Italian book assesses Benedict's papacy

I love Benedict. I thought I would not, but after listening to the press predict the worst of him, and then watching him closely during his visit to DC and NYC, I started paying more attention to his own words, rather than the words of everyone else. I think he is a much more liberal (in the classic sense) than he's given credit for, and he is thoughtful, humble, totally for Christ. I don't know what else we would want in a pope. I have discovered that I don't want a pope who is about serving and satisfying the times or trends. I want one who first serves God, and teaches us to do the same.

Yes, he has an image problem. Anyone who is counter-cultural will have one because the press does not understand counter-cultural, it only understands the trends, or pretends do. This is all falseness. The more I watch, the more I realize it. Benedict is busy with the truth, and we ignore that at our spiritual peril.

Unfortunately for the world, St. Benedict XVI won't be understood until he is gone. A true living image of a man crucified for the Truth.

He belongs to the Great popes of our history.

On Palm Sunday, they wanted to make Jesus their king. A few days later, Jesus had "an image problem."

Re Fabbri on the 'dispensatio' in the Kiesle case:

Fabbri was correct in pointing out that in 1985 Ratzinger declined to grant him laicisation and was not refusing to 'defrock' him.

You ask: 'why didn't we hear about it'?

In our CATHOLICA Forum (.au) on April 10 this year, on the basis of the Latin text, I pointed this out to our board members. But I also tracked down the translator in some US classics dept and pointed out his error, asking him to alert AP about it. He was gracious, but also pragmatic, advising me more or less that AP couldn't care less!

Our Holy Father is just perfectttttt. God bless him, protect him and guide him at all times. If he was looking for PR, then he is in the wrong business. But thank God, he is not.

It seems that a fellow namee Jesus of Nazareth and a few of his friends IE, Peter and Paul etc. had similar PR problems and were subsequently "crucified," by the pagans of their day, as well. It is apparent in this example that the more times change the more people stay the same.

I do not agree. The Pope needs no PR help. He has got the Holy Spirit to guide him. Modernists do not understand. Profets of old had bad PR in their time; that is how they became prophets.

God Bless Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church

Ratzinger has only himself to blame. His Papacy is dysfunctional and caters only to the most far right wing elements in the Catholic Church. He never should have been elected to fill the shoes of Peter. He is simply in over his head and it only seems to get worse with each new disaster that has his fingerprints attached. It really is time for him to retire and resign. He would be doing all of us a favor.

Dear Friends in Christ Jesus Our Lord

I have only a brief comment re: this article and the Italian critique of Our Holy Father. "God's Ways are not ours" If the Catholic church was interested in PR, the Mystical Body of Christ would have disappeared long ago. This Holy Father has stood against the tide of secularism and evil sweeping the US and the rest of the Western world. How sad that even our brethren hold themselves above the Vicar of Chirst on earth! Someday what we see now imperfectly because our sinful nature we will see perfectly when Our Lord reveals himself to each and every person.

Tom

May God Bless and Hold us in His Loving Arms illuminating our souls to the Truth, the Way and the Life

Standard angry, suburban, boomer.

Benedict as Pope has been just fine unlike his predecessor who's first order of business was disciplining people and then played the media like a fiddle while sex abusers were shuffled like a deck of cards