Weekly Gush about John Allen, Jr

Word from Rome has been up since Friday. You can read it every Friday afternoon without my linking to it :-).
Allen gives a first 50 days type of report on Benedict XVI. In addition to the impressive amount of reading Allen has to do to keep up with the Ponitff (He writes: By my count, Benedict XVI has now spoken or published roughly 43,500 words, which amounts to almost 1,000 words day. That teaching has come in the form of one urbi et orbi blessing, 16 addresses delivered during encounters with different groups, six homilies, six catechetical addresses from his Wednesday general audiences, five Regina Coeli/Angelus messages, three addresses to bishops during their ad limina visits, three written messages to different groups, one welcome to a new ambassador to the Holy See and two addresses for other visiting dignitaries, and one motu proprio (meaning a document enacting a change in church law on the pope's authority). Most of the teaching has been in Italian, although a couple of the messages for audiences were in German, or in some cases, were multi-lingual, while a few texts were in French.), he has some remarkable points about B16.
If you read the whole article, and read blogs like Open Book, it seems that Allen is addressing some of the more ummm prolific commenters on that Blog or the really "conservative blogs" (the ones who say the Pope is going to bring back Latin-only, that he is going to obsolete Eucharistic Prayer II in favor of the Roman Canon, that he is going to take a sledge hammer to that Great Vehicle of Apostacy the Bishop's Council--you think I make this stuff up?).
Some of Allen's gems:

First, despite Benedict's reputation as the "great corrector," the Vatican's top heresy hunter during almost 24 years at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, there are only two instances to date where he has explicitly denounced something as a doctrinal error:

• In his May 7 homily on the occasion of taking possession of the Cathedral of St. John Lateran, Pope Benedict rejected the thesis advanced by some theologians that there is a "pneumatic revelation" of the Holy Spirit alongside that of Christ, a concept usually invoked to argue that the sacred literature of other religions can also be considered "revelation."

  "The Holy Spirit does not provide anything different or anything beyond Christ," the pope said.

• In an address to Roman clergy on May 13, Benedict rejected the view that non-Christians ought to be "left in peace," that is, not made the object of Christian evangelization, out of respect for the authenticity of their beliefs.

  "But how can this be realized if … the true authenticity of every person is found in communion with Christ and not without him?" the pope asked. "Isn't it our duty to offer them this essential reality?"

The pope has been more critical in describing negative trends in the broader culture. Yet so far, the overwhelming tone of his teaching has been positive, rather than the condemnation of error. Benedict XVI may prove to be less censorious than many had expected.

Second, it's interesting to note that despite Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's frequent criticism of what he described as hasty or excessive reforms following the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), Vatican II is by far the most-cited source in Pope Benedict's teaching other than his immediate predecessor, John Paul II. So far, the pope has explicitly cited Vatican II fifteen times. That seems a signal that Benedict, who was a peritus, or theological expert, at Vatican II, intends to align himself with the council, at least as he understands and interprets it.

Of course, the "at least as he understands and interprets it" could be seen as a very loaded statement. Okay it probably is. I really want to give some time to see what this means.

And then there is this that I found very interesting, too, and of course beautifully written:

One can expect a wide range of eucharistic allusions and references from this pope. To date, Pope Benedict has invoked the word "Eucharist" in one context or another 53 times, making it the most common proper noun other than "church" in his writings and speeches. The pope will strive to revitalize the celebration of the Sunday Mass, will emphasize eucharistic adoration outside the Mass, and will use the Eucharist as a "hermeneutic key" for reading issues in the church.

For Benedict XVI, the Eucharist is preeminently Christ's gift of himself to the church, and hence sustains its members in pursuing lives of holiness. Beyond that, the Eucharist is a sacrament of unity, calling Catholics to unity among themselves, with other Christians, and with the entire human family.

"We cannot communicate with the Lord, if we don't communicate with one another," the pope said at Bari on May 29, during his Mass for the conclusion of an Italian Eucharistic Congress.

I am a bit cautious about the emphasis of Adoration outside of Mass, but only because some of our most devout and self-medicating penitentials (and I mean folks that without the guidance or recommendation of a good spiritual guide or confessor) will just attend to the Adoration and never realize the close union with Christ. Adoration, as the Catechism states, grew out of our deepening understanding of Christ's Presence. I don't disagree with this, but when you read some of the Patristic writings concerning the Eucharist, it is so amazing how profound their understanding of True Presence was. There was no "leap" from symbolic elements to True Presence. It was there, it was understood in ways I can't fathom. It is a great gift, this Eucharist, and worthy of respect. I just fear the swinging pendulum of misinterpretation.

And finally, to a pet peeve subject of mine.
observers noted that there's little evidence that Pope Benedict intends to impose his personal tastes on the liturgy in unyielding fashion. During the Corpus Christi Mass, for example, he prayed the second eucharistic prayer, the shortest of the four options, rather than the first prayer, the roman canon, which some traditionalists regard as the only "fully legitimate" choice.
I know, Puritas Corbin, you love your Roman Canon with its litanies and regal language. I am rather taken with Eucharistic Prayer II. When I was yonger, I liked it for its brevity, but I didn't know that the brevity also was beautiful. It comes from Hippolytus. It is one of our oldest Christian prayers to be used in the Liturgical setting. And I know, Corbin and I went rounds a while back on the wisdom of the Supreme Court to consult international law in deciding a case (the question was how a modern just society should define cruel and unusual punishment), and I am going to do something that is similar. It doesn't hurt to look around and see what other religions are doing if it confirms your line of thinking. A few years back when the United Methodist Church was updating its book of Worship (Word and Table? Word and Book?) to be more in line with the recent liturgical scholarship on the shape of the Liturgy that the Catholics, Lutherans, Orthodox, and Anglicans used to re-form our Liturgies, one Methodist professor at Notre Dame sat at his computer, Hippolytus on one side, the Roman Catholic Eucharistic Prayer II on the other, and he typed the original proposed Eucharistic Prayer to be submitted to the UMC Bishops. That this professor, a big-time respected theologian in the UMC, preferred the second prayer for recommending to his bishops, says something about its legitimacy. Sure, I know that the hagiography of the Church found in EPI wouldn't quite sit well with your average or not-so average Methodist. Still, imitation is the best form of flattery