In the following article, Luigi Accattoli expands on a reflection he published earlier in Corriere della Sera (see top post on this page)...
New year, 'new' Pope
Benedict XVI's activism ranges from beatifying his predecessor
to naming a Protestant president for the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
By Luigi Accattoli
Translated from
January 18, 2011
2011 could not have begun better for Pope Benedict: from the launching of the new laws on Vatican banking and finances (comparable in importance to the new rules on dealing with pedophile priests) to the convocation of a fourth world inter-religious meeting in Assisi; from the announcement of Papa Wojtyla's beatification to the creation of the first Anglo-Catholic Ordinariate, and to the nomination of a Protestant to head the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
These are five major moves in the context of Benedict's own internal reform of the Church, his Pontificate's continuity with that of his predecessor, and his efforts to promote meaningful ecumenism.
Some of them are circumstantial, and some are strategic, but all are comprehensible and can be appreciated even by public opinion.
Together, they send a signal that from the viewpoint of governance – and of the Pope's personal initiative – the Benedictine Pontificate is undertaking its best season yet.
The new framework for financial dealings within the Vatican – which will be capped by the nomination of Cardinal Attilio Nicora as president of the new Financial Information Authority to supervise financial and banking activities – will ensure that all financial structures in the Vatican, including the Vatican bank IOR, will be protected against the ever-present temptation of using Vatican institutions to launder moneyand/or to knowingly or unknowingly finance terrorist activities.
As Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said, the new laws are designed “to avoid any errors which can so easily be depicted by the media as 'Vatican scandals'." One might say that moralization in this sector has been a more dificult challenge that that regarding sexual abuses. But finally it has begun.
Papa Ratzinger's intent to clean up even in this sector is confirmed by his choice of Cardinal Nicora as a guarantee that the new laws will be applied: He has been the most rigorous among those who were asked to review the overall situation preparatory to promulgating the reforms.
On the first day of 2011, the Pope also announced that he was inviting other religious leaders to a fourth Assisi Day to pray for world peace, on the 25th anniversary of the first one, and following similar initiatives taken by John Paul II subsequently – first in 1993 during the war in Bosnia, and then in 2002, after the rerrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 in the USA.
[Previous reports about Assisi have failed to include the 1993 prayer day for Bosnia, and I did not know enough to notice!]
This announcement immediately prompted 'concerns' and even protests from the traditionalist wing of the Church (at least in Italy), who do not understand how the rigorous Papa Ratzinger could follow the example set by his predecessor to whom this inter-religious meetings were so important.
I see in the return to Assisi an important signal that the theologian Pope wishes to send to the world regarding the fragility of peace on earth, which today is more than ever undermined by conflicts with a religious motivation. And also, another signal of continuity with preceding Pontificates.
Just as he has taken to carrying the 'papal cross' that characterized the Popes ebfore Vatican II, Benedict XVI is also being loyal to the legacies of the conciliar Popes: Assisi, like his visits to synagogues and mosques, are among such legacies.
And so we come to the great shadow cast by Papa Wojtyla, On Friday, January 14, Benedict XVI authorized the decree on his beatification, which will take place on May 1 – a decision reached in record time compared to any other 'proclamation' by the Church of Christian exemplarity in the modern era.
It seems even more brief for a Pope who 'reigned' for 26 years and about whom a veritable mountain of documents and 'acts' had to be scrutinized.
But even in this, there is a justification of continuity. The Vatican newspaper,
L'Osservatore Romano, pointed out that in the past ten centuries, there are no precedents of a Pope beatified by his immediate successor.
In this way, Benedict XVI, who was the late Pope's principal collaborator on doctrinal matters for 23 years, is also protecting John Paul II's legacy from the most naïve but nonetheless bothersome accusations of discontinuity with Tradition.
And so we come to the last two decisions we mentioned – both in the name of ecumenism. On Saturday, January 15, Benedict XVI instituted a Personal ordinariate in England and Wales for disaffected Anglicans joining the Catholic church, and named as its first Ordinary - a rank equivalent to that of a diocesan bishop - the former Anglican Archbishop of Richborough, Keith Newton, married and father of three children. Newton. 58, and two other former bishops, weer re-ordained as Catholic priests that same day in London's Westminster Cathedral..
It is a remarkable fact, both in terms of Catholic rapprochement with the Anglican world, and as a further expression of liturgical and canonical plurifomity within the Catholic Church [
analogous to the retention by the Eastern Churches of their ancient canonical and liturgical practices].
And made all the more significant because this previously unthinkable step was taken by a Pope who, before his election, was perceived to be an enemy of ecumenism as well as of any pluriformity within the Church
[obviously by those ignorant of his extensive knowledge of other churches and religions, particularly Judaism, Orthodox Christianity, the Oriental Christian Churches, Anglicanism and Lutheranism].
Also on January 15, Benedict XVI named a Protestant, the Swiss physician Werner Arber, who shared the 1978 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. This decision is unprecedented for the Pontifical Academies and Commissions.
To understand the spirit of this decision, it must be recalled that Cardinal Ratzinger has often observed how “Outside the Catholic Church, there are so many true Christians, and many of them are truly Christian”.
But the more specific reason is due to the fact that Arber is a physician. Cardinal Ratzinger said on several occasions, as in a 1997 book on
The Church, ecumenism and politics, that “Christians of all denominations must strive to render common witness together on the great moral questions”.
Benedict hopes to find in Dr. Arber an imporant ally in giving common witness on the increasingly heated issues involving bioethics and issues of life and death.
So, in an assortment of seemingly small and evidently major news items over the past two weeks, we have looked at five emblematic developments that speak very well of the health of this Pontificate as it completes its fifth full year and begins its sixth on April 19. It looks to be more active than ever and very much future-oriented.
...And many thought he would be a 'transitional' Pope, by which they meant a 'stopgap', from whom no great things could or should be expected. As if someone gifted with as many graces as God has endowed him with could ever be a transitional anything!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 19/01/2011 01:18]