Category: Benedict XVI

Been wondering what Hans Kung thinks about Pope Benedict’s new encyclical Deus Caritas Est? Well, there’s a surprise and a no-surprise to report.

The surprise: Kung liked the encyclical and had some positive things to say about it.

"Hans Kueng [sic], who was banned from teaching Catholic theology in 1979, hailed his former university colleague for writing a first encyclical that was ‘solid theological fare’ and ‘not a manifesto of cultural pessimism or restrictive sexual morality.’"

The no-surprise: Kung thinks the Pope’s next encyclical should be based on the Gospel According to Hans Kung.

"[Kung’s] statement, written in their native German language, then said the second encyclical he sought [from Pope Benedict] should show kindness to Catholics who use contraceptives, which the Church bans, or men who leave the priesthood because of mandatory celibacy.

"Kueng asked for more understanding for ‘critical voices in the Church’ and divorced Catholics who remarry and are therefore no longer allowed to receive communion in church.

"His last appeal was for ‘more loving treatment’ for Protestant clerics ‘whose Eucharistic services have been declared invalid.’"

GET THE STORY.

You may be aware of a story that has been floating around the blogosphere/MSM regarding comments allegedly made by B16 to the effect that Islam is incapable of changing and its to the modern world.

The story is based on comments made by Fr. Joseph Fessio to Hugh Hewitt on his radio show.

In some places folks have been making a lot out of this,

SUCH AS HERE.

But before people go off half-cocked on this one, they need to read a very important clarification of his remarks issued by Fr. Fessio in response to the article I just linked.

READ IT HERE.

(CHT: Insight scoop.)

UPDATE: MORE HERE FROM SANDRO MAGISTER. (Thanks to the reader who e-mailed!)

HERE’S THE NEW ENCYCLICAL–DEUS CARITAS EST–IN MP3 FORMAT.

It’s about 17 meg in size and takes just over and hour and a half to listen to.

This is just a rough-n-ready adaptation of the encyclical to audio format. I didn’t have time to do a lot of tweaking to smooth things out, so there may be infelicities here and there. I did tweak a few things, though.

(Y’know, we’re really living in the future now. B16 issues an encyclical and in an incredibly short space of time it’s flashed all over the globe electronically and then in a couple of minutes–much less time that it takes to read it aloud–it’s read by an artificial voice and flashed back across the globe for anyone who wants to listen to it. B16’s predecessor B15 would have been stunned at this unimaginability. "These are the days of miracle and wonder.")

For this version of the file, I tried to remove listening distractions by stripping out the section numbers, footnotes, and scripture citations in parentheses (e.g., "1 Jn 1:4").

I also tried to tweak the artificial voice’s pronunciation of certain key Greek and Latin words in the encyclical (agape, caritas), but when the text uses a longer phrase in Latin, the results may not always be felicitous.

As a tip to how to use this mp3, you may want to have the encyclical on the screen in front of you–or a print copy–as you listen to the mp3. I often find that this dual audio/visual reinforcement makes it easier for me to assimilate texts. The voice pulls me along so I don’t get bogged down and distracted, and the visual reading experience helps me focus on what the voice is saying.

DOWNLOAD THE TEXT OF THE ENCYCLICAL HERE.

It’s also available HERE (.doc) and HERE [WARNING! Evil file format! (.pdf)]

Special thanks to the folks at ReapTeam.Org for hosting the mp3.

PLEASE CHECK OUT THEIR SITE.

GET THE STORY!

Well, there’s no need for further speculation on when B16’s first encyclical–Deus Caritas Est–will be coming out, because B16 himself has told us: next Wednesday.

He addressed the matter in his Wednesday audience this week.

On . . . January 25, moreover, my first encyclical will finally be published, the title of which is already known, "Deus Caritas Est," "God Is Love." The topic is not directly ecumenical, but the framework and background are ecumenical, as God and our love are the condition for the unity of Christians. They are the condition for peace in the world.

With this encyclical I would like to show the concept of love in its different dimensions. Today, in the terminology that it is known, "love" often seems something very remote from what a Christian thinks when he speaks of charity. I would like to show that it is one movement with different dimensions.

The "eros," the gift of love between man and woman, comes from the same source of the Creator’s goodness, as well as the possibility of a love that denies itself in favor of the other. The "eros" is transformed in "agape" in the measure in which the two really love one another and one no longer seeks oneself, one’s enjoyment, one’s happiness, but seeks above all the good of the other. In this way, the "eros" is transformed in charity, in a path of purification, of deepening. From one’s family one opens wide to the larger family of society, to the family of the Church, to the family of the world.

GET THE STORY.

MORE FROM CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE.

I’m getting reports from various places that suggest that B16’s first encyclical–Deus Caritas Est (Latin,"God Is Love")–will be released this week. One of them is

THIS STORY FROM CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY.

According to the story,

The text-46 pages- shorter though than the average encyclical of Pope John Paul II- is divided into two parts. The first one is dedicated to “the unity of love, the creation and the history of salvation”, and the second one to the notion of  “Caritas,” as the “exercise of love from the Church.”

According to a Vatican source, cited by the Italian daily La Repubblica, in the last chapter Pope Benedict XVI insists on the concept of “Love-Caritas,” and its relation to Catholic Charity organizations, he remarks that the this binomial will always be necessary, as well in more just societies.

The Pope notes too that Charitable work in the Church has to be totally separated from parties and ideologies, because Charity, being more than a way to change the worlds, is the achievement here and now of the love man always needs.”

GET THE STORY.

MORE FROM CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE (AS OPPOSED TO CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY).

They just better have it translated into English and posted on the Vatican’s web site when it’s released is all I have to say.

I’m just sayin’, is all.

According to Italian press reports, Pope Benedict has been raising eyebrows in the Eternal City by making night visits to the residence he kept when known as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger:

"At about 9pm a plain, dark car carrying 78-year-old Pope Benedict and his private secretary, Don Georg Gaenswein, swirls out of a side door of Vatican city. It then doubles round in the back streets before arriving at 1 Piazza Citta Leonina, a hall of residence for senior Church figures and the Pope’s home as a cardinal for almost 24 years.

"A Vatican security guard is always waiting in front of the apartments in a pedestrian zone tucked behind St Peter’s Square. The Pope gets out of the car disguised in the plain black priest’s robes he wore when he was the Catholic Church’s senior theologian.

"Wearing a black hat and with his head down, he opens the wooden door himself, as he did for all those years, and tiptoes inside followed by Don Georg.

"’Its is not a question of just dashing in for a few minutes to grab a bag or a book,’ La Stampa said. ‘He spends at least a couple of hours there.’"

GET THE STORY.

Although the Italian press is notorious for its unreliability, which means that the report probably should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, I find myself charmed by the idea of the Holy Father slipping away from the Vatican dressed as a simple priest. It reminds me of his namesake and birthday patron St. Benedict Joseph Labre, who was known as the Beggar of Rome and who used to wander the streets of the Eternal City in a sort of perpetual pilgrimage.

George Weigel has an interesting short piece in the L.A. Times that summarizes what B16 has done in office so far and what many expected him to do that–so far–he has not yet chosen to do.

It’s a nice year-end summary that is worth reading and that may provide a guide to coming days.

GET THE STORY.

UPDATE: The link has been changed to a non-registration required version.

You may remember that during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cologne, Germany, for World Youth Day last August, he also set aside time to visit the synagogue in Cologne, which was reminiscent of John Paul II’s historic visit to Rome’s synagogue in 1986. Although the pictures were posted by a German news site at the link below in August, I recently found the link when I dropped in on a sedevacantist site that was still in a lather over the event four months later. I thought the pictures lovely and couldn’t resist posting one of my favorites here: a picture of a Jewish man wearing a commemorative yarmulke (i.e., a Jewish skullcap that looks similar to the episcopal zucchetto) that had been made in honor of Pope Benedict’s visit.

SEE THE PICTURES.

(NOTE:  To better see the lettering on the yarmulke, you can click on the image to see the full-size photograph.)

I love how Pope Benedict is bringing traditional papal attire back into fashion. It’s also fun seeing the confusion of the secular world, as exemplified by a comment that Michael Dubruiel heard on CNN calling the papal camauro a "Santa’s hat." Leaping on the idea of a "Santa Benedict" instead of a Santa Claus this Christmas, St. Blog’s resident parody king, the Curt Jester, has created a Christmas carol for B16:

"You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Benedict is coming to town
He’s making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who’s naughty and nice
Benedict is coming to town
He sees you when catechizing
He knows when you’re a fake
He can only teach good not bad
So be good for Jesus’ sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Benedict is coming to town
Benedict is coming to town."

GET THE POST.

Last year an exhibit of papal treasures came to San Diego and it was fascinating to see vestments, clothing, and jewelry of the popes. Some of it was fantastically adorned but much of it was simple, like this camauro worn by Pope Benedict. One of my favorites was a red wide-brimmed hat that belonged to Pius XII and was said to be worn by him as protection against the sun when he walked in the Vatican gardens. If papal artifacts fascinate you, too, I highly recommend the catalogue from the exhibit Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes. At fifty bucks, it’s expensive, but an Aladdin’s cavern of beautiful papal art.

GET THE CATALOGUE.

READ ABOUT THE EXHIBIT.