{"id":3021,"date":"2008-08-08T09:23:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-08T09:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/benedict-i-used-to-be-more-severe-updated.html"},"modified":"2008-08-08T09:23:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-08T09:23:00","slug":"benedict-i-used-to-be-more-severe-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/benedict-i-used-to-be-more-severe-updated.html","title":{"rendered":"Benedict: I used to be “more severe” — UPDATED"},"content":{"rendered":"

The full transcript of this exchange should be interesting reading. But for now, we have to content ourselves with this account, via John Allen<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Pope Benedict XVI told a group of priests yesterday that he was once \u201cmore severe\u201d in terms of administering baptism and confirmation to ill-prepared or lukewarm candidates, but today he\u2019s inclined to be generous wherever there is even \u201ca flicker of desire for communion in the faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pope also conceded that, over the centuries, Christianity\u2019s commitment to environmental protection may not always have been sufficiently clear. He argued, however, that belief in God is essential to sound ecology, because ultimately a materialist philosophy places no limits on humanity\u2019s exploitation of nature.<\/p>\n

Benedict XVI spoke to a group of more than 400 priests of the diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone in northern Italy, where he is currently passing two weeks of vacation. The behind-closed-doors session with the priests, which has become an annual custom for the pope, took place in the Cathedral of the Assumption in Bressanone, and lasted approximately 90 minutes. The pope took six questions and provided impromptu answers.<\/p>\n

The Vatican is expected to release a transcript of the session shortly. Yesterday, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, briefed reporters on the highlights of the exchange.<\/p>\n

The six questions, according to Lombardi, were:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Fr. Willy Fusaro, a 42-year-old priest diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1991, the year of his ordination, and today confined to a wheelchair, asked the pope about the Christian meaning of suffering in light of the example of Pope John Paul II;
\u2022 Seminarian Michael Horrer, who recently returned from World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, asked the pope about pastoral outreach to the young;
\u2022 Franciscan Fr. Willibald Hopfgartner posed a question about the relationship between reason and faith;
\u2022 Fr. Karl Golser, a professor of moral theology and a former staffer in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who served briefly under then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, asked his former boss about Christianity and the environment;
\u2022 Fr. Franz Pixner asked the pope to comment on priestly life;
\u2022 Fr. Paolo Ruzzi asked Benedict for advice on how generous a priest should be in administering the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.<\/p>\n

In response to Fusaro\u2019s question on suffering, Lombardi said that Benedict divided the pontificate of John Paul II into two phases. The first came when an athletic, strong John Paul bestrode the world as a \u201cgiant of the faith,\u201d while the second came with his slow physical decline and growing weakness. These years, Benedict said, were \u201cnot of lesser importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this witness of his own passion, he carried the Cross of Christ with humility,\u201d Benedict said. \u201cWith deep humility he accepted the destruction of his body, and thus showed us clearly the truth of the passion of Christ.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

UPDATE:<\/b> The always-reliable John Allen has just published the transcript<\/a> of the conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The full transcript of this exchange should be interesting reading. But for now, we have to content ourselves with this account, via John Allen: Pope Benedict XVI told a group of priests yesterday that he was once \u201cmore severe\u201d in terms of administering baptism and confirmation to ill-prepared or lukewarm candidates, but today he\u2019s inclined…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-pope-and-bishops"],"yoast_head":"\nBenedict: I used to be "more severe" - UPDATED - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/benedict-i-used-to-be-more-severe-updated.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benedict: I used to be "more severe" - UPDATED - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The full transcript of this exchange should be interesting reading. But for now, we have to content ourselves with this account, via John Allen: Pope Benedict XVI told a group of priests yesterday that he was once \u201cmore severe\u201d in terms of administering baptism and confirmation to ill-prepared or lukewarm candidates, but today he\u2019s inclined…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/benedict-i-used-to-be-more-severe-updated.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-08T09:23:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Benedict: I used to be \"more severe\" - UPDATED - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/benedict-i-used-to-be-more-severe-updated.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Benedict: I used to be \"more severe\" - UPDATED - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"The full transcript of this exchange should be interesting reading. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}