Warning of decisive shift away from Christian teachings: Benedict’s legacy; The ordeal awaiting us – watching all and sundry pontificating on all matters Papal and religious; Eight years: A timeline of Pope Benedict’s key moments; In pictures: From Cardinal Ratzinger to Pope Benedict XVI; Meet the men who could succeed Pope Benedict XVI; Explainer: How is a new Pope chosen?
Warning of decisive shift away from Christian teachings: Benedict’s legacy
by John Bingham, Telegraph – To his many admirers, Pope Benedict has proved to be a persuasive defender of Christian values and a voice of stability in a world where centuries-old certainties about the family, the state and faith have shifted at a dramatic rate.
To his critics however, he has been an arch-conservative who held back reform during an eight year papacy that endured its fair share of controversies.
Pope Benedict’s time in office coincided with a decisive shift away from traditional Christian teaching among many European nations, vividly illustrated by recent moves to legalise gay marriage in Britain and France and bans on crosses in the workplace and on prayers in council meetings.
It was Benedict, during his visit to Britain in 2010, who first warned of the threat of “aggressive secularism” to these traditional values, and it came to be a phrase that many others, including David Cameron, proved eager to endorse.
In the UK, Benedict will be best remembered for that historic 2010 visit, which had a galvanising effect on British Catholics, and made strides toward reconciliation between the Papacy, the Anglican Church and the British crown over differences dating back to the 1530s.
It was a process perhaps best symbolised by the moment he joined the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, in Westminster Abbey praying at the tomb of Edward the Confessor, an English king and a Catholic saint.
He also founded the Personal Ordinariate, the new branch of the Catholic Church set up for breakaway Anglicans.
While Pope Benedict was a disappointment to reformists in the Catholic Church, he was a champion of conservatives. He reintroduced the once-defunct Latin Mass and fiercely opposed gay marriage, abortion and euthanasia…
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To Prof Diarmaid Macculloch of Oxford University, one of Britain’s foremost authorities on Church history, Benedict XVI had appeared increasingly uncomfortable with the rapid liberal shift in western society which he said was the legacy of the Enlightenment.
“He couldn’t cope with the sort of reforms which the protestant churches have been able to cope with,” he said.
More at – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/9863749/Pope-Benedict-XVI-resigns-the-pontiffs-legacy.html
The ordeal awaiting us – watching all and sundry pontificating on all matters Papal and religious
By Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith, Catholic Herald — The Pope announced his intention on laying down his burden on 11th February, World Day of the Sick, feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The see of Peter will fall vacant at 8pm on Thursday 28th February.
The Conclave will meet in mid-March, and if the modern trend continues, we may well have a Pope the next day – maybe 17th March will be the day. Thus so far the timetable is shaping up.
Naturally there were good reasons for the Pope to announce his resignation in advance. It gives people time to prepare, and it gives the Pope time to prepare for his departure from the Papal Apartment. It also means that the Cardinals, who must elect his successor, have an added two weeks to think, reflect and pray – or as some people would love to put it, to jockey for position, to intrigue and to campaign. And there lies the disadvantage of these two weeks and a few days: the media coverage, which abhors a vacuum, will do its best to fill this space.
This represents both a challenge and an opportunity for Catholics.
The challenge will be in having to watch the airwaves fill with a whole load of people who are very marginal to Church life, and yet who will be invited to pontificate on all matters Papal and religious, giving it their own particular slant, which they will advance as a mainstream view. I haven’t yet seen Hans Küng grace our screens, but he is just the sort of person I mean: a man whose theology is greatly at variance with what Catholics believe, and yet who will perhaps pop up as a Catholic expert. And yet we all, in a funny way, like Professor Küng, and we have grown used to him over the years. The milk of human kindness may however turn sour at the sight of the lawyer who was interviewed on Newsnight last night, a man who has apparently written a book about the Pope, and who seemed to promise, with his reference to General Pinochet, that the Pope could expect to be harassed in retirement by lawyers like himself wanting his arrest on unspecified charges. Whereas Professor Küng is a theological critic of the Pope, as is his right, this lawyer seems to be a professional Pope-hater, which is rather different. I fear we may see more of that… More at –
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2013/02/12/the-ordeal-awaiting-us-watching-all-and-sundry-pontificating-on-all-matters-papal-and-religious/
Eight years: A timeline of Pope Benedict’s key moments
The highlights of Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy, from 2005 to today.
http://www.thejournal.ie/pope-timeline-papacy-790929-Feb2013/
In pictures: From Cardinal Ratzinger to Pope Benedict XVI
The life and times of the 265th Pope.
http://www.thejournal.ie/pope-benedict-resigns-pictures-791048-Feb2013/
Meet the men who could succeed Pope Benedict XVI
17 would-be contenders in the race for the papal office.
http://www.thejournal.ie/who-will-be-new-pope-791314-Feb2013/
Explainer: How is a new Pope chosen?
There are currently 209 members of the College of Cardinals – but only 118 of them get a vote in choosing the new pontiff.
http://www.thejournal.ie/explainer-how-pope-chosen-791102-Feb2013/