Fr Sean highlights a significant short article by Adrian Pabst, lecturer in politics at the University of Kent, in the Guardian on the thought and effect of Benedict XVI.
Pabst contrasts the superficial liberalism of Kung with he terms the romanticism of the Pope.
Asia News has an interesting appreciation of the Pope's first five years by Bernardo Ceverellera as well. It is interesting to compare the too articles, both for example, the Regensberg addrerss is presented as one of the Pope's success stories.
4 comments:
No wonder the Pope admires Newman, he certainly appears to be following in his footsteps with a real appreciation both of the powers and limitations of human reason. However is "romantic" the right word, it suggest a certain unreality for someone of such charity and commonsense? Steering between respect for authority and freedom of enquiry as he does, is he not the prophet of the Via Media between Kung and Lefebvre, as Newman was in his time between Acton and Dollinger on the one hand and Ward, Manning ,and Pius IX on the other? Newman and Pope Benedict both seem very concerned with the grounds of belief.
Another good article in The Guardian. Wow. Damian Thompson may be rattled.
Thank you Father yet again.
I wonder how many of the Guardian comments come from Brighton: Argus readers to a person?
http://catholicgossip.blogspot.com/2010/04/betty-butterfield-visits-catholic.html
Yes, two excellent articles which aim to counter-balance the ignorance evident in so many who have written to condemn the Holy Father. What secular writers fail to realize is that the Holy Father and the Church take a longer view of matters than the secular world’s concern for instant gratification, quick fixes and ‘closure’. That some Catholics – who ought to know better – fall into the same trap is less excusable. In our 24/7 world of instant messaging, short attention spans and glib ten-second commentary, there is little room for reflection, deep thinking, history – or prayer.
Right from the beginning of his pontificate Pope Benedict has sought to bring us back to our roots with reflections on Jesus, the Apostles, the Fathers of the Church and the great Saints the Church has produced in the 2000+ years of her history. After Vatican II many thought that a new era had dawned and all that had gone before was now passé and could be dismissed.
But we forget our history at our peril and are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Pope Benedict’s outreach to the Orthodox, the Anglicans and other Christian denominations has led others to opine that he is concerned with healing the rifts in the Church from the 11th and 16th centuries. Nor has he failed to reach out to the Jews and the Muslims.
Pope Benedict takes his calling seriously. He is Christ’s Vicar on earth charged with bringing the Gospel to all nations and all peoples in order to bring all of them to the ultimate goal of this life of ours – eternal happiness in heaven. All of the concerns we have in this life are transitory. We will never solve all the problems of this world and this life will never be perfect. But the ultimate failure will be if we do not gain heaven in the next life. That is the Holy Father’s main concern and it should be ours also. Everything else is secondary.
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