Catholic Magazine Laments that Pope's Homilies Are Ignored BY Media and Not Reachng the Public Or Even Catholic Clergy

Every week I try to post the Pope's Angelus homily that occurs on Sunday and the Pope's Wednesday Audience. It is a wealth of information and spiritual nourishment.. I have often suggested that we print these great talks the Holy Father does and pass them out at our local parishes. It appears that a major Catholic Rome based magazine shares my frustration that enough is not being done in this regard.

Sandro Magister has this article up The Secret Angelus Messages of Pope Benedict. They write:
They're secret in the sense that the media ignore them for what they mainly are: the explanation of the Gospel of that day's Mass. Apart from those present, almost no one knows this.

They go on and state:
The words that Benedict XVI speaks every Sunday at midday, before and after the Angelus – the "Regina Coeli" during the Easter season – are among those most closely followed by the media.

But the media almost always reproduce only those words of the pope that pertain to situations or events in the news, especially when these are political. For example, on Sunday, September 30, it was Burma, the two Koreas, and sub-Saharan Africa. The Sunday before that, it was his views on capitalism and the "logic of profit." And the Sunday before that, the Montreal protocol on the hole in the ozone layer...

What the media say and write gives listeners and readers the impression that the pope dedicated his entire message to the topic cited. But that's not the case. It is almost always during the greetings in various languages, which he extends to the faithful after the praying of the Angelus, that Benedict XVI dedicates to current issues just a few brief remarks that are then emphasized by the media.

The real and proper message comes before the prayer. And it is – with rare exceptions – a brief homily on the Gospel and the other readings of that day's Mass. This little homily is most of what is heard by the great numbers of faithful who come to each Sunday noontime encounter with the pope, at Saint Peter's Square in Rome and at Castel Gandolfo in the summer.

These are texts unmistakably conceived and written by pope Joseph Ratzinger. In some cases, it is easy to note similarities with his book "Jesus of Nazareth," in the places where he discusses the same passage from the Gospel. As in the Wednesday catecheses Benedict XVI is gradually recounting the life of the Church from the Apostles to the Fathers, so in the Sunday Angelus he is presenting to the faithful the figure of Jesus. But there's more. The path that the pope takes to get to Jesus each week is the same one that every member of the Catholic faithful travels in participating at Mass that same Sunday.

This is clearly a deliberate decision, and one typical of this pope's vision. The Gospel upon which Benedict XVI comments at the Angelus is not "sola Scriptura," it is not a bare book. It is the Word that becomes flesh – the body and blood of Jesus – in the liturgy of the day. In order to raise to acceptable levels the average quality of the millions of homilies pronounced every Sunday all over the world, Catholic priests could do no better than to enroll themselves in the school of Benedict XVI's Angelus addresses. Here follows a sample of this preaching: the last seven "little homilies" he has dedicated to the Gospel passage of that day's Mass, Sunday by Sunday.

Go the above link and read the sample. Then try to spread them eachg week. I shall try to post them as usual. The Ratzinger forum often has the latest Angelus the day they come out here on this thread. Go to the last page to get the latest. They are available elsewhere. Let us try to to put them on our blogs, send them via email, or pass them out at Catholic functions. In this age of instant communications there is no excuse.