Okay, I’m going to try go gather as many useful links in this post as I can. It might take a while – I’ll be adding to during the course of the day.
First, in terms of the visit itself, Marcel Lejeune, a member of the Catholic campus ministry team at Texas A & M (an apostolate, by the way, that George Weigel singled for high praise in his recent discussion w/John Allen at the Pew Forum), has compiled a good list of the official, media sites and blogs especially dedicated to the visit.
Pope2008 is the effort of the National Catholic Register, spearheaded by Tim Drake. The blog has been up for a while, and provides many links a day to useful and interesting stories. Starting early next week, look for onsight reporting and blogging.
Christopher Blosser, who started the Ratzinger Fan Club years and years ago, has really stepped up to the plate with his Benedict in America Blog. He’s gathering stories from all over and bringing to the table his years of reading and observing Pope Benedict. His posts are substantive and informative. If you haven’t yet, you need to add this to your RSS feeder or blogroll.
The Papa Ratzinger Forum is also invaluable. It’s part of a multi-lingual forum, and that link takes you to the English-speaking section. It’s not the easiest place in the world to navigate, and there’s no way to efficiently link to individual posts, but it’s really one of the best places to get a handle on information and analysis of Benedict on a global scale. Translations of articles from the European press are routinely posted in the English section and Teresa Benedetta gives so generously of her time in translating not only these, but more importantly the Pope’s homilies and other statements when the official Vatican translations are so slow in coming, which is all the time.
The busiest and most current discussions on the PRF are found at the bottom of the page, and you’d probably want to click on “last page” and work your way backwards to get the current postings, instead of starting from the beginning, which would be, you know, 2005.
Of course the electronic media will be all over the place – EWTN, the cable news nets, Sirius Radio (which has 3 channels dedicated to the visit) and don’t forget our friends at Vatican Radio, who also provide nice package reports on events.
In terms of blogging journalists, Julia Duin’s WaTimes papal blog has provided lots of news as does the blog at the WaPost. Today, with info on what folks going to Mass at the Nationals Stadium will receive in their goody bags! (And if you want to guage changing times, consider the news that one of the items will be a copy of Magnficat. )
Also don’t forget that it’s not about getting – it’s about giving. The Archdiocese of Washington has been running a food drive in honor of the Pope. From Pope 2008:
The food will fill the pantries of the Capital Area Food Bank, the Southern Maryland Food Bank and the 60 food pantries at parishes in the archdiocese. An April 8 news story in the Washington Post reported on how local food banks are trying to keep pace with the increasing need for groceries due to the economic downturn. Requests for food assistance in the past year are up 30 percent nationwide, the Post reported.
The food drive, coordinated by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, honors Pope Benedict XVI’s visit by sharing in his concern for the poor, said Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl. “In his name, we can give to food banks,” he said, to attest to “his concern for the poor and needy around the world.”
During his visit, the pope will be presented with a list of the parishes and schools participating and the amount of food collected in his honor. All 140 parishes and 106 schools in the Archdiocese of Washington are participating in the food drive. The archdiocese hopes to collect at least 200,000 food items.
Resources:
For introductory links to the writings and thought of Benedict XVI, these two lists will give you plenty of ideas. Christopher Blosser’s got a list of Ratzinger writings online here.
Theresa Polk at the Blog by the Sea has compiled a handy list of Pope Benedict’s homilies and writings as Pope here.
In addition, take a look at the books Jesus of Nazareth, the collection of General Audience talks, The Apostles, and the collection of Benedict’s Q & A sessions with various groups.
Finally, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus sums up the most appropriate stance for next week, a point I’ve been trying to make to reporters and in radio interviews. Just…listen.
“Christ Our Hope” may strike some as a narrowly, even exclusively, Christian theme. But, as I expect he will make clear in his address at the United Nations and in the meeting with leaders of world religions, the theme is universally applicable. Christ is the logos—meaning both word and reason—which encompasses the whole of humanity. This is a constant in Benedict’s teaching. Remember the September 12, 2006, address at the University of Regensburg. Many commentators speak of Benedict’s gaffe in that lecture when he addressed the dynamic of violence in Islam and declared that to act against reason is to act against “the nature of God.” I do not think it was a gaffe at all. It is a necessary challenge and has, in fact, resulted in more irenic statements from Muslim leaders that could lead to something like a genuine dialogue between Islam and what Muslims, more than many Westerners, view as the Christian West. This emphasis on universal reason will be evident also, I expect, in his statements on human rights at the U.N., rights that are premised upon the dignity of the human person—a teaching that is the immovable foundation of Catholic social doctrine.
A final word about the prominence of Jews and Judaism in this visit. The visit comes in the days leading up to Passover. But it is not simply interreligious politesse that prompts the visit to the synagogue in New York and other gestures. It is, rather, the truth consistently articulated since the Second Vatican Council that, while elements of truth are to be found in other religions, the relationship with the People of Israel is unique. Christianity would be without the existence of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religions, but Christianity would not be without the People of Israel from whom came “Christ Our Hope.” This is not simply a historical point, but, as the council says, a truth discovered as we delve more deeply into the life of the Church and discover there the continuing mystery of living Judaism.
But again, the chief thing in the week ahead is to listen, and listen carefully, to what is said by this Augustinian—or, if my Thomist friends insist, this very Augustinian Thomist.
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