Benedict reads the riot act

The bishops have come to realise that every time they meet Benedict XVI, alone or as a group, they must be ready for anything: accolades, rebukes, surprises.
One example of a collective accolade is the one the pope extended to the Italian bishops’ conference.
On Monday, November 14, Benedict XVI sent a message to the more than 200 bishops of the Italian bishops’ conference, who were meeting in a general assembly in Assisi. At the end of the message, he said: “I would like to say that I greatly appreciate the thorough insight and the united effort with which you assist your communities and the entire Italian nation in acting always for the true good of persons and society. I encourage you to continue along this way with serenity and courage, to offer to all the light of the Gospel and the words of Him who is the way, the truth, and the light for us and for the world.” Among the things that can be glimpsed within the pope’s words is his positive assessment of the campaign conducted by the Italian bishops, guided by their president Cardinal Camillo Ruini, in defense of the inviolability of every human being from the first moment of life. It is a campaign that culminated last June 12 with the defeat of a four-part referendum aimed at legalising the selection and elimination of human embryos.
But a few days earlier, another group of bishops, those of Austria, did not receive accolades from the pope. They got a stiff rebuke.
On November 5, receiving the Austrian bishops who had come to him one by one on their ad limina apostolorum
visit – as the bishops of each nation are required to do every five years – and summing up his conversations with them, Benedict XVI urged them to “change course”.
To begin with, the Pope exhorted them to “look reality in the face with courage, without letting optimism, which is always a lure for us, represent an obstacle to calling things by their names with complete objectivity and without embellishment”.
He then recalled the “sorrowful” fact that “the process of secularisation which is now increasingly significant for Europe did not even pause at the doors of Catholic Austria. Adherence to Church teaching is diminishing among many of the faithful, and this leads to loss off certainty in the faith and a lessening of reverential fear for the law of God.” After this, he asked: “So, then, what can we do?” And he responded: “On the one hand, there is a need for a clear, courageous, and enthusiastic confession of faith in Jesus Christ, who is still alive here and now within his Church, and in whom, according to its nature, the human soul oriented toward God can find its happiness. On the other hand, there is a need for numerous missionary initiatives, both large and small, which we must undertake in order to bring about a change of course.” After that, he read them the riot act: “As you well know, the confession of the faith is one of the bishop’s primary duties. ‘I did not draw back’, St Paul says in Miletus to the pastors of the Church of Ephesus, ‘from the task of proclaiming to you the whole counsel of God’.
“It is true that we bishops must act with discretion. Nevertheless, this prudence must not prevent us from presenting the Word of God in all its clarity, including those things that are heard less willingly or that consistently provoke reactions of protest and derision.
“You, dear brothers in the episcopacy, know this well: there are some topics relating to the truth of the faith, and above all to moral doctrine, which are not present in the catechesis and preaching of your dioceses to a sufficient extent, and which sometimes, for example in pastoral outreach to youth in the parishes or groups, are either not confronted at all or are not addressed in the clear sense understood by the Church.
“Thanks be to God, it is not like this everywhere. Perhaps those who are responsible for the proclamation [of the Gospel] are afraid that people may draw back if they speak too clearly. However, experience in general demonstrates that it is precisely the opposite that happens. Don’t deceive yourselves! Catholic teaching offered in an incomplete manner is a contradic tion of itself and cannot be fruitful in the long term.
“The proclamation of the Kingdom of God goes handin-hand with the demand for conversion and with the love that encourages, that knows the way, that teaches that with the grace of God even that which seemed impossible becomes possible. Think of how, little by little, religious instruction, catechesis on various levels, and preaching can be improved, deepened, and, so to speak, completed!
“Please, make zealous use of the Compendium and the Catechism of the Catholic Church! Have the priests and catechists adopt these tools, have them explained in the parishes, have them used in families as important reading material! Amid the uncertainty of this period of history and this society, offer to men the certainty of the fullness of the Church’s faith! The clarity and the beauty of the Catholic faith are what make man’s life shine, even today! This is especially the case when it is presented by enthusiastic and exciting witnesses.”
In short, if Benedict XVI used such urgent words with the Austrian bishops to remind them to give a “clear, public, and resolute witness”, it is evidently because he thought this was his urgent duty. Joseph Ratzinger knows Austria – which is halfway between Italy and his birthplace of Bavaria – very well.
But apart from the accolades and rebukes, Benedict XVI also has some big surprises in store for the bishops. The most unexpected of these left the core leadership of the Latin American bishops speechless, last October 14 in Rome.
Halfway through the synod on the Eucharist, during a break in the work, the Pope met with cardinals Francisco Javier Errázuriz, archbishop of Santiago, Chile, president of the Latin American bishops’ conference (Celam); Pedro Rubiano, archbishop of Bogotá; Cláudio Hummes, archbishop of San Paolo, Brazil; and Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The topic of their conversation was the upcoming general conference of Celam, the fifth of these after the previous ones held in Rio de Janeiro in 1995, in Medellin in 1968, in Puebla in 1979, and in Santo Domingo in 1992.
The conference was already set for 2007, but the place and the exact date remained to be determined. The four bishops were prepared to hold it in Rome, in order to ensure the Pope’s participation in the work.
But Benedict XVI said to them all of a sudden: “It will be held in Brazil,” and immediately asked what the country’s most venerated Marian shrine is. “The Aparecida,” they replied. And the Pope: “In Brazil, at the Aparecida, in May. I’ll be there.” The four cardinals were taken completely by surprise. And so were the leaders of the Roman Curia – the Pope hadn’t discussed the matter with any of them. What induced Benedict XVI to choose Brazil may have been what Cardinal Hummes said at the synod a few days earlier: “The number of Brazilians who declare themselves Catholics has diminished rapidly, on an average of one per cent a year. In 1991 Catholic Brazilians were nearly 83 per cent, today and according to new studies, they are barely 67 per cent. We wonder with anxiety: how long will Brazil remain a Catholic country? In conformity with this situation, it has been found that in Brazil there are two Protestant pastors for each Catholic priest, and the majority from the Pentecostal Churches. Many indications show that the same is true for almost all of Latin America and here too we wonder: how long will Latin America remain a Catholic continent?” But the choice of the Aparecida also left the four cardinals speechless. That is indeed the most frequently visited shrine in Brazil, but it is located in an isolated part of the state of San Paolo, and it lacks the structures capable of hosting a large-scale continental congress.
But none of the four cardinals dared to object. The Pope had decided, and his reasons were all too clear. He has at heart a vigorous renewal of the Catholic faith on the Latin American continent, and symbols are very valuable in this regard.
There’s time to build a convention centre on the plain of the Aparecida, before May 2007.