Pope Benedict supports adult stem cell research


Pope Benedict XVI endorsed adult stem cell research Wednesday, distinguishing it from the manipulation of stem cells from human embryos, which the Roman Catholic Church condemns.
Speaking at the end of his weekly general audience, the Roman Catholic leader saluted delegates at a global conference on the use of adult stem cells to treat cardiac problems, organised by La Spaienza university in Rome.

"On this matter the position of the Church, supported by reason and by science, is clear," he said.

"Scientific research must be encouraged and promoted, so long as it does not harm other human beings, whose dignity is inviolable from the very first stages of existence."

The Roman Catholic Church believes that an embryo is wholly a human being. For that reason, it condemns abortion and genetic manipulation such as research on embryonic stem cells.
Unlike embryonic stem cells, or primitive cells from early-stage embryos capable of developing into almost every tissue of the body, adult stem cells divide to replenish dying cells and regenerate damaged tissues.

They can be isolated from tissue samples taken from adults, and -- unlike embryonic stem cells -- they are already being used to tackle a number of diseases, including several forms of cancer.

Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.

Vatican defends World War II pope

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON, Associated Press

The Vatican stepped up its defense Tuesday of Pope Pius XII, with its No. 2 official decrying that the World War II pontiff was the victim of a "black legend" claiming he remained largely silent in the face of the Holocaust.

Less than a month after the Vatican took a new step to put Pius on the road to sainthood, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said that historical research and thousands of personal stories prove the pontiff acted behind the scenes to save the lives of Jews and other victims.

Pius "is the victim of a 'black legend,' which has spread to a point that it is difficult to change it, even though documents and witnesses have widely proven its complete inconsistency," the Vatican secretary of state said at a presentation of a book about the wartime pope.

Bertone acknowledged that Pius was "cautious" in his denunciations of Nazi persecutions, but said that any bolder public moves would have only angered the Axis powers, accelerating the extermination of Jews while endangering the Vatican and Europe's Catholics.

"Popes do not speak while thinking of creating for themselves a favorable image for posterity," Bertone said. "They hold dear to their heart the fate of men and women of flesh and blood, not the praise of historians."

Last month, a panel of bishops and cardinals at the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood approved a declaration on Pius' virtues, passing the dossier to Pope Benedict XVI. If Benedict signs the document, it will be the first major step toward possible beatification for Pius. The Vatican would then have to confirm a miracle attributed to Pius' intercession for him to be beatified, and a second miracle for him to be made a saint.

The move came shortly after a public spat between the Holy See and Israel over the pontiff's wartime conduct. In April, the Vatican ambassador to Israel threatened to boycott an annual memorial service at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem because of a photo caption at the museum that said Pius did not protest the Nazi genocide of Jews and maintained a largely "neutral position."

The envoy later reversed his decision and attended the event, but the incident frayed the Vatican's sensitive relations with Israel and with Jews, many of whom share in the criticism of Pius.

Hummm, I just noticed. The May 29th entry was my 100 post here. Seems like it needs to be acknowledged. So, here it is. Acknowledged.

Pope restores Muslim office

By Philip Pullella
Mon May 28, 2:34 PM ET

In a surprising about-face, Pope Benedict has decided to restore power and prestige to the Vatican department that oversees dialogue with Islam a year after he controversially downgraded it.

The department's return to its former status occurred as Catholic-Muslim dialogue is still suffering the negative effects of Benedict's Regensburg speech last September in which he appeared to equate Islam with violence.

Catholic and Muslim officials on Monday hailed the decision as a positive step that could help improve relations.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said in Italy's La Stampa newspaper at the weekend that the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue would again become "a separate department."

Benedict downgraded the office in March 2006 by putting it under joint presidency with the Vatican's culture ministry and removing its president, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, a Briton.

"This would be a very positive thing for Muslims," said a senior Muslim official active in inter-faith dialogue who asked not to be named. He said Muslims had seen the council's downgrading as a sign Benedict was not very interested in Islam.

"I think it's a great idea," said Father Tom Reese, senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center and a world-renowned Vatican expert.

In France, home to Europe's largest Muslim minority, the priest in charge of relations with Islam said the change would help him in discussions and debates with Muslims.

"This is a sign, to Muslims and people of other faiths, that the policies of Pope John Paul will continue," Father Christophe Roucou said, noting Muslims respected the late Polish-born pontiff for his pioneering openness towards other faiths.

Vatican sources said Bertone's comments meant the department would soon get its own head again.

REGENSBURG SPEECH

In his speech last September in Regensburg, Germany, the Pope quoted a 14th century Byzantine emperor as saying Islam had only brought evil to the world and that it was spread by the sword, which was unreasonable and contrary to God's nature.

He later said he regretted any misunderstanding it caused among Muslims, after protests including attacks on churches in the Middle East and the killing of a nun in Somalia.

But as late as this month, the Regensburg speech was still having repercussions on Catholic-Islam dialogue.

When former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami met the Pope on May 4 he said wounds between Christians and Muslims were still "very deep" as a result of the Regensburg speech.

Some observers saw the Regensburg issue as a direct consequence of the Pope's downgrading of the Muslim dialogue office and the removal of Fitzgerald, since the Vatican no longer had a world-class expert on Islam to advise the Pope.

The Muslim official said he hoped Fitzgerald would be reappointed to head the council. Catholic officials spoke in more general terms.

"I just hope they get the right man," Reese said. "In the 21st century, inter-religious dialogue is too important not to have experts advising the Pope so that we don't have the kind of disaster that we had in Regensburg.

(Additional reporting by Tom Heneghan)
Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited.

GOOD NEWS. THERE IS ROOM FOR BOTH

Cardinal: Pope to relax Latin Mass rules
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

A Vatican official has confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI plans to loosen restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass, reviving a rite that was essentially swept away by the revolutionary reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos told a meeting of Latin American bishops in Brazil this week that Benedict wanted to give all Catholics greater access to the so-called Tridentine Mass because of a "new and renewed interest" in the rite.

Benedict is also acting in a bid to reach out to an ultraconservative schismatic group, the Society of St. Pius X, and bring it back into the Vatican's fold, Castrillon Hoyos said Wednesday, according to a copy of his speech posted on the meeting's Web site.

The late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the society in 1969 in Switzerland, opposed to the liberalizing reforms of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, particularly its reform of the Tridentine Mass into the modern liturgy celebrated today in the vernacular.

The Vatican excommunicated Lefebvre in 1988 after he consecrated four bishops without Rome's consent. Benedict has been keen to reconcile with the group, which has demanded freer use of the old Mass as a precondition for normalizing relations.

The 1962-65 Second Vatican Council was a landmark event in the Roman Catholic Church, modernizing the liturgy and its relations with other faiths. Benedict attended the council as a young theological expert, and has long lamented what he considers the erroneous interpretation of its work.

He has made clear he greatly admires the 16th century rite and in a recent document urged seminarians and the faithful alike to learn Latin prayers.

The Tridentine Mass differs significantly from the new Mass: It is celebrated in Latin, with the priest facing the altar away from the faithful. The rank and file do not participate actively in the service.

Castrillon Hoyos stressed that Benedict's plans to revive the Tridentine rite did not represent a "step backward, of a regression to times before the reforms." Rather, it is an offer to the faithful to have greater access to what he said was a "treasure" of the church.

"For this reason, the Holy Father intends to extend to the entire Latin church the possibility of celebrating the Holy Mass and the sacraments" according to the latest version of the Tridentine Mass, from 1962.

The pope would decree it an "extraordinary form of the unique Roman rite," he said.
Castrillon Hoyos noted that the Tridentine liturgy had never been abolished. Currently, local bishops must grant permission for priests to celebrate it — a bureaucratic obstacle that fans say has greatly limited its availability.

Castrillon Hoyos was the second Vatican official to confirm the pope's plans in as many months. In late March, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, told Le Figaro magazine that Benedict believed there was no reason not to give the priests around the world the right to celebrate the old Mass.

Castrillon Hoyos gave no date of when the pope's document would be released. It remains unclear whether Benedict will remove the requirement that bishops must approve each celebration.

Castrillon Hoyos heads a Vatican commission, Ecclesia Dei, which was created to try to reconcile with Lefebvre's followers. Castrillon Hoyos said Benedict wanted the office to be converted into an office to "conserve and maintain the value of the traditional Latin liturgy."


Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press.

Blair 'planning to become a Catholic after he quits No 10' 17.05.07


Tony Blair is preparing to convert to Roman Catholicism after he steps down as Prime Minister, according to a leading cleric.

His long- awaited formal switch to the faith of his wife and family will come shortly after he surrenders office, it is claimed.

Mr Blair's decision to formalise his Catholic beliefs was revealed by Father Michael Seed, who is regarded as unofficial chaplain to Westminster and is a regular visitor to Number Ten.

Last year, Cherie Blair praised Father Seed, a leading cleric at Westminster Cathedral, for his "ability to reach out to all kinds of people, whether it is the homeless on the streets to the people in the highest places in the land, including even in Downing Street".

Asked to elaborate yesterday, Father Seed, usually known for his openness with the media, said: "I'm afraid I can't say anything."

Mr Blair has long been expected to complete his conversion after leaving Downing Street.

Conversion: It has long been speculated that Tony Blair would convert to Catholicism
He has regularly attended Catholic services in recent years, both with his family and alone.
Mr Blair has also visited Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor John Paul II in Rome.
While opposition leader in the mid-1990s Mr Blair often took communion with his wife and children at a Catholic church in Islington in London, which is seen as a signal he is totally loyal to the faith.

However, he stopped doing so in public on the instructions of the then leader of Catholics in England and Wales, the late Cardinal Hume.

Mr Blair has not been seen in a church of his professed Anglican faith except on official occasions.
He is widely considered to have remained an Anglican because of the potential complexities of conversion while in office.

Some lawyers believe the 1829 Emancipation Act, which gave Roman Catholics full civil rights, may still prevent a Catholic from becoming Prime Minister.

Clauses in the Act state that no Catholic adviser to the monarch can hold civil or military office.
Despite his apparent commitment to the faith, Mr Blair has also frequently clashed with Roman Catholic leaders, particularly over his liberal policies on gay rights and abortion.

In recent months, the leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, has been severely critical of the Sexual Orientation Regulations.

The Government claims the rules will protect homosexuals from discrimination.

But Catholic leaders say they will force Christians to act in conflict with their principles.
The Cardinal has threatened to close Catholic adoption agencies if they are forced to place children with gay couples.

If Mr Blair is to convert formally, he will have to undergo a course of instruction, which is likely to be conducted by Father Seed.

To be received officially into the Church, he will be expected to take part in a service of baptism, followed by confirmation and Holy Communion.

Downing Street refused to be drawn on Mr Blair's intentions yesterday. A spokesman said: "This story is always circulating in one form or another.

"The Prime Minister remains a member of the Church of England."

VATICAN CITY -- A new book by Pope Benedict XVI arriving in American stores Tuesday is already an international bestseller.

Jesus of Nazareth has sold more than 1 million copies since it was released in Italian, German and Polish versions last month. The book will eventually be published in 20 languages.

Jesus of Nazareth is the first book by the pope, who had published several books as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before his election as pope two years ago.

A study of the life of Jesus from his baptism in the Jordan River to his Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, the 400-page book is based on Old and New Testament Scripture, with a special emphasis on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Despite its biblical grounding, the book includes notable references to non-Scriptural and even non-Christian sources.

An analysis of the parable of the Good Samaritan invokes Karl Marx's concept of alienation; a chapter about the Sermon on the Mount includes the work of Rabbi Jacob Neusner, an American biblical scholar.

Pope berates Marxism, capitalism
He says both to blame for Latin America woes
Associated Press
APARECIDA, BRAZIL - Pope Benedict XVI blamed both Marxism and unbridled capitalism for Latin America's problems on Sunday, urging bishops to mold a new generation of Roman Catholic leaders in politics to reverse the church's declining influence in the region.

Ending a five-day trip to the most populous Catholic nation in the world, Benedict also warned that legalized contraception and abortion in Latin America threaten ``the future of the peoples'' and said the historic Catholic identity of the region is under assault.

Like his predecessor Pope John Paul II, Benedict criticized capitalism's negative effects as well as the Marxist influences that have motivated some grass-roots Catholic activists.

``The Marxist system, where it found its way into government, not only left a sad heritage of economic and ecological destruction, but also a painful destruction of the human spirit,'' he said in his opening address at a two-week bishops' conference in Brazil's holiest shrine city aimed at re-energizing the church's influence in Latin America.

He also warned of unfettered capitalism and globalization, blamed by many in Latin America for a deep divide between the rich and poor. The pope said it could give ``rise to a worrying degradation of personal dignity through drugs, alcohol and deceptive illusions of happiness.''

Benedict, speaking in Spanish and Portuguese to the bishops, also said Latin America needs more dedicated Catholics in leadership positions in politics, the media and at universities. He said the church's leaders must halt a trend that has seen millions of Catholics turn into born-again Protestants or simply stop going to church.

Fr. Pavone Calls on Pro-Abortion Catholic Democrats to Resign
Contact: Jerry Horn, Priests for Life, 540-220-0095

WASHINGTON, May 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- A group of Catholic Democrats in the US Congress recently objected to comments of Pope Benedict XVI about the fact that legislators favoring the legality of abortion should not receive Communion. They said, "Advancing respect for life and for the dignity of every human being is, as our church has taught us, our own life's mission."

Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, responded, "Faithful Catholics, as well as those in the pro-life movement from every denomination, have had enough of this double-talk. It is not possible to advance 'respect for life and for the dignity of every human being' while tolerating the dismemberment and decapitation of the human beings still in their mothers' wombs. These legislators do not only contradict their faith; they contradict the very meaning of public service, and should not be in public office any longer. If they cannot muster the will to protect defenseless children, they should resign. We don't need public servants who can't tell the difference between serving the public and killing the public."

Fr. Pavone added that Priests for Life will deliver to the offices of these legislators detailed medical descriptions of the abortion procedures and will challenge them to publicly acknowledge that when they say "abortion," they are talking about the same thing described in those medical texts, that is, the dismemberment and decapitation of tiny humans. Priests for Life will likewise share this information with every Federal and State legislator in the country.

Priests for Life is the nation's largest Catholic pro-life organization dedicated to ending abortion and euthanasia. For more information, visit www.priestsforlife.org.

Pope Benedict XVI Meets With Ex-President of Iran
By IAN FISHER

ROME, May 4 — Pope Benedict XVI met today with Iran’s former president, Mohammad Khatami, who spoke here earlier in the day about the “very deep” wounds between Muslims and Christians.

The two men were originally scheduled to meet last fall, but the meeting was canceled in the uproar over a speech the pope gave in Germany that offended many Muslims. Today, at a conference here on intercultural dialogue, Mr. Khatami was asked whether the tensions raised after that speech had abated.

“Unfortunately, the wounds of this world are too deep, and can’t be closed easily, and maybe only one meeting is not enough,” he said, according to the ANSA news service. “But there is a common effort to try to close them.”

After the meeting at the Vatican, which lasted half an hour, the church issued a statement saying the men had “paused to reflect on the importance of a serene dialogue among cultures, intending to overcome the grave tensions that mark our times.”

In his speech in Regensburg, Benedict quoted a passage written by a medieval Byzantine emperor, including a reference to Islam as “evil and inhuman.” The pope said later that he had not intended to offend Islam, and he apologized for sparking the angry reaction that broke out in parts of the Muslim world.

The Vatican statement today said that the two men also discussed “the necessity of strong initiatives” for peace in the Middle East, mentioning specifically the regional conference taking place now in Egypt on ways to stabilize Iraq.

The statement said that the men discussed one of the pope’s chief concerns: the problems facing Christians in the Middle East, where their numbers in places like the Iraq and the West Bank have been declining rapidly in recent years.

Mr. Khatami, who served in office from 1997 to 2005 and was seen as a reformer, met with other top Vatican officials today as well, including its secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

New York Times

Vatican calls verbal attack on Pope "terrorism"

By Robin PomeroyWed May 2

The Vatican's official newspaper accused an Italian comedian on Wednesday of "terrorism" for criticizing the Pope and warned his rhetoric could fuel a return to 1970s-style political violence.

In an unusually strongly worded editorial, L'Osservatore Romano said a presenter of a televised May Day rock concert, which is sponsored by Italy's labor unions, had launched "vile attacks" on Pope Benedict in front of an "excitable crowd."

"This, too, is terrorism. It's terrorism to launch attacks on the Church," it said. "It's terrorism to stoke blind and irrational rage against someone who always speaks in the name of love, love for life and love for man."

At the concert, held every year in front of the Saint John in Lateran basilica -- Rome's cathedral where Pope Benedict sits as bishop -- one of the presenters, Andrea Rivera, spoke out against the Pontiff's stand on a number of issues.

"The Pope says he doesn't believe in evolution. I agree, in fact the Church has never evolved," he said.

He also criticized the Church for refusing to give a Catholic funeral to Piergiorgio Welby, a man who campaigned for euthanasia as he lay paralyzed with muscular dystrophy. He died in December after a doctor agreed to unplug his respirator.

"I can't stand the fact that the Vatican refused a funeral for Welby but that wasn't the case for (Chilean dictator Augusto) Pinochet or (Spanish dictator Francisco) Franco," he said between musical acts at the open-air concert.

The latest salvo between the Vatican and its critics in Italy comes a few days after the head of Italy's bishops' conference, Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, received a bullet in the post after making comments that his critics say compared homosexuality with incest and pedophilia.

The Osservatore said Rivera's monologue came amid growing anti-clericalism in Italy which included graffiti and Internet messages supporting the Red Brigades, the Marxist group involved in political violence particularly in the 1970s.

"Some people have even twisted (Bagnasco's words) to start an insidious 'war', a new season of tension, which is inspiring those who are looking for motives to return to taking up arms," the newspaper said.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a devout Catholic who is backing legislation to give legal rights to unmarried couples, including homosexuals -- a bill opposed by the Church -- called for calm.

"We have to have calm and good sense," he told reporters. "Unfortunately the rhetoric has continuously been getting harsher over recent months. This country doesn't need it."

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited.

God can live without limbo

Before letting limbo go entirely, it might be worth a last glance as a medieval/modern example of the church’s humanity, its imagination and its grudging ability to admit that it is wrong.

It is the lot of humans, of course, to set about trying to figure out these matters of salvation, puzzling through the gray areas where no texts apply and no divine intervention seems apparent. So it was with the problem of babies who died before having the capacity to do evil and before being baptized, and thus cleansed, in the catechism’s words, of the taint of original sin. What to do with these babies? Medieval thinkers devised a place -- limbo -- a spot not quite heaven and not quite hell where, as the CNS story on puts it, “denizens enjoy natural happiness but not the ‘beatific vision’ of the creator.” ( See story)

It was, in short, an attempt to figure out the mind of God regarding creatures who had not been subjected to all of the church’s rituals and those who had the misfortune to have been deprived of the Christian message.

The problem was that, inventive as the scheme may have been, it shortchanged the mercy of God, a not unimportant aspect, one suspects, in this business of salvation.

Any Catholic school kid in the United States a certain number of decades ago knew all about limbo, and it may be well to point out that, to our knowledge, there was no nun ready at the fourth-grade level to draw distinctions between it and other more defined truths of the faith. We knew precisely where those unfortunate unbaptized souls were going.

It took us centuries to come to the realization that perhaps these most inventive theologians of the past might have been wrong in their reading of the mind of God.

Even Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, apparently had trouble with the concept. In an interview while head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he said, “Limbo was never a defined truth of the faith. Personally -- and here I am speaking more as a theologian and not as prefect of the congregation -- I would abandon it, since it was only a theological hypothesis.”

There is, it is worth noting on the side, more than a small advantage in being the one setting or interpreting the rules. No one, as far as we know, accused the then-cardinal of being a cafeteria Catholic.

Much is being made now of what this new document says about the pope’s demeanor and ability to adapt.

Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese, who felt the sting of Benedict’s discipline when the priest was forced out as editor of the order’s America magazine, referred to the recent statement of the International Theological Commission as “a sensitive and pastoral response,” noting that parents mourning the death of a child “will no longer be burdened with the added guilt of not having gotten their child baptized quickly enough.”

He said the development also “shows that Benedict is not afraid to look at something that has been taught in the church for centuries and say it is not at the core of Catholic belief.”
John L. Allen Jr., in an online analysis (NCRcafe.org) considers the document one of the recent papal “surprises.” But then he goes on to say, as well, that the International Theological Commission, might not have had the nerve to be so bold in overturning a long-held concept had members not known ahead of time of the pope’s disposition toward the issue.

But why might they have been less bold if their theological investigation and reflection led them to that conclusion? If something isn’t true can it be less not true because a pope doesn’t believe it, or more not true because he does?

But we divert.

The real news is that everyone finally agrees -- after years of study by 31 theologians from around the world and 41 pages of explanation -- that a concept most Catholics, it can be ventured, had long ago thrown into the dustbin, indeed belongs there.

We at NCR hope God is pleased that the church has restored his capacity for exercising infinite mercy. It must have been a grand moment in heaven.

On earth, we hope the ongoing lesson is that we should not be too quick to absolutely proclaim what God has in mind for his creation or how severely God judges those who don’t fit all the categories created over time to determine who’s in the community and who’s out, who can gather around the table and who must be excluded.

Maybe we’ll learn to give God great latitude when it comes to dispensing mercy.

National Catholic Reporter, May 4, 2007

More about the Pope's Shoes

Pope visits Italy's "Shoe City", gets 15,001 pairs
Reuters - Sat Apr 21, 2007

Pope Benedict got 15,001 pairs of shoes on Saturday. During a visit to this northern city known as Italy's shoe capital, a local consortium gave one pair for himself and 15,000 more pairs for the needy around the world.

The Pope was given red loafers designed and manufactured by the Moreschi firm and made from kangaroo hide.

Those destined for the poor include boots and other types of footwear. Local industrialists are due to send them directly to charities chosen by the Vatican.

Pope Benedict last year made headlines in the fashion media after reports that some of his shoes were designed and donated by top Italian fashion houses such as Prada but the Vatican has never confirmed this.

The Pope's footwear, usually red or burgundy, is called the "shoes of the fisherman" since popes are the successors of St Peter the Apostle, who was a fisherman.

Shoe manufacturing is a vital part of Vigevano's economy. It boasts a shoe museum illustrating the centuries of shoe making in the area, which began in small shops in the 16th century and grew to industrial scale in the 19th century.

You can bet I'll be doing some book
shopping on May 15th!!

Pope's Book A Hit On First Day

"Pope Benedict XVI's new book sold more than 50,000 copies on its first day on sale Monday - the pontiff's 80th birthday - said the Italian publisher Rizzoli, which has decided on another printing. Rizzoli said yesterday the new edition would bring the printing to 420,000 copies. The 448-page book was published in German, Italian and Polish. An English-language edition is due on May 15 and translations are planned for 16 other languages."

from The Guardian (UK)

80th birthday bash - Huge crowd in attendance at St. Peter's Square as Pope Benedict gives thanks for 'not brief' life

Pope Benedict XVI is driven through the crowd at the end of his birthday Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Sunday. AP Angelo Carconi

By FRANCES D’EMILIO, Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict gave thanks for his 80 years of life dedicated to the church with a special Sunday Mass, a celebration tinged with nostalgia which drew a huge crowd to St. Peter’s Square.

The Vatican had invited rank-and-file faithful to the late-morning Mass on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica to help the pontiff celebrate both his 80th birthday today and the anniversary of his April 19, 2005, election to the pontificate.

Joseph Ratzinger, who would take the name of Benedict as pontiff, was born April 16, 1927, in Marktl Am Inn, a riverside town in the Bavaria region of Germany.

Thousands of pilgrims from Bavaria attended the Mass, and German echoed in the ancient alleys leading to the Vatican as groups streamed to the square. Some of his fellow countrymen and women wore traditional dress, including feather-trimmed hats; others waved German flags.

Benedict told the crowd they were joining him in a reflection of his “not brief” life.

Acknowledging their participation, the pope said he was extending, “my most sincere thanks, from the depth of my heart, to the entire church, which, like a true family, especially in these days, surrounds me with its affection.”

Benedict’s reserved, almost shy style, came through in his homily. In contrast to his late predecessor, John Paul II, who would often speak informally of his youth in Poland, Benedict sounded almost apologetic that he was striking a personal note, however brief, in a religious service.

“The liturgy should not serve to talk about one’s ego, of one’s self,” Benedict said.

He thanked his late sister, Maria, and his retired choirmaster brother, Georg, for being steadfastly close to him.

“I give thanks in a special way because, from the first day, I was able to enter and grow in the great community of believers” in God, Benedict said. He noted that he was born at Easter time, when Christians celebrate in joy their belief in Christ’s resurrection.

Benedict appears to carry his years well. He walks briskly, stands through long public ceremonies, and his first book written as pontiff goes on sale today.

Right after Benedict’s election as pope, his brother expressed worry about the toll that the burdens of the papacy might take on his brother’s health. But Benedict’s stamina seems to be holding up despite his rigorous schedule.

On Wednesday, he will receive U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the Vatican, and next weekend he will make an overnight pilgrimage to northern Italy. In early May, he will travel to Brazil, where the traditionally strong Catholic Church is losing some faithful to Protestant evangelical churches.

While there are no indications that Benedict suffers from any serious or chronic medical problems, there have been ailments in the past – including a 1991 hemorrhagic stroke.

Among the pope’s birthday presents was a Gospel holder decorated with gold and precious stones from Munich-Freising Cardinal Friedrich Wetter and a more secular gift – 80 bottles of specially brewed Bavarian dark beer and an equal number of steins, carried in the luggage of another bishop from the diocese on a train filled with German pilgrims.

The pope smiled as he gazed across the sea of faithful gathered under brilliant sunshine.

Yellow and white are the official Vatican colors, and yellow pansies were lined up in perfect order across the basilica’s steps. Clusters of yellow daffodils brightened the gray cobblestones elsewhere in the square.

The future pope spent most of his earlier years studying and teaching theology in Germany and later trying to ensure that Catholics kept to doctrinal correctness in two decades as a top aide to John Paul II.

In his first two years as pope, Benedict has waged a vigorous church campaign against same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia. He has cracked down on church clerics whose writings were found not to correctly reflect Vatican teaching. Benedict also has called for the use of more Latin in the church, including some prayers by the faithful.

---

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Faith, Reason, Evolution, and Creation

Pope Benedict 'believes in evolution'

Pope Benedict has aired his views on evolution fo the first time - and says he partially believes Darwin's theories.

The Pontiff said science had narrowed the way life's origins are understood and said Christians should take a broader approach to the question.

However, he did not adopt a strictly scientific view of the origins if life, believing instead that God created life through evolution.

He said he "would not depend on faith alone to explain the whole picture".

As well as praising scientific progress, the Pope's views, published in a new book 'Schoepfung unt Evolution' (Creation and Evolution), did not endorse the creationist, or 'intelligent design' view of life's origins.

Those arguments, proposed mostly by conservative Protestants and derided by scientists, have stoked recurring battles over the teaching of evolution in the US. Some European Christians and Turkish Muslims have recently echoed these views.
Pope Benedict, a former theology professor, is quoted in the book as saying: "Science has opened up large dimensions of reason...and thus brought us new insights.
"But in the joy at the extent of its discoveries, it tends to take away from us dimensions of reason that we still need.

"Its results lead to questions that go beyond its methodical canon and cannot be answered within it."

"The issue is reclaiming a dimension of reason we have lost," he said, adding that the evolution debate was actually about "the great fundamental questions of philosophy - where man and the world came from and where they are going."

Speculation about Pope Benedict's views on evolution have been rife ever since a former student and close advisor, Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, published an article in 2005 that seemed to align the Church with the 'intelligent design' view.
Intelligent design argues that some forms of life are too complex to have evolved randomly, as Charles Darwin proposed in his 1859 book The Origin of Species.
It says a higher intelligence must have done this but does not name it as God.
Scientists denounce this as a disguised form of creationism, the view that God created the world just as the Bible says.

US courts have ruled both creationism and Intelligent Design are religious views that cannot be taught in public school science classes there.

In the book, Benedict defended what is known as 'theistic evolution', the view held by Roman Catholic, Orthodox and mainline Protestant churches, that God created life through evolution and religion and science need not clash over this.

"I would not depend on faith alone to explain the whole picture," he remarked during the discussion held at the papal summer palace in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome.
He also denied using a 'God-of-the-gaps' argument that sees divine intervention whenever science cannot explain something.

"It's not as if I wanted to stuff the dear God into these gaps - he is too great to fit into such gaps," he said in the book that publisher Sankt Ulrich Verlag in Augsburg said would later be translated into other languages.

Schoenborn, who published his own book on evolution last month, has said he and the German-born Pontiff addressed these issues now because many scientists use Darwin's theory to argue the random nature of evolution negated any role for God.
That is a philosophical or ideological conclusion not supported by facts, they say, because science cannot prove who or what originally created the universe and life in it.

"Both popular and scientific texts about evolution often say that 'nature' or 'evolution' has done this or that," Benedict said in the book which included lectures from theologian Schoenborn, two philosophers and a chemistry professor.
"Just who is this 'nature' or 'evolution' as (an active) subject? It doesn't exist at all!" the Pope said.

Benedict argued that evolution had a rationality that the theory of purely random selection could not explain.

"The process itself is rational despite the mistakes and confusion as it goes through a narrow corridor choosing a few positive mutations and using low probability," he said.

"This...inevitably leads to a question that goes beyond science...where did this rationality come from?"

Answering his own question, he said it came from the "creative reason" of God.

More about Faith and Reason and Evolution and Creation

Evolution can't be proven: Pope Benedict
Associated Press Wed. Apr. 11 2007

BERLIN — Benedict XVI, in his first extended reflections on evolution published as pope, says that Darwin's theory cannot be finally proven and that science has unnecessarily narrowed humanity's view of creation.

In a new book, "Creation and Evolution," published Wednesday in German, the pope praised progress gained by science, but cautioned that evolution raises philosophical questions science alone cannot answer.

"The question is not to either make a decision for a creationism that fundamentally excludes science, or for an evolutionary theory that covers over its own gaps and does not want to see the questions that reach beyond the methodological possibilities of natural science," the pope said.
He stopped short of endorsing intelligent design, but said scientific and philosophical reason must work together in a way that does not exclude faith.

"I find it important to underline that the theory of evolution implies questions that must be assigned to philosophy and which themselves lead beyond the realms of science," the pope was quoted as saying in the book, which records a meeting with fellow theologians the pope has known for years.

In the book, Benedict reflected on a 1996 comment of his predecessor, John Paul II, who said that Charles Darwin's theories on evolution were sound, as long as they took into account that creation was the work of God, and that Darwin's theory of evolution was "more than a hypothesis."

"The pope (John Paul) had his reasons for saying this," Benedict said. "But it is also true that the theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory."

Benedict added that the immense time span that evolution covers made it impossible to conduct experiments in a controlled environment to finally verify or disprove the theory.
"We cannot haul 10,000 generations into the laboratory," he said.

Evolution has come under fire in recent years by proponents -- mostly conservative Protestants -- of "intelligent design," who believe that living organisms are so complex they must have been created by a higher force rather than evolving from more primitive forms.

The book, which was released by the Sankt Ulrich publishing house, includes reflections of the pope and others who attended a meeting of theological scholars at the papal summer estate in Castel Gandolfo in early September.

The pope's remarks were consistent with one of his most important themes, that faith and reason are interdependent.

"Science has opened up large dimensions of reason ... and thus brought us new insights," the pope wrote. "But in the joy at the extent of its discoveries, it tends to take away from us dimensions of reason that we still need.

"Its results lead to questions that go beyond its methodical canon and cannot be answered within it," he said

Text of Pope Benedict's Easter speech

By The Associated PressSun Apr 8, 4:54 PM ET

The Vatican's official English-language translation of Pope Benedict XVI's "Urbi et Orbi" Easter Day address, delivered in Italian from the balcony in St. Peter's Basilica.

___

Dear Brothers and Sisters throughout the world,

Men and women of good will!

Christ is risen! Peace to you! Today we celebrate the great mystery, the foundation of Christian faith and hope: Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified One, has risen from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures. We listen today with renewed emotion to the announcement proclaimed by the angels on the dawn of the first day after the Sabbath, to Mary of Magdala and to the women at the sepulcher: "Why do you search among the dead for one who is alive? He is not here, he is risen!" (Luke 24:5-6)

It is not difficult to imagine the feelings of these women at that moment: feelings of sadness and dismay at the death of their Lord, feelings of disbelief and amazement before a fact too astonishing to be true. But the tomb was open and empty: the body was no longer there. Peter and John, having been informed of this by the women, ran to the sepulcher and found that they were right. The faith of the Apostles in Jesus, the expected Messiah, had been submitted to a severe trial by the scandal of the cross. At his arrest, his condemnation and death, they were dispersed. Now they are together again, perplexed and bewildered. But the Risen One himself comes in response to their thirst for greater certainty. This encounter was not a dream or an illusion or a subjective imagination; it was a real experience, even if unexpected, and all the more striking for that reason. "Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace be with you!" (John 20:19)

At these words their faith, which was almost spent within them, was rekindled. The Apostles told Thomas who had been absent from that first extraordinary encounter: Yes, the Lord has fulfilled all that he foretold; he is truly risen and we have seen and touched him! Thomas however remained doubtful and perplexed. When Jesus came for a second time, eight days later in the Upper Room, he said to him: "Put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing!" The Apostles response is a moving profession of faith: "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:27-28)

"My Lord and my God!" We too renew that profession of faith of Thomas. I have chosen these words for my Easter greetings this year, because humanity today expects from Christians a renewed witness to the resurrection of Christ; it needs to encounter him and to know him as true God and true man. If we can recognize in this Apostle the doubts and uncertainties of so many Christians today, the fears and disappointments of many of our contemporaries, with him we can also rediscover with renewed conviction, faith in Christ dead and risen for us. This faith, handed down through the centuries by the successors of the Apostles, continues on because the Risen Lord dies no more. He lives in the Church and guides it firmly toward the fulfillment of his eternal design of salvation.

We may all be tempted by the disbelief of Thomas. Suffering, evil, injustice, death, especially when it strikes the innocent such as children who are victims of war and terrorism, of sickness and hunger, does not all of this put our faith to the test? Paradoxically the disbelief of Thomas is most valuable to us in these cases because it helps to purify all false concepts of God and leads us to discover his true face: the face of a God who, in Christ, has taken upon himself the wounds of injured humanity. Thomas has received from the Lord, and has in turn transmitted to the Church, the gift of a faith put to the test by the passion and death of Jesus and confirmed by meeting him risen. His faith was almost dead but was born again thanks to his touching the wounds of Christ, those wounds that the Risen One did not hide but showed, and continues to point out to us in the trials and sufferings of every human being.

"By his wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:24). This is the message Peter addressed to the early converts. Those wounds that, in the beginning were an obstacle for Thomas' faith, being a sign of Jesus apparent failure, those same wounds have become in his encounter with the Risen One, signs of a victorious love. These wounds that Christ has received for love of us help us to understand who God is and to repeat: "My Lord and my God!" Only a God who loves us to the extent of taking upon himself our wounds and our pain, especially innocent suffering, is worthy of faith.

How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world! Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous material destruction are not lacking. My thoughts go to recent events in Madagascar, in the Solomon Islands, in Latin America and in other regions of the world. I am thinking of the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence, which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons. I look with apprehension at the conditions prevailing in several regions of Africa. In Darfur and in the neighboring countries there is a catastrophic, and sadly to say underestimated, humanitarian situation. In Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the violence and looting of the past weeks raises fears for the future of the Congolese democratic process and the reconstruction of the country. In Somalia the renewed fighting has driven away the prospect of peace and worsened a regional crisis, especially with regard to the displacement of populations and the traffic of arms. Zimbabwe is in the grip of a grievous crisis and for this reason the Bishops of that country in a recent document indicated prayer and a shared commitment for the common good as the only way forward.

Likewise the population of East Timor stands in need of reconciliation and peace as it prepares to hold important elections. Elsewhere, too, peace is sorely needed: in Sri Lanka only a negotiated solution can put an end to the conflict that causes so much bloodshed; Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability; in the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees. In Lebanon the paralysis of the country's political institutions threatens the role that the country is called to play in the Middle East and puts its future seriously in jeopardy. Finally, I cannot forget the difficulties faced daily by the Christian communities and the exodus of Christians from that blessed Land which is the cradle of our faith. I affectionately renew to these populations the expression of my spiritual closeness.

Dear brothers and sisters, through the wounds of the Risen Christ we can see the evils which afflict humanity with the eyes of hope. In fact, by his rising the Lord has not taken away suffering and evil from the world but has vanquished them at their roots by the superabundance of his grace. He has countered the arrogance of evil with the supremacy of his love. He has left us the love that does not fear death, as the way to peace and joy. "Even as I have loved you he said to his disciples before his death so you must also love one another" (cf. John 13:34).

Brothers and sisters in faith, who are listening to me from every part of the world, Christ is risen and he is alive among us. It is he who is the hope of a better future. As we say with Thomas: "My Lord and my God!" May we hear again in our hearts the beautiful yet demanding words of the Lord: "If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him" (John 12:26). United to him and ready to offer our lives for our brothers (cf. 1 John 3:16), let us become apostles of peace, messengers of a joy that do not fear pain, the joy of the Resurrection. May Mary, Mother of the Risen Christ, obtain for us this Easter gift. Happy Easter to you all.

___

Copyright Vatican Publishing House

THINKING BLOGGER AWARD


I am stunned. I have been nominated AGAIN for a Thinking Blog Award, this time for my Benedict Notes. It is Autrice who did the deed. This particular blog is more for me than anyone else. I leave it open for any who might find their way here.

A few days ago my primary blog was nominated and for any who find their way here, I invite you to there. I'm taking a short break right now as I have things on my mind that need attention.

I found this short article interesting because of my son's trip to east Russia a few years ago. The relationship between the Roman church and Orthodox church was very toxic. It was reassuring to see this.

A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Talks with Pope possible after rifts with Vatican healed -
Alexy II MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax)

Orthodox believers and Catholics share many positions and a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in the future should not be ruled out, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia said.

"I have not lost hope that relations between our churches will improve. I welcome Pope Benedict's statements about the desire to promote relations with the Orthodox Church made on any occasions following his election as head of the Roman Catholic Church," Alexy II said in an interview published by the Izvestia newspaper on Thursday. We have a common position "on many problems facing the world today. We can and must speak jointly to the world about Christian values. But prior to this, we must resolve problems that exist between us. This, I hope, will open the door to a meeting between the leaders of the two
churches," he said.

A meeting with the late Pope John Paul II was due to be held in 1997 in Graz, Austria, at which a joint statement was to be signed "condemning proselytism and rejecting the Uniate church as a way towards the churches' unification." "The Catholic side's abrupt renunciation of these provisions made the meeting senseless," Alexy II said.

Pope's aide blasts media coverage of church
Sat Mar 31, 10:39 AM ET

A top aide to Pope Benedict has blasted the media for highlighting the Vatican's views on sex while maintaining a "deafening silence" about charity work done by thousands of Catholic organizations around the world.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as secretary of state is effectively the Vatican's prime minister, also accused the media of deliberately misinterpreting the Pope's speeches, especially his Regensburg address last September which angered Muslims.

"We face an extremely grave problem. The church's messages are subject to a type of manipulation and falsification by some western media," Bertone said in an interview with Le Figaro Magazine published in Paris on Saturday.

"I see a fixation by some journalists on moral topics, such as abortion and homosexual unions, which are certainly important issues but absolutely do not constitute the thinking and work of the church," he said.

"Why this deafening silence?" he asked. "We have to say the press does not write much about the social and charity work of thousands of Catholic organizations around the world."
Bertone said journalists had twisted the Pope's Regensburg address -- in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor linking Muslims and violence -- into a speech on Islam rather than the discussion on the role God played in society.

"Pope Benedict's thoughts were neatly blacked out," he said. "Commentators who take phrases out of context in a misleading extrapolation are exercising their trade dishonestly."
He said the German-born Pontiff had made clear in Regensburg that he wanted "a healthy confrontation" with Islam and that several Muslim thinkers had welcomed his invitation to dialogue.

Bertone has been one of the church's harshest critics of Dan Brown's popular novel The Da Vinci Code. In the interview he also took aim at "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," a new film claiming that archaeologists have found the tomb of Jesus and his family and indications that Mary Magdelene, one of his followers in the gospels, was his wife.

According to the Bible, Jesus never married and rose bodily from the dead after his crucifixion.
"This is a strategy against the church and the divine figure of Christ," he said. "These campaigns try to sap the faith of Christian people and the trust the faithful have in the church."

The apocryphal gospels used as sources for popular books and films were not new discoveries but well-known books written a century or two after the original gospels, he said.

"Authors who try to sow confusion between these two different sources profit from religious ignorance," he said.

From Reuters News Services