Posted on 03/16/2016 10:08:09 AM PDT by ebb tide
On March 16, speaking publicly on a rare occasion, Pope Benedict XVI gave an interview to Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, in which he spoke of a “two-sided deep crisis” the Church is facing in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The report has already hit Germany courtesy of Vaticanist Guiseppe Nardi, of the German Catholic news website Katholisches.info.
Pope Benedict reminds us of the formerly indispensable Catholic conviction of the possibility of the loss of eternal salvation, or that people go to hell:
The missionaries of the 16th century were convinced that the unbaptized person is lost forever. After the [Second Vatican] Council, this conviction was definitely abandoned. The result was a two-sided, deep crisis. Without this attentiveness to the salvation, the Faith loses its foundation.
He also speaks of a “profound evolution of Dogma” with respect to the Dogma that there is no salvation outside the Church. This purported change of dogma has led, in the pope's eyes, to a loss of the missionary zeal in the Church – “any motivation for a future missionary commitment was removed.” Pope Benedict asks the piercing question that arose after this palpable change of attitude of the Church: “Why you should try to convince the people to accept the Christian faith when they can be saved even without it?” As to the other consequences of this new attitude in the Church, the Catholics themselves, in Benedict's eyes, were less attached to their Faith: If there are those who can save their souls with other means, “why should the the Christian be bound to the necessity of the Christian Faith and its morality?” asked the pope. And he concludes: “But if Faith and Salvation are not any more interdependent, even Faith becomes less motivating.”
Pope Benedict also refutes both the idea of the “anonymous Christian” as developed by Karl Rahner, as well as the indifferentist idea that all religions are equally valuable and helpful to attain eternal life. He says: “Even less acceptable is the solution proposed by the pluralistic theories of religion, for which all religions, each in its own way, would be ways of salvation and, in this sense, must be considered equivalent in their effects.” In this context, he also touches upon the exploratory ideas of the now-deceased Jesuit Cardinal, Henri de Lubac, about Christ's putatively “vicarious substitutions” which have to be now again “further reflected upon.” That is to say, Christ's own acts in the place of others in order to save them eternally.
With regard to man's relation to technology and to love, Pope Benedict reminds us of the importance of human affection, saying that man still yearns in his heart “that the Good Samaritan come to his aid.” He continues: “In the harshness of the world of technology – in which feelings to not count anymore – the hope for a saving love grows, a love which would be given freely and generously.” Benedict also reminds his audience that: “The Church is not self-made, it was created by God and is continuously formed by Him. This finds expression in the Sacraments, above all in that of Baptism: I enter into the Church not by a bureaucratic act, but with the help of this Sacrament.” Benedict also insists that, always, “we need Grace and forgiveness.”
He also speaks of a “profound evolution of Dogma” with respect to the Dogma that there is no salvation outside the Church. This purported change of dogma has led, in the pope's eyes, to a loss of the missionary zeal in the Church – “any motivation for a future missionary commitment was removed.” Pope Benedict asks the piercing question that arose after this palpable change of attitude of the Church: “Why you should try to convince the people to accept the Christian faith when they can be saved even without it?”
You can’t argue with his logic.
I remembered when he was elected Pope, I came in after work, the first thing I said was, “Was it Ratzinger?” I remember the thrill that gave me!
A personal hero of mine; God Bless Benedict VXI!
Read the book “The Ecclesiological Renovation of Vatican II” by Protopresbyter Peter Heers. He examines this very subject in exhaustive detail. I can’t recommend it too highly.
Someone please tell me again why this pope had to resign?
Did they ever give a real explanation for that? In retrospect it looks like he did what he was told so he could be allowed to live.
“Someone please tell me again why this pope had to resign?”
Maybe someday the true story will be known. For all we know, it was at gunpoint.
He’s a nice man, I hope he doesn’t start talking too much.
I don’t believe for a second Benedict stepped down on his own accord.
Agree with him or not, but compared to Benedict, Francis is an intellectual pygmy.
Are you sure you don't mean Pope Francis? It's Pope Francis who should put a sock in it.
Clearly Benedict XVI didn’t quit for health reasons. Which only leaves the frightening prospect that he was forced out for some unknown reason.
Now it seems as if the US is swirling down the same cesspool that Western Europe has been caught up in since WWII. Is this the time for Catholics to assert our religious superiority over all other religions and Christian sects? Is this the time to tell everyone else they are going to Hell?
It is a real conundrum. If there is truly nothing special about Catholicism, then why be Catholic? On the other hand, if being Catholic is the only certain way to get to Heaven, then we either convert non-Catholics or anger them and harden their hearts against us.
Some of the most heated and hateful threads on FR have been Catholic v. Protestant (and Protestant v. Protestant). Do we want to stoke those flames, especially now with the US so close to going totally pagan?
I think he meant for the sake of Benedict’s “health”.
Old age, and because he did not a strong right hand to run the Church for him. He has been in relatively frail health for decades. He needed to fire a lot of people when he took over and he did not.
Thanks for the reference.
Catholicism is the true faith. The problem is a Church in part led by liberals who are perhaps not even Christians. This has been the trouble since the 18th century.
Every sort of rumor has come up.
From personal blackmail to church financing (cutting off funds) or financial scandal (blackmail through threats to the church) to mental issues.
There have been claims and rumors of ugly things happening in the Vatican. Infighting and dividing into cliques. Some have said there is a network of gay priests exerting “inappropriate influence”. I don’t know how much of that to believe, but it sounds a little ominous.
We all just need to come up with a platform for reunification that isn’t based on liberalism. (By the way, does the Catholic Church really teach that Protestants are going to hell? I thought the Vatican II declarations about ecumenism put that to rest.)
+1
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