Happy # 90 Pope Benedict

We remember that Pope Benedict was born on this day in 1927.    He is 90 and retired.

Pope Benedict created a few controversies with his comments over the years, such as his remarks about truth in 2007.

George Weigel, a senior fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, is the author of “God’s Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church.” This is what he wrote The Pope Was Right:

The Pope sent a message to the West:

“If the West’s high culture keeps playing in the sandbox of postmodern irrationalism — in which there is “your truth” and “my truth” but nothing such as “the truth” — the West will be unable to defend itself. 
Why? 
Because the West won’t be able to give reasons why its commitments to civility, tolerance, human rights and the rule of law are worth defending. 
A Western world stripped of convictions about the truths that make Western civilization possible cannot make a useful contribution to a genuine dialogue of civilizations, for any such dialogue must be based on a shared understanding that human beings can, however imperfectly, come to know the truth of things.”

Weigel has written about secular Europe before:

“The demographics are unmistakable: Europe is dying. The wasting disease that has beset this once greatest of civilizations is not physical, however. 
It is a disease in the realm of the human spirit. David Hart, another theological analyst of contemporary history, calls it the disease of “metaphysical boredom”–boredom with the mystery, passion, and adventure of life itself. Europe, in Hart’s image, is boring itself to death.”

We miss Pope Benedict.   He would often speak to all of us in the West, and specially Europe.

Have a nice day Pope Benedict.

Happy # 90……Pope Benedict XVI….. https://t.co/UCNleUXB29 via @amazon

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) April 16, 2017