Thanks to one of Lella's followers who alerted her to this editorial, I have been led to the website of Ecclesia, the weekly magazine of the Spanish bishops' conference that inexplicably is not mentioned anywhere on the conference site, nor does the magazine explicitly identify itself as the bishops' magazine.
The Church is in the good hands
of the wise helmsman Benedict XVI
Editorial
Print issue of 7/17/10
Posted online 7/13/10
As it has happened previously, Pope Benedict XVI has availed of recent events to reaffirm the course of the ship of the Church amidst present storms and challenges, and thus, to reaffirm as well the ministry of the Successor to Peter.
He has done so in the style that characterizes him: without haste but without hesitation, with humility and simplicity, with freedom and authority, with truth and with charity.
Let us look at some examples.
On June 30 and July 1, he made two important nominations to the Roman Curia. For having reached [and surpassed] the canonical retirement age of 75, Cardinals Re and Kasper left the leadership of the Congregation for Bishops and for Promoting Christian Unity, respectively.
Two prestigious prelates who are clearly in line with the Pope's thinking were named to succeed them: Canada's Marc Ouellet, and the Bishop of Basel, Kurt Koch.
Benedict XVI is also creating a new and necessary dicastery intended to spur re-evangelization of traditionally Catholic countries that have since slid towards secularism.
A few days earlier, amid much media hue and cry over the past acttivities of another dicastery, the Holy See issued a note to clarify the identity, mission, resources and means of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Since April 2005 when Benedict XVI came to Peter's Chair, he has completed a complete renovation of the Secretariat of State, seven of the nine Congregations, nine of the 11 Pontifical Councils, and a great majority of many other important offices in the Vatican.
In all the changes, the criteria have been to respect the time period of the original appointments
[never before their expiration, but in a few cases, as with Cardinals Re and Kasper, well after their specified term limit (5 years for each nomination period)]; to reinforce internal coordination with and from the Secretariat of State; to seek harmony between the new officials and the style and the ecclesial and pastoral priorities indicated by Benedict XVI; and to aim for maximum efficiency.
The so-called zero tolerance in matters regarding pederasty by priests and other unpleasant realities incompatible with the mission and character of the Church have been and are very much present in the Pope's actions and decisions in recent months.
Thus, he has been following through on the situation of the Church in Ireland, where some dioceses and congregations will be the subject of apostolic visitations in the fall, naming prestigious prelates to carry out these visitations; in Belgium [where one bishop has resigned, and the previous Primate of Belgium is under a cloud for his possible previous knowledge of the bishop's long-standing sexual abuse of his nephew]; in Germany, where he showed both firmness and sensitivity in dealing with the case of Mons. Mixa, whose successor he also promptly named; and in Austria.
In connection with the latter, the Pope's paradigmatic audience on June 29, first with Vienna's Cardinal Schoenborn alone, and then with Cardinals Sodano and Bertone asked to join in.
The solution to these lamentable problems - Benedict XVI has managed to indicate through his gestures and decisions - is not through any unilataral one-upmanship or internal recriminations, but by acting with transparency, justice, truth and charity. Through the Pope's own exclusive authority when necessary.
On July 9, the Pope's measured, prudent, but at the same time implacable and wise way of action was once again confirmed in his choice of his delegate to overhaul the Legionaries of Christ.
The personality and profile of the man he chose - Archbishop Velasio De Paolis, who is also a religious (Scalabrinian), a prestigious cnaonist as well as expert in financial affairs, a Curial head himself, with direct links to the Secretary of State - clearly show the firm intentions of the Pope to overhaul the LC, indicated previously in the Vatican text on May 1 after he met with the apostolic visitators who had investiagted the affairs of the LC.
He decided, after establishing the facts of the lamentable scandals in the life of LC founder Fr. Marcial Maciel, to purge all the complicit officials, and to purify, heal and strengthen the LC which has been the primary victim of its unworthy founder.
All this is clear and unequivocal proof that the ship of the Church is in the good and wise hands of Benedict XVI - the prudent, firm, peace-making and serene Pope whom God has given us in these turbulent times.
I see that AP today filed a story on the Legionaries of Christ that is substantially what was in a Mexican news account on 7/12 that I translated and posted yesterday on the preceding page of this thread.
I have just posted another Mexican news report, from today, in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread, about a tape recording in 2008, shortly after Maciel died, in which one of Maciel's top two lieutenants - the all-powerful Vicar General Luis Garza Medina - says three of the top leaders, incudling himself obviously, and current Superior-General Alvaro Corcuera, knew all about Maciel's double life all along - not only since the CDF disciplined Maciel in 2006, as they have claimed in formal statements - and goes on to describe how Maciel lived his 'unstructured sexuality' [that's a new euphemism for 'unbridled and unpriestly lust'!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/07/2010 23:31]