Pope Benedict XVI, Orthodoxy and Controversy: What He Really Taught - Explaining the Faith

well thank you everybody for joining us I'm father Chris aylar we appreciate all of you from around the world gathering together as we follow our lady in her I'm not even going to say request her demand from Heaven that we do the first Saturdays and we've all joined together again I have been saying I believe this is one of the largest Gatherings of people in the world right now doing first Saturdays together and that is here with us at the National Shrine and praise be to God so we're going to do a talk actually I normally always do a Marian Apparition talk on the first Saturday I've been doing that now for a long time but we're going to make an exception today we're going to talk about Benedict the 16th and what was the confusion and and how was his papacy and then we'll follow we'll shut down and then start back up with the devotion of first Saturday so let us pray in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen Heavenly Father we ask you send the Holy Spirit down upon us we ask for the Repose of the soul of Pope Benedict the 16th and that we he may be a faithful flock in the church entrusted to our from our Lord and we ask all this through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and through Christ Our Lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen okay so today we're going to talk a little bit about Pope Francis you saw I'm sorry Pope Benedict we saw on the slide what did he really teach controversy there was some of that we're going to talk a little bit about that okay let's start right in let's look at our first slide this is where he was born this is his actual house where Pope Benedict Was Born um as Joseph ratzinger okay he was born on Holy Saturday but you don't know that as as Joseph Aloysius ratzinger on April the 16th 1927 in Bavaria in Germany and that's a picture of the house let's look at our next slide those are his family members he was the youngest of three children his father Joseph senior was a police officer and his brother Greg or George radzinger is a retired priest who is also passed away and they were ordained on the same day so really kind of fascinating so now on the other one in that picture is his sister Maria and you know what her job was she was his housekeeper all the way till he died off I asked that of my sister she'd say no way no way so um now a lot of controversy about him being in the Hitler Youth at 14 years old he was forced all German youth were forced boys uh into serving that and then at 16 years old he was actually drafted into the German Army at 16. now I know this because we have Marian Brothers uh they've passed away now that when I came into the community told me about the time they were forced to serve in the German Army and uh and so this was during World War II they were young and so it was forced but what did he do in 1945 he deserted the Army he took off and he actually was captured by the Americans and was a prisoner of war we don't know this many people don't know this and so let's take a look at our next slide he returned to a seminary studies and was ordained a priest in Munich now uh Germany in June of 1951. he was 24 years old there's a picture of him like a haircut right um and so this is who he was now let's go to the next slide uh when the here's an interesting little story when the Archbishop placed his hands on his head during the ordination during the Rite which I'll never forget that moment when Bishop Holly laid his hands I mean that's Apostolic succession in the church that was a moment I will never forget you you could feel the Holy Spirit and what happened to him as the as he placed the bishop placed his hands a bird all of a sudden flew up from the high altar they don't even know where the bird came from and started to sing and I keep thinking back to when I was a novice right here in our if any of our guests here today go down to the Lord's Grotto there's a pig a statue of Mary on our Lord's ground there's a little bird's nest on the top of the of The Grotto and every time I go down there's a novice this little blue bird she'd fly out of the nest and she would sit on Mary's shoulder and sing and I was like wow that is amazing that beautiful just you know just God's Little signs like that so Pope Benedict took that or rat singer took that as a reassurance from Heaven that he was on the right path so anyway then he started getting into his priesthood he helped at Vatican II do you know this he was first very liberal he was very liberal at first but more conservative he actually became conservative believe it or not in 1968 you could pick a time and he said it was because of the sexual Revolution and it's misunderstanding of God's teaching and the Theology of the Body and so he did a lot of studies he was in line with theologians like congar and do uh uh de lubach and even was criticized by Von Balthazar which these are all theologians but he actually agreed with the criticism she was a humble man he was a humble man and so what happened he became Cardinal then in Munich in Germany in 1977 he's considered the leading Theologian of the 20th century this is a very true thing and you know Time Magazine listed him as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world before he became Pope now that's what makes it interesting after Pope okay you could see it they always got to put a token Pope on that right but he was on the list before he was Pope and times 100 most influential people in the world so let's look at the next slide he was elected Pope on April the 19th 2005 at 78 years old why because Pope Francis uh Pope uh Benedict sorry Pope John Paul passed away now here's what's funny is they were holding the conclave and doing the papal elections this is this is almost what I said to the Lord of when uh we're we're doing as provincial right now um I I could see why he said this he said I prayed to God please don't do this to me thank you regarding being made Pope he says evidently this time God didn't listen to me and so he was elected Pope the day after he was elected Pope he addressed the Cardinals and put his pontificate and the church under Mary he made an act of entrustment what is that that's basically mirroring consecration he focused on Mary how perfect that he died on the vigil of Mary's biggest feast day January 1st the solemnity of the mother of God he said the older I get the more important Mary became to me and so at Cana he said Mary is the Prototype of the interceding church such a deep meaning at Cana unlike that video we showed last week of mockery of canis that's what the Catholic Saint Mary's all about there's nothing here well really you got to read the richness of Cana and so let's go to our next slide these are he's got many great works my favorite if you haven't read it yet Spirit of the Liturgy I'm telling you he's easier to understand than John Paul everybody looks at John Paul's friendly face and then look at Benedict like kind of stern and they think oh he must be much more difficult uh John Paul must be much easier absolutely I took it the opposite now maybe everybody doesn't feel that way but when I was reading them both in seminary I was like ratzinger is way easier for me to understand than John Paul was and so he spirited the Liturgy this is the other book Jesus of Nazareth this is the book you see on your screen actually he wrote 66 books so he was quite a writer now he had encyclicals on morality the life of Jesus the history of the church um and you know what's funny let's go to our next slide kind of strange but he wore those red shoes right he wore those red shoes uh was not a fashion statement trust me in the Catholic faith red symbolizes what martyrdom and The Passion of Christ so they signify the pope following in the footsteps of Christ that's why that's why we're red shoes not just red vestments it's red because it's martyrdom and blood but it's shoes specifically because these following in the footsteps of Christ who is the Martyr now known as the German Shepherd he held strong what was his papal motto Toto us no that was John Paul totally yours what was Benedict's Cooperators veritatis that means co-share of the truth collaborator of the truth which means the truth is not just a thing it is a person it is Jesus Christ and this is why it's so funny because Pope John Paul father Kaz loves and he's polish and everybody Associates John Paul with the love and John Potter Benedict was all about the truth and so Benedict was like my favorite Pope because he was all about the truth even though there's been a lot of things coming out now about some mistakes that were made we're going to talk about that some controversy in a minute now theology was sound he was open to science and Discovery you know he never shut off science and Discovery he always was open to that like you know there's there's questions now about the Big Bang even but even if the Big Bang is true he said well God orchestrated it what's so difficult to understand he said so he understood the modern world but he warned of secularism his his whole point was the secular world has become has fallen away from God so he tried even before the secular World The Atheist he tried to be ecumenical with Judaism Islam the Protestants but he never sacrificed the truth all right listen to what he said at reagensburg you've probably heard that term Regensburg and the controversy at Regensburg yeah there was some listen to what he said he said at Regensburg show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhumane such as the command to spread by the sword the faith he preached oh that started a firestorm but it's the truth so he was condemned for the truth sound familiar I love it he canonized some of my favorite Saints canonized Mother Teresa Marianne cope who's Marianne cope she worked with Saint Damian and Molokai to go out to Hawaii she was from upstate New York right by us beautiful also one of my favorites Saint Kateri also from right down the road from where we are at The Shrine he canonized 45 Saints wow he beatified who made many many more and you know who's the big one he beatified blessed Michael sapochka the Confessor of Saint faustina and so listen to this he's fluent this is one talent I do not have he is fluent in Latin German English Italian French Spanish and some Portuguese I can't even see other than hola in Spanish and so he had a gift he was a real person enjoyed playing the piano love Mozart loved Bach people didn't know this he actually was a pilot a airplane pilot or helicopter pipe but he didn't even have a driver's license very interesting he loved cats rescued Strays right off the streets of Rome big heart um you know he even still had to stuff the animals that his mom made him when he was a child he kept the state the stuffed animals that she made for him now what happened well okay so he serves I'm kind of giving you a general overview but he ended up resigning in 2013 for health reasons and he went to Modern Ecclesia Monastery mother of the church matir mother ecclesiae church right there in the Vatican Gardens now let's take a look at the next slide at 95 he passed away on the vigil of the mother of God as we said this was just last Thursday January 5th you know what his last words were what were his last words Lord I love you Lord I love you let us all remember to say that on our death bed mine's going to be have mercy on me so um he's you know what's interesting about the funeral couple interesting things came out I was watching some of the reports and first of all he banned Joe Biden he banned Joe Biden from coming to the funeral this called him a self-proclaimed Catholic would not allow him at the funeral and the U.S complied send another person as a delegate but Biden was blocked not allowed to go per the request direct request of the Holy See fifty thousand people showed up at the funeral first time ever a pope attended a funeral of his predecessor never before has a pope done the funeral mass for another Pope now there is an interview with his secretary George gonschwein he was his secretary and I want to tell you something about this because in the interview people were questioning the church during his time after he left the papacy rightfully so a lot of problems a lot of questions and Benedict kept going back to Jesus being asleep in the storm and so all and this is what Benedict said he said um the Lord was still there he may seem to have been asleep but he's there all he had to do was speak and it would all be calm the problem is I think the Lord is speaking we're just not listening even in his presence the disciples were afraid so it's quite normal that the Disciples of today will be afraid but never forget one thing he is here and he remains here this is Benedict talking about God in the midst of all our Darkness some continue to say his resignation was not a free choice or even that he wanted to remain Pope but was forced out this is a very reasonable question right now I'm not going to get into the detail uh but but Benedict Was adamant that it was his choice to resign quote he said some ask me but how is it possible this is talking to a secretary now how is it possible that he gave up saying he no longer had the strength and then he still lived another 10 years and Benedict replied I must say that I am the first one who is surprised that the lord gave me more time I thought a year at most and he gave me 10. now his resignation guess what was on Lord's Day the day father seraphim passed away February the 11th and he was the first resignation by a pope since Gregory the seventh in 1415 but here's the bigger one it was the first one on the Pope's own initiative see Gregory VII was forced to resign but it was the first one where a pope resigned on his own initiative since Celestine the fifth in 1294. so we're talking almost 800 years yes he was 85 years old but he was still active and Nevada can never indicated a terminal illness it's kind of odd isn't it strange according to a statement from the Vatican and I just read this this morning and I had to add this in as I was going through this this shocked me this troubled me and here we are we want to talk about the truth we're not speculating at all we're just we're just giving truth facts according to a statement from the Vatican the timing of the resignation was not caused by any specific illness but was only quote to avoid the exhausting Rush of Easter engagements I sat there this morning in my chair dumbfounded by that that all of a sudden I'm not a conspiracy theorist theorist I'm not but when I read that this morning I did say whoa what the heck is that so we don't know we're not going to speculate but we need to pray we need to pray he specifically took the term Pope emeritus and continued to wear white which caused a lot of people to believe that he was still the Pope again we're not speculating please I'm just giving you the facts he chose the name Benedict XVI in honor of Benedict the 15th who guided the church through the turbulent times of world war one right and he acknowledged now here's the other thing that troubled me right away in his papacy he implored prayers he begged for prayers I'm going to give you here is a fact I am not speculating I'm not giving a conspiracy theory but it is true he said please please pray for me that I may not Flee for the fear of the Wolves he said that that's not my speculating that that's why he resigned he said that now he didn't say that's why he resigned he said this in the beginning of his papacy please please pray for me that I may not Flee for fear of the Wolves so we have to pray did he flee a lot of people think he abandoned the post abandoned the ship a lot of people are upset by that and I'm not again I'm not speculating anything I'm just saying it's a fact that some people are upset but just because of Easter engagements is why he resigned according to the Vatican something okay I'm not going to say anymore it just it just the fact is red is a martyr okay red is a martyr and and we don't give up we're the wolves that powerful we don't know why was the Roman candid not used at his funeral Eucharistic prayer one the richest deepest prayer of the church which has always been used was not used at his funeral just just questions for thought not trying to speculate anything now others disagree I highly respect George Weigel and I it's fair that I give the opposing viewpoint what's the opposing Viewpoint okay the real rat singer was an article just released three days ago by George Weigel and he said I knew Joseph ratsinger for 35 years he was a brilliant holy Man Who Bore no resemblance to the caricature that was created by his enemies the wolves and then by the media he said I knew him the cartoon rat singer as he calls it the media rat singer was made out to be Grim Relentless ecclesiastical enforcer God's Rottweiler he said the rat singer I knew was a consummate gentleman with a gentle soul a shy man who nonetheless had a great sense of humor Mozart lover and was fundamentally a happy person not sour he said the media rat singer the cartoon rat singer was incapable of understanding or appreciating modern thought he was from the Stone Age The George Weigel says the red singer I knew was arguably the most learned man in the world with an insect encyclopedial-like knowledge of Christian theology not just Catholic but Orthodox and Protestant all the philosophy both ancient medieval and modern biblical studies Jewish and Christian biblical studies and politics both classic and contemporary when asked a question he would answer it in complete paragraphs usually in his third or fourth language wow the media rat singer was a Nazi sympathizer George Weigel says the rat singer I knew was the German who when he went to Britain in 2010 thanked the British people for winning the war here he is German and he's thinking the Brits for winning the Battle of Britain he was a Bavarian Christian who disdained Marxism like every other Pope since Leo the 13th I get so many letters it baffles my mind when I give the warnings of Marxism this is the brainwashing that is going on in our world if you think Marxism is the answer you need to read every pope from Leo the 13th through Benedict this is what he says Marxism is totalitarian and murderous the cartoon rat singer the media rat singer was an enemy of the second Vatican Council George Weigel says the red singer I knew was in his mid-30s and was one of the three most influential at Vatican II let's take a look at our next um slide this here is ratzinger as the prefect of the CDF what's the CDF congregation the doctrine of the faith and he worked in in in in in harmony with John Paul II to Define and interpret the Vatican Council says it's been so misinterpreted and by the way I'm going to be doing a talk soon in the next couple weeks on Vatican II so please come back for that he went on to say the cartoon radsinger was this prehistoric throwback determined to turn back any liturgical reform he said nope the rat singer I knew was deeply influenced by 20th century liturgical movements he said the rat the cartoon or Media ratzinger craved power nope the red singer I knew tried three times to resign his post you know I tried three times to resign as Father Joseph and father Kaz would never let me now I'm doing better so I don't feel that but he had zero desire to be Pope he told fellow uh Churchman in 2005 that he was not a man of governance and only accepted his election to the papacy in obedience to God's will he said the cartoon red singer was indifferent to the crisis of clerical sexual abuse George Weigel said the red singer I knew did as much as anyone as the prefect of the CDF and then his Pope to cleanse the Church of what he brutally and accurately described as filth I'll talk more about that in a minute all right I want to go through some mercy quotes one of the reasons I I I I I love his his approach to the papacy was divine mercy I want to read you a couple of Divine Mercy quotes let's look up on our screen okay the first his very first message as Pope on on April 2005. let's put it up on the screen dear friends this deep gratitude for a gift of Divine Mercy is uppermost in my heart and I consider it a special Grace which my predecessor John Paul had obtained for me I seemed to feel his strong hand clasping mine I seem to see his smiling eyes and hear his words at this moment addressed specifically to me do not be afraid hmm don't be afraid hmm let's look at this quote from his General audience in May of 2006 let's go to our next slide being at The Shrine of Divine Mercy this was the one in Poland though God give Nikki allowed me to emphasize that only Divine Mercy illuminates the mystery of man sister faustina kovolska received a message of confidence for Humanity the message of Divine Mercy which John Paul II echoed and of which he became The Interpreter it is a really Central message for our time Mercy as the force of God as the Divine limit against the evil of the world what a quote two more let's go to our next slide Divine Mercy 2008. Benedict said indeed Mercy is the central nucleus of the Gospel message that means it's not optional everybody it is the very name of God the face with which he revealed himself in the old Covenant and fully in Jesus Christ the Incarnation of creative and Redemptive love may this merciful love also shine on the face of the church and show itself through the sacraments particularly of reconciliation from Divine Mercy which belong brings peace to Hearts genuine peace flows into the world that's what we did yesterday everybody and our first Friday we were talking about why the mercy is not being flown to the world because our Lord's Sacred Heart Is wounded we need to make reparation to the wounded Sacred Heart so that Mercy can start pouring onto the world he says uh genuine peace flows into the world peace between different peoples cultures and religions finally last quote next slide this was the homily on the third anniversary of John Paul's death so also 2008 in fact this is this is Benedict speaking only Divine Mercy is able to impose limitations on evil only the almighty love of God can defeat the tyranny of the wicked and the destructive power of selfishness and Hate as John Paul II said apart from the mercy of God there is no other source of Hope for mankind wow so let's take a quick look at a one minute video it's like one minute and 20 seconds let's take a look at this video now the reason I'm showing this is because our last three popes have been the most three Mercy popes in the church's history is it any coincidence that they've all been back to back to back let's watch this quick video it's only a minute and about 20 seconds [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] through the papacy of Benedict which is only eight years long what are the things he wanted to teach us if you were to summarize the entire papacy you can either read all 66 books all those encyclicals and Apostolic exhortations or you can listen to the next five minutes 10 minutes here's what he wanted you to learn first God is love fact so much that was his first encyclical Deus karitas EST basically let's look at our next slide this is the book or the the encyclical God is love he said strip everything else away the core of the christian messages that God is love okay father I know this this is pretty standard but here's what you may not know the Ultimate Reality in the universe the one who created it and sustains it is love itself in faith we call this God This Love that created the universe and sustains it we call it God God is not just a force it is a person and it's not just a person but a lover we don't think a God is a lover but he is the heart of the encyclical is this Eros which is the Greek word for sexual love romantic love he said and I never thought about this till I read it is a beautiful reflection of God's passionate love for Humanity do you ever think about that we always think of sexual is kind of this uh you know kind of this dirty thing unless you're married and then it's only supposed to be for creation of babies is supposed to always be open for creation of life but it is to be unitive too renewal of the Covenant and what he says is God gave us sexual love as a reflection of God's passionate love for Humanity wow yet Eros he says is not the end in itself that's what our society wants to make it detach it from God and make it the end in itself no rather it calls out calls us out of ourselves towards something higher something he calls agape love or the Greeks called Agape this is a complete self-giving where you would give your life for another one that you love so much just like Jesus did for us Agape he said flows into service of one's neighbor especially the poor and the vulnerable which is the basic for basis for all Catholic charitable work this is why we're attacked for doing works but this is what they are not works of the law works of the law is wrong that's what the Bible condemns the Bible does not condemn works of love in fact in Matthew 25 it says it's needed to get to heaven we put our love into action and guess what that's the definition of if you've been listening to my talks for the last three years Love In Action is a definition of mercy love put into action beautiful how he ties This Together critics such as Frederick Nietzsche okay have complained that Christianity has ruined Eros by making humans ashamed of their sexuality by treating sex as something to be controlled and feared I told you about when I had to uh 10th grade girls in Boston for uh confirmation and in at the break I I didn't even focus on but I had mentioned in my talk that marriage is between a man and a woman and at the break Here Comes This 10th grade girl with her Posse and she Corners me and she says how dare some gray here old man in Rome tell me what I can do in my bedroom now as I always say I did not respond because I'd end up probably being defrocked from the priesthood but what I was thinking in my mind is you're in 10th Grade what are we talking about what's going on in your bedroom but of course I didn't say that but this is the brainwashing this is what's going on and so Nietzsche and others say this that just the church just wants to control and fear you know Benedict says instead Christianity liberates Eros romantic love by pointing the way upward to True fulfillment unitive and procreative in reality he insists that feelings are just the beginning of love not the end we make it the end when the feelings end I want a divorce no I don't feel like changing a dirty diapers I always say at two in the morning but you do when you love your child love is the recognition that we are the sons and daughters of God in God's love for all Humanity which calls us to love our neighbor in the same way God is love this is the first message he wanted to get out there what's his next message truth in Freedom are the two sides of the same coin he said we think Freedom means don't tell me what I can do I don't want to know just like that young girl don't tell me what I can do in my bedroom 10th grade I want freedom that's not Freedom he connects them beautifully listen to what he says this um this is what was said by his secretary a single word to sum up Benedict's entire message to the world is truth God bless him notice Love and Truth father cast father Chris no just kidding we need love we need the truth we need them both can't be just father Caz can't be just father Chris we need both I need to both loving and of the truth father cast needs to be loving end of the truth and we pray we are as he said this motto is when he was a bishop was cooperative uh cooperatorius veritatis co-workers of the truth that was his motto he said the chief challenge facing the world in humanity today is a dictatorship of relativism what is relativism we have a denial of objective truth objective truth is the reality of life all right there is only two genders that's an objective truth all right relativism recognizes nothing as definitive he said oneself and one's own opinion is the final measure that's why we need a church I get letters all the time father I disagree with you I always respond in love well you're not disagreeing with me you're disagreeing with the church you're disagreeing with God I'm just the messenger I'm just a big mouth that's all I am many endorse this cultural relativism because they want to be free not under somebody else's rule of the truth but such a defier a desire reflects a flawed understanding of what freedom is freedom is not being able to do whatever you want that's license freedom is the ability to do what you ought to do like be here today and worshiping God that's Freedom not going out and murdering or fornicating or whatever that's not freedom truth and freedom are thus not opposed but interdependent so the second message first is God is love the Nexus message of Benedict is God is the truth love and truth then he goes on the importance of being Catholic having a Catholic identity which we're losing today Cardinal Bertoni said that the overall goal of Benedict's papacy was to defend authentic Christian identity in a world marked by religious relativism uphold Catholic identity some Catholics and many Catholic institutions oh my removing crosses from Catholic colleges having same-sex dorms in Catholic colleges they are shaped more by the values of secular society than the tradition of the church the time has come to recover a strong sense of the living Catholic faith he said his decision to broaden permission for the use of the pre-vatican II Mass the Latin Mass last in the extraordinary form which again I will be doing a talk in the next couple weeks on this and to reassert that the Catholic Church alone is the true church Express his conviction of Catholic identity so no matter all these other mistakes that we mentioned earlier he held to this he comes out of the communion School you might have heard it called communio this School of Theology was associated with the Theologian Hans Von Balthazar all right Christianity he said has to maintain itself in a culture that is at odds with the worldview and modernity if we stray if he said this if we stray from the truth we are in trouble but if we stay true to our identity Benedict said we will become a smaller but more faithful Church I think you see that happening who's leaving the church the unfaithful now that doesn't mean that somebody hasn't been hurt by the church and they left that's understandable but we pray for them right he wants us to be in the world but not of it okay that's his third message which is fourth message Christ and the church are inseparable you need the church this is what I want to hear today this is what I want to hear any attempt to say yes to Jesus but no to the church falls apart he said because Jesus's goal was precisely to gather and save people and he did it through setting up his church Matthew 16 18. many opt for Jesus without the church well I I go right to Jesus I don't need the church Jesus said you do he set up the church hierarchy he established a cheer up the papacy Put Peter upon it created the hierarchy of the church magisterium ordained the first priests he established that gave them the authority in his name all this John 20 23 Matthew 16 19 Matthew 18 18. it's all there let's go to our next slide okay Benedict look at that picture that amazing look at all the people there at the Vatican but it had to insists that in the end one cannot truly love Jesus or follow his teachings without acknowledging the church that Jesus put into place that's fascinating one does not walk away from a family when things get rough he said so a disciple of Jesus does not walk away from his church in tough times almost like my phrase you don't leave Jesus because of Judas those who reject the church have to realize Yes to Jesus also needs to mean yes to the church from the crisis of today he said the Church of Tomorrow Will emerge a church that has lost much but she will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning we will have a smaller but more faithful Church but in the end he said the Church of faith will persevere it may be just a fraction of us and those of us who are left make go to our death but it will not be taken away Jesus Promised all right next he was a so those are the four things that Benedict wanted you to know about his papacy that's what he wanted to teach the world I just summarized 66 books for you that's it right there right now he was a doctrinal Defender let's look at our next slide there he is of John Paul John Paul believed that the decades after Vatican II were marred by theological free-for-all and that encouraged he encouraged ratzinger to help restore a sense of balance by putting him in charge of the CDF this is why the resignation just man man he took action against prominent theologians this was never mentioned that he believed departed from Catholic teaching he disciplined them these actions made him a controversial figure among Catholics and the progress in the Progressive churches right or left wing who referred to him as Panzer cardinal ratzinger and God's Rottweiler well with absolute support from John Paul he tackled topics such as women's priests women priests gay marriage and homosexuality he said the inclination itself of homosexuality is not a sin but it is an objective disorder he was against gender Theory let's read a quote in 2005 that Benedict said I'm just reading his words verbatim he said quote the various forms of the dissolution of matrimony today like free unions trial marriages and going up to pseudo-matrimonies by people of the same sex are rather expressions of an anarch Freedom that wrongly anarchic Freedom that wrongly passes for True freedom of man from here it becomes all the more clear how contrary it is to human love to the profound vocation of man and woman to systematically close their Union to the gift of life and even worse to suppress or tamper with the life that is born wow wow wow what guts speak the truth in 2000 he signed the Declaration Dominus Jesus which affirm that there is a single Church of Christ that subsists in the Catholic Church prompting a lot of criticisms from Protestant leaders and then finally last paragraph yay in 2001 ratzinger convinced John Paul to allow the CDF to investigate clerical abuse once a week they would read cases of accused priests a practice he referred to as my Friday penance between 2004 and when he left the papacy 848 priests were prosecuted or lay a sized 2 572 priests were given other penalties however priests like mccarrick or Cardinals remained how do we explain that I don't know how do I try to explain it I'm not gonna but God caught up to it It's Finally Revealed he apologized for not handling all cases well We're Not Gonna We're Not Gonna canonize his efforts in this area we're going to give the reality but to finish for him the church is alive it's not dying so get our last couple slides in 2007 as I mentioned briefly a minute ago the modal proprio sumaron pontificu acknowledges that priests write they have a right to offer Mass using the Roman missile of 1962. in Latin he defined the new and old versions of the Roman missile as the ordinary and the extraordinary form so the mass you attend on your normal street corner church is the ordinary form of the mass if you go to the Latin Trinity mass they call that the extraordinary form of the Roman right and he expressed hope that they would both be mutual enriching Pope Francis later reversed this reverse this Benedict pointed out that the use of the Trinity Mass was never juridically abrogated what does that mean it was never stopped and consequently in principle the Trinity Mass is always permitted again this was overturned by Francis a lot of confusion all right in 2010 he attempted to shed light on the vatican's uh finances which is a mess with the creation of a watchdog body called the financial financial information Authority however his efforts to reform it were undermined by a series of leaked documents so they had to shut the whole thing down they ended up jailing his Butler his Butler was stealing the documents and issuing them to the Press ma'am you can't even trust your butler all right so he beatified 800 and proclaimed two doctors of the church Saint Hildegard of benjen and Saint John of Avila he had three encyclopedias encyclicals Deus karitas which is on love space Salve which is on Hope in karitas in veritate on charity he said it should not be as pre versus post Vatican II but we need to have continuity between them I remember in North Carolina when I was teaching catechism I was using the Baltimore catechism and the Dre the director of religious ed came after me and said what are you doing I don't know I'm using them like what's wrong she's like what are you doing I said I'm using the Baltimore catechism she says that's so pre-vatican too so it's still the truth and on the flip side we have some radical traditionalists and I'm a traditionalist but if they can't find an extraordinary for a mess they won't go to church at all can't do that you are guilty of mortal sin now I understand the reverence thing I get it and if you prefer the extraordinary Mass you have every right to go to it but if you physically cannot find a mass extraordinary form and you have an extra or Nova sort of mass next door to you and you don't go you are guilt culpable we have to understand that and this is what Benedict taught he called it the hermeneutic of continuity he didn't imply there was a split between the two he says we need both pre-vatican 2 and post Vatican II there's no such thing as oh I'm only pre-vatican too I'm a radical traditionalist and I'm only post-vatican too oh that is so pre-vatican too reject it you can't they have to go together it's a hermeneutic of continuity and he stressed this thus the mass in every right should be approached and celebrated now I do agree with the I am a traditionalist I do agree that Latin mass is incredibly beautiful and it's reverent we need to have that same reverence in the novusordal mass and we're going to be talking about that in a few weeks so to finish right there our last slide he said the novus ordo does not replace prevadican II Notions it doesn't but it offers fresh insights into Catholic Doctrine which enable us to understand it more precisely or live it more fully so it's not to be rejected I cannot reject the extraordinary form Mass even though I celebrate the Nova sorto and somebody who celebrates the extraordinary form cannot reject the Nova sorta they are both full of infinite grace you have the right to choose but you cannot reject either one and so that's the message of Pope Benedict and so why there are there are discrepancies in some controversies and I get that I still wonder especially after this morning what the heck happened on this resignation but I'm not going to speculate all I'm going to say is Lord have mercy on his soul for anything he had done and let us give thanks for somebody who stands up for the truth let's pray for the weaknesses but give thanks for the positives amen amen and so we finish now brother Mark is going to ramp down and we're going to ask you to stay with us so that um you can celebrate the first Saturday devotion with us that mother Mary asked us to do at Fatima and uh last thing if Mark hasn't shut down already if he has uh please become a Marian helper um micrayers.org this is a beautiful way for you to share in all The Graces of us Marian fathers just like you were marrying priest or brother our masses our rosaries our prayers our penances you share in the same Grace just like you were Mary priest or brother doesn't cost anything I don't care if you ever donate that's not the point the point is to get you to heaven and how you get to heaven is Grace and how do you get Grace to church and how do you get to the church right here praise be to God so please visit micprayers.org now brother Mark's going to shut down and then ramp back up as we start the devotion of the first Saturdays thank you and God bless you

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 104,736

Keywords: Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Benedict XVI Controversy, Benedict XVI Controversy, Was Benedict XVI the last pope, is Benedict XVI the last real pope, what did Benedict XVI accomplish, who was Benedict XVI, importance Pope Benedict XVI, papacy of Benedict XV, Catholic Church history, summary of Benedict XVI, Chris Alar, Fr. Chris, Marian Fathers, Explaining the Faith, Catholic Teaching, Catholic, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, was Benedict XVI orthodox, understanding Pope Benedict XVI

Id: useffx2Hc2I

Length: 55min 5sec (3305 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 07 2023