Pain, Grace, Sin, Penance, Renewal: The Pope Speaks

Well, this is interesting:

" 'This Pain is Grace, Because It Is Renewal': Off-the-Cuff, the Pope Speaks"
Whispers in the Loggia (April 15, 2010)

"In an extemporaneous homily delivered at a Mass this morning for the Pontifical Biblical Commission, B16 made his first comments on the sex-abuse tempest that's shaken the global church over recent weeks.

"The fulltext of pontiff's off-the-cuff reflection to the Vatican's top body of Scripture scholars still to emerge, two early briefs have appeared....

"First, from Vatican Radio:

"[T]he Holy Father said that in modern times we have seen theorized an idea of man according to which human being would be, 'free, autonomous, and nothing else.'

"This supposed freedom from everything, including freedom from the duty of obedience to God, 'Is a lie,' said Pope Benedict, a falsehood regarding the basic structure of human being – about the way women and men are made to be, 'because,' he continued, 'human being does not exist on its own, nor does it exist for itself.'..."

"...and a first-post and full report from Catholic News Service:

"Recognizing the sins of priests who have sexually abused children, performing penance and asking for forgiveness, the Catholic Church trusts that God will purify and transform the church, Pope Benedict XVI said....and a first-post and full report from Catholic News Service:

"Recognizing the sins of priests who have sexually abused children, performing penance and asking for forgiveness, the Catholic Church trusts that God will purify and transform the church, Pope Benedict XVI said.

" 'I must say that we Christians, even in recent times, have often avoided the word "penance," which seemed too harsh to us. Now, under the attacks of the world that speaks to us of our sins, we see that being able to do penance is a grace,' the pope said April 15 in a homily during a Mass with members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

"For the record, this morning's comment came two years to the day after Benedict made his first-ever statement on the scandals during a press conference aboard the Papal Plane to Washington for his six-day US tour...."

There's quite a lot more in that post.


(from Whispers in the Loggia, used w/o permission)

If this doesn't seem quite like the Pope you keep reading and hearing about in the news: I'm not surprised.

Related posts:

• "Assumptions About Religion, and American Rules of Etiquette"
  (April 14, 2010)
• "Pedophile Priests! - or - My Mind is Made Up, Don't Confuse Me With the Facts"
  (April 11, 2010)
• "Cultural Chaos, Divisiveness, and CNN"
  (April 1, 2010)
• "Pedophile Priests, Those Confused Catholics, and the Tolerant Press"
  (April 1, 2010)

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A tip of the hat to srsusan, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post.