Pope's Remarks following the Veneration of Shroud

"In the Hour of Extreme Solitude We Will Never Be Alone"

- Here is a translation of the remarks Benedict XVI gave today after venerating the Shroud of Turin.

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Dear Friends,

This is a moment that I have been waiting for for quite some time. I have found myself before the sacred Shroud on another occasion but this time I am experiencing this pilgrimage and this pause with particular intensity: perhaps because the years make me more sensitive to the message of this extraordinary icon; perhaps, and I would say above all, because I am here as Successor of Peter, and I carry in my heart the whole Church, indeed, all of humanity. I thank God for the gift of this pilgrimage, and also for the opportunity to share with you a brief meditation, which was suggested to me by the title of this solemn exhibition: “The Mystery of Holy Saturday.” One could say that the Shroud is the icon of this mystery, the icon of Holy Saturday. It is in fact a winding sheet, which covered the corpse of a man who was crucified, corresponding to everything that the Gospels say of Jesus, who was crucified about noon and died at about 3 in the afternoon.

Once evening came, since it was Parasceve, the eve of the solemn Sabbath of Passover, Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy and influential member of the Sanhedrin, courageously asked Pontius Pilate to be able to bury Jesus in his new tomb, that he had made in the rock not far from Golgotha. Having received the permission, he bought linen and, taking the body of Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in the linen and put him in that tomb (cf. Mark 15:42-46). This is what is related by the Gospel of St. Matthew and the other evangelists. From that moment, Jesus remained in the sepulcher until the dawn of the day after the Sabbath, and the Shroud of Turin offers us the image of how his body was stretched out in the tomb during that time, which was brief chronologically (about a day and a half), but was immense, infinite in its value and its meaning.

Holy Saturday is the day of God’s concealment, as one reads in an ancient homily: “What happened? Today there is great silence upon the earth, great silence and solitude. Great silence because the King sleeps … God died in the flesh and descended to make the kingdom of hell (‘gli inferi’) tremble” (“Homily on Holy Saturday,” PG 43, 439). In the Creed we confess that Jesus Christ “was crucified under Pontius Pilate, died and was buried; he descended into hell (‘negli inferi’), and the third day he rose again from the dead.”

Dear brothers and sisters, in our time, especially after having passed through the last century, humanity has become especially sensitive to the mystery of Holy Saturday. God’s concealment is part of the spirituality of contemporary man, in an existential manner, almost unconscious, as an emptiness that continues to expand in the heart. At the end of the 18th century, Nietzsche wrote: “God is dead! And we have killed him!” This celebrated expression, if we consider it carefully, is taken almost word for word from the Christian tradition, we often repeat it in the Via Crucis, perhaps not fully realizing what we are saying. After the two World Wars, the concentration camps, the gulags, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our epoch has become in ever great measure a Holy Saturday: the darkness of this day questions all those who ask about life, it questions us believers in a special way. We too have something to do with this darkness.

And nevertheless, the death of the Son of God, of Jesus of Nazareth, has an opposite aspect, totally positive; it is a font of consolation and hope. And this makes me think that the sacred Shroud acts as a “photographic” document, with a “positive” and a “negative.” And in effect, this is exactly how it is: The most obscure mystery of faith is at the same time the most luminous sign of a hope without limits. Holy Saturday is the “no man’s land” between death and resurrection, but into this “no man’s land” has entered the One, the Only One, who has crossed it with the signs of his passion for man: “Passio Christi. Passio hominis.” And the Shroud speaks to us precisely of that moment; it witnesses precisely to the unique and unrepeatable interval in the history of humanity and the universe, in which God, in Jesus Christ, shared not only our dying, but also our remaining in death. The most radical solidarity. In that “time-beyond-time” Jesus Christ “descended into hell” (“agli inferi”) What does this expression mean? It means that God, made man, went to the point of entering into the extreme and absolute solitude of man, where no ray of love enters, where there is total abandonment without any word of comfort: “hell” (“gli inferi”). Jesus Christ, remaining in death, has gone beyond the gates of this ultimate solitude to lead us too to go beyond it with him.

We have all at times felt a frightening sensation of abandonment, and that which makes us most afraid of death is precisely this [abandonment]; just as when as children we were afraid to be alone in the dark and only the presence of a person who loves us could reassure us. So, it is exactly this that happened in Holy Saturday: In the kingdom of death there resounded the voice of God. The unthinkable happened: that Love penetrated “into hell” (“negli inferi”): that in the most extreme darkness of the most absolute human solitude we can hear a voice that calls us and find a hand that takes us and leads us out. The human being lives by the fact that he is loved and can love; and if love even has penetrated into the realm of death, then life has also arrived there. In the hour of extreme solitude we will never be alone: “Passio Christi. Passio hominis.”

This is the mystery of Holy Saturday! It is from there, from the darkness of the death of the Son of God, that the light of a new hope has shone: the light of the Resurrection. And it seems to me that looking upon this cloth with the eyes of faith one perceives something of this light. In effect, the Shroud was immersed in that profound darkness, but it is luminous at the same time; and I think that if thousands and thousands of people come to see it -- without counting those who contemplate copies of it -- it is because in it they do not see only darkness, but also light; not so much the defeat of life and love but rather victory, victory of life over death, of love over hatred; they indeed see the death of Jesus, but glimpse his resurrection [too]; in the heart of death there now beats life, inasmuch as love lives there. This is the power of the Shroud: from the countenance of this “Man of sorrows,” who takes upon himself man’s passion of every time and every place, even our passion, our suffering, our difficulties, our sins -- “Passio Christi. Passio hominis” -- from this moment there emanates a solemn majesty, a paradoxical lordship. This face, these hands and these feet, this side, this whole body speaks, it is itself a word that we can hear in silence. How does the Shroud speak? It speaks with blood, and blood is life! The Shroud is an icon written in blood; the blood of a man who has been scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified and wounded in his right side. Every trace of blood speaks of love and of life. Especially that large mark near the side, made by blood and water that poured copiously from a great wound caused by a Roman spear, that blood and that water speak of life. It is like a spring that speaks in silence, and we can hear it, we can listen to it, in the silence of Holy Saturday.

Dear friends, let us praise the Lord always for his faithful and merciful love. Departing from this holy place, we carry in our eyes the image of the Shroud, we carry in our heart this word of love, and we praise God with a life full of faith, of love and of charity.

Thank you.

Holy Father at Cardinal Leger Center

Holy Father at Yaounde's Cardinal Leger National Rehabilitation Centre

I was surprised to hear about the Pope's visit to the Cardinal Leger center in Cameroon last week. I was reminded of a conference I attended recently at the John Paul II Institute, Rome Session, where I met a handful of priests from this country.
They were all very excited upon learning that I was from Canada, and mentioned how proud they were to have a son from Canada come to Africa as a missionary. We are very blessed for the faith we have been given, that has been passed down from generation to generation. Let us once again be reminded of the the great history, and present reality of the Catholic Church in Canada, a tradition that we have been given, and are deeply part of, and the many wonderful priests, religious, and laity who have gone before us.

Thursday, 19 March 2009

AFRICANS: MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY OF SIMON OF CYRENE

VATICAN CITY (VIS) - At 4 p.m. today, the Holy Father went to Yaounde's Cardinal Leger National Rehabilitation Centre which specialises in assisting young people suffering from handicaps or traumas. The centre was founded in 1972 by Cardinal Paul-Emile Leger P.S.S., archbishop emeritus of Montreal, Canada, who at the end of his pastoral mandate retired to Africa to dedicate himself to humanitarian activities. On arrival, Benedict XVI was greeted by the Cameroonian minister for social affairs, the director of the Cardinal Leger Centre, and the bishop in charge of health pastoral care. The ceremony was attended by pupils of the centre and by two hundred sick people from various hospitals in Cameroon. "You are not alone in your pain, for Christ Himself is close to all who suffer. He reveals to the sick and infirm their place in the heart of God and in society", said the Pope in his remarks, noting how in the Gospels Christ often shows us, "through specific actions, His fraternal tenderness and benevolence towards all the broken-hearted, all whose bodies are wounded. "This centre is named after Cardinal Paul-Emile Leger", the Pope added, "a son of Canada who came among you to bring relief to bodies and souls. As I stand here today, I am mindful of all the people in hospitals, ... who suffer from a disability, mental or physical. I also think of those whose flesh bears the scars of wars and violence. I remember too all the sick and, especially here in Africa, the victims of such diseases as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. I know how actively engaged the Catholic Church in your country is in the fight against these terrible afflictions, and I encourage you to pursue this urgent task with great determination". In the presence of atrocious torment "we feel powerless and we cannot find the right words. Before a brother or sister plunged into the mystery of the Cross, a respectful and compassionate silence, a prayerful presence, a gesture of tenderness and comfort, a kind look, a smile, often achieve more than many words. This was the experience of a small group of men and women, including the Virgin Mary and the Apostle John, who followed Jesus in the depths of His suffering at the time of His Passion and His death on the Cross". Among this group, the Pope explained "was an African, Simon of Cyrene, ... [who] took part, at the price of his own suffering, in the infinite suffering of the One Who ransomed all men, including His executioners". "It is hard to accept to carry someone else's cross. Only after the resurrection could he have understood what he had done. Brothers and sisters, it is the same for each of us: in the depths of our anguish, of our own rebellion, Christ offers us His loving presence even if we find it hard to understand that He is at our side. Only the Lord's final victory will reveal for us the definitive meaning of our trials. "Can it not be said", the Holy Father asked, "that every African is in some sense a member of the family of Simon of Cyrene? Every African who suffers, indeed every person who suffers, helps Christ to carry His Cross and climbs with Him the path to Golgotha in order one day to rise again with Him. ... Since the resurrection, and right up to our own time, there have been countless witnesses who have turned, with faith and hope, towards the Saviour of mankind, recognising His presence at the heart of their suffering. May the Father of mercies graciously grant the prayers of all who turn to Him. He answers our call and our prayer, as and when He wishes, for our good and not according to our desires". Pope Benedict invited sick people to "gaze upon the Crucified One, with faith and courage, for from Him come life, comfort, and healing", and to turn to St. Joseph, "an intercessor for bodily health ... [and] for the health of the soul". "All of you, doctors and researchers, have the task of putting into practice every legitimate form of pain relief; you are called, in the first place, to protect human life, you are the defenders of life from conception to natural death. For every person, respect for life is a right and at the same time a duty, since all life is a gift from God. "With you", he concluded, "I would like to give thanks to the Lord for all who, in one way or another, work in the service of the suffering. I encourage priests and those who visit the sick to commit themselves to an active and friendly presence in their hospital chaplaincy, or to assure an ecclesial presence in the home, for the comfort and spiritual support of the sick". Having blessed the sick people and the students of the Cardinal Leger Centre, the Pope returned to the apostolic nunciature where he met with members of the Special Council for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.PV-CAMEROON/SICK/YAOUNDE VIS 090320 (860)

Cardinal George's Letter to Obama

"We Will Consistently Defend the Fundamental Right to Life"

WASHINGTON, D.C., JAN. 18, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of the message Cardinal Francis George, archbishop of Chicago and president of the U.S. episcopal conference, sent last week to president-elect Barack Obama, who will take office as the president of the United States on Tuesday.

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Dear Mr. President-elect,

As our nation begins a new year, a new Administration and a new Congress, I write to outline principles and priorities that guide the public policy efforts of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). As President of the Bishops' Conference, I assure you of our prayers, hopes and commitment to make this period of national change a time to advance the common good and defend the life and dignity of all, especially the vulnerable and poor. We continue to seek ways to work constructively with the new Administration and Congress and others of good will to pursue policies which respect the dignity of all human life and bring greater justice to our nation and peace to our world.

As Bishops, we approach public policy as pastors and teachers. Our moral principles have always guided our everyday experience in caring for the hungry and homeless, offering health care and housing, educating children and reaching out to those in need. We lead the largest community of faith in the United States, one that serves every part of our nation and is present in almost every place on earth. From our experience and our tradition, we offer a distinctive, constructive and principled contribution to the national dialogue on how to act together on issues of economic turmoil and suffering, war and violence, moral decency and human dignity.

Our nation now faces economic challenges with potentially tragic human consequences and serious moral dimensions. We will work with the new Administration and Congress to support strong, prudent and effective measures to address the terrible impacts and injustices of the economic crisis. In particular, we will advocate a clear priority for poor families and vulnerable workers in the development and implementation of economic recovery measures, including new investments while strengthening the national safety net. We also support greater accountability and oversight to address irresponsible abuses of the system that contributed to the financial crisis.

The Catholic Bishops of the United States have worked for decades to assure health care for all, insisting that access to decent health care is a basic human right and a requirement of human dignity. We urge comprehensive action to ensure truly universal health care coverage which protects all human life including pre-natal life, and provides access for all, with a special concern for the poor. Any such legislation ought to respect freedom to choose by offering a variety of options and ensuring respect for the moral and religious convictions of patients and providers. Such an approach should seek to restrain costs while sharing them equitably.

On international affairs, we will work with our leaders to seek a responsible transition in an Iraq free of religious persecution. We especially urge early, focused and persistent leadership to bring an end to violent conflict and a just peace in the Holy Land. We will continue to support essential U.S. investments to overcome poverty, hunger and disease through increased and reformed foreign assistance. Continued U.S. leadership in the fight against HIV-AIDS and other diseases in ways that are both effectively and morally appropriate have our enthusiastic backing. Recognizing the complexity of climate change, we wish to be a voice for the poor and vulnerable in our country and around the world who will be the most adversely affected by any dramatic threats to the environment.

We will work with the new Administration and Congress to fix a broken immigration system which harms both our nation and immigrants. Comprehensive reform is needed to deal with the economic and human realities of millions of immigrants in our midst. It must be based on respect for and implementation of the law. Equally it must defend the rights and dignity of all peoples, recognizing that human dignity comes from God and does not depend on where people were born or how they came to our nation. Truly comprehensive immigration reform will include a path to earned citizenship with attention to the fact that international trade and development policies influence economic opportunities in the countries from which immigrants come.

We stand firm in our support for marriage which is a faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman and must remain such in law. In a manner unlike any other relationship, marriage makes a unique and irreplaceable contribution to the common good of society, especially through the procreation and education of children. No other kinds of personal relationships can be justly made equivalent to the commitment of a man and a woman in marriage.

With regard to the education of children, we will continue to support initiatives which provide resources for all parents, especially those of modest means, to choose education which best address the needs of their children.

We welcome continuing commitments to empower faith-based groups as effective partners in overcoming poverty and other threats to human dignity. We will work with the Administration and Congress to strengthen these partnerships in ways that do not encourage government to abandon its responsibilities, and do not require religious groups to abandon their identity and mission.

Most fundamentally, we will work to protect the lives of the most vulnerable and voiceless members of the human family, especially unborn children and those who are disabled or terminally ill. We will consistently defend the fundamental right to life from conception to natural death. Opposed to abortion as the direct killing of innocent human life, we will encourage one and all to seek common ground that will reduce the number of abortions in morally sound ways that affirm the dignity of pregnant women and their unborn children. We will oppose legislative and other measures to expand abortion. We will work to retain essential, widely supported policies which show respect for unborn life, protect the conscience rights of health care providers and other Americans, and prevent government funding and promotion of abortion. The Hyde amendment and other provisions which for many years have prevented federal funding of abortion have a proven record of reducing abortions. Efforts to force Americans to fund abortions with their tax dollars would pose a serious moral challenge and jeopardize the passage of essential health care reform.

This outline of USCCB policies and priorities is not complete. There are many other areas of concern and advocacy for the Church and the USCCB especially: religious freedom and other civil and human rights, news media and communications, and issues of war and peace. For a more detailed description of our concerns please see Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (USCCB 2008), pages 19-30.

Nonetheless, we offer this outline as an agenda for dialogue and action. We hope to offer a constructive and principled contribution to national discussion over the values and policies that will shape our nation's future. We seek to work together with our nation's leaders to advance the common good of our society, while disagreeing respectfully and civilly where necessary for preserving that same common good.

In closing, I renew our expression of hope and our offer of cooperation as you begin this new period of service to our nation in these challenging times. We promise our prayers for you, that the days ahead will be a time of renewal and progress for our nation and that we can work together to defend human life and dignity and build a nation of greater justice and a world at peace.

Sincerely yours,

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago
President

A Crisis Bigger Than the Economy

Catholics and Orthodox Look at the Family in Europe

A joint Catholic-Orthodox forum says the family crisis in Europe is much deeper than the economic one, and they have recommendations for improving the situation.

A final statement from the 1st European Catholic-Orthodox forum was released today. The Wednesday-Sunday forum focused on "The Family: A Good for Humanity."

The forum, the statement explained, "[was] not to discuss theological issues that are treated at other levels. Our task rather is to concentrate on anthropological issues of crucial importance for the present and future of humanity. The goal of the forum is to help define common positions on social and moral questions."

The document gives a summary of basic tenets held by Orthodox and Catholics on the family, which revealed their largely shared beliefs and concerns.

Then, the statement goes on to consider three points of mutual focus: the importance of the family for the transmission of life, the right and duty of parents to educate, and the current crisis in society.

Supporting moms

Regarding the transmission of life, the Catholic and Orthodox leaders agreed: "We do not give life to ourselves, nor are parents the sole source of human life, since divine intervention is necessary. The sacredness of human life from conception to natural death should be fully respected. […]

"In the past the family and childbirth were regarded as something sacred. In recent years, however, these notions are questioned. There is an attempt to change language and introduce ambiguity into international documents under the ideological introduction of the gender theory."

The ecumenical leaders expressed worry that the "possibilities of bearing and rearing children are drastically reduced" in situations where both parents are "equally busy with the realization of their professional potential, and both have to bear the burden of financial responsibility for the family."

And they mentioned the problem of migration, which often causes "great suffering to children, with many of them being deprived of the presence of their parents' love and care."

The Christian leaders further lamented that society often "undermines the notion of motherhood as a personal vocation."

They affirmed: "We, Orthodox and Catholics together, insist on the sacredness of motherhood and on the need for society to respect it. Mothers who stay at home in order to raise and educate children should be afforded support both morally and financially. Their mission is in no way less important than that of other respected professions.

"Motherhood is a mission, and as such it deserves unconditional support and respect. The idea of fatherhood is also fundamental for society and it too needs to be rediscovered by contemporary society. It's impossible to speak of a fraternal society without fatherhood."

Sex education

The Christian leaders recalled that parents are the first educators for children and that others who collaborate in educating children must do so in accord with parents.

They gave special attention to sex education: "The principle aim of such teaching is directed toward forming young people in the meaning of married love. […] Furthermore, parents must provide information proportionate to each stage of the individual development of their children. Other bodies, such as the school, for example, constitute, in this sense, an aid for parents."

The forum participants cautioned against the influence of the media, noting that "alongside many positives aspects […] the means of communication unfortunately and increasingly present pornographic material and an individualist, egoistic culture."

The Church leaders ended with an affirmation on the importance of family life for culture: "Families that teach their children well, attentive to establishing proper relationships between all family members, constitute a valuable human capital that has great importance for society in both its economic and spiritual well-being. Family life creates culture: Man learns the essential language of life and all that helps him become fully human. All culture, in its beginnings and in its development is a family event."

Real crisis

The Catholic and Orthodox leaders contended that there is a "deep crisis in the vision of what it is to be human and family life."

They explained: "The demographic trends alone in Europe are clear signals of a crisis much greater than the financial one. The family, born of marriage between man and woman that gives rise to children and an extended network of relationships, needs to be rediscovered as valuable social capital."

Birth rates across Europe are remarkably low; Spain and Austria, for example, do not arrive to 0.1% and Germany and Italy are among those nations with a negative population growth percentage.

The Church representatives appealed to social and political leaders to give attention to this issue "before it is too late."

With that, the final statement offered six recommendations and appeals.

Among these, they affirmed: "Much effort needs to be invested in the promotion of family life. The family needs to be rediscovered for what it offers society. […]

"The family is not an outdated notion! Rightly rediscovered, it is the future. Without the mutual love of the family our society dies."

The final statement continued: "We see a great danger in the apparent subordination of the needs of children and the well-being of the family to economic interests.

"We call upon all public institutions to ensure that policies regarding remuneration for work are consistent with establishing and maintaining a family with dignity. […] It should be such that both parents need not necessarily be obliged to work full time outside the home to the detriment of family life and especially to the detriment of the education of children.

"We call upon the public institutions to recognize and respect the work of the mother in the home because of its value for the family and for society. The issue of 'child care' needs further consideration with the best interests of the child as the guiding principle."

The Catholic and Orthodox leaders concluded expressing the intention to again join forces in regular meetings "to strengthen our mutual relations and address common challenges facing Europe."

Benedict XVI Christmas Greeting to Roman Curia

"The Holy Spirit Gives Us Joy, and He Is Joy"

Below is an exert taken from the Benedict's Christmas Address to the Roman Curia. Here, he highlights four dimensions of the nature of the Holy Spirit. He highlights in the previous paragraphs some of the main events during the year including his trips to Australia and France, and to the United States. It can be found in full text from the Zenit website.

Joy as the fruit of the Holy Spirit - with this we come to the central theme of Sydney which, precisely, was the Holy Spirit. In this retrospective glance I would like to refer, by way of synthesis, to the orientation implicit in such a theme. Keeping before our eyes the witness of Scripture and of Tradition, four dimensions of the theme "Holy Spirit" are easily recognised.

1. The first is the affirmation which we find at the beginning of the account of creation: there we hear of the Creator Spirit which hovers over the waters, creates the world and constantly renews it. Faith in the Creator Spirit is an essential part of the Christian Credo. The fact that matter carries within itself a mathematical structure, is full of spirit, and forms the foundation on which the modern natural sciences rest. Only because is structured in an intelligent fashion is our spirit competent to interpret it and to actively refashion it. Because this intelligent structure proceeds from the same Spirit Creator which has given us the spirit to us, it brings with a task and a responsibility. The ultimate foundation for our responsibility towards the earth rests on our beliefs about creation. The earth is not simply our possession which we can plunder according to our interests and desires. It is rather a gift of the Creator who has designed its intrinsic laws and with this has given us the basic directions for us to adhere as stewards of his creation. The fact that the earth, the cosmos, mirror the Creator Spirit, clearly means that their rational structures which, transcending the mathematical order, become almost palpable in our experience, bear within themselves an ethical orientation. The Spirit which has formed them, is more than mathematics, he is the Good in person, using the language of creation, and points us to the way of right living.

Since faith in the Creator is an essential part of the Christian Credo, the Church cannot and should not confine itself to passing on the message of salvation alone. It has a responsibility for the created order and ought to make this responsibility prevail, even in public. And in so doing, it ought to safeguard not only the earth, water, and air as gifts of creation, belonging to everyone. It ought also to protect man against the destruction of himself. What is necessary is a kind of ecology of man, understood in the correct sense.

When the Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman and asks that this order of creation be respected, it is not the result of an outdated metaphysic. It is a question here of faith in the Creator and of listening to the language of creation, the devaluation of which leads to the self-destruction of man and therefore to the destruction of the same work of God. That which is often expressed and understood by the term "gender," results finally in the self-emancipation of man from creation and from the Creator. Man wishes to act alone and to dispose ever and exclusively of that alone which concerns him. But in this way he is living contrary to the truth, he is living contrary to the Spirit Creator.

The tropical forests are deserving, yes, of our protection, but man merits no less than the creature, in which there is written a message which does not mean a contradiction of our liberty, but its condition. The great Scholastic theologians have characterised matrimony, the life-long bond between man and woman, as a sacrament of creation, instituted by the Creator himself and which Christ - without modifying the message of creation - has incorporated into the history of his covenant with mankind. This forms part of the message that the Church must recover the witness in favour of the Spirit Creator present in nature in its entirety and in a particular way in the nature of man, created in the image of God. Beginning from this perspective, it would be beneficial to read again the Encyclical Humanae Vitae: the intention of Pope Paul VI was to defend love against sexuality as a consumer entity, the future as opposed to the exclusive pretext of the present, and the nature of man against its manipulation.

2. Finally, I add a few more remarks on other aspects of pneumatology. If the creator Spirit is manifest above all in the silent grandeur of the universe, in its intelligent structure, faith, beyond this, tells us something unexpected, that this Spirit speaks, as it were, also in human language, has entered into history and, as a force which shapes history, is also a Spirit who speaks, rather he is the Word which comes to meet us in the writings of the Old and New Testament. What this might mean for us, Saint Ambrose has marvellously expressed in one of his letters: "Even now, when I read the divine Scriptures, God walks in paradise" (Ep.49:3). By reading the Scriptures we also today can, so to speak, wander in the garden of Paradise and meet the God who walks there: between the theme of the World Youth Day in Australia and the theme for the Synod of Bishops exists a deep interior bond. The two themes "Holy Spirit" and "Word of God" go together. Reading Scripture we learn moreover that Christ and the Holy Spirit are inseparable from one another. If Paul, in an arresting synthesis, states: "The Lord is the Spirit" (2 Cor3:17), not only does there appear in essence, the Trinitarian unity between the Son and the Holy Spirit, but also their unity where the story of salvation is concerned: in the passion and resurrection of Christ the veils of the merely literal sense are torn and the presence of God who is speaking becomes visible. By reading the Scripture together with Christ, we come to sense in human words the voice of the Holy Spirit and we discover the unity of the Bible.

3. With this we have arrived at the third dimension of pneumatology which consists, precisely, in the inseparability of Christ and the Holy Spirit. In rather beautiful fashion this is shown in Saint John's account of the first appearance of the risen Lord to his disciples: the Lord breathes on his disciples and in this way gives them the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the breath of Christ. And just as the breath of God in the morning of creation transformed the dust of the earth into a living being, likewise the breath of Christ gathers us into ontological communion with the Son, makes us a new creation. For this reason it is the Holy Spirit who makes us say with the Son: "Abba, Father" (Jn20:22; Rom8:15).

4. As the fourth dimension, there arises spontaneously the connection between Spirit and Church. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans12, explains the Church as the Body of Christ and in this way as an organism of the Holy Spirit, in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit mould individual members into a single living entity. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Body of Christ. By belonging to this body we find our role, we live as one for another in dependence on one another, living in the depths of Him who lived and suffered for us all, and by means of the Holy Spirit draws us to himself in the unity of all the sons of God. "Do you also wish to live from the Spirit of Christ? Then be in the body of Christ.," says Augustine in this regard.(Tr,in Jo.26:13)

And so with the theme "Holy Spirit" which guided the days in Australia and, in a more hidden fashion, also the week of the Synod, the whole extent of the Christian faith becomes clear, a breadth which from the responsibility for the created order and for the existence of man in harmony with creation leads, through the themes of Scripture and the history of salvation, to Christ and beyond to the living community of the Church, in its ordinances and responsibilities and also in its vastness and freedom, which finds expression both in the multiplicity of charisms and in the Pentecostal image of the multitude of languages and cultures.

Joy is an integral part of the feast. A feast can be organised, joy no. It can only be offered as a gift; and, in fact, has been given to us in abundance: it is by this that we are known. Just as Paul described joy as the fruit of the Holy Spirit, so likewise has John in his gospel connected closely the Spirit and joy. The Holy Spirit gives us joy. And he is joy. Joy is the gift in which all the other gifts are included. It is the expression of happiness, of being in harmony with ourselves, that which can only come from being in harmony with God and with his creation. It belongs to the nature of joy to be radiant, it must communicate itself. The missionary spirit of the Church is none other than the impulse to communicate the joy which has been given.

May it always be alive in us and so be radiated on the world in the midst of its tribulations: such is my wish at the close of this year. Along with a lively thanks for all your labours and endeavours, I wish you all this joy which comes from God and may it also be given to us abundantly in the New Year.

I commend these wishes to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Divine Grace, requesting that we can live the Christmas festival in joy and in the peace of the Lord. With these sentiments I sincerely impart to you and the great family of the Roman Curia the Apostolic Blessing.

Catholic-Orthodox Family Forum

"Without the Mutual Love of the Family Our Society Dies"

Here is the final statement of the 1st European Catholic-Orthodox Forum on the theme: "The Family: A Good for Humanity," held Dec. 10-14 in Trent.

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Preamble

By the grace of the Holy Spirit, we, thirty representatives of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches in Europe, from countries stretching from the Urals to the Atlantic, have gathered together for the First European Catholic-Orthodox Forum. We express our gratitude to all who have worked for the success of this meeting, especially to the Archbishop of Trent who warmly received us and offered hospitality. The meeting has been organised by the Council of European Bishops Conferences (CCEE), in close collaboration with various Orthodox Churches and some of the dicasteries of the Holy See.

We have expressed our deep sorrow at the sudden death of His Holiness, Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and All Russia, who had warmly extended his blessing upon the project of this Forum.

What is the purpose of the Forum? It is not to discuss theological issues that are treated at other levels. Our task rather is to concentrate on anthropological issues of crucial importance for the present and future of humanity. The goal of the Forum is to help define common positions on social and moral questions. By engaging in this exchange, we help each other realize just how close our moral and social doctrines are. At the same time we make the world aware of our concerns.

We agreed to dedicate our first encounter to "The Family: A Good for Humanity". Countless numbers of families have contributed so much to European culture. We are grateful to them and in our prayer for families we remember specially those going through difficulties.

Over our four days together we have discussed topics relating to marriage and family, as well as various aspects of sexual ethics. It has been an opportunity for us to proclaim and live our faith, pray to the Lord for grace and reflect on how we might collaborate more. In particular, animated by the love of Christ for humanity, we have focused on the family, acknowledging all the efforts being done to promote family life on our continent, but also voicing our concern for the deteriorating condition of family life that is evident in many ambits of society.

Marriage and the family belong to the created order and are not a product of mere human decision. Written into the very nature of human being and revealed to us in the Bible, the family, founded on marriage, was established by God as a union between man and woman. The Bible presents us with a vision of the family as a unity of life-giving love, an indissoluble relationship, open to life.

I – Marriage and Family

Over the course of these days, we listened to some reports concerning the views of Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Europe. The following is a summary.

A. Orthodox Views on Marriage and the Family

In the Christian Orthodox tradition marriage is viewed as an eternal union of spouses, strengthened not only by physical, but also by spiritual intimacy. In spite of widespread belief to the contrary, the Orthodox Church "by no means calls on its members to shun the body or sexual intimacy as such, for physical relations between a man and a woman are blessed by God in marriage, where they become a source of the continuation of the human race and express chaste love, total community and the 'unity of souls and bodies' of the spouses." According to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, "the transformation of these relations, which are pure and worthy according to God's plan, as well as of the body itself into an object of degrading exploitation and trade aimed at the receiving of egoistic and impersonal, loveless and distorted satisfaction, deserves condemnation." (The Bases of the Social Conception of the Russian Orthodox ChurchX, 6.)

According to the Orthodox understanding, an essential element of the marital union and the fruit of the love between man and wife are children, the birth and upbringing of which are one of the main goals of marriage (Ibid., X 3-4). In accordance with this view, the Orthodox Church considers the freely willed rejection of childbirth and the artificial termination of pregnancy inadmissible. As the equivalent of murder, abortion is unequivocally rejected by the Church, which insists on the personal responsibility of all who take part in this act: the woman, the man (in the case of his consent) and the doctor(Ibid., XII,2).

On the basis of Holy Scripture and Tradition the Orthodox Church denounces homosexual relations, seeing in them the distortion of man's divinely created nature (Ibid., XII, 9). It also rejects all forms of fornication, adultery and marital infidelity, as well as prostitution and promiscuity. At the same time, it recognizes the need to pastorally assist those people who have disordered inclinations and whose way of life does not correspond to the Gospel's moral teaching.

B. Catholic Positions on Marriage and the Family

According to Catholic teaching, as affirmed also by the Orthodox, Jesus Christ raised natural marriage to the dignity of a sacrament: "The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of their whole life and which of its own very nature is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of children, has, between the baptized, been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament" (CIC can. 1055 - §1).

This sacramental value requires fidelity unto death among the spouses in the indissolubility of the marriage bond. Marital love between the spouses is the basis of the family, the first personal communion into which a human being is born. It must be promoted by society as its fundamental cell. The Catholic Church recognises the inseparable link willed by God between the unitive and procreative meanings of married love. Exclusion of offspring is therefore contrary to the unity of marital love. Sexuality is recognized as a dimension of the image of God in human beings and so has a personal value. Men and women must learn in the language of the body their vocation to responsible love as a true gift of themselves. Other sexual expressions such as fornication, homosexual acts and sexual unions outside marriage are contrary to this vocation to love.

II. Mission of the Family

After outlining some elements of the teachings of our Churches, we also underlined how much we hold in common. And so we would like to underline the following issues that we together consider important for the well-being of society.

A. Key Common Points

God's commandment to the first human family remains relevant to all subsequent families: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28). Catholics and Orthodox agree that the family is the unique moral environment in which the gift of human life should be transmitted by the marital act.

The human being is the only one created in the image and likeness of God and this constitutes his particular dignity. We do not give life to ourselves, nor are parents the sole source of human life, since divine intervention is necessary. The sacredness of human life from conception to natural death should be fully respected.

We acknowledge the positive international documents that support the family. For instance, art. 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: "Man and woman of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family" and "the family is the natural and fundamental group of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State." In the past the family and childbirth were regarded as something sacred. In recent years, however, these notions are questioned. There is an attempt to change language and introduce ambiguity into international documents under the ideological introduction of the gender theory.

Today both men and women are equally busy with the realization of their professional potential, and both have to bear the burden of financial responsibility for the family. Under these circumstances the possibilities of bearing and rearing children are drastically reduced.

A particularly tragic phenomenon has emerged in twenty first century Europe. Due to wages that do not sustain families, hundred of thousands of mothers and fathers have had to leave their families to go to wealthier countries to provide for the basic needs of their families. This has resulted in increased numbers of divorces, and in great suffering to children, with many of them being deprived of the presence of their parents' love and care.

The secular vision prevailing in modern society often undermines the notion of motherhood as a personal vocation. It is sometimes devalued. We, Orthodox and Catholics together, insist on the sacredness of motherhood and on the need for society to respect it. Mothers who stay at home in order to raise and educate children should be afforded support both morally and financially. Their mission is in no way less important than that of other respected professions. Motherhood is a mission, and as such it deserves unconditional support and respect. The idea of fatherhood is also fundamental for society and it too needs to be rediscovered by contemporary society. It's impossible to speak of a fraternal society without fatherhood.

B. Family and Education

Having given the gift of life to their children, parents are their first educators. "The right and duty of parents to give education is essential, since it is connected with the transmission of human life; it is original and primary with regard to the educational role of others, on account of the uniqueness of the loving relationship between parents and children; and it is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others". ("Familiaris Consortium," 36). Integral education within the family is not limited simply to the development of a child's natural gifts and capacities, but refers also to spiritual values, in particular the handing on of faith. Parents are to be the first witnesses of the Gospel. In the family life we learn the meaning of faith as the true light that guides a person's life.

The most suitable environment for the harmonious development of the child is the family, composed of a father, mother and siblings. Other bodies that help the family in education of their children must act in collaboration with parents, passing on the principles and values which always remain the parents' primary responsibility to transmit. In the context of education one often hears about the rights of the child. This is good but such rights must always be considered within the environment of the family.

The issue of "sex education" merits particular attention. Here, too, parents are the first teachers. The principle aim of such teaching is directed towards forming young people in the meaning of married love: "Education in love as self-giving is also the indispensable premise for parents called to give their children a clear and delicate sex education" (Ibid., 37). In the family, where we have the first experience of personal communion, we are introduced into love in all its dimensions: the family is the first place of personal socialization. Furthermore, parents must provide information proportionate to each stage of the individual development of their children. Other bodies, such as the school, for example, constitute, in this sense, an aid for parents.

Particular influence is brought to bear on the education of children and young people by the mass media that strongly condition family relations. Young people imitate the examples communicated through the media. Alongside many positives aspects, however, the means of communication unfortunately and increasingly present pornographic material and an individualist, egoistic culture.

Families that teach their children well, attentive to establishing proper relationships between all family members, constitute a valuable human capital that has great importance for society in both its economic and spiritual well-being. Family life creates culture: man learns the essential language of life and all that helps him become fully human. All culture, in its beginnings and in its development is a family event.

C. The Crisis of our Society: Challenges and Opportunity

Today we are faced with a certain ideology of culture that emerged with the sexual revolution in the last century. This has brought about a deep crisis in the vision of what it is to be human and family life. It is a major challenge to the evangelization of the Christian Churches that are attentive to the needs of the heart of the human being and his or her calling to full life in Christ.

Among the profound changes of our society, a deep economic crisis has recently emerged. The banking, financial and economic crisis of today is one of the indicators of a major turning point in our global and European society. We are all rightly concerned. But another vital element of this turning point is the crisis in regard to family life. The demographic trends alone in Europe are clear signals of a crisis much greater than the financial one. The family, born of marriage between man and woman that gives rise to children and an extended network of relationships, needs to be rediscovered as valuable social capital. We appeal to political and social leaders to address this major social issue before it is too late. Without this attention, lack of financial funds will pale before the lack of social and human resources that the family brings.

On the other hand, we express gratitude for what has been done. Many positive developments have helped the family: recent social and economic recognition in some countries of the contribution of motherhood to society, financial and social assistance for the care of disabled and elderly, medical cover for those disadvantaged members of society.

III - Recommendations and Appeals

In recent years the Churches have become aware of the importance of supporting spiritual renewal and in particular accompanying young people as they journey towards becoming husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. While assisting all families pastorally, we recognize that special care needs to be given to newly established families. Marginalized families (and often migrant families are such) deserve attentive care. The Church's mission is to give hope to our society that today is faced with many challenges. We need to show signs of solidarity and through the media communicate our positive message regarding the family.

All of us together, Catholics and Orthodox, affirm the following recommendations and appeal to all people of good will in society to act together with us on them:

1. There is a most urgent need to rediscover the understanding of the family and marriage. We believe that one of the primary causes of the current demographic crisis and all related crises is the rejection of this understanding. Much effort needs to be invested in the promotion of family life. The family needs to be rediscovered for what it offers society. In the family, we have homes that are creative, dynamic and vital schools of socialization in many ways: educating family members to a discovery of the value of community and otherness, forming them in a culture of giving, encouraging openness to diversity in solidarity, facilitating mutuality in communication and providing a dynamic towards discovery and novelty, fruit of interpersonal endeavor.

2. We affirm that it is only in relationship to God that all human beings blossom in their full humanity. Accordingly, it is our belief that promoting family institution, based on the marriage of man and woman, Europe will be furthering this fundamental unit of society that carries out a vital liberating, fulfilling and enlightening role in society. To recognize this is the beginning of a renewal of our European culture that is seeking its way forward at this time of profound soul-searching. Our appeal to political and social leaders is the following: The family is not an outdated notion! Rightly rediscovered, it is the future. Without the mutual love of the family our society dies.

3. We affirm that, since they have conferred life on their children, parents have the original, primary and inalienable right to educate them. They must be acknowledged as the generally best suited and the first and foremost educators of their children. We call upon the political institutions to ensure the parents' right to educate their children in conformity with their moral and religious convictions, taking into account the cultural traditions of the family. This includes the right to freely choose schools or other means necessary to educate their children in keeping with their convictions. In particular, sex education is a basic right of the parents and must always be carried out according to their choice and under their close supervision.

4. We see a great danger in the apparent subordination of the needs of children and the well-being of the family to economic interests.

5. We call upon all public institutions to ensure that policies regarding remuneration for work are consistent with establishing and maintaining a family with dignity. This could be obtained by tax laws which recognize the indispensible contribution of the family to society. It should be such that both parents need not necessarily be obliged to work full time outside the home to the detriment of family life and especially to the detriment of the education of children. We call upon the public institutions to recognize and respect the work of the mother in the home because of its value for the family and for society. The issue of "child care" needs further consideration with the best interests of the child as the guiding principle.

6. Finally, we call to mind the moral choice on which the future of the whole of humanity depends. Its essence is expressed as a central point of the Covenant God made with the humankind which is fulfilled in Christ: 'See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day is to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments… that thou may live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee... I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live' (Deut. 30:15-19).

IV – Follow up

The experience of this Forum has been very positive in building up our fraternity and enabling us to share in our Christian concern for people. On the basis of this good experience, we intend to meet regularly to strengthen our mutual relations and address common challenges facing Europe.

Theme for Next 3 WYD

- Benedict XVI is inviting youth to celebrate the next two World Youth Days at the diocesan level, leading up to a culmination in the 2011 Madrid event.

A statement from the Holy See affirmed that the Pope picked event themes for the '09 and '10 youth days, "so as to help build a spiritual itinerary that will culminate in the World Youth Day celebrations scheduled to take place in Madrid, Spain."

The theme of the 2009 World Youth Day, which will be celebrated next Palm Sunday in Rome and in each diocese, is: "We Have Set Our Hope on the Living God" (1 Timothy 4:10).

In 2010, the celebration will also be held on Palm Sunday in all dioceses, with the theme: "Good Teacher, What Must I do to Inherit Eternal Life?" (Mark 10:17).

These celebrations will lead up to the international World Youth Day in Madrid, scheduled for Aug. 16-21, 2011, with the theme: "Rooted and Built Up in Jesus Christ, Firm in the Faith" (Colossians 2:7).

COLF -Toward a True Sexual Revolution

From the Catholic Organization for Life and Family Website

New Document is available in PDF format

This text aims to inspire readers to discover the “theology of the body” as taught by Pope John Paul II.

Given the hypersexualization of the human person in our society, and the recent 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae, this new reflection is an invitation to discover – or rediscover – the meaning of life while learning about the true significance of the human body, sexuality and love … At the beginning, what was God’s plan for human love? What is the truth about the human being – the man-being and the woman-being?
This document will be particularly useful to parents, teachers and everyone who seeks to guide young people towards a healthy understanding of human sexuality. It will also be of interest in helping young men and women to discern the vocation that God intends for them: marriage or celibate chastity lived out in the priesthood, in religious life, or in the celibate lay apostolate in the world.

Cardinal Dulles Dead at 90

The New York Province of the Society of Jesus reported that renowned theologian and prolific author Cardinal Avery Dulles died this morning at 90.

Check out this Blog
http://jesuitjoe.blogspot.com/2008/08/cardinal-dulles-90th.html

Avery Dulles was born Aug. 24, 1918, in Auburn, New York. He was the son of John Foster Dulles, who later served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Dwight Eisenhower.

Dulles converted to Catholicism in 1940 while studying at Harvard University. After graduation he continued at Harvard studying law, but after a year and a half he left the university to join the Navy during World War II, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant.

He entered the Jesuits in 1946 and was ordained 10 years later. He earned a doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1960.

Father Dulles taught theology at Woodstock College from 1960 to 1974 and at the Catholic University of America from 1974 to 1988.

He served as the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University from 1988 until April of this year.

He was created a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001, making him the first American-born theologian not a bishop to receive this honor.

A respected theologian, he served as president of both the Catholic Theological Society of America and the American Theological Society. He authored over 750 articles on theological topics, and dozens of books, the latest including "The History of Apologetics," (revised edition, 2005), and "Magisterium: Teacher and Guardian of the Faith" (2007).

The cardinal had been suffering of complications of post-polio syndrome, which he contracted as a Naval officer. Confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak, the cardinal continued to read and communicated by slowing typing on a computer keyboard or writing on a pad of paper.

Upon stepping down as the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University in April, he wrote: "Well into my 90th year I have been able to work productively. As I become increasingly paralyzed and unable to speak, I can identify with the many paralytics and mute persons in the Gospels, grateful for the loving and skillful care I receive and for the hope of everlasting life in Christ. If the Lord now calls me to a period of weakness, I know well that his power can be made perfect in infirmity. 'Blessed be the name of the Lord!'"

During Benedict XVI's visit to the United States last April, the Pontiff and Cardinal Dulles met for a private meeting.

Great theologian

Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago and president of the U.S. episcopal conference, said the death of Cardinal Dulles "brings home to God a great theologian and a totally dedicated servant of the Church."

"His wise counsel will be missed; his personal witness to the pursuit of holiness of life as a priest, a Jesuit and a cardinal of the Church will be remembered and will encourage the Church to remain ever faithful to her Lord and his mission," he added.

Cardinal Edward Egan, the archbishop of New York, said in a statement this afternoon that he learned of the death of Cardinal Dulles with "deep sadness."

"Cardinal Dulles was an eminent theologian and professor of theology in seminaries and universities throughout the nation," said Cardinal Egan. "All of us here in the archdiocese are very much indebted to him for his wisdom and priestly example."

Father James Massa, executive director of the Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs at the episcopal conference and a student of Cardinal Dulles, said the cardinal was "for a generation of priests, scholars and faithful [...], a reliable and faithful interpreter of the Second Vatican Council. A number of his books have become classics in theological education."

"In some ways," the priest added, "his life bears comparison with another great cardinal-theologian, John Henry Newman, on whose birthday, 200 years later, Avery Dulles was created a cardinal of the Catholic Church."

USA Election Day Novena

Election Day is only nine days away. As millions prepare to make important decisions about the future leaders and policies of the United States, let us join in prayer.

In anticipation of Election Day, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops prepared a Novena for Faithful Citizenship, which is available here:

http://www.faithfulcitizenship.org/docs/FC_Novena.pdf

And, if you haven't seen it already, please also check out the inspiring video here:

www.catholicvote.org

God bless America,

John Roderick

Pontifical Council for the Laity Creates Site to discuss Integral Anthropology

There is a need for continued reflection on the complementarity of men and women, and a new Web site aims to help fill this need, affirmed an official of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

The site launched by that Vatican dicastery is a fruit of the conference it hosted last February on "Woman and Man: The 'Humanum' in its Entirety." The Vatican conference marked the 20th anniversary of John Paul II's apostolic letter "Mulieris Dignitatem." Benedict XVI addressed the conference participants the day it ended.

Rocío Figueroa Alvear, the pontifical council's director of its department on women, told ZENIT that the site is a consequence of the interest shown by the 280 delegates at the conference, who said it is necessary "to continue the reflection begun there, showing at the same time the importance of tightening the links between movements, associations, and concrete individuals who work for the promotion of the dignity and mission of the woman."

One of the objectives of the site is to "go deeper in anthropological questions, which spring from the original unity of the person, upon which is based the reciprocal relationship between man and woman," Figueroa said. "And this, without leaving aside the reflection about the anthropological differences between the 'feminine I' and the 'masculine I," which, far from becoming an obstacle or a deep and insuperable abyss between man and woman, contributes the elements for a greater richness in the expression of the 'humanum' in every dimension of society."

The site was developed with a sense of being "in ecclesia," Figueroa said, "in company with all of the women who have gone before us in the faith with their testimony of holiness and life."

It also aims to take into account women who suffer.

"In finding ourselves with new cultural paradigms and new challenges," Figueroa noted, "we do not forget that there are still so many places in the world where the dignity of the woman is not recognized, and is even wounded, suffering the consequences of misery, violence and marginalization."




www.laici.org/index.php?p=homedonna

Interview with David Schindler

David Schindler (above left), greets Pope Benedict XVI in Rome in December. Schindler is editor of Communio magazine, which was founded by the Pope in 1972 when he was a young priest and theologian

David Schindler is Edouard Cardinal Gagnon Professor of Fundamental Theology and Provost-Dean of the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C. He is also editor of the English-language edition of Communio: International Catholic Review, a theological journal founded in 1972 by Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Henri de Lubac, among others. There are 15 different national editions of Communio, whose editors meet biannually to plan their common work.

This interview has a twofold goal: to bring the insights of a collaborator and reader of Ratzinger to bear on Pope Benedict’s approach to culture in general and American culture in particular; and to present Ratzinger’s approach to important questions of the day in light of the American historical experience. Following Benedict’s theology, it attempts to bring to light some of the fundamental strengths and weaknesses of America and the Church in America.

Professor Schindler, you have been involved with Communio since the North American edition was founded. In his autobiography, Milestones, then-Cardinal Ratzinger described the founders’ goal for Communio as "an international journal whose work would both be done out of the heart of communion in sacrament and faith, and also lead to its enhancement... Since the crisis in theology had emerged out of a crisis in culture, and, indeed, out of a cultural revolution, the journal had to address the cultural domain, too." What part does Communio play in the cultural landscape today?

DAVID L. SCHINDLER: The journal was founded most basically to recover a Godcentered understanding of the Church and of the human being. And also to recover the fact that the reality of our being in the Church and the reality of our being in the world is a matter, in the deepest sense, of love.

This task of recovery is at the heart of the Second Vatican Council, and it is even more important today, I would say, than it was then.

Joseph Ratzinger had to step down from editorial work at the German edition when he moved to Rome, of course, but he continued to contribute articles. He gave an address, "Communio: A Program," in 1982, on the 10th anniversary of the journal’s founding, which was a beautiful recapitulation of its history and mission.

This past December (2007), he invited the various national editors to hold the annual winter meeting in Rome, where he received them in the Vatican and was able to greet each one personally. On another note, he cited articles from the 2006 Communio issue devoted to the Wedding at Cana in Jesus of Nazareth, in the section on symbols in the Gospel of John, and he says he continues to read the German edition regularly.

How did you first meet Cardinal Ratzinger?

SCHINDLER: Through Hans Urs von Balthasar, the Swiss theologian and co-founder of Communio. In 1984, Balthasar was awarded the Paul VI International Prize by Pope John Paul II, who asked him to organize a conference in September 1985 on the work of Adrienne von Speyr. Ratzinger held a reception for Balthasar at Castel Gandolfo immediately following the conference, and it was at this reception that Balthasar introduced me to Ratzinger. I had been editor of the North American edition of Communio for three years by then.

How would you characterize Joseph Ratzinger as a theologian?

SCHINDLER: What’s characteristic is his capacity for integration. His scholarship is marked by a great integration of academic theology and spirituality -- and always in a way that speaks from within the heart of our cultural problems. A sign of this integration: when you read his homilies, they provoke you into thinking, and when you read his theology, it inclines you to pray. Simply, he does theology in the manner of the great saints and doctors of the Church -- a way of doing theology that is badly needed in our time.

The German philosopher Robert Spaemann has spoken of Benedict’s theology as a retrieval, a mutual enrichment between old and new; he says Ratzinger the theologian never felt the need to reconstruct theology from the ground up via a new schema, as, for example, Karl Rahner did, because Ratzinger was too historically grounded to go that way. In what sense is Benedict retrieving something that was both already there, and, in a sense, lacking in our times?

SCHINDLER: Newness and oldness: a beautiful point. To me, this is again the greatness of Benedict. He’s simply doing what every saint and doctor of the Church has done. He has gone back to the roots of his being and of the Church’s being: the Gospel. And he’s done it entirely naturally, in the sense that he recovers it precisely in the context of his own historical being. That is, he recovers it while living in the 20th century and today in the face of the problems of Nazism, Communism, and liberalism. What results is a development. So the idea that his emphasis on, say, the structure of being as centered in God and filiality were somehow recent inventions is nonsense. These things are the heart of the Gospel. In other words, this recovery and development is what real theologians do. This is epitomized in Benedict, as Spaemann observes, and also can explain why so many theologians become very obscure: they want to be new. Benedict has no interest in being new. He has an interest in being faithful. And the creativity takes care of itself because we’re historical beings. Everyone, especially the theologian, has to look at his own work in this way and to ask: What is the cause of the obscurities? There can be difficulties in someone’s thought and so on, but what is remarkable in Benedict’s work, and what is really one of his great gifts to the Church, is that his thought is jargon-free. And it’s jargonfree because he has no interest in speculation, in the sense of saying, let’s speculate on this without regard, say, for the integrity of human life and ecclesial life. He says what he has to say to keep alive the memory of what has been given.

Could you say something about his way of engaging people in conversation?

SCHINDLER: He’s very simple and gentle, always curious about the world. Always very much full of wonder at things. He has a great capacity as a listener. If you do not interrupt him during a conversation, you can easily end up spending the entire time speaking mostly about yourself, responding to his questions about you and your work.

How does he deal with people with whom he disagrees?

SCHINDLER: People who disagree with him are often a bit disarmed to discover how respectful he is of what they have to say. In any conversation he is concerned about the truth, but it’s always clear that in defending the truth, he’s defending something that is integral to the dignity of the other person. He’s not defending his ego, but rather something that is greater than himself and that is necessary for the realization of the dignity of both himself and the interlocutor.

How does Pope Benedict XVI engage the question of culture?

SCHINDLER: At the heart of his basic proposal to culture is a particular conception of dialogue. Dialogue for Benedict is something we are before it is something we do. For Benedict, human existence is dialogue with God, specifically, with the Creator. Relation to God lies at the core of our being as creatures and thus we implicitly invoke the question of the nature and existence of God in all of our conscious acts. As Aquinas says, we know God implicitly in all that we know, and we love God implicitly in all that we love.

Embedded within the dialogue with God is an implicit dialogue with all other creatures, relation to whom is given to us inside the relation with the Creator.

Why is Benedict’s conception of dialogue relevant to American culture, where polls indicate both a high belief in God and a widespread interest in the very question of God?

SCHINDLER: Interestingly, Benedict says the problems of the West can all be traced back to the forgetfulness of God. In what sense is that true in America? First of all, one has to recognize the sincerity of Americans; they are not cynical when they say they believe in God. The question is how that is understood. ...

For More Information, Please see the updates Communio Website

http://www.communio-icr.com/

Cardinal Arinze -What is a Catholic University

What Is a Catholic University?

Here is the homily Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, gave April 20 at the closing Mass of the 30th anniversary celebrations of Christendom College.

* * *

1. A Day of Grace

The Eucharistic Celebration is our supreme act of worship of God. It is the highest tribute of thanksgiving which the Church can offer to our Creator. It is therefore very fitting that on the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Christendom concludes its celebration of its 30th Anniversary with this Solemn Mass.

As we gather at this Mass, we are in spiritual union with the Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict XVI, who is at this time celebrating the Holy Eucharist in New York City. Having commemorated yesterday the third anniversary of his election to the See of St. Peter, we are in a special time of grace. For a Catholic educational institution such as Christendom College which has a particular and deep link and attachment to the Church and her Magisterium, this is reason for added joy.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, for thirty years Christendom College has given distinguished service as an authentic academic institution. It has performed admirably to live, to show and to share its Catholic character. And it has educated citizens that are a credit to Church and society. These will now be the points for our reflection.

2. An Authentic University or College

A university or college is expected to be a centre of studies and research, a community of teachers and students who are engaged in the joint love and pursuit of knowledge, and an institution which is at the service of the wider society.

Christendom College has admirably fulfilled this role. As a liberal arts college, it has given dynamic leadership to its students on how to discover the true, the good and the beautiful, and how to pursue these goods which are so deserving in themselves. The students are educated to work hard to be free and to remain free persons by disciplining themselves to choose the good, both for themselves and for others. This is the avenue that leads to becoming men and women of virtue, of justice, of prudence, of temperance, of fortitude and of knowledge. This leads to true wisdom. The students are taught not to be afraid of the truth, of reality.

When students in the beginning of their higher studies acquire such a solid foundation, then they can safely go on to pursue a vocational training, a technical specialization or a career. Christendom College has done well in helping students acquire this indispensable foundation.

3. A Catholic College or University

Christendom College is above all a Catholic educational institution. It does not just give proof of a rigorously serious member of the national and international community of knowledge and research. It importantly expresses its Catholic identity through an explicit profession of the Catholic Faith, and through studies given unity and a sense of direction by sound philosophy and authentic Catholic theology.

The College knows that the true, the good and the beautiful is finally God himself. And God has manifested himself to us in his Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. The splendour of divine truth, goodness and beauty shines forth in Christ. In the Gospel just read, Jesus tells us: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). If we follow the light of Christ, we shall have true freedom and be able to arrive at wisdom. “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (Jn. 8:31-32).

A genuine Catholic university or college, therefore, distinguishes itself by developing and showing a harmonious relationship between faith and reason. Revealed truth and truths acquired by human reason and experience both come from the same God. They do not, and cannot, contradict each other. As the First Vatican Council says: “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth” ("Dei Filius," 4: DS 3017).

For this reason the Second Vatican Council encourages this harmony and therefore the contribution of a Catholic university or college under the light of the Christian revelation. It says: “Therefore, if methodical investigation within every branch of learning is carried out in a genuinely scientific manner and in accord with moral norms, it never truly conflicts with faith. For earthly matters and the concerns of faith derive from the same God. Indeed, whoever labours to penetrate the secrets of reality with a humble and steady mind, is, even unawares, being led by the hand of God, who holds all things in existence, and gives them their identity” ("Gaudium et Spes," 38: cf also Catechism of the Catholic Church, 159).

All this means that a Catholic university or college would have abandoned its identity and specific role if it did not allow the light of the Catholic faith to bear on such areas of study as history, psychology, ethics and the humanities in general; if it did not see the necessity of reference to higher truths or morality as authoritatively interpreted by the Magisterium; if, in short, it did not allow theology to be a core subject.

A Catholic university, says the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II, needs to develop “courageous creativity and rigorous fidelity” ("Ex Corde Ecclesiae," 8). “While each discipline is taught systematically and according to its own methods, interdisciplinary studies, assisted by a careful and thorough study of philosophy and theology, enable students to acquire an organic vision of reality and to develop a continuing desire for intellectual progress” ("Ex Corde Ecclesiae," 20). Pope Benedict XVI spoke on 4/17/08 of the duty of intellectual charity towards the students by their educators (cf. p. 6 of his Address to Catholic Educators).

We thank God that Christendom College has for thirty years rendered this service.

4. Alumni, a Credit to Christendom College

The alumni are a credit to Christendom College. By their fruits you shall know them (cf Mt 7:16). The College has equipped its students to ask fundamental questions: Where do we come from? Why do we exist? Where are we going? How can we get there? What have great men and women done in the past in their response? What does our Catholic faith teach us?

Is it any surprise that the students learn to be the salt of the earth, the leaven in society, lamps set on a lampstand, a city set on a hill, or, in brief, children of light (cf Mt 5:13-16; Jn 12:36)?

They therefore want to contribute to make this world a better place. They reject negativity and a withdrawal syndrome attitude towards society. They get involved. They work to build on what past generations have handed on to them and because they are Christians, they are people of hope which is finally based on Jesus the Saviour, who gives meaning, synthesis and a sense of direction to our life endeavours (cf "Spe Salvi," 27).

Is it any surprise that alumni have distinguished themselves as teachers, bank workers, medical practitioners, scientists, legal experts, sales people, industrialists and managers in various institutions?

Deserving of special mention as alumni whom Christendom College education has inspired to answer God’s call are priests and consecrated people. I am informed that there is a total of 53 priests and 45 monastics, religious sisters and brothers originating from this institution. This is eloquent testimony to the service which Christendom College has rendered to Church and society.

5. A Prayer

May God bless the founders of Christendom College. May eternal rest be the reward for those of them who have gone before us from this valley of tears.
We pray for the President, the Board Members, the Faculty and the Students of Christendom College. May they continue to build on Jesus Christ who is the cornerstone, as St. Peter tells us in the Second Reading of this Sunday.

May God bless the benefactors and all friends of Christendom College and all of us here gathered, and grant us daily growth in wisdom and grace.

By the intercession of Our Lady Queen of Christendom, may this dear institution ever flourish in its contribution towards restoring all things in Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Francis Card Arinze

20 April, 2008

Benedict's Message to the United States

"I Am Coming, Sent by Jesus Christ, to Bring You His Word of Life"

Here is the text of the video-message that Benedict XVI sent to the people of the United States on the occasion of his imminent visit to Washington, D.C., and New York. His visit will take place April 15-20.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the United States of America,

The grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you! In just a few days from now, I shall begin my apostolic visit to your beloved country. Before setting off, I would like to offer you a heartfelt greeting and an invitation to prayer. As you know, I shall only be able to visit two cities: Washington and New York. The intention behind my visit, though, is to reach out spiritually to all Catholics in the United States. At the same time, I earnestly hope that my presence among you will be seen as a fraternal gesture towards every ecclesial community, and a sign of friendship for members of other religious traditions and all men and women of good will. The risen Lord entrusted the Apostles and the Church with his Gospel of love and peace, and his intention in doing so was that the message should be passed on to all peoples.

At this point I should like to add some words of thanks, because I am conscious that many people have been working hard for a long time, both in Church circles and in the public services, to prepare for my journey. I am especially grateful to all who have been praying for the success of the visit, since prayer is the most important element of all. Dear friends, I say this because I am convinced that without the power of prayer, without that intimate union with the Lord, our human endeavours would achieve very little. Indeed this is what our faith teaches us. It is God who saves us, he saves the world, and all of history. He is the Shepherd of his people. I am coming, sent by Jesus Christ, to bring you his word of life.

Together with your Bishops, I have chosen as the theme of my journey three simple but essential words: "Christ our hope". Following in the footsteps of my venerable predecessors, Paul VI and John Paul II, I shall come to United States of America as Pope for the first time, to proclaim this great truth: Jesus Christ is hope for men and women of every language, race, culture and social condition. Yes, Christ is the face of God present among us. Through him, our lives reach fullness, and together, both as individuals and peoples, we can become a family united by fraternal love, according to the eternal plan of God the Father. I know how deeply rooted this Gospel message is in your country. I am coming to share it with you, in a series of celebrations and gatherings. I shall also bring the message of Christian hope to the great Assembly of the United Nations, to the representatives of all the peoples of the world.

Indeed, the world has greater need of hope than ever: hope for peace, for justice, and for freedom, but this hope can never be fulfilled without obedience to the law of God, which Christ brought to fulfillment in the commandment to love one another. Do to others as you would have them do to you, and avoid doing what you would not want them to do. This "golden rule" is given in the Bible, but it is valid for all people, including non-believers. It is the law written on the human heart; on this we can all agree, so that when we come to address other matters we can do so in a positive and constructive manner for the entire human community.

[The Pope continued in Spanish]

I direct a cordial greeting to Spanish-speaking Catholics and manifest my spiritual closeness, in particular to the youth, the ill, the elderly and those who are in moments of difficulty of feel themselves in need. I express my heartfelt desire to be with you soon in this beloved nation. In the meantime, I encourage you to pray intensely for the pastoral fruits of my imminent apostolic trip and to keep high the flame of hope in the resurrected Christ.



Dear brothers and sisters, dear friends in the United States, I am very much looking forward to being with you. I want you to know that, even if my itinerary is short, with just a few engagements, my heart is close to all of you, especially to the sick, the weak, and the lonely. I thank you once again for your prayerful support of my mission. I reach out to every one of you with affection, and I invoke upon you the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Que la Virgen María les acompañe y proteja. Que Dios les bendiga. [May the Virgen Mary accompany and protect you. May God bless you.]

CUA Students Design Altar Pope Will Use in US

Students Design Altar Pope Will Use in US

Congratulations JP and Ryan. I send best wishes from Canada, it was great getting to know you through the CUA Knights of Columbus.

WASHINGTON, D.C., - Two architecture students at Catholic University designed the altar, ambo and chair Benedict XVI will use to celebrate Mass in the U.S. capitolJohn-Paul Mikolajczyk and Ryan Mullen, both candidates in the master's program at Catholic University's School of Architecture and Planning, were the winners of the contest to design the structures to be used at the April 17 Mass at Nationals Park.

The 10-by-4 foot papal altar has a substantial top with a repeating pattern of decorative parabolic arches beneath it and a smaller base.The front of the pulpit where the Gospel will be read is adorned with images of the Bible and the Holy Trinity. The tall chair back is decorated with Benedict XVI's papal coat of arms.At Monday's unveiling of the design, Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington said that the design is "a tribute to this school of architecture, Catholic University and the quality of students here. […] All those people are going to be looking at this and you'll be able to say, 'He's standing at my altar.'

"Mikolajczyk and Mullen will work with architecture faculty and the Archdiocese of Washington to fine-tune the design and actually construct the altar and the other furnishings.The designers explained that for inspiration, they spent an afternoon at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception studying the altar furnishings."We wanted to incorporate elements that would remind us of Christ's active presence and work in the liturgy," said Mikolajczyk.

Students, working individually or in teams of up to four people, prepared their models and drawings over a few days of work between Jan. 18 and Jan. 23. The entries were judged Jan. 24.

Regensburgh, one year later

Regensburg, one year later

The Legacy of the LogosThe famous speech in which Benedict XVI urged us to “broaden reason” was also notable for the way it presented the relationship between Christianity and the Greek tradition.A talk given by a Ph.D. student from Princeton at the summer retreat of the Memores Domini explored precisely this aspect of the Pope’s speech. We present it here as a contribution to method, as a way of taking up the thread of a work to which we are all called.
by Luca Grillo

“In the beginning was the Logos... and the Logos was made flesh.” John’s opening words announce the Christian event, born, as Pope Benedict emphasizes, from “the encounter between the Biblical message and Greek thought.” The first verse of the Gospel recalls the verse which opens the Bible: “In the beginning, when God created...” With these words, John suggests that Christianity is grafted onto the trajectory of the Bible and specifically that God is Logos–namely, reason. What does this mean? Where is this evident in the Bible? One example is the dialogue between Abraham and Yahweh, who wishes to destroy Sodom.“Suppose there were fifty innocent people in the city?” asks Abraham. “If I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” “What if there are five less than fifty innocent people? Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?”Abraham negotiates successfully until he brings God down to ten. God is omnipotent and unpredictable, but Abraham believes it is unjust to destroy a whole city while there are still some innocent inhabitants. Somehow, he realizes that there is something in common between his own conception of justice and God’s. The people of Israel were just like us: they were tempted to reduce the insight that God is Logos to their own scale of values, and so kept complaining that He was omnipotent and unpredictable.

The Gospeland Greek thought

John, at any rate, wrote in Greek, and the opening verse of his Gospel contains significant echoes of Greek culture. Logos also means “word.” It is reason that enables men to communicate and it manifests itself as speech. Animals lack speech because they lack reason. God is Logos, meaning He can reveal Himself to mankind. The Greek philosophers used reason to investigate reality, confident that reality could be known, and that God, the ultimate substance of all things, could be investigated by reason. In particular, Greek philosophy was born as the search for the beginning, the arché–not just the chronological beginning, but the substance out of which everything was made. The Greeks intuited that reason could and should explore this question and that this arché, of which everything was made, was necessarily one origin. So it is significant that John begins by stating, “In the beginning was the Word.” In other words, John presents Christianity as a historical fact that completes the trajectory of the Bible and gives an answer to the question that gave rise to Greek philosophy.But the Pope speaks of a precise time, the Hellenistic period, when biblical faith encountered the best of Greek thought–“a meeting between faith and reason,” which he describes as an “intrinsic necessity.” Why Hellenism? In the third century BC, the Jews translated the Bible into Greek to sanction the encounter between these two cultures. According to ancient tradition, the Pharaoh Ptolemy Philadelphus founded a great library, bringing books from all over the world to be catalogued and translated. He wanted the Bible to be among them. So he sent messengers to Jerusalem, where each of the twelve tribes of Israel chose six learned men, and these seventy-two experts travelled to Alexandria. Living in seclusion on the island of Pharos, each of them worked on his own translation without any deadline for completing the work. Mysteriously, after seventy days, each independently presented his completed translation. When the Pharaoh compared the seventy-two versions to choose the best, to his surprise he found they were all exactly the same! This legend is significant because, being very ancient (second century BC), it shows that the Greeks and Jews themselves considered this translation as willed by God; therefore, the word of the seventy was authoritative.So Christianity also completed this third trajectory: the rapprochement between Hellenistic and Jewish culture.

Dehellenization and its reductions

Christianity was born in this way, at a precise time and place. The Pope observes that “the Greek heritage forms an integral part of the Christian faith.” The fundamental decisions about the relationship between faith and reason form part of faith itself. If we discard this Greek heritage, we lose a substantial part of Christianity, which is out of the question.Dehellenization is a quest for a pure faith and the original Jesus, unaffected by Greek philosophical categories which, it is claimed, are alien to it. The principle underlying this position seems good, as if to say, “John, a Jew, lived in a city of Hellenic culture, so in talking about his experience he would naturally use words, images, and categories from the Jewish or Greek tradition. But I am neither Greek nor Jewish and I was born two thousand years later. So I have to seek the pure Jesus, to scrape away the Greek accretions and relate it to the present to find the Jesus for today.” It sounds like a noble effort, but the Pope, stimulated in his logic, shows that it always leads to a reduction of reason (and hence of man), compromising our ability to encounter Jesus. In the name of a pure Jesus, we lose Jesus.The second part of the Pope’s speech at Regensburg retraced the steps in the history of philosophy that have led to three large reductions.The first stage of dehellenization, the Pope explains, began with the Protestant Reformation and culminated in Kant, the philosopher who said, “I need to set thinking aside in order to make room for faith.” Faith and reason are not just dissociated–Kant actually thought setting aside reason was a help to faith. So what is faith? Something you feel. “I don’t feel it any more, so I don’t believe any more,” many people say nowadays. In fact, if I don’t feel it, it doesn’t exist. But if reason does not serve to explore the Mystery, what’s the use of it? In the second stage, philosophy affirms that reason serves for the empirical, mathematical sciences, because only what is demonstrable is reasonable. “Jesus? Prove it! If you can’t, I won’t believe; in fact, I’ll accuse you who believe of being unreasonable.” Many people today claim they cannot be certain of Jesus. The third stage culminates logically in “cultural pluralism,” meaning that there is no such thing as truth; each of us believes whatever we choose, and we have to respect all opinions. Hence, the affirmation of an absolute truth is perceived as an act of violence.Clearly, the problem is not with the Greeks. Rather, what is at issue is a concept of reason that either enables us to encounter reality, and therefore Christ, or prevents us from doing so. Dehellenization limits reason before launching into the great search. These are not philosophical subtleties for experts, but three cultural positions that we have to contend with. The result is that, in our quest for Jesus, we often ask ourselves questions like: “Do I feel it?” “Prove it to me.” Or we say, “Jesus for me is...”The Pope’s words are literally just what Fr. Giussani taught us for years. The “perCorso” begins with The Religious Sense. Before speaking of Jesus, he teaches us that reason is not reducible to logic or what can be demonstrated. It is worth rereading the Pope’s historical outline together with The Religious Awareness of Modern Man–the similarities are astonishing. For example, Fr. Giussani teaches that “the Church is an aid for those who want to attain certainty on the problem of Jesus.” He indicates three different approaches, of which two are limited. The first, the “Protestant” approach, reduces Christianity to inner illumination (“I feel it”); the second, the “rationalist,” seeks the historical Jesus (“Prove it!”). And rationalism (Giussani cites Schweitzer) expires in “cultural pluralism,” because the historical Jesus eludes us in a distant past. The Pope and Fr. Giussani teach us the same thing, pointing out the risks of an ossified reason that prevents us from understanding reality. We should ask ourselves whether dehellenization, which may look like an interesting new departure, is not based on an erroneous principle. The quest for the pure Jesus is a contradiction in terms. Jesus is God incarnate. Fr. Giussani taught us this with the example of gold in the dirt. Gold in the pure state does not exist, but when we really want gold, we’re willing to brave mud and dirt for the sake of finding a nugget.

The great Greek inheritance

Eliminating the Greeks violates the origins of the Christian fact and places serious limits on reason. But what did the Greeks teach us? Why did the Pope speak of the best of Greek thought as a constituent part of Christianity?In the first place, the Greeks had a conception of reason as covering a wide range. The logos can investigate various aspects of reality by adopting different methods. This opening flowered in the fifth century BC and spread in Hellenism. In the fifth century, the logos expanded, interesting itself in everything. It refined Democracy, with Clisthenes and Pericles; instituted a new historical method, with Herodotus and Thucydides: and founded a new school of medicine with Hippocrates. In the fifth-century drama, tragedy subjected the beliefs inherited from mythology to the sieve of reason. And, again in the fifth century, the typically Greek passion for beauty produced great monuments, like the Parthenon.The Parthenon, a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena on the Acropolis, symbolized the typically Greek quest for beauty and was another expression of the human logos. When, after its destruction, the archeologists sought to reassemble it, they realized with surprise that it was a difficult undertaking. The pieces were all different. They discovered that the columns were all of different lengths, because the pedestals on which they rested were slightly higher in the center; and those at the corners of the building were not set parallel with the others nor precisely perpendicular to the ground, but slightly inclined toward the inside. If one traces the lines of the column, the four lines that start from the corners of the Parthenon would meet about half a mile above ground level. Optical studies had shown the Greeks that this difference of a few tenths of an inch would appear as perfect harmony. This means that they could not have built the pieces all to the same model. Each piece differs by a few tenths of an inch from the others. In short, the logos discovered different approaches to reality–through history, medicine, politics, philosophy, literature, or architecture. It was a very supple use of reason. The Parthenon is an example of the passionate openness of the Greek logos.This conception of reason spread with Hellenism, the period that begins in 322 BC with the death of Alexander the Great, whose conquests extended the boundaries of the Greek world. It then became clear that the logos unites all mankind: foreigners, women, slaves, and children entered art and literature. The logos, reason and word, also led to a dialogue with other cultures, as shown by the translation of the Bible.For the Greeks, reason necessarily entailed the quest for the meaning of life. The Pope quotes from Plato’s Phaedo: “It would be easily understandable if someone became so annoyed at all these false notions that for the rest of his life he despised and mocked all talk about being, but in this way he would be deprived of the truth of existence and would suffer a great loss.” But the Greeks also understood that the logos was inadequate. “It seems to me, O Socrates, and perhaps also to you, that reliable truth [on the meaning of life] is difficult to attain.”Here lies the drama: man is a seeker, but the ultimate meaning eludes his search. What is to be done? Plato advises us to cling to the best argument, “and on this, as on a raft, to attempt to cross the sea.” Plato uses a rare word for raft, schedia, used in the Odyssey for the makeshift raft used by Ulysses when he suffers shipwreck. Like a raft adrift on the ocean, reason undertakes a noble attempt and yet is inadequate. “Unless,” continues Plato, “he can cross the sea with some safer craft, with the help of the word revealed by a god.” The Greek for a “word revealed by a god” is logos–a prophetic perception that the logos, reason, can be communicated by becoming the word.In conclusion, on the great plain where architects and engineers built a bridge to the stars, to meaning, the best builders were the Greeks. They trusted to that reason which enabled them to know and love much of reality. Yet they had the honesty to admit that reason remained inadequate, like a raft on the ocean. In Athens, Paul drew on this aspect of the Greek quest, proclaiming, “What you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.” Christianity was born in history out of the meeting between the human logos, which, as logos, cannot help seeking but, as human, invariably loses its way, and the Divine Logos, which, as Logos, can be recognized and, as Divine, seeks to communicate itself.The hearts of friends and colleagues, like my own, are begging for Christ–a noble quest, but the human logos is inadequate. For this reason, the Divine Logos has compassion on us and communicates itself. So, just as John and Andrew encountered Christ, so too can you and I. Christianity is the encounter between man’s heart, which begs for Christ, and Christ, who begs us for our hearts.