Musings of a Pilgrim

I said he likes these extended interviews, didn't I?

Benedict XVI gave a 15-minute audience to a reporter from Vatican Radio's German programme, focusing on Cologne. Full English translation here, and some snips:

I would like to show the [young people] how beautiful it is to be Christian, because the widespread idea which continues to exist is that Christianity is composed of laws and bans which one has to keep and, hence, is something toilsome and burdensome – that one is freer without such a burden. I want to make clear that it not a burden to be carried by a great love and realization, but it is like having wings.

Hmmm... that statement sounds curiously like the retort Diarmuid Martin gave about religion as "exacting, negative rule book." And Diarmuid got hellfire for that line, was called a pagan and everything...

What's good for the goose, snowflakes?

And the Pope on "wisdom":

[W]isdom in itself is not something stale – as we in German connect the word “wisdom” with such a stale taste, but it is the understanding of the facts of the matter, it is the view of what is “essential”. Young people of course want to learn about life, they want to newly discover life, and they don’t want someone to regurgitate it for them. Perhaps this is the contrast one can see here.

Do yourself a favor and read the full-text. To attempt to do it justice here would be the epitome of foolishness....

More in the daylight.

-30-