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Thursday, April 11, 2019

THIS IS COPIED FROM DEACON GREG KANDRA'S BLOG: PLEASE NOTE HOW UGLY ARE THE VOICES OF THOSE WHO HATE POPE BENEDICT NOW AND WHEN HE WAS NOT THE CONTMPLATIVE POPE

From ‘Powerful’ to ‘Embarrassing’: Reaction to Benedict’s Letter

Via Pixabay/Public Domain
It’s only been out there less than a day, but already Benedict XVI’s 6,000-word letter on the sex abuse crisis is stirring reactions. Many are quick takes from social media. A few who have absorbed it have offered more thoughtful analysis.
CNN’s Delia Gallagher summed up the reactions succinctly:
His comments on the sex abuse crisis seem certain to inflame tensions between conservative Catholics, who largely blame homosexuality and lax sexual ethics for the scandal, and liberals, who say there is no known connection between homosexuality and pedophilia. As word of Benedict’s essay spread Wednesday evening, conservative Catholics hailed it, while others called it “embarrassing.”
Here are some first takes from around the interwebs. I’ll add more as they trickle in.
From Michael Brendan Dougherty, in the National Review Online: 
Benedict’s intervention in this debate is powerful and a sad one. The very fact of this letter — its lucidity and depth of thoughts — can’t help but inspire a question from Catholics. Why did this man resign from the office of the papacy? The stated fears were ones of incapacity, but in this letter, he demonstrates an acute view of the Church. For many Catholics who disagree with Benedict’s diagnosis of the problem, it will occasion the question about Benedict’s supposed commitment to retiring into silence. What does it mean to have a former pope who is so loquacious and opinionated?
And yet, reading this occasionally acerbic and aggrieved letter, this writer felt gratitude for Benedict’s papacy and for a God who, in this time of exile, preserves one righteous man as a living promise of many more saints to come.
From Father John Zuhlsdorf:
Against those who would tear everything down, he contextualized the genesis of Veritatis splendor and then defends it against the German attacks on theology which would have resulted in disaster.  He has, surely, the papalotrous in mind.
Benedict includes in this piece, which rambles in and out of his familiar tropes, a poignant cri de coeur. And he calls for radical recovery of the love of God, our love for him and our recognition of His for us, and the establishment of “habitats of faith”, where Faith can dwell.
As I read it, I sensed Benedict’s great pain.
From R.R. Reno in First Things: 
The tone of the document is his usual one, that of calm and matter-of-fact statements. Overall, it’s more testimony than analysis, testimony from a man who lived through cultural convulsions and theological betrayals. And it’s a faithful man’s testimony of God’s enduring love.
From Brian Flanagan, Associate Professor at Marymount University, via Twitter: 
This is an embarrassing letter. The idea that ecclesial abuse of children was a result of the 1960s, a supposed collapse of moral theology, and “conciliarity” is an embarrassingly wrong explanation for the systemic abuse of children and its coverup.
From David Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture, on Twitter: 
Another major problem with Benedict XVI’s opus blaming the abuse crisis on liberal mores and gays and secularization etc: As a friend notes, B16’s narrative runs against everything said and done at the February summit. So it is deeply problematic and damaging at a crucial time.
From C.C. Pecknold in the Catholic Herald: 
Benedict asks our question directly: “Why did pedophilia reach such proportions?” His answer is not political but theological: “Ultimately, the reason is the absence of God.”
Since we are no longer accustomed to speaking well about God in society, this answer is bound to meet with some indifference. But I suspect that after all the studies are done, after the review boards are formed, cases heard, after new protocols and safeguards are in place, Benedict’s answer will be the one which endures. What will be remembered as the seed of renewal, as the root of restoration, is precisely Benedict’s counsel that we turn our faces back to Christ who is the perfect image of the Father’s love.

10 comments:

TJM said...

The academics' responses show just how low has academia sunk. I could get a better response from a barista at StarBucks

Gene said...

TJM, LOL! Yeah, and better coffee, too.

TJM said...

Father McDonald,

I thought you might be interested in an old friend of yours, Beans, comment:

!

Can we have Mueller looking into Benedict XVI's essay?
Robert Mueller, not cardinal Mueller.

— Massimo Faggioli (@MassimoFaggioli) April 11, 2019

Wow, I never knew Beans was such a profound thinker.

Mark Thomas said...

Much ado about nothing...in regard to Cardinal Ratzinger's document in question.

I didn't find anything new, earth-shaking, or of great benefit in Cardinal Ratzinger's latest letter.

I found questionable his comments about the link between sexual abuse and the 1960s.

It is vital to keep in mind that only a microscopic amount of priests have ever been accused of sexual assault. But as records have indicated, among priests accused of sexual assault, one after another had served during Pope Venerable Pius XII's reign.

Beyond that, the problem in question has been with Holy Mother Church for century upon century.

Therefore, placing the blame in part of the 1960s doesn't make much sense.

Pax.

Mark Thomas

ByzRus said...

Mark Thomas said:

"I didn't find anything new, earth-shaking, or of great benefit in Cardinal Ratzinger's latest letter."

I find it remarkable that the Pope Emeritus is recording these failings - and recording them from the perspective of an eyewitness of several eras, particularly the post-conciliar era. Perhaps we are reading this document differently??

The Emeritus Pope noted the following, among other things, in his newly released reflection:

"The long-prepared and ongoing process of dissolution of the Christian concept of morality was, as I have tried to show, marked by an unprecedented radicalism in the 1960s."

"In various seminaries homosexual cliques were established, which acted more or less openly and significantly changed the climate in the seminaries."

"The question of pedophilia, as I recall, did not become acute until the second half of the 1980s."

"Why did pedophilia reach such proportions? Ultimately, the reason is the absence of God."

"The Eucharist is devalued into a mere ceremonial gesture when it is taken for granted that courtesy requires Him to be offered at family celebrations or on occasions such as weddings and funerals to all those invited for family reasons."

Mark Thomas said...

Dan said...quoting Cardinal Ratzinger: "In various seminaries homosexual cliques were established, which acted more or less openly and significantly changed the climate in the seminaries."

"Traditional" Catholics have insisted that throughout the 1940s and 1950s, seminaries (as well as the clergy within the Church) were packed with homosexuals...

...not to mention communists and modernists.

"Traditionalists" have insisted that pre-Vatican II seminaries were garbage.

What is certain is that a great many priests formed in pre-Vatican II seminaries abandoned the Church.

In addition, although overall few in number, a great many priests accused of sexual assault had served during Pope Venerable Pius XII's reign. That is prior to the 1960s.

Therefore, I believe that blame-the-1960s argument is, at best, weak.

Anyway, as he failed to break new ground, I doubt that Cardinal Ratzinger's letter in question will prove of great value to us.

But Cardinal Ratzinger has the right to join the discussion about clergy sexual abuse.

Pax.

Mark Thomas

TJM said...

Dan,

There is an old saying that has application to this latest string of nonsense from MT:

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt

Victor said...

Mr Thomas:
You seem to have missed the point. Both Ratzinger and Sarah are at odds with Pope Francis over the very nature of Catholic morality. Francis quite a few times has shown his preference for situational ethics, a Modernist ethical construct in which no absolutes are involved, unlike natural law which Benedict is defending. The tradition of the Church has since time immemorial been with natural law, that is, until the Council. Benedict has not only rebuked Francis and his notion of clericalism as the problem of sexual abuse, but also the Council on its dabbling with la Nouvelle Theologie to vainly found a Catholic morality.

TJM said...

Victor,

You are speaking to an impenetrable barrier, where reason and logic are blocked. In response you will receive a list of maudlin non sequiturs

Dan said...

Mark Thomas, it wasnt me that made this comment.