Pope: The Virtual Council is Breaking Down
Blogged by James Preece on 18th February 2013
Pope Benedict speaking to the clergy of Rome via Vatican Radio...
I would now like to add yet a third point: there was the Council of the Fathers - the true Council - but there was also the Council of the media. It was almost a Council in and of itself, and the world perceived the Council through them, through the media. So the immediately efficiently Council that got thorough to the people, was that of the media, not that of the Fathers.
And while the Council of the Fathers evolved within the faith, it was a Council of the faith that sought the intellectus, that sought to understand and try to understand the signs of God at that moment, that tried to meet the challenge of God in this time to find the words for today and tomorrow.
So while the whole council - as I said - moved within the faith, as fides quaerens intellectum, the Council of journalists did not, naturally, take place within the world of faith but within the categories of the media of today, that is outside of the faith, with different hermeneutics. It was a hermeneutic of politics.
The media saw the Council as a political struggle, a struggle for power between different currents within the Church. It was obvious that the media would take the side of whatever faction best suited their world... There was no interest in the liturgy as an act of faith, but as a something to be made understandable, similar to a community activity, something profane. And we know that there was a trend, which was also historically based, that said: "Sacredness is a pagan thing, possibly even from the Old Testament. In the New Testament the only important thing is that Christ died outside: that is, outside the gates, that is, in the secular world".
Sacredness ended up as profanity even in worship: worship is not worship but an act that brings people together, communal participation and thus participation as activity. And these translations, trivializing the idea of the Council, were virulent in the practice of implementing the liturgical reform, born in a vision of the Council outside of its own key vision of faith. And it was so, also in the matter of Scripture: Scripture is a book, historical, to treat historically and nothing else, and so on.
And we know that this Council of the media was accessible to all. So, dominant, more efficient, this Council created many calamities, so many problems, so much misery, in reality: seminaries closed, convents closed liturgy trivialized ... and the true Council has struggled to materialize, to be realized: the virtual Council was stronger than the real Council.
But the real strength of the Council was present and slowly it has emerged and is becoming the real power which is also true reform, true renewal of the Church.
It seems to me that 50 years after the Council, we see how this Virtual Council is breaking down, getting lost and the true Council is emerging with all its spiritual strength. And it is our task, in this Year of Faith, starting from this Year of Faith, to work so that the true Council with the power of the Holy Spirit is realized and Church is really renewed. We hope that the Lord will help us.
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Reader Comments
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Nicolas Bellord said...
Amazing and he says he is not up to it mentally!
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pattif said...
And he did it without a note, too!
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Paul Priest said...
Where did His Holiness intimate he was intellectually or spiritually unfit for the role?
I know we've heard many comentators say He said it - but I don't remember reading that He actually said it.
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Nicolas Bellord said...
When his Holiness announced his resignation he said: I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonisations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me.
So loss of strength of mind and body were the reasons he gave.
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Paul Priest said...
If it's in latin surely the translation could also say Both strength of mind and of the body - thus the 'no longer adequately suited' may only refer to the latter and His Holiness didn't necessarily imply that he was mentally unfit. It could just as easily mean the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak...?
I know it may seem pedantic but if he is saying he's mentally unfit? I don't believe him.
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Mark Dobson said...
It could but it's pure speculation until you actually look at the Latin: here we have only the translation.
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Nicolas Bellord said...
I agree that it is difficult to believe that he is mentally unfit - one only has to look at his most recent pronouncements. However I think possibly he was thinking of the kind of mental strength you need when administering the Church. The kind of strength you need when you have to take disciplinary action - such as removing a bishop - for instance and then putting up with the flak.
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Simon Platt said...
I suppose it's relative.
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Chrysostom said...
"And we know that this Council of the media was accessible to all. So, dominant, more efficient, this Council created many calamities, so many problems, so much misery, in reality: seminaries closed, convents closed liturgy trivialized ... and the true Council has struggled to materialize, to be realized: the virtual Council was stronger than the real Council."
Astonishing! This is the Pope who is speaking.
I am a layman who has watched the liturgy trashed, seen churches vandalized, Altars and statues smashed, seen Catholic schools where there is not a trace of Catholicity, seen homosexuality praised and special Masses held for homosexuals, seen innocent children subject to sexual assault, seen Catholic so-called charities which ignore abortion and homosexuality and follow every left-wing crack-pot idea, seen bishops who smile as they utter socialist platitudes and close churches, seen good candidates for the priesthood "rejected" by nuns dressed in the fashion of the nineteen-sixties, seen Jimmie Saville given a papal decoration and proposed for the Athenaeum Club by the then Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, seen all my rights as a layman taken off me, seen any priest who stood up for the rights of the laity pilloried etc, etc, etc.
An apology from His Holiness would be in order, please, WITH AN ASSURANCE THAT ALL THE WRONGS BE RIGHTED.
Our Lady Help of Christians - pray for us.
St Athanasius - pray for us
All Ye English Martyrs - pray for us.
St. Charles Lwanga and Companion Martyrs of Uganda who were martyred because they resisted the advances of an evil homosexual paedophile – pray for us.
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Santi said...
@ Chrysostom. I do not understand. Why should the Holy Father apologise for the conduct of your Bishops?
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buckle said...
@Chrysostom
Things are too far gone to be turned around - I see no way back.
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Catherine said...
the pope apologise ??? the pope apologise for the bishops Rome has appointed?? now there's a notion....
In "Principles of Catholic Theology," the then Cardinal Ratzinger after speaking of the “great tension and turmoil” in the Church, and of the demand by many of the faithful for “a clear drawing of lines,” and the inability of “the Pope and bishops as yet to decide in favour of such an action;” He refers to this "inability" of the churchmen as a resentment “like an inward-growing boil on the ecclesial conscience” that “has created an allergy to condemnation, from which we can more readily expect an increase of the ill than its cure.” (because, as Ratzinger puts it) " it is a resentment that has grown up in the last half century because of innumerable faulty decisions, and above all because of the too narrow handling of Church discipline (in the past)”
Whether this 'resentment/inability' [now morphed in to pastoral policy] will ever in effect swamp out error, the Cardinal confined himself to the cautious statement:
“we shall have to see whether…this approach to discipline in matters of doctrine can serve as a model for the future.”
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Nicolas Bellord said...
Fascinating quotes! Perhaps it is exactly here that he feels he lacks capacity in disciplining and a younger more vigorous Pope is required.
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