February 2011 Print

Assisi Revisited

According to Catholic News Agency, Pope Benedict XVI is planning a renewal of the ecumenical prayer meeting in Assisi:

“The Pope invited religious leaders from around the world to Assisi, Italy, to renew their commitment to peace. Pope Benedict announced plans for the peace summit in his words before the Angelus on Jan. 1. The October gathering will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first World Day of Prayer for Peace, reported Vatican Radio.

“The Pope’s announcement came shortly after suicide bombers in Egypt killed 21 Coptic Christians leaving Mass on Jan. 1. In addition to calling for the October meeting, Benedict XVI asked Catholics to pray ‘for peace throughout the world.’

“‘I invite all of you to join in heartfelt prayer to Christ the Prince of Peace for an end to violence and conflict wherever they are found.’ The Pontiff then prayed that those gathered receive ‘God’s abundant blessings’ in 2011.”

On August 27, 1986, Archbishop Lefebvre wrote to eight cardinals in view of the first Assisi meeting. It is good to recall this in its entirety [right].

On October 28, 1986, the Assisi meeting took place, and on December 2, Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop de Castro Mayer publicly protested:

Public sin against the unicity of God, the Word Incarnate, and His Church makes one shudder with horror: John Paul has encouraged false religions to pray to their false gods: it is an unprecedented and immeasurable scandal...an inconceivably impious and intolerable humiliation to those who remain Catholic, loyally professing the same Faith for twenty centuries. (Declaration signed in Buenos Aires)

We might wonder why there is nothing but silence from the Ecclesia Dei communities regarding this upcoming event. Even Fr. Giovanni Scalese, a well-known Italian priest who runs a famous blog (querculanus.blogspot.com) has publicly wondered at the prudence of such an event.

Archbishop Lefebvre’s Letter to the Cardinals in 1986

Your Eminence,

Confronted with events taking place in the Church that have John Paul II as their author and faced with those he intends carrying out at Taizé and Assisi in October, I cannot refrain from addressing you and begging you in the name of numerous priests and faithful to save the honor of the Church never before humiliated to such an extent in the course of her history.

The speeches and actions of John Paul II in Togo, Morocco, and the Indies cause a righteous indignation to rise up in our heart. What do the Saints, the holy men and women of the Old and New Testaments make of this? What would the Holy Inquisition do if it were still in existence?

He who now sits upon the Throne of Peter mocks publicly the first article of the Creed and the First Commandment of the Decalogue.

The scandal given to Catholic souls cannot be measured. The Church is shaken to its very foundations. If faith in the Church, the only ark of salvation, disappears, then the Church herself disappears.

Is John Paul II to continue ruining the Church, in particular at Assisi, with the planned procession of religions in the streets of the town of Saint Francis and the sharing out of religions in the chapels of the basilica with a view to practicing their worship in favor of peace as conceived by the United Nations?

It is what Cardinal Etchegaray, in charge of this abominable congress, has announced.

Is it conceivable that no authoritative voice has been raised in the Church to condemn these public sins? Where are the Machabees?

Eminence, for the honor of the one true God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, make a public protest, come to the help of the still faithful bishops, priests and Catholics.

Eminence, if I took the step of contacting you it is because I do not doubt your sentiments in this matter.

I am also addressing this appeal to those Cardinals named below so that eventually you may be able to work together.

May the Holy Ghost come to your aid, and please accept, Eminence, my devoted and fraternal greetings in Christ and Mary.

Archbishop Lefebvre
Emeritus Bishop-Archbishop of Tulle
Ecône, August 27, 1986

A Note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the Pope’s remarks about condoms

One month after the publication of the book-length interview of Benedict XVI with Peter Seewald, Light of the World, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued, on December 21, 2010, a Note “On the trivialization of sexuality–regarding certain interpretations of Light of the World.” This Roman document reframes the Pope’s statements on condom use, which had given rise to contradictory commentaries: encomiums on the part of activists against the spread of the AIDS virus, and critiques on the part of those who defend Catholic morality. Here is the complete text [see sidebar below].

The Note from the Generalate of the Society of St. Pius X dated November 26 hoped that the Pope’s remarks would be clarified and corrected. According to Vatican-watcher Sandro Magister, George Weigel, the biographer of John Paul II and member of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., likewise called on the Holy See, in an article in the magazine First Things, to publish as soon as possible a “substantial clarification.” Along the same lines, Professor Luke Gormally, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life and former director of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics in London, deemed the idea (expressed by the Pope) of “humanizing sexuality” to be “rather vague” and confusing. In an open letter available at Sandro Magister’s website, he affirms that condom use cannot be permitted in any case by the Church, not even for those who want to protect their health or the health of others. This is exactly the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church.

In response to this turmoil, the note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith speaks about erroneous interpretations and manipulation. It does not repeat the most controversial expression in the response of Benedict XVI to Peter Seewald: the “moralization” of the male prostitute who uses a condom (The media campaign surrounding Light of the World by Benedict XVI and the Pope’s remarks about condoms: the intention and the context). Thus it shows, on the contrary, that it is at the very least imprudent, in a work intended for the general public, to deal with hypothetical interior dispositions in certain “particular cases,” in the course of a subjective “moralization,” since that inevitably opens up a breach in the defenses against all who demand that the Church change the Ten Commandments. (Source: DICI)

Note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

On the trivialization of sexuality: Regarding certain interpretations of Light of the World Following the publication of the interview-book Light of the World by Benedict XVI, a number of erroneous interpretations have emerged which have caused confusion concerning the position of the Catholic Church regarding certain questions of sexual morality. The thought of the Pope has been repeatedly manipulated for ends and interests which are entirely foreign to the meaning of his words–a meaning which is evident to anyone who reads the entire chapters in which human sexuality is treated. The intention of the Holy Father is clear: to rediscover the beauty of the divine gift of human sexuality and, in this way, to avoid the cheapening of sexuality which is common today.

Some interpretations have presented the words of the Pope as a contradiction of the traditional moral teaching of the Church. This hypothesis has been welcomed by some as a positive change and lamented by others as a cause of concern–as if his statements represented a break with the doctrine concerning contraception and with the Church’s stance in the fight against AIDS. In reality, the words of the Pope–which specifically concern a gravely disordered type of human behaviour, namely prostitution (cf. Light of the World, pp. 117-119)–do not signify a change in Catholic moral teaching or in the pastoral practice of the Church.

As is clear from an attentive reading of the pages in question, the Holy Father was talking neither about conjugal morality nor about the moral norm concerning contraception. This norm belongs to the tradition of the Church and was summarized succinctly by Pope Paul VI in paragraph 14 of his Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae, when he wrote that “also to be excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means.” The idea that anyone could deduce from the words of Benedict XVI that it is somehow legitimate, in certain situations, to use condoms to avoid an unwanted pregnancy is completely arbitrary and is in no way justified either by his words or in his thought. On this issue the Pope proposes instead–and also calls the pastors of the Church to propose more often and more effectively (cf. Light of the World, p. 147)–humanly and ethically acceptable ways of behaving which respect the inseparable connection between the unitive and procreative meaning of every conjugal act, through the possible use of natural family planning in view of responsible procreation.

On the pages in question, the Holy Father refers to the completely different case of prostitution, a type of behaviour which Christian morality has always considered gravely immoral (cf. Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, n. 27; Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2355). The response of the entire Christian tradition–and indeed not only of the Christian tradition–to the practice of prostitution can be summed up in the words of St. Paul: “Flee from fornication” (1 Cor. 6:18). The practice of prostitution should be shunned, and it is the duty of the agencies of the Church, of civil society and of the State to do all they can to liberate those involved from this practice.

In this regard, it must be noted that the situation created by the spread of AIDS in many areas of the world has made the problem of prostitution even more serious. Those who know themselves to be infected with HIV and who therefore run the risk of infecting others, apart from committing a sin against the sixth commandment are also committing a sin against the fifth commandment–because they are consciously putting the lives of others at risk through behaviour which has repercussions on public health. In this situation, the Holy Father clearly affirms that the provision of condoms does not constitute “the real or moral solution” to the problem of AIDS and also that “the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality” in that it refuses to address the mistaken human behaviour which is the root cause of the spread of the virus. In this context, however, it cannot be denied that anyone who uses a condom in order to diminish the risk posed to another person is intending to reduce the evil connected with his or her immoral activity. In this sense the Holy Father points out that the use of a condom “with the intention of reducing the risk of infection, can be a first step in a movement towards a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.” This affirmation is clearly compatible with the Holy Father’s previous statement that this is “not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection.”

Some commentators have interpreted the words of Benedict XVI according to the so-called theory of the “lesser evil.” This theory is, however, susceptible to proportionalistic misinterpretation (cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis splendor, n. 75-77). An action which is objectively evil, even if a lesser evil, can never be licitly willed. The Holy Father did not say–as some people have claimed–that prostitution with the use of a condom can be chosen as a lesser evil. The Church teaches that prostitution is immoral and should be shunned. However, those involved in prostitution who are HIV positive and who seek to diminish the risk of contagion by the use of a condom may be taking the first step in respecting the life of another–even if the evil of prostitution remains in all its gravity. This understanding is in full conformity with the moral theological tradition of the Church.

In conclusion, in the battle against AIDS, the Catholic faithful and the agencies of the Catholic Church should be close to those affected, should care for the sick and should encourage all people to live abstinence before and fidelity within marriage. In this regard it is also important to condemn any behaviour which cheapens sexuality because, as the Pope says, such behaviour is the reason why so many people no longer see in sexuality an expression of their love: “This is why the fight against the banalization of sexuality is also part of the struggle to ensure that sexuality is treated as a positive value and to enable it to have a positive effect on the whole of man’s being” (Light of the World, p. 119). (Source: vatican.va)

John Paul II beatification could be possible in 2011

Rome, Italy, Jan. 5, 2011 (CNA).– Pope John Paul II could be beatified in 2011, Vatican expert Andrea Tornielli is reporting.

In the Jan. 4 edition of the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, he reports that medical advisers of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints have ruled favorably on a miracle attributed to John Paul II’s intercession. The documentation has also passed the scrutiny of theologians.

The case involves the healing of a French religious sister from Parkinson’s disease. Sr. Marie Simon-Pierre was diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease in 2001. Her order prayed to John Paul II after his death for help. After writing the Pope’s name on a piece of paper one night in June 2005, she reportedly awoke the next morning cured and was able to resume her work as a maternity nurse.

Vatican expert John Allen Jr., writing in the National Catholic Reporter, said that media reports have implied that the French sister had become ill again and at least one physician questioned her original diagnosis. The outcome of the medical consultants’ examination suggests that those doubts have been resolved.

The cause for beatification will now advance to the bishops heading the congregation. They will vote on the matter in several weeks.

In theory, it is possible that Pope John Paul II could be beatified on April 2, 2011, the sixth anniversary of his death. Other possible dates are the late pontiff’s birthday, May 18, or the Oct. 16 anniversary of his 1978 election to the papacy.

A beatification Mass would draw huge crowds and would require significant preparation. This makes a later date more likely.

Pope John Paul II was declared “venerable” in December 2009. If he is beatified, another recognized miracle would be required to declare him a saint. (Source: Catholic News Agency)

Bishop calls for a New Syllabus

A non-public theological conference took place in Rome, near St. Peter, some days before Christmas. The order of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate–known to traditionalists because of the unusual fact that, after the motu proprio of Pope Benedict, they officially announced their intention to say the traditional Mass–had organized this conference, which presented a number of qualified speakers.

Notable among them were the speech of Msgr. Gherardini, the author of a critical book about Vatican II, and that of Roberto De Mattei, an Italian historian who recently wrote a critical book about Vatican II also (which is available only in Italian).

But the most stunning contribution came from Bishop Schneider, an auxiliary bishop from Karaganda. According to him, the abuses of the post-conciliar era can only be corrected by the infallible magisterium of the Church (meaning by a general Council or the Pope). He even proposed to draw up a new syllabus, which would be a list of condemned errors along with the correct orthodox interpretation. (Source: Osservatore Vaticano)