Speaking each Wednesday to the thirty to forty thousand faithful who flock to listen to him (twice as many as went to the audiences of his predecessor) Benedict XVI has been holding, since March, a new series of his weekly catecheses. He dedicated the previous series to the twelve Apostles and to the disciples of whom the New Testament speaks. The pope illustrated these one by one. Now he is tracing each time the profile of a â??Father of the Church,â?? one of the great personalities of the ancient Church.
He began on March 7 with Saint Clement, the third bishop of Rome after Saint Peter. And he continued on the following Wednesdays with Ignatius of Antioch, Justin, Irenaeus.
After the Easter break, he resumed on April 18 with Clement of Alexandria, and on the two following Wednesdays with Origen, whom he describes as a person â??so innovative as to give an irreversible new direction to the development of Christian thought.â??
In this way, Benedict XVI is explaining to the faithful not so much the â??whatâ?? of the Church, but the â??who,â?? beginning with those who guided it during the first centuries, building up the great Tradition from which the Church of today draws.
The pope is careful, in fact, to bring to light each time not only the originality but also the perennial relevance of the work of each Father of the Church.
For example, with Saint Clement, Benedict XVI emphasizes his theses on the primacy of the bishop of Rome, on the relationship between laity and hierarchy, on the distinction between the sovereignty of Caesar and that of God.
With Saint Ignatius of Antioch, the pope brings to light his intuition of the catholicity of the Church, its universality.
In Justin, he admires the synthesis between evangelical truth and Greek philosophy, and the primacy he accords to the truth against the â??customâ?? of the time.
With Saint Irenaeus, he exalts his defense of the apostolic tradition against the intellectualist deviations of the Gnostics.
With Clement of Alexandria, he emphasizes his further support for dialogue between the Christian faith and Greek philosophy.
With Origen, the pope praises his genius as an interpreter of the Sacred Scriptures â?? â??as I tried to do somewhat in my book â??Jesus of Nazarethâ??â?? â?? and his profound spirituality.
Here below are presented the first seven catecheses of the new series inaugurated by the pope on March 7, with as many profiles of Fathers of the Church.
Sandro Magister The Fathers of the Church in Installments
