Another belated translation...
John Paul II, the papal Magisterium
and fidelity to the 'depositum fidei'
Translated from
October 22, 2018
Today is a special day. Because we remmeber the great St John Paul II. It is also the birthday of Laura, our sixth daughter, a gift from Heaven because my wife and I, inspired by the saintly pope, opened ourselves to life with confidence.
Oct. 22 was chosen as St. John Paul II’s feast day because on that day in 1978, he inuaugurated his ponitificate with the now famous call, “Do not be afraid! Open up- indeed, throw the doors wide open – for Christ!”
Tpday, however, I wish to cite a couple of passages from the address that the pope made a few days earlier, on October 17, 1978, to the College of Cardinals.
[NB: The Pope still uses here the first person plural pronoun (we, us, our) that sovereigns including popes, traditionally used to refer to themselves.]
After having spoken of Vatican II and the need to apply its teachings judiciously, he said:
There is the duty in general of being faithful to the task We have accepted and to which We ourself are bound before all others.
We, who are called to hold the Supreme Office in the Church, must manifest this fidelity with all our might and for this reason We must be a shining example both in our thinking and in our actions.
This indeed must be done because we preserve intact the deposit of faith, because we make entirely our own the commands of Christ, who, after Peter was made the rock on which the Church was built, gave him the keys of the kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 16:18-19), who bade him strengthen his brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), and to feed the sheep and the lambs of his flock as a proof of his love (cf. Jn 21:15-17).
We are entirely convinced that in no inquiry, which may take place today into the "ministry of Peter" as it is called — so that what is proper and peculiar to it may be studied in greater depth every day — can these three important passages of the holy gospel be omitted.
Forty years since these words were said, it is difficult not to point out how
today, the papal magisterium is more and more identified with the thinking of the reigning pope and his personal opinions, often expressed on occasions that do not lend themselves to considered reflections, and concerned increasingly less with fidelity to the deposit of faith.
Today, the figure of the Supreme Pastor is often seen not as he who is called to safeguard and confirm the deposit of faith, but rather, to interpret and in so doing decode it, so to speak,
as if divine law and correct doctrine did not need respect, observance and reverence, but rather transformations and ‘new paradigms’ to ‘open up processes’.
It is useful to recall what Benedict XVI said on May 7, 2005, at the Mass to celebrate his taking possession of the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, St John Lateran:
This power of [papal]teaching frightens many people in and outside the Church. They wonder whether freedom of conscience is threatened or whether it is a presumption opposed to freedom of thought. It is not like this.
The power that Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors is, in an absolute sense, a mandate to serve. The power of teaching in the Church involves a commitment to the service of obedience to the faith.
The Pope is not an absolute monarch whose thoughts and desires are law. On the contrary: the Pope's ministry is a guarantee of obedience to Christ and to his Word. He must not proclaim his own ideas, but rather constantly bind himself and the Church to obedience to God's Word, in the face of every attempt to adapt it or water it down, and every form of opportunism.
To be in the service of the People of God does not mean devaluing or weakening the [otestas docendi (the power of the pope’s teaching function] but to reaffirm and exercise it while respecting the deposit of faith that the pope is called on to safeguard. The highest form of service is service to the Word of God and therefore, to the Truth.
And that is why Benedict XVI, speaking of John Paul II, said that
“the pope has the responsibility to do everything he can sp that the Word of God continues to remain present in all its grandeur and to resound in all its purity, that it may not be torn to pieces by continuously changing fashions”.
Perhaps more than any other pope, Benedict XVI - before he was pope and as pope - reiterated this principle of Petrine service so often that it must have been ever present before his eyes while he was pope. And he never once deviated from it.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/10/2018 01:45]