Is Cardinal Sarah ready to be replaced and his successor Monsignor Vittorio Viola OFM?
(Rome) Cardinal Robert Sarah has made a public statement on the time of Corona. Previously, he had signed the call Veritas liberabit vos,but then withdrew his signature. At the same time, there were voices that his removal as Prefect of the Roman Congregation for Worship was imminent. Is there a connection?
Cardinal Sarah, one of nine Cardinal Prefects at the Roman Curia, is considered an "exotic" in the government of Pope Francis. This is not due to his origin from the African Gold Coast, but in his understanding of the Church, since he is much closer to that of Benedict XVI.
His dismissal and removal from the Vatican has therefore been expected for some time, as Cardinal Gerhard Müller, another signatory of the call, did in 2017. Francis has publicly rebuked Cardinal Sarah in the past for taking steps that run counter to the papal agenda. So far, there have been two particularly glaring cases. Once in 2016/17 because of Sarah's invitation to all priests to return to the celebration ad orientem. There was a great deal of outrage in progressive circles, which were particularly close to the Pope. A debate on this was categorically rejected. Francis intervened personally by reassuring his entourage and declaring Sarah's advance null and void. The cardinal himself did not move away from his position, but was isolated from Santa Marta within his own dicastery and has no direct influence on the leadership of the universal Church.
The great liturgical tradition, which has always accompanied and supported the Church in her history of grace and sin, hears the groaning of individuals and nations in this pandemic crisis, which brings suffering and affliction to those who are sick, and fear, isolation and loneliness to everyone else. The ordinary rhythm of the Lenten and Paschal journey is altered and subverted, in solidarity with our common suffering. We would never have thought, however, that a small but not marginal suffering would also come at the same time through the exercise of ecclesial authority and through the decrees Quo magis e Cum sanctissima,which the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published on 25 March 2020.
It is no surprise that This Congregation should devote its attention to the liturgy. But special and singular is the fact that it modifies the ordines, introduces prefaces and formularies for feasts, and modifies calendars and criteria of precedence. And it does this on a 1962 missal. How is this possible? The Congregation, as is known, in this case moves in the space of an exceptional authority, which dates back 13 years, in accordance with motu proprio Summorum pontificum. But since time is greater than space, what is possible on the regulatory level is not always appropriate. Therefore, it is crucial to engage in critical reflection on the logic of this development.
Time, in fact, has unveiled to us the paradox of a competence on the liturgy being taken away from the Bishops and the Congregation of Worship: this was arranged, in Summorum pontificum, with an intention of solemn pacification and generous reconciliation, but soon it changed into a serious division, a widespread conflict, and became the symbol of a “liturgical rejection” of the Second Vatican Council. The greatest distortion of the initial intentions of the motu proprio can be seen today in those diocesan seminaries where it is expected that the future ministers will be trained at the same time in two different rites: the conciliar rite and the one that denies it. All this reached its most surreal point the day before yesterday, when the two Decrees were released. They mark the culmination of a distortion which is no longer tolerable, and which can be summed up as follows:
- the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith acts as a substitute in exercising competences conferred by the Second Vatican Council on Bishops and the Congregation for Divine Worship;
- it undertakes to elaborate “liturgical variants” of the ordines without having the historical, textual, philological and pastoral competences;
-it seems to ignore, precisely on the dogmatic level, a grave conflict between the lex orandiand the lexcredendi, since it is inevitable that a dual, conflictual ritual form will lead to a significant division in the faith;
- it seems to underestimate the disruptive effect this “exception” will have on the ecclesial level, by immunizing a part of the community from the “school of prayer” that the Second Vatican Council and the liturgical reform have providentially given to the common ecclesial journey.
A “state of exception” is also happening today on the civil level, in its harsh necessity, and this fact allows us greater ecclesial foresight. To return to an ecclesial normality, we must overcome the state of liturgical exception established 13 years ago in another world, with other conditions and with other hopes, by Summorum pontificum. It no longer makes sense to deprive diocesan bishops of their liturgical powers; neither does it make sense to have an Ecclesia Dei Commission(which hasin fact already been suppressed), or a Section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which take away authority from diocesan Bishops and the Congregation of Divine Worship; it no longer makes sense to enact decrees to “reform” a rite that is closed in the historical past, inert and crystallized, lifeless and without vigor. There can be no resuscitation for it. The double regime is over; the noble intention of SP has waned; the Lefebvrians have raised the barhigher and higher and then run away, insulting the Second Vatican Council and the present pope along with all three of his predecessors. Continuing to nourish a “state of liturgical exception” – one that was born to unite, but does nothing but divide – only leads to the shattering, privatization, and distortion of the worship of the Church. On the basis of these considerations, we resolve together to request that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith immediately withdraw the two decrees of 25/03/2020 and restore all powers concerning the liturgy to the diocesan Bishops and the Congregation for Divine Worship. Obviously, we ask this without prejudice to the powers that this Congregation retains in doctrinal matters.
So let us leave the “state of liturgical exception”. If not now, when?
With best wishes to all colleagues and students, besieged but not conquered in life, during these bitter yet still generous times.
Giuseppe Dossetti with the former EU- Commission President Romano Prodi, brother of Paolo Prodi
(Rome) The School of Bologna is a term among Church insiders. The official name is actually "John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies." But the hardly anyone knows. The school originated from the environment of leading Italian Left Catholics who in the 60s formed a coalition with the progressive "Rhenish Alliance". Their orientation is progressive today. However, it has been an ossified progressivism, and such is the recent criticism from their own ranks. Criticism is a type of progressive navel gazing that because of the importance of the "School of Bologna" shines a spotlight on the recent developments on the progressive margins of the Catholic Church.
The founding goal of the school to strive after the Second Vatican Council and to make the post-conciliar partial progressive "revolution" of the Catholic Church irreversible [and permanent].
Authority to Interpret the Council
An instrument for this was the conquest of the interpretation of the Council. The "hermeneutics of rupture" originates with the Bologna School, whose main proponent it is.For this, a five-volume Conciliar History was developed and conquered a far-reaching monopoly on interpretation for itself.The history of the Second Vatican Council is said to have cemented this progressive thrust.
With funds from the German Bishops' Conference (DBK), a German edition was issued. The promotion of "School of Bologna" by the DBK, meanwhile, followed an inner logic. The bishops of the German language area were the promoters, the organizers and the infantry of the progressive camp at the Council.
Now someone is leveling sharp criticism at the "School of Bologna" from a quarter one would not expect. "Selfishness, the creation of myths, self-interest, tension and decadence", is how one of its founders, Paolo Prodi, smashed the progressive "temple" with these criticisms.
The historian Paolo Prodi is the older brother of former Italian Prime Minister and European Commission President Romano Prodi. Of the six Prodi brothers, three were deputies of the Italian and the European Parliament. Although the parties changed, they had in common an unwavering Left-Catholic orientation.
Paolo Prodi's Criticism
The Prodi family is one of the most distinguished families of so-called "democratic Catholicism" which is settled politically left of center and seeks alliances with the non-Catholic left.
More than 50 years ago, Paolo Prodi was one among the founders of the "School of Bologna", with Giuseppe Dossetti (1913-1996) and Pino Alberigo (1926-2007). His criticism is aimed at the current head of the school, the historian Alberto Melloni. It reveals for the first time there are in-house conflicts of a political and cultural center, which has been equipped for decades with generous public benefits. Recently, they received their regularly scheduled 400,000 euro and a further three million euros for research purposes, which were only paid in part.
Prodi's criticism scratched the first time on the myth of an institution that was previously noticed by a missionary esprit de corps. Prodi has submitted a book on Giuseppe Dossetti, the "politician of the Council." The report describes the now 85 year old historian in numerous anecdotes and memories from his time with Dossetti.
The importance of Dossetti's institution is shown in the recent personnel developments in the Catholic Church. Both the new archbishop of Bologna as well as those of Palermo belong to it, as well as the "emerging" Philippine Cardinal, Antonio Luis Tagle.
Giuseppe Dossetti, the "Politicians of the Council"
Giuseppe Dossetti, "politician of the Council"
Dossetti was the procedural "organizer" of voting successes of "Rhenish Alliance" the Second Vatican Council. The Catholic antifascist was the head of the left wing of the Christian Democrats after the Second World War. From 1946 to 1948 he was a member of the Constituent Assembly and then in 1953 MP.Dossetti, headed of the left wing of political Catholicism and became convinced that the future consists in an alliance with the political left, including at the time, the strictly Stalinist oriented Italian Communist Party, whose goal at that time was the establishment of a Soviet Republic loyal to Moscow.
After Stalin's death and the takeover by Khrushchev Dossetti, albeit with certain reservations, found support in that part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy which was represented by the Paul VI. on the papal throne. Many leading churchmen in the 1960s were convinced, whether they were for or against, that Moscow socialism would eventually triumph in the Cold War.
Dossetti exchanged the robe of the politician with that of a priest. In 1958 he was ordained by Cardinal Lercaro (1891-1976) of Bologna, the highest-ranking representative of Italy's progressive church. In connection with the Second Vatican Council this meant that he brought his political dexterity into the Church, which provided the progressive alliance unexpected benefits, because he thought and acted like a politician. His "weapon" was parliamentary procedure. He knew this from his time as an MP. The Rules of Procedure did not interest the majority of the bishops.Thus, Dossetti could dupe them downright. At least until it became too colorful even for Paul VI., and called for the removal of Dossetti from Rome.
Paul VI. became the object of the school's adulation and hatred. He was charged with hindering the progressive "revolution" and to have at stalled it in the end halfway. Underlying this is the "explanation" why the promised "new springtime" of the Church did not take place until today.
Ossified progressivism?
Dossetti in "his" Red Bologna monastic community has long been quiet. It still exists, but it plays neither a role in the archdiocese of Bologna, nor in the cultural life of the city that Dossetti had nurtured his idea of a Catholic-Communist alliance.
Prodi accuses Melloni of pursuing a line without a clear, coherent program. The "School of Bologna" is a pampered house of the political left, a prestige project. The financing will be ensured by the left Catholic politicians who hold the ranks in leading positions of the ruling Democratic Left.
"In my opinion, he has remained true to the foundation of the Vatican II as well as loyal to its cult, but has not sufficiently pursued its development or not sufficiently pursued it," said Prodi to Nuova Bussola Quotidiana .
Prodi did not say it explicitly, but sees "School of Bologna" wavering as a kind of political-religious think tank.
Prodi left the School of Bologna 40 years ago in a dispute with Alberigo. At that time Melloni, the current director, was only a university student. He had left the school because he regarded it as a service that provides the instruments for research on the major issues of our time. Instead, the school had tangled in conflicts of interpretation between the different currents within the Church.
This was due to the turnaround that began in Bologna with the appointment of Cardinal Giacomo Biffi by John Paul II., who brought the school the support of senior pastors. "All this has led to tensions in my opinion, and has done no good. The Institute was the interpreted by Lercaro and this put it in opposition to Biffi. "
Criticism from Left and Pope Francis
The Second Vatican Council, Prodi sees as "the end of the Tridentine epoch, but not as a new beginning." The criticism of the historian of his former companion is not directed against the basic orientation, but against the path taken for their implementation. Prodi accuses Melloni of having stopped at the Council. The Council was important to finish almost 500 years of church history. But what he missed, was looking to the future. The failed school. "One would have to look to the future, what this Pope does," said Prodi.
Prodi's criticism thus comes from the left. The historian and former member of parliament is positioned further to the left than Melloni. It is not sufficient to blame Pope Francis. Melloni actually made these attempts several times, trying to monopolize Francis for his direction. The school must, however, says Prodi, develop its own ideas and take cues for the development of the Church.
Pope Francis has so far sent, according to his nature, very mixed signals. The Curial Archbishop Agostino Marchetto and known disciple of the hermeneutic of continuity himself has been praised by Francis as the "best interpreter of the Council". He also mediated Melloni and the School of Bologna , and thus gave proponents of the the hermeneutics of rupture and Marchetto's direct opponents, the impression of being on their side.The dispute over the interpretation of the Council seems to have been left behind by the reigning pontiff. He is already one step further ahead (see What Pope Francis the Second Vatican Council - Cardinal Sarah to Jail? ).
The attack by Paolo Prodi will be seen in conjunction with the new Archbishop of Bologna. With the appointment of the former auxiliary bishop of Rome, Matteo Maria Zuppi, Pope Francis ended the "restorative" era of the archbishops Biffi and Caffarra. The reverse roller back to the era Lercaro is obvious. Zuppi belongs to the Community of Sant'Egidio.
Apparently some now see themselves encouraged to attack the untouchable, but ossified progressive stronghold of the School of Bologna. However, it is only in order to move it even further to the left.
Anyway, the criticism explains why a school representative was not present at the launch of Prodi's recent book on April 12th at the University of Bologna.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: MiL / Corrispondenza Romana
(Rome) what does Pope Francis think of the Second Vatican Council? It was recently the topic at Il sismografo (The seismograph), an unofficial press review of the Vatican Secretariat of State on the Internet. The "Seismograph" provokes "little earthquakes" wrote the Vatican expert Sandro Magister. The recent "earthquake" relates to "nothing less than the hermeneutics of the Second Vatican Council, as interpreted and applied by Pope Francis."
The people involved in the matter are:
Luis Badilla Morales, the chief editor of Il sismografo, a Chilean who "was a Minister of the Allende government and since 1973 in political exile in Europe" (Terred'America) and has worked for many years at Vatican Radio;
Massimo Faggioli, church historian and a leader of the progressive "School of Bologna" along with Giuseppe Alberigo, for whom the Second Vatican Council was a positive "break" and "new beginning" in the Church's history;
Agostino Marchetto is a Curial Archbishop, former diplomat and weighty critic of the "school of Bologna" - and longtime friend of Pope Francis. Marchetto is a representative of the "hermeneutic of continuity" within the understanding of Pope Benedict XVI.
(Vatican) Pope Francis continues to purge the liturgical sensibility of his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
On 5 November it was announced in the daily bulletin of the Holy See that Pope Francis had appointed a new Under-Secretary for the Congregation for Divine Worship. What was not there is that the two other undersecretaries were also dismissed. The Congregation has had no Cardinal Prefect since the beginning of October, after Pope Francis sent back the previous head of the dicastery, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares as archbishop of Valencia in Spain. Now the number two of the Congregation has been exchanged and thus within a month, the entire leadership.
Previous Undersecretaries Have Learned of their Ouster from the Bulletin
The previous Undersecretaries, the Marist Father Anthony Ward and Msgr. Juan Miguel Ferrer-Grenesche had learned from the publication of the bulletin that they were not re-elected. The dismissal was not preceded by a conversation with the Pope, nor they were previously informed in other ways about it. Msgr. Ferrer is a priest of the Archdiocese of Toledo, whose Vicar he was. Cardinal Cañizares, the former Archbishop of Toledo, brought him to Rome in 2009.
Msgr. Ferrer is an acknowledged expert in the Mozarabic rite, those Visigothic rite, which was celebrated in Spain before the introduction of the Roman rite and which has been preserved during the Spanish rule in underground and still maintained in some places, including Toledo and Salamanca. Msgr. Ferrer is distinguished by a special liturgical sensibility and a close relationship to the Old Rite.
New Undersecretary a "Staunch Bugninist"
The bulletin from Wednesday announced the appointment of the new undersecretary, Monfortian Father Corrado Maggioni. As Pope Francis seems to be the liturgical antipode to Pope Benedict XVI., the same for Father Maggioni seems similarly in comparison to his recently deposed predecessors.
The Montfortian is a "confident Bugninist" as Riposte Catholic reports and a "great friend of Msgr. Piero Marini", the papal master of ceremonies of John Paul II. Annibale Bugnini (1912-1982) was largely responsible for the development and implementation of the liturgical reform of 1969/1970.
At the beginning of his pontificate, Francis dismissed all of Benedict XVI's liturgically related consultants in the Office of papal ceremonies. From the staff of Benedict XVI. who performed ceremonies according to the "reform of the reform", only the papal master of ceremonies, Msgr. Guido Marini is left. One of the members appointed by Pope Francis as a consultant was Father Maggioni.
Four Ratzingerians Dismissed in One Month
With Msgr. Miguel Ferrer falling within a few days, another head of the Ratzingerian Vatican has fallen, already replaced by Pope Francis on October 8, Msgr. Celso Morga Iruzubieta as secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy and Msgr. Alberto Gonzalez Chaves as office manager of the Congregation for Bishops. Taking into account Cardinal Cañizares as the highest-ranking dismissed figure, four senior Ratzingerians were removed last month. Including the full leadership of the Congregation for the Clergy and the Congregation for Divine Worship, the staff in those two congregations most clearly showed the signature of Benedict XVI.
(Rome) "The majority of the German bishops are in agreement with Kasper's proposal," Cardinal Reinhard Marx said on Monday, and so made outright admission of remarried divorcees from Communion. He took in the Synod Hall immediately after the Relatio of the Rapporteur Cardinal Erdo. Austria's Cardinal Schönborn agreed with Kasper. The German-speaking bishops in the Synod of Bishops immediately went on the offensive and sought to assume leadership. The new edition of the Rhenish alliance has already taken place in the German language area. The "Liberal" party is well organized.
Cardinal Marx, Archbishop of Munich-Freising, Chairman of the German Bishops' Conference , soon also Chairman of the Conference of European Bishops' Conferences, representative of Europe in the C9-Cardinals' Advisory to advise Pope Francis for reform of the Curia and management of the universal Church and chairman of the new Economic Council of the Holy See. A man with influence and in full awareness of his power .
German Offensive
"The Synod has a very open atmosphere," said the German cardinal. Even his Austrian counterpart, Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn immediately signaled a readiness to be open regarding the "positive elements" of civil marriage.
"We have discussed and deepened this topic and I've written the Secretariat of the Synod to inform him" about the German position, Cardinal Marx, whom Benedict XVI. named in 2008 as Archbishop of Munich-Freising, with which he has enabled his rise to his the current positions. Marx, born in 1953, has been Bishop of Trier since 2002 and before that in 1996, he was Auxiliary Bishop of Paderborn.
"In Germany we have decided that the debate should be public. Pius XII. had spoken of the public opinion in the Church and we need to see the family as it is today and talk about all issues and all challenges with pastoral sensitivity. For Christians, the truth is not a system of ideas, but a living person with whom we are in dialog," said Marx at the press conference of Vatican Radio .
In the Synod Hall there is no climate of conflict, just to listen and be respectful. One must look at the complexity of reality and also to the life stories of people who are or were not always all positive or all negative.
No to Faster Approval of the Nullity of Marriage Instead of Communion for Remarried Divorcees
Marx also added that the German bishops were not interested in an acceleration of the marriage annulment process. Benedict XVI. had already called for an acceleration of methods while dealing with the same content, as a possible answer to the drama of failed marriages, because it is lawful to examine the validity of the marriage.
Cardinal Schönborn stands behind Kasper: the new Rhenish Alliance
But the German bishops do not want to keep putting it off. They demand as the only acceptable response to current "real life", the approval of remarried divorcees to Communion. At least, this is the suggestion of Cardinal Marx. Because if the marriage foundered after many years, it is difficult to decide whether the marriage validly occured or not. Finally, want to "we do not want to think about a kind of 'Catholic divorce'', said the Cardinal dialectically.
Cardinal Burke Spokesman of the "Conservatives"
On the afternoon of the first day Synod, after Cardinal Walter Kasper , Cardinal Raymond Burke also took the floor. He belongs with four other cardinals, as the author of a book against Kasper's proposal. Cardinal Kasper is, with papal benevolence, the spokesman of the "liberal" party, Cardinal Burke is regarded as the spokesperson of the "Conservative" party. In psychological guerrilla warfare that was tried before the Synod, to set the traditional to beset the Cardinal with rumors and threats of pressure. It is noticeable also that in the external perception of the Synod, what penetrates widely to the outside was represented as the opinion of the "Liberals", while those of the "conservatives" on the other hand, should have been largely suppressed. The progressive Dehoniana journal Il Regno, which is close to the school of Bologna, set up a special website to continually report on the Synod's activity. A filtered reporting.
Cardinal Schönborn's (expected) Shoulder to Shoulder with Kasper
In the afternoon, Archbishop Christoph Cardinal Schönborn of Vienna and President of the Austrian Bishops' Conference and Ratzinger disciple, spoke up. He shared a number of Kasper's statements about the existence of elements of Christian marriage in the civil marriage: the public obligation, the duty to the spouse, the stability and more. As the Second Vatican Council has recognized that the true Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church, but it is possible to recognize elements of Church also in the other churches and Christian communities, so it would be possible, given these positive elements of Christian marriage to recognize civil marriages. Therefore, with Kasper's consideration, one could, for a time of penance, consider the situation of remarried divorcees on a case by case basis, and admit them to the sacraments.
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Il Foglio / eponymousflower.blogspot
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com Link to Katholisches....
AMDG
(Rome) Pope John XXIII. (1958-1963) who after years of silence is getting new attention. This has led to the coincidence of two events: 50 years of Vatican II and the election of Pope Francis, whom some associate significantly with the counciliar Pope. These include the former secretary of Pope Roncalli, Monsignor Loris Capovilla, who received his cardinal’s hat from Pope Francis. Cardinal Capovilla claimed recently that Pope Francis had originally even wanted to be called John XXIV. This is a version that is doubted in Rome, but fits well in a particular image.
The elevation of the 93 year old Capovilla to cardinal as well as the wonderfully loose canonization of John XXIII. next 27 April is regarded as Church policy efforts to satisfy those on the "progressive" side of the Church. The pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI are particularly criticized as a "restoration attempt.” Monsignor Capovilla is devoted to his literary work, especially the life and work of Pope Roncalli and in this context the Second Vatican Council .
Church Political Rehabilitation of the Conciliar Spirit against "Restoration"
The common canonization of Pope John Paul II and the Conciliar Pope, makes for less of a "happy medium" but the thwarting of the canonization of the Polish Pope, whose process was so far advanced with the recognition of a miracle would have caused too much irritation with a delay.
In view of the unexpected canonization of John XXIII. the new and complete edition of all the diaries of Pope Roncalli has now been published. Copies of the annotated and edited edition will receive a selection of major libraries and all the Apostolic Nunciature of the world.
In order to understand the "secret" of "aggiornamento", one must dig "very low" in his life
John XXIII. left numerous personal records, including especially his appointment calendars, diaries and notes.Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro, then Archbishop of Bologna, and one of the progressive spokesman for the council said that one to the "secret" John XXIII., That is his program of " aggiornamento to understand "the Church," very low "in its life before he became Pope "dig" should.
Last Saturday, a ten-volume new work was presented at the named after the council Pope hall of the Curia of Bergamo, collecting diaries and diary Roncalli since his youth. The publication was printed in an edition of 300 copies and will be distributed to selected individuals and libraries. Nunciatures at all, the most prestigious libraries and certain libraries in symbolic places such as Tübingen and Louvain, Hiroshima and Nagasaki
"School of Bologna" is Responsible
The publication was carried out by the Foundation Giovanni XXIII of Bergamo, the Diocese of Bergamo and the Institute of Religious Sciences of Bologna, is related school of Bologna is related to a progressive interpretation of the Council. The head of the school of Bologna, the Church Historian Alberto Melloni then also will be one of the speakers at the presentation. The Republic of Italy promoted the publication as a contribution to "national heritage".
The ten volumes are primarily based on the archives of the School of Bologna, the Holy See, the postulation for the canonization process and now headed by Cardinal Capovilla. When presenting, smaller excerpts were presented, including a diary during his time as nuncio in Turkey (1935-1944) about the Turkish people:
"I love them in Jesus crucified and it is painful that Christians speak so ill about them and thus prove how little the gospel has penetrated into their souls. I love them, because the part of my office is, as a father, as a shepherd and as Apostolic Delegate: I love them because I believe they are called to salvation. I know that the spirit of many of my Western Catholic children is against me. But this has neither disturbed me nor discouraged me "(entry of 27 July 1936).
