Katolsk

Jeg leste her om dokumenter fra Wikileaks der den britiske ambassadøren i Vatikanet hadde meldt at forholdet mellom Vatikanet og Storbritannia ville kunne bli veldig dårlig pga pave Benedikts generøse tilbud til anglikanere som ønsket å bli katolikker. Men eksperter mener at disse dokumentene har blandet sammen hummer og kanari – som man sier. Se innslaget selv:

Jerusalem Post hadde søndag en anmeldelse av boka «Light of the World – the Pope, the Church and Signs of the Times», som de korrekt sier er “the first personal and direct interview with a pope ever». Jeg tar med litt av det de skriver her, mest om pave Benedikts synspunkter på jødene:

In a Platonic format of questions and answers, the conversation, deftly guided by German journalist and author Peter Seewald, was recorded last summer at the pontiff’s summer residence near Rome. It provides a lively guide to Pope Benedict XVI’s thoughts on all the major dilemmas of his papacy and times. Seewald leaves no holes in the story, presenting his illustrious interviewee (and readers) with an accurate portrait of public opinion.

Joseph Ratzinger, the man and the Pope, replies without reticence, revealing the reflective and unpretentious traits of his personality and an unusual capacity to listen respectfully.

He makes no attempt to hide the uncertainties and errors behind the series of crises that have marked his papacy, optimistically transforming them into a learning process from which he believes the Church will benefit.

Interspersed throughout the book … Benedict XVI speaks extensively on issues related to Israel and the Jewish world, confirming his unwavering personal commitment to both. …

Ratzinger holds true to his belief in the “intrinsic unity of the Old and the New Covenant, the two parts of the Holy Scripture,” an awareness he says he acquired “since the very first day” of his early theological studies. He first made his theological views on Judaism public in 1990, when as the cardinal in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he was interviewed in “Jews and Judaism in the Universal Catechism,” a piece published simultaneously in Studi Cattolici (in Italian) and Midstream (in English).

He says, “We can read the New Testament only together with what preceded it, otherwise, we would completely fail to understand it.”

These affirmations implicitly contradict and override the statements made by individual Middle East Bishops at the recent Vatican Synod regarding Christ’s having “annulled” the Abrahamic covenant.

Turning to a personal and historic perspective, he says, “As Germans, we were of course shaken by what had happened in the Third Reich, which gave us a special reason to look with humility and shame and with love, upon the People of Israel.” …

Slik starter den berømte boka – intervjuet med pave Benedikt – som kom ut sist uke:

1. Popes Do Not Fall from the Sky

Holy Father, on April 16, 2005, your seventy eighth birthday, you told your co-workers how much you were looking forward to your retirement Three days later you were the leader of the universal Church with 1.2 billion members. Not exactly a project that one saves for his old age.

Actually I had expected finally to have same peace and quiet. The fact that I suddenly found myself facing this maturations task was, as everybody knows, a shock for me. The responsibility is in fact enormous.

There was the moment when, as you later said, you felt just as if «a guillotine» were speeding down on you.

Yes, the thought of the guillotine occurred to me: Now it falls down and hits you. I had been so sure that this office was no my calling, but that God would now grant me same peace and quiet after strenuous years. But then I could only any, explain to myself. God’s will is apparently otherwise, and something new and completely different is beginning for me. He will be with me.

In the so-called «room of tears» during a conclave three sets of robes lie waiting for the future Pope One is long, am short, am middle sized What was going through your head in that roam, in which so many new Pontiffs are said to have broken down? Does am wonder again here, at the very latest: Why me? What duos God want of me?

Actually at that moment one is first of all occupied by very practical, external things. One has to see how to deal with the robes and such. Moreover I knew that very soon I would have to my a few words out on the balcony, and I began to think about what I could say. Besides, even at the moment when it hit me, all I was able to say to the Lord was simply: «What are you doing with me? Now the responsibility is yours. You must lead met! I can’t do it. If you wanted me, then you must also help me!» In this sense, I stood, let us any, in an urgent dialogue relationship with the Lord: if he does the one thing he most also do the other.

Did John Paul II want to have you as his successor?

That I do not know. I think he left it entirely up to the deer Lord.

Nonetheless he did not allow you to leave office. That could be taken as an argumentum a silentio, a silent argument for his favorite candidate.

He did want to keep me in office; that is well known. As my seventy-fifth birthday approached, which is the age limit when me submits one’s resignation, he said to me, «You do not have to write the letter at all, for I want to have you to the end.» That was the great and undeserved benevolence he showed me from the very beginning. He had read my Introduction to Christianity. Evidently it was an important book for him. As soon as he became Pope he had made up his mind to call me to Rome as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He had placed a great, very cordial, and profound treat in me. As the guarantee, so to speak, that we would travel the right course in the faith.

Jeg har kjøpt min første kindle-bok! Lørdag morgen ville jeg gjerne få tak i Peter Seewalds intervju-bok med pave Benedikt, men så at den allerede var utsolgt hos britiske Amazon. Da kjøpte jeg den like godt i elektronisk kindle-format, og fikk den opp på skjermen på mindre enn ett minutt. Jeg har en stund tenkt å kjøpe meg en Kindle – men det har jeg så langt ikke gjort – men alle bøker i dette formaten kan også leses på en vanlig datamaskin.

Og slik starter Seewaltds forord:

Castel Gandolfo in the summer. The way to the Pope’s residence led over lonely country roads. In the fields the grain swayed in a gentle breeze, and in the hotel where I had reserved a room a happy wedding party was dancing. Only the lake below in the hollow seemed Peaceful and calm, as big and blue as the sea.

As Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger had twice granted me the opportunity to interview him over the course of several days. The Church must not hide, was his attitude; the faith must be explained; and it can be explained, because it is reasonable. He impressed me as being young and modern, not a bean-counter, but rather a man who ventures bravely and rehums his curiosity. A masterful teacher, and a disconcerting one as well, because he sees that we are losing things that we really cannot do without.

In Castel Gandolfo some things were different A cardinal is a cardinal, and the Pope is the Pope. Never before in the history of the Church had a Pontiff answered questions in the form of a personal, direct interview. The mere fact of this conversation sets art important new tone. Benedict XVI had agreed to be at my disposal during his vacation, from Monday through Saturday of the last week in July, for one hour each day. Yet I reflected, how candid would his answers turn out to be? …… …..

Fra The Catholic Herald og Vatikanradioen presenterer jeg her pave Benedikts preken under bønnevigilien for det ufødte liv i går kveld – og hans bønn for de ufødte:

Dear brothers and sisters,

With this evening’s celebration, the Lord gives us the grace and joy of opening the new liturgical year beginning with its first stage: Advent, the period that commemorates the coming of God among us. Every beginning brings a special grace, because it is blessed by the Lord. In this Advent period we will once again experience the closeness of the One who created the world, who guides history and cared for us to the point of becoming a man. This great and fascinating mystery of God with us, moreover of God who becomes one of us, is what we celebrate in the coming weeks journeying towards holy Christmas. During the season of Advent we feel the Church that takes us by the hand and – in the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary – expresses her motherhood allowing us to experience the joyful expectation of the coming of the Lord, who embraces us all in his love that saves and consoles.

While our hearts reach out towards the annual celebration of the birth of Christ, the Church’s liturgy directs our gaze to the final goal: our encounter with the Lord in the splendour of glory. This is why we, in every Eucharist, “announce his death, proclaim his resurrection until he comes again” we hold vigil in prayer. The liturgy does not cease to encourage and support us, putting on our lips, in the days of Advent, the cry with which the whole Bible concludes, the last page of the Revelation of Saint John: “Come, Lord Jesus “(22:20).

Dear brothers and sisters, our coming together this evening to begin the Advent journey is enriched by another important reason: with the entire Church, we want to solemnly celebrate a prayer vigil for unborn life. I wish to express my thanks to all who have taken up this invitation …

Pave Benedikts preken for det ufødte livLes mer »