Awkward! - John Knox to welcome Pope Benedict to Scotland!

A lookalike of the Protestant Reformation leader John Knox will welcome Pope Benedict to Scotland. Mike Merrit reports for the Daily Record (UK) July 25, 2010:

The actor has been hired by the Catholic Church to play the leader of Scotland's Protestant Reformation in a pageant of the country's historical figures. ...

Knox's surprise inclusion by Catholic Church leaders follows accusations that this year's 450th anniversary of the Reformation is being ignored by the Scottish Government.

The Reformation of 1560 revoked the Pope's authority in Scotland and banned Catholic Mass. ...

A Church of Scotland spokesman said: "It is a sign of a healthy nation that diversity within the Christian community is something to be celebrated as opposed to a source of division and struggle.

"It is a gift to those of us of a Protestant persuasion that by including this figure, the Catholic Church is contributing to the celebrations of the Reformation."

"I can only think that someone in the Catholic Church has taken leave of their senses and clearly has no concept of Knox's theology", muses Martin Hannan (Edinburgh Evening News July 27, 2010):

The man himself smashed "graven images" in churches across Scotland, and never sat for a portrait. He would find the prospect of a mummer playing him in a Papal cavalcade utterly offensive, and I suspect more than a few Protestants and not a few Catholics will be angered by this patronising gesture.

(Regular roundups of news on Pope Benedict's visit to the UK may be found at here).

Benedict in the UK

Pope Benedict in the UK A project of the Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club Featuring weekly roundups of news, articles and commentary on Pope Benedict's upcoming visit to England and Scotland.

"The Pope's Cologne"

I wonder ... does he wear it?

The Pope’s Cologne is a classic Old World cologne made from the private formula of Pope Pius IX (1792-1878). We obtained this formula from descendants of the commander of his Papal Guard and faithful friend, General Charles Charette. We have followed this complex, exclusive formula meticulously, using the same essential oils that his perfumers used 150 years ago. We believe that we have succeeded in capturing the same fragrance that he and those around him enjoyed so long ago. This is a truly extraordinary cologne with surprising freshness and notes of violet and citrus. We are pleased that you will have the opportunity to enjoy this wonderful, historic fragrance. It is an honor for us to be able to produce it and make it available for your pleasure today.

Try it for yourself.

Pope Benedict Roundup!

• Does the Pope say the Old Mass privately? -- that's the claim of Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the SSPX. But Stuart Reid of The Catholic Herald thinks: "probably not."

• Anticipating the sequel to Jesus of Nazareth? -- according to Catholic News Service, "The translators are being careful. So careful, in fact, that the book isn’t expected to be published before Lent of 2011":

  It seems the first volume of “Jesus of Nazareth” has some discrepancies in the various language versions. To make sure that doesn’t happen this time, the translators are doing a lot of cross-checking.

  The Vatican wants the book to be released simultaneously in major languages. Lent would be an appropriate time to launch Volume 2, which treats Christ’s Passion and the Resurrection. The first volume of the work, which ran more than 400 pages, was published in the spring of 2007 and covered Jesus’ life from his baptism to his transfiguration.

• John Allen Jr (National Catholic Reporter): "hopes for a “grand partnership” between President Barack Obama and Pope Benedict XVI so far have fizzled, although one shouldn't pronounce 'time of death' just yet.

• Rome Reports profiles Castel Gandalfo, where Pope Benedict has been vacationing since July 7 (following a 400 year old tradition established by Pope Urban VIII (pope from 1623-1644)). Speaking to an audience gathered in the courtyard of the papal residence, the Holy Father reminds us to take God on vacation.
  
  According to Zenit, the Pope will spend time with his brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, spend time reading and writing new works, and play his grand piano.

• "The Court of the Gentiles" - a new initiative for evangelization promoted by Pope Benedict and as expounded by Archbishop Ravasi in L'Osservatore Romano:

  "I think that the Church should also open today a sort of 'court of the gentiles' where men can in some manner cling to God, without knowing him and before they have found the entryway to his mystery, which the interior life of the Church serves. To the dialogue with the religions it must above all add today a dialogue with those for whom religion is something foreign, to whom God is unknown, and who nonetheless would not like simply to remain without God, but at least to approach him as the Unknown."

  These words, addressed to the Roman curia by Benedict XVI on the occasion of the Christmas greetings of 2009, have produced concrete effects: a Vatican dicastery, the pontifical council for culture, has given rise to an institution, called "Court of the gentiles," in order to open a serious and respectful dialogue between believers and agnostics or atheists.

  The inaugural event will take place in Paris in March of next year, simultaneously in multiple locations: the Sorbonne, UNESCO, and the Académie Française, according to different perspectives. ... [more]

• Pope Benedict XVI on Saint Bonaventure (Insight Scoop July 15, 2010. On the feast of St. Bonaventure, Carl Olson reviews the three general audiences that Pope Benedict XVI dedicated this past March to remarking upon the great saint and doctor.

• On the Feast of the Immaculate Heart, Mark Miravelle, professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and Introduction to Mary: The Heart of Marian Doctrine and Devotion examines Benedict XVI's Turn Toward Mary (Zenit News. June 11, 2010).

• On June 17th, Pope Benedict, who is normally guarded by a huge security entourage, reportedly tucked in to a fish dinner in a small, family restaurant 150 yards from the Vatican walls. The Herald Sun reports:

  He apparently timed his unofficial trip to coincide with the Italian soccer team's first World Cup game against Paraguay so that he could slip unnoticed through the empty streets as locals concentrated on the game.

  The claims, confirmed by a shocked waiter, were the subject of fevered speculation in the Italian media after they first appeared in a gossip column yesterday.

• Kevin Clarke, a theology teacher at St. Joseph Academy in San Marcos, CA, gave his seniors the not-so-easy task of not only reading the encyclical "Caritas in Veritate", but of synthesizing its teaching and applying its principles to current events.

• Registrations opened July 1 for the 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid, with Benedict XVI being the first to sign up.

• Is the Pope in danger on his UK trip?

Pope Benedict on St. Thomas Aquinas

When it comes to Pope Benedict and St. Thomas Aquinas, the general impression is that the two don't get along. Ratzinger has referred to himself as a "decided Augustinian" and that "from the beginning, St. Augustine interested me very much -- precisely insofar as he was, so to speak, a counterweight to Thomas Aquinas" (Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millennium p. 33 and p. 60), and that if he were trapped on a deserted island, his two choice picks would be the Holy Bible and the Confessions.

As John Allen Jr. notes in Pope Benedict XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger, his gravitation towards Augustine rather than the Angelic Doctor was itself "a minor act of rebellion ... a bit daring, though in keeping with the intellectual ferment [of ressourcement theology] in the pre-Vatican II era."

And in his own personal memoirs, Milestones, we find Ratzinger's admission that:

This encounter with personalism [in the thought of Martin Buber] was for me a spiritual experience that left an essential mark, especially since I spontaneously associated such personalism with the thought of St. Augustine, who in his Confessions had struck me with the power of all of his human passion and depth. By contrast, I had difficulty penetrating the thought of Thomas Aquinas, whose crystal-clear logic seemed to me to be too closed in on itself, too impersonal and ready-made.

Howbeit Ratzinger clarifies his remark by attributing his difficulties to "a rigid, neoscholastic Thomism that was simply too far afield from my own questions.")

In recent general audiences, the Pope turned his attention to the subject of St. Thomas Aquinas. Given that he has been devoting such occasions to exploring a good number of church fathers, theologians and saints throughout Church history, this may not be indicative of the Pope's support for a restoration of Thomism to the seminaries, as Rusty Reno speculates -- but in light of the (often overplayed) opposition between Benedict's Augustinianism and "neo-scholastic Thomism", those who appreciate the Pope and "The Dumb Ox" can't help but take notice:

• On the Summa Theologiae: "In the School of the Saints, Let Us Be Enamored" of the Eucharist. June 23, 2010.
• On Aquinas, Philosophy and Theology: Faith "Protects Reason From Every Temptation to Mistrust Its Own Capacities". June 16, 2010.
• On St. Thomas Aquinas: He "Showed There Is a Natural Harmony Between Christian Faith and Reason". June 2, 2010.

Pope Benedict on discerning "true prayer"

And here, I would like to say a second thing: true prayer is in fact not foreign to reality. If praying alienated you, took you away from your real life, beware: it would not be true prayer! On the contrary, dialogue with God is the guarantee of truth, of truthfulness with oneself and with others and, therefore, of liberty. To be with God, to listen to his Word, in the Gospel, in the liturgy of the Church, defends us from the fascinations of pride and of presumption, from fashions and conformism, and gives us the strength to be truly free, including from certain temptations masked as good things.

You asked me: how can we be in the world without being of the world? I answer you: precisely thanks to prayer, to personal contact with God. It is not about multiplying words -- Jesus already said that -- but of being in the presence of God, of making one's own, in one's mind and heart, the phrases of the "Our Father," which embrace all the problems of our life, and also of adoring the Eucharist, meditating on the Gospel in our rooms, or participating with recollection in the liturgy. All this does not separate us from life, but helps us to be ourselves in every environment, faithful to God's voice that speaks to our consciences, free from the conditioning of the moment. [...]

Dear friends! Faith and prayer do not resolve problems, but enable one to address them with a new light and strength, in a way fitting to man, and also more serenely and effectively. If we look at the history of the Church, we will see that it is rich in figures of saints and blesseds who, precisely beginning with an intense and constant dialogue with God, illumined by faith, were always able to find new, creative solutions to respond to concrete human needs in every century: health, education, work, etc. Their daring was animated by the Holy Spirit and by a strong and generous love of brothers, especially of the weakest and most underprivileged.

Transcription of Benedict XVI's Sunday address to young people in the cathedral of Sulmona. The Pope made a one-day trip to the region, which was devastated by an earthquake in 2009.

The Anniversary of "Summorum Pontificum"

Three years ago today, Pope Benedict XVI promulgated the motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum" ("Of the Supreme Pontiffs," from the first words of the original Latin text), allowing the "old Mass" (the Tridentine Mass of Pope St. Pius V, codified and promulgated in 1570, 440 years ago) to be more freely celebrated throughout the Catholic Church.

And so one period in history of our Church came to an end.

(Some would say that one winter, and that a severe one, came to an end.)

A new springtime had come.

The Pope had long hesitated. In the months before the official promulgation, when the text was known to be already finished, but the date for its publication had not yet been set, officials in Rome close to the Pope confirmed to me that the opposition to this document was intense, and that the Pope was hesitating.

"You must pray for him," I was told.

And then, the Pope took his decision, and issued the document.

Today is the Anniversary of Summorum Pontificum, by Robert Moynihan. Inside the Vatican July 7, 2010. (Read the rest).

See also: Ever Ancient, Ever New: Summorum Pontificum and the young, by George Neumayr. Catholic World Report June 2010.

New Book: Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal

Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis: Working for Reform and Renewal, by Gregory Erlandson and Matthew Bunson.

Our Sunday Visitor (May 17, 2010)

"You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured."----- Pope Benedict XVI

The True Story

Since 1985, the Catholic Church in the United States has been living in the shadow of the clerical sexual abuse crisis. In 2002, revelations in Boston ignited an institutional nightmare. More recently, the scandal erupted in Ireland and spread across Europe. There is now a rush by some, both inside and outside the Church, to place direct blame upon Pope Benedict XVI.

There is no escaping the fact that Pope Benedict, as the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and now as pope, has played an historically pivotal and personal role in the Vatican's response to the crisis.

Pope Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis is a groundbreaking, critically objective assessment of the criticism facing the pope as well as a review of his real response to the victims, abusers, bishops, media, and the millions of Catholics worldwide who continue to be justifiably horrified by the scandal. The first and foremost objective for this book is the truth no matter how difficult to face and letting the pope's record speak for itself.

"No one imagines that this painful situation will be resolved swiftly. Real progress has been made, yet much more remains to be done." Pope Benedict XVI.

Review

• Setting the Record Straight: Benedict XVI and the Sexual Abuse Crisis, by Father John Flynn, LC. Zenit. June 6, 2010.

Pope Benedict marks end of Year for Priests; begs forgiveness for priest abuse victims; recognizes "summons to purification"

In his address at the papal Mass on the feast of the Sacred Heart that marked the end of the Year for Priests (see link to full text), Pope Benedict XVI drew specific attention to the scandal of priestly abuse:

It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the "enemy"; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of the little ones, in which the priesthood, whose task is to manifest God’s concern for our good, turns into its very opposite. We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life’s dangers.

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican before a mass on June 11, 2010 with some 15,000 priests marking the end of the Roman Catholic Church's Year for Priests. Source: Getty Images

Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God’s gift, a gift concealed in "earthen vessels" which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes his love concretely present in this world. So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, his gift becomes a commitment to respond to God’s courage and humility by our own courage and our own humility. The word of God, which we have sung in the Entrance Antiphon of today’s liturgy, can speak to us, at this hour, of what it means to become and to be a priest: "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart" (Mt 11:29).

Pope Benedict celebrated the mass with a sea of 15,000 white-vested priests filling St. Peter's Square -- reportedly the Eucharistic celebration with the greatest number of concelebrants in the history of the Catholic Church.

More from the Catholic News Service:

The priests and bishops, who turned St. Peter's Square into a sea of white albs and stoles, were well aware of the scandal and of the shadow of doubt it cast over the Catholic priesthood.

But, the pope said, the scandal should make priests grow "in gratitude for God's gift, a gift concealed in 'earthen vessels' which, ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes his love concretely present in this world."

"Let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification," the pope said. He then led the priests in the solemn renewal of their priestly promises to be faithful ministers of Christ, working not for their own interests, but for the good of all men and women.

Father Paul Daly, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Heywood, England, said, "I think the pope was spot on" in saying the Year for Priests was about thanksgiving and renewal, not shouting the glories of the priesthood.

"It wasn't a triumphalistic celebration, but was calm and reflective," he said.

Further reflections on Benedict's address

• Enthralled by Christ, Heralds of Hope: Priestly Identity and Mission in the Theology of Pope Benedict XVI, by Chris Burgwald, S.T.D. Ignatius Insight June 11, 2010.
• Consecration to the Immaculate Heart for Priests Pope Benedict led priests in a consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The consecration occurred at the end of the concluding Mass for the Year for Priests, while the Holy Father knelt before an icon of our Blessed Mother. June 11, 2010.

... and the media's reaction to the apology

• CNN Owes Pope An Apology (Creative Minority Report)
• The Pope speaks 'for the first time'-- yet again Diogenes. (CatholicCulture.com)

Pope Benedict's Apostolic Journey to Cyprus (June 4-6, 2010)

From the Vatican

• Program
• Missal for the Apostolic Journey

Schedule of Events / Prepared Texts by Pope Benedict

• Meeting of His Holiness Benedict XVI with journalists during the flight to Cyprus (Papal Flight, 4 June 2010)
• Welcoming Ceremony at the International Airport of Paphos (June 4, 2010)
• Ecumenical Celebration in the archeological area of the church of Agia Kiriaki Chrysopolitissa (Paphos, 4 June 2010)
• Meeting with the civil authorities and the diplomatic corps at the presidential palace in Nicosia (June 5, 2010)
• Meeting with the Catholic community of Cyprus at the sports field of St. Maron primary school (Nicosia, 5 June 2010)
• Meeting with His Beatitude Chrysostomos II, Archbishop of New Justiniana and All Cyprus at the Orthodox archbishopric of Nicosia (June 5, 2010)
• Eucharistic Celebration at the parish church of the Holy Cross attended by priests, religious, deacons, catechists and representatives of Cyprian ecclesial movements (Nicosia, 5 June 2010)
• Eucharistic Celebration on the occasion of the publication of the Instrumentum laboris of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops - Eleftheria sports centre (Nicosia, 6 June 2010)
• Consignment of the Instrumentum laboris of the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops - Eleftheria sports centre (Nicosia, 6 June 2010)
• Instrumentum Laboris "The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness. 'Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul' (Acts 4, 32)" (June 6, 2010)
• Recitation of the Angelus Domini (Nicosia, 6 June 2010)
• Visit at the Cathedral of the Maronite Church of Cyprus (Nicosia, 6 June 2010)
• Farewell Ceremony at the International Airport of Larnaca (June 6, 2010)

Additional Coverage

Zenit News Service

• A Pope in Cyprus: Benedict XVI Reviews Historical First, Summarizes 16th International Journey Zenit. June 9, 2010.
• Media Reacts Positively to Pope's Cyprus Trip; Press Follows Benedict XVI's Words Closely Zenit. June 8, 2010.
• Aide: Cyprus Is Key in Evangelization History, Affirms its Strategic Significance Zenit. June 6, 2010.
• Pope and Muslim Leader Embrace in UN Buffer Zone June 6, 2010.
• Benedict XVI's Words En Route to Cyprus, "There Is a Great and Ancient Christianity in the Middle East" June 6, 2010. A translation of the press conference Benedict XVI gave Friday en route to his three-day apostolic trip to Cyprus.
• Pope to Cyprus: Support Mideast Christians, Visits Orthodox Archbishopric of Nicosia Zenit. June 5, 2010.
• Cypriot President Says Nation Is Bridge That Unites, Welcomes Benedict XVI to Island, Asks for Help With Turkey June 5, 2010.
• Cypriot President's Greeting to Pope: "We ... Are Fellow Travelers on the Road Toward Achieving Peace" June 5, 2010. Address given today by the Cypriot president, Demetris Christofias, upon receiving Benedict XVI to the Presidential Palace.
• Unity Among Christians Possible, Pontiff Affirms; Celebrates Ecumenical Event With Orthodox Chrysostomos II June 4, 2010.
• Words of Cypriot Orthodox Archbishop to Pope: "It Is Here ... That the Christian Roots of Europe Took Seed" June 4, 2010.
• Nuncio Notes 3 Dimensions of Pope's Cyprus Trip: Underlines Importance of Christian Presence June 4, 2010.
• Benedict XVI Visits Paphos, Where St. Paul Started. Cyprus Holds Significant Place in Christian History. June 4, 2010.
• Aide: Benedict XVI Will Promote Peace in Cyprus June 3, 2010.
• Cypriot Orthodox Leader Rejects Criticism of Pope; Papal Visit Comes Amid Tension Over Ecumenism June 2, 2010.
• Political Instability Awaits Pope in Cyprus Interview With Alfred-Maurice de Zayas. June 2, 2010.