Rest in Peace, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
"Cooperatores Veritatis"
“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him."
"When,
at this late hour of my life, I look back on the decades I have wandered
through, I see first of all how much reason I have to give thanks. Above all, I
thank God Himself, the giver of all good gifts, who has given me life and
guided me through all kinds of confusion; who has always picked me up when I
began to slip, who has always given me anew the light of his countenance. In
retrospect, I see and understand that even the dark and arduous stretches of
this path were for my salvation and that He guided me well in those very stretches."
(Written by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2006)
The Catholic world mourns the loss of such a towering intellect and a kind man who loved cats.
ReplyDeleteSad loss to us but by God's grace may he find peace in eternity .
DeleteHappy New Year, Cressie.
And not only the Catholic world, I assure you. Many of us were aware of just how remote from the truth was the media caricature of Benedict. And yet, Magna est veritas et prævalebit – history will (eventually) record that we (even those of us outside of the Catholic fold) have been singularly blessed with one of the finest minds, as well as one of the most pastoral hearts, ever to have occupied the Throne of Peter.
DeleteWell said 'unknknown.'.
DeleteThank you for this heartfelt comment Anonymous.....the Latin gave you away:) nudge nudge wink wink say no more:) Good to see you here.
DeleteHi Cressida, I'm guessing you probably think I’m Brian (who I seem to recall was our resident Latinist)? I’m actually an occasional commenter most recently going by the name Kentigern. I’m not deliberately anonymous, I just can’t get my existing Google ID to work here for some reason (and have neither the time nor the energy to try to work it out – I dare say I'll get there eventually!)
DeleteKentigern....put your name at the end of your anonymous comment ....problem solved!
DeleteAs a child, whenever he came up with a good idea, his mum would say: "Why Jack, you're not as stupid as you look." It was a compliment as Jack had a wise look about him as a child.
DeleteSo in the very same spirit, Jack says: "Cressie, you're not as stupid as you look."
Jack, you really are a charm school graduate!
DeleteRegarding Ratzinger (et re rebus Latinis), a few years I read his "Jesus of Nazareth", a work that refernces Joachim Jeremias, C. S. Lewis and a host of Protestant scholars, as well as interacting with the Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner, and I concluded this was a book any evangelical would be proud to write. Having listened to Gavin Ashenden's Catholic Unscripted, I have just looked up "Spe salvi" and am impressed by its range of engagement with thinkers across the ages on hope and the future, and one can readily see why Ratzingr, following Wojtyla, rejected the false hope of socialism and liberation theology.
Ashenden & co. affirm what Ratzinger foresaw, that the world cannot be cajoled into liking Christianity by repeating leftist sound bites because the secular world's hostility is far deeper than many realise. Unfortunately the present holder of the papacy doesn't understand this, and neither does the current tenant of Lambeth Palace. Both men are also theological pyg3compared to their predecessors.
Indeed. There is something ironic in Mr. Welby's praise of Pope Benedict as 'one of the greatest theologians of our age' and someone 'committed to the faith of the Church and stalwart in its defence', coming from a man who has precious little theological understanding and seems determined to undermine the faith of the Church at every turn.
DeleteJack had a wise look about him as a child.
DeleteWhat happened?
That should say "theological pygmies" if such non-pc language is still allowed. Not that Romwan Williams didn't come up with some clangers, and still does, like his bizarre commentary recently on "holy transgenderism".
DeleteNot that Romwan Williams didn't come up with some clangers.
DeleteTheological thinkers are supposed to push the boundaries and ask outlandish questions; it's partly how we figure out how apply the faith to the changes of the world and the new challenges it faces. But they need to function within the boundaries of the deposit of faith, which says 'this far, but no further', and Anglicanism decided to unfasten itself from this anchor and set itself up as its own authority. Clangers are unsurprising.
@ Lain
Delete"What happened?" Jack wisdom is reflected in a happy, optimistic face!
But of course. However did I miss that? 🤔
DeleteMay he know that peace which the world cannot give, and may his memory be eternal.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Jack and to everyone who visits here....
ReplyDeleteArchbishop Georg Gänswein recalls his long association with Pope Benedict, dating back to his work at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the nineties
ReplyDeletehttps://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253203/pope-benedict-xvi-personal-secretary-georg-ganswein-ewtn-interview
Beatification must surely follow. Anyone who can love cats is already heroically virtuous.
ReplyDeleteAnd there's a vacancy for the patron saint of retired people. There have been a few, but they keep quitting when they reach 65.
It's easy to love cats. They are elegant beautiful affectionate creatures...maybe retired people are a bit more difficult to love..You should consider becoming the patron saint of retirees....You're pretty good at lawn bowls and Cat Steven songs. .I imagine you are missing Cranmer especially having been a bit of a celebrity on there for so many years. .Anyway I hope you are keeping well , will visit here often, flex your virile Protestant muscles, and entertain us with your wit, puns and creative original interpretations of scripture.:)
DeleteOne anticipates that in time Pope Benedict will be declared a Doctor of the Church for his profound writing. He was a 'reluctant' pope, wanting to dedicate his life to theological study and reflection. God had another plan in mind and the then Cardinal Ratzinger answered this call.
DeleteJustin Welby is currently a doctor of the church. He's doctoring it in Tavistock Clinic kind of ways.
DeleteSorry to hear this news - may Benedict rest in peace! The man formed a rather positive impression on me over the years.
ReplyDeleteThose familiar with the writings of Pope John II and his successor Pope Benedict XVI will know their contribution to the our Christian understanding of the Gospel. These writings cut through denominational divides.
ReplyDeleteNot the just the formal magisterium documents whic byt their nature and status are written in tight language
By God's grace may they now be happily reunited - like Bilbo and Frodo!
Meanwhile, here is the CofE's first genderqueer, non binary priest.
ReplyDeleteI keep on thinking this cannot possibly be true, that it is some sort of nightmare. I do feel sympathy for those traditional Cof E vicars and the laity. I don't have any ideas of how to sort this but it cannot go on like this.Surely someone can do something. ...even it is drastic and revolutionary like dismantling the top level ( legally if necessary ) and replacing them with Christians.These Caligula types are causing so much suffering amongst the C of E community Even the senators in Ancient Rome were uncomfortable with this type of deviant behaviour and they were not pillars of wisdom or morality. I hope you don't mind me saying this but I do hope your Dad is bearing up with all this terrible stuff happening. Happy New Year Lain !
DeleteThanks, Cressie, a happy new year to you, too!
DeleteI don't know what the answer is, I think the CofE is now so rotten that there's no going back. It's no wonder the churches are emptying. I don't even recognise the CofE as the church I left, and that wasn't so long ago. Anyone who still clings to any slither of Christianity needs to leave, and let the dead bury the dead.
My dad is doing ok, thanks for asking. He's very disillusioned with the wider organisation and is just holding out for a little while longer until he can take early retirement. If he didn't have a congregation to look after, he'd have gone already but he worries about what will happen to them if he leaves.
I mean 'sliver of Christianity', of course. A bit of a Freudian slip; I must have been thinking about who runs the CofE now! 😂
DeleteI've sort of hesitated saying anything about the former Pope's death, as to be frank I didn't feel I knew enough about him, to entitle me to comment. I have been reading a lot of the comment pieces about him and he does seem to have been a good man and academic. What hits me though was he shouldn't have been Pope. Not because he was a bad man, he wasn't, but because the problems he needed to to try and resolve, were problems that he didn't have the force of character to resolve. He appears to have been badly let down by factions within the Vatican.
ReplyDeleteBut knowing that he was unable to do anything about them.
I suspect that is why he stood down. The problems were only going to get worse with age.
I have no doubt God will welcome him as a faithful servant. And in other times he would have been a good Pope.
You may well be correct about his reasons for resigning. It takes courage and humility to accept the task before you is beyond your abilities.
DeleteYes and also honesty
DeleteIt is possible that Pope Benedict was pushed out forcibly because he refused to compromise on immutable Catholic dogma and told the truth. We will never know what really happened.
ReplyDeleteHis job may well have been made impossible, Cressie. But, not, he would not have been "forcibly" removed. He hs made this clear in various statement made since.
DeleteRefer me to the statements.....I do not believe he was not put under an enormous amount of pressure to back pedal on his true Catholic views....There are ways of making it impossible for an unpopular person to stay in a job.....so no difference with the Papacy....You know there are powerful opponents of Pope Benedict functioning and doing their best and succeeding to a certain extent in undermining Catholic doctrine in the Vatican . It is not Disneyland with endless displays of white doves and a choir of angels
DeleteCressie, you can read Pope Benedict XVI own wordshere.
DeleteThese should put paid to all the conspiracy theories being bandied about by the secular media and some ‘Traditional *Catholics*’.
Unless we want to accuse him of dissimulation, best take his at his word.
I reject the term traditional Catholic. One is a Catholic or not a Catholic. Catholicism does not allow for or accomodate variations such as progressive and liberal Catholicism. Thank you for this article .I will comment on it when I read all of it. Pope Benedict could never admit that he was pressured into resigning even if he was...I hope he has left a secret dossier hidden somewhere which someone will find in the future.Look what happened to Cardinal Pell when he began to uncover the corruption in the financial sector of the Vatican.....No one talks about that either
ReplyDeleteDon't go all Archbishop Viganò on Happy Jack, Cressie.
DeleteDon't go all Protestant Jack...dodging weaving and pleasing....
DeleteDon't misunderstand Jack. There are fringe groups in the Church. Some clinging to the past and claiming they are "true Catholics" defending the faith from Pope Francis who, in their opinion, is an anti-pope at worse or a progressive-modernist.at best. Then there are those who see in Pope Francis' pastoral approach an opportunity to import alien ideas into the faith. Ideologies that contradict settled doctrine and wold affirm moral disorders and have the authority of the magisterium bow to the laity, i.e., them.
DeleteThe Church has always grown and developed through controversy about the her direction and mission in changing times. What is doctrine and dogma that cannot be changed and how it should be proposed and affirmed according to the times we live in?. Pope John Paul II, as did Pope Benedict were subject to uncharitable criticism. That's the nature of man in any human organisation. There will always be factions vying for influence for different reasons.
Jack willl be honest with you. He tires of the "internet magisterium" and most especially those who revel in dissent and widen disagreement by salacious stories.. Everyone seems to have an opinion. Just have a read around some of the websites. They're the "protestants". Vigano has acquired a cult following; as have the likes of James Martin. And don't ask Jack about the German church!
So, no, Jack will not "go all protestant". He will pray for the successor of Peter and read his words for himself and form his own impression, instead of the depending on cursory readings given by some as they rush to print, endeavouring to beat the next "laptop warrior" to print. So far as Jack's concerned, Vatican II was necessary and the popes since, including Pope Francis, for all his many human faults, stand in continuity with Catholic teachings that went before it.
Anyway, can you imagine Jack leaving the Church to join a 'house church' somewhere without the sacraments or, worse still, doing a Dominic Stockford?!
A very sad day for Australian Catholics.....Cardinal Pell died this morning. May he rest in peace and may the eternal light shine upon him. He was a brave and faithful Catholic with many enemies, unjustly imprisoned, released by the grace of God through the untiring meticulous efforts of a faithful Jew Justice Weinberg . It is a great loss to us...we are proud of him , we will miss him ....we love him
ReplyDeleteA much maligned servant of Christ who was treated unjustly by the Australian media and criminal 'justice' system.
ReplyDeleteMay he rest in peace.