Benedict causes a row with criticism of Labour's unjust "equality laws"

Pope Benedict XVI has criticised equality legislation in England in a remarkably direct speech to English and Welsh bishops during their ad limina visit to Rome. According to the Catholic Herald:

The Pope was meeting the bishops for the first time since the English and Welsh Church lost control of its adoption agencies. The Sexual Orientation Regulations, passed in 2007, compelled agencies to place children with same-sex couples, forcing Catholic adoption agencies to close down or break ties with the Church.

His comments also came a week after the House of Lords rejected parts of the Equality Bill that could have forced the Church to ordain women, sexually active gay people and transsexuals.

Here is the relevant text of Pope Benedict's address:

Your country is well known for its firm commitment to equality of opportunity for all members of society. Yet as you have rightly pointed out, the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs. In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed. I urge you as Pastors to ensure that the Church’s moral teaching be always presented in its entirety and convincingly defended. Fidelity to the Gospel in no way restricts the freedom of others -- on the contrary, it serves their freedom by offering them the truth.

Continue to insist upon your right to participate in national debate through respectful dialogue with other elements in society. In doing so, you are not only maintaining long-standing British traditions of freedom of expression and honest exchange of opinion, but you are actually giving voice to the convictions of many people who lack the means to express them: when so many of the population claim to be Christian, how could anyone dispute the Gospel’s right to be heard?

If the full saving message of Christ is to be presented effectively and convincingly to the world, the Catholic community in your country needs to speak with a united voice. This requires not only you, the Bishops, but also priests, teachers, catechists, writers -- in short all who are engaged in the task of communicating the Gospel -- to be attentive to the promptings of the Spirit, who guides the whole Church into the truth, gathers her into unity and inspires her with missionary zeal.

The reaction to the Pope's criticism has been varied and widespread, but with support from many sides of the socio-political spectrum -- here is a sampling:

• Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth: "The Pope is right about the threat to freedom":

  ... using the ideology of human rights to assault religion risks undermining the very foundation of human rights themselves. When a Christian airport worker is banned from wearing a cross, when a nurse is sacked after a role-play exercise in which he suggested that patients pray, when Roman Catholic adoption agencies are forced to close because they do not place children for adoption with same-sex couples and when a Jewish school is told that its religious admissions policy is, not in intent but in effect, racist, we are in dangerous territory indeed. My argument has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with liberty.

• Andrew Pierce (London Daily Mail) on "Why I, as a gay man, agree with the Pope":

  Quite simply, I believe that the Government's decision to force the Church to abide by its equality legislation could hurt some of the most vulnerable members of our society - those whom I thought ministers had a duty to protect.

  Indeed, children such as me, raised for two years in a Catholic orphanage, could be the real losers of Harman's obsessive drive to force the Church to embrace her doctrine of legalised social engineering.

  In any given year, the 12 Catholic adoption agencies in England used to place a minimum of 200 children with adoptive parents. They have, by tradition, also handled a third of the boys and girls who have been judged 'most difficult to place'. Some of those children have to wait years before they are found a home.

  But the effect of the legislation from Harman is that those Catholic adoption agencies now have to consider placing children with gay couples, even though it goes against their spiritual teachings, or inevitably close down.

• Brendan O’Neill (Spiked Online): "It shouldn't take a Pope" "[to say that] Harriet Harman’s Equality bill is profoundly intolerant." (Index on Censorship)
• Christopher House (Telegraph) asserts Pope Benedict can hardly be said to be "meddling" in England's affairs by stating moral principles.
• Labor MP Martin Salter snipes: "[the] comments by the Pope on Britain’s lawmaking could possibly be the first time that a bloke in a dress has complained about equality legislation."

* * *

Here is the address of Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, the president of the bishops' conference of England and Wales, upon being received in audience by Benedict XVI.

"Justice" : Pope Benedict XVI's message for Lent 2010

• Pope's Lenten Message for 2010 "The Justice of God Has Been Manifested Through Faith in Jesus Christ"
• Cardinal Cordes Presents Pope's Message for Lent the Italian-language address given by Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, at the press conference that presented Benedict XVI's message for Lent.
• Hans-Gert Pöttering on Papal Lenten Message address given by Hans-Gert Pöttering, retired president of the European Parliament and president of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

Pope Benedict Roundup!

• On Wednesday, January 27th, Pope Benedict dedicated his address during his general audience to St. Francis of Assisi - "an authentic "giant" of holiness, who continues to fascinate very many people of every age and every religion".

• Catholic Light relays the news that Pope Benedict will soon create a new commission to evaluate the controversial site of alleged apparitions of Medjugorje.

• "What a theologian-pope tells theology: Part I (1/25/10) | Part II (1/26/10) -- a conversation with Zenit's Mirko Testa and Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto, president of the Italian bishops' Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith, Proclamation and Catechesis, on Benedict XVI's recent commentaries on theology.

• "Habemus Papam ... Ratzinger!" -- Jay Anderson's contribution to the survey: "3 Words To Drive "Progressive" Catholics Crazy". =)

• "For God's sake, blog!" Pope Benedict told priests -- well, not quite in those words, but that was the gist of Pope Benedict's message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Communications:

  "Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources -- images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites -- which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis."

• Leading French philosopher Bernard-Henri LŽvy has published a defense of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Pius XII, criticizing the media's campaign of "disinformation" (Huffington Post January 24, 2010):

  It is time to put an end to the disingenuousness -- the bias, in a word -- and the disinformation concerning Benedict XVI.

  As soon as he was elected, the accusations of "ultraconservatism," taken up in a loop by the media, began -- as though a pope could, in fact, be anything but "conservative."

  There have been those excessive insinuations, if not crass jokes, about the "German pope," the "post-Nazi" in a cassock ...

  And now, this is the record, I was going to say the limit, with this visit to the synagogue in Rome, following visits to other synagogues in Cologne and New York: the same chorus of disinformers scarcely waited for him to cross the Tiber before announcing, urbi et orbi, that he had failed to find adequate words, hadn't made the appropriate gestures and, thus, hadn't quite pulled it off.

  Read the rest.

• In January, at a ceremony in the Vatican, the Pope was made an honorary citizen of the south German town of Freising. During the ceremony, he recalled his youthful days as a seminarian:

  In his improvised address, the Pope mentioned when the seminary of Freising reopened its doors to the group of aspirants to the priesthood.

  Part of the facilities had been turned into a military hospital for foreign prisoners of war awaiting repatriation. But the Pontiff recalled that despite the lack of space, there was an atmosphere of euphoria.

  "We were in dormitories, in classrooms, etc., but we were happy, not only because the miseries and threats of war and the Nazi power had gone, but also because we were free, and above all because we were on the path to which we felt we were called," he said. "We knew that Christ was stronger than tyranny, than the power of Nazi ideology and its mechanisms of oppression.

  "We knew that time and the future belong to Christ, and we knew that he had called us and that he needed us, that he was in need of us.

  "We knew that the people of those changing times were waiting for us; they were waiting for priests who would come with a new impulse of faith to build the living house of God."

  Then-Joseph Ratzinger was ordained, along with his brother, in the Cathedral of Freising on June 29, 1951.

• Pope Benedict confirmed that he will not let Cardinal Bertone retire, citing his "competence and generous devotion" his service as secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:

  "I have always admired his 'sensus fidei,' his doctrinal and canonical preparation and his 'humanitas,' which helped us very much to live, in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a climate of genuine familiarity, unity and a decisive and determined discipline of work," the Pope continued.

  "All these qualities were the reason that led me to the decision, in the summer of 2006, to appoint him my secretary of state, and are today the reason why, also in the future, I would not like to give up his valuable collaboration," he added.

• John Allen Jr. (National Catholic Reporter endeavors to make sense of Benedict's Jewish policy (The Forward January 20, 2010):

  After all, this is the pope who made a point of visiting a Cologne synagogue in 2005 on his first foreign trip, and Auschwitz on his second, only later to revive a controversial Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews. More recently, this is the pope who rehabilitated a Holocaust-denying traditionalist bishop and who announced that Pope Pius XII (whose alleged "silence" during the Holocaust remains a bone of contention between Jews and Catholics) is a step closer to sainthood, only to visit RomeÕs Great Synagogue on January 17 to express his "esteem and affection" for Judaism, and to pledge that the "faces, names, tears and desperation" of Holocaust victims must never be forgotten.

  So, the obvious question in many Jewish minds likely is: Will the real Benedict XVI please stand up?

  However understandable that reaction may be, there is actually a hermeneutic key to Benedict's papacy, one that lends logic to what can otherwise seem like maddening inconsistencies. ...

• According to Rome Reports, Benedict XVI will visit a Lutheran Church in Rome. The visit is scheduled for March 14th, 2010.

• Taylor Marshall (Canterbury Tales) responds to the query: Does the Pope Wear a White Jewish Yarmulke on His Head?

• "Because if you were going to build a Pope from scratch, he might look like this" Why I am Catholic January 21, 2010.

Pope Benedict has finished the second volume on Jesus of Nazareth -- and "it will be his last"(?)

News, by way of Rabbi Jacob Neusner, that Pope Benedict has finished his second volume on Jesus of Nazareth. Catholic News Service reports:

The rabbi says the pope told him so during their 20-minute meeting yesterday.

The fact that the pope would tell a U.S. rabbi that the manuscript is finished isn’t quite as odd as it would appear. In the pope’s first volume, “Jesus of Nazareth,” there were more quotes from Rabbi Neusner than from anyone but the Gospel writers and St. Paul.

In the first volume, published in 2007, Pope Benedict discussed in depth Rabbi Neusner’s 1993 book, A Rabbi Talks With Jesus. The pope said the rabbi’s “profound respect for the Christian faith and his faithfulness to Judaism led him to seek a dialogue with Jesus.”

[...]

The rabbi was in Rome to speak at a Jan. 18 event sponsored by the Italian Catholic Church to mark its annual day of Catholic-Jewish dialogue. He was able to attend Pope Benedict’s visit Sunday evening to Rome’s synagogue and then met privately with the pope yesterday morning.

He told L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, that their 20 minutes together “was sufficient time for a good meeting between two professors. I have always admired the scholar Joseph Ratzinger for his honesty and lucidity and I really wanted to meet and get to know the man.”

“We spoke about our books and he confided to me that he has finished writing his second volume on Jesus,” the rabbi said.

Rabbi Neusner said he was struck by the pope’s penetrating gaze and by his “kindness and humility.”

From Rabbi Neusner himself, a personal account on meeting the Pope, with the following bombshell (The Forward January 27, 2010):

My wife and I had been invited to visit to Pope Benedict XVI for a private audience in his Vatican office on January 18, the day after his high-profile visit to Rome’s main synagogue. He and I had had an occasional scholarly correspondence before he had been pope, as we shared an interest in the historical study of first-century Judaism and Christianity. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he generously wrote an endorsement of my 1993 book “A Rabbi Talks With Jesus.” Then, much to my surprise, a decade-and-a-half later, when Benedict’s book “Jesus of Nazareth” was published, a good portion of one of its chapters was spent discussing my book, a sincere and, I believe, unprecedented theological engagement with a rabbi’s work on the part of a sitting pope. Yet until my most recent visit to Rome, the pope and I had only met once, and then only very briefly at a 2008 inter-religious gathering in Washington, so I was particularly excited to get to spend a bit of time with him.

Waiting outside the papal office, my wife and I wondered what the pope would want to discuss. We need not have worried. The pope and I have in common and talked about what professors always discuss: What are you working on, and what will you do next?

So when my wife and I spent our 25 minutes by ourselves with Benedict, I asked him how he was progressing with volume two of “Jesus of Nazareth,” and he asked me whether I’m still publishing a book a month. He told me that the second volume would come out soon and that it would be the last book he would write. But, he explained, he has other work that will keep him busy. That’s the price exacted from a major scholar who is elected pope.

According to Pope Benedict, reading Neusner's A Rabbi Talks With Jesus "gave him comfort when his sister died."

* * *

According to Zenit, Rabbi Neusner was also present during Benedict's visit to the Great Synagogue in Rome. On the great controversy of Jewish-Christian relations (Pope Pius XII), Neusner remarked:

we live in forgetfulness; we forget history and the religious traditions from which we come."

"For this reason," he said, "it is important to study history."

The rabbi continued: "I am thinking of a controversial question such as the historical figure of Pius XII. From my point of view, it is still too soon to judge and, yet, I often hear categorical judgments, in one sense or another. I have the feeling that someone is moving destructively, who is not interested either in Catholicism or Judaism, and much less so in dialogue between these two great traditions.

"It's sad as, moreover, in the concrete reality, I can see it in my daily life in the United States, relations between Jews and Christians are excellent.

"If the past is ignored, we are condemned to repeat it. Study, from this point of view, is essential. Together with the sense of responsibility: Every generation has a responsibility for the future, and it has it today, here and now."

Pope Benedict Roundup!

• The Vatican has published the calendar of liturgies over which Benedict XVI will preside from February through April, including the agenda of Lent and Holy Week celebrations and a mention of his trip to Malta.

• On January 15th, Pope Benedict addressed the annual plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, along with their president, Cardinal William Joseph Levada. The pope emphasized the Congregation's participation in "the ministry of unity":

  "Unity", he added, "is first and foremost unity of faith, upheld by the sacred tradition of which Peter's Successor is the primary custodian and defender. ... This is an indispensable service upon which depends the effectiveness of the Church's evangelising activity unto the end of time.

  "The Bishop of Rome", the Pope explained, "must constantly proclaim that ... Jesus is Lord". The Roman Pontiff's "potestas docendi" requires "obedience to the faith, so that the Truth that is Christ may continue to shine forth in all its grandeur, ... and that there may be a single flock gathered around a single Shepherd".

  The goal of a shared witness of faith among all Christians "represents, then, a priority for the Church in all periods of history. ... In this spirit, I trust particularly in your dicastery's commitment to overcoming the doctrinal problems that still persist in achieving the full communion of the Society of St. Pius X with the Church".

  Benedict XVI then went on to thank the members of the congregation for their efforts towards "the full integration of groups and individuals of former Anglican faithful into the life of the Catholic Church, in accordance with the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution 'Anglicanorum coetibus'. The faithful adherence of these groups to the truth received from Christ and presented in the Magisterium of the Church is in no way contrary to the ecumenical movement", he said, "rather, it reveals the ultimate aim thereof, which is the realisation of the full and visible communion of the disciples of the Lord".

  (Here's the full text of the Pope's address to the Congregation).

• On January 13, after his general audience, Pope Benedict met briefly in private with the woman who assaulted him and broke Card. Etchegaray’s leg at the Christmas Eve Mass. David Schütz (Sentire Cum Ecclesia) has more on on the canonical significance of Pope Benedict's forgiveness of his "assaulter".

• "Ecology of nature but above all of man, positive secularity, freedom of religion" - Sandro Magister distills the salient points of Pope Benedict's address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. (Complete text from the Vatican).

• "Now our Holy Father has been several years in the job, it has been interesting to see how Rome has adjusted." - The blogger Valle Adurni reports on the tangible local results of Pope Benedict's pontificate:

  ... More altars than not have some form of the 'Benedictine Arrangement', meaning that there was a crucifix centrally placed on the altar, with candles arranged to either side. Sometimes there were two candles, sometimes fork handles (as at St John Lateran), occasionally six.

  Almost all churches were open for prayer, and there were usually people praying inside. This is entirely new: I am used to a lot of Roman churches being firmly locked. I got inside all sorts of buildings I had never seen before.

  'Tat Alley' (aka Via dei Cestari), a street of ecclesiastical suppliers near the Pantheon, now has all sorts of traditional vestments and impedimenta on sale. The time was when you could only buy these things from the charmingly obsequious staff of Gammarelli's ('Splenditatis Vendor') or the grumpy assistants (no, assistants is not the word; they do not assist, but glare) at Serpone. Arte Sacra was the only place you could buy reliquaries, now they are on sale everywhere. The proprietor said to a colleague that the sixties and seventies nearly put him out of business, but that now trade was very good indeed. ...

  On a related note, from Zenit -- an interview with Father Mauro Gagliardi, consultor to the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, on the "subtle changes in papal liturgies during the five years of Benedict XVI's pontificate".

• Catholic Light relays a report from the Italian website Petrus that Pope Benedict did not welcome the end-of-year visit to Medjugorje by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna and his former student at university:

  Benedict XVI has personally communicated with the Austrian cardinal, receiving him in audience a few days after the arguments sparked by the journey of the prominent prelate to the small village in Bosnia-Herzegovina in which six alleged seers have claimed to see the Madonna since the 1980s. The Bishop of Mostar (the diocese in which Medjugorje is located), Monsignor Ratko Peric -- steadily convinced, like his predecessor, that the Virgin is absolutely not appearing in the village -- lamented in an official note that he had not been warned by Schönborn in advance of his arrival.

  From the blog Te Deum laudamus!, news that Cardinal Schönborn has conveyed a note of apology: "I regret if you have the impression that my pilgrimage to Medjugorje did a disservice to peace. Rest assured that this was not my intention."

• From Zenit, parents Luca Grilone and Samantha Barreca, on the double blessing" of having their newborn baptized by Pope Benedict himself.

Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome

On April 13, 1986, Pope John Paul II became the first Catholic pope to visit a Jewish synagogue -- the Great Synagogue of Rome. Today, commenting on his own impending visit, Pope Benedict recalled the example set by John Paul II -- noting that despite Catholic-Jewish problems, the overall climate between the two religions was one of respect and dialogue (Catholic News Service).

Following is a roundup of news and commentary on the Pope's visit to Rome's Jewish community.

A member of Rome's Jewish Community walks past by Rome's main synagogue as a TV technician prepares cable to broadcast the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI, Friday, Jan. 15, 2010. Credit: Associated Press

Roundup 2 (Post-visit)

• Via Catholic News Service, the English translation of Pope Benedict's address

  ... The teaching of the Second Vatican Council has represented for Catholics a clear landmark to which constant reference is made in our attitude and our relations with the Jewish people, marking a new and significant stage. The Council gave a strong impetus to our irrevocable commitment to pursue the path of dialogue, fraternity and friendship, a journey which has been deepened and developed in the last forty years, through important steps and significant gestures. Among them, I should mention once again the historic visit by my Venerable Predecessor to this Synagogue on 13 April 1986, the numerous meetings he had with Jewish representatives, both here in Rome and during his Apostolic Visits throughout the world, the Jubilee Pilgrimage which he made to the Holy Land in the year 2000, the various documents of the Holy See which, following the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Nostra Aetate, have made helpful contributions to the increasingly close relations between Catholics and Jews. I too, in the course of my Pontificate, have wanted to demonstrate my closeness to and my affection for the people of the Covenant. I cherish in my heart each moment of the pilgrimage that I had the joy of making to the Holy Land in May of last year, along with the memories of numerous meetings with Jewish Communities and Organizations, in particular my visits to the Synagogues of Cologne and New York.

  Furthermore, the Church has not failed to deplore the failings of her sons and daughters, begging forgiveness for all that could in any way have contributed to the scourge of anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism (cf. Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah, 16 March 1998). May these wounds be healed forever! The heartfelt prayer which Pope John Paul II offered at the Western Wall on 26 March 2000 comes back to my mind, and it calls forth a profound echo in our hearts: “God of our Fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your Name to the nations: we are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.”

  
  Pope Benedict XVI (L) visits the Synagogue of Rome on January 17, 2010 in Rome, Italy. Credit: Getty Images

  The passage of time allows us to recognize in the Twentieth Century a truly tragic period for humanity: ferocious wars that sowed destruction, death and suffering like never before; frightening ideologies, rooted in the idolatry of man, of race, and of the State, which led to brother killing brother. The singular and deeply disturbing drama of the Shoah represents, as it were, the most extreme point on the path of hatred that begins when man forgets his Creator and places himself at the centre of the universe. As I noted during my visit of 28 May 2006 to the Auschwitz Concentration camp, which is still profoundly impressed upon my memory, “the rulers of the Third Reich wanted to crush the entire Jewish people”, and, essentially, “by wiping out this people, they intended to kill the God who called Abraham, who spoke on Sinai and laid down principles to serve as a guide for mankind, principles that remain eternally valid” (Discourse at Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp: The Teachings of Pope Benedict XVI, II, 1 [2006], p.727).

  Here in this place, how could we not remember the Roman Jews who were snatched from their homes, before these very walls, and who with tremendous brutality were killed at Auschwitz? How could one ever forget their faces, their names, their tears, the desperation faced by these men, women and children? The extermination of the people of the Covenant of Moses, at first announced, then systematically programmed and put into practice in Europe under the Nazi regime, on that day tragically reached as far as Rome. Unfortunately, many remained indifferent, but many, including Italian Catholics, sustained by their faith and by Christian teaching, reacted with courage, often at risk of their lives, opening their arms to assist the Jewish fugitives who were being hunted down, and earning perennial gratitude. The Apostolic See itself provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way.

  The memory of these events compels us to strengthen the bonds that unite us so that our mutual understanding, respect and acceptance may always increase. ... [Read the rest]

• From Zenit News:

  The Pope arrived around 5:25 this evening and was welcomed by a group including the president of the Jewish Community of Rome, Riccardo Pacifici; the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, Renzo Gattegna; and by the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni.

  Before entering the synagogue, the Holy Father placed flowers before memorial tablets that record two of the darkest moments in the history of the Jewish Community of Rome: one commemorating the round-up and deportation of 1,022 Jews on Oct. 16, 1943; the other marking the Oct. 9, 1982, terrorist attack on the Tempio Maggiore, in which a two-year-old child was killed, and more than 40 others were injured.

  Benedict XVI, the second Pope to visit the Synagogue of Rome -- John Paul II being the first in 1986 -- was the first Pontiff to pause before the memorial tablet for the child. He placed a vase of white flowers there. He also greeted the relatives of the murdered child and the injured who survived the attack, among whom was Emanuele Pacifici, the father of the president of the Jewish Community of Rome.

  Red flowers were placed before the tablet recalling the 1943 deportation.

• John Allen Jr. offers a sampling of reactions to the Pope's synagogue visit and, as anticipated, reports that tensions over Pius XII surfaced:

  “The silence of Pius XII on the Holocaust is still painful,” said Riccardo Pacifici, head of the Jewish Community of Rome, in his remarks to Benedict XVI.

  “Perhaps he could not have stopped the trains of death, but he could have transmitted a signal, a final word of comfort, for our brothers on their way to the camps of Auschwitz,” Pacifici said.

  Pacifici also called upon the Vatican to open its archives from the era of Pius XII. While the Vatican has already published multiple volumes of material which it asserts contain everything relevant to the pope’s conduct during the war years, other material has not yet been unsealed.

  Rome’s Chief Rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, was more indirect, but no less clear in his reference to Pius XII.

  “The silence of God about the evils of the world, or our inability to hear his voice, is an inscrutable mystery,” Di Segni said. “But the silence of man is a different matter. It confronts us, it challenges us, and it does not escape judgment.”

  In his speech, Benedict XVI issued what amounted to a veiled defense of his controversial predecessor.

  Benedict noted that the Nazi campaign to exterminate Jews reached as far as Rome, and conceded that “unfortunately, many remained indifferent.”

  “But many, including Italian Catholics, sustained by their faith and by Christian teaching, reacted with courage, often at risk of their lives, opening their arms to assist the Jewish fugitives who were being hunted down, and earning perennial gratitude,” the pope said.

  Benedict then added: “The Apostolic See itself provided assistance, often in a hidden and discreet way.”

Pope Benedict shakes hand with chief rabbi Riccardo Di Segni at Rome's main synagogue January 17, 2010. Credit: Reuters

Roundup 1 (Preliminary)

• From Zenit, the official program for Pope Benedict's Sunday Trip to Synagogue.

• The Pope also visited the Jewish Museum of the Eternal City:

  For the occasion, the museum has organized an exhibit called "Et Ecce Gaudium": The Jews of Rome and the Investiture Ceremony of the Popes." The exhibit will present to the public panels dating from the 1700s that had been thought lost. ...

  The display will show paintings and documents that explain the role of Rome's Jewish community for the investiture ceremonies of the popes of the 1700s.

  More historical details on Jewish participation in the "investiture ceremonies" and the Museum's exhibit, from Catholic News Service:

  The centerpiece of the exhibit is comprised of 14 decorative panels made by Jewish artists to mark the inauguration of the pontificates of Popes Clement XII, Clement XIII, Clement XIV and Pius VI in the 1700s.

  For hundreds of years, the Jewish community was obliged to participate in the ceremonies surrounding the enthronement of new popes -- often in a humiliating manner.

  Various groups in the city were assigned to decorate different sections of the pope's route between the Vatican and the Basilica of St. John Lateran. The Jewish community was responsible for the stretch of road between the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus, which celebrates the Roman Empire's victory over the Jews of Jerusalem in the first century. The Roman victory included the destruction of the Temple, Judaism's holiest site, and the triumphal arch depicts Roman soldiers carrying off the menorah and other Jewish liturgical items.

  Rome's main synagogue is located less than two miles from the Vatican in the neighborhood that was once the city's Jewish "ghetto," a word originally coined by the Italians and used to describe a section of a city where Jews were forced to live. ... [

• From Catholic News Service, an interview with Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome:

  Rabbi Di Segni said Pope Benedict's visit is important first of all as "a symbolic continuation of the gesture made by (Pope) John Paul II, who was the first pope to set foot in a synagogue in 19 centuries. There is precedence, though," because St. Peter obviously had been in synagogues, he added.

  Visiting the synagogue 23 years after Pope John Paul did "is important because it is saying that the journey undertaken has not been interrupted, but will move forward," he said.

  "Times have changed," the rabbi said. "Many things have been achieved; other things still need to be done. The path, the Jewish-Catholic encounter, is terribly complicated. It is not a smooth road leading onward, but it is one continually filled with stumbling blocks. The visit of a pope to the synagogue should demonstrate that beyond the stumbling blocks there is a substantial desire to communicate with each other and resolve problems."

• From Vatican Radio, an interview with Cardinal Walter Kasper, resident of the Pontifical council for promoting Christian Unity, on the Pope's visit to Rome's synagogue.

• Deep splits have appeared in Italy’s Jewish community just before Pope Benedict makes his first visit to Rome’s synagogue, with at least one senior rabbi and one Holocaust survivor announcing a boycott." Reuters' Faithworld has the details on the tensions surrounding the papal visit.

Pope Benedict pays a hospital visit to Cardinal Etchegaray

Pope Benedict XVI paid a call Saturday on 87-year-old French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, hospitalized with a broken hip from the Christmas Eve Mass papal knock-down. The Associated Press reports:

Benedict embraced 87-year-old French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who wore a gray dressing gown during the early evening visit by the pontiff at Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic.

The Vatican said the pope and Etchegaray chatted cordially in French during the 30-minute visit, which hadn't been announced in advance.

"The pope expressed his interest and spiritual closeness" to Etchegaray, whose recovery was going well following surgery shortly after the injury, the Vatican said.

(HT: The Benedict Forum).

01-15-10: Update! - Zenit reports that Cardinal Roger Etchegaray has been discharged from Rome's Gemelli hospital.

"Nic Cage as Pope Benedict XVI"

Some Friday humor from the blog Nic Cage as Everyone ("founded on the belief that everything in life would be better with a little more Nic Cage, the most unique and versatile actor of his generation"), I give you "Nick Cage as Pope Benedict XVI":

Pope Benedict Roundup!

• From Zenit News, the report that "Some 2.2 million people gathered last year with Benedict XVI in his public audiences and liturgical celebrations held in the Vatican or the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo."

• The Rome Jewish Community confirmed that a visit to the capital's synagogue by Pope Benedict XVI will go ahead as planned, despite the controversy surrounding his proclaiming as "venerable" Pope Pius X.

• St. Peter's Basilica now safer for Pope following Christmas security breach (Catholic News Agency):

  Changes have been made at St. Peter's Basilica after a security breach on Christmas Eve that left the Pope on the floor and a cardinal hospitalized. A meeting was held between heads of security and the Vatican Secretary of State in the days following the incident and at least one visible measure has been taken to prevent similar disturbances in the future.

  According to Andrea Tornielli of Il Giornale, the obvious modification is a widening of the aisle in which the Pontiff, concelebrants and accompanying servers process to the altar. Barriers that before separated Pope Benedict from attendees by a couple of steps have been moved farther outwards to expand the procession space.

• Responding to Pope Benedict XVI's "World Day of Peace" message (and its theme of protecting the environment), PETA’s Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs, Bruce Friedrich, took the opportunity to ask him to serve only vegan meals at the Vatican.

• "Inside and outside the Vatican, 2009 was busy year for the Pope," says Jon Thavis (Catholic News Service) in a look back at 2009:

  The Year of St. Paul. The Year for Priests. A major social encyclical. A Holy Land pilgrimage. A first meeting with President Obama. Ten new saints. An African trip and an African synod. A Facebook debut. A controversial concession to Catholic traditionalists. An unexpected overture to disaffected Anglicans.

  And those are just the highlights, of course.

  Pope Benedict's 2010 schedule promises to be a busy one as well:

  On the horizon for the next 12 months are four papal trips; a Middle East Synod of Bishops; the expected publication of a document on the Bible and the second volume of "Jesus of Nazareth;" a major gathering of the world's priests; a pilgrimage to the Shroud of Turin; a probable consistory and several likely canonizations and beatifications -- including that of Pope John Paul II.

  In April Pope Benedict marks five years in office, and the event will no doubt be marked by modest festivities and lots of analysis on the accomplishments and priorities of the German pontiff, who turns 83 the same month. [More]

  On that note, check out Luke Coppen's "The 10 most important Catholic moments of the decade" (Catholic Herald) and John Allen, Jr.'s The biggest Vatican stories of the decade (National Catholic Reporter).

• "The Vatican vs. Copenhagen" (Carl Olson, Insight Scoop) | "Cultivate Creation": Benedict's Green Revolution (Sandro Magister, Chiesa) -- on those who "have attempted, either through misunderstanding or misrepresentation, to portray Benedict as a thoroughgoing environmentalist in the mold of Al Gore and Co."

• David Schütz (Sentire Cum Ecclesia), on Ratzinger's "Mustard Seed":

  At the time of the Holy Father’s election (in fact, even before it in this remarkable reading of the cards by Spengler) many speculated that this would become a key theme of his pontificate. In fact, this has not been so. Perhaps, as with so many other of Cardinal Ratzinger’s well known ideas, the idea has become transmuted with his changing role in the Church, for since his election, Pope Benedict has not returned to this theme – at least not in exactly this same guise. He has mentioned the “mustard seed” parable a couple of times ... but not with quite the same application. Except for the last example above (which is addressed to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and is in reference to the dwindling size of the Christian population in the Holy Land), since his election as Supreme Pontiff he seems to use the image more as an encouragement for Christian witness and evangelisation – with the implication that the little things we do will bear great fruit.

• Reading Peter Seewald's interview with then-Cardinal Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth, Julie D (Happy Catholic) discovers "the thoughtfulness of Pope Benedict XVI".

New book on Benedict - coming this January

The Social and Political Thought of Benedict XVI by Thomas Rourke. Lexington Books (January 2010) Covering the entire trajectory of his religious life, this meticulously researched book identifies the roots of political and social order in Pope Benedict XVI's philosophy and analyzes his views on the role of Christian faith in politics. Although not generally characterized as a political philosopher, the Benedict's writings shed significant and unique light on the world of politics today. In an age when modern politics has lost sight of its proper relationship within the larger scheme of human affairs and existence, Thomas R. Rourke shows that, as both Pope and the former Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict has made a conscious effort to relate political issues to the broader dialogue on human endeavor, ethics, and culture. Bringing to the fore Benedict's belief on the necessary place of the Christian tradition in a contemporary politics of reason, Rourke details the Pope's contribution to solving the deeper problems of politics today. A valuable study in political theory and religion, this book should be read by those interested in Catholic social and political thought. Thomas R. Rourke is chair of the political science and philosophy department at Clarion University.

Pope Benedict XVI forgives his attacker - sends rosary in return!

Pope Benedict XVI's personal secretary has visited the mentally disturbed woman who assaulted the pontiff at Mass on Christmas Eve (BBC News, January 3, 2010):

Monsignor Gaenswein made the visit to convey Pope Benedict's concern for the woman's situation, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told the Associated Press news agency.

He saw Ms Maiolo at a hostel for people with psychiatric problems in the town of Subiaco.

According to Il Giornale, the papal aide brought her a rosary and told her the Pope believed in her good intentions and had pardoned her.

The paper added that an elderly French cardinal, Roger Etchegaray, who suffered a broken hip during the incident in St Peter's, had also passed on his forgiveness.

(HT: Carlos Echevarria).