Pope Benedict's Books

In Light of the World Pope Benedict explains his legitimate attachment to his personal library. Every intellectual knows and loves and, as far as possible, keeps, his books!

"[I moved into the papal appartamento with] my study at least. It was important for me to have my study the way it has developed over the course of many decades. In 1954 I bought my desk and the first bookshelves. Gradually there were additions. In them are all my advisors, the books; I know every nook and cranny, and everything has its history. Therefore I brought the whole study along with me. (15) ...The beauty of the faith shines forth as I read the Church Fathers." (16)

Condoms are for Dogs

In the wake of the new international media distortion campaign against His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI's clear and consistent condemnation of contraception it is necessary to clarify that his reference to a possible amoral use of condoms referred to a male prostitute in sodomastic activity in which case the condom would have absolutely no contraceptive role: an inherently impotent and sterile act.

In other words, condoms might be OK for dogs! In that vein here are three pro-marital act slogans.

CONDOMS ARE FOR DOGS

"THE PILL" (POISON) IS FOR FOOLS

STERILIZATION IS CRIMINAL MALPRACTICE

The only loving sexual activity is heterosexual and faithfully monogamous and holy, always open to procreation; otherwise it is merely selfish lust in disguise, not fully human: the stuff of dogs! Cf. Deus Caritas Est, 6 ff.


Incidently, this was the media's dirty way to announce the publishing of the Holy Father's new Interview Book which he produced this Summer with the excellent journalist Mr. Peter Seewald his biographer.


You will find an exhaustive and updated response to all the excitement at Young Jesuits. That article is very much worth reading. It is well balanced and very sympathetic of everyone involved, beginning with the secular journalists.

Hebrew Catholics in the Holy Land

In light of my last article I should like to highlight the presence of Catholics in the Holy Land, especially of the small but very significant Vicariate of Hebrew Catholics under the care of the Patriarchal Vicar Father David Neuhaus, a Hebrew Catholic himself. I have added their website to my great links.

In light of the recent Synod on the Middle East, here is an article on the various communities of Catholics in the Holy Land with special emphasis on the Hebrew Vicariate.

Promised Land not Exclusively for the Jews

Archbishop clarifies synod remarks condemned by Jewish organizations
November 12, 2010
Archbishop Cyrille Salim Bustros, the Melkite Greek Catholic bishop of Newton (Massachusetts), has clarified remarks made during an October 23 press conference presenting the final message of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East.

Archbishop Bustros was quoted as saying, “The Holy Scriptures cannot be used to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians, to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands,” adding, “we Christians cannot speak of the 'promised land' as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people. This promise was nullified by Christ. There is no longer a chosen people-- all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.” The archbishop’s remarks were condemned by Jewish organizations.

Archbishop Bustros told Jihad Watch:


During the press conference which was held at the end of the Synod, I presented this message in my role as president of the commission that drafted the message. I was then asked by a journalist: "What do you mean by this sentence: 'Recourse to theological and biblical positions which use the Word of God to wrongly justify injustices is not acceptable'?" I answered: "Israel cannot use the Biblical concept of a promised land to justify its occupation of Palestinian territory and the expulsion of Palestinians who have been living there for centuries. We Christians cannot now speak about the Promised Land for the Jewish people. With Christ the Promised Land became the Kingdom of God": Jesus referred to this land in His sermon on the mount and gave it a spiritual interpretation: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God... Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land." (Mt. 5:3.5)

In my answer I was thinking in particular of Jewish settlers who claim their right to build on Palestinian territory by saying it forms part of biblical Israel, the land promised by God to the Jews according to the Old Testament. I also warned against the risk of Israel becoming an exclusively Jewish state, with a consequent threat to the 1.2 million Muslim and Christian Arabs living in Israel. The Synod is acknowledging the separation between religion and politics, in stating that recourse to the Bible cannot be used to justify political events: "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God." (Mt. 22:21)

As a Christian, and especially as a Middle-Eastern Christian-- and this is the unanimous opinion of the Middle-Eastern Christians, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants-- I see that the concept of the Promised Land cannot be used for the justification of the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of Palestinians. The creation of the State of Israel in 1948-- after the resolution of the UN in 1947 regarding the partition of Palestine which was under the British mandate between Arab and Jews-- is a political issue not a religious one. It is a fact of history like other facts: Jews who were persecuted in Europe and suffered the horrors of the Shoah decided to come to Palestine and build a country for their own. They chose Palestine because of the memory of the Jews who lived there 2000 years ago. They came in great numbers; a war arose between them and the Arabs living there, and they won the war; hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to leave their homes and flee to the surrounding Arabic countries: Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Some of the Israelis based their return on the Old Testament theme of the Promised Land. But this does not mean that God is behind their return and their victory against the Arabs …

As for the idea of the chosen people, it is clear, according to Christian theology and especially to St. Paul, that after Christ there is no longer one particular chosen people! With Christ and in Him all men and women of all countries are called to become children of God and unite in one body, the Body of Christ.

Now in the Israeli-Palestinian issue we are in presence of two opposed religious extremist ideologies: from one part extremist Jews who say that Palestine is the Promised Land given to them by God, and that they cannot give up any part of it to the Arabs; and from the other part extremist Muslims who say that Palestine is a Muslim land given to them by God during the Arabic conquests, and that they cannot give up a part of it to the Israelis. With these two opposed religious ideologies it is impossible to find a compromise in order to reach a lasting peace.

The message of the Synod for the Middle East takes a moderate position and clearly advocates, regarding the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the two-State-solution … Then the message explicitly condemns all kinds of violence and religious extremism … By dialogue only-- a dialogue which requires compromises from both sides, not by war, and especially not by a war based on religious assumptions-- can the Holy Land reach a just and lasting peace.

The Pilgrim Shell and Papal Coronation Campaign

Last Saturday The Holy Father made his Jacobean Year pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain to the shrine of Saint James Major, the Apostle. The scallop shell is the symbol of the "Camino" (Saint James Trail) and is also a symbol in Pope Benedict's coat of arms. During the in flight interview to Santiago Pope Benedict spoke of the shell's pilgrimage significance and Santiago's place in Christian pilgrimages.

Father Lombardi: Your Holiness, in the message for the recent congress on shrines that took place, in fact, at Santiago de Compostela, you said that you are living your pontificate with the sentiments of a pilgrim. On your coat of arms there is also the scallop shell of the pilgrim. Would you like to tell us something about your perspective on this pilgrimage, in your personal life too and in your spirituality, and about the thoughts you have as you travel as a pilgrim to Santiago?

Benedict XVI: Hello! I can say that being on a journey is already inscribed in my biography. But this is perhaps something external; nevertheless, it makes me think of the instability of this life, of being on a journey. Of pilgrimages one could say: God is everywhere, there is no need to go to another place, but it is also true that faith, according to its essence, is being a pilgrim.

The Letter to the Hebrews shows [this] in the figure of Abraham, who leaves his land and remains a pilgrim toward the future all of his life, and this Abrahamic movement remains in the act of faith, it is being a pilgrim above all interiorly, but it must also express itself exteriorly. Sometimes, leaving behind the everyday, the world of the useful, of practical goals, leaving it behind only to be truly on the path to transcendence, transcending oneself and the everyday and thus also finding a new freedom, a time of interior rethinking, of identifying oneself, to see the other, God, and in this way it is also always being on a pilgrimage: not only a leaving behind of self but also a traveling together. The pilgrimage reunites, we are going together to the other and thus we both rediscover each other.

Let me just say that the trips taken to Santiago de Compostela are an element in the spiritual formation of the European continent. Making a pilgrimage here constitutes, has constituted the common European identity, and today too this movement is being reborn, these dreams of being in spiritual and physical movement, of this person or that finding himself and thus to find silence, freedom, renewal, and to find God.


The second topic, also related to the papal coat of arms, check out the campaign to crown Pope Benedict XVI with the Papal Tiara, last used by Pope Paul VI. Here is the original campaign website.

Sanctorum Communionem and the Discarded "Communion Table"

Ratzinger points out that in the "communion of saints" sanctorum refers first of all to "the holy things", i.e. the sacraments--the principle means of holiness, especially the Holy Eucharist. Only secondarily does the ninth article of the creed (Credo in sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem) refer to the people who are sanctified by the worship of the holy mysteries.

"The saying about the communion of saints refers first of all to the Eucharistic community which through the body of the Lord binds the Churches scattered all over the earth into one Church. Thus originally the word "sanctorum" ("of the holy ones') does not refer to persons but means the holy gifts, the holy thing, granted to the Church in her Eucharistic feast by God as the real bond of unity. Thus the Church is not defined as a matter of offices and organizations but on the basis of her worship of God..." (Introduction to Christianity, Herder and Herder, NY, 1970, p. 257-8) [viz., what He effects in Her: unity in His communion of charity]. The communion of saints comes from Holy Communion! at the communion Table! Which brings me to my point.

Misguided bishops, priests and liturgists threw out the so called "altar rail" which is really properly called "the communion rail." They changed the name of the communion rail (read "the communion table") and collapsed it into the altar, calling the altar the table. But it is important to emphasize that the rail is, properly speaking, "the table", the proper place for the laity to receive the sacred species; and that kneeling reverently at the rail is a normative place for communion (Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, 160), and a much more proper manner than the rushed "fast food" and cumbersome communion line, not to mention the forbidden sitting or gathering around the altar and receiving together with the priest.

Notice the traditional German name for the communion rail: Der Kommuniones Tisch, and the Spanish: el comulgatorio (the communion place!). Isn't it ironic that in their quest for the communion table they threw it out! Bring back our communion rails to increase the dignity of our sanctorum communionem.

There is one more point to be made in this reflection for All Saints, and that is that that most confusing instruction of the NCCB mandating standing for communion as being normative for USA (if it ever had any force in its inherent ambiguity and contradictions) is certainly nullified by Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio permitting and encouraging the 1962 form of the Mass. If the people can kneel to receive in our parishes for one form of the Mass they can certainly do so for the other. It is, after all, the same eternal Lord we worship and receive in either form of the Mass, is it not! Should we not receive Him with the same majesty in both forms!

All you holy Saints of God, pray for the increased dignity of our Holy Communions to effect the Church's unambiguous Holy Communion with Our Blessed Lord in every way and in everything.

Justification by Penitence

Here is the closing sentence of my homily for today on Luke 18:9-14: the pharisee and the publican.

May the Most Holy Virgin, Help of Christians, in this month of the Holy Rosary, obtain for us the humility and supernatural vision to truly know ourselves and to live a truly penitent life and to transform ourselves in the face of God in Christ Jesus in the Church.

Thirteenth Century Women Mystics

In his past three Wednesday Audiences the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has given a short biography and sampling of the thought of three prominent feminine medieval holy women who reached the highest degrees of holy love: Blessed Angela of Foligno, Saint Gertrude the Great, and Saint Matilde.

Santiago de Compostela

In the sacristy of the greatest non-Marian piligrimage destination after Rome and Jerusalem this morning I noticed in the priest Mass register that America is way under represented here! Why is "New Spain" so ignorant of it´s original mother and of the Apostle of that same fatherland? Perhaps we are still very much under the cloud of the Black Legend which historically demonizes all things Spanish and glorifies all things English. It is interesting that I am here as the Holy Father flies over me to England right now!

An Interview-Book of Ratzinger Pope

Pope Benedict had a series of interviews this Summer with his German biographer, the journalist Peter Seewald, for a new interview-book to be published in the near future. It shall be the first such work of Ratzinger as Pope.

There are three Cardinal Ratzinger interview-books of which Seewald produced the last two (viz. God and the World, 2001; and Salt of the Earth, 1997; The Ratzinger Report, 1985, by Vittorio Messori, was the first).

God and the World is the least original and simplest of the three, often reading like basic catechesis. Salt of the Earth is a fine sort of autobiography, rich in personal details and spiritual and theological depth. And The Ratzinger Report is an excellent account of the status of the faith in the present world with an acute appraisal (still very necessary 25 years hence) of the major modern religious and moral dilemmas, in accord with it's original Italian title: Rapporto sulla fede (The Report on the Faith).

Il Blog di Andrea Tornielli was the source for the news on the upcoming volume.

Why I Wear the Cassock

Here is an interview of a Mainz priest who tells that wearing the cassock is an act of obedience, Catholic continuity and priestly service and authentic zeal.

Pope Benedict XVI UK Schedule

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI TO THE UNITED KINGDOM ON THE OCCASION OF THE BEATIFICATION OF CARDINAL JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 16 - 19 SEPTEMBER 2010

PROGRAM
Live Broadcast by CTV
(Vatican Television Center)

Thursday, 16 September 2010
Rome
08:10 Departure from Ciampino Airport for Edinburgh

Edinburgh
10:30 Arrival at Edinburgh International Airport
State welcome at Edinburgh International Airport
11:00 Welcoming Ceremony in the Palace of Holyroodhouse
Courtesy Visit to Her Majesty Elisabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, in the Palace of Holyroodhouse
11:40 Meeting with State Authorities in the grounds of the Palace of Holyroodhouse Address of the Holy Father
13:00 Luncheon with Papal Entourage at the Archbishop's House

Glasgow
17:15 Mass at Bellahouston Park Homily of the Holy Father
20:00 Departure from Glasgow International for London

London
21:25 Arrival at Heathrow International Airport (London Borough of Hillingdon)


Friday, 17 September 2010
08:00 Private Celebration of Mass in the Chapel of the Apostolic Nunciature in Wimbledon (London Borough of Merton)
10:00 Meeting with the world of Catholic Education in the Chapel and Sports Arena of St Mary’s University in Twickenham (London Borough of Richmond) Greeting and Address of the Holy Father
11:30 Meeting with Religious Leaders in the Waldegrave Drawing Room of St Mary’s University College in Twickenham (London Borough of Richmond) Address of the Holy Father
16:00 Courtesy Visit to the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace (London Borough of Lambeth) Address of the Holy Father
17:10 Meeting with representatives of civil society, academic, cultural and entrepreneurial world, diplomatic corps and religious leaders at Westminster Hall (City of Westminster) Address of the Holy Father
18:15 Ecumenical Celebration at Westminster Abbey (City of Westminster) Address of the Holy Father

Saturday, 18 September 2010
09:00 Meeting with the Prime Minister in the Archbishop's House (City of Westminster)
09:20 Meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister in the Archbishop's House (City of Westminster)
9:30 Meeting with the Opposition Leader in the Archbishop's House (City of Westminster)
10:00 Mass in the Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ (City of Westminster) Homily and Greeting of the Holy Father
17:00 Visit to St Peter's Residence for the elderly (London Borough of Lambeth) Address of the Holy Father
18:15 Prayer Vigil on the Eve of the Beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, Hyde Park (City of Westminster) Address of the Holy Father

Sunday, 19 September 2010
08:00 Farewell to the Apostolic Nunciature in Wimbledon (London Borough of Merton)
08:45 Departure by helicopter from Wimbledon Park (London Borough of Merton) for Birmingham

Birmingham
09:30 Arrival at the heliport near Cofton Park of Rednal
10:00 Mass with the Beatification of Venerable Cardinal John Henry Newman at Cofton Park of Rednal Homily of the Holy Father
Recitation of the Angelus Domini Words of the Holy Father
13:10 Private Visit to the Oratory of St Philip Neri, Edgbaston
13:45 Lunch with the Bishops of England, Scotland and Wales and the Papal Entourage at the Francis Martin House in Oscott College
16:45 Meeting with the Bishops of England, Wales and Scotland in the Chapel of the Francis Martin House, Oscott College Address of the Holy Father
18:15 Farewell Ceremony at the International Airport of Birmingham Address of the Holy Father
18:45 Departure from the International Airport of Birmingham for Roma

Rome
22:30 Arrival at Ciampino Airport

________________________________________
Time lag
Rome: + 2 UTC
United Kingdom: + 1 UTC

Quasi-Hermit

That is my assessment of the diocesan priesthood. The diocesan priest is neither a monk in a monastery nor an social activist. He must have deep interior life (a firm sacramental life of prayer and mortification) and must learn to love being often alone with God and to be interrupted at any time by men (and women!), with great joy. He is happy to be a quasi-hermit!

Munificentissimus Deus

On the 1 November 1950 the Venerable Pope Pius XII declared that “by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” Munificentissimus Deus, 44

This solemn dogmatic definition indicates the bodily nature of the after life and thereby strengthens our hope in eternal life.

The creedal dogmas of the final judgment, heaven, hell and the intermediate state of purgatory are presupposed by the doctrine of the bodily assumption of the Mother of God. Venerable Pius in his dogmatic document showed how death and judgment are punishments due to sin stating: “God does not grant to the just the full effect of victory over death until the end of time has come.” (Ibid., 4) “…The bodies of even the just are corrupted after death, and only on the last day will they be joined, each in its own glorious soul.” The body and soul are separated for a time at death and the body normally undergoes corruption.

However, Mary was preserved, by a special grace, from original sin and the consequent law of corruption. She is granted special exemption from the law of death and the usual waiting for the last day. Her exemption is proven in three moments: in the Immaculate Conception and in the angelic salutation “full of grace” and in the Virginal Birth. “God, who by an entirely unique privilege, preserved Mary from sin by her Immaculate Conception [and kept her a virgin through childbirth] exempted her from the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and so she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body. (Ibid., 5, 18) And since she is proclaimed “full of grace” one realizes that there is no corruption in her. Death and corruption are punishments due to sin, which punishments this Immaculate Virgin never deserved, she alone always being truly worthy of uninhibited union with the Most High God.

Moreover, Mary Immaculate’s glorious assumption, being the assumption of a woman, body and soul, is an early fulfillment of the last two articles of the Christian Creed (and even a cause of the knowledge of those truths of faith): “I believe in the resurrection of the body” and “I believe in the life everlasting.” A mere mortal man is in heaven in the person of the perfect Woman Maria. Our hope for our bodily incorruption on the last day is greatly strengthened today as we are assured in this ancient feast and modern definition of faith that together with Christ, the heavenly King, is also the soul and body of [the heavenly Queen—the Woman] who has already obtained the reward of heavenly glory in her flesh.

Optimam Partem

Luke 10:38-42 is the Gospel of the ancient Assumption Mass Gospel (1962 Missal) which ends "Mary has chosen the best part, and it will not be taken away from her," that also being the communion antiphon for that same Mass: Optimam partem elegit sibi Maria, quae non auferetur ab ea in aeternum.

This is a very legitimate analogical use of sacred scripture. One might legitimately ask: might not our Lord have also intended to mean the greatest Mary when he said that "Mary" has chosen the best part which would not be taken from her? In any case, God is the primary Author of scripture and he intends several levels of understanding in every text. Lazarus' and Martha's sister is here a type, a shadow, of The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Assumpta.

A similar application is made in reference to Saint Joseph using the Exodus passage referring to the patriarch Ite ad Joseph. Joseph the Patriarch is a type of Saint Joseph of Nazareth.

Personally, I think this Gospel is a better choice for the Assumption Mass than the entirely too often repeated Annunciation Gospel because at least it alludes to Mary's eternal reward which is the meaning of this feast.

The Virtue of Intolerance

God is intolerant and requires all believers to be intolerant of all errror, false worship and of immorality in all it's forms. Just consider the first commandment:

"I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishments for their fathers' wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation but bestowing mercy, down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments." Deuteronomy 5:6-10

The first necessary principle of respect for the human person and of right reason is to have solid ideas: i.e. to acknowledge the Absolute.

The truth imposes itself with apodictic force upon the intelligence and everyone who possesses or think he possesses it tries to spread it, to impose it on the rest of men and to remove the darkness of error which blinds them. And it happens, by the hidden relation and harmony which God has given to our faculties that intolerance of the will should follow this fatal intolerance of the understanding; and when it is firm and entire and the manly spirit of peoples has not been extinguished or whithered these should fight for an idea, at the same time with the weapons of reason and logic as with the sword and fire.

So called tolerance is an easy virtue ; it is a sickness of sceptical ages or of no faith. He who believes nothing, nor hopes in anything, nor neither strives for the salvation nor is concerned about the damnation of souls, can easily be tolerant. But such meekness of character cannot depend except upon a weakness and emasculation of the power of understanding.

The second principle of respect of the human person is to acknowledge and promote the equality and liberty and supreme dignity of all men under God. Any proper principle of "tolerance" is based on the antecedent principle of intolerance (i.e. the truth must first of all be unshakable for any other principle to apply universally and to therefore have any meaning at all for the true good of each person and of humanity). "Tolerance" is therefore not tolerance at all but it's opposite: the intransigent upholding and defense of the inviolable dignity of each person, not tolerating any unjust opposition to that necessary respect for the person and for the truth on which his dignity depends!

The third principle of respect of the human person is union among believers. Catholics must be true and loyal to Christ and to the Church and so influence society by their love and commitment to the truth. They will thus live the virtue of intolerance and save themselves and all who would be saved.

cf. Antologia General de Menendez Pelayo, I Tomo: Madrid 1956 (pp. 49-51).

Ernesto Lecuona

Ernesto Lecuona (1896-1963), arguably the greatest Cuban musician of the twentieth century, produced some very fine classical Cuban music for piano, orchestra, opera and cinema.

The "Andalucia" (from his Suite Espanola) is magnificent piano!

His "Siempre en mi corazon" (1942) got a Grammy nomination and was beat that year by "White Christmas".

"Maria la O" (1930) is from his famous zarzuela opera of that name.

P.S. Please excuse this little Summer diversion into my Cuban heritage!

FLUCTUAT NEC MERGITUR

My 1907 first edition of some French plays by Corneille, with notes in English, published by Henry Holt and Company, has the Paris coat of arms impressed on the front cover with the motto: fluctuat nec mergitur ("It will toss but will not sink").

It is a motto which applies a fortiori to the bark of Peter:

ECCLESIA CHRISTI FLUCTUAT NEC MERGITUR!

Christian Certainty

An essential characteristic of Catholic belief is the certainty that it is indeed "Catholic," i.e. "universal:" for every man in every place, time and circumstance.

In other words, it is true: the Truth. The Catholic faith alone fully presents Christ to the world: the Way, the Truth and the Life.

If it did not always apply it would not really be true, and therefore, would not be Catholic!

Compare this claim with the claim of Christ Himself: "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life, noone comes to the Father but through me." John 14:6

The Church is simply passing on that same absolute certainty in the Absolute.

South African World Cup

As we approach the final games of the 2010 World Cup Soccer Championship in which Holland is still an underdog contender (having beaten highly favored Brazil), could we not see this as a victory for the South African European elite which is predominantly of Dutch descent?

A Holland win, in this sense, is a South African win (the triumph of the South African upper class). The landed gentry of South Africa must be very pleased so far and should be quite gratified to win the cup.

So, it is not true that all "African" teams are out! The team of the majority of the European settlers of the republic is indeed Holland!