He told us about Jesus
Blogged by James Preece on 1st March 2013
It's been a few years now since I appeared on TV to defend Pope Benedict in a discussion entitled "Is Pope Benedict a liability?" at the time I said no, but with hindsight I'm tempted to rethink my answer.
Yes - Pope Benedict was a liability, of course he was.
If you've put all your eggs in the secularist basket. If you've bet against God. If you're counting on the Catholic Church choosing to accomodate the world more and more until it slowly disolves to a mushy nothingness all but indistinguishable from the culture around it... If you were hoping that the Truth you killed in the sixties would stay dead and buried.
Then yes, Pope Benedict was a liability to you.
If you have looked around you and seen a civilisation whose philosophical ideas have no stronger basis in reality than "who am I to say?" and whose economic and demographic woes are routinely masked by insane borrowing against a future that does not exist.
If you have wondered if perhaps there might be more to life than killing the young before they are born and killing the old before they are expensive all in the name of short term illusionary wealth and freedom from the natural consequences of sexual activity.
If you have studied science and explored the limits of technology and been fascinated and excited by the wonders of the natural world and yet in your heart have known that it was all dust being moved around by other dust in to arbitary forms that have no meaning without a soul to look upon them.
If you have wondered who you are, why you are here, what this is all for?
Then Pope Benedict was far from a liability.
He didn't bring us his own ideas, theories and pet projects. He didn't force the Church to conform to his liturgical preferences (though I wish he had). It's not just that he didn't go all trendy on us and try to rap the psalms, it's that he didn't even do the things I would have approved of either.
No. He did something so obvious, so brilliant, so wonderful I could never have anticipated it.
He gave us Jesus.
In all his addresses, encyclicals, homilies and world youth day's he never sat us down and lectured us on theology. He simply told us about Jesus. If we only learn one thing from the papacy of Benedict XVI, let it be that - We need to talk to people about Jesus.
Reader Comments
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Chrysostom said...
I am not unsympathetic to what you write, Mr Preece, but...
You say that "He gave us Jesus". This is close to heresy. Are you saying that prior to the papacy of Benedict, the Church did not have Jesus Christ present at Holy Mass - body, blood, soul and divinity? Or are you saying that Holy Mother Church did not tell us the truth about Jesus - had been lying for two thousand years?
It is too soon to evaluate his papacy. But there are clear examples of good intentions not fulfilled.
He certainly gave "permission", if such were needed, for the Old Mass to be celebrated and stated that the faithful had a right to attend such a Mass. But when the English bishops, almost without exception, in fact, prevented that Mass being said, Rome did nothing. When I and others in England wrote to him saying that the Justice and Peace Commission of England together with CAFOD was organising a conference in which the two main speakers were flagrantly and openly pro-abortion, he, and his nuncio, did nothing. When Rome was told that the Bishops of England and Wales were supporting COMPULSORY sex education of the worst possible kind for all children in maintained schools from infants onwards, again nothing was done. The notorious Soho Masses flourished with men dressed as women actually on the altar at Holy Mass. The location has now been moved but I am aware of no disciplinary action taken against those who perpetrated these blasphemies or any clear prohibition of "Homosexual" Masses elsewhere. The English Bishops stull refuse to give the proper statistics on child sex abuse and allow only a general synopsis which fails to give the statistics of the number of victims who are boys and the number of perpetrators who are men. You can bet that it is not 1%, the number of homosexuals in Britain according to the government's own figures.
I have lived under six popes.
"Judge not that ye be not judged." It is not for me to judge the pontiff, but I can hardly rejoice hugely over a papacy that has left the Catholic Church in England just as bad as it has been for decades - except that there are now two bishops who are taking a moral lead and are speaking out.
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.
St David - pray for us.
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Mark Dobson said...
"You say that "He gave us Jesus". This is close to heresy."
Oh tush now. Every priest gives us Jesus, and this doesn't for a second suggest that the Church did not previously give us Jesus.
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epsilon said...
Beautiful James! He showed us by example how to be children of God. Standing after Mass with a poster for the prolife vigil where our bishop will soon be praying, being shunned by all and sundry, I remembered the YouTube clip I'd seen a couple of days ago in which 11 out of about 14 cardinals turned away from him as time and time again he put out his hand to greet them. That clip encapsulated everything about him. He is love personified!
Pope Benedict showed me how to be a Christian and I will be obedient to his successor too:)
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Catherine said...
yes he gave us Jesus.....then why are some asking why not give us Jesus to the very end of his pontificate until death?
La Croix
The Pope's abandonment is a catastrophe
OP-ED Pierre Dulau & Martin Steffens, philosophy professors
2/19/13
In view of death, John Paul II addressed the world and told it: "Be not afraid". Reaching what seems to be the same position [in life], Benedict XVI resigns. One could see in these so diametrically opposed attitudes two complementary aspects of man: one, by which a supernatural courage pushes, to the very heart of unspeakable sufferings, to continue to fulfill his responsibility; the other, by which a very human weakness (in this sense a true inheritor to Saint Peter) leads to resignation.
Nevertheless, whatever may be the justifications we may give to this decision, the fact is there: this resignation by the pope is a catastrophe. It is an event that is rarely found in History, a fact that, in its symbolic violence, is a portrait of our time.
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Mark Dobson said...
I can see why his decision is controversial, but I’m not sure why I should view it as a catastrophe. It’s an assertion (in the guise of a “fact”, no less) that warrants some explanation.
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New Friend said...
From the various reports in circulation, I have begun to wonder if the resignation of the Pope was due to him having to decide which was the most effective way open to him, to achieve re-organisation within the Vatican. There seems to be a general acceptance that this is not only needed but was high on his agenda.
That being so, does this mean he took a pragmatic decision, which could also mean he has been converted to relativism?
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Nicolas Bellord said...
New Friend: I do not follow your reasoning as to relativism. My view is that the Pope resigned in order to allow a younger more vigorous man to take over who has the necessary stamina to carry out the reforms that are needed.
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New Friend said...
Nicolas
That is indeed what has been said. However he clearly had a choice of whether to resign, or do what almost every Pope has done, and accept his declining years as being part of his task.
That he took a pragmatic decision, which I personally think was both brave and sensible, seems to me that he had to consider which was the best way forward. I merely ask whether making such judgements as to the relative value of each course of action means he is adopting relativism.
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Nicolas Bellord said...
New Friend: I think "relativism" is the wrong word. I think you are asking whether consequentialism is in issue here. Resigning is a neutral act. John Finnis says "There is a wide range of contexts in which it is possible and only reasonable to calculate, measure, compare, weight and assess the consequences of alternative decisions."
However you would only become a consequentialist if the act you are about to commit, such as killing someone, is to be judged only by the good or bad consequences when natural law teaches us that killing an innocent human being is intrinsically wrong whatever the consequences.
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New Friend said...
Nicolas
Sorry but I don't find Finnis as convincing as you obviously do.
I think there is a considerable element of hair splitting in that quote.
Resigning is not always a neutral act. It can be both positive, or negative, as it all depends upon the context of the action, and the intentions behind it. From all that has been said it would seem that Benedict weighed up his circumstances, and the tasks he thought were needed, and made an informed decision. This is something we all do on a daily basis. It was his judgement that there would be more benefit (positive, not neutral) in resigning than in carrying on. He considered the relative values of each course and made a decision. There are many definitions, and types of, relativism, but his action does have the potential of being so considered.
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Nicolas Bellord said...
Well yes it depends upon how you define relativism. I think the Pope when talking about relativism was thinking of the idea that two opposing views of the truth can be equally true.
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New Friend said...
Nicolas
That is not relativism! Two opposing views cannot be equally true. They can both be true, dependant on circumstances and context, but they cannot be equally true.
Maybe we are stumbling upon why there is so much disagreement over this term. Those who accept relativism simply want to introduce variables into the equation, rather than see only one absolutely truthful answer for every question.
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Tim said...
V&A Print of the Month for March has a papal theme: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/print-of-the-month/
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