Friday, November 26, 2010

Notes: Tuesday-Friday, November 23-26, 2010

1. On Light of the World

Here are some excerpts from the other day's edition of the Vatican Information Service (V.I.S.) daily e-mail bulletin (my square-bracketed ellipses, everything else as in the original):

LIGHT OF THE WORLD. THE POPE AND THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

VATICAN CITY, 23 NOV 2010 (VIS) - This morning in the Holy See Press Office, a press conference was held to present a new book published by the Vatican Publishing House. The volume is entitled: "Light of the World. The Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times. A conversation of Benedict XVI with Peter Seewald".

The conference was presented by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation, and the journalist Luigi Accattoli.

Also present were Peter Seewald, who conducted the interviews with the Pope, and Fr. Giuseppe Costa S.D.B., director of the Vatican Publishing House.

[...] For his part, Luigi Accattoli suggested his journalist colleagues should "read this book as a guided visit to the papal workshop of Benedict XVI and to the world of Joseph Ratzinger. ... Above all we will see this man who was called to become Pope in the same perspective as when he published the two volumes on Jesus of Nazareth, which he presents not as documents of the Magisterium, but as testimony of his own search for the face of the Lord".

[...] In this book, Accattoli continued his explanations, the Holy Father "dedicates ample space to the conflict between the Christian faith and modernity. However, in at least two passages he recognises 'the morality of modernity' and the evidence of 'a good and just modernity'. These positive affirmations should be read alongside passages in which he recognises the religious crimes of the past: from the 'atrocities' committed 'in the name of truth' to 'the wars of religion', and that 'rigorism' towards corporeity which was used to 'frighten man'. In the conflict with the modern world, then, it is necessary to ask 'in what is secularism right' and where 'should it be resisted'".

[...] The Holy Father, Accattoli continued, "assures us that he would not have removed the excommunication from Bishop Williamson without undertaking further investigation, had he known the prelate's views on Holocaust denial". [...]
OP/ VIS 20101123 (1320)

So

1. Light of the World is non-Magisterial (we already knew that, of course, but I'll keep that quotation for future reference).
2. The Holy Father speaks of unnamed "'atrocities' ... committed 'in the name of truth'" and thinks that "[i]n the conflict with the modern world, then, it is necessary to ask 'in what is secularism right' and where 'should it be resisted'" (the answers, as far as I'm concerned, are 'nothing' and 'everywhere', respectively).
3. His Holiness "would not have removed the excommunication from Bishop Williamson without undertaking further investigation, had he known the prelate's views on Holocaust denial".

2. A couple of items regarding Msgr. Williamson

2.1 "Official Statement Re: Bp. Williamson's 'Lawyer Affair'"

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34842

2.2 Msgr. Williamson did not go straight from Anglicanism to the S.S.P.X. (which was canonically regular at the time of his conversion anyway):

http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34861

3. "Russia a 'one-party state'"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/russia-a-oneparty-state-20101125-18976.html?skin=text-only

4. "PLENARY SESSION OF INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION" (to deal with, among other things, social doctrine)

Full text of the relevant item from the other day's V.I.S. daily e-mail bulletin:

PLENARY SESSION OF INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION

VATICAN CITY, 23 NOV 2010 (VIS) - The International Theological Commission, which is presided by Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is due to celebrate is annual plenary session from 29 November to 3 December in the Vatican's "Domus Sanctae Marthae". The meeting will be chaired by Fr. Charles Morerod O.P., secretary general of the commission.

According to a communique published today the commission will study three important themes: the principles of theology, its meaning and its methods; the question of the one God in relation to the three monotheistic religions; and the integration of Church social doctrine into the broader context of Christian doctrine.

At the end of their deliberations the members of the International Theological Commission will be received in audience by the Holy Father.
OP/ VIS 20101123 (150)

5. Some recent articles on so-called gay marriage, in theory, in Australia, and in Europe

In theory:
http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/11/22/homosexual-marriage-and-the-slippery-slope/
http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/11/22/more-homosexual-marriage-myths/
http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2010/11/21/homosexual-marriages-myths/
http://concerned-voter.blogspot.com/
(I discovered that last single-post blog in a comment at the combox of the web-page whose link I provide immediately before its own link.)

In Australia:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/state-to-push-motions-on-same-sex-unions/story-e6frgczx-1225959710095
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/kids-for-gays-but-not-marriage-hockey/story-fn59niix-1225959716199

In Europe:
http://angelqueen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34887

Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of St. Sylvester, Abbot, and of St. Peter of Alexandria, Bishop, Martyr, A.D. 2010

No comments: