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New major Curial changes imminent?
by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
November 23, 2014
I have of late not been very happy with Andrea Tornielli, who seems to have jettisoned objectivity. [He has turned himself into Pope Francis's unofficial spokesman, and the VATICAN INSIDER which he edits, into a virtual IL MIO PAPA site]. However, at La Stampa/VATICAN INSIDER, he posts that there are perhaps some big changes coming to the Roman Curia.
On Monday the Pope will sit down with heads of curial dicasteries before he meets with the Gang of 8+1 (1=SecState). It is rumored that the Congregation for Catholic Education and the Pontifical Council for Culture may be combined. Card. Ravasi, now at Culture, might wind up head of the new dicastery. The head of Education, Zenon Card. Grocholewski [the last Curial dicastery head remaining of John Paul II's appointees], recently turned 75.
Another move might fuse together the Pontifical Councils of Justice and Peace, Migrants, Cor Unum, and the Academy for Life with Card. Maradiaga as head.
I have been hypothesizing that the Pope wants to pare down the number of curial Cardinals (and the Archbishop Secretaries that go with them). This would weaken the Curia’s influence overall and would concentrate power in the hands of a very few who would be especially close to this Pope.
Also, I see the demotion of Card. Burke not just as a way of sending a chill through a whole sector of the Church, but also a preparatory move to smash together the three Curial tribunals, which would reduce the number of their cardinals from two to one. It is possible that there could also be created a “Moderator of the Curia” position.
Actually, the bigger and very significant Curial news today is this - for which many Catholics are surely grateful, Deo gratias, first of all, and to Pope Francis. We are immensely relieved that he did not appoint Mons. Piero Marini as had been widely rumored in the liberal media. A definite "GO, FRANCIS!" heads-up for JMB/PF, this one. How I pray there will be more such occasions.
The most important implication I read in the Pope’s decision is that he did not, after all, publicly administer a slap in the face to Benedict XVI by appointing anyone whose views on the liturgy are contrary to those of the emeritus Pope. Also, in naming Cardinal Sarah, he has named a ‘Ratzingerian’ and a known ‘conservative’ to offset the earlier demotions of Cardinals Piacenza, Canizares and Burke. (Collaterally, it also means keeping Cardinal Sarah,an African, in the Curia since it looks as if Cor Unum will be merged with two other dicasteries. How would it look for the Pope to deprive an African cardinal of Curial leadership?) [P.S. Oh no! If Tornielli has it right about one coming dicasterial merger, and the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace will be one of the dicasteries in the merger, and if the merged dicasteries will be headed by Cardinal Maradiaga, that would deprive Ghana's Cardinal Turkson of his leadership position! Would Pope Francis really do that to the one African papabile in the last Conclave?]
As for Cor Unum, Cardinal Sarah's idea of Catholic charity, as he expressed it most recently in addressing the leadership meeting of Caritas in Veritate International - "We must bring people God, not just food", reaffirming Benedict XVI's motu proprio on Catholic charities - is certainly not that of Cardinal Maradiaga (and by extension, neither that of JMB/PF), said to take over the soon-to-be-merged Pontifical Council for Migrants with Cor Unum and one other agency), Maradiaga's idea of Catholic charities, such as he has shaped Caritas International to be, is that of a giant secular NGO. (But I do appreciate that he appeared not to react publicly when Benedict XVI issued the motu proprio on Catholic charities back in 2012, which emphasized that Catholic charities should never underplay their Catholic identity because faith is inseparable from charity. However, under Pope Francis - of which Maradiaga has often acted as if he were his 'Vice-Pope', Caritas was subsequently taken away from the overall coordination of Cor Unum, which was one of the provisions of Benedict's motu proprio.
In practical consequences for the liturgy, Cardinal Sarah's appointment would seem to indicate that JMB/PF has no intentions of introducing any major liturgical changes, and that Summorum Pontificum, at least theoretically, remains in place. But since, in practice, the Novus Ordo – including some of its worst abuses – remains the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite and therefore remains by far the Mass attended by most Catholics, there seems to be no pressing need to tinker with it. [Was the Vatican crakcdown on the TLM-inclinded Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate just an aberrration then? It's been some mighty hard-hitting aberration very disproportionate to the so-far only alleged charge against them of being 'crypto-Lefebvrian'. And what about JMB/PF's sacking of the two 'conservative' undersecretaries at CDW just a few weeks back. to replace them with a Bugnini disciple? Thankfully, I don't think Mons. Maggioni is any match for Cardinal Sarah, unless, God forbid, he has ways to sabotage him if he has to.]
So, all in all, the rationale for Cardinal Sarah’s appointment – as disappointing as it must be to the progressivists - seems pretty well thought out.
Cardinal Sarah appointed head
of Vatican congregation for liturgy
by Mark Greaves
Monday, 24 Nov 2014
Pope Francis has named Cardinal Robert Sarah as the new prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
Cardinal Sarah, 69, from Guinea, is currently president of the pontifical council “Cor Unum”. He will replace Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, nicknamed “Little Ratzinger”, who has been appointed Archbishop of Valencia in Spain.
Vatican-watcher Andrea Tornielli said: “The profile of Robert Sarah, a Curia member with a long experience serving as a pastor in Africa, is rather traditional… His arrival as head of the dicastery for worship is therefore unlikely to herald any innovations in the liturgical field.”
Last month Cardinal Sarah spoke at a meeting of priests and seminarians attending the Populus Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage in Rome. The annual pilgrimage brings together faithful from around the world devoted to the Extraordinary Form.
Benedict XVI named Sarah, then secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, to head Cor Unum, upon the retriement of German Cardinal Josef Cordes in 2009. Shortly thereafter, the Pope made Sarah cardinal. It must be noted that a longtime Prefect for Divine Worship was Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, whom Cardinal Canizares suceeded after Arinze turned 80.
An interesting development for Cardinal Canizares, who was named by Pope Francis Archbishop of Valencia, instead of Archbishop of Madrid as had been widely expected: He has been 'overwhelmingly' elected president of the Spanish bishops' conference, in place of Cardinal Rouco Varela, who had been the Archbishop of Madrid.
An English-language blogsite has other interesting information about the 'politics' of Spain's bishops at the moment:
sarmaticusblog.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/secret-synod-rebellion-spreads-to-...
with the corollary news that the Spanish bishops elected three delegates to the next family synod who are all known 'conservatives' and that significantly, the 'liberal' bishop named by Pope Francis to be Archbishop of Madrid was defeated for one of those delegate posts after he failed to gain a majority vote in several ballotings. . One is mot hopeful for the bishops of Spain as currently constituted, but their composition is bound to change as time goes by under this Pontificate.
The Catholic Herald's Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith, who has spent time as a missionary in Africa, has a beautiful commentary on Cardinal Sarah's appointment:
From Cardinal Sarah, we can expect
clarity and leadership
He represents the best of the Church in Africa which
acutely understands the transcendent and sacred
by Fr. Alecander Lucie-Smith
November 24, 2013
Some good news from the Vatican! We have an African in charge of a major dicastery once more. He is Robert Cardinal Sarah, who comes from Guinea, and who takes over the Congregation for Divine Worship.
The Congregation for Divine Worship, which deals with the administration of the sacraments and regulates the liturgy has been headed up by an African before now. Cardinal Arinze, a Nigerian, often spoken of as papabile, ran the Congregation from 2002-2008.
I once met Cardinal Arinze, who was a down to earth and friendly man, and who, when occasion demanded it could speak clearly and directly to the Church’s critics as well as to those inside the Church who wished to abuse its liturgy.
All the indications are that Cardinal Sarah will be in the same mould as Cardinal Arinze; like his African predecessor, he has long experience of the Roman Curia. He will also bring his own African insights to the matter of the sacred liturgy.
The Church in Africa has a clear and sharp understanding of the division between immanent and transcendent, sacred and profane. Having been to many liturgies in Africa, I have never had the experience I have had in some European countries of attending a Mass that seemed more like a school assembly.
This sense of the transcendent and sacred, which permeates the whole of life in Africa, is also seen in an attention to ceremonial that never seems out of place. Recently the Cardinal received the “Summorum Pontificum” pilgrims to Rome, which is most encouraging.
Here is an extract of a sermon made by the Cardinal at an ordination in Candes, France, back in 2011. [Here is my translation of the French text]:
There are no more common moral reference points. We no longer know what is wrong and what is right . […] This is serious, it is not just to be mistaken - it is changing error into a rule of life...
If we are afraid to proclaim the truth of the gospel, if we are ashamed to denounce serious deviations in moral matters, if we accommodate ourselves to this world of moral laxity and religious and ethical relativism, if we are afraid to vigorously denounce the abominable laws of this new global ethic, concerning marriage, the family in all its forms, and abortion - laws in total opposition to the laws of nature and of God, and which nations and western culture promote and impose through the mass media and their economic power, then the prophetic words of Ezekiel will fall on us as a serious divine reproach.
These words indicate that we can expect clarity and leadership from Cardinal Sarah. As he enters into his new office, His Eminence will have the best wishes, and more importantly the prayers, of Catholics around the world. And he will give particular joy, one feels, to all who know the African Church.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/11/2014 03:52] |