Interesting just how many differences there are between JPII and Benedict XVI.
A man after my own heart :-)
The election of Pius XII sent a signal nobody missed.
I'm not a catholic... but if I were I'd know that Benedict XVI was my kind of pope.
"Benedict XVI has never hidden his reservations even about the mass liturgies celebrated by his predecessor. No one in the curia of John Paul II was more free, or more critical, than he was. And Karol Wojtyla had the greatest respect for him for this reason, too."
Interesting!
And this has been for years one of the points on which he has collided with novelties in the postconciliar Church. He has had harsh words for the transformation of the mass and liturgies "into spectacles that require directors of genius and talented actors." He has said similar things about the dismantling of sacred music. "How often we celebrate only ourselves, without even taking Him into account," he commented in his meditations for the Stations of the Cross last Good Friday. Here, "Him" refers to Jesus Christ, the one forgotten by liturgies changed into convivial gatherings.
Benedict XVI has never hidden his reservations even about the mass liturgies celebrated by his predecessor. No one in the curia of John Paul II was more free, or more critical, than he was.
This reinforces my opinion that Piero Marini will not be the pontifical MC for much longer.
With the new Pope we have now taken off our gloves to fight evil. It will develop into an all out war. All one has to do is to look at the "Catholics" who want changes.
As one liberal said she was glad to see the Pope leave his position of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. I laugh as Cardinal Arinze will slide right over to that position.
Does anyone know why Kathleen Keating seems to detest Pope Benedict-XVI? I've always found her to be at least interesting to listen to (whether or not I agree with her) but lately she's sounding like a total wingnut. She talks in riddles - although I think I know what she means but I still can't be sure. Like many, I tend to like our new pope so I'd like to know what her problem is, if anyone can shed any light?
>> During the first millennium, the college of bishops carried much greater weight. It will be, perhaps, a conservative pope like Benedict XVI who will clear the way for this reform. <<
It is an important point to make that the re-establishment of Orthodoxy is the means by which collegiality can be established.
Wish I had bought on of those coffee mugs from 'the ratzinger fan club' when I saw them a couple of years ago --- 'putting the smackdown on heresy since 1981' - now they are all out of them!
During the 1960’s, the young Ratzinger followed the second Vatican Council as an expert consultant for the cardinal of Cologne, Joseph Frings. He launched his first darts against the Holy Office, “out of step with the times and a cause of harm and scandal,” which he would direct many years later. But very soon after the end of the council, he began to denounce its effects, which were “crudely divergent” from what was to be expected.
"Crudely divergent", so exact, so perfectly stated. I went to the library today to begin reading some of his works, and everything was gone. There was a mad rush earlier, evidently. The only book I could get my hands on, via another branch, was Salt of The Earth. I should have that in a few days, and can't wait to begin reading it.
His was a strange conservatism, in any case. It was apt to disturb, rather than pacify, the Church. One of his favorite models is Saint Charles Borromeo, the archbishop of Milan who, after the Council of Trent, did nothing less than “reconstruct the Catholic Church, which was almost destroyed in the area around Milan as well, without returning to the Middle Ages to do so; on the contrary, he created a modern form of the Church.”
Interesting. So much reading, so little time.
..not conforming itself to the times, not falling to its knees before the world, but “bringing, with holy consternation, the gift of faith to all, the gift of friendship with Christ.”
Again, wonderful imagery. What a beautiful phrase holy consternation is!
He prefers the missionary impulse to timid dialogue with nonbelievers and men of other faiths.
Smart. Very smart. The missionary impusle acutally lives, dialogue is alive in the sense a plant is alive. Beautiful, necessary but not suffient unto itself; inferior nutrients.
“How often we celebrate only ourselves, without even taking Him into account,” he commented in his meditations for the Stations of the Cross last Good Friday. Here, “Him” refers to Jesus Christ, the one forgotten by liturgies changed into convivial gatherings.
Heartbreaking, but true.
As a cardinal, Benedict XVI also criticized the endless succession of saints and blesseds that pope Wojtyla raised to the honors of the altar: in many cases, these were “persons who might perhaps say something to a certain group, but do not say much to the great multitude of believers.” As an alternative, he proposed “bringing to the attention of Christianity only those figures who, more than all others, make visible to us the holy Church, amid so many doubts about its holiness.”
I agree wholeheartedly. It's no good devaluing Sainthood.
I have been so busy the last couple of days -- not really had any time to post on these threads. My loss!
He would love to see a Church that is simpler in terms of bureaucracy. He doesn’t want its central and peripheral institutions – the Vatican curia, the diocesan chanceries, the episcopal conferences – to become “like the armor of Saul, which prevented the young David from walking.”
That must be why Ratzinger did nothing to simplify the bureaucracy in the 24 years he served in it. Instead, he made the Curia to be the gatekeeper of every single decision that came out of episcopal conferences, and made his CDF to resemble the Holy Office of Ottaviani, which he purported to despise as a periti at Vatican II.
I've read so much of what Ratzinger has said the past two days, little of which is reflected in what he did.
Watch what BXVI does, not what he says.