ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI
Here's Aldo Maria Valli's take on the pope's version of Christmas greetings to his Curia...
The Roman Curia gets
a good dose of Bergoglio bitters
Translated from
December 21, 2017
Once again, as he did with particular forcefulness in 2014 – when he listed 15 spiritual maladies of the Roman Curia – the pope’s address at the annual exchange of Christmas greeting with the Curia [though in the Vatican these days, given the tenor of the pope’s interventions, there is more talk of ‘siluri’ (torpedoes) than of ‘auguri’ (good wishes),] Pope Francis was extremely harsh in stigmatizing certain behaviors he attributes to the Curia (present and recently ex-). But this time, the base note seemed to be a certain bitterness mixed with frustration.
Although “Without forgetting the greater majority of faithful persons who work in the Curia with praiseworthy commitment, fidelity, competence, dedication and even holiness”, the pope began by expressing the wish that this Christmas “may open our eyes to abandoning the superfluous, the false, the malicious, and the finto, and see instead the essential, the true, the good and the authentic”, and then placed this exhortation in the context “of the actual reforms in progress”.
And it is here that the tone was marked both with reproach and with little confidence in the possibility of reaching the goal. “Speaking of reform,” he said, “I am reminded of the congenial and significant statement made by monsignor Frédéric-François-Xavier De Mérode
[a French-born Curial official at the time of Pius IX], who said that 'To seek reforms in Rome is like cleaning the Sphinx with a toothbrush', which shows how much patience, dedication and sensitivity are necessary to reach the objective”.
Although he described Merode’s statement as congenial,
the image chosen by the pope is substantially synonymous to useless effort, to work that is as extravagant as it is futile. Was it a way to admit to an inadequate reformatory incisiveness while at the same time justifying it?
In the face of such difficulties, he exhorted obedience and fidelity. If, he said,
“structurally and always”, the Roman Curia is at the service of the pope, then today those who work there must be more than ever inspired by a ‘diaconal attitude’.
They must, therefore, be to the pope as deacons are with their bishop: “Let the deacon be the eye and ear of the bishop, his heart and his spirit” in a relationship of “filial obedience in the service of the holy People of God”.
Therefore, he called on his Curia
"to overcome that unbalanced and degenerate logic of conspiracies or of small circles who really represent – despite their self-justifications and good intentions – a cancer which leads to self-referentiality, which infiltrates into ecclesial organisms as such, and in the persons who work in them”.
Followed shortly by:
"Allow me to devote a couple of words to another danger, namely those betrayers of confidence or those who profit from the maternal generosity of the Church, especially persons who are carefully chosen in order to bring more vigor to the institution and to reform but who – not understanding the high responsibility they have been given – allow themselves to be corrupted by ambition or vainglory, and when they are distanced from us in a delicate manner, they declare themselves erroneously to be martyrs of the system, of ‘an uninformed pope’, of the ‘Old Guard’, instead of saying ‘Mea culpa’.
Alongside these persons there are others who continue to work in the Curia, to whom one has given all the time for them to get back on the right track, in the hope that they will find in the patience of the Church an opportunity to convert themselves, instead of seeking to gain from it”.
If these words have a meaning, the pope here certainly made reproaches but also issued warnings. With a basic message that is extremely clear:
the dicasteries of the Roman Curia “must operate in a manner that conforms to their nature and their purpose: in the name and with the authority of the Supreme Pontiff”. That is, they must function like ‘sensitive antennae, both as transmitters and as receivers’.
Not by chance, the pope wished to underscore what he means by the word ‘fidelity’, which
“for those who work for the Holy See, assumes a specific character, [colore#b20ff]since they must place at the service of the Successor of Peter a good part of their energies, time and daily ministry.. It is a grave responsibility, but also a special gift which, with time, develops into an affective bond with the pope, one of internal confidence, of a natural idem sentire (thinking like him), which is best expressed by the word ‘fidelity’ itself”.
As you can see, no reference at all to freedom or creativity for those who work for the pope, nor to a term that this pope has often invoked: ‘parrhesia’, which is frankness, the duty and right to say the truth, np matter how inconvenient it may be.
And even as the pope was speaking, disquieting news was emerging about the pope’s principal collaborator in the work of reforming the Curia, Honduran Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, coordinator of that group of nine cardinals who have been working with the pope on curial reform for five years without coming up with anything substantial.
They say the pope has been studying the dossier for six months. Perhaps the fundamental bitterness evident in the pope’s address could have arisen from the disappointment caused by these allegations?
[In an interview with CNA, the cardinal has since explained that accusations he has been receiving about $600,000 a year from the Catholic University of Tegucigalpa in the past 10 years were false because the payments were not for him personally but to defray expenses for the archdiocese’s social projects; and that he has never made any million-dollar investments. One imagines he already made this explanation to the pope, who has had the so-called report in his hands for six months. But Maradiaga was not asked by CNA nor did he comment on the reports that his auxiliary bishop in Tegucigalpa has been openly co-habitating with a man on whom he has allegedly lavished expenses.]
P.S. Here's Edward Pentin's update on the Maradiaga case - he points out the obvious failure of Maradiaga to address the allegations about his auxiliary bishop...
Cardinal Maradiaga denies financial allegations,
but questions remain unanswered
Sources tell the Register the most serious claims involve Bishop Juan José Pineda,
an auxiliary bishop in the Honduran cardinal’s archdiocese, to whom the cardinal is very close.
by Edward Pentin
December 23, 2017
One of Pope Francis’s chief advisers on Church reform has rejected allegations of financial corruption made in an Italian publication this week, but questions remain over diocesan accounting procedures, and his close ties with one of his bishops who is accused of misappropriating vast amounts of diocesan funds and illicit relationships.
Honduran Cardinal Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga, a member of the Pope’s Council of Nine Cardinals, told CNA Dec. 22 he was a victim of “calumnies” which included allegations, repeated in the Italian magazine
L’Espresso Dec. 21, that he had received $600,000 from the University of Tegucigalpa in 2015, as a sort of “salary” for being the chancellor of the University. The cardinal, who is archbishop of Tegucigalpa, was also accused of losing nearly $1.2 million of Church funds through investments in some London financial companies.
He asserted that the money from the university (amounting to $41,400 a month) was not given to him personally but to the archdiocese and transferred in the name of the archdiocese. He said the funds went to pay for seminarians’ tuition, property maintenance, and rural or poor priests.
Cardinal Maradiaga also denied making “any investment” as the ones he is accused of losing money on, and stressed the university had grown in size while he’d been archbishop.
Honduran Catholic officials have said the financial irregularities are aimed at discrediting the archbishop; the Vatican, meanwhile, confirmed Friday that Francis had ordered an investigation.
[Wait! Weren't the allegations 'exposed' in L'Espresso based on a report made to the pope six months ago by an Argentine archbishop he had sent to Honduras to investigate various accusations about diocesan finances, and reports that Maradiaga's chief deputy, Auxiliary Bishop Pineda, was using diocesan funds to, in effect, support a male companion in style. Now, six months later, he orders a new investigation? What happened in the six months since he got the report? He just sat on it, hoping none of it was true?]
So far, no results of the investigation have been made public, and questions remain over exactly how these funds were spent as there is no accounting to refer to. Some details of archdiocesan income and expenditure were passed on to Pope Francis during the Honduran bishops’ ad limina visit in September. The documents, which the Register has obtained, show general figures denoting gross income for the archdiocese and spending running into millions of dollars, but with no particulars.
One source with a detailed knowledge of the issue told the Register the documentation omits $1.3 million that the Honduran government gave the archdiocese to be spent on Church projects.
The money is alleged to have found its way into the hands of Auxiliary Bishop Juan José Pineda of Tegucigalpa, a close friend of the cardinal, but no accounting exists detailing how the money was spent.
Bishop Pineda has long been the subject of accusations of financial mismanagement, and rumors that he financially supports a male companion using archdiocesan funds. Some have alleged that he had an apartment built on the campus of the Catholic University of Honduras, in order to house this companion, according to CNA.
The bishop has said he wanted an investigation to clear his name, but the Register has been told he is a “cancer” for the cardinal due to these accusations, including misappropriating funds for a number of “intimate” friends. These relationships are said to be of “far greater concern” than the allegations of financial impropriety.
“The cardinal’s relationship with Pineda is very close and the cardinal defends him across the board,” an informed source told the Register Dec. 23. One of the bishop’s close companions, called “Mike,” is said to be a police chaplain and has celebrated the sacraments for a number of years, despite not being ordained, nor even a Catholic. “The cardinal knows everything,” the source said.
[So if Maradiaga 'knows everything' and the situation with Pineda is as messy as it is alleged to be - and that this is part of the report made by the Argentine bishop to Bergoglio - does that not make the behavior of the pope and Maradiaga more questionable even than the late Cardinal Law's failure in the early years of the new century to discipline his abusive priests?
It's been 15 years or more since the Church culture context within which Law mis-acted gave way to the CDF crackdown on abusive priests whom their local bishops failed to discipline and call to account - There can be no excuse today to cover up for a bishop who seems to have misbehaved egregiously. Or for Don Mercedes and Coccopalmerio's aide and assorted other prelates whom this pope has tolerated despite even if they are known sexual libertines.]
L’Espresso reported that on hearing of the allegations, Pope Francis sent retired Argentine Bishop Alcides Jorge Pedro Casaretto, 80, as an apostolic envoy to Honduras last May.
The Register has been told that Bishop Casaretto was shocked by the extent of the corruption he discovered, including accounts of sexual abuse perpetrated against priests and seminarians. The bishop sent the Pope a report on the archdiocese based on the testimonies of more than 50 witnesses, including diocesan staff members and priests, according to
L’Espresso.
As well as the Pope, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the third highest official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, were all informed.
Vatican and Honduran sources say on receiving the report,
the Pope decided to take the matter into his own hands rather than have a commission or a more extensive apostolic visitation deal with it further, but so far the only action that has been taken has been to send Bishop Pineda to stay with Jesuits in Madrid on a short retreat.
When the claims became public knowledge, the apostolic nuncio to Honduras, Tanzanian Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, began looking into the allegations against Bishop Pineda and Cardinal Maradiaga. The Register tried to contact the nuncio but was unable to reach him.
Cardinal Maradiaga turns 75 Dec. 29, and many will be looking to see if the Pope will accept the Honduran cardinal’s mandatory resignation which he is obliged to submit on turning 75.
[He and his supporters have claimed that the 'false allegations' were part of a campaign to discredit him and cause the pope to accept his resignation.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/12/2017 02:17]