ZENIT has posted a homily given by then-Cardinal Ratzinger on March 18, 2005 in St Peter's Basilica. The topic was the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes—"The Church in the Modern World." Ratzinger's comments are especially timely in light of the sort of attacks that have been made on him, the papacy, and the Catholic Church since he was elected Pope:
We should not be surprised if the attitudes toward Jesus that we find in the Gospel continue today in attitudes toward his Church.
It is certainly true that today, when the Church commits herself to works of justice on a human level (and there are few institutions in the world which accomplish what the Catholic Church accomplishes for the poor and disadvantaged), the world praises the Church.
But when the Church's work for justice touches on issues and problems which the world no longer sees as bound up with human dignity, like protecting the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death, or when the Church confesses that justice also includes our responsibilities toward God himself, then the world not infrequently reaches for the stones mentioned in our Gospel today.
As Christians we must constantly be reminded that the call of justice is not something which can be reduced to the categories of this world. And this is the beauty of the pastoral constitution "Gaudium et Spes," evident in the very structure of the Council's text; only when we Christians grasp our vocation, as having been created in the image of God and believing that "the form of this world is passing away ... [and] that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new earth, in which justice dwells" ("Gaudium et Spes," No. 39), can we address the urgent social problems of our time from a truly Christian perspective.
"Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectation of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family grows, prefiguring in some way the world that is to come" (ibid., No. 39).
Another ZENIT piece, "How Cardinal Electors See the New Pope," contains quotes from several of the Cardinal Electors about Benedict XVI. Two of the American Cardinals said the following:
Cardinal James Stafford, major penitentiary of the Church, said having a new Pope was like having a father again.
"With the death of Pope John Paul II, the whole Church felt the absence of their universal father and now with Pope Benedict XVI, our father has returned and we rejoice, giving thanks to God in Jesus for that wonderful gift," said the 72-year-old American cardinal.
He too agrees that a Benedict XVI may be just what Europe needs.
"The tragedy of Europe is rooted in the eclipse of the Christian identity of individual Europeans and their society as a whole," Cardinal Stafford said. "Unfortunately that is being repeated in the EU. There is a kind of Christophobia, a fear of Christ, not just a withdrawal from him. …
"Pope Benedict will be able to bring to the people of Europe a new, rediscovered sense of the dignity of what it means to be a child of God -- to have been chosen by God in Christ to be his child."
But Cardinal Stafford insists that Benedict XVI's scope will not be limited to Europe. And a fellow U.S. cardinal, Archbishop Francis George of Chicago, agrees.
"This is a man who has a huge sense of history," said Cardinal George, 68. He recalled Benedict XVI's words: "I too hope in this short reign to be a man of peace and to be able to see to it that the world will be spared any future wars."
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