On April 16, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI turned 93.
ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI
I was going to correct a terrible oversight on my part, which was my failure to post my translation of Marco Tosatti's blogpost following the noontime Angelus led by the pope in St. Peter's Square. A post today by Tosatti gives me the perfect opportunity to make up for my omission.
China and Venezuela:
Similar beneficiaries of
Pope Francis's aphasia
Translated from
July 12, 2020
Dearest friemds amd enemies of Stilum Curiae,
You will recall that last Sunday, we reported the sudden cancellatiom from the pope’s post-Angelus statement of a paragraph dedicated to the situation in HongKong. The words
he chose not to say were words of conciliation, of an exhortation to dialog and respect for human rights, and the rejection of any kind of violence.
But to the surprise of all the journalists
[who had been provided one hour earlier with a copy of the entire prepared remarks tahtthe pope would deliver after the Angelus prayers],
the paragraph on HongKong was not delivered. As I explained in last Sunday’s post, the prepared statement came with an embargo that it was not to be published until it had been delivered. So
since the Hongkong statement was not delivered at all, it was as if it had not been written at all.
[My personal note on this embargo business: Usually an embargo is placed on extraordinarily important documents – such as Benedict XVI’s Regensburg address – whose premature divulgation could trigger undue controversy before the embargoed document becomes valid by virtue of being actually delivered, as written. I am not aware that in Benedict XVI’s time, a post-Angelus address had ever been placed under embargo, but it appears from what Tosatti discloses here, that a similar episode had occurred two years ago when this pope was supposed to have addressed the terrible plight of political prisoners under Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.]
It is not the first time this has happened. Two years ago, an appeal that the pope was supposed to have made about the human rights of Venezuelans detained by Maduro – an appeal contained in the prepared bulletin on the post-Regina caeli papal remarks – was similarly omitted.
But at the time, only Marynellis Tremamunno of
La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana took note of the Bergoglian omission, for doing which she received warnings and threats. I thank her for reminding us of that episode. I repost herewith that article in
Bussola, along with the Vatican video of the pope’s Angelus that day. From minute 9:00 of the video, one will note that the pope looks up and stops reading from the paper he iwas reading from.
The appeal for Venezuela contained in the Vatican press bulletin for the Regina caeli today (5/20/18) surprised Vatican journalists today. [Unlike the July 5, 2020 statement, the 2018 statement was not embargoed in any way. Obviously, the Vatican was apprehensive of possible Communist Chinese readction than it was in 2018 about any possible reaction from Maduro, whom the pope has, after all, always treated with kid gloves.]
But for the first time, Pope Francis would have launched an appeal urging respect for the lives of those illegally detained by Nicolas Maduro’s regime in Venezuela. The words he was supposed to say after the Regina caeli prayers included these:´”I would like once again to dedicate a thought for beloved Venezuela. With the help of the Holy Spirit, may everyone strive to find the right, efficacious and peaceful solutions to the grave humanitarian, political, economic and social crises which are stremando the Venezuelans people, avoiding the temptation to resort to any type of violence. I encourage the authorities of that country to insure respect for the life and integrity of every person, especially those, who like the detainees, are under their direct responsibility”.
Instead Pentecost Sunday turned out to be April Fools’ Day for Venezuelans. After the Regina caeli prayers, the pope raised his head to look at the 30,000 faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square to say words quite different from the prepared text from the Secretariat of State, saying instead: “I wish to dedicate a particular thought for beloved Venezuela. I ask that the Holy Spirit give all the Venezuelan people – everyone, governing authorities as well as the population – the wisdom to find the way of peace and unity. I also pray for the detainees who died yesterday”, clearly not reading from the prepared statement.
It was a strange way to remember his ‘beloved Venezuela’ for the pope to censor out any message that might be misconstrued to be against the socialist dictator Maduro. Just look at the prepared statement which adverts to the violation of human rights in its final sentence, with the words the pope actually said ,to understand how difficult it is for the Argentine pope to state a clearcut position against Hugh Chavez’s dauphin, Nicolas Maduro.
In the case of Venezuela, it was not the first time that Bergoglio sought to ‘soften’ his words about Maduro’s government, but never as obviously as yesterday. But what is happening to detainees in Maduro’s Venezuela? Why did the Secretariat of State think it important enough to be included in the prepared statement for the pope?
The bishops of Venezuela had just issued an alarm over the situation of Maudro’s political prisoners. In a communique published on May 17, 2018, the Commission on Justice and Peace of the Venezuelan bishops’ conference made an appeal “to the State, to its responsibility for the life and integrity of all detainees. To guarantee human rights is a fundamental and non-transferable obligation of governments."
The same day, the prisoners of El Helicoide had an uprising to demand justice and freedom. But they were not ordinary prisoners, but a group of 58 political prisoners including politicians, students and activists. According to the NGO Foro Penal Venezolano, dedicated to the defense of victims of political persecution, 35% had previously been released on bail but continued to be illegally detained by the political police, namely, the Venezuelan intelligence service SEBIN. Besides the prisoners at El Helicoide, more than 330 other ‘political dissidents’ were arrested by the regime and under detention.
But El Helicoide is not a prison – it is a center of torture, according to the Alfredo Romero, president of the Foro Penal, whose organization has been receiving the denunciation by the detainees of the tortures they have to undergo. “Our telephones do not stop ringing with persons testifying to the physical and psychological violences taking place in El Helicoide. It is terrible – we hear of persons hanging from the ceiling, naked, and receiving blows and buckets of ice water, not to mention sexual violence”.
“No one can be deprived of dignity”, is the title of the communique from the bishops (using a phrase from Pope Francis) referring to El Helicoide “where citizens have been detained for reasons that are political in nature”.
The bishops call on Venezuelan authorities “to respect the lives of those who are under their responsibility” since they “are held in institutions of the Venezuelan state”. They demand “respect for the human rights of everyone and a peaceful solution to the problem”. Precisely the words in the statement prepared for the Pope by the Secretariat of State, but which he preferred not to deliver.
- Marynellis Tremamunno
Here is Tosatti's July 5 post on the pope and China:
ON HONGKONG:
Is Beijing muzzling the pope?
Bergoglio chose not to deliver prepared words about the situation in Hongkong after Angelus prayers today;
statement had been embargoed by the Vatican to be published only if delivered, but it was not
Translated from
July 5, 2020
Dear friends and enemies of Stilum Curiae,
This morning, the pope was supposed to make a statement about the crisis in HongKong after the noonday Angelus prayers. The statement, distributed to the media shortly after 11 a.m., said:
In the past several days. I followed with particular attention, and not without concern, the complex developing situation in HongKOng, and I wish first of all to express my heartfelt nearnedss to all the inhabitants of that territory.
In the current context, the issues involved are doubtless very sensitive, touching on the lives of all [residents of HongKong] – that is why it is understandable that there should be marked sensitivity in this regard. I hope, nonetheless, that all persons involved will face the various problems in a spirit of forward-looking wisdom and authentic dialog. This requires courage, humility, non-violence, and respect for the diognity and rights of everyone.
I therefore formulate the proposition that social life, especially religious, can be expressed in full and true freedom, as provided for in various international documents [about HongKong]. I accompany with my constant prayer the emtire Catholic community and persons of goodwill in HongKong, so that together they may construct a prosperous and harmonious society.
Instead, shortly before the pope was to appear at the window of the A[postolic Palace for the noonday Angelus, the media was informed that he would not be pronouncing the above statements about HongKong.
Why? There was no official answer to this question. Theoretically, since the statement was under embargo until it was actually said by the pope, which he never did, officially, it is as if the statement had never been written. But they were written out beforehand, as every Vatican reporter knew.
What we do not know is what pressures Beijing might have exerted so that the pope would not bring up the tragedy of the former British colony in his Mondovisione appearance for the Angelus, even if the statement was phrased in the most sensitive [read tactful] and peaceful way possible.
This episode casts one more light – worse than ever, if possible – on the infamous secret agreement signed by the Holy See and Beijing in Sept 2018. The consequences of that secret accord have since weighed heavily on the life of the Catholics in China, especially considering that the Vatican has chosen to ignore the increasing and increasingly open anti-Catholic persecutions in China.
The agreement bids to be one of the most conspicuous errors of Vatican diplomacy and of the pop,e who desired and fully endorsed the agreement, with provisions [
regarding the nomination of Chinese bishops] that his predecessors had opposed.
The inevitable question remains: What means did Beijing employ to muzzle the pope today?
Many other blogs subsequently reposted and commented on Tosatti's post.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 12/07/2020 21:49]