A Hint of this Pontificate's Direction?

To provide answers to a world thirsty for them...



From Zenit News Agency - The World Seen From Rome:



"Q: Do you think that the Church, especially in the Western world, is prepared to address de-Christianization and the great void that is left? Or is there still among the men of the Church a vision of Christianity, and not of a missionary Church?



Cardinal Ratzinger: I think that in this connection, we have much to learn. We are too concerned with ourselves, with structural questions, with celibacy, the ordination of women, pastoral councils, the rights of these councils [and] of synods ...



We always work on our internal problems and we do not realize that the world is in need of answers; it does not know how to live. The world's inability to live properly is seen in drugs, terrorism, etc. Therefore, the world is thirsty for answers -- and we remain with our problems.



I am convinced that if we go out to meet others, and we present the Gospel to them in an appropriate way, even our internal problems will be relativized and resolved. This is a fundamental point: We must make the Gospel accessible to today's secularized world. "

The Jewish View of Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI

We Have a Pope! Benedict XVI

The book:

Pope Misses his Books

I can relate...



From ZENIT News Agency--The World Seen from Rome:



"When receiving the news of his election, one of the nuns who looks after him told Bishop Cipriano Calderon, retired vice president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America: 'He will have to take his library, because he goes nowhere without his library.'



A German journalist standing under then Cardinal Ratzinger's residence commented: 'For a German professor, what is most important are his books. And now he is collecting them.' "

Thanks to Lisa at Catholic Mom's !

An interview that she did with me on my new book...Michael Dubruiel

Congratulate the New Pope!

benedictxvi@vatican.va

Why Benedict?

One commentor points out something that is so simple that I'm amazed no one else has picked up on it, but the Pope's birthday last Saturday is the feast of St. Benedict Joseph Labre, from which he gets his Christian name Joseph and now has taken a papal name Benedict.