Ubi Petrus

Via a pointer from Fr. Z (here) I’ve just started digging through the vast collection of documents at Intratext Digital Library. At least so far it appears to have a great deal of documents, although it certainly reminds me of just how many languages I don’t know, chief among them being Latin. So much to learn, so little time…

So I can’t sleep and decided I’d continue reading Pope Benedict (then Ratzinger)’s book Principles of Catholic Theology. It is, as one would expect, chock full of wonderful statements to reflect on. Here’s another one, concerning the Sacrament of Baptism:

The historicity of faith signifies at the same time its communality and its power to transcend time: to unite yesterday, today and tomorrow by trust in one and the same God. Hence it can also be said that the word introduces the factor of time into our relationship with God just as the material element introduces the cosmic sphere. And, with time, it also brings in other persons who, in this word, express their common faith and experience the nearness of God. Here, too, the sacramental structure corrects an attitude that is typical of the modern age: the tendency to confine religion not just to the purely spiritual but also to the purely individual. As though we ourselves had invented God, we erect a contradiction that is ultimately fatal between tradition and reason, between tradition and truth. Without tradition, without the context of a living history, the human individual is without roots, is striving for an autonomy that is in conflict with his nature.

Those words ring out even to this day. Truly God’d Providence has provided us with this Pope, at a time when contemplation and reflection have been needed as never before. Deo gratias.

Rocco lets us know Vox Clara is meeting this Monday and first on their agenda is an initial review of the amended translations of the Order of the Mass. We can only hope to swiftly receive these gifts of the Spirit as we have suffered too long with a series of less-than-perfect translations. Hopefully the faithful will receive this with an open mind.

Sorry, my Latin is too week to come up with a translation for “online”. Via Amy, via Pontifications the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is now online. Having been too lazy (and poor – okay, really more lazy than poor) I’m eagerly looking forward to having the opportunity to go through this.

I’ve just started working my way through Pope Benedict XVI’s Principles of Catholic Theology which is, as is the case for several of the books by then-Cardinal Ratzinger, a collection of previous works. So far I’ve found it to be much like the other works of his I’ve read – layer upon layer of theological reflection, each deeper and more critical than the last. Permit me a rather extended quote (all emphasis mine):

But even without exhaustive analysis it should be abundantly clear that anyone who would construct Christianity from formulas – from the drawing board – is on the wrong track. The malady from which the Church suffers today is, to a large extent, the attempt to achieve her renewal by this and similar means. Nothing living comes into existence in this way, least of all, of course, the Church herself. She came into existence because someone lived and suffered his word; by reason of his death, his word is understood as word par excellence, as the meaning of all being, as logos. Even the primitive Curch did not shrewdly devise formulas of faith and then promulgate them – had she done so, they would soon have gathered dust in their manuscripts as so many formulas do today in books that become obsolete almost as soon as they are published. The Church’s creed has been developed, above all, from the existential context of the catechumenate, and it was in this context that it was promulgated. The life embraced the word, and the word formed the life. Indeed, it is only to one who has entered into the community of faith that the word of faith reveals itself. Our principal need today is not primarily new formulas; on the contrary, we must confess to a superfluity of unheeded words. Our principal need is for a reconstruction of the existential context of catechumenal training in the faith as the source of a common experience of the Spirit that can thus become also the foundation of realistic reflection. Undoubtedly, this will give rise to new formulations in which the central truths of the Christian faith will be expressed in a way that is both easily remembered and easily understood. Even more important than the brief answers that can be found in any catechism will be a cohesive logic of faith in which even partial answers have their place. Formulas live by the logic that supports them; but logic lives by the logos, the meaning, which does not reveal itself without the cooperation of life – it is bound to the “circle” of communio that can be penetrated only by the union of thought and life.

Gerald continues his series on the documents of Vatican II here, continuing his riff on Lumen Gentium. This is great stuff – maybe I’ll be able to do this kind of work some day. Maybe. Anyway, one of his big topics in this post is the concept of salvation outside the Catholic faith, and the teachings of the Council on this issue. The folks over at Totus Pius tackle this subject a little differently; if you read this one, be sure to read the comments as well.

If you’re a parent, you may want to think twice about reading this one. I don’t know about you, but every time I hear about something terrible happening to someone else’s child my mind races to imagine it happening to one of mine and it’s never a good experience. Fr. Jonathan has a wonderful post on just this subject, having recently attended a wake for a friend’s five year old child.

Then came the clincher. It seems Joshua was beyond his years in wisdom, and likewise his mother. She told it like this:

“I remember him asking me about Jesus’ death: ‘Why did He have to die on the cross? Why did they take His clothes off? Why did He have blood on Him? Did it hurt? Why did the soldiers do that to Him?’ And I would give him the answers over and over again:

He did it because He loves us. He did it because He is always with us. He did us to help us because He knew we would suffer. So that we would know that our God also knows how to suffer. He is always so close to us, especially when we suffer.”

Requiescat in pace, Joshua. God apparently had a very short mission for you, which one can only believe you accomplished with flying colors.

George Will has written a beautiful piece that appeared in our local paper here on the impact of dementia. Maybe this strikes me a little more than some because my maternal grandfather just passed away only a short time ago after suffering through what we believe to have been Alzheimers and its associated dementia. He makes a very poignant quote:

“All that we can know about those we have loved and lost,” Thornton Wilder wrote, “is that they would wish us to remember them with a more intensified realization of their reality. What is essential does not die but clarifies. The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.”

It’s running rampant throughout the Catholic blogosphere – the Vatican has let slip that they intend to confront the liturgical abuses that have been making nails-on-chalkboard references for many yeaers. Archbishop Albert Malcom Ranjith Patabendige Don, in talking to I Media news agency in Rome demured in stating how exactly this would be done, but it seems the time is certainly drawing near. The original CWNews story is here, Gerald at The cafeteria is closed is here, WDTPRS notes it here, American Papist covers it over here.

It will be interesting to see how many try to turn this into another Humane Vitae and completely ignore it. I can only hope those are few and very far in between and that they are quickly brought back in line. As Terry Francona would say, “this putt-putt stuff has gotta go”.