Jeg leste selv messen for pave Benedikt i St Hallvard kirke i går – det fins en egen messe på årsdagen for pavevalg – men jeg holdt ingen preken for de (få) frammøtte. Men et sted i England hadde man en større messe, der Father Tim Finigan holdt en fin preken – som i sin helhet kan leses her. Her er et utdrag:
… … Most of you will remember that afternoon, on 19 April 2005, watching on the television screen or hearing from friends, the news that Cardinal Ratzinger had been elected Pope and the great joy that this had happened. The exuberant faces of young seminarians and women religious remain a happy memory of that great day. … …
His pontificate, if you accept the propaganda of the mainstream media, or the liberal Catholic press, has been “dogged by controversy.” We could put it another way – his work for the Lord has been subject to furious opposition from the world because he stands for Christ and is unafraid to say what needs to be said. … …
Most recently our beloved Holy Father has been the target of furious attacks attempting to smear him with what he himself called the “filth” that has infected the Church. He remains innocens manibus et mundo corde (innocent of hands and of a clean heart) most especially in the scandalous tale of bribery and corruption that enabled Fr Marcel Maciel to be shielded for so long – until Cardinal Ratzinger stepped in against his senior colleagues in the Curia. As Pope, within his first year, he had the man dismissed and sent for perpetual penance. (And we should pray that God may have mercy on his soul.)
The hallmark of the papacy of Pope Benedict has been his idea of the “hermeneutic of continuity”, an idea which is, as you know, close to my own heart. Joseph Ratzinger is a great theologian in his own right. My own theory is that Pope John Paul II appointed him as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith precisely because he could meet the likes of Hans Kung, Karl Rahner, and Edward Schillebeeckx on equal terms.
The affirmation that Vatican II should be understood in continuity with the tradition of the Church goes clean contrary to most of the theological prejudice which was current during my own days as a student. The usual theme was that in the old days we used to thing one thing but now we think differently. Before the Council, we used to pray in one way but now we pray differently. Most important of all, it was asserted that our manner of worshipping God in the Sacred Liturgy was radically changed by a complete break with the past. Pope Benedict’s idea of the hermeneutic of reform and continuity within the one subject Church allows us once again to take up without scruple the whole of the tradition of the Church in all of these areas. … …
Thanks be to God we have a great and good Pope. When we pray for him, we are praying to his immediate superior to support and encourage him in his ministry. Let us pray to God for him now asking for many years and for strength and determination to do what is necessary for the reform of the Church.