I was looking for the appropriate thread to post this on, and decided here was best. Interesting "lead" from Zenit today -
For those who read Spanish, go to www.agenciaveritas.com and click on the link "Analisis" for a recent article (post-Cologne) by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, writing in his capacity as professor of constitutional law at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid.
Loosely translated (and with some paraphrasing), here are some great points he makes: Benedict XVI, at the time of his election, was already considered one of the 4 or 5 leading intellectuals in the world - and not simply by virtue of being a theologian - who had shown himself exceptionally capable of diagnosing modernity (i.e., our times) in all of its aspects. Which explains, he says, why the #1 philosopher of our day, Juergen Habermas, held a long colloquy with then Cardinal Ratzinger (January 2004 in Munich, on the pre-political and moral bases for free states), recently published in book form, which JNV calls "a masterwork of post-modernism, a true intellectual delight." As Pope, B16 must now pass from the "diagnostic" to the "operative and treatment" phase (the metaphor harks back to JNV's training as a physician), a transition which he, B16, will do in his own way, namely, more through reasoning ("argumentacion") than through imposition. Referring to the Pope's "extraordinary creativity," he says that not the least of this Pope's goals is to (help) liberate humanity from the slavery of ideology. This post-ideological Pope, he says, is ever aware that we are all part of "a family as large as the world itself, encompassing heaven and earth, past, present and future."
How serendipitous! I had intended my first post in this forum to, among other things, call attention to Joseph Ratzinger's personal stature as an intellectual. When in 1992 the venerable Institut de France elected him to take the seat vacated by the death of the eminent Soviet physicist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, I thought to myself -
what other man of the cloth, of whatever persuasion, could have merited such recognition and acceptance in the closed and rarefied universe of the intellectual elite?
The French intellectuals have always shown greater regard and esteem for Joseph Ratzinger than most of his German compatriots were prepared to do. In November 1999, when the Sorbonne organized a 4-day colloquy on 2000 years of Christianity, Cardinal Ratzinger was the only Catholic theologian among the 18 French and foreign speakers invited to the debate. In one of the many French articles published immediately after April 19, one analyst remarks that when Ratzinger first came to France to speak on anything (I cannot remember the occasion, unfortunately), he impressed everyone with his command of the French language, and I think he told an interviewer that from early on, he chose French to be the second European language to master after German. (Speaking of language abilities, one of the articles on the ZDF documentary about the young Joseph Ratzinger mentioned that during his time as a Flakhelfer, he amused himself by writing verses in ancient Greek as his way of reacting to the taunts he often got from his more "macho" colleagues. Also, incidentally, all the captions for the picture taken in front of the military barracks identify Joseph as the second figure from the left - in fact, in one picture series using the pictures, his head is encircled red.)
For those who read Spanish, go to www.agenciaveritas.com and click on the link "Analisis" for a recent article (post-Cologne) by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, writing in his capacity as professor of constitutional law at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid.
Loosely translated (and with some paraphrasing), here are some great points he makes: Benedict XVI, at the time of his election, was already considered one of the 4 or 5 leading intellectuals in the world - and not simply by virtue of being a theologian - who had shown himself exceptionally capable of diagnosing modernity (i.e., our times) in all of its aspects. Which explains, he says, why the #1 philosopher of our day, Juergen Habermas, held a long colloquy with then Cardinal Ratzinger (January 2004 in Munich, on the pre-political and moral bases for free states), recently published in book form, which JNV calls "a masterwork of post-modernism, a true intellectual delight." As Pope, B16 must now pass from the "diagnostic" to the "operative and treatment" phase (the metaphor harks back to JNV's training as a physician), a transition which he, B16, will do in his own way, namely, more through reasoning ("argumentacion") than through imposition. Referring to the Pope's "extraordinary creativity," he says that not the least of this Pope's goals is to (help) liberate humanity from the slavery of ideology. This post-ideological Pope, he says, is ever aware that we are all part of "a family as large as the world itself, encompassing heaven and earth, past, present and future."
How serendipitous! I had intended my first post in this forum to, among other things, call attention to Joseph Ratzinger's personal stature as an intellectual. When in 1992 the venerable Institut de France elected him to take the seat vacated by the death of the eminent Soviet physicist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, I thought to myself -
what other man of the cloth, of whatever persuasion, could have merited such recognition and acceptance in the closed and rarefied universe of the intellectual elite?
The French intellectuals have always shown greater regard and esteem for Joseph Ratzinger than most of his German compatriots were prepared to do. In November 1999, when the Sorbonne organized a 4-day colloquy on 2000 years of Christianity, Cardinal Ratzinger was the only Catholic theologian among the 18 French and foreign speakers invited to the debate. In one of the many French articles published immediately after April 19, one analyst remarks that when Ratzinger first came to France to speak on anything (I cannot remember the occasion, unfortunately), he impressed everyone with his command of the French language, and I think he told an interviewer that from early on, he chose French to be the second European language to master after German. (Speaking of language abilities, one of the articles on the ZDF documentary about the young Joseph Ratzinger mentioned that during his time as a Flakhelfer, he amused himself by writing verses in ancient Greek as his way of reacting to the taunts he often got from his more "macho" colleagues. Also, incidentally, all the captions for the picture taken in front of the military barracks identify Joseph as the second figure from the left - in fact, in one picture series using the pictures, his head is encircled red.)
from Teresa Benedicta summary of the article )
