Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Here's a remarkable thing: Attendance in Peter's Square each Sunday for the Angelus with Pope Benedict XV is habitually more than twice that seen by his predecessor, John Paul II. But whereas John Paul II provided charisma and stardom, all that Benedict XVI offers is words. Even more remarkably, St. Peter's Square is impressively quiet when he speaks. At the end of his homilies, he starts to pray, without a pause, thus preventing any outbreak of applause.

And all this before an audience that includes people who don't go to mass every week — and many who don't go at all. Benedict XVI delivers his message with simple words, but these get attention. He reasons steadfastly, but serenely, and his criticisms of modernity are fully elaborated. He has practically silenced Catholic progressivism because it cannot summon arguments of similar persuasive power.

He shocked some last year when he received the idealistic Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci in private audience at Castel Gandolfo, and this September he met Henry Kissinger, the most realistic of the Realpolitik engineers. He shocked more on 12 September at the University of Regensburg when he delivered a lecture on the relationship between faith and reason. This "lectio magistralis" became the most controversial moment of the first year and a half of his pontificate. When he went to Turkey in November, he disappointed thousands of journalists eager for an East-West confrontation, but his first visit to a Muslim country was a virtuoso display of conciliation. Pope Benedict XVI is a man who makes news with his prose, but his words are far more than an intellectual exercise. That's why he's our Man of the Year.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 29 December 2006 at 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

What was the highlight of the Pope's apostolic journey to Turkey? A no-brainer, that. Had to be his visit to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and the nearby Hagia Sophia Museum. Right? Wrong. Despite what the mass media would have you believe, the real highlight yesterday wasn't what the TV cameras focused on.

FACTOID: Yesterday was the feast day of St Andrew the Apostle, who was the brother of Rome's St Peter. He is also the patron saint of Scotland and he's known in the Orthodox Church as Protokletos, or "first called". When Christ's Apostles drew lots as to where they should go to spread the word, he got Asia Minor, which would have included Constantinople.

Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI joined the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew at Divine Liturgy to mark the festival. Developing relations with the Orthodox is one of the main goals of his papacy, in line with his pursuit of full Christian unity, mentioned as one of his priorities in his homily delivered address in the Sistine Chapel the day after his election last April.

And now, we hand over to our current affairs correspondent standing outside the Blue Mosque. Take it away Secu Larist. "So, Can Islam and Catholicism remain true to their traditional aspiration of generosity towards each other in the 21st century? The question took on extra urgency after the seismic shift that took place on 9/11, and the extent of the divide really became clear in Regensburg, when Benedict quoted Byzantine Emperor Manuel II who alleged in 1391 that the prophet Muhammad promoted "things only bad and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith his preached." Many Muslims fear that Washington and Rome have launched a modern crusade against their faith, and this fear has been added to the toxic mix of the secular and religious that mark modern Turkey. And with that, it's back to the studio."

Thank you for that, Sec. All these issues don't make it any easier for Benedict to give solace and support to Turkey's tiny Catholic community, which numbers about 32,000 among the country's 72 million inhabitants. Complicating the matter is the fact that the Catholic Church is not officially recognised in Turkey. But, there is hope and despite a fever of media alarmism only outdone by the predictions of hurricanes that would return to New Orleans this year and finish off the place, Benedict has survived the trip, his flock has not been purged and — major surprise — he added the Vatican weight to Turkey's bid to enter the EU.

By the way, Spero News has done an amazing job of covering Benedict's Apostolic journey.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 1 December 2006 at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When the Pope addressed 1,500 students and faculty at the University of Regensburg last Wednesday, he cited a 14th century dialogue between the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and a learned Persian during the course of a lecture, titled "Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections," which ran to almost 4,000 words. Now, as many commentators have pointed out since Wednesday, if Benedict had wanted to discuss the relationship between faith and reason, he should not have used a comparison between Islam and Christianity, suggesting that Islam is irrational and violent. But Benedict is not a PC Pope.

According to the exceedingly erudite and informed John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, the pontiff was making the point that under the influence of its Greek heritage, Christianity represents a decisive choice in favour of the rationality of God. While Muslims may stress God's majesty and absolute transcendence, Christians believe it would contradict God's nature to act irrationally. Based on the Gospel of John, as Allen writes: "In the beginning was the logos, usually translated as word, but it is also the Greek term for reason."

The importance of this is that since the Reformation Western thinkers have come to regard theology and metaphysics as unscientific. But, says Benedict, the rejection of religious and philosophical thinking cannot promote dialogue with other cultures, because:

"In the Western world, it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world's profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions. A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures."

Here Benedict shows himself to be a superb thinker and one of the few global leaders who understands that "the dialogue of cultures" cannot proceed on the basis of multiculturalism and similar fraudulent notions, But as John Allen and others have pointed out, in today's world, where disinformation is spread around the world in seconds, thinking cannot compete with passion. If a demand for reason is now shouted down by those who are irrational and violent, the outlook is indeed grim.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 17 September 2006 at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Light amber is the colour, and there's fruit and a hint of cloves on the nose. More spices wash over the palate to produce a distinct, hop-intense, fruity finish. A fine example of the Bavarian beer style, in other words. Goes nicely with pork and dark gravy and could be used to accompany fish and chips. That's the Rainy Day tasting verdict on Papst-Bier.

When the beer first appeared on the market, there was an outcry from the anti-fun brigade. Using the pretence of caring about Benedict XVI's office, they protested this "opportunism". Actually, it was the horror of "commercialization" that offended them. The very notion that someone might attempt to earn a few euros with a heavenly-sent opportunity was blasphemous in the eyes of the PC gang. Mercifully, with the pontiff ante portas, the prohibitionists have been silenced.

The brewers, Weideneder Tann, present a stout defence of their decision to market papal beer. Because of the "close matured connection between the Church and the art of brewing," they say, "we consider it to be our obligation to appreciate the election of a Bavarian Pope in a Bavarian way." And if that wasn't enough, they add: "A beautiful old proverb says 'hop and malt — God may preserve them all!' ('Hopfen und Malz — Gott erhalt's!') and shows that the Catholic Church and beer are parts of the same philosophy in life and together have been building a devout alliance full of the joys of life."

Prost! Papst!

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 13 September 2006 at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

First, a word about ecumenism. When Pope Benedict XVI arrived at Munich airport yesterday, he was greeted by the German president, Horst Köhler, who expressed the diplomatic niceties that are expected on such occasions and then surprised his guest by encouraging him to move decisively on ecumenism. Calling Germany the "country of the Reformation", Köhler said many Catholic and Protestant Christians wished for an "ecumenical understanding" and, speaking as a Protestant, he wanted to emphasize that "more unites us than divides us."

Although he was unprepared for this, the 79-year-old pontiff is an agile fellow so he departed from his prepared script and responded by saying that while 500 years of history cannot be erased with the stroke of a pen, "We will do everything we can to ensure that we can come together." But as he was speaking one could see that Benedict was determined to deal with the matter in a more decisive way, and sooner rather than later. BACKGROUNDER: German Protestantism has turned into a belief system in which pacifism, wealth redistribution and environmentalism are given equal billing with the word of God. Along with extolling the virtues of the "social market", Protestant clerics rarely deliver a sermon that does not include a condemnation of the Guantanamo detention camp or a critique of the War on Terror.

Today, the Pope approached the issue in a rather oblique way, but one which suggested that his vision of Christianity is far removed from that practiced by German Protestants. Rather pointedly in his sermon, Benedict said that bishops from around the world have praised the social activities of German Catholics, but find a lack of concern for faith itself. He said an African bishop recently told him, "If I come to Germany and present social projects, suddenly every door opens. But if I come with a plan for evangelization, I meet with reservations". Driving the point home, the Pope lamented, "some people have the idea that social projects should be urgently undertaken, while anything dealing with God or even the Catholic faith is of limited and lesser importance."

In other words, Benedict does not want the Catholic Church in Germany to become the touchy-feelie thing that the German Protestant Church has become. He knows that at the end of such a road lies the fate of Britain's Anglican Church — irrelevance. He also knows that he's got to express purpose on a global stage at a time when his Venezuelan flock is being governed by a bully; his Chinese faithful must endure despotism and his Nigerian adherents risk death at the hands of Islamic fanatics. These people live in a far more real world than that inhabited by German Protestants and they want their Pope to express a faith that extends beyond the everyday. So, expect to hear no more about ecumenism during Benedict's Bavarian visit this week. That aside, it was a great day. The sun shone and 250,000 people had an unforgettable experience.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 10 September 2006 at 5:05 PM | Permalink

It's early. Dark. Cold. But such trivial matters cannot deter the dedicated. Down the road, so to speak, the faithful are gathering to greet Pope Benedict XVI, who will be saying mass at 10 am and Rainy Day will be there. Not live blogging the event, though. Some things remain unbloggable, for the time being.

The mass is part of the pontiff's "homecoming tour", which began yesterday. If you want to follow the action, you can find live streams here during the day. Because it's Bavaria, expect to see a sea of Weiß-Blau flags. Who's that waving the yellow and white one? It's me!

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on at 5:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

So, what's left on the ideology menu? Fascism's nasty, communism's fatal, socialism's drab, Islamism's demanding… the only untainted game left in town for those who want to be anti-something or everything is environmentalism. Lots of old bores have gotten the religion. Canny chap that he is, Pope Benedict XVI knows a golden calf when he sees one, so he's making sure that the Church will not be caught offside. At Sunday's Angelus, he made a powerful plea for the environment:

"This coming Friday, 1 September, the Church in Italy will celebrate the first 'Day for the Protection of Creation', but today the great gift of God is exposed to serious dangers and lifestyles which can degrade it. Environmental pollution is making particularly unsustainable the lives of the poor of the world. In dialogue with Christians of various confessions, we must pledge ourselves to take care of creation and to share its resources in solidarity."

So, prepare to see more churches erecting solar panels and expect to see fewer cardinals being ferried around in SUVs. Meanwhile, frequent flier Al Gore was in Scotland. "The former presidential candidate said television networks in the world's biggest and most powerful democracies must do more to foster debate, which he said was crucial for democracy to flourish." As Tim Blair waspishly pointed out, "He may have a point; after all, the last time Al Gore was involved in a series of debates, it resulted in the election of George W. Bush." And there are more clouds on the horizon. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"In former Vice President Al Gore's recent film 'An Inconvenient Truth,' the melting of Greenland's ice cap, along with a similar cap in the Antarctic, is portrayed as one of the greatest threats of global warming. If the layers of ice and snow holding billions of tons of water were to melt, scientists warn that global sea levels would rise by 40 feet, submerging lower Manhattan, the Netherlands and much of California.

But to many of the people who live here in Greenland, the warming trend is a boon, not a threat."

You see, Greenland is turning green again: "Stefan Magnusson lives at the foot of a giant, melting glacier. Some think he's living on the brink of a cataclysm. He believes he''s on the cusp of creation. The 49-year-old reindeer rancher says a warming trend in Greenland over the past decade has caused the glacier on his farm to retreat 300 feet, revealing land that hasn't seen the light of day for hundreds of years, if not more. Where ice once gripped the earth, he says, his reindeer now graze on wild thyme amid the purple blooms of Niviarsiaq flowers ...'We are seeing genesis by the edge of the glacier,' he says. Genesis? Isn't that what Benedict believes in?

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 29 August 2006 at 6:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

He's in Les Combes, an Italian alpine resort in the northern region of Val d'Aosta, for his summer holidays. Unfortunately, he left the wrong man in charge of the shop in Rome. Here's what Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, said on Vatican Radio ten days ago: "As it has done in the past, the Holy See condemns the terrorist attacks of one side as well as the military reprisals of the other. In fact, the right to defense of a state is not exempt from respect for the norms of international law, especially as regards the safeguarding of civilian populations. In particular, the Holy See now deplores the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign nation."

In a sharp critique of this tortuous statement, Sandro Magister outed Sodano: "The anti-Israeli party that is active in the curia has always had him as one of their leading proponents." Proof of the damage done by Sodana was provided, says Magister, "in the enthusiasm with which the official Hezbollah radio and television outlet, 'Al Manar,' greeted the July 14 declaration from Sodano, taking it as the position of pope Benedict XVI, 'a defender of human rights and a model of sanctity.' " Joseph Bottum got in on the act as well and used Sodano's assertion to hammer the Vatican's musty Middle East policy in "The Sodano Code":

In another sense, however, Sodano's remarks on Vatican Radio — and similar statements by other Catholic figures, from the custodians of the holy places in Israel to the editorialists in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano — are most disturbing precisely because of their datedness. The situation in the Middle East is no longer simply a battle between Israelis and Palestinians. With the increasing role of the Iranians, and the refusal of the Arab League to involve itself, the fight doesn't even really center around the Arabs.

It is, rather, a war between the Islamists and the West — a proxy fight, in which the totalitarian governments of Syria and Iran have aimed the weapon of terrorism at modern democracies. And, for the Catholic Church, the answer cannot remain the old, ritual statements about the Middle East, dusted off one more time. John Paul II had a vision for confronting totalitarianism — a way of refusing government by the lie and naming things for what they are. It is time for the Vatican to apply that vision to the Middle East."

This is the kind of thing that can kick up a lot of dust among the faithful, as you will see by browsing the comments on Amy Welborn's blog, Open Book. The participation is passionate: "If you were to argue conceptually against Bush's war against TERROR (a euphemism), or against the justice of the initial decision to go to war against Iraq as part of a strategy against jihad, I'd probably agree with you. But there IS a war in progress against Jihadism and Islamism (and Jihadists and Islamists use terror as a tactic). Do you know any other way of countering this, other than a MEASURED use of force, always distinguishing combatants and non-combatants?" People are taking positions. Hope Benedict is listening.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 25 July 2006 at 6:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In a time when the president of Iran has assumed the mantle of defender of Nazism, the need is great for voices that speak out against the totalitarian mindset. That's why Rainy Day and John Allen found much that was praiseworthy in Pope Benedict's speech on Sunday at Auschwitz. But not everyone took such a positive view. Eric Miller, for one, was angered:

"The second part of Ratzinger's claim — that the annihilation of the Jews was really just a roundabout assault on Christianity — is shocking. How degrading it is, at Auschwitz, to speak of Judaism as 'the taproot of Christianity' rather than as the faith of so many who perished there! How presumptuous, and unforgivable, to see behind the Nazis' annihilation of six million Jews an 'ultimate' motive to strike at Christianity! Was an effort to eliminate Judaism from the world not a complete crime in itself?"

Oliver Kamm, in the calm and measured style that's become his hallmark, was equally critical on the same point:

"At Auschwitz, of all places, Benedict might have referred to the biblical and Catholic roots of European anti-Semitism. He preferred to concentrate on the heroism of Catholic witnesses against Nazism. The picture he gave was thereby highly misleading. (snip)

This is why the Church's witness at Auschwitz and elsewhere causes at least as much friction as amity. Hitler retained a certain respect for the outward forms of the Catholic Church, its history and ritual, and explicitly aimed to avoid open confrontation with it. Recent polemic against the wartime Vatican — that the reigning Pope Pius XII was somehow 'Hitler's Pope' — has been a model of overstatement. It has been countered by Catholic apologists talking up Pius's actual acts of defiance — attempting to halt deportations in some occupied countries — and emphasising the pagan elements of Nazism. But the implied question about Christian responsibility is a good one. As the philosopher Emil Fackenheim, a refugee from Nazism, observed: 'For Christians, the first priority may be theological self-understanding. For Jews it is, and after Auschwitz must be, simple safety for their children."

Benedict's views on any issue arouse enormous interest, and it's only to be expected that when he approaches the fault-lines of civilization that the attention given to his statements assumes global significance. So, how can he address mankind's single greatest criminal act without undoing wounds or failing to close those still open? The terribleness of the camps was such that today's apologies and condemnations have a hollow ring to them. Supposedly civilized people opened the gates of hell, and all across Europe, from Holland to France to Greece, willing helpers were not in short supply when it came to furthering genocide.

But the past helps us to deal with the present and, based his bitter experience of the 20th century, Benedict is well equipped to tackle the great totalitarian challenges of today: Chinese communism and Islamic militancy. For an idea of thinking on both, read "The Pope Is Asking China for Freedom, Not Forgiveness" by Sandro Magister and "How Joseph Ratzinger Sees Islam" by Samir Khalil Samir. After Auschwitz, there can be no toleration of intolerance. Benedict's papacy will be judged, in greater part, on how effective he can be in mobilizing a billion Catholics to reject intolerance and to defend freedom.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 31 May 2006 at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Saying that humanity walked through a "valley of darkness" at Auschwitz, where 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered, Pope Benedict XVI quoted Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me."

The pontiff continued: "In a place like this, words fail. In the end, there can only be a dread silence, a silence which is a heartfelt cry to God — Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this? Where was God in those days? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?"

John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter regards Benedict's Auschwitz speech as a milestone in Christian reflection on evil: "Without denying that the Holocaust was often implemented by professed Christians, Benedict argued that at a deeper level, Christianity and Judaism both represented systems of thought that the Nazis instinctively understood must be destroyed, because without God and God's moral law there is no bulwark against totalitarianism, or against evil."

"It is as if Benedict wanted to avoid exploiting Auschwitz as a backdrop for any contemporary cause, however noble, and instead wanted to penetrate to what he considers its deepest roots — the primitive human instinct to slay God as the final limit on earthly power."

This is not new to those who have studied the writings of Joseph Ratzinger, Allen contends, and points out that in his book Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life, Ratzinger argued that by insisting upon eternal and objective truth, ultimately guaranteed by the mind of God, Plato had identified the only effective limit to human authority. The list of those who have accepted no limit to human authority is long and bloody: Castro, Saddam, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Napoleon, Caligula… That's why Benedict's Auschwitz address is so important. This new century will, inevitably, produce monsters, but our willingness to uphold moral law will help us when confronting them.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 29 May 2006 at 12:27 AM | Permalink

So, has the first year of Pope Benedict's papacy been a success or a failure? Or can one use market-oriented terms to measure something as spiritual and as secular as a papacy? Well, when it comes to answering such questions and assessing what's going on in the Catholic Church, Rainy Day relies heavily on the analysis of John Allen, the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. His weekly Word from Rome report is a must-read here.

Imagine our surprise, then, when we heard that Allen will be relocating to New York in July. The move "will allow him to report more extensively on the Catholic church in the United States as well as to travel and report on the Catholic community worldwide," said the NCR. "Catholicism in the 21st century will be increasingly 'upside down,' driven by the experience and energy of the global South, meaning Africa, Asia and Latin America," Allen added. "I want to tell the story of how this transition will reconfigure virtually everything inside Catholicism, by spending time in those places, figuring out what makes the churches there tick, and then teasing out how that will influence broader trends." But true to the American work ethic, as opposed to the Protestant one, even though Allen will be based in Manhattan, he will remain the paper's Rome correspondent and NCR will maintain an office and residence in Rome.

In keeping with these changes, Allen's "Word from Rome" will be rechristened "All Things Catholic" in July to reflect his new situation. And his take on Benedict's first 12 months? "One year on, he shapes up to be more a consulter than an enforcer more a teacher than a star."

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 19 April 2006 at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From today's Observer: "Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was a professor of fundamental theology, not, as we said in 'We want to show Benedict we love him' (News, last week) professor of fundamentalist theology. Fundamental theology deals with the foundations of Roman Catholic teaching, while fundamentalist theology is a North American theological movement."

The devil is in the details.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 28 August 2005 at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A typical news report of the Pope's agenda today would run like this: "Pope Benedict XVI is to meet Muslim leaders in Germany on Saturday, as he continues a four-day visit to his native country. It follows the Pope's meeting with Protestant and Jewish groups in the city of Cologne. On the third day of his trip, the Pope will receive the members of a Turkish Islamic body that operates many of Germany's mosques in Cologne. Germany is estimated to have some 3 million Muslims, most of whom are of Turkish descent."

A headline that you won't see in mainstream media reports about today's meeting goes as follows: "From Cologne to the Conquest of Europe: How the Muslim Brotherhood is Challenging the Pope". The story that follows the headline begins by pointing out that Germany's Muslim leaders asked the pope to visit a mosque, but Benedict XVI declined the invitation, and continues:

His prudence is understandable. Cologne and Munich — where Joseph Ratzinger was archbishop from 1977 to 1981 —are the cities in which the Muslim Brotherhood, which has for decades been the main ideological and organizational source of radical Islam in the world, has gained control of most of the mosques and of active Islam in Germany and in Europe.

Mahdy Akef, an Egyptian now residing in Cairo who is the present murshid, or supreme guide, of the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide, is an explicit supporter of the suicide terrorists in Iraq. From 1984 until 1987, he directed the most dynamic Muslim center of Germany, in Munich, with its great mosque in the northern part of the city.

Munich was the birthplace of the Islamische Gemeinschaft in Deutschland, IGD, one of the largest Islamic organizations in Germany. The IGD is under the full control of the Muslim Brotherhood and has sixty mosques spread throughout the country.

For a few years, its organizational headquarters has been located in Cologne. The president of this body is Ibrahim Al Zayat, a 39-year-old Egyptian, the charismatic leader of a network of youth and student organizations that are linked to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, WAMY, the largest Islamic youth organization in the world. WAMY is financed by Saudi Arabia, bears a strong, rigorist Wahhabi imprint, and produces vehemently anti-Jewish and anti-Christian publications.

The tireless Sandro Magister has done an excellent job in researching "From Cologne to the Conquest of Europe". Read it.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 20 August 2005 at 7:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Pope Benedict XVI's greeting to the pilgrims yesterday evening in Roncalliplatz in Cologne: "Along with Jerusalem the 'Holy City', Rome the 'Eternal City' and Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Cologne, thanks to the Magi, has become down the centuries one of the most important places of pilgrimage in the Christian West. Yet Cologne is not just the city of the Magi. It has been deeply marked by the presence of many saints; these holy men and women, through the witness of their lives and the imprint they left on the history of the German people, have helped Europe to grow from Christian roots...

... In Cologne Saint Thomas Aquinas was a disciple of Saint Albert and later a professor. Nor can we forget Blessed Adolph Kolping, who died in Cologne in 1865; from a shoemaker he became a priest and founded many social initiatives, especially in the area of professional training. Closer to our own times, our thoughts turn to Edith Stein, the eminent twentieth-century Jewish philosopher who entered the Carmelite Convent in Cologne taking the name of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, and later died in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Pope John Paul II canonized her and declared her a co-patroness of Europe, together with Saint Bridget of Sweden and Saint Catherine of Siena."

If proof that Benedict is no John Paul was needed, his reticence yesterday revealed it, but no one really expected it to be otherwise. Instead of a performer, we've got theologian and a thinker who loves the legacy he's inherited. JPII was a man of the gesture; B16 is a man of the word: "In these and all the other saints, both known and unknown, we discover the deepest and truest face of this city and we become aware of the legacy of values handed down to us by the generations of Christians who have gone before us. It is a very rich legacy. We need to be worthy of it. It is a responsibility of which the very stones of the city's ancient buildings remind us. Indeed it is these spiritual values that make possible mutual comprehension between individuals and peoples, between different cultures and civilizations..." Beautiful.

Posted by Eamonn Fitzgerald on 19 August 2005 at 6:25 AM | Permalink