From “A Final Warning That the Pope Ignores at His Peril,” a “cliches r us” leading article (or editorial) in the English newspaper The Independent attacking the “authoritarian,” “hardline,” thought-suppressing Pope Benedict and praising the late Cardinal Martini:
As Archbishop of Milan, the city from which the Emperor Constantine in 317 issued the historic edict proclaiming toleration for the Christian religion, Martini was keenly aware of the importance of maintaining the Church’s association with the broad currents of social and intellectual life in Europe – a partnership that lasted the best part of two millennia but which is dwindling to nothing.
So which of the two cardinals, Ratzinger or Martini, has had a serious public discussion with Europe’s leading philosopher Juergen Habermas? Which seems most up on the broad currents of social and intellectual life in Europe?
September 3rd, 2012 | 6:34 pm
It’s amazing how a newspaper like the Independent can get basic facts wrong. The Edict of Milan was issued in 313, not 317. Why mention it at all, if you don’t know the actual year?
September 4th, 2012 | 8:46 am
Full English translation here: http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=20556
September 4th, 2012 | 2:58 pm
What interest does a secular, left-leaning newspaper, which is normally hostile to traditional religion, have in preserving the Catholic Church?
From its point of view, wouldn’t it be better if the pope’s “conservatism” (which is no different than John Paul II, John Paul I, Paul VI, and John XXIII–who was no “liberal”–) drove more Catholics out of the Church, which then would have less influence? Wouldn’t it beneficial if the Catholic Church went out of business?
I always wondered why the legions of lapsed Catholics never become members of the many mainline Protestant denominations that support contraception, legalized abortion, gay marriage, and female clergy. Does the Catholic Church ruin religion forever with some people?
September 5th, 2012 | 7:55 am
Dimitri Cavalli asks ” Does the Catholic Church ruin religion forever with some people?”
Well, yes. The French press, for example, never speaks of “the churches”; always, « L’Église. » They may hate her, but they know that she is unique and, above all, that she is not a mere sect; that, in Belloc’s words, “She proposes to take in men’s minds even more than the place taken by patriotism; to influence the whole of society, not a part of it, and to influence it even more thoroughly than a common language. Where She is confronted by any agency inimical to Her claim, though that agency be not directly hostile, She cannot but oppose it.”
The Edict of Milan was a compromise; what made Europe was the Edict of Thessalonica of IMPPP Gratian, Valentinian and Theodosius AAA on 27 February 380 – “We will that all the peoples ruled by the moderation of our clemency should profess that religion that was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition, and which is now professed by the Pontiff Damasus…” No further identification of the religion prescribed was vouchsafed, or necessary.
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