Vatican City, Mar 29, 2010 / 17:57 pm
Italy's Il Foglio newspaper noted over the weekend that in the nearly five years of Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate, he has been criticized repeatedly, often being accused of turning back time to the period before the Second Vatican Council. The Vatican journalist Paolo Rodari underscores that despite the attacks, the Pope's teachings remain, because "you cannot run away from his words."
Rodari, Il Foglio's Vatican analyst, explains that "words are the first way with which the Pope guides and addresses the Church" even if his detractors maintain that they are "old fashioned when compared to contemporary culture, to the progressivism of the new times."
In his General Audience on March 10, recalls the author, the Pope cited the style of St. Bonaventure, for whom "governing was not simply doing, but was most of all thinking and praying." The Pope provided insight into his own thought when he added "the Church is not governed only through commands and structures, but through the guidance and illumination of souls."
This style, continues the journalist, typifies Benedict XVI's pontificate and is evident in the "illuminated thought" of his recent pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland on bringing about the renewal of the Church in their country.