Cardinal Piacenza: "If the Church Does Not Maintain Doctrine, It Will Not Progress"

(Rome) The  Cardinal Grand Penitentiary of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, exhorts the Church: "If the Church does not maintain doctrine, it can not progress".

In an interview with Vatican Radio about the Synod of Bishops a priest consecrated by Cardinal Giuseppe Siri Cardinal still says: "The Church must constantly pay attention to two areas in particular. On one hand, it must keep the people in the faith and strengthen them that they remain in a state of grace, so they are inside, and on the other hand  it must always go to the outside. If it were not strong within, it could not go out."

And further: "Often we see this dichotomy in the media, unfortunately, sometimes by Church representatives: as if the substantive issue, the doctrinal aspect is portrayed as something grumpy compared to a laughing picture, 'Is open to ... '"

"If we had no healthy people if the doctors were not be healthy, they could not heal the sick. Therefore, always   remember that you can not the one if you lose the other," said the Grand Penitentiary.

"The priority", to always realize, "is to be found in preserving the deposit of faith, unchanged through the centuries and millennia," said Cardinal Piacenza. From this position, "the doctrine is that which is not an abstract truth, but a person, Jesus Christ, always and above all else."

The Cardinal of Genoa was the first Prefect of the Congregation of the Roman Curia, who was not confirmed by Pope Francis in office. On September 21, 2013, the Cardinal was added to the honorary post of Grand Penitentiary. Since 2011, Cardinal Piacenza has been President  of the foundation of pontifical right, Kirche in Not.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: laperfettaletizia

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

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Archbishop Di Noia: Instead of Vice President of "Ecclesia Dei", Number Three in CDF

(Vatican) The dismissal of Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, and his appointment as Cardinal Poenitentiary had already been foreshadowed by Katholisches.info, as well as the appointment of Monsignor Nikola Eterovic, the new Apostolic Nuncio to Germany and his replacement as Secretary of Bishops' Synod by Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri (see separate report Pope Francis Removes Cardinal Piacenza as Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy ). Pope Francis made some important personnel decisions this last Saturday: they concern the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei and the CDF.

The traditional American and Dominican Curial Archbishop, Monsignor Augustine Di Noia, was again named by Pope Francis, barely more than a year since being removed from the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. The Pope appointed Archbishop Di Noia as Assistant Secretary of the Congregation.

After The Return of Msgr. Pozzo at Ecclesia Dei, Archbishop Augustine Di Noia Departs

Archbishop Di Noia was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI. on the 26th of June 2012 to the Commission Ecclesia Dei, which is responsible for the communion with Rome of traditional orders, communities and groups. It was for these especially that the office of Vice-President had been revived. The appointment was made ​​less than two weeks after the collapse of the talks between the Holy See and the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, as the agreement receded in the distance again. On the 14th of June the Superior General of the SSPX, Bishop Bernard Fellay, met in Rome together with the then Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith, Cardinal William Levada. Instead of the expected agreement, the exact opposite happened. Since then, the unification efforts are on hold.

The appointment of the Dominican Di Noia was interpreted as a signal to give new impetus to the efforts, but it did not succeed. A few months after Archbishop Di Noia had become Vice-President of Ecclesia Dei, Pope Benedict XVI. then made Monsigor Guido Pozzo a Curial Archbishop and Papal Almoner on the 3rd of November. The resignation of Benedict XVI. could recognize in retrospect that the Pope already prepared his retreat, and he wanted to reward Msgr Pozzo, his faithful employee, with a promotion.

Pope Francis: Dismantling the Past Personnel Decisions of Benedict XVI. at Ecclesia Dei

Pope Francis has now dismantled the past personnel changes of Benedict XVI. to the Commission Ecclesia Dei. On the 3rd of August he appointed Archbishop Pozzo back as Secretary to the Commission. Now he has reassigned Curial Archbishop Di Noia back to the CDF. There, the American had been Under Secretary from 2002-2009. He then spent three years as Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship. Now he will be Assistant Secretary. For a better understanding: the Archbishop was formerly the number four at the Holy Office in 2009, which was until 2005 under then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Cardinal William Levada, he is now number three to Curial Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller in the Holy Office. Archbishop Di Noia enjoys a good reputation in traditional circles.

Archbishops Müller and Ladaria Ferrer are Confirmed as Prefects of the CDF and Secretary

 In connection with this personnel change, Pope Francis has confirmed the current Prefect of the Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith, Archbishop Mueller, the former Archbishop of Regensburg, at the CDF. With the election of a pope all offices are automatically forfeit in the Roman Curia. Pope Francis habitually confirmed all incumbents provisionally until further notice. Now its proper acknowledgment in office is for the next five years for the Prefect of the Faith. Archbishop Mueller thus, with the newly appointed Secretary of State Monsignor Pietro Parolin also, the first contenders for the award of cardinal by Pope Francis.

Also confirmed in his office was Curial Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer as Secretary and thus number two of the CDF. Archbishop Ladaria is responsible for writing prepared, official homilies and speeches of Pope Francis, which are used in Papal Masses and the traditional catechesis during the general audience every Wednesday (see separate report Luis Ladaria Ferrer - The Theologian Behind the Speeches of Pope Francis [Coming] ). The regular term of office of Secretary lasts three years.

Link to Katholisches....

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
 Image: Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei / Wikicommons
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
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Pope Francis Replaces Cardinal Piacenza as Prefect for the Congregation of Clergy

(Vatican) Pope Francis's serious move has begun with the conversion of the Roman Curia, by the appointment of men of his choice. On Saturday, two important personnel reshuffles in the Vatican will be announced. The most important change concerns the dismissal of Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy.

Cardinal Piacenza was appointed only three years ago by Pope Benedict XVI. to this important post. He distinguished himself as a staunch defender of the traditional image of the priest. He saw the solution to the shortage of priests not in other relaxations, but the shortage of priests, among other things as a result of too many accomodations. Thus Cardinal Piacenza encouraged more discipline and tried to deepen the theological, spiritual and practical understanding of the priesthood.

Archbishop Piacenza is an Advocate of Priest Celibacy - They Hindered the Dedication of the Cure of Ars Patron of Priests to

The appointment of Monsignor Piacenza in 2007 as Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy should have "neutralized" the influence of the then Prefect of the Congregation, the Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Humes. The replacement of Hummes by Piacenza as Prefect of the Congregation in 2010 had to do with the recently failed survey of Saint John Mary Vianney as the Patron of Priests. Pope Benedict XVI. wanted to give the parish priest of Ars to priests for an example. Against this "pre-Conciliar" priest's image great resistence rose to the top of the Church. Cardinal Hummes was one of the opponents.

In mid-January, Pope Benedict XVI. assigned the Congregation for the Clergy the supervision of the seminaries. Cardinal Piacenza had initiated visitations of the seminaries immediately, especially the numerous Roman seminaries. Under his administration, a new Board of Directors for the priests had been adopted. In connection with "50 years of Vatican II", he published texts that aimed to rid the image of priesthood and the priestly formation of distorting interpretations and - as Pope Benedict XVI. desired - back to a stronger bond to a spiritual perspective. Thus, a technical-practical reduction of the priest as an administrator was to be pushed back.

Cardinal Piacenza will be Apostolic Penitentiary - The Chief of the Diplomatic Academy New Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy

On the appointment of Archbishop Pietro Parolin to the Curia, as the new Secretary of State, he unleashed a discussion about the abolition of priestly celibacy with a new urgency, followed by the dismissal of Cardinal Piacenza, a resolute supporter of the priestly celibacy. Piacenza is to be assigned to the honorable but less influential post of the Cardinal Poenitentiary by Pope Francis and there, to succeeded the Portuguese Cardinal Manuel Monteiro de Castro.

The new Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, is a Vatican diplomatic Archbishop, Beniamino Stella. To be precise, the Italian Bishop Stella has been President of the Diplomatic Academy of the Holy See since 2007 and thus responsible for the training of diplomats of the Church.

Monsignor Eterović New Nuncio to Germany - Archbishop Baldisseri new Secretary of the Synod of Bishops

The second relates to the reshuffle of the Croatian Archbishop Nikola Eterovic. He will be replaced as Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, an office which he held for nine years. He will be replaced by Monsignor Lorenzo Baldisseri, the Secretary of the College of Cardinals. He placed the purple Pileolus on the Pope after his election. Since then, he is considered as a candidate for the dignity of Cardinal. Monsignor Eterović will be the new Apostolic Nuncio to Germany.

The appointment of the new Secretary of State and the reshuffles at the top of the Congregation for the Clergy and the Synod of Bishops took place just before the first meeting of the eight-member Council appointed by the Pope Francis, which is to assist in the reform of the Curia and in the governance of the Church. The announced personnel decisions are the result of considerations of the Cardinal advisors.

The Pope Has Filled Key positions with Intimates - tit for tat for the dismissal the Pope's Friend Cardinal Hummes?

The dismissal of Cardinal Piacenza and Archbishop Eterović seem to be related to the fact that Pope Francis intends to use personal confidantes in two key positions that are important for his further activities. Cardinal Piacenza's age is likely to have played a role in the dismissal but substantive differences of opinion as well. Moreover, as Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli suggests, the transfer of Archbishop Piacenza is a kind of tit for tat for the 2010 dismissal of Cardinal Hummes, who is a friend and elector of Pope Francis.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
 Image: Vatican Insider
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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Priest Shortage is Not the Fault of the Council -- The Cause is Older, Virtual Council Led to Outbreak

(Rome) "The decline in priestly vocations, which followed the Second Vatican Council, is attributable in no way the Council nor its partly dubious reception. It is necessary to recognize that the crisis had been that there were deeper and older roots” and that the conciliar reforms have likely curbed the destructive consequences. This was written by Mauro Cardinal Piacenza, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy in the new book Presbytero Ordinis 50 years later. It is the first volume in a new series of books on the Council documents that the traditional Catholic publisher Cantagalli (Italy) has presented on the occasion of the 50 years since the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

The Cardinal, again recovering, then takes up that contradiction between the "real" and "virtual" council, which Pope Benedict XVI. stressed shortly before his resignation. The real council as an expression of the church is tangible in the Council documents and only there, the virtual council, however, is in an artificial world of expectations, interpretations and projections of the people’s own thoughts of that time and the post-conciliar period. According to Cardinal Piacenza these parallel perceptions of the council have been made apparent during and after the Council, the crisis of the priesthood, of the tens of thousands of priests who abandoned their priesthood and by the continuing lack of vocations, whose causes then are already traced to the time before the council.

In a New Book Series Cardinals Conciliar Documents Before - start priests decree by Cardinal Piacenza

Each volume of the new series is dedicated to a document of the Council and is published by a cardinal. That of Cardinal Piacenza (216 pages) contains the conciliar document to the ordained priesthood in Latin and Italian, the comments to be presented by the editor. The series is not aimed at a specialist audience, but to a broad readership. The publisher writes that it "will look to the teachings of the Council documents themselves, by dispensing ideological or special interpretations" of it. It is hoped that the publisher "to help the youth" to discover the "big event, which had marked the history of the Church of the 20th century” and “without adopting a one sided treatment of its legacy.” In view of the "not so young", the publisher hopes that this “will renew the joy of experiencing new enthusiasm and missionary zeal of the conciliar years.”

As far as the publisher publisher. In its commentary on the Council document, which deals with the priesthood, Cardinal Piacenza writes: "If sociologists and religious historians stress that the loss of priests, and the decline in priestly vocations which followed the Ecumenical Vatican Council II, know nothing like this in the history of the Church, not even when you compare it with the Lutheran "Reformation", then this is not due to the council in any way, nor its partially ambiguous reception. "the roots of the crisis of vocations and thus the crisis of the priesthood are older. "The reforms of the Council and also Presbytero Ordinis have curbed the destructive impact," said the cardinal.

Conciliar decree "in full compliance with all the Church's tradition"

The Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy noted then that in an analysis of the Conciliar Decree it is clear "that the teaching there presented both the sacramental and from the pastoral point of view in full compliance with the entire tradition of the Church and with the dogmatically important councils, including that of Trent, and offered a profile of the priestly identity, which is completely rooted in the sacrament of Holy Orders and is entirely dependent on this, as also touches on the mission."

Piacenza writes in his analysis that “especially in the first decades immediately after the release of Presbytero Ordinis, new forms of exercise of the priestly office were sought, which would correspond more to the needs of contemporary culture and are more efficient from the missionary point of view. This search, however, had not a little one-sided result in the hearts and minds of those addressed that would allow that secular standards enter into the horizon of faith, and thereby took newly evangelized world again to recover with a completely secular faith, often entire communities. “

Toward every reform “the criterion must stand measured above all others: is the salvation of souls"

The cardinal affirmed that "every authentic renewal in the Church is not possible without the fundamental contribution of the priests. So it is true that the Holy Spirit is free to form the new face of the Bride of Christ in every era, especially as He gives saints, women and men who are fully satisfied by Christ and therefore are able through their own lives to evangelize and renew the Church and the world, so it does not apply equally, that the priests in their daily and concrete exercise modify their pastoral office for the holy people of God, which is the highest authority demonstrated by the universal Church and in Her as a way of necessary renewal. In this it is not an easy task, says Cardinal Piacenza, “the criterion being measured always above all others: is the salvation of souls. In any reform and its implementation, a key question must always be clear and decisive: Does it help the faith? Does it promote a greater attachment to Christ? “

And Cardinal Piacenza continued: "If this simple and direct criterion would always been applied, there would be neither dangerous, unfounded distortions of doctrine nor nostalgic hardening of questionable missionary benefit."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: Opus Dei Translation: Tancred

Link to Katholisches...