The Subsisting Church of Christ
Interview With Father Augustine Di Noia
VATICAN CITY, JULY 10, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Some 30 years after the Second Vatican Council, the Holy See is reminding the faithful of an "essential" conciliar teaching.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released today the document titled "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church." The brief text clarifies what Vatican II meant when it said that the Church founded by Christ "subsists in the Catholic Church."
In this interview with Vatican Radio, Dominican Father Augustine Di Noia, undersecretary of the doctrinal congregation, discusses the major issues concerning this document.
Q: Could you outline the major points that the document addresses?
Father Di Noia: There really are two main points, and then some minor points.
The main point is to address the question of whether the Second Vatican Council changed the Church's teaching on the nature of the Church herself, and this document tries to clarify this point to say no -- it was a development, a deepening, but definitely not a kind of change in the sense of altering the way in which we think of the Church.
And the point is -- the fundamental point -- and this is the second thing, is how to interpret the expression of the Second Vatican Council, "Lumen Gentium," paragraph 8: "The Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church." It's this "subsists" that has caused a tremendous amount of questioning, and we're trying to address this.
Briefly, the point is, that instead of saying that the Church of Christ is the Catholic Church, the "subsists" is used to say the same thing [...] in order to make it clear that across the whole of history, and in the present, we are not in the state of having an imperfect Church that has yet to become the Church of Christ, but that the fullness of what Christ wanted the Church to be, he has established in the Catholic Church.
Then, of course, the other points, in order to explain how other Churches and ecclesial communities relate to this; the Vatican council did not want to exclude the possibility that there were in fact elements of ecclesial life -- valid sacraments or the means of grace. I mean, all of the Church/ecclesial communities that read the Scriptures, in that sense with faith, have a certain element of what Christ intended the Church to be.
Q: Why was it decided to have this document come out at this time?
Father Di Noia: That's an important question.
I suppose it has to do with the reaction to an earlier document, the famous " Dominus Iesus" that came out, if you recall, in 2000.
I remember that when I was working for the bishops' conference in the United States, and we had received advanced copies of this document, and I was asked to prepare the bishops for " Dominus Iesus," I said well, there is absolutely nothing new here, so the bishops will be fine with it. But as you know, the reaction to " Dominus Iesus" was extremely, let's say, contestative. I mean, it was a very difficult document.
What we saw was the people [...] didn't understand that not simply we had to speak of Christ as being the universal savior, but that the Church was the principle means by which the grace of Christ would be communicated to the world, and that, if you recall, created most of the controversy, certainly ecumenically.
So this was kind of a wake-up call. I'd say that "Dominus Iesus" was a wake-up call, that 30 years after Vatican II, people seemed to have forgotten something very essential that Vatican II taught. And so it was out of that moment that the cardinal members of the congregation -- and also other people, bishops and so on, raising questions about this -- the congregation decided to proceed with a clarification.
The document is called "Responses to [Some] Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church." It is a very narrow point, it's a relatively short document, as you know, and the commentary attached, so it's a very precise set of responses to questions that have arisen.
Q: How does this new document relate to previous documents speaking about the nature of the Church and ecumenism that have been released?
Father Di Noia: The response, the responses really, because there are a couple, do not add anything to the preceding teaching of the magisterium, but really are meant to recall and make more precise the authentic significance of the various doctrinal expressions used to speak about the Church in past magisterium.
See it's a very important point that -- experientially -- that when you go into a Catholic Church, essentially this document is reaffirming this point, this very fundamental point, that when you go into a Catholic Church and become a participant in the community there, with the round of Mass, and the sacrament of penance, and baptism, and confirmation, and everything else that goes on there, you will find everything that Christ intended the Church to be.
And even though there are divisions in Christianity, that does not mean that the Church does not exist perfectly. You see it's not that we have to repair or heal the divisions, we do have to seek the unity among all the different Christian communities that Christ willed, but the fact that not all Churches are in communion with the Sea of Peter does not mean that the Church is wounded to the effect that it no longer exists in its integrity.
Q: How can this document help in ecumenical dialogue?
Father Di Noia: The commitment of the Catholic Church to ecumenical dialogue is as Benedict XVI himself has said, and certainly Pope John Paul II said frequently as well, "irrenunciable."
That is to say, the Church is not backtracking on its ecumenical commitment. As you know, it is fundamental to any kind of dialogue that the participants are clear about their own identity, that is, dialogue cannot be an occasion to accommodate or soften what you actually understand yourself to be in order to achieve a sort of false sense of consensus.
It is a fundamental condition of dialogue really, that the participants are clear about what their self-identity is so that in a sense they are being truthful; they are coming to the table with a clear expression of what they understand themselves to be.
So in that sense it is never a backtracking of dialogue to be clear about what you are, but it's an essential condition for it, otherwise the results that you achieve, they're easily undermined by the truth about it.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Interview With Father Augustine Di Noia
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The CDF on subsistit, etc.
CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH
RESPONSES TO SOME QUESTIONS REGARDING CERTAIN ASPECTS
OF THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH
Introduction
The Second Vatican Council, with its Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, and its Decrees on Ecumenism (Unitatis redintegratio) and the Oriental Churches (Orientalium Ecclesiarum), has contributed in a decisive way to the renewal of Catholic ecclesiolgy. The Supreme Pontiffs have also contributed to this renewal by offering their own insights and orientations for praxis: Paul VI in his Encyclical Letter Ecclesiam suam (1964) and John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter Ut unum sint (1995).
The consequent duty of theologians to expound with greater clarity the diverse aspects of ecclesiology has resulted in a flowering of writing in this field. In fact it has become evident that this theme is a most fruitful one which, however, has also at times required clarification by way of precise definition and correction, for instance in the declaration Mysterium Ecclesiae (1973), the Letter addressed to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Communionis notio (1992), and the declaration Dominus Iesus (2000), all published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The vastness of the subject matter and the novelty of many of the themes involved continue to provoke theological reflection. Among the many new contributions to the field, some are not immune from erroneous interpretation which in turn give rise to confusion and doubt. A number of these interpretations have been referred to the attention of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Given the universality of Catholic doctrine on the Church, the Congregation wishes to respond to these questions by clarifying the authentic meaning of some ecclesiological expressions used by the magisterium which are open to misunderstanding in the theological debate.
RESPONSES TO THE QUESTIONS
First Question: Did the Second Vatican Council change the Catholic doctrine on the Church?
Response: The Second Vatican Council neither changed nor intended to change this doctrine, rather it developed, deepened and more fully explained it.
This was exactly what John XXIII said at the beginning of the Council[1]. Paul VI affirmed it[2] and commented in the act of promulgating the Constitution Lumen gentium: "There is no better comment to make than to say that this promulgation really changes nothing of the traditional doctrine. What Christ willed, we also will. What was, still is. What the Church has taught down through the centuries, we also teach. In simple terms that which was assumed, is now explicit; that which was uncertain, is now clarified; that which was meditated upon, discussed and sometimes argued over, is now put together in one clear formulation"[3]. The Bishops repeatedly expressed and fulfilled this intention[4].
Second Question: What is the meaning of the affirmation that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church?
Response: Christ "established here on earth" only one Church and instituted it as a "visible and spiritual community"[5], that from its beginning and throughout the centuries has always existed and will always exist, and in which alone are found all the elements that Christ himself instituted.[6] "This one Church of Christ, which we confess in the Creed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic […]. This Church, constituted and organised in this world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him"[7].
In number 8 of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium ‘subsistence’ means this perduring, historical continuity and the permanence of all the elements instituted by Christ in the Catholic Church[8], in which the Church of Christ is concretely found on this earth.
It is possible, according to Catholic doctrine, to affirm correctly that the Church of Christ is present and operative in the churches and ecclesial Communities not yet fully in communion with the Catholic Church, on account of the elements of sanctification and truth that are present in them.[9] Nevertheless, the word "subsists" can only be attributed to the Catholic Church alone precisely because it refers to the mark of unity that we profess in the symbols of the faith (I believe... in the "one" Church); and this "one" Church subsists in the Catholic Church.[10]
Third Question: Why was the expression "subsists in" adopted instead of the simple word "is"?
Response: The use of this expression, which indicates the full identity of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church, does not change the doctrine on the Church. Rather, it comes from and brings out more clearly the fact that there are "numerous elements of sanctification and of truth" which are found outside her structure, but which "as gifts properly belonging to the Church of Christ, impel towards Catholic Unity"[11].
"It follows that these separated churches and Communities, though we believe they suffer from defects, are deprived neither of significance nor importance in the mystery of salvation. In fact the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church"[12].
Fourth Question: Why does the Second Vatican Council use the term "Church" in reference to the oriental Churches separated from full communion with the Catholic Church?
Response: The Council wanted to adopt the traditional use of the term. "Because these Churches, although separated, have true sacraments and above all – because of the apostolic succession – the priesthood and the Eucharist, by means of which they remain linked to us by very close bonds"[13], they merit the title of "particular or local Churches"[14], and are called sister Churches of the particular Catholic Churches[15].
"It is through the celebration of the Eucharist of the Lord in each of these Churches that the Church of God is built up and grows in stature"[16]. However, since communion with the Catholic Church, the visible head of which is the Bishop of Rome and the Successor of Peter, is not some external complement to a particular Church but rather one of its internal constitutive principles, these venerable Christian communities lack something in their condition as particular churches[17].
On the other hand, because of the division between Christians, the fullness of universality, which is proper to the Church governed by the Successor of Peter and the Bishops in communion with him, is not fully realised in history[18].
Fifth Question: Why do the texts of the Council and those of the Magisterium since the Council not use the title of "Church" with regard to those Christian Communities born out of the Reformation of the sixteenth century?
Response: According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery[19] cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called "Churches" in the proper sense[20].
The Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, ratified and confirmed these Responses, adopted in the Plenary Session of the Congregation, and ordered their publication.
Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, June 29, 2007, the Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
William Cardinal Levada
Prefect
Angelo Amato, S.D.B.
Titular Archbishop of Sila
Secretary
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] JOHN XXIII, Address of 11 October 1962: "…The Council…wishes to transmit Catholic doctrine, whole and entire, without alteration or deviation…But in the circumstances of our times it is necessary that Christian doctrine in its entirety, and with nothing taken away from it, is accepted with renewed enthusiasm, and serene and tranquil adherence… it is necessary that the very same doctrine be understood more widely and more profoundly as all those who sincerely adhere to the Christian, Catholic and Apostolic faith strongly desire …it is necessary that this certain and immutable doctrine, to which is owed the obedience of faith, be explored and expounded in the manner required by our times. The deposit of faith itself and the truths contained in our venerable doctrine are one thing, but the manner in which they are annunciated is another, provided that the same fundamental sense and meaning is maintained" : AAS 54 [1962] 791-792.
[2] Cf. PAUL VI, Address of 29 September 1963: AAS 55 [1963] 847-852.
[3] PAUL VI, Address of 21 November 1964: AAS 56 [1964] 1009-1010.
[4] The Council wished to express the identity of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church. This is clear from the discussions on the decree Unitatis redintegratio. The Schema of the Decree was proposed on the floor of the Council on 23.9.1964 with a Relatio (Act Syn III/II 296-344). The Secretariat for the Unity of Christians responded on 10.11.1964 to the suggestions sent by Bishops in the months that followed (Act Syn III/VII 11-49). Herewith are quoted four texts from this Expensio modorum concerning this first response.
A) [In Nr. 1 (Prooemium) Schema Decreti: Act Syn III/II 296, 3-6]
"Pag. 5, lin. 3-6: Videtur etiam Ecclesiam catholicam inter illas Communiones comprehendi, quod falsum esset.
R(espondetur): Hic tantum factum, prout ab omnibus conspicitur, describendum est. Postea clare affirmatur solam Ecclesiam catholicam esse veram Ecclesiam Christi" (Act Syn III/VII 12).
B) [In Caput I in genere: Act Syn III/II 297-301]
"4 - Expressius dicatur unam solam esse veram Ecclesiam Christi; hanc esse Catholicam Apostolicam Romanam; omnes debere inquirere, ut eam cognoscant et ingrediantur ad salutem obtinendam...
R(espondetur): In toto textu sufficienter effertur, quod postulatur. Ex altera parte non est tacendum etiam in aliis communitatibus christianis inveniri veritates revelatas et elementa ecclesialia"(Act Syn III/VII 15). Cf. also ibid pt. 5.
C) [In Caput I in genere: Act Syn III/II 296s]
"5 - Clarius dicendum esset veram Ecclesiam esse solam Ecclesiam catholicam romanam...
R(espondetur): Textus supponit doctrinam in constitutione ‘De Ecclesia’ expositam, ut pag. 5, lin. 24-25 affirmatur" (Act Syn III/VII 15). Thus the commission whose task it was to evaluate the responses to the Decree Unitatis redintegratio clearly expressed the identity of the Church of Christ with the Catholic Church and its unicity, and understood this doctrine to be founded in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium.
D) [In Nr. 2 Schema Decreti: Act Syn III/II 297s]
"Pag. 6, lin. 1- 24: Clarius exprimatur unicitas Ecclesiae. Non sufficit inculcare, ut in textu fit, unitatem Ecclesiae.
R(espondetur): a) Ex toto textu clare apparet identificatio Ecclesiae Christi cum Ecclesia catholica, quamvis, ut oportet, efferantur elementa ecclesialia aliarum communitatum".
"Pag. 7, lin. 5: Ecclesia a successoribus Apostolorum cum Petri successore capite gubernata (cf. novum textum ad pag. 6, lin.33-34) explicite dicitur ‘unicus Dei grex’ et lin. 13 ‘una et unica Dei Ecclesia’ " (Act Syn III/VII).
The two expressions quoted are those of Unitatis redintegratio 2.5 e 3.1.
[5] Cf. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8.1.
[6] Cf. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 3.2; 3.4; 3.5; 4.6.
[7] SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution, Lumen gentium, 8.2.
[8] Cf. CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, Declaration Mysterium Ecclesiae, 1.1: AAS 65 [1973] 397; Declaration Dominus Iesus, 16.3: AAS 92 [2000-II] 757-758; Notification on the Book of Leonardo Boff, OFM, "Church: Charism and Power": AAS 77 [1985] 758-759.
[9] Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Ut unum sint, 11.3: AAS 87 [1995-II] 928.
[10] Cf. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8.2.
[11] SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, 8.2.
[12] SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 3.4.
[13] SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 15.3; cf. CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, Letter Communionis notio, 17.2: AAS, 85 [1993-II] 848.
[14] SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 14.1.
[15] Cf. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 14.1; JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Ut unum sint, 56 f: AAS 87 [1995-II] 954 ff.
[16] SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 15.1.
[17] Cf. CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, Letter Communionis notio, 17.3: AAS 85 [1993-II] 849.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Cf. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Decree Unitatis redintegratio, 22.3.
[20] Cf. CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, Declaration Dominus Iesus, 17.2: AAS 92 [2000-II] 758.
Creation of wealth
How can the amount of goods [and services?] be increased?
Increase in number of people [producers/laborers].
Increase in the "efficiency"/"helpfulness" of tools.
What else enhances productivity? What limits productivity, the capacity to produce or the amount that is actually produced? If no one consumes the [extra] goods/services, is there any point in generating them? What about the need for trade and foreign markets? Is this justifiable, in the name of wealth creation? But how much is enough?
Are there limits to consumption? (Perhaps there isn't a limit to possession.)
Increase in number of people [producers/laborers].
Increase in the "efficiency"/"helpfulness" of tools.
What else enhances productivity? What limits productivity, the capacity to produce or the amount that is actually produced? If no one consumes the [extra] goods/services, is there any point in generating them? What about the need for trade and foreign markets? Is this justifiable, in the name of wealth creation? But how much is enough?
Are there limits to consumption? (Perhaps there isn't a limit to possession.)
Monday, July 09, 2007
A "liberal" critique of the Austrian school
Austrian School of Economics
A collection of liberal essays critiquing the Austrian School of Economics.
But from the viewpoint that economics is a true, mathematicized science.
A collection of liberal essays critiquing the Austrian School of Economics.
But from the viewpoint that economics is a true, mathematicized science.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
The Devil, a tinkerer with life?
If the devil has a thorough understanding of life and development, would it not be possible for him to manipulate the parts of organism and thereby generate new forms of life? (Dinosaurs? Large insects? And so on?) Monsters? What for? Perhaps to mock God. Perhaps to wage war against other living things, or... could it be, even human beings? There is so much we do not know about what happened at the beginning, and the consequences of the rebellion of the demons on the material universe.
While the devil cannot create ex nihilo, if there is a natural mechanism by which new species/body types can be generated from pre-existing ones, then cannot the devil by his power to act upon bodies and move them cause the same effects?
While the devil cannot create ex nihilo, if there is a natural mechanism by which new species/body types can be generated from pre-existing ones, then cannot the devil by his power to act upon bodies and move them cause the same effects?
Saturday, July 07, 2007
CIEL colloquium on the Divine Office, 2006
CIEL speakers say Divine Office is another victim of liturgical revolution
Brian Mershon
October 3, 2006
From the October 5 issue of The Wanderer.
Oxford, UK — The prayers of the Church that every priest prays daily, the Divine Office, have been stripped of much of their theological content and ruined, according to several academics speaking at the CIEL 2006, the 11th International Colloquium of historical, canonical, and theological studies on the Roman Catholic liturgy. The colloquium was held at Merton College, Oxford, September 13-16.
Previous attendees and speakers have included the late Michael Davies, teacher, writer, and former president of International Federation of Una Voce (FIUV), Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, and Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos.
This key finding, little known to many Catholics, but mentioned repeatedly by the presenters, was but one of the academic highlights of this conference with more than 160 delegate attendees, of which 29 were priests, with nine religious, two deacons, and two Anglican clergyman. Ten countries outside of the UK were represented, with 24 participants from the United States.
Priests from the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, Canons Regular of the New Jerusalem, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Society of St. John Cantius Canons, Ignatian Social Justice, as well as diocesan priests and monsignors, were among the attendees.
Dr. László Dobszay teaches at Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, Hungary. During his paper presentation "Music Proper to the Roman Liturgy," he gave his assessment of the Divine Liturgy. He is also the author of The Bugnini Liturgy and the Reform of the Reform.
"No one speaks of the ruination of the Divine Office," he said. "The Church knows that one of the keys to understanding Sacred Scripture is by reading the psalms every day. The psalms reflect on the orations [in the liturgy] and vice-versa; they are linked."
The Rev. Dr. Michael Lang is the author of Turning Towards the Lord, published by Ignatius Press. He resides at the London Oratory of St. Philip Neri, and he was ordained a priest in 2004.
Fr. Lang moderated many of the academic talks, and he echoed the results of Dr. Dobszay's research: "The destruction of the Roman breviary began with [the reforms] of Pope St. Pius X," he said. "It is no longer the Roman breviary."
Archbishop Ranjith, the secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, gave a presentation April 27, 2006 in Rome as an introductory presentation to Fr. Lang's "important study" Turning Towards the Lord. At this presentation, Archbishop Ranjith said, "In fact, in the foreword to this book, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI...affirms that 'to the ordinary churchgoer, the two most obvious effects of the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council seem to be the disappearance of Latin and the turning of the altars towards the people. Those who read the relevant texts will be astonished to learn that neither is in fact found in the decrees of the council'."
And in an impassioned, illuminating conclusion to the 12 academic papers delivered over the three and one-half day colloquium at Merton College, the Rev. Dr. Laurence Hemming of Heythrop College in London, said, "The breviary of 1911 is a truncated version" of the Roman breviary.
"Even the 1568 breviary was a truncation," indicating that significant modifications to the daily prayer book of the Church have been made over the past 400 years, of questionable spiritual value.
The Rev. Dr. Alcuin Reid, London, spoke on "Sacrosanctum Concilium and the Organic Development of the Liturgy." Dr. Reid is most known in academic circles in the Church as the author of The Organic Development of the Liturgy, published by St. Michael's Abbey Press.
The then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote a long and glowing review of this book. In it, he said: "At the end of his book, the author enumerates some principles for proper reform: This should keep being open to development, and continuity with the Tradition, in a proper balance; it includes awareness of an objective liturgical tradition, and therefore takes care to ensure a substantial continuity."
Cardinal Ratzinger continued, "The author then agrees with the Catechism of the Catholic Church in emphasizing that 'even the supreme authority in the Church may not change the Liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with religious respect for the mystery of the Liturgy' (CCC, n. 1125)."
For instance, Dr. Reid said that a "juridical positivism" by Pope Paul VI gave us new eucharistic prayers. "The liturgical positivism concept was very important to the reformers," he said. He also explained how one of the council fathers in an interview said, "The liturgy is not to become a cut-and-paste plaything of pastors, liturgists, and other experts."
These three new eucharistic prayers drafted by the liturgical commission and approved by Pope Paul VI have since multiplied to at least 13 approved by the Holy See, at last count.
"Cuckoo eggs were placed in the middle of the Roman liturgy," he said. "Let me make it clear: they are valid, but that is not enough." Dr. Reid said.
The Rev. Dr. Hemming of Heythrop College in London, during his paper "Theological Perspectives on the Traditional Liturgy," affirmed this balanced understanding of the liturgy.
"How it is done matters! Every single action and word [of the priest] really matters!"
This blind obedience and understanding of the Holy Father as having supreme fiat over everything helped create this chaos as much as anything. Indeed, Fr. Lang repeated our current Pope's own words in a talk he gave prior to taking possession of St. John Lateran after his election. He quoted Pope Benedict XVI as saying, "The Pope is the humble servant of Tradition and nothing more."
In other words, theological, philosophical, and juridical positivism, especially when it comes to the sacred liturgy, is outside the scope of his jurisdiction. His vocation is to "hand on" what he has been given.
Caution Against Unjust Labels
In Dr. Reid's paper, he also cautioned Catholics against stereotyping and making unfair accusations about those attached to the Latin liturgical traditions.
"Traditionalists are often portrayed as unfaithful," Dr. Reid said. "It is time to abandon these uncritical assessments of such Catholics."
He did, however, set the boundaries of two perspectives he called untenable to faithful Catholics. "One is to claim that no further development from the 1962 missal or calendar is possible."
However, Dr. Reid did state that it was his personal opinion that the vast liturgical calendar changes such as the suppression of Septuagesima, ember days, and many other such innovations cannot be substantiated by the texts of Sacrosanctum Concilium, nor from the intentions of the council fathers.
While the uncountable and drastic changes to the liturgy from 1970 to the present are indeed a rupture with true organic development, many Catholics attached to the classical Roman rite (Traditional Latin rite) do not realize that Pope Pius XII and many of his Predecessors made selective, but noticeable, changes to the liturgy during their pontificates, Reid said.
For instance, the entire Holy Week underwent substantial reform during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. While the Missal of 1962 and that of Pope St. Pius V remain, in essence, the same, there were still changes made.
"Two, to claim to accept Pope Paul VI's reforms uncritically" is also untenable to faithful Catholics. In other words, those Catholics who uncritically accept the entirety of reforms from Pope Paul VI and thereafter and call into question Catholics who are more critical, is not a reasonable and tenable position, according to Dr. Reid.
He went on to address a question of how and when he personally thought any future reforms of the 1962 missal would or should occur by stating that potential "developments" of the 1962 calendar are currently a severe pastoral concern.
"Lots of people are bruised, but I think it [the 1962 missal] needs to be left alone for a while. We certainly don't want to scandalize some people even more nor disrupt possible reconciliation with others," he said.
"The Roman rite has suffered severe damage and its urgent repair is required."
Keys To The Texts
Dr. Reid outlined what he considers to be the proper hermeneutics of interpreting Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy — the hermeneutical "keys" or lens from which we should adjust the resulting liturgical reform.
He noted that the first chapter's "General Principles" approved by the council fathers was the first starting point. From here, we go to paragraph numbers 14 through 19, especially the often misinterpreted, "Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the Liturgy."
Dr. Reid rightly points out that actuoso participatio, the Latin original, might be better translated as "actual participation" due to the fact that modern man views the word "active" to mean gestures, singing, or responding only, and often omits, silence, meditation, and contemplation, which, of course, are integral to Christian prayer, and are indeed "actual participation."
In fact, others who have dealt with this key terminology and its deeper spiritual and theological understanding say that "actual contemplative participation" in the sacred liturgy is perhaps an even higher spiritual goal than merely going through rote gestures without any idea or concept of the fundamental meaning behind them.
And Dr. Reid also explained the importance of paragraphs 15 through 19, which speak of the necessity for a renewed liturgical formation for all, especially the clergy. Without a true and thorough historical, theological, and philosophical education and formation of the clergy based upon sound liturgical theology, any true renewal is far in the future.
Dr. Hemming delved deeply into this education and formation of the clergy in his talk on the theological perspectives of the liturgy. Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 16, reads, "The study of Sacred Liturgy is to be ranked among the compulsory and major courses in seminaries and religious houses of studies; in theological faculties it is to rank among the principal courses. It is to be taught under its theological, historical, spiritual, pastoral, and juridical aspects."
In other words, since "The Eucharist is the 'source and summit of the Christian life'" (CCC, n. 1342) and "As does the whole of the Christian life, the moral life finds its source and summit in the Eucharistic Sacrifice" (CCC, n. 2031), all theological and pastoral disciplines should be ordered to, by, and from a proper liturgical theological foundation.
"You cannot have the liturgy as the linchpin of the Church, and then say that a deformed liturgical reform had no effect," Dr. Hemming said.
Sacrosanctum Concilium emphasizes this point again within paragraph n. 16. "Moreover, other professors, while striving to expound the mystery of Christ and the history of salvation from the angle proper to each of their own subjects, must nevertheless do so in a way which will clearly bring out the connection between their subjects and the liturgy, as also the unity which underlies all priestly training. This consideration is especially important for professors of dogmatic, spiritual, and pastoral theology and for those of Holy Scripture."
Liturgical Theology Is Foundation
Dr. Hemming said, "Liturgical theology means theology from which every other theological study takes its life and meaning; theology has no other home without its foundation in the sacred liturgy." Many Benedictines especially, and other monastics have known and taught this for years, and Dr. Hemming highlighted during his talk, "Sacred Scripture's true and proper place is within the home of the sacred liturgy."
Dr. Hemming referenced Fr. Aidan Nichols' book, Looking at the Liturgy: A Critical Look at its Contemporary Form (Ignatius Press, 1996) where the theologian sees an overemphasis on the reformers rationalizing the liturgy in an attempt to make it more understandable or more comprehensible, especially to modern man. Dr. Hemming identifies the primary philosophical flaw of this perhaps excessive rationalism of the sacred mysteries.
"This caused confusion," he said. "The confusion that arose was as to who was supposed to be the center of the liturgical reform — man or God?"
People will often complain about not being able to understand what is happening at Mass, Hemming said, which confirms the experience of many Catholics who attend both the modern and classical Roman rite. To some, it appears to be incomprehensible, he said.
"But we must remember that incomprehension is part of divine worship. The liturgy is the unfolding of intelligibility of what faith is made known by God."
In other words, it is a mystery. That is why they are called "the sacred mysteries." "Mysterium" is a Greek word equivalent to the Latin word sacramentum. By definition, a mystery, in theological terms, is something of which we can ponder and explore the depths, but can never completely comprehend nor fathom.
"In other words, this subject, the rationality and the mystery of the liturgy, has become the center of the question of the liturgy," Hemming said.
"God is the center of worship."
"More Inclusive"
Dr. Sheridan Gilley from Durham University presented a paper on "Roman Liturgy and Popular Piety." Dr. Gilley emphasized that prior to the liturgical revolution, the priest was obliged to celebrate Mass in a certain way, but the faithful were free to participate in the Mass in any way they liked; whereas nowadays the priest is free to choose how he wishes to celebrate, but the faithful are forced to participate in a very particular way.
"The old rite made for a more inclusive Church." According to Dr. Gilley, prior to the 1970 liturgical reforms, there was a book published called 30 Ways to Hear Mass, and there was only one way for the priest to say Mass. Now, there are a myriad number of ways for the priest to say Mass, but the lay faithful are all coerced into one way of hearing it.
Dr. Sheridan's research showed that the popular piety of Catholics, particularly in Ireland in the 1800s, included rosaries, pilgrimages, sodalities, exposition and benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, jubilees, triduums, shrines, and retreats, often with organized spiritual direction given by their priests.
Catholicism was in the very fabric of their being, and this use of sacraments and devotions sprang from their rich liturgical life.
This parish-based sacramental system carried the faith and the liturgy into their daily lives. It was part of their very culture.
Fr. Joseph Santos of Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Providence, R.I., gave a paper on the history of the Rite of Braga (Portugal), which showed one example of the multiple variations of the Roman rite that have flourished in the Church for centuries. The rite of Braga is almost 1,400 years old in its current state and it is almost exactly the same.
Pristas' Work Read By Curia
Dr. Lauren Pristas, Caldwell College, New Jersey, presented a paper entitled "The Development of the Roman Calendar." Fr. Lang introduced Pristas and said that a senior curial official called her work "a bombshell."
She is the author of The Collects of the Roman Missal: A Study of the Liturgical Reform. Her work has been published in Communio and other academic publications, and she systematically compares the changes in the wording and theology of the orations of the missal of 1970 with those of the 1962 missal from an academic historical perspective.
In her talk at the CIEL Colloquium, she explained the early history of the development of the liturgical calendar. She said research shows the development of the liturgical calendar began very early, before AD 325, and that the celebration of Christmas appears around AD 354.
"There is no such thing as history nor future for God or from the divine perspective," Pristas said. "Eternity is the ever-present now from a divine perspective."
Therefore, for human beings who are incarnate living in a material world, the cycle of the liturgical years assists us in living life more closely in union with God and His angels and His saints than mere daily living according to secular calendars, Dr. Pristas said.
"The liturgical year works through the participation in the sacred mystery itself, not principally through imitation, prayer, and meditation," Pristas said. "Even the non-baptized can imitate and meditate.
"These [methods of prayer] are helpful, but they are not the principal ways of appropriating Christ's mysteries." By living the liturgical calendar and participating as often as possible in the divine mysteries, we become more attuned to God and His will and plan for our lives and for the world.
"The spiritual participation in the mystery of salvation comes through the living out of the feast itself, not principally through imitation, meditation, nor even contemplation," Dr. Pristas said. We must live and appropriate the liturgical calendar. Spiritual reading and prayer and silence and devotions are helpful, but all must be tied back to the Church's liturgical year, in which we can most fully partake of the sacred mysteries.
Latin In The Liturgy
The Rev. Dr. Lang presented a paper entitled, "The Early Development of Christian Latin as a Liturgical Language." He traced the development of the use of Greek to Latin as the primary language in the early Church, and despite the popular historical revisionism within much of the U.S. Church, Fr. Lang said that vulgar Latin was never used in the liturgy. He said it was a much higher prose like British liturgical language found in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, for instance.
"Stylized Christian Latin was used, but not the vulgar tongue," Fr. Lang said. He also informed us that research points to the fact that the baptismal formula was solidified in Latin in the second century.
As examples of a richer prose being used, he said that even for the Homeric epics The Iliad and The Odyssey, a specific type of language was used for these stories when told orally. It was not the language of everyday use, he said.
Today, the words "Hosanna," "Alleluia," and "Amen" are preserved in their original language in order to maintain their solemn character, Fr. Lang said. They are more expressions of sentiments and exclamations than they are denotative in nature.
Fr. Lang said, that by using biblical terminology, in the very early Church, there was a controlled freedom in the content and style of the early anaphoras, or eucharistic prayers, within the bounds of orthodoxy, of course. However, as the rite developed and the Church spread, the formulation of the anaphoras and other prayers gradually became more fixed.
From AD 360 to 380, the transition from the use of Greek to Latin was almost complete, Fr. Lang said, primarily for the eucharistic prayer. The Kyrie, of course, was maintained in Greek.
After Constantine allowed freedom to Christianity, Christian feasts replaced pagan festivals, thereby becoming holy days or holidays, Fr. Lang concluded.
Brian Mershon is a commentator on cultural issues from a classical Catholic perspective. His trade is in media relations, and his vocation is as a husband to his beloved wife Tracey and father to his six living children. He attempts to assist his family and himself in attaining eternal salvation through frequent attendance at the Traditional Latin rite of Mass, homeschooling, and building Catholic culture in the buckle of the Bible Belt of Greenville, South Carolina.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Genome transplant in bacteria
ScienceDaily: Scientists transplant DNA in bacteria
Creation of artificial life brought a step closer by DNA ...
Scientists Swap Genes in Bacteria - washingtonpost.com
Creation of artificial life brought a step closer by DNA ...
Scientists Swap Genes in Bacteria - washingtonpost.com
June 29, 2007
Scientists Transplant Genome of Bacteria
By NICHOLAS WADE
Correction Appended
Scientists at the institute directed by J. Craig Venter, a pioneer in sequencing the human genome, are reporting that they have successfully transplanted the genome of one species of bacteria into another, an achievement they see as a major step toward creating synthetic forms of life.
Other scientists who did not participate in the research praised the achievement, published yesterday on the Web site of the journal Science. But some expressed skepticism that it was as significant as Dr. Venter said.
His goal is to make cells that might take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and produce methane, used as a feedstock for other fuels. Such an achievement might reduce dependency on fossil fuels and strike a blow at global warming.
“We look forward to having the first fuels from synthetic biology certainly within the decade and possibly in half that time,” he said.
Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, said the transplantation technique, which leads to the transferred genome’s taking over the host cell, was “a landmark accomplishment.”
“It represents the complete reprogramming of an organism using only a chemical entity,” Dr. Ebright said.
Leroy Hood, a pioneer of the closely related field of systems biology, said Dr. Venter’s report was “a really marvelous kind of technical feat” but just one of a long series of steps required before synthetic chromosomes could be put to use in living cells.
“It’s a really worthy accomplishment, but I hope it doesn’t get hyped to be more than it is,” Dr. Hood said.
One reason for Dr. Venter’s optimism is that he says his institute is close to synthesizing from simple chemicals an entire genome, 580,000 DNA units in length, of a small bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium. If that genome can be made to take over a bacterium using the method announced today, Dr. Venter should be able to claim that he has made the first synthetic life form. The bacterium would be identical to nature’s version, but would demonstrate how precise control could be achieved over every aspect of the machinery of living cells.
Biologists have long been able to move useful genes into bacteria and other organisms in a process called genetic engineering. The idea of synthetic biology is to carry out genetic engineering in a more extensive and systematic way.
Synthetic biologists, who held their third annual meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, this week, hope to create biochemical processes and then choose the gene sequences that will direct these processes and build the DNA from scratch. The scientists’ goal is to select and reorder the genetic machinery developed by evolution just as an engineer might assemble an efficient circuit board from existing components.
Dr. Venter hopes to lay the basis for a new approach to synthetic biology by first synthesizing whole genomes in the laboratory and then making them take control of, or “boot up,” a living cell. His new report accomplishes the second of the two steps, at least in Mycoplasma. His team, which includes a distinguished biologist, Hamilton Smith, purified the full DNA from one kind of Mycoplasma and showed that it could take control of another, making the host cell switch over to producing proteins specified by the inserted DNA. Dr. Smith said he was not sure whether the inserted genome destroyed the host genome or just made the cell divide, assigning the two genomes to different daughter cells.
Booting up cells with new genomes is a major limitation in synthetic biology, Dr. Venter said. With that hurdle now crossed, it will be possible to “design cells in future to manufacture new types of fuel and break our dependency on oil and do something about carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere.”
Dr. Hood, co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, said the next step on Dr. Venter’s agenda, putting a functional synthetic genome into an organism, would be more significant.
“Synthesizing a whole chromosome and getting it to function will be a really remarkable step that will be much closer to the golden vision of creating new organisms,” he said.
George Church, a leading systems biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that the new report was “good science” but that it had been achieved in an organism, Mycoplasma, that is unsuitable for industrial uses. As for Dr. Venter’s assertion that his result is “an enabling technique,” Dr. Church said, “The door to synthetic biology is already wide open, and people are pouring through it.”
Dr. Church agreed with Dr. Venter’s forecast that synthetic biologists could produce fuels within 10 years. He noted that LS9 Inc. in San Carlos, Calif., was producing laboratory amounts of petroleumlike fuels in bacteria.
Dr. Venter is more colorful and less publicity shy than most academic biologists. But he has many solid achievements to his credit. They have so far been in sequencing, or decoding, genomes.
He pioneered methods for sequencing the first bacterium, Haemophilus influenzae, and raced the government to a draw in sequencing a draft version of the human genome in June 2000. Though unable to produce a complete version because he was forced out of Celera, the company he headed, Dr. Venter devised a better method than his government-supported rivals, one that has become the standard way to sequence genomes.
Dr. Venter has always sought academic credit by publishing his results in scientific journals and now directs a nonprofit research laboratory in Rockville, Md., the J. Craig Venter Institute. But he has another foot firmly planted in the commercial world. He has set up, and the Venter Institute largely owns, Synthetic Genomics, whose goal is to make alternative fuels to oil and coal. He has also applied for far-reaching patents on the uses of synthetic life forms.
The report today may be less significant if his research team is unable to repeat the success in more useful organisms than the Mycoplasma bacterium. Dr. Church said a quite similar experiment with Escherichia coli, a standard laboratory organism, was accomplished in 1958 by two French scientists, François Jacob and E. L. Wollman.
Dr. Venter’s next goal, creating the first synthetic bacterium, could have broader interest. At the Zurich meeting this week, his colleague Dr. Smith reported progress in synthesizing a Mycoplasma genome from scratch saying, according to a Nature blog, that he had already constructed it in the form of 101 long DNA fragments. When stuck together, they would comprise the whole genome.
Dr. Venter said Dr. Smith had traveled at least that far.
“We are weeks to months away from booting up that chromosome,” Dr. Venter said.
The longest piece of DNA synthesized so far, he explained, is 35,000 units long, whereas the Mycoplasma genome or chromosome is 580,000 units.
The synthetic Mycoplasma, if the Venter team is successful, would be identical to the natural kind and should present no conceivable hazard. But synthetic biology is a technique with potentially far-reaching consequences like environmental effects and misappropriation by terrorists. In addition, the ability to synthesize living organisms may provoke philosophical comment.
Scientists have taken the initiative in assessing the effects with the hope of staying far enough ahead of events to avoid regulation. A report on the possible dangers of synthetic biology is being prepared for the Sloan Foundation by scientists at M.I.T., the Venter Institute and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Dr. Venter said that he was filing for many more patents and that his team was trying to scale up methods of synthesizing DNA and “watermarking chromosomes in fun ways to make it unequivocal they are manmade.” He said he had no plans to use Mycoplasma as a production organism and was developing other bacteria.
“This is an area where things will happen at an exponential pace,” he said. “Once people know you can do chromosomal transplants, that will trigger new approaches.”
Others may already have raced ahead using old-fashion genetic engineering to put new genes into standard microbes. Steve delCardayre, vice president for research at LS9, said it had developed a strain of standard industrial microorganism that produced hydrocarbons from treated agricultural waste.
The present strain, which Dr. delCardayre called adolescent, is “very close to meeting an economic threshold” and will be tested in a pilot plant early next year. The youthful microbe already produces an ethanol-like product, at 65 percent of the cost of corn-derived ethanol, Dr. delCardayre said. LS9 fuels, he added, will meet the same diverse needs as petroleum does, can be transported in existing pipelines and be used in existing vehicles.
Correction: June 30, 2007
A picture caption yesterday with a front-page article about a scientific advance in the effort to create synthetic life forms misidentified the scientist pictured. He is J. Craig Venter, who directs the institute that made the breakthrough, not Hamilton Smith, a biologist who worked on the project. The article also misstated the educational affiliation of George Church, a biologist who commented on the research. He is at Harvard Medical School, not M.I.T.
New Method For Reading DNA Sheds Light On How Cells Define Themselves
New Method For Reading DNA Sheds Light On How Cells Define Themselves
Science Daily — As a fertilized egg develops into a full grown adult, mammalian cells make many crucial decisions -- closing doors of opportunity as they adopt careers as liver cells, skin cells, or neurons. One of the most fundamental mysteries in biomedicine is how cells make such different career decisions despite having exactly the same DNA. By using a new kind of genomic technology, a new study unveils a special code -- not within DNA, but within the so-called "chromatin" proteins surrounding it -- that could unlock these mysterious choices underlying cell identity.
A research team led by scientists at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and the Massachusetts General Hospital has created genome-wide chromatin maps for embryonic stem (ES) cells and two cell types derived from them, by applying a powerful new technology for sequencing DNA. The work, published in the July 1st advance online edition of Nature, provides a framework for mapping the complete chromatin landscape of almost any kind of cell. One of the most surprising findings suggests that cells contain an explicit chromatin-based code that reveals the developmental choices they have already made as well as those decisions that lie ahead.
"Unraveling the mysteries of chromatin holds great promise for understanding how cells in the body -- with nearly identical DNA -- assume such different forms and functions," said co-senior author Bradley Bernstein, an associate member at the Broad Institute and an assistant professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "By applying a new technology for sequencing DNA, we have been able to look across the genome at chromatin, with greater resolution and efficiency than ever before."
Chromatin proteins are more than just packing material for the genome. By virtue of different chemical groups fastened to them, these proteins influence which parts of the double helix are open -- or not -- to the cellular machinery, thus controlling which genes get turned on or off.
To decipher this "epigenetic" code requires ways of determining precisely which chromatin proteins sit at which locations along a cell's DNA. In principle, scientists could infer the locations by using specialized DNA chips. In practice, though, the technique has proven slow and expensive to construct genome-wide maps of mammalian chromatin. But now, a new method of massively parallel DNA sequencing has given rise to a powerful approach for readily churning out whole-genome maps of chromatin structure. The technology -- based on single-molecule sequencing -- makes it possible to read billions of DNA letters simultaneously. "Single molecule-based methods for decoding DNA are now throwing open the doors to a plethora of unexplored questions in chromatin, epigenetics and many other areas of biology," said Bernstein.
Empowered by this new technology, the researchers set out to study chromatin in cells with drastically different behaviors. They analyzed an assortment of chromatin proteins, each with a distinct chemical tag that switches genes either on or off. The scientists examined these proteins in mouse ES cells -- known for their unusual ability to form nearly any tissue -- as well as two other types of descendant cells that are more limited in the developmental paths they can choose.
One of the most remarkable findings involves a way of using chromatin to look into a cell's past to determine the developmental decisions it has already made, and to peer into the future to read its potential choices. The fortuneteller lies in a unique form of modified chromatin known as a "bivalent domain", which marks the control regions of important genes. Such domains merge both activating and repressive chemical tags, keeping genes quiet yet poised for later activity.
Bivalent domains had been noted for their role in ES cells, helping keep these cells' developmental options wide open. But with the new genome-wide chromatin data, the scientists discovered that these domains also function in more specialized kinds of stem cells. In neural stem cells, for example, bivalent domains sit near genes important to various types of brain cells, but are notably absent from genes that would be active only in, say, skin cells or blood cells.
"Looking at a cell through a microscope often cannot tell you what kind of cell it is, or more importantly, what it has the potential to become," said first author Tarjei Mikkelsen, a Broad Institute researcher and a Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology graduate student. "But by decoding its chromatin on a genomic scale, we can now begin to systematically address such questions."
"Our understanding of the basis of cell identity -- the way that a liver cell knows that it is different from a skin cell -- has been rather vague, much like our understanding of heredity was prior to our knowledge of DNA," said Broad Institute director Eric Lander, a co-senior author of the study. "The chromatin maps suggest that it may be possible to directly read out a complete description of all of a cell's past commitments and its future potential. If true, this would have enormous implications for our understanding of developmental biology and for guiding regenerative medicine."
In addition to shedding light on key developmental decisions, chromatin maps also contain other sorts of new biological information. One type of chromatin modification marks not the control regions of genes, but their "bodies" -- from where genes first begin to where they end. The scientists found that these "body" marks identify not only typical genes -- that is, the ones that encode proteins -- but also so-called "non-coding" genes that only produce RNAs. These marks could provide a practical handle for precisely mapping all of the genes in the genome, a task that has proven quite challenging by other methods.
Reference: Mikkelsen et al. (2007) Genome-wide maps of chromatin state in pluripotent and lineage-committed cells. Nature; DOI:10.1038/nature06008
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Fr. Seraphim Rose, Nihilism
| Nihilism by Fr. Seraphim Rose I'll have to read it; I don't know the quality of it. He is respected by many American Orthodox as a mystic; in the past I have found some of his writings dealing with "intellectual history" to be overreaching... |
Franz Michel William
The latest from Sandro Magister: Franz Michel Willam, the Theologian the Pope Has Rescued from Oblivion
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Fr. John Flynn, Business Ethics and Christianity
Business Ethics and Christianity
Pope Offers Guidelines
By Father John Flynn, L.C.
ROME, JUNE 24, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Confrontations over globalization no longer make headlines, but many concerns remain over the future of the world economy. In past months the question of growing economic inequality has come under increasing attention.
Globalization has delivered many benefits, argued a front-page article published May 24 by the Wall Street Journal. The article did concede, however: "As trade, foreign investment and technology have spread, the gap between economic haves and have-nots has frequently widened, not only in wealthy countries like the United States, but in poorer ones like Mexico, Argentina, India and China as well."
The experience of the last few years is showing that those with education and skills benefit from globalization. Others, without these advantages, are not so fortunate. While not forgetting the benefits of globalization for many millions of people, the Wall Street Journal also expressed concern that the growing inequalities could provoke a backlash that would damage trade and investment.
Earlier this year, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke also warned of problems stemming from economic inequality. In a speech given Feb. 6 to the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce in Nebraska, Bernanke defended the idea that the free market does not guarantee an equality of economic outcomes, allowing as it does the possibility for unequal rewards due to differences in effort and skill.
Slipping down the ladder
"That said, we also believe that no one should be allowed to slip too far down the economic ladder, especially for reasons beyond his or her control," he added in the text posted on the Federal Reserve Board site.
Outlining evidence from a variety of sources, the Federal Reserve chairman pointed out that over the last few decades economic well-being in the United States has increased considerably. At the same time, he observed that "the degree of inequality in economic outcomes has increased as well."
Bernanke admitted the difficulty of resolving the question of how to maintain a balance between a market system that uses economic incentives and stimulates growth, and the need to protect individuals against adverse economic outcomes.
Proposing solutions to this problem involves value judgments beyond the realm of economic theory, Bernanke concluded. He did, however, suggest a range of possible measures, ranging from education and job training, to helping individuals and families bear the cost of economic change, as ways to affront the problem of inequality.
A similar position was expressed in an opinion article by Danny Leipziger and Michael Spence, published in the Financial Times on May 15. The authors, respectively a vice president at the World Bank and a 2001 Nobel laureate in economics, argued that in the globalization debate the most important issue is "who benefits and who loses."
"Globalization is a positive sum game in the aggregate but one that produces both winners and losers," they also observed.
Leipziger and Spence supported improvements in education to help workers affront the current situation. In addition, they called for better safety nets, more investment in infrastructure and assured access to services such as health care.
Dignity of the person
Amid the ongoing debate over issues of economics and ethics, Benedict XVI has addressed these issues on several occasions in recent months. On May 26 he spoke to a group of young people from Confindustria, the General Confederation of Italian Industry.
Every business, the Pope noted, should be considered first and foremost as a group of people, whose rights and dignity should be respected. Human life and its values, the Pontiff continued, should always be the guiding principle and end of the economy.
In this context, Benedict XVI acknowledged that for business, making a profit is a value that they can rightly put as an objective of their activity. At the same time the social teaching of the Church insists that businesses must also safeguard the dignity of the human person, and that even in moments of economic difficulties, business decisions must not be guided exclusively by considerations of profit.
The Pope also dealt briefly with the theme of globalization. This is a phenomenon, he commented, that gives hope of a wider participation in economic development and riches. It is a process not without its risks, however, leading in some cases to worsening economic inequality. Echoing the words of Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI called for a globalization characterized by solidarity and without marginalization of people.
Other principles that need to guide the economy are justice and charity, Benedict XVI explained in a message, dated April 28, to the president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Mary Ann Glendon. The letter was sent on the occasion of the plenary session of the academy, held April 27-May 1.
The pursuit of justice and the promotion of the civilization of love, the message stated, are essential aspects of the Church's mission in its proclamation of the Gospel. Justice and love cannot be separated, the Pope observed, because of the Church's experience of how the two were united in "the revelation of God's infinite justice and mercy in Jesus Christ."
Justice, he continued, must be "corrected" by love, a love which inspires justice and purifies our efforts to build a better society. "Only charity can encourage us to place the human person once more at the center of life in society and at the center of a globalized world governed by justice," the Pope stated.
Labor market
The Pope took a closer look at some of the problems facing workers in a couple of speeches earlier this year. In a message dated March 28, sent to participants in the 9th International Youth Forum organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity, Benedict XVI commented that in recent years economic and technological changes have radically changed the labor market.
This has given hope to young people, the Pontiff conceded, but it also brings with it the need for greater skills and education, and the demand that workers be prepared to travel, even to other countries, in searching for jobs.
Work, he explained, is part of God's plan for humanity and through it we participate in the work of creation and redemption. We will live this better, the Pope urged, if we remain united to Christ through prayer and sacramental life.
Then, on March 31, Benedict XVI spoke to a gathering of Confartigianato, an association of Italian artisans. Work is part of God's plan for man, even if because of original sin it has become more of a burden, the Pope explained.
It is important, he exhorted, to proclaim the primacy of the human person and the common good over capital, science, technology and even private ownership. As Christians, we can testify to the "Gospel of work," in our daily lives, the Pope reminded them.
The Pontiff also had words for those directing workers, in an address to a group from the Italian group, the Christian Union of Business Executives on March 4. Justice and charity, the Pope said, are inseparable elements in the social commitment of Christians.
"It is incumbent on lay faithful in particular to work for a just order in society, taking part in public life in the first person, cooperating with other citizens and fulfilling their own responsibility," said the Pope.
"Unfortunately, partly because of current economic difficulties, these values often run the risk of not being followed by those business persons who lack a sound moral inspiration," he also noted. Values which, together with sound economic policies, could go a long way in finding solutions to the ethical challenges in a globalized world.
Interview With Father Vincent Twomey
The Conscience of Our Age
Interview With Father Vincent Twomey
MAYNOOTH, Ireland, JUNE 25, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The modern conception of conscience reduces it to an excuse mechanism, that it cannot err and that what one thinks is right is in fact right, said author Father Vincent Twomey.
Father Twomey, retired professor of moral theology at the Pontifical University of St. Patrick's College, in Maynooth, is the author of "Pope Benedict XVI: The Conscience of Our Age," published this year by Ignatius Press.
In this interview with ZENIT, he comments on the Holy Father's role in providing a way to return to a deeper understanding of conscience.
Q: You were a doctoral student of Father Joseph Ratzinger. How has that experience uniquely prepared you to write this book?
Father Twomey: I joined professor Ratzinger's doctoral colloquium in the spring of 1971, and studied under his supervision for the doctorate, which I was awarded in 1979.
Since his election as archbishop of Munich in 1977, he has met with his former doctoral and postdoctoral students each year for a weekend colloquium, a practice that continued even after his election as Benedict XVI.
I think that, as a result, I have a personal knowledge of the Pope that is, perhaps, unique.
Sitting at his feet as a student, studying his writings, and participating in discussions with him over some 36 years has also given me a certain insight into his thought, which in turn has influenced my own theology profoundly.
Q: What do you think are the most defining characteristics of the writings of Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI?
Father Twomey: The most defining formal characteristics of his writings are originality, clarity and a superb literary style that is not easy to render in translation.
Ratzinger is more than a world-class scholar and academic: He is an original thinker.
He has the Midas touch, in the positive sense that whatever he touches, he turns to gold, in other words, whatever subject he examines, he has something new and exciting to say about it, be it the dogmas of the Church or a mosaic in an ancient Roman church or bioethics. And he writes with amazing clarity.
With regard to his style, Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne is reported as commenting that Ratzinger is the Mozart of theology -- he writes masterpieces effortlessly.
With regard to its content, as Ratzinger once said himself, "God is the real central theme of my endeavors."
There is hardly an area of theology -- dogma, moral, political life, bioethics, liturgy, exegesis, music, art -- that he has not examined in-depth. And everything he examines, he does so from God's viewpoint, as it were, namely trying to discover what light revelation -- Scripture and Tradition -- can shine on a particular issue.
On the other hand, his theological reflection is firmly rooted in contemporary experience: the questions and existential issues posed by modernity and post-modernity, by contemporary thinkers and the epoch-making events of our times.
However, his pastoral and administrative duties as archbishop and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were such that he had little time to write extensive monographs, with the result that most of his writings are of a fragmentary nature. But what fragments!
Each has the capacity to convey that insight into truth that touches the mind and heart of the reader -- and can effect in many a change of heart.
Q: You describe Benedict XVI as unafraid of making mistakes, and as "having the courage to be imperfect." Can you explain this further?
Father Twomey: Having the courage to be imperfect is more than being afraid of making mistakes, though it may include it.
Basic to his whole attitude to life and to theology is the assumption that only God is perfect, that human effort is always imperfect.
Perfectionism of any kind is inimical to man, but above all in the political sphere. Most political ideologies aim to create a perfect world, a perfect society and usually end up making hell on earth.
That is a frequent theme of his writings on political life. But also with regard to the human effort to do theology, as it were. That, too, will always be unfinished business, always capable of improvement, of correction and deepening.
We cannot know everything, least of all God and his design for man. I have described his writings as "fragmentary." Most of his writings are unfinished -- like his classic book, "Introduction to Christianity," and, more recently, his "Jesus of Nazareth." And yet he has the courage to publish them in their unfinished state.
This attitude gave Joseph Ratzinger that inner calm and detachment which the world is now experiencing in Benedict XVI. But it also is, perhaps, the secret of his gentle humor and wit.
Q: You suggest that there has been a distortion of the word conscience. What is this distortion and how has it affected the Church?
Father Twomey: The starting point is the traditional notion of an erroneous conscience, which in the wake of the turbulence that followed "Humanae Vitae," was falsely interpreted to mean, in effect for many, that it does not matter what one does, provided that one is sincerely convinced that it is right.
Sincerity now becomes the criterion of morality and, taken to its logical conclusion, it would be impossible to condemn a Hitler or a Stalin, since it could be claimed that they too acted according to their "lights," according to their sincere convictions.
The traditional insistence on the primacy of following your conscience, even if erroneous, led to a new notion, that of the "infallible conscience." This amounts to the claim that conscience cannot err, that what you think is right is in fact right.
This is to reduce conscience to an excuse mechanism. This notion receives its persuasiveness, if not its inspiration, from the prevailing relativism of modernity.
It is sometimes claimed today that each one can adopt whatever moral principles he or she decides best for them. These are the fruit of their conscientious choice, after having looked at the options.
This is indeed a very attractive theory. But it amounts to the claim that each person can determine for himself what is right or wrong, the temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden.
Often, it is given the title "a la carte" Catholicism, picking and choosing what suits us. Morality is reduced to an ultimately irrational personal preference.
This prevailing notion of conscience has had a devastating effect on the Church and Christian living.
Q: You describe Benedict XVI as a guide for the conscience in today's age. In what ways do you believe this to be true?
Father Twomey: First of all, as theologian and later as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger has been the voice of the Church's conscience in affirming the objective truth when it was denied either theoretically or in practice.
It is astonishing that secular thinkers, those outside the Church, as it were, seem to recognize this more than those inside. Thus, for example, the French Academy honored him as the apt successor to Andrey Sacharov, the dissident atom physicist during the tyranny of the Soviet Union.
It was their recognition of a courageous thinker who was in effect the great "dissident" under the "dictatorship of relativism" that has swamped Europe and America over the past half-century.
Secondly, conscience is not only a central theme of his writings, he has also made a major contribution to correcting the false understanding of conscience outlined above, to which I devote a whole chapter in my book.
Q: How did the experience of growing up in Nazi Germany helped to prepare Joseph Ratzinger for the papacy? What particular lessons did he learn then that he still puts into practice today?
Father Twomey: The answer to this question is to be found in a comment he made in an interview in 1999: "As a result [of living through the Nazi period], I learned to have a certain reserve with regard to the reigning ideologies."
Evidently, he meant "ideologies" also to cover those found within the Church, which are fashionable since they reflect current ideological trends in society.
His experience of living under a political ideology and its bureaucracy made him sensitive to the need for the exercise of moral responsibility on the part of each one, but in particular on the part of those who hold public office in the Church or in the state. Moral responsibility is but another word for conscience.
His skepticism regarding episcopal conferences is rooted in the experience of how, as a collective, the German bishops, to put it mildly, had not quite matched up to the witness given by individual bishops such as Bishop Clemens von Galen of Muenster and Archbishop Michael Faulhaber of Munich.
He calls on all bishops to give personal witness and not wait for the collective conference to rubber-stamp some document prepared by an anonymous commission.
Likewise, his theology has been marked by a personal search for the truth, urged on by his conscience. All his life, he has exercised his personal moral responsibility, even when it earned for him the negative title of "rottweiler" or "grand inquisitor" -- or, indeed, "the enemy of humanity," as one journalist put it.
To speak the truth in love is to be in opposition, very often, to the prevailing fashions and so to make oneself unpopular.
Now, as Benedict XVI, he continues to exercise that moral responsibility, not least in the way he writes most of his own speeches, which speak to the heart of his audience because they are spoken from his own heart and not from a prepared schema.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Quick thoughts on money
Is it too controversial to say that money is primarily used for exchange within a political community? What if we say that interstate trade should be conducted solely through barter, and that money should not flow out of a state? What do we make of its use as a commodity in itself? Money is for the sake of promoting the good life within a community, and not for people within the state and outside the state to exploit in order to get rich? That is, money exists to faciliate the exchange of goods and services between members of a community, so that their bodily needs can be taken care of.
New from CUA Press
Just received their Fall/Winter 2007-8 catalog today.
Aquinas the Augustinian, ed. Michael Dauphinais, Barry David, and Matthew Levering (September, paper $39.95, 978-0-8132-1492-4)
The Perspective of the Acting Person: Essays in the Renewal of Thomistic Moral Philosophy by Martin Rhonheimer, ed. William F. Murphy, Jr. (February, paper $39.95, 978-0-8132-1551-2)
No doubt there will be a lot of discussion of the essays in this book among "traditional" Thomists.
The Age of Strict Construction: A History of the Growth of Federal Power, 1789-1861 by Peter Zavodnyik (October, cloth $59.95, 978-0-8132-1504-4)
Widsom's Apprentice: Thomistic Essays in Honor of Lawrence Dewan, O.P. ed. by Peter A. Kwasniewski (September, cloth $49.95, 978-0-8132-1495-5)
A second edition of Joseph Ratzinger's Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life. (October, paper, $19.95, 978-0-8132-1516-7).
And there's a new series coming out: The Library of Early Christianity
Aquinas the Augustinian, ed. Michael Dauphinais, Barry David, and Matthew Levering (September, paper $39.95, 978-0-8132-1492-4)
The Perspective of the Acting Person: Essays in the Renewal of Thomistic Moral Philosophy by Martin Rhonheimer, ed. William F. Murphy, Jr. (February, paper $39.95, 978-0-8132-1551-2)
No doubt there will be a lot of discussion of the essays in this book among "traditional" Thomists.
The Age of Strict Construction: A History of the Growth of Federal Power, 1789-1861 by Peter Zavodnyik (October, cloth $59.95, 978-0-8132-1504-4)
The book focuses on the dispute over the spending power of Congress, the Supreme Court's expansion fo the Contract Clause, and the centralizing effects of the Jacksonian spoils system. The book also surveys the conflict over constitutional interpretation--originalism v. textualism--that has divided Americans from the time of the dispute over the first Bank of the United States until the present day.
The standard interpretation of American history holds that the federal government remained a weak and passive creature until the New Deal. The Age of Strict Construction argues that this interpretation is not valid--if measured against the original understanding of the powers of Congress and the Supreme Court, federal authority grew rapidly during the antebellum period. The most stunning aspect of centralization occured with the rise of a party system heavily dependent on federal largesse for patronage.
The book also details how the federal government quickly came to play an unexpectedly prominent role in the lives of citizens, as its policies in areas such as land sales and tariffs had a huge effect on the fortunes of individual Americans. It also explains how the Founders' classical ideas of a rural electorate immune to pecuniary considerations quickly succumbed to the changes brought on by the arrival of a market economy and the growth of cities.
The relationship between centralization and the sectional crisis of the 1850s is also explored. The book turns the long-running argument over the cause of secession--slave v. the growth of federal power--on its head by revealing how the two combined to cause southern states to leave the Union.
Widsom's Apprentice: Thomistic Essays in Honor of Lawrence Dewan, O.P. ed. by Peter A. Kwasniewski (September, cloth $49.95, 978-0-8132-1495-5)
A second edition of Joseph Ratzinger's Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life. (October, paper, $19.95, 978-0-8132-1516-7).
And there's a new series coming out: The Library of Early Christianity
A new series of texts and translations featuring the early Christian literature of both the Eastern and Western churches (A.D. 150-800)The first two volumes are from Theodoret of Cyrus, The Questions on the Octateuch.
The Library of Early Christianity will be a permanent enterprise that publishes one new volume approximately every other year. The Library will publish texts in the original ancient languages of both East and West--Greek, Latin, Arabic, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Georgian--accompanied by contemporary English translations printed on the facing pages. In order to make the texs more accesible to the nonspecialist and to aid readers in comprehending the thought of ht influential thinkers of the early church, each volume will include an introduction,
notes, and a bibliography.
Editorial Director John F. Petruccione is associate professor in the Department of Greek and Latin at the Catholic University of America.
The Theological Genius of Joseph Ratzinger
The Theological Genius of Joseph Ratzinger An Interview with Fr. D. Vincent Twomey, S.V.D., author of Pope Benedict XVI: The Conscience of Our Age (A Theological Portrait) Carl E. Olson
Go to the original for the embedded links.
Go to the original for the embedded links.
Fr. D. Vincent Twomey, S.V.D., holds both a Ph.D. in Theology and is Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland. He is also a former doctoral student of Joseph Ratzinger, having studied under the man who is now Pope Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg in the early 1970s. Twomey is the author of several books, including an acclaimed study of the state of Irish Catholicism, The End of Irish Catholicism?.
His most recent book is Pope Benedict XVI: The Conscience of Our Age (A Theological Portrait), recently published by Ignatius Press. Rev. Twomey, both a former student and longtime friend of Joseph Ratzinger, wrote the book, in part, to answer the common question he heard often after the papal election, "What kind of person is the new Pope?" Having often heard and read false depictions of both the man and his thought, especially the image presented by the media as a grim enforcer, Twomey wished to set the record straight. Rev. Twomey offers in his book a unique double-presentation of the man, Pope Benedict XVI--a "theological portrait" that encompasses both an overview of the writings, teachings and thought of the brilliant theologian and spiritual writer, as well as the man himself, and his personality traits and how he communicates with others.
Carl E. Olson, editor of IgnatiusInsight.com, recently interviewed Rev. Twomey, and spoke to him about his former professor, the theological vision of Joseph Ratzinger, and what he expects from the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI.
IgnatiusInsight.com: How and when did you first meet Joseph Ratzinger? What was your impression of him?
Rev. Twomey: I first met Joseph Ratzinger early in the new year of 1971, when he interviewed me in Regensburg after I had asked him to be my doctoral supervisor. My first impression was of an unassuming man with piercing eyes, a gentle smile, and not the slightest touch of the arrogance of a Herr Professor.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What were some of the essential formative theological influences on Joseph Ratzinger?
Rev. Twomey: The immediate post-war situation of the Church in Germany exercised a huge influence on the fledgling theologian. The Church had emerged triumphant after the persecution under Hitler. There was a feeling of a new beginning, not least in theology, where the neo-scholasticism of the previous half-century was more or less abandoned in the search for a fresh approach.
Young theologians such as Henri de Lubac, who had a great influence on Ratzinger, turned to the Fathers of the Church for inspiration and found it. The Munich theologian Gottlieb Soehngen directed Ratzinger's doctoral dissertation on Augustine's ecclesiology and his postdoctoral dissertation on Bonaventure's theology of history. Augustine and Bonaventure are two major thinkers whose profound influence on Ratzinger cannot be underestimated. He came under the spell of Cardinal Newman thanks to his Prefect of Studies, Alfred Laepple, who at the time was writing his thesis on Newman's understanding of conscience and introduced his students to the writings of perhaps the greatest theologian of the 19th century, who was also steeped in the Fathers of the Church.
But, ultimately, it was Scripture that formed the basic thrust of all his theology. He once said something to the effect that, in the final analysis, his theology is a form of exegesis. And here his friendship with the great German exegete Heinrich Schlier must be mentioned; Schlier's attention to the precise terms of the original text of Scripture is echoed in Ratzinger's careful exegesis. Josef Pieper, the most important German Catholic philosopher, also exercised a great influence, as did Endre von Ivanka on the philosophy of the early Church.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What attracted him to Augustine and how has his early studies of the great Doctor of the Church informed how he addresses contemporary controversies?
Rev. Twomey: Ratzinger found the scholastics too cerebral. Augustine appealed to him as a man of passion, whose whole life was dedicated to the search to know the truth and articulate it. For neo-scholasticism, everything found its place in the "system", but Ratzinger was instinctively aware that truth is more than any system of thought could encompass, that it has to be discovered anew in all its freshness from one generation to the next.
Augustine was more than a controversialist, but he was still a remarkable controversialist, who was not frightened by any attack on the faith, be it within the Church or without. Confident in the truth revealed in Christ, he found the courage to take on all those who questioned that truth or denied it. Ratzinger shows a similar courage. He is not afraid to face up to the most difficult challenges to the faith, knowing that in trying to answer them we discover the truth in all its grandeur and compelling nature. More concretely, Ratzinger's studies of the ecclesiology of Augustine shaped his own understanding of Church--including the role of the Eucharist at the core of the Church--and her mission. They also prepared him for his later theology of political life, since Augustine's ecclesiology also involved clarifying the relationship between Church and State, between civil religion and faith.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What is unique or perhaps even surprising about Ratzinger's theological methodology? How does it differ from some of the celebrated Catholic theologians of the 1960s such as Küng and Rahner?
Rev. Twomey: What is unique to Ratzinger's theological methodology is, in the first place, its originality and creativity. Despite all the influences I mentioned, Ratzinger retained his distance and so retained his independence as a thinker, even with regard to the great theologians he studied.
His methodology is to take as his starting point contemporary developments in society and culture, then he listens to the solutions offered my his fellow theologians before returning to a critical examination of Scripture and Tradition for pointers to a solution. He is not satisfied to analyze a topic, but, having dissected the issue, he then attempts a systematic answer by seeing the topic in the context of theology as a whole. Unlike Küng, who is always in tune with the latest fashion, Ratzinger is not afraid to be unfashionable. Unlike Rahner, who produced a full systematic theology, Ratzinger's theology is fragmentary--filled with brilliant insights into almost every subject of theology and yet not a fixed "system".
Using the best findings of academic theology, Ratzinger goes beyond them to create something new and original. He is more than an academic. He is an original thinker, whose scattered writings on a host of subjects are "seminal", awaiting development by others. Finally, unlike either Küng or (especially) Rahner, Ratzinger writes with a clarity and, at times, literary beauty, that never fails to impress.
IgnatiusInsight.com: In the introduction to your book you wrote about how it was an "unsettling sight" to see, in April 2005, "the familiar face of my former teacher in hundreds of posters everywhere." In what ways, do you think, has being elected Pope brought out or highlighted little-known aspects of Benedict XVI's personality? Theological vision?
Rev. Twomey: Before he was elected Pope, it has to be admitted, few theologians or others were interested in his writings--he had been effectively sidelined. In addition, his task as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was such that he was seen in a very negative light as the Grand Inquisitor, or Dr No. Theologians, it would seem, are as influenced by the media as anyone else. Few were even aware that, while Prefect, he had continued to publish as a private theologian. It came as a great surprise to many that, in his homilies and talks since his election, the main topic he stressed was joy--the joy God intends to bring into the world through the Church. Now many are reading Ratzinger for the first time and are often quite overwhelmed. The media had presented Ratzinger's frowning face, when announcing some unpalatable decision of the Congregation. Since his election, the whole world has been captivated by his smiling face. That says it all.
IgnatiusInsight.com: What do you think are the most misunderstood aspects of Benedict's person and thought? How have some of those misunderstandings come about?
Rev. Twomey: Generally speaking, Ratzinger was written off as a conservative, if not a reactionary, primarily because few bothered to read his writings--but also because of his task as Prefect, which was to determine the boundaries of theological investigation and discipline certain theologians. His famous dialogue with Habermas in Munich in 2004 came as a huge surprise to Catholic intellectuals, who were unaware of how far Ratzinger was open to the heritage of the Enlightenment. It was not a surprise to secular thinkers, who had learned to treat Ratzinger with respect. The French Academy honored him as the apt successor to Andrey Sacharov, the dissident atom physicist during the tyranny of the Soviet Union. It was their recognition of a courageous thinker who was in effect the great "dissident" under the "dictatorship of relativism" that has swamped Europe and American over the past half-century.
IgnatiusInsight.com: A common mainstream media portrayal of Joseph Ratzinger, especially during his days as head of the CDF, was that he was rigid, dour, ultra-conservative, and closed to dialogue with those he disagree with. How far off the mark is that depiction? Why do you think, in particular, there continues to be this idea that Benedict is close off from ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue, in spite of years of writings that emphatically state otherwise?
Rev. Twomey: As already mentioned, it is completely off the mark to portray Ratzinger as rigid, dour, etc. As I point out in my book, what marked Ratzinger as a professor was his ability to promote genuine, open discussion and dialogue, as well as his dry wit and gentle humor. He enjoys a good joke and a humorous story. All his life, he has been engaged in ecumenical dialogue. His critical appreciation for non-Christian religions can be traced back to his earliest writings as a young theologian. Perhaps it was the document Dominus Iesus, on the oneness of Christ and his Church and the relationship of the Church to the other Christian denominations and the non-Christian religions, and more recently his Regensburg lecture, that gave rise to the idea that Benedict is opposed to inter-religious dialogue. His true, positive yet critical attitude can be found in his book Truth and Tolerance.
IgnatiusInsight.com: Your book was already in production when Benedict gave his now famous Regensburg Address that created a furor around the world. What was your reaction to the address? What do you think of the criticisms of those Catholic critics who said that Benedict wasn't properly diplomatic, didn't understand that he was now Pope and not a professor, and that he doesn't really understand Islam thought and theology?
Rev. Twomey: My own reaction was positive, since the main thrust of the lecture was to criticize European thinkers for leaving God out of the picture, of using a limited notion of reason that excluded the Transcendent, much to the impoverishment of society, and how poorly Europe was prepared to enter into dialogue with Islam as a result. It should be remembered that the lecture at the University before an assembly of academics and scientists received a standing ovation. The lecture, surprisingly, has resulted in a genuine dialogue between Christian and Muslim scholars (now that the air has been cleared) as well as what seems to be the beginning of a dialogue between secular and Christian thinkers (the latter being the main concern of his lecture). The Pope's visit to Turkey, especially to the Blue Mosque, should have put an end to any doubts about his attitude toward Islam.
IgnatiusInsight.com: Three of the seven chapters in your book deal with the issue of conscience and its vital place in the theological work of Ratzinger. What are the origins of his theological interest in conscience? Why has it been such an integral part of his writings over several decades?
Rev. Twomey: In the background is the rejection of any kind of fixed system of thought or ideology (even of a theological nature, "orthodox" or liberal) and a corresponding insight into the highly personal nature of truth. As mentioned before, his exposure to Newman as a young student of theology brought him into contact with one of the great modern thinkers who had thought deeply about the nature and centrality of conscience as a "co-knowing" of the truth in an age ofgrowing skepticism about knowing truth.
But also his study of Augustine, the great explorer of the human soul and its relationship to God, alerted him to the subjective aspect of grasping objective truth. Augustine, too, had to overcome the skepticism of his day that denied the possibility of knowing the truth. More generally, "conscience" is the term used today to justify the subjectivity that underlines relativism, not only in the moral sphere--it is in the air. As a result, Ratzinger, who is highly sensitive to every current of contemporary thought, must of necessity confront the question as to the nature of conscience and has done so consistently. Finally, an erroneous notion of conscience has penetrated deeply into Catholic moral theology, which Ratzinger has on occasion subjected to a radical criticism.
IgnatiusInsight.com: In writing of potential liturgical changes that Benedict may implement--and which have been rumored for many months now--you wrote that Ratzinger knows that "restoration ... must of necessity be creative, rooted in theology, and concerned with essentials, not the accidentals." Based on your knowledge of the Holy Father and his writings, what are some of the creative actions you think he might take to help restore the beauty and reverence that many Catholics believe has been largely lost over the past four decades?
Rev. Twomey: The Pope will first teach by doing--by the way he celebrates the liturgy. If he issues the Moto Proprio on the Tridintine Mass, then it will not be an attempt to restore that rite but to insist on the continuity between that rite and the present rite, but also in the hope that future generations will learn from that wonderfully rich rite, as many liturgists are now learning from the Eastern Orthodox rites. Liturgy must grow organically; it takes time to ripen, as it were, and changes must be introduced gradually. (The great mistake with the new liturgy, it seems to me, was the way a completely new rite was suddenly imposed on the Church from above.) According to the Post-Synodal Instruction on the Eucharist, the Pope has requested the relevant Congregation to examine some changes. Liturgy is about great and marvelous things happening under the form of little actions and words. Each work and ritual is significant. Any change affects the whole.
IgnatiusInsight.com: In your opinion, where does Joseph Ratzinger stand in the pantheon of great Catholic theologians of the 20th century? What sort of influence might his theological works have on future generations?
Rev. Twomey: This question is difficult to answer. I see Ratzinger as one of the great original thinkers of the 20th century. His pastoral tasks as Archbishop of Munich and his disciplinary tasks as Prefect of the CDF and now as Pope, prevented and prevents him from that writing project which would have produced a magnificent opus. And yet he has produced a vast corpus of writings on almost every topic in theology--mostly of a fragmentary nature, but capable of inspiring future generations to develop his seminal insights.
What is unique to Ratzinger is his ability to speak to all levels of society and to inspire all. Rarely has a theologian been able to speak to people's minds and hearts in such a way that their lives can be changed as a result. His latest book, Jesus of Nazareth, produced, like most of his work, in his spare time, is likely to set the parameters for theological debate on the nature of exegesis and the person of Jesus Christ for generations to come.
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