Pope Francis continues to remind us of the devil’s presence, warning against the dangers of superstition and mediocrity. He stresses that ignoring the devil’s existence or engaging with superstition unknowingly invites evil. In these times of rising spiritual confusion, the Pope calls for vigilance, prayer, and trust in God’s protection.
At the Second Vatican Council itself, Pope Benedict XVI proved adversarial to those conservative forces who were resisting the renewal which the majority of bishops favored. One of the ironies of his life is that, in the wake of Vatican II, he found himself standing athwart progressives who wanted to push beyond the council documents and compromise the integrity of Catholicism. Thus, the “liberal” of the Council became the “conservative” of the post-conciliar years, even as, in his own judgment, his views never changed.
Pope Benedict’s XVI time as pope was short, but his impact was enormous and his legacy will probably continue to reverberate in the decades to come, Father José Mario Mandía believes. The former director of O Clarim recalls some of Joseph Ratzinger’s most important contributions to the Church, namely the Christ-centeredness of his theological vision and the first official Catholic catechism in more than 400 years. The Pope Emeritus’ profound words will continue to shape philosophy, theology and the life of the Church and the world.
Shy, reserved, but truly erudite. Joseph Ratzinger – the first German pope in almost 500 years – goes down in history as a highly regarded theologian and one of the most influential pontiffs of the last few centuries, say priests and faithful whom O Clarim spoke to. Long before he was elected to the Chair of Peter, Cardinal Ratzinger paid a brief visit to Macau in March 1993. The then head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith urged the bishops of Asia to regard the mission of the Asian Church more in terms of “inter-culturality” instead of “inculturation”.
Most people would agree that his legacy is his theology as Joseph Ratzinger and the magisterium as Pope Benedict XVI: his clear and profound teaching on faith and morals.
Following the announcement of the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Saturday at the age of 95, O Clarim takes a look at his life and his long years of service in the Lord’s vineyard.
The Church in China held a special place in the heart of Pope Benedict. He visited the Diocese of Macau when he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Bishop Stephen Lee asks the faithful to offer prayers in suffrage for the soul of our beloved Shepherd Pope Benedict.
On behalf of all the faithful of the Diocese of Macau, Bishop Stephen Lee expresses our gratefulness to our late Holy Father for his pastoral care and exemplary service to the Church.
According to the calculations of the Italian episcopal journal Avvenire and the magazine Famiglia Cristiana, Pope Benedict officially broke the previous longevity record held by Italian Leo XIII who died in 1903 at the age of 93 years.