And much, much more."There are startling moments of aggiornamento, such as the apparent clarification of the morality of using condoms to prevent disease; but the changes to Catholic teaching on birth control, homosexuality and women’s ordination that were so plausible to liberals in the 1970s now seem unthinkable. Also, this Pope understands that he doesn’t have the authority to change his own authority, as it were."
[Hat tip to J.M.]
Update
See Christopher Blosser, "Pope Benedict, Fr. Rhonheimer, Janet Smith and Stephen Long -- the 'Condom Conundrum' Continues" (The Benedict Blog, December 20, 2010). [Note: While the participants in this debate seem to be all pretty much agreed on what the Holy Father was (and was not) saying in his book, their own highly-nuanced discussion of the issues goes well beyond the interpretation of the Pope's own words to a treatment of their own respective positions on condoms and contraception and their moral evaluation of the issues involved.]
4 comments:
But then there's also this:
"Yet, if the Pope isn’t willing to gloss over hard truths in order to win liberal approval, he’s also careful not to throw bouquets in the direction of his long-standing admirers. And that’s my more general observation about Light of the World: that, in a number of places, Benedict XVI distances himself from the Papa Ratzinger of traditionalist legend. Scattered throughout the book are phrases that will make certain conservatives wince while they applaud its overall message. Summorum Pontificum is affirmed, but there’s no sense of it as a foundation for wider liturgical reform: when the Pope talks about why he changed the “offensive” Good Friday prayer for the Jews, he reminds us that it only affected “the small circle of people who use the old missal”. And, on the subject of Richard Williamson, the Pope points out that because he was “an Anglican and then went over directly to Lefebvre” this means that he had “never lived in the great Church” – indeed, was “never Catholic in the proper sense”. Traditionalists who admire the SSPX won’t like that choice of words at all. Nor will they appreciate the inspiration Benedict XVI clearly derives from the figure of Paul VI."
The Pope can't be pigonholed easly.
"For one of the things that God is purifying the Church from, [Benedict] suggests, is the moral relativism that encouraged priests with abusive urges to express them – and persuaded the Church authorities that the “loving” response to outrages was to hush things up."
More than sexual perversity and criminality on the part of priests (and bishops, let us not forget) has been winked at over the past fifty years. Schism has been winked at. Heresy has been winked at. Evisceration of the code of canon law has been winked at. Evisceration of the ability of the Church to govern itself and maintain doctrinal order within its "collegial" ranks has been winked at. Humani Generis is not even given lip service anymore, because the perpetrators Pius XII sought to bring to heel were embraced by his successors and brought into positions of power at Papa John's council: De Lubac, Congar, Chenu, and above all, Karl Rahner, patron of "anonymous Christians" everywhere, and the close collaborator of the young council periti Fr Ratzinger (they co-authored a book -- which somehow has been overlooked by Ignatius Press, which has published everything else Ratzinger has written since his cursive letter drills in the first grade).
Yes, Papa Benedict, there is much within the Church which demands purification.
Incidentally, Thompson appears to have significantly botched his reading of the passage in the Pope's new book referencing condoms. How Thompson reached his conclusion is beyond me.
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