Papal Posting

I wish I had some interesting stuff to report on, but I don’t.

Oh, one exciting thing…mom and dad bought me my plane ticket for Vegas in June, so I will see a number of my readers there! I’m looking forward to that!

For most of today, I was help leading a retreat for the Confirmation class I have been helping with at a local parish. Fr. John and I split up different parts of it, but I did a number of the reflection parts. A majority of my talk was on the Holy Spirit, Fruits of the Holy Spirit, Gifts of the Holy Spirit and virtue.

Tidbit by Thomas: And while speaking about church stuff…What do I think of all this stuff about Pope Benedict and this child abuse case? I think 95% of the media hype is thrown out of proportion for it. As usual, the media is looking to rip into the last scandal, whether it be secular or non-secular. For one thing, I would be nice for the reporters to understand their subject matter. For one thing, NBC nightly news reports have been horrible in their semantics, which I think just shows the distortion of their reports. Over the last few days I have heard them say the pope will “preach” Mass, gave a “sermon,” and poorly compare papal infallibility to items it cannot be compared.

First, one does not “preach” Mass. Technically, the priest, or pope, “celebrates” Mass. (Other appropriate terms are to “do” Mass or “say” Mass.) However, one does not “preach” Mass. To “preach Mass” sounds so foreign, that it is actually quite comical.

Second, Catholic Masses have “homilies,” but not a “sermon.” A homily can be a type of a sermon, but not all sermons are homilies. Where’s the hair splitting, you ask? Well a homily is based on the scripture readings, while a sermon is some type of spiritual or moral exhortation which does not have to be based on any scripture readings. Priests, bishops and the pope are ordered to do a “homily” during Mass; they have to talk about at least one of the scripture readings in their and thus give a “homily.” What’s the fuss over talking about at least one of the scripture readings? Well as Mrs. Hanrahan can tell you, not so long ago (40 years ago), sermons were given during Mass. There would be 2-3 readings from the Bible and the priest was not required to mention any of them in their sermons. So there was a disconnect, and often Catholics were criticized for not being based on Scripture. So today, homilies are a critical distinction to show how important the Bible is to Catholicism. (And also, if the pope does not apologize in a homily for any mishap he may have had in any of these cases, don’t be surprised because that’s not the point of a homily.)

And finally, as NBC seemed to try to hint, the pope has the divine gift of papal infallibility, but he is now being tossed around like a secular politician, and because of that Catholics may start to question their faith. However, just because the pope has a gift of infallibility, he is only infallible in matters of faith and morals, and not in things such as saying the weather, pastoral decision making, or even determining the type of music to be used in Mass. Assuming then-Cardinal Ratzinger even knew about the priest in Germany, the decisions about moving pedophile priests would not under the canopy of his infallibility. And as mentioned, he wasn’t even pope at the time of the decision making.

Ok so there’s my rant against the media. That being said, the cardinals electing Pope Benedict knew they were getting a theologian as a pope and not a charismatic pastor. So if you haven’t figured it out already, I don’t think the pope should resign over any of this.

As with any bureaucracy, then-Cardinal Ratzinger, while in name would have been responsible for some of the decisions, he probably just signed his name to some of the stuff which lower peons wrote/decided. More evidence can come to light and I can be wrong, but with what I know I think most of this attack again Benedict has been blown out of proportion. He should somewhere along the line apologize for bad decision making, but that’s about it.