries barely extended the listening area, to a niche audience.

  For a pope like Benedict XVI, who has centered his ministry precisely upon the word, this is a serious limitation. The offices in the Roman curia that deal with communications have to this point done nothing new in order to remedy this, at least in part. For example, no one sees to a quick distribution of the pope’s texts by internet to all the bishops and priests of the world, in the various languages.

On a Lighter Note . . .

• Stop wearing fur, activists tell Pope Reuters. April 14, 2007:

  Animal rights activists in Italy have asked Pope Benedict to stop wearing fur in a sign of respect for the "sacredness of all living species".

  The Pope, who turns 80 on Monday, has been seen over the past winter donning a red velvet hat trimmed with white ermine fur, known as "camauro".

  (Hat tip: Me Monk, Me Meander).

• Monsignorial Chic? Whispers in the Loggia January 16, 2007. "No, it's not April Fools Day -- the inspiration behind Versace's spring collection is someone closer to home than you'd expect . . ."

• KFC offers new fish sandwich to Vatican for B16's blessing American Papist February 22, 2007.

• German soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer has recommitted himself to his faith on account of an October 2005 Vatican meeting with Pope Benedict XVI and the Pope's 2006 visit to Bavaria. (Source: Catholic World News January 16, 2007 / Evangelical Catholicism).

• Artist asked to paint Pope adds ‘gravitas and bit of a twinkle’ The Times March 17, 2007. On the Holy Father's very first formally-commissioned portrait:

  Michael Noakes must be the only man on earth who can suggest to God’s emissary how he should stand and how high he should raise his hand in blessing.

  The British artist found himself in the pontiff’s private quarters at the Vatican earlier this year doing just that as he persuaded the Pope to stand still. . . .

  Speaking to The Times yesterday, he recalled how he had been in Rome last year to unveil a portrait of the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, at a seminary in Rome.

  He said: “At the end of the unveiling, a young Maltese monsignor stationed in the Vatican came over and said simply, ‘Will you paint the Pope for us?’.” The invitation was all the more surprising because the last Pope had steadfastedly refused to pose for any portraits.

  A year after the initial invitation Noakes was contacted again by the Vatican and a date was set.

Holy Week 2007

• Holy Week 2007 - A collection of homilies and images from the Vatican's website.
• Celebration of Palm Sunday of the Passion of Our Lord April 1, 2007.
• Holy Mass on the Second Anniversary of the Death of the Servant of God, The Supreme Pontiff John Paul II. April 2, 2007.
• Mass of the Lord's Supper Holy Thursday. April 2, 2007.
• Via Crucis: Way of the Cross at the Colloseum Good Friday, 6 April 2007. Meditations composed by Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi.
• Easter Vigil - Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI April 7, 2007.
• Urbi Et Orbi - Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI. Easter Sunday April 8, 2007.

Benedict - Q&A with the Clergy of Rome - February 22, 2007

Pope Benedict on the process of conversion

We cannot conceive of immediately living a life that is 100 percent Christian without doubts and without sins. We have to recognize that we are journeying on, that we must and can learn, and also, gradually, that we must convert. Of course, fundamental conversion is a definitive act. But true conversion is an act of life that is achieved through the patience of a lifetime. It is an act in which we must not lose trust and courage on the way.

We must recognize exactly this: we cannot make ourselves perfect Christians from one moment to the next. Yet, it is worth going ahead, being true to the fundamental option, so to speak, then firmly persevering in a process of conversion that sometimes becomes difficult.

Indeed, it can happen that I feel discouraged so that I am in a state of crisis and want to give up everything instantly. We should not allow ourselves to give up immediately, but should take heart and start again. The Lord guides me, the Lord is generous and with his forgiveness I make headway, also becoming generous to others. Thus, we truly learn love for our neighbour and Christian life, which implies this perseverance in forging ahead. . . .

On knowing God through Christ and His Church

The subject "God" is essential. St Paul says in his Letter to the Ephesians: "Remember that you were at that time... having no hope and without God.... But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near" (Eph 2: 12-13). Thus, life has a meaning that guides me even through difficulties.

It is therefore necessary to return to God the Creator, to the God who is creative reason, and then to find Christ, who is the living Face of God. Let us say that here there is a reciprocity. On the one hand, we have the encounter with Jesus, with this human, historical and real figure; little by little, he helps me to become acquainted with God; and on the other, knowing God helps me understand the grandeur of Christ's Mystery which is the Face of God.

Only if we manage to grasp that Jesus is not a great prophet or a world religious figure but that he is the Face of God, that he is God, have we discovered Christ's greatness and found out who God is. God is not only a distant shadow, the "primary Cause", but he has a Face. His is the Face of mercy, the Face of pardon and love, the Face of the encounter with us. As a result, these two topics penetrate each other and must always go together.

Then of course, we have to realize that the Church is our vital travelling companion on our journey. In her, the Word of God lives on and Christ is not only a figure of the past but is present. We must therefore rediscover sacramental life, sacramental forgiveness, the Eucharist and Baptism as a new birth.

Source: Pope's Meeting With Roman Clergy (Part 2) Zenit News Agency. March 9, 2007

Pope Benedict on Christmas, the Holy Family and the Human Person

On the Meaning of Christmas - translation of the address Benedict XVI gave at the general audience last Wednesday, held in Paul VI Hall: Let us return to the question: "Why did God become man?" St. Irenaeus writes: "The word has become the dispenser of the Father's glory for the usefulness of men.... The glory of God is the living man -- 'vivens homo' -- and the life of man consists in the vision of God" ("Adv. Haer," IV, 20.5.7). God's glory is manifested, therefore, in the salvation of man, whom God has so loved "who gave him," as John's Gospel affirms, "his only Son so that he who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). So love is the ultimate reason for Christ's incarnation. Eloquent in this respect is the reflection of the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, who wrote: God "is not, in the first place, absolute power, but absolute love whose sovereignty is not manifested in keeping for himself what belongs to him, but in its abandonment" ("Mysterium Paschale," 1,14). Pope Benedict on the Holy Family - translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered Sunday, the feast of the Holy Family, before reciting the midday Angelus: . . . Let us now invoke together the protection of Mary Most Holy and of St. Joseph for every family, especially for those in difficulty. May they be supported so that they will be able to resist the disintegrating impulses of a certain contemporary culture which undermines the very basis of the family institution. May they may help Christian families throughout the world to be the living image of the love of God. Benedict on the Human Person - translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today before reciting the midday Angelus with tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter's Square: At present there is much talk about human rights, but it is often forgotten that they need a stable -- not relative or debatable -- foundation. And this can only be the person's dignity. Respect for this dignity begins with the recognition and protection of the person's right to freely live and profess his religion. We address our prayer with confidence to the Holy Mother of God, so that sacred respect for every human person and rejection of war and violence will be developed in consciences. Help us, Mary, you who gave Jesus to the world, to receive from him the gift of peace and to be sincere and courageous builders of peace.

Image from Benodette @ The Benedict Forum

Pope Benedict Roundup!

Reactions to the Papal Visit to Turkey
Benedict, Regensberg, The West and Islam (Continued)
Pope Benedict XVI in Print
Ecumenical Ventures with Archbishop Rowan Williams / Archbishop Christodoulos
In Other News . . .

Reactions to the Papal Visit to Turkey

Note: For pre-trip and day-by-day coverage, see Anticipating Pope Benedict's Papal Visit to Turkey Nov. 24, 2006 and Pope Benedict XVI's Apostolic Journey to Turkey Nov. 28 - Dec. 1, 2006 Nov. 30, 2006.

• Pope: Thanks to Church of Turkey that lives Advent like Mary Dec. 3, 2006. In his Angelus for the first Sunday of Advent, the Pope recalled "with grateful affection, the dear Catholic community that lives in Turkish territory":

  "I was able to meet and celebrate Holy Mass together with these brothers and sisters of ours, who are in conditions that are often not easy. It is truly a small flock, varied, rich in enthusiasm and faith, which we may say lives constantly and in an intense fashion the experience of Advent sustained by hope."

  At the heart of Advent, continued the pontiff, lies precisely the certainty of hope. "In Advent, the liturgy repeatedly tells us and assures us, almost as if to win over our natural diffidence, that God 'comes': he comes to stay with us, in every situation we face; he comes to live among us, to live with us and in us; he comes to fill the distances that divide and separate us; he comes to reconcile us with Him and among ourselves. He comes into the history of mankind, to knock on the door of every man and woman of goodwill, to bring to individuals, families and people the gift of brotherhood, harmony and peace. For this reason, Advent is, par excellence, a time of hope, during which those who believe in Christ are invited to remain in vigilant and diligent anticipation, fed by prayer and by proactive commitment to love. May the drawing near of the Christmas of Christ fill the hearts of all Christians with joy, serenity and peace!"

  Not everybody received Benedict's comments on Turkey kindly. According to Le Journal Chretien:

  Ankara’s top government religious official accused Pope Benedict XVI yesterday of “doing injustice to Turkey” by declaring after his historic visit to Turkey last week that the country’s Catholics live under difficult conditions. . . .

  In an interview with the semi-official Anatolian News Agency published in today’s liberal Radikal newspaper, Director of Religious Affairs Ali Bardakoglu complained that the problems of Turkey’s religious minorities had been exaggerated during the pope’s visit.

  The pope’s comments [in his Sunday Dec. 3 address] caused the foreign press to conclude, Bardakoglu objected, that “Turkey does not have religious freedom. This is an injustice to Turkey.”

  According to John Allen, Jr., "six times over the course of his four-day visit, Benedict either made the case for religious freedom, or referred in oblique fashion to the “trials” of the local Christian community." In Benedict and religious freedom in Turkey, Allen collects in one place all of Benedict’s references to religious freedom during the course of the Turkey trip.

• Istanbul returns to normality, but deep down something has changed with the Pope\'s visit, by Mavi Zambak. AsiaNews.it. Dec. 1, 2006. Benedict XVI has returned to Rome, but they're still celebrating his visit at Istanbul's cathedral. "After having felt the Pope's closeness, we feel stronger." The Muslim community also sees the visit positively; the Pope's prayers in the mosque overshadow the Regensburg controversy.

• Patriarch Bartholomew I on the Papal Visit - Dec. 1, 2006. Zenit News interviewed Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, who confided that he had made "an ecumenical proposal" to the Holy Father:

  We can truly say that this Thursday we lived a historic day, under many aspects. Historic for ecumenical dialogue and, as we saw in the afternoon, historic for the relationship between cultures and religions. And, obviously, because of all this, historic also for our country. . . .

  I can say that I spoke with His Holiness of something -- something that we could do. I presented him with a proposal which I cannot now elaborate on, as we await an official response, but I can say that His Holiness was very interested and that he received it favorably.

  We hope it can be undertaken as it is directed to that ecumenical progress that, as we have affirmed and written in the common declaration, both of us are determined to pursue.

• Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus: "The Pope in Turkey" First Things' "On The Square" Dec. 1, 2006:

  The meetings and prayers with the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, will not likely be called historic. Historic was the visit of Pope Paul VI four decades ago when mutual excommunications between East and West were formally withdrawn. Benedict shares fully John Paul the Great’s yearning for the day when East and West will once again “breathe with both lungs.” As for Orthodoxy, however, while Constantinople may have preeminence in tradition, Russia has the numbers and the clout, and relations with Russia continue to be prickly, at best. Yet it is noteworthy that the formal dialogue between Rome and Orthodoxy has been resumed after a hiatus of six months, and there are continuing rumblings that Benedict may yet be invited to visit Russia.

  The visit to Constantinople/Istanbul was, of course, on St. Andrew’s Day. The brothers, Peter and Andrew, were, in the persons of Benedict and Bartholomew, together, both praying for the day of communion fully restored. As Benedict has said on many occasions, the hope for Christian unity is not a matter of our goals and schedules but of waiting faithfully on an unanticipated movement of the Holy Spirit that is, thank God, not under our control.

  For more on the Russian Orthodox Church's reaction, see Russian Church hopes for Christian dialogue resulting form Pope's visit to Turkey Interfax-Religion.com Dec. 4, 2006.

• Wobby Pope? Open Book Dec. 6, 2006. Amy Welborn takes a look at the raft of "Has the Pope gone soft?" op-eds in the press:

  The trouble lies in the word "dialogue." Secular journalists (and others) don't understand this term in the same way that the Pope is using it. They seem to think that "dialogue" must mean: "Conversations between people of differing views, with the ultimate purpose of finding what we believe in common, discarding everything else, and making that common belief the basis of a new religious understanding." . . .

  However - when Benedict speaks of "dialogue" - that's not what he means. And his definition of "dialogue" and its purpose fits quite well into his strong commitment to the truth of Catholicism.

  Joseph Ratzinger, as a theologian, was a firm believer in and devotee of "dialogue," as is any real intellectual. It is possible - and this is what is so hard for many to understand - to hold firmly to what one believes is Truth, and be very interested in dialogue, the views and experiences of others, not simply out of curiosity, but to the view of expanding one's own vision and understanding.

• "The Pope on Turkey, Secularism and Islam", by Mustafa Aykol. The White Path Dec. 7, 2006. Turkish journalist Mustafa on Benedict's dual challenge: to "secular fundamentalism, which aims to destroy the whole "public relevance" of God, and religious fundamentalism, which is prone to use coercion and violence to impose its beliefs on others" and its reception by the Turkish government.

• Analyzing Benedict’s prayer with Ratzinger’s criteria, by John Allen, Jr. National Catholic Reporter Dec. 8, 2006:

  When Benedict XVI stood alongside Istanbul’s chief Islamic cleric, Imam Mustafa Cagrici, in the famed Blue Mosque on Nov. 30, praying silently in the direction of Mecca, those who know Ratzinger’s track record no doubt asked: What happened to the man who once worried that inter-religious prayer can mean “a concession to that relativism which negates the very meaning of truth?”

  This was, after all, the same champion of Catholic identity who said of Pope John Paul II’s 1986 summit of religious leaders in Assisi to pray together for peace -- or, at least, of the way that event was understood in some circles -- “This cannot be the model!”

  [...] We’ve reached an interesting moment indeed in Catholic affairs when such complaints could be hurled against the man once known as “God’s Rottweiler” for his ferocious defense of the faith.

  So, what gives? Was this a case of naked papal opportunism, a post-Regensburg lust for positive headlines in the Muslim world that swept aside doctrinal concerns? Has Benedict the pope “changed his spots” from Ratzinger the doctrinal czar? Or is there a sense in which what happened in Istanbul can be understood as consistent with Ratzinger’s earlier positions?

  The answer, says Allen, lies in an examination of then-Cardinal Ratzinger’s thought on prayer with followers of other religions, as expounded in 2003's Truth & Tolerance.

  After noting Cardinal Kasper's attempt at public relations:

  “It was a recollection, a meditation, but this can be done. If it was a prayer, at least it was not an official prayer, it was not a public prayer, because this can’t be done,” Kasper said.

  With all due respect to Kasper, widely recognized as one of the best theological minds in the church, it’s a bit of a stretch to say that something carried live on TV across much of the world was not “public.”

  Allen turns his attention to the Pope's remarks during the general audience on December 6th, 2006:

  In the area of interreligious dialogue, divine Providence granted me, almost at the end of my Journey, an unscheduled Visit which proved rather important: my Visit to Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque. Pausing for a few minutes of recollection in that place of prayer, I addressed the one Lord of Heaven and earth, the Merciful Father of all humanity. May all believers recognize that they are his creatures and witness to true brotherhood!

  To which Allen observes:

  There was no caveat about relativism, no theological commentary on the limits of such “witnesses to true fraternity.”

  Why the explanatory vacuum? The answer, at least implicitly, seems to be the following: This pope is his own gloss.

  In other words, precisely because this was Joseph Ratzinger, it is difficult to imagine that the prayer at the Blue Mosque, at least on his side, had anything to do with a relativistic approach to religious belief. It was unnecessary to slap a warning label on the event saying, “Syncretism is hazardous to your faith,” because the mere presence of Ratzinger communicated in a flash all the doctrinal caveats that form part of his understanding of such events, including his criticism of the 1986 Assisi summit.

  Probably the best analysis of the papal "prayer" in the Blue Mosque.

• Turkish mufti would not match Pope's gesture" Catholic World News. Dec. 6, 2006:

  Turkey’s top Islamic official has conceded that he would not be prepared to make the sort of gesture that Pope Benedict XVI made last week, when the Holy Father prayed silently at the Blue Mosque.

  In response to a journalist’s question about a reciprocal gesture, Ali Bardakoglu, the government’s religion minister, said: “It is not right to expect that others will pray as the Pope did.”

Benedict, Regensberg, The West and Islam, Continued

• The Pope and Islam (Symposium) - The Pope’s visit to Turkey highlights the Muslim world's violent reaction to the Pontiff's comments about Islam several weeks ago. What did those comments, and the Muslim world’s response to them, really mean? To discuss these issues with us today, Frontpage Symposium has assembled a distinguished panel, with Turkish / Muslim journalist Mustafa Aykol, Thomas Haidon (Legal Advisor of the Free Muslim Coalition), BBC commentator Serge Trifkovic and Bat Ye’or (author of Islam and Dhimmitude 2001 and Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis 2005).

• The Man in White’s Burden: Who else but the pope can speak for Christianity?, by Father Raymond J. de Souza. National Review November 30, 2006.

• The Pope and the Prophet, by Robert R. Reilly. Crisis November 8, 2006:

  The pope has raised a very volatile question: Is, in fact, the God of Islam without reason, or above it? Is the Muslim God unreasonable? Is Islam, therefore, based upon a theological deformation? The pope’s allusion to the teachings of eleventh-century Islamic philosopher Ibn Hazn—“God is not bound even by his own word”—suggests that possibility. However, it is more than a possibility. It is a core teaching of one of the predominant strains of Islam, if not the predominant strain. Has this always been so? How did such a conception of God develop? Is it still possible to talk about this without threats of murder? Benedict is trying to start a conversation with Islam, and it is the only one really worth having.

• What Benedict means by 'Christian tradition', by John Allen, Jr.:

  "He can't have it both ways," one colleague in the press corps said to me.

  Grasping how these two points -- fraternal relations with Muslims and the preservation of Europe's Christian identity -- are not opposed, at least as far as Benedict XVI is concerned, requires understanding what he means by "Christian tradition."

  Benedict's desire isn't a return to Christendom, a conflation of church and state. Neither does he "seek a Christian version of shariah, which would enshrine the Code of Canon Law as the civil law of the land" and "[consign] Muslims or other religious minorities to second-class citizenship." Rather, what Benedict means by "Christian Tradition" is twofold:

  First, he wants Europe to be shaped by its religious heritage and by the values of its religious communities, in contrast to forms of secularism that would deny any public role to religious believers. [...]

  Second, the pope wants to defend the bundle of traditional moral values associated with Christian teaching, such as the family, human life, sexual morality, social justice and peace.

  Read the rest.

• The Soul of the West | An interview with Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. on Benedict XVI's Regensberg Address Ignatius Insight Nov. 9, 2006. Recently, in the course of doing some research for the Harvard Political Review, Justin Murray, an undergraduate student at Harvard, sent Fr. James V. Schall a series of questions about the impact of Pope Benedict XVI's September 12, 2006, Regensburg Lecture. Ignatius Insight publishes the interview w. kind permission of the authors.

Pope Benedict XVI in Print

• The recent anthology Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World, edited by Hent de Vries, Editor Lawrence E. Sullivan is available from Fordham U. Included is an English translation of the historic discussion between Jürgen Habermas and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, concerning the prepolitical moral foundations of a republic. The opening statements of the Habermas/Ratzinger dialogue are available in original German here, in Spanish here.

  Habermas vs. The Pope - An appraisal of the dialogue from Prospect magazine, the author, Edward Skidelsky, suprised at how much a leftist, secular philosopher and an 'enforcer of doctrinal orthodoxy' could agree upon.

  See also: The Church and the Secular Establishment: A Philosophical Dialog between Joseph Ratzinger and Jürgen Habermas (Logos Vol. 9, No. 2 Spring 2006), an English-language summary and translation from the journal of the Catholic Studies program at St. Thomas University in St. Paul. (Via John McGreevy / Commonweal).

  Update! 12/26/06 - Ignatius Press is publishing a special edition of the Ratzinger-Habermas debate -- The Dialectics of Secularization: On Reason and Religion -- due out February 2008. Comments Michael of Evangelical Catholicism:

  For those who do not know, Habermas is one of the most famous, notorious and brilliant social thinkers of our age. Influenced by the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, which was made known to the world through the works of Horkheimer and Adorno, Habermas has been a constant critic of the excesses of capitalist Western culture and its consumerist industry. He is reknowned for the development of his theory of communicative reason, which seeks to discover the seat of reason in discourse among subjects rather than in the cosmos (Greek) or the knowing self (modernism). An avowed atheist and neo-Marxist, Habermas has recently commented on the manner in which Christianity alone can serve as the matrix for the preservation of Western values. He and Pope Benedict have come to agreement on a number of socio-political issues as the Pope mentions in his Values in a Time of Upheaval.

• Catholic News Agency reports that [then] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's Introduction to Christianity has been published in Russian for the first time:

  The book, written in 1968 by the man who is now Pope Benedict XVI, includes a foreword by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church’s foreign department. The publication was co-financed by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

  Peter Humeniuk, an expert in Catholic-Orthodox relations, who heads ACN’s section for relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, said this week that the translation’s publication will provide an excellent step forward in ecumenical relations. “It is of utmost importance that this reference work by one of the world’s most important theologians is now accessible to Russian readers, especially in academies and seminaries,” he said.

• "Primacy in Love": The Chair Altar of Saint Peter's in Rome Ignatius Insight posts an excerpt from the recently published Images of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts, a meditative walk through the liturgical calendar by Pope Benedict XVI.

• Benedict XVI has finished the first part of a book entitled Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, which will be published next spring" reports Zenit News Service:

  The announcement was made today by the Vatican Publishing House -- also known as Libreria Editrice Vaticana, or LEV -- which received the Pope's manuscript a few days ago, and has been entrusted with its distribution.

  "Conscious of the expectation at the world level of this first work of Benedict XVI," the announcement said, "the LEV has made the appropriate agreements with Rizzoli Publishing House, ceding to the latter the rights of translation, diffusion and commercialization of the work worldwide."

  According to the Catholic News Service:

  Pope Benedict explained that he began the book during his 2003 summer vacation, giving the final form to the first four chapters in the summer of 2004.

  "After my election to the episcopal see of Rome, I used all of my free moments to work on it," he wrote. "Because I do not know how much time and how much strength I will still be given, I have decided to publish the first 10 chapters" as Volume One of "Jesus of Nazareth."

  The announcement raised the interesting question of how one should receive a work of personal theology by a Pope. Zenit News further reports:

  In the preface, passages of which have been issued, the Pope writes that this work "in no way is an act of the magisterium, but only an expression of my personal search for the face of the Lord. Therefore, anyone is free to contradict me."

  "I only ask readers for that anticipated sympathy without which there can be no understanding," the Holy Father states.

  "I wished to attempt to present the Jesus of the Gospels as the authentic Jesus, as the historical Jesus in the authentic meaning of the word," Benedict XVI adds.

  The book expresses one of Joseph Ratzinger's most profound convictions, a book which he had already planned to write before being elected Pope: "Through the man Jesus, God made himself visible and, from God, the image is seen of the just man."

  In an unfortunate, though not altogether unsurprising, response, Malcolm Moore of the UK Telegraph revealed his complete ignorance of matters Catholic with the proclamation that the Pope questioned his infallibility:

  The Pope has shocked theologians and opened a chink in the theory of papal infallibility by saying that people should feel free to disagree with what he has written in his latest book, a meditation on Jesus Christ. . . . No Pope has ever opened up his work and opinions to criticism before. Nor has any Pope tried to separate his personal and public personas, according to Professor Giuseppe Alberigo, a professor of the history of the Catholic Church at Bologna University.

  "I really believe this is the first time this has ever happened," he said. "It is an extraordinarily important gesture. What it means is that the Pope is not totally infallible. As well as being the Pope, he is a common man, hugely studious in this case, but like all men he is subject to debates, arguments and discussions." He added that Pope John Paul II "could never have made a distinction between 'official' Pope and 'ordinary' Pope".

  In a word, nonsense.

  Related Discussion anticipating the publication of Jesus of Nazareth:

  • Pope Benedict & the Historical Jesus, by Michael Barber, Professor of Theology, Scripture and Catholic Thought at John Paul the Great Catholic University in San Diego. (Singing in the Reign [blog] Nov. 22, 2006).
  • From Zenit News, a translation of excerpts from the Preface of the first volume of the book Jesus of Nazareth which Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI will publish next spring. The excerpts were made available by Rizzoli, the publishing house that has been given the international rights.
  • "Rome in Crisis?" - Zadok the Roman takes Professor Giuseppe Alberigo to the woodshed:

    High-level meetings between the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (The Holy Office), the Rectors of the Pontifical Universities and the standing committee of the International Theological Commission have struggled to come up with a plan of action following the Papal decree abolishing infallibility. . . . Or not.

  • Jesus of Nazareth will be published by Random House imprint Doubleday - The first book from Benedict since he became pope, the title is scheduled for publication in spring 2007. Bill Barry, v-p and publisher of Doubleday’s religious division, acquired world English, first serial, audio and exclusive Spanish-language rights in North America from Italian publisher Rizzoli. [Publisher's Weekly]. This is somewhat of a change given that Ignatius Press is the traditional publisher of the Pope's works in the English-language.

Ecumenical Ventures

• Pope Benedict's meeting with Rowan Williams, the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, on November 23, 2006 was perhaps overshadowed by his subsequent visit to Turkey and dialogue with the Orthodox. According to CatholicOnline.org the Pope and the Anglican primate acknowledged serious obstacles to "ecumenical progress":

  Serious obstacles remain to form closer ties between Catholic and Anglican churches, Pope Benedict XVI and Anglican leader Rowan Williams agreed, bluntly acknowledging disagreements on the ordination of gay bishops and women priests and the blessing of same-sex unions. . . .

  After a Nov. 23 private morning meeting between the pope and the archbishop of Canterbury, the two religious leaders signed a common declaration that noted the historic meeting 40 years ago by their predecessors, Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Michael Ramsey, which undertook "to establish a dialogue in which matters which had been divisive in the past might be addressed from a fresh perspective with truth and love."

  That 1966 meeting aimed at uniting the churches split apart in 1534 by English King Henry VIII's anger over the Vatican's refusal to annul his marriage.

  Benedict XVII and Archbishop Ramsey in the joint statement, signed while sitting side-by-side at a table, expressed gratitude for the efforts at unity and pledged to pursue the path of continuing dialogue.

  

  Related Links:

  • Joint Declaration of Benedict XVI and Rowan Williams Nov. 23, 2006.
  • Papal Address to Archbishop of Canterbury:

    ". . . Over the last three years you have spoken openly about the strains and difficulties besetting the Anglican Communion and consequently about the uncertainty of the future of the Communion itself. Recent developments, especially concerning the ordained ministry and certain moral teachings, have affected not only internal relations within the Anglican Communion but also relations between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church. We believe that these matters, which are presently under discussion within the Anglican Communion, are of vital importance to the preaching of the Gospel in its integrity, and that your current discussions will shape the future of our relations. It is to be hoped that the work of the theological dialogue, which had registered no small degree of agreement on these and other important theological matters, will continue [to] be taken seriously in your discernment. In these deliberations we accompany you with heartfelt prayer. It is our fervent hope that the Anglican Communion will remain grounded in the Gospels and the Apostolic Tradition which form our common patrimony and are the basis of our common aspiration to work for full visible unity.

  • Anglican's Address to Benedict XVI:

    I say this, conscious that the path to unity is not an easy one, and that disputes about how we apply the Gospel to the challenges thrown up by modem society can often obscure or even threaten the achievements of dialogue, common witness and service. In the modem world, no part of the Christian family acts without profound impact on our ecumenical partners; only a firm foundation of friendship in Christ will enable us to be honest in speaking to one another about those difficulties, and discerning a way forward which seeks to be wholly faithful to the charge laid upon us as disciples of Christ. I come here today, therefore, to celebrate the ongoing partnership between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, but also ready to hear and to understand the concerns which you will wish to share with me.

  • Archbishop William's visit to Rome marks the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking trip to Rome by Archbishop Michael Ramsey, in March 1966. In Alive at the Dawn The Tablet Nov. 11, 2006), Chris Larkman, a seminarian alive at the time reminisces. (via Whispers in the Loggia).

  • On November 21, 2006, Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams spoke at St. Anselmo, a Benedictine institution in Rome. The subject of his talk was Benedict and the future of Europe.

• A somewhat happier and more optimistic ecumenical moment occurred on December 14th, 2006, when Archbishop Christodoulos visited Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Zenit News reports:

  A first visit of an Orthodox archbishop of Athens and All Greece to a Pope at the Vatican marked an important step in overcoming the division between Orthodox and Catholics.

  Today's historic meeting between Archbishop Christodoulos and Benedict XVI ended with the signing of a joint declaration by the two religious leaders to reaffirm the collaboration of Orthodox and Catholics, particularly in the defense of life and the recovery of Europe's Christian roots.

  This was not the Greek archbishop's first visit to the Vatican, though it was his first to the Pope. Archbishop Christodoulos had met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then dean of the College of Cardinals, on the occasion of Pope John Paul II's funeral on April 8, 2005.

  After their private meeting today, the members of the Orthodox archbishop's entourage entered the Pope's private library to hear both addresses.

  Related Links:

  • Teresa Polk (Blog by the Sea) provides her translation of the Common Declaration entered into between Pope Benedict XVI and Christodoulos, the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens and all Greece. The original French text was taken from Eucharistie Miséricordieuse.

  • Also from Teresa, English translations of the The Address of Pope Benedict XVI to His Beatitude Christodoulos and the Address of His Beatitude Christodoulos to Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of their meeting at the Vatican on December 14, 2006 (from the Vatican's original French).

  • East and West - Coverage and discussion at Amy Welborn's Open Book.

  • Challenges of Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue Zenit News interviewed Monsignor Dimitrios Salachas, of the Greek-Catholic Apostolic Exarchy of Athens. The monsignor is a professor of canon law in Rome, and consultor for the Congregation for Eastern Churches, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

In Other News

• On November 3, 2006, Pope Benedict visited the Gregorian University in Rome. You can read the Holy Father's address to students and faculty at the Gregorian here. Fr. James V. Schall used the Pope's visit as inspiration for reflection on What is the Proper Object of Theology? The Pope at the Gregorian Ignatius Insight Nov. 27, 2006.

• On December 11, 2006 - Zenit News published the Vatican translation of Benedict's Nov. 7, 2006 address to the Swiss bishops -- the real one, that is.

  Back in November the Vatican's press office published a draft intended for John Paul II. It was posted for few hours on the Vatican web page, released in Switzerland by the press office of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, and recalled later in the day without comment. (Source: Catholic News Agency; see also Sandro Magister's behind-the-scenes expose: "This Is the Vatican. Communications Have Been Interrupted" Nov. 23, 2006).

  Amy Welborn takes a look at the real thing in "Popespeak" (Open Book Dec. 12, 2006).

• BustedHalo.com interviews David Gibson on the papacy. Gibson, author of The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and his Clash with the Modern World, spoke of his experiences covering the conclave for Vatican Radio and squaring the public persona and private character of Pope Benedict XVI ("Joseph Ratzinger does not change. I mean basically the short answer is: same guy, different job").

  Fair warning to readers, Gibson is admittedly disappointed in some (most?) of Benedict's decisions (the firing of America editor Tom Reese and Ratzinger's career as Prefect for the CDF, which Gibson describes in his book as leaving behind a "legacy of sharp denunciations, thwarted careers, and embittered souls that seems to belie any claims he might make to promoting the love of Christ"). And there are comments in the interview itself that would make many readers of this blog wince:

  "Benedict is wonderful in his Christology and in talking about his love of Christ and why we should follow Jesus. But the question that remains unanswered is why we should remain Catholics, why the Catholic Church should be the container for our faith. His ecclesiology and his Christology overlap so much that they almost can't be separated. In his mind, if you talk about reforming the church or making any changes, you're talking about changing Jesus Christ himself, and that's a little too strict for me."

  Ouch. For a more substantial understanding of Benedict, I would probably recommend God's Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church, by JPII papal biographer George Weigel.

  The Rule of Benedict was plugged by Whispers in the Loggia's Rocco Palmo, who confesses that he "was involved on the project as a consigliere to the author, a longtime friend and co-conspirator" who picked out the cover.

  Gibson's book was praised by the National Catholic Reporter and received largely positive reviews by Commonweal (The Puzzling Pope Andrew M. Greeley. Volume CXXXIII, Number 19) and America magazine ("Facing a Fragmented Church", by Paul Wilkes. America Vol. 195 No. 10), while Indiana Catholic author Andrew Fink found that Gibson's "liberal agenda marred his papal biography.

• Ratzinger on Ecumenism: A Reading List - "I was asked by an Orthodox priest if I could provide him some references for Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's writings about ecumenism," says Carl Olson (Insight Scoop). "In light of the Holy Father's current trip to Turkey, here is the list I came up with. It is undoubtedly incomplete, but may be helpful for those interested in reading more in this area."

• “Habemus Papam.” Twenty Months Later, a Portrait, by Sandro Magister. www.Chiesa. December 12, 2006:

  The numbers speak. Benedict XVI is the most popular pope in history, if by people one understands those whom he draws like a magnet to St. Peter’s Square each Sunday for the Angelus and each Wednesday for the general audience, from Rome and from all over the world.

  Attendance is routinely more than twice that seen by his predecessor, John Paul II, who in his turn had shattered all the records. But the most amazing thing is the relationship between the demand and what is on offer. The winning product that Benedict XVI offers to the crowds is made of nothing but his plain words.

  At the Angelus, two times out of three pope Joseph Ratzinger explains the Gospel of that Sunday’s Mass to an audience that includes people who don’t go to church every week – and some who don’t go at all. He explains this with simple words, but these demand and receive attention. . . .

  As pope, Benedict XVI doesn’t give an inch to the preconceptions that were formed about him as a cardinal. He doesn’t thunder condemnations, he doesn’t hurl anathemas. He reasons staunchly, but serenely. His criticisms against modernity or against the “pathologies” that he sees even within the Church are fully elaborated. That is part of the reason why he has practically silenced Catholic progressivism: not because this has turned friendly toward him, but because it is not able to reply to him with arguments of similar persuasive power.

• On November 20, 2006 the United Nations' Headquarters hosted a conference on "Relativism and the Crisis of Cultures in the writings of Pope Benedict XVI," to promote the book Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures, published by Ignatius Press. The event was sponsored by the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, the Path to Peace Foundation, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Ignatius Press, Edizioni Cantagalli and the Sublacense Life and Family Foundation. According to the conference website, the event was attended by "over 180 Ambassadors, Attachés and Delegates, Representatives of NGOs and others."

  The conference featured a panel discussion with Marcello Pera (co-author of ), George Weigel,

  - Welcome by Archbishop Celestino Migliore
  - Remarks by Prof. George Weigel, Senior fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington
  - Remarks by Marcello Pera Senator of the Italian Republic

On a Lighter Note

• Benedict the unlikely pin-up pope, by Patrick Jackson. BBC News. Dec. 17, 2006:

  "Benedict XVI, the shy former disciple of that most media-friendly of popes, John Paul II, has entered an area of the mass communications market that his predecessor apparently never tapped."

• Pope Benedict XVI, in the first full year of his papacy, was far and away the editors' choice as newsmaker of the year. The poll was the 45th annual survey of Catholic News Service client newspapers. [Catholic News Service Dec. 15, 2006].

• One of the pleasures of visiting The American Papist is his ongoing "Papist Picture of the Day", complete with amusing captions. Among the recent treasures: "Having proven his diplomatic skills in Turkey, it was time for Pope Benedict to meet the emissary from planet Vorticon 6" [and] "The washing of the hands is always a dangerous affair when you've got a Pontiff this hot". =)

* * *

Pope Benedict XVI waves to the faithful at the end of the First Vespers Mass at the Basilica of St. Paul at the Vatican City December 2, 2006.

This concludes December's Pope Benedict Roundup -- and perhaps blogging as well. Until the new year, I'll leave you with

• Teresa Polk's coverage of Benedict's December 17 Angelus reflection on The True Meaning of Joy at Christmas and
• roundup of Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa's Advent Sermons.

Merry Christmas!