Summary of FACTS about the controversial new book by BOTH Card. Sarah and Benedict XVI

Edward Pentin has posted at the National Catholic Register a summary of the FACTS surrounding the controversial new book from Card. Sarah and Pope Benedict XVI.

HERE

As you know, as soon as the book was announced the attacks began to pour in from the liberal left.  Insinuations were made that Benedict was being used, that Sarah lied, that Benedict is too weak to write anything, that they were attacking Francis, etc. etc.

As it turns out none of those things were true.  Of course.  Nevertheless, damage was done.  That’s how the left, especially the more papalotrous of “Team Francis”, roll.  Unhindered by the speed bumps called FACTS they careened forward in a mad race to smash this book – and the authors – before it could get traction due to its substance.  They astutely engineered a process story to undercut what they suspected would be the actual substance of the text between the book’s covers.

Do read Pentin’s piece and ponder the ramifications.   It’s pretty clear that the claims made by the attackers were false.  More than one person has been thrown under the bus.  Who did the throwing and why?

Meanwhile, if you haven’t already, order a few copies.   First, huge sales a great way to irritate the loony left.  Second, irritate them even more by making sure I get credit for the sales.  Third,  – and this is the overarching reason – there is gold for priests in the pages.

I’ve now read it.

As you read it you can sense that it truly is…

From The Depths Of Our Hearts

US Pre-Order Soon HERE for 12 March 2020 release! – FRENCH HERE

Here is another taste, taken from the section by Card. Sarah.

Context: Card. Sarah includes in his own offering some personal anecdotes, what it was like to be a young priest in Africa, visiting villages where priests hadn’t been able to visit for year, how the people received him.  He relates the conversion of his father and grandmother and what the impact on the people was the presence of the celibate priest.  He remarks about the entirely different impact the priest would have made had he been married and then laments even the desire to take away the profound experience of the people in meeting “another Christ” who is entirely handed over.   It is poignant text.  Then, in my fast translation from French…

The priesthood is a gift that one receives as the Incarnation of the Word is received. It is neither a right nor an obligation. A community that would be formed in the ideal of a “right to the Eucharist” would no longer be a disciple of Christ. As its name indicates, the Eucharist is an act of thanksgiving [Fr action de grâce], a gratuitous gift, a merciful present. One receives the Eucharistic presence with wonder and joy as an unmerited gift. The believer who claims it as due to him demonstrates that he is not capable of understanding it.

I am convinced that the Christian communities of the Amazon do not themselves go along with the reasoning of demanding the Eucharist. Instead, I believe that these topics are the obsessions whose source is found in the milieus of university theology departments. We are dealing with ideologies developed by a few theologians who, like the sorcerer’s apprentice, wish to utilize the distress of poor peoples as an experimental laboratory for their clever plans. I cannot allow myself to let them act freely in silence. I want to take up defense of the poor, the lowly, of these people who are “without a voice”. Let us not deprive them of the fullness of the priesthood. Let us not deprive them of the true meaning of the Eucharist. We cannot “trifle/tamper with [Fr trafiquer] the Catholic doctrine of the priesthood and celibacy the light of perceived or supposed needs of certain extreme pastoral situations”, as Marc Cardinal Ouellet recently remarked.

I don’t have an English copy of what Card Ouellet said, so I did my best with that difficult word “trafiquer”.

However, I think you can see that Card. Sarah is not holding back.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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8 Comments

  1. Amerikaner says:

    Antonio Socci says all this started with Pope Francis…
    https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2020/01/socci-backstory-here-is-what-went-on.html

  2. Cy says:

    Fact: BXVI still giving Apostolic Blessings.

  3. Kirk says:

    I ordered my copy through you link. I hope that is all I had to do to get you credit.

  4. NancyA says:

    I purchased a copy for myself and one for a true priest I know. We need to keep filling ourselves with good, honest and courageous things so that we can defend God to the last.

  5. I like the excerpt from the book quoted above as being spot on. The Amazon Synod proved that liberals may love humanity in general, but have no use for particular human beings except as far as they serve their purposes for the moment. Real, flesh-and-blood human beings, like the Amazonians paraded at the synod, are of no value to liberals except as raw material for their social engineering experiments.

  6. Fr. Kelly says:

    With all the cries that the Pope Emeritus should remain silent as he “promised’ he would, I can’t help remembering their transparent effort to knavishly claim his support for some “theological” pamphlets praising Pope Francis a couple of years ago. They didn’t want him silent then.
    And Edward Pentin was the one who got the truth out then too.

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  7. samwise says:

    Didn’t BXVI (or Ganshwein) throw Sarah under the bus by asking for his name removed as coauthor?

  8. Pingback: THVRSDAY EDITION – Big Pulpit

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