The Spiritual Vision of Pope Benedict XVI

That is the subtitle of Dr. Robert Moynihan's brand new book entitled Let God's Light Shine Forth (Doubleday, 2005; 197 pp.). The book, like Gaul, is divided into three parts: a fascinating overview of the vision of the new Pope based on interviews and personal contact with the new Pope; an anthology on diverse topics with snippets of the thoughts of the new Pope; and finally a reprinting of the new Pope's eloquent first messages and homily from that extraordinary month of April 2005.

The author is a highly qualified Vaticanista or Vatican specialist who runs the monthly magazine Inside the Vatican from Rome. He is obviously sympathetic to the views of the former cardinal and new Pope which shows in the book and in the fact that Moynihan has interviewed Benedict "more than twenty times," according to the dust jacket. And, by the way, Moynihan has a Yale Ph.D. in medieval studies. From all indications, Moynihan is not an outsider, is not a thinly educated journalist, and, most important of all, takes the Church seriously as a divine institution that transcends political, economic, or sociological analysis. In other words, unlike many other pretenders, Moynihan has the qualities of a reliable observer of Church matters.

The book is a good introduction to the new Pope for those who do not have the time to start wading through his long list of past publications. What themes should the reader look for in reading? One major theme is liturgy. The book shows that the new Pope is serious about the restoration of the role of Latin, along with the vernacular, in the liturgy of the Latin rite (see the Catholic Analysis post for June 27th). In addition, the new Pope believes "that the ecclesial crisis in which we find ourselves today depends in large part on the collapse of the liturgy" (p. 28). You can see the basis for this view in the fact that Benedict considers the worship of God the most important activity for mankind (p. 64) and even considers liturgy "the great theme of the Scriptures" (p. 34). In fact, he advocates a "liturgical-ecclesial reading of Scripture" (p. 34).

And speaking of biblical interpretation or exegesis, Moynihan quotes some great and wise lines from the new Pope on the reductionist scholarly search for the historical Jesus that supposedly is hidden somewhere in our Scriptures:

[T]his "historical Jesus" is an artifact, the image of his authors rather than the image of the living God. The Christ of faith is not a myth; the so-called historical Jesus is a mythological figure, self-invented by various interpreters.

Ratzinger, at p. 91.

In addition to the central theme of liturgy, I was struck by the repeated references to dignity both in Moynihan's efforts to help us understand the Pope and in the Pope's own words. Here are some of these references. The role of the family as understood by the Pope is, in Moynihan's words, to inculcate in the child "the sense of his dignity and uniqueness--a chief task of all parents, brothers and sisters" (p. 7).

What a startlingly different conception of the family's purpose from what we unfortunately see so often: indifference to sexually provocative dress, indifference to premarital sex, indifference to sexual cohabitation. To instill a sense of dignity and uniqueness is to instill the great and essential virtue of chastity. Loving parents and siblings do not stand by, with folded arms, while family members, especially highly vulnerable females, prostitute themselves. Instead, a truly loving family takes a strong and assertive stand and witness, regardless of the outcome, for the dignity and uniqueness of those entrusted to them by God-- even after children pass the age of 18.

Another reference to the true basis of human dignity is evident when the Pope reflects on his own father:

My father, even if he had little formal education, was a person who, intellectually speaking, was absolutely superior, of great superiority even in comparison with academics. He had his convictions, which he deepened through study, of course.

Ratzinger, p. 12.

Many of us have met such persons, whether in or out of our own families. Our dignity does not come from formal academic training, honors, or degrees. Many of us have met highly immoral persons with all of these achievements on proud display. Dignity comes from superior convictions.

Dignity is also one of the bases for the Pope's opposition to the now common method of in vitro fertilization: "Such fertilization is in itself illicit and in opposition to the dignity of procreation and of the conjugal union, even when everything is done to avoid the death of the human embryo" (Ratzinger, p. 59; emphasis added). The Pope also finds that seeking to "create human beings has turned man into a kind of merchandise" that results in "profoundly debasing human dignity" (p. 106; see also p. 143).

Dignity (in Latin, dignitas meaning "worth" or "worthiness") is a key concept in the Christian tradition that emanates directly from the facts of creation in God's image, the Incarnation, and the bodily Resurrection of Christ. Specifically feminine dignity in the Christian tradition also arises from the fact of Mary's role in the Incarnation, her immaculate conception, and her assumption into heaven. Christian revelation is "shot through" with our worth, our dignity. What much of Western secularism offers, instead, is a despairing and panicked egotism that insults our own worth and that of others.

In contrast, the vision of Benedict XVI calls us to defend our own worth and that of those around us. That concern with dignity and worth is also central to what we have noted above concerning liturgy: liturgy must reflect the worth of God who is perfect beauty, truth, and goodness. And so it is not surprising that shoddy liturgy has gone hand in hand with shoddy morals--for our own worth is ultimately derived from the worth we ascribe to God. If we play loosely with God, we will play loosely with ourselves and with others.