Palpable Shift to Old Liberal Decadence in the Vatican

Edit: Here's a kreuz.net which entertains the point of view that the palace conflict surrounding Vaticanleaks has yielded these Old Liberal appointments.

Bischof Gerhard Ludwig Müller
© Presse.Nordelbien, Flickr, CC

Qualified Capitulation:  The Pontificate of Benedict XVI. is crumbling beneath the blows of the Old Liberal document thieves.  Benedict XVI has enraged Catholics this week with  scandalous appointments.

(kreuz.net, Vatican)  The Regensburg  Heresy Bishop with a problematic character, Msgr Gerhard Ludwig Müller, is the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Reform of the Reform isn't present


The Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli spoke last week about this, that the Pope has shuffled the cards in a "less conservative" way with the recent wave of appointments.

In other words:  The Old Liberal decadence has returned to the Vatican.  The much praised Reform of the Reform is not among them.

Tornielli has described a "deadlock" in the Catholic wing of the Roman Curia.

Benedict XVI has returned to the prudent opportunism which has guided him his entire life.

A replacement for the in the meantime very weak Secretary of State, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, is not anywhere on the horizon.

Catholic he is not

The new President of the Papal Council for Family Bishop Vincenzo Paglia is described by Tornielli as an Ecumenist.

He is especially attached "to the poor".

In ecclesiastical political terms Msgr Paglia is clearly in the Old Liberal camp,.

Is this what the Pope means by "Reform of the Reform"?

The new Secretary of the Congregation for Liturgy, the English Bishop Arthur Roche is seen by Tornielli as a "modern Bishop".

He is -- as ever --- a proponent of the Pastoral Council and has "surely no traditional program".

The well-known English blogger 'cathcon.blogspot.co.uk' published a negative opinion of him in 2009. [A member of the Magic Circle]

For the new Secretary of the Liturgy Congregation as the Breakaway Bishop of Leeds had closed down many churches.

He is an enemy of the Old Mass.

His episcopal chapel consists of a supper table in the middle of the room with a blue upholstered television chairs around.

SSPX: Some Details From the Two Hour Long Discussion

If the problem could be solved by a signature, no one would refuse to sign.

Candidates for Deaconal Ordination
for South American District
© Piusbruderschaft 

(kreuz.net, Vatican) The most recent letter to the Society of St. Pius X from the CDF renewed its request for the General Superior of the Society, Bishop Bernard Fellay, to sign the Dogmatic Preamble.

This was according to Andrea Tornielli at 'vaticaninsider.com'.

The signature of the Preamble is a precondition for the canonical reconciliation.

Tonrielli speculates that Msgr Fellay has been playing for time up until now without breaking the dialog with the Vatican off completely.

On the contrary, the Pope wants clear conditions.

On Friday Msgr Fellay spoke for two hours with the Prefect of the Congregation for Doctrine and the Faith, Cardinal William Levada, as well as the Secretary of the Commission of Ecclesia Dei, Prelate Guido Pozzo.

Msgr Fellay was accompanied by his chief assistant, Father Alain-Marc Nely.

The Church has thrown the Traditional Faith Overboard


The Society Bishop explained, says Tornielli, that the Society has no problem signing with the initial Professio fidei -- Profession of Faith .

Additionally, it recognizes principles represented in the Preamble.

The problem consists not in the principles, rather in their application.

The Church fails in fidelity to the Magisterium -- explained Msgr Fellay, according to Tornielli.

Recognition is in the Drawer


The Vaticanist reported still further that for the Society, in case they accept the Preamble, are ready to complete an offer with a Canonical Structure of an Institute.

It would allow the Society a status of complete independence from the Bishops, which protection is enjoyed by no other traditional group.

There are Effectively Two Different Religions

Tornielli suspects that the problem with reconicliation is not in the text of the Preamble but also as a result of disunity within the Society.

The majority, inclusive of the General Superior, want unity with Rome.  They recognize the primacy of the Papacy with its government as being central to the Faith.

A strong minority of the Society are against the reconciliation.   They call on Rome to finally convert.

Link to original...

Why is Catholic Insider Supporting Austrian Dissidents?

Edit: Catholic Insider is an internet blog started by Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli.  It seems to take a more conservative position with respect to most things and is very hostile to the FSSPX.  Now it's giving an unchallenged hearing to Austrian dissidents, chipping away at the Sacrament of Marriage.  Giving air to a dissident theologian, Father Eberhard Schockendorf, an instructor of Moral Theology in Salzburg,  who belongs to the ultra-Liberal "Austrian Catholic Action", Tornielli helps to take a few shots at the indissoluble Sacrament of marriage.

"Divorced and remarried persons are entitled to receive communion." At the seminar in Salzburg by Austrian Catholic Action, the German theologianEberhard Schockenhoff, a professor of moral theology at the University of Freiburg, has launched an appeal for a "theological re-evaluation " of divorced and remarried persons and a new way to interact with them by the Church. According to Schockenhoff, the Catholic news agency Adista reports, the Church must emphasize its readiness for reconciliation in the spirit of the biblical sources and the practice of the early Church, breaking away from an attitude of "moral condemnation" that provokes in the interested parties a "painful feeling of exclusion".

Focusing on the pain and alienation people feel is no excuse to change the nature of a Sacrament with respect to the reception of Holy Communion, but it can become a means through which to legitimate divorce.

Such rationales often form attacks on Catholic Sacraments.  These are things such as the personal shame involved, how difficult it is and that it constitutes a "pastoral" problem.

It is in fact the "pastoral" problem which has involved attacks on other Catholic doctrines, like sexual affairs, homosexuality and women priests.

Anything, including the murder of unborn babies, can be justified by such approaches, but Tornielli is more interested in pointing out that this dissident priest has written a book on the subject and he claims that Pope Benedict has even considered this to be an open question.  The question is also handled by another fallacious course of reasoning, by an appeal to archaism/  Tornielli continues:

Secondly, there is no reason that bars this step, either in the Scriptures or in the practice of the early Church. The reference to Jesus' words on the indissolubility of marriage before God, says the theologian, cannot simply be treated as a canonical norm, [How else are canonical norms developed if not out of the Fathers, Scripture and Tradition?] while in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, and in the writings of St. Paul there would be "counter-tendencies" and "exceptional circumstances" in which divorce could be tolerated. And if the indissolubility of marriage remains "the only valid yardstick," this does not mean, Schockenhoff argues, that from a biblical point of view there cannot be "emergency situations" as an exception to this standard.

This "flexibility in rigor" [Tornielli is concerned with rigour, is he?] also characterized the practice of the early centuries of the Church. Similar positions were expressed, the German theologian points out, by Joseph Ratzinger who, in a 1972 essay, wrote that underneath or within the classical magisterium "there has always been, in practical ministry, a more elastic practice that has never been regarded as entirely consistent with the true faith of the Church, but that has never been totally ruled out"; regulated admission to the sacraments of the persons concerned, Ratzinger said, "is fully in line with the tradition of the Church."

The Holy Father may have written that questionable statement before he was Pope, but that doesn't mean he still subscribes to those opinions, nor does it mean that he's going to bulldoze over two thousand years of consistent tradition with regard to the Sacrament of Marriage in order to satisfy a small group of elderly dissidents in Austria and their disobedient leaders.

Le Figaro Says "Integristes" Are Reconciling with Rome

Edit: at least this anti-Catholic paper isn't as hostile as the usually dependable Tornielli. Integraliste is much more accurate and appealing than "Lefebrian".

Une réunion historique doit se tenir mercredi matin à Rome entre le Saint-Siège et Mgr Fellay, leader des lefebvristes, laquelle pourrait aboutir dans les semaines qui viennent à leur réintégration dans l'Église catholique.

Au Vatican, les rendez-vous les plus importants ne sont pas les plus spectaculaires. Mardi matin, dans les bureaux les plus discrets de la cité, ceux de la Congrégation pour la doctrine de la foi, va se tenir une rencontre absolument...

Link to Le Fig...

H/t AQ...

Cardinal Kasper Denies Suggestions of Schism Brewing in Germany

Editor: Cardinal Kasper also made controversial and encouraging statements earlier last week when he said that more people Communicated with the right intention before the Council than after translated here on Catholic Church Conservation.

The former Curial Cardinal considers the contention of Italian Vaticanista Tornielli about a threatened schism as a "hypothetical construction"

Bonn (kath.net/KAP) Cardinal Walter Kasper has rejected speculations about a threatened Church schism in Germany. Corresponding notions which appeared in "Focus" are also supposed to be in an alleged Vatican circulating dossier, which the long standing President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, according to a report in the "Zeit" enclosure "Christ and World" this Tuesday, had described as "conspiracy theory" and "hypothetical constructions built up, combined with bits of information and other inadequacies."

The Cardinal explained the motives of the conspiracy theorists: "it seems that they want to breed mistrust and provoke a schism." The Munich news magazine had reported on Pentecost that there is an unofficial dossier circulating in the Vatican, which suggests that there is a schism in the Catholic Church in Germany. Behind this romantic current are hidden church societies, individuals from the German Bishops Conference, Catholic politicians and parts of the Jesuit Order.

The substantiation for this report is according to research from "Christ and World" a blog report by the mostly well-informed Vatican journalist of the paper "La Stampa", Andrea Tornielli. He reported on June 8th that some in the Vatican believe that in the foreground of the Papal Visit there will be a concentrated action of reformist forces in German Catholicism.

Kasper speaks thereon, that there is in his opinion no centrally controlled action of German Catholics for schism. The actions which the alleged dossier describe, whereabouts the open letter of Catholic politicians from January and the memorandum of Theologians in February were, according to the Cardinal, individual actions and not centrally coordinated. The Cardinal doesn't know of a collaboration which according to "Christ and World" has any direction from Vatican circles: "Who should that have been? I know no one here who would do such a thing."

Kasper understands with a view to the Catholic Church in Germany on the great interest for the Papal Visit in September. "There is a great, till now mostly silent majority, to whom one or the other critical questions are appealing, who otherwise are fed up with the other side and simply want to be Catholic," he said.

Link, kath.net...

Pope Warns of the Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah

Editor: The following is a google of Vaticanist Tornielli's account of Pope Benedict XVI's address during his general audience today.  If there are but ten good men left, God is good enough to work from that to save the city of man from utter destruction.  It is not only a warning, but a sign of love and healing.

Evil "is not acceptable," but "the Lord does not want the death of the wicked, but that he be converted and live; his desire is always to forgive, save, create, transform evil into good." This was explained by Benedict XVI during the general audience today, commenting on the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities where rampant immorality, for the sake of which Abraham prayed to God begging him not to wear his punishment in just the name of those who lived there.
 
With his prayers, "Abraham is giving voice to the desire of God, which is not to destroy, but to save Sodom, to give life to the repentant sinner." The need 'to find right men in the city "is becoming less demanding and ten in the end it will be enough to save the entire population." But "there were not ten righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities were destroyed." And this is because "the town were closed on an all-encompassing and numbing evil, without even a few innocents from which to transform evil into good."
 
"It is not the punishment that should be eliminated - said Benedict XVI - but sin, that rejection of God and the love that brings in itself the punishment." It serves, however, "a transformation from within, a few good holding on, a beginning from which to transform evil into good, hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness." For this the righteous shall be in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham and continually repeated: "Perhaps it will ...."
 
"There - Ratzinger has made clear - is in reality ill that there must be the seed of good that can heal and restore life." "It's a word," he added spontaneously to the Pope, addressed "to us" so that "in our town is the seed of good, we do not all because there are only ten righteous people to live and survive in our cities and to save us from the bitterness inside which is the absence of God in the real sick of Sodom and Gomorrah, the seed of good is not. "
 

Hearing these words of the Pope came to me immediately in mind the connection with the incident, sad and dramatic, the Genoese priest accused of abusing children by offering them in exchange for cocaine.

'Universae Ecclesiae" is Out: Seminarians Must Learn the Traditional Mass

It is to be assumed that the Old Liberal German Bishops also can't wait for the expected clarification from Rome.

The Mass of All Ages

(kreuz.net, Vatikan) The Instruction 'Universae Ecclesiae' to the Motu Proprio 'Summorum Pontificum' isn't slap in the faces of the Old Believers, nor is it perfect.

This was reported by Father John Zuhlsdorf from a well-known Weblog 'wdtprs.com'.

The priest received the three page long document, which will be addressed by journalists at ten o'clock tomorrow.

He will honor the moratorium till noon.

The Rights of Traditionalists Before the Bishops

Vatican Andrea Tornielli went cleverly to work.

He published today on his website the first contents of the document.

According to that 'Universae Ecclesiae' underscores the rights of the Traditionalists against the Old Liberal Bishops.

The shepherds must not obstruct the freedom of the Traditionalists by limiting rules or qualifications.

For example there are no specifications about the number of faithful necessary for a group of Traditionalists to have a Mass.

In any case, the priest must have a solid understanding of Latin for the celebration of the Old Mass.

That about closes out the ninety percent of the priests who've been educated in the system of seminaries run into the abyss by the Bishops for the last thirty years.

Even the Easter Triduum

In the new generation of priests it will be different. Because the Clarification desires that the celebration of the Old Mass will be a part of priestly education again.

It is to be expected that the German speaking Bishops will not be kept out of Rome by any further schismatic acts.

The Clarification also provides for the celebration of the Easter Triduum, in so far as there is a Traditionalist group.

As recently as last Good Friday neo-Conservative Bishop Fraz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst of Limburg refused to allow the Traditionalists in his Diocese to celebrate the Old Liturgy.

Finally the Papal Commission 'Ecclesia Dei' explains Tornielli will in the future be a clearing house for receiving alleged or real conflicts.

Link to original, kreuz.net...

Journalists See "Systematic Attacks" on Pope Ratzinger

The Vatican Reporters Tornielli and Rodari analyze the attacks on this Pontificate: it is typical that the attacks against the Pope occur after important Vatican decisions.


Rome (kath.net/KAP) Pope Benedict XVI is, according to the view of Andrea Tornielli and Paolo Rodari, beset by attacks from the International Media. There were "negative attacks" against everything that the Pope did or said; his visits and his initiatives were pushed to the the limit, write the Vaticanists in their book "Attack on Ratzinger" (Attacco a Ratzinger)which appeared last Wednesday in Italy. A conspiracy or a united regime is not behind this, warn these authors, even when there are thoroughly common interests of groups or currents, wanting to discredit the Pope and to weaken the moral authority of the Catholic Church.

Tornielli (Il Giornale) and Rodari (Il Foglio) analyze the great themes and discussions of conflict against this Pontificate by this "Piemme" (Italian publisher of non-fiction books) published 315 page thick book. They begin with the Regensburg Address and the "politically incorrect" Mohamed-Citation, discuss the appointment and resignation of the controversial Warsaw Archbishop Stanislav Wieglus and the Motu Proprio for wider permission of the extraordinary form of the Mass. They then go to the [sic] part-rehabilitation of the Traditionalist Bishops and the "case" of the [sic] Holocaust-denier [Bishop] Williamson.

They elaborately summarize the newly rekindled pederast scandal since the beginning of the year in 2010. It is apparent that the attacks against the Pope are often initiated after important Vatican decisions. The most recent pederast scandal occurred a few weeks after the recognition of the heroic virtue of Pius XII, suggest the Authors.

The denunciations and attacks against the Pope had multiplied beyond a doubt, write the Authors in their forward. Once one misquotes the Pontifex in an unclear manner of expression, occasionally errors in communication, one other time one understands that the Curia was insufficiently coordinated or confounded by unqualified colleagues gaggling about them.

One thesis of the Author: The Pope is followed by good, close and loyal colleagues. But when things get dodgy, Pope Benedict XVI. becomes "objectively alone". It gives the team, who are often concerned, that certain problems do not happen without sufficient consideration to efficient reactions. The attacks came mostly from the outside, sometimes even from the Church itself; and were followed by a deficient system of crisis management.

Original at kathnet...

A New Book By Vaticanista Tornielli and Paul Rodari on The Papacy of Benedict XVI

Editor: Here it is all under one roof, a summation of the world-wide assault on the Papacy. We don't know yet if there will be an English translation yet, but considering Tornielli's growing popularity in the United States and England, we'd say yes. The astonishingly fine google translation is here:

Attack on Ratzinger

Accusations and scandals, prophecies and conspiracy against Pope Benedict XVI (Edizioni Piemme, pp. 322 - EUR 18) is my new book, on sale in Italian bookstores from today. It's a long investigation that tells some behind the scenes moments of the first five years of the pontificate of Pope Ratzinger. I've written it with Paul Rodari, Vatican correspondent of the paper. Over 300 pages of unpublished documents and testimonies that reveal the background of crisis and media attacks that have characterized the papacy of Benedict XVI. The book was born in the wake of recent scandals involving clergy. The Pope was put in the dock as were others (too many) times in the last five years: criticisms and controversies raised by the Regensburg speech, the sensational case of the resignation of newly Wielgus Archbishop of Warsaw as a result of his old partnership with the secret services of the Polish communist regime, the controversy over the publication of the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, the case of revocation of the excommunication of the Lefebvrist Bishops, which coincided with the broadcast video interview on the denial of the existence of gas chambers, issued by Swedish TV from one of those Bishops, the diplomatic crisis for papal condemnations of the condom use during his first day of travel in Africa, the burgeoning scandal of child abuse, that shows no signs yet of subsiding.

From storm to storm, from polemic to polemic, the effect was to "anesthetize" Benedict XVI's message, beating on the cliché of the retrograde Pope, weakening its course in the paper today is almost entirely in advance the preface.

You can buy online, hosted by Piemme . We also point out this thorough review by Massimo Introvigne and the link to listen to the episode of "Catholic Chronicles", the column that hold monthly on Radio Maria, dedicated to this subject.
VN:F [1.9.3_1094] VN: F [1.9.3_1094]

Read the original Italian, here.

The Most Traditional Bishop in Belgium is Selected for Brussels

This just in from kreuz.net, 69 year old Bishop André-Mutien Léonard of Nur will be the new Archbishop of Brussels to the rejoicing of Traditionalists everywhere.

According to Tornielli, he is a friend of the Immemorial Mass of All Ages, strong in matters of pro-life and is an uncompromising conservative with a backround as a Moral Theologian.

He takes up the office to replace the now retiring Cardinal Daneels who is now 76, and Tornielli says he was "hand picked" by the Holy Father Himself.

Mr. Gillibrand at Catholic Conservation thinks it will infuriate Cardinal Daneels; we hope so.