F
FishyPete
Guest
Ok, so i’ve researched this out the wazoo, backwards and forewards - mind you I haven’t actually read any of his books - but i am absolutely mind boggled in reading that Pope Benedict has in the past spoken glowingly about Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, both in his books and in his homilies.
For example:
…On Friday afternoon, 24 July, the Holy Father celebrated Vespers with the faithful of Aosta, Italy, in the city’s Cathedral. During his Homily, the Pope commented on a brief passage from the Letter to the Romans
We ourselves, with our whole being, must be adoration and sacrifice, and by transforming our world, give it back to God. The role of the priesthood is to consecrate the world so that it may become a living host, a liturgy: so that the liturgy may not be something alongside the reality of the world, but that the world itself shall become a living host, a liturgy. This is also the great vision of Teilhard de Chardin: in the end we shall achieve a true cosmic liturgy, where the cosmos becomes a living host. And let us pray the Lord to help us become priests in this sense, to aid in the transformation of the world, in adoration of God, beginning with ourselves.
In any event, a causual perusal on the Internet show violent protest with regards to Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, and i’m talking stuff that I won’t charitably repeat.
The stuff I can post is things like Pierre Teilhard De Chardin saying:
“What increasingly dominates my interest is the effort to establish within myself, and to diffuse around me, a new religion (let’s call it an improved Christianity if you like) whose personal God is no longer the great neolithic landowner of times gone by, but the Soul of the world……” (Letter to Leontine Zanta, Jan 26 1936)
and things like:
“Sometimes I am a bit afraid, when I think of the transposition to which I must submit my mind concerning the common notions of creation, inspiration, miracle, original sin, resurrection, etc., in order to be able to accept them.” (Letter of Dec. 17, 1922 to a friend, remarking on how he must radically change his desired thinking to accept such core Doctrines as the Resurrection or Original Sin)
“Christ saves. But must we not hasten to add that Christ, too, is saved by evolution?” (Le Christique, 1955)
“I want to teach people how to see God everywhere, to see Him in all that is hidden, most solid, and most ultimate in the world. I am essentially Pantheist in my thinking and in my temperament.” (no source)
NOTE: I’ve done a search on this site and read on the entries on Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, and I am no closer to answer.
My Question: Why does Pope Benedict site his work and seems to praise him, even though he (Pierre Teilhard De Chardin) was silenced by the Church itself, which has to date not lifted the ban?
Is it because Pope Benedict finds some redeeming qualities in his “Cosmic Liturgy”?
This has totally and utterly baffled me!
Thoughts???
For example:
…On Friday afternoon, 24 July, the Holy Father celebrated Vespers with the faithful of Aosta, Italy, in the city’s Cathedral. During his Homily, the Pope commented on a brief passage from the Letter to the Romans
We ourselves, with our whole being, must be adoration and sacrifice, and by transforming our world, give it back to God. The role of the priesthood is to consecrate the world so that it may become a living host, a liturgy: so that the liturgy may not be something alongside the reality of the world, but that the world itself shall become a living host, a liturgy. This is also the great vision of Teilhard de Chardin: in the end we shall achieve a true cosmic liturgy, where the cosmos becomes a living host. And let us pray the Lord to help us become priests in this sense, to aid in the transformation of the world, in adoration of God, beginning with ourselves.
In any event, a causual perusal on the Internet show violent protest with regards to Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, and i’m talking stuff that I won’t charitably repeat.
The stuff I can post is things like Pierre Teilhard De Chardin saying:
“What increasingly dominates my interest is the effort to establish within myself, and to diffuse around me, a new religion (let’s call it an improved Christianity if you like) whose personal God is no longer the great neolithic landowner of times gone by, but the Soul of the world……” (Letter to Leontine Zanta, Jan 26 1936)
and things like:
“Sometimes I am a bit afraid, when I think of the transposition to which I must submit my mind concerning the common notions of creation, inspiration, miracle, original sin, resurrection, etc., in order to be able to accept them.” (Letter of Dec. 17, 1922 to a friend, remarking on how he must radically change his desired thinking to accept such core Doctrines as the Resurrection or Original Sin)
“Christ saves. But must we not hasten to add that Christ, too, is saved by evolution?” (Le Christique, 1955)
“I want to teach people how to see God everywhere, to see Him in all that is hidden, most solid, and most ultimate in the world. I am essentially Pantheist in my thinking and in my temperament.” (no source)
NOTE: I’ve done a search on this site and read on the entries on Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, and I am no closer to answer.
My Question: Why does Pope Benedict site his work and seems to praise him, even though he (Pierre Teilhard De Chardin) was silenced by the Church itself, which has to date not lifted the ban?
Is it because Pope Benedict finds some redeeming qualities in his “Cosmic Liturgy”?
This has totally and utterly baffled me!
Thoughts???
) that the Western Church has tended to focus on individual salvation and the forgiveness of sin, while the Eastern Church has seen the Incarnation as bringing about the redemption of all creation. De Chardin helped introduce that way of thinking to Western thought, so Ratzinger/Benedict finds much useful in him, which doesn’t deny that he taught errors as well.