Paven

Pave Benedikts julebudskap: “Verbum caro factum est”

Katolsk, Paven /

Under kan man lese en engelsk oversettelse av hele pave Benedikts julebudskap på Petersplassen i går – fra Asianews. (Og etter denne talen ønsket han God jul på 65 språk.) Som vanlig tar avisene bare med et par politiske saker fra talen, slik også i år. HER hører vi f.eks. at paven først og fremst kritiserer Kina.

“Verbum caro factum est” – “The Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14).

Dear brothers and sisters listening to me here in Rome and throughout the world, I joyfully proclaim the message of Christmas: God became man; he came to dwell among us. God is not distant: he is “Emmanuel”, God-with-us. He is no stranger: he has a face, the face of Jesus.

This message is ever new, ever surprising, for it surpasses even our most daring hope. First of all, because it is not merely a proclamation: it is an event, a happening, which credible witnesses saw, heard and touched in the person of Jesus of Nazareth! Being in his presence, observing his works and hearing his words, they recognized in Jesus the Messiah; and seeing him risen, after his crucifixion, they were certain that he was true man and true God, the only-begotten Son come from the Father, full of grace and truth (cf. Jn 1:14). …

Pave Benedikts julebudskap: “Verbum caro factum est”Les mer »

Herren sa til meg: Du er min sønn, jeg har født deg i dag.

Katolsk, Paven /

Pave Benedikt åpent sin julepreken i natt ved å ta utgangspunkt i messsens tradisjonelle inngangsvers (som jeg siterer over). Her er hans egne ord (oversatt til engelsk):

Dear Brothers and Sisters!
“You are my son, this day I have begotten you” – with this passage from Psalm 2 the Church begins the liturgy of this holy night. She knows that this passage originally formed part of the coronation rite of the kings of Israel. The king, who in himself is a man like others, becomes the “Son of God” through being called and installed in his office. It is a kind of adoption by God, a decisive act by which he grants a new existence to this man, drawing him into his own being. The reading from the prophet Isaiah that we have just heard presents the same process even more clearly in a situation of hardship and danger for Israel: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given. The government will be upon his shoulder” (Is 9:6). Installation in the office of king is like a second birth. … …

Helt på slutten av sin lange preken sier han så noe om englesangen på Betlehemsmarken, og om hvordan vi skal følge opp englenes eksempel:

… the speech of angels is different from human speech, and that above all on this night of joyful proclamation it was in song that they extolled God’s heavenly glory. So this angelic song has been recognized from the earliest days as music proceeding from God, indeed, as an invitation to join in the singing with hearts filled with joy at the fact that we are loved by God. Cantare amantis est, says Saint Augustine: singing belongs to one who loves. Thus, down the centuries, the angels’ song has again and again become a song of love and joy, a song of those who love. At this hour, full of thankfulness, we join in the singing of all the centuries, singing that unites heaven and earth, angels and men. Yes, indeed, we praise you for your glory. We praise you for your love. Grant that we may join with you in love more and more and thus become people of peace. Amen.

Les hele pavens preken her.

Kommunion bare på tungen i Peterskirken?

Katolsk, Liturgi, Paven /

Leste nylig at de som så julemidnattsmessen fra Peterskirken i går kveld/ natt sier at de troende bare fikk lov til å motta kommunion på tungen. Les om det her.

Etter hvert blir det vel klart hva som er bestemt av pave Benedikt (alle som mottar kommunion av ham mottar knelende og på tungen) eller av andre.

I en kommentar til innlegget jeg referer til, skriver en prest at slik var det også i 1985, men det har i alle fall ikke vært slik på lang tid – ikke da jeg selv delte ut kommunion i en pavemesse i 2006 i alle fall.

Dokument fra troskongregasjonen i dag

Katolsk, Paven, Teologi /

Jeg gjorde klar denne nyheten allerede tirsdag, men har vært treg med å få den publisert. Man kan på Vatikanets nettsider nå lese en uttalelse fra Troskongregasjonen, som klargjør misforståelser (om Kirkens syn på prevensjon) når mennesker uten innsikt har lest pave Benedikts intervjubok ble publisert for ikke lenge siden:

… in the battle against AIDS, the Catholic faithful and the agencies of the Catholic Church should be close to those affected, should care for the sick and should encourage all people to live abstinence before and fidelity within marriage. In this regard it is also important to condemn any behaviour which cheapens sexuality because, as the Pope says, such behaviour is the reason why so many people no longer see in sexuality an expression of their love …

On the pages in question, the Holy Father refers to the completely different case of prostitution, a type of behaviour which Christian morality has always considered gravely immoral (cf. Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, n. 27; Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2355). The response of the entire Christian tradition – and indeed not only of the Christian tradition – to the practice of prostitution can be summed up in the words of St. Paul: «Flee from fornication» (1 Cor 6:18). The practice of prostitution should be shunned, and it is the duty of the agencies of the Church, of civil society and of the State to do all they can to liberate those involved from this practice.

In this regard, it must be noted that the situation created by the spread of AIDS in many areas of the world has made the problem of prostitution even more serious. Those who know themselves to be infected with HIV and who therefore run the risk of infecting others, apart from committing a sin against the sixth commandment are also committing a sin against the fifth commandment – because they are consciously putting the lives of others at risk through behaviour which has repercussions on public health. In this situation, the Holy Father clearly affirms that the provision of condoms does not constitute «the real or moral solution» to the problem of AIDS and also that «the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality» in that it refuses to address the mistaken human behaviour which is the root cause of the spread of the virus. In this context, however, it cannot be denied that anyone who uses a condom in order to diminish the risk posed to another person is intending to reduce the evil connected with his or her immoral activity. In this sense the Holy Father points out that the use of a condom «with the intention of reducing the risk of infection, can be a first step in a movement towards a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.» This affirmation is clearly compatible with the Holy Father’s previous statement that this is «not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection.» …

Proporsjonalisme svært skadelig for Kirken

Katolsk, Paven, Teologi /

John Allen skriver i dag om gårsdagens tale til den romerske kurien, der pave Benedikt bl.a. tok opp spørsmålet om seksuelle misbruk i Kirken. Dette misbruket har kommet bl.a. pga en feilaktig moralteologisk metode kalt ‘proporsjonalisme:

In effect, Benedict asserted that proportionalism shaped a climate in which it was possible to justify pedophilia and the sexual exploitation of minors, even by priests.

As Benedict noted, “proportionalism” and its variants were explicitly rejected by Pope John Paul II in his 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor (paragraphs 75-76), in which the late pope insisted that Catholic moral tradition regards some acts as “intrinsically evil,” which can never be justified by a “proportionate reason.”

The danger of proportionalism has long figured prominently among Benedict’s “talking points” on the sex abuse crisis.

On his way to Australia in the summer of 2008, for example, Benedict targeted the moral theory by name, claiming that “with proportionalism, it was possible to think for some subjects – one could also be pedophilia – that in some proportion they could be a good thing.”

This morning, Benedict XVI returned to the same point, though without directly invoking the term. Here’s what the pope said, in the English translation of his address provided by the Vatican Press Office:

«In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children. This, however, was part of a fundamental perversion of the concept of ethos. It was maintained – even within the realm of Catholic theology – that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a ‘better than’ and a ‘worse than’. Nothing is good or bad in itself. Everything depends on the circumstances and on the end in view. Anything can be good or also bad, depending upon purposes and circumstances. Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist. The effects of such theories are evident today. Against them, Pope John Paul II, in his 1993 Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, indicated with prophetic force in the great rational tradition of Christian ethos the essential and permanent foundations of moral action. Today, attention must be focused anew on this text as a path in the formation of conscience. It is our responsibility to make these criteria audible and intelligible once more for people today as paths of true humanity, in the context of our paramount concern for mankind.»

Since cure follows diagnosis, Benedict’s assessment implies that eradicating the influence of proportionalism, along with any moral theory which denies the intrinsic evil of certain acts, should be a core element of the church’s “exit strategy.” …

Les John Allens artikkel her, og hele pave Benedikts tale her.

Pave Benedikt møtte norsk, kvinnelig, luthersk biskop

Paven, Økumenikk /

«Paven var en flott personlighet, veldig nærværende og en interessert samtalepartner.» Slik oppsummerer bispemøtets preses, Helga Haugland Byfuglien, den private audiensen hos pave Benedikt i Vatikanet i går. Dette kan vi lese i Vårt Land.

Og de skriver også følgende: «Vi ble tatt vel imot. At jeg som kvinne og biskop var med i LVF-delegasjonen, var over hodet ikke noe tema, sier Haugland Byfuglien til Vårt Land etter møtet.» Pave Benedikt er en vennlig og høflig mann, og økumeniske samtaler handler i stor grad om vennlighet i våre dager, siden virkelig kirkelig enhet ikke er temaet særlig ofte. Og under møtet kom jo ikke spørsmålet om hvordan den katolske Kirke vurderer det lutherske bispembedet opp – verken når det gjelder mannlige eller kvinnelige lutherske biskoper.

Et annet perspektiv på synspunktene til den britiske Vatikan-ambassadøren

Katolsk, Paven, Økumenikk /

Jeg skrev for et par dager siden at referatet av synspunktene til Storbritannias ambassadør til Vatikanet – om pave Benedikts generøse initiativ til anglikanere som vile bli katolikker – ikke kunne være korrekt. Men William Oddie på sin side mener det var korrekt nok, men at det viser et annet problem:

The WikiLeaks revelation late last week of the contents of part of the conversation at a dinner in Rome held by Francis Campbell, now (thank heavens) former British ambassador to the Vatican, shows among much else how important it is that he be replaced by someone who understands a little more about what is and has been going on between Rome, Britain and (among other things) the Church of England. …

Oddie sier også at virkelige økumeniske samtaler mellom Vatikanet og anglikanerne døde for ca 20 år siden, da anglikanerne også i England begynte å ordinere kvinnelige prester:

The dinner, in honour of Rowan Williams during one of his periodic courtesy trips to Rome (for that is all they can be after the Church of England – having been repeatedly warned over more than half a century by Pope Paul and then by Pope John Paul of the consequences of women’s ordination – pulled out the rug from any further ecumenical progress nearly 20 years ago by doing it anyway), was attended by assorted Vatican officials and diplomats, including the American ambassador to the Vatican. …

Les hele artikkelen her.

Wikileaks om Vatikanet

Katolsk, Paven /

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:

Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy

Liturgi, Paven /

Jeg skrev om «Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy» allerede i februar, boka kom ut på forsommeren, og nå har jeg fått tak i den – svært interessant. Jeg har kommet halvveis i et kapittel skrevet av Manfred Hauke (Un. i Lugano, Sveits), som heter: Klaus Gamber: father of the new liturgical movement. Jeg kommer med stoff fra dette kapittelet om ikke lenge. Her er litt om det:

Father Manfred Hauke, a theologian of the University of Lugano, Switzerland, and one of Europe’s most educated and widely published Catholic scholars, discusses the influence of Monsignor Klaus Gamber on the “new liturgical movement”. Father Hauke contextualizes both the thought of Joseph Ratzinger concerning the liturgy and the importance of Klaus Gamber (1919-1989) in the development of a movement based on sound scholarship that questioned the direction of the post-Conciliar liturgical establishment.

We learn of Ratzinger’s observation that by Gamber’s remaining on the “outside” of the German-speaking liturgical establishment he was able to speak prophetically about the state of the liturgy in the aftermath of the Council, and to question whether one could really talk about a unity of the liturgical rite in the face of an abundance of what Gamber termed “‘individual rites’ since so many priests now design their own liturgy, just as they please”. Gamber’s prodigious writings on the liturgy address a multiplicity of issues. He is perhaps best known for his book The Reform of the Roman Liturgy, Its Problems and Background, which appeared in English in 1993.

Fra adoremus.org.

Møte i Vatikanet med selbuvotter

Paven, Økumenikk /

Jeg skrev nylig om møtet møtet i Vatikanet mellom pave Benedikt og Olav Fykse Tveit i Kirkenes verdensråd. Vårt Land hadde signalisert at de ville skrive mer om innholdet for møtet i lørdagens papirutgave, men det gjorde de vel knapt. Så langt vet vi vel egentlig ikke hva som kom ut av møtet, bortsett fra at det vare en hyggelig møte, der paven bl.a. fikk et par selbuvotter – VL og Aftenposten. (Bildet er fra Aftenposten)

Lest ferdig intervjuet med pave Benedikt

Liturgi, Paven, TLM /

I går leste jeg ferdig boka med Peter Seewalds intervju med pave Benedikt; mye var interessant, men det var ikke alle spørsmål jeg syntes var like aktuelle for meg selv. Som mange kan tenke seg, var jeg interessert i å lese hva pave Benedikt sa om liturgien. Det var ikke så mye, men ganske interessant. Først sier han noe om hvor fokus i liturgien må være:

… The essential point is to avoid celebrating the liturgy as an occasion for the community to exhibit itself under the pretext that it is important for everyone to involve himself, though in the end, then, only the «self» is really important. Rather, the decisive thing is that we enter into something that is much greater. That we can get out of ourselves, as it were, and into the wide open spaces. For the same reason, it is also very important that the liturgy itself not be tinkered with in some way.

Så sier han litt om liturgiens historie og tradisjon:

Liturgy, in truth, is an event by means of which we let ourselves be introduced into the expansive faith and prayer of the Church. … (recognizing) its historical character. Which means recognizing that someone didn’t just one day invent the liturgy, but that it has been growing organically since the time of Abraham. These kinds of elements from the earliest times are still present in the liturgy.

Til slutt sier han litt om hvorfor han åpnet for videre bruk av den gamle messen:

… My main reason for making the previous form more available was to preserve the internal continuity of Church history. We cannot say: Before, everything was wrong, but now everything is right; for in a community in which prayer and the Eucharist are the most important things, what was earlier supremely sacred cannot be entirely wrong. The issue was internal reconciliation with our own past, the intrinsic continuity of faith and prayer in the Church.

Jerusalem Post anmelder pave-boka – ganske positivt

Katolsk, Paven /

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.” …

Starten av det lange intervjuet med pave Benedikt

Katolsk, Paven /

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.

Forord til intervjuet med pave Benedikt

Katolsk, Paven /

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? …… …..

Pave Benedikts preken for det ufødte liv

Katolsk, Paven /

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 »

Fr. Joseph Fessio forsvarer og forklarer pavens utsagn

Paven, Teologi /

Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J. kjenner pave Benedikt svært godt og er også ansvarlig redaktør for Ignatius Press, som har utgitt den siste boka om paven på engelsk. Derfor kjenner han pave Benedikts argumentasjon meget godt og har også detaljinformasjon om den nyutgitte boka – og han sier:

Did the Pope “justify” condom use in some circumstances?

No. And there was absolutely no change in Church teaching either. Not only because an interview by the Pope does not constitute Church teaching, but because nothing that he said differs from previous Church teaching.

Then why all the headlines saying that he “approves” or “permits” or “justifies” condom use in certain cases?

That’s a good question. So good that the interviewer himself asked virtually the same question during the interview.

The Pope made a statement in the interview, which statement has now been widely quoted in the worldwide media. Immediately, the interviewer, Peter Seewald, posed this question: “Are you saying, then, that the Catholic Church is actually not opposed in principle to the use of condoms?”

The Pope clarified and expanded on his previous statement. So let’s look at the two statements.

After saying that “we cannot solve the problem [of AIDS] by distributing condoms…” and that “the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality…” the Pope says: There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality”.

That is a heavily qualified, very tentative statement. Nevertheless, it prompted Seewald’s question, quoted above

Lese hele hans innlegg her.

Sandro Magister har utdrag fra pavens bok

Paven, Teologi /

På nettsidene til www.chiesa skriver også Sandro Magister om det nye intervjuet med pave benedikt. Jeg tar med et utdrag her, om den jødiske tro og deres slektskap til kristen tro. Denne forbindelsen har alltid vært viktig for Ratzinger – men noen av de meste konservative katolikkene mener her at paven går for langt. (Hva betyr det at man ikke bør drive vanlig misjonsvirksomhet blant dem? Betyr det å ikke behandle dem hedninger, uten kjennskap til Bibelen, at de heller må omvendes mer som den hellige Paulus – eller mener han noen annet og mer omfattende?)

Judaism

I must say that from the first day of my theological studies, the profound unity between the Old and New Testament, between the two parts of our Sacred Scripture, was somehow clear to me. I had realized that we could read the New Testament only together with what had preceded it, otherwise we would not understand it. Then naturally what happened in the Third Reich struck us as Germans, and drove us all the more to look at the people of Israel with humility, shame, and love.

In my theological formation, these things were interwoven, and marked the pathway of my theological thought. So it was clear to me – and here again in absolute continuity with John Paul II – that in my proclamation of the Christian faith there had to be a central place for this new interweaving, with love and understanding, of Israel and the Church, based on respect for each one’s way of being and respective mission [. . .]

A change also seemed necessary to me in the ancient liturgy. In fact, the formula was such as to truly wound the Jews, and it certainly did not express in a positive way the great, profound unity between Old and New Testament. For this reason, I thought that a modification was necessary in the ancient liturgy, in particular in reference to our relationship with our Jewish friends. I modified it in such a way that it contained our faith, that Christ is salvation for all. That there do not exist two ways of salvation, and that therefore Christ is also the savior of the Jews, and not only of the pagans. But also in such a way that one did not pray directly for the conversion of the Jews in a missionary sense, but that the Lord might hasten the historic hour in which we will all be united. For this reason, the arguments used polemically against me by a series of theologians are rash, and do not do justice to what was done. …

Flere utdrag fra det lange intervjuet med pave Benedikt

Katolsk, Paven /

I et innlegg hos FirstThings kan vi lese flere utdrag Peter Seewalds intervju med paven. Her er litt av det:

On the Abuse Scandal …

On the Possibility of Papal Resignation …

On Papal Pronouns (I /We) …

On the Tridentine Mass

Liturgy, in truth, is an event by means of which we let ourselves be introduced into the expansive faith and prayer of the Church. This is the reason why the early Christians prayed facing east, in the direction of the rising sun, the symbol of the returning Christ. In so doing, they wanted to show that the whole world is on its way toward Christ and that he encompasses the whole world. This connection between heaven and earth is very important. It was no accident that ancient churches were built so that the sun would cast its light into the house of God at a very precise moment. . . .

[S]omeone didn’t just one day invent the liturgy, but that it has been growing organically since the time of Abraham. These kinds of elements from the earliest times are still present in the liturgy.

Concretely, the renewed liturgy of the Second Vatican Council is the valid form in which the Church celebrates liturgy today. My main reason for making the previous form more available was to preserve the internal continuity of Church history. We cannot say: Before, everything was wrong, but now everything is right; for in a community in which prayer and the Eucharist are the most important things, what was earlier supremely sacred cannot be entirely wrong. The issue was internal reconciliation with our own past, the intrinsic continuity of faith and prayer in the Church.

On the Tridentine petition for the conversion of the Jews …

On AIDS and Condoms …

On the Eucharistic Drama …

On the Future of Christianity …

Den fins også en offisiell blogg om denne boka.

«Paven, Kirken og tidens tegn»

Katolsk, Paven /

Peter Seewalds bok om pave Benedikt har tittelen: Verdens lys: Paven, Kirken og tidens tegn. Erkebiskop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., i Denver, skriver interessant om den nye boka på First Things’ nettsider:

In his foreword to this remarkable book—structured as a conversation between Benedict XVI and journalist Peter Seewald—George Weigel praises the German Pope for his “frankness, clarity and compassion.” This is very true. It’s also an understatement. No serving bishop of Rome has ever spoken so openly and disarmingly as Benedict XVI does in Light of the World: The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times.

Benedict (as then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) and Seewald have worked together in the past. While Seewald asks blunt questions, the Pope’s trust in him is clearly high. The resulting exchange between the two men is bracing and memorable, an absolutely mandatory read for anyone who wants a sense of the Petrine ministry and its burdens from the inside.

And yet, one comes away from this text with a mix of exhilaration and sympathy. The exhilaration springs from meeting in Benedict an extraordinary Christian intellect, articulate and unfiltered; a man prudent, generous, and penetrating in his judgment, candid in his self-criticism, brilliant but accessible in his thinking, and unshakeable in his faith. The sympathy flows from knowing that, in the current media climate, almost anything Benedict says may be hijacked to serve other agendas. …

Hva paven sa om kondomer og andre ting – i det boklange intervjuet

Katolsk, Paven /

John Allen har tydeligvis allerede lest bok-intervjuet på 180 sider, der pave Benedikt uttaler seg om mange spørsmål – mye om kontroverser over ting han har sagt og gjort de siste åra. Les gjerne denne interessante artikkelen. Om kondom-spørsmålet skriver Allen ganske balansert:

it’s the pope’s surprisingly nuanced comments on condoms which have excited international interest.

In chapter eleven of the book, Benedict tells Seewald that the anti-birth control teaching of Pope Paul VI in the 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae remains an important witness against the “banalization of sexuality.”

Nonetheless, Benedict says that in carefully circumscribed cases – where the intent is to prevent the transmission of disease, not to prevent pregnancy – the use of a condom “can be a first step in the direction of moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants.”

The pontiff offers the example of a male prostitute, though the same line of reasoning could arguably be applied in cases of heterosexual couples where one partner is HIV-positive and the other isn’t.

That question has long been a subject of Catholic debate, even among cardinals. In 2006, the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Health Care Pastoral examined the question of condoms for married couples where one is HIV-positive and tentatively drew a positive conclusion, but no formal statement was issued – in part because of PR concern in the Vatican that such a limited concession would be heard by the world as blanket approval of condoms.

In a Nov. 21 statement, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, said that the pope’s comments did not come out of the blue.

“Numerous moral theologians and authoritative ecclesiastical personalities have sustained, and still sustain, similar positions,” Lombardi said. “Nevertheless, it’s true that they have not been heard until now with such clarity from the mouth of the pope, even if it’s in a colloquial rather than magisterial form.” …

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