{"id":821,"date":"2008-10-14T10:56:26","date_gmt":"2008-10-14T10:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2008\/10\/wait-for-it.html"},"modified":"2008-10-14T10:56:26","modified_gmt":"2008-10-14T10:56:26","slug":"wait-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2008\/10\/wait-for-it.html","title":{"rendered":"Wait for it"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pope spoke this morning to the Synod. From John Allen:<\/a><\/p>\n

Truth to be told, the relationship between Biblical interpretation and other areas of Catholic theology had already emerged as a major concern. This morning, however, Pope Benedict himself took the unusual \u2013 indeed, quite possibly unprecedented \u2013 step of explicitly recommending that the bishops adopt a proposition on how exegetes and theologians can better inform each other\u2019s work.
\nThe recommendation was delivered viva voce<\/em>, as Benedict XVI took the microphone at the synod for the first time. He spoke immediately after the customary 10:30 am coffee break; Archbishop Nikola Eterovich, secretary of the synod, informed the group that they would have to interrupt their normal program \u201cbecause our president wishes to address us.\u201d
\nTechnically, the pope is also president of the Synod of Bishops.
\nThe Vatican is expected to release a transcript of the pope\u2019s remarks either later today or tomorrow. For now, the official Vatican bulletin has simply reported: “Starting from the consideration of the work for his book Jesus of Nazareth<\/em>, the Holy Father dwelt upon the fundamental criteria of Biblical exegesis, upon the dangers of a secularized and positivistic approach to the Sacred Scriptures and upon the need for a closer relationship between exegesis and theology.”
\nSynod sources said that he spoke for a little less than ten minutes, drawing upon notes that he had apparently made in a small notebook.
\nIn broad terms, those sources said, his topic was the need for historical-critical interpretation of the Bible to take Christian faith as its point of departure, because otherwise its risks treating the Bible as simply a \u201cbook of the past.\u201d In that regard, the pope apparently suggested that exegesis needs to be better integrated into theology, so that it is seen less as a self-standing enterprise, and more as part of a broad effort to combine reason and faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More, from the Vatican’s English-language press attache, who was there, at ZENIT:<\/a><\/p>\n

Immediately following the “intervallum,” we returned to the synod hall and were informed by Archbishop Eterovic that the “president” of the synod would now like to address us. And the president is the Holy Father! Pope Benedict sat down in his usual spot, put on the professorial glasses, opened his notebook and began speaking to the synodal assembly.
\nEvery single person in the room came to life and paid close attention, including the synod staff, secretaries, “runners” and of course the five language press attaches. We were not given any “script” for this lesson and realized that the Pope was simply reading his own handwriting out of a notebook. Here before a sampling of the world Church was Joseph Ratzinger the professor, sitting among his students, disciples and colleagues, sharing his reflections on what he has seen and heard during the first week of the synod of bishops.
\nReferring to “Dei Verbum,” the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, the Pope spoke of the importance of the historical-critical method that finds its roots in John 1:14, the Word becoming flesh. The Pope spoke to us as a father and teacher, reminding the assembly of the importance of Scripture studies that reflect the unity of all Scriptures; studies that are done with and flow from the living tradition of the Church. Our exegesis and analysis of the word of God must always have a theological dimension for we are not simply dealing with a history book of the past but with a Word that is alive in the community of the Church: a Word that is Jesus. When biblical exegesis is divorced from the living, breathing community of faith that is in the Church, exegesis is reduced to historiography and nothing more. The hermeneutic of faith disappears. We reduce everything to human sources and can simply explain everything away. Ultimately, we deny the One about whom the Scriptures speak, the one whose living presence lies underneath the words. When exegesis is divorced from theology, then Scripture will not be the soul of theology. The Pope stressed the intrinsic link between Scripture studies and the theological tradition of the Church. He also stressed the importance of theology that is rooted in the Bible.
\nIn his simple, crystal clear address, Pope Benedict touched upon one of the important themes that has emerged in spades during this synod: bridging the gap that exists between those who have distorted the study and interpretation of the word of God and separated their Scripture studies and biblical analyses from theology and the living community of the Church. The Pope also made a strong suggestion that certain matters touched upon in his “lesson” be included among the propositions that will be given to him by the synodal assembly next week.
\nOne of Pope Benedict’s great qualities is his ability to teach very complex things with simplicity, clarity and beauty. This morning, Benedict was a teacher who unfolded for us the scroll of the living Word of God and showed us how to humbly approach that Word, learn from it and live by it. We received a simple, clear lesson about the unity of Scripture and theology from a man who is often called the “Mozart of theologians.”
\nA young Italian layman working in the Vatican told me this week in passing: “Papa Ratzinger makes you want to love Jesus and the Church even if you have been far away from the Lord and the Church for a long time. He is a kind man.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pope spoke this morning to the Synod. From John Allen: Truth to be told, the relationship between Biblical interpretation and other areas of Catholic theology had already emerged as a major concern. This morning, however, Pope Benedict himself took the unusual \u2013 indeed, quite possibly unprecedented \u2013 step of explicitly recommending that the bishops…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nWait for it - Via Media<\/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\/viamedia\/2008\/10\/wait-for-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wait for it - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Pope spoke this morning to the Synod. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}