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The Pope Speaks

This Rock Volume 17, Number 4   April 2006     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   Letters   Our Quiet Pope By Russell Shaw   For Further Reading   What Do You See at Mass? By Anthony E. Clark   The Saints Speak   The Pope Speaks   Babies Deserve Better By Jameson and Jennifer Taylor   Infertility Terms You Need to Know   Where to Turn for Help   Further Reading   Why Don't Catholics Go Straight to Jesus? By Robert G. Schroeder   Confession in the Early Church   Further Reading   Catholic Social Responsibility: Who Should Do What? By Gregory Beabout   The Vatican and the Welfare State   The Foundations of the Tradition   The EU: More Competent Than Thou   Damascus Road From Pastor to Parishioner: My Love for Christ Led Me Home By Drake McCalister   By the Book Homosexuality By Jim Blackburn   Truth Be Told Reform Came before the Reformation By Matthew E. Bunson   Up a Notch Apologetics and Canon Law By Pete Vere, JCL   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Subscribe    Permissions

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote:

The complete absence of images is incompatible with faith in the Incarnation of God. God has acted in history and entered into our sensible world, so that it may become transparent to him. Images of beauty, in which the mystery of the invisible God becomes visible, are an essential part of Christian worship. There will always be ups and downs in the history of iconography, upsurge and decline, and therefore periods when images are somewhat sparse. But they can never be totally lacking. Iconoclasm is not a Christian option (The Spirit of the Liturgy, 131–32).