Light of the World
Posted by Rebecca Teti in Reviews on Monday, November 22, 2010 4:00 PM
Peter Seewald’s new book-length interview with the Pope garnered interesting headlines over the weekend!
In case you missed the flap, no, the Pope didn’t change or even slightly soften Church teaching on the morality of condom use.
Read more about that here. I want to focus on the book itself.
Light of the World: The Pope, The Church and The Signs Of The Times
I haven’t read the new volume, but from the many excerpts popping up, I can see it will be the equal of the others, which are marvelous. I couldn’t agree more with the way Archbishop Chaput characterizes them:
While Seewald asks blunt questions, the Pope’s trust in him is clearly high. The resulting exchange between the two men is bracing and memorable, an absolutely mandatory read for anyone who wants a sense of the Petrine ministry and its burdens from the inside.
And yet, one comes away from this text with a mix of exhilaration and sympathy. The exhilaration springs from meeting in Benedict an extraordinary Christian intellect, articulate and unfiltered; a man prudent, generous, and penetrating in his judgment, candid in his self-criticism, brilliant but accessible in his thinking, and unshakeable in his faith. The sympathy flows from knowing that, in the current media climate, almost anything Benedict says may be hijacked to serve other agendas.
I won’t focus on those agendas here, as I’ve nothing to add that isn’t being amply covered elsewhere in the blogosphere.
I’ll simply say that years ago I had one image of Joseph Ratzinger. Then I started actually reading him, and discovered what Peter Seewald did after talking to him at length. Seewald told Edward Pentin in an interview:
Benedict XVI is still always falsely portrayed. Fundamentally, he is a very dear man and extremely lovable. Here is someone who is inexhaustible, a great giver. And if I’m honest, I know of few young people who are so fit, so productive, so alive, so curious and in a certain sense so young and as modern as this seemingly old man on the throne of Peter.
The lengthy series of questions on the abuse crisis will be of interest to almost everyone. On that Archbishop Chaput says:
Seewald deals early and extensively with the Church’s sexual abuse scandal. Benedict’s answers are patient, tranquil, humble, and honest. This Pope is not a leader who downplays the damage done to innocent children and families, or evades responsibility, or makes excuses for evil actions. He is well aware of the scope of sexual abuse in other religious communities and public institutions, but he does not use that as an alibi for the sins of Catholic clergy. Nor does he ever stray from the priority of healing for victims.
But the interview is wide-ranging, with remarks on the liturgy, armageddon, China, Fatima, Islam—something for everyone!
What’s really of interest to me, though—my own experience from reading the previous two interviews—is that in Joseph Ratzinger we meet a Christian. A real Christian. He speaks informally in these interviews—no pronouncements are being made and we’re at liberty to agree or disagree with his line of thinking. But what a soul comes through on the pages!
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