April 24, 2005

BodyandSoul on Benedict

BodyandSoul has a very thoughtful meditation on Benedict XVI's Nazi past, which provides the occasion for her to reflect upon the value of resistance (and she links to ideas from Oscar Romero). Because I have extended family members who were pulled into the Nazi orbit, I tend to be particularly sensitive to the need to be clear about humility and sinfulness. I really appreciate BodyandSoul's meditation on this issue, and think all Catholics would do well to read it:
"The way to counter dictatorship is not by clinging to your opposite dictatorship, but by solidarity with its victims. Romero was stricken with doubts. Doubt, hesitation, awareness of one's own fallibility -- those are good qualities in a man. Certainty is for God. Romero knew what to do not because he had a direct line to the truth, but because he let the victims guide him."
Posted by hessma at April 24, 2005 06:33 PM
Comments

Thanks for that link. I sent it to several friends -- one of the best reflections on this topic I've seen. (Who is the author Jeanne? Couldn't find much about her on her blog/site, must look some more.) Now if we could only get the man to read Dorothee Soelle's book "Creative Disobedience"...

I can send you some quotes from that book in a regular e-mail, in particular Soelle's critique of the word "obedience" and its theological and moral uses in the light of the history of this word in the Shoah (Holocaust).

Or as Bernard Hahring once said in a lecture in the late 1970s which I have never forgotten, "I have seen ruthless obedience."

I am not sure the new pope fully grasps the meaning of those two words together, "ruthless obedience," and that is part of the problem.

But, as you noted, we do believe in the Holy Spirit.

Peace,

Jane, happy Anglican (but still in solidarity with my former church-mates in the RCC) (and we have our own little troubles in the Anglican Communion and in the ECUSA)

Posted by: Jane Redmont at April 28, 2005 04:12 AM