Inside the Vatican magazine February 2020 by Inside The Vatican Magazine

INSIDE THE

FEBRUARY 2020 $5 / EUR 5 / £3.30

VATICAN “Christ lived for 30 years in silence. Then, during his public life, he withdrew to the desert to listen to and speak with his Father. The world vitally needs those who go off into the desert. Because God speaks in silence.” Cardinal Robert Sarah, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise

LENT

THE WAY OF SILENCE

Great Churchmen Address Crisis in the Church X From the Depths

of Our Hearts Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church

he Catholic Church faces a major crisis and the turmoil in priestly ministry is at the heart of it. This book, an unprecedented work by the Pope Emeritus and a Cardinal serving in the Vatican, is a serious and unflinching look at the crisis. “The priesthood is going through a dark time,” writes Pope Emeritus Benedict along with his co-author, Cardinal Robert Sarah. “Wounded by the revelation of so many scandals, disconcerted by the constant questioning of their consecrated celibacy, many priests are tempted by the thought of giving up and abandoning everything.” In this book, Benedict and Sarah give their brother priests and the whole Church a message of hope. They honestly address the spiritual challenges faced by priests today, including struggles of celibacy. They point to deeper conversion to Jesus Christ as the key to faithful and fruitful priestly ministry and church reform. Responding to calls for refashioning the priesthood, including proposals from the Amazonian Synod, two wise, spiritually astute pastors explain the biblical and spiritual role of the priesthood, celibacy, and genuine priestly ministry. Besides the crisis in the priesthood, this book is about the nature of the Church and of Christian discipleship. This is a book that all clergy and laity should read. It is powerful and personal—from the depths of their hearts. FDOHH . . . Sewn Hardcover, $19.95

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EDITORIAL

by Robert Moynihan

Lent: Way of Silence, Way of Sorrow

The season of Lent is upon us. In silence, in sorrow, we pray for our “daily bread” and that we not be led “into temptation.” We pray for ourselves, we pray for those dear to us, and we pray for our Church...

“The great patristic tradition teaches us that the mysteries of Christ all involve silence. Only in silence can the word of God find a home in us, as it did in Mary, woman of the word and, inseparably, woman of silence.” —Pope Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini (“The Word of the Lord”), September 30, 2010 “The Gospels often present Jesus, especially at times of crucial decisions, withdrawing to lonely places, away from the crowds and even from the disciples in order to pray in silence and to live his filial relationship with God. Silence can carve out an inner space in our very depths to enable God to dwell there, so that his word will remain within us and love for him take root in our minds and hearts and inspire our life. Hence the first direction: relearning silence, openness to listening, which opens us to the other, to the word of God.” —Pope Benedict XVI, March 7, 2012, in a reflection on Jesus’ silence “Wordless is the Word of the Father, who made every creature which speaks, lifeless are the eyes of the one at whose word and whose nod all living things move!” — St. Maximus the Confessor (c. 580 in Constantinople to 662), cited by Benedict in the same talk “In Jesus’ prayer, in his cry to the Father on the cross, are summed up ‘all the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions and intercessions of salvation history... Here the Father accepts them and, beyond all hope, answers them by raising his Son. Thus is fulfilled and brought to completion the drama of prayer in the economy of creation and salvation.’” —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2606, cited by Benedict in the same talk “It is man — in his soul — who finds himself without the means to take on himself the sufferings and miseries of our time... Man is no longer sure of himself or of his transcendent calling and destiny. He has desacralized the universe and now he is desacralizing humanity; he has at times cut the vital link that joined him to God... God seems to him abstract and useless. Without his being able to express it, God’s silence weighs heavily on him.”—St. Pope Paul VI, Gaudete in Domino (“Rejoice in the Lord”), Apostolic Exhortation On Christian Joy, May 9, 1975, the twelfth year of his pontificate

he silence, the fasting and the sacrifice of Lent are upon us. We seek to follow Christ into the desert, and like Christ, to reject the temptations of the devil and remain faithful to our vocation, to our calling, to be in Christ and with Christ no matter what the cost, no matter what the sacrifice. Human words fall short in attempting to convey the situation we find ourselves in, in this time, amid these precise temptations and trials. All the more reason for us today to cling more closely to the words of Scripture, for, as Pope Benedict tells us, “St. Augustine’s observation is still valid: Verbo crescente, verba deficiunt, ‘When the Word of God increases, the words of men fall short.’” (Pope Benedict, March 7, 2012 General Audience) St. Paul’s words on Christian life in general also apply to our prayers: “I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39). Lent may truly be a time of blessing if, in silence and sacrifice and in resisting temptation, we immerse ourselves more deeply in the mysteries of our Faith. If we embrace silence. If we offer up our sorrow. If we embrace sacrifice for the sake of our own souls, and for our world, and for our Church as she follows her Spouse with sometimes uncertain steps. Among the worries for the Church simmering among many Catholics: Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the General Relator of last fall’s Amazon Synod, has sent a letter to all Catholic bishops saying Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation is imminent: it is due in early February. So the Pope’s judgment on this Synod, with its calls for married priests and the ordination of female deacons and a type of “inculturation” many see as incompatible with Catholicism, will be revealed in this document. Catholics expect clear, orthodox teaching from the Pope and the Vatican on these issues. Then there are the “gender issues.” No Christian would support the unjust oppression of women (or of men) due to shallow society-imposed gender stereotypes. But in the drive for “gender equality,” the “complementarity” of human genders is increasingly rejected. And so a bedrock teaching of our Faith, from Adam and Eve, through Abraham and Sarah, to Joseph and Mary, is abandoned. We hear of children whose innocence is being robbed by educators who teach them to question their gender, and “drag queens” who read them stories in public libraries, of young people whose bodies are mutilated and lives drowned in confusion leading to despair, drug use and suicide, and of the persecution of any who try to resist. Where is the voice of reason, the Church’s voice, in all this? Do Church leaders not sense the rising confusion and the misery it causes? What our culture does not seem to understand, even a little, is that the way of the Truth is the way of joy and human happiness. St. Thomas Aquinas says, “Man cannot live without joy; therefore when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures.” The Catholic faith is the only way of real human joy, yet the Church seems to be faltering and acceding to the way offered by the world, as priests, bishops, nuns, seem to accept homosexuality, cohabitation and divorce as ways of life. Where may our peace, our true joy, be found, if not in the Church? Misery flows from our loss of faith in God’s wisdom and our embrace of self-will as the guiding force of our lives. The only antidote is our Faith, our faith in Christ and in the Church He bequeathed to us. “To whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life,” St. Peter cried to his Master. It is our cry also. As we face another kind of crisis, the crisis of a mysterious virus originating in China which is terrifying the entire world, let us all cry out to our Lord to have mercy on His Church and His world, and let us immerse ourselves this Lent in silence, for, as Cardinal Robert Sarah recently wrote: “Only silence leads man beyond words, to the mystery, to worship in spirit and in truth.”m FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

FEBRUARY 2020

CONTENTS

Year 28, #2

LEAD STORY Francis and Benedict: Opponents, or Brothers in Spirit? by Robert Moynihan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

FEBRUARY 2020 Year 28, #2

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Robert Moynihan ASSOCIATE EDITOR: George “Pat” Morse (+ 2013) ASSISTANT EDITOR: Christina Deardurff CULTURE EDITOR: Lucy Gordan CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Giuseppe Rusconi WRITERS: Anna Artymiak, Alberto Carosa, William D. Doino, Jr., David Quinn, Andrew Rabel, Vladimiro Redzioch, Serena Sartini, Father Vincent Twomey PHOTOS: Grzegorz Galazka LAYOUT: Giuseppe Sabatelli ILLUSTRATIONS: Stefano Navarrini CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Deborah B. Tomlinson ADVERTISING: Katie Carr Tel: 202-536-4555, ext.303 kcarr@insidethevatican.com

EDITORIAL OFFICES FOR MAIL: US: 14 West Main St. Front Royal, VA 22630 USA Rome: Inside the Vatican via delle Mura Aurelie 7c, Rome 00165, Italy Tel: 39-06-3938-7471 Fax: 39-06-638-1316 POSTMASTER: send address changes to Inside the Vatican c/o St. Martin de Porres Lay Dominican Community PO Box 57 New Hope, KY 40052 USA Tel: 800-789-9494 Fax: 270-325-3091 Subscriptions (USA): Inside the Vatican PO Box 57 New Hope, KY 40052 USA www.insidethevatican.com Tel: 800-789-9494

INSIDE THE VATICAN (ISSN 1068-8579, 1 yr subscription: $ 49.95; 2 yrs, $94.95; 3 yrs, $129.95), provides a comprehensive, independent report on Vatican affairs published monthly except July and September with occasional special supplements. Inside the Vatican is published by Urbi et Orbi Communications, PO Box 57, New Hope, Kentucky, 40052, USA, pursuant to a License Agreement with Robert Moynihan, the owner of the Copyright. Inside the Vatican, Inc., maintains editorial offices in Rome, Italy. Periodicals Postage PAID at New Haven, Kentucky and additional mailing offices. Copyright 2020 Robert Moynihan

INSIDE THE VATICAN

FEBRUARY 2020

NEWS VATICAN/ Vatican Opens Secret Archives by CNS/ITV Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 VATICAN/Pope Speaks to US Bishops on Pro-Life, Transgender Issues by Catholic News Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 VATICAN/Pope apologizes for slap... but who is really to blame? by ITV Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 VATICAN/Ambassadors of the Holy Land by François Vayne (La Stampa) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 ROME/OBITUARY Cardinal Prospero Grech, faithful theologian for 60 years by ITV Staff/CNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 DOSSIER: German Bishops’ “Synodal Path” Sparks Protest by ITV Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 A Catastrophic Synodal Path by Michael J. Matt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 “A Church that No Longer Preaches” by Alexander Tschugguel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 “We do not accept revolutionizing the role of women” by Jeanne Smits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 The Five Pseudo-Synodal Impostures of the German “Path” by José Antonio Ureta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 “You have blood on your hands” by John-Henry Westen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Appeal to German Catholics against the Kirchensteuer (“Church tax”) by Roberto de Mattei . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 ART ESSAY: Lent: The Way of Silence, of Sorrow, of Temptation... by ITV Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 CULTURE CATHOLIC EDUCATION/”Transforming the World” by Fr. David Pivonka, President, Franciscan University of Steubenville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 REPORT/“Is mission without baptism still mission, or omission?” by Alberto Carosa, ITV Staff writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 INTERVIEW/ by Jan Bentz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 INTERIOR CASTLE/ by A Hermitess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 FOOTSTEPS ON THE WAY/ by Dr. William Edmund Fahey, President, Thomas More College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

URBI ET ORBI: CATHOLICISM AND ORTHODOXY Icon/ by Robert Wiesner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Spirituality/ By Father El Meskeen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 East-West Watch/ by Peter Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 News from the East by Becky Derks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 FEATURES LATIN/What is Rome’s greatest Latin inscription? by John Byron Kuhner, Paideia Institute, Rome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Art/”He was sentenced to death”... so Caravaggio escaped to Naples by Lucy Gordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 BOOK/Selection from Lord of the World by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Vatican Watch/A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events: December and January by Becky Derks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 People/ by Becky Derks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Food for Thought/Rome’s only “native” sweet: Il Maritozzo by Mother Martha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Profound Spiritual & Theological Works

X MY BODY GIVEN FOR YOU

X BREAD THAT IS BROKEN

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Wilfrid Stinissen, O.C.D.

he Church celebrates the Eucharist as a memorial of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of our redemption becomes present sacramentally. In this internationally acclaimed masterpiece, Hoping combines the approaches of both dogmatic theology and liturgy while examining the Eucharist from an historical and systematic perspective.

“A goldmine of liturgical and theological scholarship rooted in Scripture, the Fathers, and scholastic theology. I cannot recommend this book enough!” — Robert Fastiggi, Theology Professor, Sacred Heart Seminary

“An insightful meditation on the Eucharist that combines personal reflection with modern scholarship and biblical truth. It helps us enter more fully into the Mass through a deeper appreciation of it’s sublime meaning.” — Fr. Michael Gaitley, M.I.C., Author, 33 Days to Morning Glory

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X CONCILIAR OCTET A Concise Commentary on the Eight Key Texts of Vatican II Aidan Nichols, O.P.

n this work Dominican scholar Nichols maintains that the Council texts must be interpreted in the light of their genesis, not their aftermath. The texts that emerged from this often impassioned debate remain susceptible to a reading of a classically Christian kind. That is precisely what Nichols offers in this book.

“A great theologian presents an incisive, balanced, theologically intelligent account of the eight crucial documents of the Council. Accessible erudition at its best, with an almost musical cadence.” — Douglas Farrow, Theology Professor, McGill University

he renowned spiritual writer and Carmelite priest shows how the Eucharist is not only the great Sacrament that brings about our oneness with Christ, and with others, but also how the Eucharist is the foundational norm for all our actions. To become one with the Lord who is sacrificed has necessary consequences. The mystery of the Eucharist leads to a Eucharistic ethic for life.

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X THE THEOLOGIAN’S ENTERPRISE Aidan Nichols, O.P.

ichols explains the approach to Catholic theology which he has worked out in his forty years of teaching and writing, offering comprehensive counsel to those setting out in the study of their faith. He combines profundity and brevity with solid advice on the habits of mind that theology requires. “The most user-friendly and lucidly written introduction to theological study I’ve ever read. Every new theology student should have a copy. It’s also a beautiful piece of writing and a pleasure to read.” — Tracey Rowland, Chair of Theology, Notre Dame University, Australia THEP . . . Sewn Softcover, $14.95

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Travel to Assisi, Norcia and Rome. Celebrate Easter Sunday Mass with Pope Francis and attend the Pope’s Urbi et Orbi message in St. Peter’s Square. This pilgrimage will begin almost a week before Easter in Assisi — the city of St. Francis (1181-1226) — in the Umbrian hills. Assisi is one of the loveliest, most peaceful cities in the world. The YHU\ OLJKW DQG DLU RI WKH FLW\ VHHP ðOOHG ZLWK WKH SUHVHQFH RI WKH VSLULWV RI 6W )UDQFLV DQG 6W &ODUH :H ZLOO VSHQG three nights in this special city, preparing for Easter. On Holy Thursday, we will travel to Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict. Norcia is tucked under sparkling white, snow-capped mountains in the center of Italy, and seems a city that time forgot. Join us for this unforgettable pilgrimage. Sign up today!

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

INSIDE THE VATICAN welcomes letters but cannot reply to all. Each is read and considered carefully. Printed letters may be edited for clarity. You may email us at editor@insidethevatican.com

“I AM RETREATING TO THE SMALL MONASTERY IN ONE’S HEART” This is probably going to be one of the hardest and saddest letters I have ever written. After decades of being a subscriber to Inside the Vatican, I have made the very difficult decision not to renew my subscription that expires in February. The reasons are many: I will be 90 and have health problems; and I am mentally, emotionally and spiritually on overload with the constant bombardment by the press, both liberal and conservative, about the chaos we find in our world, our country and most importantly, our Church. Your last issue, which told the true story of what happened at the Amazon Synod, was almost the last straw for my emotions. I have stopped watching all news on TV, even Raymond Arroyo on EWTN; and I am now

going to retreat into the small monastery that rests in my heart. I will increase my time spent in daily prayer, knowing that there is not one single thing I can do about the mess in the Church and our country — except to improve my own prayer life. I apologize for having to take this drastic step because I have always looked forward to every issue of Inside the Vatican. Thank you for the beautiful end-of-year issue, “The Coming of the Lord Into the World.” I am enclosing a check which I ask that you use to allow someone in prison to have a one-year subscription to Inside the Vatican. Eunice S. Fallow South Boston, Massachusetts, USA

OUR CHRISTMAS ISSUE To bring Christ to your readers in the Absolutes of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty, was a truly inspiring decision — a joy to receive and treasure. Thank you sincerely. Jan Chalmers jbchalmers41@gmail.com

I love the Special Edition of Inside the Vatican… great job!! But my dear friend… if someone does not rein in this Pope and stop his nonsense we will not have a Catholic Church left. The Roman Catholic Church today is barely a shadow of its former self. What has been done to our beloved Church since Vatican II is a travesty, and woe to those who have in any way supported this Communist ideology, to destroy the Catholic Church, making her a shelter of permissive absolution for every immoral perversion possible, let alone the abomination of liturgical and dogma abuses. Nita Young Kenai, Alaska, USA

The Vintage Catholic – Sacred Art & Antiques – “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred....” Pope Benedict XVI

www.thevintagecatholic.com 8

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

Thank you for the beautiful December 2019 ITV special issue of Christmas sacred art, accompanied by essays on the Incarnation from great Popes and theologians throughout Church history. It was a welcome respite from the messy deluge of true and fake news stories, and the cacophony of conflicting opinions and commentary, on

Pope Francis and the Church of today. Two comments regarding your January issue: First, it was good to see Kanye West included as one of your Top Ten People of 2019. I was disappointed that National Review ran as its cover story for November 25, 2019, a skeptical and dismissive article by Kevin Williamson on West that questioned the sincerity of his conversion. It is abundantly clear from the dramatic changes in his lifestyle and behavior that this millennial hip-hop celebrity is now a devout Christian who is using his star power to evangelize the secular culture. Thank you for giving him the recognition he deserves. Second, regarding the essay on Archbishop Viganò and many well-intentioned Catholics who want the Church to officially declare Mary “Co-Redemptrix”: Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Francis have both stated publicly and unambiguously that such a declaration will not be made. The reason for this was explained twenty years ago by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in an interview with German journalist Peter Seewald, and is worth quoting at length: “...the formula ‘Co-redemptrix’ departs to too great an extent from the language of Scripture and of the Fathers and therefore gives rise to misunderstandings.... Everything that is his [Christ’s] becomes ours, and everything that is ours he has taken upon himself, so that it became his: this great exchange is the actual content of

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redemption, the removal of limitations from our self and its extension into community with God. Because Mary is the prototype of the Church and is, so to say, the Church in person, this being ‘with’ is realized in her in exemplary fashion. But this ‘with’ must not lead us to forget the ‘first’ of Christ: Everything comes from him.... The word ‘Co-redemptrix’ would obscure this origin. A correct intention is being expressed in the wrong way. For matters of faith, continuity of terminology with the language of Scripture and that of the Fathers is itself an essential element; it is improper simply to manipulate language” (God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald, Ignatius Press, 2000, p. 306). Justin Soutar Goshen, Virginia, USA

THE CONTROVERSY OVER BENEDICT/SARAH BOOK ON CELIBACY This may be confusing to you, but believe me it is not confusing to ordinary lay Catholics: we know that we have one Pope and his name is Francis. Well, I may be nervous about some of the things coming out of Rome, but I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit is in charge. I stopped reading LifeSite News because it is so anti-Francis. As a matter of fact, I often find it downright unChristian. Cathy Hickey cbhickey7@gmail.com In your discussion of the deep meaning of the pristhood, which continues Christ’s work of salvation (Letter #1, 2020: The Controversy over the Book, January 16, 2020), you are so right to say that Christ’s death opened the gates of Heaven. We should also say that the reason he could open the gates of Heaven is because his death was without sin and therefore the perfect sacrifice. He was sinless. Many tried to provoke him to sin but he would not respond. They called him names. They reviled him. He suffered greatly but nothing worked to get him to sin. So he went into death blameless. He went there completely holy while being accompanied by his Mother who would not sin either. They shared his victory together. Neither of them were afraid of what they were doing. She had no fear and this must have been a great consolation to Jesus who was the primary victim.

But she was a victim too, while suffering her sorrows alongside her Son’s Road to death. Jesus’ death opened the gates of Heaven because it satisfied the qualifications of appeasing the Father’s thirst for justice. The Father had been offended by Adam and Eve’s sin. It took a man to offer himself sinless and blameless on a cross with no way out except death. That man had to be God too because God had been offended. He had to be a Priest also, a high Priest, which Jesus clearly was, and a King, which Jesus clearly was: the king acting as high Priest and prophet too had to offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sake on the altar of death now known as the Holy Cross. Tommy Greerty tgreerty@aol.com

however, is that hardly any attention is being given to the ancient requirement that, from the moment of ordination, all the ordained were required to observe sexual continence. The present Eastern practice, which began in 691-2, diverges from this ancient rule in respect to presbyters and deacons but keeps the original rule of sexual continence for bishops. In the Western Church, the original, apostolic observance has been maintained for all the ordained. Since Pope John XXIII, exceptions to priestly celibacy have been made. Are these and further exceptions going to be turned into a new rule clearly at odds with an observance with an apostolic origin? Rev. Edward P. Pepka, Ph.D. eppepi@msn.com

A thought comes to mind as to Emeritus Thank you for providing such timely Pope Benedict’s safety: recall a good and reporting about this controversy. pious Pope in history who was forced into You already have published sufficient retirement and imprisoned until his death. material about the ancient origins of priestly Could this or worse, i.e assassination, be celibacy to make it clear that it is not just a what is in store for Emeritus Pope Benedict? disciplinary practice. As Fr. Christian Cochini, S.J., points out in his study (The Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy), the original version of this practice was the observance of sexual continence by all clergy, even if they were married first. In the 11th century this ancient discipline was tightened into celibacy. So we are not here talking about a mere matter of a changeable discipline but an original observance much like the ordination of men only. The apostolic Founded F ounded b byy R Raymond aymond Leo Leo Car Cardinal dinal B Burke urke origin elevates sexual nestled bluffs off and nes tled in the bluff ffss o continence to a level Laa Cr Crosse, Wisconsin, off O Our osse, W isconsin, the Shrine o ur Lady off Guadalupe is a sstunningly beautiful place off tunningly be autiful plac eo above that of mere peace, prayer, pilgrimage. grimage. pe ace, pr ayerr, and pil discipline. In the ancient Church, many married men were ordained. Ordaining married men now has S S   O L L      G G   a good precedent. La Crosse, Wisconsin Wisconsin guadalupeshrine.org What troubles me,

Your Y our Mother M other Wants W ants Y You ou ttoo V Visit. isit.

FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

God bless this Godly, holy man. Are his writings safe from destruction? Can his secretary now be trusted? Terry McDonnell tcmcd50@bigpond.com

This reads like a spy novel—who would think this is THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH!! My 97-year-old mother was beside herself listening to the news on EWTN’s “The World Over”—and cried out “My God! What in the world has happened to our Church?” She was cognizant enough to understand that it is in turmoil. In fact, as we said our night prayers together before I left her caregiving residence, my mom said, “Let us pray for Pope Francis and Ex-Pope Benedict & Cardinal Sarah, that the Truth will prevail.” In my humble opinion, it sounds like there are forces working against the truth! The smoke is thick in the Sanctuary! I believe with regard to Cardinal Sarah and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who is also a theologian and should still be able to speak for himself—either Archbishop Gaenswein is the lynchpin between the two households or is walking a tightrope that might just snap! Hope Benedict XVI doesn’t get poisoned— Epstein didn’t kill himself! Lorraine Pecus lpecus@simpatico.ca Michael Sean Winters made an excellent suggestion in the National Catholic Reporter recently on how this whole embarrassment might have been avoided or at least ameliorated: Pope Benedict’s title after his retirement should have been “Bishop of Rome Emeritus.” To that I would have added that he should not have continued to live in the Vatican. Thanks for continuing to share your letter. Eric von Brockdorff Westport, New York, USA As much as I appreciate your posting of this commentary, I have a couple thoughts of my own to add as a married priest who had the unique privilege of offering the Holy Sacrifice in Rome at the Vatican — right near St. Peter’s tomb! — while on the wonderful Urbi et Orbi Pilgrimage with you folks back in July 2018. First, I heard “someone” close to the situation declare via an EWTN broadcast this past week that “the East was wrong in its permission of the white/married clergy.” 10

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Wow, was that a kick in the stomach or what, given the sacrifices many of us are making toward Orthodox-Catholic rapprochement! Second, and I don’t claim to be as astute a theological or historical mind as Benedict, but if one looks honestly at the gradual (and it was gradual, not something already in place during the apostolic era) embrace of either a celibate or a continent-if-married priesthood, it’s impossible, at least to my mind, not to realize that the prime philosophy of the ancient Greco-Roman world A.D. was Stoicism, and received a considerable boost from Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Stoicism’s well-documented disdain for sexual or any emotional expression, for that matter, had, in my opinion, much to do with the early Church’s attempt to do its work of evangelism. In effect, they had to “out-Stoic” the Stoics to get a fair hearing. Ergo, the move toward clerical celibacy—not a New Testament teaching. Finally, and this is also something near and dear to my heart (given my many Messianic Jewish friends, especially those affiliated with the “Toward Jerusalem Council II” initiative that’s been around for over two decades), Christianity’s first slide from its spiritual roots was its bitter polemic against all things Jewish, even outright antiSemitism in certain Patristic writings, sad to say. Once that cord had been severed, our Church was increasingly under the influence of philosophies that ultimately would lead to many heartbreaking schisms. Especially during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, this greatly troubles me. And in the end, Manichaeism put the capper on the whole project, and Augustine, whom I love dearly—and who is my hometown namesake—would forever stamp the Latin Church with a decided disdain for a Christian sexuality that is only recently being rediscovered through the Theology of the Body teaching emanating from — wonder of wonders — the catechetical ministry of St. John Paul II! And so I will leave it at that, Bob. I love you, my brother, but cannot remain silent while some with collars and agendas (and pretensions to the papacy in a future day) needlessly roil our beloved Church. Fr. Nick Marziani St. Augustine, Florida, USA Thank you for this particular very informative letter. How interesting given the present scenario in the present pontificate of

Pope Francis. Do you think the book may be published in English in the future. I would certainly like to have a copy. Thank you again for your tremendous knowledge within Vatican circles. Paula Hagan United Kingdom Fran Maier, senior advisor to Archbishop Charles Chaput and former editor of the National Catholic Register, hits the nail on the head when he says of celibacy: “Efforts to diminish or abolish it are, in effect, a surrender to a confused and hypersexualized wider culture.” I can’t help but believe this is about, finally, denigrating celibacy because it flies in the face of the #1 contemporary cultural value: sex. If the Church is as riddled with homosexuals as it appears, then all the more anxious would they be to see to it that celibacy comes to be viewed as unworkable and even unnatural. And isn’t anybody arguing that perhaps the Eastern rites of the Church, and even the Orthodox, that allow married priests might actually evolve a better understanding and appreciation of the value of celibacy, rather than the Western Church evolving a lesser esteem for it? Elise Deardurff Front Royal, Virginia, USA

OUR “TOP TEN” OF 2019 Perhaps it is because I respect your choices and the thoroughness with which you offer content, that I have no issues with the choices you made in this annual category. Also, I read nothing in which you wrote maliciously or disrespectfully of the current pontiff. I wasn’t even aware that Kanye West is a Christian believer. I’d not be concerned about someone finding something offensive. I’d hope they’d reach out with their concern to you. If they’re unfamiliar with the quality you offer via different media, it would behoove them to read through parts of the archive to become more familiar with your writing. I look forward to your installments, whether in agreement or not (mostly in agreement); and I thank you for your efforts. James thrtyrs@yahoo.com After the fall of the Mauer, the wall dividing East and West Germany, my

brothers and I left Mexico, where we were raised, and went to live in Dresden, where we spent almost 12 years helping rebuild our former homeland, Saxony. In 2012, we decided to return to our other homeland, Mexico, after spending one year in Buenos Aires. So we are back home... but we are not precisely amused by our new leftist president. But, thank you very much for the encouraging news of the 10 heroes I received today. That means that we are not lost to the “modern,” hedonistic, abominable world. All the best to you and your initiative! Alexander Sachsen Mexico City, Mexico Congratulations on a fabulous Top Ten! Excellent! Is there any way you could get me in touch with those lovely Irish girls? I would love to offer them my pro-life education programs as a way to earn money for their association and also to undermine terminally the International Planned Parenthood Foundation-inspired rot there. We are doing really well internationally. Christine Vollmer President, Pro-Life of Venezuela christinedemv@gmail.com Kanye West may have baptized his kids and I’m glad he is a believer. However, two of his children were born of a surrogate mother. For us as Catholics, how can he be in the Top Ten? Best regards, Lina Serusi linaserusi@yahoo.it The Editor responds: He converted. He is witnessing to millions. He committed many sins. He is a prodigal son. Great picks... my favorite is the 15-yearold. The best pictures that I remember seeing were of him facing the crowd and then being carried away, but in such a dignified position. Jane Adolphe Adolphe Research Team jadolphert@gmail.com A breath of fresh air, thanks! Kathy [no last name] mowdat@aol.com Joel Vaughn Peddle jvaughnp@gmail.com

Wonderful line-up!

Tschugguel is a vandal, a member of

TFP, a group the Brazil bishops have claimed are not authentically Catholic. Along with TFP, he opposes a Synod supported by Pope Francis. The Pope apologized for Tschugguel’s actions; why are you praising him? Kanye West adheres to the prosperity gospel heresy; why are you promoting him? Victor Orban has adopted a position on migrants and refugees diametrically opposed to Pope Francis; why are you endorsing him? If you continue to promote the enemies of the Pope and the Church, please remove me from this list. Anthony Annett morningsminion@gmail.com Your “Top Ten” are really shining lights in a darkened world. I hope Inside the Vatican continues to flourish! Paul Hellyer phellyer1@gmail.com

CARDINAL BERTONE’S PLAN IN 2007 TO MAKE BERGOGLIO INTERIM HEAD OF THE JESUITS Jesuits, are, in essence, subversive to the traditional Roman Catholic Church and should be dissolved as they were in 1773 by Pope Clement XIV. There is really nothing “Roman Catholic” about them any more. Currently they are diametrically opposed and a disgrace to the Founding Principles establishing their Order, written by Ignatius of Loyola in 1534. Victor J. Cameron vcamco@comcast.net

IN PRAISE OF THE “ULTRA-ORTHODOX” JEWS I received an email with film showing

BL. STANLEY ROTHER BUSTS

young Orthodox Jewish activist Yonatan Teleky testifying in Trenton, New Jersey, opposing the plan by the pro-homosexual Governor of New Jersey and the Democrat New Jersey Legislature (and the American Library Association) to promote the acceptance of homosexuality in the schools of New Jersey and other states. I say to Yonatan Teleky and the Orthodox Jews, called “Ultra-Orthodox Jews,” “Bravo!” New Jersey is one of the states in which Orthodox Jews are growing in numbers and influence. The city of Lakewood, New Jersey, has a religious Orthodox Jewish school which is huge in numbers. I want to praise also the great work of Mass Resistance, an organization apparently led by Jewish individuals. The American Library Association promotes homosexuality openly in libraries all over the United States. It encourages very young children to question their sexuality. During the month of June, many American libraries have men pose as women to speak to very young children about their sexuality. This is outrageous. The Mass Resistance organization is very effective in opposing these attempts to brainwash young school children into accepting homosexuality. There are many Orthodox Jews such as Rabbi Noson Leiter, Rabbi Yehuda Levin (who stood on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and urged the cardinal to support Church teaching on traditional values), Rabbi Handler, Yonatan Taleky, the Mass Resistance people... The major point I am making here is that there is hope. Two hundred years from now the Orthodox Jews—if current births in the Orthodox Jewish community continue— may have largely stopped, or largely minimized many harmful evils. Robert Mauro 2 sizes: sizes: ǎǱƊǭ ǎǱƊǭ ǎǱƌǭ ǎǱƌǭ Hand Hand painted painted wood wood F From rom Italy Italy Exclusively Exclusively ours! ours! STJOSEPHOLDCATHEDRALGIFTSHOP STJOSEPHOLDCATHEDRALGIFTSHOP

ssjocgift.com jocgift.com † sjocgift@gmail.com sj sjocgift@gmai l.com † 405-476-1814 4 05 - 476 -1814 FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

LEAD STORY

Former Prefect of the Congregation for the doctrine of the Faith, German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, has written an essay in which he defends the participation of Pope emeritus Benedict in the current debate over priestly celibacy, and rejects attempts to set him up as an opponent of Pope Francis. “The assertion that Benedict is the secret adversary of the incumbent Pope and that his plea for the sacramental priesthood and celibacy comes from an obstructionist policy directed against the expected post-synodal amazon letter can only flourish in a hotbed of theological ignorance,” he states.

OPPONENTS, OR BROTHERS IN SPIRIT? THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POPE FRANCIS AND BENEDICT XVI n By Gerhard Cardinal Müller

he deliberate media confusion regarding Benedict XVI’s co-authorship of Cardinal Sarah’s book From the Depth of Our Hearts (January 2020) simply indicates the rampant paranoia in the public sphere ever since the supposed coexistence of two Popes. For in the Catholic Church there can be only one Pope. For it is true: “The Roman Pontiff, as the successor of Peter, is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity of both the bishops and of the faithful” (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 23). In Benedict’s contribution on the Catholic priesthood, this serious distortion of the perception of two contrary principles of unity has 12

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once again found confirmation and nourishment. On the other hand, it is openly evident that Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI are not the authors of this pathological polarization, but the victims of an ideological projection. This threatens the unity of the Church as much as it undermines the primacy of the Roman Church. All these events only show that the mental trauma, which the renunciation of office by Pope Benedict at the beginning of 2013 has caused in the “discernment in matters of faith of the people of God” (Lumen Gentium 12; 35), is not yet healed. But the faithful have the right to a theologically clear

assessment of the coexistence of a reigning Pope and his emeritus predecessor. This singular event, that the Pope as head of the college of bishops and of the visible Church, whose invisible head is Christ, leaves the cathedra of Peter, which is entrusted to him for life, before his death, can never ever be grasped by worldly categories (age-related right to retirement, desire of the people to replace their leaders). Even if canon law provides for this abstract possibility (can. 332 §2 CIC), detailed provisions and concrete experiences are still lacking as to how its status can be described and, above all, how it can be shaped in practice for the good of the Church.

Opposite, the fraternal embrace between two Popes, Pope Francis on the left and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on the right. Here, Cardinal Robert Sarah, author of the book with Benedict’s collaboration

In politics, there are the opponents in the struggle for power. When the competitor is eliminated, the caravan moves on. But among the followers of Christ, this should not be the case. For in the Church of God all are brothers. God alone is our father. And his Son Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh (John 1:14-18), is the only teacher of all his disciples (Matthew 23:10). Bishops and priests, through their sacramental ordination, are the servants of the Church, appointed in the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28), who lead the Church of God in the name and authority of Christ. He speaks through their mouths as a divine teacher in sermons (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Through them, he sanctifies the faithful in the sacraments. And Christ, the “shepherd and guardian of your souls” (1 Peter 2:25) cares for the salvation of the people by appointing priests (bishops and presbyters) in His Church as their pastors (1 Pt 5:2-3; Acts 20:28). The Roman Bishop exercises the ministry of Saint Peter, who was called by Jesus, the Lord of the Church, to the universal pastoral ministry (John 21:15-17). But the bishops are also brothers among themselves. This is without prejudice to the fact that they are united as members of the college of bishops—with and under the authority of the Pope (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 23). A former Pope who is still alive is fraternally connected to all bishops and is under the magisterial and jurisdictional authority of the ruling Pope. But this does not in any way prohibit his word from continuing to carry great weight in the Church, because of his theological and spiritual competence as well as his episcopal and papal experience of government. The relationship of every bishop emeritus to his successor must be marked by the spirit of fraternity. Worldly thoughts of prestige and political power games are poison in the body of the Church, which is the body of Christ. This applies a fortiori to the even more delicate relationship of the reigning Pope to his predecessor, who had renounced the exercise of the Petrine ministry and thus all the prerogatives of the papal primacy, and therefore is definitely no longer the Pope. Astonishing here is the closing of ranks of the previous enemies of the Church from the sphere of the old liberal and Marxist neo-atheism with the secularism within the Church, which wants to transform the Church of God into a humanitarian organization acting in a planetary way.

The old enemy of the Church, Eugenio Scalfari, boasts of his new friendship with Pope Francis. United in the common idea of a man-made One-World-Religion (without Trinity and Incarnation) he offers him his collaboration. The idea of a popular front of believers and non-believers is launched against the enemies and opponents identified by him from among the cardinals and bishops, as well as the “right-wing conservative” Catholics. In it, he finds like-minded people from the group of the “Bergoglian Guard,” which presents itself in this way. This network of leftwing populists, driven by a sheer will to power, ideologically perverts the potestas plena of the Pope to a potestas illimitata et absoluta. This is what pure voluntarism is all about: According to their conception, everything is good and true because the Pope wants it. The Pope does not, on the contrary, do and say something, because it is good and true. They contradict Vatican II, which sees the magisterium at the service of revelation, by “teach-

ing only what has been handed on, listening to the Word of God devoutly, guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully in accord with a divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit […]” (Dei Verbum 10). In this way, they expose themselves as the demonic opponents of the papacy, as it was dogmatically defined by the teachings of Vatican I and II. If already between Jesus and the disciples there is not the principle of servility but the measure of friendship (John 15:15), how should the relationship of the Pope to his brothers in the episcopate be marked by submissive opportunism and blind, irrational obedience beyond the unity of faith and reason typical of Catholic theology? According to liberal Marxist ideas, a “seasonable” Pope legitimizes himself by ruthlessly pursuing the extreme left-wing agenda and promoting a unity of thought without transcendence, without God and the historical mediation of salvation through Christ, the only mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). In the world (civitas terrena), rulers, opinion leaders and ideologues do indeed abuse their power by disregarding natural moral law and divine commandments. They often usurp the place of God and mutate into devils in human form. But where God is recognized as the only Lord, there grace and life, freedom and love reign. In the kingdom of God, the word of Jesus is considered a precept: “But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45). Sacramental ordination (of bishop, presbyter, deacon) remains valid and effective, and with it the responsibility for the Church’s teaching and pastoral mission. The old opponents of Joseph Ratzinger (as Cardinal Prefect and Pope) have no right to impose the damnatio memoriae on him, especially since most of them differ from his qualities as a doctor of the Church only by their shocking dilettantism in theological and philosophical questions. His contribution in Cardinal Sarah’s book can only be discredited as a standpoint opposite to Pope Francis by those who confuse the Church of God with an ideological-political organization. They do not want to understand that the mysteries of faith can only be grasped with the “Spirit of God” and not with the “spirit FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

LEAD STORY

THE BOOK OF DISCORD

of the world.” “The unspiritual man does not understand the gifts of the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14). When even the apostles were initially unwilling to understand that there are people who voluntarily renounce the conjugal union for the service of the kingdom of God, Jesus himself said to them, “He who is able to receive this, let him receive it” (Matthew 19:12). And he explains it in this way: “There is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life” (Luke 18:29-30; cf. Matthew 19:29). The assertion that Benedict is the secret adversary of the incumbent Pope and that his plea for the sacramental priesthood and celibacy comes from an obstructionist policy directed against the expected post-synodal Amazon letter can only flourish in a hotbed of theological ignorance. No one refutes this obsession as brilliantly as Pope Francis himself. In the foreword to the collection of texts on the sacrament of orders on the occasion of Joseph Ratzinger’s 65th priestly anniversary in 2016, Pope Francis writes: “Every time I read the works of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, I realize that he did and still does theology ‘on his knees’: on his knees, because one sees that he is not only an outstanding theologian and teacher of faith, but a man who really believes, really prays. You see that he is a man who embodies holiness, a man of peace, a man of God.” And after Pope Francis has rejected the caricature of the Catholic priest as a routine functionary of an NGO Church, he once again underlines Joseph Ratzinger’s exceptional position as a theologian on the cathedra of Peter with the words: “As so decisively affirmed by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the theological work of Joseph Ratzinger, and later of Benedict XVI, places him among the great theologians on the Chair of St. Peter, like Leo the Great, holy Pope and Doctor of the Church […] “From this point of view, I would like to add to the right consideration of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that perhaps today, as Pope emeritus, he gives us in a particularly clear way one of his greatest lessons of ‘theology on your knees.’” Benedict’s contribution to the Sarah book offers, in a deepened Christological-pneumatological hermeneutic of the inner unity of the Old and New Testaments, founded in God’s 14

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historical communication of self, a help to overcome the theological and spiritual crisis of the priesthood, which is of the greatest importance in the renewal of the Church (cf. Vatican II, Presbyterorum Ordinis 1). The priest is not the functionary of a company that provides religious-social services. Nor is he the exponent of an autonomous community that claims rights vis-à-vis God instead of receiving “every good endowment and every perfect gift from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Through Holy Orders, he is rather conformed to Jesus Christ, the High Priest and Mediator of the New Covenant, the Divine Teacher and Good Shepherd, who gives his life for the sheep of God’s flock (Lumen Gentium 29; Presbyterorum Ordinis 2). From this conformitas cum Christo also arises the inner adequacy of Christ’s celibate

form of life for the sacramental priesthood. Jesus himself spoke of the disciples who, eschatologically as a testimony for the coming kingdom and in the service of the salvation of man, live sexually abstinent and renounce married and family life of their own free will (Matthew 19:12; 1 Corinthians 7:32). Celibacy is not absolutely required by the nature of the priesthood. But it arises in the most intimate appropriateness from the nature of this sacrament as a representation of Christ as the bridegroom of his bride, the Church, and the head of his body, the Church, in the power of his mission and his form of life of the total gift of self to God (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis 16). That is why the dispensations from the law of celibacy, which are differently developed in the Eastern and Western Churches, are to be justified as exceptions, and not priestly celibacy as the rule. Fundamentally, the Church has to work towards a celibate priesthood. From biblical

roots, the practice had developed, by way of the law demanding married clerics to be continent, to ordain only candidates for bishop, priest and deacon who promise a celibate life from the outset. In the Eastern Church—departing from the tradition of the early Church, and by no means in its continuation—it was allowed to priests and deacons by the Quinisext Council (691/692), which was characteristically held in the imperial palace and not in a church, to continue married life. In the Latin Church, however, only unmarried men were later consecrated, who had previously promised to live a celibate life. In the Eastern Churches, married clerics, but not bishops, were allowed to continue the marriage—given sexual abstinence some time before the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and the prohibition of a second marriage after the death of the spouse. This provision also applies to the Catholic clergy who had received a dispensation from the obligation of celibacy (Lumen Gentium 29). For the sake of the greater good of unity, the Catholic Church accepts this practice in the Uniate Eastern Churches, and since Pope Pius XII, and with regard to the Anglicans since Pope Benedict XVI, grants a dispensation from the obligation of celibacy to clergy of other denominations who are married and enter into full communion with her, if ordination to the priesthood is being considered. A plain abolition of priestly celibacy, as in the Protestant and Anglican communities in the 16th century, would therefore be a violation of the nature of the priesthood and in defiance of the entire Catholic tradition. Who wanted to answer before God and his holy Church for the disastrous consequences for the spirituality and theology of the Catholic priesthood? Even millions of priests since the foundation of the Church would have to feel inwardly hurt if one were now to explain to them that their existential sacrifice for the Kingdom of God and the Church was based only on an outward legal discipline that had nothing whatsoever to do with the priesthood and the form of life of celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The lack of priests (in number and quality) in the formerly Christian countries of the West is not due to a lack of vocations from God, but to the lack of our life from the Gospel

Cardinal Müller, author of this essay, with Benedict XVI (left) and Francis (right)

of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the whole world. There is not only a discussion about celibacy, but also a bitter fight against it and thus, too, against the sacramental priesthood. In the 16th century, the Protestant reformers understood the ecclesiastical office only as a religious function in the Christian community, thus depriving it of its sacramental character. If the ordination to the priesthood is no longer an inner conformation to Christ, the Divine Teacher, the Good Shepherd and High Priest of the New Covenant, then the understanding of the inner connection to celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of God, founded in the Gospel, is also no longer applicable (Matthew 19:12; 1 Corinthians 7:32). In the wake of the polemics of the Reformation and due to their immanentist view of man, the French Enlightenment philosophers saw in priestly celibacy and religious vows only a suppression of the sexual instinct, which led to neuroses and perversions—similar to the later interpretation of sexuality as a mechanical satisfaction of instincts, which in case of its “suppression” causes neuroses and perversions, according to depth psychology. In today’s dictatorship of relativism, the emphasis on a sacramental authority from the higher divine authority is perceived as a clerical claim to power, and the celibate way of life as a public accusation against the reduction of sexuality to a selfish acquisition of pleasure. Priestly celibacy appears as the last bastion of man’s radical transcendental reference and the hope for a world beyond and a world to come, but according to atheistic principles, it is a dangerous illusion. The Catholic Church as an ideological alternative to radical immanentism is therefore fiercely fought by an international elite of power and money, who strive for an absolute rule over spirit and body of the dull masses. In a therapeutic gesture, one mimes the philanthropist who only does poor priests and religious a favor by freeing them from the shackles of their suppressed sexuality. But in their smug intolerance, these benefactors of mankind do not notice at all how they violate the human dignity of all those Christians who take the indissolubility of marriage in their conscience before God se-

riously or faithfully fulfill the promise of celibacy with the help of grace. For just there, where faithful Christians make their life decision in the innermost depth of their conscience before God, the deniers of man’s supernatural vocation want to persuade them that they have to fit into the limited horizon of an existence condemned to death, as if the living God did not exist (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 21). “Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. […] Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles” (Romans 1:20-23).

The infamous accusation is that sinister Church reactionaries with their defense of the sacramental priesthood and — in their eyes —unworldly sexual morals and misanthropic celibacy delay or even prevent the necessary modernization of the Catholic Church and its adaptation to the modern world. What they tolerate at best is a Church without God, without the cross of Christ and without the hope of eternal life. This “Church of dogmatic indifferentism and moral relativism,” which could also include atheists and non-believers, may speak in a seasonable way of the climate, of overpopulation, of migrants. But she must remain silent on abortion and selfmutilation draped as gender reassignment, on euthanasia and on the reprehensibility of sexual intercourse outside of marriage between man and woman. In any case, she would have to accept the sexual revolution as a liberation from the hos-

tility towards the body of Catholic sexual morals. It would thus be a sign of repentance for the traditional hostility towards the body from the Manichean heritage of Saint Augustine. Despite all these flatteries, faithful Catholics are of the well-founded opinion that in the place of the atheist Scalfari, who neither believes in God nor can understand the “mystery of the holy Church” (Lumen Gentium 5), Benedict (Joseph Ratzinger) would be the infinitely more competent adviser of the Vicar of Christ, the successor of Peter and shepherd of the universal Church. This refers both to his theological qualities and spiritual insights into the mystery of God’s love, and to the experience of a Pope’s responsibility for the universal Church, alone before God, which Benedict is the only person in this world to share with Pope Francis. What Pope Francis writes in the preface to his predecessor’s book on the priesthood should be read by all the “wise and powerful men of this world” (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:6) before they trumpet out into the world their paranoid fantasies of papal antagonists, opposing cardinals, and impending schisms: “Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI embodies that constant relationship with the Lord Jesus, without which nothing is true anymore, everything becomes routine, the priests are almost reduced to recipients of a salary, the bishops to bureaucrats, and the Church is not the Church of Christ, but something we have created, an NGO that is ultimately superfluous.” And he continues by addressing the cardinals, bishops and priests gathered in the Sala Clementina for the book presentation on June 28, 2016, not as subordinates but as friends: “Dear Brothers! I take the liberty of saying that if any of you should ever have had any doubts about what the focus of your ministry is, its purpose, its benefit; if you should ever have had any doubts about what people really expect from us, then let him reflect on the lines presented here. That which is described and testified in this book, that we bring them Christ and lead them to Him, to the fresh and living water for which they thirst more than for anything else, that only He can give and which can be replaced by nothing; that we lead them to true and perfect happiness when nothing can satisfy them; that we lead them to the fulfillment of their secret dream, which no power in the world can promise to make come true!” (Translation from German by Martin Bürger for LifeSiteNews)m FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

LEAD STORY

THE BOOK OF DISCORD

“SERVING THE LORD REQUIRES THE TOTAL GIFT” — FROM THE DEPTHS OF OUR HEARTS (EXCERPTS)

“T

he priesthood of Jesus Christ causes us to enter into a life that consists of becoming one with Him and renouncing all that belongs only to us,” Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI writes. “This is the foundation of the necessity of celibacy... and the renunciation of material goods.” Marriage, he writes, requires man to give himself totally to his family. “Since serving the Lord likewise requires the total gift of a man, it does not seem possible to carry on the two vocations simultaneously.”

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: “From the daily celebration of the Eucharist, which implies a permanent state of service to God, there spontaneously arose the impossibility of a marital bond for the priest. We can say that the sexual abstinence that was functional was transformed of itself into an ontological abstinence.” “Nowadays, it is too easily asserted that [the tradition of priestly celibacy] would only be the consequence of a contempt for corporeality and sexuality….Such a judgment is wrong.” “Without the renunciation of material goods, there can be no priesthood. The call to follow Jesus is not possible without this sign of freedom and of renouncing all compromises. I believe celibacy has great significance as an abandonment of having an earthly domain and one’s own circle of family life; celibacy even becomes really essential so that our approach towards God can remain the foundation of our life and express itself concretely.” Cardinal Robert Sarah: “Priestly celibacy rightly understood is a liberation, although at times it is a trial. It allows the priest to establish himself in all coherence in his identity as spouse of the Church.” “I cannot in conscience, as a son of Africa, support the idea that the peoples being evangelized 16

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The jointly written introduction and conclusion of the book makes the case even more strongly. Dedicating the book to priests of the world, the two authors urge them to persevere, and ask all the faithful to hold firm and support them in their celibate ministry. “It is urgent and necessary for everyone— bishops, priests and lay people—to stop letting themselves be intimidated by the wrongheaded pleas, the theatrical productions, the diabolical lies and the fashionable errors that try to put down priestly celibacy,” they write.

should be deprived of this encounter with a fully-lived priesthood. The peoples of the Amazon have the right to a full experience of Christ the Bridegroom. We cannot offer them ‘second class’ priests. On the contrary, the younger a church is, the more it needs to meet with the radicalism of the Gospel.” “The ordination of married men who were permanent deacons before is not an exception, but a gap, a wound in the consistency of the priesthood. To speak of [an] exception would be an abuse of language or a lie.” “It is urgent and necessary, that all—bishops, priests and laity—no longer allow themselves to be impressed by the bad arguments, staged theater, diabolical lies, and fashionable errors that want to devalue priestly celibacy.” “It is urgent and necessary, that all, bishops, priests and laity, rediscover a perspective of faith on the Church and on priestly celibacy which protects her mystery.” “This perspective will be the best bulwark against the spirit of division and politics but also against the spirit of indifference and relativism.” “The possibility of ordaining married men would represent a pastoral catastrophe, an ecclesiological confusion and an obscuring of the understanding of the priesthood.”n

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VATICAN TO OPEN SECRET ARCHIVES ON PIUS XII The defenders of Pius XII, who has been unjustly accused of being “Hitler’s Pope,” promise “prejudices will fade” as his extraordinary efforts against the Nazis are brought to light

n BY CNS/ITV STAFF

A view of one part of the Vatican Archives. They will open on March 2 for the years of the pontificate of Pope Pius XII (1939-1958). Bishop Sergio Pagano, 71, head of the archives

fter decades of anticipation, the Vatican archives will be ready to welcome starting March 2, scores of scholars wishing to study documents related to the wartime pontificate of Pope Pius XII. All 85 researchers who have requested access have been given the green light to come and sift through all the materials from the period of 1939 to 1958, Bishop Sergio Pagano, prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Archives, told Catholic News Service January 13. Coming from at least a dozen countries, the first wave of researchers includes ten experts from the United States, including two from the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The museum has been working with the Vatican archives for more than a decade, Bishop Pagano said, ever since Pope Benedict XVI authorized the early opening of materials pertaining to the preWorld War II pontificate of Pope Pius XI. It took more than 12 years to sort through, organize and catalogue the enormous quantity of information from Pope Pius XII’s long pontificate, Bishop Pagano said; documents from the time period also were collected from the archives of the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Vatican nunciatures around the world. The open collection also includes thousands of notes regarding Pope Pius’ charitable activity in Italy and abroad. In fact, Bishop Pagano said he hoped there would be in-depth research into the critical and huge amount of aid the Pope gave to those desperately in need during and after the war. Such massive assistance, he said, was due in large part to a constant flow of generous donations from the United States. The nationality or religion of those requesting

aid did not matter to the Pope; he only verified that need was legitimate, the bishop said. He said the archives have letters from people who admitted they were atheists but were turning to the Pope for help because they saw him as the only moral leader left in such a dark time in history. Referring to accusations by some historians and Jewish groups that Pope Pius XII and others did not do enough to stop the Nazi rise to power and the Holocaust, Bishop Pagano said the Pope “did speak with his efforts and then he spoke up with words, so it is not true that the Pope was totally silent.” The new researchers’ stated fields of interest, he said, obviously were focused on World War II, the Holocaust, the persecution of the Jewish people, the murder of Italian citizens in Rome by Nazi German troops and the relationship between the Holy See and the Nazi’s National Socialist Party and with Communism. William Doino, lead contributor of The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII and a well-known defender of the wartime Pope, said in a statement that opening the archives is “the moral and just thing to do” given years of requests. He expected critics to be the most surprised by the contents, and for the record to

be finally set straight on the pontificate. “We know [Pius XII] was anything but indifferent to the persecution of Jews and others during the Holocaust, and did not, as certain polemicists have claimed, appease the Nazis: Pope Pius XII, in fact, tried to overthrow Hitler,” Doino said. He also said he believed opening the archives “will certainly help accelerate” Pius’ cause for beatification. Along these lines, Bishop Pagano confirmed that some are also looking into Pope Pius’ valuable theological legacy and writings. He wrote more than 40 encyclicals, and “he is one of the Popes most cited during the Second Vatican Council,” the bishop said. Some experts will also be looking for information about local dioceses and how the Pope may have helped those sheltering refugees and Jews in religious institutes, for example, he said. However, based on what he has seen, he said he does not think researchers will find anything “enormously new” or anything that will turn history “upside down.” Together with what has been emerging in national archives, he said, “many prejudices (against the Pope) will fade away, without a doubt.” But, “it will take many years to form a new opinion about Pius XII. One, two years is not enough,” said the 71-year old bishop, who has worked at the archives for more than 40 years. If studying all historical records is done objectively and critically, he said, “maybe in ten years a new impression will take shape of this pontificate, which was very remarkable and came at a very critical point in world history.”m INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

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POPE TELLS US BISHOPS DEFENSE OF HUMAN LIFE IS “PREEMINENT” ISSUE Francis “simply reiterated what he’s already said in many different ways,” which is, “without life, what other rights are there?”

n BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

Here, people gather during the annual March for Life in Washington, DC on January 19, 2018. Right, a Mass at the Vatican celebrated by Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, during the ad limina visit of some American bishops. Below, top, Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City, Missouri, and Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis (CNS photos)

rotecting human life is the “preeminent” social and political issue, Pope Francis said, and he asked the head of the U.S. bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities to convey his support to the pro-life community. Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the bishops’ committee, told Catholic News Service on January 16 that the Pope agreed with the U.S. bishops in “identifying the protection of the unborn as a preeminent priority.” “His response to that was, ‘Of course, it is. It’s the most fundamental right,’” Naumann recalled the Pope saying. “He said, ‘This is not first a religious issue; it’s a human rights issue,’ which is so true.” Naumann was one of 15 bishops from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska making their ad limina visits to the Vatican in mid-January to report on the status of their dioceses. He and other bishops spoke to Catholic News Service January 16 after meeting with the Pope for more than two hours. Naumann said he told the Pope that since the Roe v. Wade court decision legalized 18

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

abortion, an estimated 61 million abortions have taken place in the United States. “I think the Pope was truly kind of stunned by that number,” Naumann said. “Sadly, our abortion policies are one of the most liberal in the world. The fact is that it really is literally for all nine months of pregnancy. Most other nations don’t permit (abortions) at least at a certain point in the pregnancy.” Naumann said that while Francis has “elevated issues like the care of refugees and migrants,” he also understands that the situation in the United States is different compared to other countries. “I think sometimes as he elevates those things, people mistakenly think, ‘Well, that means that the abortion issue will become less important,’” he said. Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis told CNS it was “beautiful” when the Pope explained why life was the number one, most important issue, “because if you’re not alive you can’t do anything else.” Carlson said they also talked about the importance of supporting pregnant women

and making sure they have the resources they need to support that life. While Francis “certainly talked about abortion as a preeminent issue,” Carlson said, “at the same time he said there’s another significant issue and that would be ‘transgender’ — where we are trying to make all human beings the same, it makes no difference, you can be whoever you want to be.” The Pope, he said, brought the issue up as an example of “another significant issue in our day.” Asked whether the Pope then gave the bishops any advice on how to handle the transgender debate, Carlson said the Pope touched on the way proponents believe people are “all one and that there’s no difference, which would fly in the face of what (St.) John Paul II talked about on complementarity and it would fly in the face of the dignity of the woman and the dignity of the man, that we could just change into whatever we wanted.” Of course, he said, a Pope or a bishop or any religious leader must focus on a variety of issues and concerns, but “there are some people who are one-issue people and so

Another topic of the meeting with Pope Francis was the damage caused to the Church by McCarrick’s behavior and how to repair it (CNS photo)

they’re never satisfied if you don’t focus totally on that.” The Catholic Church’s positions are not partisan political positions, he said, since both Democrats and Republicans may not agree with its position on different issues. “But I am not a Republican and I’m not a Democrat,” Carlson said. “My job is to be a teacher of the faith and then to walk the talk.” Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City, Missouri, said that on the issue of abortion, Francis “simply reiterated what he’s already said in many different ways,” which is that “without life, what other rights are there? So, you have to begin with that. It’s not the only issue — I don’t think anybody has ever said that. But when you’re looking at the core beliefs and the more essential rights, the right to life of the unborn is very important.” The Pope, he said, “put it in a very beautiful way: Do we always want to simply eliminate those who are inconvenient? And, unfortunately, that’s part of our culture in the United States — the practice, the habit, if you will, of just eliminating the uncomfortable, the unwanted, as the solution. And we’re

called to be better than that. We as a country are better than that.” When the U.S. bishops say, “the right to life is the ‘preeminent issue’” in Catholics’ political concerns, “that word is carefully chosen,” McKnight said. “Because we want to avoid the perspective or the understanding that it’s the only issue — because it is not.” Catholic voters, he said, need to be aware of a more general tendency or temptation “to get rid of unwanted people,” whether they are the unborn or the aged, immigrants or the poor. “There is a certain consistency that is required of us as Catholics.” McKnight said that during the meeting, he thanked Pope Francis for expanding the section of the Congregation for the Doctrine

of the Faith that investigates clerical sexual abuse. It was clear during the discussion how much the clerical sexual abuse crisis “pains the Holy Father,” he said. “He reiterated that this must be dealt with, it’s a crime, it can’t just be swept under the rug or dealt with only in the confessional — no, it’s a crime.” The bishop said the question of the Vatican’s promised report on the case and career of Theodore E. McCarrick, the former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, was brought up by one of the bishops. “I must respect the confidential nature of our conversation today,” McKnight said. “I can just say I am very confident the Pope is doing everything he can in order to rectify the problem and to help the entire Church learn from the mistake of McCarrick’s promotion in the Church. The Holy Father sees that. He recognizes that McCarrick’s promotion as archbishop of Washington should never have happened.” Contributing to this story were Junno Arocho Esteves, Carol Glatz and Cindy Wooden.m

Encountering “Mary’s Dowry” White Cliffs of Dover, England

English Countryside

Wilton Dyptich, National Gallery, England

Classic Classic England: England: M Mary’s ar y ’s D Dowry owr y 2020 2020 – August Aug ust 111-20, 1-20, 2020 2 02 0 Join Join us in in tthis his aaffordable ffo ff ordable o opportunity ppor tunit y to to trace trace the the h history istor y o off Catholicism Catholicism iin n England England In In 2020, 2 02 0 , E England ngland will w ill b bee rre-dedicated e-dedicated b byy iits ts C Catholic atholic Church Church aass the the “Dowry “Dowr y of of Mary” Mar y” — as as iitt w was as called callled iin n more more aancient ncient times times — iin n an an effort eff ffo ort to to deepen deepen and aan nd promote promote d devotion evotion to to the the Mother Mother o off G God od iin n England. Englan nd. The The pilgrims pilgrims o on n this this jjourney ourney w will ill have have o opportunity pportunit y tto o jjoin oin iin n and and cconsecrate onsecrate themselves themselvees to to Mary. Mar y. We We will w ill b bee in in Wa W Walsingham alsingham mo on n the the Feast F Feeast Day Day o off tthe he A Assumption, ssumption, August August 15, 15, 2020. 2020. Sign Sign up up today today tto o eexperience xperience this this eextraordinary xtraordinar y pilgrimage! pilgrimage!

INSIDETHE IN S ID E T HE VATICANPILGRIMAGES.COM V AT I C A NP IL G R IM A G E S . C O M ∞ P PILGRIMAGE@INSIDETHE IL G R IM A G E @ IN S ID E T HE VATICAN.COM V AT I C A N . C O M ∞ + +1. 1. 2 0 02 2 ..5 5 3 6.4 6.4555 FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

NEWS VATICAN

THE POPE APOLOGIZES FOR SLAPPING AN ANNOYING WOMAN’S HAND AWAY... ...but who was really to blame?

n BY ITV STAFF

Below, a series of photos showing what happened...

n overeager woman in a New Year’s Eve crowd in St. Peter’s Square grabbed Pope Francis’ right hand and pulled him toward her — and wouldn’t let go — provoking the Pope to slap her hand away in order to break free and move along the line of well-wishers. The Pope’s reaction quickly became a sensation in the media. Video footage, replayed for days, showed Francis with a scowl on his face as he turned away from the woman.

Afterwards, the Pope apologized for his “loss of patience.” In an address to pilgrims to St. Peter’s the next day, he remarked, “So many times we lose our patience; me too, and I apologize for yesterday’s bad example.” It was not the first time that the Pope had been accosted by someone in the crowd: During a trip to Mexico in 2016, somebody pulled on the pontiff’s arms, causing him to keel over atop a person in a wheelchair. Francis gestured angrily afterward, saying, “What is the matter? Don’t be selfish!”

In 2009, a woman jumped a barrier and lunged at Pope Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, knocking him to the ground. The woman was later identified as a Swiss-Italian with a history of mental problems who had tried a similar attack a year earlier, only to be stopped by security guards. The Vatican said it would review security procedures after that. In the following interview, an unnamed security specialist talks about the role of the Vatican security detail and, perhaps, their mistake.m

“IT IS SECURITY THAT SHOULD APOLOGIZE, NOT POPE FRANCIS”

An interview with an unnamed “Alpha Commander” who trains security forces in Italy and around the world

he “faceless carabiniere” has trained the Italian special forces for several decades, the escort personnel in the country, so much so as to be called upon to teach security techniques to police around the world. The day after it occurred, he explained the incident involving Pope Francis. “The security of the Pope must apologize, not the Holy Father. The security of Pope Francis last night did everything wrong, perhaps because of relaxation, perhaps out of routine, but they made a complete mistake.” The “Alpha Commander,” founder of one of Italy’s three police tactical units, the GIS, a special intervention group “available to the community 24 hours a day” that acts in the most dramatic and complex moments, explains this to AGI. Mafia arrests, complex operations, raids: the Alpha Commander has worn its insignia for almost 50 years, and has become the “faceless carabiniere (officer).” “Guardianship is a serious matter. It is the second time that has happened in the Vatican,”

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

the Alpha Commander recounts, “the first time being a few years ago when a lady climbed over the barriers and dropped Pope Benedict during Christmas Mass. Security must stay in line, both vertically and horizontally, so as to prevent such a thing. Last night the Pope was forced to give a little slap on the lady’s hand to free himself, but it really shouldn’t have gotten to that point. “ Alpha Commander also trained Vatican security. “Guaranteeing security for Pope Francis is very difficult, because he himself does not want the men around... But on an evening like yesterday’s, security must be security and there are no mitigating factors, beyond the will of the Pope. You have to stay between the barriers and the Pope, creating a space; instead, the Holy Father was too close [to the people]. Regardless of what the protected says, even if it’s the Pope, you can’t leave him that way. “ Alpha Commander explains how complex their craft is. “This is a very difficult job, a pre-

ventive job, where the collaboration between the protected and security is fundamental, but routine is very dangerous; nothing ever seems to happen, but when you are not focused and something does happen, you will have a very slow reaction... Just remember when President Berlusconi was hit with a thrown statuette: security had felt relaxed and we all know what happened then... Unacceptable.” According to the Alpha Commander, “In Italy, there is no culture of personal safety; then, when [something dangerous] happens, the response is too late. In other States, the protection service is considered a serious matter, respected also by the citizens. Here it’s not. We think what happened in the United States, with the assassination of President Kennedy, has been impossible since then. Even people in Italy must understand that life under escort is not a privilege, and they must respect both those who are protected and the people who protect them. “ Paolo Borrometi (AGI)

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“THE MEMBERS OF THE ORDER ARE LIKE AMBASSADORS OF THE HOLY LAND” In a 2019 interview, Holy See Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin reflected on the 700-year-old Order of the Holy Sepulchre

n BY FRANÇOIS VAYNE (LA STAMPA)

our Eminence, what does the Order of the Holy Sepulchre represent to you and what is its place in the universal Church? CARDINAL PIETRO PAROLIN: Since the dawn of Christianity, the Land where Our Lord was born, lived, died and rose again has had a special place in the hearts of believers and of the various ecclesial communities that have spread outside the Jewish world. Many faithful chose to live the Gospel both in a solitary form, as hermits, and gathering together, precisely in the places that had seen the earthly presence of Christ, in particular those linked to the stages of his public life, beginning with the Holy Sepulchre. The need was also felt to visit these places. Thus pilgrimages began, as a devotional and existential form of journey, which saw significant growth during the Middle Ages. The birth of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre dates back to that period, with explicit reference to the tomb that guarded the body of Jesus Christ devoid of life and from where he rose again. The need was felt to defend its integrity and that of those who went to visit it. The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre were among those engaged in this noble enterprise. The earliest documents concerning them date back to 1336. From the 14th century onwards, the Popes sought to give them a juridical regulation and they gradually expanded their tasks to devote themselves to preserving the faith in the Holy Land, supporting the charitable works and social services of the Church, in particular those promoted by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

Here, young knights of the Holy Sepulchre; below, Cardinal Pietro Parolin; bottom, the coat-of-arms of the order

There are 30,000 Knights and Dames worldwide who are very active within their local Churches and strongly united with the bishops of the territory, who often act as Grand Priors of the Order’s Lieutenancies. Would you say that the mission of the members of the Order consists in being ambassadors of the Holy Land in their respective dioceses? PAROLIN: It could be said in all truth that the members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, both the Knights and the Dames, are like “ambassadors” of the Holy Land. In fact, in addition to living their own Christian faith and manifesting adherence to the Catholic Church in the environments in which they live and work — in which sense all the baptized are called to be “ambassadors of Christ” (see 2 Cor 5:20) —they promote initiatives in favor of the Holy Places in the

parishes and in the dioceses they belong to. Moreover, through their presence they also raise awareness among the faithful to meet the needs of the Christians who live in the Holy Land, often in difficult, if not dramatic, conditions. Today, the most pressing task is to create the political and socio-economic conditions that favor the permanence of Christians in the Holy Land, because it is in the interest of the whole Church that the Land of Jesus does not become a museum of archaeological finds and precious stones, but continues to be a Church built with “living stones” (1 Pt 2:5), Christians who for 2,000 years have continued the uninterrupted tradition of the presence of Christ’s disciples. The Holy Land has been experiencing an exceptional increase in pilgrimages for some years. What is your analysis of this phenomenon concerning the Mother Church of Jerusalem? PAROLIN: Pilgrimages are an important way to support the Christian presence in the Holy Land. It is also through these journeys of faith that Christians can help their brothers and sisters who live there. This allows the Christians of the Holy Land to work and support their families. Without this contribution of solidarity, the Holy Land would be poorer not only from the economic point of view, but above all from the human point of view. In fact, pilgrimages allow an exchange of cultures, languages, traditions, etc. which open to knowledge and mutual respect, promoting a society founded on the values of universal justice and fraternity. In collaboration with the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.m FEBRUARY 2020

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OBITUARY

PROSPERO GRECH, FAITHFUL THEOLOGIAN AND MALTA’S ONLY SERVING CARDINAL “CARDINAL GRECH WAS A RELIGIOUS OF GREAT WISDOM AND DEEP SPIRITUALITY, WHO LOVED THE CHURCH AND RELIGIOUS LIFE” — CARDINAL GIOVANNI BATTISTA RE BY ITV

STAFF WITH

CNA

Below, Cardinal Prosper Grech embraces Pope Francis. He died on December 30 at the age of 94

ardinal Prosper Grech, he was the confessor of an internationally rethe conclave. Grech said nowned theologian whose he was not, but Montini career at the Vatican asked if he could hear his spanned six decades, died confession nonetheless. A on December 30 at the age few hours later, Montini of 94. was elected Pope. Cardinal Grech was born In a 2013 interview, Stanley Grech on the island Grech recounted the story, of Malta on Christmas Eve, saying that he hoped he 1925. He entered the did not give the future Augustinian Order at the Pope Paul VI “too arduous age of 29, where he took a penance.” the name Prospero, and Grech founded the was ordained a priest in Augustinian Patristic InstiRome at the Basilica of tute at the Lateran UniverSaint John Lateran in 1950. sity, serving as its first presBy 1953 he had comident from 1971-1979. pleted his studies at the Pontifical elected St. Pope Paul VI, Grech Grech also taught hermeneutics Gregorian University, obtaining his encountered the then-Cardinal at the Pontifical Biblical Institute for licentiate and doctorate in sacred Giovanni Battista Montini in the more than 30 years. theology, and went on to receive a apostolic palace. Montini asked if In 1984 he was appointed as an further licentiate from the expert consultor to the “I RAISE MY PRAYER OF PLEADING Pontifical Biblical Institute. Congregation for the THAT THE LORD MAY WELCOME HIS SOUL” After pursuing further Doctrine of the Faith. In studies at both Oxford and this role, he collaborated ope Francis sent the following telegram of condoCambridge, Grech closely with then-Cardilences on the death of Cardinal Grech to the prior returned to Rome, where nal Ratz inger and was general of the Augustinian Order, Father Alejandro Moral he served as an expert at also a member of the Antón: the Congregation for the Pontifical Theological Upon hearing the news of the pious departure of the Doctrine of the Faith, and Academy, the Pontifical venerable Cardinal Prosper Grech, I wish to express sentaught at several universiBiblical Commission and timents of condolence to you, to the entire Augustinian ties attached to the Holy the International Patristic Order and to the relatives of the dear cardinal, towards See. Association. In addition, whom I have always had great esteem, both because of In 1961 he was apfor more than 20 years he his personal witness of Christian and consecrated life, as pointed the secretary of taught hermeneutics at well as for his exemplary service to the formation of new Bishop Pietro Canisio Van the Pontifical Biblical generations, especially of priests. In recalling the long Lierde, who was a sacInstitute and biblical theand competent service he carried out as a teacher in varristan of the Apostolic ology at the Pontifical Latious Roman universities, as well as that lent to the Holy Palace and Vicar General eran University. His proSee, I raise my prayer of pleading that the Lord may welfor Vatican City State. duction of articles and come his soul into the eternal kingdom of light and In this role as priestvolumes on the herpeace, and with my heart I send to you, his confreres and secretary, it happened that meneutics of Sacred those who mourn his departure, the Apostolic Blessing. during the conclave of Scripture and on patris-

June 1963, that which 22

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Franciscus pp.

tics is extensive.

“PRESENT THE GOSPEL WITHOUT SHORTCUTS, WITHOUT DILUTING THE WORD” Cardinal Grech spoke of threats to the Church in his meditation for the cardinals who met to elect a new Pope in March of 2013

lthough he was already over 80 and therefore ineligible to vote in the conclave to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI in March 2013, the cardinals chose Cardinal Prospero Grech to give the first meditation inside the Sistine Chapel when they gathered for the election. The Church is called to proclaim the kingdom of God and the Good News of salvation through Christ, he told his fellow cardinals. “The Church does this by presenting the Gospel without shortcuts, without diluting the word,” Grech said. Listing threats to the Catholic Church, the cardinal cited a general lack of understanding of Church teaching, but he also saw a gathering storm. “Between ultra-tradition-

alist extremists and ultra-progressive extremists... there always will be the risk of small schisms that not only damage the Church, but go against the will of God,” he said. The Church’s mission is also threatened by the evil and criminal behavior of some of its members, especially priests, he had said. In facing the clerical sexual abuse crisis, “the Church must humble itself before God and men and try to uproot the evil at any cost.” “Today many people are not able to come to believe in Christ because his face is obscured or hidden behind an institution that lacks transparency,” he told the cardinals. The cardinals soon after entered the Conclave. (NCR)

Together with this exgious man, of deep spirituality, traordinary study and a man who loved the Church teaching activity, Father and religious life. He said that Prospero always found on the day of his death, Grech time to carry out an intense had had lunch among the pastoral activity in the Augustinian community in Santa Monica Chapel, Rome, recounting stories in open to the public, where his affable manner, and just a he was willingly available On January 2, Pope Francis incensed and blessed Cardinal Grech’s few hours later, God called coffin after a funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to hear confessions. him to go and join him. He He was created a cardisaid that although he was 94 nal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, Scicluna and Bishop Mario Grech. years old, it was a sudden death, but but, being over 80 at the time of Also in attendance were Maltese one Grech was not unprepared for. Benedict’s resignation, was too old Minister for Foreign Affairs Carmelo Re said that central to Grech’s life to vote in the conclave of March Abela and the Malta Ambassador to was the learning and teaching of 2013. He did lead a meditation for the Vatican City State, Frank Zam- theology, first in Malta and then at the cardinal-electors gathered in mit. Among the concelebrants were universities in England and Rome. the Sistine Chapel before the start Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, He went on to say that apart of voting. Bishop Mario Grech, the Prior Gen- from a life dedicated to studying The Vatican paid its last respects eral of the Augustinian Order Fr. and teaching, Grech always found to Cardinal Prospero Grech at a Jan- Alejandro Moral Anton, and the time for pastoral work at the Chapel uary 2 Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Provincial of the Maltese Augustin- of Santa Monica in Rome, including before his coffin was brought to ian Province, Fr. Leslie Gatt. hearing confessions. Malta for burial. At the end of the celebration, With the death of Cardinal The funeral was celebrated by the Pope Francis incensed the coffin Grech, the College of Cardinals now Deputy Dean of the college of cardi- and said the benediction. has 223 cardinals, 124 of them elinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, In his homily, Cardinal Re said gible to vote to elect a new Pope with Malta represented by President that Grech always made God a pri- and 99 other non-voters (over the George Vella, Archbishop Charles J. ority. He said that Grech was a reli- age of 80).n FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

DOSSIER

Pope Francis greets Cardinal Reinhard Marx, President of the German Bishops’ Conference, during the German bishops’ ad limita visit to Rome in 2018

CATHOLICS PROTEST GERMAN BISHOPS’ “SYNODAL PATH” ARCHBISHOP CARLO MARIA VIGANÒ CAME OUT OF SECLUSION TO JOIN AN INTERNATIONAL GROUP OF PROTESTERS AT A PRAYER VIGIL IN MUNICH

BY ITV STAFF

German Cardinal Walter Brandmüller talks to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former apostolic nuncio to the United States, during a Rome conference on St. Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae in 2017 (CNS/Paul Haring)

n international group of lay Catholics calling themselves Acies Ordinata (“Battle-line Array”) gathered in Munich, Germany, on January 20 to pray in “firm protest” that the German Episcopal Conference and its president, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, abandon its new “synodal process,” inaugurated during the first week of Advent, which the Church in Germany plans to pursue over two years, ending in resolutions which may change Catholic life, and even Catholic belief, say some, in Germany. Among the crowd of about 100 was Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former nuncio to the U.S. and, more recently, an outspoken

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critic of the Vatican’s role in the now-disgraced Theodore McCarrick affair as well as the 2019 Amazon Synod, albeit from seclusion — until now. The archbishop did not speak at the gathering but simply stood silently among the faithful who prayed and sang in front of the Theatinerkirche at the center of Munich. Those who did speak at a subsequent press conference at the Literaturhaus Munich were six Catholic lay people from Europe, South America and the U.S.: Michael J. Matt, editor of the conservative Catholic newspaper The Remnant; Alexander Tschugguel, now-famous remover of the pagan Pachamama statue from a Roman church;

Jeanne Smits, French Catholic journalist; José Antonio Ureta, Chilean author and founding member of the pro-family Fundación Roma; John-Henry Westen, editor of LifeSite News; and Roberto de Mattei, Italian historian and author. The “agenda” of the German “synodal process,” as voted on and announced by Cardinal Marx last year, is to be: priestly celibacy, the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, the role of women, and a reduction of clerical power. An assembly of lay people, larger in number than the German assembly of bishops, also voted on the statutes guiding the “synodal process.” The decision of the German bishops to re-examine “hot-button” areas of Church teaching like sexuality has met with disapproval from many segments of the worldwide Church; even the Vatican’s head of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, sent the bishops a letter September 4 in which he warned that their plan, as it stood, violated canonical norms and might result in actual attempts to change Catholic teaching which Rome could not approve. The Vatican letter also said that the proposed make-up of the Synodal Assembly is “not ecclesiologically valid.” It cited the bishops’ proposed partnership with the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), a lay group that has taken public stances against a range of Church teachings, including those on women’s ordination and sexual morality. In response, the German bishops voted to change the status of the decisions resulting from the “synodal process” from “binding” to “non-binding.”

Only two German bishops have dissented from the direction in which their brother bishops are forging ahead: Bishop Rudolph Voderholzer of Regensburg and Cardinal Rainer Woelki of Cologne. They proposed in August an alternative synodal proposal focusing more on evangelization, in conformity with a letter sent by the Holy Father himself to German Catholics emphasizing spiritual formation and evangelization; the bishops’ executive committee voted it down. In his June letter, Pope Francis also warned the German bishops not to follow the zeitgeist of the times, and to avoid a “new Pelagianism” which might threaten the communion of the Church in Germany with Rome and the universal Church. Archbishop Viganò released a statement in October of 2019 in which he quoted a 2006 homily by Pope Benedict XVI to members of the International Theological Commission: “Obedience to the truth must ‘purify’ our souls and thus guide us to upright speech and upright action. In other words, speaking in the hope of being applauded, governed by what people want to hear out of obedience to the dictatorship of current opinion, is considered to be a sort of prostitution: of words and of the soul.” By the archbishop’s presence at the prayer vigil in Munich, he seems to point to the German bishops as ones who are bowing to the “dictatorship of current opinion,” rather than showing forth “obedience to the truth.” In the following pages we excerpt the remarks given by the six speakers at the press conference following the prayer vigil.

SPEECH EXCERPTS

A CATASTROPHIC SYNODAL PATH n

s a German American whose grandparents were born not far from here, I welcome this opportunity to speak to the situation in the German Catholic Church which is beyond desperate and which has caused considerable concern among many American Catholics. The German Bishops’ “synodal path” appears to be an effort to create a church according to the image and likeness of the German Bishops, who apparently believe they can define doctrine and establish their own national Church—a sort of elitist nationalism that flies in the face of the universal Catholic Church, with one faith, one sacramental system, and one discipline throughout the whole world. Statutes drafted in cooperation with the Central Committee of German Catholics threaten to posit the ordination of women and the abolition of priestly celibacy as countermeasures to the clerical sexual abuse crisis. But, surely, the German Bishops re-

BY MICHAEL J. MATT

alize that the ordination of women is a direct violation of God’s law, authoritatively reinforced in 1994 by Pope John Paul’s Ordinatio Sacerdotalis: “The Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” What part of “the Church has no authority to break God’s law” do the German bishops fail to comprehend? Any push to ordain women would be an act of rebellion against the Bride of Christ worthy of Martin Luther, which is why we have no alternative but to resist the synodal process in Germany which, if allowed to continue, will set dangerous precedents for the entire Church. (…) The German Bishops would have us believe that abolishing clerical celibacy would also reduce clerical sexual abuse. But this is not only demonstrably false, it’s dangerous

in that it places liberal ideology above the protection of future abuse victims. Those called to the vocation of the single life—the consecrated Virgins and celibate clergy—are not sexually repressed. They’ve made celibacy a gift which they willingly choose to give to their God. To even suggest that they require marriage in order to quiet the temptation of child molestation amounts to satanic effrontery to the very idea of religious vocation. It also recklessly fails to consider the millions of children abused by one or both of their own married parents. Furthermore, since clerical sexual abuse most often involves priests preying on postpubescent males, i.e., high-school students and seminarians, to suggest that abolishing celibacy will reduce the same-sex attraction involved in the majority of cases is, again, to reveal profound ignorance of both FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

DOSSIER GERMAN BISHOPS homosexuality and the nature of the abuse crisis. Finally, are the German Bishops seriously suggesting that the health of the Catholic Church—already plagued by a massive priest shortage—is going to be improved when the few remaining priests find themselves married and with a houseful of babies to raise? Only a celibate male who knows nothing about marriage would suggest such an absurdity.

(...) I thus add my voice to those calling upon the German people to act in the spirit of von Stauffenberg, Sophie Scholl and Cardinal von Faulhaber, to resist the new regime in the German Catholic Church, to refuse to pay the ecclesiastical tax, and to pledge fidelity to the immutable teachings of the Church. What our world drowning in sex and sewage needs today is the restoration of the

moral authority of the Catholic Church, based on the law of God and the law of nature, defended by the self-sacrificing example of celibate priests willing to deny themselves in order to bring the Lumen Christi into a world of darkness. As a German American Catholic, I beg the German bishops not to do this, I plead with the German people to resist, and I call on the pope to condemn this with the full weight of his office.m

Even the Vatican’s head of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, sent the German bishops a letter warning them not to take a course which might bring them out of union with Church doctrine. His letter made clear that Rome is taking the situation seriously

“A CHURCH THAT NO LONGER PREACHES?” n

“T

he Church must never become an NGO. Churches and parishes must go out into the public square if we are not to end up as an NGO.” These are the words of Pope Francis on World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in 2013 — part of the famous speech in which he also exhorted young Catholics to “create a stir.” The strategy to prevent the Church from becoming an NGO appears to include the projects discussed during last year’s Amazon Synod. NGOs are generally defined as large, internationally active, mostly left-wing associations like Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Open Society, Gaia-Amazonas Foundation or other organizations that advocate a leftist-liberal interpretation of human rights, no barriers to mass migration or the struggle against “man-made climate change.” From today’s perspective, it is difficult to say whether there was actually, back in 2013, 26

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BY ALEXANDER TSCHUGGUEL

any threat of a development in the Church that could have made the Church indistinguishable from the aforementioned organizations. However, looking at the current strong political engagement of the Holy See, especially since the encyclcal Laudato Si’, it seems obvious that the Church has moved closer to, rather than distanced itself from, the left-leaning NGOs. Ever since the Amazon Synod, we are hearing more and more about a “New Church” with an “Amazonian face.” On a superficial level, this Amazonian face is manifesting itself through actual or potential changes in the rites and in many aspects of practical Church life. According to Bishop Kräutler, for example, pagan elements should be integrated into

the lives of Catholics in this region. According to media reports, an NGO known as the Gaia-Amazonas Foundation, headed by a GermanColombian, Martin von Hildebrandt, appears to have played a rather prominent role before and during the Amazon Synod. Von Hildebrandt advocates an idea that has actually existed for decades: that the Amazon region should be removed from Brazilian sovereignty and placed under international administration. Among those promoting this idea were Francois Mitterand, Mikhail Gorbachev, John Major and Al Gore. According to British journalist Edward Pentin, it was feared, in the run-up to the Amazon Synod, that the Church might openly support this political project. Only after meeting with highranking representatives of the Brazilian gov-

Only two German bishops have dissented from the direction in which their brother bishops are forging ahead: Bishop Rudolph Voderholzer of Regensburg (left) and Cardinal Rainer Woelki of Cologne (right). Archbishop Viganò has privately praised these two for their fidelity to the faith of all time

ernment did Cardinal Claudio Hummes give the assurance that the Synod would make no statement on this matter. Regarding the question of immigration from Africa and Asia, Pope Francis has adopted positions much closer to those of the NGOs (and the Merkel government and the German Bishops’ Conference) than to those of his predecessors.

This begs the question what the Pope could actually have meant by his statement that the Church should not become an NGO. The Church with the “Amazonian face” apparently focuses on propagating leftist “green” climate policy and glorifying pagan practices from South America, while frowning upon missionary activity. The Pope recently confirmed this, telling

Italian schoolchildren that the faith should not be proclaimed in words. But what is a Church that no longer preaches, no longer obeys Christ’s command to bring the Gospel to all peoples? A Church that limits itself to the political and social activities already mentioned? It is, to all intents and purposes, an NGO. (...)m

“WHY WE DO NOT ACCEPT THE REVOLUTIONIZING OF THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE CHURCH” n

n a joint letter sent last December to the German faithful by Cardinal Reinhard Marx and Professor Thomas Sternberg, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, the invitation was made to walk a “path of change and renewal together.” It all started with wanting to “make the Church a safe place” in the wake of the sexual abuse cases. Along this “path of change,” set up in only one direction by the team which is orchestrating the Synodalerweg, the issue of the place of women in the Church and in ecclesial ministries is one of the four main themes. What does this have to do with sexual abuse within the Church? Not much, except if they consider that having women on the altar will prevent a minority of perverts to be attracted to boys and youths. When reading the conclusions of the joint conference of the working group on the synodal pathway, I was struck by their open attacks on Church doctrine on the place of women. It is expressly a question of adapting traditional teaching, the world over, to what they call “scientific theology” and the general, fuzzy idea that things have changed and

BY JEANNE SMITS

that women should be allowed to occupy all places, including the diaconate and perhaps even the priesthood. At a time when gender ideology is rife, it may seem to them a good idea to proclaim a form of interchangeability among men and women that would ultimately lead to ordaining women or men priests without regard for the biological sex: the ultimate gender confusion. They want a “gender-equitable Church” that would in their eyes be the only “true” Church.(...) The profound equality, but also the profound differences and complementarity between men and women have over the centuries been expressed by the deep wisdom of the Church. She expects men to serve God as men, and women as women. And in that she is wrong, say the reformers—no, the revolutionaries—who want to re-examine and reevaluate even the Gospel, and to check whether the traditional refusal to ordain women is “binding” or not.

As a woman, a journalist—I was formerly director and editor in chief of several publications—and a Catholic, I can only say how pathetic I find this egalitarian approach. It is pathetic and it is even dangerous for my faith and for the Church I love, because it is willing to upset the whole economy of Redemption, the truth and the beauty of the respective roles of our Lord Jesus, Son of God, and the most perfect of all human creatures, His Virgin Mother. She did not lobby for a prominent role, she turned all our eyes to Him, her Son, and for that she knew all generations would call her blessed. She was at the foot of the Cross, not to immolate but to offer. She suffered with her Divine Son in order to redeem humanity, but she did not offer her own body to the nails and the lance of the executioners. She there received the mission of being the merciful Mother of us all. Her honor was to serve, as now it is to reign over the whole Universe, as Queen even of the Angels. There is no better theologian than She, who carried the Logos in her mind, in her heart and in her womb. (...)m FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

DOSSIER GERMAN BISHOPS

THE FIVE PSEUDO-SYNODAL IMPOSTURES OF THE GERMAN “PATH” n

he “synodal path” undertaken by the German Bishops’ Conference departs radically from the traditional synod model, and if not stopped in time, will lead to a schism. Indeed, the said “synodal path” is based on five impostures: 1. Theological Imposture The goals of a regular diocesan synod being purely pastoral and disciplinary, questions of faith, and disciplinary questions beyond the diocesan level, are outside of its competence. The four forums created to prepare for the event (power in the Church; priestly celibacy; sexual morality; and women’s access to ministries) address exclusively the above-mentioned two types of prohibited questions. Furthermore, the propositions put forward in these four matters are, for the most part, heretical, while the alleged pretext— to listen to what the Spirit says to the Church through the community—is also heretical insofar as it suggests that divine Revelation is expressed and evolves through human vicissitudes. 2. Ecclesiological Imposture Bishops received with ordination and appointment the power to sanctify, teach and govern. As masters, they must be not only witnesses but also judges of the revealed truth, a function they cannot delegate to anyone when controversies arise. As shepherds, they possess ordinary, prop-

BY JOSÉ ANTONIO URETA

er and immediate power over their flock, including legislative power, which they must exercise in a personal and exclusive way without being permitted “to legislate together with other persons, organisms or diocesan assemblies.” The role of the synod’s members is, therefore, merely “consultative,” and all the more so if these members are simple laypeople. Contrary to this hierarchical character of the Church, the German “synodal path” associates on an equal footing the Conference of Bishops of Germany and the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), which obtained co-responsibility in the development and result of the synodal process. (...) In short, “synodality” is only a fraudulent label to achieve a radical democratization of the Church. 3. Sociological Imposture The German “synodal path” presumes that the Central Committee of German Catholics is a body representative of the Catholic faithful. It turns out, on the contrary, that the ZdK is a kind of parliament of which almost 2/3 of the members are delegates of Catholic associations that do not represent the ordinary Sunday-Mass goer but rather what is called the “Räte und Verbandskatholizismus,” i.e., a sort of

nomenklatura of apparatchiks of activist organizations of liberal orientation. 4. Methodological Imposture The “synodal path” takes as a pretext the MHG report on sexual abuse committed by Catholic clergymen in Germany. Contrary to the evidence and other studies that point to moral laxity and the collapse of moral theology as the main culprits, this report instead accuses the Church’s power structure, the sacred character of the priestly ministry, Catholic sexual morality, and particularly its condemnation of homosexuality. In other words, from the outset, the “synodal path” considers as indisputable premises the very conclusions it intends to draw. 5. Human Imposture For fifty years, the predominant current of the German Bishops’ Conference has sought to infiltrate into the Catholic Church the heresies promoted by the leaders of German neo-modernist theology. Instead of assuming these heresies with full transparency, the German bishops hide behind the laity and, under the pretext of “synodality,” want the laity to bear full responsibility for the rupture with the truth of Christ operated by the new schismatic Church they are building on Luther’s footsteps.(...)m

“YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS” n

our Eminence, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, with respect and love for your office as a bishop and cardinal, as a pastor called to feed the flock of Christ, it is with great sorrow that I must now speak very strongly to you. I do this as a father of young children, as a member of the lay faithful whose love and concern for his own children and those of others does not allow me to keep silent. On too many oc28

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BY JOHN-HENRY WESTEN

casions recently we have lacked the charity and courage necessary to speak challenging words to our pastors, so that worse evils might be avoided. And so I say…. Cardinal Marx, in the words of St. Paul, you have blood on your hands. Cardinal Reinhard Marx, you have shown yourself to be a wolf, like those

prophesied by the Apostle Paul who come to devour the sheep by speaking twisted things and drawing away disciples after them. (Acts 20:29-30) In his Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul called pastors like you false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising yourself as an apostle of Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:13)

Your false teachings on abortion, adultery and homosexual acts have perverted a whole generation of Catholic young people. Many of them now go on to practice abominable acts which cry out to heaven for vengeance, which will imperil their souls and make them suffer in their bodies

too, all because you want to twist the truth of Christ for your own benefit. You want to rub shoulders with the elite of this world. You talk about helping the poor and yet you spent over 20 million US dollars renovating your residences in Munich and Rome. You speak of care for those with ho-

mosexual orientation, yet you encourage the very behaviors that you know lead to AIDS and other deadly diseases and, worse than that, to the loss of eternal salvation. Their blood is on your hands. How dare you give a blessing to acts which harm people in their bodies and souls? (...)m

APPEAL TO GERMAN CATHOLICS AGAINST THE KIRCHENSTEUER (“CHURCH TAX”) n

BY ROBERTO DE MATTEI

In the front, wearing glasses, Italian historian Dr. Roberto de Mattei, chief organizer of the prayer and protest. In the back on the left, just visible behind the man in the light-colored jacket and white cap, is a bearded Archbishop Viganò wearing a dark hat. The archbishop told ITV he felt it was important that he participate in a moment of prayer to defend the doctrine of the Church — the truth taught by Christ and the Fathers, which all generations of Catholics have defended

make an appeal to German Catholics, asking them to stop paying the so-called Kirchensteuer, the withdrawal of a part of their income based on their religious conviction. It is inadmissible that the only way to exempt oneself from this forced withdrawal is by an obligatory declaration of abandonment of the Church (Kirchenaustritt) which is automatically followed by a de facto excommunication. The German Bishops’ Conference has decreed that those who subscribe to the Kirchenaustritt may no longer go to confession, receive Communion or Confirmation, and, when they die, they may not receive a Catholic funeral. Without explicitly pronouncing the word “excommunication,” the German Bishops’ Conference is punishing those who leave the Church for financial reasons by excluding them from the sacramental life, which is the essence of the punishment of excommunication (can. 1331 § 1). They may be readmitted to the sacraments only after retracting their

declaration and pledging to meet their financial obligations. According to the Synodaler Weg, divorced and remarried Catholics who pay the Kirchensteuer may receive the sacraments, but practicing Catholics who refuse to pay this tax are rigorously excluded from the sacramental life of the Church. Heretics and notorious schismatics, including priests and bishops, are not sanctioned, while the punishment of excommunication is applied to an act that, even in the worst cases, qualifies merely as an act of lay disobedience, against which canon law provides no punishment. (...) The criterion of belonging to the Catholic Church is based on the gift of faith that every Catholic receives at the time of Baptism and cannot be reduced to the paying of a tax. Only a profoundly secularized institution can equate belonging to the Church with the payment of a portion of one’s income. The German Church, economically rich but spir-

itually ever poorer, appears in the eyes of the Christian to be a bureaucratic and corporate apparatus subjected to public opinion and the civil authorities. Furthermore, whoever subordinates the sacramental life to the payment of a tax falls into the sin of simony (Acts 8: 5-24), the selling of spiritual goods that has characterized all the ages of great crises in the Church. The name Kulturkampf is remembered in history as the persecution against Catholics carried out by Chancellor Bismarck in the last thirty years of the 19th century. The Communist theoretician Antonio Gramsci claimed in his own turn a new Kulturkampf against the Catholic Church, never imagining that the ones who would carry out his plan for the secularization of society would be the bishops themselves. The crucial question that must be asked is this: can a Catholic be an accomplice in the process of de-Catholicization of their own country? (...)m FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

LENT WAY OF SILENCE

ESSAY

ent is a time to celebrate Our Lord’s sacrifice on Calvary as “a thing present” — not merely a memorial, but a living reality: “All seasons, most beloved, engage the minds of Christians with the mystery of the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection; nor is there any service of our religion in which the reconciliation of the world and the taking-on of human nature in Christ are not celebrated. But now, the whole Church must be instructed with greater understanding, and enkindled with more fervent hope... so that the Lord’s Pasch should be not so much remembered as a thing past, but rather honored as a thing present.” (Pope St. Leo the Great, Sermon 64, on the Lord’s Passion) We begin the journey of Lent with these meditations to, as St. Pope John Paul II said in his message for Lent of 1999, “encourage you along the path of conversion.” This path of conversion, St. John Paul II said, “leads to an ever deeper knowledge of the mystery of goodness which God has in store for us.” John Paul added: “May Mary, Mother of mercy, strengthen us as we go.” 30

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“Christ lived for 30 years in silence. Then, during his public life, he withdrew to the desert to listen to and speak with his Father. The world vitally needs those who go off into the desert. Because God speaks in silence.” Cardinal Robert Sarah, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise

Christ in the WIlderness, by Ivan Kranskoi, 1872

FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

LENT WAY OF SORROW

ESSAY

ur Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Dolors, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows (Latin: Mater Dolorosa), Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, are names by which the Virgin Mary is referred to in relation to sorrows in her life. Prayers began to elaborate on her Seven Sorrows based on the prophecy of Simeon. The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is liturgically celebrated every September 15. These Seven Sorrows should not be confused with the five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary: • The prophecy of Simeon. (Luke 2:34–35) • The flight into Egypt. (Matthew 2:13-23) • The loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem. (Luke 2:43–45) • Mary's meeting Jesus on the Via Dolorosa. (not in the New Testament) • The Crucifixion of Jesus. (Matthew 27:34– 50, Mark 15:23–37, Luke 23:33–46, John 19:18–30) • Piercing of the Side of Jesus with a spear, and His descent from the Cross. (John 19:34) • Burial of Jesus by Joseph of Arimathea. (Matthew 27:57–61, Mark 15:43–47, Luke 23:50–53, John 19:40–42)

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“And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child

is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; Yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also, that the

thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Simeon to Mary, Gospel of Luke, 2:34-35

Nicolas Coustou (French, 1658-1733): Pietà, 1723, altar of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, France

FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

LENT WAY OF TEMPTATION ESSAY

“Anthony was beloved by all. He subjected himself in sincerity to the good men whom he visited, and learned thoroughly where each surpassed him in zeal and discipline…. All they of that village and the good men in whose intimacy he was, when they saw that he was a man of this sort, used to call him God-beloved. But the devil, who hates and envies what is good, could not endure to see such a resolution in a youth.... First of all, he tried to lead him away from the discipline, whispering to him the remembrance of his wealth... love of glory, the various pleasures of the table.... He attacked the young man, disturbing him by night and harassing him by day, so that even the onlookers saw the struggle.... The one would suggest foul thoughts and the other counter with prayers.... And the devil, unhappy wight, one night even took upon him the shape of a woman and imitated all her acts simply to beguile Anthony. But he, his mind filled with Christ and the nobility inspired by Him, and considering the spirituality of the soul, quenched the coal of the other's deceit.” —St. Athanasius, Life of St. Anthony of Egypt

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

“O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust for power and idle talk; but rather give the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Thy servant. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother, for blessed art Thou unto ages and ages. Amen.” —Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. 306-373)

The Temptation of St. Anthony Abbot, painted in 1597 by Annibale Carracci (Bologna 1560-Rome 1609), now in the National Gallery, London

FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

EDUCATION

WHAT IS AUTHENTIC CATHOLIC EDUCATION?

The majority of Catholic colleges and universities are failing to pass on the Faith. What can be done?

Center, an overview of Franciscan University in Steubenville,Ohio. Around it, various activities: lay students mingle easily with young religious, and the life of the mind is in harmony with religious conviction

n a 2016 article, Adam Wilson of the Cardinal Newman Society wrote: “An in-depth study a few years ago found that at least one in 12 students at a Catholic college leaves the faith by graduation. Moreover, students are more likely to move away from Church teaching than towards it on the issues of abortion and samesex marriage. Mass attendance drops for about one third of students who attend a Catholic college. Over the years, we have heard from many heartbroken parents with kids who lost their faith after attending a Catholic college — usually at great financial expense to their family. Lest parents think that a secular education is a better option, know that the stats are worse for students who attend state or private secular institutions. Not so long ago, these could be viewed as at least neutral with regard to matters of faith. Today that is no longer the case in many classrooms, and campus life is often a terrible test of a student’s moral fiber — even for the most virtuous men and women.” 36

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The situation has not improved since then. Headlines lately have trumpeted the news: young people are leaving organized religion of every variety in droves, and those on most Catholic campuses are no exception. A copious body of literature analyzes the causes of our youth’s disaffection with the faith, and the practice of that faith, that parents and grandparents always took for granted. But the more pressing question is, what are we to do about it? Thankfully, there are many answers; among them are those proposed by a number of Catholic colleges and universities themselves, and the men and women who have founded, and support, teach in and lead these schools. Beginning with this edition, Inside the Vatican joins this vital conversation with a new section about the meaning of authentic Catholic education, its establishment and/or renewal, and how our college students can not only hang onto their faith, but take it out into the wider world and transform that world for Christ.m

FOLLOWING NEWMAN, THE FOCUS OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION SHOULD BE TRANSFORMING THE WORLD

n BY FR. DAVE PIVONKA, TOR

n ocean and more than 150 years separate St. John Henry Newman’s Idea of a University from my university, Franciscan University of Steubenville. Yet, despite the differences in time and culture, I believe the heart of Franciscan University remains close to the heart of Newman’s “idea.” Like Newman, we believe a liberal education has timeless value for all, including future scientists, engineers, and businessmen. This is because it has the potential to form a person’s mind, character, and judgment, helping produce men and women who, as Newman wrote, are “[fit] for the world.” With that in mind, Franciscan University implemented a more rigorous core curriculum six years ago, ensuring that all our students, regardless of major, are rooted in the liberal arts tradition. Also, like Newman, we prioritize the study of theology at Franciscan. We believe, as Newman did, that “religious truth is not only a portion but a condition of general knowledge.” Accordingly, while other Catholic colleges and universities are eliminating their theology majors and departments, Franciscan’s remains strong. With more than 400 undergraduate theology and catechetics majors and 560 students in our graduate theology and catechetics programs, our theology program is the largest of any Catholic university in the United States, and its influence spills over into all our other programs, enriching the conversations in every subject from biology to psychology. Equally important, our theology faculty, to the person, demonstrates the fidelity to Church teaching called for by Newman. They believe what the Church believes, and they teach what the Church teaches. Every theology professor not only pledges an Oath of Fidelity at the start of their tenure, but also has secured the mandatum from our local bishop. Additionally, again like Newman, we believe that true learning happens best when it takes place in a community of witnesses. As he noted in Historical Sketches, “An academical system without the personal influence of teachers upon pupils, is an arctic winter; it will create an ice-bound, petrified, cast-iron University, and nothing else.” At Franciscan, our professors share our students’ faith. They are men and women of character and integrity. And their primary focus is the students. We don’t have graduate assistants teach classes while professors remain in their offices, conducting their own research. Our professors are in the classroom with students, handing on knowledge to them and building relationships with them. That relationshipbuilding continues outside the classroom, with the majority of our professors and their families participating in the life of the University and bearing witness to our students through both words and actions.

More than anything else, though, what joins Franciscan University to Newman’s Idea of a University is our focus on formation. Education matters. Formation matters more. This is because formation determines what people do with their education. Simply possessing knowledge isn’t enough. People also must possess good judgment and a good character. They need to know how to discern truth from lies, and they must desire to choose right over wrong. Now, more than ever, the world needs Catholic men and women capable of doing that. It needs men and women who, to use Newman’s analogy, can swim in the waters of the culture without being overcome by those waters. And the only way they can become capable of swimming in those waters is if we prepare them to do so. As Newman said, “It is not the way to learn to swim in troubled waters, never to have gone into them.” I want all of Franciscan’s students to become saints. But I want even more from them. I want them to help other people become saints, as well. I want our students to take the formation we give them and hand it on to others. Franciscan University doesn’t exist to teach our students to hide from the world. We exist to prepare our students to transform the world. This is part of our Franciscan charism. And it requires engagement. It requires understanding the way the world thinks, knowing the lies it tells, and being able to counter those lies with truth and love. Newman’s blueprint is part of what makes this mission possible. By combining a rich and broad liberal education with faithful theological formation, a vibrant community of witnesses, and the power of the Holy Spirit, Franciscan University strives to bear the fruit that our Church and culture need it to bear. That mission may be beyond the scope of the mission Newman envisioned for his university. But it doesn’t run counter to it. It builds on it. It expands it. It recognizes how the world has changed since Newman first penned his discourses on higher education and applies his insights to educating Catholic men and women called to live in the world today. Newman’s wisdom is perennial. His prayers are even more so. As the Church celebrates his canonization, Franciscan University invokes those prayers for our work and our students. St. John Henry Newman, pray for us. Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, an alumnus of Franciscan University of Steubenville, became Franciscan University’s seventh president on May 21, 2019.m FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

REPORT

IS MISSION WITHOUT BAPTISM STILL MISSION, OR OMISSION?

While some Amazon missionaries eschew baptism and struggle with a priest shortage, another equally remote mission territory boasts a burgeoning Catholicism

n BY ALBERTO CAROSA

Baptism in a mission land: Deacon Walter Kedjierski of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, baptizes a teenager while Sister of St. Joseph Jane Reilly, center, looks on at a Catholic mission community in the Dominican Republic. Below, Don Fausto Rajan from Kannur, in the Malabar district in the southeastern region of Kerala in India. Below left, the Venerable Abbot Ildebrando Gregori (1894-1985)

hile the debate over the Amazon Synod still rages on, as shown in the late December document by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò against the use of the Pachamama statues in religious ceremonies at the Vatican, another no less disquieting aspect which emerged during its proceedings has gone almost unnoticed. We are referring to the tendency to avoid baptizing the natives, since it is seen as an element alien to their culture. Since one’s vocation is based on baptism, no surprise if the result is almost no vocations, a serious shortage of clergy and therefore the need to resort to alternative solutions, e.g., the ordination of the so-called viri probati or married men. At this point, the author of this article cannot but think of what he came to know after his recent retreat at the monastery of a female religious congregation, the Benedictine Sisters of Reparation of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which was founded by the Venerable Abbot Ildebrando Gregori (1894-1985) in 1950 with the aim of promoting devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus as reparation for what His Holy Face had to endure in His Passion. 38

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The retreat was preached by a very young Indian priest, Don Fausto Rajan, whose zeal, piety and deep spirit of faith, so solidly based on an incredibly profound knowledge of the Scriptures, impressed all the participants, for whom this retreat really proved a spiritually enriching and rewarding experience. But, in a way, all the more impressive was the priest’s background, as it emerged in a conversation with this author after the retreat. He was from Kannur, in the Malabar district in the southeastern region of Kerala, in India, whose local Catholic community was able to flourish in conditions of seclusion and remoteness comparable to those in the Amazon region. In particular, he proclaimed himself a spiritual son of the Jesuit Father Lino Maria Zucol (1916-2014), the last Italian missionary active in Kerala, who died on January 6, 2014, and whose beatification process is currently underway. Father Zucol was his parish priest in Kannur and the one who baptized him. Subsequently, after his ordination, Don Fausto served for two years as Fr. Zucol’s parish assistant in the same church,

The Jesuit Fr. Lino Maria Zucol (1916-2014), the last Italian missionary active in Kerala. He died at the age of 97 on January 6, 2014

before going to Rome for his license in moral theology and a doctorate in bioethics. A native of Sarnonico in the province of Trent in northern Italy, Father Zucol reached Mumbai in 1948 and moved on to Kozhikode for missionary work in the Malabar region in Kerala, in the footsteps of illustrious predecessors such as St. Thomas, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, who arrived at the ancient seaport Muziris on the Kerala coast in AD 52, and St. Francis Xavier, who in the middle of the 1500s established the first Jesuit missions in the region. Fr. Zucol joined the Chirackal Mission in 1954 and made Kannur his center of operations for over a half-century, assisting spiritually and materially the poorest of the poor in the low-caste groups. In particular, for 39 years he was parish priest at Our Lady of Perpetual Help at Mariyapuram near Pariyaram in Kannur diocese. According to an obituary in the UAE portal Gulf News (January 7, 2014), he is estimated to have built some 10,000 houses for the poor and homeless, including victims of the monsoons. He was also known for helping financially marginalized people find livelihoods by providing them with sewing machines, cattle, autorickshaws and the like, including the construction of roads, water wells, and rubber, mango and coffee plantations. He is also credited with constructing a number of schools and more than 30 churches, most of them in Kannur district. But all the more impressive was his spiritual legacy. According to Don Fausto, “he was a living saint.” In fact, “he lived like a saint, like a hermit, and baptized many people to become Christian,” he said. “He lived like the poor, eating very little and visiting and helping as many people as he could.” And, on any occasion, he was ready to dance... In a January 8, 2014 obituary on the Radio Vatican website, Jesuit Fr. Joseph Kottukappilly, who has worked in Mariyapuram, was quoted as saying that the Church is “greatly indebted” to Fr. Zucol for its growth in the Malabar region. His elderly confrere, he went on, “had brought thousands of people to Catholicism, but there was no objection even from rightwing Hindu groups, who accuse missionaries of using social service as a façade for converting gullible low-caste Hindus.” A retired headmaster and local Muslim leader, Kookkanam Rehman, who is also a social worker, said he was impressed by the Italian missioner who lived in a small and very old home with a leaking roof and without any modern comforts, thus preaching “through his deeds instead of words.” Furthermore, Fr. Zucol was the spiritual father and director of two Ursuline nuns, Indian Sister Maria Celine Kanannaikal of the Ursulines of Mary Immaculate, and the Germanborn Mother Petra Mönnigmann, foundress of the Congregation of Dinasevanasabha (Servants of the Poor) in 1969:

they were both proclaimed Servants of God, the first formal step on the road to future canonization. If Sr. Maria Celine’s premature death in 1957, at age 26, came as a shock, just 35 days after she made her first profession as an Ursuline of Mary Immaculate at Kannur in Kerala, all the more shocking were the graces and miracles which the local faithful started to obtain through her intercession. But Fr. Zucol is all the more closely associated with the other nun, Mother Petra, virtually being a co-founder of the new religious congregation of Dinasevanasabha established by her on June 1, 1969 at a remote village, Pattuvam, in the civil District of Kannur, thanks to 13 acres of land provided by him there. The priest also set up several other convents of the newly-established congregation in the diocese, to accommodate an increasing number of nuns. Another obituary on Fr. Zucol, this time in the now-defunct international monthly of the Italian Jesuits, Popoli (January 10, 2014), gives us an idea of the rapid growth of this new religious order: at the time of his death it already numbered 600 nuns! As emphasized in the moving obituary by the Dinasevanasabha congregation (http://www.dinasevanasabha.com/pages/obituary.php), after Fr. Zucol passed away, he was described as “a loving father and the spiritual guide” of the Congregation and considered as the “God for the Poor” and a “living Gospel.” “Servant of God Mother Petra and Rev. Fr. L.M. Zucol are the two pillars of Dinasevanasabha,” the text goes on. “Fr. Zucol loved us as his own children. He guided us in our spiritual and apostolic journey through his timely directions and spiritual animation. When Mother Petra had gone to her eternal reward, leaving behind the 7-year-old Congregation, Fr. Zucol stayed with us as a loving father who consoled us, guided us and encouraged us to face the crisis… He was a great gift to us and to all people. He attracted every one with his childlike innocence and cheerful smile. He never sent anyone away with empty hands.” Regarding his missionary approach, “he always correlated the Proclamation of the Kingdom of God and social work. He fulfilled the spiritual, material, psychological and economic needs of the poor. He did not keep anything for himself. He gave himself fully to the poor and lived in poverty like Jesus… Fr. Zucol, though he has gone away from us, lives in our hearts. We know that he cannot depart from us, for his spirit will be always with us to guide us, to intercede for us in heaven with our beloved Mother Petra and all the saints and angels.” Strangely enough, none of these obituaries noted an interesting “coincidence”: the date of his passing was the feast of the Magi or Three Kings, who came all the way from the East to worship the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem and are venerated as saints by the Church. In fact, one of them, Caspar, is traditionally represented as a king of India.m FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

INTERVIEW

“SEEK THAT WHICH IS ABOVE” – PART II

ARCHBISHOP SALVATORE CORDILEONE of San Francisco talks about true inculturation, priestly celibacy and re-evangelizing the culture: the second of a two-part interview

n BY JAN BENTZ FOR INSIDE THE VATICAN

ould you say that evangelization and inculturation go hand in hand? Can they be in conflict?

W A

RCHBISHOP SALVATORE CORDILEONE: A proper sense of inculturation goes hand in hand with evangelization. It is what the Church has always done when she encounters a new culture: bringing the Gospel for the first time and implanting it in the culture. She recognizes what is good within the culture and what needs to be purified, then goes on to baptize it. I used the example of a mission-architecture as a very good example of inculturation. And these are things that take a long time, to truly become inculturated. It is not a matter of mimicking the culture and performing that which is sacred. It is finding ways to sacralize it. We could think of the Christian civilization of Latin America. That is a new Christian civilization, which was a sort of division of the original evangelizers... So inculturation isn’t something that happens instantaneously — it is something that kind of evolves. And [it takes] the Church’s understanding how to sacralize and integrate within the sacred. The Franciscan friars did that in many contexts. They composed sacred music in the mission era, utilizing what they could, sometimes to extremes, and reflecting again the local culture. So there is some legitimate sense in how the Church has incorporated the local culture in order for people to be able to access the Truth of the Gospel. But again, it is not just incorporating wholesale everything secular in the culture into the sacred. You are the head of a very, I imagine, complicated diocese, a very challenging diocese. In your opinion of the Church’s state in the U.S., what is the greatest challenge? And what is the greatest challenge in your own diocese in day-to-day evangelization? CORDILEONE: Well, I would say it is the same here as everywhere. We feel it more here because the culture is, in general, more secularized. But we are all concerned about the exodus of the so-called “nones,” the people with no religious affiliation. A lot of it has to do with the Church’s teaching on sexual morality. A lot of it has to do with a misunderstanding of science and of religion. A lot of it has to do with impressions of the Church with current scandals, and even historically... There is only so much I can do in one homily, but I tried to touch on this this year... It was right after the burning of Notre Dame in Paris, and it struck me how the whole world was mourning that destruction, not just Catholics, but non-Catholics, and even people of no faith. They recognized how beautiful that structure is, and what an iconic structure it was. For the French people, all French people, see this as their mother, and I think we all felt solidarity with the French people at 40

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

that time. It struck me that the Church has given this to the world in all areas. There are people who want to make us feel ashamed to be Catholic; but on the contrary we should feel proud to be Catholic. So I spoke to them to ask them to think about that structure. They say it took about 200 years to build that cathedral, which is a very reasonable time frame back then. But most of the people who worked on that knew they weren’t going to see the finished project. So why would they give their whole lives to it, if they knew they weren’t going to see the finished product? Because they were doing it for the glory of God, not for their own glory. I often speak about forms of beauty, about music. Modern musical notation, where does that come from? It originates in the chant of the 11th century: people used notation to help them sing, to remember when to go up and down, to put it into chant notation. From there we have our modern musical notation — the Church gave us that. I asked them to think about when they are reading a Bible, or any other ancient script, a Roman philosopher or anything else from antiquity, how is it that they are holding it in their hands now when the Roman Empire fell apart in the middle of the 5th century? There was complete chaos and it would be another 1,000 years before the printing press was invented. So how is it that these ancient texts were duplicated and spread throughout the world? It is because for hundreds of years monks all over Europe spent their whole lives copying texts. The reason you can hold a Bible in your hands and read it is thanks to these monks in the Middle Ages copying texts. I spoke about the innovations of science, the Church’s contributions to the scientific method, and the research in monasteries. Monasteries were not just a refuge for prayer, but for learning and teaching. [I spoke about] how that developed into the university system. So the Church gave us the university. The Church’s commitment to healthcare, especially healthcare for the poor, from the very beginning. I preached about how, when the plague broke out, the Church took care of the sick and the dying — all the sick and not just their own. That developed in the Middle Ages into the hospital system. The Church gave us the hospital system. The Church has given us so much, and if they understood this history, they would be proud to be Catholic. I think we have a massive educational challenge. If we can take advantage of it, that will give us a lot of opportunity for re-evangelization of the culture. You mentioned the “Theology of the Body,” which John Paul II was very powerful in writing and promoting. One of your brother bishops said recently that we have to do a “re-thinking of the mystery of human sexuality.” What would be your response?

CORDILEONE: I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what â&#x20AC;&#x153;re-thinkingâ&#x20AC;? means... The Church doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t undo what comes before. The Church builds upon it, takes it deeper. Otherwise I am not sure what â&#x20AC;&#x153;re-thinkingâ&#x20AC;? means. I think we need to rethink how we can convey these teachings and how people understand the deeper meaning of that. But the Church does not teach one thing one day and another thing the next day. That is not how the development of Doctrine works. Development of Doctrine is gaining a deeper insight into the narrative. Oftentimes celibacy and the lack of priests are mentioned in one sentence. Do you see an intrinsic value in the celibacy of priests? Or do you think changing Church discipline in that regard would be fruitful for the growth of the Church? CORDILEONE: The first thing I would want to point out is the fallacy of thinking that Church teaching and Church discipline are unrelated categories. The Church has the discipline she has in order to reinforce the teaching so that people can understand and appropriate the teaching to themselves. The longer a discipline has been a part of the Church and the more it has been integrated in the life of the Church, the more damage it does when it is changed in terms of the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s understanding of the teaching. It would be important to emphasize the scholarship of Cardinal Alfons Stickler (1910-2007) and his disciples, who have found out that celibacy goes back to apostolic times and how the then-called â&#x20AC;&#x153;law of continenceâ&#x20AC;? was practiced. When a man was ordained he had to practice the law of continence and the wife had to agree to it. They would not share common life and the woman would typically enter a convent or something of that sort.

Ordination means marriage to the Church. Priestly celibacy has to be understood as a practical means by which the priest has to be available to his people. More importantly, every man is a father. Celibacy enables him to be a father and expand his â&#x20AC;&#x153;fatherhood energyâ&#x20AC;? to the children of his Church. In that sense, he becomes what Christ was, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;caputâ&#x20AC;? of his Church, the head. And then he can lay down his life for his sheep. We have to have the people understand the importance of celibacy and its antiquity â&#x20AC;&#x201D; especially in the West, but also in the East. The East has allowed for priests to be married and continue their life like that, but even there, a priest who is widowed cannot remarry, for example. Many saw this as tied to the Eastern understanding of marriage. Marriage there is a bond that is continued into eternity and is then assumed into the marriage of Christ to his Church. So even in that sense, you could say that the priest has to be held to higher standards. But there are other indications. For example, that priests are to abstain from marital relations before celebrating the liturgy. Or even traditionally â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and I do not know how much these practices are still alive in the Eastern Church â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but all throughout Lent, the priest has to abstain from marital relations, and in other penitential times throughout the year. The removal of celibacy will also not solve the problem; to think that is very naĂŻve. In the past we have had lots of priests that accepted this call and now we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. The problem is not the requirement of celibacy, the problem lies deeper. And if we attempt to change that way [dispensing with celibacy], then our solution will be superficial, because it will not go to the root of the problem, and the crisis of the faith as seen in the priesthood will continue â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whether we have that requirement or not.m

Pilgrimage to Ireland with usâ&#x20AC;Ś Belfast

Doonegore Castle, Doolin

Powerscourt Waterfall

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INSIDETHE IN S ID E T HE VATICANPILGRIMAGES.COM V AT I C A NP IL G R IM A G E S . C O M â&#x2C6;&#x17E; PILGRIMAGE@INSIDETHE P IL G R IM A G E @ IN S ID E T HE VATICAN.COM V AT I C A N . C O M â&#x2C6;&#x17E; + +1. 1. 2 0 02 2 ..5 5 3 6.4 6.4555 FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

THE INTERIOR CASTLE

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE “ONE THING THAT IS NECESSARY”

THE FIRST IN A SERIES OF REFLECTIONS ON THE CONTEMPLATIVE RICHES OF THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

n BY A HERMITESS

r. Pius Parsch, a leading figure in the Liturgical Movement of the mid-20th century, poignantly tied the liturgical actions of the priest at Mass to the monumental encounter of Moses with the Thrice-Holy God on Mount Sinai: “Let us observe the solemn silence of the Canon. This complete silence is the most effective expression of the adoration and reverence due to God Who comes to us in the Mystery of the Mass. The ordained priest of God, like Moses, will enter alone the clouds that cover the mountain of God, while we continue in those sentiments of thanksgiving and reverence that we have learned from the angels. The strains of their chants will reecho in our thoughts during the breathless silence of the Canon, until with overflowing hearts we join once more in the final assenting Amen.” (The Liturgy of the Mass, p. 257) Fr. Joseph A. Jungmann takes up this mystic theme: “The priest enters the sanctuary of the Canon alone. Up till now the people have thronged about him, their songs at times accompanying him in the fore-Mass. But the songs have become less frequent, and after the steep ascent of the Great Prayer, they have come to an end in the triple Sanctus. A sacred stillness reigns; silence is a worthy preparation for God’s approach. “Like the high priest of the Old Testament, who once a year was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies with the blood of a sacrificial animal (Hebr. 9:7), the priest now separates from the people and makes his way before the all-holy God in order to offer up the sacrifice to Him.” (The Mass of the Roman Rite, pp. 384-385) Often it is written here that one must separate oneself from the world in order to cling to the unum est necessarium (“One thing only is necessary,” Lk 10:42). The most fundamental unum est necessarium for the contemplative soul is immersion in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, as Moses was immersed in the Cloud of Unknowing on Sinai. The interiority possible in assisting at a faithful celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass frees the soul from the obligation to divert its attention away from the Divine Lover who offers Himself in sacrifice through the hands of the priest. This can dispose one for contemplative prayer. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass cherishes and accentuates the tradition and doctrine of the Church with precision and carefulness. The Mass is ordered to the worship of God. Here is where a contemplative is most at home, because love of the Lord is theologically prior to being social. The actio populi of the human community cannot hold the attention of one who adheres like glue to Christ. Rather it is the the actio Christi, which attracts the one called to interior prayer.

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

Sacrifice, mystery, adoration, worship, Real Presence, offering… The one theology of the Church at prayer is true, good and beautiful; and its expression in the Mass must, to the fullest possible extent, draw contemplative souls to mystical union. Think of the foreshadowing Levitical prescriptions, wherein every minute detail is accounted for, even down to the undergarments of the priest. Nothing teaches theology, and therefore prayer, like right worship. Both together, prayer and doctrine, comprise the entire contemplative life. Lex credendi (right doctrine) nourishes lex orandi (right worship). Mass-goers can miss the call to feel safe in interior prayer during the Mass if the eternal elements of the Mass are reduced to lesser prominence. What are the eternal elements? Moses anticipated them: Victimhood (with Christ) – Immolation – Propitiatory Sacrifice – Divine Worship – Divine Presence. Christ is not merely spiritually among us during the Mass: the bread and wine are substantially changed into His Body and Blood. The Double Consecration is what effects the Immolation of the Victim. Traditionally the consecration was prayed slowly and inaudibly by the priest, invisibly penetrating the hearts of those assisting. The priest himself, in persona Christi, is invited to enter a most somber and interior mode when offering the Sacrifice; it is of the utmost importance to the priest’s interior life. Hence, he speaks in the first person, singular, when consecrating the species. The accentuation of silence and mystery in the pronouncement of the Canon can teach a soul how to enter into the bosom of the Most Holy Trinity, through the ineffable action of Christ in His Sacrifice. The Council of Trent said: “Holy things must be treated in a holy way, and this sacrifice is the most holy of all things. And so, that this sacrifice might be worthily and reverently offered and received, the Catholic Church many centuries ago instituted the sacred Canon. It is free from all error and contains nothing that does not savor strongly of holiness and piety and nothing that does not raise to God the minds of those who offer the Sacrifice. For it is made up from the words of Our Lord, from apostolic traditions, and from devout instructions of the holy pontiffs. “Having the nature that he does, man cannot easily meditate on divine things without external helps. For this reason, Holy Mother Church has prescribed certain rites for the Mass, some parts to be said in a low tone of voice, some to be said more loudly. She also has made use of ceremonies such as sacred blessings, candles, incense, vestments, and other things of like nature which have come down from apostolic teaching and tradition.

“All these things are used to point up the majesty of this great sacrifice and to raise the minds of the faithful through these visible signs of religion and piety to the contemplation of the very exalted things hidden in this sacrifice.” (Denzinger, 942-943) The one who prays ceaselessly longs to cherish the hidden things of this Holy Sacrifice by surrounding it with mystery and awe. Such a soul feels acutely the Savior’s own displeasure and sadness when He is not revered and worshipped with depth. A contemplative (and all Christians are called to be such) wishes to offer to God the most pleasing worship possible. One can ask — is God pleased with shallow prayer? Is He satisfied with it? Is He satisfied that the heart of a soul is not completely centered on Him when the most profound prayer possible — the Mass — is offered to Him? Another aspect of the Sacrifice of the Mass which allows the freedom of being more interior in one’s participation is contact with the sacred language of the Church. The Latin language, resonant with theological cognates yet liberated from rigid syntax, can serve as an aid to connect the “transcendent” with the “interior” of the soul. Its sacred use forms one into someone not of this world. If it is ingested, ruminated, studied, prayed, it is an infinite wealth of contact with God. Fr. Nicholas Gihr, in The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (p. 324) says: “Since the Latin language has been withdrawn from daily life, from the ordinary intercourse of mankind, since it is not heard on the street or in the marketplace, it possesses in the eyes of the faithful a holy, venerable, mystic character. Under this aspect also it is eminently suited for the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which in itself comprises many mysteries. The celebration of this mystic Sacrifice fittingly calls for a language elevated, majestic, dignified, and consecrated; religious sentiment demands this, and the

Latin tongue answers this requirement. Just as the silent saying of the Canon, so also the use of a sanctified cult language, different from that of profane intercourse, points to the unfathomable and unspeakable depth of the mystery of the altar, and protects it against contempt and desecration.” Set apart, not secular. Consecrated, not profane. Silent, not dissipated. Invisible, yet nothing more real. The Hostia (Victim) appears under the species of bread and wine, but “within” is infinite eternity and the perpetual propitiation of Love. Again, Fr. Nicholas Gihr (p. 583-584): “In every Host there are miracles, as numerous as the stars in the firmament — yet not the slightest trace of the wonders appears externally. With all this, the ecclesiastical rite harmonizes perfectly. The holy silence is quite suited to indicate and to recall the concealment and depth, the incomprehensibleness and ineffableness of the wonderful mysteries that are enacted on the altar. “Silent prayer is related to religious silence, and therefore, expresses the humility, reverence, admiration, and awe wherewith the Church administers and adores the Mystery of the Altar. ‘The Lord is in His Holy Temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him’ (Heb. 2:20). “The sight of the priest at the altar, communing amid profound stillness with God alone, is, therefore, also an excellent means afforded to arouse and promote, in those who are present, the proper dispositions, with which they should admire, adore, and offer along with the priest so grand and sublime a Sacrifice. Quam terribilis est haec hora – ‘How terrible is this hour!’ While the tremendous Sacrifice is being accomplished on the altar, all present should be immersed in silent contemplation and in devout meditation of the divine Mysteries.” Let the Mass make you a contemplative. All are welcome.m

FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

FOOTSTEPS ON THE WAY

THE ROME OF HAWTHORNE; THE ROME OF BENEDICT AND FRANCIS

“HERE MUST RESIDE BOTH THE REDEEMED AND THE DEFIANT”

n BY DR. WILLIAM EDMUND FAHEY, PH.D.

ome is a city of treachery and treason, infection and sin. It is appropriate that the Vicar of Christ should have been first murdered here, and — with the exception of long periods of scandalous absence — that he should have this urbs sacra et caput mundi (“sacred city and head of the world”) providentially fixed as his seat and home. Rome is the city of the West, the heart of the Church and civilization. Here must reside both the redeemed and the defiant; the innocent, the penitent, and the unreconstructed. Such a city can never be but the symbol of promise, decline, fall, and renewal — that is, until the fulfillment of the ages turns our attention to a new city. Until then, let Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Marble Faun stand as America’s literary tribute to the city and all that Rome looses and binds in the human character. When I first came to Rome, I came like so many: filled with strong images of imperial grandeur and pontifical solemnity. I came late both as an historian and a pilgrim. The city of my imagination had been laid out and constructed on monumental scale. In earlier years, I had soaked myself along Hadrian’s Wall and the sea defenses of the Saxon Shore. I had spent several summers surveying Legionary fortifications in what were once Armenia and Syria. I had tramped through the province; now I would enter Rome triumphant. I would march through the arches of Piranesi, pledge an oath before Robert’s Marcus Aurelius, sweep along the Via Sacra (just as it had been photographed in my Jenney’s Latin). I would stand in Maccari’s hall and with Cicero speak “Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra...” Like a less dapper Kenneth Clarke, I would

Tourists pass under the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum

stride across the Ponte Sant’ Angelo and gaze upon the gleaming resolution of a besieged papacy. I would inhabit streets teeming with sensuous and treacherous characters just as Robert Graves had delineated them. I would sit with Gibbon on the steps of Santa Maria in Aracoeli to the tolling of bells and survey the passing of things while the chant of Vespers hung faintly in the air. As I rode in, that first time, from Fiumicino, I felt less like Judah Ben-Hur gazing upon the Palaestra, and more like an Elizabethan Cassius uttering in disbelief — “What trash is Rome, what rubbish and what offal.” My encounter with Rome was just what I needed, a humiliation. A complete and utter devastation of the idols in my mind. It is not that all my youthful readings and meditations were false, in the common sense, but the images I had constructed in my imagination were idols; and like all who lose their idols, I was left with a confusion and sadness at that moment of my arrival in Rome. Rome conquered and dictated terms — parcere subjectis et debellare superbos (“to spare the subjected and cast down the proud”). Ironically, I did not fully understand this until my second trip to Rome during the Pauline Pilgrimage year (June 2008-June 2009, marking the 2,000th year of St. Paul’s birth). For that trip, I brought three books — my Bible, Pope Benedict’s Paul the Apostle... and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Marble Faun. During that pilgrimage I was cured of two maladies. I had prayed for healing of the body and mind, and through them the cleansing and strengthening of my soul. In all truth, a leg injury that had burdened me for over two decades simply vanished after

Two etchings from the second half of the 1700s by the great Roman artist and engraver Giovanni Battista Piranesi

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

JOURNEY TO ROME FOR EASTER 2020

attend the Easter Vigil Mass and Easter celebrations at the Vatican with Pope Francis. We’ll also take a day trip to the shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello and of the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano. Come with us to celebrate Easter in the Eternal City this year — a journey of the spirit.

oin Inside the Vatican Pilgrimages for our Signature “Easter in Italy” Pilgrimage April 6-16, 2020! We will begin in Assisi, the city of St. Francis and St. Clare, then observe the solemn Easter Triduum with the Benedictine monks of Norcia, birthplace of St. Benedict. Then we travel to Rome to

Above left, entrance to the Sanctuary of the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, the first and greatest Eucharistic Miracle in the history of the Church. Above right, Pope Benedict XVI at the Sanctuary of the Holy Face in Manoppello, September 1, 2006

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my visit to San Paolo alle Tre Fontane (St. Paul’s at the Three Fountains) — the church built over the site of St. Paul’s execution. Equally wonderful was reading The Marble Faun at the Villa Seranella to the merry song of the rose-ringed parakeets and striking upon a particularly illuminating passage. THE MARBLE FAUN is a tale that explores, as Hawthorne put it, “the Human Soul, with its choice of good or evil close at hand.” It is a tale of four friends, American and European, who are drawn to Rome by their own conceptions of its beauty and power, and move through their own Edenic revelry and fall from innocence. Three are artists; one is a mysterious man, sprung up as if from the soil, as if from Arcady. All are drawn into a terrible tragedy, and agonize over the question of whether beauty, love, and fidelity have the power to lift the human beyond the mire of sin, or not. It is a story of waking up on the verge of a precipice and saying, as one of the protagonists says at a poignant moment, “Oh, my friend, will you be my friend indeed? I am lonely, lonely, lonely! There is a secret in my heart that burns me — that tortures me!” Like much of Hawthorne, it is a novel which deals with the central burden a human must carry: the knowledge of his own soul, and the passage of time and decisions upon it. What was that first illumination that I was given to the song of the Parakeet? It came with the following words, words that express a central idea which in different ways Hawthorne reconfigures again and again throughout the book. The quartet of friends in the novel goes to visit the Coliseum at night. Their minds are filled with Romantic notions of what the experience of the evening will be (and little do they know, though we the readers have a growing apprehension of ill-tidings). The friends enter the Coliseum, which is flooded with the startling light of the moon, and they find it, as Hawthorne says, “a great empty space … too distinctly visible.” With a strong sense of irony, he continues, “The splendor of the revelation took away that inestimable effect of dimness and mystery by which the imagination might be assisted to build a grander structure than the Coliseum, and to shatter it with more picturesque decay. Byron’s celebrated

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description is better than the reality.” The party then goes on to observe other Americans and English “paying the inevitable visit by moonlight, and exalting themselves with raptures that were Byron’s, and not their own.” Throughout the novel, Hawthorne forces the reader to meditate with him on the doom of the thoughtful: how does one untangle the visions of the imagination from firmness of the world? How do we turn away from idols toward reality, without an abandonment of the arts of civilization that make our lives tolerable and meaningful, if not cheerful? Rome instructs; great art and artists will always instruct. When in Rome, I try to take the student through the Piazza de Campidolgio and through the Capitoline Museum, an area that plays a central part in Hawthorne’s tale. But there is something else I like to show them. There is a little path I know that will take you around corners, through arches, and up steps to a hidden café, atop the Museum, from the patio, you can scan Rome — to the east the ruins of the Forum, to the west you gaze over the Campo di Fiori towards St. Peter’s. There is life. There is Roma aeterna. The reality of Rome now works well with my imagination. They are reconciled. When I gaze on the messy stone squalor of the Forum, a history of magnanimous failures, I see more the longing spirit in what was attempted, and less the disarray. Or perhaps, better, I see that the ruins have a quiet nobility to them, for a ruin speaks of hope, initiative, and action. A noble ruin is a testimony of a noble life. The ruin demonstrates human failure and anticipates divine perfection. And when the tolling of Aracoeli persuades me to look the other direction, I am not sad, nor do I think of my mind as divided between the literary Rome of Edward Gibbon (or Hawthorne) and the Rome of Benedict and Francis. The tolling bells that I hear now are real, at one with all that I have read, and they call me back to this one thought: Benigne fac, Domine, in bona voluntate tua Sion: ut aedificetur muri Jerusalem (“Deal kindly, Lord, and in your good will with Zion, so that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up,” Ps. 50). Dr. William Fahey is President of Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA.m FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

C AT H O L I C I S M A N D O R T H O D O X Y E D I T E D B Y: C H R I S T I N A D E A R D U R F F

The Message of the Icon

BY ROBERT WIESNER

SAINT MACARIUS, LENT, ASCETICISM AND COMMON SENSE

group of priests was at a meeting once and went to a restaurant for dinner. All ordered steak except for one, who asked for a simple fish dish since it was a Wednesday and therefore a traditional day of abstinence. The others chided him, remarking that they were, after all, not monks. He replied, “There you are wrong. Every Christian is a monk.” Even though Lenten rules and the customs for fasting and abstinence have been drastically relaxed of late, the priest made a valid point: each individual Christian must be willing to follow the example of our monks and place a much higher value on spiritual benefits than on material comforts. The Great Fast, even for the laity, once involved giving up meat, eggs, cheese, olive oil, fish, alcohol and even innocent amusements. Monks, who had already eschewed all these things, reduced their already meager fare to the vanishing point, often making one or two loaves of bread last the entire time until Easter. But people were tougher in older days, one must suspect. Beyond that, in a Christian culture it was much easier to follow such a strict regimen for the fast; if an entire city or province was serious about living the Faith, temptations toward rich food and amusements were drastically reduced. Most Christians simply would not countenance flaunting the “rules”! The early Desert Fathers, models for all subsequent monasticism, were renowned for the deliberate hardship of their lives. A typical discussion of fasting might consist of a monk asking his Abba if he should eat once a day or only once every two or three days, or whether he should drink water more than once a day. The question of amusement rarely arose; the Egyptian

desert is not known for a diversity of idle pursuits! The answers given always centered around the monk’s spiritual good. If hunger caused his mind to stray from constant prayer, then he was advised to eat more often. If he desired an even greater perfection, then perhaps less food would be the prescription. In other words, common sense would dictate the action advised by the Abba. So it must be for those designing a spiritually fruitful Lenten season. If a stricter fast results in a high degree of disagreeable crabbiness, then the fast must be mitigated. If it results in a lowered energy level so that one’s work is impaired, a change must be made. If faintness causes a slackening of prayer, then one must eat: prayer must take precedence. Saint Macarius the Egyptian was renowned as a champion of asceticism. He ate virtually nothing, drank water very sparingly indeed and would even choose extremely uncomfortable postures for his recitation of the Psalter. He often went for long periods without sleep. Even when he did sleep, it was generally for only one hour each day. He was perhaps something of an extremist, but his way of life resulted in a widely recognized holiness, so there was something to it, obviously. But there were common-sense limits to what even the holiest of monks could stand, as one story of the saint illustrates. The tale serves very well as a guide for all to follow for the Great Fast: St. Macarius went to a certain monastery for Lent one year and of course outdid all the other monks in ascetic feats. After a week, the Abba of the monastery came to him and said, “You have taught us all a lesson, Father, but now please, would you mind going away, lest my sons become discouraged and despair? We have been edified quite enough!”m

INSIDE THE VATICAN PILGRIMAGES made a special pilgrimage to Russia and Rome to take part in the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the murder of Tsar Nicholas, his wife, and their five children in 1918. Contact us at insidethevaticanpilgrimages.com for information about joining us for upcoming special pilgrimages like this one.

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Spirituality

WHAT IS PRAYER?

BY FATHER EL MESKEEN*

EXCERPTS FROM CHAPTER 1 OF MATTA EL-MESKEEN’S ORTHODOX PRAYER LIFE ARE BASED ON THE SAYINGS OF THE FATHERS ON PRAYER rayer that is spiritual and genuine is both a call and a response: a divine call and a human response. This definition of prayer rests on an important fact: Prayer does not reach its power and efficacy as an actual communion with God until man is fully aware that his soul is created in God’s image. He should feel that it derives its very being from him. In this being, nothing is more vital than this self-awareness. Once man’s soul becomes sure of this, it will have laid hold of the source of such awareness — which is God. Thus, the soul realizes, sees, and touches God’s self. (St. Anthony the Great says, “He who knows himself has known God. As for the heretic Arius, he has been stricken with an incurable plague. Had he truly known himself, he would never have uttered anything contrary to the truth. It is clear that he has not known himself, and for this reason he presumed against the mystery of the Only Son.” (Chitty, Letters of St. Anthony the Great 4). There is only one true, realistic, and honest way for man to be aware of himself. It is to be first aware of God. For it is God who has created man’s soul in his own likeness. When man then becomes aware of himself, he finds himself at once facing God’s likeness. Even self-consciousness, a faculty that God has granted to man’s soul, is but an image of God’s consciousness of Himself. And so the way leading man to a true and honest awareness of himself is a simple one. It is the same way, and the only way, which leads to his awareness of God. This becomes especially true in the renewal of creation through the Holy Spirit by baptism. In baptism, this self-consciousness reverts once again to its original divine image after wiping out the blemish of sin. Prayer, then, has become the stance of the soul toward its Maker in and through the awareness of its renewal by the Holy Spirit. In this renewal, the soul recovers through

Christ the image of its original sonship that was lost through sin. It henceforth approaches God the Father boldly and at all times in answer to His open invitation. The soul actually becomes a creation ever attracted to its Creator. It is a son who finds no rest except in his Father’s bosom. This rest lies in simultaneously hearing and heeding his Father’s call. Prayer, then, is a mystery forming an integral part of our being and psychic consciousness. Mystically, it is God’s perpetual call within us, drawing us toward the fulfillment of the ultimate purpose of our creation, our union with God. In its outward form, prayer is the free response of man’s good will. It awakens from time to time to heed God’s call to stand before Him and speak to Him. Prayer then has two forms: a perpetual, vague urge, and an open, intermittent response. In both its forms together, prayer is made whole as a divine-human action: a call and a response. According to St. Gregory of Nyssa, prayer is a heart-to-heart talk, forever active on God’s part, forever slow on ours. In fact, both parties call, and both respond. However, the initiative is always God’s: “I spread out my hands all day long” (Is 65:2). The temporal purpose for this divine-human dialogue is to ensure man’s safe existence under God’s providence during his life on earth and to guarantee his growth. The eternal purpose, however, is man’s re-acceptance of the communion of God’s love, once and forever. God thus appears as a benefactor every time we pray, for it is He, as Creator and as Father, who calls us to pray. Therefore we should always begin our prayer with overflowing thanks. Oh, the humility of God, who seeks to talk with us in spite of our sins! Therefore, to exalt God to His proper place, we must give Him His due glory. We must confess our sinfulness and repent, for as much as our hearts are pure, God finds His rest in us. m

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C AT H O L I C I S M A N D O R T H O D O X Y

East-West Watch

BY PETER ANDERSON

THE INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC-ORTHODOX THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE – PART I

n 1979, Pope John Paul II traveled to divides Orthodox and Catholics the most. Istanbul to celebrate the feast of St. A meeting was held in Belgrade in Andrew with Ecumenical Patriarch DimSeptember 2006 to discuss a draft docuitrios I. During the visit, the two primates ment on synodality and authority. There signed a document establishing what was a paragraph in this document stating would become the Joint International that “the fact of primacy at the universal Commission for Theological Dialogue level is accepted by both East and West” between the Orthodox and Catholic although “there are differences of underChurches (“Commission”). This theostanding” with respect to its exercise and logical dialogue was aimed at re-estabits spiritual and theological foundations. lishing full communion between the At the Belgrade meeting, the head of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Orthodox side conferred with the other OrAt an organizational meeting held in thodox representatives and put this para1980, it was decided that the dialogue graph to a vote. Only the Moscow should begin with the elements which Patriarchate voted against it. unite the two Churches. The CommisIn October 2007, a plenary meeting sion subsequently adopted documents rewas held in Ravenna to finalize this genlating to the Church and the Eucharist Orthodox leaders and their Catholic counterparts eral document. On the first day, the repremake their way to the Greek Cathedral of the (1982), Faith, Sacraments, and the Unity sentative of the Moscow Patriarchate Annunciation in Baltimore for a prayer service, July 2000 (CNS photo by Amy Buck, Catholic Review) of the Church (1987), and the Sacrament walked out of the meeting because of a disof Orders (1988). With the fall of the Sopute with the Ecumenical Patriarchate reviet empire and the resurrection of the Byzantine-rite Catholic lating to Estonia. Later in the meeting and without the presence Churches in Eastern Europe, the Orthodox insisted that “uniatism” of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Orthodox and Catholic sides become the sole topic of the dialogue. reached agreement on the entire Ravenna document, including the “Uniatism” was discussed at the meetings of the Commission section on universal primacy. in 1990, 1993, and 2000. Although a document on the subject was The next meeting of the Commission was held in Cyprus in adopted in 1993 at Balamand, Lebanon, the Orthodox side insisted 2009 to discuss a new draft document on the role of the Bishop of that further concessions be made by the Catholics at the CommisRome during the first millennium. The Moscow Patriarchate resion’s meeting in Maryland in 2000. This meeting was so heated turned to the dialogue but with the understanding that the Orthothat it adjourned with no future meeting scheduled. dox position in the dialogue with the Catholic side would not be In June 2005, the Ecumenical Patriarchate informed newlydetermined by a vote. Rather, the formulation of the Orthodox elected Pope Benedict XVI that all of the Local Orthodox position would require a complete agreement of all of the particiChurches had agreed to resume the theological dialogue. Each pating Local Orthodox Churches. of the 14 Local Churches would be entitled to two representaBecause of the requirement of a consensus by all Orthodox tives on the Commission. The subject of “uniatism” would be participants, the Moscow Patriarchate or any other participating Local Church was now in a position to prevent the Orthodox side temporarily set aside and instead the dialogue would now focus from taking a position in the dialogue with which it disagreed. As on synodality and authority within the Church. The discussion will be discussed next month, this has greatly affected the subseof this broad topic would be the first step in considering the quent dialogue.m subject of the role of the pope — the critical subject that page 48

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NEWS from the EAST

GREEK ARCHBISHOP REJECTS INVITATION BY PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM Greek Archbishop Ieronymos (photo) informed the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church on January 10 that he has refused an invitation from Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem to attend a meeting of Orthodox leaders. According to a statement issued by the Holy Synod, Ieronymos refused the invitation because the calling of such meetings of Orthodox leaders is the privilege of only the ecumenical patriarch based in Istanbul. The initiative was rejected last week by Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios (Bartholomew) as “non-canonical.” In his call for the meeting, Theophilos said it was to preserve the unity of the Orthodox Church. However, Vartholomaios said the invitation should only be sent to the patriarch of Moscow. Vartholomaios’ decision last year to grant independence from Moscow to the Ukrainian Church has been vehemently challenged by the Russian patriarch, causing a rift within the Orthodox Church. (ekathimerini)

NAME OF PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA WAS REMOVED FROM DIPTYCHS OF MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE During the meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, chaired by Patriarch Kirill, the Moscow Patriarchate decided to sever full communion with the Patriarchate of Alexandria by removing the name of the Patriarch of Alexandria from its commemorative diptychs. The main reasons were the recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the commemoration of Metropolitan Epiphany, OCU head, by Patriarch Theodore. According to the Moscow Patriarchate’s spokesman, Vladimir Legoida, the Moscow Patriarchate severed full communion with the Head of the Church of Alexandria but it remains in full communion with the Metropolitans of Alexandria who did not agree with Patriarch Theodore and did not recognize the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. He added that the Moscow Patriarchate had not severed full communion with the Archbishop of Athens and the Metropolitans of the Church of Greece either.

BY BECKY DERKS

Vladimir Legoida said that the actions taken by the Patriarch of Alexandria were not canonical because he recognized the Church of Ukraine even though the Hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Alexandria had never voted for such a decision. He also argued, “The decision of the Patriarch of Alexandria to recognize the Church of Ukraine runs counter to his previous statements according to which he would recognize the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine. In addition, such a statement was made by the Patriarch of Alexandria when he visited the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from September 27 to October 1, 2018, three weeks after the intrusion of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine through the appointment of an Exarch in Kyiv.” During the meeting, the Moscow Patriarchate also decided to abolish the Exarchate of the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Moscow and convert the Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate in Alexandria into a Russian church. In addition, the Moscow Patriarchate decided to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Alexandria the parishes of the Russian Church located on the African continent and to make them stauropegic (directly under the primate) monasteries. (Orthodox Times)

PATRIARCH JOHN X, CALLING TO FORM A RESCUE GOVERNMENT TO PULL THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OUT OF THE CRISIS His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East of the Greek Orthodox Church, called for hurry in forming a Lebanese government. His Beatitude’s words came as part of the Sunday homily during the Divine Liturgy that was held in the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand. Touching on public issues, he said: “On this blessed day, we call upon the Lebanese officials to work in favor of this tormented people, overwhelmed by the dire crisis, a phenomenon unprecedented in Lebanon since the First World War. We prompt them to form a rescue government that will pull the country and people out of the deep crisis that is turning into a tragedy. It is unacceptable to continue denying responsibilities as the country collapses, people starve, the foundations of a decent life fall apart and hope for a reform diminishes.” He pointed to the increasing unemployment rate, the deficit of private companies and institutions, and all other difficulties that people face, including their inability to pay dues.

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C AT H O L I C I S M A N D O R T H O D O X Y

Touching upon ecclesiastical matters, he added: “Facing the In early January, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople clamor that occurs and prevails in the aftermath of every Church handed over the tomos of autocephaly, a document that grants Orevent, we remind you that the Orthodox Church is going through a thodox churches autonomy, to the newly-established UOC. The Russdelicate stage in the world today. Intensified prayer and work are reian Orthodox Church, along with the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox quired to preserve the unity commanded by the Lord. Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, refused to recognize the estab“This requires that all those dealing with Church affairs stay away lishment of the new Church structure in Ukraine and Constantinofrom quarrels. As for the faithful Christians, they cannot be drawn to ple’s decision to grant it autocephaly. (Urdupoint) the fictitious accounts that aim to weaken confidence in the Church Montenegro: PoLiticians and to spread dissension among the faithful excoMMUnicated, FaithFUL for well-known purposes. taKe to the streets, “Here, it must be emphasized that the Anhierarchs sPeaK oUt tiochian Church has not compromised and Tensions continue to run high in Monwill never compromise over the truth. She tenegro after the Parliament and President will remain a prophetic voice that bears the pushed through a law that the Serbian Orthoissues of our countries, of our people, and dox Church views as a blatant attack, aimed this Levant. We have never neglected them at seizing Church property from the canoniand will never do so. As for ecclesiastical cal Church in favor of the Montenegrin Ormatters, we always deal with them within the Church, with a frame of mind of the Church, His Grace Bishop Metodije of Diokleia, Serbia, thodox Church. who was hospitalized after being beaten The Episcopal Council of Montenegro, based on the teachings of the Holy Gospel, by police at a peaceful protest consisting of every hierarch of the Serbian the Holy Tradition, and Church Canons. Church serving in Montenegro, gathered on December 29, with the These are the sole starting point and reference for the faithful.” exception of His Grace Bishop Metodije of Diokleia, who was hos(Orthodoxie) pitalized after being beaten by police at a peaceful protest, for joint Moscow Patriarchate: Pan-orthodox Meeting prayer and a meeting where it adopted a special statement in connecMay convene in Jordan tion with recent events. Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem theophilos iii has offered to In particular, the Orthodox hierarchs stated that those politicians convene a pan-Orthodox meeting in Jordan, possibly in February, to who oppose the Church and voted in favor of the scandalous law “exdiscuss the current situation in the Orthodox world, the deputy head cluded themselves from the Orthodox Church, and are therefore exof the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Pacommunicated from the Holy Mysteries.” triarchate told Sputnik News. The bishops also stress that the passage of the law led to the juTheophilos III recently proposed gathering the heads of Orthodox bilation of the neo-Montenegrin nationalists, most of whom are athechurches in the wake of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople’s ists, who hate the Orthodox Church. decision to recognize the non-canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church In turn, Prime Minister duško Marković issued a “final warning” (UOC). The Moscow Patriarchate supported the idea, saying that to the clergy of the Montenegrin Metropolis of the Serbian Church “there is no alternative to the start of a direct dialogue.” Earlier, inin connection with the large-scale protests throughout the country. “I formation about a pan-Orthodox meeting on Ukraine planned for advise the Metropolis of Montenegrin-Littoral not to incite discontent February surfaced on social media. and unrest, and this is the last warning in this sense,” he said. “Indeed, this date, more precisely, this month, has been menDespite the threats and persecution against them, the clergy and tioned in the proposals of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. He does offer monastics of the Serbian Church serving in Montenegro gathered in to consider the possibility of holding such a meeting in February,” Ulcinj several days ago to confirm their loyalty to the canonical Archpriest nikolay Balashov said. Church and declare their readiness for a dialogue that respects the When asked whether he could confirm that this pan-Orthodox position of the Church. event would actually take place, the archpriest replied: “We will see Metropolitan amfilohije of Montenegro reminded the clergy that what the reaction will be.” the Church does not encourage demonstrations, especially violent The UOC was formed in late 2018 on then-President Petro ones, but “this does not mean that the faithful are not free to show Poroshenko’s initiative. The new structure brought together the resistance to lawlessness.” The clergy also critiqued the Prime MinUkrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainister’s claims that Metropolitan Amfilohije is to blame for the vioian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, two previously non-canonical lence in the country and his “warning” to the Church. structures. On New Year’s Eve, more than 10,000 faithful gathered on Freepage 50

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dom Square in Nikši for a moleben (a liturgy of supplication for the living) in defense of the Serbian Orthodox Church. “We came here to say: Don’t touch our holy sites!... They are not simple properties, they are sacred. Here dwells Christ, here dwells the Holy Spirit, Who holds us all and admonishes us. And if we want to be human, we must have a holy place. Let’s not spit on what is most sacred,” said Fr. Miodrag Todorovich. The suffering faithful in Montenegro also have the support of Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem, who sent a letter of support to Metropolitan Amfilohije. A representative of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem will also visit Montenegro to pray with the clergy and faithful and express the Patriarchate’s support. His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, also issued a fraternal message of support to Metropolitan Amfilohije, assuring him of the Church’s prayers for the Church in Montenegro. The Episcopal Council of the Serbian Church in North, Central, and South America has also issued a communiqué regarding recent events in Montenegro, noting that such laws “are considered violations of human and religious rights given they do not conform to the standards of modern democratic states, and contradict the recommendations of the Venice Commission.” The hierarchs note that they have addressed the U.S. Administration and the government of Canada, highlighting the anti-democratic character of the new law in Montenegro, and they appeal to the authorities in Montenegro to release those who have been arrested for defending their sacred sites and to cease “terrorizing the Church, its clergy and faithful people.” Meanwhile, more than 6,000 Serbian academic and cultural figures, clergy, and laymen have signed a petition “in defense of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro.” In mid-January, tens of thousands of Orthodox faithful in Montenegro took to the streets in a number of cities for a moleben and cross procession to achieve the abolition of the scandalous new law. (OrthoChristian)

BYZANTINE CHANT ADDED TO UNESCO’S LIST OF INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF HUMANITY The ancient and sacred Orthodox art of Byzantine chant was honored on December 11 by being included in the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The move was jointly proposed by Greece and Cyprus. The statement announcing the recognition notes that Byzantine chant has existed for more than 2 millennia and is intimately linked with the spiritual life of the Orthodox Church. As a living art that has existed for more than 2000 years, the Byzantine chant is a significant cultural tradition and comprehensive music system forming part of the common musical traditions that developed in the Byzantine Empire. Highlighting and musically enhancing the liturgical texts of the Greek Orthodox Church, it is inextricably linked with spiritual life and religious worship. This vocal art is mainly focused on rendering the ecclesiastical text; arguably, the chant exists because of the word (“logos”), since every aspect of the tradition serves to spread the sacred message. Passed on aurally across the generations, its main characteristics have remained over the centuries: it is exclusively vocal music; it is essentially monophonic; the chants are codified into an eight-mode or eight-tone system; and the chant employs different styles of rhythm to accentuate the desired syllables of specific words. Though the psaltic art has always been linked to the male voice, women chanters are common in nunneries and participate in parishes to some extent. In addition to its transmission in church, the Byzantine chant is flourishing due to the dedication of experts and non-experts alike — including musicians, choir members, composers, musicologists and scholars — who contribute to its study, performance and dissemination. “Byzantine chant is a way of life,” says Fr. Nicolaos Lympourides, the Director of the School of Byzantine and Traditional Music of the Holy Metropolis of Limassol, in Cyprus, in the video included in UNESCO’s announcement. “We carry it from our childhood and we preserve it as long as we live. It accompanies our lives until we die,” he said. (OrthoChristian)m

The Christian Churches, the communities of the disciples of Christ, were intended to be united as one; Pope John Paul II proclaimed, “The Church must breathe with Her two lungs!” Unfortunately, the Churches are not united. This is a great scandal, an impediment to the witness of the Church. Since unity was desired by Christ Himself, we must work to end this disunity and accomplish the will of the Lord.

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page 51

LATIN

WHAT IS ROME’S GREATEST LATIN INSCRIPTION? A METAPHOR THAT HAS BECOME LITERAL FACT

n BY JOHN BYRON KUHNER

Inscription in St. Peter’s, adorning the inside of Michelangelo’s dome: “Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo...” (“You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build...”) and, below, a statue of St. Peter inside the Basilica. Opposite page, the Pantheon with Marcus Agrippa’s inscription

ome, as everyone knows, is replete with Latin inscriptions. They’re all over the churches, homes, fountains, obelisks, art, and museums. But what is the greatest of all Rome’s inscriptions? Which offers the most satisfaction intellectually and aesthetically? For many, the answer is Marcus Agrippa’s inscription on the Pantheon: M AGRIPPA L F COS TERTIUM FECIT. Its great big black letters fill up the entire piazza, and manage to be grand and overwhelming while also being austere and restrained. All it says is “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius (“Lucii filius”), consul for the third time, made this.” But an entire world is called up by those few letters: that a man should elevate his own name, and his father’s; that political preferment — and especially to be chosen for Rome’s highest political office, the consulship — was the defining feature of excellence; and that creation — doing, making, facere in Latin — is the highest, greatest act of all, are all aspects of Roman culture on display in this short inscription. It’s probably the most complete evocation of Romanitas ever chiseled, and was apparently even recognized as such in antiquity. The inscription has been preserved, though the building it graced has not: a century and a half after Agrippa, Hadrian completely rebuilt the structure. But he transferred Agrippa’s inscription, which could not be improved upon, to the new building. What other inscriptions in Rome can be placed with Agrippa’s? When you think about them, most of them seem tedious and verbose, or trite and unappealing, by comparison. But I think Rome boasts an inscription even greater than the Pantheon’s. It’s in St. Peter’s, adorning the inside of Michelangelo’s dome: TU ES PETRUS ET SUPER

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

HANC PETRAM AEDIFICABO ECCLESIAM MEAM, ET TIBI DABO CLAVES REGNI CAELORUM. “You are Peter, and on this rock [“petram”] I will build my church, and to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” This is Jesus talking to Peter in Matthew 16, giving him a new name, “Peter” (“Rocky”). The Latin pun between Petrus and petra comes right from Greek, which in turn comes from Aramaic (Jesus apparently really called Simon “Cephas”). It’s a remarkable fact that the pun works fine in Greek, and then works in Latin as well because of Latin’s willingness to borrow foreign words. In this passage “Peter” becomes Simon’s new name as head of the universal Church — his papal name, you might say. The future tense verbs, aedificabo and dabo, are remarkable because they point to Christ’s Churchbuilding as not an activity Jesus was engaged in at the time, but a future activity — as if pointing to all later Church history. The best way to experience the inscription is to start with the Vatican’s remarkable “Scavi Tour,” which allows visitors (only a dozen at a time, which seems an appropriate number) to descend into the ancient cemetery upon which the basilica was built. There is one tomb — right beneath the altar — which shows all the typical signs of importance: later burials crowd around it; ancient graffiti is scratched onto it (mentioning Peter); several altars were built into its side; and the remains themselves were wrapped in purple cloth edged with gold. An ancient little tabernacle, called an aedicula, marks the tomb, and the aedicula itself is enclosed in a marble altar from the age of Constantine. Directly above this tomb — which by an undisputed ancient tradition has been known as the tomb of St. Peter — is the main

altar of the basilica, the baldacchino of Bernini, and the dome of Michelangelo. From the purple cloth to the Constantinian altar to the dome of Michelangelo, each generation has in its own way paid homage to the simple fisherman buried on this site. To complete your experience, you can climb the dome on foot, passing along a walkway on the inside of the dome just a few feet above the great TU ES PETRUS inscription. And so when you read the inscription, in the second person, as if spoken by the entire Body of Christ to its servant, you realize that it has all come true: an entire church has in fact been raised, with the bones of Peter as its foundation. The metaphor has become literal fact. Now, how Jesus may have meant the metaphor is a subject for dispute, but oddly enough many of the people who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe that Peter was meant to be the rock of Christâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Church simply ignore this part of the Bible, rather than put forward any kind of convincing theory as to what else Jesus might mean. During a freshman year course at Princeton, I heard an English professor opine in class that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Jesus, as everybody knows, had never intended to start a church.â&#x20AC;? As a Catholic there was no way I was going to let this comment go unopposed, so I asked simply, â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you think Jesus never intended to start a church, how do you interpret those words that are in six-foot letters around the tomb of Peter, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;?â&#x20AC;? My professor looked at me, paused for a moment, and said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a very good response to a longstanding

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and perhaps insufficiently examined opinion of mine.â&#x20AC;? He then somewhat incongruously resumed his lesson plan, that despite the choosing of the 12, the sending out of the 72, the institution of a Rite of Baptism, the request to perform the Eucharist â&#x20AC;&#x153;in memory of me,â&#x20AC;? and the Great Commission (all of which I started pointing out), Jesus never intended to start a church (that was all Paulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s doing, you see). But my pilgrimage to Rome, taken just after graduating from high school, had already immunized me against the academic positing that all this was â&#x20AC;&#x153;Paulianity.â&#x20AC;? And honestly, one of the reasons why the experience was so intimate was that I knew Latin: when you climb to the top of the dome of St. Peterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, and read that massive inscription word by word, walking around the whole dome, it affects you. You see how it has all literally been built on the foundation of Peter: you have an experience of Church history as an imperfect but deeply sincere attempt to honor and follow Christ the way that Jesus himself commended â&#x20AC;&#x201D; by clinging to the rock of Peter. The inscription guides your interpretation, and reading it as you stand there, you experience the building as its many builders, Michelangelo preeminently, wanted you to experience it: as a stone-and-mortar embodiment of the words of Christ, incarnated by his followers in honor of the man he chose to be chief of his apostles. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be hard to find an inscription that offers its reader more than that. John Byron Kuhner is editor of In Medias Res, an online magazine published by the Paideia Institute.m

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FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

Of Books, Art and People

“HE WAS SENTENCED TO DEATH” SO CARAVAGGIO ESCAPED... TO NAPLES

n BY LUCY GORDAN

n May 29, 1606, during a brawl works, and were deeply influenced by in Piazza Navona in Rome, the his style and subject matter. artist Caravaggio (1571-1610) Sixteen of the 19 paintings, never murdered the pimp from Terni Ranucexhibited publicly before, belong to cio Tomassoni, who had VIP clients: the Fondazione De Vito, and the other nobles, notaries, cardinals. The paintthree to the Civic Museum in Prato’s er was sentenced to death. To avoid Palazzo Pretorio, home to Tuscany’s papal justice, this hot-headed and ofsecond most important collection of ten violent master of chiaroscuro es17th-century Neapolitan paintings afcaped to Naples, outside the jurisdicter the Uffizi. The three are Battisteltion of Rome’s authority, where he lo’s Noli Me Tangere (1618), Mattia could count on the protection of the Preti’s Repudiation of Hagar (c. powerful Colonna family. 1635-1640), and Nicola MalinconiThus the most famous painter in co’s Good Samaritan (1703-6), the Above, Nicola Malinconico’s Good Samaritan. Rome became the most famous exhibition’s final painting. MalinconBelow, Battistello’s Noli Me Tangere and, bottom, painter in Naples. During his first ico (Naples, 1663-1721) was a stuthe recently-restored Young St. John the Baptist stay, from October 1606 to June 1607, dent of Luca Giordano, protagonist of he painted numerous masterpieces. the Neapolitan baroque. The Good These included the breathtaking altarSamaritan’s brilliant colors, its softpieces with the Seven Works of Mercy ness and the freedom of its brushfor the Pio Monte and the Flagellation strokes are thanks to Giordano, but its (now in Naples’ Capodimonte Musesubject had been painted by Ribera. um) for the Church of San Domenico. The Fondazione De Vito, headLike his Roman canvases, these works quartered at the Villa degli Olmi, Via are characterized by the intense natudella Casa al Vento 1774, in Vaglia, a ralism of their human figures and of picturesque hamlet 20 km. north of light, and by an unprecedented, seemFlorence, was founded in 2011 by ingly irreverent interpretation of saGiuseppe De Vito (Portici, a neighcred themes because his models were borhood of Naples, 1924-Florence, frequently his tavern companions, 2015). He was a successful engineer, beggars, and prostitutes. The most fascholar, collector of 17th-century mous painting of Caravaggio’s second Neapolitan art, and in 1982 founder of stay in Naples, from October 1609 to the scholarly journal Ricerche sul July 1610, during which time his face was badly ‘600 napoletano, still published annually with disfigured in yet again another brawl, is his drathe updated title of Ricerche per la storia delmatic Martyrdom of St. Ursula, his last work (now l’arte moderna a Napoli. The foundation seeks in Naples’ Baroque Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano, at “to promote studies on the history of Modern Art Via Toledo 185, an art museum since 2014). in Naples with exhibitions, seminars, conferOn until April 13 in Prato, an off-the-beatenences, publications, and scholarships for track Tuscan city, in the Palazzo Pretorio, is Dopo students.” Its headquarters house De Vito’s 60 Caravaggio: Il Seicento Napoletano in Mostra a paintings and a library. Scholars can visit by Prato or “After Caravaggio: 17th-Century Neaappointment: fondazione@fondazionedevito.it, politan Art Exhibit in Prato.” As the title clearly tel. +39-055-549811. states, the exhibition is not about Caravaggio, but De Vito’s collection of 17th-century Neapoliabout the painters, his contemporaries and others tan paintings, perhaps the most significant in priof the next two generations, who lived in Naples, vate hands, includes works by Giovanni Battista studied his Neapolitan, and sometimes Roman, Caracciolo, nicknamed “Battistello,” Jusepe de 54

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

Ribera, and many others. Very few of De Vito’s paintings have ever on display here, is an almost photographic portrait, very similar been exhibited publicly and, before Prato, only with De Vito’s dito many of Caravaggio’s saints, especially his two of St. Mark rect intervention. (one destroyed during World War II) in Rome’s Church of San Prato’s show, displayed in chronological order, is divided into Luigi dei Francesi. four parts: “Giovanni Battista Caracciolo 1618-35,” “Jusepe De On the same wall with St. Anthony Abbot are three portraits Ribera and the Master of the Annuciation to the Shepherds 1632with philosophical themes by Ribera’s student Juan Dò. Man in Meditation in Front of a Mirror (1640-45) is identifiable as a So1650,” “Female Protagonists 1634-1652,” and “Mattia Preti and the cratic philosopher. Old Man in Meditation with a Cartouche Second Half of the Century.” It opens with two paintings by Battis(1648-52) has a Latin inscription about the transience of material tello: the recently-restored Young St. John the Baptist and the Noli goods and life itself. The realistic, wrinkled, me tangere of Prato’s Museum. The latter, low-class faces of both these half-length porpainted in 1618, when Battistello was in Flotraits are Caravaggesque. Less so in appearrence at the Medici court, is considered his ance, but not thematically, is Dò’s Young Man masterpiece. Battistello (Naples 1578-1635) is the only Smelling a Rose, also an allegory of the tranpainter on exhibit to have met Caravaggio in sience of life. Moreover, in appearance this person, probably around the time of CaravagYoung Man (the exhibition’s logo) seems sickgio’s Radolovich commission in 1606. Battisly like many of Caravaggio’s portraits of mutello was also among the first to adopt Carsicians and of Bacchus. Section 2 ends with a avaggio’s startling new style of chiaroscuro half-length portrait of a Prophet (1640-45) by with its human figures defined by spotlight. Francesco Francanzano (1612-1656), another His Immaculate Conception for the Church of student of Ribera. Francanzano’s portrait is Santa Maria della Stella in Naples is considsimilar to Dò’s two older philosophical men, ered to be the first documented Cargrizzly in appearance, but the Prophet’s caravaggesque painting. In stylistic and thematic touche is blank, awaiting divine inspiration. relationship with these two paintings is MasThe canvasses of Section 3, painted in the Above, Jusepe de Ribera’s simo Stanzione’s St. John the Baptist in the 1640s and 1650s, are still Caravaggesque with St. Anthony Abbot. Below, Juan Dò's Old Man in Meditation with a Cartouche Desert, datable to c. 1630. Again the saint is the protagonists spotlighted, but their brighter and Young Man Smelling a Rose depicted as a youth with a lamb. and greater variety of colors Stanzione (Naples 1585-Naples show a new Venetian and Flem1656) was the arch-rival of Spanish influence — a major turning ish-born (in Xàtiva near Valencia) point. Moreover, their subjects Jusepe de Ribera. are female, not male, protagoRibera is the subject of the exnists from the Old and New Teshibit’s second section together taments and female martyrs, with his pupil, also born in Xàtiva Catherine, Ursula, Lucy, and and known as “The Master of the Agatha, very popular saints in Annunciation to the Shepherds.” 17th-century Neapolitan paintDe Vito identified him as Juan Dò ing. The spotlighted saint in The (1617?-1656?). Battistello and Martyrdom of St. Ursula (1634Ribera were witnesses at Dò’s 6) by Neapolitan Giovanni Ricca marriage to Grazia, the sister of (1603-1656?) is similar to Carfellow-painter Pacecco De Rosa, avaggio’s painting of the same who was a pupil of Stanzione. subject in Palazzo Zevallos Stanzione and Ribera, who was active in Naples from 1616 to Stigliano. Likewise is St. Agatha (c. 1636-40) by Antonio Vaccaro his death in 1652, both dominated the painting scene in Naples for (Naples, 1604-70). The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (1635) several decades, depicting primarily religious subjects. Ribera by Neapolitan Paolo Finoglio (1590-1645) shows an affinity to the was the most important painter for the development of Carlight and layout of the Nolo Me Tangere by Battistello. In contrast, avaggesque naturalism. He moved from Spain to Rome in 1612 St. Lucy (1645-8) by Neapolitan Bernardo Cavallino (1616-56), where he lived on Via Margutta, joined the Academy of St. Luke, who is said to have trained with Stanzione and worked with and collaborated with other foreign admirers of Caravaggio. In Francesco Francanzano, has a softer diffused light and brighter 1616 he moved to Naples to avoid his creditors and there married colors, including a Venetian red curtain. Caterina, daughter of the Sicilian-born Neapolitan painter GioSection 4 centers on four works by Calabrian Mattia Preti vanni Bernardino Azzolino, who introduced Ribera to the (1613-1699). He trained in Rome before living in Naples from Neapolitan art world. 1653 to 1660. He helped bring Caravaggio’s naturalism into a fully Ribera soon headed a workshop with numerous pupils and Baroque style. His Repudiation of Hagar was painted in Rome and collaborators. In addition to sacred scenes, he painted half figwas heavily influenced by Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro. Prato is only ures of saints and philosophers. His St. Anthony Abbot (1638), a 20-minute train ride from Florence. It is worth a detour.m FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

THE END EXCERPTS FROM LORD OF THE WORLD

“There was a rosary on him”

OVER A CENTURY AGO, THE PRIEST AND WRITER ROBERT HUGH BENSON FORESAW THE TREMENDOUS RISE OF SECULAR HUMANISM… AND THE CONTRACTION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

n BY ITV STAFF

Editor’s Note: The passage below is from the novel Lord of the World, written by the English Catholic convert Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson (the son of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury) in 1907. He attempts a vision of the world more than a century in the future — in the early 21st century… our own time… predicting the

LORD OF THE WORLD BY ROBERT HUGH BENSON (1907) Chapter III, Part I

he glanced at Mabel, and saw that the girl was singing with all her might, with her eyes fixed on her husband’s dark figure a hundred yards away, and her soul pouring through them. So the mother, too, began to move her lips in chorus with that vast volume of sound. As the hymn died away, and before the cheering could begin again, old Lord Pemberton was standing forward on the edge of the platform, and his thin, metallic voice piped a sentence or two across the tinkling splash of the fountains behind him. Then he stepped back, and Oliver came forward. ***** It was too far for the two to hear what was said, but Mabel slipped a paper, smiling tremulously, into the old lady’s hand, and herself bent forward to listen. Old Mrs. Brand looked at that, too, knowing that it was an analysis of her son’s speech, and aware that she would not be able to hear his words. There was an exordium first, congratulating all who were present to do honour to the great man who presided from his pedestal on the occasion of this great anniversary. Then there came a retrospect, comparing the old state of England with the present. Fifty years ago, the speaker said, poverty was still a disgrace, now it was so no longer. It was in the causes that led to poverty that the disgrace or the merit lay. Who would not honour a man worn out in the service of his country, or overcome at last by circumstances against which his efforts could not prevail?… He enumerated the reforms passed fifty years before on this very day, by which the nation once and for all declared the glory of poverty and man’s sympathy with the unfortunate. So he had told them he was to sing the praise of patient poverty and its reward, and that, he supposed, together with a few periods on the reform of the prison laws, would form the first half of his speech. 56

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

rise of Communism, the fall of faith in many places, the advance of technology (he foresees helicopters) and so forth, up until... the Second Coming of the Lord, with which his vision ends. For this reason, and also because Pope Benedict and Pope Francis have repeatedly cited Benson’s book, saying its clarification of the danger of a type of humanitarianism without God is a true danger that we do face, we are printing selections from it in ITV, now and in the months ahead.

The second part was to be a panegyric of Braithwaite, treating him as the Precursor of a movement that even now had begun. Old Mrs. Brand leaned back in her seat, and looked about her. The window where they sat had been reserved for them; two arm-chairs filled the space, but immediately behind there were others, standing very silent now, craning forward, watching, too, with parted lips: a couple of women with an old man directly behind, and other faces visible again behind them. Their obvious absorption made the old lady a little ashamed of her distraction, and she turned resolutely once more to the square. Ah! he was working up now to his panegyric! The tiny dark figure was back, a yard nearer the statue, and as she looked, his hand went up and he wheeled, pointing, as a murmur of applause drowned for an instant the minute, resonant voice. Then again he was forward, half crouching—for he was a born actor—and a storm of laughter rippled round the throng of heads. She heard an indrawn hiss behind her chair, and the next instant an exclamation from Mabel…. What was that? There was a sharp crack, and the tiny gesticulating figure staggered back a step. The old man at the table was up in a moment, and simultaneously a violent commotion bubbled and heaved like water about a rock at a point in the crowd immediately outside the railed space where the bands were massed, and directly opposite the front of the platform. Mrs. Brand, bewildered and dazed, found herself standing up, clutching the window rail, while the girl gripped her, crying out something she could not understand. A great roaring filled the square, the heads tossed this way and that, like corn under a squall of wind. Then Oliver was forward again, pointing and crying out, for she could see his gestures; and she sank back quickly, the blood racing through her old veins, and her heart hammering at the base of her throat. “My dear, my dear, what is it?” she sobbed. But Mabel was up, too, staring out at her husband; and a quick babble of talk and exclamations from behind made itself audible in spite of the roaring tumult of the square.

II Oliver told them the explanation of the whole affair that evening at home, leaning back in his chair, with one arm bandaged and in a sling. They had not been able to get near him at the time; the excitement in the square had been too fierce; but a messenger had come to his wife with the news that her husband was only slightly wounded, and was in the hands of the doctors. “He was a Catholic,” explained the drawn-faced Oliver. “He must have come ready, for his repeater was found loaded. Well, there was no chance for a priest this time.” Mabel nodded slowly: she had read of the man’s fate on the placards. “He was killed—trampled and strangled instantly,” said Oliver. “I did what I could: you saw me. But—well, I dare say it was more merciful.” “But you did what you could, my dear?” said the old lady, anxiously, from her corner. “I called out to them, mother, but they wouldn’t hear me.” Mabel leaned forward—“Oliver, I know this sounds stupid of me; but—but I wish they had not killed him.” Oliver smiled at her. He knew this tender trait in her. “It would have been more perfect if they had not,” she said. Then she broke off and sat back. “Why did he shoot just then?” she asked. Oliver turned his eyes for an instant towards his mother, but she was knitting tranquilly. Then he answered with a curious deliberateness. “I said that Braithwaite had done more for the world by one speech than Jesus and all His saints put together.” He was aware that the knitting-needles stopped for a second; then they went on again as before. “But he must have meant to do it anyhow,” continued Oliver. “How do they know he was a Catholic?” asked the girl again. “There was a rosary on him; and then he just had time to call on his God.” “And nothing more is known?” “Nothing more. He was well dressed, though.” Oliver leaned back a little wearily and closed his eyes; his arm still throbbed intolerably. But he was very happy at heart. It was true that he had been wounded by a fanatic, but he was not sorry to bear pain in such a cause, and it was obvious that the sympathy of England was with him. Mr. Phillips even now was busy in the next room, answering the telegrams that poured in every moment. Caldecott, the Prime Minister, Maxwell, Snowford and a dozen others had wired instantly their congratulations, and from every part of England streamed in message after message. It was an immense stroke for the Communists; their spokesman had been assaulted during the discharge of his duty, speaking in defence of his principles; it was an incalculable gain for them, and loss for the Individualists, that confessors were not all on one side after all.

God as seen by William Blake as the Architect of the world, in Ancient of Days, held in the British Museum, London

The huge electric placards over London had winked out the facts in Esperanto as Oliver stepped into the train at twilight. “Oliver Brand wounded…. Catholic assailant…. Indignation of the country…. Well-deserved fate of assassin.” He was pleased, too, that he honestly had done his best to save the man. Even in that moment of sudden and acute pain he had cried out for a fair trial; but he had been too late. He had seen the starting eyes roll up in the crimson face, and the horrid grin come and go as the hands had clutched and torn at his throat. Then the face had vanished and a heavy trampling began where it had disappeared. Oh! there was some passion and loyalty left in England! His mother got up presently and went out, still without a word; and Mabel turned to him, laying a hand on his knee. “Are you too tired to talk, my dear?” He opened his eyes. “Of course not, my darling. What is it?” “What do you think will be the effect?” He raised himself a little, looking out as usual through the darkening windows on to that astonishing view. Everywhere now lights were glowing, a sea of mellow moons just above the houses, and above the mysterious heavy blue of a summer evening. “The effect?” he said. “It can be nothing but good. It was time that something happened. My dear, I feel very downcast sometimes, as you know. Well, I do not think I shall be again. I have been afraid sometimes that we were losing all our spirit, and that the old Tories were partly right when they prophesied what Communism would do. But after this—” “Well?” “Well; we have shown that we can shed our blood too. It is in the nick of time, too, just at the crisis. I don’t want to exaggerate; it is only a scratch—but it was so deliberate, and—and so dramatic. The poor devil could not have chosen a worse moment. People won’t forget it.” Mabel’s eyes shone with pleasure. “You poor dear!” she said. “Are you in pain?” “Not much. Besides, Christ! what do I care? If only this infernal Eastern affair would end!” He knew he was feverish and irritable, and made a great effort to drive it down. “Oh, my dear!” he went on, flushed a little. “If they would not be such heavy fools: they don’t understand; they don’t understand.” “Yes, Oliver?” “They don’t understand what a glorious thing it all is: Humanity, Life, Truth at last, and the death of Folly! But haven’t I told them a hundred times?” She looked at him with kindling eyes. She loved to see him like this, his confident, flushed face, the enthusiasm in his blue eyes; and the knowledge of his pain pricked her feeling with passion. She bent forward and kissed him suddenly. “My dear, I am so proud of you. Oh, Oliver!” (To be continued)m FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

VATICAN WATCH By Becky Derks with CNA Reports - Grzegorz Galazka and CNA photos

DECEMBER SUNDAY 15

POPE FRANCIS CELEBRATES A FILIPINO CHRISTMAS TRADITION AT THE VATICAN

On Gaudete Sunday, Pope Francis celebrated a Filipino Christmas tradition in St. Peter’s Basilica — the Simbang Gabi Christmas novena. “In the Philippines, for centuries, there has been a novena in preparation for Christmas called Simbang Gabi, ‘Mass of the Night.’ During nine days the Filipino faithful gather at dawn in their parishes for a special Eucharistic celebration,” Pope Francis said December 15. “Through this celebration we want to prepare ourselves for Christmas according to the spirit of the Word of God that we have listened to, remaining constant until the Lord’s definitive coming,” he said in his homily for the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope Francis invited Rome’s Filipino community to celebrate Gaudete Sunday Mass at the Vatican in honor of the first day of the traditional novena. It is the first time that a Pope has celebrated Simbang Gabi at the Vatican.

TUESDAY 17

POPE FRANCIS LIFTS PONTIFICAL SECRET FROM PROCEEDINGS OF ABUSE TRIALS OF CLERICS Pope Francis declared that the pontifical secret will no longer apply in cases of accusations and trials involving abuse of minors or vulnerable persons, and in cases of possession of child pornography by clerics. With the instruction published December 17, “On the Confidentiality of Legal Proceedings,” Pope Francis intends “to cancel in these cases the subjection to what is called the ‘pontifical secret,’ bringing back instead the ‘level’ of confidentiality, dutifully required to protect the good reputation of the people involved,” according to Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts. The pontifical secret, also sometimes called papal secrecy, is a rule of confidentiality protecting sensitive information regarding the governance of the universal Church. It is similar to the “classified” or “confidential” status common in companies or civil governments. In the new instruction, Pope Francis said the pontifical secret will also no longer bind those working in offices of the Roman Curia to confidentiality on other offenses if committed in conjunction with child abuse or child pornography. 58

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THURSDAY 19

POPE FRANCIS INSTALLS CROSS AT THE VATICAN FOR MIGRANTS WHO DIED IN MEDITERRANEAN Pope Francis hung a cross encircled by a life jacket inside a Vatican building in memory of migrants and refugees who have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea in recent years. He also welcomed, on December 19, a group of asylum seekers brought to Italy by the head of the papal charities office, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski. The transparent cross was hung inside an entrance to the apostolic palace reached from the Belvedere Courtyard — where diplomats and heads of state arrive for audiences with the Pope. “In the Christian tradition the cross is a symbol of suffering and sacrifice but also of redemption and salvation,” Francis said. This cross, he continued, “presents itself as a challenge to look more carefully and to always seek the truth.” FRIDAY 20

POPE FRANCIS SURPRISES HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS BREAK Pope Francis made a surprise visit to a high school in Rome, where he spoke to about 800 students and answered questions about war, peace, and the coexistence of different cultures and religions. The Pilo Albertelli State High School is close to the Basilica of St. Mary Major. The Pope arrived there by car on the morning December 20. According to Matteo Bruni, Holy See press office director, students performed a song for Francis and the dean of the school gave an address. Pope Francis rang the school bell and wished everyone a Merry Christmas.

POPE FRANCIS AND U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL RECORD VIDEO URGING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, CLIMATE PROTECTION Pope Francis and the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres recorded a video message together at the Vatican in which the two leaders urge the importance of religious freedom, human dignity and environmental protection. “We must not remain indifferent to human dignity trampled on and exploited, to attacks against human life, whether it is yet to be born or that of every person in need of care,” Pope Francis said in the video message recorded with the UN Secretary General at the Vatican Apostolic Palace December 20. “We cannot, we must not turn away when the believers of various faiths are persecuted in different parts of the world. The use of religion to incite hatred … cries out for God’s justice,” the Pope said.

Opposite page, Pope Francis after the ceremony of installing of a cross in memory of migrants and refugees. Opposite, bottom, Pope Francis meets the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. On this page, Pope Francis greets children served by the Vatican’s St. Martha Pediatric Clinic during a special pre-Christmas meeting Dec. 22, 2019

SUNDAY 22

BEFORE CHRISTMAS, POPE FRANCIS MEETS WITH CHILDREN, TALKS ABOUT ST. JOSEPH When a group of children sang a belated “Happy Birthday” to Pope Francis and gave him a big cake, he needed to think twice before not eating some of it before lunch. “The cake looks good,” the Pope told children served by the St. Martha Pediatric Clinic at the Vatican. “Can we eat it? Yes? All of us? Or should we wait? Let’s wait, it’s more prudent.” And, in fact, after their audience with the Pope December 22, the children’s celebration continued with lunch and gifts. And, presumably, a piece of cake. Meanwhile, Pope Francis went to the Apostolic Palace to lead the recitation of the Angelus prayer with thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The Pope’s morning meeting with the children was billed as a pre-Christmas greeting, but the little ones also used it as an opportunity to mark the Pope’s 83rd birthday, which was December 17. Later, before reciting the Angelus prayer, Pope Francis offered a short reflection on the day’s Gospel reading about how St. Joseph considered quietly calling off his marriage to Mary since she was already pregnant, but an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid. “At this point,” the Pope said, “Joseph entrusts himself completely to God, obeys the word of the angel” and takes Mary as his wife. Pope Francis concluded his address with a word to families. “Your families, who in these days of festivity are gathering: Those who live far from their parents and return home; brothers and sisters who try to get together. May holy Christmas be for all an occasion of fraternity, growth in faith and gestures of solidarity with those in need.” SUNDAY 29

POPE FRANCIS ASKS FAMILIES TO PUT DOWN THEIR PHONES ON HOLY FAMILY FEAST On the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Pope Francis encouraged families to get off their cell phones and talk to one another. “In your family, do you know how to communicate with each other, or are you like those kids at the table — each one has their own cell phone, chatting? “In that table there is a silence as if they were at Mass, but they don’t communicate with each other,” Pope Francis said in his Angelus address December 29. “We need to retake communication within the family: parents, children, grandparents and siblings must communicate with each other,” the Pope said. “This is your assignment for today for the feast of the Holy Family,” he said.

JANUARY WEDNESDAY 1

POPE FRANCIS: “HONOR THE DIGNITY OF WOMEN” FOR A BETTER WORLD IN 2020 In his homily for the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, Pope Francis said that women must be honored and respected — not exploited for profit and pornography — in 2020. “How many times is the woman’s body sacrificed on the profane altars of advertising, profit, pornography, exploited as a surface to be used,” Pope Francis said in St. Peter’s Basilica January 1. “If we want a better world, which is a house of peace and not a war zone, we have to care for the dignity of every woman,” the Pope said. Pope Francis said that our level of humanity can be judged by how we treat a woman’s body, “the most noble flesh in the world” and “the culmination of creation.” THURSDAY 2

POPE RELEASES VIDEO TO ACCOMPANY JANUARY PRAYER INTENTION Pope Francis on January 2, 2020, released a video message to accompany his prayer intention for January: “Promotion of World Peace.” In his prayer intention for the month of January, Pope Francis calls us to pray that Christians, followers of other religions, and all people of goodwill may promote together peace and justice in the world. The Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network of the Apostleship of Prayer developed “The Pope Video” initiative to assist in the worldwide dissemination of monthly intentions of the Holy Father in relation to the challenges facing humanity. (Zenit) MONDAY 13

SOUTH SUDAN PEACE DECLARATION SIGNED IN ROME The Republic of South Sudan and the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA) have signed a peace declaration in Rome that will go into effect January 15. “I think this process will help the country to change to bring peace for the people,” Paolo Impagliazzo, Secretary General of the Community of Sant’Egidio, told CNA January 13. In peace talks in Rome facilitated by the Catholic community of Sant’Egidio, opposition groups and the South Sudanese government recommitted to cease hostilities, pursue political dialogue, and allow humanitarian aid for the people of South Sudan. Signers of the “Rome Declaration on the Peace Process in South Sudan” notably included representatives of the opposition groups in SSOMA, who refused to sign an earlier peace agreement on September 12, 2018 in Khartoum, and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and National Democratic Movement (NDM) as witnesses.n FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

PEOPLE B

BECKY DERKS with G. Galazka, CNA and CNS photos

n CARDINAL TAGLE BIDS FAREWELL TO HIS HOMETOWN IN THE PHILIPPINES Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, archbishop of Manila, bid farewell to his hometown of Imus in Cavite Province on January 20, 2020, before his expected transfer to Rome, reported CBCP News. In a Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Pillar, he thanked all those who attended the celebration, including some public officials. “This kind of celebration gives me strength,” a teary-eyed Cardinal Tagle said. It was the same cathedral where the cardinal was baptized a Catholic, and where he was ordained a priest in 1982 and a bishop in 2001. “From here, I will be an overseas Filipino worker (OFW),” he said. “Please continue praying for me, especially for Pope Francis.” The cardinal is expected to assume his post as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome early this year. (Zenit)

n LIMA ARCHBISHOP OFFERS “CLARIFICATION” ON CONTROVERSIAL EUCHARIST REMARKS After controversial remarks, the Archbishop of Lima said that he did not intend to undermine the importance of prayer in the presence of the Eucharist. “It is essential for us to maintain a level of entering and contemplating the mystery of the Lord made bread for us, the mystery of the transubstantiation as we call it more technically, which means the real presence of the Lord,” Archbishop Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio said January 7. Castillo’s remarks came after he told Lima’s synodal assembly January 7 that “no one is converted with the tabernacle.” At that meeting, Castillo said that while Pope Francis has mentioned contemplation of the Eucharist as a source of spiritual growth, “no one is converted with the tabernacle. We are all converted from meeting people who ask us questions and who are human dramas where the possibility of encountering the Lord arises.” (CNA) 60

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

FOUR SEMINARIANS ABDUCTED IN NIGERIA

Four seminarians between the ages of 18 and 23 were abducted from their seminary in Kaduna, in northwestern Nigeria. Pius Kanwai, 19, Peter Umenukor, 23, Stephen Amos, 23, and Michael Nnadi, 18, were taken from Good Shepherd Seminary in Kaduna, around 10:30 p.m. on January 8 by gunmen. Police are searching for the four young men. Nearly 270 seminarians live at Good Shepherd. “The security situation in Nigeria is appalling,” Thomas Heine-Geldern, executive president of Aid to the Church in Need International, said January 13. “Criminal gangs are further exploiting the chaotic situation and making matters still worse.” He compared the situation in Nigeria to that of Iraq prior to the Islamic State’s invasion: “Already at that stage, Christians were being abducted, robbed and murdered because there was no protection by the state. This must not be allowed to happen to the Christians of Nigeria. The government must act now, before it is too late.” (CNA)

n EXORCIST: TEMPTATION – NOT POSSESSION – IS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DEMONIC ACTIVITY Though dramatic representations of demonic possessions, as seen in Hollywood, can make them appear to be the primary method of the devil, one Dominican priest and exorcist has warned that the greater and more common threat to a person’s salvation

is the temptation to sin. “The most common manifestation of the demonic is temptation, which is much more significant than possession,” Fr. Francois Dermine, OP, told CNA. An exorcist for over 25 years, he explained that possession is not a spiritual

FILM TO PORTRAY CATHOLIC WOMAN WHO SAVED JEWISH CHILDREN IN WWII

The true story of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic woman who helped smuggle thousands of Jewish children out of the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw during World War II, will feature in a new historical thriller film produced by and starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot. Gadot, an Israeli actress well-known for her 2017 role as Wonder Woman, is co-producing the film, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, with her husband Jaron Varsano as the first project for their new production company, Pilot Wave. “As producers, we want to help bring stories that have inspired us to life,” Gadot and Varsano told Deadline. “Pilot Wave will create content that promotes the perspectives and experiences of unique people and produce impactful stories aimed at igniting the imagination.” According to Deadline, the new film will focus on Sendler’s underground activities and her arrest, and “the drama becomes a race against time to save not only herself but the identities of the hidden thousands who’ll face certain execution.” (CNA)

threat in the same way temptation is, and that a person who has been possessed by the devil may still make “extraordinary spiritual progress,” and could even one day be a saint. This is because demonic possession of a person’s body occurs without that person’s knowledge or consent. The possession in and of itself does not make the victim morally blameworthy. “We must not undervalue the significance of temptation. It’s not as spectacular as possession, but it’s far more dangerous [to the soul],” Dermine said. (CNA)

n BENEDICTINE SISTERS IN ECUADOR INAUGURATE BABY DROP-OFF BOX A group of religious sisters in Santo Domingo, Ecuador. has installed the country’s first baby dropoff box, as an alternative to abortion for mothers who find themselves unable to care for their newborns. The Missionary Benedictines inaugurated the country’s first “Cradle of Life” baby drop-off box on December 10 in Santo Domingo. The box is located in the exterior wall of their Happy Valley Home, a temporary shelter providing foster care for at-risk girls and adolescents. Sister Carmela Ewa Pilarska, a member of the home’s leadership team, said the pro-

“ANGELS UNAWARES” — VATICAN MIGRATION SCULPTURE COMING TO UNITED STATES

In 2019, Pope Francis unveiled a new bronze sculpture in St. Peter’s Square, “Angels Unawares,” a depiction of migrants throughout history crammed together on a boat with the Holy Family. The artist, Timothy Schmalz, told CNA December 17 that a second cast of the “Angels Unawares” sculpture will be touring different cities around America before being permanently installed in a yet-to-be-disclosed location in the United States. The 20foot-tall bronze statue is based on Hebrews 13:2, “By welcoming to strangers, many have entertained angels unawares.” For this work, Schmalz also had refugees from Africa visit his studio in Canada to model for some of the 140 different people depicted in the sculpture. He also collected vintage photographs of people’s grandparents, who had crossed the Atlantic as immigrants. “What I wanted to do is create a sculpture that is really inclusive of all migration,” he said. “It exemplifies all historical migrations, all cultures, all races that have ever moved throughout the world.” (CNA)

ject hopes to respond to cases of abandoned infants, such as those found occasionally in cardboard boxes or abandoned houses. “We would like to be the voice for so many newborns who struggled to survive, and we’re speaking up for those newborns who didn’t have the same fate,” she said at a presentation of the “Cradle of Life” project. (CNA)

POPE APPOINTS FIRST WOMAN TO MANAGERIAL POSITION IN SECRETARIAT OF STATE

Pope Francis has named Dr. Francesca Di Giovanni, 66, Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs in the Vatican Secretariat of State, marking the first time that a woman has been appointed to a managerial position in the secretariat. Di Giovanni has worked as an official in the department for more than 25 years, with specialties including humanitarian law, communications, migrants and refugees, and the status of women, according to Vatican Media. She will now work with Monsignor Miroslaw Wachowski, who also serves as Undersecretary for the Section of Relations with States, but focuses on bilateral affairs. Di Giovanni’s field of multilateral affairs focuses on the interactions between inter-governmental organizations such as the United Nations. (CNA)

n CHRISTMAS EVE CAROLERS FOR CARDINAL PELL GATHERED AT MELBOURNE PRISON IN AUSTRALIA A group of local Catholics gathered outside Melbourne prison on Christmas Eve to sing carols for Cardinal George Pell, currently incarcerated in the facility, and to pray for him, as well as the other inmates and prison staff. At 8 p.m. on December 24, about two dozen local Catholics gathered outside Melbourne Assessment Prison on the west side of the city center to sing Christmas carols and to pray for the cardinal and others in the jail. One of the singers, John McCauley, told CNA that “we just wanted the cardinal to know he was loved and remembered at Christmas.” The songs included traditional carols like O Come All Ye Faithful and Once in Royal David’s City, as well as Australian favorites like The Three Drovers. Singers wrote messages of support and Christmas greetings in a copy of the carol book, which was left for Pell at the prison’s front desk. (CNA)m FEBRUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

n BY MOTHER MARTHA

Stefano Navarrini illustration

IL MARITOZZO ROME’S ONLY NATIVE SWEET

hile gelato, panettone, cannoli, torrone, and tiramisù are beloved worldwide, other Italian sweets are less well-known and even regional. Some examples are bônet in Piemonte, sbrisolona in Lombardy, torta Barozzi in EmiliaRomagna, tozzetti in Tuscany and Umbria, sfogliatelle, babà, struffoli and la pastiera in Naples, seadas in Sardinia, and cassata and granite of multiple flavors in Sicily. In Rome for centuries now, the local sweet is the maritozzo, under-publicized outside Caput Mundi. Many Italian foods are celebrated on a specific day of the year. For the past three years Maritozzo Day has been December 7. At the press conference to present this third celebration, the scholar, home poet, and city guide Giggi Cartoni, nicknamed “Er Salustro” after the famous 19th-century Roman poet Trilussa, gave a brief history of this soft bun of oblong shape, a kind of bread traditionally made of flour, eggs, olive oil, salt, and honey, and then “dressed-up” for special occasions. In ancient times this “loaf” was baked and then seasoned with honey and raisins. Its name derives from the Latin, mas, maris meaning man or companion/co-worker. The farmers’ fast food, it gave them enough energy to work all day in the fields without returning home for lunch. During the Middle Ages, these loaves were one of the few “Church-approved” “treat” foods that the Romans were permitted to eat while fasting during Lent. Their filling of raisins, pine nuts, and candied fruit made them a kind of “sweet fix.” Hence it was nicknamed “Santo Maritozzo.” Recipes for such loaves started to appear in cookbooks in the 1700s, but it wasn’t until the 1800s that the “loaves” were given their current name maritozzo, an affectionate dialect version of the Italian word marito or husband. According to tradition, on March 1 or the first Friday of that month, a girl’s fiancé would give his bride-to-be this pastry, its icing on top depicting two pierced hearts. Inside he concealed a gift: a ring or other small gold object. During the first half of the 20th century the maritozzo, baked not as a loaf but bun-size, was considered a pastry for the upper classes. The “in” pastry-bar was the historic Caffè Greco, founded in 1760 on elegant Via Condotti and now at risk of

closing at least temporarily due to an eviction notice because its owner wants to raise the management’s rent of 17,000 euros per month to an unaffordable 150,000 euros. After the Second World War, the “in” location moved to the Via Veneto and the maritozzo was split open and filled with whipped cream. Its other fillings, now both sweet and salty, date to 2017’s first Maritozzo Day. This year’s event differed from the two earlier Maritozzo Days. For the first time it was celebrated outside Rome, in cities throughout Italy: Milan, Turin, Brescia, Città di Castello, Viterbo, Siracusa and Trapani. Secondly, some of the participating health-concerned pastry chefs colored their maritozzi “rosa” or “pink” by adding red and dried fruits or other natural colorings, like beet juice, and seeds to unrefined flour, only a tiny amount of sugar or its natural substitutes, and no gluten or lactose. Thus people with chronic health problems like diabetes or cancer patients undergoing treatments could eat them. Thirdly and most importantly, in order to participate it was necessary to download a personal coupon from the website www.maritozzoday.it, where there was a list of the over 30 Roman participants and the ingredients of their many proposed fillings, as well as a map of their locations so you could personalize your itinerary. Most were pastry shops and coffee bars, but some were restaurants including “All’Oro” with one Michelin star, which offered maritozzi to their guests as dessert in the evening, even though maritozzi are a breakfast dish. Among the non-traditional sweet whipped cream fillings offered were “Black Forest,” “Sacher” and “Oreo.” When it came to salty, many fillings were based on Roman specialties: spaghetti alla carbonara, coratella and artichokes, coda alla vaccinara, mortadella and puntarelle, and trippa. Upon presentation of the downloaded coupon, each maritozzo, for as long as the supply lasted, cost one euro, which was donated to the Breast Unit of the Vatican’s Fatebenefratelli Hospital on Rome’s Tiber Island for the purchase of cold caps to reduce the loss of hair during chemotherapy. Nota bene: Whether you are a resident of Rome or a future visitor, be sure to print the list of participants so you can plan your own maritozzi itinerary.m

From left to right: the classic maritozzo with whipped cream; the publicity poster; the day’s promoters with Giggi Cartoni (center); a strawberry-flavored version

INSIDE THE VATICAN FEBRUARY 2020

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