The Catholic Spirit - February 9, 2023

PAGETWO

CATASTROPHIC EARTHQUAKE People stand in front of collapsed buildings following an earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, Feb. 6. The powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake, followed by aftershocks, rocked areas of southeast Turkey and northern, war-torn Syria, killing thousands of people and toppling thousands of buildings.

The EWTN Global Catholic Network aired an episode Feb. 7 and Feb. 8 recorded in the Twin Cities and Atlanta, featuring the work of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul “Heirlooms and Home Visits” showed SVdP volunteers involved in traditional home visits and a ministry unique to St. Vincent de Paul-Twin Cities: religious articles.

Thousands of Bibles, rosaries, statues, pictures and other items are collected, sorted and sent to convents, missions and schools around the world. The episode is part of the series “Our Faith in Action: Today’s Society of St. Vincent de Paul,” which follows members and volunteers on their journey of spiritual growth through service to those in need. The final five episodes were to air Feb. 6-10 at 4:30 p.m. on EWTN.

West St. Paul-based NET Ministries named Tom Ryan president of its new foundation. Ryan previously worked at NET Ministries as director of development, but most recently served as vice president for institutional advancement for The St. Paul Seminary, where he has worked for 17 years. David Rinaldi was named NET’s new president Jan. 4. NET Ministries is a national Catholic nonprofit that uses relational ministry to challenge young Catholics to follow Christ and embrace a life of community in the Church. It offers training in youth evangelization, leads about 1,000 retreats each year and creates parish and school training resources for adults and teaching resources for teens. NET is implementing a six-year strategic plan to impact 1 million young Catholics in the next six years with expanded programming, additional missionaries, enhanced parish resources, focused leadership training and a greater focus on Latino youth.

The Ministries Foundation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Paul announced the election of two members to its board of directors: Kevin Berg and Father Larry Snyder. Berg is a graduate of St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights and has served as a board member with the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities since 1997. He is a member of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce special committees on workforce development and diversity, equity and inclusion and is a past board member of Neighborhood House in St. Paul. Berg was president of Sysco Asian Foods from 2007-2019. Father Snyder, a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, served for years in parish ministry, and also as president and chief executive officer of Catholic Charities USA from 2005 to 2015. Father Snyder was vice president for mission at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul from 2015 until his retirement in July 2021.

The Care for Creation Team serving the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis is promoting the film “The Letter,” which offers a unique look into Pope Francis’ consultation process for his 2015 encyclical on faith and the environment, “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home.” The film highlights the journey of four people who receive letters from the pope seeking insights into climate change impacts on their communities. With 6:30 p.m. showings at each site, Pax Christi in Eden Prairie plans to show the film March 1, St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis March 27 and St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake April 28. People can watch the film as individuals or sign up to host larger group showings at theletterfilm org

Sts. Joachim and Anne in Shakopee will be celebrating the 40th anniversary — and its last year — of performing “The Passion of Jesus in Music, World and Light” March 22-25. The March 24 performance will be in Spanish; the others will be in English. Each 90-minute show at the parish’s St. Mark campus will begin with music at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The performance depicts the final days of Jesus’ life on earth, from Palm Sunday to the Last Supper, his crucifixion and his resurrection. More information can be found at ShakoPeePaSSionPlay org

BLACK HISTORY MONTH Bishop Jacques Fabre-Jeune of Charleston, S.C., arrives Feb. 5 to celebrate the Archdiocese of New York’s annual Black History Month Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

PRACTICING Catholic

The

the National Day of Prayer for the African American and African Family, an annual observance founded by Franciscan Father James Goode, former president of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus who died in 2022 at age 81. The Mass was dedicated to his memory.

ON THE COVER Archbishop Samir Nassar of Damascus talks to fourth graders at St. John Paul II Catholic School in Minneapolis about his native Syria during a visit to the school Jan. 30. He came to the Twin Cities to promote the partnership between the Maronite Archeparchy of Damascus and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

DAVE HRBACEK | THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

BEGINS FEB. 22, ASH WEDNESDAY

On the Feb. 3 “Practicing Catholic” radio show, host Patrick Conley interviews Bishop-elect Michael Izen, who describes his call to the priesthood and preparation for his episcopal ordination and installation April 11 as the archdiocese’s new auxiliary bishop. Also featured are nurse Dianne Johnson of the health care Curatio Apostolate, and Father Andrew Jaspers, of Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights, who discuss Curatio and the World Day of the Sick Mass Feb. 11 at Transfiguration in Oakdale. A reprised interview features Joe Pribyl, a Minnesota-based licensed marriage and family therapist, who describes Valentine’s Day as an opportunity for couples to focus on their relationship. Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingcatholicShow com or with links to streaming platforms at anchor fm/Practicing-catholic-Show

OSV NEWS | GREGORY SHEMITZ

liturgy also marked

Future doctor of the Church? Benedict XVI scholars say German

By Maria Wiering OSV News

Beginning well before he was elected pope in 2005, Pope Benedict XVI made substantial contributions to theology and Catholic thought through his prolific writing, academic lectures and long-form interviews, say scholars who study his work.

In the wake of his Dec. 31 death, Pope Benedict has been heralded as one of the most important theologians of the 20th century, one whose scholarship will stand the test of time.

Pope Benedict was “very intellectually gifted,” said Tracey Rowland, a theologian at The University of Notre Dame Australia and author of “Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI,” published in 2008 by Oxford University Press.

“He was a great gift to the Church, and I think in the future, he will be a doctor of the Church,” she said. “In a hundred years’ time, he will be seen to have laid the foundation for a theological renewal.”

Even before he attended the University of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger was well educated in the classics — the literature of ancient Greece and Rome — and had studied Greek, Latin and Hebrew.

“He comes out of that German intellectual tradition, and that was the most demanding scholarship in the world,” Rowland said. “What you ended up with was this man who was really atop the whole grip of the Western intellectual tradition.”

Ratzinger wrote his 1953 dissertation on St. Augustine of Hippo. And he wrote a second dissertation-level work, qualifying him to teach at a university, on St. Bonaventure. Both doctors of the Church were major influences in his thought, Rowland said: St. Augustine shaped his view of ecclesiology and the relationship between love and reason, and St. Bonaventure shaped his understanding of revelation.

Then-Father Ratzinger taught dogma and fundamental theology at four German universities: Bonn (1959-1969),

Münster (1963-1966), Tübingen (1966-1969) and Regensburg (1969-1977). At Regensburg, he also later served as dean and vice-rector until his 1977 appointment as archbishop of Munich and Freising.

Father Emery de Gaál, chairman and professor of dogmatic theology at University of St. Mary of the Lake/ Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois, described Pope Benedict as a scholar who surrendered his whole life to academic work. He authored “no less than 1,600 theological titles, books, articles, essays, book reviews,” Father de Gaál said. Among those works is the 1968 book “Introduction to Christianity,” which has been widely translated and called a “masterpiece.” He also oversaw the compilation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992, under Pope St. John Paul II.

“He stands in a singular position as a theologian pope. No pope has written that much, and so much in an original and decisive way,” Father de Gaál said. “To see a pope with comparable theological acumen, we would have to go back to Gregory the Great in the sixth century, or Leo the Great (in the fifth century). And, of course, they didn’t write that much.”

During the Second Vatican Council, the future pope served as a theological adviser and was among the theologians considered to be “reformers.” He was a contributor to, and editorial board member of, “Concilium,” a theological journal launched in 1965 by Vatican II standouts, including Karl Rahner, Edward Schillebeeckx and Hans Küng. However, in 1972, Father Ratzinger helped to found the competing journal “Communio” with Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac. Some observers say his theology pivoted from “progressive” to “conservative” around 1968, as cultural upheaval overtook European university campuses due to the Vietnam War, sexual revolution, rise of Marxism and attacks on the Western intellectual tradition.

However, other scholars disagree, arguing that Pope Benedict’s scholarship is theologically consistent. Rowland said the “tsunami in the 1960s” didn’t shock the priestprofessor, but he rejected the stance some Church leaders took to “adopt the spirit of the times and try to market

Christianity” to it. Instead, Ratzinger argued that the Church was not a “haberdashery shop,” where the windows change with the fashion, she said.

“At the Second Vatican Council, he was part of the reform group, but he was never … theologically liberal,” she said. “He was in favor of reform because he wasn’t in favor of 16th-century Baroque scholasticism. He was more patristic, more Augustinian. What happened in the late 1960s and the early 1970s is that there was a split among

Pope Francis: Benedict XVI ‘did theology on his knees’

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

The theological writings and papal teaching of the late Pope Benedict XVI were, and will continue to be, a blessing to the Catholic Church, Pope Francis wrote.

“Benedict XVI’s thought and magisterium are and always will remain fruitful because he knew how to focus on the fundamental references of our Christian life: first of all, the person and the word of Jesus Christ, as well as the theological virtues, namely charity, hope and faith,” the pope wrote in the introduction to a new book.

The Vatican publishing house described the book “Dio è Sempre Nuovo,” (“God is Ever New”), as a collection of the “spiritual thoughts” of the late pope, “an anthology of the principal themes of the Christian faith in the words of Pope Benedict XVI.”

The book was edited by Luca Caruso, communications officer for the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, and was released in January. The Vatican published Pope Francis’ introduction Jan. 4.

Pope Francis’ highest praise for theologians always has been that they “do theology on their knees” in prayer and with love for the Church.

“Benedict XVI did theology on his knees,” the pope wrote in the book’s introduction. “His explanation of the faith was carried out with the devotion of a man who has surrendered all of himself to God and who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, sought an ever-greater participation in the mystery of that Jesus who had fascinated him from his youth.”

The new book’s title, Pope Francis said, “expresses one of the most characteristic aspects of my predecessor’s magisterium and vision of faith: yes, God is always new because he is the source and reason for beauty, grace and truth.”

“God is never repetitive, God surprises us, God brings newness,” the pope wrote, and the “spiritual freshness” of the late pope’s writings confirms those affirmations “with intensity.”

Pope Benedict, he said, offered all Christians a model showing how “heart and reason, thought and affection, rationality and

emotion interact” in both living and explaining the power of the Gospel.

The selected quotations, Pope Francis said, offer “a sort of ‘spiritual synthesis’ of Benedict XVI’s writings,” and demonstrates “his ability to show the depth of the Christian faith ever anew.”

Quoting just six words of the late pope — “God is an event of love” — is enough to do “full justice to a theology that always shows the harmony between reason and affection,” the pope said.

EVANGELIZERS: BENEDICT

Catholic evangelizers are recalling the profound Church’s mission of evangelization — a legacy share the Gospel.

“A personal relationship with Jesus — he of “Forming Intentional Disciples” and executive Catherine of Siena Institute, which provides evangelization.

“Before we can go out and proclaim God, knew this was key to evangelize,” said Curtis outreach that serves college and university

In an email to OSV News, Martin noted Pope initiatives of Pope St. John Paul II, seeking once thrived, but had declined.”

Martin said he was honored to have been more than 30 years,” as a consultor to the which Pope Benedict established in his 2010 the council was merged with the former Congregation the Dicastery for Evangelization.)

Pope Benedict “understood the connection Father Hezekias Carnazzo, a Melkite Catholic catechetical Institute of Catholic Culture based For the late pope, that dynamic “always required Carnazzo, noting that Pope Benedict “very ‘Deus Caritas Est’ (‘God is Love’), in which ourselves to the beloved.”

That message radiated in the late pope’s writings, her book “Forming Intentional Disciples: the edition of which was published in November “The language he used was so clear,” Weddell active in his life, and was seeking … to help

CNS | VATICAN MEDIA

Pope Francis greets Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the retired pontiff’s Vatican residence Dec. 23, 2013.

German professor-pope stands the test of time

You really have to go into the nitty gritty of theology, of the Catechism, of Scripture to discover that men and women of all faith, be it simple or sophisticated, rise above such categories.”

As prefect of the Congregation (now Dicastery) of the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981 until his papal election, then-Cardinal Ratzinger had the job of defending Church doctrine, a role that earned him the moniker “God’s Rottweiler.” Because of that public perception, Christopher Ruddy, associate professor of systematic theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., said he was pleasantly surprised when he began reading Ratzinger’s writings, including his memoirs “Milestones,” in the late 1990s.

“I found that this was the theologian who was speaking to my heart,” he said. “I’m like, ‘This is a very different person than I’ve been led to believe that he is.’” Ruddy, who teaches a course on Pope Benedict, said then-Cardinal Ratzinger’s 2000 book “The Spirit of the Liturgy” — a complement to the 1918 same-titled work on liturgical renewal by Romano Guardini, a priest-theologian whom Ratzinger knew and admired — will likely prove to be his most influential.

Benedict explored in earlier works, said Cavadini, whom Pope Benedict appointed in 2009 to a five-year term on the Holy See’s advisory International Theological Commission. For example, “Saved in Hope” (Spe salvi) drew on his 1977 theological treatise “Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life,” which examined, but in a more “theologically detailed and technical” manner, Cavadini said, the four last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell. The encyclicals are written to be more accessible and reflect Pope Benedict’s pastoral concern.

That’s also reflected in Pope Benedict’s admonishment of what he termed “the dictatorship of relativism” to describe non-belief in ultimate truth. Pope Benedict argued that “If you don’t believe in anything absolute, then you don’t believe in love,” Cavadini said, and for Pope Benedict, “eternal love and eternal truth (Jesus) are the same thing.”

the reformers. So, the people who had been the reformers at Vatican II break into two camps and one becomes very liberal” on matters such as morality and restructuring Church governance, she said. “Ratzinger never had those ideas.” Father de Gaál said the political categories of “liberal,” “progressive,” “conservative” or “restorative” he’s seen applied to Pope Benedict in the wake of his death are inaccurate descriptors. Because of divine revelation, “to speak of ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ is really a caricature. …

BENEDICT FOCUSED ON JESUS

profound impact the late Pope Benedict XVI had on the legacy that placed Jesus Christ at the heart of any effort to

always came back to that,” said Sherry Weddell, author executive director of the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based provides parish resources for faith formation in discipleship and

we must first know God ourselves. Pope Benedict XVI Curtis Martin, founder and CEO of FOCUS, a Catholic university students.

Pope Benedict significantly advanced the evangelization to “reawaken the Christian faith in areas where it (had) appointed by the late pope, whom he had known “for Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, 2010 motu proprio “Ubicumque et Semper.” (In June 2022, Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples to create connection between solid faith formation and evangelization,” said Catholic priest and founding executive director of the adult based in McLean, Virginia. required asking the question of who God is,” said Father clearly answered that question with his encyclical he reminds us that God is love, and love is the giving of writings, said Weddell, who “quoted him extensively” in the Path to Knowing and Following Jesus,” an updated November by OSV Books.

Weddell said. “He talked about Jesus as living, present and help others have that same encounter.”

— Gina Christian OSV News

It presents the liturgy as “not something that we do once a week or once a day or so on, but that our entire lives are meant to be liturgical, and that what we’re most ultimately made for is to worship God, to praise him, and in doing that, to become fully human and fully alive,” Ruddy said. He also praised Pope Benedict’s three-volume “Jesus of Nazareth,” published in 2007. The work conveys that “he’s not just believing in some system of thought or practices … but he actually wants to see the face of the Lord,” he said. “These are real works of faith, and I found that very inspiring.”

Pope Benedict wrote three encyclicals, or letters to the Church: “God is Love” (2005), “Saved in Hope” (2007) and “Charity in Truth” (2009). John Cavadini, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said that with the encyclicals, Pope Benedict is “taking up a very basic facet of our faith … and explaining it to people.” The encyclicals revisited some themes Pope

By Justin McLellan Catholic News Service

When the coffin containing the remains of Pope Benedict XVI was carried into St. Peter’s Square, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi was among the 3,700 priests who concelebrated the funeral Mass Jan. 5.

As director of the Vatican press office for seven years of Pope Benedict’s nearly eight-year pontificate, Father Lombardi had a front row seat to the major achievements of the late pope’s pontificate. Since 2016, he has been president of the board of directors of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, which promotes the theology of the late pope.

While Pope Francis did not explicitly mention Pope Benedict’s achievements in his homily, Father Lombardi told Catholic News Service the evening after the funeral that the pope’s message was a “very refined and profound” tribute to his predecessor that respected the liturgy of a funeral Mass.

Catholic liturgical rules tell celebrants, “careful, the homily is not a eulogy of a person, the homily is a comment on the Scripture reading,” he said.

Although Pope Francis only referred to Pope Benedict by name once, Father Lombardi noted that he directly quoted his predecessor three times in the homily.

“There are attitudes, words and expressions from Benedict that Francis takes, and, in a way, makes his own on this occasion to talk about (Benedict’s) spiritual vision and his service,” he said. “It made us pray for Benedict in the spirit of Benedict.”

Many gathered in Rome for the funeral were left wanting more explicit recognition of the late pope’s life and contributions to the Church. As his coffin was carried toward St. Peter’s Basilica at the end of Mass, pilgrims began chanting “Santo subito!” (Sainthood now!), a common rallying cry after the death of Pope St. John Paul II in 2005. Several pilgrims also carried banners calling for Pope

One challenge Pope Benedict faced as pope was a seeming desire, at times, to separate his own writings from his papal teaching function, said Kurt Martens, a canon law professor at The Catholic University of America. In his introduction to “Jesus of Nazareth,” Pope Benedict said that the work was not an exercise of his teaching authority but was from his private search for God.

Speaking in general of Pope Benedict’s papacy, Martens described him as a “bridge” between St. John Paul II and Pope Francis, who was elected in 2013 after Pope Benedict’s resignation.

“John Paul II was more of a doer, and Benedict the thinker. Francis comes with a more pastoral approach, that idea of the Church as a ‘field hospital,’” he said. “I think Francis would not have been possible without his two predecessors.”

Father de Gaál said he expects interest in Pope Benedict’s scholarship to grow as more of his works are translated from German into other languages, including English.

“The more distance we gain from the cultural context in which Pope Benedict wrote in the 1950s, 1960s, ‘70s and onward, the more we see his theology as self-standing, and thereby being classic,” he said. “It speaks to every generation.”

Benedict to be declared a doctor of the Church.

“This display of appreciation, of spiritual closeness, gratitude and love seems very positive to me right now,” Father Lombardi told CNS. “But the tradition of the Church is to have a certain calm, a certain prudence” in advancing causes for canonization.

Church norms state that the petition to open a cause for sainthood can be presented five years after the candidate’s death. Pope Benedict waived the waiting period in the case of his predecessor and allowed for Pope John Paul’s case for beatification to be opened only two months after his death.

But, Father Lombardi said, “it’s wise the Church takes its time.”

Separately, though, scholars will continue to analyze the vast theological legacy Pope Benedict left behind.

As president of the foundation that promotes the late pope’s theology, Father Lombardi defined as “negative” the practice of ignoring the “complete richness” of Pope Benedict’s theology and focusing instead on singular elements within it.

He cited the example of Pope Benedict expanding permission for Catholics to use the pre-Vatican II celebration of the Mass. Pope Francis later determined that for the unity of the Church, it was best to restrict the celebrations of the old rite.

“I never saw him (Pope Benedict) celebrate (Mass) in the extraordinary form,” Father Lombardi said. “He always celebrated as we all do. So, it’s not that he was fixed on that, but he thought it could be useful for some people.”

Pope Benedict’s life work, he said, “personifies a theology that is dynamic, that is not fixed in a single moment and looks backward.”

Pope Benedict XVI during Mass in Yankee Stadium in New York April 20, 2008.

CNS | NANCY PHELAN WIECHEC

Aide: Pope’s tribute to Benedict refined, profound

FATHER FEDERICO LOMBARDI