Wanted: a Papal Nuncio who will improve
the calibre of the UK's Catholic bishops
November 13th, 2010
Archbishop Faustino Sainz Muñoz, the Papal Nuncio to Great Britain, is retiring early because of ill health. It’s sad for him, of course: I wish him a full recovery, a happy retirement, and shall try to forget his attempts to silence this blog.
But now, PLEASE,
will the Vatican recognise that the Catholics who responded so warmly to Benedict XVI deserve a Nuncio willing to recommend bishops motivated by the Pope’s programme of orthodox renewal?
I don’t want to single out Archbishop Sainz, because
he was just one of a string of Apostolic Nuncios or Delegates who represented the Bishops’ Conferences to the Pope rather than the other way around.
Like secular diplomats who go native, the Holy See’s ambassadors have allowed the Magic Circle to force the names of second-rate Church politicians on to ternas
[A terna is the short list of nominees recommended by the resident Nuncio to the Pope when a vacant bishop's post needs to be filled].
The results are plain to see, especially in the North-West of England, its Catholic heritage left to rot by complacent prelates, and in the liberal Protestant dioceses of the south coast with their 1970s retro liturgies. So…
Wanted: a Papal Nuncio, inspired by the writings and teachings of Joseph Ratzinger, preferably a native English speaker, with a bullshit detector that’s set off by Eccleston Square Bishopese and a knack for spotting dynamic orthodox priests capable of turning round a moribund diocese.
I can name a dozen such priests off the top of my head, but none of them stands a cat in hell’s chance of receiving a mitre until we get a decent Nuncio.
Mons. Sainz suffered a serious stroke that required lengthy hospitalization several weeks before the Pope's visit, so he was unable to take part in the preparations for the visit, and in the visit itself... All I recall reading about him before his stroke was that some time in 2007, along with the then Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, he hosted an elaborate event in London for Archbishop Piero Marini to present his book on liturgy which sang the praises of Marini's mentor Anibale Bugnini, who had engineered the Novus Ordo. It was a gesture that - more than just being unseemly on his part and that of Murphy O'Connor, a known opponent of Summorum Pontificum - was almost a slap at Benedict XVI. It was one of the more egregious demonstrations of bishops openly deying the Pope, including the Apostolic Nuncio, who formally represents the Pope!