tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post7598335904317887784..comments2023-12-16T16:17:43.886+00:00Comments on Fr Ray Blake's Blog: Papal M.C. Interview: Old & NewFr Ray Blakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05584140126211527252noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-19575352657487108092007-12-28T05:24:00.000+00:002007-12-28T05:24:00.000+00:00Fr. Ray,I agree with the comments about Benedict X...Fr. Ray,<BR/><BR/>I agree with the comments about Benedict XVI attempting to dismantle the cult of personality around the personage of the Pope. One always had the sense that, for all his high regard for John Paul II, former Cardinal Ratzinger was uncomfortable with way that attention seemed to focus on Karol Wojtyla the man, rather than on the Petrine Office.<BR/><BR/>Pope Benedict is going about correcting this is many ways, not just liturgically. I think the very choice of the name Benedict was a return to tradition in itself, re-embedding his pontificate in the long line of apostolic succession, after the papal name-experimentation of his two immediate predecessors.<BR/><BR/>I am sure that Cardinal Ratzinger was also uncomfortable with his own public profile as the "deputy Pope" -- another new departure he would have wanted to nip in the bud. I bet that his appointment of the bland William Levada as his successor was partly motivated by a similar wish to de-emphasize the personage of the Prefect of the CDF.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-26730222810166419172007-12-27T12:33:00.000+00:002007-12-27T12:33:00.000+00:00The Holy Father's vestments seem to have delighted...The Holy Father's vestments seem to have delighted the bloggers and caused interest in the secular media. I wonder what the Tablet has to say?Oliver Hayeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02790738673074885191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-24795494137717137522007-12-27T12:26:00.000+00:002007-12-27T12:26:00.000+00:00Adv,As a friend of mine says, the wonderful thing ...Adv,<BR/>As a friend of mine says, the wonderful thing about Bnedict is that he is not "the Great" or "the Good", he is simply "the Pope".<BR/><BR/>I hope, he encourages priests and bishops to loose themselves in the liturgy and allow it to speak rather than them.<BR/><BR/>Thank you for the Feckenham quote.Fr Ray Blakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05584140126211527252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31069882.post-32876673541025369552007-12-27T12:00:00.000+00:002007-12-27T12:00:00.000+00:00One thing that has struck me about what our Holy F...One thing that has struck me about what our Holy Father is doing is that he is removing some of the 'cult' of personality from the Vicar of Christ. A sad modern obsession.<BR/><BR/>Only ever having know John Paul II as pope this was one of the things that he did and said I did not like, or understand. His acts and the liturgy made you focus so much on him as a man. It seemed sometimes that this even had an effect on the teaching, very much man centred. <BR/><BR/>I have often been reminded of the words of Abbot Feckenham, O.S.B (the last mitred Abbot to sit in the House of Lords) in a speech to the House of Lords:<BR/><BR/> "My good Lords, when in Queen Mary's days your honour do know right well how the people of this realm did live in order and under law. There was no spoiling of Churches, pulling down of Altars, and most blasphemous treading down of The Sacrament under their feet, and hanging up the knave of clubs in the place thereof. There was no knocking or cutting of the face and legs of the Crucifix, and of the image of Christ. There was no open flesh-eating or shambles-keeping in the Lent and days prohibited. The subjects of this realm, and especially such as were of the honourable council in Queen Mary's days, knew the way to Church or Chapel, and to begin their daily work by calling for help and grace by humble prayer. But now since the coming of our most sovereign and dear lady Queen Elizabeth, by the only preachers and scaffold-players of this new religion all things are changed and turned upside down. Obedience is gone, humility and meekness clean abolished, virtuous, chaste, and straight living abandoned."<BR/><BR/>He like many during the Reformation saw a direct link between the destruction of the Faith and its external practices and liturgy and the destruction of the society.<BR/><BR/>In the words of the Prophet Ezekiel: " Her priests have despised my law and have defiled my sanctuaries. Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood and destroy souls." Xxii, 26/27.<BR/><BR/>The Holy Father in all his writings gets this, as you have said father.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com