The writings of Pope Benedict XVI helped bring me home to the Catholic Church after wandering far, far away. The clarity with which he wrote (writes!) and his defense of the marriage between reason (exemplified by Greek philosophy) and faith (exemplified by Israel) in Christianity opened my eyes to worlds formerly undreamed of. His brilliant defense and example of offering dignified and solemn worship to God (rather than the sloppy and "we-the-people-centric" liturgies of my youth) in what he termed the "ordinary form" of the Mass and his liberalizing what he termed the "extraordinary form" (aka the traditional Latin Mass) extended his impact beyond my heart and into my very soul. Needless to say, I'm eternally indebted to this great man, who stands as my favorite pope (nothing against Francis or JP2 or Peter for that matter, I love them all, but Benedict has transformed my life as no other pope).
If you haven't read anything of his, here is a
very abbreviated "top ten" recommended list to get you started:
The Spirit of the Liturgy
Jesus of Nazareth (all three volumes)
Introduction to Christianity
Behold the Pierced One
The Feast of Faith
Light of the World
The Ratzinger Report
Spe Salvi
Deus Caritas Est
Verbum Domini
Today, this great man (and future Doctor of the Church!!) turns 87. May God bless his servant with many more years (and much more writing).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAPA!
You are putting this man on a platform because he wrote things you like. Yet this man was responsible for hiding the abuse done by priests. He did nothing to stop it nor did he even attempt to tell the proper authorities about it. Your standards for what makes someone great are not that high if his writings are all that made your heart happy.
ReplyDeletePope Benedict personally defrocked over 400 priests b/c of the scandal. Sexual abuse is a problem rampant throughout modern society. In public schools, organizations like the Boy Scouts, football programs, YMCAs, Protestant Churches, etc. The Catholic Church has worked harder than any organization on the planet to stop such abuse (which is lower than in all of the aforementioned organizations) entirely with men like Pope Benedict taking the lead. Your facts are simply wrong.
DeleteOkay please show me where you got your facts.
ReplyDeleteGoogle "Benedict defrocked 400 priests" you'll find it. I'd do it for you, but you didn't bother citing a source for your claim that Benedict personally hid sex abuser priests and as they say "gratis asseritur gratis negatur"
DeleteI am reading the link that talks about Ratzinger defrocking "400" priests. The main points in the article that I am seeing is that the number is according to Vatican sources. The Vatican is not the best in showing transparency so those numbers are suspect. Also the movie Mea Maxima Culpa pointed out several instances where Ratzinger did little or nothing when it concerned abusive priests. Also he defrocked the "400" priests during his last two years in office. Up until then very little was done. He didn't show any concern for three years after he became pope when the tone of the church changed.
ReplyDeleteAre you seriously claiming that the Vatican is unreliable and the movie Mea Maxima Culpa is?
DeleteWhat I am saying is that the Vatican has shown it will cover up activities to keep itself clean. So fudging numbers seems to well within reason of them to do.
ReplyDeleteAnd your source proving that allegation against the Vatican is a movie on YouTube made by an angry ex-priest: http://www.themediareport.com/2013/01/05/richard-sipe-mea-maxima-culpa/
DeleteA quick Google search shows that the author of that site is already heavily biased. If you would check Wikipedia you would find the producer and director is not an "angry ex-priest". Also since HBO distributed the documentary they do an excellent job in making sure their facts are as spot on as one can get. ^_^
DeleteR Knight, if you think HBO is an accurate source of news, I've got a bridge to sell you. Why don't you try reading some of what the man wrote, instead of looking for excuses to criticize him for things you barely understand from sources that want to do nothing other than tear down the Church? I gave a top ten list above, start with Jesus of Nazareth, but beware it isn't light going.
DeleteIf he was unbiased then yeah I would read him but I try to find unbiased news sources. Hard to do in this day and age. So at the moment no thank you.
DeleteYour committing what's called "the genetic fallacy" dismissing Benedict based solely on the source being "biased." Even if Pope Benedict was "biased" his arguments could still be valid and true. Rather than being afraid to read someone authentically defending the Catholic Faith (while happily swallowing everything unreliable anti-Catholic sources post on YouTube, talk about "biased") you ought to try reading both sides and making up your mind for yourself.
DeleteI was raised Catholic and even went to a Catholic school for all my school life. I have heard enough of it in my community. As of right now I am not going to read anything because I don't have the time. It is rather interesting on how you assumed I was afraid. Either way.
ReplyDeleteTypically, when people run to discredit a source rather than dealing with the information contained within it, they are afraid of the truth. You claim Benedict personally protected abuser priests, referencing an HBO documentary made by an anti-Catholic bigot. When confronted with the fact, reported by NBC news, that Benedict actually defrocked abuser priests, you dismissed as "biased". You seem to find anything that contradicts your view of the Catholic Church "biased" and anything that confirms what you've already come to believe, reliable. In my experience, that typically stems from fear of being wrong. Being raised Catholic and even attending Catholic school doesn't make one an expert on Catholicism. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation even in Catholic schools. We can only rent our faith for so long as children, eventually we have to either step up and own it or walk away. Doing so, though, shouldn't be done on a childish knowledge of the Faith. I wouldn't expect my 12th grade knowledge of science to be perfectly accurate. That's why I attended college and continue to study even today. The same is true of Catholicism.
DeleteSo I did a bit of reading last night. Mostly on your claim that the producer of the movie Mea Maxima Culpa was an anti-Catholic bigot. Not surprisingly I found no evidence to that claim. Yes when I did a web search on his name anti-Catholic quite a few websites returned but they were all Catholic websites . I did find an interview that was quite refreshing. The producer spoke on his movie and said some good things about Ratzinger. I am quite happy to say that he is not a bigot but a maker of award winning documentaries.
ReplyDeleteAlso when I felt that the website you provided is biased I never said anything about the article that brought about Ratzinger's defrocking as being biased. I felt that the facts stated inside may have been skewed, not by the reporter, but by the provider of the facts which is the Catholic Church. In addition the movie brings up very solid points based on Ratzinger's office before he became pope and how he sat on files about abuse for a long while. Even after he became pope he sat on them for three years. Only in 2008 did he seem to get about to moving. Wikipedia provided me on that information.
Thank you for your time. ^_^
I'm glad to see you are continuing to do research and not simply swallowing the claims made on atheist websites (or this one for that matter). I too was raised Catholic. I too drifted far, far from the Catholic Church. I too was very open to criticisms of Catholicism, Popes, Christianity, and "organized religion" of any kind. I wanted the truth and continued to read (both atheists and theists, Catholics and anti-Catholics) until I finally came to the truth (which surprised me to be the very Church I once so proudly left).
DeleteBTW, I misspoke (miswrote?) when I said the producer was an anti-Catholic bigot. I meant to say that he selectively interviewed anti-Catholics. One example is Richard Snipe, an ex-priest whose dedicated his life to attacking the Church.
DeleteI'd be the last to claim that the sex abuse scandal was handled correctly. But let's keep the facts straight. We are talking about a VERY tiny minority of priests who engaged in sexual relations with teenage boys. I'm glad Benedict dropped the hammer on those priests that were found guilty of such abuse (defrocking is about the harshest penalty the Church can impose on a priest). But, to be "unbiased", Protestant churches, YMCAs, families, athletic programs, the Boy Scouts, and public schools all have higher rates of abuse than the Church had during the scandal (which ended 20 yrs ago). The Catholic Church alone has stepped up to the challenge of ending sexual abuse and now has more security in place than any other institution. Is there blame to go around for what happened? Certainly. Has the Church been unfairly singled out. Again, certainly. Has the Church done the most to make sure nothing like this ever happens again? Certainly. Has that been as widely reported as the abuse cases? Absolutely not.
In the end, though, whether or not Catholics (even priests, bishops, or popes) do bad things or handle situations incorrectly has no bearing on whether or not Catholicism is true. No Catholic would ever claim that Catholics are sinless. Indeed, we claim the exact opposite. We are sinners in need of a Savior, the man Christ Jesus.