Looking Back at Pope Benedict XVI's Year

Overall, the Holy Father will probably look upon the year that's passing as a successful one, despite the odd frustration and slip up. But this Pope is not afraid to make mistakes and is well aware of his imperfections.

Professor Vincent Twomey, a former student of Joseph Ratzinger, wrote in his book: Pope Benedict XVI - The Conscience of Our Age:

"...this is one of the keys to Ratzinger's character (and also to his theology; in particular his theology of politics): his acceptance that everything we do is imperfect, that all knowledge is limited, no matter how brilliant or well read one may be...Ratzinger knows in his heart and soul that God alone is perfect and that all human attempts at perfection (such as political utopias) end in disaster."

My round up of his year can be found here.

Discussing Faith in Britain with Roger Scruton

Zenit has published my interview with the English philosopher Roger Scruton. I reproduce it below.

Scruton is sadly a rarity in my homeland: an academic who is a committed Christian and a conservative - atrributes which led to him being marginalized as a professor. But he hasn't been a university lecturer for 20 years and says he prefers writing and speaking. He says his views are more widely heard now than they were as an academic.

The Loss of Beauty

...One of the conference speakers was the renowned Anglo-American philosopher, writer and composer, Roger Scruton. After his address, I sat down with him to talk about his speech and the state of religion in the West, particularly in Britain.

The essence of Scruton's talk was how, until relatively recently, artistic creation of beauty was about giving glory to God, but now is often about desecrating the human form. He explored the reasons why.

"Artists in the post enlightenment period tried hard to hold on to the idea of beauty precisely to compensate for the loss of their faith," he explains. Musicians such as Wagner, he adds, saw it as "the unique vestige of the sacred in our world," and modernism tried to reconnect with the sacred through art created by writers and musicians such as Eliot, Messiaen, and Brittan.

"Then suddenly in our time, since the 1960s and all the rest, we have a new kind of art which is repudiating beauty and putting ugliness in its place," Scruton explains. "I'd say it's an 'art of desecration' which looks not to desecrate beauty, but to desecrate the human form."

He refers to "the examples of the usual young British art types" such as Damian Hirst, and in particular the conceptual artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, two brothers whose work Scruton describes as "particularly repulsive."

"So I asked myself: What does this mean? Why should people want to desecrate the human form and the ordinary ideals of human life? And I say, you only desecrate what is sacred. Only something sacred can be desecrated. So there's this cry from the heart here for the religious meaning of things. It's showing the yearning for God and the sense that these things make no sense without him."

He adds that we have "lost all that idea that beauty is something we create together by way of embellishing our world."

In the past, Scruton has pointed to the difficulties of proving "the truth of religious sentiments." He is well aware of the challenges, having debated the well-known atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens in the past. So how can Christians find a better way of communicating the truth of the faith in the world today?

"Intelligent people don't see a problem in seeing that there can be truths which lie beyond the reach of scientific argument and there can be truths whose content was only revealed through a way of living – that's the task of theology and philosophy, to make that clear," he says. "But ordinary people don't see religion in that way. For them it's a matter of basic certainties. Certainties are very hard to rediscover once they've been lost."

I ask how the faith could be brought back to Britain which appears to be in desperate need of a return to its Christian roots. Just this week a survey revealed that only half of Britons now consider themselves Christian after a "sharp decline" in religious belief over the past quarter of a century. "To re-evangelize the English, you'd need a new Augustine [of Canterbury]," Scruton replies. But he warns that if the Christian faith has vanished completely from Britain, then that leaves a vacuum into which another faith will flow.

"The Christian faith might flow back but then it's in competition with all the other things that might flow in: the New Age type religions, Hinduism, and Buddhism. There may be a complete fragmentation as under the late Roman Empire: before Christianity took over, there were thousands of little cults. But, of course, Islam will then have a big following because it will be the only thing that establishes a unity."

I put it to him that perhaps the Pope's expected visit to Britain next year, the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman and the new provisions for disaffected Anglicans point to some urgency toward the re-evangelization of the country. "Yes, that might be a possibility," he says, adding that a general election is also expected in 2010. "Maybe we'll see a wholesale conversion of the English to their faith."

We then turned to today's prominent atheists and the best way to debate them. "You've got to have the right people up against them," he says. "You need people who are stronger and wittier than they are in an argument. You have to get the right audience as well."

He says he doesn't mind debating people like Dawkins and Hitchens. "The problem is what I have to say doesn't directly confront what they have to say," he says. "There's nothing in what Dawkins says that I can actually disagree with -- it's just that it leaves out half of life. He talks perfectly reasonably about the explanation of human life, but not about its meaning."

Although an Anglican, the philosopher is particularly sympathetic to Benedict XVI's stand against what Scruton calls the vandalism of the liturgy and the musical traditions of the Church. "That resonates with me," he says. "I've felt it was so unnecessary giving way to temporary fashions which have now disappeared. But now the Church has to work to rediscover what it could have had without working for it."

John Paul II to be Declared Venerable on Saturday?

If reports in the Italian press are correct, Pope Benedict XVI is to sign a decree on Saturday proclaiming John Paul II 'Venerable' - the penultimate stage to beatification.

Last month, the Vatican voted unanimously in favour of John Paul II having shown 'heroic' virtue'. Once the decree is signed, the Vatican and the Pope need to approve a miracle attributed to his intercession.

One often hears remarkable stories about John Paul II from colleagues in the Vatican press corps. Speaking to one journalist this week, he recounted to me how the late Pope fell and broke his arm when meeting a head of state in the apostolic palace. But instead of ending the meeting, he went on, shaking the hands of everyone despite being in obvious pain.

On a trip to India, all the papal party including the Pope came down with a bout of illness. They all slunk off to their sick beds, he said, but John Paul carried on despite being in obvious discomfort.

John Paul would also happily break with convention and go and greet people. He once sat down with a group of African children in his white cassock and got thoroughly dirty. "The Vatican protocol officials hated him for this!" said the journalist who had followed him for 15 years. "But he would do whatever he thought was right."

He also stressed that when John Paul II died, "he had nothing - absolutely no possessions." He had given everything away.

World Day of Peace Message 2010

Below are extracts of Pope Benedict XVI's Message for the World Day of Peace which takes place on January 1st. Its theme this year is “If You Want To Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation."

Man's inhumanity to man has given rise to numerous threats to peace and to authentic and integral human development - wars, international and regional conflicts, acts of terrorism, and violations of human rights. Yet no less troubling are the threats arising from the neglect - if not downright misuse - of the earth and the natural goods that God has given us. For this reason, it is imperative that mankind renew and strengthen "that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying".

In 1990 John Paul II had spoken of an "ecological crisis" and ... pointed to the "urgent moral need for a new solidarity". His appeal is all the more pressing today, in the face of signs of a growing crisis which it would be irresponsible not to take seriously. Can we remain indifferent before the problems associated with such realities as climate change, desertification, the deterioration and loss of productivity in vast agricultural areas, the pollution of rivers and aquifers, the loss of biodiversity, the increase of natural catastrophes and the deforestation of equatorial and tropical regions? Can we disregard the growing phenomenon of "environmental refugees", people who are forced by the degradation of their natural habitat to forsake it - and often their possessions as well - in order to face the dangers and uncertainties of forced displacement? Can we remain impassive in the face of actual and potential conflicts involving access to natural resources? All these are issues with a profound impact on the exercise of human rights, such as the right to life, food, health and development.

The ecological crisis cannot be viewed in isolation from ... the notion of development itself and our understanding of man in his relationship to others and to the rest of creation. Prudence would thus dictate a profound, long-term review of our model of development, one which would take into consideration the meaning of the economy and its goals with an eye to correcting its malfunctions and misapplications. The ecological health of the planet calls for this, but it is also demanded by the cultural and moral crisis of humanity whose symptoms have for some time been evident in every part of the world.

Our present crises ... are ultimately also moral crises, and all of them are interrelated. They require us to rethink the path which we are travelling together. Specifically, they call for a lifestyle marked by sobriety and solidarity, with new rules and forms of engagement, one which focuses confidently and courageously on strategies that actually work, while decisively rejecting those that have failed. Only in this way can the current crisis become an opportunity for discernment and new strategic planning.

Environmental degradation is often due to the lack of far-sighted official policies or to the pursuit of myopic economic interests, which then, tragically, become a serious threat to creation. ... When making use of natural resources, we should be concerned for their protection and consider the cost entailed - environmentally and socially - as an essential part of the overall expenses incurred. The international community and national governments are responsible for sending the right signals in order to combat effectively the misuse of the environment. To protect the environment, and to safeguard natural resources and the climate, there is a need to act in accordance with clearly-defined rules, also from the juridical and economic standpoint, while at the same time taking into due account the solidarity we owe to those living in the poorer areas of our world and to future generations.

A greater sense of inter-generational solidarity is urgently needed. ... Natural resources should be used in such a way that immediate benefits do not have a negative impact on living creatures, human and not, present and future; that the protection of private property does not conflict with the universal destination of goods; that human activity does not compromise the fruitfulness of the earth, for the benefit of people now and in the future.

There is an urgent moral need for a renewed sense of intra-generational solidarity, especially in relationships between developing countries and highly-industrialised countries. ... The ecological crisis shows the urgency of a solidarity which embraces time and space. It is important to acknowledge that among the causes of the present ecological crisis is the historical responsibility of the industrialised countries. Yet the less-developed countries, and emerging countries in particular, are not exempt from their own responsibilities with regard to creation, for the duty of gradually adopting effective environmental measures and policies is incumbent upon all. This would be accomplished more easily if self-interest played a lesser role in the granting of aid and the sharing of knowledge and cleaner technologies.

To be sure, among the basic problems which the international community has to address is that of energy resources and the development of joint and sustainable strategies to satisfy the energy needs of the present and future generations. This means that technologically advanced societies must be prepared to encourage more sober lifestyles, while reducing their energy consumption and improving its efficiency. At the same time there is a need to encourage research into, and utilisation of, forms of energy with lower impact on the environment and "a worldwide redistribution of energy resources, so that countries lacking those resources can have access to them".

A sustainable comprehensive management of the environment and the resources of the planet demands that human intelligence be directed to technological and scientific research and its practical applications. The "new solidarity" for which John Paul II called ... and the "global solidarity" for which I myself appealed in my Message for the 2009 World Day of Peace are essential attitudes in shaping our efforts to protect creation through a better internationally-coordinated management of the earth's resources, particularly today, when there is an increasingly clear link between combating environmental degradation and promoting integral human development.

There is a need, in effect, to move beyond a purely consumerist mentality in order to promote forms of agricultural and industrial production capable of respecting creation and satisfying the primary needs of all. The ecological problem must be dealt with not only because of the chilling prospects of environmental degradation on the horizon; the real motivation must be the quest for authentic worldwide solidarity inspired by the values of charity, justice and the common good.

It is becoming more and more evident that the issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our lifestyle and the prevailing models of consumption and production, which are often unsustainable from a social, environmental and even economic point of view. ... We are all responsible for the protection and care of the environment. This responsibility knows no boundaries. In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity it is important for everyone to be committed at his or her proper level, working to overcome the prevalence of particular interests. A special role in raising awareness and in formation belongs to the different groups present in civil society and to the non-governmental organisations which work with determination and generosity for the spread of ecological responsibility, responsibility which should be ever more deeply anchored in respect for "human ecology".

The Church has a responsibility towards creation, and she considers it her duty to exercise that responsibility in public life, in order to protect earth, water and air as gifts of God the Creator meant for everyone, and above all to save mankind from the danger of self-destruction. ... Our duties towards the environment flow from our duties towards the person, considered both individually and in relation to others. Hence I readily encourage efforts to promote a greater sense of ecological responsibility which, as I indicated in my Encyclical "Caritas in Veritate", would safeguard an authentic "human ecology" and thus forcefully reaffirm the inviolability of human life at every stage and in every condition, the dignity of the person and the unique mission of the family, where one is trained in love of neighbour and respect for nature.

On the other hand, a correct understanding of the relationship between man and the environment will not end by absolutising nature or by considering it more important than the human person. If the Church's Magisterium expresses grave misgivings about notions of the environment inspired by eco-centrism and bio-centrism, it is because such notions eliminate the difference of identity and worth between the human person and other living things. In the name of a supposedly egalitarian vision of the "dignity" of all living creatures, such notions end up abolishing the distinctiveness and superior role of human beings. They also open the way to a new pantheism tinged with neo-paganism, which would see the source of man's salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms.

If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation. The quest for peace by people of good will surely would become easier if all acknowledge the indivisible relationship between God, human beings and the whole of creation. In the light of divine Revelation and in fidelity to the Church's Tradition, Christians have their own contribution to make. They contemplate the cosmos and its marvels in light of the creative work of the Father and the redemptive work of Christ, who by His death and resurrection has reconciled with God "all things, whether on earth or in heaven".

Pope's UK Visit Taking Shape

Preparations are continuing for Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain in 2010, although an official announcement is not expected until well into the new year.

Last week, U.K. government officials were at the Vatican to discuss the Pope’s travel plans while their Vatican counterparts have been in Britain also making preparations.

A senior source at the Vatican told me that a four day visit looks likely in mid September next year with the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman being the “lynchpin” of the trip.

The Holy Father is expected to make at least two keynote addresses in England: one to politicians and diplomats which may take place in Westminster Hall, the place where St. Thomas More was condemned. The other will be to academics at the University of Oxford. He is also expected to make addresses to clergy and religious, and possibly meet ecumenical and interreligious leaders and young people.

He will then travel to Birmingham for Cardinal Newman’s beatification although it’s not yet clear if he will preside over the ceremony. Usually, beatifications are carried out by the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints but the Pope, a long admirer of the 19th century theologian, is reportedly expected to waive that rule and beatify him himself. After the ceremony, the Holy Father will then travel up to Scotland.

The senior official denied speculation that the visit will be downgraded from a state visit because of tensions with the Anglican Communion over the Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans. To know better how the Pope will be honoured, he advised looking at Benedict XVI’s visit to Paris last September.

Photo: Pope Benedict XVI meeting the Prime Minister of Montenegro today.

Vatican Statement on Irish Child Abuse Scandal

The Vatican has issued a much anticipated statement on the child abuse scandal in the Irish Church following publication of the Murphy Report on the Archdiocese of Dublin.

The communique reads:

"Today the Holy Father held a meeting with senior Irish Bishops and high-ranking members of the Roman Curia. He listened to their concerns and discussed with them the traumatic events that were presented in the Irish Commission of Investigation’s Report into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.

After careful study of the Report, the Holy Father was deeply disturbed and distressed by its contents. He wishes once more to express his profound regret at the actions of some members of the clergy who have betrayed their solemn promises to God, as well as the trust placed in them by the victims and their families, and by society at large.

The Holy Father shares the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland, and he is united with them in prayer at this difficult time in the life of the Church.

His Holiness asks Catholics in Ireland and throughout the world to join him in praying for the victims, their families and all those affected by these heinous crimes.

He assures all concerned that the Church will continue to follow this grave matter with the closest attention in order to understand better how these shameful events came to pass and how best to develop effective and secure strategies to prevent any recurrence.

The Holy See takes very seriously the central issues raised by the Report, including questions concerning the governance of local Church leaders with ultimate responsibility for the pastoral care of children.

The Holy Father intends to address a Pastoral Letter to the faithful of Ireland in which he will clearly indicate the initiatives that are to be taken in response to the situation.

Finally, His Holiness encourages all those who have dedicated their lives in generous service to children to persevere in their good works in imitation of Christ the Good Shepherd."

The independent report was commissioned by the Irish government to investigate the way in which the Church dealt with allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests in Dublin over the period 1975 to 2004. It concluded that "the Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The Archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the State".

Obviously a dreadful story which has done immense damage to the Church. It also does no good to skate over this and pretend it never happened.

The Holy Father has handled this very well, taking his time to read the report before responding, and holding this 'summit meeting' at the Vatican. John Paul II did the same in 2002 soon after the US clerical abuse scandal broke.

Diplomatic Ties with Vietnam?

The Holy Father meets Vietnamese president Nguyen Minh Triet on Friday amid speculation that the communist country may agree to establish diplomatic relations with the Holy See.

In an interview this week with Corriere della Sera, the president expressed a wish to establish formal ties, saying that his country was "working to open diplomatic relations with the Vatican."

If such a development happens, it could give hope to Catholics in communist China who continue to suffer from tight restrictions on freedom of worship.

Earlier this year, the Pope expressed hope for a "healthy" relationship between the Church and Vietnam's communist government, which confiscated Church property after taking power from the French in 1945.

Benedict XVI has made it a priority of his pontificate to build diplomatic relations with those countries without established ties with the Holy See, most importantly, China, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia.

Vietnam's 6 million Roman Catholics are the second largest Catholic-community in Asia.

Photo: Nguyen Minh Triet

Benedict XVI and Pollution of the Media

"There is another pollution, less perceptible to the senses, but just as dangerous. It is the pollution of the spirit; it is that which renders our faces less smiling, more gloomy, which leads us not to greet one another, to not look at one another in the face. [...] Persons become bodies, and these bodies lose the soul, become things, objects without a face, to be exchanged and consumed."
- - - -
In today's media, "evil is recounted, repeated, amplified, accustoming us to the most horrible things, making us become insensitive and, in some way, intoxicating us, because the negative is not fully disposed of and accumulates day after day."

Pope Benedict XVI speaking on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception at the Spanish Steps - a beautiful address, relevant as always to our times.

His comments cannot but resonate with anyone working in the media. It's steady focus on bad news is more harmful than perhaps many people realise, but I can't see editors changing. "If it bleeds, it leads" is generally their rule of thumb and they take their lead, of course, from media consumers. The Pope's real focus, however, was on life in cities, and the Holy Father does go on to point out how the media draws attention to the poor, marginalised and exploited, even if it is "without pity or with false pity."

For a full reading of the address, see Asia News.

Ali Agca to be Released

Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish mercenary who tried to assassinate John Paul II in 1981, will soon be free and plans to publish his memoirs.

For more on this, see here.

Unfortunately, Agca is dismissed by many as unbalanced and unreliable and so his testimony is generally ignored. But amid the crazy pronouncements he's made, perhaps there are some glimpses of truth yet to be revealed.

Photo: Pope John Paul II speaks with Mehmet Ali Agca in Agca's prison cell in Rome on Dec. 27, 1983. (AP Photo/Arturo Mari)

Cosmology in Rome

One of the joys of writing on the Church in Rome is that almost every important subject known to mankind forms part of everyday life. It makes living in this great city immensely stimulating, even if discussion on these issues isn't perhaps as lively as it would be in somewhere like Oxford.

Last week, the Pontifical Lateran University held a conference on Galileo and cosmology. Interesting in itself, speakers also touched on entropy - the theory that the universe is possibly heading towards 'heat death' and possibly leading to a second Big Bang.

For an article in Zenit on the conference, I report on what the latest is on the theory according to Prof. George F. Smoot, an American Nobel Prize winner for Physics who addressed the conference last week. Here's the relevant excerpt:

As an interesting aside, Professor Smoot had said in his talk that the universe is "extremely ordered" and appears to be becoming even more ordered.

This prompted a member of the audience to question the professor's observation, asking whether, as is commonly thought, the universe is expanding and cooling to a uniform temperature and therefore becoming more disordered, a process known in thermodynamics as increasing entropy.

The logical conclusion is that, if this is so, then the universe is heading toward eventual death, or what astrophysicists call "heat death" whereby all the energy of the cosmos ends up as a homogeneous distribution of thermal energy, so that no more work can be extracted from any source.

Professor Smoot replied first of all by saying that the very early part of the universe had low entropy. He then continued: "Entropy is greatest where there are black holes, and our present understanding is that most of the entropy of the universe is in large black holes.

"Specific entropy is still quite low, and although the universe started extremely ordered, it has gotten less ordered. Even though it looks more ordered, if you look at how galaxies and dark matter is distributed, it is actually more disordered than the almost uniform distribution it had to start with.

"This disorder is increasing, and one of the major arguments today is whether this entropy will keep increasing forever, or whether at some time that information is lost and erased and you get a new Big Bang.

"That's one of the interesting questions in cosmology now: that even though it appears we're getting more ordered, we're not."

Professor Smoot doesn't break new ground with what he says, but fascinating all the same.