As many of our readers know, Cardinal Nichols of Westminster isn’t
always the most honest, tasteful, or concise member of the College of
Cardinals, and recently many of his priests have offered him a vote of
no confidence by publishing a letter in which they demand that the next
Synod in Rome remain firm on doctrine. (You can read about the letter
and his Eminence’s response thereto
here.)
Such a response is not surprising insofar as the Holy Father has now
opened the floodgates for public debate and thereby granted
conservatives and traditionalists license to imitate their liberal
brethren by publicly airing their minds. Happily, it happens that
Cardinal Nichols has now himself learnt a lesson from the priests of his
diocese who were bold enough to sign the letter and has in fact changed
his tone. In October last year, Nichols published a pastoral letter in
which he speaks of the Synod approvingly and with relish. (It may be
read
here.)
Now it seems his Eminence has learnt something of the preconciliar art
of concision, precision, and brevity, and publicly changed his mind by
publishing a revision, which may be read below.
The full, revised text of Cardinal
Vincent Nichols’ Pastoral Letter is as follows:
To all our brethren and spiritual
subjects in Christ, both laics and clerks:
During this season of Lent wherein
our holy Mother the Church ever exhorts her children unto increased vigilance,
prayer, and penance, our grief and sadness compel us to make known unto you,
dear brethren, the machinations of the recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops
held in Rome on the theme of the tribulations afflicted upon the family in
these foul days of ours. Although fain would we have abstained from such a
conventicle of many who have fallen from the sweetness of truth, duty bade us
stay and offer unto God the sacrifices of a heart contrite and pierced by the
infidelity of so many of our fellow churchmen.
As you have heard or read, many of
the Synod fathers were intent upon changing the teaching of the Church (which God
forbid!) on marriage and family life. Such, alas, is the case. Superficially,
the enemies of truth discussed questions of ‘pastoral care’ that the Church
with maternal solicitude ever owes to repentant sinners. Such was all for the
good. The primal error afflicting nearly all, however, was the intentionally
willed ambiguity whereby almost none distinguished between the repentant and
the unrepentant. Whereas the Church must always offer care for the sick of
soul, that she might cure the spiritually infirm all the more, from time to
time she must rebuke the proud and prod the unrepentant to turn and believe.
The universal call to repentance was, we must report, sadly lacking from the
Synod Fathers, especially those from Germany. Such widespread lack of faith, is
especially disheartening as we consider the ever increasing number of listless
souls for whom Christ died, yet who know him not; or who know him, yet love him
not.
You may also have heard that the
Holy Father was disappointed at the Synod’s outcome. At present, we are not
altogether sure what the Supreme Pontiff’s attitude towards the Synod proceedings
were or whether he was satisfied with its work. We were, however, taken aback
at his refusal or at least unwillingness to reveal his own mind as to what
precisely he would have done.
At Synod’s end, Pope Francis spoke
at length about his joy, satisfaction, and frustration with its work. He told the assembled
Fathers to take to heart how Divine Providence had touched the Synod through
its proceedings, and to see how we may have been tempted to reject the
promptings of the Holy Ghost. The Synod, he insisted, must needs be a spiritual
journey, not a debating chamber. Yet debating is so often all we did. Our “journey”
was nothing but a facile glance and glib perusal at some of the trials
afflicting the family in the contemporary world. With the desultoriness of
chimpanzees, certain speakers moved from topics like concubinage, polygamy, and
whoring, to fornication, adultery, and even the sin against nature, with
seemingly little cognizance that for sins such as these, innumerable sinners
fail to attain salvation. The vagueness of the proceedings and the sins it refused
to name was, at times, intolerable.
In the course of the proceedings,
the Synod Fathers contributed to the veritable deluge of mindless dribble that
passes these days for so-called ‘magisterial’ texts, which seek to appease all
by saying little. By the end, it seems, the German revisionists and their
allies had hit their mark and drafted the 'Synod Report' on which the Synod
Fathers voted, paragraph by paragraph. Quite simply, the votes indicate the gap
between the many who have rejected the faith once delivered and those who have
remained firm. Unfortunately, this Report now constitutes the matrix from which
will emerge the next Synod to be held this October on the predictably ambiguous
theme of 'The Vocation and Mission of the Family Today'.
At the end of the Synod, in his
closing address, Pope Francis said this: 'Dear brothers and sisters, now we
still have one year to mature, with true spiritual discernment, the proposed
ideas and find concrete solutions to so many difficulties and innumerable
challenges that families must confront; to give answers to the many
discouragements that surround and suffocate families......May the Lord
accompany us and guide us in this journey for the glory of His Name.'
That, apparently, is what our loyalty to
the Supreme Pontiff requires of us in this present moment. It is our earnest
hope, in the meanwhile, to exhort you, faithful souls, during this Lenten
season to join your hearts and minds to our Crucified Lord, stretched and
nailed, rejected, dying, and alone, who is offered in every Mass and ever
present in the Blessed Sacrament, that he avert from us the full measure of the
Father’s wrath stirred up by the willful impenitence of wretched and degenerate
men who prefer the path of perdition to peace.
With our
Apostolic Benediction, we remain
Yours devotedly,
X Cardinal Vincent Nichols
Archbishop of Westminster
