Thursday, August 03, 2006

Pope's Student Circle Studies Evolution This Year

From Magister:

This year’s Ratzinger-Schülerkreis seminar will focus on "Schöpfung und
Evolution", creation and evolution. The private meeting is set for Saturday,
September 2, and Sunday, September 3, at the Pontifical Villa in the pope's
summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. The Ratzinger-Schülerkreis, that is the
‘Ratzinger Students’ Circle’, brings together once a year the old theology
professor, now pope Benedict XVI, and his former students to discuss a new topic
every year.

The first such meeting was held when Joseph Ratzinger was still a professor
in Regensburg. Once he became archbishop of Munich, his students asked him to
continue and he accepted.

When he moved to Rome to take up the post of prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith the annual event continued. Typically, meetings
were held at a monastery over a weekend. When the 2004 meeting ended,
participants left already knowing the following year’s subject: the concept of
God in Islam.