The Pope Benedict 65th Ordination Anniversary struck me as a bit ‘forced.’ Is this Bizarro World? What kind of a thing is this for anybody to say, much less one of the most brilliant and clear-spoken men in the world?
“I hope you will continue along this path of mercy,” adding, “Your kindness is my home and the place where I feel safe.”
Isn’t that a tad over the top? What kindness? Is Pope Benedict Francis’ ward? Is Francis such a great and good friend of Benedict now that he actually has a home inside Francis’ kindness? Is this not syrupy, soupy, and creepy?
Since when has ‘feeling safe’ been something Benedict felt compelled to discuss or even praise? Benedict is not a touchy-feely person. He’s spent a long lifetime teaching vital things. He is a sound theologian. Francis, on the other hand, is all about feelings. God’s always caressing him.
Zenit has it this way:
Thank you above all to you, Holy Father: from the first moment of your election, your kindness in every moment of my life here strikes me, your kindness really brings me interiorly more than in the Vatican Gardens, with its beauty, to the place where I dwell; I feel protected.
Your kindness in every moment of my life? Is Francis being kind to Benedict in every moment of his life? Has Emeritus not earned a bit of his unprecedented papal retirement life? Benedict lives in the house of Francis’ kindness, and it’s more beautiful than the Vatican Gardens! Is this the Song of Songs? Are these men married, or is there some deeper mystical connection to their popehood?
Did Archbishop Victor Fernandez help Benedict with his brief words?
In response to Francis praising him, Benedict said:
I can only thus say that with these words you have interpreted the essential of my vision of the priesthood, of my <way> of acting. I am grateful to you for the bond of friendship, which for a long time has continued up to now […]: it is almost present and tangible.
Have Benedict and Francis been friends for a long time? Until 2013, did you ever see a picture of them together? Did Cardinal Bergoglio have some integral key role in the JPII, Benedict Curia? How does a bond of friendship become ‘almost present and tangible’? If I told a friend of mine our friendship were ‘almost present,’ would he feel warm? Why does this new Benedict need to pretend abstract things are substantial, as Francis constantly does?
In closing, the Once-Pope says:
“Efharisomen” sends us to that reality of gratitude, to that new dimension that Christ has given. He has transformed the Cross, suffering, all the evil of the world into ‘thanksgiving.’ And thus, He has transformed life and the world fundamentally and has given us and gives us every day the bread of true life, which surpasses the world thanks to the strength of His love.
This garbled and worldly statement does not sound like Benedict. Christ did not “transform the Cross into thanksgiving.” He did not “transform life and the world fundamentally.” The Bread of Life does not “surpass the world.” The Bread of Life is Jesus.
Christ has always been an enemy of the world. Satan is its prince. Jesus saved men and renewed them in His grace. That certainly improved things wherever it happened. These words strike me as a worldly twisting of Christ and his victory.
Why is Benedict speaking off-the-cuff?
At the end, we want to insert ourselves in this “thanksgiving” of the Lord and thus really receive the novelty of life and help in the transubstantiation of the world: that it be not a world of death but of life; a world in which love has conquered death.
Here we are again making a physical ‘insertion’ into ‘thanksgiving.’ Abstract things become ‘tangible’ just like Francis’ kindness turned into a garden and a safe-house. ‘Novelty of Life’ is nothing to wish for, but it is a new FrancisVirtue that supposedly comes from the Lord. ‘Transubstantiation of the world’ is a sinister goal of FrancisChurch, but does it have anything to do with Faith? I’m not so sure.
This smacks of simple utopianism painted over in Catholic smears. It’s not the mind of Benedict I remember. It sounds more like FrancisBilge.
At the same event the looming and persisting Cardinal Sodano told Benedict:
Reading your words today, they seem to be an anticipation of the luminous Magisterium of Pope Francis, who always invites us to encounter those who suffer most, taking to them our brotherly love. This is, moreover, the message of the Great Jubilee of Mercy, which we are celebrating.
The luminous Magisterium of Pope Francis? Is he kidding? Benedict has ‘anticipated’ that? Must we continue to be reminded how much Benedict is on board with all this new false mercy and environmentalism? It can’t possibly be true, but we sure hear it a lot, and the AP’s Nicole Winfield certainly thinks so:
Retired Pope Benedict XVI endorsed Pope Francis’ mercy-filled ministry Tuesday during an unprecedented Vatican ceremony featuring a reigning pope honoring a retired one on the 65th anniversary of his ordination as a priest.
Cardinal Sodano, like the big boss who’s flown in from New York, went on to affirm things just as they are in the new Francis-Benedict Bizarro World, telling Emeritus:
Holiness, in the happy anniversary of that distant day of 65 years ago, the College of Cardinals, together with Pope Francis, presses around you, thanking you for your long and generous ecclesial service. At the same time, we want to ask you to continue, even if in another way, your long priestly ministry, just as you promised us on February 24, 2013, after having announced your decision to leave in new hands the guidance of Peter’s bark. Then in fact you said to us: “The Lord calls me to go up on the mountain, and to dedicate myself yet more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean to abandon the Church, rather, if God asks me this, it is precisely so that I can continue to serve her with the same dedication and the same love with which I have tried to do up to now, but in a way more adapted to my age and my strength” (cf. Insegnamenti of Benedict XVI, Vol. IX, page 263).
We are happy because of that promise, certain that you will always be close to us with your prayer and your affection. Finally we say to you with a typical greeting of your Bavarian land: “Behut’s Sie Gott”! May God protect you! Meanwhile the Church of Rome, under the guidance of Pope Francis, the Venerable Successor that Divine Providence has given us, will continue her journey in history with renewed vigor, in the service of the Christian community and of the whole of humanity! Best wishes.
We are happy you made that promise! (Translate: We are glad you did like we told you?)
“May God protect you! Meanwhile the Church of Rome, under the guidance of Pope Francis, the Venerable Successor that Divine Providence has given us, will continue her journey in history with renewed vigor, in the service of the Christian community and of the whole of humanity! Best wishes.”
God gave us the Francis. Now go away to your cell, so we can keep pretending what we’re doing to the Church is Catholic.
The Guardian has the headline:
BENEDICT ENDORSES POPE FRANCIS IN UNPRECEDENTED VATICAN CEREMONY
This event was a stunt to try once again to legitimize Francis. What would they do if they couldn’t trot out Zombie-Benedict? Yes, I believe he looks medicated.
