Traditionalist Academics Attack Pope Emeritus Benedict

[Open Heart]

Conservative Catholic dissidents, who have been attacking Pope Francis, showed their true colors recently by attacking retired Pope Benedict XVI, calling his writings "subversive" and "modernist." That's right, they think Benedict is a heretic.

In his new book, "Al Cuore di Ratzinger, Al Cuore del Mondo," the Italian philosopher Enrico Maria Radaelli goes after Joseph Ratzinger’s "Introduction to Christianity," one of Pope Benedict’s most popular books. Radaelli accuses him of embracing modern subjectivism by dabbling in Kant’s transcendentalism and Hegel’s "dialectical idealism."

Radaelli is joined in this attack by Monsignor Antonio Livi, dean emeritus of the faculty of philosophy of the Pontifical Lateran University.

Conservative Catholic dissidents attack Popes Francis and Benedict

 

[chevyontheriver]

Conservative Catholic dissidents, who have been attacking Pope Francis, showed their true colors recently by attacking retired Pope Benedict XVI, calling his writings "subversive" and "modernist." That's right, they think Benedict is a heretic.

In his new book, "Al Cuore di Ratzinger, Al Cuore del Mondo," the Italian philosopher Enrico Maria Radaelli goes after Joseph Ratzinger’s "Introduction to Christianity," one of Pope Benedict’s most popular books. Radaelli accuses him of embracing modern subjectivism by dabbling in Kant’s transcendentalism and Hegel’s "dialectical idealism."

Radaelli is joined in this attack by Monsignor Antonio Livi, dean emeritus of the faculty of philosophy of the Pontifical Lateran University.

Conservative Catholic dissidents attack Popes Francis and Benedict

Some of us who are troubled by pope Francis, on the other hand, have long been in the Ratzinger Fan Club. I was a fan well before he became pope, from back when 'The Ratzinger Report' first came out. His 'Introduction to Christianity' has a prominent place on my bookshelf. Not all who are unsettled by Francis have an issue with Benedict. I for one am not colored by that paintbrush. Nor the majority of new dissidents.

 

[Michie]

Some of us who are troubled by pope Francis, on the other hand, have long been in the Ratzinger Fan Club. I was a fan well before he became pope, from back when 'The Ratzinger Report' first came out. His 'Introduction to Christianity' has a prominent place on my bookshelf. Not all who are unsettled by Francis have an issue with Benedict. I for one am not colored by that paintbrush. Nor the majority of new dissidents.

Agreed. Plus, National "Catholic" Reporter is pretty much fake news. Even clergy have spoken out against it. So....

 

[chevyontheriver]

Some of us who are troubled by pope Francis, on the other hand, have long been in the Ratzinger Fan Club. I was a fan well before he became pope, from back when 'The Ratzinger Report' first came out. His 'Introduction to Christianity' has a prominent place on my bookshelf. Not all who are unsettled by Francis have an issue with Benedict. I for one am not colored by that paintbrush. Nor the majority of new dissidents.

And it is with great sadness that I consider myself a dissident now. Great humility when I consider how spiritually dangerous that is. I don't like being there, and never thought I would ever be such a thing. I am Catholic by the grace of God but it has become an irregular relationship. I go more often to confession, and I have more to confess.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Agreed. Plus, National "Catholic" Reporter is pretty much fake news. Even clergy have spoken out against it. So....

It has also been called the National Schismatic Reporter and the Fishwrap. My guess is that they wanted to paint everyone with doubts about Francis as whacko.

 

[Michie]

Agreed. But it is mostly a cult of personality with very little theological substance in my opinion. He is very political so those types that follow him are in hog heaven.

When Benedict was the pope, many on these very forums said things about him that would make your hair stand on end and little was said in his defense. Of course, it was baseless criticism but genuine questions about Pope Francis seems to be off limits unless you are ready to be put in the ranks of the whackos.

It has also been called the National Schismatic Reporter and the Fishwrap. My guess is that they wanted tp paint everyone with doubts about Francis as whacko.

 

[Rhamiel]

I should have guessed the article was written by a Jesuit

It is interesting that he disparages philosophy, making the joke about the philosopher and the scientist, and also lamenting that seminarians have to learn Classical Greek philosophy

 

[Michie]

His bio-
Thomas Reese

 

[Tomm]

I have been confused when I saw 2 Catholic News websites with similar names: NC Register and NC Reporter, until I saw this:

"... I would like your posters not to be confused between the "Reporter" & the "National Catholic Register". The "Register" is the publication which truely follows the Catholic Churches teachings. I just thought I had to set the record straight because as an Orthodox Catholic, the journalists from the "Reporter" just make me sick when I see them on Network Television."
(EWTN.com - National Catholic Reporter vs. National Catholic Register)

 

[Rhamiel]

I did not like the dismissive tone of the article

if you wrote about Jews or Eastern Orthodox in such a dismissive way you would be called hateful and not Christ-like
but talk about fellow Catholics this way and it is A-OK

quotes from the article

These folks are unhappy with everything that has happened in the church since the death of Pius XII in 1958 and the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

"these folks" what a very dismissive way to talk about philosophers and monsignors
sounds like he is talking about some guys gossiping at the barbershop

also the author uses quotation marks a lot in a way to ridicule his opponents

Livi thinks that "neo-modernist" theology (a slur used by conservatives to describe anything they don't like) has enveloped the church, infiltrating its seminaries, bishops' conferences and even the Vatican itself. This "heretical" view has infected all the documents of Vatican II and the teachings of post-conciliar popes, Livi argues.

treating neo-modernist as nothing but a slur means he does not have to address the charge
you do not argue against slurs, you just denounce the person who uses them
neo-modernist is not a slur, but a serious charge

They have absolute certitude in their views and are not open to new questions.

why do people act like doubting the faith is a virtue?

Luckily, Pope Francis does not take these critics seriously.

again, if this was said about the Pope in response to claims from Jews or Eastern Orthodox or even Protestants people would be loosing their mind, but about Catholics who try to take the Church seriously? well that is just fine
now even if these Catholics are wrong, they are Catholics who take the faith seriously in an age when very few Catholics take it seriously at all

 

[Charles in Ky]

NCR is a hotbed of dissidents.

 

[chevyontheriver]

NCR is a hotbed of dissidents.

But there are TWO NCRs.

 

[Charles in Ky]

The Reporter. Any orthodox Catholic can see their agenda.

 

[Open Heart]

I have been confused when I saw 2 Catholic News websites with similar names: NC Register and NC Reporter, until I saw this:

"... I would like your posters not to be confused between the "Reporter" & the "National Catholic Register". The "Register" is the publication which truely follows the Catholic Churches teachings. I just thought I had to set the record straight because as an Orthodox Catholic, the journalists from the "Reporter" just make me sick when I see them on Network Television."
(EWTN.com - National Catholic Reporter vs. National Catholic Register)

What a wonderful article (I personally did not find it dismissive at all -- only academic). It really gave me a great deal more background on the issue.

I'd LOVE to get my hands on that calligraphy by Tolkien and put it up on my wall.

Go Tolkien!

 

[Virgil the Roman]

I am trying to assume that he has since recanted or improved his theological stances, but Pope Benedict XVI was a Liberal and Modernist at Vatican 2, a Suit-and-tie cleric. He has authored literature in the past questioning aspects of the physical reality of the resurrection. Benedict XVI, while scholarly, and decent with respect to literature and intellectual depth and present fortitude with respect to the "dictatorship of relativism", isn't free from being suspect at times. These aren't the "Pius" Popes any longer. We've laboured under many erroneous men who've sat upon St Peter's Chair, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II included.

 

[chevyontheriver]

I am trying to assume that he has since recanted or improved his theological stances, but Pope Benedict XVI was a Liberal and Modernists at Vatican 2, a Suit-and-tie cleric. He has authored literature in the past questioning aspects of the physical reality of the resurrection. Benedict XVI, while scholarly, and decent with respect to literature and intellectual depth and present fortitude with respect to the "dictatorship of relativism", isn't free from being suspect at times. These aren't the "Pius" Popes any longer. We've laboured under many erroneous men who've sat upon St Peter's Chair, Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II included.

Benedict’s history is as a liberal peritus at Vatican II who came to see that all of that (the liberalism of Rahner and the like) was a break in continuity that he could not make. So there is a distinction between the early Ratzinger who traveled with the likes of Kung, and the later Ratzinger who was made a bishop. But even the earliest Ratzinger may not have been all that much of a flaming liberal. Check out Ratzinger Fan Club for details of his earliest work. My hunch is that there would not be too much there that would require a facepalm.

 

[Virgil the Roman]

Chevy, I am open to reading His grace's later works. Any good suggestions?

 

[chevyontheriver]

Chevy, I am open to reading His grace's later works. Any good suggestions?

The books on Jesus of Nazareth are profound. I have only a few seconds now, but if you search for 'Ratzinger Fan Club' you will probably be able to find a complete bibliography of his writings there.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

Truth and Tolerance (ISBN 978-1586170356) is an excellent book.

 

[chevyontheriver]

I am trying to assume that he has since recanted or improved his theological stances, but Pope Benedict XVI was a Liberal and Modernist at Vatican 2, a Suit-and-tie cleric.

Here's a bit of a timeline on Ratzinger, showing an affinity with Kung turning more conservative.

1962-65 Ratzinger is present during all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council as a peritus, or chief theological advisor to Cardinal Josef Frings of Cologne, Germany.
1963 Ratzinger moves to the University of Münster.

Dec. 16: Ratzinger's mother passes away.
1966 Ratzinger takes a second chair in dogmatic theology at the University of Tübingen. His appointment is vigorously supported and secured by fellow professor Hans Küng. Ratzinger had initially met Küng in 1957 at a congress of dogmatic theologians in Innsbruck, after recently reviewing Küng's doctoral work on Karl Barth. Says Ratzinger:I had many questions to ask of this book because, although its theological style was not my own, I had read it with pleasure and gained respect for its author, whose winning oppenness and straightforwardness I quite liked. A good personal relationship was thus established, even if soon after . . . a rather serious argument began between us about the theology of the council. (Milestones, p. 135.)

1968 A wave of student uprisings sweeps across Europe, and Marxism quickly becomes the dominant intellectual system at Tübingen, indoctrinating not only his students but many of the faculty as well. Witnessing the subordination of religion to Marxist political ideology, Ratzinger observes:There was an instrumentalization by ideologies that were tyrannical, brutal, and cruel. That experience made it clear to me that the abuse of faith had to be resisted precisely if one wanted to uphold the will of the Council (Salt of the Earth).

1969 Scandalized by his encounter with radical ideology at Tübingen, Ratzinger moves back to Bavaria to take a teaching position at the University of Regensburg. He eventually becomes dean and vice president and later, theological advisor to the German bishops.
Two of his most prominent students in these years was the Dominican Christoph Schönborn, who would later become editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and cardinal archbisohp of Vienna, and Fr. Joseph Fessio SJ, who would found Ignatius Press.

1972 Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henry De Lubac and others launch the Catholic theological journal Communio, a quarterly review of Catholic theology and culture.

1977 On July 24, 1976, Cardinal Julius Dopfner of Munich dies. On March 24, 1977, Ratzinger is appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising by Pope Paul IV. He is urged by his confessor to accept the office, and is consecrated May 28, the vigil of Pentacost. Ratzinger chooses as his episcopal motto the phrase from the third letter of John, "Co-Worker of the Truth," reasoning:For one, it seemed to be the connection between my previous task as teacher and my new mission. Despite all the differences in modality, what is involved was and remains the same: to follow truth, to be at its service. And because in today's world the theme of truth has all but disappeared, because truth appears too great for man, and yet everything falls apart if there is no truth. (Milestones, p. 153).

June 27 - Ratzinger is elevated to Cardinal of Munich by Pope Paul VI.

Several of the periti of Vatican II started up a journal called 'Consilium' which was all about, IMHO, fostering the 'spirit of Vatican II'. Ratzinger instead goes with others like von Balthazar and De Lubac to start 'Communio' which has instead the idea of 'resourcement' behind it, that is bringing in even more from the Fathers rather than throwing out the traditional. I think you are right about the earliest Ratzinger being a liberal, but the light went on in 1968-69 and by 1972 he was of a different sort.

By the way, Kung wrote one good book, and that was the one on Karl Barth. That one book of his is a worthy read, although Barth's own reaction to it was a bit of surprise. As to everything else Kung wrote, I'd skip it unless doing opposition research.