Madam, – Paddy Agnew’s report of February 17th on the lifting of excommunications of four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X contains some pretty dismal misinformation and prejudice regarding the Benedictine papacy (see paragraph 10 and the final four paragraphs).
To describe Hans Küng as a “Catholic theologian” is a gross misrepresentation. For well over 30 years he has tried to construct a sort of personal magisterium, while scribbling provocative and vituperative graffiti on the pillars of the Catholic faith. The paragraphs referred to above contain illustrative examples: The Pope is “cut off from the real world” and “is unteachable in matters of birth control and abortion, arrogant and without transparency and restrictive of freedom and human rights”.
Your Rome correspondent has every right to his opinion on whether or not the “Holy Spirit took a sabbatical during the 2005 conclave”. I suggest, however, that your readers will be rewarded for efforts made to inform themselves about the real Benedict, rather than the caricature we are continually presented with. His encyclicals, homilies, and addresses during foreign visits are there for all to read on the Vatican website. In the words of John Henry Newman, whosoever is “unwilling to see or hear is good for nothing”.
In a world vacuously obsessed with self-image, spin and soundbites, the leadership of Benedict is truly counter-cultural. At his inauguration Mass, he asked for prayers “that I may not flee for fear of the wolves”. There is no likelihood of that happening.
Their snarls may be predictable and menacing but the wolves are on the back foot, and getting desperate. Dominus conservet eum et vivificet eum. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – You are, of course, correct to point out the PR disaster that is “Bishop” Williamson but is there not more to the story than you have presented?
To date your coverage has consisted of your religious correspondent quoting the rant of the estranged Father Iggy O’Donovan and your Rome correspondent quoting Giulio Andreotti, an Italian politician of an extremely dubious pedigree, to the effect that the Holy Spirit made a mistake in picking the Pope. How can such a man judge?
May I urge you to take what the Pope is saying and doing more seriously and employ better analysis for and against?
Benedict is an extremely intelligent man and he is instituting reform on a par with that of Vatican II. If you are not careful you are going to miss it. – Yours, etc,