Magister underlines Pope Benedict's ad-libs in 5 recent speeches

Vatican reporter Sandro Magister has outdone himself with this illuminating service:

Exclusive: The Words that Benedict XVI Adds Spontaneously, When He Preaches to the Faithful

Textual analyses of five of his most recent Wednesday catechesis, on Saint Augustine. The words that the pope added spontaneously, beyond the written text, are underlined. They're on the themes closest to his heart.

Sandro Magister on L'Osservatore Romano's remodeling

I blogged about this story on Monday.

Sandro Magister adds his expert commentary today:

"L'Osservatore Romano" Has Been Remodeled. Here Are All of the Changes

More interviews. More space given to women. Non-Catholic contributors. International news, and about the Churches and the religions. Major cultural topics. To prompt thought and discussion even outside of Catholic boundaries

Magister on "Why Pope Benedict is so Cautious with the Muslim Letter"

Very illuminating:

Because the kind of dialogue he wants is completely different. The pope is asking Islam to make the same journey that the Catholic Church made under pressure from the Enlightenment. Love of God and neighbor must be realized in the full acceptance of religious freedom. [Read the rest.]

Read what Pope Benedict is actually saying each Sunday....

What? The media might overemphasize the Pope's political comments and deemphasize his pastoral teaching on the Gospel? (Amazing, right?) Luckily, Vatican analyst Sandro Magister goes to the source:

The Secret Angelus Messages of Pope Benedict

They're secret in the sense that the media ignore them for what they mainly are: the explanation of the Gospel of that day's Mass. Apart from those present, almost no one knows this. Here is a sample of them: the last seven "little homilies" from the pope on Sundays at noon ...

"The words that Benedict XVI speaks every Sunday at midday, before and after the Angelus – the "Regina Coeli" during the Easter season – are among those most closely followed by the media.

But the media almost always reproduce only those words of the pope that pertain to situations or events in the news, especially when these are political.

... What the media say and write gives listeners and readers the impression that the pope dedicated his entire message to the topic cited.

But that's not the case. It is almost always during the greetings in various languages, which he extends to the faithful after the praying of the Angelus, that Benedict XVI dedicates to current issues just a few brief remarks that are then emphasized by the media. The real and proper message comes before the prayer.

And it is – with rare exceptions – a brief homily on the Gospel and the other readings of that day's Mass."

Preachers of the world - take note!

"In order to raise to acceptable levels the average quality of the millions of homilies pronounced every Sunday all over the world, Catholic priests could do no better than to enroll themselves in the school of Benedict XVI's Angelus addresses."

Read the 7 homilettes here.

We should always actively strive to prevent the media from diluting our impressions of the Holy Father.

Magister: "Two New Documents in the Works: On Bioethics, and on Natural Law"

Mentioned elsewhere, it's important and exciting news. Sandro Magister reports:

Two New Documents in the Works: On Bioethics, and on Natural Law

They are being prepared by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith. It is the continuation of the "Ratzinger style," explains the secretary of the Vatican dicastery, archbishop Angelo Amato.

"Repeated Defiance of Rome: Cardinal Martini Defies Pope; Sabotages Church’s Teaching on Life"

LifeSiteNews:

ROME, January 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The retired Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, has struck another subversive blow to the clearly defined teachings of the Catholic Church on life, reports Vatican expert Sandro Magister in the Italian journal Chiesa, who says "the real clash is between Martini and the Pope."

Just nine months previously, Martini, a high profile leader in the Catholic Church, exposed his public dissent from the Church’s life teachings on artificial insemination, embryos, abortion, and euthanasia published in the Italian weekly L'espresso in what Magister wrote was a "bombshell manifesto of opposition to the reigning pope."

Back then, Martini contradicted Church teaching on euthanasia saying, "The pursuit of physical human life is not, in itself, the first and absolute principle. Above this stands the principle of human dignity."

In the January 21 Sunday edition front page of Il Sole 24 Ore, the leading economics and finance newspaper in Italy, and one of the most influential in Europe, appears Martini’s elaborated dissent entitled "Welby, Death, and Me." The piece comes in the wake of the death of Piergiorgio Welby last Christmas; a man who became a cause célèbre of the "right-to-die" movement after an Italian doctor removed his ventilator on his request.

...

Although nine months ago leading Church officials had avoided replying in public to Martini’s previous shocking dissent, this time Church officials have been quicker to respond to Martini’s departures, although remain hesitant to enter into an open confrontation by naming him directly.

A decisive response came from Elio Sgreccia, titular bishop of Zama, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and for years the most authoritative representative of the Church’s official positions in the area of bioethics in "Corriere della Sera," the major newspaper of Milan, Martini’s former archdiocese. Citing John Paul II’s encyclical "Evangelium Vitae", Sgreccia wrote that euthanasia is still the same offense against life even when it is "exclusionary," or when it omits "an effective and rightful therapy, the withholding of which intentionally causes death."

Sgreccia also reiterated that the doctor, not the patient, must evaluate the "proportionality" of the medical treatment and must not be "a simple executor of [a patient’s] wishes" and is bound to object conscientiously if a patient groundlessly refuses medical treatment. [full article.]

A more extended explication of the story is given by Sandro Magister here.