Thursday, January 12, 2023
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Sunday, January 1, 2023
Message from the Archbishop of Ottawa-Cornwall on the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
Message from Most Reverend Marcel Damphousse
Archbishop of Ottawa-Cornwall
on the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
On behalf of the faithful of the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall, I offer my condolences to Pope Francis and join with Christians around the world who are mourning the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. According to news reports from the Vatican, he passed away this morning at his residence in the Vatican
I have fond memories of my first meeting with Pope Benedict at World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005 and of my visit to his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo in September 2012 after being ordained a bishop. A man of God of great spiritual and intellectual depth, he knew how to communicate with clarity, through his writings and messages, the Love of God revealed in his Son Jesus, and the very special place faith and reason play in the human being.
Let us pray for the eternal repose of his soul.
December 31, 2022
✠ Marcel Damphousse
Archbishop of Ottawa-Cornwall
This is the full text of Benedict XVI's spiritual testament
Rome Newsroom, Dec 31, 2022 / 13:28 pm
The Vatican on Saturday evening published the Spiritual Testament of Benedict XVI, written on Aug. 29, 2006, one year and four months into his pontificate. Each pope writes a spiritual testament to be made public only after his death. Below is CNA’s translation of the full testament from Italian:
My spiritual testament
If in this late hour of my life I look back at the decades I have been through, first I see how many reasons I have to give thanks. First and foremost I thank God himself, the giver of every good gift, who gave me life and guided me through various confusing times; always picking me up whenever I began to slip and always giving me again the light of his face. In retrospect I see and understand that even the dark and tiring stretches of this journey were for my salvation and that it was in them that He guided me well.
I thank my parents, who gave me life in a difficult time and who, at the cost of great sacrifice, with their love prepared for me a magnificent abode that, like clear light, illuminates all my days to this day. My father’s lucid faith taught us children to believe, and as a signpost it has always been steadfast in the midst of all my scientific acquisitions; the profound devotion and great goodness of my mother represent a legacy for which I can never give thanks enough. My sister has assisted me for decades selflessly and with affectionate care; my brother, with the lucidity of his judgments, his vigorous resolve and serenity of heart, has always paved the way for me; without this constant preceding and accompanying me I could not have found the right path.
To all those whom I have wronged in any way, I heartily ask for forgiveness.
What I said before to my countrymen, I now say to all those in the Church who have been entrusted to my service: Stand firm in the faith! Do not let yourselves be confused! It often seems that science — the natural sciences on the one hand and historical research (especially exegesis of Sacred Scripture) on the other — are able to offer irrefutable results at odds with the Catholic faith. I have experienced the transformations of the natural sciences since long ago and have been able to see how, on the contrary, apparent certainties against the faith have vanished, proving to be not science, but philosophical interpretations only apparently pertaining to science; just as, on the other hand, it is in dialogue with the natural sciences that faith, too, has learned to understand better the limit of the scope of its claims, and thus its specificity. It is now sixty years that I have been accompanying the journey of Theology, particularly of the Biblical Sciences, and with the succession of different generations I have seen theses that seemed unshakable collapse, proving to be mere hypotheses: the liberal generation (Harnack, Jülicher etc.), the existentialist generation (Bultmann etc.), the Marxist generation. I saw and see how out of the tangle of assumptions the reasonableness of faith emerged and emerges again. Jesus Christ is truly the way, the truth and the life — and the Church, with all its insufficiencies, is truly His body.
Finally, I humbly ask: Pray for me, so that the Lord, despite all my sins and insufficiencies, welcomes me into the eternal dwellings. To all those entrusted to me, day by day, my heartfelt prayer goes out.
Saturday, December 31, 2022
Cardinal Müller: Benedict XVI Will Be Remembered as a ‘True Doctor of the Church for Today’| National Catholic Register
VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Gerhard Müller has paid tribute to the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, describing him as a “great thinker” and a “true Doctor of the Church for today.”
The prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith also described the late Joseph Ratzinger, who died at Dec. 31 at 9:34 am in Rome, as a man of great sensitivity, humor, and humility who possessed “deep wisdom as a partaker in God’s love.”
In this interview with the Register, the German cardinal theologian — who founded the Benedict XVI Institute to make available Joseph Ratzinger’s collected works — discusses Benedict XVI’s legacy to the Church, responds to some of his critics, and reflects on how his passing might affect the highly criticized German Synodal Path.
Your Eminence, what is the greatest legacy of Benedict XVI in terms of theology and doctrine?
The best books are his Introduction to Christianity and Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life and his Jesus trilogy for a well-educated general public, while the books on Augustine and Bonaventure require an academic theological education for a better understanding. Also readable for everyone are his uplifting and faith-strengthening numerous homilies, which are also easily accessible in the Collected Writings (16 volumes).
How would you like him to be best remembered, both doctrinally and, more broadly, as a priest, bishop, cardinal and pope?
In all his positions and all his tasks, he was a great thinker and personally a believing Christian. He is a true Doctor of the Church for today.
Which of his encyclicals is, to you, the most profound and helpful, and the one that resonates with our times?
I think his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love) because here the sum and culmination of the self-revelation of the Triune God in his essence, and the relationship of the three divine persons, is presented to the contemporary man at the highest magisterial level.
Joseph Ratzinger was a great proponent of the “hermeneutic of reform and continuity,” arguing that Vatican II did not represent a radical break but a more pastoral reformulation of old truths and earlier doctrine, applying the teachings of early Church fathers to the contemporary world. How helpful was that perception of the Council in your view?
This is evident, since no Council has the task of founding a new Church or of supplementing, correcting or completing the unique and complete revelation of God in Jesus Christ. One only has to read the introductions to the two Dogmatic Constitutions on Divine Revelation and the Church. Then one sees how the Council itself inserts itself into the entire Catholic doctrinal tradition and, above all, affirms that the magisterium of the Pope and the Bishops, and thus also the Councils, are not above the Word of God, but serve its true interpretation (Dei Verbum 7-10).
Some of Joseph Ratzinger’s critics have argued that his theology could at times be incoherent as he tried to reconcile contradictory positions (e.g. modernity with tradition), while others say he was too rigid and conservative, unwilling to adapt the Church to the times. What do you say to these critics?
Only ideologically narrow-minded ignoramuses can mean that. St. Irenaeus of Lyon, whom Pope Francis has declared “Doctor Unitatis” (Doctor of Unity), speaks against the Gnostics of all times who want to imprison the mystery of God in their limited minds, and that with and in Christ all the newness and unmatched modernity of God has come into the world. Modernity is not identical with the anti-metaphysical immanentism of the Enlightenment and the anti-human ideologies of the philosophical and political atheisms of the last three centuries. Only the Christian faith is modern, that is, up to the level of the real basic questions about the meaning of life and the moral principles of its formation. For no theory and no human being can redeem us and offer us support in life and in death except the Word of God, who in his Son assumed our humanity and through his cross and resurrection redeemed us from sin and death and gave us the hope of eternal life (Gaudium et Spes 10; 22).
We are not slaves but citizens in the city of God, sons and daughters of the heavenly Father in Christ and friends of God in the Holy Spirit.
What was Joseph Ratzinger like as a person? What personal attributes and qualities will you best remember?
He was a very fine person, very sensitive, humorous, humble and above all, a man a deep wisdom as a partaker in God’s love.
What effect do you think the death of Benedict XVI have, if any, on the German Synodal Path?
I am afraid that these protagonists of ananthropology far from Christ won’t be impressed by one of the greatest Christian scholars of our time, because with them if the Holy Spirit does not directly cause a deep conversion of hearts, an atheistic ideology suffocates every seed of supernatural, revealed faith.
BREAKING: Pope Benedict XVI dies at the age of 95 - Lifesite News
BREAKING: Pope Benedict XVI dies at the age of 95
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has died aged 95.
The Holy See Press Office announced the news this morning, with director Matteo Bruni writing: “With sorrow, I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican.” Bruni added that “[f]urther information will be provided as soon as possible.”
The late Pontiff’s remains will rest at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery until January 2, at which point Benedict’s body will be on display in St. Peter’s Basilica during the days of Monday through Wednesday. Pope Francis will celebrate the funeral at 9:30 am, January 5, in the basilica.
Pope Benedict had been living in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican gardens since he resigned on February 28, 2013.
He was the last of his parents’ three children still alive, with his brother and sister Georg and Maria having died in 2020 and 1991 respectively.
Ratzinger’s ecclesial career was long and noteworthy, even from his early days as a priest. Following his ordination in 1951, Ratzinger served as advisor to Cardinal Joseph Frings during Vatican II, acting as a member of the influential and highly organized liberal lobby seeking widespread change.
He then spent five years as Archbishop of Munich and Friesing from 1977–1982, before being moved by John Paul II to be Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1982. Made cardinal in 1978, Ratzinger served as Vice-Dean and later Dean of the College of Cardinals from 1998.
He was elected Pope on April 19, 2005, taking the name Benedict XVI. He is arguably more famous for making history 8 years later by being the first Pope to resign in nearly 600 years.
One of his now more famous actions was the 2007 promulgation of his apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum, outlining broad permission for priests to celebrate the ancient form of the Roman liturgy. That document has since become the target of Pope Francis’ moves against the traditional Mass, with Francis abrogating it in 2021.
Pope Benedict XVI
Following the death of John Paul II on April 2, 2005, Ratzinger offered the funeral Mass for the late pontiff in his capacity as Dean of the College of Cardinals.
The late Pontiff’s remains will rest at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery until January 2, at which point Benedict’s body will be on display in St. Peter’s Basilica during the days of Monday through Wednesday. Pope Francis will celebrate the funeral at 9:30 am, January 5, in the basilica.
Pope Benedict had been living in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican gardens since he resigned on February 28, 2013.
He was the last of his parents’ three children still alive, with his brother and sister Georg and Maria having died in 2020 and 1991 respectively.
Ratzinger’s ecclesial career was long and noteworthy, even from his early days as a priest. Following his ordination in 1951, Ratzinger served as advisor to Cardinal Joseph Frings during Vatican II, acting as a member of the influential and highly organized liberal lobby seeking widespread change.
He then spent five years as Archbishop of Munich and Friesing from 1977–1982, before being moved by John Paul II to be Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1982. Made cardinal in 1978, Ratzinger served as Vice-Dean and later Dean of the College of Cardinals from 1998.
He was elected Pope on April 19, 2005, taking the name Benedict XVI. He is arguably more famous for making history 8 years later by being the first Pope to resign in nearly 600 years.
One of his now more famous actions was the 2007 promulgation of his apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum, outlining broad permission for priests to celebrate the ancient form of the Roman liturgy. That document has since become the target of Pope Francis’ moves against the traditional Mass, with Francis abrogating it in 2021.
Pope Benedict XVI
Following the death of John Paul II on April 2, 2005, Ratzinger offered the funeral Mass for the late pontiff in his capacity as Dean of the College of Cardinals.
He was soon elected as Pope on just the second day of the conclave, on April 19, 2005, aged 78, and took the name, Benedict XVI. In his first Mass as Pope, he said during his homily “pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”
Less than one month later, on May 13, 2005, he waived the customary five-year waiting period outlined in Canon Law and announced the beginning of the beatification process for his predecessor John Paul II. He canonized over 40 saints during his pontificate.
During his near 8 years as Pope, he wrote three encyclicals – Deus Caritas Est, Spe Salvi, and Caritas in Veritate – 13 motu proprios, 68 Apostolic Letters, and 4 apostolic exhortations. He created 90 cardinals in five consistories and made 25 official trips outside of Italy.
In two documents released in 2007 and in 2013, he modified the rules governing the papal conclave – which had been somewhat eased by his predecessor – restoring the necessary majority of two-thirds of the papal electors and declaring excommunication the automatic punishment for breaking the oath of secrecy surrounding a conclave.
Pro-life stance
Throughout his pontificate, Benedict made a number of statements opposing abortion, which built upon his legacy as Prefect of the CDF to prevent pro-abortion politicians from receiving Holy Communion.
READ: Will Pope Francis fulfill Benedict’s legacy on abortion and Communion?
At the very outset of his pontificate, Benedict stated, in reference to abortion, that a Pope cannot “proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly bind himself and the Church to obedience to God’s Word, in the face of every attempt to adapt it or water it down, and every form of opportunism.” This adherence to Divine Law was shown by John Paul II, said Benedict, in his own defense of the unborn.
In his 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Benedict wrote: “If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology.”
Condemning the “anti-birth mentality” he wrote that “Openness to life is at the centre of true development.”
Prior to ascending the papal throne, in 2004 Ratzinger intervened into a debate among the U.S. bishops on the issue of Communion for pro-abortion Catholic politicians. He said in his letter titled “Worthiness to receive Holy Communion,” that a Catholic politician who would vote for “permissive abortion and euthanasia laws” after being duly instructed and warned, “must” be denied Communion.
However, Cardinals Burke and Brandmuller, along with Benedict’s secretary Archbishop Gänswein – publicly at least – downplayed suggestions that Benedict somehow remained as Pope. Burke, the former Prefect of the Holy See’s Apostolic Signatura, stated that “I believe it would be difficult to say it’s not valid.”
READ: Did Benedict really resign? Gänswein, Burke and Brandmüller weigh in
Following his announcement, Benedict resigned on February 28, staying briefly at Castel Gandolfo, before moving to his more permanent home of the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens on May, 2 2013.
He made limited public appearances after that, but Pope Francis notably brought the new cardinals to meet Benedict at every consistory, where the new cardinals would receive a blessing from Benedict. He also joined Pope Francis in the March 25, 2022 consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Following the rollout of the abortion-tainted COVID injections, Pope Benedict joined Pope Francis in taking Pfizer’s COVID jab in January 2021, at the start of the Vatican’s vaccine campaign. Gänswein later revealed in December 2021 that Benedict had taken three injections at that point.
In recent years, pictures of the emeritus pope have occasionally emerged, showing a steady decline in his health as he appeared increasingly frail.
Stance on homosexuality
While he was prefect, the CDF issued its letter “On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons” noting that a homosexual “inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.”
“Therefore special concern and pastoral attention should be directed toward those who have this condition, lest they be led to believe that the living out of this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option,” added Ratzinger. “It is not.”
This position he echoed in later documents, and more notably during his 2012 Christmas address to the Roman Curia, when he appeared to denounce same-sex ‘marriage’ and criticized those who “dispute the idea that they have a nature, given by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being.”
After his resignation, he issued an essay in which he explicitly spoke against “homosexual cliques” in seminaries, “which acted more or less openly and significantly changed the climate in the seminaries.”
READ: Benedict said what Vatican abuse summit dared not: ‘Homosexual cliques’ ruined seminaries
Two years later, he again attacked the rise of same-sex ‘marriage’ saying that “the legalization in 16 European states of ‘homosexual marriage’” has led to a “deformation of conscience” that extends beyond the secular realm, having “penetrated deeply into the world of marriage in sectors of the Catholic people.”
Resignation
On February 11, 2013, Benedict shocked the world when he announced his resignation from the “Petrine office.” In a short speech delivered in Latin to the assembled cardinals, Benedict cited declining health and advancing old age as the reason for his resignation.
READ: Benedict’s renunciation and the wolves within the church
The announcement took the Church and the world by storm, with many expressing doubts as to the publicized reasons for his resignation. The text of his resignation address prompted debate as to its legitimacy which continued in many corners of the Church until his death – debate fuelled by his continued use of the white cassock, and title Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
However, Cardinals Burke and Brandmuller, along with Benedict’s secretary Archbishop Gänswein – publicly at least – downplayed suggestions that Benedict somehow remained as Pope. Burke, the former Prefect of the Holy See’s Apostolic Signatura, stated that “I believe it would be difficult to say it’s not valid.”
READ: Did Benedict really resign? Gänswein, Burke and Brandmüller weigh in
Following his announcement, Benedict resigned on February 28, staying briefly at Castel Gandolfo, before moving to his more permanent home of the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens on May, 2 2013.
He made limited public appearances after that, but Pope Francis notably brought the new cardinals to meet Benedict at every consistory, where the new cardinals would receive a blessing from Benedict. He also joined Pope Francis in the March 25, 2022 consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Following the rollout of the abortion-tainted COVID injections, Pope Benedict joined Pope Francis in taking Pfizer’s COVID jab in January 2021, at the start of the Vatican’s vaccine campaign. Gänswein later revealed in December 2021 that Benedict had taken three injections at that point.
In recent years, pictures of the emeritus pope have occasionally emerged, showing a steady decline in his health as he appeared increasingly frail.
However, footage from even as recently as early September, showed the late Pope being taken around the Vatican gardens in a wheelchair with Gänswein and a number of others in attendance.
Regensburg address
Early in his pontificate, the new Pope made international headlines for his September 12, 2006 address at the University of Regensburg – an address which enraged Muslims and prompted death threats against the Pope.
He quoted from a Byzantine emperor who had negatively described Muhammed, saying “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”
Following widespread media controversy and particular outrage from Muslims, Benedict said a few days later that the words quoted “do not in any way express my personal thought.”
Summorum Pontificum
On July 7, 2007 he issued his motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, outlining and re-establishing the legal right of the traditional Latin Mass, writing that the traditional Mass “was never juridically abrogated and, consequently, in principle, was always permitted.” He described the Novus Ordo Mass as the “normal” or ordinary form of the Roman Rite, and the Latin Mass the “extraordinary form,” saying that they can be “mutually enriching.”
His accompanying letter to the motu proprio contained the line which has since been made famous by devotees of the traditional Mass: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.” The document was warmly received by newly emboldened devotees of the traditional Mass, and led to a large increase in Latin Masses being offered around the world.
However, the motu proprio became the target of Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio “Traditionis Custodes,” which both contradicted and abrogated Summorum Pontificum.
Relations with SSPX and Anglican Ordinariate
Two years later in 2009, Benedict XVI announced the revoking of the excommunications on the bishops consecrated by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) in 1988 – excommunications which were always hotly contested by the bishops. The groundbreaking move, altering decades-long relations between the SSPX and the Vatican, was welcomed by SSPX superiors who then highlighted the need for “talks” to address the “doctrinal issues” between Rome and the Society.
Later that same year, Benedict then issued his apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus which allowed for personal ordinariates for Anglicans to enter into the Catholic Church. The document established norms for members of both the Anglican laity and clergy to convert and then live as Catholics. It resulted in an influx of converts to the Catholic Church, with personal ordinariates being established in England, the U.S., Australia.
By 2019, members of the three ordinariates numbered in excess of 9,000, with nearly 200 priests and 94 parishes.
