"Violence does not solve conflicts, but only increases the tragic consequences". Pope Benedict evoked the recent massacre in Nigeria, where an estimated 500 Christians were killed, "even defenceless children."
"I appeal - he said – to all those who have to civilian and religious authority in the country, to strive for security and the peaceful coexistence of all people. Finally I express, my closeness to the pastors and faithful and I pray that Nigerians, strong and firm in hope, be authentic witnesses of reconciliation. "
The Pope’s reflections on the killings that took place last weekend in the African country came at the end of his general audience, during which Benedict XVI recalled that after the Second Vatican Council, an “anarchical utopianism” had spread to "some”, the result of a certain spiritualism, for which the hierarchical pre-conciliar Church, was dead and a completely new one would have been created, but "thank God the wise helmsman of the boat of Peter - Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II – on the one hand defended the novelty of the Council and at the same time, the oneness and continuity of the Church, which is always the Church of sinners and a place of grace. "
Because "the works of Christ does not go backwards but progress .
This phrase of St. Bonaventure was repeated today by Benedict XVI, who, illustrating the figure of the saint from Bagnoregio, recalled the post-conciliar event to almost ten thousand people who attended the general audience.
The weekly meeting between Benedict XVI and the Church members was divided into two parts, the first in St. Peter’s basilica and the second in the Paul VI, to accommodate the large number of faithful.
The speech addressed to them was dedicated, as already mentioned last week, to St. Bonaventure, the "Seraphic Doctor", among whose “various merits”, the Pope highlight his “true and faithful interpretation of the figure of St Francis of Assisi, whom he revered and studied with great love.
Specifically – continued the Pope - at the time of Saint Bonaventure there was a current of Friars Minor, known as the 'spiritualists', who maintained that St. Francis inaugurated a totally new phase in history, with him the 'Eternal Gospel' spoken of in Revelation, would appear to replace the New Testament.
This group claimed that the Church had already exhausted its historical role, and instead should be replaced by a charismatic community of free men guided inwardly by the Spirit, namely the 'spiritual Franciscans'. The basis of the ideas of this group were the writings of a Cistercian abbot, Gioacchino da Fiore, who died in 1202”.
He claimed "a Trinitarian rhythm of history. He regarded the Old Testament as the age of the Father, followed by the time of the Son, the time of the Church. The third age, that of the Holy Spirit, was still to come. This story was interpreted as a story of progress: the severity of the Old Testament to the relative freedom of the time of the Son in the Church, to full liberty of the Sons of God in the period of the Holy Spirit, which was also, finally, the period of peace among men, the reconciliation of peoples and religions. "
Following the thinking of the abbot, the "Spiritual Franciscans" were convinced that St. Francis was "the beginning of new era", the "time of the Holy Spirit, who left behind the church hierarchy to begin the new Church of the Spirit, no longer tied to the old structures. "
"There was therefore the risk of a serious misunderstanding of the message of St. Francis, his humble fidelity to the Gospel and the Church, and this misunderstanding involved a mistaken view of Christianity as a whole."
St. Bonaventure rejected the theories of Gioacchino da Fiore, alleging, among other things, that "Christi non deficiunt, sed proficiunt" (the works of Christ are not lacking, but prospering).
"St. Bonaventure - said Benedict XVI - has taught us all the necessary discernment, even stern, sober realism and openness to new gifts donated by Christ in the Holy Spirit to his Church.
And while this idea of decline has remerged, so has utopian spiritualism, as happened after Vatican II, when an "anarchic utopianism" appeared with renewed vigour that was stopped by Paul VI and John Paul II.
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