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Letter #29: First Day After[2013-03-02][Engleză]March 1, 2013, Friday -- Now, an in-between time..."If we go under, we surrender to the tides that are breaking up families, decreasing the birth rate, the challenges of alcoholism and drugs and pornography. If we collapse or we wobble disastrously, it won't be for the good of the western world at all."--Australian Cardinal George Pell, explaining why Pope Benedict needs to be followed by an energetic Pope who will carry out the multifaceted reforms Benedict began, as reported by the Syndney Herald Sun (link: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/huge-job-but-pell-unlikely-to-be-pope/story-fndo317g-1226579395131 "Going under"? We are not used to hearing a cardinal speaking of the Catholic Church "going under," of "collapsing," of "wobbling disastrously." But that is precisely what Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia said a few days ago. (He may well be the most physically "robust" of all the cardinals; he was a highly-rated rugby player as a youth, and still cuts an imposing figure at the age of 72.) But these words are sufficient for us to sense what many of the cardinals, who are now being officially summoned to Rome, will be thinking as they meet, assess, and vote. They will be looking for a person who can help to build a strong protective wall against, as Pell put it, the tides that are breaking up families, decreasing the birth rate, spreading the use of drugs and alcohol and pornography. Someone who can guide the barque of Peter with steadiness and courage through these unprecedented times. ===================== The Pope's First Hours After His Resignation Father Lombardi: Ratzinger slept well and will spend today praying Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence, is perched on the edge of a crater and overlooks a beautiful lake. (Here is a photo of the castle from the air. The dome of the astronomical observatory is visible on the top left-hand side of the castle). I have visited Castel Gandolfo a number of times, and stood often on the roof of the palace looking out over the lake -- mostly because I am friends with the Jesuit astronomers who have an observatory on the roof of the castle, and who, until a few years ago, actually lived in the palace. One summer day more than 20 years ago, my older son, Christopher (whom Cardinal Ratzinger once picked up affectionately in St. Peter's Square) who had recently learned to walk, was stumbling over the marble livingroom in the castle toward a large, color television set which rested unsteadily on a stand; he leaned against it; it began to rock back and forth; it started to tip over; I jumped over to him to snatch him away just in time; the tv set fell to the floor with an enormous boom which echoed throughout the palace; and we were relieved Chris wasn't harmed. It was in the time of Pope John Paul II, but the Pope was not in the palace at the time. The air is usually fresh there, high up above the lake. Nearby are the large Vatican Gardens of Castel Gandolfo (photo), which end with an organic vegetable garden which supplies organic vegetables to the Pope's table, and grazing cows who produce organic milk as well (photo below). There is a massive domed hall built by the Emperor Domitian before the year 100 A.D., and there during the Second World War, hundreds of Italian Jews found refuge for many months. (Photo below) You can still see the soot on the walls where small fires were burning wood for warmth or cooking food. All was quiet in the palace today as the Pope spends the day resting and praying. His room is apparently on the back side of the palace, looking out toward Rome, not on the front side, looking out over the lake. Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's spokesman, talked on the phone this morning with Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, the Pope's secretary. (These 3 photos are by Deborah McKinney) Benedict "slept very well," Lombardi said. This was significant, because toward the end of 2012, the Pope was finding it very difficult to sleep, and sometimes stayed awake nearly all night. Today, Benedict woke early and began his day began with a Mass at 7 a.m., Lombardi said. This was followed, Lombardi said, by the Pope's recitation of the Breviary, the lauds, and the office of readings. Then came breakfast. Lombardi then said: "He will spend today between prayer and reflection and he will see the messages that he has received. In the afternoon he may have his usual walk in the gardens to pray the rosary." When he left the Vatican, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI took with him to Castel Gandolfo a large number of letters, books and music recordings. He also saw to it that his piano was brought from his Vatican apartment to the summer palace. Benedict adapts the Church to the acceleration of history It is still not possible to fully assess the decision Benedict has taken. Some Catholic theologians, and even some cardinals, have expressed perplexity, and even opposition, to the Pope's decision to resign his office. But there is much that we do not know. Therefore, it seems wise to wait a bit before judging the Pope's decision. Clearly, the Pope took this decision after much thought and prayer. And he took it in the context of the challenges facing the Church today. One of these challenges is a sudden acceleration of the pace of human events. It does not take a prophet or a seer to see that something dramatic has occurred in the world over the past 200 years. Human technology has changed the way we live. Communications technology -- including this email, which means I can write in Rome in the evening, press a buttom, and be read around the world a few moments later -- has annihilated space, and, in a sense, time. With satellite technology and the internet, ideas and images are transmitted instantaneously worldwide. Ideas, images, songs, slogans, are being transmitted now at nearly the speed of light. It is dizzying. Disorienting. Physically and psychologically exhausting. Spiritually exhausting. This is so because the accumulated wisdom of humanity, and of the Church, is not able to be transmitted so effectively. The reception of this wisdom requires a slow process of maturation, formation, contemplation, face-to-face contact, a transmission person-to-person... heart to heart. Something of this reality, of the change in the way humanity as a whole, and humn beings as individuals, are being formed, may be hidden within Benedict's decision to step down from an office which was becoming at times just one more "media-mediated voice" in a cacaphony of voices. Now Benedict has placed the Church in a position to respond in a new way to the challenge posed by a "modernity" characterize by glitz, packaging and spin, often without responsibility and without restraint. A modernity to which, it would seem, nothing is sacred. A modernity in which the word "sacred" has lost all meaning. In front of a world seemingly fixated on rushing madly toward endless triviality, with no respect or affection for the previously nourishing traditions of the human race, Benedict XVI, a "humble servant" quite conscious of the grave limits of his own forces, has given the Church an historic chance to renew herself, and to return with even greater vigor and effect to the service of liberating truth. In the face of a global challenge without precedent, the Pope himself has taken an unprecedented step. In the face of an Enemy who seeks to destroy the human couple of Adam and Eve, distorting that couple and transforming their offspring into merchandise at the mercy of merciless laws and governments, the Church, supreme protectress of a free humanity, though attacked from without and betrayed from within, remains nevertheless the best, last hope humanity has to escape from the enslaving chains now being forged against our race. Benedict's decision to resign must be seen in this perspective, the perspective of a man who wishes to hand on, while he yet breathes, the weapons to fight a colossal battle. The battle has not ended. Indeed, it is only now about to begin in earnest. Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com Contor Accesări: 1192, Ultimul acces: 2026-05-25 07:26:36
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