Sunday, January 27, 2008
Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures
With Good Reason - Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures (10 part series - read bottom to top)
Crossroads
MEMORY AND IDENTITY - Freedom Without Roots
Columbia University, February 6, 2006
SPEECH BY MARCELLO PERA (.doc)
SPEECH BY DAVID SCHINDLER
THE CONFERENCE ON TRACES
Photo Gallery
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Regarding Christianity and the Crisis of Culture: If you know the story behind the first section of that book, I think it makes the read so much more enjoyable and even impels one to be appreciative of what a gift Pope Benedict XVI is.
The day before JPII died, then-Cardinal Ratzinger was presented with a special award from the Benedictines, the St. Benedict Award. The award was for "the promotion of life and the family in Europe" as well as for his work on the preservation of Christian culture and for his continuing talks/efforts on what is needed for a rich civilization to survive. Well, he gave the talk at the famous Benedictine house, the Saint Scholastica convent at Subiaco, Italy. There is so much meaning and symbolism in all these items.
Well, during the talk he discussed many of the Christian culture issues and then closed with a crescendo of sorts, bringing his diagnosis to a need for a new Benedict:
Our greatest need in the present historical moment is people who make God credible in this world by means of the enlightened faith they live. [...]
We need men who keep their eyes fixed on God, learning from him what true humanity means.
We need men whose intellect is enlightened by the light of God, men whose hearts are opened by God, so that their intellect can speak to the intellect of others and their hearts can open the hearts of others. It is only by means of men who have been touched by God that God can return to be with mankind.
We need men like Benedict of Nursia, who, in an age of dissipation and decadence, immersed himself in the uttermost solitude. Then, after all the purifications he had to undergo, he succeeded in rising again to the light. He returned and made his foundation at Monte Cassino, the "city on the hill" where, in the midst of so many ruins, he assembled the forces from which a new world was formed. [...]
The next day, JPII died and days later this Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI, the man who would lead the Church through its next series of travails and struggles in its efforts to redeem the time ... and the culture.
For more on that Subiaco talk and with links to the whole thing, go here.
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