Vatican City, Sep 1, 2020 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Pietro Parolin has written an introduction to a book describing the continuity between Pope Francis and his predecessor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
The book, published Sept. 1, is entitled “Una Sola Chiesa,” meaning “Only One Church.” It is a compilation of papal catecheses that places the words of Pope Francis and Benedict XVI side by side on more than 10 different topics, including faith, sanctity, and marriage.
“In the case of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, the natural continuity of the papal magisterium has a unique feature: the presence of a pope emeritus in prayer next to his successor,” Parolin wrote in the introduction.
The Vatican Secretary of State highlighted both the “spiritual consonance of the two popes and the diversity of their style of communication.”
“This book is a lasting sign of this intimate and profound closeness, presenting side by side the voices of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis on crucial issues,” he said.
In his introduction, Parolin recounted that Pope Francis’ concluding speech at the 2015 Synod on the Family included citations of Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict.
The cardinal used this as an example to express that “the continuity of the papal magisterium is the path followed and carried out by Pope Francis, who in the most solemn moments of his pontificate always referred to the example of his predecessors.”
Parolin also described the “lively affection” that exists between the pope and the pope emeritus, quoting Benedict as saying to Francis on June 28, 2016: “Your goodness, evident from the moment of your election, has continually impressed me, and greatly sustains my interior life. The Vatican Gardens, even for all their beauty, are not my true home: my true home is your goodness.”
The 272-page book was published in Italian by Rizzoli press. The editor of the compilation of papal speeches was not disclosed.
The Vatican Secretary of State called the book a “primer on Christianity,” adding that it touches on the topics of faith, the Church, the family, prayer, truth and justice, mercy and love.
“The spiritual consonance of the two popes and the diversity of their communicative style multiply the perspectives and enrich the experience of the readers: not only the faithful but all the people who, in an age of crisis and uncertainty, recognize in the Church a voice capable of speaking to the needs and aspirations of man,” he said.
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Are there footnotes…a sort of wide-angle symphony of other “consonance[s]” with quite different (!) instrumentalists such as Cardinal Kasper, Frs. Spadaro and Martin, S.J., and take-no-notes “journalist” Scalfari–but also St. John Paul II whose writings are fully consonant with then-cardinal Ratzinger’s hand (Faith and Reason, Veritatis Splendor)?
And, are we to look forward to a timely set of many new sheet-music harmonizations from the 19 likely papabili identified in Edward Pentin’s new book: The Next Pope? All on the same page as Benedict, surely. Or, at least, a case still might be made that really good music includes the silences between the notes (dubia!).
Or, instead, is “solemn” “spiritual consonance” now one thing while un-solemn and disconnected (?) praxis is another? Only a “diversity of style of communication”–what ever happened to Cardinal Parolin’s “paradigm shift”?
Perplexed! “Parolin also described the ‘lively affection’ that exists between the pope and the pope emeritus, quoting Benedict as saying to Francis on June 28, 2016: ‘Your goodness, evident from the moment of your election, has continually impressed me, and greatly sustains my interior life. The Vatican Gardens, even for all their beauty, are not my true home: my true home is your goodness’”. I’m not a devotee of Magic, or magical transformation. But somewhat knowledgeable of the craft. Is Cardinal Parolin’s account Witchful thinking? Has the man whose responsible for permission to China’s Communist Party to garrote the Catholic Church, who wrongly announced inclusion of the Argentine Papal letters into the Acta Apostolicae Sedis makes the ‘doctrine’ in Amoris, definitive and binding, now wondrously converted to the sound doctrinal legacy of Benedict? Or is something eerie afoot? Just the mention of the Gardens. The place where Pachamamma was reverenced. Presided by His Goodness. Has someone cast a spell over the aging Pope Emeritus [whatever that means, I don’t wish to reignite that mute argument]. Perhaps some powdery substance [wasn’t there a bag or two of that stuff at the enshrinement ceremony?] quietly sprinkled over his venerable resting head? La tua bontà è usata come un complimento. Actually it’s used in Italy as a compliment. Has Benedict fallen back on his rent? Has he used the Italian trick of exaggerated compliment [Benedict when the more livelier Ratzinger used to motor around Rome on his Vespa, often convivially dining at a pizzeria near the Vatican]? At any rate wanting for comfort by compliments so gravely put, such as your goodness is my true home virtually in veneration , I wonder.