"The absolute need of a spiritual supremacy is at present the strongest of arguments in favour of the fact of its supply"

Bart Jan Spruyt bespreekt in een column in het Nederlands Dagblad het gegeven dat bepaalde gereformeerden weigeren hun kinderen te laten vaccineren.

Refo’s kleden zich ook anders. Waarom? Omdat God heeft gezegd, zeggen zij, dat vrouwen zich niet mogen kleden als mannen (Deuteronomium 22:5). Zou het waar zijn? Zou het niet eerder zo zijn dat de omringende cultuur op een gegeven moment is veranderd (bevallige dames die pantalons gingen dragen en een sigaretje opstaken), dat die verandering is geïnterpreteerd als iets van een opstand tegen een heilige en dierbare orde, en dat het verzet tegen die opstand tot een bepaald gedrag heeft geïnspireerd, dat daarna Bijbels gerechtvaardigd is?

Zeer waarschijnlijk. Maar m.i. krijgt Spruyt in de rest van zijn column toch niet echt de vinger achter het probleem. Ons schoot onmiddelijk een op dit weblog reeds aangehaald stukje van John Henry Newman in gedachten (uit: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, hoofdstuk 2, sectie 2, paragraaf 13):

Surely, either an objective revelation has not been given, or it has been provided with means for impressing its objectiveness on the world. If Christianity be a social religion, as it certainly is, and if it be based on certain ideas acknowledged as divine, or a creed, (which shall here be assumed,) and if these ideas have various aspects, and make distinct impressions on different minds, and issue in consequence in a multiplicity of developments, true, or false, or mixed, as has been shown, what power will suffice to meet and to do justice to these conflicting conditions, but a supreme authority ruling and reconciling individual judgments by a divine right and a recognized wisdom? In barbarous times the will is reached through the senses; but in an age in which reason, as it is called, is the standard of truth and right, it is abundantly evident to any one, who mixes ever so little with the world, that, if things are left to themselves, every individual will have his own view of them, and take his own course; that two or three will agree today to part company tomorrow; that Scripture will be read in contrary ways, and history, according to the apologue, will have to different comers its silver shield and its golden; that philosophy, taste, prejudice, passion, party, caprice, will find no common measure, unless there be some supreme power to control the mind and to compel agreement.
There can be no combination on the basis of truth without an organ of truth. As cultivation brings out the colors of flowers, and domestication changes the character of animals, so does education of necessity develop differences of opinion; and while it is impossible to lay down first principles in which all will unite, it is utterly unreasonable to expect that this man should yield to that, or all to one. I do not say there are no eternal truths, such as the poet proclaims, which all acknowledge in private, but that there are none sufficiently commanding to be the basis of public union and action. The only general persuasive in matters of conduct is authority; that is, (when truth is in question,) a judgment which we feel to be superior to our own. If Christianity is both social and dogmatic, and intended for all ages, it must humanly speaking have an infallible expounder. Else you will secure unity of form at the loss of unity of doctrine, or unity of doctrine at the loss of unity of form; you will have to choose between a comprehension of opinions and a resolution into parties, between latitudinarian and sectarian error. You may be tolerant or intolerant of contrarieties of thought, but contrarieties you will have. By the Church of England a hollow uniformity is preferred to an infallible chair; and by the sects of England, an interminable division. Germany and Geneva began with persecution, and have ended in scepticism. The doctrine of infallibility is a less violent hypothesis than this sacrifice either of faith or of charity. It secures the object, while it gives definiteness and force to the matter, of the Revelation.

Waaròm de paus?

Een stukje Newman (uit: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, hoofdstuk 2, sectie 2, paragraaf 13):

If the very claim to infallible arbitration in religious disputes is of so weighty importance and interest in all ages of the world, much more is it welcome at a time like the present, when the human intellect is so busy, and thought so fertile, and opinion so manifold. The absolute need of a spiritual supremacy is at present the strongest of arguments in favour of the fact of its supply. Surely, either an objective revelation has not been given, or it has been provided with means for impressing its objectiveness on the world. If Christianity be a social religion, as it certainly is, and if it be based on certain ideas acknowledged as divine, or a creed, (which shall here be assumed,) and if these ideas have various aspects, and make distinct impressions on different minds, and issue in consequence in a multiplicity of developments, true, or false, or mixed, as has been shown, what power will suffice to meet and to do justice to these conflicting conditions, but a supreme authority ruling and reconciling individual judgments by a divine right and a recognized wisdom? In barbarous times the will is reached through the senses; but in an age in which reason, as it is called, is the standard of truth and right, it is abundantly evident to any one, who mixes ever so little with the world, that, if things are left to themselves, every individual will have his own view of them, and take his own course; that two or three will agree today to part company tomorrow; that Scripture will be read in contrary ways, and history, according to the apologue, will have to different comers its silver shield and its golden; that philosophy, taste, prejudice, passion, party, caprice, will find no common measure, unless there be some supreme power to control the mind and to compel agreement.
There can be no combination on the basis of truth without an organ of truth. As cultivation brings out the colours of flowers, and domestication changes the character of animals, so does education of necessity develope differences of opinion; and while it is impossible to lay down first principles in which all will unite, it is utterly unreasonable to expect that this man should yield to that, or all to one. I do not say there are no eternal truths, such as the poet proclaims, which all acknowledge in private, but that there are none sufficiently commanding to be the basis of public union and action. The only general persuasive in matters of conduct is authority; that is, (when truth is in question,) a judgment which we feel to be superior to our own. If Christianity is both social and dogmatic, and intended for all ages, it must humanly speaking have an infallible expounder. Else you will secure unity of form at the loss of unity of doctrine, or unity of doctrine at the loss of unity of form; you will have to choose between a comprehension of opinions and a resolution into parties, between latitudinarian and sectarian error. You may be tolerant or intolerant of contrarieties of thought, but contrarieties you will have. By the Church of England a hollow uniformity is preferred to an infallible chair; and by the sects of England, an interminable division. Germany and Geneva began with persecution, and have ended in scepticism. The doctrine of infallibility is a less violent hypothesis than this sacrifice either of faith or of charity. It secures the object, while it gives definiteness and force to the matter, of the Revelation.

Katholiciteit en universiteit. Aan de rector van de K.U. Leuven (2/2)

...vervolg op ons bericht van gisteren...

Aan professor Mark Waer, rector van de Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Een getuigenis over de katholieke identiteit

Ons vertrekpunt voor de discussie is te kijken naar het verschil tussen een katholieke en een seculiere universiteit. Deze eenvoudige vraag voert onmiddellijk tot een serie observaties:

1. Van Thomas van Aquino via John Henry Newman tot Alasdair MacIntyre heeft de katholieke traditie de 'universiteit' begrepen als plaats van onderzoek naar de waarheid van alle facetten van de wereld, van het leven en van God. De taak om rekenschap te geven van de menselijke natuur, het probleem van het kwaad aan te pakken en de betekenis van het geheel te vatten werd hoogst urgent sinds christelijke denkers de mogelijkheid claimden alle dingen een naam te geven, inclusief God als de ultieme werkelijkheid. Paus Johannes Paulus II illustreert dit duidelijk wanneer hij schrijft: "Het is de eer en de verantwoordelijkheid van een katholieke universiteit zich zonder voorbehoud toe te wijden aan de zaak van de waarheid. [...] Middels een soort universeel humanisme is een katholieke universiteit volledig toegewijd aan het onderzoek van alle aspecten van de waarheid, in hun wezenlijke band met de hoogste Waarheid, die God is" (Johannes Paulus II, Ex corde Ecclesiae [1990], 4).

2. Verder impliceert "een waarachtige ervaring van universitas" "de ervaring [...] dat wij bij alle specialisaties, die ons soms sprakeloos voor elkaar maken, toch één geheel vormen en binnen het geheel van de ene rede werken, met al haar dimensies, en zo ook in een gemeenschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid staan voor het juiste gebruik van de rede" (paus Benedictus XVI, Ontmoeting met vertegenwoordigers van de wetenschap, Regensburg, 12 september 2006). "Moed [hebben] tot de hele reikwijdte van de rede" betekent hierbij dat "uitsluiting van het goddelijke uit de universaliteit van de rede", zoals een wijdverbreide positivistische wereldopvatting het voorstaat, niet toelaatbaar is.

3. Meer nog, met Luigi Giussani het idee delend dat "opvoeden betekent de menselijke ziel helpen het geheel van de werkelijkheid binnen te gaan", menen wij dat een universiteit zich moet openstellen voor het "risico van de opvoeding" (L. Giussani, Het risico van de opvoeding, Leiden 2011). Een educatieve instelling heeft als einddoel de omvorming van haar studenten tot ten diepste redelijke en morele persoonlijkheden. Hierbij is het belangrijk de betekenis van redelijkheid niet terug te brengen tot het bewijsbare in de enge betekenis van het woord, of het zuiver logische. "Werkelijk interessant voor de mens is niet de logica – al is het een fascinerend spel – en evenmin het bewijs – al is het een uitnodigende curiositeit. Werkelijk interessant is voor de mens is zich te hechten aan de werkelijkheid, zich bewust te worden van de werkelijkheid. Dit is voor hem een noodzaak (iets dat hem dwingt), geen kwestie van logische samenhang" (L. Giussani, Het religieuze zintuig, hoofdstuk 2). Verder impliceert de dynamiek van het kennen een juiste, morele houding ten opzichte van de kenobjecten, waarbij moraliteit betekent dat "de liefde voor de waarheid van een object moet groter zijn dan onze gehechtheid aan de mening die we er al over hebben" (ibid., hoofdstuk 3).

4. Is zelfs de beste universiteit genoeg om een redelijke en morele persoonlijkheid te vormen? John Henry Newman meende van niet, bewust als hij was van het feit dat de academische gemeenschap niet zelfvoorzienend kan zijn en dat ze de Kerk en de katholieke gemeenschap nodig heeft om vorm te kunnen geven aan de geest (vgl. J.H. Newman, The idea of a university). Volgens zijn grondleggend idee van de universiteit is haar hoofddoel de "werkelijke vorming van de geest", een "grondslag te leggen waar het verstand op voort kan bouwen". In dit verband denken we niet dat de door de KUL geclaimde status van "intellectuele onafhankelijkheid" op gespannen voet kan staan met haar katholieke identiteit en betrokkenheid bij het leven van de Kerk. Ze zou veeleer haar toebehoren aan de Kerk moeten heroverwegen en herontdekken als de uiteindelijke garantie van haar oorspronkelijke doel van onverslapte toewijding aan het zoeken naar de waarheid en aan de vernieuwing van de traditie. De Kerk is niet slechts "expert in menselijkheid", maar ook de plaats van de "fysiologische continuïteit" van de menswording in de geschiedenis.

5. Want het bijvoeglijk naamwoord "katholiek" kan niet gereduceerd worden tot katholieke ethiek, waarden of gemeenschap. Etymologisch drukt het iets universeels uit (kath-olou), verwijst het naar een specifieke opvatting van kennis, en deze specifieke opvatting ontstaat uit een pretentie, de pretentie dat God mens geworden is en dat Zijn aanwezigheid nu nog te ontmoeten is. Dit feit, de ontmoeting met deze Aanwezigheid, is, in onze ervaring, niet alleen de enige ontstaansfactor van welke katholieke identiteit of nieuwheid dan ook, maar ook de bron van werkelijk pluralisme. Daarom zouden we willen suggereren om te gaan met een wetenschappelijke "gemeenschap" door deze identiteit te delen middels interdisciplinaire onderzoekspatronen, veeleer dan "gecentreerd pluralisme". Aangezien 'katholiek' altijd verwijst naar een "concrete universaliteit", impliceert het een specifieke relatie tussen het bijzondere en het universele.
In dit verband kan de specifieke taak van de gerenommeerde Faculteit der Theologie niet buiten schot blijven; zij moet een katholieke identiteit aanbieden, getuigenis afleggen van de Waarheid en tevens problemen het hoofd bieden middels haar steeds vragen stellende kritiek en verhelderende inzichten. Met andere woorden, door de redelijkheid van het geloof te onderzoeken, voert ze een taak uit die noodzakelijkerwijs deel uitmaakt van het 'geheel', de universitas scientiarum.

6. Met betrekking tot de relatie tussen geloof en wetenschap: wat betekenen uitdrukkingen als "strikt katholiek" en "strikt wetenschappelijk"? Elk onderzoek, ook wetenschappelijk, kan slechts aanvangen vanuit een dorst naar de waarheid, naar de ontdekking van een stuk werkelijkheid dat niet door ons gemaakt is, maar ons is gegeven. Wanneer we het geloof toelaten als openbare kennis, voortgekomen uit een historisch feit, en niet als een "privé-overtuiging", maken we ruimte voor een wederzijdse en vruchtbare samenwerking tussen de twee. De paus zei recentelijk: "Het christelijk perspectief stelt zich niet op tegen wetenschappelijke kennis en de verworvenheden van de menselijke intelligentie; veeleer beschouwt het het geloof als de betekenishorizon, de weg naar de volle waarheid, de gids voor waarachtige ontwikkeling. Als ze zich niet concentreert op de waarheid, als ze geen houding heeft van nederig en vurig onderzoek, stort elke cultuur in, vervalt ze in relativisme en verliest ze zichzelf in het voorbijgaande. Het christelijk perspectief daarentegen, verlost uit de greep van het reductionisme dat het vernedert en beperkt, kan zich openstellen voor een interpretatie die waarlijk verlicht wordt door wat werkelijk is, en zo een echte dienst aan het leven bewijzen" (Toespraak tot de medewerkers en studenten van de Katholieke Universiteit van het H. Hart, 21 mei jl 2011).

Als de Katholieke Universiteit van Leuven, vanuit het debat rond haar identiteit, deze hogere roeping waarmee zij opgericht is, zou kunnen herontdekken, zou ze zich weer kunnen verheffen als een lichtbaken in de internationale onderzoeksgemeenschap.

Doe-het-zelf denkraamverfraaiing

Every thing has its own perfection, be it higher or lower in the scale of things; and the perfection of one is not the perfection of another. Things animate, inanimate, visible, invisible, all are good in their kind, and have a best of themselves, which is an object of pursuit. Why do you take such pains with your garden or your park? You see to your walks and turf and shrubberies; to your trees and drives; not as if you meant to make an orchard of the one, or corn or pasture land of the other, but because there is a special beauty in all that is goodly in wood, water, plain, and slope, brought all together by art into one shape, and grouped into one whole. Your cities are beautiful, your palaces, your public buildings, your territorial mansions, your churches; and their beauty leads to nothing beyond itself. There is a physical beauty and a moral: there is a beauty of person, there is a beauty of our moral being, which is natural virtue; and in like manner there is a beauty, there is a perfection, of the intellect. There is an ideal perfection in these various subject-matters, towards which individual instances are seen to rise, and which are the standards for all instances whatever. The Greek divinities and demigods, as the statuary has moulded them, with their symmetry of figure, and their high forehead and their regular features, are the perfection of physical beauty. The heroes, of whom history tells, Alexander, or Cæsar, or Scipio, or Saladin, are the representatives of that magnanimity or self-mastery which is the greatness of human nature. Christianity too has its heroes, and in the supernatural order, and we call them Saints. The artist puts before him beauty of feature and form; the poet, beauty of mind; the preacher, the beauty of grace: then intellect too, I repeat, has its beauty, and it has those who aim at it. To open the mind, to correct it, to refine it, to enable it to know, and to digest, master, rule, and use its knowledge, to give it power over its own faculties, application, flexibility, method, critical exactness, sagacity, resource, address, eloquent expression, is an object as intelligible [...] as the cultivation of virtue, while, at the same time, it is absolutely distinct from it (John Henry Newman).

Om voor deze mooie arbeid een handvat aan te reiken, staat er - zoals de aandachtigere lezertjes al opgemerkt hebben - sinds kort halverwege de rechterkolom van deze weblog een nieuwe rubriek met de (voorlopige) pseudo-humoristische titel 'Nix te lezen?' Aldaar een aantal werken - onderverdeeld in de categorieën literatuur, geschiedenis, filosofie en theologie - die de afgelopen jaren uw bloghouder geholpen hebben redelijker en christelijker te denken. Als u klikt op een titel, vindt u waar u het boek kunt bestellen, nieuw of tweedehands, indien mogelijk in Nederlandse vertaling.

Voor een evenwichtige denkraamverfraaiing in de zin van Newman is het aan te raden je niet te beperken tot 1 categorie. We citeren 'm nogmaals: "History [...] shows things as they are, that is, the morals and interests of men disfigured and perverted by all their imperfections of passion, folly, and ambition; philosophy strips the picture too much; poetry adorns it too much; the concentrated lights of the three correct the false peculiar colouring of each, and show us the truth".

Misschien vind je iets van je gading voor de zomervakantie. Veel leesplezier!

Katholieke theologie

From the time that I became a Catholic, of course I have no further history of my religious opinions to narrate. In saying this, I do not mean to say that my mind has been idle, or that I have given up thinking on theological subjects; but that I have had no variations to record, and have had no anxiety of heart whatever. I have been in perfect peace and contentment; I never have had one doubt. I was not conscious to myself, on my conversion, of any change, intellectual or moral, wrought in my mind. I was not conscious of firmer faith in the fundamental truths of Revelation, or of more self-command; I had not more fervour; but it was like coming into port after a rough sea; and my happiness on that score remains to this day without interruption.
Nor had I any trouble about receiving those additional articles, which are not found in the Anglican Creed. Some of them I believed already, but not any one of them was a trial to me. I made a profession of them upon my reception with the greatest ease, and I have the same ease in believing them now. I am far of course from denying that every article of the Christian Creed, whether as held by Catholics or by Protestants, is beset with intellectual difficulties; and it is simple fact, that, for myself, I cannot answer those difficulties. Many persons are very sensitive of the difficulties of Religion; I am as sensitive of them as any one; but I have never been able to see a connexion between apprehending those difficulties, however keenly, and multiplying them to any extent, and on the other hand doubting the doctrines to which they are attached. Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt, as I understand the subject; difficulty and doubt are incommensurate. There of course may be difficulties in the evidence; but I am speaking of difficulties intrinsic to the doctrines themselves, or to their relations with each other. A man may be annoyed that he cannot work out a mathematical problem, of which the answer is or is not given to him, without doubting that it admits of an answer, or that a certain particular answer is the true one. Of all points of faith, the being of a God is, to my own apprehension, encompassed with most difficulty, and yet borne in upon our minds with most power.
People say that the doctrine of Transubstantiation is difficult to believe; I did not believe the doctrine till I was a Catholic. I had no difficulty in believing it, as soon as I believed that the Catholic Roman Church was the oracle of God, and that she had declared this doctrine to be part of the original revelation. It is difficult, impossible, to imagine, I grant;—but how is it difficult to believe? Yet Macaulay thought it so difficult to believe, that he had need of a believer in it of talents as eminent as Sir Thomas More, before he could bring himself to conceive that the Catholics of an enlightened age could resist "the overwhelming force of the argument against it." "Sir Thomas More," he says, "is one of the choice specimens of wisdom and virtue; and the doctrine of transubstantiation is a kind of proof charge. A faith which stands that test, will stand any test." But for myself, I cannot indeed prove it, I cannot tell how it is; but I say, "Why should it not be? What's to hinder it? What do I know of substance or matter? just as much as the greatest philosophers, and that is nothing at all;"—so much is this the case, that there is a rising school of philosophy now, which considers phenomena to constitute the whole of our knowledge in physics. The Catholic doctrine leaves phenomena alone. It does not say that the phenomena go; on the contrary, it says that they remain; nor does it say that the same phenomena are in several places at once. It deals with what no one on earth knows any thing about, the material substances themselves. And, in like manner, of that majestic Article of the Anglican as well as of the Catholic Creed,—the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity. What do I know of the Essence of the Divine Being? I know that my abstract idea of three is simply incompatible with my idea of one; but when I come to the question of concrete fact, I have no means of proving that there is not a sense in which one and three can equally be predicated of the Incommunicable God.
But I am going to take upon myself the responsibility of more than the mere Creed of the Church; as the parties accusing me are determined I shall do. They say, that now, in that I am a Catholic, though I may not have offences of my own against honesty to answer for, yet, at least, I am answerable for the offences of others, of my co-religionists, of my brother priests, of the Church herself. I am quite willing to accept the responsibility; and, as I have been able, as I trust, by means of a few words, to dissipate, in the minds of all those who do not begin with disbelieving me, the suspicion with which so many Protestants start, in forming their judgment of Catholics, viz. that our Creed is actually set up in inevitable superstition and hypocrisy, as the original sin of Catholicism; so now I will proceed, as before, identifying myself with the Church and vindicating it,—not of course denying the enormous mass of sin and error which exists of necessity in that world-wide multiform Communion,—but going to the proof of this one point, that its system is in no sense dishonest, and that therefore the upholders and teachers of that system, as such, have a claim to be acquitted in their own persons of that odious imputation.

(John Henry Newman, Apologia pro vita sua, hoofdstuk 5, alinea's 1-4)

"Work to do in England"

Uit de preek van p. Aidan Nichols, O.P., tijdens de "eerste H. Mis" van Andrew Burnham (62), één van de drie tot voor kort anglicaanse bisschoppen die afgelopen zaterdag tot katholiek priester gewijd zijn en de eerste priesters zijn geworden van het eveneens zaterdag opgerichte Persoonlijke Ordinariaat van O.L.V. van Walsingham:

Bishop Andrew – I’ve known Andrew so long and closely under that description I find it hard to break the habit – is celebrating today his first Mass in full union with the Catholic Church. [...]
In the spring of 1843, Newman wrote to a correspondent, ‘At present… as far as I can analyze my convictions, I consider the Roman Church Communion to be the Church of the Apostles, and that what grace is among us… is extraordinary, and from the overflowing of His dispensation.’ I’ve left out in this citation a phrase in parenthesis for the sake of drawing attention to it now – ‘what grace is among us (which, through God’s mercy, is not little)’. The task before Andrew and the others in the Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham is to translate into terms of Christian life, thought and worship, what that ‘not little’ grace has done, in the history of the Church of England – what it is that can be placed on the paten, put into the chalice, not for propitiation, in a spirit of repentance, but for the praise of God’s glory, in a spirit of thanksgiving. [...]
It will entail a very great deal of hard work. It is nothing less than the reconfiguring of Anglicanism by union with the Petrine centre and its criteria of orthodoxy. It is taking up again, in a totally fresh context, the task Newman set himself and his fellow Tractarians in 1837:
"We have a vast inheritance, but no inventory of our treasures. All is given us in profusion; it remains for us to catalogue, sort, distribute, select, harmonize,and complete. We have more than we know how to use; stores of learning, but little that is precise and serviceable; Catholic truth and independent opinion, first principles and the guesses of genius, all mingled in same works, and requiring to be discriminated."
And Newman closed:
"We need peculiarly a sound judgment, patient thought, discrimination, a comprehensive mind, an abstinence from all private fancies and caprices and personal tastes – in a word, Divine Wisdom".
We rejoice today for Andrew personally as a long odyssey is completed, but since no share in priesthood is ever conferred for the individual’s satisfaction but only for some wider good, we also have to draw attention to the task that awaits him. Newman spoke of the ‘concentration and adjustment of great Anglican authorities’. Andrew has already begun working on the liturgical dimension of this, entrusted by the Holy See with co-ordinating efforts on that front, in recognition of his outstanding competence in that area.
But there is more than that. There is bringing this new ecclesia particularis, this new ‘particular church’, into the movement for renovating the whole Church which we associate with the mind and heart of Pope Benedict, a movement which respects the Second Vatican Council but places it, by a hermeneutic of continuity, in the great Tradition as a whole. It is a movement towards the fullness of Catholicity, in which the fathers of the Oxford Movement can take effortlessly their place.
So, Father, let me leave you and this congregation with one final citation from the Blessed John Henry, ‘I have a work to do in England’.

Van Newman tot Newton. Anglicaans Ordinariaat in Engeland opgericht, eerste ordinarius benoemd

Vanaf vandaag bestaat het "Engels stuk van de Wereldkerk waarin C.S. Lewis zich thuis gevoeld zou hebben". De H. Stoel heeft officieel het Ordinariaat van Onze Lieve Vrouw van Walsingham opgericht, met als territorium Engeland en Wales; zeg maar een groot bisdom, speciaal voor die anglicanen, priesters en leken, die katholiek willen worden met behoud van hun hele anglicaanse traditie (voor zover die niet in strijd is met het katholieke geloof). Het is het eerste anglicaanse Ordinariaat binnen de katholieke Kerk, maar gemeenschappen in Schotland, Canada en Australië hebben al om een soortgelijk ordinariaat gevraagd.
Eerste ordinarius wordt Keith Newton, tot voor enkele maanden anglicaans bisschop van Richborough. In november publiceerden wij de mooie brief waarin hij uitlegde waarom hij katholiek wordt. Op 1 januari is hij samen met zijn vrouw opgenomen in de katholieke Kerk, en vanochtend is hij samen met twee andere voormalige bisschoppen van de anglicaanse Kerk in de kathedraal van Westminster tot katholiek priester gewijd. En vandaag heeft B16 hem benoemd tot eerste ordinarius (d.w.z. quasi-bisschop, leider van het ordinariaat, zonder bisschop te zijn; hij kan geen bisschop worden, omdat hij getrouwd is).
Hier het hele persbericht van de H. Stoel:

In accordance with the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus of Pope Benedict XVI (November 4, 2009) and after careful consultation with the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has today erected a Personal Ordinariate within the territory of England and Wales for those groups of Anglican clergy and faithful who have expressed their desire to enter into full visible communion with the Catholic Church. The Decree of Erection specifies that the Ordinariate will be known as the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and will be placed under the patronage of Blessed John Henry Newman.
A Personal Ordinariate is a canonical structure that provides for corporate reunion in such a way that allows former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of their distinctive Anglican patrimony. With this structure, the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be fully integrated into the Catholic Church.
For doctrinal reasons the Church does not, in any circumstances, allow the ordination of married men as Bishops. However, the Apostolic Constitution does provide, under certain conditions, for the ordination as Catholic priests of former Anglican married clergy. Today at Westminster Cathedral in London, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, ordained to the Catholic priesthood three former Anglican Bishops: Reverend Andrew Burnham, Reverend Keith Newton, and Reverend John Broadhurst.
Also today Pope Benedict XVI has nominated Reverend Keith Newton as the first Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Together with Reverend Burnham and Reverend Broadhurst, Reverend Newton will oversee the catechetical preparation of the first groups of Anglicans in England and Wales who will be received into the Catholic Church together with their pastors at Easter, and to accompany the clergy preparing for ordination to the Catholic priesthood around Pentecost.
The provision of this new structure is consistent with the commitment to ecumenical dialogue, which continues to be a priority for the Catholic Church. The initiative leading to the publication of the Apostolic Constitution and the erection of this Personal Ordinariate came from a number of different groups of Anglicans who have declared that they share the common Catholic faith as it is expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and accept the Petrine ministry as something Christ willed for the Church. For them, the time has now come to express this implicit unity in the visible form of full communion.

In de Catholic Herald doet Anna Arco verslag van de priesterwijding vanochtend in Westminster. De laatste zinnen:

After the Mass, one young woman in the congregation who hopes to be in the first wave of the ordinariate, said: “I thought it was tremendous and very moving and utterly joyful and historic. I feel so proud and thankful to the Pope. It’s just beyond our wildest dreams.
I want to say it’s like coming home, but that’s a cliché, but that’s what feels like.”

Vele mooie en ware dingen zijn "cliché". Nogmaals: van harte welkom!!

Waarheid; geloof en redelijkheid; rede; nog eens waarheid; en ware vreugde

Belangrijke Kersttoespraak van de paus tot de medewerkers van de Romeinse Curie, vandaag in de Sala Regia van het Vaticaan:

Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni. Repeatedly during the season of Advent the Church’s liturgy prays in these or similar words. They are invocations that were probably formulated as the Roman Empire was in decline. The disintegration of the key principles of law and of the fundamental moral attitudes underpinning them burst open the dams which until that time had protected peaceful coexistence among peoples. The sun was setting over an entire world. Frequent natural disasters further increased this sense of insecurity. There was no power in sight that could put a stop to this decline. All the more insistent, then, was the invocation of the power of God: the plea that he might come and protect his people from all these threats.
Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni. Today too, we have many reasons to associate ourselves with this Advent prayer of the Church. For all its new hopes and possibilities, our world is at the same time troubled by the sense that moral consensus is collapsing, consensus without which juridical and political structures cannot function. Consequently the forces mobilized for the defence of such structures seem doomed to failure.
Excita – the prayer recalls the cry addressed to the Lord who was sleeping in the disciples’ storm-tossed boat as it was close to sinking. When his powerful word had calmed the storm, he rebuked the disciples for their little faith (cf. Mt 8:26 et par.). He wanted to say: it was your faith that was sleeping. He will say the same thing to us. Our faith too is often asleep. Let us ask him, then, to wake us from the sleep of a faith grown tired, and to restore to that faith the power to move mountains – that is, to order justly the affairs of the world.

Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni: amid the great tribulations to which we have been exposed during the past year, this Advent prayer has frequently been in my mind and on my lips. We had begun the Year for Priests with great joy and, thank God, we were also able to conclude it with great gratitude, despite the fact that it unfolded so differently from the way we had expected. Among us priests and among the lay faithful, especially the young, there was a renewed awareness of what a great gift the Lord has entrusted to us in the priesthood of the Catholic Church. We realized afresh how beautiful it is that human beings are fully authorized to pronounce in God’s name the word of forgiveness, and are thus able to change the world, to change life; we realized how beautiful it is that human beings may utter the words of consecration, through which the Lord draws a part of the world into himself, and so transforms it at one point in its very substance; we realized how beautiful it is to be able, with the Lord’s strength, to be close to people in their joys and sufferings, in the important moments of their lives and in their dark times; how beautiful it is to have as one’s life task not this or that, but simply human life itself – helping people to open themselves to God and to live from God. We were all the more dismayed, then, when in this year of all years and to a degree we could not have imagined, we came to know of abuse of minors committed by priests who twist the sacrament into its antithesis, and under the mantle of the sacred profoundly wound human persons in their childhood, damaging them for a whole lifetime.
In this context, a vision of Saint Hildegard of Bingen came to my mind, a vision which describes in a shocking way what we have lived through this past year. “In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 1170, I had been lying on my sick-bed for a long time when, fully conscious in body and in mind, I had a vision of a woman of such beauty that the human mind is unable to comprehend. She stretched in height from earth to heaven. Her face shone with exceeding brightness and her gaze was fixed on heaven. She was dressed in a dazzling robe of white silk and draped in a cloak, adorned with stones of great price. On her feet she wore shoes of onyx. But her face was stained with dust, her robe was ripped down the right side, her cloak had lost its sheen of beauty and her shoes had been blackened. And she herself, in a voice loud with sorrow, was calling to the heights of heaven, saying, ‘Hear, heaven, how my face is sullied; mourn, earth, that my robe is torn; tremble, abyss, because my shoes are blackened!’
And she continued: ‘I lay hidden in the heart of the Father until the Son of Man, who was conceived and born in virginity, poured out his blood. With that same blood as his dowry, he made me his betrothed.
For my Bridegroom’s wounds remain fresh and open as long as the wounds of men’s sins continue to gape. And Christ’s wounds remain open because of the sins of priests. They tear my robe, since they are violators of the Law, the Gospel and their own priesthood; they darken my cloak by neglecting, in every way, the precepts which they are meant to uphold; my shoes too are blackened, since priests do not keep to the straight paths of justice, which are hard and rugged, or set good examples to those beneath them. Nevertheless, in some of them I find the splendour of truth.’
And I heard a voice from heaven which said: ‘This image represents the Church. For this reason, O you who see all this and who listen to the word of lament, proclaim it to the priests who are destined to offer guidance and instruction to God’s people and to whom, as to the apostles, it was said: go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation’ (Mk 16:15)” (Letter to Werner von Kirchheim and his Priestly Community: PL 197, 269ff.).
In the vision of Saint Hildegard, the face of the Church is stained with dust, and this is how we have seen it. Her garment is torn – by the sins of priests. The way she saw and expressed it is the way we have experienced it this year. We must accept this humiliation as an exhortation to truth and a call to renewal. Only the truth saves. We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred. We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen. We must discover a new resoluteness in faith and in doing good. We must be capable of doing penance. We must be determined to make every possible effort in priestly formation to prevent anything of the kind from happening again. This is also the moment to offer heartfelt thanks to all those who work to help victims and to restore their trust in the Church, their capacity to believe her message. In my meetings with victims of this sin, I have also always found people who, with great dedication, stand alongside those who suffer and have been damaged. This is also the occasion to thank the many good priests who act as channels of the Lord’s goodness in humility and fidelity and, amid the devastations, bear witness to the unforfeited beauty of the priesthood.
We are well aware of the particular gravity of this sin committed by priests and of our corresponding responsibility. But neither can we remain silent regarding the context of these times in which these events have come to light. There is a market in child pornography that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society. The psychological destruction of children, in which human persons are reduced to articles of merchandise, is a terrifying sign of the times. From Bishops of developing countries I hear again and again how sexual tourism threatens an entire generation and damages its freedom and its human dignity. The Book of Revelation includes among the great sins of Babylon – the symbol of the world’s great irreligious cities – the fact that it trades with bodies and souls and treats them as commodities (cf. Rev 18:13). In this context, the problem of drugs also rears its head, and with increasing force extends its octopus tentacles around the entire world – an eloquent expression of the tyranny of mammon which perverts mankind. No pleasure is ever enough, and the excess of deceiving intoxication becomes a violence that tears whole regions apart – and all this in the name of a fatal misunderstanding of freedom which actually undermines man’s freedom and ultimately destroys it.
In order to resist these forces, we must turn our attention to their ideological foundations. In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children. This, however, was part of a fundamental perversion of the concept of ethos. It was maintained – even within the realm of Catholic theology – that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a “better than” and a “worse than”. Nothing is good or bad in itself. Everything depends on the circumstances and on the end in view. Anything can be good or also bad, depending upon purposes and circumstances. Morality is replaced by a calculus of consequences, and in the process it ceases to exist. The effects of such theories are evident today. Against them, Pope John Paul II, in his 1993 Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, indicated with prophetic force in the great rational tradition of Christian ethos the essential and permanent foundations of moral action. Today, attention must be focussed anew on this text as a path in the formation of conscience. It is our responsibility to make these criteria audible and intelligible once more for people today as paths of true humanity, in the context of our paramount concern for mankind.

As my second point, I should like to say a word about the Synod of the Churches of the Middle East. This began with my journey to Cyprus, where I was able to consign the Instrumentum Laboris of the Synod to the Bishops of those countries who were assembled there. The hospitality of the Orthodox Church was unforgettable, and we experienced it with great gratitude. Even if full communion is not yet granted to us, we have nevertheless established with joy that the basic form of the ancient Church unites us profoundly with one another: the sacramental office of Bishops as the bearer of apostolic tradition, the reading of Scripture according to the hermeneutic of the Regula fidei, the understanding of Scripture in its manifold unity centred on Christ, developed under divine inspiration, and finally, our faith in the central place of the Eucharist in the Church’s life. Thus we experienced a living encounter with the riches of the rites of the ancient Church that are also found within the Catholic Church. We celebrated the liturgy with Maronites and with Melchites, we celebrated in the Latin rite, we experienced moments of ecumenical prayer with the Orthodox, and we witnessed impressive manifestations of the rich Christian culture of the Christian East. But we also saw the problem of the divided country. The wrongs and the deep wounds of the past were all too evident, but so too was the desire for the peace and communion that had existed before. Everyone knows that violence does not bring progress – indeed, it gave rise to the present situation. Only in a spirit of compromise and mutual understanding can unity be re-established. To prepare the people for this attitude of peace is an essential task of pastoral ministry.
During the Synod itself, our gaze was extended over the whole of the Middle East, where the followers of different religions – as well as a variety of traditions and distinct rites – live together. As far as Christians are concerned, there are Pre-Chalcedonian as well as Chalcedonian churches; there are churches in communion with Rome and others that are outside that communion; in both cases, multiple rites exist alongside one another. In the turmoil of recent years, the tradition of peaceful coexistence has been shattered and tensions and divisions have grown, with the result that we witness with increasing alarm acts of violence in which there is no longer any respect for what the other holds sacred, in which on the contrary the most elementary rules of humanity collapse. In the present situation, Christians are the most oppressed and tormented minority. For centuries they lived peacefully together with their Jewish and Muslim neighbours. During the Synod we listened to wise words from the Counsellor of the Mufti of the Republic of Lebanon against acts of violence targeting Christians. He said: when Christians are wounded, we ourselves are wounded. Unfortunately, though, this and similar voices of reason, for which we are profoundly grateful, are too weak. Here too we come up against an unholy alliance between greed for profit and ideological blindness. On the basis of the spirit of faith and its rationality, the Synod developed a grand concept of dialogue, forgiveness and mutual acceptance, a concept that we now want to proclaim to the world. The human being is one, and humanity is one. Whatever damage is done to another in any one place, ends up by damaging everyone. Thus the words and ideas of the Synod must be a clarion call, addressed to all people with political or religious responsibility, to put a stop to Christianophobia; to rise up in defence of refugees and all who are suffering, and to revitalize the spirit of reconciliation. In the final analysis, healing can only come from deep faith in God’s reconciling love. Strengthening this faith, nourishing it and causing it to shine forth is the Church’s principal task at this hour.

I would willingly speak in some detail of my unforgettable journey to the United Kingdom, but I will limit myself to two points that are connected with the theme of the responsibility of Christians at this time and with the Church’s task to proclaim the Gospel. My thoughts go first of all to the encounter with the world of culture in Westminster Hall, an encounter in which awareness of shared responsibility at this moment in history created great attention which, in the final analysis, was directed to the question of truth and faith itself. It was evident to all that the Church has to make her own contribution to this debate. Alexis de Tocqueville, in his day, observed that democracy in America had become possible and had worked because there existed a fundamental moral consensus which, transcending individual denominations, united everyone. Only if there is such a consensus on the essentials can constitutions and law function. This fundamental consensus derived from the Christian heritage is at risk wherever its place, the place of moral reasoning, is taken by the purely instrumental rationality of which I spoke earlier. In reality, this makes reason blind to what is essential. To resist this eclipse of reason and to preserve its capacity for seeing the essential, for seeing God and man, for seeing what is good and what is true, is the common interest that must unite all people of good will. The very future of the world is at stake.
Finally I should like to recall once more the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman. Why was he beatified? What does he have to say to us? Many responses could be given to these questions, which were explored in the context of the beatification. I would like to highlight just two aspects which belong together and which, in the final analysis, express the same thing. The first is that we must learn from Newman’s three conversions, because they were steps along a spiritual path that concerns us all. Here I would like to emphasize just the first conversion: to faith in the living God. Until that moment, Newman thought like the average men of his time and indeed like the average men of today, who do not simply exclude the existence of God, but consider it as something uncertain, something with no essential role to play in their lives. What appeared genuinely real to him, as to the men of his and our day, is the empirical, matter that can be grasped. This is the “reality” according to which one finds one’s bearings. The “real” is what can be grasped, it is the things that can be calculated and taken in one’s hand. In his conversion, Newman recognized that it is exactly the other way round: that God and the soul, man’s spiritual identity, constitute what is genuinely real, what counts. These are much more real than objects that can be grasped. This conversion was a Copernican revolution. What had previously seemed unreal and secondary was now revealed to be the genuinely decisive element. Where such a conversion takes place, it is not just a person’s theory that changes: the fundamental shape of life changes. We are all in constant need of such conversion: then we are on the right path.
The driving force that impelled Newman along the path of conversion was conscience. But what does this mean? In modern thinking, the word “conscience” signifies that for moral and religious questions, it is the subjective dimension, the individual, that constitutes the final authority for decision. The world is divided into the realms of the objective and the subjective. To the objective realm belong things that can be calculated and verified by experiment. Religion and morals fall outside the scope of these methods and are therefore considered to lie within the subjective realm. Here, it is said, there are in the final analysis no objective criteria. The ultimate instance that can decide here is therefore the subject alone, and precisely this is what the word “conscience” expresses: in this realm only the individual, with his intuitions and experiences, can decide. Newman’s understanding of conscience is diametrically opposed to this. For him, “conscience” means man’s capacity for truth: the capacity to recognize precisely in the decision-making areas of his life – religion and morals – a truth, the truth. At the same time, conscience – man’s capacity to recognize truth – thereby imposes on him the obligation to set out along the path towards truth, to seek it and to submit to it wherever he finds it. Conscience is both capacity for truth and obedience to the truth which manifests itself to anyone who seeks it with an open heart. The path of Newman’s conversions is a path of conscience – not a path of self-asserting subjectivity but, on the contrary, a path of obedience to the truth that was gradually opening up to him. His third conversion, to Catholicism, required him to give up almost everything that was dear and precious to him: possessions, profession, academic rank, family ties and many friends. The sacrifice demanded of him by obedience to the truth, by his conscience, went further still. Newman had always been aware of having a mission for England. But in the Catholic theology of his time, his voice could hardly make itself heard. It was too foreign in the context of the prevailing form of theological thought and devotion. In January 1863 he wrote in his diary these distressing words: “As a Protestant, I felt my religion dreary, but not my life - but, as a Catholic, my life dreary, not my religion”. He had not yet arrived at the hour when he would be an influential figure. In the humility and darkness of obedience, he had to wait until his message was taken up and understood. In support of the claim that Newman’s concept of conscience matched the modern subjective understanding, people often quote a letter in which he said – should he have to propose a toast – that he would drink first to conscience and then to the Pope. But in this statement, “conscience” does not signify the ultimately binding quality of subjective intuition. It is an expression of the accessibility and the binding force of truth: on this its primacy is based. The second toast can be dedicated to the Pope because it is his task to demand obedience to the truth.

I must refrain from speaking of my remarkable journeys to Malta, Portugal and Spain. In these it once again became evident that the faith is not a thing of the past, but an encounter with the God who lives and acts now. He challenges us and he opposes our indolence, but precisely in this way he opens the path towards true joy.

Excita, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni. We set out from this plea for the presence of God’s power in our time and from the experience of his apparent absence. If we keep our eyes open as we look back over the year that is coming to an end, we can see clearly that God’s power and goodness are also present today in many different ways. So we all have reason to thank him. Along with thanks to the Lord I renew my thanks to all my co-workers. May God grant to all of us a holy Christmas and may he accompany us with his blessings in the coming year.
I entrust these prayerful sentiments to the intercession of the Holy Virgin, Mother of the Redeemer, and I impart to all of you and to the great family of the Roman Curia a heartfelt Apostolic Blessing. Happy Christmas!

De paus in Schotland en Engeland (19)

Toch nog een laatste keer de paus zelf aan het woord over zijn bezoek aan het Verenigd Koninkrijk (catechese van afgelopen woensdag, in de vertaling van Zenit):

Today I would like to speak about my apostolic journey to the United Kingdom, which God enabled me to carry out over the past few days. It was an official visit and, at the same time, a pilgrimage to the heart of the history and the present of a people rich in culture and faith, as the British are. It was a historic event, which marked a new important phase in the long and complex history of relations between those peoples and the Holy See.
The main objective of the visit was to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, one of the greatest Englishmen of recent times, an outstanding theologian and man of the Church. In fact, the beatification ceremony represented the climax of my apostolic journey, the theme of which was inspired in the motto of Blessed Newman's cardinal insignia: "Heart Speaks Unto Heart." And in the four intense and very beautiful days spent in that noble land, I had the great joy of speaking to the heart of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom, and they spoke to mine, especially with their presence and the testimony of their faith. I was able to see how the Christian heritage is still strong and also active in all strata of social life. The hearts of the British and their lives are open to the reality of God and there are numerous expressions of religiosity that this visit of mine has made even more evident.
From the first day of my stay in the United Kingdom, and during my whole time there, I received everywhere a warm welcome from the authorities, representatives of the various social realities, representatives of the various religious confessions and especially the ordinary people. I am thinking particularly of the faithful of the Catholic community and their pastors who, although being a minority in the country, are much appreciated and respected, committed to the joyful proclamation of Jesus Christ, making the Lord shine and making themselves his voice especially among the least. To all I renew the expression of my profound gratitude, for the enthusiasm shown and for the praiseworthy diligence with which they have worked for the success of my visit, the memory of which I will always keep in my heart.
The first meeting was in Edinburgh with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who together with her consort, the Duke of Edinburgh, received me with great courtesy in the name of all the British people. It was a very cordial meeting, characterized by sharing some profound concerns for the well-being of the peoples of the world and for the role of Christian values in society. In Scotland's historic capital I was able to admire artistic beauties, testimony of a rich tradition and of profound Christian roots. I made reference to this in my address to Her Majesty and the authorities present, recalling that the Christian message has become an integral part of the language, thought and culture of the peoples of those islands. I also spoke of the role Great Britain has had and has in the international scene, mentioning the importance of the steps taken for a just and lasting peace in Northern Ireland.
The atmosphere of celebration and joy created by the young people and children made the Edinburgh stage a joyful one. On arriving later in Glasgow, a city beautified by enchanting parks, I presided over the first Holy Mass of the trip, specifically in Bellahouston Park. It was a moment of intense spirituality, very important for the country's Catholics, also considering the fact that on that day the liturgical feast of St. Ninian was celebrated, the first evangelizer of Scotland. In that liturgical assembly gathered in attentive and shared prayer, made even more solemn by the traditional melodies and catchy songs, I recalled the importance of the evangelization of culture, especially in our time in which a penetrating relativism threatens to darken the immutable truth about the nature of man.
On the second day I began my visit to London. There I first met the world of Catholic education, which has an important role in the educational system of the country. In a genuine family atmosphere, I spoke to educators, reminding them of the importance of faith in the formation of mature and responsible citizens. To numerous adolescents and young people, who welcomed me with joy and enthusiasm, I proposed that they not pursue limited objectives, being content with comfortable choices, but to aim for something greater, that is, the pursuit of true happiness, which is found only in God.
In the following meeting with leaders of other religions largely present in the United Kingdom, I called to mind the inescapable need for sincere dialogue, which requires respect for the principle of reciprocity to be fully fruitful. At the same time, I made manifest the search for the sacred as common ground for all religions on which to reinforce friendship, trust and collaboration.
The fraternal visit to the archbishop of Canterbury was the occasion to reaffirm the joint commitment to give witness to the Christian message that unites Catholics and Anglicans. It was followed by one of the most significant moments of the apostolic trip: the meeting in the great chamber of the British Parliament with institutional, political, diplomatic, academic, religious personalities, and representatives of the cultural and business world. In this very prestigious place I stressed that, for law makers, religion should not represent a problem to resolve but a factor that contributes in a vital way to the historic path and public debate of the nation, in particular, recalling the essential importance of the ethical foundation for decisions in the various sectors of social life.
In that same solemn atmosphere, I then went to Westminster Abbey: For the first time a Successor of Peter was in that place of worship that is a symbol of the very ancient Christian roots of the country. The recitation of the prayer of Vespers, together with the various communities of the United Kingdom, represented an important moment in relations between the Catholic community and the Anglican Communion. When we venerated together the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor, while the choir sang "Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor," I praised God, who leads us on the path of full unity.
On Saturday morning, the meeting with the prime minister opened the series of meetings with the most important representatives of the British political world. It was followed by a Eucharistic celebration in Westminster Cathedral, which is dedicated to the most Precious Blood of Our Lord. It was an extraordinary moment of faith and prayer - which manifested the rich and precious tradition of "Roman" and "English" liturgical music - in which various ecclesial components took part, spiritually united to the multitude of believers of the long Christian history of that land. Great was my joy to have met with a large number of young people who participated in the Holy Mass from outside the cathedral. With their presence full of enthusiasm and at the same time attentive and eager, they demonstrated their desire to be the protagonists of a new stage of courageous witness, of solidarity in deeds, of generous commitment at the service of the Gospel.
In the apostolic nunciature I met with some victims abused by members of the clergy and religious. It was an intense moment of emotion and prayer. Shortly after, I also met with a group of professionals and volunteers responsible for the protection of children and young people in ecclesial environments, a particularly important and current aspect in the pastoral commitment of the Church. I thanked them and encouraged them to continue their work, which is inserted in the Church's long tradition of care for the respect, education and formation of the new generations.
Still in London, I visited a home for the elderly run by the Little Sisters of the Poor, with the precious contribution of numerous nurses and volunteers. This structure for welcoming is a sign of the great consideration that the Church has always had for the elderly, as well as an expression of British Catholics' commitment to respect for life, regardless of age or condition.
As I was saying, the culmination of my visit to the United Kingdom was the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, illustrious son of England. It was preceded and prepared for by a special prayer vigil, which took place on Saturday night in London, in Hyde Park, in an atmosphere of profound recollection. To the multitude of faithful, especially young people, I wished to propose again the luminous figure of Cardinal Newman, intellectual and believer, whose spiritual message can be summarized in the testimony that the path to knowledge is not being closed in on one's "I," but openness, conversion and obedience to the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
The rite of beatification took place in Birmingham, during the solemn Sunday Eucharistic celebration, with the presence of a vast throng from the whole of Great Britain and Ireland, with representation from many other countries. This impressive event has highlighted even more an erudite man of great stature, a distinguished writer and poet, a wise man of God, whose thought enlightened many consciences and who still today brings an extraordinary fascination. May believers and ecclesial communities of the United Kingdom in particular be inspired in him, so that also in our days that noble land will continue to produce abundant fruits of evangelical life.
The meeting with the episcopal conference of England and Wales and that of Scotland concluded a day of great celebration and intense communion of hearts for the Catholic community in Great Britain.
Dear brothers and sisters, in this visit of mine to the United Kingdom, as always I wanted in the first place to support the Catholic community, encouraging it to work tirelessly to defend the immutable moral truths that, taken up again, illumined and confirmed by the Gospel, are at the base of a truly human, just and free society. I also wished to speak to the hearts of all the inhabitants of the United Kingdom, excluding no one, about the true reality of man, about his most profound needs, about his ultimate destiny. On addressing the citizens of that country, a crossroads of world culture and economy, I had the whole of the West present, dialoguing with the reason of this civilization and communicating the everlasting novelty of the Gospel, with which it is permeated.
This apostolic journey confirmed a profound conviction in me: The old nations of Europe have a Christian soul, which forms a unity with the "genius" and the history of each respective people, and the Church does not cease to work to continually maintain this spiritual and cultural tradition.
Blessed John Henry Newman, whose figure and writings are still of extraordinary timeliness, merits to be known by all. May he sustain the intentions and efforts of Christians to "spread everywhere the perfume of Christ, so that all their life is only a radiation of his," as he wrote wisely in his book "Radiating Christ."

De paus in Schotland en Engeland (15)

Voor het angelusgebed, gisteren in het Cofton Park van Rednal, Birmingham:

When Blessed John Henry Newman came to live in Birmingham, he gave the name “Maryvale” to his first home here. The Oratory that he founded is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. And the Catholic University of Ireland he placed under the patronage of Mary, Sedes Sapientiae. In so many ways, he lived his priestly ministry in a spirit of filial devotion to the Mother of God. Meditating upon her role in the unfolding of God’s plan for our salvation, he was moved to exclaim: “Who can estimate the holiness and perfection of her, who was chosen to be the Mother of Christ? What must have been her gifts, who was chosen to be the only near earthly relative of the Son of God, the only one whom He was bound by nature to revere and look up to; the one appointed to train and educate Him, to instruct Him day by day, as He grew in wisdom and in stature?” (Parochial and Plain Sermons, ii, 131-2). It is on account of those abundant gifts of grace that we honour her, and it is on account of that intimacy with her divine Son that we naturally seek her intercession for our own needs and the needs of the whole world. In the words of the Angelus, we turn now to our Blessed Mother and commend to her the intentions that we hold in our hearts.

De paus in Schotland en Engeland (14)

We publiceren de gehele tekst van de preek van Benedictus tijdens de H. Mis waarin hij John Henry Newman zaligverklaard heeft, gisteren in het Cofton Park van Rednal, Birmingham:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This day that has brought us together here in Birmingham is a most auspicious one. In the first place, it is the Lord’s day, Sunday, the day when our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead and changed the course of human history for ever, offering new life and hope to all who live in darkness and in the shadow of death. That is why Christians all over the world come together on this day to give praise and thanks to God for the great marvels he has worked for us. This particular Sunday also marks a significant moment in the life of the British nation, as it is the day chosen to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the Battle of Britain. For me as one who lived and suffered through the dark days of the Nazi regime in Germany, it is deeply moving to be here with you on this occasion, and to recall how many of your fellow citizens sacrificed their lives, courageously resisting the forces of that evil ideology. My thoughts go in particular to nearby Coventry, which suffered such heavy bombardment and massive loss of life in November 1940. Seventy years later, we recall with shame and horror the dreadful toll of death and destruction that war brings in its wake, and we renew our resolve to work for peace and reconciliation wherever the threat of conflict looms. Yet there is another, more joyful reason why this is an auspicious day for Great Britain, for the Midlands, for Birmingham. It is the day that sees Cardinal John Henry Newman formally raised to the altars and declared Blessed.
I thank Archbishop Bernard Longley for his gracious welcome at the start of Mass this morning. I pay tribute to all who have worked so hard over many years to promote the cause of Cardinal Newman, including the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory and the members of the Spiritual Family Das Werk. And I greet everyone here from Great Britain, Ireland, and further afield; I thank you for your presence at this celebration, in which we give glory and praise to God for the heroic virtue of a saintly Englishman.
England has a long tradition of martyr saints, whose courageous witness has sustained and inspired the Catholic community here for centuries. Yet it is right and fitting that we should recognize today the holiness of a confessor, a son of this nation who, while not called to shed his blood for the Lord, nevertheless bore eloquent witness to him in the course of a long life devoted to the priestly ministry, and especially to preaching, teaching, and writing. He is worthy to take his place in a long line of saints and scholars from these islands, Saint Bede, Saint Hilda, Saint Aelred, Blessed Duns Scotus, to name but a few. In Blessed John Henry, that tradition of gentle scholarship, deep human wisdom and profound love for the Lord has borne rich fruit, as a sign of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit deep within the heart of God’s people, bringing forth abundant gifts of holiness.
Cardinal Newman’s motto, Cor ad cor loquitur, or “Heart speaks unto heart”, gives us an insight into his understanding of the Christian life as a call to holiness, experienced as the profound desire of the human heart to enter into intimate communion with the Heart of God. He reminds us that faithfulness to prayer gradually transforms us into the divine likeness. As he wrote in one of his many fine sermons, “a habit of prayer, the practice of turning to God and the unseen world in every season, in every place, in every emergency – prayer, I say, has what may be called a natural effect in spiritualizing and elevating the soul. A man is no longer what he was before; gradually … he has imbibed a new set of ideas, and become imbued with fresh principles” (Parochial and Plain Sermons, iv, 230-231). Today’s Gospel tells us that no one can be the servant of two masters (cf. Lk 16:13), and Blessed John Henry’s teaching on prayer explains how the faithful Christian is definitively taken into the service of the one true Master, who alone has a claim to our unconditional devotion (cf. Mt 23:10). Newman helps us to understand what this means for our daily lives: he tells us that our divine Master has assigned a specific task to each one of us, a “definite service”, committed uniquely to every single person: “I have my mission”, he wrote, “I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do his work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place … if I do but keep his commandments and serve him in my calling” (Meditations and Devotions, 301-2).
The definite service to which Blessed John Henry was called involved applying his keen intellect and his prolific pen to many of the most pressing “subjects of the day”. His insights into the relationship between faith and reason, into the vital place of revealed religion in civilized society, and into the need for a broadly-based and wide-ranging approach to education were not only of profound importance for Victorian England, but continue today to inspire and enlighten many all over the world. I would like to pay particular tribute to his vision for education, which has done so much to shape the ethos that is the driving force behind Catholic schools and colleges today. Firmly opposed to any reductive or utilitarian approach, he sought to achieve an educational environment in which intellectual training, moral discipline and religious commitment would come together. The project to found a Catholic University in Ireland provided him with an opportunity to develop his ideas on the subject, and the collection of discourses that he published as The Idea of a University holds up an ideal from which all those engaged in academic formation can continue to learn. And indeed, what better goal could teachers of religion set themselves than Blessed John Henry’s famous appeal for an intelligent, well-instructed laity: “I want a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it” (The Present Position of Catholics in England, ix, 390). On this day when the author of those words is raised to the altars, I pray that, through his intercession and example, all who are engaged in the task of teaching and catechesis will be inspired to greater effort by the vision he so clearly sets before us.
While it is John Henry Newman’s intellectual legacy that has understandably received most attention in the vast literature devoted to his life and work, I prefer on this occasion to conclude with a brief reflection on his life as a priest, a pastor of souls. The warmth and humanity underlying his appreciation of the pastoral ministry is beautifully expressed in another of his famous sermons: “Had Angels been your priests, my brethren, they could not have condoled with you, sympathized with you, have had compassion on you, felt tenderly for you, and made allowances for you, as we can; they could not have been your patterns and guides, and have led you on from your old selves into a new life, as they can who come from the midst of you” (“Men, not Angels: the Priests of the Gospel”, Discourses to Mixed Congregations, 3). He lived out that profoundly human vision of priestly ministry in his devoted care for the people of Birmingham during the years that he spent at the Oratory he founded, visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison. No wonder that on his death so many thousands of people lined the local streets as his body was taken to its place of burial not half a mile from here. One hundred and twenty years later, great crowds have assembled once again to rejoice in the Church’s solemn recognition of the outstanding holiness of this much-loved father of souls. What better way to express the joy of this moment than by turning to our heavenly Father in heartfelt thanksgiving, praying in the words that Blessed John Henry Newman placed on the lips of the choirs of angels in heaven:

Praise to the Holiest in the height
And in the depth be praise;
In all his words most wonderful,
Most sure in all his ways!
(The Dream of Gerontius).

De paus in Schotland en Engeland (13)

Toespraak van Benedictus XVI tijdens de gebedwake, gisteravond in Hyde Park, aan de vooravond van de zaligverklaring van John Henry kardinaal Newman:

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This is an evening of joy, of immense spiritual joy, for all of us. We are gathered here in prayerful vigil to prepare for tomorrow’s Mass, during which a great son of this nation, Cardinal John Henry Newman, will be declared Blessed. How many people, in England and throughout the world, have longed for this moment! It is also a great joy for me, personally, to share this experience with you. As you know, Newman has long been an important influence in my own life and thought, as he has been for so many people beyond these isles. The drama of Newman’s life invites us to examine our lives, to see them against the vast horizon of God’s plan, and to grow in communion with the Church of every time and place: the Church of the apostles, the Church of the martyrs, the Church of the saints, the Church which Newman loved and to whose mission he devoted his entire life.
I thank Archbishop Peter Smith for his kind words of welcome in your name, and I am especially pleased to see the many young people who are present for this vigil. This evening, in the context of our common prayer, I would like to reflect with you about a few aspects of Newman’s life which I consider very relevant to our lives as believers and to the life of the Church today.
Let me begin by recalling that Newman, by his own account, traced the course of his whole life back to a powerful experience of conversion which he had as a young man. It was an immediate experience of the truth of God’s word, of the objective reality of Christian revelation as handed down in the Church. This experience, at once religious and intellectual, would inspire his vocation to be a minister of the Gospel, his discernment of the source of authoritative teaching in the Church of God, and his zeal for the renewal of ecclesial life in fidelity to the apostolic tradition. At the end of his life, Newman would describe his life’s work as a struggle against the growing tendency to view religion as a purely private and subjective matter, a question of personal opinion. Here is the first lesson we can learn from his life: in our day, when an intellectual and moral relativism threatens to sap the very foundations of our society, Newman reminds us that, as men and women made in the image and likeness of God, we were created to know the truth, to find in that truth our ultimate freedom and the fulfilment of our deepest human aspirations. In a word, we are meant to know Christ, who is himself “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).
Newman’s life also teaches us that passion for the truth, intellectual honesty and genuine conversion are costly. The truth that sets us free cannot be kept to ourselves; it calls for testimony, it begs to be heard, and in the end its convincing power comes from itself and not from the human eloquence or arguments in which it may be couched. Not far from here, at Tyburn, great numbers of our brothers and sisters died for the faith; the witness of their fidelity to the end was ever more powerful than the inspired words that so many of them spoke before surrendering everything to the Lord. In our own time, the price to be paid for fidelity to the Gospel is no longer being hanged, drawn and quartered but it often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied. And yet, the Church cannot withdraw from the task of proclaiming Christ and his Gospel as saving truth, the source of our ultimate happiness as individuals and as the foundation of a just and humane society.
Finally, Newman teaches us that if we have accepted the truth of Christ and committed our lives to him, there can be no separation between what we believe and the way we live our lives. Our every thought, word and action must be directed to the glory of God and the spread of his Kingdom. Newman understood this, and was the great champion of the prophetic office of the Christian laity. He saw clearly that we do not so much accept the truth in a purely intellectual act as embrace it in a spiritual dynamic that penetrates to the core of our being. Truth is passed on not merely by formal teaching, important as that is, but also by the witness of lives lived in integrity, fidelity and holiness; those who live in and by the truth instinctively recognize what is false and, precisely as false, inimical to the beauty and goodness which accompany the splendour of truth, veritatis splendor.
Tonight’s first reading is the magnificent prayer in which Saint Paul asks that we be granted to know “the love of Christ which surpasses all understanding” (Eph 3:14-21). The Apostle prays that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith (cf. Eph 3:17) and that we may come to “grasp, with all the saints, the breadth and the length, the height and the depth” of that love. Through faith we come to see God’s word as a lamp for our steps and light for our path (cf. Ps 119:105). Newman, like the countless saints who preceded him along the path of Christian discipleship, taught that the “kindly light” of faith leads us to realize the truth about ourselves, our dignity as God’s children, and the sublime destiny which awaits us in heaven. By letting the light of faith shine in our hearts, and by abiding in that light through our daily union with the Lord in prayer and participation in the life-giving sacraments of the Church, we ourselves become light to those around us; we exercise our “prophetic office”; often, without even knowing it, we draw people one step closer to the Lord and his truth. Without the life of prayer, without the interior transformation which takes place through the grace of the sacraments, we cannot, in Newman’s words, “radiate Christ”; we become just another “clashing cymbal” (1 Cor 13:1) in a world filled with growing noise and confusion, filled with false paths leading only to heartbreak and illusion.
One of the Cardinal’s best-loved meditations includes the words, “God has created me to do him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another” (Meditations on Christian Doctrine). Here we see Newman’s fine Christian realism, the point at which faith and life inevitably intersect. Faith is meant to bear fruit in the transformation of our world through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives and activity of believers. No one who looks realistically at our world today could think that Christians can afford to go on with business as usual, ignoring the profound crisis of faith which has overtaken our society, or simply trusting that the patrimony of values handed down by the Christian centuries will continue to inspire and shape the future of our society. We know that in times of crisis and upheaval God has raised up great saints and prophets for the renewal of the Church and Christian society; we trust in his providence and we pray for his continued guidance. But each of us, in accordance with his or her state of life, is called to work for the advancement of God’s Kingdom by imbuing temporal life with the values of the Gospel. Each of us has a mission, each of us is called to change the world, to work for a culture of life, a culture forged by love and respect for the dignity of each human person. As our Lord tells us in the Gospel we have just heard, our light must shine in the sight of all, so that, seeing our good works, they may give praise to our heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:16).
Here I wish to say a special word to the many young people present. Dear young friends: only Jesus knows what “definite service” he has in mind for you. Be open to his voice resounding in the depths of your heart: even now his heart is speaking to your heart. Christ has need of families to remind the world of the dignity of human love and the beauty of family life. He needs men and women who devote their lives to the noble task of education, tending the young and forming them in the ways of the Gospel. He needs those who will consecrate their lives to the pursuit of perfect charity, following him in chastity, poverty and obedience, and serving him in the least of our brothers and sisters. He needs the powerful love of contemplative religious, who sustain the Church’s witness and activity through their constant prayer. And he needs priests, good and holy priests, men who are willing to lay down their lives for their sheep. Ask our Lord what he has in mind for you! Ask him for the generosity to say “yes!” Do not be afraid to give yourself totally to Jesus. He will give you the grace you need to fulfil your vocation. Let me finish these few words by warmly inviting you to join me next year in Madrid for World Youth Day. It is always a wonderful occasion to grow in love for Christ and to be encouraged in a joyful life of faith along with thousands of other young people. I hope to see many of you there!
And now, dear friends, let us continue our vigil of prayer by preparing to encounter Christ, present among us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Together, in the silence of our common adoration, let us open our minds and hearts to his presence, his love, and the convincing power of his truth. In a special way, let us thank him for the enduring witness to that truth offered by Cardinal John Henry Newman. Trusting in his prayers, let us ask the Lord to illumine our path, and the path of all British society, with the kindly light of his truth, his love and his peace. Amen.

De paus in Schotland en Engeland (8)

Paus Benedictus tot de anglicaanse aartsbisschop van Canterbury Rowan Williams, gisteren in diens paleis te Lambeth:

Your Grace, it is a pleasure for me to be able to return the courtesy of the visits you have made to me in Rome by a fraternal visit to you here in your official residence. I thank you for your invitation and for the hospitality that you have so generously provided. I greet too the Anglican Bishops gathered here from different parts of the United Kingdom, my brother Bishops from the Catholic Dioceses of England, Wales and Scotland, and the ecumenical advisers who are present.
You have spoken, Your Grace, of the historic meeting that took place, almost thirty years ago, between two of our predecessors – Pope John Paul the Second and Archbishop Robert Runcie – in Canterbury Cathedral. There, in the very place where Saint Thomas of Canterbury bore witness to Christ by the shedding of his blood, they prayed together for the gift of unity among the followers of Christ. We continue today to pray for that gift, knowing that the unity Christ willed for his disciples will only come about in answer to prayer, through the action of the Holy Spirit, who ceaselessly renews the Church and guides her into the fullness of truth.
It is not my intention today to speak of the difficulties that the ecumenical path has encountered and continues to encounter. Those difficulties are well known to everyone here. Rather, I wish to join you in giving thanks for the deep friendship that has grown between us and for the remarkable progress that has been made in so many areas of dialogue during the forty years that have elapsed since the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission began its work. Let us entrust the fruits of that work to the Lord of the harvest, confident that he will bless our friendship with further significant growth.
The context in which dialogue takes place between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church has evolved in dramatic ways since the private meeting between Pope John XXIII and Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher in 1960. On the one hand, the surrounding culture is growing ever more distant from its Christian roots, despite a deep and widespread hunger for spiritual nourishment. On the other hand, the increasingly multicultural dimension of society, particularly marked in this country, brings with it the opportunity to encounter other religions. For us Christians this opens up the possibility of exploring, together with members of other religious traditions, ways of bearing witness to the transcendent dimension of the human person and the universal call to holiness, leading to the practice of virtue in our personal and social lives. Ecumenical cooperation in this task remains essential, and will surely bear fruit in promoting peace and harmony in a world that so often seems at risk of fragmentation.
At the same time, we Christians must never hesitate to proclaim our faith in the uniqueness of the salvation won for us by Christ, and to explore together a deeper understanding of the means he has placed at our disposal for attaining that salvation. God “wants all to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4), and that truth is nothing other than Jesus Christ, eternal Son of the Father, who has reconciled all things in himself by the power of his Cross. In fidelity to the Lord’s will, as expressed in that passage from Saint Paul’s First Letter to Timothy, we recognize that the Church is called to be inclusive, yet never at the expense of Christian truth. Herein lies the dilemma facing all who are genuinely committed to the ecumenical journey.
In the figure of John Henry Newman, who is to be beatified on Sunday, we celebrate a churchman whose ecclesial vision was nurtured by his Anglican background and matured during his many years of ordained ministry in the Church of England. He can teach us the virtues that ecumenism demands: on the one hand, he was moved to follow his conscience, even at great personal cost; and on the other hand, the warmth of his continued friendship with his former colleagues, led him to explore with them, in a truly eirenical spirit, the questions on which they differed, driven by a deep longing for unity in faith. Your Grace, in that same spirit of friendship, let us renew our determination to pursue the goal of unity in faith, hope, and love, in accordance with the will of our one Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
With these sentiments, I take my leave of you. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor 13:13).

De gelovige moslim, het naïeve Westen, de verlichte professor, het gezonde verstand en het noodzakelijke leergezag van de Kerk

Het programma Pauw & Witteman toonde afgelopen week duidelijk hoe het postchristelijke, extreem naïeve Westen niet in staat is met moslimfundamentalisme om te gaan (hier het filmpje, deel 1 en deel 2). De Nederlandse student politicologie Izz ad-Din Ruhulessin walst met gemak, met alle klassieke argumenten uit de islamitische apologetiek ("mag ik even uitspreken"), over Femke Halsema ("excuus"), de verlichte moslim, de gewone Amsterdammer en Pauw en Witteman zelf heen. Het enige wat de laatsten weten te doen is, na de krachtige, heldere (en afschuwelijke) uiteenzetting over een aspect van de orthodoxe islam, uiteindelijk iedereen hartelijk te laten lachen om als verlichte vrienden uit elkaar te kunnen gaan. Après nous le déluge.
Op 5 september schreef hoogleraar rechtsfilosofie Cliteur - de laatst overgebleven Voltaire - iets minder naïef Geloof kan wél tot geweld inspireren.

Aan het begin van de 21ste eeuw werden we geconfronteerd met een geheel nieuwe figuur: de religieuze radicaal. De radicaal [...] neemt het boek dat God heeft geschreven heel serieus. De gelovigen noemen hem een ‘fundamentalist’ en de niet-gelovigen een ‘gevaarlijke gek’, maar dat maakt de radicaal niet uit. Hij zegt: ‘Er staat wat er staat.’ [...]
Westerse en niet-westerse overheden zijn nog niet klaar met de radicalen, want zij vermeerderen zich sneller dan de ongelovigen en de gematigden. En vreemd genoeg is radicaal geloof succesvoller dan de ‘gematigdheid’ waarop de moderne elite haar hoop heeft gevestigd.

Terecht neemt Amanda Kluvelds gezonde verstand het Cliteur kwalijk dat hij alle monotheïstische godsdiensten over een kam scheert ("Waarom is er meer islamitisch dan christelijk geweld").
Los van het feit dat de Bijbel natuurlijk een heel ander soort boek is dan de Koran (de bijbel is vooral een geschiedenis, de Koran een ethisch instructieboek), illustreert het betoog van Cliteur wel hoe goed het idee van O.L. Heer is geweest om de mensheid niet slechts een geschreven openbaring te geven, maar ook een context, een Sitz-im-Leben - de Kerk met een heel precies leergezag - om de openbaring gezagvol te interpreteren en door te geven.
In het - orthodoxe - Christendom is het een "gevaarlijke gek" niet toegestaan "het boek dat God heeft geschreven" te pakken en eigenmachtig te interpreteren of na te volgen.
Zie over de noodzaak van leergezag de al eerder geciteerde tekst van J.H. Newman: An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, hoofdstuk 2, sectie 2, paragraaf 13.

P.S. Cliteur stelt als remedie voor het ideaal van de religieus neutrale staat af te stoffen, hiermee blijk gevend van een gebrek aan besef van het feit dat zoiets alleen in een door het Christendom eeuwenlang opgevoede samenleving voorstelbaar is, omdat de mens van nature religieus is en 'monotheïstisch georiënteerd', en in een toestand van officieel of praktisch polytheïsme (bijv. relativisme), enig serieus monotheïstisch voorstel de neiging heeft vat te krijgen op een samenleving.
Binnen het monotheïsme overleeft, om verschillende redenen, de orthodoxie (zie Kaufmann, Eberstadt, en zelfs de conclusies van het toch zeer voorzichtige Nederlandse Sociaal-Cultureel Planbureau (2009, p. 53)).
Zoals we eerder schreven, is de vraag: welk monotheïsme, welke orthodoxie? Het tractaat 'De vera religione', de afgelopen vijf eeuwen snobistisch op zolder gelaten, eist nieuwe belangstelling, op alle niveaus.