Benedict the Compassionate

Benedict, the Intellectual? Yes, But Benedict, the Compassionate also, as shown here in this clip of him traveling to the Gemelli Polyclinico Hospital to visit children in the pediatric ward and the neonatal intensive care unit.

It is a side of our Holy Father that should be showcased much more. Think of what this meant to the Catholic Faithful parents at this hospital who were exhausted and discouraged.



Htip Creative Minority via Al Kresta

Two Unlikely Benedict Defenders Should Give Everyone Pause

Here are two very unexpected defenders of the Catholic Church and Benedict XVI.

My father has said, "I don't agree with any of Ed Koch's views, but I can't help finding myself liking him." We can all like him a little more with this op ed piece:

"I believe the continuing attacks by the media on the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI have become manifestations of anti-Catholicism. The procession of articles on the same events are, in my opinion, no longer intended to inform, but simply to castigate.

The sexual molestation of children, principally boys, is horrendous. This is agreed to by everyone, Catholics, the Church itself, as well as non-Catholics and the media. On a number of occasions on the Church's behalf, the pope has admitted fault and asked for forgiveness.

For example, The New York Times reported April 18, 2008 that the pope "came face to face with a scandal that has left lasting wounds on the American church Thursday, holding a surprise meeting with several victims of sexual abuse by priests in the Boston area. ... 'No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse,' the pope said in his homily. 'It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention."

...Many in the media who are pounding on the Church and the pope today clearly do it with delight, and some with malice. The reason for the constant assaults, I believe, is there are many in the media and some Catholics as well as many in the public who object to and are incensed by positions the Church holds, including opposition to all abortions, opposition to homosexual sex and same-sex marriage, retention of celibacy rules for priests, exclusion of women from the clergy, opposition to birth-control measures involving condoms and prescription drugs, and opposition to civil divorce."

And here is a defense by John Stephenson, a ... Lutheran theologian:

"The secular press has had it in for Joseph Ratzinger for going on three decades. Before his election as Pope in the spring of 2005, he was routinely derided in his homeland as the Panzerkardinal (“tank cardinal”) and caricatured in North America as the “Enforcer” or even the “Rottweiler.” The roots of this negative reputation stretch back at least as far as the book-length interview he granted to the Italian journalist Vittorio Messori that catapulted him to global fame when published as The Ratzinger Report in 1985.

But shrewd observers must wonder about the startling disproportion between the enormous hue and cry artificially whipped up by the media and the softly spoken real life figure who seems always to have avoided hyperbole like the plague.

(Blogger Note: Here comes the firework finale, maybe one of the most insightful paragraphs written on this spewing of hatred:)

...The negative reaction aroused already by the Ratzinger Report laid bare the sheer fury shared by Roman Catholic Modernists and the unbelieving world in general against anyone who dares to intimate that the historic Christian religion is, to put it bluntly, true. Neither apostates within Holy Christendom nor naked unbelievers outside her borders will ever forgive Ratzinger for the grave breach of secularist, pluralist etiquette involved in the first volume of his Jesus of Nazareth. It goes without saying (and around the Holy Week of each year the several forms of mainstream media say it loudly, often, and emphatically) that Jesus was an ordinary man, a wacko apocalyptist, or a failed political revolutionary. Stones must fly and clubs be brandished against a learned man fully familiar with all the “Jesus of history” literature from Reimarus to the present, who winsomely draws on believing scholarship of all confessions to offer a calm and cogent argument that the real, actual Jesus is the one who meets us in the Gospel record. Where the North American liberal intelligentsia can offer no refutation, they spit contempt. And a Western Europe sunk in a new heathenism and undergoing Islamic takeover can only howl at this attempt to arrest its suicidal downward slide."

htip to Fr. Z on the Stephenson piece.

Benedict XVI: "Behold the Man!"

Paul Kokoski of Hamilton, Canada, says it more clearly, succinctly and with more of an overwhelming truth than I could have written in his opinion piece in USA Today:

"Ecce homo," "Behold the man!" These were the words spoken by Pontius Pilate when he presented a scourged Jesus Christ to a hostile mob shortly before his crucifixion. The same words aptly apply today to Pope Benedict XVI, as he is being held up to unprecedented ridicule and scorn by a hateful press and a world so out of touch with its spiritual nature and moral being.

One can almost hear Jesus saying to the peaceful and benevolent pope: "If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first" (John 15:18). Contrary to his critics, the pope, like Jesus, is completely innocent and is doing everything in his power to weed out those priests guilty of sexual abuse and to justly compensate victims for their suffering.

In fact, he is the one who has tackled these things head on. [Blogger Note: Benedict was one of the first high-ranking prelates to public denounce these horrible scandals calling them, "Filth."] Remember that even Jesus had his Judas. But the world wants to see the death of the church because it knows the church is the mother of all saints.

It knows that the Catholic Church is the last bastion of hope against a materialistic world that craves immorality at every step, including homosexuality, same-sex marriage, easy divorce, abortion, radical feminism, contraception, embryonic stem cell research and cloning.

Benedict will be remembered not for the scandals of a few priests but for his intense suffering in protecting the faith from wolves in sheep's clothing. He will be known as one of the greatest of Catholic martyrs.

Amen, Paul. Kudos.

Pope Benedict XVI: "Your Humble Servant"

One year ago this week, I was given the extreme privilege of attending a Mass celebrated by Our Holy Father, Benedict XVI.

Being at a Papal Mass is really an event that impacts and defines your life, similar to your wedding day or the birth of a child.

There were really quite a few surreal moments.

The moment the Pope came into the Stadium and could be seen by the masses was one. The place erupted. You can’t comprehend the charisma of the papacy. The Holy Spirit overflows. No other person could generate crowds of MILLIONS of people in any corner of the earth, even ones as remote as third world jungles. Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods could not do it. Paul McCartney could not do it. Tom Cruise could not do it. Neither could the Queen of England nor the President of the United States. They would get crowds, but not in the millions, not anywhere. In 1995, John Paul II celebrated mass in the Philippines. Estimates had four to seven million people in attendance.

The second lasting impression was how reverent 50,000 people could be. There were moments when you could hear a pin drop in the Stadium.

But the moment that was most surreal for me was such a small nuance but had such a huge impact. Through decades of attending Mass, I have heard the Eucharistic Prayer thousands of times. Most practicing Catholics can recite it by heart. There is a moment in the prayer where we say, "We offer prayers for Benedict, our Pope, William our Bishop", etc… When Benedict came to this moment, he said, "We offer prayers for me, your humble servant…" It was such a stark realization that the Vicar of Christ, the man to whom Christ gave all His authority to lead His beloved Church, was in standing my presence consecrating the Eucharist. The man that every Roman Catholic Church around the world prays for in every sacrifice of the mass was there in the flesh, standing right there. How can you not be speechless? To this day, at each Eucharistic Prayer since then, at these words, I am still impacted and truly understand the physical and spiritual singular man we are praying for.

The Holy Father Defends Pius XII

Our Holy Father spoke out today in defense of Pope Pius XII's actions to save our Jewish brethren during World War II:

"Benedict said during a meeting with a U.S.-based interfaith group that he wanted any prejudice against [Pius XII] to be overcome, praising what he called Pius's "courageous and paternal dedication" in trying to save Jews.

"Wherever possible he spared no effort in intervening in their favor either directly or through instructions given to other individuals or to institutions of the Catholic Church," Benedict said.

...Benedict said that Pius' many interventions were "made secretly and silently, precisely because, given the concrete situation of that difficult historical moment, only in this way was it possible to avoid the worst and save the greatest number of Jews."

Benedict is a very gentle shepherd who will speak the truth regardless of the backlash.

For those who are not aware of the overwhelming praise that Pius XII received from the Jewish community for all his assistance during the darkest days of the Holocaust, please click here.
Despite all attempts at revisionist history the truth remains the truth.