What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

I have been pretty tied up today with things like press conferences, a conference of the Acton Institute here in Rome, gett ready for a flight tomorrow and losing my glasses… so…. there is "Tridentine" news.

From the Italian agency ANSA, we have a comment from Jorge Arturo Cardinal Medina Estevez, a member of the Pont. Comm. "Ecclesia Dei" that the Motu Proprio will be coming out soon…. "è prossima". They studied the document carefully and worked on it for 4 hours, making some adjustments. The President of the Commission Dario Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos will take it to the Pope when it is ready.

See, I told you all I needed to do to get the document going was to make plans for a trip away from Rome and, at 0600 tomorrow, I am on the airplane.

ANSA) – CITTÀ DEL VATICANO, 12 dic – ‘’La pubblicazione del Motu Proprio da parte del Papa che liberalizzerà la celebrazione della messa in latino secondo il messale di San Pio V è prossima’‘. Lo ha affermato il cardinale Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, membro della Commissione Ecclesia Dei che stamattina si e’ riunita per discutere della liberalizzazione della messa in latino. ‘’Noi abbiamo studiato il documento con calma’’ ha affermato il cardinale. ‘’Abbiamo discusso assieme per piu’ di 4 ore ed effettuato alcune correzioni sul testo del Motu Proprio’‘. La prossima mossa spetta al cardinale Dario Castrillon Hoyos (presidente della commissione) che presenterà a Benedetto XVI il testo. Forse, ha aggiunto Medina, occorrerà un’altra riunione da parte della Commissione Ecclesia Dei. Un altro membro dell’organismo, il cardinale di Lione, Jean Pierre Ricard non ha voluto fare nessun commento, sottolineando che ‘’è tenuto al segreto pontificio’‘.
da "Ansa", 12 dicembre 2006

UPDATE: It looks like everything was removed from ANSA, but it seems that I.MEDIA has it.

The UR-source seems to be I.MEDIA:

La publication du "motu proprio" – un acte équivalant à un décret pris par le pape – visant à libéraliser la célébration de la messe selon le missel de saint Pie V est proche. C’est ce qu’a confirmé mardi le cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estévez, membre de la Commission Ecclesia Dei, qui a pour mission de faciliter le retour à la pleine communion ecclésiale des disciples de Mgr Lefebvre. ...

...

The rest is the same as the Italian. 

I was at the press conference presenting the Holy Father’s Message for the World Day of Peace (1 January).

You might recall that I think last year’s was a foundational document for this Pontificate, as it spelled out many of the things this Pope is concerned with. This year extends what I read last year.

When we read a papal document, or any other writing, it is good to keep in mind that Pope’s and theologians have starting points. They usually give you a lens or two through which they (and you) can look at the problem they mean to address. This is the case with the Message for Peace, released today. Other people will have readings of the document. Others will certainly get into the content in some details. I am offering only a first help for your own reading. Then I will get into only a few details, leaving space for others.  Allow me to ramble a bit.  Time doesn’t permit me to do more.

The Message for Peace seems to have two theological starting points. The first is the text of Gen 1:27 describing that God made man in His image and likeness, male and female. The next is a text of St. Augustine of Hippo (s. 169,11,13): “God created us without our aid; but he did not choose to save us without our aid.” This famous point of the Doctor of Grace, Pope Benedict calls a “striking synthesis”. The Pope then creates from these a kind of diving board into a conclusion (emphasis in the original): “Consequently all human beings have the duty to cultivate an awareness of this twofold aspect of gift and task.” (Aside: remember that last year the Pope used Augustine as his starting point: Augustine’s concept of “tranquility of order” as the foundation of peace.)

This conclusion then has implications for all sorts of pressing modern questions, such as people who are deprived of fundamental rights to food, means, etc., political or economic freedom, religious liberty, care for the environment, right to life itself, the treatment of women, the race for control of energy, how conflicts and wars are conducted and why, what to do with nuclear arms, and, finally, what Christians must do about these things.

So, the document focus on the inherent dignity of the human person, as God made him, as the foundation of authentic peace. Benedict identifies threats to peace because the human person is not treated with the proper respect.

Moving beyond sectarian considerations, Benedict refers constantly to the natural law, written into man’s being and he speaks of a “transcendental grammar”: “the boy of rules for individual action and the reciprocal relationships of persons in accordance with justice and solidarity, I inscribed on human consciences, in which the plan of God is reflected.”

As an aside: It is interesting that this description with the word “grammar”, calls to mind that Benedict has spoken now at length about God as LOGOS, word, reason, the internal logic of things. Man is made in the image of God who is the Spoken Word. So, the logos is imagined and echoed in man. We must act in accordance with this. This means that there is a “conversation” going on. Words are spoken and heard. We are in dialogue with God, on the one hand, and man, on the other. Words, reason, everything man is, signals relationship. Words are not in a void. Joseph Ratzinger has written about how we cannot have a relationship with an idea or a concept (expressed in words merely). We have relationships with persons, divine or human. In the Message today I found this phrase, “

Last year, and ever since, I have suggested that the Pope’s first Message for Peace was an extremely important document, through which we could get a grasp on other things that followed. It was, in a sense, theologically programmatic. Last year, like this year, he showed that true peace must be rooted in the right concept of the rights of man. He pointed to forces that violate the rights of man and therefore threaten peace: first, religious fundamentalism and, also, secular or materialistic relativism. He was obviously criticizing radical Islam, which is creating unstable places and stirring violence and also regimes that are rooted in materialism, such as Communism, as well as those who are reducing everything to the views of man alone without consideration of objective truth and God. The Pope picks all these themes up again this year speaking also to the “cultural denigration of religious beliefs” (no. 5). So, here Benedict explores also ideas that are either “indifferent” to religion (and thus the transcendent grammar of man) and also “weak” ideas about who man is. The comments on “weak” ideas are interesting.

11. Today, however, peace is not only threatened by the conflict between reductive visions of man, in other words, between ideologies. It is also threatened by indifference as to what constitutes man’s true nature. Many of our contemporaries actually deny the existence of a specific human nature and thus open the door to the most extravagant interpretations of what essentially constitutes a human being. Here to clarity is necessary: a “weak” vision of the person, which would leave room for every conception, even the most bizarre, only apparently favours peace. In reality, it hinders authentic dialogue and opens the way to authoritarian impositions, ultimately leaving the person defenceless and, as a result, easy prey to oppression and violence. 12. A true and stable peace presupposes respect for human rights. Yet if these rights are grounded on a weak conception of the person, how can they fail to be themselves weakened? Here we can see how profoundly insufficient is a relativistic conception of the person when it comes to justifying and defending his rights.

Remember that in stating so clearly that man’s rights come from His being made in God’s image, that is, they are conferred by God and not man, any body or group which seeks on its own to confer to man his rights, based on their own conceptions of who man is and what rights ought to be, will inevitably go wrong and begin to violate man and destroy the roots of peace. This was also at the heart of last year’s message.

<supportLineBreakNewLine]—>On another interesting point, the Pope spoke to “new forms of violence” developing in conflicts, which are not provided for by international law. This seems to refer to the issues surrounding the insurgency in Iraq and the terror inflicted on the population and the soldiers in the zone. He makes a good observation: “Increasingly, wars are not declared, especially when they are initiated by terrorist groups determined to attain their ends by terrorist groups determined to attain their ends y any means available.” Because of this, states need new rules to deal with this situation. We need new rules of conduct. This gets us into the issue of “just war” theory, which is referred to in footnote citing the CCC. In last year’s message, the Pope seemed pretty clearly to support military action in Iraq, saying that the in order to establish the conditions under which peace can be created there must at times be military intervention. He then praised soldiers involved in that action. This year, he is preoccupied with war that is conducted without norms or limits. This could be a reaction to the escalating problems of asymmetrical action in the Iraq theater. Frankly, to me, the Pope sounded a little worried in the document.

Moving along, finally, I think we all know that “Rawlsian” forces are driving the Church out of the public square by every means possible. Benedict says something interesting about this: “With gratitude to the Lord for having called him to belong to his Church, which is “the sign and safeguard of the transcendental dimension of the human person” in the world, the Christian will tirelessly implore from God the fundamental good of peace, which is of such importance in the life of each person. Moreover, he will be proud to serve the cause of peace with generous devotion…” Benedict then cites 1 John 4:8: “God is love” as the starting point of the Christian vocation, saying that we must be “staunch champions” of human dignity and “courageous builders” of peace. I think this all points to the absolute necessity never to allow the Church to be driven from the public square.

Here it is.  This is what Pope Benedict told the Swiss bishops back in November.  Do you remember the flap about the Holy See issuing the wrong text.  EXCERPTS: (My emphasis)

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 11, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered Nov. 7 during a meeting with the bishops of Switzerland. They were concluding their "ad limina" pastoral visit, which had been interrupted in 2005 due to Pope John Paul II’s failing health.

* * *

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS OF SWITZERLAND

Sala Bologna
Tuesday, 7 November 2006

Your Eminences,
Your Excellencies,
Dear Confreres,

...

I have been unable to prepare a proper Address; [!! Please, Holy Father, do this more often!] in view of the individual aspects of the great mass of problems we will be touching on, I only want to make a few "trial attempts" that do not intend to come up with definitive assertions but only to initiate our conversation. This is a meeting of the Swiss Bishops and various Dicasteries of the Curia, in which each area of our pastoral task is identified and made visible. I shall try to make a few comments on some of them.

In keeping with my past, I will begin with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, or rather, with the topic of faith.

Earlier, in my Homily [see page 6], I endeavored to say that in all the anguish of our time, faith must truly have priority. Two generations ago, it might still have been presumed natural: one grew up in the faith; in a certain way, faith was simply present as part of life and did not need any special seeking. It needed to be formed and deepened, but seemed something perfectly obvious.

Today, the opposite seems natural: in other words, that it is basically impossible to believe, and that God is actually absent. The faith of the Church, in any case, seems something that belongs to the distant past.

Thus, even practicing Christians are of the opinion that it is right to choose for oneself, from the overall faith of the Church, those things one considers still sustainable today. And especially, people also set about fulfilling their proper duty to God through their commitment to human beings, so to speak, at the same time.

This, however, is the beginning of a sort of "justification through works": [What hard core Protestants accuse, wrongly, Catholics of thinking.] the human being justifies himself and the world, in which he does what clearly seems necessary yet completely lacks the inner light and spirit.

Consequently, I believe it is important to acquire a fresh awareness of the fact that faith is the centre of all things —"Fides tua te salvum fecit", the Lord said over and over again to those he healed. It was not the physical touch, it was not the external gesture that was operative, but the fact that those sick people believed. And we too can only serve the Lord energetically if our faith thrives and is present in abundance.

In this context, I want to emphasize two crucial points.

First: faith is above all faith in God. In Christianity it is not a matter of an enormous bundle of different things; all that the Creed says and the development of faith has achieved exists only to make our perception of the Face of God clearer. He exists and he is alive; we believe in him; we live before him, in his sight, in being with him and from him. And in Jesus Christ, he is, as it were, with us bodily.

To my mind, this centrality of God must appear in a completely new light in all our thoughts and actions.

Furthermore, this is what enlivens activities which, on the contrary, can easily lapse into activism and become empty.

This is the first point I want to stress: faith actually looks to God with determination and thus impels us in turn to look to God and set out towards him.

The other thing concerns the fact that we ourselves cannot invent faith, composing it with "sustainable" pieces, but we believe together with the Church. We cannot understand all that the Church teaches, nor must all of it be present in every life.

Yet, it is important that we are co-believers in the great "I" of the Church, in her living "We", and thereby find ourselves in the great community of faith, in that great subject in which the "You" of God and the "I" of man truly touch each other; in which the past of the words of Scripture becomes the present, times flow into one another, the past is present and, opening itself to the future, allows into time the brightness of eternity, of the Eternal One.

This complete form of faith, expressed in the Creed, a faith in and with the Church as a living subject in which the Lord works: it is this form of faith that we must seek to put truly at the heart of our endeavors.

Today too, we see it very clearly: wherever development has been exclusively encouraged without nourishing the soul, it causes harm. Moreover, technological skills are indeed increasing, but they result above all in new possibilities of destruction.

If, as well as aid to developing countries, as well as learning all that the human being is able to do, all that human intelligence has invented and that human determination makes possible, the human heart is not illuminated at the same time and God’s power does not arrive, human beings learn above all to destroy.

And for this reason I believe that missionary responsibility must once again become strong within us: if our faith makes us glad, let us feel bound to speak of it to others. The extent to which people will be able to accept it will then be in God’s hands.

I would now like to move on from this topic to "Catholic Education", touching on two areas.

One thing which I believe is a cause of "concern"—in the positive sense of the word—to all of us, is the fact that future priests and other teachers and preachers of the faith must receive a good theological training; we therefore need good theological faculties, good major seminaries and qualified theology teachers who not only impart knowledge but inculcate in students an intelligent faith so that faith becomes intelligence and intelligence, faith.

In this regard, I have a very specific wish.

Our exegesis has progressed by leaps and bounds. We truly know a great deal about the development of texts, the subdivision of sources, etc., we know what words would have meant at that time…. But we are increasingly seeing that if historical and critical exegesis remains solely historical and critical, it refers the Word to the past, it makes it a Word of those times, a Word which basically says nothing to us at all; and we see that the Word is fragmented, precisely because it is broken up into a multitude of different sources.

With "Dei Verbum," the Council told us that the historical-critical method is an essential dimension of exegesis because, since it is a "factum historicum," it is part of the nature of faith. We do not merely believe in an idea; Christianity is not a philosophy but an event that God brought about in this world, a story that he pieced together in a real way and forms with us as history.

For this reason, in our reading of the Bible, the serious historical aspect with its requirements must be truly present: we must effectively recognize the event and, precisely in his action, this "making of history" on God’s part.

"Dei Verbum" adds, however, that Scripture, which must consequently be interpreted according to historical methods, should also be read in its unity and must be read within the living community of the Church. These two dimensions are absent in large areas of exegesis.

The oneness of Scripture is not a purely historical and critical factor but indeed in its entirety, also from the historical viewpoint, it is an inner process of the Word which, read and understood in an ever new way in the course of subsequent "relectures," continues to develop.

This oneness itself, however, is ultimately a theological fact: these writings form one Scripture which can only be properly understood if they are read in the "analogia fidei" as a oneness in which there is progress towards Christ, and inversely, in which Christ draws all history to himself; and if, moreover, all this is brought to life in the Church’s faith.

In other words, I would very much like to see theologians learn to interpret and love Scripture as the Council desired, in accordance with "Dei Verbum": may they experience the inner unity of Scripture—something that today is helped by "canonical exegesis" (still to be found, of course, in its timid first stages)—and then make a spiritual interpretation of it that is not externally edifying but rather an inner immersion in the presence of the Word.

It seems to me a very important task to do something in this regard, to contribute to providing an introduction to living Scripture as an up-to-date Word of God beside, with and in historical-critical exegesis. I do not know how this should be done in practice, but I think that in the academic context and at seminaries, as well as in an introductory course, it will be possible to find capable teachers to ensure that this timely encounter with Scripture in the faith of the Church—an encounter on whose basis proclamation subsequently becomes possible—can take place.

The other thing is catechesis. Precisely in the past 50 years or so, it has come a long way in its methodology.

On the other hand, however, since much has been lost in anthropology and in the search for reference points, all too often catechesis does not even reach the content of the faith.

I can understand this since, even at the time when I was a parochial vicar—some 56 years ago—, it was already very difficult to proclaim the faith in pluralistic schools with numerous non-believing parents and children, because it appeared to be a totally foreign and unreal world.

Today, of course, the situation is even worse. Yet, it is important in catechesis, which includes the contexts of school, parish, community, etc., that faith be expounded fully, in other words, that children truly learn what "creation" is, what the "history of salvation" brought about by God is, and who Jesus Christ is, what the sacraments are and what is the object of our hope….

I think that we must all do our utmost for a renewal of catechesis in which the courage to witness to our faith and find ways to make it understood and accepted is fundamental.

Today, religious ignorance has sunk to an abysmal level. And yet in Germany, children are given at least 10 years of catechesis, so basically, they ought to know many things.

For this reason, we should certainly reflect seriously on our possibilities of finding ways to communicate knowledge, even simply, so that the culture of faith may be present.

And now, for some remarks on "Divine Worship". The Year of the Eucharist gave us much in this regard. I can say that the Post-Synodal Exhortation is at a good point. It will certainly be a great enrichment.

In addition, we have received the Document of the Congregation for Divine Worship on the proper celebration of the Eucharist, which is very important.

I believe that subsequent to all this it will slowly become clear that the Liturgy is not a "self-manifestation" of the community through which, as people say, it makes its entrance onto the scene; rather, it is the exit of the community from merely "being-its-self", its access to the great banquet of the poor and its entry into the vast living community in which God himself nourishes us. This universal character of the Liturgy must once again penetrate the awareness of one and all.

In the Eucharist we receive something that we cannot do, but instead enter something greater that becomes our own, precisely when we give ourselves to this thing that is greater, truly seeking to celebrate the Liturgy as the Church’s Liturgy.

Furthermore, connected with this there is also the famous problem of the homily. From the purely functional viewpoint I can understand it very well: perhaps the parish priest is weary or has already preached again and again, or perhaps he is elderly and overburdened with tasks.

...

Above all, however, I think it is also important not to reduce the priest to the sacrament and to jurisdiction—in the conviction that all his other tasks could be done equally well by others—but to preserve the integrity of his office.

Moreover, the priesthood is only beautiful if the mission to be carried out is kept intact, without having bits and pieces chopped off here and there.

And the priest’s duty to connect the sacrifice with the Word, which is an integral part of the whole, has always been part of this role, even in the Old Testament.

...

The second subject I would like to talk about concerns the Sacrament of Penance, whose practice in the past 50 years or thereabouts has gradually diminished. Thanks be to God, cloisters, abbeys and shrines exist where people go on pilgrimage, where their hearts are opened and also prepared for confession.

We must truly learn this Sacrament anew. From a purely anthropological viewpoint it is important, on the one hand, to recognize sin and on the other, to practice forgiveness. The widespread absence of an awareness of sin is a disturbing phenomenon of our time.

Thus, the gift of the Sacrament of Penance not only consists in the reception of forgiveness, but also and above all in being aware of our need for forgiveness. With this Sacrament we are purified, we are inwardly transformed and subsequently able to understand others even better and to forgive them.

For the human being, the recognition of sin is elementary—he is ill if he no longer perceives it—, and the liberating experience of being granted forgiveness is equally important for him. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is the crucial place where both these things take place.

In this Sacrament, furthermore, faith becomes something completely personal; it is no longer concealed in collectivity. If man faces up to this challenge and in his need of forgiveness presents himself defenseless, as it were, before God, he then has the moving experience of a quite personal encounter with the love of Jesus Christ.

Lastly, I would like once again to focus attention on the ministry of the Bishop. Basically, we have already been talking about it implicitly all this time.

It seems to me important that Bishops, as the successors of the Apostles, on the one hand truly bear responsibility for the local Churches which the Lord has entrusted to them, ensuring that the Church as the Church of Jesus Christ grows and lives.

On the other hand, they must open the local Churches to the universal dimension. Given the difficulties the Orthodox encounter with the Autocephalous Churches as well as the problems of our Protestant friends in the face of the disintegration of the regional Churches, we realize the great significance of universality and the importance of the Church being open to totality, to become in universality a Church which is truly one.

The Church is only capable of this if she is active in her own local area. This communion must be nurtured by the Bishops together with the Successor of Peter in the spirit of a conscious succession to the College of the Apostles.

We must all strive continuously to find the right balance in this mutual relationship so that the local Church may live her authenticity, and that the universal Church may likewise be enriched by it so that both will give and receive, and thus the Lord’s Church will grow.

...

In the West it is the Church in Greece which, in spite of some occasional problems with the Latins, always says very clearly: in Europe, we can only carry out our task if we work together for the great Christian heritage. The Church in Russia is also seeing this ever more clearly and likewise, our Protestant friends are aware of this fact.

...

[Translation issued by the Holy See]

Here is the Collect of Tuesday of the 2nd Week of Advent:

COLLECT:
Deus, qui salutare tuum cunctis terrae finibus declarasti,
tribue, quaesumus,
ut nativitatis eius gloriam laetanter praesolemur.

The wonderfully apt verb praestolor, deponent (passive in form but active in meaning), is "to stand ready for, to wait for, expect a person or thing".

LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who made known Your salvation to all the ends of the earth,
grant, we entreat You,
that we may in joyful expectation await the glory of His Nativity.

God found ways through the history of salvation to make His salvation known through signs and revelation and even in the workings of the human mind.  Before the Nativity of the Lord, He showed signs to the Jews and, in the persons of the Magi, to all the nations.  There were even, perhaps, prophecies of the event among Roman writers, if some are to be believed.  Ever since, Holy Church has been announcing the Good News to the ends of the earth.  

This Collect reminds us to prepare ourselves well for the coming of the Lord as Judge, and not just as the Infant of Bethlehem.  We also, as baptized Christians, have the obligation in our words and deeds to make known the fact that the Good News of salvation has had more than a merely superficial impact on our lives.  Remember: while God gives everyone sufficient means for salvation, not all will be saved.  We can help those who must struggle with an incomplete understanding of God’s gifts to know more about His plan. 

Along with the news (posted here) that the Patriarchal Basilicas are now to be called "Papal", there was an interesting bit of news that popped out.

His Eminence Card. Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, Archpriest of the Basilica, explained that some years ago the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens had requested from the Pope an authentic relic of the body of St. Paul. 

Since the tomb had not ever been opened and there was not plan to open it, John Paul II offered to give two links of the chain which tradition says bound the Apostle.  A reliquary was prepared but the visit of the Orthodox Archbishop didn’t take place. 

It was announced that next Thursday the Archbishop of Athens will come to Rome.  A ceremony will take place during which he will be given these two links of the chain that bound St. Paul.