This Comment, based substantially on a lecture delivered to the Ecclesiastical Law Society on 5 July 2023, will explore how bishops engage with the legislature, comparing the example of Bishop George Bell in the last century with a rather different example in the present century, namely Pope Benedict XVI and his address to members of Parliament in Westminster Hall in 2010. The comparison will, I hope, indicate some historic dimensions to the issues of episcopacy, law and government that are pertinent today.

The idea that God speaks to humans and responds to their call is often taken for granted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. This paper reflects on the significance of the fact that God is Deus loquens: one who speaks in revelation and who is also inner Trinitarian eternal utterance. To outline an anthropology and a theology of speech, two Hungarian interlocutors are summoned: twentieth century poet János Pilinszky (1921-1981) and exegete and literary critic István Jelenits (b. 1932), whose accounts are instructive concerning the nature of human and divine communication. As a next step, the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini (2010) by Pope Benedict XVI is examined, which can be seen as providing the outlines of a systematic “theology of the word.” Such theology is aware that the word of God is an analogical concept rooted in the Trinitarian reality of divine communication.

Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI called Blessed John Henry Newman “an important influence in my own life and thought.” In his memoirs, Ratzinger describes the energy with which Newman's work on conscience, history, and on the development of doctrine was read and discussed in his seminary days. Yet, in terms of Ratzinger's own work on history, tradition, and revelation, he makes almost no direct mention of Newman in his writings over his long theological career. This paper, by comparing the two theologians’ writings on the subject, seeks to ascertain whether and to what extent Newman's theology of tradition and revelation had an impact on Ratzinger's theology.

Vatican II's documents Gaudium et Spes and Ad gentes reveal two interrelated dialogues: a dialogue between Church and other religious traditions, and a more general dialogue between faith and particular societies. The theme takes its cue form Paul VI's first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam (1964) and, in the last fifty years, has flowered into a rich body of teaching expressed in various documents. It became central to the teaching of John Paul II with his passionate concern for the dignity of the human person. Benedict XVI in a series of speeches delivered both before and after becoming Pope introduced a note of caution to such cultural dialogue. While accepting that he offered an impressive case against the positivism, which he considered to be undermining contemporary culture, we should be hesitant in following his more cautious approach.

Pope Benedict XVI often uses the concept of the dignity of the human person in his discourse. This article firstly attempts to present a synthesis of Benedict XVI's understanding of human dignity. The result is a multidimensional understanding of human dignity based on the belief that the human person is created in the image of God. Human dignity is constituted by the given-ness of human existence, the capacities inherent in being human—freedom, reason, love and community—and the telos of human existence, namely, spiritual union with God and the practical realisation of a peaceful and mutually edifying human coexistence. Based on this understanding of human dignity, Benedict XVI develops a normative morality. The second part of this article asks whether interpretations of this normative morality that would claim that some of these norms are absolute moral norms are in fact correct. Particular attention is paid to the apparent equation or reduction of human dignity to the dignity of life. The conclusion is, though it is possible to read Benedict XVI's normative morality as advocating absolute moral norms, such an interpretation would be usually incorrect in light of Benedict XVI's more comprehensive understanding of human dignity.

This article offers an ecclesiological assessment of Pope Benedict's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est. It draws parallels with an earlier papal encyclical, also, on charity and suggests that the attention in the latter to the exercise of charity within the Catholic church is a much needed supplement to Benedict's attention to what the church might teach the ‘world’ad extra about charity. Indeed, the article suggests that the Catholic church must strive all the more to be truly a sacrament (both a sign and mediation) of that love that constitutes the very threefold being of God, both ad intra and ad extra. But, first and foremost, the church must learn to exercise such love within its own confines before it can hope to teach those in the wider human family anything about charity. The promise of applied trinitarian ecclesiology in serving such ends is highlighted.