WHAT'S WITH POPE BENEDICT? ALL OF A SUDDEN, HIS HOLINESS IS EVERYWHERE, EVERYWHERE!

There is something unusual going on within the last two weeks. Pope Benedict seems to be reemerging from his self-imposed monkhood in the cloister at the Vatican Gardens and what a cloister it is! I've seen it!

First we see His Holiness concelebrating the Solemn Mass for the Beatification of Blessed Paul VI.

Then the next day, His Holiness' secretary reads a rather wonderful exhortation at a Roman academic symposium that shows the clarity of thinking of the Emeritus Pope and how unambiguous His Holiness is when it comes to teaching the faith.

Then later in the week, His Holiness welcomes the large gathering in Rome celebrating His Holiness' Summorum Pontificum. His Holiness praises the fact that the Old Use Mass has now been integrated into the liturgical life of the Post Vatican II Church. He also praises the "GREAT" cardinals who are celebrating this form of the Mass, which includes Cardinal Raymond Burke who celebrated the Solemn High Version of the EF Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the "Altar of the Chair of St. Peter!" I think it significant that Cardinal Burke is indirectly called by His Holiness a "GREAT" cardinal.

The on Monday, His Current Holiness, Pope Francis praised Pope Benedict XVI at the unveiling of a bust of His Emeritus Holiness at an academic institution in Rome. This is what Pope Francis said:


Pope Francis referred to Pope Benedict XVI as a “great Pope” as he unveiled a bust of his predecessor during an October 27 visit to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. 

Pope Francis assessed Benedict as “great for the power and penetration of his intellect, great for his significant contribution to theology, great for his love for the Church and of human beings, great for his virtue and piety.”His Current Holiness also stated that Pope Benedict's Magisterium would continue to influence the Church in the future.

Then His Holiness, Benedict XVI just yesterday (Tuesday, October 28) wrote the following about the Anglican Ordinariate which His Holiness established five years ago:

“Your thanks for the establishment of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has greatly moved me, and I ask you to convey my thanks to all its members,” wrote Benedict XVI, who was born in Bavaria.

“Naturally, I am particularly glad that the former Bavarian Chapel has now become your ordinariate’s church, and serves such an important role in the whole Church of God. It has been a long time since I have heard news of this holy place, and it was therefore with all the more interest and gratitude that I read the description with which you accompanied your letter.” 

November 4 marks five years since Benedict XVI issued the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, which led to the creation of the personal ordinariate. The ordinariate enables groups of former Anglicans to retain elements of their patrimony within the Catholic Church.

My Comments: On the heals of the tempestuous Synod on the Family where Pope Francis was publicly and privately criticized for trying to manipulate the Synod with post-Catholic ideologies concerning marriage and sexuality and perhaps even castigated for trying to erase the Papal Magisteriums of both Pope Benedict and St. Pope John Paul II, I find all this emerging Pope Benedict stuff interesting. Do you? And if so, Why?