Thursday, April 21, 2005

local connection to Benedict

The San Francisco Chronicle printed today a rather nice article showing the connection that Benedict has with the local church here in the San Francisco Bay Area. In particular, it showed the connection between Benedict--who visited the San Francisco Bay Area in 1999--and San Francisco's Archbishop Levada.

"[This] is the first man who became pope that I knew personally, so it is likely to be a wonderful opportunity when we get together to visit," says the archbishop who had worked with Benedict in crafting the present Catechism of the Catholic Church. If my memory serves me right, the Catechism's indexing is one of the things that the archbishop worked on.

When asked what the election of Benedict could mean for a city like San Francisco which is a "venue" for points of view to which Benedict would likely oppose--such as homosexuality, feminism, and stem cell research--Levada responds: "When they're pope of the whole world, they may have some specific issues that need attention, but I don't know that San Francisco would be singled out in any way." He added that "(the city) is not unique. It's a factor of urban life vs. rural life. The Catholic Church grew up in rural Europe over the centuries. The urban phenomenon is fairly new."

As for Benedict as pastor to the 1.1 billion Catholics around the world, the archbishop says that "There's no doubt in my mind that he's clear and will speak what he believes has been the truth handed down from the time of Christ...But I have never seen him do so in a hostile or angry way. Part of it is the sound-bite perception that the media has."

Here is the full article.

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