Letter #18, 2016: Corrected Emeritus Pope Benedict Text

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Letter #18, 2016: Corrected Emeritus Pope Benedict Text

[2016-03-21]

[Engleză]

March 21, 2016, Monday -- Corrected Emeritus Pope Benedict Text

A few lines left out

This letter is to correct an oversight in my Letter #16 of March 17 which was entitled "Emeritus Pope Benedict Grants an Interview."

I translated the text from Italian into English during the night between March 16 and March 17.

I intended to translate only a few paragraphs. Only after spending some time with this important text did I decide to translate all of it.

Though taking care not to miss anything, I inadvertently skipped several lines, and at 5 a.m. I sent out an incomplete text.

Now, to remedy this situation, I re-send the entire text with the missing lines (bold-faced) included.

So this text supersedes the text I sent in my Letter #16.

I apologize for this oversight.

I hope that there may perhaps even be some benefit from this situation if it draws readers' special attention to the missing lines, which are quite interesting and profound.

—Robert Moynihan

================================

The missing section

On Saturday, March 19, I received the following email from Father Joseph Fessio, S.J., the head of Ignatius Press in the United States.

"There seems to be a great deal of misinformation among good Catholics in the English speaking world as a result of a faulty translation of the recent Servais-BXVI interview posted on Inside the Vatican, which was reproduced in its entirety by CNA (citing L’Osservatore as the source for the translation, though it seems that the source is, in fact, Inside the Vatican). LifeSiteNews has written a polemical piece that distorts the interview (link), casting Henri de Lubac in a negative light by implication (whereas Benedict XVI indicates Henri de Lubac as providing the proper way forward!) and implicitly critiquing Balthasar... The LifeSiteNews article is the number one article trending on Google on this interview in English… and it is leading many to say that the Pope emeritus is speaking out against Balthasar and Henri de Lubac. This is nonsense, and Fr. Servais has confirmed as much... Perhaps you could contact Inside the Vatican and ask them to correct their faulty translation...? ...I hope that Pope emeritus Benedict’s actual words, properly translated, might be available to an English speaking public without being distorted beyond recognition by ideological concerns contrary to Benedict XVI’s actual theological positions."

The lines omitted are in the 11th paragraph from the end of the text. I bold-face them here:

"Finally, let’s recall, above all Henri de Lubac, and with him, several other theologians who have emphasized the idea of vicarious substitution. For them, the 'pro-existence' ['existence for'] of Christ is the expression of the fundamental figure of Christian existence and of the Church as such. It is true that in this way the problem is not fully resolved, but it seems to me that this, in fact, is the key insight that thus impacts the existence of the individual Christian [i.e. each particular Christian existence]. Christ, as the unique One, was and is for all, and Christians, who in Paul’s awesome imagery make up Christ’s body in this world, participate in this “being-for.” Christians, so to speak, are not so for themselves, but are, with Christ, for others. This does not mean having some sort of special ticket for entering into eternal happiness, but rather the vocation to build the whole, the all. What the human person needs in the order of salvation [in order to be saved] is a profound openness with regards to God, a profound expectation of and adherence to Him, and this correspondingly means that we, together with the Lord whom we have encountered, go towards others and seek to make visible to them the advent of God in Christ."

Here is the Italian version of the paragraphs in question, as appearing in L’Osservatore Romano, with the section in question in bold type:

Ricordiamo da ultimo soprattutto Henri de Lubac e con lui alcuni altri teologhi che hanno fatto forza sul concetto di sostituzione vicaria. Per essi la proesistenza di Cristo sarebbe espressione della figura fondamentale dell’esistenza cristiana e della Chiesa in quanto tale. Ă? vero che cosĂ¬ il problema non Ă¨ del tutto risolto, ma a me pare che questa sia in realtĂ l’intuizione essenziale che cosĂ¬ tocca l’esistenza del singolo cristiano. Cristo, in quanto unico, era ed Ă¨ per tutti e i cristiani, che nella grandiosa immagine di Paolo costituiscono il suo corpo in questo mondo, partecipano di tale “essere per.” Cristiani, per cosĂ¬ dire, non si Ă¨ per se stessi, bensĂ¬, con Cristo, per gli altri. CiĂ˛ non significa una specie di biglietto speciale per entrare nella beatitudine eterna, bensĂ¬ la vocazione a costruire l’insieme, il tutto. Quello di cui la persona umana ha bisogno in ordine alla salvezza Ă¨ l’intima apertura nei confronti di Dio, l’intima aspettativa e adesione a Lui, e ciĂ˛ viceversa significa che noi assieme al Signore che abbiamo incontrato andiamo verso gli altri e cerchiamo di render loro visibile l’avvento di Dio in Cristo.

The next lines in Emeritus Pope Benedict's text are these:

"It’s possible to explain this 'being-for' in a more abstract way. It’s important for humanity that there is truth in it, that this be believed and practiced. That one suffers for it. That one loves. These realities penetrate with their light into the whole world as such and sustain it. I think that in the present situation it is become always more clear and comprehensible for us that which the Lord said to Abraham, that is, that ten righteous men would have been enough to save a city, but that the city destroys itself if such a small number is not reached. It is clear that we need to further reflect on the whole quetion."

The restoration of the middle section in bold lends significant weight to the interpretation that Benedict is favoring de Lubac’s theory of “vicarious substitution” to explain the possibility of salvation outside of the faith. Lacking these lines, the weight to switches to a more ambiguous position.

And this is the reason it is important to make this correction, and to publish it.

===================

Here is the original letter of March 17, now updated to include the missing lines. I emphasize that the text is still not an official translation, and of course could be improved, but it is now complete.

It may be worth noting the following once more: the text was orginally in German; it was written (it was a written, not a spoken interview) by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI sometime before October 2015; it was made public in October 2015 when it was read by Emeritus Pope Benedict's personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, at a conference in Rome; it only came out in Italian in mid-March 2016, at first as brief excerpts; this led some in Italy to report that a "new interview" with Emeritus Pope Benedict had just been conducted; however, this text was in no way a "new interview" from this March, 2016, but rather an interview-text from prior to October 2015.

March 17, 2016, Thursday -- Emeritus Pope Benedict Grants an Interview on Justification and God's Mercy

“What the human person needs for salvation is the intimate openness to God.” —Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, in a 2015 interview with Jesuit theologian Father Jacques Servais. The interview was conducted during 2015 for a book on the doctrine of justification, and it was read out to a conference in Rome in October of 2015 by Archbishop Georg Gaenswein. This week the book itself was released in Italy, sparking a number of newspaper articles. The full text of the interview is being published today, March 17, in Italian, in the Vatican's newspaper, the Osservatore Romano

“Faith is a deeply personal communication with God, which touches my very core and places me in direct contact with the living God so that I can talk to Him, love Him and enter into communion with Him. At the same time, this highly personal experience is inextricably linked to the community: becoming one of God’s children in the community of pilgrim brothers and sisters is part of the essence of the faith." —Ibid.

"No, the Church was not made by herself, she was created by God and she is continuously formed by Him." —Ibid.

=============================

Introduction

"Paul teaches us that faith comes from listening (fides ex auditu)," Emeritus Pope Benedict tells us in a recent interview which has just been published in a book in Italy.

Since Benedict has spoken very little in public since his resignation three years ago, it seems important to consider what he said on this occasion.

"Listening," Benedict said, "involves having a partner... In order for me to believe, I need witnesses who have met God and make Him accessible to me.”

We sometimes forget this fundamental fact -- a fact which the common wisdom of our time opposes: that we come to a relationship with God, and to faith in God, by means of witnesses.

It is almost as if life is a great courtroom, and we are each members of a jury trying to discern truth from falsehood, right from wrong, justice from injustice, reality from illusion.

And we must listen to the testimony of witnesses in order to form our judgments and come to our conclusions. Therefore, we need to listen intently to the witnesses we see before us.

One such witness is precisely Emeritus Pope Benedict himself...

Below, the complete text of his interview, in our own English tranlation (the original was in German, and the book itself is in Italian.)

=========================

Thursday, March 17, 2016

The Christian Faith Is Not An Idea But A Life

(Full text of a recent interview with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI)

From the Osservatore Romano, March 17, 2016

We publish here the full text of the interview with Benedict XVI in the book Through Faith: Doctrine of Justification and Experience of God in the Preaching of the Church and the Spiritual Exercises by Jesuit Fr. Daniel Libanori (Cinisello Balsamo, Edizioni San Paolo, 2016, 208 pages, € 20) in which the retired Pope speaks of the centrality of compassion in the Christian faith.

The volume contains the proceedings of a conference that took place last October in Rome.

As noted by Filippo Rizzi of Avvenire on March 16, who published excerpts from the interview, the conductor of the interview (whose name does not appear in the book) was the Jesuit Jacques Servais, a student of Hans Urs von Balthasar and scholar of his works.

*****

Fr. Jacques Servais, S.J.: Your Holiness, the question posed this year as part of the study days promoted by the rectory of the Gesu (the residence for Jesuit seminarians in Rome) is that of justification by faith. The last volume of your collected works highlights your resolute affirmation: "The Christian faith is not an idea, but a life." Commenting on the famous Pauline affirmation in Romans 3:28, you mentioned, in this regard, a twofold transcendence: "Faith is a gift to the believers communicated through the community, which for its part is the result of God's gift" ("Glaube ist Gabe durch die Gemeinschaft; die sich selbst gegeben wird ', gs iv, 512). Could you explain what you meant by that statement, taking into account of course the fact that the aim of these days of study is to clarify the pastoral theology and vivify the spiritual experience of the faithful?

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI: The question concerns what faith is and how one comes to believe.

On the one hand, faith is a profoundly personal contact with God, that touches me in my innermost being and places me in front of the living God in absolute immediacy in such a way that I can speak with Him, love Him and enter into communion with Him.

But at the same time this reality which is so fundamentally personal also has inseparably to do with the community.

It is an essential part of faith that I be introduced into the "we" of the sons and daughters of God, into the pilgrim community of brothers and sisters.

The encounter with God means also, at the same time, that I myself become open, torn from my closed solitude and received into the living community of the Church.

That living community is also a mediator of my encounter with God, though that encounter touches my heart in an entirely personal way.

Faith comes from hearing (fides ex auditu), St. Paul teaches us.

Listening in turn always implies a partner.

Faith is not a product of reflection nor is it even an attempt to penetrate the depths of my own being.

Both of these things may be present, but they remain insufficient without the "listening" through which God, from without, from a story He himself created, challenges me.

In order for me to believe, I need witnesses who have met God and make Him accessible to me.

In my article on baptism I spoke of the double transcendence of the community, in this way causing to emerge once again an important element: the faith community does not create itself.

It is not an assembly of men who have some ideas in common and who decide to work for the spread of such ideas.

Then everything would be based on its own decision and, in the final analysis, on the majority vote principle, that is, in the end it would be based on human opinion.

A Church built in this way cannot be for me the guarantor of eternal life nor require decisions from me that make me suffer and are contrary to my desires.

No, the Church is not self-made, she was created by God and she is continuously formed by him.

This finds expression in the sacraments, above all in that of baptism: I enter into the Church not by a bureaucratic act, but through the sacrament.

And this is to say that I am welcomed into a community that did not originate in itself and is projected beyond itself.

The ministry that aims to form the spiritual experience of the faithful must proceed from these fundamental givens.

It is necessary to abandon the idea of â€‹â€‹a Church which produces herself and to make clear that the Church becomes a community in the communion of the body of Christ.

The Church must introduce the individual Christian into an encounter with Jesus Christ and bring Christians into His presence in the sacrament.

Fr. Servais: When you were Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, commenting on the Joint Declaration of the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation on the Doctrine of Justification of October 31, 1999, you pointed out a difference of mentality in relation to Luther and the question of salvation and blessedness as he had posed it. The religious experience of Luther was dominated by terror before the wrath of God, a feeling quite alien to modern men, who sense rather the absence of God (see your article in Communio, 2000, 430). For these, the problem is not so much how to obtain eternal life, but rather how to ensure, in the precarious conditions of our world, a certain balance of fully human life. Can the teaching of St. Paul of justification by faith, in this new context, reach the "religious" experience or at least the "elementary" experience of our contemporaries?

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI: First of all, I want to emphasize once again what I wrote in Communio (2000) on the issue of justification.

For the man of today, compared to those of the time of Luther and to those holding the classical perspective of the Christian faith, things are in a certain sense inverted, or rather, is no longer man who believes he needs justification before God, but rather he is of the opinion that God is obliged to justify himself because of all the horrible things in the world and in the face of the misery of being human, all of which ultimately depend on Him.

In this regard, I find it significant that a Catholic theologian may profess even in a direct and formal this inverted position: that Christ did not suffer for the sins of men, but rather, as it were, had "canceled the guilt of God."

Even if most Christians today would not share such a drastic reversal of our faith, we could say that all of this reveals an underlying trend of our times.

When Johann Baptist Metz argues that theology today must be "sensitive to theodicy" (theodizeeempfindlich), this highlights the same problem in a positive way.

Even prescinding from such a radical contestation of the Church's vision of the relationship between God and man, the man of today has in a very general way the sense that God cannot let most of humanity be damned. In this sense, the concern for the personal salvation of souls typical of past times has for the most part disappeared.

However, in my opinion, there continues to exist, in another way, the perception that we are in need of grace and forgiveness.

For me it is a "sign of the times" the fact that the idea of â€‹â€‹the mercy of God should become more and more central and dominant -- starting from Sister Faustina, whose visions in various ways reflect deeply the image of God held by the men of today and their desire for the divine goodness.

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com

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