Posts Tagged ‘Czech Republic’
‘We must not be afraid of truth’
Pope Benedict sums up the message of his visit to the Czech Republic at today’s general audience.
A Kafkaesque experience
Did Benedict XVI make a little bit of history on Monday? As he left the Czech Republic, he quoted the country’s most famous modern author.
Speaking to young people, he said: “According to a saying attributed to Franz Kafka, ‘anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old’.”
Was this the first time a pope has quoted the author of Metamorphosis and The Trial?
The farewell
Pope Benedict has just delivered the final speech of his Czech visit. The Catholic News Service has the details.
The Associated Press reports that the Pope was “very happy” with the short, low-key trip.
Honouring St Wenceslaus
Pope Benedict has just celebrated Mass for 40,000 people in a meadow in the Czech Republic. Vatican Radio has the full text of the homily. The trusty John Allen provides analysis. You can watch an official Vatican YouTube video of the Mass here.
He stopped off on the way to bless relics at a shrine to St Wenceslaus, the nation’s patron saint, whose feast day is celebrated around the world today.
After the Mass the Pope delivered a message to young people, which you can read here.
Pope Benedict will have lunch with the Czech bishops in Prague before returning to Rome later today.
You can read John Allen’s complete coverage of the visit here. The Catholic News Service has a decent summary of the three-day trip, as does the New York Times, and Edward Pentin offers a short reflection on the key themes of the Holy Father’s speeches.
A quick catch-up
Did you miss the weekend’s events in the Czech Republic? Zenit offers a one-minute summary.
The professor speaks
Pope Benedict met the Czech Republic’s intellectual titans today in the Vladislav Hall in the Prague Castle.
Speaking “as one who has been a professor” he reflected on the true nature of academic freedom.
The stand-out section of possibly the most important speech of the visit:
What will happen if our culture builds itself only on fashionable arguments, with little reference to a genuine historical intellectual tradition, or on the viewpoints that are most vociferously promoted and most heavily funded? What will happen if in its anxiety to preserve a radical secularism, it detaches itself from its life-giving roots? Our societies will not become more reasonable or tolerant or adaptable but rather more brittle and less inclusive, and they will increasingly struggle to recognize what is true, noble and good.
John Allen describes the speech as “rhetorical jiu-jitsu”. Watch the official Vatican YouTube summary here.
‘The Gospel is not an ideology’
Earlier today the Pope spoke at an ecumenical meeting at the Throne Hall of the Archbishop’s House of Prague. The Catholic News Service has the text. The key passage:
From this perspective, we understand more clearly why Christians are obliged to join others in reminding Europe of her roots. It is not because these roots have long since withered. On the contrary! It is because they continue – in subtle but nonetheless fruitful ways – to supply the continent with the spiritual and moral sustenance that allows her to enter into meaningful dialogue with people from other cultures and religions. Precisely because the Gospel is not an ideology, it does not presume to lock evolving socio-political realities into rigid schemas. Rather, it transcends the vicissitudes of this world and casts new light on the dignity of the human person in every age.
John Allen reflects on how Pope Benedict addressed the matter of Jan Hus, the “father of the Czech nation” who was burned at the stake by the Church in 1415.
You can watch the Vatican’s short video report here.
‘Christ saves us from the ills of the spirit’
Pope Benedict celebrated Mass this morning in the Czech city of Brno. Zenit has the full text of his homily and his Angelus address. John Allen suggests that the Hapsburgs were smiling down on the multi-ethnic Mass.
‘Christ is for everyone!’
Rocco Palmo has the full text of Pope Benedict’s homily at Vespers for clergy, religious and seminarians at the Cathedral of SS Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert in Prague. The stand-out section:
Your pastoral activity in the field of educating new generations should be undertaken with particular zeal. Catholic schools should foster respect for the human person; attention should also be given to the pastoral care of young people outside the school environment, without neglecting other groups of the faithful. Christ is for everyone! I sincerely hope that there will be a growing accord with other institutions, both public and private. It is always worth repeating that the Church does not seek privileges, but only to be able to work freely in the service of all, in the spirit of the Gospel.
‘For Christians, truth has a name’
The Catholic News Service has Pope Benedict’s speech to Czech statesmen. During the address the famously animal-friendly pontiff allowed a curious spider to walk all over his robes. You can watch the little critter in the video above.
John Allen provides analysis of the speech.
