Light of the World. a Papal First, by Sandro Magister, The Chiesa, November 25, 2010

Light of the World. a Papal First

By Sandro Magister
The Chiesa
November 25, 2010

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1345703?eng=y

A book so "risky" has no precedent for a successor of Peter. "Everyone is free to contradict me" is his motto. On the controversial question of the condom, Professor Rhonheimer explains why Benedict XVI is right

ROME, November 25, 2010 – Toward the end of his book-length interview "Light of the World," which recently went on sale in various languages, Benedict XVI refers to his other book about Jesus, his "latest major work."

He recalls that "in a completely deliberate way" he wanted that book not to be an act of the magisterium, but the offering of his own personal interpretation.

And he adds: "This naturally represents an enormous risk."

On the afternoon of Monday, November 22, speaking one-on-one with the pope, the director of the Vatican press office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, asked him if he knew that he was facing an even greater risk with the book-length interview that was about to be released.

"When I asked this question, the pope smiled," Fr. Lombardi recounted.

Exactly right. "Light of the World" is a unprecedentedly audacious book, for a pope. It is the complete transcription of six hours of spontaneous, uncensored interview. On an incredibly wide array of issues, even the most uncomfortable.

The answers are short and to the point. The language is conversational but precise, simple, completely free of jargon. There are occasional flashes of irony.

Of course, the launching of the book was not without its flaws. Fr. Lombardi himself recognized that the preview of a few passages by "L'Osservatore Romano," on the afternoon of Saturday, November 20, right in the middle of the consistory, "was not handled well." On the passage about the condom, breathlessly covered by the media all over the world, it was necessary to run for cover, on Sunday the 21st, with a note of clarification approved word for word by the pope.

So the book ran into one "risk" immediately. The pope saw himself pulled into the fray straight off, on an issue he touched upon in only two pages out of 250, the same issue that in the spring of 2009, at the beginning of his voyage to Africa, had earned him a firestorm of criticism.

But if one looks at what has happened in recent days, the experiment has had surprisingly beneficial effects outside and inside of the Church.

Outside, the voices that are generally hostile to this pontificate have credited Benedict XVI with "openness" this time. And above all, they have been induced to read his arguments. It is startling to see how in such a short time there has been a revival in the media fortunes of this pope, whose resignation was being demanded just a few months ago.

Inside the Church, the discussion of an issue previously kept under wraps has finally come out into the sunlight. The pope has made no "revolutionary shift" on the question of the condom. But the statement on Sunday, November 21 noted how an innovation has indeed occurred, where it states: "Numerous moral theologians and authoritative ecclesiastical personalities have sustained, and still sustain, similar positions. Nevertheless, it's true that they have not been heard until now with such clarity from the mouth of the pope, even if it's in a colloquial rather than magisterial form."

Not only that. What has now been brought to light by the pope is a true discussion, with views that are sometimes vigorously opposed. "Everyone is free to contradict me," Benedict XVI wrote in the preface to "Jesus of Nazareth." This is what is now happening with the condom, with "pro-life" groups and representatives highly critical of the positions expressed by the pope in the book-length interview.

Naturally, "Light of the World" cannot be reduced to this. It is the complete profile of this pontificate that leaps out, in magnificent synthesis. Even the individual questions, addressed by the pope one by one, bear the imprint of the whole.

The two texts reproduced here below give confirmation of this.

The first is the commentary on "Light of the World" published in Italy in "L'espresso," a leading weekly of secular culture.

The second is an article by Fr. Martin Rhonheimer, from Switzerland, professor of ethics and political philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, the Roman university of Opus Dei.

The article appeared in 2004 in "The Tablet," a "liberal" Catholic magazine based in London, and presents with the mastery of the specialist on moral theology the arguments that are at the basis of Benedict XVI's "openness" to the use of the condom in particular cases and for a particular purpose.

It is striking how there is even a verbal correspondence between Rhonheimer's article of six years ago and the recent words from Benedict XVI. Starting with that "act of responsibility" attributed to the "prostitute" who uses a condom to avoid endangering the life of his partner, given as an example by the pope.

In regard to this example, Fr. Lombardi stated that for the pope, it is not important whether the subject is male or female: "The point is the responsibility in considering the risk to the life of the other with whom one has relations. If it is done by a man, a woman, or a transsexual, it is the same."