Abp Kurt Koch
Ratzinger Schulerkreis, the annual seminar for forty or so of the Pope's former doctoral students finishes today.Interestingly the principle speaker was Archbishop Kurt Koch, who recently replaced Cardinal Walter Kasper as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and significantly he continued the Ratzinger project by addressing the forty odd theologians on "The Second Vatican Council between tradition and innovation" and "Sacrosanctum concilium -VII's document on the liturgy- and the post-Conciliar reform of the liturgy."
Both the speaker and the subjects for the seminar were the Pope's choice. I find it fascinating that Professor-Pope seems to prefer to develope his agenda by ideas and intellectual debate rather than laws and dictats, for many people working in the Curia this deeply frustrating, but ultimately it is this type of seed planting that is going to bear real fruit.
2 comments:
I hope Ignatius Press print the proceedings. It should make for fascinating reading.
The Council seems a long time ago now. I remember George Weigel mentioning in Witness to Hope that might in the end be thought of similar to one of the Lateran Councils ie. a Council with it's promise unfulfilled.
Still interesting how little the Holy Father quotes from Vatican II. I'm not in any way suggesting he is uncomitted to the Council. But, perhaps after over 40 years, the Council is fading into a certain irrelevance. Or at least it is not as important when for example Pope John Paul Great called the Extraordinary Synod of 1985.
According to Fr Ian Ker, Newman lamented that the French Revolution had destroyed the theological schools which had provided so much debate and discussion and in the Nineteenth century had replaced them with an appeal to authority. Professor Ratzinger would appear to follow in his footsteps.
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