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Letter #43, 2015: Apostasy

[2015-10-12]
[Engleză]
October 12, 2015, Monday — Apostasy

“It is our very sleepiness to the presence of God that renders us insensitive to evil: we don’t hear God because we don’t want to be disturbed.” —Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican City, April 20, 2011, General Audience

“The attempts made through the ages to extinguish the light of God, to replace it with the glare of illusion and deceit, have heralded episodes of tragic violence against mankind. This is because the attempt to cancel the name of God from the pages of history results in distortion, in which even the most beautiful and noble words lose their true meaning.” —Pope Benedict XVI, Vatican City, December 14, 2012

“Catholics who have matured to this point have always been forced into a ghetto — often enough by their fellow Catholics... This is not directly a matter of their own choosing. Like most men, they would like to have some effective say in the running of their world. Their exclusion results from their choice to stay close to the Lord. Those who are less mature, like the earlier Jews, think that compromise is possible — and often it is, if one considers the matter abstractly and without realizing the intrinsic corruption of all men by sin. Hence, those less mature do not understand the somewhat distant and reserved coolness or even hostility of someone more mature towards the objects of their enthusiasms. They consider ‘getting ahead’ a benefit not only to themselves but to the Church, and are puzzled by those who do not. They fail to see that the world lets them get ahead — unless the Lord Himself intervenes — only insofar as they serve the world’s cause, first unconsciously, then with increasing awareness. But those of that maturity with which we are here concerned know clearly enough that ‘friendship with the world is enmity with God’ (James 4:4) and leads ultimately to betrayal or apostasy.” —The late Father Paul M. Quay, S.J. (1924-1994), in his book The Mystery Hidden for Ages in God (published in 1995), the result of 30 years of meditation upon how the individual Christian goes through “biblical stages” of gradual transformation into the likeness of Christ

========================================

The bombshells keep falling.

The latest news, which some of you will already have heard, is from an article by Vaticanist Sandro Magister, published this morning.

Magister reveals the text of a letter to Pope Francis which he says was sent on October 5, signed by 13 cardinals.

The cardinals express their serious “concerns” over the procedures of the Synod, especially the names of the 10 men chosen by Pope Francis to draft the final synod "relatio." In their judgment, these procedures seem “designed to facilitate predetermined results on important disputed questions.” (full text of the letter below)

In other words, the 13 cardinals were expressing concerns that the Synod is being "rigged," to use the word chosen by British journalist Edward Pentin as the title of his new book on the Synod just out from Ignatius Press, The Rigging of a Vatican Synod?: An Investigation of Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family.

But, like so much else concerning this Synod, shortly after the letter’s publication, questions arose.

Within four hours, four of the 13 alleged signers had said they had not signed the letter. So, there only remain nine signers as of this writing. (At this pace, by this midnight, all 13 signers will have denied their involvement.)

So Magister, just a few moments ago, without backing off or retracting his story, added this update:

"A spokesperson for Cardinal George Pell said that a private letter should remain private but it seems that there are errors in both the content and the list of signatories. The Cardinal is aware that concerns remain among many of the synod fathers about the composition of the drafting committee of the final 'relatio' and about the process by which it will be presented to the Synod fathers and voted upon.

"And in an interview with Crux, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier 'acknowledged signing a letter, but said its content was different from that presented in Magister’s report. The letter he signed, he said, was specifically about the 10-member commission preparing the final document.'"

From these two statements, we can deduce that there was some kind of letter, expressing real concern, from some number of cardinals, evidently including Pell and Napier, to Pope Francis. So, there is reason to continue to track this story.

The 13 alleged signers were:

1. Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna, Italy, theologian, formerly the first President of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family;

2. Thomas Collins, archbishop of Toronto, Canada;

3. Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, United States;

4. Willem Eijk, archbishop of Utrecht, Holland;

5. Peter Erdo, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, president of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe and Relator General of the Synod;

6. Gerhard Müller, former bishop of Regensburg, Germany, since 2012 Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith;

7. Wilfrid Fox Napier, archbishop of Durban, South Africa, President Delegate of the Synod;

8. George Pell, archbishop emeritus of Sydney, Australia, since 2014 Prefect in the Vatican of the Secretariat for the Economy;

9. Mauro Piacenza, Genoa, Italy, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, since 2013 Penitentiary Major;

10. Robert Sarah, former archbishop of Conakry, Guinea, since 2014 Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments;

11. Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan, Italy;

12. Jorge Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela; and

13. André Vingt-Trois, archbishop of Paris, France.

These men are generally viewed as "conservatives," even "Ratzingerians" -- prelates in tune with the theological vision of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

So the concerns of such men about “maneuvers” to unduly influence the Synod in a “progressive” direction would naturally be of great interest to the Pope and the whole Church.

But this morning, four of the 13 — Scola, Piacenza, Vingt-Trois and Erdo — said they had not signed this letter.

So the “Letter of the 13 Cardinals” has become the “Letter of the 9 Cardinals.”

And now a 5th cardinal, Napier, has said the letter he signed was not the letter Magister made public.

So, another perplexing scene in the long saga of this Synod is still shrouded in mystery.

But, even without knowing for sure who wrote or signed this document, is the underlying point valid? Is the Synod being "piloted" in a "progressive" direction?

A piece today by Italian Vaticanist Andrea Gagliarducci, a young journalist who has been distinguishing himself in his Monday Vatican column as one of the more thoughtful and well-informed among the Italian Vaticanisti, is worth reading (and whose writing in English has improved dramatically in recent months). (Full text below)

Gagliarducci says that a draft of the Synod's final document is already being prepared by a "restricted group" of the 10-member commission chosen by Pope Francis personally to prepare that document on the basis of the Synod's proceedings.

If this is true, it would mean that the material being prepared is not based on what will happen during the next week or 10 days in the Synod discussions.

Gagliarducci says the "adapters" at the Synod (Gagliarduccis term for the "progressives") are seeking to influence the Synod on two main topics:

(1) the issue of conscience, and

(2) the issue of devolving authority worldwide

In both of these "maneuvers," the goal is to provide "space" for innovation in doctrine.

In the first case, moral space, that is, the space within the individual conscience.

In the second case, geographical space, that is space out of the central control of a Pope and a Holy See entrusted with protecting the "deposit of the faith."

Gagliarducci writes: "Personal conscience will be given a prominent role in disciplinary questions. Whether access to sacramental Communion will be given for the divorced and remarried, or for those who live in homosexual relations, will be decided on the basis of personal conscience. Each person will be encouraged to solve it for himself in the “foro interno,” that is, in sacramental confession. True, the Church teaches that conscience needs to be well-formed, but it is possible that the adapters will not highlight this aspect."

And he continues: "The second issue adapters will focus on will be the need to devolve authority to make some disciplinary changes in keeping with the sensitivities particular to different geographic areas in the Church. No changes in doctrine will be mentioned, just changes in disciplinary practices. This way, every episcopal conference will adopt its own guidelines to meet doctrinal challenges. But the risk here is that the deposit of the faith could in the end be dismantled, and the centrality of Rome be lost."

In these paragraphs, Gagliarducci is giving us a valuable insight into the plans of the "adapters," as he calls them.

My understanding is that Gagliarducci's sources include a number of Vatican officials who represent that large group in the Holy See who remain committed to protecting the deposit of the faith, and I suspect that, in giving us these two points, he is giving us the considered judgment of this group.

What this means is that we are likely to see a concerted effort in coming days (1) to appeal to the rights of the individual conscience, and to (2) appeal to the need to have different disciplinary practices regarding marriage matters out of respect for regional differences in the Church (for example, one practice in Germany and Switzerland and one in South Africa and Australia, and so forth).

And so we come to the "bottom line." Is this in keeping with Church teaching and tradition? Is it what the Holy Spirit is inspiring the Church to do at this time?

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com


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