You will want to read this carefully and put it in your “IMPORTANT” file.Posted on 11/23/2013 11:39:06 AM PST by markomalley
You will want to read this carefully and put it in your “IMPORTANT” file.
This is, again, HUGE news.
The 450th anniversary of the closing of the Council of Trent is coming up on 4 December. We like to celebrate these great milestones in salvation history. So, there are great doings in Trent, in the northern area of Italy which is part of the (also) German-speaking Tirol. As is customary, Pope Francis will send a Cardinal as his personal representative. Who better than His Eminence Walter Card. Brandmüller?
When the Pope sends a Cardinal off on one of these missions, he sends him a formal letter, charging him with his task and indicating something of his own hopes for the occasion. The anniversary of the closing of the Council of Trent is no exception.
In his letter to Card. Brandmüller, Pope Francis explicitly cites Pope Benedict XVI pontificate-defining address in 2005 to the Roman Curia in which he spoke about the “hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture” (e.g., the Karl Rahner crowd and their descendants, still active today) and the “hermeneutic of reform”, or “hermeneutic of continuity”.
In this explicit reference Francis is aligning himself with Benedict and that key moment and concept underlying Benedict’s pontificate.
This comes in the wake of Francis writing to Archbishop Marchetto (refresh your memory HERE), a critic of one of the powerhouses of the ”hermeneutic of discontinuity and rupture”, the so-called “Bologna School” of interpretation of the Council. Francis surely broke a lot of liberal hearts when he referred to Marchetto (who in this matter is completely aligned with Benedict) as one of the best interpreters of the Council that he knows.
The letter of Francis to Card. Brandmüller is available in the Latin original in the Bollettino. Here is my rapid translation of the first part of the letter, which is the important part. I scaled down some of the flowery stuff. The second part is the usual boilerplate and of less interest.
To our Venerable Brother
Walter Cardinal (of the Holy Roman Church) Brandmüller
Deacon of St. Julian of the FlemishSince the 450th anniversary of the day on which the Council of Trent drew to its favorable end, it is fitting that the Church recall with readier and more attentive eagerness the most rich doctrine which came out of that Council held in the Tyrol. It is certainly not without good reason that the Church has for a long time given such great care to that Council’s decrees and canons which are to be recalled and heeded, seeing that, since extremely grave matters and questions sprang up in that period, the Council Fathers employed all their diligence so that the Catholic faith should come into clearer view and be better understood. Without a doubt as the Holy Spirit inspired and prompted them, it was the Fathers’ greatest concern not only that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine be defended, but also that mankind be more brightly illuminated, in order that the saving work of the Lord could be diffused throughout the entire globe and the Gospel be spread through the whole world.
Harking closely to the same Spirit, Holy Church in this age renews and meditates on the most abundant doctrine of the Council of Trent. In fact, the “hermeneutic of renewal” [interpretatio renovationis] which Our Predecessor Benedict XVI explained in 2005 before the Roman Curia, refers in no way less to the Council of Trent than to the Vatican Council. To be sure, this mode of interpretation places under a brighter light a beautiful characteristic of the Church which is taught by the Lord Himself: “She is a ‘subject’ which increases in time and develops, yet always remaining the same, the one subject of the journeying People of God” (Address of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Roman Curia offering them his Christmas greetings – 22 December 2005).
[...]
This is a significant letter.
First, it affirms that we can indeed, and rightly, Read Francis Through Benedict.
Second, it affirms that Francis is, and rightly, reading Francis Through Benedict.
Third, it strikes me that Pope Francis is making some course corrections. He may have perceived that some in “the world” (e.g., liberals, the MSM) are not reading him accurately. His experience with the “interview” by Scalfari ought to have made that evident. In addition to liberal misperceptions and distorted interpretations, he has also been misjudged by many on the more conservative side of the spectrum.
As I have said all along, Pope Francis – like every Pope – has to learn how to be Pope. He had less of an advantage coming to the See of Peter because he had not been in or around the Roman Curia. But he is adjusting, learning, transforming. Francis, as you can see everyday, is not static in his job. He isn’t simply on cruise control.
Continue to pay close attention to Pope Francis, not just in sound-bites, but in the larger arcs of his talks and speeches and written documents.
This is not a bone thrown to conservatives. This is the real deal. This is Francis.
I am glad you have an interest in becoming a Catholic but this particular thread wasn’t posted as with the object of conversion.
continuity is easy — continuing line of thought, so to speak
I am sorry for some of the responses you got. I think it’s a valid request/concern. Let’s remember that many of the saints were not learned folks, but simple folk. Then again, I’m Catholic and I find this particular phrase troublesome, so maybe that’s why I understand you.
hermeneutic — explaining Scripture, interpreting Sacred Scriptures and inquiring into their true meaning
These are both common English words...look what you learned today. Good luck with your next SCRABBLE game.
Now that we know what you don’t like about the Catholic Church - what is it that you do like that brought your interest to this thread?
And this is from a Catholic dictionary on line.
Don’t know how else one would put it into one word.
I am an English teacher and I had to look it up . Don’t know when I’ll expect to not ever have to look up a word, but...
It’s the Catholic rules and regs of interpreting the Bible.
Maybe it gets people perplexed whose outlook includes both being able to interpret the Bible at will, or who believe, and need to believe, that the Catholic Church does not consult the Bible.
But there it is.
“Derived from a Greek word connected with the name of the god Hermes, the reputed messenger and interpreter of the gods. It would be wrong to infer from this that the word denotes the interpretation or exegesis of Sacred Scripture. Usage has restricted the meaning of hermeneutics to the science of Biblical exegesis, that is, to the collection of rules which govern the right interpretation of Sacred Scripture. Exegesis is therefore related to hermeneutics, as language is to grammar, or as reasoning is to logic. Men spoke and reasoned before there was any grammar or logic; but it is very difficult to speak correctly and reason rightly at all times and under any circumstances without a knowledge of grammar and logic. In the same way our early Christian writers explained Sacred Scripture—as it is interpreted in particular cases even in out days by students of extraordinary talent—without relying on any formal principles of hermeneutics, but such explanations, if correct, will always be in accordance with the canons of our present-day science of exegesis.
Necessity of hermeneutics
The reader must not infer from what has been said that hermeneutics is a mere accomplishment in the Biblical exegete, that its knowledge is not necessary for the Bible student. It is true that in the early Church the science of exegesis was not developed; but it must be remembered that the so-called sacred languages were the vernacular tongues of the Syrian and Greek writers, who were familiar with what are to us Biblical antiquities, and who were also imbued with the early oral traditions containing the true explanation of the many difficult passages of Sacred Scripture. As soon as these natural aids of the Christian interpreter began to wane, the principles of hermeneutics began to develop. Even at the time of St. Augustine they were collected into a single book, so that they could be made known and put into practice without much difficulty. Anyone acquainted with the variety of opinion concerning the meaning of some of the most important passages of the Bible will wonder rather at the suggestion of explaining Scripture without the aid of hermeneutics, than at the claim for its urgent necessity.”
New Advent Catholic Dictionary
Thanks for all that information including the etymology.
Oh please. You’re taking mountainlion’s comment way too personally.
Wow, and you’re EDUCATED!
I asked a simple question out of curiosity that a person interested in becoming a Catholic should be happy to answer.
You made it personal by pompously apologizing for others.
I like the etymology, it usually provides a good reference for imagery, plus an easy way for me to recall meaning.
With church documents, I am often going to the dictionary, and I always want to know the Latin root, for the purpose of understanding.
People forget that the language of the Church is and understanding its theology and philosophy can take a little work.
From the New Advent def. I posted:
“Exegesis is therefore related to hermeneutics, as language is to grammar, or as reasoning is to logic”
I’d have had to look up exegesis, anyway.
You mean like how you arrogantly told ML that the thread wasn’t posted for conversion purposes? LOL Pot meet kettle.
But you’re right, I shouldn’t apologize for others’ poor behavior. They should. Let’s see if they do.
Way to communicate with the masses.
What the heck is a “hermeneutic”?
critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, especially of the Bible.Which is probably more easily understood.
Some say “ejumucated, but...
I know. My tenth graders consider it a they singular torture that they pretend they’ll never have to perform again, once they leave High School, indeed, my class, looking things up in a dictionary.
I know people who don’t own a dictionary - wow.
But, there you have it.
And the Catholic Church has, as its official language, Latin. It’s a universal language, unused in speaking, so, interpreted in the same way throughout the world And unchangeable, so, propaganda proof. the enemy Hates it, I am told, which, if true, is very nice.
I does take a little effort for the curious.
This country needs revival and we need people coming to God.
Again HUGE news: Pope Francis explicitly endorses Benedict XVI’s “critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, especially of the Bible, of continuity”
Like this?
To appease the dictionary repellant?
Isn’t, ‘the dumbing down’ of America something considered not good?
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