www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall The Cardinal Ratzinger fanclub forum

Hey board, this one might be more for the Occidentals than the Orientals but I'll post it here regardless. Sorry if its out of place Administrator, just tell me and I'll refrain from using the Byzantine forum in this manner in the future.

I'm sure, thanks to the media coverage of the conclave as of late, that amongst the members of byzcath.org there is an awareness that one member of the Roman Curia has a fanclub: His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. Unfortunately though this knowledge is not limited to Catholics and it seems thanks to the widespread news reports of 'the Cardinal with a fanclub' many from without the Church are now privvy to this information.

Recently, the forum there has been swamped by secularists, fundamentalists and other individuals whose sole ambition it seems is to annoy, irritate and berate members of the forum. Some have resorted to direct attacks on the person of not only His Eminence Cardinal Ratzinger but also the late great Pope John Paul II. Some of the comments, particularly in the case of the latter, have been to my mind unreasonably distasteful.

I am all for freedom of speech. Nonetheless, I think when individuals seek out a forum to join knowing its members are faithful to the magisterium simply for the task of making attacks upon the Church and its hierarchs that something must be done to drown them out. Therefore I am appealing to anyone on the Byzantine forum who can be bothered to sign up to http://p217.ezboard.com/btheratzingerforum and defend the Church

Dera Myles,

Please change the name of this thread at once!

"Pope Benedict XVI!"

Alex

OK, now that we know that the good Cardinal has been chosen to be the Pope of Rome, does anyone have any comments about how this will affect the relationship between the churches East - West?

Michael

Dear Michael:

IMHO, we should not see any changes to Rome's Ostpolitik under the new Pope Benedict XVI.

Yours,

hal

This remark attributed to then Cardinal Ratzinger is quoted on the net here and there. I didn't find the original source.

Benedict XVI is a child of the ressourcement. In his book spirit of the liturgy he speaks about many subjects using even Eastern sources like Evdokimov and the 1551 Council of 100 Canons to discuss iconography etc. He is probably the most knowledgeable theologian in the Church. He has a great respect for the Church past and present, east and west and has always thought a return to the model of Church government of the first 1,000 years was ideal. He even thinks local Bishops should be more conspicious and sees the Church as drowning in beureacracy. Read his ecclesiological primer 'Called to Communion'.

He is painted by his enemies as a conservative right wing German simply because He doesnt allow people to break with tradition and doesnt allow heresy to be taught in schools and seminaries. However, all the people who have ever interviewed him have called him mild-mannered, even shy and some have even called him 'saintly'. Anybody who reads his works can see he is not the dragon that his detractors wish he were. He is the same man as he was when he sat next to Karl Rahner at Vatican II. But whereas Rahner and co. effectively nullified the cross with their wrong teachings on Grace and the Church Benedict XVI refused to do this.

If he is allowed Benedict XVI will implement his ecclesiological vision, which will see a smaller role for Bishops conferences--which he thinks obscures the role of the Bishop as pastor of their own flock--amongst other things. He will demand theological Orthodoxy as always but he will use that German systematisers mind to overhaul a lot of the beaurecracy in the Church. I'm certain. I believe if Bartholomew I is as open to Benedict XVI as he was to John Paul the Great things will only get better.

Dear Friends,

I see the new Pope as a strong guiding hand that continues in the tradition of Pope John Paul II.

The new Pope is even more of an administrator who has a definite aptitude for administration - something St John Paul the Great, by his own admission, did not.

I like the idea that the "Italian strangle-hold" on the Papacy seems to have been broken for good.

I think he will be very sympathetic to the Orthodox and to Eastern Catholics as well in his own way.

And I'm always for a strongly traditional leader.

Alex

Well, Alex, I guess there won't be a Ukrainian Pope this time around. I know you were hoping for one, but I think this Pope will be a good one. You had mentioned in another thread how the Ruthenians might react to a Ukrainian Pope. See, I actually do read the posts on this Forum.

"Rome must not require more from the East with respect to the doctrine of primacy than had been formulated and was lived in the first millennium. When the Patriarch Athenagoras, on July 25, 1967, on the occasion of the Pope's visit to Phanar, designated him as the successor of St. Peter, as the most esteemed among us, as one also presides in charity, this great Church leader was expressing the essential content of the doctrine of primacy as it was known in the first millennium. Rome need not ask for more. Reunion could take place in this context if, on the one hand, the East would cease to oppose as heretical the developments that took place in the West in the second millennium and would accept the Catholic Church as legitimate and orthodox in the form she had acquired in the course of that development, while, on the other hand, the West would recognize the Church of the East as orthodox and legitimate in the form she has always had.�

Ratzinger, Joseph: PRINCIPLES OF CATHOLIC THEOLOGY, Ignatius, 1988, page 199-200

See what happens when people actually read his works? Thank you for that Deacon Lance. It illustrates as I've said along. That all the horror stories about Pope Benedict XVI being a Vatican curial centraliser come out of the mouths of disgruntled liberals who want to Protestantise the Church and reduce our Creed from a firm 'I believe' to a list of 'I opine's' that shift on the sands of public opinon. I hope that the Cardinal can put into action the various things he has recommended to the Church Universal in his numerous theological works.

PS) Administrator can you change the name of this thread please as Dr Roman suggested?

Myles, I see the new Pope as a strong proponent of the liturgy. I have read his works, and his opinions are as clear as crystal. He seems to have a great love and respect for the liturgy. I don't see him tolerating silliness.

What a crowd of trolls there are on that Cardinal Ratzinger forum! There is a message at the top of the board that if you don't follow the rules you risk expulsion, but they flaunt these rules and flame our new Pope, and each other as well. And there doesn't seem to be a way to report these people.

It's such a breath of fresh air to come back to the Byzantine Forum, where people actually follow the rules, and the Administrator actually does something about people who don't!

Tammy

Myles,

While I agree that the disruption of any board by trolls, etc., is despicable, I have to say that I can't get excited about this. I find the idea of a "Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club" (pre-Conclave) or a "Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club" (post-Conclave) to be a bit in the nature of a personality cult that somehow is dissonant from my preception of what should surround such events and figures.

There are vast numbers of Catholic forums on the net, ranging across the continuum of theological and liturgical thought, certainly more than enough for folks to populate with their thoughts on the Pope and the man. It seems to me that setting up a board specific to him was asking for the type of foolishness that is being perpetrated there - the appropriateness of doing so aside.

Just my two cents worth.

Many years,

Neil

Neil, normally I wouldnt say this, but take back your two cents and keep them firmly in your wallet thank you.

Perhaps Benedict XVI does have a cult of personality. Who knows? Certainly I love the guy. Maybe you'd have to bare the silliness of what has been going on in the Latin Church to understand how happy we are when someone actually speaks the truth boldly in spite of public pressure. As it is I dont believe the Melkite's have the post-conciliar problems that we do therefore I wouldnt expect you to know how we feel.

However, I did expect slighty more empathy than that. I also know there are quite a lot of John Paul the Great tribute sites in the works, I wonder if you think that those websites if their owners have a forum should be bombed too? The website was/is a place where people can come find out things about Benedict XVI, good books of his, the congregation for the doctrine of the faith etc.etc. And the forum is a place where they can discuss these things. I dont think the webster was pushing his luck creating a forum for visitors of the site to talk to one another.

But alas maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'll feel differently when the radical feminists start posting on John Paul II tribute sites about how he was a sexist. After all to make a John Paul website and put a forum there is almost asking for it, right Neil?

Myles,

In my opinion, yes.

Many years,

Neil