The letter, written by poet Dana Gioia, emphasised the aesthetic value and cultural significance of the liturgy according to the 1962 rite: "It would be short-sighted to deprive the next generation of artists of this source of mystery, beauty, and devotion," the letter stated.

The signatories write: ‘We all, whether believers or not, agree that this ancient liturgy, which inspired the works of Palestrina, Bach, and Beethoven, as well as generations of great artists, is a great achievement of civilisation and part of humanity's shared cultural heritage.

"It is medicine for the soul, an antidote to the crass materialism of postmodernity."

The Catholic signatories explicitly emphasised their loyalty to the Pope and the validity of the current Novus Ordo: "We hope that you do not lump us together with some of the angry and disrespectful voices amplified by social media."

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco praised the letter as an ‘extraordinary statement by some great artists and cultural figures on the value and inspiration they have drawn from the traditional Latin Mass.'

A group of British celebrities published an open letter in the London Times:

"We implore the Holy See to reconsider any further restrictions on access to this great spiritual and cultural heritage."

This letter referred back to a similar one from a group of British writers and artists sent to Pope Paul in 1971.

That letter resulted in the "Agatha Christie Indult," which allowed the bishops of England and Wales to celebrate the pre-conciliar liturgy on special occasions.

Both letters react to speculation of further restrictions on using the pre-conciliar rites, to which recent Vatican decisions have contributed.

The Vatican's refusal to permit the recitation of the 1962 Mass in Australia's Melbourne Cathedral, based on the cathedral's role as a "parish church," is an example of the implementation of Traditionis custodes (2021).

Another example is its refusal to allow the ordination of members of the traditionalist Society of Missionaries of Divine Mercy in the scandal-plagued French Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon.

While some media, including the French daily "La Croix," cite curial officials denying that further restrictions are immanent, speculation continues.

Speculation intensified after Pope Francis received Gilles Wach, Prior of the "Institute of Christ the King," in an audience.

The institute celebrates the liturgy in the pre-conciliar form.

Initially, nothing was known about the content of the conversation until the institute announced that the pope had encouraged them to adhere to their charism.

The most recent example of the problem of "Latin-Mass" groups comes from Christchurch, New Zealand, where Bishop Michael Gielen has expelled a fringe group who lead illicit and abusive exorcisms without training and episcopal permission.

Traditionis Custodes

Traditionis custodes (Guardian of Tradition, 2021) restricted the celebration of the 1962 Missal and other pre-conciliar rites.

It rejected Benedict XVI's distinction of "ordinary" and "extraordinary" forms of the Mass in his motu proprio Summorum pontificium (2007).

It returned permission for the limited use of the pre-conciliar rites from the individual priest to the diocesan bishop.

Theoretically, this might have worked if it hadn't been for the divergent way bishops applied this permission.

In February 2023, Francis removed the diocesan bishops' authority to grant dispensations for the 1962 Missal by transferring this to his liturgical office.

He stipulated that bishops may not dispense from the prohibition of celebrating the pre-conciliar liturgy in parish churches and must seek the explicit permission of the Holy See.

Based on the cathedral's role as the "parish church of the diocese," Melbourne Archbishop Comemsoli's request to use the cathedral was denied.

The refusal to ordain the seminarians of the Society of Missionaries of Divine Mercy in Fréjus-Toulon is based on specific requirements.

All seminarians who wish to use the 1962 Missal after their ordination must show obedience to the Church's magisterium and seek the permission of their diocesan bishop, who must, in turn, obtain consent from the Vatican.

Part of the problem is the papacy's indecision on the matter since the 1970's.

While traditionalist groups such as the Institute of Christ the King continue to celebrate the pre-conciliar Mass based on their statutes, seminarians of the traditionalist Missionaries of Divine Mercy are refused permission for ordination due to their adherence to pre-conciliar liturgy, and exceptions seem random.

The confusion will continue, and the true nature of liturgical prayer will remain prey to secondary influences.

Liturgy is based on baptismal fidelity

Pope Benedict XVI wrote that the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium (1963), came first because the liturgy is the heart and center of the Church's life.

We are not a social club but a community of baptised people who worship God and seek to live the Gospel of Christ daily.

Baptism brings responsibilities and an acceptance of what constitutes the Church's teaching authority.

We accept that the teaching authority of the Pope and bishops in council, to which the Second Vatican Council belongs, is a category of magisterium.

As baptised members of the ecclesial community, we listen to the Spirit guide the Church through the Church's magisterium.

To deny this is to turn one's back on the Catholic Church and to call into question the reality of one's baptism.

It becomes inauthentic to say that the teaching authority is wrong simply because it does not suit a personal point of view.

Baptism is the basis of how we pray, and how we pray shows what we believe.

Together, these create the "law of prayer" and "law of belief."

These are not cultural or aesthetic categories but theological ones. Liturgical prayer expresses an ecclesiology.

The breakdown in baptismal authenticity that unites magisterium and liturgical prayer as the basis of faithfulness to the Church has created a situation where ecclesiology becomes a matter of personal choice, and liturgical rites become the battleground of these choices.

One of the main reasons for the liturgical changes during and following the Second Vatican Council has been how the Church understands salvation (who can be saved, the Church's mission, and the sacramental role in the mysterion of salvation history).

Simply put, the pre-conciliar rites do not reflect this change and are at odds with the church's self-understanding.

When, in the 1950s rite of Good Friday, the Church prayed for the "perfidious Jews," and no one blinked an eye at the deep antisemitism, now we pray for the "Jewish People, the first to hear the word of God."

We pray differently now because the Church's self-understanding, expressed in the constitutions and documents of the Second Vatican Council, is different from those that went before.

Liturgical rites have meaning, and liturgical rituals express the inner meaning of belief, which is why the liturgy is called a "lex orandi," a law of prayer.

This "law of prayer" cannot be separated from the "law of belief," nor can they be played off against each other.

Since the Council, most so-called "Latin Mass" groups have become deniers of the magisterium of the bishops and Pope in council.

A recent example of this is the ordinations of priests in the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) in the Bavarian diocese of Regensburg.

The diocesan Bishop, Rudolf Voderholze, emphasised that the SSPX's ordinations were unauthorised and violated ecclesiastical norms. He also expressed hope for the SSPX's genuine efforts to return to full communion with the Catholic Church, respecting canonical regulations.

The prominent British and United States figures from politics, business, art, and media display an essential misunderstanding of liturgy as aesthetic.

They make a fundamental mistake: they do not understand the initiative sacramental function of the liturgical rites that underpin what the Church believes about itself and how it expresses this belief in a particular place and culture.

As a result, they do not express the deeper meaning of ecclesiology of the rites beyond the aesthetic of specific rituals.

Ultimately, it is nice that the liturgy inspires artists and musicians, but this is not the point or even essential; it is tangential.

Liturgical prayer is not primarily defined by its aesthetic but by its participation in the mysterion of salvation.

The rites use ritual gestures, postures, etc., to express the mysterion.

The problem with an aesthetic approach is that either the ritual expressions become overdone (rituals for the effete, or available to the "gnostic" few) or underdone (becoming too anthropocentric and robbed of mysterion).

The danger in both is either an appeal to a "universal" or idealised culture with its call to uniformity or an appeal to a "particular" or anthropocentric culture and its appeal to local culture.

In both instances, the unity of the Church is not considered because the ecclesiological basis of liturgy is lacking.

The struggle behind the liturgical fights

Liturgical divisions weaken the unity of the Church and are not to be ignored. However, the more fundamental issues are not essentially liturgical but soteriological.

With the introduction of culture as a category of theology throughout the 20th century (and since Vatican II), our understanding of redemption, humanness, salvation, gender, sexuality, and procreation has radically changed.

The liturgy is not at war with itself because it articulates our theology of redemption, which reflects the deeper changed experience since the mid-eighteenth century.

The crux of the liturgical debates is the viability of the Latin Rite Catholic Church to maintain a single liturgical expression when it cannot retain a single pre-modern understanding of salvation because culture has been given a place within the Church in the salvific dialogue between God and humankind.

As the forces of globalisation and inculturation make deeper inroads into the magisterial system's presumptions, we struggle to maintain a unified view of what it means to be Christian and Catholic in the modern world.

Therefore, it is no surprise that we have a disunified episcopacy, the rejection of papal authority, and liturgical divisions.

The divisions concerning the use of the 1962 Missal are significant theological ones.

That is because within this conflict lie our theological understandings of the Church, laity, ordination, ministry, salvation, women's rights, participation in worship, and the discipline of believing in the teaching authority of the Church.

Those who choose one over the other should be respected for their choice.

Those who try to celebrate in both rites create a schizophrenic relationship with the Church.

• First published in La Croix
• J. P. Grayland is a visiting professor at the University of Tübingen (Germany). A priest of the Catholic Diocese of Palmerston North (New Zealand) for nearly 30 years, his latest book is titled: Catholics. Prayer, Belief and Diversity in a Secular Context (Te Hepara Pai, 2020).

It has never had "interruptions" in its history and is now an oasis of the Catholic Church in Europe. Love for God and others is at the centre of its work, and the beloved Pope Benedict XVI is an "ally."

Heiligenkreuz is located about 18 miles from Vienna, the capital of Austria. The monks, explained the Italian newspaper Avvenire, have an average age of 49, which means they are "young" in current Church terms, especially in Europe, where there has been a precipitous decline in vocations.

Read More

The move follows tensions between Archbishop Gänswein and Pope Francis (pictured together), marked by the former's desire for a new role in Rome following Benedict's death.

Elisabetta Piqué, correspondent for La Nacion, reported the news based on credible sources within the Vatican.

"Notwithstanding the tensions between the two" Piqué reported, "Pope Francis has decided to clean the slate and give a new start and assignment to the former private secretary of Benedict, the German archbishop Georg Gänswein, who will soon be designated as nuncio in some part of the world."

The move comes despite Archbishop Gänswein's expression of discomfort - during a meeting with Pope Francis last December - at being without a role in the Church.

Commitment to mercy and reconciliation

The appointment has surprised many, considering the Archbishop's previous publication in which he criticised Pope Francis.

"Woah. The Pope really does proclaim the God of Second Chances" writes papal biographer Austen Ivereigh on X.

The Archbishop's book "Who Believes Is Not Alone: My Life Beside Benedict XVI" allegedly reveals a lack of trustworthiness and loyalty. In response to this publication and other incidents, Pope Francis suspended him from his role as prefect of the papal household in 2020.

In El Sucesor (a recent Spanish-language interview book), Francis revealed that Benedict's secretary "at times made difficulties for me".

Francis said that, having observed the influential role that Benedict's collaborators played, he decided "to dissolve the papal secretariat", the position Archbishop Gänswein had held. Francis added "it is not good to have an all-powerful secretary".

Despite speculations about his future role within the Roman Curia, Archbishop Gänswein has now been assigned to a nunciature.

This unexpected move by Pope Francis underscores his commitment to mercy and reconciliation within the Catholic Church, even amidst past tensions.

The Vatican has yet to announce Archbishop Gänswein's new appointment officially.

Sources

America Magazine

National Catholic Register

CathNews New Zealand

X

Speaking to Vatican journalist Javier Martinez Brocal, Francis candidly discussed the political manoeuvres within the Vatican during pivotal papal elections.

He disclosed that he felt "used" by certain cardinals to block the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI.

In the interview titled "The Successor: My Memories of Benedict XVI" Francis emphasised his support for Ratzinger, citing the need for a leader to maintain balance during a transitional period after the dynamic pontificate of St John Paul II.

However, he revealed a coordinated effort by some cardinals to prevent Ratzinger's candidacy, with his own name being put forward as part of a strategy to derail Ratzinger's chances.

"The idea was to block the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger" Francis explained. "They were using me but, in the meantime, they were already thinking about proposing another cardinal. They had not yet agreed on who, but they were ready to throw out a name."

Francis said those who pretended to back him stated that "they did not want a ‘foreign' pope," given that Pope John Paul II was Polish. Most popes in the Vatican's history have been Italian.

Despite receiving significant votes, enough to hinder Ratzinger's election in the 2005 conclave, Francis intervened and declared his refusal to accept the papacy if elected.

Man of great gentleness

Reflecting on Ratzinger's eventual election, Francis acknowledged the challenges faced by his predecessor in initiating reforms within the Vatican. He attributed resistance to Benedict's efforts to introduce a new style of leadership.

"Benedict was a man of great gentleness. In some cases, people took advantage of him, perhaps without malice, and limited his movements. Unfortunately, in a certain sense, they were encircling him. He was a very delicate man, but he was not weak: he was strong. But he was humble, and preferred not to impose. So, he suffered a lot."

Moreover, Francis addressed the significance of the Holy Spirit's role in the papal election process, emphasising divine intervention in the selection of the pontiff.

In the book excerpt, Francis prefaces his response to the journalist's questions about the 2005 conclave by explaining that while cardinals are sworn not to reveal what happens in a conclave, "popes are allowed to tell".

The book was scheduled to be released in Spanish on April 3; no publication date for an English-language translation of the book has yet been announced.

Sources

Religion News Service

AP News

National Catholic Register

Vatican News

CathNews New Zealand

After what has been labelled as a significant address, discussion took place against the backdrop of the dicastery's annual plenary assembly.

The assembly focused on enhancing the liturgical formation for clergy and laity in line with the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the Pope's recent reflections.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the promulgation of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Council's foundational document on the liturgy, which set the stage for sweeping reforms intended to make the Church's rituals more accessible and meaningful to the faithful worldwide.

Pope Francis used this occasion to reiterate that genuine reform of the Church is impossible without a reinvigoration of its liturgical life.

"Without liturgical reform, there is no reform of the Church" declared the Pope. He outlined a vision of a Church that engages actively with its people's spiritual and pastoral needs, bridges divisions among Christians and proclaims the Gospel with renewed vigour.

During the address, Francis spoke passionately about the importance of priests' fidelity and their relationship with the Church.

Keen to animate the Church's mission in the modern world, Francis urged the Dicastery for Divine Worship to proceed in close cooperation with other Vatican bodies, such as the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

In affirming the centrality of the liturgy to the life of the Church and as a way of encountering Christ, he says the Dicastery's focus is to ensure the liturgical life of the Church is vibrant and a unifying force for Catholics around the globe.

Liturgy and church life a single coherent unity

"At its most profound level, Sacrosanctum Concilium articulates a renewed understanding of the Church, where the liturgy of the church and the life of the baptised form a single coherent unity.

"Sacrosanctum Concilium was the first Constitution issued by the Council, not only because of the decades-long research that preceded it and the liturgical reforms of Pope St Pius X and Pope Pius XII but, most importantly, according to Pope Benedict XVI, because the liturgical life of the Church is central to the very existence of the Church.

"2,147 bishops at the Council overwhelmingly approved Sacrosanctum Concilium" Dr Joe Grayland told CathNews recently.

Source

• CNA
• CathNews

Sixty years hence, we can reflect on the impact of this document on New Zealand's theological landscape and liturgical practices.

Sacrosanctum Concilium is the cornerstone of Vatican II because it addresses more than just ritual adjustments to the 1962 rites.

At its most profound level, it articulates a renewed understanding of the Church, where the liturgy of the church and the life of the baptised form a single coherent unity.

Sacrosanctum Concilium was the first Constitution issued by the Council, not only because of the decades-long research that preceded it and the liturgical reforms of Pope St Pius X and Pope Pius XII but, most importantly, according to Pope Benedict XVI, because the liturgical life of the Church is central to the very existence of the Church.

2,147 bishops at the Council overwhelmingly approved Sacrosanctum Concilium.

Only four voted against the Church's cornerstone document and the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy was promulgated by Pope St Paul VI on December 4, 1963.

Historical Snapshot

The journey of implementation unfolded gradually in New Zealand.

The bishops, cognizant of the sweeping changes, decided not to alter liturgical practices until the publication of the first Instruction on February 5, 1964.

Throughout 1964, New Zealanders, were kept abreast of liturgical developments through publications like Tablet and Zealandia, while the bishops prepared to implement the Mass in English.

On May 16, 1964, the decree permitting the use of English and Maori (vernacular) in the Mass reached New Zealand, outlining its application in parish Masses, Religious community Masses, and special occasions such as requiem and nuptial Masses.

A circular letter from the New Zealand bishops, dated July 10, 1964, further authorised changes in the Mass and extended permission for English in sacraments and funeral rites.

The final form of the New Mass was introduced on the First Sunday of Advent, 1970.

Throughout the late 1960s, religious women had been very prominent in the liturgical changes.

At the same time, they were exploring their original charisms under the guidance of Perfectæ Caritatis, the Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life (28 October 1965).

In New Zealand's four dioceses, some diocesan priests gave practical leadership to the reforms, many of whom used French, German, and English sources.

Most of these priests were associated with the St Paul's group at the National Seminary, Holy Cross during the 1950s which had been foundered by Basil Meeking, later Bishop of Christchurch, one of New Zealand's greatest advocates for the new Order of Mass (Novus Ordo).

In Christchurch, Bishop Brian Ashby displayed a nuanced approach to reform and emphasised practical ecumenism.

He established two commissions for Liturgy and Music with Fr Basil Meeking, playing a central role.

Indeed, Meeking was sometimes too Avant guarde in his approach.

There is much anecdotal evidence of his parish church resounding to the sounds of modern music long before this practice became popular.

And much to the horror and bewilderment of the majority of parishioners there was also the sight of liturgical dance.

In Auckland, Auxiliary Bishop, Reginald Delargey, emerged as the one who seamlessly embraced the reforms of Vatican II.

Delargey's enthusiasm came from his involvement with the Catholic Action or Cardijn movement.

Lay Catholic involvement was strong during this period of reform, especially from those involved in Catholic Action and the Young Christian Worker Movements.

Delargy's emphasis on the lay apostolate in theology and liturgy set him apart from Archbishop Listen (Auckland), Cardinal McKeefry and Bishop Sneddon (Wellington), and Bishop Kavanagh (Dunedin).

The Clergy and Laity

Both clergy and laity faced challenges transitioning from a rigid ritual practice of worship to one where the liturgy itself was seen as the principal way the Church does its pastoral work.

In short, the advent of Pastoral Liturgy.

Priests, accustomed to meticulous liturgical manuals, grappled with adaptability and laity, used to non-participatory forms of worship now had to adapt to praying the Mass and the sacramental rites with the priest.

Celebrating the Mass to the people (missa cum populo) for the priests meant facing the congregation and for the congregants, it meant seeing the priest presiding.

Consequently, altars had to be repositioned and lecterns introduced because previously the priest had read the epistle and Gospel at the altar.

Using our vernacular languages (English and Maori) was not new, but it was different, and new texts for shared proclamation had to be written and learned.

Although the "Dialogue Mass" with bi-lingual missals in Latin and English had been introduced in 1939, and Maori congregations had participated in the Roman Canon's prayers for the dead, these changes to language, posture and inclusion were significant.

As an example, our language changed from "going to hear mass" on Sundays to "celebrating the liturgy", or "celebrating the Eucharist" on Sundays.

"Liturgy", became a new word that, also, unfortunately, covered a multitude of mistakes as well.

Contemporary Context

Since the Council the voices for the reinstatement of the 1962 Roman Missal and the rites before 1962 became more strident, creating the so-called "liturgical wars", which as Pope Francis wrote in Traditiones Custodes, has led to a division in the church through their rejection of the Second Vatican Council as the Church's highest teaching authority.

Given this division, Pope Francis, guided by the bishops of the Church, abrogated the pre-Vatican rites and reserved permission to use them to the Holy See.

He did this to preserve the unity of the Church, through the use of the liturgical rites promulgated by Saints Paul IV and John Paul II.

Pope Francis has also offered Bishops' Conferences the opportunity to adapt liturgical rites further to local culture, language, and use.

This allows for the revision of many prayers in the current 2010 translation, excluding the Eucharistic Prayer.

The biggest danger to the New Zealand Church at present is the loss of 60 years of work towards a Church that is pastorally focused through liturgical prayer and responsive to the Signs of the Times.

Without this, the "self-revealing God" of the Scriptures and Tradition is replaced with devotionalism.

Many parish communities are endangered by laity and clergy who disenfranchise local communities through clerical structures and mentalities that belong more to the past than they do to the present.

Marking 60 years of Sacrosanctum Concilium is an opportunity to consider what the New Zealand Church has been through, tell the story, and ask those joining the Church to respond to this history in positive and life-giving ways.

• Dr Joe Grayland is a Liturgical Theologian and is currently a visiting professor at the University of Tübingen (Germany). He has been a priest of the Diocese of Palmerston North for nearly thirty years. His latest book is: Catholics. Prayer, Belief and Diversity in a Secular Context (Te Hepara Pai, 2021).

The fractures are most obvious on social media where even priests, bishops and cardinals preach from cyber pulpits all along the theological (or, more correctly, the ideological) spectrum.

Pope Francis recently moved against the latest online episcopal celebrity from the doctrinally rigid end of that spectrum when he relieved Bishop Joseph Strickland from his duties as head of the Diocese of Tyler.

Appointed to the small Texas see in 2012 by Benedict XVI, Strickland has been one of the most vocal critics of the current pope, whom he has publicly accused of undermining the Deposit of the Faith.

Francis like John Paul II and Benedict XVI

The bishop marked his 65th birthday on Halloween by joining other like-minded traditionalists at a conference in Rome where he quoted a letter accusing Francis of being an "usurper".

Using the words of someone else to even suggest the current pope is illegitimate is huge, even by Texas standards. Doing so in the pope's own diocese was a huge and lethal mistake.

Strickland has since gained a few more supporters from among the various anti-Francis critics and crackpots, including non-Americans who probably had never heard of him before he was removed from Tyler on November 11th.

If anybody in the pope's inner circle thought this might in any way lead to a cessation of hostilities towards Francis, they miscalculated.

The pro-Strickland crowd that uses social media as its preferred battleground, have called the pope every name in the book. Dictator is one of their favorites.

Interesting how they have forgotten that Benedict XVI and John Paul II also removed a number of bishops in their days.

The snipers have also attacked Francis and his "magic circle" - including the papal nuncio to Washington, Cardinal Christoph Pierre - for lack of transparency and for refusing to state the reasons why Strickland was removed.

The Roman Pontiff is under no obligation to do so. Benedict and John Paul never did so, either.

No one can hold a candle to Archbishop Viganò

Bishop Strickland is only the most recent high profile Catholic to rail against the current temporal head of the Catholic Church. But he is certainly not the only one.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former nuncio to the United States, was one of the first to really veer off the reservation.

And he did so in a spectacular and unprecedented way in August 2018 when he issued an excoriating open letter urging Francis to resign, accusing him of covering up abuse committed by the former cardinal and now defrocked priest Theodore McCarrick.

No one (at least up till now) can hold a candle to the 82-year-old Viganò, who lobs his deranged rantings and conspiracy theories like bombs in order to discredit the Jesuit pope.

He does this from a secret hiding place, no less, so much does he have the courage of his convictions. It's not too difficult for most reasonable people to see that the attention-seeking Viganò is more than a bit of a "nutter".

We'll have to see if Bishop Strickland, who also seems to like the limelight, intends to follow him down that same road.

After all, he was the first bishop to publicly vouch for Viganò's credibility the very morning the former nuncio issued his open letter attacking the pope.

More credible critics of the pope

But if a loose cannon like Viganò can be easily dismissed, other fierce critics of Francis cannot be.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller immediately comes to mind.

The German theologian and former bishop of Regensburg, who turns 76 on New Year's Eve, is not stupid.

One can disagree with his theological and ecclesiological views, but he represents some of the most classic positions on issues concerning Catholic faith and morals, issues that Francis — legitimately — has opened up for review and reformulation.

Müller, of course, is also the former head of what is now called the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). Benedict XVI appointed him to the post in July 2012, just months before resigning the papacy.

Francis kept him as head of the doctrinal office after being elected pope in March 213, made him a cardinal in February 2014 at the first consistory of the new pontificate, but then decided not to reappoint him DDF prefect in 2017 when Müller completed his first five-year term of office.

The German cardinal has criticised Francis openly and publicly, most thoroughly in a book-length interview with Italian journalist Franca Giansoldati of the Rome-based daily, Il Messaggero.

He's been more or less respectful in tone, while not hiding his bewilderment at the way the Argentine pope has broken with longstanding Vatican protocols and business-as-usual practices - the same reason why many Francis supporters express their jubilation.

The Synod's way of describing the divisions

There are arguably scores (or more) of bishops and untold numbers of priests who are more sympathetic with some variation of Müller's point of view than with the pope's.

And the lay faithful are all probably over the board. It is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify the divisions. But, for sure, the Church is deeply divided.

However, you probably would not draw that conclusion if your first introduction to present-day Catholicism was the "Synthesis Report" that the Synod of Bishops issued on October 28 at the end of the first session of its two-pronged assembly on synodality.

Just take the 42-page text and do a simple word search.

You will find "division" only once in the context of the Church. It's in a section that is listed as number 8, "Church is Mission". In paragraph "f", one finds the following:

In all contexts, there is a danger, that was expressed by many at the Assembly, of "clericalising" the laity, creating a kind of lay elite that perpetuates inequalities and divisions among the People of God.

It would be a stretch to say this is any sort of reference to the current divisions mentioned above.

Similarly, words like "disagreements", "fractures", and "factions" do not appear.

And, for obvious and good reasons, the Synthesis Report - which is inspirational in many ways, but also rather anodyne - avoids naming any sort of "liberal" ("progressive") vs. "conservative" ("traditionalist") tensions or divisions that are, perhaps with the use of more appropriate "labels", a glaring reality in the Church today.

"Labels" is actually found in a section 15 on "Ecclesial Discernment and Open Questions" where it states that, in the Gospels, Jesus "never begins from the perspective of prejudices or labels, but from the authenticity of relationship...".

Meanwhile, the word "controversial" is found six times - three times in reference to "matters", twice regarding "issues", and once for "questions".

Bishops, cardinals, and the next conclave

As for the divisions with the hierarchy the document says this:

"Some bishops express discomfort when they are asked to speak on matters of faith and morals where full agreement within the Episcopate is lacking.

"Further reflection is needed on the relationship between episcopal collegiality and diversity of theological and pastoral views (section 12, paragraph "h")."

Our Catholic leaders, we're told, don't feel comfortable talking about matters about which they disagree.

Once again, this does not seem to properly reflect the reality of what is happening in the Church right now. And that, in and of itself, is alarming.

But divisions there are and, in fact, not a few bishops are publicly giving voice to them, from one side or another (and everywhere in between).

So... what will all this mean when the cardinals are finally called together to elect Pope Francis' successor?

Will they adopt the method of the Synod assembly's Synthesis Report and refuse to acknowledge straightforwardly and descriptively the divisions that exist?

More importantly, on what side of the divide (or where along the spectrum) do the cardinals who will be casting ballots for the next pope line up?

Francis, who will be 87 in a few weeks' time, has named more than 70 percent of the cardinal-electors.

But don't be fooled into thinking they will pick someone who will continue leading the Church along the path he has mapped out.

It may sound strange, but a good number of these cardinals could hardly be called "Francis bishops" in the sense that this term has come to mean.

It is more than likely that they will be forced to choose a compromise candidate. Whether that will be enough to heal the Church's divisions, however, is anyone's guess.

• Rome-based Robert Mickens is La Croix International Editor. He regularly comments on CNN, the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and writes a weekly column, Letter from Rome.
• First published in La Croix International. Republished with permission.

When the retired pope died at age 95 on December 31, 2022, his longtime assistant, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, got to work as executor of the will and duly went about contacting the few first cousins still alive.

"This has been very interesting for me. I thought he had two relatives, two cousins, but there are five cousins in total," said Gänswein.

"By law I have to write to the cousins who are the closest relatives, and also by law I have to ask them, ‘Do you accept the inheritance or do you not accept it?'"

It is not publicly known what money or assets are to be inherited from the late pontiff. Pope Benedict XVI spent his final years living simply in a Vatican apartment.

However, in a complication, his relations seem unwilling to accept the legacy.

One cousin has already refused to accept the inheritance; four others have not yet responded.

The problem is that, by accepting the money, an heir also takes over any legal claims against the deceased, according to estate laws in Germany, where the cousins all live. Joseph Ratzinger, as he was known before adopting his papal name, is a defendant in one of the most-watched cases of clerical sexual abuse in the country.

"We didn't expect this inheritance, and our lives are just fine without it," said Martina Holzinger, the daughter and legal guardian of a now 88-year-old Ratzinger cousin who has refused the unexpected gift.

Without even knowing how much the inheritance would be, the prospect of taking on the scandal that troubled Ratzinger's legacy was too much.

"I could get the shakes just thinking about how much I would have to pay out," one cousin told Bavarian Radio.

Source

• Religion News
• Fox News

Careful readers will note that rather than closing Limbo, as reported by the media, what the International Theological Commission did under Benedict in 2007 was downgrade Limbo from church doctrine to a hypothesis or theory.

It no longer must be presented as church teaching.

In other words, you don't have to believe in Limbo, but you can if you want.

Make no mistake about it; Benedict killed Limbo just as much as the Second Vatican Council killed the Latin Mass.

Hypothesis or not, no one is going to teach it.

Limbo will become a theological anachronism that historians of theology note but everyone else ignores.

It is not mentioned, for example, in "The Catechism of the Catholic Church."

Limbo was a theological solution to the problem of what happens to good but unbaptized people after they die.

The New Testament is full of passages that say baptism is necessary for salvation. Catholic teaching said baptism was necessary to wash away original sin, which we inherited from Adam and Eve.

But sending unbaptised infants to hell seemed especially cruel.

How could God, who is described as merciful and loving in the parable of the prodigal son, do such a thing?

We need to remember that for the ancients, hell or Hades was the underworld, the place of the dead.

Thus, in the creed when we say Jesus "descended into hell," we are not speaking of the place of eternal damnation but the domain of the dead.

No church father before Augustine thought unbaptised children would be punished.

St Augustine, however, believed unbaptised children would experience the misery of the damned but be consigned to the mildest part of hell.

Augustine was such a theological giant that there was reluctance to question his teaching, especially when all theologians at the time were men without children.

Around 1300, the term Limbo, from the Latin "limbus," meaning edge or boundary, became used for the dwelling place of the good or innocent dead who were not baptized.

This is distinguished from purgatory, where sinners are purified before they go to heaven, and hell, where the biggest sinners spend eternity.

Medieval theologians debated how much innocent babies suffered in Limbo, and as time went on, the consensus view was that they did not suffer at all.

They experienced natural happiness but not supernatural happiness.

Also debated was whether they would remain in Limbo forever or just until the end of time.

Theologians twisted themselves into pretzels trying to reconcile what Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, church councils and others said about Limbo and unbaptized infants. For an example, see the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia.

Limbo eventually came to be seen as a temporary holding area or waiting room at the edge of hell where the unbaptised would be kept until the end of time, when they would be admitted into heaven.

Residing there were not only unbaptised children but also the patriarchs and other good people from the Old Testament. It was also open to the millions of good people who had never heard of Jesus.

When I grew up in the 1950s, this was all clearly taught in the Baltimore Catechism, along with all the other dogmas we had to accept to be a Catholic.

No good Catholic could question such teaching.

Benedict threw Limbo out the window

Pope Benedict threw open the gates of heaven for the unbaptised, reversing centuries of church teaching.

Strictly speaking, the International Theological Commission was only willing to affirm that there are "strong grounds for hope that God will save infants when we have not been able to do for them what we would have wished to do, namely, to baptize them into the faith and life of the Church."

Anyone who pays attention to what Jesus says about his Father will have not only strong hope but absolute certainty that unbaptised children go directly to heaven.

Of course, the church would never admit something it was teaching or doing for centuries was dumb.

Rather, it has to find some way to pretend it was all a misunderstanding.

Allowing Limbo to be a hypothesis is the theological equivalent of reforming the liturgy but allowing people to continue attending the traditional Latin Mass, in the belief that it will eventually die out.

The theological commission argues that Limbo "never entered into the dogmatic definitions of the Magisterium, even if that same Magisterium did at times mention the theory in its ordinary teaching up until the Second Vatican Council."

That is a sophisticated way of saying the church can never be wrong. But there is no question that most Catholics in previous centuries thought Limbo was a dogma of the church.

Thousands of parents were told their unbaptized infants were in Limbo.

Pope Benedict made the greatest change in church teaching since the Second Vatican Council.

In terms of its pastoral impact on ordinary Catholics, it ranks up there with the major changes that came out of Vatican II. While mourning their dead infants, parents can now rest assured that their unbaptized children have gone to heaven.

If it had been Pope Francis who questioned Limbo, conservatives would have condemned him for challenging church dogma.

Benedict could get away with it because accusing him of unorthodoxy would have gone against stereotypes, akin to President Richard Nixon going to China.

In the history books, Benedict will be remembered as the pope who resigned and as the pope who got rid of Limbo.

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

"I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church.

"Let us remember him. He is very sick, asking the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end," Francis said.

Francis made the surprise appeal at the end of his audience at the Vatican Wednesday morning, Rome time.

After the audience, Francis went directly to visit Benedict.

Francis regularly visits with Benedict, but informal reports say recently he has been a more frequent visitor.

Updated over night

Overnight, NZ time, Reuters reports a statement from the Vatican saying Benedict's health has worsened due to his age, but he was receiving constant medical attention and his condition was under control.

Bishops around the world have joined in the call for prayer for the former Pontiff.

"This morning I received the news that there is great concern in Rome about the health of Pope Emeritus. And so we especially want to include him in our prayers," German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich, told churchgoers.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, head of Italy's bishops conference, asked Italians to keep Benedict in their thoughts "in this moment of suffering and trial".

Until a few weeks ago, those who had seen Benedict said his body was very frail but his mind was still sharp.

Italian news reports said he had been suffering from respiratory problems over the Christmas period.

Source

• Reuters
• Reuters

In the 728 years that have passed since St Celestine established this legal precedent, the right of a pope to resign remains ensured in church law.

The law is not very detailed, saying only that the decision must be made freely and "duly manifested". No one needs to formally accept a pope's resignation for it to be valid.

The canonist Geraldina Boni told Catholic News Service, "It is no longer inconceivable for a pope to resign, with this door having been ‘opened,' as Francis himself has said several times".

However, she added "this situation must be regulated".

Boni also suggested the need to regulate issues such as what to do when a pope is unable to govern the universal church when he is completely, permanently and irreversibly impeded or impaired because of a debilitating illness or other conditions.

Boni and other canonists launched a project in 2021 to draft legislative proposals that could be studied and discussed on an online platform. The aim is to present the suggestions to "the supreme legislator", the pope, for his consideration.

One of the proposals is on the legal status or "canonical condition of the bishop of Rome who resigned his office."

Many of the suggestions mirror the approaches taken by retired Pope Benedict.

For example, the proposal says "the manifestation of the resignation must preferably be put into writing and ordinarily presented in a consistory of the College of Cardinals or in another way that makes it publicly knowable".

However, some of the suggestions depart from Pope Benedict's actions, the biggest of which is the retired pope's title.

Instead of "pope emeritus," the proposal says the retired pontiff "receives the title of bishop emeritus of Rome," and he "uses the ring that every bishop must wear". Photos of the retired Pope show him wearing the cardinal's ring.

"The bishop emeritus of Rome does not assume or regain the dignity of cardinal nor the functions that are attached to it," the proposal says. It added, "However, in liturgical and canonical matters, the bishop emeritus of Rome has the privileges and faculties attributed to cardinals".

Cardinal-designate Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a Jesuit theologian and canon lawyer, said "Having two people with the title of ‘pope,' even if one added 'emeritus,' it cannot be said that this might not generate confusion in public opinion".

The idea of more than one pope at one time "dangerously mixes up the precise meaning of the Petrine ministry. Which is that of being a sign of unity of the church, therefore, one sign of unity of the church," he said in his talk.

Boni told CNS, "We will see if the work done by us university professors has been considered — even in criticising it or departing from it — by the eventual drafters of any papal legislation".

"Certainly, the wide debate that has built up on the issue has helped dismantle a taboo that had no reason to exist," she said of laws on the status of a retired pope.

Sources

• CruxNow

"I'm the bishop of Rome, in this case, the emeritus bishop of Rome," Francis said in an interview segment with Spanish-language broadcaster TelevisaUnivision that aired on Tuesday.

Francis, 85, denied he was planning to retire any time soon but repeated that "the door is open" after Pope Benedict XVI in 2013 became the first pope in 600 years to step down.

While having a retired pope on hand has gone well, the Vatican needs to better regulate the figure of an emeritus pope, Francis said in the interview.

Some cardinals and canon lawyers have long questioned Benedict's decisions in retirement, including his continuing to wear the white cassock of the papacy and keeping his papal name, Benedict, rather than reverting to his birth name, Joseph Ratzinger.

Read More

Francis announced he would visit the central Italian city of L'Aquila in August. He will attend a feast initiated by Pope Celestine V, one of the few pontiffs who resigned before Pope Benedict XVI stepped down in 2013.

Italian and Catholic media have been rife with unsourced speculation that the 85-year-old Francis might be planning to follow in Benedict's footsteps. His increased mobility problems have forced him to use a wheelchair for the last month, which has driven conjecture about his future.

Francis was elected pope in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Roman Curia. Now that the nine-year project has been rolled out and at least partially implemented, Francis' main task as pope has in some ways been accomplished.

All of which made Saturday's otherwise routine announcement of a pastoral visit to L'Aquila carry more speculative weight than it might otherwise have.

The basilica in L'Aquila hosts the tomb of Celestine V, a hermit pope. He resigned after five months in 1294, overwhelmed by the job. In 2009, Benedict visited L'Aquila which had been devastated by a recent earthquake. He prayed at Celestine's tomb, leaving his pallium stole on it.

No one at the time appreciated the significance of the gesture. But four years later, the 85-year-old Benedict would follow in Celestine's footsteps and resign, saying he no longer had the strength of body and mind to carry on the rigours of the papacy.

Francis has praised Benedict's decision to retire as "opening the door" for future popes to do the same. He had initially predicted a short papacy for himself of two to five years.

Nine years later, Francis has shown no signs he wants to step down, and he has significant projects still on the horizon.

For example, he has scheduled a major meeting of the world's bishops in 2023 to debate the increasing decentralisation of the Catholic Church and the continued implementation of his reforms.

But Francis has been hobbled by the strained ligaments in his right knee, making walking painful and difficult. He has rejected surgery reportedly because of his reaction to anaesthesia during an operation last July.

However one of his closest advisers and friends, Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, said talk of a papal resignation or the end of Francis' pontificate was unfounded.

"I think these are optical illusions, cerebral illusions," Maradiaga told Religion Digital, a Spanish-language Catholic site.

Christopher Bellitto, a church historian at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, noted that most Vatican watchers expect Francis will eventually resign, but not before Benedict dies. The 95-year-old retired pope is physically frail but still alert and receives occasional visitors in his home in the Vatican gardens.

"He's not going to have two former popes floating around," Bellitto said in an email, seemingly quashing Pope Francis retirement rumours.

Sources

AP News

NPR

And, of the three most recent popes, Pell said he was closest to Benedict.

His remarks came during "The Church Up Close" a webinar hosted by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.

In quick thumbnails of the three popes, Pell described St John Paul as "one of the greatest popes in history, of course".

He praised Benedict's "prodigious intellect".

Francis, he said, has the "great gift of empathy and sympathy" which includes Francis's welcoming approach to divorced and remarried couples and LGBTQ Catholics and his prioritisation of fighting climate change.

However, when asked why some conservative Catholics are hostile to Francis, Pell said he believes some "wonder just what is being taught" at the moment.

He did not elaborate on specific issues.

"Pope Francis has a great gift, like Jesus did, of reaching out to those on the peripheries and sinners and that can and has confused people.

Pell worked closely with Francis for five years, and when many called for Pell's sacking after initially first being convicted of sexual abuse, Francis showed him respect, the prudence of judgment and mercy.

Asked if he was "still a climate change denier," Pell said he's "never denied climate change".

He says he's a "very strong" believer in it but is ambivalent about what can be done by humans to prevent it.

After listing several historical examples he said he is "well aware" the Rhine River dried up twice in the Middle Ages and that it was warmer at the time of Christ than today.

"What I am against, is inflated ideas that we can do very much at all to mitigate, to change these immense natural patterns.

"No computer program forecasting the future of climate change has been accurate."

In his opinion, there is a "vast distance between the evidence and the policy recommendations."

"Pagan people like something to be frightened of," he added.

Pell also reflected on his imprisonment for sexual abuse before being cleared in 2020 by Australia's high court and offered journalists some literary advice.

For a better understanding of the church, he suggests the journalists read Ross Douthat, George Weigel, and Rod Dreher's book, 'The Benedict Option'.

"The Benedict Option is not my option," Pell said.

"I'm not sympathetic to just a small, little elite church."

"I would like to keep as many of the semi-religious slobs like myself in the stream."

"The Church Up Close webinar series is targeted to journalists around the world to help them better understand the dynamics of the Vatican.

Pell was archbishop of Melbourne, Australia, from 1996 to 2001 and then led the Sydney Archdiocese from 2001 until Francis invited him to oversee the Vatican's financial reforms in 2014.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Vatican News

"Benedict XVI, the Pope Emeritus," directed by Andrés Garrigó, will be released April 16 by Goya Productions.

The film will focus on Benedict's papacy, and his time as prefect of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"At that time he had to deal with such crises as Liberation Theology in its Marxist version with its affinity to guerrilla warfare, and the cases of pedophilia that were beginning to surface then. Elected in 2005, Benedict is faced with two immense tasks: defending Catholic doctrine from the 'dictatorship of relativism' on the outside and reforming the Church from within, starting with the confusing structure of Vatican finances," the filmmaker stated.

Read More

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) announced on 23 October they were throwing him out of the church.

In 2009 Vlasic was accused of teaching false doctrine, manipulating consciences, disobeying ecclesiastical authority, and of committing acts of sexual misconduct.

These incidents occurred during the 1980s when he acted as ‘spiritual advisor' to six people in the town of Medjugorje, in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. The six said they experienced visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

A document signed at the time by the then-CDF prefect, the late Cardinal William Levada, also accused Vlasic of adultery. The priest had had a child with a woman in 1987.

The priest had been reduced to the lay state by a decree of Benedict XVI. Vlasic had asked to be released from his priestly obligations following the investigation by the CDF.

He was also relieved of his religious vows and excluded from the Franciscan Order.

Don Adriano Bianchi, Director of the Office for Social Communications for the Diocese of Brescia announced that the CDF had issued the decree of excommunication formally on 15 July this year.

He said: "The serious canonical penal provision was imposed on him due to the fact that unfortunately, during these years, Mr Vlasic has never complied with the prohibitions imposed on him in the canonical penal precept issued against him by the same Congregation, on 10 March 2009, under penalty of excommunication reserved for the Holy See.

"In fact, in all these years, in the Diocese of Brescia and in other places, he has continued to carry out apostolic activities towards individuals and groups, both through conferences and through information technology; he continued to declare himself a religious and a priest of the Catholic Church.

"Because of this penalty of excommunication, Mr Vlasic is prohibited from taking part in any way as a minister in the celebration of the Eucharist or any other ceremony of public worship, from celebrating sacraments or sacraments and from receiving the sacraments, from exercising functions, in offices or ministries or any ecclesiastical assignments, or to place acts of government."

Sources

La Croix International

Independent Catholic News

Catholic News Agency

The topics will be discussed at next month's Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

Francis's mainly conservative, traditional Catholic critics say these topics distract from evangelisation.

"What do ecology, economy, and politics have to do with the mandate and mission of the Church?" German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller asks.

From Francis's perspective, these subjects are essential to evangelisation, not a distraction from it.

When Christians stand with people as they face such struggles, Francis believes they'll eventually wonder why we're doing it.

That's when the conversation begins, he says.

He spoke of his vision of evangelisation in a recent audience with members of a charismatic group called the Community of Abraham.

The meekness that the Holy Spirit gives us makes us witnesses, because the path of the Holy Spirit isn't proselytism [trying to convert people to their beliefs] it's witness," Francis told them.

"If someone comes to proselytise, that's not the Church, it's a sect."

"The Church the Lord wants, as Pope Benedict XVI said, doesn't grow through proselytism but by attraction, meaning the attractiveness of witness, and behind that witness there's always the Holy Spirit.

"This is the methodology we're called to live in the work of evangelisation.

"We need to walk together with the people of our time, listen to what they carry in their hearts, in order to offer them the most credible response with our lives, that is, the life that comes from God through Jesus Christ."

Francis says he is guided by advice St. Francis of Assisi gave his brothers when they started to evangelize:

‘Go, preach the Gospel, and, if necessary, use words.'"

"Start with witness, and then they'll ask you: ‘Why are you like this?' That's the moment to speak."

Source

• Crux Now
• Image: Kairos Canada

Catholic teaching on ecology prior to Pope Francis

In 1971 the document Justice in the World, issued by the Synod of Bishops, represented a major step in the development of Catholic teaching on the environment; Barbara Ward-Jackson was a consultant before and during the synod and undoubtedly had a considerable influence on its outcome.

This document emphasised the close link between ecology and justice; one could say that it linked an ‘option for the poor' with an ‘option for the earth' - though it did not use these terms.

It insisted that it is not possible for all parts of the world to have the kind of ‘development' which characterised the wealthy countries.

It therefore called on those who are rich ‘to accept a less material way of life, with less waste, in order to avoid the destruction of the heritage which they are obliged by absolute justice to share with all other members of the human race.'

Pope John Paul II

In his first encyclical, Redemptor hominis (1979), Pope John Paul II warned about ‘the threat of pollution of the natural environment'.

In his 1987 encyclical, Solicitudo rei socialis, he referred to ‘the limits of available resources' and used the term ‘the integrity and cycles of nature'.

In describing the relationship between humans and the rest of nature, John Paul sometimes used language which we would now avoid - writing of ‘the exploitation of the earth' in a favourable sense and of the human person as ‘master' of the earth.

However, on the many occasions when he met indigenous peoples in various parts of the world, he invariably stressed the vital relationship that exists between indigenous peoples and their land.

John Paul's 1990 ‘Message for the World Day of Peace' provided a quite comprehensive teaching on ecology and went a long way towards enabling the Catholic Church to catch up with the approach which had been developed in the World Council of Churches. It pointed out that:

The gradual depletion of the ozone layer and the related ‘greenhouse effect' has now reached crisis proportions as a consequence of industrial growth, massive urban concentrations and vastly increased energy needs. Industrial waste, the burning of fossil fuels, unrestricted deforestation, the use of certain types of herbicides, coolants and propellants: all of these are known to harm the atmosphere and environment.

When it went on to consider how ecological problems can be overcome, this message insisted on the need for ‘a more internationally coordinated approach to the management of the earth's goods'; and it pointed out that the ecological problem cannot be solved unless modern society ‘takes a serious look at its life style.'

It insisted that: ‘simplicity, moderation and discipline, as well as a spirit of sacrifice, must become a part of everyday life'.

It also insisted on the integrity of creation.

Nevertheless, in this document and later ones, John Paul had an anthropocentric conception of the relationship between humans and the rest of nature - seeing the value of the rest of the natural world almost exclusively in terms of its value for humans.

In his 1991 social encyclical, Centesimus annus, John Paul said:

The earth ... is God's first gift ... But the earth does not yield its fruits without a particular human response to God's gift, that is to say, without work. It is through work that man ... succeeds in dominating the earth.

I have put the word ‘gift' in italics because it prefigures the strong emphasis by Pope Benedict XVI seventeen years later on the idea of the earth as a gift.

I have also put the word ‘dominating' in italics because it suggests that John Paul held on to the older understanding of God's command in the book of Genesis as a justification for dominating the rest of the natural world.

In Centesimus annus, John Paul made a contrast between natural ecology and what he called ‘human ecology', with the suggestion that the latter is more important.

I shall return to this issue in the second part of this article.

Nevertheless, John Paul made a very valuable contribution to Catholic Social Teaching by putting a strong emphasis on ecological issues.

One of the most significant aspects of his teaching came when, in a General Audience in 2001, he spoke of the need for humans to have an ‘ecological conversion.'

Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI was deeply committed to raising awareness about the urgency of finding solutions to ecological problems and to promoting an ecologically respectful lifestyle.

But, perhaps even more strongly than John Paul II, he contrasted ‘the human environment' with the natural environment.

He insisted that there is an inseparable link between the two but held that the former is ‘more serious' and should be given priority.

In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate (2009), Pope Benedict maintained that the environment is ‘God's gift to everyone' and that we must respect the ‘inbuilt order' or ‘grammar' which God has given to nature, rather than treating it as raw material which we can use in any way we wish.

But he warned of the danger of seeing nature as more important than humans and seemed to be unduly concerned about the dangers of ‘neo-paganism or a new pantheism'.

He gave a quite detailed account of the various ecological issues we face and called for ‘a responsible stewardship over nature, in order to protect it, to enjoy its fruits and to cultivate it in new ways.'

He went on to point out the need for ‘an effective shift in mentality which can lead to the adoption of new life-styles'.

Benedict made an important contribution to Catholic Social Teaching by insisting on ‘inter-generational justice', ‘intergenerational solidarity,' and ‘a solidarity which embraces time and space'.

On the issue of the use of biotechnology for genetic modification (GM) the Vatican has given mixed messages, sometimes warning of its dangers and sometimes seeming to be quite in favour.

During the years when Cardinal Marino was head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, that Council seemed strongly in favour of GM.

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church which it issued in 2004 gives a quite favourable account of biotechnology, though it does, of course, say that it should be used responsibly.

More recently, the attitude of the Pontifical Council seems rather more cautious and ambivalent.

I would suggest that neither Pope John Paul II nor Pope Benedict XVI sufficiently locate theeconomic issues we face in the context of ecology.

Furthermore, both popes could be said to have an anthropocentric approach to ecological issues.

So there is a need for a theologicalconversion alongside the ‘ecological conversion' which they have rightly called for.

The ‘theological conversion' which is needed is a paradigm shift which involves situating us humans, with all our achievements, our problems and our responsibilities, within the wider context of nature. Continue to read Pope Francis on ecology

The truncated transcript of Francis's lengthy interview with Mexico's Televisa reporter, Valentina Alazaraki, claimed Francis said he didn't know anything about accusations of McCarrick's sexual abuse before the accusations became public last year.

What it omitted, was Francis's claim that he didn't remember former nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, telling him in 2013 of McCarrick's penchant for sleeping with seminarians.

Communications coordinator Andrea Tornielli says the discrepancy was due to the quick turnaround time given to translating the interview from Spanish into Italian.

The original Spanish was considered the text of reference, he says.

Within minutes of being questioned about the Italian transcript, the full and corrected version of the quote appeared on the Italian site of the Vatican news portal, Vatican News.

In the interview Francis told Alazaraki he would have immediately spoken out if he had known about McCarrick.

When he did find out last year, he acted against McCarrick both before and after the Vatican process.

Before the process, he removed him from the College of Cardinals.

After it, when he was found guilty of solicitation in the Sacrament of Penance and "sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults," he dismissed him from the clerical state.

Vigano's allegations have been used by Francis' conservative critics to attack him.

The allegations appear to show Francis disregarded information that McCarrick preyed on seminarians and instead rehabilitated him from the restrictions Pope Benedict XVI imposed in 2008.

As a result, Francis' claim not to remember if Vigano told him about McCarrick now amounts to his defence against such criticism.

Last year, the Vatican communications office published a doctored photograph and a partial quote from a letter penned by retired Pope Benedict XVI that misrepresented its complete meaning. The then-prefect of the communications office had to resign as a result.

Source

• AP
• CNA
• America Magazine
• The Tablet
• Image: Zenit

Protocols evolve and changes can be confusing, especially when most people only meet a reigning monarch (or pope) once in their lives.

As we have seen in the past few days, old habits die hard, even when the pope is trying to keep the receiving line moving.

So while Pope Francis might not be a fan of hand and ring kissing, he is actually following the lead of John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Before the Second Vatican Council, it was customary in most countries for both priests and laity to kiss a bishop's ring upon greeting him as a sign of respect and obedience.

But times change, and the gesture can also be seen as furthering clericalism and ties to temporal power.

Both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI before him have tried to discourage the practice when the pope is receiving visitors, and Francis was resistant to the practice when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires as well.

According to the journalist Peter Seewald (in his book-length interview The Light of the World), Pope Benedict XVI actually abolished the tradition of kissing the pope's hand, "though no one followed the new protocol."

America's Vatican correspondent, Gerard O'Connell, notes that when the cardinals came forward at the conclave that elected Pope Francis to express their obedience to him, he tried to stop them from kissing his hand or ring.

He kissed the hands of cardinals from Vietnam and China, as a sign of respect for their witness in the face of religious persecution.

Much of the reverence shown to the papal rings developed out of the tradition of "the fisherman's ring" owned by the pope.

At least as far back as the 1200s, the signet on the fisherman's ring was used to seal papal documents.

In that time, seals helped to verify that private documents had not been tampered with or opened in transit.

With modern means of communication, this practice of sealing a document with wax and then pressing the signet into the wax has fallen out of use.

In keeping with this original and rather practical purpose, the ring of the fisherman was traditionally destroyed after the death of a pope.

In the presence of other cardinals, the ring would be smashed with a ceremonial hammer.

At the inauguration of the next pope, a new ring would be presented to the new pope.

Similar traditions and ceremonies were quite common in royal courts throughout Europe in the medieval period.

Another common practice would have been the kissing of a monarch's ring as a sign of respect for the office and power held by the monarch.

This matches up with the tradition of kissing the pope's hand and the fisherman's ring. It also was not limited to the pope: Bishops also receive rings at their episcopal ordinations. Continue reading