Jeg leste for 4-5 dager siden en artikkel av Andrea Tornielli i the Vatican Insider om pave Benedikts synspunkter på enkelte elementer i Vatikankonsilets dokumenter. Dokumentet som omatlte vår tids moderne verden klarte ikke riktig å definere vår moderne verden, hevdes det:
The conciliar constitution “Gadium et spes” did not specify what was essential and constitutive of the modern era. Benedict XVI states this in the preface of a conciliar text which will soon be published by German publishing house Herder. A preview of the text is given in a special illustrated issue of L’Osservatore Romano, the Holy See’s official newspaper, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. The description of the Council given is based on news stories from the time, new or barely known details and rare images and photographs.
In terms of the so-called “Schema XIII” from which “the pastoral Constitution of the modern world was born,” the Pope says: “This point touches on the real expectations of the Council. The Church, which during the Baroque era was still, in a broad sense, shaping the world, had from the nineteenth century onwards visibly entered into a negative relationship with the modern era, which had only then properly begun. Did it have to remain so? Could the Church not take a positive step into the new era?”
“Behind the vague expression “today’s world” – Benedict XVI continues – lies the question of the relationship with the modern era. To clarify this, it would have been necessary to define more clearly the essential features that constitute the modern era. “Schema XIII” did not succeed in doing this. Although the Pastoral Constitution (“Gaudium et spes”, Ed.) expressed many important elements for an understanding of the “world” and made significant contributions to the question of Christian ethics, it failed to offer substantial clarification on this point.”
Ratzinger then pointed out that “unexpectedly, the encounter with the great themes of the modern epoch did not happen in the great Pastoral Constitution, but instead in two minor documents, whose importance has only gradually come to light in the context of the reception of the Council. First, there is the Declaration on Religious Liberty, which was urgently requested, and also drafted, by the American Bishops in particular,” the Pope explains. “With developments in philosophical thought and in ways of understanding the modern State, the doctrine of tolerance, as worked out in detail by Pius XII, no longer seemed sufficient.” ….
Jeg siterer litt mer herfra (om religionsfriheten) om ikke lenge.