An article entitled Pope Emeritus Benedict breaks silence: speaks of ‘deep crisis’ facing Church post-Vatican II on lifesitenews.com dated over a year ago on March 16, 2016 is quoted below in its entirety [1]:
On March 16, speaking publicly on a rare occasion, Pope Benedict XVI gave an interview (English translation) to Avvenire, the daily newspaper of the Italian Bishops' Conference, in which he spoke of a “two-sided deep crisis” the Church is facing in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The report has already hit Germany courtesy of Vaticanist Guiseppe Nardi, of the German Catholic news website Katholisches.info.
Pope Benedict reminds us of the formerly indispensable Catholic conviction of the possibility of the loss of eternal salvation, or that people go to hell:
The missionaries of the 16th century were convinced that the unbaptized person is lost forever. After the [Second Vatican] Council, this conviction was definitely abandoned. The result was a two-sided, deep crisis. Without this attentiveness to the salvation, the Faith loses its foundation.
He also speaks of a “profound evolution of Dogma” with respect to the Dogma that there is no salvation outside the Church. This purported change of dogma has led, in the pope's eyes, to a loss of the missionary zeal in the Church – “any motivation for a future missionary commitment was removed.”
Pope Benedict asks the piercing question that arose after this palpable change of attitude of the Church: “Why should you try to convince the people to accept the Christian faith when they can be saved even without it?”
As to the other consequences of this new attitude in the Church, Catholics themselves, in Benedict's eyes, are less attached to their Faith: If there are those who can save their souls with other means, “why should the Christian be bound to the necessity of the Christian Faith and its morality?” asked the pope. And he concludes: “But if Faith and Salvation are not any more interdependent, even Faith becomes less motivating.”
Pope Benedict also refutes both the idea of the “anonymous Christian” as developed by Karl Rahner, as well as the indifferentist idea that all religions are equally valuable and helpful to attain eternal life.
“Even less acceptable is the solution proposed by the pluralistic theories of religion, for which all religions, each in its own way, would be ways of salvation and, in this sense, must be considered equivalent in their effects,” he said. In this context, he also touches upon the exploratory ideas of the now-deceased Jesuit Cardinal, Henri de Lubac, about Christ's putatively “vicarious substitutions” which have to be now again “further reflected upon.”
With regard to man's relation to technology and to love, Pope Benedict reminds us of the importance of human affection, saying that man still yearns in his heart “that the Good Samaritan come to his aid.”
He continues: “In the harshness of the world of technology – in which feelings do not count anymore – the hope for a saving love grows, a love which would be given freely and generously.”
Benedict also reminds his audience that: “The Church is not self-made, it was created by God and is continuously formed by Him. This finds expression in the Sacraments, above all in that of Baptism: I enter into the Church not by a bureaucratic act, but with the help of this Sacrament.” Benedict also insists that, always, “we need Grace and forgiveness.”
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI made a good point. Whenever he makes one, it is always logical and well-supported by history, theology and philosophy. He pointed to a change in the Catholic Church dogma and asked the question: "'Why should you try to convince the people to accept the Christian faith when they can be saved even without it?'"
The fact that people can be saved without the Catholic Church and without man-made rules that the Catholic Church runs on is inherent the words of Christ on the cross when He said to the penitent thief: "'Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.'" [2] There was no Catholic Church, no Vatican and no pope at the time, and there were no church rules set by men of Christian faith for man. Moreover, these words of Christ were said before Christ resurrected, before He was believed by all His own disciples that He truly arose from the dead. Thus, it can be concluded that salvation can be possible without "Christian" faith forced upon by one group upon another, without the Catholic Church, but that it cannot be possible without having faith in Christ as the Son of God.
Walking back on his earlier words bemoaning the changes (made by man) that had taken place within the Catholic Church, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI said that "'[t]he Church is not self-made, it was created by God and is continuously formed by Him. This finds expression in the Sacraments, above all in that of Baptism: I enter into the Church not by a bureaucratic act, but with the help of this Sacrament.'" Indeed, the original Church was not self-made but was created by God (that was Christ Himself, the Son God had made), but Benedict XVI was partially blind to reality when he said the Church (built by man) "is continuously formed by [God]."
On the contrary, the Church is continuously being formed by Satan, and that is why San Francesco d'Assisi was asked to rebuild the Church: "[w]hile praying at the Church of San Damiano, Francis of Assisi heard Christ speak to him from a crucifix, saying, 'Francis, rebuild my church, which you can see is falling into ruin.' Francis though[t] that Jesus was speaking to him of the physical structure of the little church, and so he started to rebuild it, stone by stone. But, gradually, Francis realized that Jesus meant that Francis was to rebuild not a physical structure, but the Church, the living stones of God’s temple." [3] That was before all the sex abuse scandals came to light.
Benedict XVI was overstating his case when he said that the Church "finds expression in the Sacraments, above all in that of Baptism." The penitent thief was (presumably) never baptized (he was probably too busy being a professional thief to take time off to go see John the Baptist down by the Jordan River), never ate the body of Christ and drank the blood of Christ at the Last Supper but Christ had nonetheless told him that he would be with Him in Heaven.
There are not enough penitent thieves in the Vatican that have been designated to enter Heaven. Everything that is wrong with the Catholic Church can be blamed on those who had run it had lacked and now running it lack the required holiness, which is not to be confused with and cannot be substituted by intelligence and intellectual dishonesty. If pure intellect is the only prerequisite for holding the keys to the Catholic Church, then Satan ought to have them, for its intellect is far superior to man's.
Benedict XVI ought to be smart enough to know, even if he is not willing to acknowledge, that it is holiness and unconditional love in a person that God is looking for, for the two most important commandments are to love God and neighbor [4], not necessarily to be baptized, to go to Mass and receive the Eucharist, consisting of the Body and Blood of Christ and on that note, the Blood of Christ, which is an integral part of the Body of Christ and embodied in the Sacraments ("Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Anointing of the sick, Marriage, Holy orders" [5]), is rarely shared by the priest with those at Mass. It borders on being hypocritical, for Benedict XVI to elevate the importance of the Sacraments but never bothered to ask the consubstantiated Blood of Christ be offered to and shared with attendees at Mass when he was pope.
Further to the two most important commandants, the first one requiring man to love God means that man must have unconditional faith in God at all times and the second one requiring man to love neighbor means that man must express unconditional (non-judgmental and unselfish) love for the whole of mankind at all times. It is not about what man (popes included) thinks what ought to be right or wrong -- it is about faith, love and holiness in the purest sense.
On this rare occasion on March 16, 2016, it is the opinion of this blogger that Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI's misdirected intellect had overpowered his God-given senses, demonstrating his loyalty to the Catholic Church, which was on its face admirable, however blind and misplaced it was, since the Catholic Church is no longer what God had intended -- a place that can truly be called Heaven on earth.
[1] https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-emeritus-benedict-says-church-is-now-facing-a-two-sided-deep-crisis
[2] http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/23 at 43.
[3] http://graceofpreaching.blogspot.com/2015/10/rebuild-my-church.html
[4] http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/22 at 36-40.
[5] http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-7-catholic-sacraments-definition-history-quiz.html
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