Inside the Vatican magazine January-February 2024

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EDITORIAL by Robert Moynihan

On Blessings and Orthodoxy

During this Christmas season, a Vatican document on the blessing of same-sex and other couples in irregular unions has caused a crisis in the unity of the Church. Many bishops conferences have rejected the document...

Thursday, December 28, 2023— A storm has arisen in the Church. It has been brewing for some time and is coming to a head now. Almost three years ago, in early 2021, the chief doctrinal authority in the Church, issued a “Responsum” (“response”) to a question: “Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?” The answer, dated February 22, 2021, signed by Cardinal Luis Ladararia, S.J., Prefect of the dicastery, published on March 15, 2021, was: “Negative.” Clear enough.

The 2021 “Responsum” explained its answer thus: “It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.”

Then, on December 18, 2023, this same office came back to the same question, and gave a much different answer.

In a Declaration entitled Fiducia Supplicans (“The Supplicating Trust”) On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings, the new head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ladaria’s successor, Argentine Cardinal Victor Fernandez — saying Pope Francis had seen and approved this text — tells us: “... this Declaration remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage, not allowing any type of liturgical rite or blessing similar to a liturgical rite that can create confusion. The value of this document, however, is that it offers a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings, permitting a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings, which is closely linked to a liturgical perspective.”

So for Fernandez, our traditional faith in Christian marriage remains, and does not allow any blessing by Catholic priests of couples in sexual unions not between one man and one woman “that can create confusion”... but, through a new, “broadened and enriched” understanding of what blessings are will allow blessings of a certain type, under specific conditions, to be given even to couples in same-sex or other “irregular” relationships.

This change from “no” to “yes” led to a worldwide explosion.

Bishops’ conferences in Africa, Ukraine and Kazakhstan said they would not accept the reasoning of this document. The bishops of Cameroon wrote: “We formally forbid all blessings of ‘homosexual couples’ in the Church of Cameroon.” Archbishop Tomasz Peta and Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan wrote: “The fact that the document does not give permission for the ‘marriage’ of same-sex couples should not blind pastors and faithful to the great deception and the evil that resides in the very permission to bless couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples.... None, not even the most beautiful, of the statements contained in this Declaration of the Holy See, can minimize the far-reaching and destructive consequences resulting from this effort to legitimize such blessings. With such blessings, the Catholic Church becomes, if not in theory, then in practice, a propagandist of the globalist and ungodly ‘gender ideology.’”

At the same time, “progressive” Catholics in many places said they were quite pleased by this document. The group LGBT+ Catholics Westminster in London, England said: “This is a massive step forward in the recognition and acceptance of all who seek a blessing for their loving and committed relationships.”

In an ominous development, Metropolitan Hilarion, the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Budapest and Hungary, said he thought this document would be an insurmountable obstacle to closer union between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. (Until recently, Hilarion was responsible for the ecumenical relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, largest among the Orthodox Churches.) In a December 21 video with American writer and Orthodox convert Rod Dreher, Hilarion said his initial impression was “a kind of a shock, because I think we always cite the Roman Catholic Church as a beacon of traditional Christianity — the Church which always supports the traditional Christian values and moral teaching in spite of the fact that from many different angles it is attacked for this traditionalism and stubbornness.” So hopes for Catholic-Orthodox Church unity have likely suffered a devastating blow from this new document.

“This is indeed a revolution, a big change, and I personally think it is a very unfortunate change because it is a trap and loophole,” Hilarion said. “It gives the opportunity to those priests who want to bless homosexual couples to do it. Very soon it will become a big industry in the Catholic Church because it will be on demand. Such priests will be very popular in certain circles and they will practice these blessings with permission from the Vatican.” Hilarion said the document is “deceitful but also dangerous” because it leads many to believe that the Church condones immoral sexual behavior.

“Here the question is not about this type of blessing,” he said.

“The question is about some sort of blessing which will mislead many people. It will mislead those who receive this blessing and it will also mislead those who will become—willingly or unwillingly—witnesses of that blessing because everyone will believe that now the Church blesses homosexual couples.”

Dreher said activists in the United States will begin targeting priests who refuse to perform same-sex blessings. “These priests will become mocked, persecuted, in their local area for not bowing to this new theology,” Dreher said. “It’s a terrible thing the Pope has done to these traditional priests.”

At the very heart of orthodoxy for all Christians is the belief that Christians and the Church as a whole must hold fast to the “depositum fidei” (“the deposit of the faith”). If we depart from orthodoxy, we depart from communion with Christ.

St. Peter wrote in his first letter (1 Peter 1:6-9), that Christians “though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations” should “greatly rejoice that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ... Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”m JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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CONTENTS JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

Year 32, #1

LEAD STORY The Vatican Trial of the Century: Cardinal Angelo Becciu and eight others are convicted

by ITV staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

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NEWS VATICAN / New Declaration Fiducia Supplicans: Wreaking Havoc on Blessings?

by Fr. Thomas Weinandy, OFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 VATICAN / The Pope continues to remove bishops — is this Synodality?

by Christina Deardurff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 ARMENIA / Christians on the Brink: Persecution in the World’s War Zones

by Christopher Hart-Moynihan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Robert Moynihan ASSOCIATE EDITOR: George “Pat” Morse (+ 2013) ASSISTANT EDITOR: Christina Deardurff CULTURE EDITOR: Lucy Gordan CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: William D. Doino, Jr. WRITERS: Anna Artymiak, Alberto Carosa, Giuseppe Rusconi, David Quinn, Andrew Rabel, Vladimiro Redzioch, Serena Sartini PHOTOS: Grzegorz Galazka LAYOUT: Giuseppe Sabatelli ILLUSTRATIONS: Stefano Navarrini CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Deborah B. Tomlinson ADVERTISING: Katie Carr Tel. +1.202.864.4263 kcarr@insidethevatican.com

SPECIAL: TOP TEN OF 2023 Shining Lights in an Often-dark Sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Kenyan Bishop Martin Kivuva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Sr. Chiara and Gaza’s Missionaries of Charity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Ruth Burrows, a.k.a. Sr. Rachel Gregory, OCD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Bishop Erik Varden of Norway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Mónika Dunai, Hungarian Member of Parliament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Bishop Fred Henry, retired bishop of Calgary in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Armenian Bishop Mikael Mouradian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Syrian Catholic Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Yonan . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Nigerian Sr. Patricia Ergebelum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 Year 32, #1

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CULTURE Interview / American Cardinal James Francis Stafford at 91

by Barbara Middleton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Education / Theosis Academy reflects authentic “diversity within unity”

by Dominic Cassella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Scripture / Treating the Sins of the Flesh with a Shrug

by Anthony Esolen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Spirituality Behind Bars / “If I forget you, Jerusalem”

by Marcellus Roberts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 URBI ET ORBI: CATHOLICISM AND ORTHODOXY Icon / The Creed: The Teaching on the Resurrection

by Robert Wiesner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 East-West Watch / Orthodox Moldova

by Peter Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 News from the East/Iraqi court rejects cardinal’s suit; world’s first Greek Catholic museum opens; Ukrainian PMs question church ban; LGBT propaganda outlawed in Russia

by Matthew Trojacek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 FEATURES Tradition and Beauty / Riding the Tiger

by Aurelio Porfiri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Art / Antonio Canova: In the Vatican and Rome

by Lucy Gordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Diplomacy: The Holy See’s relations with the Italian state

by Giovanni Maria Vian (Domani) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Lord of the World / “He was now going to one of two things — ignominy or death”

by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Vatican Watch / A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events: October, November and December 2023

by Matthew Trojacek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 People / Josephine Bakhita; Daniel Ortega; cardinal’s miracle; ‘Sinicization’ bishop; Baby Indi

by Matthew Trojacek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Food / Lenten Dishes of Rome

by ITV staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Classic Italy: Journey to the Face of Christ June 1 - 12, 2024 From the ancient rooms where St. Peter lived for seven years, to the bishop’s residence in Assisi; from the treasure trove of art and faith at the Vatican Museum, to the Benedictine monastery of Norcia; we will encounter some of the “living stones” of our Church, as we journey toward the Face of Christ — both spiritually and physically – in the form of the miraculous Face of Manoppello. Visit us online to learn more!

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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

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VATICAN “TRIAL OF THE CENTURY” What a cloak and dagger story (Moynihan Letter #178, December 12, 2023: Becciu Trial #3). It seems the big enchilada set-up was the property — how it was set up, bought, managed and sold and by what companies. Somehow the Brits are always involved and benefit.

Their fingerprints are on everything, and not just in this story.

The rest of the charges sound like smoke to get cooperation from all parties — plus the added benefit to those who wish to see the Church in further turmoil.

Linda Smith Florida, USA When Becciu was stripped of his cardinal’s hat [in 2020], I recall reading somewhere that the reason was that it was Becciu who paid off a witness in Australia to take down Cardinal Pell. Pell had to endure the horror of jail time and a sham trial before proving his innocence at the Supreme Court.

Why? Someone in the Vatican wanted him out of the way. I read his first report as Chair of the newly-formed Secretariat of the Economy. It was impressive. He was getting very close to the mark in his audit of the finances of the Vatican CityState and the Holy See. I recall reading in Pell’s report that the one big unknown he had yet to fully uncover was the Secretariat of State, and that they had a lot of off-balance sheet money stashed here and there, untracked.

He was unsure of how much money was under their control.

This could be an explanation for why Pope Francis would be going after Becciu so aggressively: to avenge Pell’s treatment. The Pope could easily blame himself for this injustice. If my hunch (and my memory of what I read 2-3 years ago) is accurate, then this is truly an institutional crisis, where Francis is still trying to reform the Vatican bureaucracy — particularly the Secretariat of State, which 8

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

was operating autonomously — and send a signal to all the careerist bureaucrats there that this vindictive behavior will no longer be tolerated.

To add another note, a few years ago I sent you a report on the IOR (the “Vatican Bank”). I was a banking executive for 20+ years before becoming a financial consultant. I write on banking, interest rates and Fed policy on LinkedIn regularly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomesposito/ The rot and corruption at IOR was cleaned out by Benedict. He put in place various reform measures to ensure the IOR was up to European banking standards for money laundering and such. He also put new international leadership in place, and commenced quarterly reporting disclosures. This transparency may be why the IOR is ascendant in Pope Francis’ mind.

One reads tea leaves at a distance here, so I can’t be sure. But I wanted to convey my concern that you investigate whether Becciu was personally responsible for what happened to Cardinal Pell. If Becciu was the Sostituto at the time Pell was taken out, then it is possible.

If Becciu is guilty of this, then he is an evil man and would do anything to save himself and his reputation, including driving a cheap car.

Tom Esposito tespo18@yahoo.com Sad study on Becciu, who appears to be another Cardinal Pell, falsely accused of crimes. I will pray for him.

Jeannette Thomas jthomas154@roadrunner.com I am not satisfied at all with the way Pope Francis is handling this case. The trial of Cardinal Becciu does not seem like a fair one at all considering the testimony against him being prepared and read by a witness, Perlasca, who didn’t compose it himself, and the fact that testimony was worked on by a woman who has a strong bias against Becciu.

I am very dissatisfied with the Pope’s commentary on this because he has been so outspoken about injustices he sees in the world which he has no power to do anything about, yet this injustice which he can deal with and is under his authority, he is doing nothing about, and basically saying to Cardinal Becciu “I know you are suffering and this stinks, but just offer it up as a cross.”

Maybe instead of getting involved in secular politics and environmentalism, he should deal with the injustices committed within his own house, often by people close to him. valeriak76@hotmail.com

CONFORMITY IN THE MASS? (Re: Moynihan Letter #167, November 29, 2023: The Mass) The St. Gregory Mass dates back to circa 500 AD: so what? Was it St. Gregory who instituted the Mass?

Had he as much trouble introducing the vernacular language of the day into the Mass as the current Church has introducing the current vernacular?

Possibly — or was he trying to standardize the Mass and get universal conformity — but for what reason? Conformity for conformity's sake?

Yes, I suppose in days when communication was very difficult, conformity was a very useful discipline and made control much easier.

But before 500 AD, the Mass was said and in various languages, I'm sure.

On the road to Emmaus, was it Latin that Jesus used, or was it Greek — I don’t think so. But it was the Mass — at least I hope Jesus got it right!!!

God help Him if He had tried the same thing in the 1600 years between 500 and 2100 AD — he'd have been excommunicated.

Why do so many egotistical also-rans think they know better than the Pope, the elected representative of the universal Church?

God help the world the next 100 years and those who survive it. What a glorious group of leaders we have in the “free” world, all deluded into worshiping money and the evil that brings.

God help the poor who will have to try to live through it until the wheel turns the circle again back to public-spirited, self-

effacing politicians with a touch of humility — unlike the present crew who worship only money and their own egos.

Pray for the conversion of China.

Sean Creaney seancreaney@gmail.com

THE BISHOP STRICKLAND SAGA Praying fervently for Bishop Strickland to continue his work in Tyler.

We are beginning a merger of parishes in the Archdiocese of Seattle. It's literally the whole west coast to the middle of our lovely Cascades Range — 187 parishes formed into 65 (I hope that's correct). My parish is to be the “parish family” of 3 parishes and 2 missions.

Two priests are the plan for us. Three years to work out all the administrative and council groups, buildings, schedules.

We have too few seminarians, unlike Bishop Strickland.

Please pray for us!

Michele Small principessa108@gmail.com This is typical Bergoglio modus operandi to remove a conservative bishop and stack the deck with a liberal apostate/heretic like himself, per the recent exposé of John Lamont. Just another evil move by a false Pope.

Victor J. Cameron vcamco6645@gmail.com

Charles Murr is on our Urbi et Orbi YouTube channel: qrco.de/UrbiSTx)

VIGANÒ AND CHURCH UNITY (Re: Moynihan Letter #132, October 2, 2023: Viganò): I think there are several (serious) problems here.

One is that Viganò is desperate to disqualify Francis rather than take the path of “fraternal correc-tion.” After all, even if Francis were to be found invalidly in the papacy, his position as a successor to the Apostles (bishop) is not in dispute.

Second, the letter does not make the case that Jorge Bergoglio did not want or accept the papacy “because he considers the papacy something other than what it is.”

What is the basis for this assumption?

The fact that the Vatican’s yearbook put the Vicar of Christ title elsewhere in the book?

That Francis perhaps sees the papacy in a more collegial sense does not diminish his authority, nor has Francis indicated that he is not in a unique authoritative position: "The Pope, in this

Thank you so much for the livestream with Bishop Strickland and Fr. Murr.

What a gift to listen to….we truly are in the time of martyrs. theresa.ungashik@att.net (Ed. note: Dr. Moynihan’s conversation with Bishop Strickland and Fr.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR context, is not the supreme lord but rather the supreme servant — the “servant of the servants of God”; the guarantor of the obedience and the conformity of the Church to the will of God, to the Gospel of Christ, and to the Tradition of the Church, putting aside every personal whim, despite being — by the will of Christ Himself — the “supreme Pastor and Teacher of all the faithful” and despite enjoying “supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church.” (Pope Francis, closing remarks on the Synod; Catholic News Agency, October 18th, 2014) Third, the evidence for fraud has not been established and, in fact, soundly refuted (the so-called St. Gallen’s Mafia was disbanded after Benedict’s election when it was active; if any election could be cast in doubt, it was Ratzinger’s). That evidence, if existent, would have to be embraced by the Cardinals who elected him, and it would take the authority of the next Pope to disqualify Francis.

Fourth, as much as Viganò likes to say that Francis has been heterodox, the truth is that Francis can be shown to have taught the major tenets of our faith, even if he has created pastoral confusion on objective mortal sin (and he has!): see https://www.markmallett.com/blog/popefrancis-on/.

I wholeheartedly agree, however, that off-the-cuff remarks, irresponsible interviews (eg. Scalfari), and mind-blowing collaborations (Pachamama in the Vatican Gardens, support of the UN’s SDG, vaccine, and climate change agenda) are nothing short of scandalous.

The danger is that the more Viganò sows doubt in the faithful, the more the Church’s unity is destabilized. He is free to speculate — but out loud?

“Be careful to preserve your faith, because in the future, the Church in the U.S.A. will be separated from Rome.” — St. Leopold, Antichrist and the End Times, Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi, St. Andrew’s Productions, P. 31 Mark Mallett Norwood.com

THE TRUTH ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY I am a Jewish activist for the truth about homosexuality and gender identity disorder — that they are neurotic, pre10

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ventable with better parenting, and treatable with depth psychotherapy from a properly trained practitioner.

Truth continues to lose ground in the U.S. culture wars. Resistance to the Left is not enough. Its grip on legal culture, health care culture, educational culture, journalistic culture, and more — leading to its grip on government — must be broken. Please see: -TherapeuticChoice.com -*JosephNicolosi.com (introduction) -Richard Cohen, Coming Out Straight -Janelle Hallman, The Heart of Female Same-Sex Attraction -Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley, Gender Identity Disorder andd Psychosexual Problems in Children and Adolescents -Ronald Bayer, Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis -Charles Socarides, “Sexual Politics and Scientific Logic” -Jeffrey Satinover, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth -Paul C. Vitz, Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship -Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., The Liberal Mind Psychologist Vitz works from a Catholic perspective, as did the late psychologist Nicolosi. His son and namesake, also a psychologist, carries on this work at ReintegrativeTherapy.com.

The American people have been led by the Left to misunderstand many things — these disorders, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, and compassion itself among them. I’m afraid that Pope Francis has also fallen into that last trap.

Sharon Kass sharonforamerica@gmail.com

HUMANITY’S GREATEST LOVE AFFAIR Who is the person who has been the subject of humanity’s greatest love affair?

Is it Jesus? No, it’s His Mother! Works of art and music have been produced about her over millennia with feverish intent.

Surely, it all started when God fell in love with Mary, and chose her to be the mother of His Son, at the Annunciation.

Hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, prophecies abounded about the virgin birth. (Think Micah and Isaiah.)

Over millennia, who has been the most

painted? Google “paintings of the Virgin Mary,” and be astounded. And who has been the most sculpted? (How many versions of the Pietà alone are there?)

Who has been the subject of countless beautiful musical compositions? Just a few examples: “Salve Regina,” “Alma “Redemptoris Mater,” and Regina Coeli,” composed by Blessed Hermann the Cripple in the early 1000’s.

Yet, in the modern era, who’s the most maligned and ridiculed?

The Virgin Mary. The world says you’re not really living if you’re a virgin or chaste. You have got to “find yourself.”

There is no such thing as sin, only psychological states or problems that need therapy.

So the world tries to erase the Virgin Mary, but look at the consequence: not only motherhood, but now womanhood itself, are questioned, and no longer needed; abortion is healthcare; gender is fluid.

What does Mary say about all this?

“My children, all you’re doing is harming yourselves. There’s only one path that will take you to the Beatific vision, and salvation: the narrow road following my Son. I take you to Him, by saying: ‘do whatever He tells you,’ as I told those in charge of the wine at the Wedding of Cana. The infinite number of other paths may be interesting, distracting, exciting, but will ultimately destroy you.”

Nowadays I’m getting to know Blessed Hermann the Cripple. He had several maladies, including a cleft palate, deformed legs, and neurological problems.

His parents couldn’t handle him, so in those days, they’d send such children to monasteries or convents. He was brilliant in spite of all his shortcomings, and his famous musical compositions have been sung for centuries.

Carmen Fojo fojo.carm@gmail.com

EDUCATION, NOT LEGISLATION We know from 3,000 years’ experience that legislation, i.e., the Ten Commandments, does not result in righteousness and justice. Lack of compliance with the Ten Commandments, i.e., the Law, does not result in salvation. What is needed is effective education unto right-

eousness and justice. We do this by a national focus on the Truth of God’s Word in Whom we trust (see John 1:1-3), i.e., God’s Word is God! We learn this through fear of the Lord.

Daniel Najvar Quitman, Texas, USA

LETTER FROM LA SALETTE I love the retelling of the La Salette story (Moynihan Letter #123, September 22, 2023: Letter from La Salette) as I was not familiar with it. I’m blessed by your sharing it, but I don’t understand how you conclude that the takeaway is “a mother’s love.” While I agree that the Blessed Virgin is the most loving of mothers, she came to give a warning: It is sin and the lack of love for God that causes her tears and suffering.

By omitting this aspect of Mary’s message, it seems you skipped something rather important.

Nevertheless, you are a treasure and someone who is a light very much needed in these dark times. I have found your articles to be insightful and edifying.

Thank you for your great work and keep listening to the Holy Spirit. Your faithfulness has enabled you to become a light on a hill. I hope you meet you in person one day but for now, I send you my gratitude and a prayer for your perseverance. kckhere@gmail.com

THE GIFT OF FAITH A thousand thanks to you and your staff for Inside the Vatican magazine’s balanced journalism. “The unfolding of your words gives light.” With appreciation for your East and West news, I enclose a donation to your scholarship fund for prisoners and religious.

We live in time, but the truth of the matter is that all our doings are eternal.

God’s kingdom is in our midst “in an eternal Now” (Martin Mosebach). We give glory to God when “living the truth in love, we grow in every way into Him who is the Head, Christ (cf Ephesians 4:15).

Judy Kozlowski Salem, Massachusetts, USA

Francis is now condoning same-sex couples by allowing priests to bless them.

Their behavior is considered to be sinful in both the Old and New Testaments and during the full existence of the Church.

So, why would the Pope bless this? Does He now condone sin? Sure, Jesus sat and talked to sinners but He was instructing them to change their ways and to join Him. Jesus did not bless sin. What sort of example or message is Pope Francis trying to convey?

Matthew Steger Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, USA I am a great fan of Pope Francis in many ways. However, I see a real irony with respect to the issuance of Fiducia Supplicans. Pope Francis has greatly stressed the importance of synodality for the Church, and at the first session of the Synod on Synodality, the issue of samesex blessings was discussed. But the final Synod document was silent on this subject, there being insufficient support at this time. Presumably, the subject would be discussed at the second session.

However, now Pope Francis unilaterally issues a document approving samesex blessings under certain circumstances. Is this consistent with synodality? I think that the synodal approach would be to see what the second Synod session would decide, rather than the Pope taking this pre-emptive action.

Also the Holy Father made a real change in the Synod of Bishops by adding non-bishops as voting members. Should not the Synod itself have been given the opportunity to express its opinion on its own composition? In the Orthodox Church, I do not believe that a primate would make such important decisions

without consulting the body of bishops.

Peter Anderson Seattle, Washington, USA

FROM PRISONERS I would like to request a continuation of my subscription to your beautiful magazine if possible. I was very impressed with the article about Pope Francis and his candid responses. (You are a rare source of Catholic news – we have had no TV since 7/15/1990! Wow! And I’ve never owned a cell phone! Double wow!)

If we could all be so strong in our convictions and practices. As always, I pray for repair of the bridge between the East and the West (if we could bring down the Wall with prayer, so too can we end the division in God’s Church via prayer).

Thank you for the Special Mary edition last year — it is beautiful!

Ron Haney, #219916 CI - 203, JHCC Box 548 Lexington, OK 73051 I am writing to ask if it is possible for me to receive a complimentary subscription to your magazine? Although I am incarcerated, I am excited for the Christmas season and I am sponsoring someone for the the first time since my baptism in 2017. RCIA has been great and our priest here likes to use the Baltimore Catechism. Thank you for your time!

Ms. Alexis Millhouse, #690-965 PO Box 5500 Chillicothe, OH 45601 Correction: The name of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa. His first name was misspelled on the cover of the NovemberDecember 2023 issue.

SAME-SEX BLESSINGS? I was astonished to see that Pope JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

11

LEAD STORY

vatiCan “trial of the Century” ends with ConviCtions... ...But Cardinal angelo BeCCiu, and eight others found guilty will appeal their ConviCtions n BY ROBERT MOYnIHAn Pope John Paul II named Giovanni Angelo Becciu a bishop and he was consecrated on December 1, 2001. He was promoted to Nuncio (Ambassador) and served in Angola and in Cuba before being called back to Rome by Pope Benedict XVI to become “Sostituto,” the Substitute, or Deputy, Secretary of State. Becciu was so trusted that he was chosen to be at the very top of the Church’s hierarchy — the reigning Pope’s trusted “right-hand man” for administration and finances for seven years, first under Pope Benedict XVI (from 2011 to 2013), then under Pope Francis (from 2013 until mid-2018).

W

hen I came to Rome on May 19, 1984 — 40 years ago in four months — I met and came to know Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He later became Pope Benedict XVI. We spoke on several occasions about Vatican government and finances.

I also met and came to know, in the mid-1980s, Archbishop Paul Casimir Marcinkus (January 15, 1922-February 20, 2006; he died at the age of 84).

Marcinkus was the controversial President of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR) — the “Vatican Bank.” Marcinkus took pains to explain to me his version of the story of the Banco Ambrosiano-Vatican Bank scandal... the greatest financial scandal in Vatican history. Both of these men helped to shape my understanding of how to approach the subject of Vatican finances.

Then, in the past 20 years, I came to know the Australian Cardinal George Pell, charged by Pope Francis to try to bring transparency to the Vatican’s finances during the past decade. He died on January 10 of last year, at age 81.

Moreover, I have spoken with many other Church officials and Vatican observers about Vatican finances and the long and well-publicized case before the Vatican court

(Grzegorz Galazka-photo)

that on December 16 ended with a verdict of guilty for several Vatican officials, most notably, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, 75, former second-ranking official (“Sostituto” or Deputy) at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

It is important to see this trial as part of a larger question, a larger battle, over control of the Vatican’s finances.

12 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

THE VERDICTS Let’s start with the verdicts: Cardinal Becciu was absolved of some charges but convicted of “crime and embezzlement” and “violation of the regulations for the management of ecclesiastic goods” and sentenced to 5½ years in prison. The cardinal was also fined 8,000 euros and permanently banned from exercising public office. The Promoter of Justice had requested a sentence of seven years and three months of prison and a fine of more than 10,000 euros.

Cardinal Becciu’s lawyer, Fabio Vignone, commented: “We respect the verdict, but we will certainly file an appeal.”

Curiously, the prosecuting attorney, Alessandro Diddi, on December 22 also filed an appeal. He wants stiffer sentences. But wasn’t

the result already a “win” for him?

Why does he want to retry the case one more time?

Because, as Nicole Winfield, the Vatican reporter for the Associated Press, summed up in a December 22 piece that was entitled “Vatican prosecutor appeals verdict that largely dismantled his fraud case but convicted cardinal,” Diddi’s over-arching vision of this case was not reflected in the verdicts.

Winfield writes: “Diddi had accused Becciu and nine other people of dozens of counts of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion, corruption, abuse of office and witness tampering in connection with the Vatican’s bungled investment in a London property. He sought prison terms of up to 13 years for each of the defendants and 400 million euros in restitution. In the end, the tribunal headed by Judge Giuseppe Pignatone acquitted one defendant entirely and convicted the others of only a few of the charges while still ordering them to pay 366 million euros in restitution.”

And the lawyer for Enrico Crasso — whose career managing money with the Secretariat of State spanned 30 years and who was convited on only three charges of the 21 he faced — Luigi Panella, made the same point about the prosecutor’s case: “Contrary to the propaganda spread, the prosecutor’s appellate motion reveals that the tribunal to a large extent didn’t uphold the accusatory formula.”

So that is the first point to keep in mind about this case: the December 16 verdicts did not reflect the “theory” that the prosecuting attorney, Diddi, set forth throughout the trial.

There were convictions, but there was something odd about them.

The prosecuting attorney won, yes, but he also, in fact, in some way, lost, in not having the judges support his overarching thesis.

So let’s look at the charges against Becciu. His conviction came

in relation to three matters: 1) a London palace investment deal involving hundreds of millions’ 2) funding of 125,000 euros sent to a Sardinian charity connected with Becciu’s younger brother; and 3) payments of 575,000 euros made to a self-styled “secret agent” named Cecilia Marogna.

arChbishoP Paul MarCinkus, was under John Paul ii the controVersial President oF the IstItut­o­per­le­opere­dI­relIgIone (ior) — the “Vatican bank”

Cardinal GeorGe Pell, was charged by PoPe Francis to try to bring transParency to the Vatican’s Finances during the Past decade

The Three Cases 1) London. In 2014, the Vatican Secretariat of State decided to invest 200 million euros with a fund based in London, the Athena Fund, directed by Italian financier Raffaele Mincione, which owned the Sloane Avenue London property, as well as other investments.

Cardinal Becciu did sign off on that investment — after members of

his staff advised him it would likely be profitable, given the high value and stability of London’s property market. However, in 2016, when Britain voted to leave the European Union (“Brexit”), the prices of London property dropped sharply. This led the Vatican to ponder how to “get out of the deal,” though there was a penalty to pay if they did so before seven years had gone by (before 2021).

After two more years, in November of 2018 — and now five months after Becciu had stepped down as “Sostituto” in mid-2018 when Pope Francis made him a cardinal — Mincione agreed to be “bought out” for... 40 million euros(!), and another Italian financier, Gianluigi Torzi, was brought in instead.

Where did Torzi come from?

Massimo Bassi, one of the defense attorneys for Fabrizio Tirabassi said, “Torzi was introduced by Giuseppe Milanese, who was a friend of the Pope’s, so why wouldn’t we trust him?” (In the testimony of Mons. Alberto Perlasca, Perlasca described Milanese as “an intimate friend and penitent of Pope Francis from his days in Buenos Aires.”)

Also, Tommaso di Ruzza, the head of the financial intelligence agency testified during the trial that Francis explicitly asked him to help the Secretariat of State negotiate the exit deal with Torzi.

Indeed, Becciu’s onetime secretary, Mons. Mauro Carlino, testified that Francis was so pleased with the outcome of the Torzi negotiation that he paid for a celebratory group dinner at a fancy Roman fish restaurant.

But Torzi was actually a problem.

He created an ad hoc corporate structure in which the Vatican owned 30,000 shares and Torzi owned 1,000 — but Torzi’s shares were the only voting shares; the Vatican’s shares were non-voting. Torzi told the Vatican negotiators that he needed those shares to take decisions on the property, like an owner,

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 13

LEAD STORY VaTican “Trial of The cenTury” ends but the Vatican, to its horror, only after signing the document, realized it did not actually have voting ownership in — anything(!).

So then Torzi too was bought out, in 2019 (for 15 million euros!), and the Vatican took sole ownership of the London Palace.

But, since so much time had passed, the planning and zoning approval which had been arranged by Mincione to develop the Palace into a number of valuable upscale units, expired. So the Vatican now owned a property which it could not develop as originally intended.

In the end, it was Pope Francis himself who ordered the property sold, to bring to an end the bad publicity about the “Vatican’s scandalous London Palace.” The property was sold in mid-2022 to Bain Capital, a Boston-based investment firm, at a loss of more than 100 million euros.

According to the prosecution, the loss was at least €139 million, following a total purchase for £350 million and a resale for less than £186 million. The Vatican’s Secretariat of State and four other parties became a Civil Party to the trial and has claimed: 1) Secretariat of State, requesting €117,818 million in damages; 2) IOR (the Vatican Bank), requesting €207,987,494 million; 3) APSA, €270,777,495 million; 4) the Vatican’s Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (Autorità di Supervisione e Informazione Finanziaria, ASIF), the competent authority of the Holy See and Vatican City State for financial intelligence; and 5) Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, former head of the administrative office of the Secretariat of State (and trusted associate of Becciu).

(These last two parties “defer to the equitable assessment of the

judging panel for the quantification of damages.”)

So, the punishment for the adjudicated crimes, if upheld on appeal, would call for 500 million euros to go from the convicted parties to var-

Tribunale VaTicano, “A triAl on this mAssive scAle should never hAve occurred” alessandro diddi, Promoter of Justice (Prosecutor) for the vAticAn city stAte.

ious Vatican offices claiming they were harmed by these deals.

It is in this sense that this case is a struggle between entities of the Vatican itself.

Becciu (as he has maintained throughout the trial) was not involved in the 2022 sale of the property at this large loss — he had left his post as “Sostituto” already in mid-2018. (Indeed, some observers say that if the property had been kept until today, it could actually have been sold at a profit.) Still, Becciu was accused of mis-using

14 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

(mis-investing) Church funds. The Vatican court ruled that Canon Law prohibits using Church assets in such a speculative investment. Yet, Becciu still proclaims his innocence, saying the investment itself was not a crime under Canon Law, though perhaps a misjudgment.

2) Sardinia. The 125,000 euros sent from the Secretariat of State, with Becciu’s approval, to the Catholic Caritas agency of the diocese of Ozieri, in Sardinia, where Becciu is from. Because Becciu’s brother, Antonino Becciu, was an official at the Spes (“Hope”) cooperative in the diocese, Becciu was charged with nepotism, and the court found him guilty. (Becciu says it was only this charge that Francis brought up to him on the evening of September 24, 2020, when the two met in the Domus Santa Marta ands Francis told Becciu he could no longer be a voting cardinal, and would have to step down from his post as Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.)

Becciu still proclaims his innocence, saying the funds were not requested by his brother, but by the bishop of Ozieri, and all used for charitable purposes.

His brother did not benefit from these funds, Becciu maintains.

With 25,000 euros, a bakery that burned down was rebuilt, and the other 100,000 euros are still on deposit in the diocesan Caritas account. No evidence was produced at the trial that Antonino Becciu received any of these funds. (The court document which explains all the reasons for the court’s decisions is still being drafted and will likely not be published until mid-2024.

When it is published, it will be possible to analyze the reasoning of the court.)

3) Cecilia Marogna. Becciu was charged with embezzlement for the 575,000 euros which were sent by

Opposite page: January 31, 2015 ,the inauguration of the 86th judicial years of the Tribunal of the Vatican City State. The judges: Raffaele Ottaviani (Chancellor), Paolo Papanti Pelletier, Gian Piero Milano (Promotore di Giustizia, that is, Prosecutor), Giuseppe Dalla Torre (President of the Tribunal), Piero Antonio Bonnet, Venerando Marano, Roberto Zannotti and Alessandro Diddi (Grzegorz Galazka-photo)

the Secretariat of State to pay an Italian woman named Cecilia Marogna, who presented herself to Becciu as an “international operations expert” who could help the Holy See carry out missions which required caution and secrecy. She suggested she could help to free a Colombian nun who had been kidnapped in 2017 by Muslim terrorists in Mali. Becciu says he took the matter to the Holy Father, and he testified that Francis approved spending up to 1 million euros to negotiate the nun’s freedom by reaching out, through Marogna’s intelligence connections, to the nun’s captors. Over two years, Becciu authorized paying 575,000 euros to Marogna. However, in the trial investigation (which was given access to Marogna’s credit card records), it turned out Marogna had spent 300,000 euros on luxury vacations, handbags and clothing. So both she, and Becciu, were found guilty of fraud. Becciu has defended himself, saying he knew nothing of such expenses, and thought Marogna was hiring other agents to help her carry out her mission. He himself was defrauded by Marogna, he has argued. Marogna has also continued to claim she is innocent.

Here are the other convictions: 2. Raffaele Mincione, a London-based Italian broker who managed the Athena fund, was convicted of embezzlement.

His lawyers immediately announced an appeal, saying they were incredulous that a broker who took under management Vatican funds from Swiss banks could be convicted and sentenced to 5½ years in prison over an “obscure canonical law” that Mincione said he only learned about on the day he was convicted.

3. Gianluigi Torzi. The court ruled that Torzi hoodwinked the Vatican, securing full control of the building, forcing the Vatican to pay

him 15 million euros to give up his ownership. The Vatican tribunal convicted Torzi of several charges, including extortion, and sentenced him to six years in prison.

4. Fabrizio Tirabassi, who had

cecilia MaRogna, who was given vatican money to ransom a colombian nun kidnapped by muslim extremists

Raffaele Mincione, fund manager, convicted of violating a canon law he says he had never heard of until the day of the verdict.

worked analyzing investment opportunities for the Vatican for 30 years, a layman, was convicted of extortion along with Torzi, and on a money-laundering charge.

5. Enrico Crasso, another longtime financial advisor to the Vatican, was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to seven years.

6. Tommaso di Ruzza, the former director of the Vatican’s financial intelligence agency and 7. Rene Bruelhart, a Swiss lawyer from Fribourg, who served as the President of the Board of Di-

rectors of the Financial Information Authority, were absolved of the main charge of abuse of office.

They were convicted only of failing to report a suspicious transaction involving Torzi to prosecutors and fined 1,750 euros apiece. (Note: The suspicious transaction they failed to report was a request from the Secretariat of State for a 150,000 euro loan to finalize the property transfer and to pay off a high-interest mortgage. It was the IOR itself which signaled this request, and this became the cause for the entire trial, which was arguing that the Secretariat of State was misusing its funds.)

—8. Nicola Squillace, a lawyer close to Torzi, was convicted.

—9. Cecilia Marogna, was convicted to 3 years 9 months in prison.

—10. Monsignor Mauro Carlino, Becciu’s personal secretary for some years, was acquitted entirely.

All nine of the convicted defendants have announced their intentions to appeal.

WHAT WAS IT ABOUT? So why must we see this trial as part of a “larger battle”? Because this trial, which lasted two and a half years and involved 85 hearings, over 600 hours spent in Court, the testimonies of 69 witnesses, 12,4563 printed and electronic pages and 2,479,062 files presented by the prosecution, 20,150 pages with attachments deposited by the defense, as well as 48,731 pages presented by civil parties, was, as veteran Vaticanist John Allen called it at one point, “surreal.”

Although there were 10 defendants against whom a total of 49 charges were leveled, it is Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, former Sostituto (the “number two” official under the Secretary himself) at the office of the Vatican Secretary of State — one of the highest positions in the Vatican — who was the main

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 15

LEAD STORY VAtIcAn “trIAl oF the century” ends protagonist of the events portrayed as criminally corrupt by the prosecution.

Who is Cardinal Becciu? Born in 1948 into a family of modest means in Sardinia, the eldest of several children, he entered the seminary and was ordained on August 27, 1972. Hard-working, pious, and intelligent, Becciu, who for eight years was the vice-rector of the diocesan seminary in Sardinia, with other diocesan assignments, was “noticed” — and so, in May 1984 he was called to Rome to study at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy to become a Vatican diplomat.

After years of study, he was posted to Vatican embassies in the Central African Republic, Sudan, New Zealand (he recalls that New Zealand was “very beautiful”), Sierra Leone and Liberia, the United Kingdom, France, and the US (for just one year, but precisely “just on time to assist at the terrific scene of September 11”).

Pope John Paul II named him a bishop and he was consecrated on December 1, 2001, by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, then the Vatican Secretary of State. Becciu was then promoted to Nuncio (Ambassador) and served in Angola (2001-2009) and in Cuba (2009-2011) before being called back to Rome by Pope Benedict XVI to become “Sostituto,” the Substitute, or Deputy, Secretary of State. This essentially made him the “#3 man” in the Vatican, after the Pope and the Cardinal Secretary of State. Becciu, therefore, was so trusted that he was chosen to be at the very top of the Church’s hierarchy — the reigning Pope’s trusted “right-hand man” for administration and finances for seven years, first under Pope Benedict XVI (from 2011 to 2013), then under Pope Francis (from 2013 until mid-2018).

Then, in September 2020, after becoming implicated in the growing financial scandal, Cardinal Becciu was asked by Pope Francis to relin-

quish his rights as a cardinal (without being proven guilty of anything).

InnOCEnT, OR GUILTY? Despite the verdict, we may ask whether the evidence presented at the trial seems preponderant for ei-

FrAncescA IMMAcolAtA chAouquI — a convicted defendant in the 2016 “vatileaks” trial — helPed monsignor alberto Perlasca, to PrePare his testimony

Msgr. Alberto PerlAscA, former collaborator of cardinal becciu, whose testimony Prosecutor diddi said was worth “zero and less than zero.”

ther the innocence or the guilt of the cardinal.

1) The London deal.

The Vatican invested in the London property in 2014, then fully purchased the property in 2019.

Without developing it as planned, the Vatican sold the property in 2022 at a huge loss. Here below is a brief timeline of the investment:

16 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

2014: An investment of 160 million euros is made in the Palace of London, with a contractual agreement to keep the funds in the investment for five years with a clause to extend the “lock-up” period for another two years if there was a major “event” which materially altered the financial environment. That event occurred in 2016 when, due to “Brexit” — Britain’s voting to “exit” from the European Union — the “lock-up” was extended for another two years.

June 2018 — Becciu leaves the position of Substitute. november 2018 — The Vatican Secretariat of State leaves the Raffaele Mincione Fund, buys the building in question, and chooses to have it managed by Gianluigi Torzi’s company.

May – June 2019: The Secretariat of State asks the IOR for a loan of 150 million euros. The request is denied. And flagged as a crime.

2022 — The Vatican (APSA on behalf of the Pope) sells the London Palace at a tremendous loss.

The question is: why, once the investment was made, did the rest of the plan to develop the building and have it generate cash flow go sour? The answer seems to be: because another Vatican entity besides the Secretariat of State denied the Secretariat of State’s 2019 request for a $150 million loan to complete the deal.

In addition, that entity flagged the loan request as illegal under Vatican law, and by that flagging started the wheels in motion which led to this trial.

What was that other Vatican entity? It was the Institute for the Works of Religion, the IOR — the Vatican Bank.

In a sense, then, this trial is about one entity inside the Vatican objecting to another entity inside the Vatican borrowing funds to complete an investment deal in a property in London that might have earned a considerable profit if it had been de-

veloped correctly. Why, in fact, did this all unravel and lead to the abandonment of the plan to develop the building, a hasty sale at a rock-bottom price to Bain Capital, and a multi-year, multi-million dollar(!) trial which has made the Vatican appear to be a den of thieves robbing the donations of the Catholics of the world (Peter’s Pence) to line their own pockets?

As venerable Italian writer Ernesto Galli della Loggia said in an essay Italy’s Corriere della Sera, written just before the verdict was handed down, it is because there is a struggle occurring for control of the Vatican’s monetary resources, and those engaged in the war have not been prevented by any higher authority from pursuing this disastrous course through to its sad conclusion.

2) The “La Marogna” affair.

Becciu did hire a young woman, Cecilia Marogna, who claimed to be a “secret agent” to help ensure the safe release of a Colombian nun, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narváez being held for ransom by Muslim radicals. Becciu has always maintained that the secret operation was authorized by the Pope, including its funding. In the trial, Marogna was convicted of using 300,000 out of the 500,000 euros sent for her personal expenses. Becciu says he knew nothing about this until he was officially informed by the Vatican gendarmes in October 2020.

3) The Becciu brothers.

It is true that 125,000 euros were sent from the Vatican to the account of Caritas in Sardinia, where one of Becciu’s brothers works. But there is no evidence that any funds ever were actually wrongfully received

by Cardinal Becciu or by any members of his family. In fact,100,000 euros of the 125,000 still remain in the Caritas account, and 25,000 euros were used to rebuild a bakery which now employs several people , contributing something positive to the life of many in Sardinia.

A CASE INVENTED TO DESTROY ONE MAN? The defense has argued that the prosecution went to enormous lengths, and spent years (from 2019 to 2021) to develop a case in which it would appear that Cardinal Becciu was guilty of misappropriation of funds, but that this occurred because the prosecution from the outset embraced a “theory” that Becciu was guilty. The defense argues

ErnEsto Galli dElla loGGia, in the italian journal Corriere della Sera:: “now close to the moment of the verdict, the trial of cardinal Becciu has ended up transforming into not just a trial, But certainly into a decisive denial to his accusers”

that this “theory” was constructed by enemies of Becciu, who managed to persuade the prosecutors to “buy in” to the “theory.”

On December 11, just days before the verdict was handed down, Ernesto Galli della Loggia, 81, one of Italy’s most important “public intellectuals,” wrote about the Becciu trial’s “glaring anomalies” in Corriere della Sera: “Now close to the moment of the verdict, the trial of Cardinal (Angelo) Becciu has ended up transforming into not just a trial, but certainly into a decisive denial to his accusers… In fact, the already glaring anomalies — let’s call them this

euphemistically — prior to the trial itself were not enough — the early condemnation of the accused implicit in having the Pope initially strip him of his rights as a cardinal, the four provisions with which in the proceedings already underway the Pope has repeatedly changed the rules of the procedure (but only for this trial and therefore only to the detriment of the accused) — not even the infamous Monsignor (Alberto) Perlasca was enough, benevolently transformed, coincidentally, from Becciu’s co-defendant into a witness for the prosecution against him.

“To all this, each session of the trial added an aspect to an overall desolate panorama: secret investigations of which the defense lawyers never knew anything, a dense network of scandals, irregularities, carelessness... fierce conflicts between the various institutions of the Vatican State.

“And finally, almost simultaneously, in the background... a decisive change in the traditional political balance within the Holy See: the dramatic loss of image, competencies and power by the Secretariat of State, and the IOR, on the other hand, increasingly on the winner’s podium.”

This trial appears to have been about “getting Becciu.” The other nine defendants in this trial are all secondary in importance to Becciu.

But, as della Loggia states, this trial is also a power struggle within the Vatican. A struggle to control the Vatican’s wealth, the Vatican’s resources, the Vatican’s vaults and storerooms with its centuries-old treasure... Della Loggia advocates that the Pope pardon Becciu.

And Della Loggia concludes: “This would put an end to a story in which the real reasons and background, the real actors, still remain in the deepest shadow and in which perhaps it wasn’t even the Pope himself who was really pulling the strings.”m

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 17

NEWS

Vatican

the neW document on Blessings... ...despite an appearance of reason, contains “a great deal of jargon, sophistry and deceit.” fr. Weinandy’s analysis n BY FR. THOMAS G. WEInAnDY, OFM, CAP.

O

n December 18, 2023, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, published a Declaration, with the signed approval of Pope Francis, entitled Fiducia Supplicans, “On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings.” This Declaration articulated the importance of blessings in Biblical, historical, and ecclesial perspectives.

The Declaration states that it “remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage, not allowing any type of liturgical rite or blessing similar to a liturgical rite that can create confusion. The value of this document, however, is that it offers a specific and innovative contribution to the pastoral meaning of blessings, permitting a broadening and enrichment of the classical understanding of blessings, which is closely linked to a liturgical perspective.”

So, the Declaration wants to uphold the doctrinal integrity of the blessing given within the sacrament of marriage, while simultaneously wanting to allow a blessing that is “linked to,” but not similar to, a liturgical blessing given in marriage, thus, not causing confusion between the two.

The Declaration boasts that this provision “implies a real development” that is in keeping with Pope Francis’s “pastoral vision.”It continues: “It is precisely in this context that one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.”

Here, one perceives the real reason for which this Declaration was written

— to bless “couples in irregular” marriages and to bless “same-sex couples.”

The Declaration elaborates on these two situations. Within this pastoral vision “there appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex, the form of which should not be fixed ritually by ecclesial authorities to avoid producing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage.”

Nonetheless, although these blessing “do not claim a legitimation of their status,” they “do beg that all that is true, good, humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.” The Declaration sees such blessings in accord with what’s been traditionally called “actual grace.” The purpose of this grace is “so that human relationships may mature and grow in fidelity to the Gospel, that they may be freed from their imperfections and frailties, and that they may express themselves in the ever-increasing dimension of divine love.”

In all the above, there is the appearance of reason, but also a great deal of jargon, sophistry, and deceit.

First, the Declaration professes that what is being offered is a development

Initial reactions to Fiducia Supplicans

E

astern Churches expert Peter Anderson wrote on December 21 that Metropolitan Evstratiy of the relatively liberal Orthodox Church of Ukraine called the Declaration “problematic,” and opining that “one can imagine that more conservative Orthodox Churches would have an even more negative reaction. The Declaration has the potential of creating another difference between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.”

The statement of the Roman Catholic Bishops of Ukraine said, “We see the danger in ambiguous wording that causes divergent interpretations among the faithful.” Likewise, the Archdiocese of St. Mary in

18 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

Astana, Kazakhstan, asked Pope Francis to “revoke the permission” to bless irregular and same-sex couples.

And the Catholic bishops of Africa — on the socalled “peripheries” of the Church — were particularly forceful in their rejection of the Declaration, with several bishops’ conferences agreeing with the bishops of Nigeria, who said, “There is, therefore, no possibility in the Church of blessing of same-sex unions and activities. That would go against God’s law, the teachings of the Church, the laws of our nation, and the cultural sensitivities of our people.”

Excerpts from Fiducia Supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings 25. The Church, moreover, must shy away from resting its pastoral praxis on the fixed nature of certain doctrinal or disciplinary schemes [...] Thus, when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it. For, those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection. (...)

31. Within the horizon outlined here appears the possibility of blessings for couples in irregular situations and for couples of the same sex, the form of which should not be fixed rit-

of doctrine in keeping with Pope Francis’s “pastoral vision.” In Essay on the Development of Doctrine, St. John Henry Newman provides criteria for judging what is true and what is erroneous doctrinal development (a “corruption”). Ultimately, he concludes, it’s the infallibility of the Church that validates authentic development.

Newman puts forward, however, a hypothetical, though frightening, hypothesis. What if a Council or a Pope were to teach a doctrine that would contradict a previous Council or Pope?

Newman declares that it would shatter the notion of doctrinal development, for who then would be able to judge what is authentically revealed and what is not?

Newman’s alarming hypothesis is not so hypothetical today.

Despite its claims to the contrary, the Declaration blatantly contradicts the perennial magisterial teaching of the Church concerning irregular marriages and the sexual activity of samesex couples. Must one conclude, with Newman, that such teaching eradicates the very notion of doctrinal development and, ultimately, the very notion of doctrinal truth itself?

Here I would offer a thesis that Newman did not consider – one that I believe is important within our present ecclesial context. Newman presumed that all pontifical teaching or teaching from bishops concerning doctrine and morals is magisterial. I propose that

ually by ecclesial authorities to avoid producing confusion with the blessing proper to the Sacrament of Marriage. In such cases, a blessing may be imparted that not only has an ascending value but also involves the invocation of a blessing that descends from God upon those who — recognizing themselves to be destitute and in need of his help — do not claim a legitimation of their own status, but who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith

any pontifical teaching or teaching from bishops that overtly and deliberately contradicts the perennial teaching of previous Councils and pontiffs is not magisterial teaching, precisely because it does not accord with past magisterial doctrinal teaching.

The Pope or a bishop may be, by virtue of his office, a member of the magisterium, but his teaching, if it contradicts the received previous magisterial teaching, is not magisterial.

Such false teaching simply fails to meet the necessary criteria.

It possesses no ecclesial authoritative credentials.

Rather, it is simply an ambiguous or flawed statement that attempts or pretends to be magisterial, when it’s not.

Second, to bless couples in irregular marriages or same-sex couples without giving the impression that the Church is not validating their sexual activity is a charade. All those present at such blessings know, without a doubt, that such relationships are sexual in nature.

No one is fooled. Actually, they are rejoicing that such sexual relations are being blessed. That’s the point of these blessings. It is not their sexual abstinence being blessed, but their sexual indulgence.

Third, while couples in irregular marriages and same-sex couples can be blessed, what cannot be blessed, and so validated, is the sin in which they are engaged. It is impossible to bless an immoral act, and to attempt to do so is blasphemy, for one is asking the allholy God to do something that is contrary to his nature — the sanctioning of sin.

Moreover, to bless irregular marriages and same-sex couples, for the purposes of authenticating their sexual activity, is an affront to and a demeaning of the sacrament of marriage itself.

Such blessings undermine the dignity of marriage — a sacramental sign of the indissoluble union between Christ and his Church.

Although “On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings” may be well intended, it wreaks havoc on the very nature of blessings. Blessings are the Spiritfilled graces that the Father bestows upon his adopted children who abide in his Son, Jesus Christ, as well as upon those whom he desires to be so. Attempting immorally to exploit God’s blessings makes a mockery of his divine goodness and love. (Republished with permission from TheCatholicThing.org)m

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 19

NEWS

VATICAN

relIeVed oF TheIr duTIes PoPe FrANCIs does NoT hesITATe To use hIs AuThorITy IN A Number oF reCeNT CAses... n BY ITV STAFF Here below, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, 67, with Pope Francis. Francis ordered him to return to Germany without any assignment. Bottom, American Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, 75, has had some of his privileges as cardinal revoked by Pope Francis (Photo: cardinalburke.com)

A

ccording to reports confirmed November 27, Pope Francis announced November 20 that he intended to take away from Cardinal Raymond Burke, 75, Vatican funding for his apartment in Rome and his annual cardinal’s stipend.

The American cardinal, former Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and before that, Archbishop of St. Louis, Missouri, has been a vocal critic of Pope Francis.

He was relieved of his Vatican duties at age 74 without reassignment; his replacement was 80.

The withdrawing of this monetary support, while a surprise, seemed to confirm a growing belief that the management style of the current Pope, despite his repeated exclamation of “Tutti! Tutti!” (“Everyone! Everyone!”), is becoming more and more exclusive, not inclusive.

The excluded are often those who do not go along with Francis’ “program,” as one of those now out in the cold, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, calls it.

On November 11, 2023, Bishop Strickland was officially removed from his diocese by Pope Francis after previously being asked, unsuccessfully, to resign. No specific actions were clearly cited as reasons, according to Strickland; although one general reason was Strickland’s public remarks on social media criticizing the Pope’s teachings.

For example, in an August 7, 2023 tweet on social media site X, Strickland

opposition to the blessing of gay couples, resistance to Traditionis Custodes.”

CARDInAL BURKE — THE nEWEST VICTIM?

denounced the Pope’s exhortation Amoris Laetitia as “a radical breach with both” Scripture and Tradition. And on May 12, 2023, Strickland tweeted that although he believes Francis is a legitimate Pope, “it is time for me to say that I reject his program of undermining the Deposit of Faith.”

Another nail in his coffin: “I wasn’t supportive of the Synod,” he said. “As I said in one of the tweets, ‘Why are we discussing things that shouldn’t be up for discussion?’”

Despite intimations of administrative mishandling by Strickland, nothing serious was found: both the diocese’s financial and spiritual health — as indicated by its high number of priestly vocations — are good.

Luisella Scrosati, in the Italian online journal La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, characterizes it as Strickland having “committed the crime of treason… resistance to vaccines made on fetal cell lines,

20 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

The revocation of Cardinal Raymond Burke’s privileges might have been considered merely a consequence of his situation: he is now at retirement age, and without a formal position in the Curia.

In 2014, he had been removed as Prefect of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. Burke was then appointed as Patron of the Order of the Knights of Malta — but was dismissed from this position in 2023, at age 74 (still not retirement age, 75), and replaced by Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, 81. Burke was not reassigned.

Vatican journalist Andrea Gagliarducci in his December 4 MondayVatican article said of the measures against Burke, “the fact that the Pope wanted to speak about them in a public event made them seem like a punishment,” not something merely consequent upon his “unemployed” status.

“The problem is not whether this news is accurate, but the fact that everyone considered the rumors plausible, right from the get-go. That says a great deal about how Francis’s pontificate is perceived. Dialogue, transparency, and parrhesia — frank talk — are the buzzwords and would-be hallmarks of this pontificate. Punishing cardinals outside the scope of justice, merely for speaking their minds, is tough to square with that.”

Also in 2023, Bishop Dominique Rey, 71, of the French Diocese of FréjusToulone — a diocese which saw a vocations boom and the welcoming of several Catholic communities attached to the Traditional Mass (and therefore viewed

Other authoritative prelates "sanctioned" by Pope Francis: top, Bishop Joseph Edward Strickland; middle, Cardinal Gerhard Müller and, bottom, Monsignor Josef Clemens, former personal secretary for 20 years of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

with suspicion by some) — became the subject of an apostolic visitation, followed by the appointment of a coadjutor bishop who will replace him in four years.

Bishops Strickland and Rey are just the latest in a long series of removals which span the length of the Francis pontificate.

In 2016, Bishop Mario Oliveri, ordinary of the Italian AlbengaImperia diocese since 1990, offered his resignation after a coadjutor bishop had been imposed on his diocese. Bishop Oliveri was known as a decidedly Traditionalleaning bishop who had welcomed a large number of Traditionalleaning seminarians into his diocese.

Other bishops who were relieved of their administrative positions without being reassigned include Bishop Josef Clemens, personal secretary to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) for many years, in 2016; Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in 2017; and Bishop Martin David Holley of Memphis, Tennessee, in 2018.

In Argentina alone, the past six years have seen the departures of three bishops, with a fourth now on the ropes.

The 2018 resignation at age 75 of Archbishop Héctor Aguer of the large diocese of La Plata, a prominent critic of the Francis papacy, was immediately accepted with barely time to pack his bags; Bishop Pedro Daniel Martinez Perea of San Luis resigned in 2020 at the Holy See’s request. “He took a stand against Amoris Laetitia’s overtures” in 2017, reports Scrosati; in 2022, Argentine Bishop Eduardo Maria Taussig of San Rafael was pressured by the Vatican to step down (his Vatican-endorsed closure of his seminary in 2020 proved unpopular); and, as reported by InfoVaticana on November 27, 2023, another bishop close to Archbishop Aguer, Bishop Nicolás Baisi of

the Diocese of Puerto Iguazú, will receive a Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation ordered to investigate possible “pastoral governance” problems. InfoVaticana reports that in May, 2023, the bishop sent the Argentine Episcopal Conference a report on its last plenary meeting that “visibly departs from the ‘program’ that is being sold from Rome lately.”

Several more bishops around the world were relieved of their duties under Francis as well, including Bishop Guido Pozzo, head of the Francissuppressed Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei; Francesco Cavino, Bishop of Carpi; Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole, bishop of Ascoli Piceno, Italy, (who, in 2020 protested loudly against Covid restrictions); and, in 2021, the Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, accused by a French newspaper of receiving excessive attention from a woman 9 years earlier (though no canonical process ensued).

In 2022, Archbishop Giacomo Morandi, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — who had crafted the Responsum to a Dubium regarding the blessing of same-sex unions (he answered “no”) — was sent away after five years. Later that year, Pope Francis removed the 58-year-old bishop of Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Bishop Daniel Fernández Torres, after he, like Bishop Strickland, refused to resign. Torres had refused to declare that Catholics had a duty to be vaccinated; later, he would not sign on to limiting Traditional Masses.

Torres also refused to send seminarians to a new interdiocesan seminary.

In 2023 came the dismissal of Pope Benedict’s longtime secretary and Prefect of the Papal Household Archbishop Georg Gänswein, 67, who had to return to Germany without any assignment.

And on December 9 the Territorial Prelature of Marajó, Brazil, announced that Brazil’s nuncio, Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, has asked the Bishop Emeritus of the prelature, José Luis Azcona, to physically leave the prelature’s territory before his successor was installed in early 2024.

Diocesan Administrator Fr. Kazimierz Antoni Skorki said, “We hope that the Nunciature will inform us about its decision, so that we can better understand it.”

Azcona, a missionary born in Pamplona, Spain, was bishop of Marajó from 1987 to 2016.

As bishop emeritus, Azcona attended the controversial Amazon Synod in 2019.

According to ACI Digital, “he was one of the few conservative voices at the synod,” criticizing the absence of “Christ crucified” and mention of “sin” in its working document, defendeding priestly celibacy, and warning of scandal caused by “Pachamama” images used there.

“Even when Pope Francis uses the law,” remarks Gagliarducci, “he is willing to put his hands on the scales of justice.

Think of the process Pope Francis ordered against Cardinal Angelo Becciu and other defendants.”

Becciu, 75, “Number Two” at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State from 2011 to 2018, and head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints from 2018 to 2020, had his rights as a cardinal summarily revoked by Francis.

“There was no canonical trial, and the Pope did not formally impose the punishment. He asked the Cardinal to obey and resign,” Gagliarducci observes.

Even those who support the pontificate of Francis most enthusiastically are starting to worry.

“He is acting more and more in an isolated and personalist way,” said Robert Mickens in the progressive Catholic journal La Croix.

“It is troubling for many (or it should be),” he wrote, “that a Pope who is now in the process of making synodality the legacy of his pontificate, should act in such a... non-synodal way.”m

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 21

NEWS

Middle east

Christian CoMMunities Were affeCted by War in 2023 n BY CHRISTOPHER HART-MOYnIHAn

Left, Bishop Mikael Antoine Mouradian, the (Armenian Catholic) eparch of Our Lady of Nareg in the United States and Canada. Right, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, whose role includes stewardship and support of all Middle Eastern Christian communities

T

he year 2023 witnessed several troubling trends for Christians in the Middle East. Several ancient Christian communities, whose roots trace back to the first evangelizations in the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D., now find themselves under threat of complete eradication from their homelands. The past year saw crises shake Christian communities in Armenia and Gaza, as well as continued challenges for communities in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

While the crises in Gaza, Lebanon, and the Fertile Crescent are connected with long-running wars that have affected Christians, Muslims, and other communities, perhaps the most dramatic turn of events took place in the Caucasus region, in Armenia and the disputed state of Nagorno-Karabakh, where tens of thousands of people, most of them Armenian Christians, were displaced over the span of a few days as a result of a conflict that been frozen in place since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Lying in southwest Azerbaijan, near the border with Armenia, the region of Nagorno-Karabakh — called Artsakh by Armenians — is (or was) an enclave of Christian Armenians within the largely Muslim Azerbaijan. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991,

there was a referendum in 1992 which resulted in Nagorno-Karabakh declaring independence (as the Republic of Artsakh) and then, with the support of Armenia, fighting a war with Azerbaijan. As a result of a 1994 ceasefire, the conflict was frozen for nearly three decades, and Nagorno-Karabakh joined the ranks of Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Crimea and others as another disputed territory in the PostSoviet space. Between 1994 and 2020, the majority of the Republic of Artsakh’s economic and military support came from Armenia, although neither Armenia nor any other state recognized the de jure independence of Artsakh from Azerbaijan.

In 2020 and then again in 2023, fighting once again broke out between Artsakh and the armed forces of Azerbaijan.

The fighting was accompanied by troubling rhetoric on the part of both the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Worries about the possible ethnic cleansing have their basis in events that occurred over 100 years ago, in the Armenian genocide of 1915, which Turkey still officially denies. The events of 1915 resulted in the expulsion of hun-

22 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

dreds of thousands of Armenians, Greeks, and Syriac Christians from territories of the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire in modern-day central and western Turkey. Following World War I, Armenians were able to form their own independent state, the precursor to modern Armenia, which then became a member of the Soviet Union. However, tensions between Armenians, Turks and Azeris have persisted.

Turks and Azeris are closely related ethnic groups with similar traditions, languages, and national ambitions. The ethnic divisions in the Caucasus region run largely along religious lines, and the tension between Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks and Azeris date back many centuries, to the first invasions of Anatolia by the nomadic Seljuk Turks.

In 2020, when war broke out again in Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in an official address, stated, “We will continue to fulfill this mission, which our grandfathers have carried out for centuries, in the Caucasus region.” While there was criticism of Erdogan’s remarks in the international community, little was done in the following three years to ensure that the Armenian community in NagornoKarabakh would be protected.

The first map shows the location and borders of Armenia, primarily Christian, and Azerbaijan, primarily Muslim. The second map shows the fragmentation caused by the war of independence of Nagorno-Karabakh (also known as Artsakh) in 2022. Artsakh (Karabakh) is an integral part of historic Armenia, but on September 19 and 20, 2023, Azerbaijan took control of the territory

In December of 2022, the situation of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian Christians worsened when the government of Azerbaijan shut down the Lachin Corridor, which connected NagornoKarabakh with Armenia.

Inside the Vatican magazine was able to interview Bishop Mikael Antoine Mouradian, the (Armenian Catholic) eparch of Our Lady of Nareg in the United States and Canada, regarding the events of the last several years in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Bishop Mouradian told us that Azerbaijan, backed by the Turkish military, had attacked NagornoKarabakh in a 44-day war in 2020.

The consequence of the attack was that, according to the bishop, Azerbaijan’s military forces, “using drones from the Turkish military, killed almost 6,000 Armenian young men and took [control of] not only more [territory] in Azerbaijan, [but] they [also] took the city of Shusha.”

Bishop Mouradian also discussed the blockade of NagornoKarabakh by Azerbaijan that lasted from 2022 to September 2023, when war broke out again: “There was a trilateral ceasefire agreement (in 2020) between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Artsakh (NagornoKarabakh) that there would be an access road from Armenia. In 2022 socalled Azeri activists, on the pretext that they are against mining in the region, blockaded this sole road, which is the vital connection between NagornoKarabakh and Armenia. And after that the road was taken over by the military [of Azerbaijan]. They have cut off gas, electricity and water to the region.

“Since July 11, 2023, they haven’t allowed the International Red Cross to enter. There are about 120,000 people who depend on this road to receive basic necessities from Armenia. There are about 30,000 children, more than 25,000 elderly, and 9,000 handicapped people.”

On September 19 and 20, 2023, the armed forces of Azerbaijan launched a military offensive on Artsakh that overwhelmed the breakaway state.

During the following days, the Lachin corridor was opened and over the next several weeks, tens of thousands of

ethnic Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh, leaving their homes and belongings behind. According to the Armenian government, a total of 100,617 people became refugees following the final invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan’s military forces, and the capital, Stepanakert, was virtually abandoned.

After negotiations between the govern-

ment of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and Azerbaijan, the government of Artsakh declared that it would be dissolved

by January 1, 2024, and the government of Azerbaijan announced that NagornoKarabakh would be “re-integrated” into Azerbaijan.

The end result of Azerbaijan’s offensive was a massive humanitarian crisis and warnings of ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian Christians. Following the several days of the Azerbaijan’s invasion of NagornoKarabakh, reports of the torture and killing of civilians in several villages began to filter out of the region.

The former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Ocampo, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that “By blocking the Lachin Corridor, Aliyev turned Nagorno-Karabakh into a vast concentration camp for 120,000 Armenians. This week’s military inter-

vention added killing (Article II a) [of the Genocide Convention of 1948] and causing serious bodily and mental harm (Article II b) to the ledger.”

While the events in NagornoKarabakh have led to hundreds of deaths, including civilians, and the possible eradication of the Christian presence in Nagorno-Karabakh, Israel’s ongoing invasion of Gaza has dealt a major blow to other communities of Eastern Rite Christians.

While Gaza’s Christian community is small — estimated to be only 1,300 out of a total population of two million — it seems likely that the invasion will effectively end the Christian presence there. In an interview shortly after the beginning of the invasion, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, whose role includes stewardship and support of all Middle Eastern Christian communities, said that “there’s no going back to the way things were before.”

Pizzaballa continued, “On a human level, I think the desire to leave will be very strong. Of course, we’ll have to see what the conditions are like … many houses have been destroyed, so in practical terms it won’t be easy…”

Although he expressed hope that Christians would return to Gaza following the end of the conflict, he also offered a reality check, stating: “It seems to me that coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians will be practically impossible…We have to see where that will lead us concretely, including in the lives of the Christians here. But it certainly won’t be how it was before.”

The years of violence and war have certainly taken their toll on Christians throughout the Middle East, yet all is not yet lost.

It is crucial for all people, whether Christian or non-Christian, worldwide to receive the message of these communities and support them both spiritually and materially in their fight for survival.

Their final disappearance would be an indescribable tragedy that would greatly affect the cultural and spiritual future of the region — and the world — for centuries to come.m

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 23

Shining LightS in an often Dark Sky

ITV’s Top Ten of 2023 global events never cease, and the “news cycle” spins 24/7, year in and year out. Much of it is not good news. the world is ever a vale of tears: as it was in the time that our Lord walked the earth, so it is today. yet we celebrate — are commanded by the Church to celebrate — the luminescent beauty and radiating joy of the saints who have striven for holiness throughout every dark and sinful age of history; and by implication, those who still strive in their own particular way to imitate the Master in the here-and-now. they are shining lights in an often dark sky. there are many, a whole constellation of them, in every corner of the globe. here we can only show you a few. they are Inside the Vatican’s “top ten People” of 2023.

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Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem

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n October 7, the Gaza-based paramilitary group Hamas led the deadliest militant attack in Israel’s history, with the Israeli death toll estimated at more than 1,400 people. Israel then launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza, a long-blockaded territory with about 2.3 million Palestinian residents.

Since then, Israel, declaring war on the militant Islamic organization, has continued to retaliate, leaving Palestinian citizens injured, killed, and driven from their homes with no water, food, medicines, or electricity allowed into the territory of Gaza.

Israel Defense Forces announced October 16 that 199 Israeli hostages, including children, are being held by Hamas and that the military is trying to discover where they are being held in Gaza. Hamas terrorists had threatened the previous week to kill one hostage every time Israel’s military bombards civilian targets in Gaza.

In response, the Latin Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem has offered himself in exchange for the children being held as hostages in Gaza by Hamas.

Speaking to journalists via video conference on October 16, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, 58, was asked if he would be willing to become a hostage himself in exchange for the children who were taken hostage during Hamas’ attack on Israel.

“Am I ready for an exchange? Anything, if that can lead to freedom and bring those children home, no problem. There is an absolute availability on my part,” the cardinal responded.

“We are willing to help, even me personally,” he added.

Born and educated in Italy, Cardinal Pizzaballa has been stationed in the Holy Land since 1990, the year he was ordained a priest at age 24 in the Franciscan order.

After his philosophical-theological studies in Italy, thenFather Pizzaballa obtained a licentiate in Biblical Theology at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum of Jerusalem in 1993.

In 1999, he formally entered in service to the Custody of the Holy Land, a custodian priory of the Order of Friars Minor in Jerusalem, founded as the Province of the Holy Land in 1217 by Saint Francis of Assisi. In 1342, the

Franciscans were declared by two papal bulls as the official custodians of the Holy Places in the name of the Catholic Church.

“The Holy Land changed my life. My life of faith also,” the then-55-year-old bishop told EWTN News in 2020.

“I arrived there 30 years ago. I didn’t know the languages. I came from a very, very Catholic context and I was suddenly in a context where [Christians] were just 1% of the population.”

Despite arriving without knowing the language, within five years he had overseen the publication of the Roman Missal in Hebrew. He was also the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem’s vicar general for the pastoral care of Hebrewspeaking Catholics in Israel.

Consecrated to the episcopacy in 2016, he was named apostolic administrator of the Holy Land, and tasked by the Pope with re-organizing the financial management of a Patriarchate teetering on the brink of insolvency.

He was also asked to improve the pastoral situation among the various Christian communities in Israel, Jordan, Palestine and Cyprus.

“In the beginning it was very difficult. But once we have been transparent, I felt that all the community was very supportive and so we could overcome all our problems and turn the page finally,” he said.

Pope Francis appointed him the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem on October 24, 2020. He is the first Latin Patriarch to be made a cardinal, one of the new crop of cardinals created by Francis on September 30, 2023.

On October 11, Cardinal Pizzaballa called for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for peace in the region on October 17.

He urged Catholics to organize times of prayer with Eucharistic adoration and recitation of the Rosary “to deliver to God the Father our thirst for peace, justice, and reconciliation.”

“That is why we feel the need to pray, to turn our hearts to God the Father. Only in this way we can draw the strength and serenity needed to endure these hard times, by turning to Him, in prayer and intercession, to implore and cry out to God amidst this anguish.”m

“That is why we felt the need to pray, to turn our hearts to God the Father”

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 25

MarTin Kivuva Musonde archbishop of the archdiocese of Mombasa, Kenya

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ne of Kenya’s leading Catholic prelates, Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde of the Archdiocese of Mombasa, who participated in the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops in October, 2023, planted a stake in the ground when he declared his opposition to a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court allowing a gay rights group to obtain official recognition as an NGO. In a 2023 interview with the ACI news agency, Archbishop Kivuva said the court’s decision amounts to promoting a LGBTQ+ agenda in Kenya.

“It is very unfortunate. If you legalize something, it means you are promoting it,” Kivuva said.

“Registering them (LGBTQ associations) means you are giving life to the behaviors. If you join a football club it means you are ready to play football,” he said.

Kivuva, 71, was among the prelates chosen by the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa to take part in the October 4-29 Synod of Bishops on Synodality in the Vatican, where, among other topics, the question of blessing same-sex unions arose.

“This (court ruling) does not mean we should not continue defending ourselves,” said Kivuva, who is also the Chairman of the Kenya Bishops’ Conference. “We should continue promoting marriages of the opposite gender, as it should be, because out of that we get children. It is perpetuating life,” he said.

Kivuva’s comments came in the wake of a September 12 ruling by the Supreme Court allowing the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) to register as a non-governmental organization.

Ten years ago, Kenya’s NGO Coordination Board, which has the responsibility to register NGOs, refused an application by the group on the basis that “it promotes same-sex behavior.” In February, 2023, however, the Supreme Court overturned that decision, and its September 12 ruling confirms that the group is allowed to register.

In a video recorded by the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation and published March 5, Archbishop Kivuva’s brother bishop Joseph Ndembu Mbatia, 62, of Kenya

also criticized inclusion of “LGBTQ+” ideology in proposed Competency Based Curriculum in Kenya in schools.

“The support of LGBTQ goes against the natural order of beings,” Bishop Mbatia said, adding that “even animals, which are not gifted with the gift of intellect, the gift of reason, do not go against their natural order.”

He said, “I was just looking at what is being taught and CBC has come with a chat indicating that there are many types of families. You find that there is a family of two women and a child. But where did they get the child?”

Elsewhere in Africa, Archbishop Paul Ssemogerere of Kampala, Uganda, 67, commented that “I think when you are homosexual and you are enticing this young person, you do the act and using all the money you have and you make him sick, the poor person goes to the hospital because of what you have done, that is a crime then. It is child abuse.’”

Archbishop Ssemogerere was speaking in support of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, signed into law in May, further criminalizing being “LGBTQ+”; people convicted of “aggravated homosexuality” could face the death penalty.

In Ghana, Bishop Joseph Osei-Bonsu of Konongo-Mampong, 75, released an open letter to the country’s president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, criticizing him for claiming, during an April visit by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, that Ghana does not criminalize being “LGBTQ,” though an anti-homosexuality law had been enacted.

The bishop insisted in his letter that “LGBTQ+” rights “cannot be included in the list of human rights.”

In Ivory Coast, Bishop Marcellin Yao Kouadio of Daloa, 63, elected in June as president of his country’s bishops’ conference, noted that homosexuality doesn’t fit into Africa’s cultural context.

“At a social level,” he wrote, “we observe that the culture of ’anything goes’ is perniciously taking hold, with the promotion of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) movement, among others. We would like to draw everyone’s attention to the fact that this is neither our culture, nor a value to be promoted.”m

“This ideology is an attempt to undermine the family”

26 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

SR. ChiaRa One of Gaza’s heroic Missionaries of Charity

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hree intrepid nuns belonging to the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Theresa of Kolkata, have remained steadfast in their refusal to leave behind “the least of their brothers and sisters” in the wartorn Gaza Strip.

The nuns, from India, Rwanda and the Philippines, have been caring for more than 60 guests, most of whom are profoundly disabled or elderly and bedridden.

The 63-year-old Philippine nun, Sister Chiara, one of the last remaining Philippine nationals in Gaza, was called “a symbol of Filipino spirituality and solidarity” by her nation’s government on November 13.

By late November, the nuns had run out of food, water, medicine, electricity and gas. Then the Israeli Defense Forces descended, invading the area and surrounding the convent and the Holy Family parish church next to it.

“At the moment there are three nuns living in the convent,” said Fr. Francis Xavier, the Franciscan Commissioner of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, “while two others are away for other activities related to their ministry. The superior of the convent is a nun from Orissa [now called Odisha, in India]. Despite being a very courageous woman, she is afraid that the next bomb could fall on their convent or on the church of the Holy Family which is located next door.”

Sr. Chiara told the Indian Franciscan, “We are not worried about ourselves, but for the disabled children and elderly people bedridden with bedsores. And also for the 600 people who took refuge in our convent after losing their homes in recent days due to the bombings. Where will they go now?”

Mother Teresa’s nuns have been present in Gaza since February 1973. Their presence was marked from the beginning by sharing the suffering of this tormented land: they arrived in the Strip a few weeks after the killing of the then-parish priest of the Latin community, Fr. Hanna Al-Nimri. It was their turn to clean up the bloody walls.

Despite the countless difficulties due to the many wars

and the blockade imposed on Gaza for years, the Missionaries of Charity are a fundamental presence in the parish of the Holy Family. In their reception homes for children and vulnerable adults they welcome 70 people.

But in addition to offering spiritual assistance in the small Catholic community of Gaza, they visit hundreds of homes of the poor, needy and sick.

The “whole area” where the nuns’ facility is located “is surrounded by the Israeli army,” Fr. Francis Xavier told Asia News November 21. Local sources reported that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) gave the nuns an opportunity to be evacuated, but not the disabled and the remaining staff. “Some of these people are not self-sufficient and cannot move on their own,” a witness explained. Others “are not even able to feed themselves” and “need complete assistance,” which is why the Sisters’ presence is essential.

The convent of the Sisters of Mother Teresa, and the Holy Family parish, are not far from the al-Shifa hospital, which, beginning in mid-November, was under siege for days by Israeli forces hunting for Hamas members and weapons in the underground tunnels.

The hunt exacerbated an already unsustainable humanitarian emergency, with doctors under siege and patients unable to receive even lifesaving care, including children.

“Communications with the outside world have been cut off” while “landline phones are connected to the network” from time to time, said Fr. Francis.

Sometimes, says a source in Jerusalem, “some generous and courageous people bring the nuns something to eat. Whatever they receive from outside, the Sisters serve their guests first. If there is anything left, they eat that. Sometimes they only have one meal a day. One day they had only a loaf of bread, which the three of them shared; another day they fed themselves with only an orange to share.” (AsiaNews contributed to this report.)m

Refusing to leave behind the elderly and handicapped, three nuns endure hardship and privation in a war zone

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 27

Sr. rachel GreGory english carmelite nun, ocD

S

r. Rachel Gregory, an English Carmelite nun who entered Carmel in 1948 and died at 100 on November 10, 2023, has been called “a Teresa of Avila for our era.” She was not only prioress of her Carmelite monastery but also a spiritual writer of both great depth and novel approaches, especially to the concept of “mysticism.”

Yet she declared emphatically that “I have had nothing, ever, on the level of what I could within myself feel, let’s say, God’s love for me, God’s presence to me.”

Perhaps her most insightful contribution to Christian spirituality has been her realization that “mysticism” — which she considered synonymous with holiness, and therefore something to which every Christian is called — is only accidentally, and not essentially, associated with what we usually consider “mystical experiences.”

“Mysticism [has] nothing to do with ‘experiences’,” she insisted. “What [is] mysticism?

Surely Jesus living in one, self drained away.” Those who experienced spiritual favors, feelings and consolations (she called them “lights on” mystics) were actually in the minority, she said, while the majority of holy men and women were “lights off” mystics.

Sr. Rachel was a “lights off” mystic. Born in Sheffield, England in 1923, third in a working-class family of eight children, she called herself, “a lively child bright and gay,” but also “high-strung and easily run-down.”

She opens her autobiography, Before the Living God, by saying, “I was born into this world with a tortured sensitivity”; among her teenaged aspirations were to attend Oxford College and to marry — “to be utterly loved by someone” — a love she instead found with her Beloved, Jesus, in Carmel, entering at age 18.

In later adulthood she revealed that she suffered from lifelong depression. “It is impossible to understand my life,” she states, “unless it is seen all the time against the background of black depression. It’s no easier now. It’s just that I don’t mind. I’m happy to be poor.”

It is this poverty of heart that propelled Sr. Rachel — who wrote more than a dozen books on prayer and the mystical life under the pen name Ruth Burrows — into the atmosphere of holiness. It was the emptiness of her feelings and perceptions that led her to realize, like the saint of “littleness,” St. Thérèse of Lisieux, that radical dependence upon Christ was needed to reach intimacy with Him. It can be summed up in her simple assertion that “Prayer is essentially God’s work.”

“Our part is to give time, do our best to keep attention, surrender ourselves as best we can. Then we can be sure that God works. Faith does not ask for signs, for tokens. When we really grasp that prayer is essentially God’s business, not ours, we will never talk of failure, no matter how unsatisfactory prayer seems to us,” she told an interviewer in 2012.

“Many people think they have no faith because they feel they haven’t. They do not realize that they must make a choice to believe, take the risk of believing, of committing themselves and setting themselves to live out the commitment. ” Sr. Rachel led the cloistered Carmelite community at Quidenham in Norfolk, England, for more than two decades, “essentially refounding it as its guiding light,” wrote Fr. Stephen Sundberg, SJ, in an obituary. “Jesus was and is its soul, but Rachel as prioress set its direction, then stepped back, even withdrawing herself from its chapter, in order for the sisters she had formed to find their way according to their own lights and for her to live as simply, hiddenly, and faithfully as she was able to her frail end, bed-ridden in a care home away from her beloved monastery, still in darkness, still in trust, though certain of being in union with God.” “There is a ruling insight,” she once wrote, “that covers and controls my life and all that I would or could communicate to others. It runs through everything I have written: God offers himself in total love to each one of us. Our part is to open our hearts to receive this gift.”m

“Prayer is essentially God’s work”

28 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

Erik Varden Catholic Bishop of Trondheim, Norway

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rik Varden, 49, featured prominently in the ongoing debate on the Church’s approach to questions on gender and sexuality in 2023. Bishop Varden published a brilliant, compelling book entitled Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses. He also signed on to a letter released by bishops from five Nordic countries on the traditional Christian teaching on sexuality, upholding the “embodied integrity of personhood” against modern transgender ideologies.

Bishop Varden’s book on chastity provoked reflection on what it means to be chaste in an increasingly secular world. In a reflection on the bishop’s book, Inside the Vatican editor Robert Moynihan wrote: “The word ‘chastity’ is heard today in our modern society almost as a word of cursing, a swear word. Yet chastity has been seen in past ages in the Church, and in many human spiritual paths, as something pure, beautiful and noble. Today in our society, the word ‘chastity’ is regarded as describing a state of being which is an offense against our human dignity... as a type of ‘blasphemy’ against what is believed to be the reality of humans as ‘embodied souls,’ with the emphasis on ‘body’ — having a nature which is fleshly, mortal, passing away, appearing and living for a time in space and time, having a gender, a sexual nature and drive which must determine our actions, and which requires sexual expression for fulfillment.

“The word ‘chastity,’ for Christians in all ages, has been connected with the search for — and the finding of — a sublime and integrated freedom and blessedness outside of, or transcending, our sexual desires, passions and actions. ‘Chastity,’ closely connected with the word ‘virginity,’ and yet not unconnected also with the true understanding of ‘matrimony,’ was thought of as a condition of mind, heart and body in which all the elements of the human person, body and soul, were brought together into a type of spiritually fruitful, incorruptible harmony, allowing the person to experience a connection to a supernal blessedness, to God... a connection which might truly be initiated in this world of time and space, where the giving and receiving of a real, inter-personal, profound and enduring love might truly occur... but

promising the continuation of that love beyond, and above, time and space. In short, eternal love... a love that transcends the often changeable, fretful emotion of erotic love, often possessive in its passion, linked to physicality, sexuality, and the actions which issue in the generation of new life.

“In this sense, the treatment in our time of the word ‘chastity’ as a type of ‘blasphemy’ against the fulfillment of our true human nature (conceived of as inter-relationally radically sexual in its fundamental character) is perhaps the most evident, and painful, sign of our present malaise.”

The letter released by Bishop Varden and his fellow Nordic bishops also tackled questions of sexuality and what the appropriate response of the Church should be.

“Now, notions of what it is to be a human, and so a sexual being, are in flux,” they wrote. “What is taken for granted today may be rejected tomorrow. Anyone who stakes much on passing theories risks being terribly hurt. We need deep roots.

“Let us, then, try to appropriate the fundamental principles of Christian anthropology while reaching out in friendship, with respect, to those who feel estranged by them. We owe it to the Lord, to ourselves, and to our world, to give an account of what we believe, and of why we believe it to be true.

“The image of God in human nature manifests itself in the complementarity of male and female,” the letter states. “Man and woman are created for one another: The commandment to be fruitful depends on this mutuality, sanctified in nuptial union.”

After its release, the pastoral letter was read aloud at Masses at Catholic churches in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland.

Cardinal Anders Arborelius, the bishop of Stockholm, Sweden, was among the document’s eight signers.

The others were: from Norway, Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim, Bishop Berislav Grgić of Tromsø, and Bishop Bernt Eidsvig of Oslo; from Denmark, Bishop Czeslaw Kozon of Copenhagen; from Iceland, Bishop Dávid Tencer of Reykjavik and Bishop Emeritus Pierre Bürcher of Reykjavik; and from Finland, Father Marco Pasinato, apostolic administrator of Helsinki.m

Norwegian Bishop who spoke out fearlessly on issues of sexuality, defending chastity

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 29

Mónika Dunai Hungarian parliamentarian

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ope Francis has repeatedly referred to efforts of the decadent West to impose its version of morality and social values on other nations and cultures as “ideological colonization.”

The Pope specifically used this term with reference to the promotion of modern gender ideology in all its forms.

David Pressman, the Biden Administration’s appointed Ambassador to Hungary, is one such messenger of this ideological colonization. He opened “Pride Month” 2023 observances in Hungary with a speech at the Kristály Theater in Margitsziget, in which he criticized efforts of Hungarian Members of Parliament to enact a newly-strengthened version of the 2021 “Child Protection Act,” outlawing the promotion of homosexual ideology in the nation’s schools.

Pressman likened these efforts to the Nazi persecution, saying, “It starts with seemingly innocent laws for the protection of children. Then they ask us to report on our neighbors, friends, and families. The ghettos of our minds, the ghettos of our politics – and ultimately the ghettos of our communities – are built brick by brick by these steps.”

He went on to call the popular support for limiting children’s exposure to homosexuality “the mortar between the deadly bricks.”

An answer to Pressman’s thesis came from a female Parliamentarian, elected five times from a district of Pest: Mónika Dunai, 57. A teacher of French-Hungarian origins, she was born in Budapest in 1966. She is a member of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz — Hungarian Civic Alliance Party. “Pressman’s words show how pedophilia and crimes against children are being made PC all over the world,” remarked Dunai in a June 21, 2023 interview on PestiSracok.hu.

“We respond to this by saying that we want to further tighten the Child Protection Act in the fall, eliminating

those who evade it. We inform the ambassador and his agents that the safety of our children is not a matter of negotiation.”

Debate of the Child Protection Act championed by Dunai on the Parliament floor June 17 met with 16 hours of filibuster-style “continuous side talk,” said Dunai, “the sole purpose of which was to break up the parliamentary debate. Outside, on Kossuth square, they broadcast to the small number of protesters…They didn’t care at all what was in the law. I asked in vain, for example, what makes this a ‘revenge’ law, where will it mean a step back for the teachers? None of them could tell me.”

The new Child Protection Act was ultimately approved.

Hungary’s Ministry of Justice told the Hungarian newspaper Népszava, “As last year’s referendum on child protection shows, the Hungarian people expect the government to protect children from increasingly aggressive LGBTQ propaganda.” And all this despite the fact that Hungary had been taken to court the preceding year by the European Commission in Brussels because of its anti-LGBT legal stances. “We can negotiate many other things with Brussels or others, but this will not be a subject of discussion,” declared Dunai.

Monika Dunai is also a Catholic who is not shy about celebrating her faith in public. On the August 15 Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, she posted this on her Facebook page: The day of Our Lady Today is the day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, which is also the celebration of the patron saint of Hungary.

“Our Blessed Mother, our great patron from antiquity, This is how we address you: From Hungary, Our Sweet Homeland, don’t forget the poor Hungarians!”m

“The Hungarian people expect the government to protect children from increasingly aggressive LBGTQ propaganda”

30 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

Bishop Fred Henry Retired Bishop of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

H

e was born in 1943 in London, Ontario, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. He holds an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and a licentiate in theology from Gregorian University in Rome. On March 19, 1998, Bishop Fred Henry was installed as bishop of Calgary, but granted early retirement by Pope Francis in 2017, due to health concerns.

During his tenure as bishop, he was known for his outspoken orthodoxy. He pulled no punches in confronting the LGBT juggernaut, saying at one point, “Our teaching is rather simple and direct. God created beings as male and female. In doing so, he gave equal dignity to both man and woman. In his plan, men and women should respect and accept their sexual identity.”

In 2004, he famously accused former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin of being a poor Catholic over Martin’s support of same-sex marriage and abortion.

“If you’re not going to be a Catholic, then don’t call yourself a Catholic,” Henry said.

Bishop Henry made news again in August, 2023, this time from a hospital bed — the 80– year old suffers from an autoimmune disease and experiences chronic pain — when he reacted to the apparent acquiescence of Catholic bishops to unproven accusations of Church-sponsored abuse and “mass burial” of Indian children at Indian Residential Schools during the 20th century.

On June 26, 2023, Bishop Henry asked the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to formally reject the government’s interim report on the matter.

Six weeks later, having received no response, he went to the Catholic media.

“Why is the Catholic Church not asking the federal government for proof that even one residential child is actually missing in the sense that his [or] her parents didn’t know what happened to their child at the time of the child’s death?” he demanded in an email to Toronto’s Catholic Register.

After two years of increasingly gruesome accusations that Indian children, numbering anywhere from the hundreds to the thousands, were forcibly removed from their families,

maltreated, died and were buried in “unmarked” or even “mass” graves, a series of excavations in 2023 turned up exactly no human remains.

Contrary to claims of Canada’s Justice and Reconciliation Commission, the purpose of the schools was not “to kill the Indian in the child.”

The Department of Indian Affairs’ own 1910 Annual Report, page 435, says, It was never the policy, nor the end and aim of the endeavour to transform an Indian into a white man. Speaking in the widest terms, the provision of education for the Indian is the attempt to develop the great natural intelligence of the race and to fit the Indian for civilized life in his own environment. It include [sic] not only a scholastic education, but instruction in the means of gaining a livelihood from the soil or as a member of an industrial or mercantile community, and the substitution of Christian ideals of conduct and morals for aboriginal concepts of both.

The Catholic religious orders who staffed the roughly 50% of residential schools were orders whose charisms were already to take in the poor, needy and orphaned. Due to poverty and social problems, many Indian parents were unable to feed, clothe and care for their children properly, especially during and in the aftermath of the Great Depression; Catholic nuns and priests filled the breach.

In fact, according to the meticulous work of researcher Nina Green, the thousands of pages of extant records from those decades show that Catholic-run Indian Residential Schools were places of security, happiness and opportunity for the overwhelming majority of indigenous children who attended them.

“It seems abundantly clear to me [to ask what follows] if the Catholic Church… allows the lie that there are thousands of missing residential schoolchildren to become embedded in stone,” said Bishop Henry. “Obviously, [it means] these thousands of missing children were murdered by Catholic priests and nuns and clandestinely buried in unmarked graves. Is the Catholic Church prepared to go that far in the name of ‘reconciliation?’”m

A lone episcopal voice challenges Canada’s anti-Catholic Indian School narrative

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 31

MiKAel MOUrAdiAN Armenian Bishop in Nagorno-Karabakh

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ishop Mikael Antoine Mouradian, eparch (bishop) of the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg in the United States of America and Canada since 2011, has spent the past several years advocating on behalf of the beleaguered Armenian Christian community of NagornoKarabakh. While the world has seemingly turned a blind eye to the struggles of the Armenians in the exclave, which was disputed territory since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 but was recently retaken by Azerbaijan in a short but devastating 48-hour war in September 2023, Bishop Mouradian has been working to bring attention to the members of his community who have suffered from blockades, displacement, violence, and, some have claimed, possible genocide.

Bishop Mouradian was born in 1961 in Beirut, Lebanon, which has been home to a large community of Armenian Christians since the time of the Ottoman Empire. He attended the seminary of the (Armenian) Patriarchal Clergy of Bzommar in Bzommar, Lebanon. Following his ordination in 1987, he served the Church in Damascus, and Aleppo, Syria, as well as in Armenia. From 2001 to 2011, he was in Lebanon, shepherding the very large Armenian Catholic community there. In 2011, he was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the fourth Bishop of the Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Nareg for the Armenian Catholic communities in the United States and Canada. The Eparchy has its headquarters in New York, as well as offices in Glendale, California, also home to a substantial Armenian community.

Inside the Vatican Magazine was able to ask Bishop Mouradian several questions about the situation of the Armenian Christians in Nagorno-Karabakh on the eve of the invasion by Azerbaijan’s military forces. Bishop Mouradian was deeply concerned about 120,000 Armenians inside the enclave, who had been cut off from supplies from the main territory of Armenia due to armed conflicts in the contested territory. He told us that the 120,000 Armenians were suffering many hardships and were in grave danger: “Many essential medicines are not arriving there. Two days ago, I heard that people were dying from malnutrition. There have been 2,500 pregnant mothers suffering miscarriages from malnu-

trition. Now people are waiting in lines to be given pieces of bread and fainting from malnourishment. The International Red Cross was transporting two men to Armenia for medical care and the soldiers did not allow them to pass through.”

Bishop Mouradian urged the international community to act to prevent further deterioration of the situation: “The U.N. Security Council met, but there was no outcome. The U.N. knows about the [blocking of the] International Red Cross, but nobody is saying anything about it. We are urging U.S. President Joe Biden to stop this inhuman behavior of the Azeri government. This is truly inhumane what is happening.” He then summarized the precariousness of the geopolitical situation in the south Caucasus — a situation in which the survival of Christians not only in Nagorno-Karabakh, but, in the long run, in Armenia itself, is threatened. “Armenia is not even 30,000 square kilometers, and it has less than 3 million people. Turkey has a population of 70 million, and Azerbaijan has 10 million. For 40 years, the only way to Armenia has been by plane [because the borders with both Azerbaijan and Turkey are closed].

Now Turkey and Azerbaijan are planning to attack the region of Syunik (in southern Armenia) and connect their territory. President Erdogan [of Turkey] boasted, saying ‘We are fulfilling what our ancestors began.’ I hope the international community will do something about it, or we will be living another genocide.”

After Azerbaijan invaded Nagorno-Karabakh on September 19, leading to the death of hundreds and displacement of thousands, Bishop Mouradian released a statement together with Archbishop Richard Gagnon, the Archbishop of Winnipeg, and Bishop Abgar Hovakimyan, the Primate of the Armenian Holy Apostolic Church Canadian Diocese, stating, “We stand firmly by the victims of this tragedy and earnestly encourage every initiative that will promote peace and justice for all. We deplore the military attacks and other horrific acts of brutality which have taken place, and call upon the political leaders to work together conscientiously with good will and humility so that the God-given and inalienable freedoms will flourish and serenity will reign once again.”m

On Armenia: “We are urging U.S. President Joe Biden to stop this inhuman behavior of the Azeri government”

32 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Yonan Syriac Catholic Patriarch

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he community of Christians in Syria, Lebanon, southern Turkey, and Iraq — and now, worldwide — who follow Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem Joseph III Yonan [alternatively Patriarch Ignace], the Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and all the East of the Syriacs, trace themselves back to the first communities that gathered around the apostle Andrew in the city of Antioch (modern-day Antalya, Turkey). These communities became the Syriac Christians, who developed a spiritual and liturgical tradition that flourished for two millenia in the eastern borderlands in the Byzantine and then Ottoman Empires. Although their numbers dwindled as these areas became increasingly Islamicized, the Syriac Christians retained a strong presence and a substantial population there until the 20th century, when their communities were decimated by ethnic cleansing in 1915-16 during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

By the end of the 20th century, several millions remained, but the 2003 Iraq War kicked off a period in which Islamist militias targeted Christians in Iraq and Syria for more than a decade. In recent years, Syriac Christians have sought refuge in Lebanon and Turkey as well as further afield in Europe and North America. The man who has been tirelessly shepherding the community through this time of crisis is Patriarch Ignace, who has his seat in Beirut, Lebanon. Patriarch Ignace maintains a rigorous travel schedule and when Inside the Vatican magazine met with him in July, he was in the midst of a North American trip that included stops in New Jersey, Montreal, Canada, and Jacksonville, Florida, for the Knights of Columbus Convention. Patriarch Ignace travels with only a few assistants and is very generous with his time. In New Jersey in July, he spent hours talking with and blessing families, elderly people, and young children, speaking both Arabic and English. He went to bed sometime around midnight and was up before 7:00 for breakfast. His description of the struggles of the Syriac Christian community in Syria was raw and at times heartbreaking.

Our Lady of Deliverance, located in Woodland Park, New Jersey, was the first parish established by Patriarch

Younan in 1986, when he was sent as a young priest to the United States to minister to the increasing numbers of Syriac Catholics living in the country.

On Sunday, July 23, the Patriarch returned once again to Woodland Park to celebrate Mass alongside Bishop Yousif Behnam Habash, the current Eparch of our Lady of Deliverance — an eparchy which encompasses all of the Syriac Catholic parishes within the United States. Patriarch Younan and Bishop Habash celebrated Mass in the presence of several other priests and bishops — including Bishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and the former Apostolic Nuncio in Lebanon — and the congregation.

At the conclusion of the Mass, the Patriarch spoke warmly of his memories of arriving in the United States 37 years ago, and Bishop Habash spoke about his lifelong friendship with and respect for the Patriarch, who “had called me to serve the Church as young priest, who spoke no English.”

The following morning, Patriarch Younan told Inside the Vatican magazine that his summer patriarchal seat, at Sharfeh Monastery in the mountains 25 kilometers to the northeast of Beirut, is now home to the Order of Ephremite Monks. This order, founded in 1705, was nearly completely wiped out during the Sayfo, the mass killing of Christians during the breakup of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. “The monks returned and began living once again at Sharfeh in the year 2000,” the Patriarch said. “Just a handful of monks, and it is very cold in the winter. But this small community slowly grew, and it is a living monastery once again. It is a very beautiful monastery, on the road from Beirut to Damascus. Many important manuscripts in the Syriac language are kept there.”

The Patriarch also discussed, for a moment, the current political situation in Lebanon, and for Christians throughout the Middle East. The Patriarch told me that people in Western countries, such as France, Canada and the United States, need to become more engaged and informed about the ongoing removal of Christians in the Middle East.m

Working to shepherd an ancient Christian community worldwide

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 33

Sr. Patricia EbEgbulEm oF lagoS, NigEria coordinator of the bakhita center for survivors of trafficking

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atricia Ebegbulem was once a young girl, raised in poverty in Nigeria, who was taken in by an order of Catholic sisters from Ireland — the Sisters of St. Louis — and educated, formed in the Catholic faith and loved.

She went on to join the order that shepherded her through girlhood and into adulthood as a free, faithful Catholic woman.

Today she shepherds other young women who have, most often, experienced dire poverty, but the poverty today is not just of the material kind. These young women have been victimized by the spiritual poverty of our modern world, in which human beings are viewed — and bought, sold and used — as things.

These young women are victims of human trafficking.

Some of them were taken from their families — or, even more heartbreaking, sold by their families — when they were as young as twelve.

Sr. Patricia established and runs the Bakhita Center shelter in Lagos, Nigeria (named for African St. Josephine Bakhita who was herself kidnapped and trafficked as a slave) for these women, particularly offering support services for returning survivors of sex trafficking. She also runs mass awareness programs across high-risk rural areas and schools. Recognized as a national leader against trafficking, she was a recipient in October’s inaugural Sisters Anti-Trafficking Awards in London.

“Stopping trafficking is an uphill task, but I will not say it is impossible,” Sister Patricia said in a video produced by the anti-trafficking organization Arise. “Because with God, nothing is impossible.”

It was back in 1996 that Sr. Patricia first became fully aware of the tragedy of human trafficking. At the time president of the Nigeria Conference of Women Religious, she was in Italy at the invitation of a Consolata Missionary Sister who worked with foreign prostitutes — a disproportionately high number of them African — on the streets of Turin.

“One of them called out to me, ‘Sister, don’t come close to me, because I’m a fornicator, and all fornicators

will go to hell,’” she recalled in a recent interview. “I said, ‘God forbid!’ And at that point all of us started crying.

And the girl started crying.”

“We went back to Nigeria, and I went and reported to the bishops of Nigeria that we had to do something as a Church,” Sr. Patricia said.

Sr. Patricia says that the shelters and counseling and job training programs she went on to organize help the girls “to heal, to overcome their hurt, to reconcile them with those, especially with their families, that have trafficked them.”

“And then with time, if they have any [employable] skill, you try to perfect the skill. And if they have no skill, we try to get them to acquire skills. That is why one of the things we are looking for now is to secure a skill acquisition center.”

Things have changed somewhat since the 1990s, when young naïve women could be deceived by promises of going to school or working in Italy.

“With so much awareness that we have created [today], they now know why they are going,” Sr. Patricia said. “But they still choose to go, because of the level of poverty and the suffering in Nigeria.”

“Many of them said they were prepared to go there and die” rather than “stay in Nigeria and face the hardships,” she said.

But those who are rescued and successfully go through rehabilitation and skills training have a better chance of staying home and starting a new life.

“We get them a shop and equip it for two years, because if they are not really integrated properly, if you don’t give them something to do, then the danger is that they will be re-trafficked.”

It’s God’s work, Sr. Patricia testifies, that brings transformation . “It’s our prayer life. And we try to carry them along in the prayer, because they share; they participate with us in our prayer life, we pray together, we eat together, we do so much together.”

“But it is God,” she concludes.m

Fighting sex trafficking one girl at a time

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interVieW

“the final testament of a fRiend” RetiRed CaRdinal James Francis staFFord RefleCts on suffeRing, joy and the “tRinitaRian ConveRsation” that is CatholiCism n BY BARBARA MIDDLETOn One of the most profound and learned cardinals of the Church who has been a exemplar in America and in Rome for 70 years of the very best that America can produce: Cardinal James Francis (Frank) Stafford, 91, retired Archbishop of Denver and President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

(CNA/Sandra Miley)

Cardinal James Francis Stafford, 91, was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, an only child. He entered Loyola College Maryland in Baltimore, planning a legal career, but the death in 1952 of two close friends caused Stafford to rethink his future and become a priest. After serving as Archbishop of Denver, Colorado, from 1986-1996, he was made president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 1996-2003, and then the major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary 2003-2009. He was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

Inside the Vatican: Can you tell us about your early life and education?

Cardinal James Francis Stafford: The Great Depression was in full gear in July, 1932, the year of my birth and baptism. From 1938 to 1946 I attended the elementary school of St. Joseph’s Passionist Monastery parish in Baltimore, under the direction of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

In 1939 the Second World War broke out in Europe.

“Legalized violence” again overshadowed everyone and everything. In 1944, our seventh-grade teacher, Sister Mary Josepha, SSND, said that the bullets and bombs used in a just war should not directly be used against 36 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

non-combatants. Yet during the war years (1939-1945), news reels in local theaters showed the rubble of European and Asian cities. American children on Saturday afternoons saw on Movietone screens endless piles of dead bodies while survivors wandered aimlessly. Then came the flashpoints of shock between February 13-15, 1945: the leveling of Dresden, Germany by American and British bombers. Moreover, in August 1945 American atomic bombs obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. It’s estimated that 25,000 civilians were killed in Dresden, 70,000 to 135,000 died in Hiroshima and 60,000 to 80,000 died in Nagasaki.

In the 1940s Holocaust, Nazi Germany murdered 6 million Jews. Separate Nazi atrocities killed non-Jewish civilians and POWs, estimated at 11 million by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

In 1945 a shadow on a bridge in Hiroshima was the only remnant of a vaporized human being. Other civilians were being blotted out in cities of Asia, Oceania, and Europe.

To all the above, I reflected, “Everywhere ravaged bodies had chiseled violence upon living hearts. How will God respond and when?”

How did your parents influence your vocation?

Cardinal Stafford: In 1985 my father died in his 79th

I studied the Bible more closely. At one time I came year; in 1995 my mother died in her 84th year. Their across the words of St. Mark’s Gospel, “And the Spirit nearly 55 years together on earth were filled with joy and immediately drove Jesus out into the wilderness” (Mk 1, the hope of bodily resurrection.

12). Shortly thereafter I began exploring the possibility In 1936, my father took me to the parish May Procesof the seminary with my pastor, Msgr. Roche, who wantwest the sion in honor of Mary. We were crowded within ed me to go to Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, vestibule of the Church. When Mary’s statue passed by, his alma mater. But Archbishop Keough of Baltimore I found myself on his shoulders peering through narrow and Msgr. Porter White, his secwindows of double doors; I saw retary, thought otherwise. The nothing except heads. Despite old inner-city seminary, St. my disappointment, wonder Mary’s on Paca Street, became filled my heart that my father had the “desert” for me during the wanted me to see our Mother six years. next Mary. I’ve never forgotten his Even in 1952, the seminary fatherly gesture. had been disfigured with signs of Generations of tuberculosis tacit violence. T. S. Eliot’s “A had blighted the family of my heap of broken images” (line 22 mother, Dorothy Stafford, née of The Wasteland) came to mind Stanton. From 1929 to 1944, she as I looked outside through the was hospitalized several times classroom windows of the urban for TB and underwent three lung seminary and viewed a high surgeries. Her faith in God never brick wall that surrounded its wavered. The sacramental love perimeter. The wall was topped of my father for her during those by broken, sparkling glass that years proved crucial. I lived with separated the aged Catholic my maternal grandparents and buildings and the 200 white semlater, my aunt’s family, whose inarians and faculty inside from home life was a welcoming and the urban poor outside. The conprotective haven. broken glass signaled spicuous In June 1944, my mother the blindness of the Church to its returned well, and our family was own sin. Outside, I caught sight reunited. Each Saturday afterIn this recent photo, Cardinal Stafford during his pastoral of the poor men and women and noon thereafter, I would accomservice blesses a young seminarian children against whom the wall pany her to the downtown Lexwas fortified. The seminary ington Market, established in “I ENTERED THE SEMINARY. INSTEAD inside the walls with their moon1782. Those trips to the city marOF 40 DAYS, I REQUIRED SIX YEARS lit, sparkling defensive topping ket introduced me to farmers, for me the armor of “The became cattlemen, butchers, market men, IN THAT ‘WILDERNESS’” Waste Land” of the 1950s. women, and children. They were How should a Catholic deal with war and the silent people of the soil and happy companions. violence of the broken-glass wall? With the Korean War, When did your priestly call mature?

I heard the response of the heavenly Father. The violence Cardinal Stafford: The Second World War led to the of the war became intertwined with the mystery of the question. “Why has God permitted the Niagara of vioredemptive suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus of lence in the 20th century?” With the Korean War in the Nazareth, the only Son of the eternal Father. “And early 1950s, God responded. through Him, God was pleased to reconcile to himself summer Two friends in the military were killed in the all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace of 1952, one in western Korea and the other while by the blood of His cross” (Col. 1: 20). In the Eucharist returning home from ROTC summer training. Both Jesus also interpreted how he understood the chaos of Harry Chant and Jack Potthast were men of faith in death that engulfed Him: “This is my body given up for Christ. They were both 20 years of age. We had been you......This is my blood poured out for the forgiveness freshmen together in college. Since then, barely a week of sins.” passes that their deaths in Christ do not come to mind.

Could you tell us about your personal journey in Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Terrible Sonnets helped me seminary? the Dante’s navigate the labyrinth. Years later when reading Cardinal Stafford: My entrance into the seminary Divine Comedy, I identified my long summer weeks of was not simply a protest; in the spiritual desert of 1950s those years with his experience of “finding myself in a America, I was looking for wisdom. dark forest where the straight way was lost” (I, 1).

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 37

INTERVIEW

CARDINAL JAMES FRANCIS STAFFORD

I entered the seminary in September, 1952 in the hope of finding it. My young Catholic imagination had been seared by the massive savageries of the twentieth century. The secular professions I had been exploring in college seemed incapable of confronting the crisis. Some seemed even complicit. Only a few had not been compromised, like the School Sisters of Notre Dame and the Passionist Fathers and Brothers in my parish. I admired them.

In 1951 I also came across the words of St. Paul describing Jesus: “In all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor

God alone, nor is Augustine alone, but it was the grace of God together with him.

In sum, God wills absolutely that each human being, at least implicitly, chooses freely to be one with Jesus in His Paschal Mystery.

Human freedom requires that human beings surrender completely their lives, their deaths, their loved ones, their enemies, their possessions, their past, present, and future to the will of God. This all-encompassing surrender unfolds the meaning of the first commandment found in the Book of Deuteronomy, “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am comMarch 25, 2005, St. Peter’s Basilica. Celebration of the Passion of the Lord presided over by manding you today in your Cardinal James Francis Stafford, Major Penitentiary. (Grzegorz Galazka - photos) heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise” (Det 6: 4-7).

The surrender furthermore unfolds the meaning of the other mystery of freedom: all should freely pursue the cardinal virtues as Jesus commanded, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes His sun rise on the righteous and unrighteous” things present, nor things to HUMAN FREEDOM REQUIRES THAT (Mt. 5: 43-45). come, nor powers nor height, nor The two commandments, to depth, nor anything else in all cre- HUMAN BEINGS SURRENDER COMPLETELY ation, will be able to separate us THEIR LIVES, THEIR PAST, PRESENT, AND love God and to love others, are from the love of God in Christ summed up by Jesus: “If anyFUTURE, TO THE WILL OF GOD Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8: 37-39). one wants to become a follower St. Paul’s words soared to the heights and they carried of mine, let him deny himself and take up his cross and me with them. Such heights are unforgettable. On some follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose occasions liturgical and personal prayers were indeit; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it” scribably lofty. The Sulpician Fathers were superb spir(Mt. 16: 24-25). Jesus’s words were chiseled into my itual directors and professors. But the violence did not heart forever during the thirteenth and twentieth years of disappear; it was, instead, strangely transformed. Origimy life (1944-1952). Years later, when reading Dante’s nal Sin had been tamed, not conquered.

Inferno I identified those long years of formation with My favorite studies in the seminary were St. Augushis experience of “finding myself in a dark forest where tine. He argued in his De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, “Nevthe straight way was lost” (I, 1). Shortly thereafter, I disertheless, lest the will itself should be deemed capable of covered his peerless description of heaven in Paradiso: doing any good thing without the grace of God, after say“But already my desire and my will ing, ‘His grace within me was not in vain, but I have were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed, labored more abundantly than they all,’ St. Paul added by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars.” the qualifying clause: ‘Yet not I, but the grace of God (Canto XXXIII, 142-145) which was with me.”

It is now 2024, and the Church that you loved and In other words, Not I alone, but the grace of God coopserved for many decades is experiencing a marked erates with my freedom. And thus, neither is the grace of loss of her faithful. How can we stem the tide?

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echesis in parishes. My own thought is that Catholics Cardinal Stafford: We beg God to make more evident should have a close historical familiarity with the Jewthe experience of the fruit of the Holy Spirit within the ishness of Jesus. pastoral life of Catholics. The fruit of the Spirit is found The third challenge, the significance of being created in Galatians 5: 22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, as man and woman, requires us to recover “our original joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfullanguage,” the language of the human body. It requires ness, gentleness and self-control.” a deeper theological anthropology concerning the meanIn the seminary I first became aware of the beauty of ing of man and woman. “So God created man in the Trinitarian prayer. Christians should generally address image of Himself, in the image of God He created them, prayer to the heavenly Father through the Eucharistic male and female He created them” (Gen 1:27). God saw Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit, that is, the unity of that creation, together with this original language of the love within the Church. human body, was “very good Trinitarian truth and goodness should pervade the life of the TRINITARIAN TRUTH AND GOODNESS indeed” (Gen 1: 31).

The fourth challenge deals with parish and its people. “The Church SHOULD PERVADE THE LIFE OF THE the relationship between the Trinirejoices with a new and indefinPARISH AND ITS PEOPLE tarian-Christological teachings of able loveliness” (Augustine) by the first seven Ecumenical Counaccepting the Holy Spirit’s invitacils and the historical Jesus in the tion to participate in the eternal New Testament.

Trinitarian conversation between St. John of the Cross has drawn the eternal Father and his incarup a map — the most important nate, eternal Son. map I’ve ever read. His map deOut of the fathomless depths of picts the pathway that leads the love the eternal Father has generatclimber to the summit of Mt. Cared His eternal Son. The eternal mel. The steps up to the top are Father sees His eternal Son and notable for their simplicity — delights in His beauty. In turn the each step up is entitled with the eternal Son returns an eternal Spanish word “nada” — in fact, all thanksgiving (Eucharist) to the the steps are marked with this Father who is the origin of all. word, “Nothing.” On the summit Their conversation is united in of Mt. Carmel, St. John says that their eternal Love for one another there is “nothing.” Five times he — the Holy Spirit. The baptized writes “nada” — “nothing” on the are called to participate in that etersummit. nal Trinitarian conversation.

He further writes,” Even on the What are the greatest chalsummit there is “nada — nothlenges facing the Church today? ing,” with this momentous excepCardinal Stafford: They are tion: “Only the honor and glory of four: 1) to recapture the Trinitarian and Incarnational foundations of August 3, 2011. Stafford, Major Penitentiary Emeritus as God dwells on this summit.” Both the Church; 2) to gain knowledge principal celebrant of a votive Mass in honor of Our Lady the means to reach the summit and of Guadalupe at the 129th Supreme Convention in the summit itself are attained for of the Jewishness of Jesus of NazDenver, the Knights of Columbus the same motive. Everything in areth; 3) to strengthen its theologlife and in death must be done for “the honor and glory ical anthropology, that is, what it means to be man and of God alone.” woman. These challenges, religious, historical, anthroSt. John of the Cross concludes his narrative map, pological, and the West’s responses, are changing the “Now that we no longer desire either the goods of heavunderstanding of God and of western peoples; and 4) to en or of the earth, we have them all without desire.” reflect on the relationships of the Seven Ecumenical This is the highest wisdom, the realization of the Councils from the First Council of Nicaea held in 325 promise God made to the Jewish people if they obeyed and the Second Council of Nicaea held in 787.

Him: “I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits Above, I have developed what is meant by the first and its good things.” (Jer. 2: 7). challenge. The second challenge is knowledge of the Rest, finally, in the contemplation of the sacrament of Second Temple Era of Jewish history that formed Jesus the Body given up for you and of the Blood poured out of Nazareth in his youth and adulthood. for you in all of its raw, dark, human, satanic violence Such knowledge does not come from surmises, but and unfathomable, incomprehensible, unmerited, selffrom the study of the Second Temple Era of Judaism. emptying Trinitarian love.m Eventually, the results need to become a part of the catJANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 39

EDUCATION

undersTAnding The mAny TrAdiTions in The church Theosis AcAdemy insTrucTs ThousAnds AbouT The “lighT from The eAsT” n BY DOMINIC CASSELLA * Opposite, the logo of the Theosis Academy, an online community founded in 2022 based on 30 years of work, since the 1990s, of the Orientale Lumen Foundation, based in Fairfax, Virginia, to bring “light from the East”: Saints Peter and Andrew embrace, an icon of the meeting between the Western and Eastern Churches Pictured right, an Orthodox celebration at a September 2012 ecumenical meeting in Sarajevo Opposite, John Paul II greets Orthodox leaders at a May 2000 ecumenical meeting

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in virtue, they did not [willingly] submit to a royal rule but n Aristotle’s Politics, we encounter an interesting distincsought a rule that could be shared.” tion between the best form of government in the ideal And, similarly, if we look to the American founding, sense and the best form of government in the practical because of the anti-monarchical sentiment in the country sense. For Aristotle, and throughout most of the Christian trawhen the founding Fathers established the Constitution of dition, the best, ideal form of government is a monarchy. St. the United States, they knew they had to establish a Republic Thomas Aquinas explains the reasoning behind this point in despite some of them (such as Alexander Hamilton: cf.

De Regno, saying that every natural governance is goverAlexander Hamilton’s Notes, June 18, 1787) recognizing the nance by one. In the multitude of bodily members there is one inherent superiority of monarchical government. “which is the principal mover, namely, the ‘heart’ [today, we The dichotomy between the ideal and the practical is part would say: the brain]; and among the powers of the soul one of life, and it requires the virtue of prudence to determine power presides as chief, namely, the reason…it follows that which can be attained or should be sought after. And so, as it is best for a human multitude to be ruled by one person.” we see mortal men establish governments for their people — At its core, the reason for monarchy’s superiority is straddling the line between the ideal and the prudential — we because of its connection to man’s nature and the superiority know that God guides man with greater insight and mastery of unity over multitude (something seen clearly in Thomas’s as he establishes the heavenly Kingdom as represented by the more Neoplatonic comments as influenced by pseudoChurch.

Dionysius and the Liber de Causis).

At the Church’s very founding, Nevertheless, despite monarwe read that the Apostles “were chy being judged the “best” all filled with the Holy Spirit and form of government, we find began to speak in other tongues, that many people with different as the Spirit gave them utterbackgrounds and degrees of ance… And at this sound the mulvirtue thrive under different titude came together, and they forms of government. For examwere bewildered, because each ple, Aristotle makes a point of one heard them speaking in his saying that when many “men happened to stand out equally Collaborators of the Orientale Lumen Foundation: Metropolitan Kallistos own language.” From the Ware (d. 2022) and Archimandrite Robert Taft, SJ (d. 2018)

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praise God or reflect his glory. Our misbeginning, the Apostles — speaking to sion at Theosis Academy is to introduce the Cretans and Arabians as Cretans and the world to the Eastern facet of the Arabians — were part of a Church that Church, which itself is varied and comwas brilliantly diverse, and God gave his posed of diverse rites, from Byzantine shepherds the power to preach to each of and Alexandrian to Antiochene and these groups intimately, in their own Chaldean. We aim especially to answer language. the call of St. John Paul II — who echoed This is just one example of how God his predecessor Leo XIII — when he said reaches out to man and meets men where that it is paramount for Catholics to be they are. There are many more examples made familiar with the heritage of throughout the whole of the canonical Christ’s Church “so as to be nourished by Scriptures. Perhaps it is worth noting it and to encourage the process of unity.” that the Judeo-Christian tradition is the In service of this process of unity, not exact inverse of other religious myths only is Theosis Academy meant to teach and legends. In other non-Christian reliabout the varied traditions of Christ’s gions, man is searching for the divine everlasting Church, but it also has a mis(indicative of our modern condition) or sion of dialogue between the Catholic humans are considered to be some afterand Orthodox churches. Both Orthodox and Catholic scholthought of a divine hedonist (notably in the mesopotamian ars are contributors to our website, where we offer several myth where Marduk makes humans to release the gods from recorded lecture classes from the renowned Orthodox scholburdensome labor and provide a source of food and drink to ar Metropolitan Kallistos Ware and the Byzantine Catholic the temples). theologian Archimandrite Robert Taft. As we grow and Instead, the Judeo-Christian God, the one true God, develop, we hope to increase our efforts of reveals himself slowly and gradually to his dialogue and unification in the form of people. God’s interactions with man hapdebates, panel discussions and conferences. pen in stages. He meets us on our level, just This opportunity to teach the wider as a father raises his child. world about the Eastern Christian liturgical, All of this is to say that the importance spiritual, and intellectual traditions is no of the varied traditions and rituals of small matter, as St. John Paul II repeatedly Christ’s Church is well-grounded in her emphasized. In his Orientale Lumen, the history. It is something that needs greater Above, the home page of Theosis great saint went so far as to say that the eleattention today so that the mystical Body of Academy at theosisacademy.org. ments of Eastern Christianity provide a Christ might not wallow in ignorance of itself, of the many splendorous avenues Below: the certificate for completion of the “fuller and more thorough understanding of course of studies the Christian experience,” and they are God has lovingly designed for us in the even capable of “giving a more complete unfolding of history — so that, as St. response to the expectations of the men and Athanasius said, “man might become women of today.”

God.” So, we at Theosis Academy want to It is for this reason — that both the laity invite the readers of Inside the Vatican to and clergy might grow in knowledge of explore Theosis Academy and our course the various rites and traditions of the offerings and to dialogue with us on how Church, as called for in Vatican II’s Orienwe might better fulfill our mission. We talium Ecclesiarum — that we founded hope to be able to host live courses soon, Theosis Academy. beginning with a course on Mariology: who At Theosis Academy, we understand is the Theotokos, and how do the Eastern authors help us to that no one liturgical expression can fully display the brilunderstand the mystery of the virginal conception? This liance of the Creator, nor aid each man’s piety equally. In his course will be offered by Fr. Christiaan Kappes, academic Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas provides the basis dean of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic for this idea, saying, “goodness could not be adequately repSeminary. We are calling it The Ever-Virgin Mary and resented by one creature alone, [and so God] produced many Theotokos in Scripture and Tradition: A course on Mary in and diverse creatures, that what was wanting to one in the the Bible and ancient Christianity, and there will be eight representation of the divine goodness might be supplied sessions. You can find out more about the course at by another.” theosisacademy.org. Join us!

It seems the natural development of varied churches and rites within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, shepherded by the See of St. Peter, is also due * Dominic Cassella is an Editorial and Online to the fact that no one ritual or celebration can adequately Associate at the Faith and Reason Institute.m JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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SCRIPTURE

treating the sins of the flesh with a shrug “Know you not,” says st. Paul, “that your bodies are the members of Christ?” n BY AnTHOnY ESOLEn The Incredulity of St Thomas by Benjamin West, Temple Newsam House, Leeds Museums and Galleries, England

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works of mercy to treat the human hen I was a boy, I remember body with the honor it deserves, even that people said you shouldn’t “JESUS DID NOT RISE AS A after death. walk over the graves in a SPIRIT, BUT IN THE FLESH, For we Christians do not believe in cemetery, because it was a sign of disrespect to the people buried there. Yet GLORIFIED. THOMAS TOUCHED the immortality of the soul as set free THAT FLESH, AND ONLY THEN from its corporal prison-house. We I think there was more to it than that.

DID HE CRY OUT, The cemetery atop the hill behind our believe, as the poet Tasso puts it, that house was a solemn place, its head‘MY LORD AnD MY GOD!’ “soul and body will again unite / In stones set amid tall maples and firs, THAT IS WHY IT IS PERPLEXING God-like immortality and light.” For no two stones quite the same; there Jesus did not rise as a spirit, but in the TO HEAR PEOPLE, OSTENSIBLY were a few very old family plots, flesh, glorified. Thomas touched that C HRISTIAN , TREAT SINS OF THE some obelisks, some large blocks of flesh, and only then did he cry out, FLESH WITH A SHRUG” “My Lord and my God!” marble or granite graced with verses That is why it is perplexing to hear from Scripture; people still planted flowers at the graves, and the man who mowed the grass people, ostensibly Christian, treat sins of the flesh with a shrug, as if they did not really involve the most impordid not run them over. It was, I might say, holy ground. tant faculties of the human person.

Of course, I know that the bodies of the people buried Pride is the worst of sins, we are rightly told, and it there will have crumbled to dust. When I saw my father was envy that set Satan loose upon the world to destroy die, and then, two days later, saw his body laid out in the coffin at the funeral parlor, I was struck by the sudden the integrity of Eden – man with woman, and both of them with the created world beneath them and the cretruth that that was not my father. Yet it was his body, or what was once his body, and it is one of the corporal ator God above them.

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But St. Paul, ever careful to insist upon the reality of two “shall be one flesh” (6:16). Again, this saying is not the resurrection, as against body-denying philosophies to be construed as an abstraction, or as a figure of of spiritual transcendence, says that there is something speech. They are one flesh. Will you then take a member peculiarly self-destructive and blasphemous about sins of the body of Christ and make of it one flesh with a harof the flesh. He takes the body quite seriously: “Now the lot? Is that what God commanded in the beginning, body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the when he blessed the first man and woman?

Lord is for the body” (1 Cor. 6:13). That is not only He did not say, “Take your pleasure, but first ensure while we are in this first and earthly yourself against increase and mulThe Creation of Eve by Master Bertram of Minden body, for “God has raised up the from tiplication.” And when Adam first a panel of the Grabower Altar, the High Altar of Lord, and will also raise us up by his saw Eve, he did not say, “At last I St. Petri in Hamburg, Germany own power” (6:14). shall have fun!” His outburst of Our body, then, is not just a rather praise goes to the heart of what man inconvenient and temporary dweland woman are: they are for one ling place, and certainly not just an another, forever, because “for this instrument, to use as we please, for reason a man shall leave his father procuring what we want. Indeed, it and his mother and cleave unto his does not belong to us, as we do not wife, and they shall be one flesh” belong to ourselves, and to use the (Gen. 2:25). In Hebrew, that senbody as either a mere means of pleatence ends with the momentous sure or as the object itself of pleasure word ’echad, one – used most is to misconstrue what the body is. It notably of God himself. is to rob it of its holiness, and thereSo then, are we to pretend to fore of its true integrity. reflect the oneness of God by couFor the Christian’s body is a pling body and body in the emmember of Christ (1 Cor 6:15). We braces of immorality, not in marshould construe the word member as riage whose indissolubility follows concretely and physically as possifrom the complementary nature of ble. Forms of the Greek melos, memmale and female, builds up with ber, limb, bodily part, appear 24 immovable stones the temple of the times in the New Testament, and Church, and reflects the eternity always with a thoroughly and someand faithfulness of God? That is times uncomfortably physical sense. why, as Paul says, we must “flee It is never merely figurative and abfornication”: Pheugete ten pornstract. If your eye offends you, says eian, he cries (1 Cor. 6:18). It does Jesus, tear it out and cast it away, for not say “shun immorality,” as the WE FLEE THE SINS AGAINST it is better for you that one of your strangely abstract and somewhat AND IN THE FLESH NOT BECAUSE members should perish, than that nonsensical rendering would have your whole body should be cast into WE HATE THE BODY, BUT BECAUSE it. For all sin is “immoral,” and Gehenna (Mt. 5:29).

Paul is not talking about all sin. He WE LOVE IT AND HONOR IT. It is instructive that Jesus says so IT IS A HOLY PLACE, FASHIOnED is talking about sins of the flesh. immediately after he has warned us Nor does he simply say we are to

BY THE HAnD OF GOD. against even looking at a woman shun it. The Greek phugein is urAND WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE gent: we are to run away from it, as with lust in our hearts. St. Paul uses the word 19 times, always thinking TIME WHEN GOD WILL RAISE IT UP, from utter disaster. It is what of the members of a body and how PURIFIED OF SIN AND OF EVEN AN Joseph is instructed to do when we are either members of Christ’s Herod learns of the birth of the INCLINATION TO SIN. body or members of something else.

Messiah, to take the mother and “Know you not,” he continues to address those Corchild and flee into Egypt (Mt. 2:13). inthians who seem to be dabbling in a kind of “spiritual” We flee the sins against and in the flesh not because faith that gave them the liberty to sin with and in the we hate the body, but because we love it and honor it. flesh, “that your bodies are the members of Christ?

It is a holy place, fashioned by the hand of God. And we Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them look forward to the time when God will raise it up, purithe members of a harlot?” (1 Cor. 6:15). fied of sin and of even an inclination to sin. Only then Let it not be so! For whenever man and woman so will we feel in full its mighty power, and see with perunite, says Paul, echoing the words of Jesus himself, the fect clarity how beautiful it is.m JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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SPIRITUALITY BEHIND BARS

“if i fOrgeT yOu, O Jerusalem” The Divine Office, healer Of human frailTy anD fOrTress Of hOpe, even in prisOn. leTTer #3 frOm a man whO wriTes abOuT hOpe frOm behinD bars n BY MARCELLUS ROBERTS *

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the bars, the wings of our t’s the bars that make faith and reason beating it difficult. You fall against the bars, because asleep and they are have chained our we there. You wake up and hopes to the bars. find them still standing.

Heaven can lose its Those rigid, bony strucsavor as a supreme goal tural barriers trap the if our focus narrows so mind within memories of much that it becomes a mocking tone, in which solely set on getting to good recollections carry side of the bars. But is other the just as much pain as the bad, and SACRED SCRIPTURE fault a felon for to fair it warm tears cascade over the T HIS EVENING WE SIT BY THE R IVERS OF indulging in the fantasy of bodbanks of an eyelid like the rivers of Babylon. Every cell wears BABYLON AND WEEP. OUR HEADS HANG ily freedom? Much like the this steely gritting grin and LOW, OUR HARPS, HUNG. BUT OUR HEARTS enslaved Africans of America’s past, who appropriated the houses assorted flavors of hopeSING ONE OF ZION’S SONGS. Israelite exodus narrative to lessness behind a partition of engender hope in their downtrodden hearts, prisoners clenched teeth. today gravitate toward stories within Sacred Scripture Inside, the seconds turn to years, the mind plays that tell of emancipation and restored glory. tricks, the walls whisper and the script remains the same: I admit that the story of Joseph being cast down into “You are dangerous. Forgotten. Banished!” With nothslavery and then rising up to the right hand of Pharaoh ing to act as a buffer zone between the human soul and abets a certain type of hope in me. It’s an attractive story this atmosphere of condemnation, the accuser of the arc that, despite several obvious incongruencies, like my brethren terrorizes an inmate’s interior life by using his guilt and Joseph’s innocence, or the fact that I am my own weak flesh to run roughshod as an enemy within the father’s only blood-born son, resonates with my desire gates. Daily there is the temptation to sin against hope. to find gainful employment and become a blessing to my Daily the trap is set to cause despair and provoke prefamily post-imprisonment. sumption.

Interestingly enough, it’s just before my earthly aspiThose of us called to bolster the band of God’s rations succeed in consuming my imagination that I am blessed blast past these barriers, these bars. In humble reminded that someone must also be a John the Baptist, supplication for our temporal and eternal welfare, we who suffered a much different end. offer our prayers to be burned like incense in that great To an outsider, our lives can appear to be plunking bowl of ascending intercessions. Ours is a faith accomalong the roulette wheel of an angry God. The chips of panied by a hope in heaven as our final destination, and our fortunes rise and fall along the same spectrum as that the trust in God to provide the means to get us there. of ordinary men and women.

Or is it?

But one area in which we must diverge is in our hope; Even we, the people of God who know our true hope it must be heavenly-bent, shrewd in its use of grace, and is in Christ’s promise of heaven, can find our spiritual theological. progress impeded by the bars, our petitions grounded by

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INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

Somewhere in a dust-ruled desert of the southwestern Praying the Liturgy of the Hours is transcendent. I United States, a religious sister sings, sweetly in her cell, trade in my individuality and for the moment become the praises of God. She’s small in stature but grand and one with the Church, inhaling her joys and exhaling her powerful in her habit when these words leave her lips: sorrows. Somehow this provides me a buffer between “Domine ad adjuvandum me festina.” [“O Lord make my soul and the atmosphere of condemnation which is haste to help me!”] Her accent hints at an origin south of the prison system. “In this way human frailty, wounded the border, and more southern still than that border’s by self-love, is healed in proportion to the love that border. Hers is a life hidden away in the convent, with makes the heart match the voice that prays the Psalms.”

God, in Christ. She’s a scholar (General Instructions for the of simplicity and her heart beats Liturgy of the Hours, No. 108) HOURS OF PRAYER liturgically in a way only Bene- ...A RELIGIOUS SISTER SINGS, SWEETLY IN It’s 7 p.m. Tuesday evening, dictines can truly appreciate. and I’m gathered around the HER CELL, THE PRAISES OF GOD. SHE’S Every day of her life is dedicatdayroom table with the men SMALL IN STATURE BUT GRAND AND ed to the hours of prayer: the who stand by me in this time of Work of God. trial. The green ribbon of my POWERFUL IN HER HABIT WHEN THESE Not far from there and in the Mundelein Psalter dangles WORDS LEAVE HER LIPS: “DOMINE AD same desert, an aged prior gently against my wrist while ADJUVANDUM ME FESTINA.” places himself in the presence of its upper portion cleaves the God and with years of ingrained breviary at “Tuesday, Evening muscle memory begins to mouth the Prayer, Week IV.” It’s Ordinary words, “Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Time, the long one, and my memory Spiritui Sancto.” [“Glory be to the conjures up the vestments worn by Father and to the Son and to the Holy the priest at Mass earlier in the day.

Spirit”] He’s been a watchman for a They were also green: the color of long time. There’s no retirement age hope. With a moment of silence we for spiritual combat. Like the nocrecollect ourselves. We leave the turnal red-tailed hawk, he’s called to bars behind, the cell and its tricks, rise and keep vigil as the sun sets on its walls and its whispers. Here, in Western Civilization. In his petithis hour of holiness, we are weltions he prays for perseverance, come. The accuser of the brethren is peace, world leaders and all peoples. beaten back by the synchronized With breviary in hand, he abandons motions of the Sign of the Cross. We himself to Divine Providence. lift up our voices in hymnody which “Let us consider, then, how we causes a slight dip in the chatter, but ought to behave in the presence of the room is not startled. The other God and his angels, and let us stand inmates have become accustomed to sing the psalms in such a way that to us watchmen. our minds are in harmony with our voices.” (Rule of St. This evening we sit by the Rivers of Babylon and Benedict, Ch.19:6-7) The Holy Spirit pulled a power weep. Our heads hang low, our harps, hung. But our move with the development of the Divine Office, a.k.a. hearts sing one of Zion’s songs. As the world passes us The Liturgy of the Hours, a.k.a. The Word of God. by, our eyes see our destination with clarity. Our hope is The Church’s official prayer is a fortress of hope. If it in God’s promise of Heaven. Our trust is in His Divine is possible to harmonize our minds with the words of the Providence to get us there. “If I forget you, Jerusalem, Psalms, it can only happen through the time-honored let my right hand wither! O let my tongue cleave to my learning technique of repetition. mouth if I remember you not, if I prize not Jerusalem The oscillations of the Divine Office provide that. I above all my joys!” (Ps. 137:5-6). think the modern term “deliberate practice” describes the devotion perfectly because there is a purposeful con* Marcellus Allen Roberts is a 40-year-old Prison centration required to engage the whole person who Oblate of St. Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, Kansas. He is prays the Liturgy of the Hours. The Psalms included in serving a 25-year penance in the state of Texas. He the Hours can take you through the vicissitudes of life entered the Catholic Church in 2015, completed his vicariously if you let them. The yearly, weekly and daily noviciate year in 2016, and now serves the Catholic cycles of readings cleanse the heights and depths of the community on George Beto Unit as cantor and catechist. mind, tempering false hopes and raising the expectation He spends his free time studying small business entreof eternal life. Where would my interior life be without preneurship and songwriting with the help and intercesthis continual washing and regeneration? sions of his patron saint, St. Caedmon.m JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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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 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

THE CREED: THE RESURRECTION “ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN IN FULFILLMENT OF THE SCRIPTURES” Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death by death, and to those in the tombs giving life!

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ith this triumphant chorus, the East begins celebrating the Feast of Feasts, the final answer to the ancient vexation of mortality. Our icon depicts Adam and Eve fully restored to friendship with Christ, rising from their tombs in glory and honor... but St. John Chrysostom says it best: “If any man be devout and love God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If any man be a wise servant, let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord. If any have labored long in fasting, let him now receive his recompense. If any have wrought from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward. If any have come at the third hour, let him with thankfulness keep the feast. If any have arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; because he shall in nowise be deprived thereof. If any have delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near, fearing nothing.

If any have tarried even until the eleventh hour, let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness; for the Lord, who is jealous of His honor, will accept the last even as the first; He gives rest unto him who comes at the eleventh hour, even as unto him who has wrought from the first hour.

“And He shows mercy upon the last, and cares for the first; and to the one He gives, and upon the other He bestows gifts. And He both accepts the deeds, and welcomes the intention, and honors the acts and praises the offering. Wherefore, enter you all into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first, and like-

wise the second. You rich and poor together, hold high festival. You sober and you heedless, honor the day. Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast. The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously. The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.

“Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. Let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh. And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry: ‘Hell,’ said he, ‘was embittered, when it encountered Thee in the lower regions.’ It was embittered, for it was abolished. It was embittered, for it was mocked. It was embittered, for it was slain. It was embittered, for it was overthrown. It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave. For Christ, being risen from the dead, is become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.”m

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East-West Watch

BY PETER AnDERSOn

ORTHODOX MOLDOVA Moscow Patriarchate finally allows an episcopal ordination to occur in Moldova. Metropolitan Vladimir of Chișinău and All Moldova, the primate of the OCM, is the hierarch who has his hand on the head of the new bishop and who is reading from the sheet. The ordination occurred on October 22, 2023

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ut of all of the countries in Europe, people in the West probably know the least about Moldova. However, it has a number of distinctions. It is one of the poorest countries in Europe. It is also one of the most religious countries in Europe with 47 percent of the Moldovan population considering themselves to be “highly religious.” Approximately 94% of the Moldovan population are Eastern Orthodox.

Moldova is sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania.

The official state language of Moldova is Romanian, which is the primary language for 82 percent of the population. At various times, parts of Moldova have been controlled by Russia, and parts have been controlled by Romania. For example, from 1945 to 1991, Moldova was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union. During certain earlier periods, the eastern part of Moldova (called Bessarabia) and the western part were controlled by Romania. To make matters even more complex, the far eastern fringe of Moldova, called Transnistria, declared its independence from Moldova in 1991 and placed itself under the de facto control of Russia.

This complex history has led to a complex religious situation. At the present time, the largest church in Moldova is the Orthodox Church of Moldova (OCM). In 1812, when Bessarabia was annexed by Russia, the OCM became part of the Moscow Patriarchate. In 1918, when the area came under Romanian control, the OCM became a part of the Romanian Patriarchate. During Soviet times, the Moscow Patriarchate again assumed control.

At the present time, the OCM remains a part of the Moscow Patriarchate. However, there is now a smaller Metropolis of Bessarabia, which belongs to the Romanian Patriarchate. After being banned by the Soviets, the Metropolis reemerged in 1991. In October 2023, Romania enacted a new law providing an annual subsidy of two mil-

lion euros to this Metropolis in Moldova.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has added further complexity to the religious sphere in Moldova. The sentiment in Moldova has increasingly shifted towards favoring EU integration and emancipation from the influence of Moscow. The current government in Moldova is decidedly pro-Western. This has made the affiliation of the OCM with the Moscow Patriarchate problematic.

Faced with this situation, Metropolitan Vladimir of Chișinău and All Moldova, the primate of the OCM, wrote a letter to Patriarch Kirill on September 5, 2023.

The letter is extremely strong and harsh and includes a long list of grievances. The Metropolitan refers to “the increasingly persistent desire of the Moscow Patriarchate to absorb the Moldovan Metropolis into the so-called ‘Russian World’ — which is alien to our national aspirations and values.” He states that in Russia, “we were and are treated as a peripheral and spineless people who are deprived of the right to make those decisions that they consider necessary for their own good and prosperity.” After this letter, the Moscow Patriarchate did allow Metropolitan Vladimir to ordain a vicar bishop in Chișinău, but the Moscow Patriarchate has been completely silent on the other grievances.

The OCM has also been faced with the defection of priests and faithful to the Metropolis of Bessarabia. In October, the OCM defrocked four archpriests who defected. The Metropolis has, in turn, maintained that the defrocking was uncanonical, and has encouraged “all those who feel constrained by the Russian [OCM] dioceses to have the courage to get out of this servitude” and join the Metropolis.

One must now wait to see what will happen. However, it is very apparent that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is causing problems for the Moscow Patriarchate not only in Ukraine, Latvia, and Lithuania, but also in Moldova.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 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

NEWS from the EAST

BY MATTHEW TROJACEK

IRAQI LEADER MEETS POPE AFTER COURT dox Church, be sent to the Council of Europe’s advisory REJECTS CARDINAL’S LAWSUIT body on constitutional matters.

The Vatican said November 18 that during talks The deputies ask that the European Commission for between Iraq’s President Abdul Latif Rashid, the Pope, Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice and senior curial officials, “the need was reiterated for the Commission, examine the bill to determine whether it Catholic Church in Iraq to be able to continue to carry out complies with European standards and values in the field its valued mission and for all Iraqi Christians to be a of law, reports the Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s Informavibrant and active part of society and the territory.” tion-Education Department.

The Vatican meeting followed a November 14 ruling The bill was approved in its first reading in October. It

by Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court awaits a second reading before passing upholding Rashid’s July decision to into law. withdraw a 2013 civil decree recognizIn their letter, the deputies note that ing Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako as the bill is a threat to the freedom of relithe head of the half-million-member gion, which is supposed to be guaranChaldean Catholic Church and the teed by the Ukrainian constitution and holder of its endowments. legislation.

The Chaldean Catholic Church is In particular, “the document is once one of the 23 autonomous Eastern again aimed solely at interfering in the Catholic Churches in full communion internal activities of religious organizawith the Pope. It has over half a million tions and violating people’s right to freeJune 28, 2018. Ordinary Public Consistory for members in more than a dozen coun- the creation of new Cardinals presided by Pope dom of religion, which is fundamental Francis. Cardinal Louis Raphaël Sako, Patriarch and guaranteed by the state.” tries. (ThePillar) of Babylon of the Chaldeans. (Grzegorz Galazka - photo) The appeal affirms that the state has ‘WINDOW ONTO ETERNITY’: WORLD’S FIRST no right to tell its citizens which church to attend or to GREEK CATHOLIC MUSEUM BRINGS interfere in the internal affairs of a religious organization.

EASTERN LIGHT TO WESTERN CHRISTIAN To do so violates the constitution and the norms of interCULTURE national law, the deputies write. (OrthoChristian) Pilgrims and Byzantine art lovers from all over the world will now be able to visit the new Greek Catholic LGBT MOVEMENT BANNED IN RUSSIA, Museum in Nyíregyháza, just a few miles away from the RECOGNIZED AS EXTREMIST famous Weeping Icon in Máriapócs, in eastern Hungary.

The Supreme Court of Russia declared the internationSpread over an area of more than 20,000 square feet, al LGBT movement to be “extremist” on November 30, the cultural center, opened in November 2023 — the first banning its activities within the country. of its kind in the world — is designed to make the world According to the Russian Ministry of Justice, the aware of the centuries-old and relatively unknown artistic movement contains “signs and manifestations of an treasures. extremist orientation, including the incitement of social Catholics of the Byzantine Rite who live in full comand religious hatred.” munion with Rome currently number just over 150,000 According to Interfax, the decision “does not affect citbaptized in Hungary. The history of the community dates izens’ right to privacy and will not entail any negative back to 1646, when part of the Ruthenian Orthodox clergy legal consequences.” Restrictions are related to the need rallied to join the Catholic Church in the then-kingdom of to comply with the prohibition on LGBT propaganda, Hungary. advertising, interest formation, and attracting people to Pope Francis elevated the Greek Catholic Church of the LGBT movement.

Hungary to a sui iuris (self-governing) metropolitan The ban is “a form of societal moral self-defense,” said Church in 2015. (OrthodoxTimes) Vakhtang Kipshidze, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Department for Relations Between UKRAINIAN DEPUTIES CALL FOR the Church, Society, and the Media.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINATION OF BILL TO “We know from the testimony of many Western ChrisBAN THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH tians who adhere to traditional beliefs regarding marriage As of November 28, 2023, 53 deputies of Ukraine’s and family that the activities of LGBT movements are parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, have signed an appeal to aimed at displacing the Christian idea of marriage and the parliament’s Speaker, demanding that Bill No. 8371, family from both the public and legal space,” he added. with which the authorities aim to ban the Ukrainian Ortho(OrthoChristian) page 48

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MOLDOVAN ORTHODOX CHURCH CONSIDERS CUTTING TIES WITH MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE

archpriests to make a final decision. Therefore, the priests voted to remain within the Russian Patriarchate to preserve unity until then; the dialogue regarding accession to the Romanian Patriarchate will remain an open one. (Peter Anderson)

Moldova’s largest Orthodox church reaffirmed its link to its Russian parent church on November 16 despite dissent from priests who have denounced the association MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE with Moscow over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

REMOVES METROPOLITAN Ninety percent of Moldovans are Orthodox ChristianLEONID AS PATRIARCHAL ity. But parishioners are divided between two churches — EXARCH OF AFRICA the Moldova Metropolis, subordinate to the Russian The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Metropolis of Bessarabia, Orthodox Church decided to remove which reports to the Romanian Metropolitan Leonid of Klin church. Neither has autocephaly, or from his position as Exarch of full independence.

Africa on October 11, but replaced The head of the Russia-linked him with Bishop Constantine of church, Metropolitan Vladimir, Zaraysk, last month complained to Russian Previously, Patriarch TheoOrthodox Patriarch Kirill that dore of Alexandria had pointed those ties were denting its appeal. out in a letter to Patriarch Kirill But clerics agreed to maintain that the Russian Holy Synod’s those links — for now. establishment of an “Exarchate” in “There will be no discussion of the canonical territory of the Patrilinking the Moldovan Orthodox archate of Alexandria was nonThe leader of the Moldovan Orthodox Church and His Church to the Romanian Patriar- Holiness Vladimir (center) is surrounded by the bishops of canonical in every sense of Orthothe Moldovan Metropolitanate chate,” said Bishop Ioan of the dox ecclesiology.

Russia-linked church in a statement.

The Patriarch of Alexandria clarified that “we tolerate” However, anonymous sources reported that Metropolthe creation of an “Exarchate,” awaiting the revocation of itan Vladimir would later convene a new meeting of the that decision. (OrthodoxTimes)m

TradiTion and BeauTy

rIdIng the tIger AI (“ArtIfIcIAl IntellIgence”) In Art, And the humAn “glImpse of the Abyss of lIght” n BY AURELIO PORFIRI

The tones and rhythms of music can be displayed in patters of light visually, as shown in this photo of a violin, cello and piano trio concert. Applications using AI to combine visual and musical art can enrich our understanding and appreciation of music. But this is still in its infancy and much needs to be learned. The author calls this “riding the tiger”

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e live in a time where the use Machine Learning Will Shape the of artificial intelligence (AI) Next Decade, observes: “Defining WILL IT BE POSSIBLE WITH AI is rampant. Today we are witintelligence within AI precisely, TO PAINT WONDERFUL PICTURES nessing the extraordinary success of then, is fraught with problems and AND COMPOSE HARMONIOUS an application like Chat GPT, which caveats.” is already used by millions and mil- SACRED MUSIC? THIS SHOULDN’T We think we know well what we lions of people all over the world and SCARE US, BECAUSE THE MACHINE mean by that word “intelligence,” which is based on artificial intellibut in reality it can mean many CAN DO ALL THESE THINGS, gence. It is suggested as a panacea to things, and there is also an “intelliBUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO... solve every imaginable problem, gence of the wicked,” which should while for others it is a danger that will lead to ruin. Where not be forgotten. Will it be possible with AI to paint wonis the truth? derful pictures and compose harmonious sacred music?

I believe that we need to think carefully about the This shouldn’t scare us, because the machine can do all issue before becoming alarmed, and I would like to take these things, but it doesn’t have to. the example of sacred art, including sacred music. It may In fact, what is important in a work of art is not so seem strange to some that I am addressing this rather spemuch the finished product (which certainly also has its cific area for a problem that seems of much larger dimenimportance) but it is the motivation that triggered that sions. But precisely because they will seem to some to be creative process: I would say that it is precisely the “niche” problems, they allow us to see in a smaller “limit” that pushes the artist “beyond the limit.” It is predimension what happens in much larger domains. cisely this titanic struggle between will guided by First of all, we need to understand what “intelligence” thought and form that gives value to the work of art. means, because we don’t have very clear ideas on this This is why we are moved by an original by a great topic. Matt Burgess, in Artificial Intelligence: How painter and we are less moved by a reproduction, howev50

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

Below, Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper with measurements of the figure of Christ at the center of the table calculated and projected to an audience seeking to understand the meaning of the work more deeply

we hear the echo of Saint Paul’s words, “When I am er faithful, of that painting: because in the original we weak, then I am strong.” seem to directly touch that torment that pushed the artist But technology does not suffer: technology selects to sacrifice himself in the ecstasy of the creative act. The among the infinite possibilities those that seem best, but machine can make wonderful products, but it doesn’t for humans, the selected possibilities are often the result have to make them, it isn’t mixed up with humanity and of tears — and therefore more authentic, more true. mud, it doesn’t have to surpass itself to feel alive. Every work of art, including those that deal with the sacred, is There are certainly important ethical implications regarding AI — indeed, I would say terrible implications, a supreme act of thought that immerses itself in God. from a certain point of view.

The great English art critic John Ruskin observes: “A finLet’s think about how many ished work of a great artist is jobs can be lost due to the use only better than its sketch, if of these technological tools.

But for sacred art, for sacred the sources of pleasure bemusic, you can rest assured: longing to color and realization — valuable in themselves AI will never be able to replace those who, actually, — are so employed as to have been already ousted from increase the impressiveness of the thought. But if one atom of the choir lofts of churches by thought has vanished, all an all-too-human intelligence — with terrible results that color, all finish, all execution, resonate in our eyes and ears. all ornament, are too dearly Indeed, I would say that we bought. Nothing but thought should have the courage to see can pay for thought, and the what are the good uses of AI for instant that the increasing refineart, for sacred music. Precisement or finish of the picture begins I WOULD SAY THAT WE SHOULD sacred to be paid for by the loss of the ly because we are experiencing the faintest shadow of an idea, that HAVE THE COURAGE TO SEE WHAT birth of something so new, it is not ARE THE GOOD USES OF AI FOR instant all refinement or finish is an easy to foresee what the possibilities excrescence, and a deformity.” offered by these technologies may SACRED ART, FOR SACRED MUSIC. It is the thought that must shine be.

Some of those reading this will PRECISELY BECAUSE WE ARE behind every work of art, and it is not remember the early days of the interEXPERIENCING THE BIRTH OF human if it is not invested with the net, when this technology began to SOMETHING SO NEW, IT IS NOT sense of limitation and sin, our felix spread among the populace. In the EASY TO FORESEE WHAT THE culpa, our “happy fault,” which lowbeginning we were uncertain about ers us to raise us up. how to use it but, alongside abomPOSSIBILITIES OFFERED BY THESE In his Letter to Artists, John Paul inable uses, there have also been TECHNOLOGIES MAY BE II observed that “they [artists who some very good ones. are believers] know that they have had a momentary If we stick to sacred art and sacred music, let’s just glimpse of the abyss of light which has its original wellthink about how it has facilitated the search for texts and spring in God. Is it in any way surprising that this leaves images, the possibilities of in-depth analysis through the spirit overwhelmed, as it were, so that it can only videos, podcasts and texts, and the interactions generated stammer in reply? True artists above all are ready to by the development of social networks. I happened to acknowledge their limits and to make their own the produce videos in about 20 minutes in my bedroom words of the Apostle Paul, according to whom ‘God does which, once released, reached more than 40,000 people not dwell in shrines made by human hands’ so that ‘we around the world. Wasn’t all this unthinkable until a few ought not to think that the Deity is like gold or silver or decades ago? stone, a representation by human art and imagination’ So let’s try to remain open to the good things that can (Acts 17:24, 29). If the intimate reality of things is come from AI in these fields, the new possibilities for always ‘beyond’ the powers of human perception, how research, learning, analysis and so on. Do we have to hide much more so is God in the depths of his unfathomable the dangers from ourselves? This of course would not be mystery!” possible. Yet we should be able to transform these danUnderstand that a machine will never be able to rise gers into opportunities. We should try to “ride the tiger,” above this “abyss of light,” something that every man something that humanly seems very arduous but which, and woman can hope to experience. It seems strange, but precisely because we are human, offers us the possibility our corrupt nature, when open to grace, protects us from of overcoming ourselves and advancing on our path of any possible competition with machines. It seems as if personal and spiritual development.m JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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Of Books, Art and People

ANTONIO CANOVA IN The VATICAN ANd ROme n BY LUCY GORDAn

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Antonio Canova’s self-portrait, 1792

uring the winter of 2019 at his Triumphant Perseus, the first the Palazzo Braschi, just contemporary work of art to enter outside the Piazza Navona, the Vatican Collection. the city of Rome hosted the temIn addition, the next year Pius porary mega-exhibition “Canova.

VII designated Canova “InspecEterna Bellezza.” Many of the 170 tor of the Fine Arts of the Papal artifacts on display were sculpStates,” a post formerly held by tures by Antonio Canova. The inRaphael. This appointment gave tent was to show the sculptor’s Canova authority over the Vatideep attachment to Rome and to can Museums and the export of the city’s ancient art as the inspiraworks of art from Rome. Several tion of his sculpture. years later, in 1815, after NapolPresently on display until Janueon’s defeat, the same Pope ary 31, to mark the 100th annivernamed Canova “Minister Plenisary of Canova’s death, is the expotentiary of the Pope” and sent hibit “Antonio Canova in the him to Paris to recover the art Vatican Museums.” Made possi- Detail of the boxer Damoxenos, commissioned in 1806 that Napoleon had carried off to ble thanks to the generous support of the Patrons of the France as war booty. The mission was a success and in Arts in the Vatican Museums, specifically Rick and 1816, as a reward, Canova was appointed President of Lisa Altig of the Northwest Chapter, it’s not a typical the prestigious Academy of St. Luke, inscribed into the temporary exhibition shown in chronological order or “Golden Book of Roman Nobles” by the Pope’s own by theme in several connecting rooms, but rather a hand, and given the title Marquis of Ischia, alongside an “Canova Itinerary” in four widespread areas of the Muannual pension of 3,000 crowns. seums (the Hall of the Ladies, Hall XVII of the PinaThe first of the four sections of “Antonio Canova in coteca, the Octagonal Court, and the Chiaramonti Muthe Vatican Museums” is in the Hall of the Ladies. On seum), and is included in the Detail of the Triumphant Perseus, the first contemporary display here are sketches work of art to enter the Vatican Collection, in 1801 Museums’ entrance fee. and plaster casts of sculpThe Museums’ director tures by Giuseppe De FabBarbara Jatta and the “exris and Cincinnato Baruzzi, hibit’s” curator Alessandra friends of the “new PhidiRodolfo, the Museums’ curaas” or the “new Praxiteles,” tor of the Department of 17thas Canova was proclaimed, and 18th-Century Art, intend as well as Canova’s relithe exhibition to be a tribute gious sculptures donated to to this great artist, who also the Museums by Cardinal was a key figure in the culturPlacido Zurla (1769-1834). al policy of the papacy.

Perhaps even more imCanova received commisportant than the artworks is sions from Pius VI (r. 1775the fact that for this event 99) and VII (r. 1800-23), who the Hall of the Ladies has in 1801 bought from Canova been open to the Museums’ 52 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

From left, funerary monument of Clement XIII in St. Peter’s Basilica and, center, of Clement XIV in the Church of Santi Apostoli. Right, bust of Pius VII

visitors for the very first time. Commissioned by Pope here Canova, with the help of his trusted collaborator Paul V (Camillo Borghese) between 1608 and 1609, Antonio D’Este, set up and organized the display of over Guido Reni decorated its vaulted ceiling with frescoes 1100 ancient Roman artifacts, many of which, as I menof the Pentecost, the Transfiguration and the Ascension. tioned before, Canova had recovered and brought back to In Room XVIII of the Pinacoteca, Canova’s first stuRome after Napoleon was deposed in 1815. This section dio (1783) between Via delle Colonnette and Via San emphasizes Canova’s attachment to Rome and ancient Giacomo, today Via Antonio Canova, has been reconRoman art. structed. It was a must-visit for travelers on the Grand Canova’s aim was for ancient art to be born again in Tour, diplomats, aristocrats, intellectuals and artists who his contemporary sculptures and to model contemporary wanted to learn from Canova. On display here is Canoartworks through a filter of the ancient. Thus, he can be va’s bust of Pope Pius VII, his bust of sculptor Antonio considered the last of the ancient and the first of the modD’Este, who worked with Canova, and a ceramic ern sculptors. roundel portrait of Canova by Luigi Ontani, also a Canova’s only work in Vatican City not in the MuseCanova collaborator. ums is the tomb of Pope Clement A glimpse of the Hall of the Ladies in the Vatican Located in the Octagonal Court- Museums, open to the public for the first time XIII (r.1758-69) in St. Peter’s Basilyard and sculpted in 1800 and 1801 ica. Ignoring fatigue and the crition his personal initiative, without a cism of his belittlers, Canova took papal commission, is Canova’s four long years to complete this splendid statue of Triumphant Persework, which was inaugurated on us, the hero of Greek mythology who the eve of Holy Thursday in 1792 in beheaded the gorgon Medusa. Next the presence of Pope Pius VI. to Perseus are Canova’s two famous Canova disguised himself as a statues of the boxers Creugas and mendicant friar to better overhear Damoxenos, inspired by the match the comments of the onlookers, so narrated by Pausanias in his work he could discover the consensus on “Hellados Periegesis” (“Description his work. of Greece”). They are displayed just Elsewhere in Rome, between as Canova conceived them, facing 1783 and 1785 he arranged, comeach other. posed and designed the funerary No works by Canova are on dismonument dedicated to Clement play in the Chiaramonti Gallery, XIV (r. 1769-74) in the Church of which got its named from Pope Pius Santi Apostoli, which at the time VII, who was born Barnaba Niccolò was acclaimed “a new example of Maria Luigi Chiaramonti. Rather, Classical perfection.”m JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 53

Vatican archiVes

difficult diplomAcy A new releAse of mAteriAl from the VAticAn ArchiVes documents the holy see’s complicAted relAtions with itAly n BY GIOVAnnI MARIA VIAn* Left, the battle of Porta Pia marked the final act of war in the capture of Rome (20 September 1870), determining the fall of the temporal power of the Bishop of Rome.

Below, Pope Pius IX (Pontiff from 1846 to 1878) was forced to relinquish control of the Papal States — all of central Italy. And the nation of Italy came into being Bottom, Pope Pius XI was Pope from 1922 to 1939. The Lateran Pacts were signed on February 11, 1929.

A

n overview of the first 30 years of diplomatic relations between Italy and the Holy See is the latest news from the archives across the Tiber. Just released by the Vatican Apostolic Archive, the book covering the last six years of Pius XII’s pontificate completes the inventory of papers from the Pope’s embassy in Rome that are open for consultation. In total there are four volumes (the archive of the apostolic nunciature in Italy) which, in over 3,000 pages — the indexes of names, places and institutions alone take up 500 — document diplomatic relations from their beginning in 1929 until the death of Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) in 1958.

The Jesuit historian Pierre Blet (1918-2009), in his reconstruction of the “diplomatic representation of the Holy See,” identified its very distant origins in the envoys that the bishops of Rome sent on missions in the first centuries to represent them in other churches, or in synods or councils, and in a sense, more specifically to the courts of the Byzantine emperors — they were the “apocrysaries” — and courts of other sovereigns in the Middle Ages.

Lords of a good part of central Italy, the Popes began in the modern age to also have their ambassadors on the Italian peninsula, the “apostolic nuncios,” in Venice, Turin, Florence, Naples and Modena.

With the process of unification of Italy and the collapse of the Pope’s temporal power in 1870, everything changed. Obviously, the pre-unifica54 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

tion Italian nunciatures disappeared, and the Pope no longer had a state; but diplomatic relations with other nations accredited to the Holy See, at that time a dozen, did not disappear. On the contrary, this unprecedented situation — already existing in the last years of Pius IX, but above all developing in the long pontificate of Leo XIII, who had been papal representative in Belgium — also fostered a new authority of the papacy on the international scene.

Quintino Sella, the influential 19th-century politician, noted this already in 1881, speaking in the Italian parliament; then, in 1948, the exceptional diplomat Jacques Maritain noted it as well in the final report of the French mission to the Holy See. According to the French philosopher Maritain, appointed three years earlier by Charles de Gaulle, “one of the consequences of the extenuation of temporal power due to the Lateran agreements was to considerably increase the importance of the diplomatic corps in the eyes of the Papacy, which sees in the crown of Ambassadors and Ministers who surround him an irreplaceable testimony to the recognition of his sovereignty.”

THE TURnInG POInT OF PIUS X Leo XIII’s successor, Pius X, elected in 1903 and having no nostalgia for the Holy See’s temporal power, began to reverse course. It is no coincidence that he was born in

Malgeri), the much shorter mission of his successor, the the Veneto region, still part of the Austrian empire, to a famPiedmontese Giuseppe Fietta — from 1953 to 1958. ily of modest origins; therefore he was not a subject of the These are the years of the apogee of the Fascist regime, papal state, nor did he come from the small papal aristocrathe war and reconstruction, up to the predominance of the cy, unlike all his predecessors for over a century beginning Christian Democrats and the ideology of the center-left. in 1775 (except for Gregory XVI , who was from Belluno).

Started by Pope Pius X, the thaw with Italy progressed THREE CRISES under his successor Benedict XV, thanks above all to that The role and limits of the nuncios are evident, indepenpontiff’s friendship with an old university friend of his who dent protagonists by right of the diplomatic corps, but, in became a high official in the Italian administration.

Italy more than elsewhere, conditioned by the direct Baron Carlo Monti, general director of Italy’s govaction of the pontiff and the secretariat of state, and ernment fund for support of the Italian Catholic therefore documented by other archives.

Church, met the Pope a couple of times a month, as Borgongini Duca had to face three serious crises a true “nuncio and minister at the same time,” as Holy See’s relations with Italy: 1) in 1931, the the in Vittorio Emanuele Orlando defined him, while the Catholic Action, which was disliked by the over clash pontiff himself jokingly went so far as to call him the regime but protected by the Pope; then, Fascist “Vice-Pope.”

Pope Pius XII (1876-1958) 2) the war in Ethiopia; and finally 3) in 1938, It was this mission that constituted the assumed the Chair of Peter March 2, 1939, the introduction of the racial laws (prohibiting “unofficial conciliation,” as the aristocrat unthe year WWII began intermarriage with Jews). derlined in 1918 in his Memoirs, paving the And if at the beginning the prelate had supported the way for the Lateran Pacts, which in 1929 put an end to the intransigence of Pius XI, Borgongini Duca then moved to “Roman question” over the extent of the Holy See’s tempomore moderate positions, prevalent in the curia. ral powers. Mussolini and Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Thus, the nuncio appeared to Galeazzo Ciano as “personGasparri signed a treaty — a concordat and financial agreevery anti-Semitic,” as Mussolini’s Foreign Minister ally ment — then included in the republican constitution, and noted in his diary on July 30, 1938. A month later, Borgongirevised by an agreement signed in 1984 by Bettino Craxi, ni Duca, “teased” by Ciano himself, indulges in an outburst 45th prime minister of Italy, and Cardinal Agostino about Pius XI, who “has a very bad character — authoritarCasaroli, Vatican Secretary of State. ian, almost insolent. Everyone in the Vatican is terrified of The original Lateran Pacts were signed on February 11, it.”

1929, negotiated primarily by the lawyer Francesco Pacelli, “He himself, when he has to enter the pontiff’s room, older brother of the future Pius XII. trembles,” wrote Ciano, and even Cardinal Pacelli, A few weeks after the ratification of the pacts on “when he goes to report, he has to, like a little secreJune 7, 1929, the Vatican’s Italian nunciature began tary, take notes under dictation of all the instructo function, based for the next 30 years in a villa on tions.”

Nomentana (where the Libyan embassy is now Once the war was over, in now-Republican Italy located); in 1959 it was transferred to Villa Giorand in the context of the Cold War, Pius XII’s ambasgina in Via Po. Until the current pontificate, the nuncios in Italy have all been Italian and have Alcide De Gasperi (1881-1954), sadors — who often resorted to confidential reports from Sifar, the Armed Forces Informaalmost always been appointed cardinals. a devout Catholic, was the Service — became alarmed by the comtion Prime Minister of Italy With Pope Bergoglio — Francis — innoDecember 1945-August 1953. danger. munist vations have been accentuated in the history of He was the founder of the And the conflicts in the Catholic party were the nunciature in Italy.

Christian Democrat party, which enjoyed the support also worrying, so much so that on August 20, In 2017, Adriano Bernardini, previously of the Holy See 1953 the nuncio Fietta wrote that “the Christnuncio to Argentina, where his differences ian Democrats suffer from internal chaos and only the with Archbishop Bergoglio of Buenos Aires were well weight of De Gasperi’s personality can prevent dangerous known, was not appointed cardinal at the end of the mission. collapses.”

Succeeding him in the nunciature in Via Po, for the first But the statesman, who, by opposing the Pope in 1952, time was a non-Italian prelate, the Swiss Emil Paul Tscherprevented the “Sturzo operation” (an attempt to form an had rig, also a nuncio to Argentina but — unlike Bernardini — anti-communist alliance between the Christian Democrat a trusted man of Francis.

Party and former fascists and monarchists) from turning to And last September 30, the diplomat Tscherrig was crethe right, died in 1954. ated cardinal by Pope Francis while still in office.

And then another political season began for Italy.

The four volumes of the archived documents of the nunciature in Italy, edited by Giovanni Castaldo (the first, *Giovanni Maria Vian, former Editor of L’Osservatore together with Giuseppe Lo Bianco, with an introduction by Romano, published this piece on November 18, 2023 in Luca Carboni), reflect the very long mission of Borgongini the Italian magazine Domani (“Tomorrow”)m Duca and, in the fourth volume (introduced by Francesco INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 55

THE END EXCERPTS fRom LORD OF THE WORLD

“WE Shall go To ignominy oR dEaTh” MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO, MONSIGNOR ROBERT HUGH BEnSOn FORESAW THE RISE OF SECULAR HUMANISM, THE CONTRACTION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND THE COMING OF THE ANTICHRIST 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

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 the book, saying its clarification of the danger of a type of humanitarianism without God is a true danger that we do face, we print a selection from it in ITV, now and in the months ahead.

LORD OF THE WORLD

BY ROBERT HUGH BEnSOn (1907)

looked not uttered—all done in half-an-hour—his whole nature had concentrated itself into one keen tense force, like a coiled spring.

He felt power tingling to his finger-tips—power and the dullness of an immense despair. Every prop had been cut, every brace severed; he, the City of Rome, the Catholic Church, the very supernatural itself, seemed to hang now on one single thing—the Finger of God. And if that failed—well, nothing would ever matter any more….

He was going now to one of two things—ignominy or death.

There was no third thing—unless, indeed, the conspirators were actually taken with their instruments upon them. But that was impossible. Either they would refrain, knowing that God’s ministers would fall with them, and in that case there would be the ignominy of a detected fraud, of a miserable attempt to win credit. Or they would not refrain; they would count the death of a Cardinal and a few bishops a cheap price to pay for revenge— and in that case, well, there was Death and Judgment.

But Percy had ceased to fear. No ignominy could be greater than that which he already bore—the ignominy of loneliness and discredit. And death could be nothing but sweet—it would at least be knowledge and rest. He was willing to risk all on God. The other, with a little gesture of apology, took out his office book presently, and began to read.

Percy looked at him with an immense envy. Ah! if only he were as old as that! He could bear a year or two more of this misery, but not fifty years, he thought. It was an almost endless vista that (even if things went well) opened before him, of continual strife, self-repression, energy, misrepresentation from his enemies.

The Church was sinking further every day. What if this new spasm of fervour were no more than the dying flare of faith?

How could he bear that? He would have to see the tide of atheism rise higher and more triumphant every day; Felsenburgh

BOOK II, THE ENCOUNTER, CHAPTER VI, Sections II-III (Note: With government imposition of a new “humanist liturgy” on the Church looming, some Catholics have hatched a violent plot to resist. Percy leaves Rome in a desperate attempt to foil the plot among these outraged Catholics who “have enough faith to act, but not enough to be patient.” He reflects as he crosses the Alps that “he was now going to one of two things — ignominy or death.” The man Felsenbugh mentioned at the bottom of the second column is the new humanist world dictator...the Antichrist.)

“Eminence,” said the old man abruptly, “there is surely more to speak of. Plans to be made.”

Percy shook his head.

“There are no plans to be made,” he said. “We know nothing but the fact—no names—nothing. We—we are like children in a tiger’s cage. And one of us has just made a gesture in the tiger’s face.”

“I suppose we shall communicate with one another?”

“If we are in existence.”

It was curious how Percy took the lead. He had worn his scarlet for about three months, and his companion for twelve years; yet it was the younger who dictated plans and arranged.

He was scarcely conscious of its strangeness, however. Ever since the shocking news of the morning, when a new mine had been sprung under the shaking Church, and he had watched the stately ceremonial, the gorgeous splendour, the dignified, tranquil movements of the Pope and his court, with a secret that burned his heart and brain—above all, since that quick interview in which old plans had been reversed and a startling decision formed, and a blessing given and received, and a farewell 56

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God as seen by British poet William Blake as the Architect of the world in his 1794 watercolor Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:9) now held in the British Museum, London.

had given it an impetus of whose end there was no prophesying.

Never before had a single man wielded the full power of democracy. Then once more he looked forward to the morrow.

Oh! if it could but end in death!… Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur! [“Blessed are those who die in the Lord”]…

It was no good; it was cowardly to think in this fashion. After all, God was God—He takes up the isles as a very little thing.

Percy took out his office book, found Prime and St. Sylvester, signed himself with the cross, and began to pray. A minute later the two chaplains slipped in once more, and sat down; and all was silent, save for that throb of the screw, and the strange whispering rush of air outside.

III It was about nineteen o’clock that the ruddy English conductor looked in at the doorway, waking Percy from his doze.

“Dinner will be served in half-an-hour, gentlemen,” he said (speaking Esperanto, as the rule was on international cars). “We do not stop at Turin tonight.”

He shut the door and went out, and the sound of closing doors came down the corridor as he made the same announcement to each compartment.

There were no passengers to descend at Turin, then, reflected Percy; and no doubt a wireless message had been received that there were none to come on board either. That was good news: it would give him more time in London. It might even enable Cardinal Steinmann to catch an earlier volor from Paris to Berlin; but he was not sure how they ran. It was a pity that the German had not been able to catch the thirteen o’clock from Rome to Berlin direct. So he calculated, in a kind of superficial insensibility.

He stood up presently to stretch himself. Then he passed out and along the corridor to the lavatory to wash his hands.

He became fascinated by the view as he stood before the basin at the rear of the car, for even now they were passing over Turin. It was a blur of light, vivid and beautiful, that shone beneath him in the midst of this gulf of darkness, sweeping away southwards into the gloom as the car sped on towards the Alps.

How little, he thought, seemed this great city seen from above; and yet, how mighty it was! It was from that glimmer, already five miles behind, that Italy was controlled; in one of these dolls’ houses of which he had caught but a glimpse, men sat in council over souls and bodies, and abolished God, and smiled at His Church.

And God allowed it all, and made no sign. It was there that Felsenburgh had been, a month or two ago—Felsenburgh, his double! And again the mental sword tore and stabbed at his heart. ***** A few minutes later, the four ecclesiastics were sitting at their round table in a little screened compartment of the diningroom in the bows of the air-ship. It was an excellent dinner,

served, as usual, from the kitchen in the bowels of the volor, and rose, course by course, with a smooth click, into the centre of the table. There was a bottle of red wine to each diner, and both table and chairs swung easily to the very slight motion of the ship. But they did not talk much, for there was only one subject possible to the two cardinals, and the chaplains had not yet been admitted into the full secret.

It was growing cold now, and even the hot-air foot-rests did not quite compensate for the deathly iciness of the breath that began to stream down from the Alps, which the ship was now approaching at a slight incline. It was necessary to rise at least nine thousand feet from the usual level, in order to pass the frontier of the Mont Cenis at a safe angle; and at the same time it was necessary to go a little slower over the Alps themselves, owing to the extreme rarity of the air, and the difficulty in causing the screw to revolve sufficiently quickly to counteract it.

“There will be clouds to-night,” said a voice clear and distinct from the passage, as the door swung slightly to a movement of the car.

Percy got up and closed it.

The German Cardinal began to grow a little fidgety towards the end of dinner.

“I shall go back,” he said at last. “I shall be better in my fur rug.”

His chaplain dutifully went after him, leaving his own dinner unfinished, and Percy was left alone with Father Corkran, his English chaplain lately from Scotland.

He finished his wine, ate a couple of figs, and then sat staring out through the plate-glass window in front.

“Ah!” he said. “Excuse me, Father. There are the Alps at last.”

The front of the car consisted of three divisions, in the centre of one of which stood the steersman, his eyes looking straight ahead, and his hands upon the wheel. On either side of him, separated from him by aluminum walls, was contrived a narrow slip of a compartment, with a long curved window at the height of a man’s eyes, through which a magnificent view could be obtained. It was to one of these that Percy went, passing along the corridor, and seeing through half-opened doors other parties still over their wine. He pushed the spring door on the left and went through.

He had crossed the Alps three times before in his life, and well remembered the extraordinary effect they had had on him, especially as he had once seen them from a great altitude upon a clear day—an eternal, immeasurable sea of white ice, broken by hummocks and wrinkles that from below were soaring peaks named and reverenced; and, beyond, the spherical curve of the earth’s edge that dropped in a haze of air into unutterable space.

But this time they seemed more amazing than ever, and he looked out on them with the interest of a sick child.

(To be continued)m JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

57

VATICAN WATCH

By Matthew Trojacek with CNA Reports - Grzegorz Galazka and CNA photos

OCTOBER SUNDAY 8

WEDNESDAY 18

VATICAN OBSERVATORY REVEALS THOUSANDS OF NEWLY DISCOVERED GALAXIES A press release from the Vatican’s astronomical research station on October 18 said astronomers gathered there “to present the latest results of a deep survey of the heart of the Milky Way,” known as the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea extended (VVVX) survey.

Astronomers have long been frustrated by what is known in celestial science as the “Zone of Avoidance,” a patch of the sky in which our own Milky Way galaxy blocks out galaxies and other objects.

Using sophisticated new technology, the VVVX team were “able to peer through the dust and see even distant galaxies on the other side of the Milky Way,” the observatory said in its announcement.

Among the findings presented at the conference at the Vatican was “a new catalog of nearly 20,000 never seen before galaxies just behind the plane of the Milky Way,” the Vatican said, which allowed astronomers to “discover structures in the universe” normally hidden behind our galaxy. (CNA)

POPE FRANCIS: DO NOT FORGET YOUR LIFE AND FAITH ARE A GIFT FROM GOD The Pope’s address before praying the Angelus October 8 focused on the day’s Gospel passage and the parable Jesus told the chief priests and elders about the tenants who refused to give the landowner his due, to the point of beating and killing his servants and even the landowner’s son when they were sent to collect the fruits of the harvest.

“With this parable, Jesus reminds us what happens when a person deceives himself into thinking that he does things on his own, and he forgets to be grateful, he forgets the real basis of life: that good comes from the grace of God, that good comes from his free gift,” Francis said to thousands of people from a window overlooking Saint Peter’s Square.

The Pope proposed several questions for self-reflection on the topic: “Am I aware that life and the faith are gifts I have received? Am I aware that I myself am a gift? Do I believe that everything comes from the grace of the painting, Pope Pius IX visiting the catacombs Lord? Do I understand that, without Inofthis FRIDAY 27 St. Callistus prays in the crypt of Santa Cecilia merit, I am the beneficiary of these POPE FRANCIS WAIVES things, that I am loved and saved gratuitously? And above STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS IN RUPNIK CASE all, in response to grace, do I know how to say ‘thank you’?”

The mosaic artist Father Marko Rupnik will face a (CNA) canonical process over allegations of sexual, psychological, and spiritual abuse against women religious, the Vatican anTHURSDAY 12 nounced October 27, in an apparent about-face.

SYNOD ON SYNODALITY DELEGATES MAKE A The Vatican has not formally specified the charges RupPILGRIMAGE TO ROME’S CATACOMBS nik will face, and the Vatican’s press office has declined Hundreds of delegates took a break from their discusquestions on its statement. sions of synodality to visit the catacombs of Saint Sebastian The Holy See press office said that the process would and Saint Callistus located on Rome’s ancient Appian Way take place after Pope Francis decided to waive the statute of on October 12. limitations on the claims, amid a worldwide outcry after it Each synod delegate was given a copy of the “Pact of the emerged that Rupnik had been accepted into a diocese in his Catacombs,” translated into four languages, when they arnative Slovenia after being expelled from the Jesuit order. rived at the Basilica of Saint Sebastian Outside of the Walls (ThePillar) for the opening prayer of the pilgrimage. The pact, signed by 42 bishops in 1965 during the Second Vatican Council, was NOVEMBER not referred to by any of the speakers during the synod pilgrimage but provided as “meditation material,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

MONDAY 13 Before the synod delegates descended into the dark tunVATICAN’S MATER ECCLESIAE MONASTERY nels of the catacombs, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the BECOMES HOME FOR CONTEMPLATIVE NUNS relator general of the Synod on Synodality, led them in spirThe Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the heart of the Vatiitual reflection and invited them to recite the Apostles’ Creed can Gardens that was the “home” of the Pope Emeritus, together inside the basilica. (CNA) Benedict XVI, for almost 10 years, is to resume its original 58

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023

purpose. According to a November 13 statement, Pope Francis has asked that it once again serve as the residence for contemplative orders “to support the Holy Father in his daily care for the whole Church, through the ministry of prayer, adoration, praise, and reparation: a praying presence in silence and solitude.”

The Pope has summoned the Nuns of the Benedictine Order of the Abbey of Saint Scolastica in Victoria, Buenos Aires province (Diocese of San Isidro) in Argentina, “who have generously accepted the invitation” of the Pontiff, the statement said. (VaticanNews)

Holy Land, he adds, “is very painful.” In addition, he remarks, “the Palestinian people, the people of Israel” are “two fraternal peoples” and “have the right to peace, have the right to live in peace.” (Zenit)

DECEMBER SATURDAY 2

POPE FRANCIS TO COP28: ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION IS ‘AN OFFENSE AGAINST GOD’ The keynote address that the Pope had intended to give WEDNESDAY 15 in person at the COP28 conference in Dubai December 2 VATICAN SIGNS DEAL was instead distributed to the attendees in Dubai, where VatWITH VOLKSWAGEN FOR ican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin read a shortAN ALL-ELECTRIC CAR FLEET ened version of the Pope’s speech to the assemThe Vatican announced November 15 that it was partnerbly. ing with the auto manufacturer Volkswagen as part of its Pope Francis, who turned 87 on Debroader initiative “Ecological Conversion 2030” to introcember 17, canceled his scheduled trip to duce an all-electric, zero-impact car fleet in the Vatican by the United Arab Emirates days before the 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, a goal estabclimate summit after coming down with a lished by the pontiff in 2020. lung infection.

“The Volkswagen Group, “Sadly, I am unable to be which aims to become a zero-carpresent with you, as I had greatbon company by 2050 and reduce ly desired,” the Pope said in his the carbon footprint of its vehicles message to COP28. by 30% by 2030, is the first strate“Even so … I am with you gic partner for the project to because the destruction of the renew the car fleet of the state environment is an offense with Volkswagen and Škoda against God, a sin that is not brand cars through the medium only personal but also structurand long-term rental formula,” al, one that greatly endangers of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin read a shortened version of according to the official press re- Secretary all human beings, especially the the Pope’s speech to the COP28 conference in Dubai lease of the governorate of Vatimost vulnerable in our midst, can City State. and threatens to unleash a conflict between generations.”

The Vatican’s efforts are not limited to overhauling its Pope Francis would have been the first Pope to attend the fleet but will also include the construction of its own netU.N.’s climate change conference, known as the “Conferwork of charging stations for electric vehicles, both in Vatience of the Parties” (COP), which has been held almost ancan City State as well as in the extraterritorial areas, a refornually since 1995. (CNA) estation program, and the importation of energy coming exVATICAN HOSTS QUANTUM SCIENCE clusively from renewable sources — the last of which was WORKSHOP TO SPREAD BENEFITS OF achieved in 2019, according to Vatican News. (CNA) TECHNOLOGY The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, led by Cardinal WEDNESDAY 22 Peter Turkson, invited a host of researchers in the field of POPE FRANCIS LAUNCHES NOVENA TO PRAY quantum mechanics for a three-day workshop in the VatiFOR PEACE can, which ran from November 30 to December 2.

Pope Francis has asked the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer According to Joachim von Braun, President of the PonNetwork to organize a campaign of special prayer for peace tifical Academy, the goal is to harness technological innovain the world and in the Holy Land. tion for the benefit of everyone, not simply developed na“Let us pray,” he says in a video in Spanish and available tions and their citizens. with English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic or Hebrew Around 100 years ago, important members of the Pontifsubtitles, “that the difficulties resolve themselves in diaical Academy of Sciences represented the “spearhead of logue and negotiation and not with a mountain of dead on quantum physics,” noted Dr. von Braun with reference to each side.”

Erwin Schrödinger, Max Planck, or Niels Bohr.

In his request, the Pope recalls, “We all feel the pain of Albert Einstein, although not a member himself, also had the wars,” and that “there are two very near that force us to friendly exchanges with many members of the Academy. react: Ukraine and the Holy Land.” What is going on in the (VaticanNews)n JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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ATTHEW TROJACEK with G. Galazka photos

n POPE FRANCIS UNESCO’S TWO-YEAR TRIBUTE HIGHLIGHTS SAINT TO SAINT THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX JOSEPHINE BAKHITA’S Thérèse of Lisieux, the French Carmelite EXAMPLE OF nun who lived from 1873-1897 and is known FORGIVENESS affectionately in English as the “Little FlowSpeaking in his first gener,” was “a revolutionary” who possessed an eral audience after the start “extraordinary strength of mind and will.” of the October Synod on That’s the assessment of Nicole Ameline, Synodality, Pope Francis the 71-year-old French politician and on October 11 resumed his women’s rights advocate who ongoing catechesis on the was behind UNESCO’s decitheme of apostolic zeal, this time focussion to mark the 150th annivering on the story of the Sudanese-Italian sary of the saint’s birth in Normandy with a two-year saint Josephine Bakhita, which he decycle of events and celebrations. scribed as “an existential parable of forAmeline, former parliamentarian and government mingiveness.” ister who has been France’s representative on the UN Committee on Her life was characterized by the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) since 2008, hardship of slavery but also by hope and explained why she pushed UNESCO to honor the Little Flower in a remercy. cent interview: “She’s a revolutionary. She had extraordinary strength “What is the secret of Saint Bakhiof mind and will. She fought to enter the Carmelite convent at a very ta?” the Pope asked, adding: “The vocayoung age, and was able to impose her choices on those around her, and tion of the oppressed is that of freeing her ideas on the world — to the religious world, of course, by opening themselves and their oppressors, becomup a new spiritual and theological path that has had a powerful impact ing restorers of humanity. Only in the on Christianity.” (LaCroixInternational) weakness of the oppressed can the force of God’s love, which frees both, be revealed.”

The regime of Daniel Ortega confirmed that the The Pope went on to say that “to pity means both to priests’ October 18 expulsion was part of negotiations suffer with the victims of the great inhumanity in the with the Vatican, explaining in a statement world and also to pity those who commit errors and injusthat “an agreement was reached for the tices, not justifying, but humanizing.” (CNA) movement to the Vatican of the 12 priests who, for different reasons, were prosecuted, n NIGERIA: SUSPECTED FULANI BANDITS and who traveled to Rome, Italy, this afterKIDNAP 3 IN MONASTERY ATTACK noon.”

Suspected Fulani bandits attacked a Benedictine There was initial speculation whether monastery in the Diocese of Ilorin in northern Nigeria at Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa 1:00 a.m. on October 17, abducting three people from the was included among the deported clerics, monastery. but a government list of those expelled to “I received a shocking text message from Rome did not include the bishop, who has one of our brother monks from Benedictine been detained by the government since August monastery in Eruku, that the Fulani bandits 2022. came to the monastery at about 1am this Álvarez is currently serving a 26-year prison sentence morning and kidnapped three of their brothfor “conspiracy” against the government and has refused ers,” Father Anselm Lawani, diocesan adprevious offers to go into exile. (ThePillar) ministrator, wrote in a message to Catholics.

According to Lawani, novice Brother Godwin Eze n POPE OPENS PATH TO BEATIFICATION OF was kidnapped during the Fulani attack, along with two ARGENTINIAN CARDINAL PIRONIO postulants: Anthony Eze and Peter Olarewaju.

Pope Francis recognized on November 8 Across Nigeria, the kidnapping of clerics is on the a miracle attributed to the intercession of rise—30 priests were kidnapped in Nigeria in 2022, while Edoardo Francisco Pironio, the Argenat least 40 were killed in the same year. (ThePillar) tine Cardinal known to many as “the friend of God.” n ORTEGA REGIME CONTINUES Once considered a leading candidate for CRACKDOWN AFTER 12 PRIESTS DEPORTED the papacy, he was a key figure in the Latin American In October, the Nicaraguan dictatorship deported 12 Church, serving as both secretary and president of the priests to the Vatican, bringing the total number of priests Latin American Episcopal Conference. In an interview, exiled from the country to more than 10% of its clergy. the Pope said of Pironio: “When you spoke with him, he 60 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

POPE FRANCIS MEETS WITH PROFESSIONAL SOCCER TEAM FOUNDED BY RELIGIOUS Pope Francis met with professional soccer players from the Celtic Football Club, a Glasgow team founded by an Irish Catholic religious brother.

The Pope, who is known to be an avid soccer fan, met with the team on November 29 while still recovering from the flu and lung inflammation, according to the Vatican. Francis told the team: “Excuse me, but with this always gave you the feeling that he was the worst man in the world, the worst sinner.

“He would open a panorama of holiness to you from his profound humility. He opened horizons for you; you realized that he never closed the door to anyone, even people he knew did not understand him,” said Pope Francis. (VaticanNews) n POPE FRANCIS RECOGNIZES MIRACLE FOR FIRST FEMALE ARGENTINIAN SAINT The Vatican on October 24 announced that Pope

cold, I cannot speak much, but I am better than yesterday.”

The Pope asked a priest to read his message to the athletes and then greeted them one by one.

Celtic F.C. is a Scottish soccer team based in Glasgow. The team was founded in 1887 by Brother Walfrid, a consecrated Marist brother, to help raise funds to feed the poor. (NCRegister) Francis has authorized the promulgation of a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to an 18th-century Argentinian religious sister, paving the way for her to become the first female Argentine saint.

Vatican News noted that Blessed María Antonia of Saint Joseph, known affectionately as “Mama Antula,” was the founder of the House for Spiritual Exercises in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (CNA)

POPE FRANCIS SENDS CONDOLENCES TO FAMILY OF INDI GREGORY AT BRITISH BABY’S FUNERAL Pope Francis sent his condolences on December 1 to the family of Indi Gregory, the British baby who died last month after U.K. courts ordered her life support removed.

The 8-month-old baby died in her mother’s arms in a hospice on November 13, having suffered from a rare degenerative mitochondrial disease over the course of her short life.

England’s high court had ruled that it was in the child’s “best interests” to be taken off life support against her parents’ wishes.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said in a telegram addressed to Bishop Patrick McKinney of Nottingham that the Holy Father “sends condolences and the assurance of his spiritual closeness to her parents, Dean and Claire, and to all who mourn the loss of this precious child of God.” The decision to remove baby Indi from life support was the culmination of a bitter back-and-forth between her parents and the British courts.

British Justice Robert Peel originally ruled in early November that her life support be discontinued.

The family appealed the decision, but a panel of judges subsequently ruled that the life support removal continue.

At one point the Vatican’s pediatric hospital, Bambino Gesù, offered to treat the 8-month-old baby, with the Italian government electing to grant her Italian citizenship and to cover the cost of her medical treatment.

Dean Gregory said the fight over his daughter’s life left him feeling as if he’d been “dragged to hell” and ultimately influenced his decision to have his daughter baptized. (CNA)

n PRO-BEIJING BISHOP BACKS CHINA’S ‘SINICIZATION OF RELIGION’ Chinese Catholics need to support the state’s sinicization of religion for the survival and development of the Church, Bishop Joseph Shen Bin of Shanghai, chairman of the Bishops’ Conference of the Catholic Church in China (BCCCC), said in a recent interview, ChinaAid reported on November 8.

Academically, sinicization of religion refers to the indigenization of religious faith, practice and ritual in Chinese culture and society, according to the Lausanne Movement.

However, the sinicization promoted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a profoundly political ideology that aims to impose strict rules on societies and institutions based on the core values of socialism, autonomy, and supporting the party leadership.

“Sinicization is a directional issue: a signpost and a direction to adapt to the socialist society, as well as an inherent rule and a fundamental requirement for the survival and development of the Catholic Church in China itself,” Shen told state news agency, China News Service, in October. (UCANews)m

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 61

Food n BY ITV STAFF

The penitential season of Lent “May they be days of reflecbegins February 14 this year. It tion and intense prayer, in which he enTen oods is the premier season in the we let ourselves be guided by oF ome Church’s liturgical calendar for the Word of God, which the both putting aside the fleeting liturgy proposes to us abundantpleasures of this world and emly. May Lent be, moreover, a bracing the renewal of spirit that time of fasting, penance and vigour faith continually calls us to. ilance over ourselves, aware that As Pope Benedict XVI said the struggle against sin never in his Lenten message of 2006: ends, as temptation is a daily re“Lent stimulates us to let the ality and frailty and illusion are Word of God penetrate our life everyone’s experience. and in this way to know the fun“Finally, may Lent be, damental truth: who we are, through almsgiving, a time to do where we come from, where we good to others; may it be an ocmust go, what path we must take casion to share the gifts received in life. Thus, the Lenten season offers us an ascetic with our brothers, to pay attention to the needs of the and liturgical journey that, helping us to open our poorest and the abandoned.” eyes in face of our weakness, makes us open our —taken from Pope Benedict XVI’s Ash Wednesday hearts to the merciful love of Christ. address in 2006

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he “aesthetical and liturgical journey” that is Lent begins this year on February 14. Most Catholics are familiar with the Church’s rules for fasting and abstinence, which can be found on many Catholic websites.

Less familiar to us are the rich traditions of Lenten foods bequeathed to us by our ancestors from all the Catholic and onceCatholic lands around the world.

(The Orthodox of the East — our brothers in faith and sacrament — also have a complex Lenten food tradition, owing especially to their generally stricter, graduated fasts for this penitential season, and thus an imaginative roster of Lenten recipes.)

But what land is more Catholic, and more famed for its delicious cuisine, than Rome?

Some wonderful Roman dishes to spice up your meatless days in Lent — also known as Quaresima, or the “40th day” in Italian — are Lasagne con Carciofi Fritti (Lasagne with Fried Artichokes) and Pesce Affogato al Pomodoro (Fish Drowned in Spicy Tomatoes): both recipes can be found on the webpage italiantribune.com/lenten-recipes-2/.

Another recipe that hails across not only centuries, but millennia, is Baccalà alla Romana (photo top), a complex dish that reflects the original Jewish/ancient 62 INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2024

Roman culture of the region and uses salted cod (baccalà) as well as potatoes, tomatoes, garlic and wine; see the recipe here: www.lacucinaitaliana.com/baccala-alla-romana-recipe-for-lent.

Then there is the simple but delicious Uova in Purgatorio (Eggs in Purgatory, photo left) which features olives, capers and anchovies and makes a lovely breakfast, lunch or simple Lenten dinner — while reminding us of the consequences of sin (www.allrecipes.com /recipe/265087/uova-in-purgatorio-eggs-in-purgatory/).

As Pope Benedict again reminds us: “...it seems abundantly clear that fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person. Quite opportunely, an ancient hymn of the Lenten liturgy exhorts: ‘Utamur ergo parcius, / verbis cibis et potibus, / somno, iocis et arctius / perstemus in custodia’ – ‘Let us use sparingly words, food and drink, sleep and amusements. May we be more alert in the custody of our senses.’”m

CELEBR ATE THE TR IUMPH OF JESUS CHR IST

Easter in Italy March 25 - April 4, 2024 Our Easter 2024 pilgrimage will begin almost a week before Easter in Assisi — the city of St. Francis — in the Umbrian hills near the very center of Italy. Assisi is one of the loveliest, most peaceful cities in the world. The very light and air of the city seem filled with the presence of the spirits of St. Francis and St. Clare.

During this Holy Pilgrimage, we will also travel to Norcia, the birthplace of St. Benedict. Tucked beneath sparkling, snow-caped mountains, Norcia is the scene of a poignant and unforgettable Good Friday procession.

Our final and climactic destination is the eternal City itself – Rome – where we will attend Easter Vigil Mass, and then Easter Sunday Mass, celebrated by Pope Francis and continue the festivities on Easter Monday (“la Pasquetta”) in Manoppello, at the shrine of the miraculous Holy Face. These liturgies, celebrating the triumph of Jesus Christ over sin and death, are among the most splendid and joyous in the Church’s calendar.

Join us for this joyous Easter celebration! Visit us online for more information on this moving spiritual pilgrimage.

PILGRIMAGE@INSIDETHEVATICAN.COM ∞ +1.202.536.4555 ∞ InsideTheVaticanPilgrimages.com