Surprising speculation from the panting heart of Rome! Noted Vaticanista Sandro Magister has just published a "classroom exercise" in which he predicts the next pope will be a cardinal from the New World. In yesterday's Chiesa, he wrote:
The metamorphosis underway in Catholicism worldwide is such that, if one wished to do a classroom exercise, the candidate for pope who most corresponds to it today is without a doubt Canadian cardinal Marc Ouellet, 68, multilingual, the former archbishop of Québec, which is one of the most secularized regions of the planet, a talented theologian of the Ratzingerian school, now the prefect of the Vatican congregation that selects new bishops, and above all for many years a missionary in Latin America.
Sr Magister's argument, concluded by that paragraph, is that the Church in Europe is moribund -- no argument there -- but "coming back strong" in the United States and growing by leaps and bounds in Asia and Latin America.
Walt confesses to being surprised by Sr Magister's rose-tinted view of the state of the Church in the USA. Some of the most poisoned fruits of Vatican II have been harvested in the USA. I refer to "clown masses" and other liturgical abuses, the plague of perverted priests and bishops and the ensuing cover-ups, the ferocious feminism and the general prevalence of "cafeteria Catholicism" amongst those -- espeically poewr-hungry politicians -- who have the nerve to call themselves "practising Catholics".
It's enough to make you think that the mainstream Church in the USA -- the majority of Catholics who accept Vatican II and all its errors -- has surrendered completely to the philosophies and forces of secular humanism.
But then, just when a traditionalist might be on the brink of despair, along comes a true leader like Francis Cardinal George, the Archbishop of Chicago, who has the courage to stick his head above the parapet and stand up for the freedom of the Catholic Church to preach and practise Her Faith as guaranteed by the Constitution.
Just last month, Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, did the same thing, in the face of the Ontario government's forcing Catholics to make room in their schools for "gay-straight alliances", so called. The "anti-bullying" bill -- truly a bullying bill in disguise -- is now law, but the Cardinal made his stand and made his point. Catholic voters won't forget.
So, perhaps Sr Magister is right. Even in the namby-pamby mainstream Church, which tries so hard to be politically correct and not offend apostates, heretics and infidels, there are some who are beginning to say we have gone too far down the road to a secular, humanist, post-Christian society. If one of them is chosen to fill the shoes of St. Peter, so much the better for the Church and for the world.
Nos lecteurs d'expression française sont priés de lire "Exercice d'école sur l'identité du prochain pape".
Showing posts with label Chiesa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chiesa. Show all posts
Monday, June 11, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Leading Vaticanista details Bertone's role in Vatican scandal
Within the last week, Walt has written two posts concerning the problems... OK, scandals... swirling around the Vatican in general, and the deceitful, corrupt and possibly heretical Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone in particular. See "What the Vatican butler saw" (27/5) and "Bertone... it's Bertone!" (28/5).
Today, Sandro Magister, one of the most knowledgeable and respected Vaticanisti, weighs in with "The Hunt for Thieves in the Vatican". (See below for links to Italian, French and Spanish versions.) Here are a couple of paragraphs to give you an idea of what Signor Magister thinks of the unholy mess, and the part played by "the exuberant cardinal".
"With justice eliminated, what are kingdoms if not a great band of thieves?" The phrase is from Saint Augustine, but it was Benedict XVI who cited it in his first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" of 2005. He didn't know that seven years later it would become the public image of the Vatican. A citadel devastated by thievery, with no corner left inviolate, not even that "sancta sanctorum" which the private desk of the pope should be.
The pope theologian of the great homilies, of the book on Jesus, is the same one who reigns over a curia adrift, a den of "egoism, violence, enmity, discord, jealousy," all of the vices he stigmatized in last Sunday's homily for Pentecost and in so much more of his fruitless prior preaching.
It is the same pope who wanted as his secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and continues to keep him at his post, in spite of the fact that he sees more and more evidence of his inadequacy every day.
In 2010, the irrepressible secretary of state, claiming a presumed mandate from Benedict XVI, even intimated to Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi in writing that he should leave the presidency of the Toniolo. The archbishop of Milan flew off the handle. And Benedict XVI agreed with the latter, after calling both contenders before him.
Speaking to the cardinals [on May 21st], the pope cited Saint Augustine: "All of history is a battle between two loves: love of self even to disregard of God; love of God even to disregard of self." And he added: "We are in this battle, and in it it is very important to have friends. As concerns me, I am surrounded by my friends of the college of cardinals, I feel safe in their company."
Father Federico Lombardi [said], on May 29: "There are no cardinals among the persons of interest or suspects." Not to inconvenience the police, but not all of the cardinal "friends" are playing on the team as the pope expects.
Signor Magister does not refer to Bertone's machinations in the suppression of the Third Secret of Fatima, mentioned here before. As the layers of the conspiracy are peeled away like so much onion skin, the truth of the Fatima Message will be revealed, as will the diabolical deception of Cardinal Bertone and the other "fallen stars" still in high positions in the Church.
The full text of Sandro Magister's article, in other languages, may be found here:
Italian - Caccia al ladro in Vaticano
French - Chasse aux voleurs au Vatican
Spanish - Caza al ladrón en el Vaticano
Today, Sandro Magister, one of the most knowledgeable and respected Vaticanisti, weighs in with "The Hunt for Thieves in the Vatican". (See below for links to Italian, French and Spanish versions.) Here are a couple of paragraphs to give you an idea of what Signor Magister thinks of the unholy mess, and the part played by "the exuberant cardinal".
"With justice eliminated, what are kingdoms if not a great band of thieves?" The phrase is from Saint Augustine, but it was Benedict XVI who cited it in his first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" of 2005. He didn't know that seven years later it would become the public image of the Vatican. A citadel devastated by thievery, with no corner left inviolate, not even that "sancta sanctorum" which the private desk of the pope should be.
The pope theologian of the great homilies, of the book on Jesus, is the same one who reigns over a curia adrift, a den of "egoism, violence, enmity, discord, jealousy," all of the vices he stigmatized in last Sunday's homily for Pentecost and in so much more of his fruitless prior preaching.
It is the same pope who wanted as his secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and continues to keep him at his post, in spite of the fact that he sees more and more evidence of his inadequacy every day.
In 2010, the irrepressible secretary of state, claiming a presumed mandate from Benedict XVI, even intimated to Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi in writing that he should leave the presidency of the Toniolo. The archbishop of Milan flew off the handle. And Benedict XVI agreed with the latter, after calling both contenders before him.
Speaking to the cardinals [on May 21st], the pope cited Saint Augustine: "All of history is a battle between two loves: love of self even to disregard of God; love of God even to disregard of self." And he added: "We are in this battle, and in it it is very important to have friends. As concerns me, I am surrounded by my friends of the college of cardinals, I feel safe in their company."
Father Federico Lombardi [said], on May 29: "There are no cardinals among the persons of interest or suspects." Not to inconvenience the police, but not all of the cardinal "friends" are playing on the team as the pope expects.
Signor Magister does not refer to Bertone's machinations in the suppression of the Third Secret of Fatima, mentioned here before. As the layers of the conspiracy are peeled away like so much onion skin, the truth of the Fatima Message will be revealed, as will the diabolical deception of Cardinal Bertone and the other "fallen stars" still in high positions in the Church.
The full text of Sandro Magister's article, in other languages, may be found here:
Italian - Caccia al ladro in Vaticano
French - Chasse aux voleurs au Vatican
Spanish - Caza al ladrón en el Vaticano
Friday, April 8, 2011
Traditional Catholics betrayed by Benedict XVI
Sandro Magister is a leading "Vaticanista" -- Vatican-watcher -- and editor/publisher of the highly-respected Chiesa newsletter. He generally tries to maintain an objective, albeit conservative, stance in his articles. In other words, he's not an ultra-traditionalist who believes that everything decided and done by the Church since 1962 is wrong.
So, for Signore Magister to criticize the Pope, or even to echo the criticisms of others, is to express the profound malaise that infects today's Church. Yet that is what he does, in "High Up, Let Down by Pope Benedict", Chiesa's leading article this week.
Voices of disapproval have been raised over the Holy See's confirmation that on October 27th, Benedict XVI will preside over a day of "reflection, dialogue and prayer" together with "Christians of other confessions", representatives of other religions and "men of good will."
The encounter will come in the same place -- Assisi -- and twenty-five years after the infamous one convened by John Paul II. Cardinal Ratzinger, as he then was, did not take part in it. Now that he's pope, he says, the next encounter will be reviewed and corrected, scrubbed clean of the slightest hint of the assimilation of the Catholic Church to other faiths.
But, the traditionalists say, the problem is that such "encounters" should not be held at all! Some of them have signed a critical appeal, of which Chiesa gives details. The "spirit of Assisi," in their view, is part of a more general confusion, originating in Vatican II, that is disrupting Catholic doctrine -- a confusion to which Benedict XVI is not reacting as he should.
Most recently, Sig. Magister continues, the criticisms of Pope Benedict by traditional Catholics have grown in intensity. And they reflect a growing disappointment with respect to the expectations initially invested in the restorative action of the current pontificate.
The criticisms of some traditionalists are focused in particular on how Benedict XVI interprets Vatican Council II and the postconciliar period.
The pope errs, in their view, when he limits his criticism to the deterioration of the Church's beliefs and practices in the aftermath of Vatican II. In fact, they say, Vatican II was not only poorly interpreted and applied: it was itself a source of grave errors.
The first of those was the renunciation of the Church's authority to exercise, when necessary, a magisterium of definition and condemnation, i.e. the renunciation of the anathema.
In exchange for "dialogue" with "other expression of Christianity" and other religions, the Church gave up Her God-given power to declare what is right and what is wrong. And for the sake of dialogue and political correctness, She stopped proclaiming the dogma extra Ecclesiam nulla sanctus -- outside the Church there is no salvation.
The dogma has not been "repealed". Dogma cannot be changed or "taken back". But by refusing to talk about religious rights and wrongs, by treating other confessions and other religions as more or less equal "seekers of truth", Pope Benedict does the True Faith a lamentable and grave disservice. He is, in fact, leading us in the wrong direction.
So, for Signore Magister to criticize the Pope, or even to echo the criticisms of others, is to express the profound malaise that infects today's Church. Yet that is what he does, in "High Up, Let Down by Pope Benedict", Chiesa's leading article this week.
Voices of disapproval have been raised over the Holy See's confirmation that on October 27th, Benedict XVI will preside over a day of "reflection, dialogue and prayer" together with "Christians of other confessions", representatives of other religions and "men of good will."
The encounter will come in the same place -- Assisi -- and twenty-five years after the infamous one convened by John Paul II. Cardinal Ratzinger, as he then was, did not take part in it. Now that he's pope, he says, the next encounter will be reviewed and corrected, scrubbed clean of the slightest hint of the assimilation of the Catholic Church to other faiths.
But, the traditionalists say, the problem is that such "encounters" should not be held at all! Some of them have signed a critical appeal, of which Chiesa gives details. The "spirit of Assisi," in their view, is part of a more general confusion, originating in Vatican II, that is disrupting Catholic doctrine -- a confusion to which Benedict XVI is not reacting as he should.
Most recently, Sig. Magister continues, the criticisms of Pope Benedict by traditional Catholics have grown in intensity. And they reflect a growing disappointment with respect to the expectations initially invested in the restorative action of the current pontificate.
The criticisms of some traditionalists are focused in particular on how Benedict XVI interprets Vatican Council II and the postconciliar period.
The pope errs, in their view, when he limits his criticism to the deterioration of the Church's beliefs and practices in the aftermath of Vatican II. In fact, they say, Vatican II was not only poorly interpreted and applied: it was itself a source of grave errors.
The first of those was the renunciation of the Church's authority to exercise, when necessary, a magisterium of definition and condemnation, i.e. the renunciation of the anathema.
In exchange for "dialogue" with "other expression of Christianity" and other religions, the Church gave up Her God-given power to declare what is right and what is wrong. And for the sake of dialogue and political correctness, She stopped proclaiming the dogma extra Ecclesiam nulla sanctus -- outside the Church there is no salvation.
The dogma has not been "repealed". Dogma cannot be changed or "taken back". But by refusing to talk about religious rights and wrongs, by treating other confessions and other religions as more or less equal "seekers of truth", Pope Benedict does the True Faith a lamentable and grave disservice. He is, in fact, leading us in the wrong direction.
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