Showing posts with label Reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reform. Show all posts

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Papal Curial Reform with Contradiction

(Rome) The Summit curial reform approaches. Yet Pope Francis continues in his usual manner, "as he persecuted the good and promoted the bad in some cases" says the Vatican expert Sandro Magister.
At the same time, the Pope gave the ecclesiastical courts worldwide statements that have put things in a new direction with respect to marriage bond resolution.  

The Reform of the Curia, Which Holds Little Interest to the Pope

From the 9th-11th February the ninth meeting of the C9 Cardinal Council convened. After the meeting on the 13th and 14th of February there will follow a regular Cardinal Consistory, which will deal with the work and proposals of the C9 Council.
Eleven months ago  Pope Francis and the Cardinal Consistory remained behind closed doors in order to confront the issue of the family. The new family agenda was presented by Cardinal Walter Kasper. (By papal order)  This after two days of heated verbal exchanges. Much of the Cardinals felt almost overwhelmed. The conflict was continued at the Synod of Bishops in the fall of 2014.
Next month, Pope Francis will call the Cardinals together for the second ordinary consistory of his pontificate. This time, instead of the family, curial reform is on the agenda and will renew again, albeit at a different level, a, expectedly bitter conflict behind closed doors.
A month after his election  Pope Francis established an eight member Council of Cardinal advisors on 13 April 2013 that he wanted to advise him on the reform of the Roman Curia and in the management of the universal Church. Since the appointment of a new Cardinal Secretary of State, the Council was expanded to nine members. Since then the Council of Cardinal Advisers has been convened eight times for three days. Pope Francis was always present, except for the period of the mid-week general audiences.

Not All Proposals "Presentable"

Since then, many reform ideas are on the table, which are mutually exclusive in part. There are at least as many as the C9 Council of Cardinal Advisers has members. Some of them are not only contradictory but "not presentable," says Magister. The latter include the idea that different institutions and tribunals of the Vatican judiciary, including the Apostolic Penitentiary,  could be formed into a new Law Dicastry.  Thus, the separation of powers would  be overriden in a serious way.
Pope Francis has not yet commented on the reform plans. For now, he seems to have the C8 and presently C9  at work, promoting  a new collegiality. As a form of occupational therapy? The Pope was already known last year that he did not intend by 2016 to address the specific reforms. After his election, he established the Council, but has since  ruled as a Jesuit Father General. He alone decides when and what he wants. Whatever comes to mind, he goes on, collegiality or no.

Christmas Slap in Curia

When Francis on December 22, invited the Roman Curia to the Christmas reception, he administered a tangible slap to his closest associates instead of Christmas wishes. He threw their "diseases" publicly  in their faces. Fifteen pathologies the Pope said his staff suffered. "One meaner than the other," says Magister. Comparing the papal diagnosis with the papal decisions about layoffs or promotion in office, one can only marvel.

Pontifical Dismissal

The best known of the disempowered ones is Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke. Among the Vaticanistas there are different public assessments,  so Burke's attitude to leaving is dependent on the Vaticanist's understanding, or the Vaticanist's inclination to Pope Francis.  However, all agree that this is a snubbing in the practice of the Holy See, an affront to the individual opinions. The eminent canonist whose competence and moral straightness is respectfully acknowledged even by his opponents, was deported to a meaningless position in the leadership of the Church as the patron of an ornamental guard of honor.

Pontifical Promotions

Among the most incredible promotions continues to include the appointment of Msgr. Battista Ricca as a domestic prelate and personal delegate of the Pope at the Vatican Bank IOR.  There have been serious concerns raised about Ricca  because of his dubious way of life.   As a Vatican diplomat, he had  given "three Apostolic Nunciatures occasion for scandal", most recently in Montevideo, where he had taken his illicit room mate. Despite the entry of his superiors to Rome, he was indeed withdrawn from active diplomatic service, but  landed miraculously softly as director of the Roman Houses of the Vatican. Msgr. Ricca took over the management of the guesthouse Santa Marta and the guest house on Via della Scrofa. Also, ultimately, the diplomatic service, since in the guest houses accommodate important guests are  from around the world. He made many Cardinals of friends who spent the night there, including the current Pope, who made him his confidant in terms of the Vatican Bank in June 2013.

From the Fight Against "Gay Lobby" in the Vatican to Homosexual Promotion?

As a trait of the Pope, it seems to be clear that he no longer takes back previous decisions. Whoever falls from grace, he remains. Whoever is in favor, also remains.  It's truly amazing is in this context that Pope Francis in June 2013 lamented the existence of a "gay lobby" in the Vatican, against whom he wanted to proceed. In reality, the Papacy in the public eye has engaged in the unprecedented promotion of the homosexual lobby, and not just in the Vatican. This was followed by the appointment of Msgr. Ricca, who has been known as "the prelate gay lobby". As if offering a superlative for the media demand at the end of July 2013, he uttered the controversial sentence of this pontificate: "Who am I to judge?" And as a highlight to date Archbishop Bruno Forte, had been named by Francis for Special Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, as a recognition of homosexuality by the Church in the interim report of the Synod. The Synod Fathers rejected this passage, but Pope Francis still had them  published in the paper, and  adopted since it was an intergral part and the rejection of the synod only one accident that could be remedied in the second part of the Synod of Bishops in October 2015. At least this fatal impression must arise. Especially as it confirms that this approach  not  a go it alone by Archbishop Forte, but  agreed and approved by Pope advance.

Synod of Bishops as an Instrument of Pontifical Disruption?

Pope Francis seems to want to make the Synod of Bishops, a permanent institution. This is speculation for the time being, but the evidence suggests it. It initiates discussions and lets them run wild, which had been declared closed by its predecessors. This includes the admission of remarried divorcees to the sacraments and the discussion on the approval of a second marriage.
Today in the Church the more or less public, far more violent undercurrent of smoldering conflict was not being imposed by external circumstances on the Church. It has been triggered directly by Pope Francis. He convened the Synod of Bishops on the family, although this was no objective need. He appointed Cardinal Kasper as sole rapporteur, knowing full well what Kasper would recite before the astonished cardinals.

Resistance of the Margins: Paradox or Emblematic?

A remarkable, but perhaps not accidental detail is that the new family agenda and the paradoxical appurtenance  of "homosexuality" especially in the bishops of the "margins", particularly in Africa, parts of Asia and Eastern Europe where there is the fiercest resistance. Those "margins", Pope Francis has so often emphasized.
After the second part of the Synod of Bishops in nine months, the Pope will decide as an absolute monarch. Francis, who likes to be called "Bishop of Rome" and is hardly known as Pope, to the astonishment of all,  cried at the end of the Synod of Bishops in obvious anger at the synodal resistance of Cardinal Burke and "marginal bishops" to the astonishment of all that it according to canon law  he was entitled to the sole decision-making authority.

Master: "Obvious Sympathy for Progressive Wing"

The obvious sympathies of Francis fall to the progressive wing, which is led by the bishops of the German-speaking countries with their bulging coffers. The flirtation with the Orthodoxy of the East applies only to their liberal deviations from the Latin Church, the second and third marriage and the non-celibate diocesan clergy.
The progressive sympathy is otherwise more striking by conflicting signals of the pontificate clearly filtered out. The contradictions heard in sympathy for Pope Paul VI. The encyclical Humanae vitae he repeatedly stressed, praised and praised by his predecessor as a "prophet". Hardly an encyclical in Church history has come across more violent resistance and having been rejected by a number of Western bishops' conferences, including those of the German states.
In Manila, Francis added his praise for Paul VI. in the context of Humanae vitae and added that it was  "very merciful in  specific cases," however, also and "confessors have been asked to be very understanding." A weakening of his previous praise?

In Theory, Orthodox Paradox in Practice?

The Vatican expert Sandro Magister draws his conclusions and says that even the controversy over the divorced and remarried would "probably" end up in the same way. "Francis will stick in words the Catholic doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage, while encouraging the bishops and clergy, to have 'pastoral compassion' in practice  and understanding for the failed and then re-marriages."
Paul VI, who was beatified on the closing day of the Synod of Bishops in 2014,  drew with the Encyclical Humanae Vitae a storm of criticism and protest  - and outside the Church and became, despite being the great innovator of the Progressives,  the lonely man in the Vatican.
For Pope Francis is distinguished for the future rather to be the contradictory, "as he apparently gives both intransigents and innovators satisfaction," says Magister. If only it were not the word "apparently".
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
image: Settimo Cielo
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG






Sunday, April 14, 2013

Kasper: “No Synodal Form of Church Leadership"

Edit: now that there’s been a change of management. Cardinal Kasper feels free reign to speak his mind.
“The world Church can’t be led in a Eurocentric way any more.” This is what the German Curial Cardinal Walter Kasper said in an interview with “Corriere della Sera”, that was published this Sunday. In a “globalized and complex world collegiality is the right direction”, said the former leader of Vatican Ecumenism. It is also important for the Pope, that he governs and has the last word. “But it is important that he has well informed advisors about him, who represent the entire world.” The Curia needs reform, “in order to become more efficient” [Less Catholic, he means.] That Pope Francis has chosen eight Cardinals to advice means “no synodal form of government as it is understood by the Orthodox”, specified Cardinal Kasper.

Link to Radiovaticana.va...

Friday, January 18, 2013

Cardinal Canizares Cites SSPX in Need to Reform Liturgy

Edit: Cardinal Canizares cites Archbishop Lefebvre.  "Some of the changes called upon by the Second Vatican Council are still pending..."  This is a possible motive for his reform, which he also says, is not synonymous with change.

Archbishop Di Noia has also sent out a letter to SSPX HQ in Menzigen, which then forwarded the letter to all of the priests of the SSPX.

Hence, so much for those who've not wanted these discussions to be fruitful from the start, especially those Old Liberals in Germany.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Cardinal Rode Accused of Fathering Child

Cardinal Franc Rodé Gave in 2010 Priestly Ordinations in Old Rite
© Fr James Bradley, Flickr, CC
Edit:  Cardinal Rode was retired earlier this year at the age of 77. This untimely retirement raised some questions about the contiguity of the investigation of women religious and whether or not it would lose some of its rigor.  Unfortunately, there seems to have been some reason after all why the Cardinal was not allowed to finished his important task. We earlier said in January:


Yet despite saying what most people already know, and for no apparent reason, the investigation of women religious was rendered toothless when Cardinal Rode was retired from the position after rendering his own conclusion that the religious “simply acquiesced to the disappearance of religious life or at least of their community,” while others “have opted for ways that take them outside communion with Christ in the Catholic Church.”

The Cardinal is also a friend of Tradition.

An update on kreuz.net reads that the Cardinal is now demanding a paternity test to clear his name.  The tests will be conducted at an independent institute in Maribor, Slovenia.




"I denounce these statements that I have violated my priestly celibacy and had a son."

(kreuz.net)  The Emeritus Prefect of the Congregation for Religious  Franc Cardinal Rode (77) is said to be the alleged father of a 42 year old son.

This is being reported by the Slovenian daily 'Delo'.

An Alleged Relationship

The child is allegedly the result of a relationship with the then 18 year old Tanja Breda.

The Cardinal was at that time a 35 year old theology professor in Ljubljana.

The relationship is supposed to have taken place in 1969.

An easy girl

The today sixty year old woman described a relationship with the Cardinal to journalists.

At the same time she explained, that she is not sure that her son Peter S. really came from him.

The woman is completely uncertain according to 'Delo":  "I don't know exactly if the Cardinal is the father of my son Peter, I can't recall exactly who the father is, although they both have the same nose and the same eyes."

Landed in Germany

Still during the pregnancy the little darling wandered to Germany.

It was there that her son came into the world in 1970.

Later she married a German who adopted the child.

A son searching for his father

The alleged son of the Cardinal lives today in a country in the Near East.

On the search for his father he had written several times to the Cardinal and also to the Vatican to ask for a dna-test.

Yet he received no answer.

Then he consulted a Slovenian attorney, in order to take legal action.

Categorically Denounced
Cardinal Rode has categorically denounced the accusations on a website of the Slovenian Bishops Conference.

"The article relies on voices and anonymous sources and is a serious attack on my name and my reputation."

He expressly declared:  "I denounce these assertions that I have violated my priestly celibacy and had a son."

Many Contradictions

The Cardinal explained that he had never received a request to establish paternity.

He had met Tanja Breda in the past, but never had a relationship with her.

In the beginning of May the Vatican suspended the Old Liberal Emeritus Archbishop Alojz Uran (67) of Ljubljana who was retired in November of 2009.

He is definitely the father of several children.

On the order of the Vatican, he left Slovenia and lives in the north Italian city of Trieste.

Link to kreuz.net....

Friday, July 6, 2012

Bishop Algermissen: Backup or no Backup: That is the Question

Bischof Heinz Josef Algermissen
© Pressebild Bistum Fulda
(kreuz.net)  In September 2010 Bishop Heinz Josef Algermissen of Fulda expressed himself to the 'Fuldaer Zeitung' about so called reforms in the Church.

The time is ripe for a new Council -- he said and complained about the backup in the Catholic Church.

He argued in favor of the ordination of homosexually disturbed persons as priests although eighty percent of the abuse cases in the Church are due to the same tastes.

What Now?

Actually as a proper Conciliar Bishop, Msgr Algermissen said everything and the opposite of everything.

In his "current Bishops' word"  for the coming Sunday he prattled on the concept of "barriers".

This is a sign of the worldliness of the Church.

Therefore it's only a catch word

In his own words, Msgr Algermissen:

"In secular institutions it is always the situation that there are necessary reforms.

Some in our communities accept the catchword "backlog" for the Church, unreflectively.

You do not notice that in this particular way of conception make they make the Church more worldly and it no long is  >>in Christ in the same way as Sacrament, that is called a sign and a tool for the innermost unity with God as well as unity with all people<<."

The citation used by Msgr Algermissen came from the Church Constitution of the Pastoral Council.

The best reform measures

Bishop Algermissen does not deny that there is a need for reform: "Only it falls on us."

For that reason he writes:  "We begin immediately to remove the barriers to reform from our own doorstep."

The regular participation in Holy Mass will help the most to remove the "barriers".

He loses the way

In Fulda it is known that Bishop Algermissen doesn't have a personal opinion.

That's why he doesn't contradict himself very often.  Correspondingly, he doesn't travel in a straight line either.

Msgr Algermissen doesn't have the courage to assert himself against the homosexual promoters and Rector of the Seminary, Fr. Cornielius Roth or against his Rotarian-General Vicar Gerhard Stanke or against Liberal priests.

Link to kreuz.net...








Sunday, November 13, 2011

Trappist Monastery Continues to Grow Despite Attacks


Terror Attack on Trappist Abbot Fails

The Old Liberal General Director of the Trappist Order in Rome wants the Abbot of Mariawald replaced -- and has fallen on his nose.

(kreuz.net) In 2008 the German Trappist Abbey of Mariawald in Eifel rd the privilege to celebrate the Liturgy and discipline of the Use of Monte Cistello of the year 1964.

The Commission 'Ecclesia Dei' published the Papal decree, after which employees of the State Secretariat had attempted to make the papal decision disappear in a drawer.

Difficult situation

Abbot Dom Josef of Mariawald got such a free hand in his monastery, to reinstate the traditional rites and customs without having had to find democratic majorities.

One third of the convention was for all of it, a third neutral and a third completely against.

Moreover, it was hoped to give a new thrust to new vocations for the Monstery.

However, when a handful of postulants could not meet the strenuous Trappist life - which is normal in such monasteries - and thus it happened that with no immediate flowering, those enemies of the Roman Rite within the order came on the scene.

The Abbot sits firmly in the saddle

It should be understood here that there is a principle of the Trappist community the Trappists that there is a certain number of options about how to interrupt an abbot.

So this was how the abbot of Maria Wald was sidelined by the advisory board.

This, however, quickly lost its teeth, because the Abbot is a wise and strong personality and he doesn't pretend to see things as they aren't.

Thus attempted an impeachment on the Order level.

An abbot, however, can be dismissed only for canonical reasons and has the right to appeal if necessary to a papal court.

Since Abbot Joseph has survived the critical month of September, in which he dealt with the General Council having survived politically, it has become clear that his position is not debatable and he will stay permanently.

The term of office for this reformer Abbot will last until 2038.

Only helps the Trappist prayer

In between 1965 and 1975, the Trappists lost thousands of monks and nuns because of rampant old liberalism.

Nevertheless, the relatively strict Trappist order still has twice as many vocations as members of the milder Cistercian order.

Mariawald has threatened to flip over into a Buddhist meditation center in the past.

At that time the Monastery was still on friendly terms with the Bishop of Aachen, Heinrich Mussinghoff.

Mariawald is located in the Diocese of Aachen.

Resignations, deaths and missing entries diluted an abbey which once had one hundred monks, more and more.

There was at the same time the heroic sanctity of so many brothers, who were mainly working animals, who endured the suffering and the situation in a spirit of prayer and vicarious atonement.

Brother Famian Gerwing who died in February was one of them.

Since the silent monks of Mariawald have begun this year to keep silent for half an hour daily prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, they have again reported serious candidates for the contemplative religious life.

Link to kreuz.net...

© daniel-tibi.de, Wikipedia, CC

Thursday, November 12, 2009

A ‘Different Benedict is Here’: Benedict XVI and the New Missionary Age

In a subject dear to our hearts, the Holy Father is speaking about the Benedictine reform at the heart of his Papacy. Taking his cue from the great Benedictine House of Cluny, he traces its missionary importance as a great reforming movement aimed at carrying out the Great Commission.

It can and should be taken as a kind of manifesto and a call to men to consider an apostolic life in the Benedictine order energized by the great spirit of its founder at Nursia in the fifth Century.

This article by Deacon Keith Fournier understands that call and might serve to orient us prayerfully to pray for monks to lead us, as they always have, to lives of greater sanctity and Christian Hope.



The voices of those who wanted to place him in a terminological box have receded. This is a prophetic Pope with an inspired and historic mission that has only just begun.





Pope Benedict, like his namesake St. Benedict, has a vision for the Evangelization of Europe and the West. A 'different Benedict' is here and a new missionary age has begun.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - History shows that the earliest days of a Papacy often send a signal for the watchful observer. We are told by some to pay attention to the name chosen by the new Pope and the content of their first messages. I vividly recall the first days of our current Pope’s service to the Church and the world. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger chose the name Benedict. One of the young priests who commentated on this choice during the televised coverage of those extraordinary days noted that the new Pope had visited Subiaco before all the events even began. Subiaco is the home of the Benedictine monastic movement. It symbolizes the Christianization of Europe during the First Millennium.

Saint Benedict was born around the year 480 in Umbria, Italy. He is the father of Western Monasticism and co-patron of Europe (along with Saints Cyril and Methodius). As a young man, Benedict fled a decadent and declining Rome for further studies and deep prayer and reflection. He gave his life entirely to God as a son of the united Catholic Church. He traveled to Subiaco. That cave became his dwelling, the place where he communed deeply with God. It is now a shrine called "Sacro Speco" (The Holy Cave). It is still a sanctuary for pilgrims, including Pope Benedict XVI, who visited that very same place of prayer right before his election to the Chair of Peter.

Read further...

The new flowering of Cluny, auf Deutsch.

Monday, November 9, 2009

New Architectural Appeal to the Holy Father

Appeal to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the return to an authentically Catholic sacred Art

Veni, Creator Spiritus
mentes tuorum visita
Imple superna gratia
quae tu creasti pectora


Art is an inexhaustible and incredible treasure of catechesis. For us it is also a
duty to know and understand well. Not as sometimes art historians do,
interpreting it only formally, according to the artistic technique. Rather, we must
enter into the content and revive the content that inspired this great art. It seems
really a duty - also in the formation of future priests - to become familiar with
these treasures and have the ability to transform them into a living catechesis that
is present in them and speak to us today.
(Benedict XVI - Holy Father's meeting with the parish priests and
clergy of the Diocese of Rome - February 22nd 2007)

Hat tip to beloblog, Link with some commentary

The link to the proposal is here.