Pope Benedict Round Up

There's been a bunch of news recently, so I thought I'd pull it together. First, a bunch of Italians decide to show he's not alone:

Benedict said he was comforted by such a "beautiful and spontaneous show of faith and solidarity" and again denounced what he called the "sin" that has infected the church and needs to be purified.

Citing estimates from Vatican police, the Vatican press office said 150,000 people had turned out for the demonstration organized by an association of 68 Italian lay groups.

Despite a drizzling rain, the balloon- and banner-toting faithful from around Italy overflowed from the piazza; banners hung up on Bernini's colonnade encircling the piazza read "Together with the pope," and "Don't be afraid, Jesus won out over evil."

An interesting piece by John Allen suggesting a defense of Benedict might demand a criticism of JPII. Further moves made in the US to try to bring the Vatican into the courts for US abuse:

Jeffrey Lena, an attorney representing the Vatican in a Kentucky court, argues that the lawsuit is based on the inaccurate notion that bishops are, in effect, employees of the Vatican. He warns that a secular court should not become involved in the doctrinal questions that underlie the description of a bishop's authority.

In attempting to bring suit against the Holy See, plaintiffs' lawyer William McMurry has argued that the 1962 Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis is a "smoking gun" that proves a worldwide conspiracy of silence on sexual abuse. But Lena counters that while the 1962 document governed canonical proceedings in cases involving clerical misconduct, 'the canon law did not bar reporting of these crimes to the civil authorities." Moreover, he contends, there is no evidence that officials in the Louisville archdiocese were even aware of that document at the time the plaintiffs reported being abused.

The Vatican brief also argues that the Holy See, as an independent state, is protected by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which restricts lawsuits against foreign powers in American courts.

There may have been a jihadi plot to try to kill the pope:

Italian authorities expelled two Moroccan students in April, saying that they were threats to national security.

Mohammed Hial and Errahmouni Ahmed, students at the University of Perguia, were deported after an investigation into Islamic radical groups. According to Panorama magazine, the interior ministry argued that the pair were plotting an attempt on the life of Pope Benedict XVI.

The students-- who are now free in Morocco-- have denied the charges, and announced plans to contest their expulsion.

And the Pope continues to wisely draw attention to the key part of this scandal for Catholics--internal reform and purification of the Church:

In his message to the German Church the Pope compared the sex-abuse scandal to the weeds that choke the wheat in the Gospel parable. "Weeds exist also in the bosom of the Church and among those whom the Lord has called to His special service," the Pope said. "But the light of God has not gone out, the good wheat has not been choked by the weeds of evil."

David Warren has an interesting take:

As Pope Benedict said on the plane, "forgiveness" does not cut it as a response to this failure. There must also be justice, which involves punishment.

But again, he is saying something that will astound some people, because the average modern, poorly-informed, nominal Christian may be under the impression that Christianity itself reduces to "forgiveness," and "tolerance," and "not judging people." And this is utter crap.

A quick read through the four Gospels should persuade any half-intelligent reader that Jesus never preached tolerance at all, and that the forgiveness hones to a very sharp edge. Note, in particular, His remarks on Damnation, which are almost too candid for delicate modern ears.

Chances are, that if my reader is a Catholic in, say, Ottawa these days, he is a rather pallid one, mired in the sop of a mild nostalgia. Even church attenders often show little knowledge of basic Church teachings. If it weren't for Christ, we'd all walk away...

Over the last few weeks, he has accepted the resignations of quite an interesting number of bishops, over the latest Church scandals.

But the problem of laxity towards sexual perverts is only the most blazing, immediate issue. The rest of our city is also on fire.

The core problem is not sexual perversion. That is one big symptom of something deeper and broader: the collapse of real faith across the Western world, that was built on it. One might blame "modernity" or "materialism" or "scientism" for this collapse. But a good Catholic will blame the Church. And Pope Benedict is a good Catholic.

To understand this, a non-Catholic must imagine what Church and world look like, from a genuinely Catholic point of view. This will require a brief but vigorous mental exercise. Let's do it now.

To the faithful Catholic, the Church was founded, and is ultimately directed, by Jesus Christ. It is therefore a divine institution, and that strangely uncompromising assertion of the "real presence" in the Mass follows from this: not just a symbol, but The Thing Itself. That is the central task of the Church: to administer the Sacraments, as spiritual food, to those who will partake.

But the same Church has another aspect. It is also a human institution, with human staff. This Church has lasted, continuously, vastly longer than any other specific institution in human history; but it has been populated by fallible humans the whole time.

How fallible? As Hilaire Belloc said, by way of proving the divine origin: "Any purely human institution run by such a group of knaves, fools, and cutthroats wouldn't have lasted a fortnight."

We will know the Catholic Church has got its act together, when it is once again building a civilization, founded in Christian faith, through conspicuously voluntary efforts.