Even Benedict XVI Is Not Above Criticism

The Ratzingerian Constants and the Maintenance of Harmony in the Church

Bishop Barron: "A similarly illuminating remark was made by Pope Benedict XVI concerning the work of the Church, and I would like to spend a little time exploring it. Papa Ratzinger said that the Church performs three basic tasks: it worships God, it evangelizes, and it serves the poor. The religious activities of over a billion Catholics around the globe, he maintained, can be reduced finally to these three fundamental moves."

If this is an accurate representation of Ratzinger's thought, he is guilty of a simplistic reductionism in his enumeration the tasks of the church. These three tasks flow from the Great Commandment, but they are not the only ones, and the other tasks of the Church, especially of the Christian "laity," are not reducible to these three. Ratzinger leaves no room for explicating the ordinary path to holiness or the lay vocation. This would be bad moral theology or bad catechesis.

Princeton Project

Providing Cover for the Synod? Or Legitimizing Its "Synodality"?

CNA/CWR: Cardinal Marx will not seek re-election as head of German bishops’ conference

Christ and the Forms of Worship

Christ as First-Born

A Two-Year Charade

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Breaking the Monopoly

CWR Dispatch: Relieving Rome’s burdens: A proposal for handling abuse cases by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille

Apophaticism and Mysticism

Church Life: Prayer and the Darkness of God by Denys Turner

And Weigel Thinks...

That this isn't a respectable Roman Catholic outlet. Who among the respectable is reporting on this?

LSN: EXCLUSIVE: Vatican bishop defends giving Communion to pro-abortion Argentine president and mistress
It’s a ‘problem’ only for U.S. Catholics and Cardinal Raymond Burke, Bishop Sorondo said.


(via Fr. Z)

He Shouldn't, But...

LSN: Bishop Schneider: ‘The Pope cannot be silent as he watches the wolves devour the flock’
Bishop Athanasius Schneider speaks out against the German bishops’ ‘synodal path.’

A Photo

Edward Pentin Interviews Cardinal Sarah

NCReg: Cardinal Sarah: The Priesthood Today ‘Is in Mortal Danger’
In an exclusive English-language interview, the African cardinal discusses his new book, the status of the Catholic priesthood, and addresses those who say he opposes Pope Francis.
Edward Pentin

(via Fr. Z)

But what about exceptions to the law of celibacy that already exist, for example in the Eastern Catholic rites or the Anglican Ordinariate?

An exception is transitory by definition and constitutes a parenthesis in the normal and natural state of things. This was the case of Anglican pastors returning to full communion. But the lack of a priest is not an exception. It is the normal state of any nascent Church, as in the Amazon, or dying Churches, as in the West. Jesus warned us: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” The ordination of married men in young Christian communities would prohibit the raising of vocations of unmarried priests. The exception would become a permanent state. A weakening of the principle of celibacy, even if limited to one region, would not be an exception, but a breach, a wound in the internal coherence of the priesthood. On the other hand, the dignity and greatness of marriage is increasingly better understood. As Benedict XVI points out in this book, these two states are not compatible because they both demand an absolute and total gift.

In the East, some churches have married clergy. I do not in any way question the personal holiness of these priests. But such a situation is only livable because of the massive presence of monks. Moreover, from the point of view of the sign given to the whole Church by the priesthood, there is a risk of confusion. If a priest is married, then he has a private life, a conjugal and family life. He must make time for his wife and children. He is unable to show, by his whole life, that he is totally and absolutely given to God and the Church. St. John Paul II stated it very clearly: The Church wants to be loved by her priests with the very love with which Jesus loved her, that is to say, with an exclusive spouse’s love. It is important, the saintly Polish pope said, that priests understand the theological motivation of their celibacy. He said: “Priestly celibacy should not be considered just as a legal norm or as a totally external condition for admission to ordination, but rather as a value that is profoundly connected with ordination, whereby a man takes on the likeness of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd and Spouse of the Church” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 50). This is what we wanted to recall with Benedict XVI. The true foundation of celibacy is not juridical, disciplinary or practical; it is theocentric. On this subject I refer you to the extraordinary speech of Benedict XVI to the Roman Curia on Dec. 22, 2006. Celibacy for God is an absurdity in the eyes of the secularized and atheistic world. Celibacy is a scandal for the contemporary mind. It shows that God is a reality. If the life of priests does not concretely show that God is enough to make us happy and to give meaning to our existence, then who will proclaim him? More than ever our societies need celibacy because they need God.

What Will It Say Regarding Clerical Celibacy?

CWR Dispatch: Pope’s exhortation on Amazon synod to come out next week
Sources say something similar to the process for ordaining married Anglican clergy coming into communion with Rome is being suggested in the case of the Amazon.

A Secular Endorsement Worth Having?

NCReg: UNESCO Recognizes Byzantine Chant as Part of World’s Treasured Heritage
Byzantine chant takes its place among 42 other traditions and practices recognized by the United Nations as part of the shared intangible patrimony of humanity.
Peter Jesserer Smith

Eastern Christian Books: Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and the Nazis

Eastern Christian Books: Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and the Nazis

Brill: Metropolit Andrey Graf Sheptytskyj und das NS-Regime

Part 2 of Echeverria's Critique of Francis

CWR: Making sense of Pope Francis on faith, evangelization, and proselytizing (Part II) by Eduardo Echeverria

Does Francis recognize that the Church makes determinate truth claims, and hence that the central truth claims of Christianity conflict with the truth claims of other religions about God?

Feast of the Presentation

“Does the Father Want the Son to Die? Aquinas on Christ's Passion and the Trinity”

CNA/CWR summary

Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Genie Back in the Bottle?

Rorate Caeli: Exclusive: Francis “is not opening up” to viri probati and the priesthood for married men