Three nuggets from pope's Germany trip

"We must honestly admit that we have more than enough by way of structure but not enough by way of Spirit,” he said. “I would add: the real crisis facing the Church in the western world is a crisis of faith. If we do not find a way of genuinely renewing our faith, all structural reform will remain ineffective.”

Benedict XVI is hopelessly wrong. It is not the amount of structure that is the problem. It is the kind of structure. Currently we have a arrogant, corrupt, self-serving and unresponsive hierarchy that is choking off the spiritual renewal that BXVI claims he wants and Christianity so desperately needs. If we look to the Medieval period spiritual renewal and structural reform went hand in hand. To say we can have one without the other is nonsense.

WHERE ARE THE NUGGETS? Danke, John, but really. The best you can point to is the pope insulted Lutherans needlessly, indicated to the poor to form Pay, Prayer and Obey "communities" and gave carefully selected abuse victims a few minutes of his rehearsed PR "empathy" routine. Is that all you could find? Please keep digging. Of course, the pope passed over the real gold of Christian humility and love intentionally. To pick up these nuggets, he would have had to have risked some power and privilege that he and the Roman clique of Bertone, Sodano and Levada are fighting tooth and nail to salvage...................... Sadly, the Holy Spirit has had to resort to the International Criminal Court as an instrument of reform. A new dawn is rising. The gold clerical vestments may soon be replaced by orange prison jumpsuits. Perhaps the pope will then have time to read his old friend Hans Kung's Der Spiegel interview or the discusson about it in Commonweal or even Hans' new best selling book, "Is It Too Late To Save The Church?" soon to be available in English................. I will give the Web links since it appears that NCR refuses timidly to note Hans Kung's interview, even though he is the most significant and widest read living Catholic theologian and has been featured on NCR many times. Hans has achieved this, notwithstanding the constant efforts of the Roman clique and their theologian and media lapdogs to suppress his works.............................................. Please see http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=15277 and http://spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,787325.00.html ............. Evangelization is not at all about extravagant, carefully staged Hollywood-style papal visits, youth rallies and unwarranted beatifications. After the confetti is gone and the balloons burst, the reality remains. A Roman clique desparately clinging to the coercive monarchical power Constantine tragically gave Rome. But Constantine and the monarchy are long dead and the rule of law is blowing through Rome. The rule of law has arrived. Soon we we have a Church that we can be proud of once again.

Two points stand out. There seems to be no awareness indicated by Benedict XVI of the numerous Roman Catholics addressing him vigorously from Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Ireland, for example, in various increasingly well-organized voices of clergy, theologians, and laity unless the downplaying of structural reform was aimed at them. If his call for a renewal of faith was intended to relate to the explicit statements from growing numbers within the Church in Europe and elsewhere, much clearer explanation of the linkage is required for any impact.

You write with informed care about what "Benedict implied…", "[i]ndirectly, the Pope seemed to be suggesting ….", "[t]hough the Pope didn't spell it out, he was almost certainly referring to ….", the "pope's indirect warning….", " "'[t]he suggestion seemed to be ….", and "Benedict seemed to propose ….".
In the context of prepared speeches in an important locale, it is telling that so much potentially significant was couched in such vague terms, left for unbounded hypothesis by friend and foe about what might have been intended. An unfortunate omission was the Lombardi post-speech followup which served usefully in past travels to clarify what the Pope had actually been talking about when he spoke.

More nougats than nuggets, Mr. Allen. Another major exercise in stonewalling. How long will the Germans and their bishops put up with this? Archbishop Zollitsch's brinkmanship on behalf of Catholic divorcees went nowhere. He and a great many others seeking changes (not only Germans) received "une petite correction". We have been designated fakes, less worthy of the attention of Rome than sincere agnostics. Perhaps it all comes down to the old adage "When in Germany, do as the Romans do". [Pace St. Ambrose] NPC

And so the Vatican Spin Office claims the problems are not with the hierarchy or the structure, but with the People!
Incredible.
Does anyone believe this Spin?

And so the Vatican Spin Office claims the problems are not with the hierarchy or the structure, but with the People!
Incredible.
Does anyone believe this Spin?

The comments concerning pentecostal and evangelical fundamentalist churches were quite surprising (and welcome) to this mainline Anglican. It is about time someone pointed out that emperor has no clothes and no theology either.

I now expect RC traditionalists and folks such as Mr. Weigel and Abp. Chaput to furiously spin those remarks of Benedict. I am sure there will be desperate attempts to distinguish American fundies from third world ones. After all conservative Catholics are in a hot sweaty embrace with that branch of Christianity in North America's culture wars. But Benedict, wearing the hat of Joseph Ratzinger, German theologian, praised Lutherans and Luther himself, for at least having a theology and asking the big questions (even if, from your RC view Luther came up short). Ratzinger says, correctly, that an organization whose theology can be written on the back of a post-card (and a small one at that) is not really a church. The "big question" at most evangelical shops is the quality of the "praise" band.

Benedict clearly has far more sympathy for the kind of mainline Protestant churches loathed here in North America by self-described "orthodox" Catholics and holier than the Pope Catholic temple police. I don't expect Benedict's hammering of evangelicals will cause traditionalist Catholics to reconsider, because like their evangelical fundie friends, politics and culture wars will always top theology and ecclesiology.

"Is there space for God, for a reality beyond self interest and the human will to power...........?" Is there even the remotest possibility that this pope can look into a mirror and ask himself the same question? Is there even a more remote possibility that the question will resound throughout Vatican halls?

Dear John,

I was heartened to read that the Holy Father spoke of small communities of faith. I am a lay Catholic Bible teacher. I lead Bible Study Groups in CT and RI. I am a cradle Catholic, nourished in the faith by my grandparents, parents, a parish school (with the CND de Montreal, my readings in the lives of the saints, a Catholic college and a recent degree in Biblical Studies, Hebrew & Greek from Yale Divinity School. In the six years I have been leading groups in Catholic parishes, I have seen the spiritual friendship with each other and with Jesus grow amongst and bind the groups together. My experience is that people are hungry for opportunity to ponder the Word of God in a small, intimate group. They do share how faith transforms and informs their every day lives. They are so grateful.

I want to suggest that Bible groups at the parish level is a very powerful model of "small communities" of faith. I wish the leadership would call for this. Dei Verbum did. We don't need priests, per se, for this. They can be lay led, with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

In Christ, Maryann Knag, Darien, CT

As a member of a small Christian community for over 20 years . we cannot now thank the Pope/Vatican for the recent recognition. For 30 years we were called 'commie' by the Vatican's most orthodox supporters. Now BXVI thinks we should give it a try. Let him start by apologizing for his predecessors calling us 'commies'. Words have consequences as if he didn't already know that.

In Germany the number of people thst left the RCC in 2010 was ten times higher than Allen wrote. The number exceeded the number of baptisms for the first time. I am afraid this pope will not change that in the coming years. His visit was uninspired and from a to z a one way performance. No dialogue whatsoever. It is disturbing...

While I endorse Benedict's hopes re spirituality I find myself at odds with him on structural reform. Has he ever considered that those very structures are both limiting and damaging of spiritual reform and renewal, that some of the structures are contributing to scandal within the Church?

The need and right of local churches is surely on a par with local communities. Without recognition of local episcopal groups to encourage and give shape the spirituality, indeed the spiritualities, of large portions of the Church, is and are both controlled and impoverished by Rome's dominant European theology.

The very Gospel of today talks about issues of structure as the apostles quarrel about who is the greatest. This is not an issue to be dismissed only as one of spiritual misdirection. It is one that involves misunderstanding of structure and a spirituality of service to the littlest ones in the Church. BOTH!!!

Hmm. "A crisis of faith." Not sure what that means. According to Pilch's commentaries on the culture of the ancient Middle East, "faith" was almost a synonym for "loyalty." A crisis of loyalty? Now how would that spell itself out? Listened to a long sermon by a Protestant who said that sin was the result of lack of faith. Would have made more sense if he had said a lack of loyalty. Do I believe in Christ...or am I loyal to Christ?

If the piece on the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements is a nugget it surely must stick in the throat of the "organized" churches. It must be
clearly seen that the rise of these movements have been due to the miserable failure of the more organized confessions to have any really personal and humane face. Sadly I do not see any sign of the Hierarchical Structure doing
anything close to competing for membership. Like it or not, and I am not into
'enthusiastic religion', the Pentecostals are meeting a need and they are
satisfying a hunger for less autocratic systems. They will not get it of course since those who impose their will on others are blind to the fact that
they are using people no matter how they couch the message. I feel that within the next decade we will essentially have a Lay Catholic Church option.
God Bless.
TomC.

To: Mr. John L. Allen, Jr.

As it is notoriously difficult to find reliable and accurate religious statistics, I accept at face value that “Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity now estimated to claim nearly a billion followers.” However, because of the “Church tax” system, the situation is quite different in Germany. Your statement that 18,000 Catholics have abandoned the Church there seems to be a bit off the mark. There are hundreds of Websites that claim that some 181,000 German Catholic left the Church in 2010. If possible, it would be nice if you could correct this obvious mistake in your article.

One might summarize John Allen's three points:
1) The pope came.
2) He saw.
3) But he did not conquer.

"Benedict insisted that the true need of the moment isn’t structural reform of the church but spiritual renewal."
______________________________________________________________________________

When, in human history, have we seen spiritual renewal without reform of structure?

History is passing by Pope Benedict XVI at light speed. He does not have a grasp of the moment.

..all structural reform will remain ineffective.” Here is why we sit in a mess. If you keep telling yourself that it is all prayer and renewing our faith, you will never let the Spirit do her work! We do not have enough ways of structure...we have a structure that does not promote spiritual ways rather it promotes control from the top down without dialogue and that s why we see our spiritual communities drying up...they are leaving in rather large numbers. We recently had a new pastor installed in our parishes and without any consultation to anyone in the parish, he makes changes that do not reflect who we are and where we've been. It's not that we are doing anything wrong, but they are not "what he likes" as if our parish is for him. Does this follow the structure (i.e., the pastor as final say)? It probably does, but people have already started to leave because they have been ignored as a fully functioning part of the community and because the pastor is nothing more than a dictator without "spirit." Not very Christ-like and certainly he does not allow "by way of Spirit."

For me, the popes concern about Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity is very well founded. I too view them as being almost dangerous ala Sarah Palin(Pentecostal and another killer for Christ, ala Christian Soldier-ism ala the cult of American militarism). However, I view him and his immediate predecessor as being very dangerous to America and even to the entire world with their Reagan Republican mindset, besotted by their almost worship of GOP Neocon American Exceptionalism!!!

This pope and his immediate predecessor are the ones most, most, MOST responsible for these groups gaining in power and especially in their gaining of so much political power in America and in the still, but not for long, very Catholic Latin nations.

If the pope is truly worried about his turf being invaded by these groups he must look to himself as the cause and for the blame. Why? Because he and his predecessor have fostered and actually USED them in the USA for his own purposes. Secondly, because he and so many popes have kept the Latin peoples on the edge of poverty, ever since the Spanish invasion and even killed them to stop "godless Socialism, Communism and Marxism" Meanwhile, the groups of which the pope is concerned, are doing the exact opposite, they are caring for the Latin citizens bodies(Socialism), thus making converts from poverty AND Socialism/Communism/Marxism and to Pentecostalism and Evangelical Socialism. Everywhere the pope sees Socialism/ Communism/ Marxism they see converts.

Or, to put it another way: WAKE UP Holy Father, you, you YOU ARE VERY MUCH the cause of that which you are concerned about. People can only tolerate poverty for so long. IOW, Holy Father you LOSE!!! And you lost by your own doings!!! IOW, you have only yourself and your predecessors to blame. OR, IOW, denounce Liberation Theology and pay the price. But wasn't it you who longs for a smaller church. And so you shall get exactly what you long for.

Or, IOW, sin in the short term, repent forever. That's what narrow mined short sighted thinking gets you. Truly you are a Republican. TRULY, your moral relativism has caught up with you, yet again. Mayhap, you are finally going to learn some of the ramifications(fall-out or collateral damages) of short term ideological blindnesses.

Or, IOW, you have painted yourself into a canonical corner and now you pay the price for your "creations" that go far beyond the Laws of God(Ten Commandments) and violate the core teachings of Christ(peace,love, tolerance and "Do unto others...). Or, iow, ignore your pastoral responsibilities at you own peril. And iow, Your power politics are consuming you.

"If we do not find a way of genuinely renewing our faith, all structural reform will remain ineffective.”
================================
Precisely. In other words, if reason does not hold faith accountable, and faith does not hold reason accountable, "structural reform will remain ineffective."

Christian reformation must lead the way in affirming commonalities in all denominations's. Christianity self-destructs when it is conflicted in its repesentation of the Christian Gospel. Structures will evolve only when they require faith and reason to mutually support the reform of each other in their joined evolution. The precondition of denomonational reconciliation (reform) must be in process if structures are evolve and be effective.

The current situation of a secularized Europe is a result of the "integral humanism" that was very much pushed as part of the Vatican II "renewal".

The Vatican in the "renewal" period pressured the disestablishment of the Catholic Church in countries that recognized Catholicism as the state religion.

"The integral humanism of Jacques Maritain... is a universal fraternity of men of good will belonging to different religions or none (including even those who reject the idea of a Creator).

"It is within this fraternity that the Church should exercise a leavening influence without imposing itself and without demanding that it be recognised as the One True Church

"This idea of universal fraternity is neither original nor new, it was already advanced by the philosophers of the 18th century, and by the Revolutionaries of 1879. It is also the fraternity beloved of Freemasonry and even of the Marxists."

From the reports of Pope Benedict's last day in Germany, it has been learned he has firmly rejected any calls for institutional reform. A direct slap at the clergy and people of Austria, Germany, Ireland, and elsewhere demanding basic reforms within the Church. The pontiff has thrown down the gauntlet and good Catholics have no choice, but to take it up and challenge the pontiff directly. Benedict's rejection of any reform measures now leaves thinking Catholics of conscience with no choice but tp seek Benedict's resignation, or have him deposed and sent into exile by a Great Reforming Council.

Benedict's call for a Church to become little more than an exhibit of Madame Toussaud's wax works, reliving a past which is gone, taking us to a museum piece liturgy, or creating a medieval display worthy of the Victoria and Albert Museum with prelatical wax puppets with strings pulled by a senile old man in Rome and his cronies becomes what's left of the Catholic Church is totally unacceptable. It is truly alarming.

A Council of Reform must be called, with or without Benedict's blessing, just as Constantine called the Council of Nicea without receiving "permission" from the bishop of Rome. The Presbyterate of the Laity will have to call it themselves.

No matter how much he may will it, Holy Church is not Benedict's personal prelature, or some plaything belonging to an aging bureaucrat surveying a fiefdom existing to satisfy his every whim, and a vehicle constructed purely from his own blue prints. It appears the pope is bent on navigating Peter's Barque not by calling for oarsmen to help him sail his ship to a save haven, but, instead insisting upon an unquestioning crew chained to his demand for total obedience to man his vessel, and mesmerized by his policy of neo-Ultramontanism and neo-Jansenism.

From the Daily Mail I quote, "Pope Benedict XVI admitted to the troubled reputation of the Catholic church as he led the the third and final Mass of his visit to his native Germany on Sunday." Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041638/Pope-admits-questionable...

The real nugget from the Pope's trip to Germany is that he realizes
"the troubled reputation of the Catholic church". Unfortunately he gave no plan for correcting the reasons for the "troubled reputation." He has made the first step by at least admitting there is a problem. THAT IS A BIG STEP for this pontiff. Hopefully the Pope will address the problem before it becomes a mortal wound for the our church.

Howard

Thank you for your inspiring articles.

But I am appaled at reading the comments of your readers. If they consider themself part of the Catholic Church - Please, I am Catholic but not Roman, by no means, I am Piemontese -, but I am not always sure, they demonstrate the Catholicity of the Church around 360 degrees.

Have you ever noticed that in the Gospel of Mattew we read 5:44 'but I say unto you, love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you' and so also in Mark and Luke but not in the Gospel of John where instead we read 13:34-35 (and 15:17) 'A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.' Why? It might be that at the time when this Gospel was written the enemy was "one another". The enemy was already within not outside (them that persecute you).

This certainly is true for our time and your blog is a demonstration: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples"?

I love very much these two quotes:
Romans 12:10 " In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another;"
1 Pt 1:22 "Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently"

One another: You, the Pope, your readers, the bishops, everyones.
Domenico

PS. As I am Italian, actually Piemontese, I know the Bible in Italian, so I have quoted the English from the ASV.