Posted on 10/07/2014 4:15:42 AM PDT by marshmallow
While Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium is in Rome for the synod on the family, I hope that he has a chance to visit Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. The retired prelates may wish to reminisce about synods past, especially the 1985 extraordinary assembly on the 20th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council.
St. John Paul had called the special synod in January 1985 to assess how Vatican II had been received in the life of the Church, examining both achievements and failures. In 1985, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was still in his first years as John Paul’s doctrinal lieutenant, and Cardinal Danneels was the boy wonder of the College of Cardinals, having recently been made a cardinal while in his 40s. John Paul’s biographer, George Weigel, explains that the Belgian was not happy with the German as the synod opened.
“Shortly after the extraordinary synod convened on November 24, 1985, Cardinal Godfried Danneels of Belgium complained at a press conference that ‘this is not a synod about a book; it is a synod about a council!’” Weigel wrote. “The book in question was Cardinal Ratzinger’s review of the post-conciliar state of the Church, a lengthy interview with the Italian journalist Vittorio Messori, which had been published in early 1985 under the provocative title The Ratzinger Report. Danneels was right, of course, and Ratzinger would be the first to admit it. … [But] The Ratzinger Report was a major factor in setting the intellectual framework in which the synod’s deliberations were conducted and its recommendations framed.”
The preliminary commentary before the synod was all about whether the bishops would follow Cardinal Ratzinger’s critique of the post-conciliar period. Cardinal Ratzinger had used the incendiary word “restoration” in his interview, and the Catholic world waited to see if the.....
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
LOL!
Yeah, of all people. Cardinal Child Molester (or at least protector of others who verifiably were). Destroyer of the Church in his own country. Like anybody should listen to him?
WC Fields used to use the term “Godfrey Daniels” as a way to get past the censors instead of saying “G_d D_mn_t”.
That’s why I had to laugh at the name.
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