Pope Francis meets with members of Chemin Neuf Politics Fraternity at the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, May 16, 2022. / Vatican Media. See CNA article for full slideshow.
Vatican City, May 16, 2022 / 08:20 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Monday urged young Christians engaged in politics to promote fraternity, while shunning “violent confrontation” and ideology.
The pope outlined his vision for the renewal of politics in a May 16 address to members of the Chemin Neuf Politics Fraternity, which brings together people aged 18 to 35 seeking to “be active in politics according to the heart of God.”
He gave the young people present in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall three watchwords — encounter, reflection, and action — and encouraged them to show “unconditional acceptance and respect” for others.
“Without such a change of heart, politics often risks turning into a violent confrontation, where people try to impose their own ideas and pursue particular interests over the common good, contrary to the principle that ‘unity prevails over conflict,’” he said, referring to a maxim his 2013 apostolic exhortationEvangelii gaudium.
The pope, who has been making his public appearances in a wheelchair since May 5 due to a torn ligament in his right knee, invoked the 18th-century statesman Edmund Burke.
He recalled that the author of “Reflections on the Revolution in France” told his constituents after he was elected to the British Parliament that he would not only serve their interest but also “the interest of the entire country, the general good.”
The pope said: “As Christians, we recognize that politics is practiced not only through encounter, but also through shared reflection in the pursuit of this general good, not simply through the clash of differing and often opposed interests.”
He added: “Our own compass for advancing this common project is the Gospel, which brings to the world a profoundly positive vision of humanity as loved by God.”
The Chemin Neuf Politics Fraternity is part of the Chemin Neuf Community, which was founded in Lyon, France, in 1973 and describes itself as a Catholic community with an ecumenical vocation.
Members of the international fraternity issued a manifesto in Poland in 2016 recalling that Pope Pius XI described politics as “the highest form of charity” and committing themselves to strive “for justice and peace, through our political commitment.”
The pope highlighted the group’s “efforts on behalf of migrants and ecology,” as well as an initiative in which members “have chosen to live together in a working-class quarter of Paris, in order to listen to the voices of the poor.”
“That is a Christian way of engaging in political life,” he commented. “Don’t forget these things, that realities are more important than ideas: politics cannot be practiced with ideology. That the whole is greater than the part, and that unity prevails over conflict. Always seek unity and do not get lost in conflict.”
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Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica on March 26, 2005, in Vatican City. / Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images
Denver, Colo., Feb 19, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA).
Six lectures of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger were almost lost forever. But now, they have been collected in a new Ignatius Press book, “The Divine Project: Reflections on Creation and Church.”
“It’s a wonderful summation of what God intends in creating us and redeeming us, in six lectures. It’s just a great find,” Father Joseph Fessio, SJ, president of Ignatius Press, told CNA. “It’s written for students and spoken for students. It’s really quite readable.”
The future Pope Benedict XVI delivered the series of lectures in 1985 at the Bishop of Gurk’s formation house at St. George’s Abbey in Längsee in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia. They were recorded on audio cassettes but the tapes were misplaced for 30 years and forgotten. By chance, they were rediscovered.
“It was a treasure that was lost and found again,” said Fessio, who studied under Ratzinger when the future pontiff was a theologian and university professor. Ratzinger would serve as a cardinal under Pope John Paul II. He was elected pope in 2005.
The lectures were first published in German in 2008, but Ignatius Press is the first to publish them in English, in a 177-page book.
Fessio stressed Ratzinger’s emphasis on Scripture.
“He always goes back to Scripture when he is presenting on any topic,” Fessio commented. “This is theological. It has to do with faith, of course. His interpretation of Genesis brings it right up to the present. He understands traditional scholarship and the historical-critical method, but he’s able to make it come alive.”
Ratzinger’s lectures reflect upon God as the creator of a reasonable cosmos, in which each man and woman is ultimately a creature. He considers how to read the Bible and understand original sin and redemption.
Ratzinger considers the first eight lines of the Book of Genesis, about the creation of the heavens and the earth.
“Is this merely a beautiful passage, or does this beauty also reveal something of the truth?” he asks. “And if so, how do we find it?”
He reflects on explanations of Genesis that engage scientific accounts of the universe and of humankind, including evolutionary theory. He asks whether and how the scientific and Christian approaches can complement each other, and he ponders the place of the Genesis account of creation in historic Christian thought, including the fall of humankind through Adam.
The early Church and the Middle Ages “understood that the Bible is one whole and that we can only truly hear what it is saying if we hear it as coming from Christ,” Ratzinger explains.
“This means hearing it in the freedom that he has given us and from the depths where, through the screen of images, he reveals the true and enduring reality, the solid ground on which we can always stand,” he says.
Fessio told CNA that the Book of Genesis is written in “a very parabolic or even mythical way.” In Ratzinger’s commentary, the Old Testament must be read as a preparation for the New Testament. The Bible should be read as a whole.
“Its parts help to understand each other and [to understand] that Christ is the goal and therefore the key of interpretation,” Fessio said. He added that Ratzinger’s lectures show “how Creation was made for the worship of God, for the Sabbath, for the day of worship, and the day that God rested.”
“If God is the Creator, it means we are creatures,” Fessio added. “It means that we do not create ourselves, we depend for existence on God and on others.
“[Ratzinger] spends a lot of time on how man is relational. We come from parents, we live for others. We give ourselves to a project we can’t consider ourselves,” he said.
“We’re not just autonomous monads floating around each other,” Fessio said. “Rather, we’re connected to each other because we’re connected to God, who himself is relationship as the Trinity.”
Ratzinger considers the place of necessity and chance in creation and contemporary attitudes about the place of each person in the world. He notes that many object, saying, “No one ever asked me if I wanted to be born!”
To this, Ratzinger responds: “It is only when we know that there is One who did not cast lots blindly, when we know that our existence is not an accident, but is rather born of freedom and love, only then can we, whose existence is not necessary, be thankful for this freedom and know, with gratitude, that it is indeed a gift to be human.”
According to Fessio, Ratzinger is “expounding the Catholic faith, but doing it in a contemporary language.”
“Sin is the destruction of that relationship with ourselves and God, and then among each other. [Ratzinger] makes the very important point that there’s no such thing as an individual sin that doesn’t have effects on others,” the priest said. “Every turn away from God’s plan, God’s law, affects not only oneself, but everyone else, as well.”
This can be healed “by losing self and turning to Christ,” the source of our love, Fessio commented. Ratzinger emphasizes “how important the Eucharist is in restoring fallen man to unity with himself and with God.”
Other topics in “The Divine Project” include technology and ecology, the cross and the Eucharist, religious pluralism, the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, and the nature of the Church.
For Fessio, the theologian’s former student, the qualities of Benedict XVI are evident in the book.
Cardinal Ratzinger was “brilliant and humble, warm, holy, a good listener,” Fessio said.
“He had a tremendous ability to synthesize the thoughts of others and present them in a clear and compelling way,” he said. “He was just simply a great teacher. And therefore, those of us who are learners do well to turn to that great teacher whenever we can.”
Vatican City, Oct 17, 2017 / 11:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Georg Ganswein, the personal secretary of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, has rejected reports that the former pontiff is nearing death.
Rumors of Benedict XVI being close to death circula… […]
Pope Francis waves to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square on June 19, 2022, on Corpus Christi Sunday. / Vatican Media
Denver Newsroom, Jun 19, 2022 / 09:56 am (CNA).
The Feast of Corpus Christi is a time for Christians to remember that God will meet their basic needs to eat and to be filled with the joy and amazement of receiving loving nourishment from Jesus Christ, Pope Francis said Sunday.
At the same time, the pope emphasized, the Eucharist must also move Christians to action.
“We can evaluate our Eucharistic Adoration when we take care of our neighbor like Jesus does,” the pope said Sunday before the recitation of the Angelus at St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
“There is hunger for food around us, but also for companionship; there is hunger for consolation, friendship, good humor; there is hunger for attention, there is hunger to be evangelized. We find this in the Eucharistic Bread — the attention of Christ to our needs and the invitation to do the same toward those who are beside us. We need to eat and feed others.”
The pope’s remarks reflected on Sunday’s Gospel reading, the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes from the Gospel of Luke.
The pope linked the reading to the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The Eucharist was like “the destination of a journey along which Jesus had prefigured through several signs, above all the multiplication of the loaves narrated in the Gospel of today’s liturgy.”
The pontiff reflected on the manner of the miracle when Jesus fed so many who lacked food.
“The miracle of the loaves and fishes does not happen in a spectacular way, but almost secretly, like the wedding at Cana — the bread increases as it passes from hand to hand. And as the crowd eats, they realize that Jesus is taking care of everything,” said Pope Francis.
“This is the Lord present in the Eucharist. He calls us to be citizens of Heaven, but at the same time he takes into account the journey we have to face here on earth,” he said. “If I have hardly any bread in my sack, he knows and takes care of it himself.”
Thousands gather in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on June 19, 2022, to hear Pope Francis’ Angelus reflections. Vatican Media
The pope connected the tangible needs of food with the intangible needs of humankind.
“Sometimes there is the risk of confining the Eucharist to a vague, distant dimension, perhaps bright and perfumed with incense, but rather distant from the straits of everyday life. In reality, the Lord takes all our needs to heart, beginning with the most basic,” he said.
“In the Eucharist, everyone can experience this loving and concrete attention of the Lord. Those who receive the Body and Blood of Christ with faith not only eat, but are satisfied. To eat and to be satisfied: These are two basic necessities that are satisfied in the Eucharist,” he added. “The crowd is satisfied because of the abundance of food and also because of the joy and amazement of having received it from Jesus!”
Jesus Christ’s self-giving presence is key to understanding the Eucharist, the pope said.
“We certainly need to nourish ourselves, but we also need to be satisfied, to know that the nourishment is given to us out of love. In the Body and Blood of Christ, we find his presence, his life given for each of us. He not only gives us help to go forward, but he gives us himself — he makes himself our traveling companion, he enters into our affairs, he visits us when we are lonely, giving us back a sense of enthusiasm.”
“This satisfies us, when the Lord gives meaning to our life, our obscurities, our doubts; he sees the meaning, and this meaning that the Lord gives satisfies us,” the pope explained. Everyone is looking for the presence of the Lord, because “in the warmth of his presence, our lives change,” the pope added.
“Without him, everything would truly be gray,” he said. “Adoring the Body and Blood of Christ, let us ask him with our heart: ‘Lord, give me that daily bread to go forward, Lord, satisfy me with your presence!’”
The pope also prayed that the Virgin Mary may teach us “how to adore Jesus, living in the Eucharist and to share him with our brothers and sisters.”
Statements on Spanish martyrs, Ukraine war
After the Angelus, the pope discussed the Saturday beatification of Dominican religious who were killed in the Spanish Civil War.
“They were all killed in hatred of the faith in the religious persecution that took place in Spain in the context of the civil war of the last century,” the pope said, calling for applause for them. “Their witness of adherence to Christ and forgiveness for their killers show us the way to holiness and encourage us to make their lives an offering of love to God and their brothers and sisters.”
The conflict of Ukraine after the Russian invasion also was a point for prayer, the pope said: “Let us not forget the suffering of the Ukrainian people in this moment, a people who are suffering.”
“I would like you all to keep in mind a question: What am I doing today for the Ukrainian people? Do I pray? Am I doing something? Am I trying to understand? What am I doing today for the Ukrainian people? Each one of you, answer in your own heart,” he asked.
Prayers for Myanmar, World Meeting of Families
Pope Francis also lamented the violence in Myanmar, which has forced many to flee their homes and blocked them from meeting basic needs.
“I join the appeal of the bishops of that beloved land, that the international community does not forget the Burmese people, that human dignity and the right to life be respected, as well as places of worship, hospitals, and schools. And I bless the Burmese community in Italy, represented here today,” he said.
In early 2021 the Myanmar military seized power in the country. Its crackdown on opponents provoked a violent backlash. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has said the conflict has displaced more than 800,000 people from their homes. Of these, 250,000 are children.
Pope Francis also noted that the 10th World Meeting of Families will begin June 22 in Rome and throughout the world. Around 2,000 Catholic families will gather in Rome this week to meet Pope Francis and hear talks on marriage and the faith.
“I thank the bishops, parish priests, and family pastoral workers who have called families to moments of reflection, celebration and festivity,” he said. “Above all, I thank the married couples and families who will bear witness to family love as a vocation and way to holiness. Have a good meeting!”
“Don’t forget these things, that realities are more important than ideas: politics cannot be practiced with ideology. That the whole is greater than the part, and that unity prevails over conflict. Always seek unity and do not get lost in conflict” (The Roman Pontiff).
A practical admonition, workable. The model is Joe Biden. Biden placates the Pontiff’s expectations as the realpolitik apostate who ironically claims Catholicism. Ideology, code for Catholic doctrine regardless of its identity with natural law, the basic of jurisprudence assumes justice in deliberation during legislation. This, the pursuit of justice, the responsibility to choose what is just, the good, is, for Francis and model politician Biden rancid ideology.
Unfortunately, based on prolonged observation, there can be no other interpretation.
Young people – they are future stewards of Planet Earth, our Common Home. May each and every young person be blessed with a happy present and a bright future.
We read: “Members of the international fraternity [Chemin Neuf Community] issued a manifesto in Poland in 2016 recalling that Pope Pius XI described politics as “the highest form of charity” and committing themselves to strive ‘for justice and peace, through our political commitment.'”
Yes, and more. The German sociologist (early 19th century), Max Weber, in his “Politics as a Vocation,” offered a few relevancies: ” Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective,” so, the moral virtue (!) of fortitude along with justice, plus temperance and the art of prudential judgment.
And, then, in a closely related work: “The primary task of a useful teacher is to teach his student to recognize ‘inconvenient’ facts,” so, for Catholics and all Christians, the natural law as now explicitly included in the Magisterium (the moral absolutes in the Gospels, as set forth in detail in Veritatis Splendor, n. 115).
And, citing John Stewart Mill “If one proceeds from pure experience, one arrives at polytheism;” this insight as clarifying the limits of some versions of “fraternity.”
And maybe this summary insight, too, from the founder of Aid to the Church in Need (Fr. Werenfried van Straaten): “no peace without justice, AND no justice without truth.”
“Don’t forget these things, that realities are more important than ideas: politics cannot be practiced with ideology. That the whole is greater than the part, and that unity prevails over conflict. Always seek unity and do not get lost in conflict” (The Roman Pontiff).
A practical admonition, workable. The model is Joe Biden. Biden placates the Pontiff’s expectations as the realpolitik apostate who ironically claims Catholicism. Ideology, code for Catholic doctrine regardless of its identity with natural law, the basic of jurisprudence assumes justice in deliberation during legislation. This, the pursuit of justice, the responsibility to choose what is just, the good, is, for Francis and model politician Biden rancid ideology.
Unfortunately, based on prolonged observation, there can be no other interpretation.
Young people – they are future stewards of Planet Earth, our Common Home. May each and every young person be blessed with a happy present and a bright future.
We read: “Members of the international fraternity [Chemin Neuf Community] issued a manifesto in Poland in 2016 recalling that Pope Pius XI described politics as “the highest form of charity” and committing themselves to strive ‘for justice and peace, through our political commitment.'”
Yes, and more. The German sociologist (early 19th century), Max Weber, in his “Politics as a Vocation,” offered a few relevancies: ” Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective,” so, the moral virtue (!) of fortitude along with justice, plus temperance and the art of prudential judgment.
And, then, in a closely related work: “The primary task of a useful teacher is to teach his student to recognize ‘inconvenient’ facts,” so, for Catholics and all Christians, the natural law as now explicitly included in the Magisterium (the moral absolutes in the Gospels, as set forth in detail in Veritatis Splendor, n. 115).
And, citing John Stewart Mill “If one proceeds from pure experience, one arrives at polytheism;” this insight as clarifying the limits of some versions of “fraternity.”
And maybe this summary insight, too, from the founder of Aid to the Church in Need (Fr. Werenfried van Straaten): “no peace without justice, AND no justice without truth.”