Just before we departed South, the Pope gave one of his marvelous Q &As with priests, of which one question has been translated. The priest tells of his disappointment with Vatican II, and the Pope gives a ringing defense. His first point is that we mustn't make the post hoc propter hoc mistake --all councils stir up confusion:
The periods following a council are almost always very difficult. After the great Council of Nicaea – which is, for us, truly the foundation of our faith, in fact we confess the faith as formulated at Nicaea – there was not the birth of a situation of reconciliation and unity, as hoped by Constantine, the promoter of the great Council, but a genuinely chaotic situation of a battle of all against all. In his book on the Holy Spirit, saint Basil compares the Church’s situation after the Council of Nicaea to a nighttime naval battle, in which no one recognizes another, but everyone is pitted against everyone else. It really was a situation of total chaos: this is how saint Basil paints in vivid colors the drama of the period following the Council of Nicaea.In a further example he points out (humorously to me) that St. Gregory Nazianzen actually refused to participate in one of the councils of Constantinople, on the grounds that Councils give rise to nothing but quarrels. So chill, people:
it is not now, in retrospect, such a great surprise how difficult it was at first for all of us to digest the Council, this great message. To imbue this into the life of the Church, to receive it, such that it becomes the Church’s life, to assimilate it into the various realities of the Church is a form of suffering, and it is only in suffering that growth is realized.Then he points to two cultural upheavals that have accompanied the post-conciliar period: 1968 & 1969. His observations are incisive as always, but I jump to his conclusion about the Church's path in the midst of the confusion:
It's easy to see how that rebuke applies to the neo-Marxist "left" of the Church, but it hadn't occurred to me previously that the anti-Conciliar "right" makes the same mistake --wanting what it wants right now and turning statistics, as the Pope later says gently but pointedly, into a divinity. It's only now, at a distance of some years, that we're beginning to be able to see how much good came from the Council.So: in these contexts of two cultural ruptures, the first being the cultural revolution of 1968 and the second the fall into nihilism after 1989, the Church sets out with humility upon its path, between the passions of the world and the glory of the Lord. Along this road, we must grow with patience and we must now, in a new way, learn what it means to renounce triumphalism. The Council had said that triumphalism must be renounced – thinking of the Baroque, of all these great cultures of the Church. It was said: Let’s begin in a new, modern way.
But another triumphalism had grown, that of thinking: We will do things now, we have found the way, and on it we find the new world. But the humility of the Cross, of the Crucified One, excludes precisely this triumphalism as well. We must renounce the triumphalism according to which the great Church of the future is truly being born now. The Church of Christ is always humble, and for this very reason it is great and joyful.
as a proverb says: “If a tree falls it makes a lot of noise, but if a forest grows no one hears a thing,” during these great noises of mistaken progressivism and absolute anticonciliarism, there grew very quietly, with much suffering and with many losses in its construction, a new cultural passageway, the way of the Church.By way of a concrete example: I arrived in Brazil knowing how the sects are expanding, and how the Catholic Church seems a bit sclerotic; but once I arrived, I saw that almost every day in Brazil a new religious community is born, a new movement is born, and it is not only the sects that are growing. The Church is growing with new realities full of vitality....
- The weekly audiences resumed today. St. Basil was the topic, but what's getting headlines is the Pope's rejoicing over the Iraqi victory in the Asian cup:
Benedict XVI spoke of “the popular explosion of joy” across the country “in the face of this historic success for Iraq, for the first time football champions of Asia”. It was an “enthusiasm that spilled over onto Iraq's streets”, and “This experience of joyful sharing reveals the desire of a people to have a normal and serene life”. “It is my hope that this event, with everyone's support, may contribute to a future in Iraq of real peace in liberty and mutual respect. Congratulations!”
- B16 invites you to World Youth Day in Sydney --less than a year away.
- The address to Puerto Rican bishops is notable for its advice to bishops about how to treat priests and cultivate vocations.
- In the July 22 Angelus, the pope reflected on the ravages of war and the efforts of his predecessor, Benedict XV, to prevent WWI. More on the theme of peace ( is Abombnjihad listening?) in this week's Angelus.
- Here's a highly enjoyable interview with the Pope's personal secretary. One tidbit about his preparation for his role:
The only thing there was was a private conversation with my predecessor, Monsignore Stanislaus Dziwisz, the current Cardinal-Archbishop of Krakow. That was about two weeks after the Conclave and the move into the Appartamento. He handed me an envelope containing some papers and a key for a safe. An ancient safe, German precision work. He only said, "You now have a very important, very beautiful but also a very, very difficult task. The only thing I can tell you is that the Pope must be 'suffocated' by nothing and no one. How to go about that, you have to find out for yourself." Period, the end. More he didn't say. That was the entire school for Papal etiquette.
Potpourri
- Rome: an interview with Cardinal Hoyos.
- China: 4 priests arrested for refusal to join Patriotic Association.
- Egypt: most senior Muslim cleric pledges to protect churches. In Cyprus.
- India: two nuns falsely accused of beating children released.
- Iraq: a former professor reflects on Fr. Ragheed's martyrdom.
- Pakistan: An inter-faith rally for religious freedom.
- Turkey: plot by ex-Army officers to kill Bartholomew I foiled.
- USA: Nuns gone wrong gone right. Plus, Robert Novak's memoir, in which he recounts among other things the story of his conversion, is out. Here's the chance remark that got the ball rolling.
- Zimbabwe: Archbishop openly calls for Mugabe to step down.
And finally: an alternative to ninme's die, die, die?
