Inside the Vatican magazine January 2020

INSIDE THE

JANUARY 2020 $5 / EUR 5 / £3.30

VATICAN SVETLANA KASYAN

VIKTOR ORBÁN

FR. JEAN-MARC FOURNIER

ALEXANDER TSCHUGGUEL

JAKUB BARYŁA

FR. CSABA BÖJTE

KANYE WEST

KATIE ASCOUGH

NIAMH UÍ BHRIAIN

TOP TEN OF THE YEAR

CORA SHERLOCK

VINCENT GUO XIJIN

KABONGO KANUNDOWI

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW

“ The Greatest Saint of Modern Times” ?

X ST. THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX: Story of a Life Guy Gaucher, O.C.D.

W

ritten by the foremost expert on St. Thérèse, this is widely considered the most definitive and popular work on the young Doctor of the Church. Gaucher, a Carmelite like Thérèse, and Bishop of Lisieux, based his work on Thérèse's famous notebooks, letters, poems, plays, and prayers that reveal her true self. It shows her passionate love of Christ and her profound spirituality of “the little way”, showing how we all can live out her ideal of doing everything with love for God and become saints.

8 pages of photos. STSLP . . . Sewn Softcover, $17.95 “Masterful! Answers a widespread demand for the finest biography of this ‘greatest saint of modern times’. ” — Bishop Patrick Ahern, Author, Three Gifts of Thérèse of Lisieux “Thanks to Guy Gaucher we now know Thérèse as she really was.

A meticulously researched and engaging biography.”

— Heather King, Author, Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Thérèse of Lisieux

X SPIRITUAL CHILDHOOD — Msgr. Vernon Johnson

X LEONIE MARTIN: A Difficult Life

St. Thérèse, a Doctor of the Church, summarized her spirituality as the “Little Way of Spiritual Childhood”. Msgr. Johnson, famous convert and apostle of Thérèse, presents the most clear, practical and profound explanation of her “little way”, a way to perfection that changed his life and the lives of countless others. It is based on three key components: Love, Humility, Confidence.

Marie Baudouin-Croix

SCSTP . . . Sewn Softcover, $17.95

X A FAMLY OF SAINTS: The Martins of Lisieux Fr. Stephane Piat, O.F.M. The recent canonization of Louis and Zélie Martin, parents of St. Thérèse, and the cause for sainthood of her sister Leonie now opened by the Church, has stirred great interest in this extraordinary family. Written by an acclaimed expert on the Martin family, this is the definitive biography of an amazing family who overcame many challenges including deaths of four children, financial hardships and the loss of mother Zelie at only 45 yrs. old.

Includes many family photos.

SFAMP . . . Sewn Softcover, $22.95

One of five daughters of Zélie and Louis Martin, Leonie was an emotionally disturbed child who suffered much and caused deep anguish in her family. Yet, despite great difficulties, at her death in 1941 she was regarded as a saint and her convent has been inundated with letters testifying to her intercessory aid. This book shows how Leonie practiced the “little way” so heroically that her cause for sainthood has been opened by the Church.

LEMP . . . Sewn Softcover, $15.95

X SAINT THÈRÉSE OF THE CHILD JESUS Film This authoritative film, made in honor of the 100th anniversary of her death, tells the inspiring story of St. Thérèse from childhood to her holy death as a Carmelite nun. Filmed on location in France, it gives her whole story through interviews, dramatizations, examination of her writings and extensive visits to her home and inside the Carmel at Lisieux. Commentary is provided

by Bishop Guy Gaucher, the bishop of Lisieux and expert on STCJM . . . 90 mins, $14.95 Thérèse.

www.ignatius.com P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522

(800) - 651-1531

EDITORIAL

by Robert Moynihan

New Book on Priestly Celibacy

A new book on the value of priestly celibacy asks Pope Francis not to begin the process of ending it in the Latin-rite Church. The surprise: that the book’s co-author is Pope Emeritus Benedict

“The priesthood is going through a dark time. Wounded by the revelation of so many scandals, disconcerted by the constant questioning of their consecrated celibacy, many priests are tempted by the thought of giving up and abandoning everything.”

—Pope Emeritus Benedict and Cardinal Robert Sarah, in their new book, From the Depths of Our Hearts (2020) “A phrase from St. Paul VI comes to mind: ‘I prefer to give my life before changing the law of celibacy.’” —Pope Francis, in a press conference on his return trip from Panama, 2019 “The life of celibacy is an expression of triumph over this world—which is our faith.” —Fr. Vincent Miceli, review of Celibacy and the Crisis of Faith by Dietrich von Hildebrand

s this issue of Inside the Vatican was going to press, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah announced that they were publishing a book on the question of priestly celibacy. They argue that priestly celibacy is a great gift to the Church which ought not to be undervalued. The book includes a plea to Pope Francis not to take any action which would suggest priestly celibacy might be set aside. The book stunned many in Rome, since it suggests Emeritus Pope Benedict may be willing to make his voice heard on other matters which would potentially create a conflict between him and Pope Francis, confusing the faithful and damaging the unity of the Church.

Benedict will turn 93 in April. Cardinal Sarah, Prefect for the Congregation on the Liturgy, is from Guinea in West Africa. He has been a prolific author recently on the spiritual value of silence and on the need for a relationship with God for human happiness (God or Nothing). The two seem to recognize the potential for some sort of division, and therefore present themselves “as bishops” in “filial obedience to Pope Francis” who “seek the truth” in “a spirit of love of the unity of the Church,” far from “the ideologies that divide” and far from “political maneuvers or power games or ideological manipulations.”

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Still, they said it was not possible for them “to keep quiet” after “the strange Synod of the media” in October.

The two men “exchanged ideas and concerns, we prayed and we meditated in silence,” they write. “Each of our meetings consoled us and calmed us mutually,” they said.

So during 2019, an unusual collaboration emerged between Benedict and Cardinal Sarah, as they met, prayed together, and came to understand that there was a need for a book about the priesthood, and about how celibacy offers a powerful sign to the Church and the world, and ought not to be abandoned or diminished in the Latin rite.

The 175-page book, written in French, is entitled Des profoundeurs de nos couers (“From the depths of our hearts”) and was published in France on January 15. Jean-Marie Guenois, chief religion correspondent for Le Figaro, France's oldest and second most-read daily, broke the news on January 13 and presented some brief excerpts from the book together with background. Guenois sent an announcement of the work to more than 40 journalists from different countries.

News of the book’s imminent publication took the Vatican by surprise. As of press time, is was not known whether the authors had informed Pope Francis in advance of their project.

In Rome, some suggested that Benedict had not actually written the book himself, but had been persuaded to lend his name to a book written by others. America magazine quoted an unidentified Vatican source as saying that he had visited the Pope Emeritus in recent months and noted that, while Benedict’s mind is clear, it is nonetheless “difficult for him to engage in a conversation that lasts longer than 15 minutes.” So there was some controversy over the how this book came to be written.

As Pope from 2005 to 2013, Benedict XVI did often stress “the great significance of priestly celibacy” as a sign of the total commitment of the priest to the Church. At the same time, Benedict opened the door to the entry of many married Anglican priests into the Roman Catholic Church.

The book comes on the eve of the publication of Pope Francis’ exhortation following the Amazonian Synod, which is expected to be released by mid-February. Some in Rome have suggested that the book is intended to put pressure on Pope Francis not to open the door, even in a very limited way, to the ordination of mature married men to the priesthood for communities in isolated areas (such as in parts of Amazonia) which are often without the Eucharist for weeks at a time. Yet Pope Francis stated categorically in January 2019, in an airborne press conference, that he believes celibacy is “a gift for the Church” and that he will not introduce optional celibacy. He said that he only saw the possibility of ordination of married men as an “extreme measure” to provide the Eucharist to people in remote areas who would otherwise remain without it for long periods.

It is particularly striking that this new book is coauthored by Benedict. When he resigned from the papacy seven years ago in February 2013, he committed himself to remaining totally silent from then on. Vatican officials and cardinals have said Benedict’s intervention raises serious questions regarding the role of a Pope Emeritus, and have expressed concern that such interventions risk undermining Pope Francis.

Matthew Schmitz of First Things immediately argued that the book is an eloquent defense of celibacy, not an attack on Francis.

Andrea Tornielli, head of Vatican communications, argued on the Vatican’s own website, that the book is a useful contribution to the discussion of priestly celibacy “in filial obedience to the Pope.” Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, in 2019, just before the October Synod, published a book strongly defending celibacy, and indicating Francis agrees with him. In the book, Benedict says he began writing this a while ago, put it aside, but then resumed it, inspired after his talk with Cardinal Sarah. Strikingly, Benedict’s contribution is dated September 2019, before the Amazon Synod even began. All Catholics will wish to offer prayers that Pope Francis may be guided by the Holy Spirit as he now makes his momentous decision on this topic.m JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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JANUARY 2020

CONTENTS

Year 28, #1

LEAD STORY Marian Doctrine Conflict Part of Growing Dismay

by Robert Moynihan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

JANUARY 2020 Year 28, #1

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Robert Moynihan ASSOCIATE EDITOR: George “Pat” Morse (+ 2013) ASSISTANT EDITOR: Christina Deardurff CULTURE EDITOR: Lucy Gordan CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Giuseppe Rusconi WRITERS: Anna Artymiak, Alberto Carosa, William D. Doino, Jr., David Quinn, Andrew Rabel, Vladimiro Redzioch, Serena Sartini, Father Vincent Twomey PHOTOS: Grzegorz Galazka LAYOUT: Giuseppe Sabatelli ILLUSTRATIONS: Stefano Navarrini CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Deborah B. Tomlinson ADVERTISING: Katie Carr Tel: 202-536-4555, ext.303 kcarr@insidethevatican.com

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EDITORIAL OFFICES FOR MAIL: US: 14 West Main St. Front Royal, VA 22630 USA Rome: Inside the Vatican via delle Mura Aurelie 7c, Rome 00165, Italy Tel: 39-06-3938-7471 Fax: 39-06-638-1316 POSTMASTER: send address changes to Inside the Vatican c/o St. Martin de Porres Lay Dominican Community PO Box 57 New Hope, KY 40052 USA Tel: 800-789-9494 Fax: 270-325-3091 Subscriptions (USA): Inside the Vatican PO Box 57 New Hope, KY 40052 USA www.insidethevatican.com Tel: 800-789-9494

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INSIDE THE VATICAN (ISSN 1068-8579, 1 yr subscription: $ 49.95; 2 yrs, $94.95; 3 yrs, $129.95), provides a comprehensive, independent report on Vatican affairs published monthly except July and September with occasional special supplements.

Inside the Vatican is published by Urbi et Orbi Communications, PO Box 57, New Hope, Kentucky, 40052, USA, pursuant to a License Agreement with Robert Moynihan, the owner of the Copyright. Inside the Vatican, Inc., maintains editorial offices in Rome, Italy.

Periodicals Postage PAID at New Haven, Kentucky and additional mailing offices.

Copyright 2020 Robert Moynihan

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INSIDE THE VATICAN

JANUARY 2020

NEWS VATICAN/Curia Reform: Will 2020 Be a Good Year?

by Andrea Gagliarducci (ACI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 VATICAN/Cardinal Sodano: Sixty Years at the Vatican

by Luis Badilla (Il Sismografo) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 NIGERIA/Christians in peril: Islamic groups murdered over 1,000 in 2019

by John Owen Nwachukwu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 VATICAN/Pope ends “pontifical secrecy” over abuse

by Hannah Brockhaus (CNA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 VATICAN/Cardinal Koch on Universal Primacy

by Peter Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 GERMANY/Pope Benedict starts Catholic journalism foundation

by CNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 FRANCE/Notre Dame Cathedral empty for first Christmas in 216 years

by Huffingtonpost.fr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 CHRISTMAS AT THE VATICAN/Pope Francis Addresses the Roman Curia

by Sandro Magister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 SPECIAL SECTION: OUR “TOP TEN” PEOPLE OF 2019 Ten people who are witnessing to the truth

by ITV Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 1. Svetlana Kasyan: “Love and Art should reign again” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 2. Fr. Jean-Marc Fournier: “We need tangible signs of faith” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 3. Alexander Tschugguel: “To defend God and His teaching” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 4. Jakub Baryla: “Our holy faith commands us to counteract evil deeds” . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 5. Fr. Csaba Böjte: “To free my fellows from the chains of fear and little faith” . . . . . . . . .35 6. Kanye West: “I’m a son of God. I’m free.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 7. Viktor Orbán: “Hungary before everything, God above us all” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 8. Katie Ascough, Niamh Uí Bhriain and Cora Sherlock: “Our cause will never be defeated” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 9. Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin: “I am ready to face the persecution” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 8. Archbishop Emery Kabongo: “The African is a very spiritual and believing person” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 CULTURE INTERVIEW/

by Barbara Middleton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 FOOTSTEPS ON THE WAY/

by Tamara Klapatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 INTERVIEW/

by Jan Bentz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

URBI ET ORBI: CATHOLICISM AND ORTHODOXY Icon/

by Robert Wiesner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Spirituality/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 East-West Watch/

by Peter Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 News from the East

by Becky Derks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 FEATURES Art/Raphael and His Friends from Urbino

by Lucy Gordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Latin/“There’s no J in Latin, Your Holiness”

by John Byron Kuhner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Vatican Watch/A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events: November and December

by Becky Derks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 People/Archbishop Paglia; martyred Brother; Venerable Sheen; new ambassador

by Becky Derks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Food for Thought/Prosecco!

by Mother Martha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

THE BEST OF

BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN X My

Uncle Fulton Sheen NEW!

Joan Sheen Cunningham and Janel Rodriquez touching, personal memoir by the niece of Bishop Sheen who moved to New York to be under his close guidance while attending a private school. He became a second father, a role model, and a lifelong friend to Joan, who warmly describes many formative experiences with Sheen. She fondly recollects how her uncle helped raise and educate her, guided her courtship, found her an apartment, baptized their children, and much more. Includes rare photos. MUFSP . . . Sewn Softcover, $15.95

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X Go To Heaven Sheen breathes new meaning into truths about heaven and hell, faith and suffering, life and death. And shows us how to get to heaven. A must read!

GTHP . . . Sewn Softcover, $17.95

X The World’s First Love With his characteristic brilliance, Sheen presents a moving portrayal of the Blessed Virgin Mary that combines deep spirituality with history, philosophy and theology. Sheen’s personal favorite book of all his works.

X Through the Year with

Fulton Sheen Sheen offers inspirational words of encouragement, counsel, direction and practical advice for each day of the year!

TYFSP . . . Sewn Softcover, $16.95

X The Priest Is Not His Own The beloved Archbishop presents a profound and deeply spiritual look at the meaning of the priesthood and relationship of the priest with Christ as an “alter Christus”. A book every priest should read! PNHOP . . . Sewn Softcover, $17.95

WFL2P . . . . Sewn Softcover, $17.95

X Life Is Worth Living This book contains the full-length scripts of forty-four most popular episodes of Sheen’s hit television series of the same name that covers a wide variety of important topics for living well.

LWLP . . . Sewn Softcover, $17.95

X Remade for Happiness In this classic work Sheen explains the secret of authentic happiness: being spiritually remade through Christ, and how to make that happen.

X Servant of All

FILM

Archbishop Fulton Sheen This special double DVD includes an acclaimed new film, Servant of All, along with five episodes of his famous Life is Worth Living television series. Servant of All introduces the beloved Archbishop to a new generation that greatly needs his inspiring example of love for God and neighbor, and as a powerful evangelist.

SOAM . . . 2 discs, 200 min, $24.95

RMFHP . . . Sewn Softcover, $16.95

www.ignatius.com P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522

(800) - 651-1531

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

INSIDE THE VATICAN welcomes letters but cannot reply to all. Each is read and considered carefully. Printed letters may be edited for clarity. You may email us at editor@insidethevatican.com

OUR CHRISTMAS ISSUE Thank you so much for this month’s issue! I have wondered why we are so focused on picking the Pope apart at every turn.

This is the one magazine I read to feel good about my faith as a Christian in a very secular world. I so enjoyed this “break” (as you put it) of beauty, and will keep this issue out for people to see in my home for many months — thank you again!

Carolyn Mandato Cleveland, Ohio, USA Received the December ITV issue you made reference to in your recent letter. I know we shall enjoy it. Thanks for the effort in locating the one issue in all these years that I am missing: your very first issue, AugustSeptember 1993, that has on its cover a photo of the Swiss Guards.

You are a great asset for the Catholic Church and ambassador to the Russian Or-

Preschool - Age 7: Imprimatur

Henry Malionek henry.malionek@rcn.com

thodox Church as well!

Thank you for an excellent, really beautiful Christmas issue of Inside the Vatican.

Certainly, it is to be kept and repeatedly enjoyed. Between you and Raymond Arroyo of EWTN, we get a pretty good idea of what’s going on where “the smoke of Satan has entered.” I look forward to your upcoming book on Cardinal Viganò for whose safety we should be praying every day (I do).

I was very happy to phone in my contribution for the magazine a few days ago.

Do keep up the journalistic excellence!

Mayumi Pascual drmayumi@yahoo.com

This is the best issue of Inside the Vatican I have read and studied! The art, the writings — I couldn’t get enough of it, and it restored my confidence in our glorious Church of Christ. I am sick from reading the “news” of the humans running our Church right now. It was a true Christmas gift to read the Fathers on Christ, our Savior. This volume restored the equilibrium of my Catholic worldview, and provided the proper lens for viewing it.

Thank you from my heart, mind and soul.

Mary Ann Novak mnovak9619@yahoo.com

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Catholic prisoner. However, because of your magazine, I have become ever richer in the Faith. Indeed, from my heart consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I thank you and your staff for the work you do in bringing the Gospel message to all ranks in society — even to the depths of these prison walls.

As my last issue is January 2020, I humbly ask that you renew it as I rely on Inside the Vatican so much. I am yours in Christ, Thuan Duc Vu, #139661 Navasota, Texas, USA

ON FRANCIS’ ORTHODOXY I’m afraid I can’t agree with William Doino that his citations from Pope Francis’ Easter messages “are clear, and speak for themselves” as proof of his orthodoxy regarding Jesus’ resurrection (ITV, November 2019, pp. 38-39). All those messages could have been preached by my seminary dogma professor back in the ’80s, who often made glowing and enthusiastic assertions of the Lord’s resurrection — indeed, of his “bodily” resurrection! Yet this priest taught us (in line with “advanced” Dutch and German theology) that such assertions are quite compatible with holding that Christ’s bones still lie somewhere beneath the streets of Jerusalem. Indeed, he said, the “modern scientific world-view” requires us to “demythologize” such antiquated notions as that a dead body can come to life.

Our professor’s rationale illustrates the kind of semantic convolutions that often encumber modern theology. His premise was that according to ancient Hebrew anthropol2 sizes: sizes: ǎǎDZƊǭ DZƊǭ ǎǎDZƌǭ DZƌǭ Hand Hand painted painted wood wood From From Italy Italy E Exclusively xclusively ours! ours!

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ogy (in contrast to Greek soul/body dualism), someone’s (living) “body,” meant his/her “total person.” This, he argued, enables today’s scientifically-enlightened Bible believers to hold that from the moment He died on the Cross, Jesus’ body — His “total person” — became a purely spiritual being (without flesh, blood or bones). Therefore — voilà! — we can now believe and proclaim joyfully the Lord’s bodily resurrection while simultaneously realizing that it in no way affected his corpse. Such a “reinterpretation” of the resurrection, we were assured, armorplates this core Christian belief against all possible attacks of empirical science, which is incompetent to evaluate claims about nonmaterial, spiritual reality. Unsurprisingly, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found this professor’s verbal sleight-of-hand heterodox, and he was subsequently required to “align his teaching” with the Catholic doctrine that “Jesus’ mortal remains were raised in His resurrection.”

Hopefully those doctrinally-polluted Rhine waters have not flowed into Pope Francis’ Tiber. But according to his “friend” Scalfari, Francis stated that in the tomb “the man [Jesus] disappeared and came forth... in the semblance of a spirit.” And the Holy Father’s silence in response to this shocking allegation scarcely “confirms his brethren in their faith” in the great miracle that constitutes the bedrock of Christianity.

Fr. Brian Harrison, O.S. St. Louis, Missouri, USA William Doino Jr. responds: I thank Father Harrison for taking the time to write his letter. Father Harrison recounts the sad story of his seminary dogma professor, back in the 1980s, who held strange and certainly heterodox beliefs about the bodily

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resurrection of Jesus Christ, which the Holy See thankfully rebuked and corrected. What Father Harrison’s letter does not establish is that Pope Francis’ belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is similarly heterodox, draws from “advanced” Dutch and German theology, and/or that Francis also believes that “Christ’s bones still lie somewhere beneath the streets of Jerusalem.” Instead, Fr. Harrison, in a classic non sequitur, not to mention a startling leap of logic, merely quotes the notorious Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari, who claimed that Francis allegedly stated that in the tomb “the man [Jesus] disappeared and came forth… in the semblance of a spirit.”

But as I pointed out repeatedly in my article, Scalfari has no credibility: he is a former Fascist turned atheist propagandist who has not recorded any of his interviews with Pope Francis — meaning Scalfari has absolutely no evidence to back up his claims about Francis’ supposed denial of the bodily resurrection of Our Lord and Savior.

Furthermore, it is quite misleading for Father Harrison to speak of “the Holy Father’s silence in response to this shocking allegation,” because, as I emphasized in my article, Paolo Ruffini, the Vatican’s communications prefect, speaking on behalf of Francis, did in fact declare: “I would like to reiterate that the Holy Father never said what Scalfari said he said. Both the quoted remarks, and the free reconstruction and interpretation by Dr. Scalfari of the meetings — which go back to more than two years ago — cannot be considered a faithful account of what was said by the Pope.” Scalfari has no more credibility than Father Harrison’s heterodox professor from the 1980s.

Why Father Harrison would want the Pope to personally speak further about Scalfari is unclear, since nothing Francis says or does will ever convince his harshest critics that he holds orthodox Catholic beliefs on the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and Our Lord’s divinity (which Scalfari also claimed, again without evidence, that Francis rejects).

Even if the Pope were to publicly proclaim these Catholic teachings once again, his critics would assert the Pope is either lying, engaging in damage control, or making highly deceptive “orthodox-sounding” statements while privately holding heterodox beliefs.

This is why I stated, after citing statements from Francis affirming his belief in the divinity and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, that nothing will ever placate Francis’

harshest critics, since they “have come to view Francis through a relentless hermeneutic of suspicion.”

In his letter, Father Harrison mentions Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict Emeritus, but neglects to point out, as I did in my article, that Pope Francis’ first encyclical, Lumen Fidei, co-written with the Pope Emeritus, clearly proclaims the truth of the divinity and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ: “To enable us to know and accept and follow him, the Son of God took on our flesh... Christian faith is faith in the incarnation of the Word and his bodily resurrection.”

Equally important are Francis’ Regina Caeli address of April 15, 2018, and his recent apostolic letter, Admirabile Signum, in which he leaves no doubt about his belief in the bodily resurrection and Our Lord’s divinity. In the first, Francis discussed the Gospel of Luke, highlighting the importance of the body in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, stating: “Luke the Evangelist rests heavily on the realism of the Resurrection. Jesus is not a spirit... Jesus realizes that the Apostles are unsettled in seeing Him, that they are bewildered because the reality of the Resurrection is inconceivable to them. They believe they are seeing a spirit; but the Risen Jesus is not a spirit; He is a man with body and soul. This is why, in order to convince them, He says to them: ‘See my hands and my feet’ — he shows them his wounds — ‘that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have’...

Jesus, in order to convince them, asks them: ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They offer him some broiled fish; Jesus takes and eats it in front of them, in order to convince them.”

In the second, Francis asserts: “When, at Christmas, we place the statue of the Infant Jesus in the manger, the nativity scene suddenly comes alive. God appears as a child...

Beneath weakness and frailty, He conceals His power that creates and transforms all things. It seems impossible, yet it is true: In Jesus, God was a child, and in this way He wished to reveal the greatness of His love: by smiling and opening His arms to all.’”

Unlike Father Harrison, I am not in doubt about Francis’ belief in the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Nor do I doubt Francis’ belief in Christ’s divinity, despite what a disreputable journalist says. And as I write these words, just a few days before Christmas, I am deeply grateful that we have a Pope who has repeatedly and eloquently affirmed these eternal and inspiring truths.

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MARIAN DOCTRINE CONFLICT PART OF LARGER DISPUTE OVER STATE OF CHURCH ARCHBISHOP CARLO MARIA VIGANÒ: MARY’S IMMACULATE HEART WILL TRIUMPH — BUT THE FAITHFUL MUST FORM A “COMMON FRONT” AGAINST “IL MALIGNO” (“THE EVIL ONE”)

n BY ROBERT MOYNIHAN

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For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in travail...

They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in graven images, who say to molten images, “You are our gods.”

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he words above are part of a longer passage from the Prophet Isaiah, 42:5-17, cited by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, 78, at the outset of a new essay entitled “Mary Immaculate Virgin Mother, Arrayed as for Battle, Pray For Us,” published in Italy on December 19 on the Italian website Corrispondenza Romana.

The Corrispondenza Romana site is directed by Italian Catholic historian Dr. Roberto de Mattei, who has been in contact

with Viganò in recent weeks. The text was also published in a slightly condensed form on the webiste of Italian journalist Marco Tosatti, Stilum Curiae.

Then, American journalist Diane Montagna — author of a recent interesting booklength interview with Bishop Athanasius Schneider — published an English-language summary of Viganò’s essay on the LifeSiteNews website, promising a complete English translation later.

MARY IS WOMAN, MOTHER, DISCIPLE...

BUT NOT “CO-REDEMPTRIX,” SAYS POPE EXCERPTED FROM AN ARTICLE BY DR. MARK MIRAVALLE, PHD, ST. JOHN PAUL II CHAIR OF MARIOLOGY AT FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY OF STEUBENVILLE.

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Pope Francis gives the homily as he celebrates a Mass marking the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican December 12, 2019. In attendance were U.S. bishops from Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin making their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican.

In the circle, Viganò.

(CNS photos/Paul Haring)

VIGANÒ ON FRANCIS AND MARY Archbishop Viganò’s brief but dramatic essay of December 19 sharply criticizes some of the recent statements of Pope Francis in regard to the Virgin Mary, but then goes further to fault a number of what he charatierizes as the “ambiguous” and “modernist” teachings of the present pontiff.

The essay seems clearly in part a response to remarks Pope Francis made about Mary on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In other words, Viganò felt impelled by his own Marian devotion to write this essay, suggesting that Pope Francis, a few days earlier, had somehow slighted the Blessed Virgin, somehow offered an offense to her great dignity, in remarks the Pope made in St. Peter’s Basilica on December 12.

Here are excerpts from a December 13 Crux article on what Francis said on December 12:

he actual words of Pope Francis, transcribed from the video of his December 12 non-scripted extemporaneous homily in Spanish, are as follows: “Faithful to her Master, who is her Son, the unique Redeemer, she never wanted to take anything away from her Son. She never introduced herself as ‘co-redemptrix.’ No. ‘Disciple.’”

(Fiel a su Maestro, que es su Hijo, el único Redentor, jamás quiso para si tomar algo de su Hijo. Jamás se present como coredentora. No. Discipula). (...)

Later during his spontaneous homily, the Holy Father also referred to the general topic of declarations and dogmas by stating: “When they come to us with stories about having to declare this, or make this or that other dogma, let’s not get lost in foolishness. Mary is woman, she is Our Lady, Mary is the Mother of her Son and of the Holy Mother hierarchical Church …”(Cuando nos vengan con historias de que había que declararla esto, o hacer este otro dogma o esto, no nos perdamos en tonteras: María es mujer, es Nuestra Señora, María es Madre de su Hijo y de la Santa Madre Iglesia jerárquica…).

While it is certainly true that a desire for a formal definition of a Marian truth could theoretically distract from the central truth that Mary is “Our Lady” and the Mother of the Church, fortunately in this particular case, it is precisely the central truth of Mary being the Spiritual Mother of the Church and of all peoples that would be the very subject and focus of this proposed fifth Marian dogma.

Of all creatures, Mary alone can say of the Divine Redeemer of the universe that he is “bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh.” And as the Second Vatican Council teaches, Mary alone, as the New Eve with the New Adam, “lovingly consented to the immolation of this victim born of her” for the world’s redemption (Lumen Gentium, 58)...

NationalCatholicRegister.com

Pope calls idea of declaring Mary Co-redemptrix “foolishness”

By Inés San Martín Dec 13, 2019 ROME BUREAU CHIEF ROME — Pope Francis appeared to flatly reject proposals in some theological circles to add “co-redemptrix” to the list of titles of the Virgin Mary [Note: meaning that, through her purity, her sinlessness, her suffering, Mary — whose purity and sinlessness were admittedly protected and preserved through the merit and saving grace of her Son, the sole, unique Savior of the world, Jesus — did nevertheless also contribute in a mysterious but real way to His redeeming work, hence merits the title of “co-redemptrix”] saying the mother of Jesus never took anything that belonged to her son, and calling the invention of new titles and dogmas “foolishness.”

“She never wanted for herself something that was of her son,” Francis said.

“She never introduced herself as co-redemptrix. No. Disciple,” he said, meaning that Mary saw herself as a disciple of Jesus.

“Mary woman, Mary mother, without any other essential title,” Francis insisted. (…)

VIGANÒ’S OUTRAGE In quite strong language, Viganò responded to Pope Francis (the translations from the original Italian are my own and unofficial): “On the occasion of the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe,” he writes, Pope Francis “once again gave vent to his evident impatience with Mary, which evokes the impatience of the Serpent in the story of the Fall, in that Proto-Gospel that prophesied the radical enmity established by God between the Woman and the Serpent, and the declared hostility of the latter who, until the JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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consummation of the world, will try to undermine the heel of the Woman and to triumph over her and her posterity. What the pontiff said is a manifest aggression toward the sublime prerogatives and attributes that make the Immaculate Ever-Virgin Mother of God the feminine complement to the mystery of the incarnate Word, intimately associated with Him in the Economy of Redemption.”

Viganò continued: “With a couple of jokes, he [Pope Francis] struck at the heart of the Marian dogmas, and of the Christological dogmas connected to it.”

And he added: “The Marian dogmas are the seal affixed to the Catholic truths of our faith, defined in the Councils of Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon; they are the unbreakable bulwark against the Christological heresies and against the furious unleashing of the Gates of Hell.

“Those who ‘hybridize’ and profane them [that is, these Marian dogmas] show that they are on the side of the Enemy.

“Attacking Mary is attacking Christ himself. Attacking the Mother is rising up against the Son and rebelling against the very mystery of the Holy Trinity.

“The Immaculate Theotokos, ‘terrible as hosts and unfolded banners’ — acies ordinata (‘terrible as an army drawn up in battle array,’ Song of Songs 6:9) — will give battle to save the Church and will destroy the army of the Enemy who, released from the chains that held him, has declared war on her, and with his defeat, all the demonic pachamamas will return definitively to hell.”

The toughness of this language reflects a new attitude on Viganò’s part toward the situation of the Church.

In this text, we are moving far beyond a retired Vatican official who is focusing on the coverup of sexual abuse in the hierarchy — ugly and tragic as that type of coverup may be.

In this text, we find now a retired Vatican official speaking in apocalyptic terms of the loss of the Catholic faith itself — of final apostasy... beginning with the loss of due respect for the dignity of the Mother of God, Mary.

And this, just before Christmas, when we celebrate that birth that changed the universe, that reconciled mankind and God. Viganò makes specific points, then his essay rises to a high point in his general conclusion.

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He faults Pope Francis for not leading the Rosary with the faithful, “who filled the courtyard of San Damaso and the upper loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica during the time of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.” And he faults him for “the enthronement of that Amazonian idol on the Altar of the Confession in St. Peter’s” (at the end of the Synod on the Amazon Region in October). That moment was “nothing less than a declaration of war on the Lady and Patroness of all the Americas, who with her appearance to Juan Diego destroyed the demonic idols and conquered the Indians for Christ and for the adoration of the ‘Most True and Only God,’ thanks to her maternal mediation.”

in the liturgy, some Church leaders are even now preparing to alter the liturgy in profound ways in the near future.

Viganò then suggests that, when the Pachamama images were tossed into the Tiber River (on October 21), they were not really recovered from the Tiber by Rome’s police, because there is no videotape of the recovery.

“The fact that such a spectacular operation did not catch the attention of some passer-by, equipped with a mobile phone to film and then relaunch the scoop on social networks, is also quite incredible,” he adds.

The suggestion is that the images that were presented as recovered were other copies of the same images, not the actual

And he sums up: “And this is not a legend!”

Then the archbishop turns to the Church’s worship, her liturgy — the source and summit of Her spiritual life.

Viganò continues: “A few weeks after the events at the end of the Synod that signaled the investiture of Pachamama at the heart of Catholicism, we learned that the Conciliar disaster of the Novus Ordo Missae [“the New Order (rite) of the Mass”] is undergoing further modernizations, including the introduction of the word “Rugiada” [the “dew-fall”] in the Eucharistic Canon instead of the mention of the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity.

“This is a further step in the direction of regression towards naturalization and the immanentization of Catholic worship, towards a Novissimus Ordo that is pantheistic and idolatrous.”

In writing this, Viganò is suggesting that, by making a number of small changes

ones tossed into the river.

Then the retired archbishop writes: “Thus, over the past few decades, the Mystical Body [of Christ, that is, the Church] has been slowly drained of its lifeblood [i.e., the truths of the faith] through an unstoppable hemorrhage: the sacred Deposit of the Faith has been gradually reduced to ruins, the Dogmas distorted, the Liturgy secularized and bit by bit profaned, the Moral Teaching sabotaged, the Priesthood reviled, the Eucharistic Sacrifice Protestantized and transformed into a Banquet meal...

“Now... the people of God grope, illiterate and robbed of their Faith, in the darkness of chaos and division. In recent decades, the enemies of God have progressively burned two thousand years of Tradition.”

The retired archbishop’s meaning is clear: the time for temporizing is over; the time for a confrontation, he says, has arrived.

Viganò then says Pope Francis has done something that Modernists do, “affirming what one wants to destroy, using vague and imprecise terms, promoting error without ever clearly formulating it.

“This is exactly what Pope Bergoglio does, with his dissolving amorphism of the Mysteries of the Faith, with the doctrinal approximation that is proper to him, through which he ‘hybridizes’ and demolishes the holiest dogmas, as he did with the Marian ones of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God.” And here is his conclusion: “The result of this abuse is what we now have under our eyes: a Catholic Church that is no longer Catholic; a container emptied of its authentic content.”

And so, the archbishop says, it is time, finally, to act.

And that action, Viganò says, begins by clinging to the Church, remaining in the Church, not leaving... and by praying.

“Now it’s our turn,” he writes.

“Without misunderstanding, without letting ourselves be driven away by this Church of which we are legitimate children and in which we have the sacrosanct right to feel at home, without the hateful horde of the enemies of Christ making us feel marginalized, schismatic and excommunicated.

“Now it’s up to us! The triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary — Coredemptrix and Mediatrix of all graces — passes by way of her ‘little ones’...

“St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort asked himself: ‘But when will this triumph occur? God alone knows it.’

“Our task is to watch and pray as ardently recommended by St. Catherine of Siena: ‘Alas!

I die and I can’t die. Do not sleep in negligence anymore; use what is possible in the present time. Comfort yourself in Christ Jesus’ sweet love. Drown yourself in the Blood of Christ crucified, place yourself on the cross with the crucified Christ, hide in the wounds of the crucified Christ, bathe in the blood of the crucified Christ’ (Letter 16).”

Viganò concludes: “The Church is shrouded in the darkness of modernism, but victory belongs to Our Lord and to his Bride [the Church].

“We want to continue to profess the perennial faith of the Church in the face of the roar of Evil that besieges Her. “We want to watch with Her and with Jesus, in this new Gethsemane of the end of all times — to pray and to do penance in reparation for the many offenses inflicted on the Church and on Our Lord.”m

“HER HEEL WILL CRUSH HIS HEAD” THE TEXT OF ARCHBISHOP VIGANÒ’S DECEMBER 19 LETTER Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those who walk in it…

“I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I have given to no other, nor my praise to graven images…

The Lord goes forth like a mighty man, Like a man of war he stirs up his fury; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes.

For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in travail, I will gasp and pant.

I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands, And dry up the pools…

They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in graven images, who say to molten images, “You are our gods.”

Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers?

Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?

So he poured upon him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire round about, but he did not understand; it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.

(Isaiah 42:5-24)

MARY IMMACULATE VIRGIN MOTHER, ACIES ORDINATA, ORA PRO NOBIS “Is there in the heart of the Virgin Mary anything other than the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ? We too want to have only one name in our hearts: that of Jesus, like the Most Blessed Virgin.”

The tragic story of this failed pontificate advances with a pressing succession of twists and turns. Not a day passes: from the most exalted throne the Supreme Pontiff proceeds to dismantle the See of Peter, using and abusing its supreme authority, not to confess but to deny; not to confirm but to mislead; not to unite but to divide; not to build but to demolish.

Material heresies, formal heresies, idolatry, superficiality of every kind: the Supreme Pontiff Bergoglio never ceases stubbornly to humiliate the highest authority of the Church, “demythologizing” the papacy — as perhaps his illustrious comrade Karl Rahner would say.

His action seeks to violate the Sacred Deposit of Faith and to disfigure the Catholic Face of the Bride of Christ by word and action, through duplicity and lies, through those theatrical gestures of his that flaunt spontaneity but are meticulously conceived and planned, and through which he exalts himself in a continuous narcissistic self-celebration, while the figure of the Roman Pontiff is JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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humiliated and the Sweet Christ on earth is Christological heresies and against the furi- mediation. And this is not a legend! obscured. ous unleashing of the Gates of Hell.

A few weeks after the conclusion of the His action makes use of magisterial imThose who “mestizo” and profane them synodal event, which marked the investiture provisation, of that off-the-cuff and fluid show that they are on the side of the Enemy. of pachamama in the heart of Catholicity, we magisterium that is as insidious as quick- To attack Mary is to venture against Christ learned that the conciliar disaster of the sand, not only flying at high altitude at the himself; to attack the Mother is to rise up Novus Ordo Missae is undergoing further mercy of journalists from all over the world, against her Son and to rebel against the very modernization, including the introduction of in those ethereal spaces that can highlight a mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. “dew” in the Eucharistic Canon instead of the pathological delirium of illusory omnipoThe Immaculate Theotokos, “terrible as mention of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person tence, but also at the most solemn religious an army with banners” (Canticle 6:10) — of the Most Holy Trinity. ceremony that ought to incite holy trembling acies ordinanata — will do battle to save the This is a further step in the direction of reand reverent respect.

Church and destroy the Enemy’s unfettered gression towards the naturalization and imOn the occasion of the liturgical memo- army that has declared war on her, and with manentization of Catholic worship, towards rial of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Pope him all the demonic pachamamas will defin- a pantheistic and idolatrous Novissimus OrBergoglio once again gave vent to his evident itively return to hell. do. The “dew,” an entity present in the “theMarian intolerance, recalling that of the SerPope Bergoglio no longer seems to con- ological place” of the Amazonian tropics — pent in the account of the Fall, in as we learned from the synthat Proto-Gospel which propheodal fathers — becomes the sizes the radical enmity placed by new immanent principle of God between the Woman and the fertilization of the Earth, Serpent, and the declared hostilwhich “transubstantiates” it ity of the latter, who until the coninto a pantheistically consummation of time will seek to nected Whole to which men undermine the Woman’s heel and are assimilated and subjuto triumph over her and her posgated, to the glory of terity.

Pachamama. And here we The Pontiff’s intolerance is a are plunged back into the manifest aggression against the darkness of a new globalist prerogatives and sublime attriband eco-tribal paganism, utes that make the Immaculate with its demons and perverEver-Virgin Mother of God the sions. From this latest liturfeminine complement to the mysgical upheaval, divine Revetery of the Incarnate Word, intilation decays from fullness mately associated with Him in the A detail of the Madonna who is helped by the Child Jesus to crush the head of to archaism; from the hypothe serpent in the Madonna dei Palafrenieri painting by Caravaggio in the Economy of Redemption. static identity of the Holy Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy After having downgraded her Spirit we slide towards the to the “next door neighbor” or a runaway mi- tain his impatience with the Immaculate, nor symbolic and metaphorical evanescence grant, or a simple lay woman with the defects can he conceal it under that seeming and os- proper to dew which Masonic gnosis has and crises of any woman marked by sin, or tentatious devotion which is always in the long made its own. a disciple who obviously has nothing to teach spotlight of the cameras, while deserts the But let us return for a moment to the idolus; after having trivialized and desacralized solemn celebration of the Assumption and atrous statues of rare ugliness, and to Pope her, like those feminists who are gaining the recitation of the Rosary with the faithful, Bergoglio’s declaration the day after their reground in Germany with their “Mary 2.0” who filled the courtyard of St. Damascene moval from the church in Traspontina and movement which seeks to modernize Our and the upper loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica their drowning in the Tiber. Once again, the Lady and make her a simulacrum in their im- under St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict Pope’s words have the scent of a colossal lie: age and likeness, Pope Bergoglio has further XVI. he made us believe that the statuettes were impugned the August Queen and ImmacuPapa Bergoglio uses the pachamama to promptly exhumed from the filthy waters late Mother of God, who “became mestiza rout the Guadalupana. The enthronement of thanks to the intervention of the carabinieri with humanity... and made God mestizo.” that Amazonian idol, even at the Altar of the [Italian police]. One wonders why a crew With a couple of jokes, he struck at the Confession in St. Peter’s Basilica, was noth- from Vatican News coordinated by Tornielli heart of the Marian dogma and the Christo- ing less than a declaration of war on the Lady and Spadaro of Civiltà Cattolica, with relogical dogma connected to it. and Patroness of all the Americas, who with porters and cameramen from the court press, The Marian dogmas are the seal placed on her apparition to Juan Diego destroyed the did not come to film the prowess of the divers the Catholic truths of our faith, defined at the demonic idols and won the indigenous peo- and capture the rescue of the pachamamas.

Councils of Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon; ples for Christ and the adoration of the “Most It is also unlikely that such a spectacular feat they are the unbreakable bulwark against True and Only God,” through her maternal did not capture the attention of a few passers14

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by, equipped with a mobile phone to film and from its harmless side which will serve as a Now it is our turn. then launch the scoop on social media. We passport to introduce the toxic side that was Without equivocation, without letting are tempted to pose the question to the person initially kept hidden.” (Fr. Matteo Libera- ourselves be driven out of this Church whose who made that statement. Certainly, this time tore, SJ) legitimate children we are and in which we too, he would answer us with his eloquent siAnd so the lie, obstinately and obsessive- have the sacred right to feel at home, without lence. ly repeated, ends up becoming “true” and ac- the hateful horde of Christ’s enemies making For more than six years now we have been cepted by the majority. us feel marginalized, schismatic and excompoisoned by a false magisterium, a sort of exAlso typically modernist is the tactic of municated. treme synthesis of all the conciliar miscon- affirming what you want to destroy, using Now it is our turn! The triumph of the Imceptions and post-conciliar errors that have vague and imprecise terms, and promoting maculate Heart of Mary — Coredemptrix been relentlessly propagated, without most error without ever formulating it clearly. and Mediatrix of all graces — passes through of us noticing. Yes, because the Second VatThis is exactly what Pope Bergoglio does, her “little ones,” who are certainly frail and ican Council opened not only Pandora’s Box with his dissolving amorphism of the Mys- sinners but are absolutely opposed to the but also Overton’s Window, and so gradually teries of the Faith, with his doctrinal approx- members enlisted in the Enemy’s army. “Litthat we did not realize the upheavals that had imation through which he “mestizos” and de- tle ones” consecrated without any limit whatbeen carried out, the real nature of the re- molishes the most sacred dogmas, as he did soever to the Immaculate, in order to be her forms and their dramatic conheel, the most humiliated and sequences, nor did we suspect despised part, the most hated by who was really at the helm of hell, but which together with that gigantic subversive operHer will crush the head of the ination, which the modernist fernal Monster.

Cardinal Suenens called “the Saint Louis-Marie Grignion 1789 of the Catholic Church.” de Montfort asked: “But when Thus, over these last will this triumph take place? decades, the Mystical Body God knows.” has been slowly drained of its Our task is to be vigilant and lifeblood through unstoppray as St. Catherine of Siena arpable bleeding: the Sacred dently recommended: “Oimè!

Deposit of Faith has gradually That I die and cannot die. Sleep been squandered, dogmas deno longer in negligence; use natured, worship secularized what you can in the present and gradually profaned, time. Comfort yourselves in morality sabotaged, the Christ Jesus, sweet love. Drown Roma, Basilica of St. Mary Major, mosaic depicting the priesthood vilified, the Euyourselves in the Blood of Christ Crowning of Mary as the Queen of Heaven by Jesus Christ charistic Sacrifice protescrucified, place yourselves on by the Franciscan Jacopo Torriti tantized and transformed into the cross with Christ crucified, a convivial Banquet... with the Marian dogmas of the Ever-Virgin hide yourselves in the wounds of Christ cruNow the Church is lifeless, covered with Mother of God. cified, bathe yourselves in the blood of Christ metastases and devastated. The people of The result of this abuse is what we now crucified” (Letter 16).

God are groping, illiterate and robbed of their have before our eyes: a Catholic Church that The Church is shrouded in the darkness Faith, in the darkness of chaos and division. is no longer Catholic, a container emptied of of modernism, but the victory belongs to Our In these last decades, the enemies of God its authentic content and filled with borrowed Lord and His Bride. have progressively made scorched earth of goods.

We desire to continue to profess the two thousand years of Tradition. With unThe advent of the Antichrist is inevitable; perennial faith of the Church in the face of the precedented acceleration, thanks to the sub- it is part of the epilogue of the History of Sal- roaring evil that besieges her. versive drive of this pontificate, supported by vation. But we know that it is the prerequisite We desire to keep vigil with her and with the powerful Jesuit apparatus, a deadly coup for the universal triumph of Christ and His Jesus, in this new Gethsemane of the end de grace [death blow] is being delivered to glorious Bride. times; to pray and do penance in reparation the Church.

Those of us who have not let ourselves be for the many offenses caused to them.

With Pope Bergoglio — as with all mod- deceived by these enemies of the Church enernists — it is impossible to seek clarity, feoffed in the ecclesial Body, must unite and + Carlo Maria Viganò since the distinctive mark of the modernist together face off against the Evil One, who Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana heresy is dissimulation. is long defeated yet still able to harm and Apostolic Nuncio Masters of error and experts in the art of cause the eternal perdition of multitudes of deception, “they strive to make what is am- souls, but whose head the Blessed Virgin, our Translated by Diane Montagna of biguous universally accepted, presenting it Leader, will definitively crush.

LifeSiteNews JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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POPE FRANCIS AND THE REFORM OF THE CURIA: WILL 2020 BE A GOOD YEAR? n BY ANDREA GAGLIARDUCCI (ACI PRESS)

P

ope Francis ended the year by modifying the rules for the Dean of the College of Cardinals: it is no longer a lifetime assignment, but a five-year assignment, renewable for another five. And it is a decision which, in the end, is in the spirit of the reform of the Curia. Because the reformed Curia, according to Praedicate Evangelium, if all the indiscretions are confirmed, can look forward to all assignments being held for five years, and renewable for another five.

It is not the only novelty foreseen in the reform. There is talk of a greater presence of lay people, and also women, in top positions in the Curia, as well as a general restructuring of pontifical councils and congregations, which will all be called “dicasteries.” In his Christmas address, Pope Francis indicated, in particular, four dicasteries: the Dicastery for Evangelization, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Dicastery for the Integral Human Devel16

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

December 21, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican. Pope Francis' annual meeting with the Roman Curia for the exchange of Christmas greetings (Grzegorz Galazka Photo)

opment Service, and the Dicastery for Communication.

If the Pope’s speech is indicative, it will be in these dicasteries that there will be the greatest changes. The Dicastery for Evangelization already has a new prefect, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. He will arrive in mid-January from Manila, where he has been archbishop until now, and will find himself leading the transition towards a renewed dicastery, which will also absorb the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelization. First evangelization and new evangelization are thus included in a single portfolio, because — as Pope Francis explained in his Christmas address to the Curia — one no longer lives in a Christian world. In short, everything must be evangelization.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will be the dicastery of faith, and in the new constitution of the Curia it will come immediately after the Dicastery for

Evangelization. The changes mainly concern the way abuse is addressed. Already in 2015, there had been the establishment of a special college to examine the appeals concerning the delicta graviora, or the most serious crimes. Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna of Valletta was placed at the head of the college, who then was also a special envoy of Pope Francis to go to investigate the issue of abuse in Chile and was then appointed assistant secretary to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. But there is also talk of a “doctrinal” competence entrusted to the Episcopal Conferences, as already seen in the exhortation Evangeli Gaudium, and even to local courts of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in order to better deal with cases of abuse.

What is certain is that the reform seems to be going at two speeds. On the one hand, the decisions of Pope Francis often arrive just moments before the meetings of the Council of Cardinals, which is defining the

More Curia changes: Cardinal Tagle appointed new head of Evangelization

I

n a highly significant move, Pope Francis has appointed the Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, 62, archbishop of Manila, as prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The Congregation oversees the work of the Catholic Church in most of the dioceses in Africa, Asia and Oceania, which is around onethird of the world’s 4,000 dioceses.

The December 8 appointment reflects the Pope’s deep desire for a missionary Church. It is also a further expression of his outreach to Asia, a continent where two-thirds of the world’s population lives today. Francis has already visited the continent four times and plans to return to it again in 2020. Cardinal Tagle is only the second Asian to hold that post, with the other being the Indian cardinal and Holy See diplomat, Ivan Dias, who served from 2006 to 2011.

The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples was originally called the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) when it was first established

new apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium.

So it happened, for example, both with the institution of the Laity, Family and Life Dicastery and with the motu proprio “Like a Loving Mother,” which established a procedure to remove bishops who taint themselves with serious negligence, with a special reference to cases of child abuse.

“Like a Loving Mother” somewhat defined the way in which the reform was to proceed: by steps both forward and backwards, with a general design that, however, did not translate into a systematic method.

The motu proprio was born from a proposal of the council in 2015, in which a court was even proposed to punish negligent bishops — a proposal that is difficult to implement, because it was not clear how this court would support the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The motu proprio instead went on to establish a sort of clarification of the procedures, advocated above all by the former victims who worked with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

And there have been many steps forward and backward in the reform.

The Auditor General of the Accounts instituted new rules which included him better in the structure of the Curia, whereas before he seemed to be a foreign body. The Secretariat for the Economy has lost the

by Pope Gregory XV in 1622, but Paul VI changed its name to the current one in 1967. Its task has always been “the transmission and dissemination of the faith throughout the whole world,” with specific responsibility for coordinating and guiding the Church’s diverse missionary efforts and initiatives, as well as the promotion and formation of the local clergy and hierarchies.

It also plays a central role in the selection of candidates to be bishops in the dioceses under its remit and proposing their names to the Pope.

Some Church people outside of Europe say its ecclesiology or ecclesial vision is to an extent still influenced by that history which sees Rome and Christian Europe at the center, outside of which are the “territories of Christianity,” and the peripheries to be evangelized. They say it has yet to fully absorb the ecclesiological vision of the Second Vatican Council, something that Pope Francis will certainly want to ensure, and his appointment of Cardinal Tagle can be seen in this light too.n

skills on the administrative management of the patrimony, returned to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), considered a sort of central bank.

And, again on the subject of finance, the idea of establishing a Vatican Asset Management seems to have waned — an idea that, however, still appears to be at the center of internal battles and debates, and which, in the end, is also one of the themes hidden behind the ongoing institutional clash.

The reform of Vatican communications has also gone through several seasons, with a committee and a commission to prepare it, and then with a change of name (from secretariat to dicastery) which has also changed its nature somewhat; now, it is moving forward into the era of multimedia, as Pope Francis has said.

Thus, we are faced with a two-speed reform.

On the one hand, the decisions of Pope Francis, which already implement some of the principles of the reform, while some dicasteries already appear in the form that will be definitive: the Secretariat for Economy, the Dicastery of Communication, the Dicastery of the Laity, Family and Life, the department for the Integral Human Development Service.

On the other hand, there are the continuing discussions on Praedicate Evangeli-

um, the new apostolic constitution for the Curia that will replace Pastor Bonus.

This is a two-speed reform because none of the innovations already in place has been included in Pastor Bonus, the constitution that is still in force. The Secretariat for Economic Affairs, recently endowed with a new prefect, is also not in Pastor Bonus, even the one with a five-year mandate, namely Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves. The new departments are not found there either, while paradoxically the Prefecture of Economic Affairs still exists formally, deprived of its president and secretary.

There were even plans to dismantle the Secretariat of State. Now, the Secretariat of State remains the center of the Curia as desired by Paul VI, has already acquired a third section (now there are the sections of General Affairs, Relations with States and diplomatic staff of the Holy See) and should include a second undersecretary to the second section, this time dedicated to the multilateral, an issue to which Pope Francis has recently given so much emphasis.

In addition, there should be, within the Secretariat of State, a “papal secretariat” which has the purpose of coordinating the various bodies, and which would therefore take the place of the Pope’s particular secretaries. The Pope’s decision would also include Francis no longer availing himself of the services of Monsignor Fabian PedacJANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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NEWS HOLY SEE

chio as his first secretary, nor the second secretary, Monsignor Yoannis Lahzi Gaid, who is very active in the Committee for the Implementation of the Declaration on Universal Brotherhood.

There was also talk of passing the functions of protocol and organization of the Pope’s audiences to the Secretariat of State, effectively abolishing the Prefecture of the Papal Household. But this seems, for now, to be a theme no longer on the table.

The coordination of the papal secretariat concerns the convening of cabinet meetings, which are planned precisely to avoid dispersion of information. Thus, in the draft it is established that the heads of departments are “personally received,” when there are interdicasterial votes on matters that concern more than one competence and department.

The establishment of an interdicasterial commission for events of greater importance and the periodic convocation of departments is also envisaged.

A first example of the application if this were some ad limina meetings which also saw meetings of Pope Francis with the bishops and several departments heads involved, and the last interdicasterial meeting convened by Pope Francis with the synod and metropolitans of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. And it is thought there will be others.

Another theme: the Camerlengo.

The Camerlengo is the one who leads the Apostolic Chamber, or the body that administers the goods of the Church during the period of vacancy.

The current Camerlengo is Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Congregation for the Laity and Family Life. But, precisely because of these economic competences, Praedicate Evangelium foresees that the office of Camerlengo will go to the one who, at the time of the death or renunciation of Pope Francis, will be coordinator of the Council for the Economy.

Everything, however, aims to bring about a change of mentality. Praedicate Evangelium also points out that the officials of the Curia will have four years of experience, and that it is desirable to carry out some pastoral activity while working in the Curia. It falls to the ministries to procure a permanent staff of their training.

In this sense, the recent appointment of Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves as prefect of the Secretariat for Economy 18

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

meets these criteria. Father Guerrero asked not to receive episcopal ordination, in order to be able to return to his positions in the Society of Jesus at the end of the five-year term. In fact, this points to overall greater mobility of the members of the Curia, with five-year assignments that are not renewable more than once.

Or, there is another solution, also anticipated by Pope Francis’ decisions: that of holding positions in the Curia and at the same time a pastoral competence. This is evidenced by the appointment of Arch-

bishop Charles J. Scicluna as assistant secretary to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, but leaving him in his seat in Valletta.

According to Bishop Marcello Semeraro, secretary to the Council of Cardinals, all these decisions are explained by the “pastoral criterion.” It is through this lens that some of the Pope’s decisions must be read: from the Third Section of the Secretariat of State, intended for the specific care of the diplomatic staff of the Holy See, up to the Magnum Principium, the motu proprio of Pope Francis with which he gave himself the greatest responsibility for episcopal conferences in the translation of sacred texts; but also the work of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, aimed precisely at improving the pastoral care of the victims.

This is a key to understanding Pope Francis’ reforms, which can lead to various conclusions. An increasing responsibility on the part of the dioceses is expected, because in the end it is precisely in the diocesan work that pastoral concern and closeness with the faithful are experienced. A “lighter” Curia is expected, not in the sense of structures, but in the sense of responsibilities and also of political weight: the Curia serves to operate the machine, but is called above all to have pastoral care of those people who work in the Vatican and to help those who have this type of treatment.

In the end, the draft is expected to be profoundly modified. Many amendments arrived at the end of the world consultation. Among other things, there are some unresolved regulatory issues, such as that of the Pope Emeritus, which were left out of the first debate of the Curia, while the reference in the draft to the implementation of the Sustainable Human Development Goals was striking: in practice, the language of the United Nations was entered in the draft reform, putting aside the Church’s Social Doctrine and the principle of integral human development.

On the other hand, it is also expected that Pope Francis will continue on the road to a general equalization of the Curia offices. All must be considered offices, services, but without assuming a preponderant role, even if they have history on their side.

Even the office of the dean of the College of Cardinals is not exempt from this process, nor the Apostolic Chamber, nor the Prefecture of the Pontifical House. It is a task to make the “machine” work better, but without giving anything to the institution.

In the end, it is expected above all that, if reform occurs, this will not be considered a point of arrival, but a starting point.

We will find ourselves in front of a deeply renewed College of Cardinals, with new curial ranks. In fact, this year the prefects of the Congregations of Bishops, Catholic Education and Eastern Churches are celebrating (or have celebrated) their 75th birthdays.

It is probable that Pope Francis will proceed to choose their successors after the drafting of the reform. And this indicates that the Vatican will try to bring everything to a close by mid-2020.m

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NEWS VATICAN

SODANO: SIXTY YEARS AT THE VATICAN Veteran journalist Luis Badilla recalls the powerful cardinal’s long career — and the “style of government” that he exercised — as it comes to a close

n BY LUIS BADILLA (IL SISMOGRAFO)

P

erhaps one day the complete story will emerge, revealing the real role of Cardinal Angelo Sodano since he arrived at the Apostolic See 60 years ago, called to serve the Pope

by Cardinal Angelo dell’Acqua.

He was then 32 years old... Today he is 92. His departure is the end of a mode of existence for the Church that should be eradicated forever.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, after 14 years, is no longer the Dean of the College of Cardinals.

The cardinal turned 92 on November 23. His career in the Roman Curia practically began in 1959, over 60 years ago, and since then he rose, relentlessly, until he became Secretary of State for two pontiffs — Karol Wojtyla and Joseph Ratzinger — from 1991 to 2006 (15 years). After three years in the position of Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals, in 2005 he was elected by the cardinal bishops as Dean, and in that same year Benedict XVI approved this choice.

For Angelo Sodano, however, having been Dean of his cardinal confreres is certainly the least important element of his ecclesiastical career.

The departure from the scene of Cardinal Sodano, after almost half a century in the luminous and transparent corridors, but also in the dark and mysterious ones, of the Roman Curia — always remaining close, and sometimes very close, to four Popes — is an epochal event.

It doesn’t happen every day.

Angelo Sodano was not just any cardinal and therefore his “unexpected” retirement, because Pope Francis wanted it only now, is a very important point of passage and, hopefully, also a decisive one.

Even better, with his exit from the scene, a style of government of the Church also exits, one that was inspired and set up by a man who for decades has been the real center of power in the context of the curial 20

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

On December 21, 2019, Pope Francis' met with the Roman Curia to exchange Christmas greetings. Below, the moment that he greeted Cardinal Angelo Sodano (Galazka Photo)

nomenklatura: from appointments in general to the curial game of “rise and fall.”

For years a leaf did not move in the Vatican unless Cardinal Sodano wanted it to.

The years of the pontificate of St. John Paul II were also the years of the “reign” of the Angelo Sodano-Stanislaw Dziwisz tandem.

Cardinal Sodano was nominated Nuncio in Chile in 1977, where he had already been an officer of medium-low level, four years after the coup d’état by Augusto Pinochet, with whom he was a very close personal friend, and in a few instances also conniving and complicit in the wrongdoings of the dictator. (1) (Many truths of this period have begun to come out in these months, after Francis’ visit and after the devastating crisis that has consumed the Chilean Church — and in which the cardinal has great direct and personal responsibility.)

In these hours, the merits, and not a few, of Cardinal Sodano are also remembered, as is right. But it is also just as fair and honest to remember his actions, decisions and convictions that humiliated, wounded and betrayed the word and spirit of the Gospel. Not doing so would be pure hypocrisy, as it is widely acknowledged in private that the judgments made by the

cardinal have often reflected the image of him presented here.

On May 28, 1988, John Paul II, who wanted to attribute — in a rather questionable way — the great success of his visit to Chile (1983) to Nuncio Sodano, called him to the Vatican to appoint him Secretary of the thenCouncil for Church Affairs. On March 1, 1989, with the entry into force of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus, Sodano then assumed the title of Secretary for Relations with States.

The official biography of Sodano on the Vatican.va site at this point states: “On December 1, 1990, he was called by the confidence of the Holy Father to take on the Office of Pro-Secretary of State, becoming Secretary of State on June 29, 1991, once created Cardinal. “ From this moment on, the power of Cardinal Sodano became total, absolute, incontrovertible, and often more incisive than that of Pope John Paul II, who was very busy in his pastoral ministry, and subsequently very limited by his illnesses.

The real, concrete, everyday government of the many, delicate and tangled mechanisms of the life of the Church all passed into the hands of the Piedmontese cardinal born in Isola d’Asti.

In this long period there are painful events in the life of the Church, some even gruesome, which have up to now hurt the soul of the whole ecclesial community and for which Cardinal Sodano bears heavy responsibility.

Such is the coverage and protection of the serial pedophile Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, even when the then-Cardinal Prefect Joseph Ratzinger asked the Secretary of State in vain for different conduct towards the Mexican priest, then revered at the Vatican as a “saint” even if it was known that he was a great corruptor. (2)

Pope Francis’ November 29 Letter on the Office of the Dean of the College of Cardinals Over the centuries the Roman Pontiffs have adapted to the needs of their times the composition of the College of Cardinals, specifically called to provide for the election of the Supreme Pastor of the Church and to assist him in dealing with the most important issues in the daily care of the universal Church.

The holy Pope Paul VI, of perennial memory, with the Motu Proprio of 11 February 1965, had expanded the composition of the aforementioned College of the Cardinals, calling it to be part of the Order of Bishops, in addition to the owners of the suburban offices in Rome, also those Eastern Patriarchs who had been awarded cardinal dignity (cf. Ad Purpuratorum Patrum Collegium, AAS, 57 [1965], 295-296).

With the Rescritto ex Audientia of 26 June 2018, I also proceeded to expand the composition of the members of the aforementioned Order of Bishops, including within it some holders of Roman Dicasteries and, equating them in all to Cardinals, awarded a suburbicarian Church and to the Eastern Patriarchs ascribed to the same Order. In this regard, the norms of the Church, with clear and precise prescriptions, have for some time wisely provided also for the singular place, which within the College of Cardinals belongs to the Cardinal Dean and in his place to the Subdean, called to exercise among the cardinal confreres a fraternal

Or, there is the case of the never-clarified pedophilia affair involving the archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Hans Wilhelm Groër (1995), which the current archbishop Christoph Schönborn denounced years ago, accusing Sodano of blocking the creation of an investigative commission and therefore of sandbagging the matter. It will also be remembered that in public remarks to Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Sodano,

and fruitful presidency of primacy between peers (cf. can.

352 § 1). Furthermore, these norms also prescribe the modalities of their election by confreres who are members of the Episcopal Order (cf. can. 350 § 1 and 352 § 2-3).

Now, however, having accepted the renunciation of the position of Dean of the College of Cardinals of His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Sodano, whom I warmly thank for the high service rendered to the College of Cardinals in the almost fifteen years of his mandate, and also having regard to the fact that with the increase in the number of Cardinals, ever greater commitments are placed on the person of the Cardinal Dean, it seemed appropriate that from now on the Cardinal Dean, who will continue to be elected from among the members of the Order of Bishops according to the modalities established by can. 352 § 2 of the Code of Canon Law, remain in office for a possibly renewable five-year period and at the end of his service, he can assume the title of emeritus dean of the College of Cardinals.

Finally, I would like to extend my deep gratitude to all the members of the College of Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church for their generous service to the Church and to my ministry as Successor of Peter, with my Apostolic Blessing.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, on November 29 of the year of the Lord 2019, seventh of our Pontificate. + FRANCIS

then Secretary of State, called the complaints on cases of clerical pedophilia “chatter” and never had a single word of solidarity towards the victims. Schönborn protested because, in his view, it was a real offense against abused people. (3) The life of the universal Church between 1991 and 2006 had an iron-gripped helmsman in Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who managed to shape most of the world’s

episcopates according to his ideas, beliefs, interests and projects. The cardinal, even after his retirement in 2006, continued as Dean to exercise important influence and surely, when the history of this period is written, it will be possible to fully understand the different phases of the true role of Sodano in the Vatican in the time since he arrived at the Apostolic See 60 years ago. He was then 31... Today he is 92.m

NOTES work of corruption of certain Vatican leaders, among whom he (1) The author of this article has in the past been the victim had distributed envelopes with thousands and thousands of of the requests and pressures of Card. Sodano, urged by the dollars in cash.

Chilean dictator Pinochet, that he be fired from Vatican Radio, Authoritative sources say that a great Churchman, then the a maneuver blocked personally by Pope John Paul II and the Cardinal Prefect, was invited by Maciel to give a conference at courage of two great Jesuits: Cardinal Roberto Tucci and Father a Legionaries of Christ seminary and at dinner time, in front Pasquale Borgomeo, who were not afraid to face the powerful of the plate, he found an envelope with thousands of dollars, Secretary of State. which he obviously refused with anger and disgust. Maciel also (2) Legionaries and child sexual abuse (Congregation Redistributed a lot of money among journalists, book writers, port, 20 December 2019) - Report of the Legionaries of Christ: opinion makers and publishers.

175 cases of abuse occurred in 78 years, 60 of which attributed (3) Story of Cardinal Groër to the founder Marcial Maciel... 33 priests involved Note the painful story of the criticisms of Cardinal Christoph Il sismografo - Legionarios de Cristo: Radiografía de ocho Schönborn to Secretary of State Sodano on the way in which décadas para erradicar el abuse (regnumchristi.org) the Groër affair had been managed in the Vatican: it came to - Legionaries of Christ Release a Letter: Our Commitment an unprecedented, never-before-seen conclusion: the Vatican to Safe Environment (regnumchristi.org) Press Room published a singular and curious “Note” in which Marcial Maciel’s privileged weapon for keeping other powit was said that the cardinals could only be criticized by the erful men under blackmail, and for buying their silence, was Pope (then Benedict XVI). money, and in this sense his, for years, has been a gigantic JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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NEWS NIGERIA

FULANI MILITIAS, ISLAMIC GROUPS KILLED MORE THAN 1,000 NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS British report: Nigerian Christians say “We are not safe in our homes” n BY JOHN OWEN NWACHUKWU

Nigerian Christians peacefully demonstrating in Nigeria in May against violence (Photo from Aid to the Church in Need)

A

new report from the Humanfewer than 50 students receiving itarian Aid Relief Trust, the sacrament of baptism, welHART, has revealed how comed into the Catholic Church many Christians were killed by the and receiving their First Holy Islamic terrorist groups in the passCommunion ing year 2019.

According to reports, the According to the report, the perpopularity of these missionaries secution of Christians in Nigeria has spread widely to the predomhas seen about 1,000 Christians inantly Muslim state, exposing killed by Islamic militants. them to the threat of the Islamic HART, headed by a member of fundamentalist group who have the British House of Lords, Barmade several unsuccessful atoness Cox, discovered that Christempts to kill both missionaries. tians in the north and central reThis led to the priest and nun gions of the country were the most being transferred out from the severely affected. northern part to another church According to the group, the conin the south where they both constant attack of “harmless” persons, espe- the principal of the parish school. Both the tinued their good work of ministering in cially worshippers and clerics, portends priest and the nun were said to be working the church and also managing the parish danger for Christianity as it has ignited with youths by converting the youth and school. According to the reports: “Islamist fears in clerics deployed to the northeast adults of that town to the Catholic faith. Fulani militia continue to engage in an agto work.

The parish school is open to both Chris- gressive and strategic land-grabbing poliThe group, in its end-of-year report, re- tians and Muslims. cy in Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Southern counted the killing in August of Reverend It was learned that with their teachings Kaduna and parts of Bauchi state. They atFather David Tanko and many others in many were converted to Catholicism and tack rural villages, forcing villagers off the northern part of the country, adding embracing the Christian doctrine, with no their lands and settling in their place — a that over 1000 Christians were afstrategy that is epitomized by the fected in 2019 alone. phrase: “Your land or your British Prime Minister highlights Recently, they explained that blood.” persecuted Christians in Christmas suspected terrorists had threatened According to HART, the exact address to attack other clerics, including a number of Christians killed by Ismissionary sister identified as Sislamic militants Boko Haram and n remarks somewhat rare for a European political ter Chioma Ibe after the killing of Fulani herdsmen was unknown, figure, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called Fr. Pius Ani. though the data suggests the figon the British people to remember “those ChrisFr. Pius Ani and Sr. Chioma Ibe, ure to be sitting at around 1,000 tians around the world who are facing persecuit was learned, were two Catholic for the year. tion.”

“For them, Christmas Day will be marked in primissionaries whose work in the The organization believes that vate, in secret, perhaps even in a prison cell,” northern part of Nigeria had some 6,000 have been killed since he said. “As Prime Minister, that’s something drawn a lot of accolades and 2015, with an additional 12,000 I want to change. We stand with Christians admiration but had also exdisplaced. everywhere, in solidarity, and will defend posed them to the Boko “In every village, the message your right to practice your faith.” The Prime Haram terrorist group. from local people is the same: Minister began his message by acknowledgThe killed priest was a pas‘Please, please help us! The Fuing that Christmas Day is “first and foremost, tor of St. Theresa Catholic Church lani are coming. We are not safe a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.” in Maiduguri, Borno State, workin our own homes,’” HART said (catholicherald.co.uk) ing with Sr. Chioma Ibe, who was in the report.m

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Encountering “Mary’s Dowry” White Cliffs of Dover, England

English Countryside

Wilton Dyptich, National Gallery, England

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NEWS VATICAN

CARDINAL KURT KOCH ON UNIVERSAL PRIMACY The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity head speaks to Orthodox on “a ministry of unity at the universal level” n BY PETER ANDERSON

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ardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, gave an important address on December 16 at the Orthodox Centre of Chambésy (Switzerland). The title of his address was “Towards the Unity of the Church in the East and West.” The address is an overview of the Catholic Church’s theological dialogues with the non-Chalcedonian Churches and with the Orthodox Church, as well as the challenges faced by the dialogues in the future. Particularly interesting are the Cardinal’s comments with respect to the Orthodox position relating to primacy at the universal level.

With respect to the Ravenna document approved by the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches in 2007, the Cardinal noted: “The Ravenna document represents an important advance in OrthodoxCatholic dialogue in that, for the first time, the two partners in dialogue were able to declare together that the Church needs a protos at all levels of her life and therefore also at the universal level. This encouraging step, however, was overshadowed by the fact that the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate, whose representatives were absent in Ravenna due to intra-Orthodox problems, does not share its conclusions and, on December 26, 2013, issued its own statement, very different from that of the International Commission, on the question of primacy at the universal level of the Church.”

With respect to the future, the Cardinal’s observations included the following: “The strong point of the Orthodox Churches lies in their synodality, which is why Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed that the Catholic Church, in its ‘dialogue with the Orthodox brothers, [has] the opportunity to learn something more about the sense of episcopal collegiality and the experience of synodality.’

The Catholic Church will indeed have to admit that, in her life and in her ecclesial structures, the level of synodality that would be theologically possible and necessary has not yet been developed and that it is in the strengthening of synodality that undoubtedly lies ‘the most important contribution of the Catholic Church to the recognition of the primacy.’ On the other hand, the Orthodox Churches should be expected to recognize

through ecumenical dialogue that a primacy is not only possible and theologically legitimate as well at the universal level of the Church, but also necessary; that the tensions internal to orthodoxy suggest that it would be useful to reflect on a ministry of unity at the universal level, and that this does not in any way go against the Eucharistic ecclesiology which is so dear to them but is on the contrary compatible with it, as Metropolitan John D. Zizioulas, former co-chairman of the International Joint Commission, keeps reminding us.” (Footnotes omitted. Google translation of the French.)

The issue of whether the Orthodox will recognize primacy at the universal level is now a critical issue in the religious dispute involving Ukraine.

For example, does the Ecumenical Patriarch possess special powers different from other primates, such as the ability to consider appeals of hierarchs from other Local Orthodox Churches and the ability unilaterally to confer autocephaly?

Will the ultimate settlement of the Ukraine dispute involve a de facto recognition of such powers?

Sadly, one’s position on primacy at the universal level may now be influenced by the high emotions generated by the dispute in Ukraine and by one’s own self-interest in that dispute, rather than by a dispassionate consideration of the universal primacy issue.

(Il sismografo)m

GERMANY

NEW FOUNDATION FOR CATHOLIC JOURNALISM “I want the Catholic voice to be heard,” said the Pope Emeritus

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n what came as a surprise to many members of the Catholic elite in Germany, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has launched a foundation for Catholic journalism in his home country.

“I want the Catholic voice to be heard,” the retired Roman pontiff, who has resided in a Vatican monastery since his 2013 resignation, said of his decision.

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Named after a weekly Catholic newspaper, the goal of the “Tagespost Foundation for Catholic Journalism” is to raise the equivalent of about $500,000 in 2020 to invest in training young journalists and to support a variety of projects, including research into issues of biomedical ethics, in Germany. Given that the country’s taxrich dioceses and powerful bishops’ con-

ference are already financing a wide array of media projects and news outlets that provide training, including a dedicated Catholic journalism school based in Munich, the initiative by the Pope Emeritus was recognized by both supporters and critics as a strategic move to bolster orthodox Catholic reporting independent of episcopal and other influences.

The “Society of Catholic Journalists” criticized the move, saying it raised concerns as to why the Pope Emeritus decided to undertake this initiative without involving the existing journalism school.

With a few notable exceptions — such as the German edition of Catholic News

Agency, CNA Deutsch — the infrastructure of Catholic media and its representational bodies in Germany are deeply embedded in the overall structures and bodies of the Church there.

Given the Church tax system, the Kirchensteuer, and a number of historical arrangements, the Catholic Church, together with the Lutherans, is the second largest employer in Germany after the state.

The Pope Emeritus’ decision to establish a foundation independent of this structure became public at a time where the very newspaper that carries the name of the new foundation was criticized by the

president of the Central Committee of German Catholics.

Thomas Sternberg mentioned both the Tagespost and a private Austrian website as Catholic media in an interview in which he warned about nationalism and “hardminded media.”

Speaking to CNA Deutsch, the CEO and editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Oliver Maksan, roundly rejected the criticism, decrying it as a political ploy and attempt to silence voices critical of the “Synodal Process” by labelling these as “rightwing.”

—Catholic News Agency

FRANCE

NOTRE DAME DE PARIS IS EMPTY FOR FIRST CHRISTMAS IN 216 YEARS But officials pledge the Te Deum will be sung in the cathedral in 2024

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or the first time since During the night of De1803, Notre-Dame de cember 17 to 18, the essenParis did not have a tial electrical transformer Christmas Mass, and eight station was unloaded from months after the fire on April a barge, which will provide 15, 2019, a giant crane watchpermanent power to the es over the cathedral while installations. Two-thirds of waiting to dismantle the scafthe scaffolding is surfolding which threatens it. rounded by metal beams.

This crane will have to Two levels have been surcarry out the most delicate rounded. There remains operation of this entire Herthe belt of the upper level. culean security project an opIt will be carried out in Janeration which should start at uary thanks to the crane. At the beginning of February: it the same time, a second will be a question of dismanlight scaffolding is being Notre Dame Cathedral before and after the fire on April 15, 2019 tling one by one 10,000 metal erected on either side of the tubes — 250 tons in total — which the fire holidays: some operations continued even old one. This structure will be higher, and, of April 15 welded. if others are interrupted, according to the from beams fitted with rails, rope access It is a work of several months which re- public project headed by General Jean- technicians will descend into the scaffoldquires preparations because of its com- Louis Georgelin. ing in order to cut it out. The dismantling, plexity. The deformed, weakened scafThe giant crane arrived on December which will last several months, could start folding, like a gigantic web in the sky, 16 in parts aboard an exceptional convoy in February. threatens the vault and the balance of the accompanied by 40 trucks of equipment.

General Georgelin attended a screencathedral. The gem of Gothic art is still, Two mobile cranes unloaded them. ing of an animated film on the history of seven months after the fire, in a state of It is currently being assembled and will Notre-Dame. In front of the gathered com“absolute emergency.” culminate at 75 meters (80 meters with the panions, patrons, architects, the general In accordance with President Em- arrow which dominates it). announced that a Te Deum will be sung in manuel Macron’s wish to complete the Made expressly in Moulins, the largest Notre-Dame on April 16, 2024, exactly restoration of Notre-Dame in five years, “topless” tower crane in Europe, it can lift five years after the fire. there was no stopping at the end-of-year up to 8 tons.

—huffingtonpost.fr JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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CHRISTMAS AT THE VATICAN

POPE FRANCIS’ CHRISTMAS ADDRESS TO THE ROMAN CURIA

THE POPE’S CHRISTMAS GREETINGS INCLUDED, AS IN PREVIOUS YEARS, SOME CRITICISM; FRANCIS WAS COOL IN THE PREVIOUS WEEK’S MASS WITH THE CURIAL CARDINALS AS WELL

n SANDRO MAGISTER

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nce again, in the speech he gives every year to the Vatican Curia before Christmas, Pope Francis has come out swinging at his unfortunate listeners.

Last year he went after the Judases “who hide behind good intentions to stab their brothers and sow weeds.”

Two years ago he had pilloried the “trusted traitors” who “let themselves be corrupted by ambition or vainglory and, when they are gently removed, falsely declare themselves martyrs of the system, of the ‘uninformed Pope,’ of the ‘old guard,’ … instead of reciting the ‘mea culpa.’”

And who is in the Pope’s crosshairs this year? Once again, the speech given by the Pope to the Roman Curia on the morning of Saturday, December 21 contained some biting passages, aimed at the fear of change, at “rigidity,” at merely “occupying spaces where power is exercised.”

First, however, comes the news of another meeting that took place a few days ago between Francis and the cardinals — a meeting that started badly and ended even worse.

No Vatican news organization has so far mentioned this meeting. And yet it happened. It took place in the Vatican chapel of Santa Marta on the morning of Friday, December 13, the fiftieth anniversary of the first Mass of Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

The one who had suggested to Pope Francis that he celebrate this occasion with a Mass together with the cardinals residing in Rome had been, a few weeks earlier, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, in his capacity as Dean of the College of Cardinals.

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The photographs in this photo essay are by Grzegorz Galazka

Francis had replied “no.” But Sodano had not given up, and thanks to a second effort by college sub-dean Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, he was finally able to overcome his resistance.

In sending to the cardinals the letter of invitation for the gathering, Sodano made mention of Francis’ initial resistance... who, however, only slightly attenuated his impulse of distaste. On December 13 the Mass took place, but in the most absolute silence on both sides. The Pope did not deliver the homily and did not say a single word either before or after the ceremony. And even Sodano was unable to read the address of good wishes he had prepared, in the name not only of those present but of the entire College of Cardinals. After the Mass, Francis quickly greeted the cardinals one by one and left.

In the afternoon, both L’Osservatore Romano and Vatican News published the message of good wishes from Cardinal Sodano — but without covering the news or providing a single image of the Mass celebrated with the Pope.

This, in fact, was the strict order of the Pontiff: no news and no photos.

Needless to say, the cardinals who had come to Santa Marta were very much struck by the Pope’s coldness towards them. A coldness of which they did not understand the reason.

And this brings us to the pre-Christmas address to the curia on December 21, with the backstory just given.

Below appears the excerpted text of the speech, which was followed on the same day by a papal motu proprio that gave news of Cardinal Sodano’s resignation from the position of Dean of the College of Cardinals.m

December 5, 2019, St. Peter's Square. Inauguration of the full-scale colored wood nativity scene, from Scurelle (in the province of Trent, in northern Italy), and of the Christmas tree, a spruce from the Asiago plateau (province of Vicenza). This is a tribute to the areas hit by harsh storms in 2018 Opposite, December 21, 2019, in the Vatican Clementine Hall. Pope Francis met with the Roman Curia to exchange Christmas greetings

JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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CHRISTMAS AT THE VATICAN

POPE FRANCIS’ CHRISTMAS ADDRESS TO THE ROMAN CURIA (EXCERPTS) – BY POPE FRANCIS, DECEMBER 21, 2019

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nce again this year, the Lord gives us the opportunity to gather for this moment of fellowship which strengthens our fraternity and is grounded in our contemplation of God’s love revealed at Christmas. A contemporary mystic has written that “the birth of Christ is the greatest and most eloquent witness of how much God loved man. He loved him with a personal love. That is why he took a human body, united it to himself and made it his own forever. The birth of Christ is itself a ‘covenant of love,’ sealed for all time between God and man.” As Saint Clement of Alexandria writes, “Christ came down and assumed our humanity, willingly sharing in our human sufferings, for this reason: so that, having experienced the frailty of those whom he loves, he could then make us experience his great power.”

In the light of this boundless benevolence and love, our exchange of Christmas greetings is yet another chance to respond to Christ’s new commandment: “Even as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35).

Jesus does not ask us to love him in response to his love for us; rather, he asks us to love one another as he does. In other words, he asks us to become like him, since he became like us. As Saint John Henry Newman prayed: “May each Christmas, as it comes, find us more and more like Him, who at this time became a little child for our sake, more simple-minded, more humble, more holy, more affectionate, more resigned, more happy, more full of God.” And

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he went on to say: “[Christmas] is a time for innocence, and purity, and gentleness, and mildness, and contentment, and peace.”

This mention of Newman brings to mind his well-known words in his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, a book that coincided chronologically and spiritually with his entry into the Catholic Church: “Here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” Naturally, he is not speaking about changing for change’s sake, or following every new fashion, but rather about the conviction that development and growth are a normal part of human life, even as believers we know that God remains the unchanging center of all things.

For Newman change was conversion, in other words, interior transformation. Christian life is a journey, a pilgrimage. The history of the Bible is a journey, marked by constantly new beginnings.

So it was with Abraham. So it was too with those Galileans who two thousand years ago set out to follow Jesus: “When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:11). From that time forward, the history of God’s people — the history of the Church — has always been marked by new beginnings, displacements and changes. This journey, of course, is not just geographical, but above all symbolic: it is a summons to discover the movement of the heart, which, paradoxically, has to set out in order to remain, to change in order to be faithful.

All of this has particular importance for our time, because what we are experiencing is not simply an epoch of changes, but an

epochal change. We find ourselves living at a time when change is no longer linear, but epochal. It entails decisions that rapidly transform our ways of living, of relating to one another, of communicating and thinking, of how different generations relate to one another and how we understand and experience faith and science. Often we approach change as if were a matter of simply putting on new clothes, but remaining exactly as we were before.

I think of the enigmatic expression found in a famous Italian novel: “If we want everything to stay the same, then everything has to change” (The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa).

The more healthy approach is to let oneself be challenged by the questions of the day and to approach them with the virtues of discernment, parrhesía and hypomoné. Seen in this light, change takes on a very different aspect: from something marginal, incidental or merely external, it would become something more human and more Christian. Change would still take place, but beginning with man as its center: an anthropological conversion.

We need to initiate processes and not just occupy spaces: “God manifests himself in historical revelation, in history. Time initiates processes and space crystalizes them. God is in history, in the processes. We must not focus on occupying the spaces where power is exercised, but rather on starting long-run historical processes. We must initiate processes rather than occupy spaces. God manifests himself in time and is present in the processes of history. This gives priority to actions that give birth to new historical dynamics. And it requires patience, waiting.” In this sense, we are urged to read the signs of the times with the eyes of faith, so that the direction of this change should “raise new and old questions which it is right that we should face.”n

POPE APOLOGIZES FOR HAND SLAP A woman grabbed Pope Francis’ hand and pulled him toward her; he scowled, then slapped her hand away

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ope Francis began the New Year with an apology for losing his temper the night before (December 31) with a woman who grabbed his hand and tried to pull him closer while he was greeting people in St. Peter's Square. The Vatican’s official news service wrote: “As he greeted the faithful, a woman tugged his arm, causing a shooting pain to which the Pope reacted with an impatient gesture to free himself from her grip.” To get away, the Pope slapped her hand and gave her a serious scowl. A video of the incident went viral on Twitter. Reciting the midday Angelus prayer January 1, Pope Francis was talking about how God's offer of salvation in Jesus is “not magic, but patient, that is, it involves the patience of love, which takes on inequity and destroys its power.”

Then, briefly departing from his prepared text, the Pope said: “Love makes us patient. We often lose our patience; me, too, and I apologize for my bad example last night.”

—Cindy Wooden (CNS)

JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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SVETLANA K ASYAN. The voice of this Russian opera star is a voice for faith and family around the world. Pope Francis awarded her the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sylvester.

“He told me to use my voice for God’s glory,” she said.

FATHER JEAN-MARC FOURNIER. The fire that engulfed the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Paris in April 2019 shocked the world. Fr. Jean-Marc rushed into the flames to rescue the Blessed Sacrament and Christ’s crown of thorns.

ALEXANDER TSCHUGGUEL. This young Austrian, in Rome for some of the Amazon Synod’s “indigenous culture” displays, went home perplexed: Were Vatican officials really allowing people to reverence pagan idols? He decided to return to Rome and, for the sake of his Faith, take matters into his own hands.

JAKUB BARYŁA. In the midst of an LGBT gathering that was profaning Poland’s most beloved image of the Mother of God — Our Lady of Czestochowa — was a 15-year-old boy who simply said, “Enough” by standing his ground and holding aloft a crucifix like Catholic heroes of old.

FATHER CSABA BÖJTE. Decades have passed and still the aftereffects of Communism’s iron grip on countries like Hungary remain. One humble priest has established homes to care for thousands of abandoned children.

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K ANYE WEST. An entertainment icon astonished Hollywood when he had his children baptized in a traditional Armenian Orthodox rite and turned his life over to Jesus “the King,” extolling the freedom he has found in faith.

VIKTOR ORBÁN. The President of Hungary has attracted controversy because of his insistence on maintaining the identity of Hungary as a Christian nation.

KATIE, NIAMH, CORA OF IRELAND.

After the defeat of pro-life forces in Ireland in 2018, three women vowed not to give up.

Katie Ascough, Niamh Ui Bhriain and Cora Sherlock believe, “We may have lost a battle but our cause will never be defeated.”

VINCENT GUO XIJIN. After the Vatican signed an agreement with the Communist Chinese government, one of the bishops who had been loyal to the Vatican all along, Bishop Vincent Guo Xijin, faces ongoing pressure, including threats and imprisonment.

ARCHBISHOP EMERY K ABONGO K ANUNDOWI. One Vatican archbishop insists on welcoming each and every pilgrim to the heart of the Church. His spiritual father? St. John Paul II.

TOP TEN 2019

nside the Vatican looks back on the year 2019 as a year of some surprises: in secular Europe, a popular leader invokes Christianity; in secularizing Poland, a 15-year-old boy brandishes a crucifix at an LGBT gathering; in Hollywood, a famous US “hiphop” star brings Jesus into his concerts; in post-Christian Paris, a priest risks his life to save the Blessed Sacrament.

Among our Top Ten are also stalwart crusaders for the Good, the True and the Beautiful in varying walks of life — an opera singer who was a refugee, and a humble priest who protects abandoned children; a young husband who felt a call to defend the faith, and a Chinese bishop ready to face persecution for the faith; an African archbishop who ministers to pilgrims, and a trio of Irish ladies who battle the abortion juggernaut.

All of them testify to the grace of the Lord, alive in ordinary men and women: they all, like we, “have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

Svetlana Kasyan Opera star from Moscow, Russia

“LOVE AND ART SHOULD REIGN AGAIN” hirty-five year old Russian opera star Svetlana Holy Father for a few minutes: “Yes, he gave me his Kasyan celebrated her birthday this year at the Vatblessing,” Svetlana told Inside the Vatican. “He blessed ican with Pope Francis. Kasyan was born and my voice and told me to use it to give glory to God. Our raised in Georgia, and now resides with her husband and meeting deeply moved me. I am at a loss for words. I canyoung daughter in Moscow. As an opera singer, Kasyan is not easily describe how I felt. I admire and love him very accustomed to touring around the world. She sings often much. He is so very simple and genuine and I am so in Italy, and in Rome since 2013, has met Pope Francis on grateful to have met him.” Moments later, she was in a seven occasions over the years. This year, after her perfortaxi and on her way to the airport. mance in Venice, she was invited to her second private Born in Georgia in the Caucusus, Kasyan lost her Papal Audience, where Pope Francis greeted her with a father as a young child, and with what remained of her birthday cake and candles, as it was her 35th birthday. family, she fled from Georgia and found refuge in KazaThe pontiff also awarded the star of Lady of the Grand khstan. Eventually she found her way to Moscow where Cross of the Pontifical Order of Saint Sylvester to she began to study music and singing; she was then eighKasyan. At this meeting, after speaking with the Holy teen years old. Kasyan eventually became a soloist with Father, Kasyan invited him to visit the Bolshoi Theater.

“Yes, he gave me his her in Moscow and to visit Russia.

In 2013, after singing the lead blessing.

He blessed my Kasyan’s first meeting with the role in “Tosca” at the Rome Opera Holy Father took place in 2013, voice and told me to use it to House, Kasyan told the press, “I when Kasyan gave a solo concert dedicated my Tosca tonight to the give glory to God.” in Rome in the Auditorium Concilsuffering people in Syria. I pray for Below, Svetlana Kasyan with her husband, Leonid, in May this iazione hall. The morning after, at peace and an end of violence year in the Domus Santa Marta, the residence of the Pope. an early Mass celebrated by Pope The Armenian-Russian singer is the first woman to receive the around the globe. The world should honor of Lady of the Order of St. Silvester. Francis invited Francis in the Domus Santa Marta, learn again to listen to each other.

Svetlana to receive the honor from himself personally in the Kasyan was able to speak with the Love and art should reign again.”l Domus, in a private ceremony after morning Mass

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JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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TOP TEN PEOPLE

Father Jean-Marc Fournier A Catholic priest in Paris, France

“WE NEED TANGIBLE SIGNS OF FAITH” very year since 1803, even during the Nazi occuthe flames and preserve the building dedicated to his pation, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has held a mother.” In an interview with the New York Times, the Christmas Mass — except for this Christmas, priest joked, “I thought Jesus could help us a little bit and because of the historic fire that ravished the Cathedral in work, too. I invited him to worry about his own house if April 2019. The fire of Notre Dame is one that will he didn’t want to finish the night under a tent by the Canal remain in the memory of the French, and of Catholics Saint-Martin.” After rescuing the Blessed Sacrament, around the world, and with it the famous French priest Fournier did not stop, but ran throughout the church colwho rushed into the burning Church in order to rescue the lecting many precious artifacts, including the Crown of Blessed Sacrament.

Thorns and the cloak of St. Louis. Fournier helped the What is less known, however, rescue team form a human chain “After rescuing the Blessed is that this same priest, Fr. Jeanso that he could pass these artiSacrament, Fournier did not Marc Fournier, 53, also facts out of the burning Church stop, but ran through the appeared on the scene following quickly until the flames became France’s largest terrorist attack too dangerous. church collecting many to date, in 2015, at the Bataclan precious artifacts, including the Father Fournier, a Knight of Theatre. After the attack which the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, Crown of Thorns” killed 130 people and wounded commented on the significance of The spire of the Cathedral of Notre Dame falls, April 19, 2019 over 300, Father Fournier the Crown of Thorns: “We somearrived at the scene where he times mock Saint Thomas who immediately began ministering wanted to touch Christ’s wounds to the wounded and dying. “I left by the nails, but in certain cirgave collective absolution,” he cumstances, we need tangible commented. signs of faith.

Again, this past April, when “All the relics related to the Fournier received word that Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ Notre Dame Cathedral was have a fundamental importance burning, without hesitation he for Christians like us. We are well traveled directly to the catheknown to be the only ones to vendral. Assessing the situation, he erate an empty Sepulcher... fortuinsisted on rushing into the nately empty, because if Jesus had church with the firefighters: not risen from the dead – as St. Fournier had one aim, to save Paul reminds us – our faith would the Blessed Sacrament. He said, be in vain.”

“We quickly focused on the priIn his Easter homily, French ority: the Relics of the Passion Archbishop Michel Aupetit honand the Blessed Sacrament.” ored Fournier’s heroism and Fournier recounted how, praised the priest for saving the once inside the Church, he made Blessed Sacrament, saying, “What is more precious? The cathedral, his way directly to the Altar of the treasure, or the bread crumb?”

St. George to rescue the sacraAupetit pointed out: “It is for this ment. Standing with the rescued Body, veiled under the appearance of a crumb of bread, Hosts in hand as the fire raged, Fournier said, “I asked that this cathedral was built.”l Jesus — who I really believe is in these hosts — to fight

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2019

Alexander Tschugguel The Austrian who tossed the Pachamama images in the Tiber

“TO DEFEND GOD AND HIS TEACHING”

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Galazka photo

n October 4, 2019, during a ceremony at the Vatcould; then he ran to a nearby bridge over the Tiber and ican Gardens, a group of people were filmed threw the statues into the river one by one. Shortly therebowing down before two wooden statues repreafter, Tschugguel released a video of himself tossing the senting Pachamama, the “Mother Earth” goddess of prestatues into the water, but stated that his purpose in doing Christian Amazonia. This occurrence roused the attention so was solely to bring glory to God: “But the point is that of 26-year-old married layman Alexander Tschugguel of I released my video to tell all those people that I only had Austria. While in Rome, Tschugguel saw the statues and one reason to do it: to defend the glory of God, to defend witnessed the apparent veneration of them in the Vatican God and His teaching, and Jesus’ teaching.”

Gardens. After returning to his home in Austria and While Tschugguel’s action caused many to believe that reflecting for several days, he felt he bears animosity towards Pope that it was his duty to take action: Francis, Tschugguel said, “It is he returned to Rome and physically “I only had one reason to do our duty to pray for the Pope and removed the statues from the to support him and respect his it: to defend church in which they were being authority,” he said. “If we would the glory of God” kept, Santa Maria in Transpontina. hate the Pope, why would I pray In a video interview published by for him?”

The Pachamama, or earth goddess, image that was in Lifesite News, Tschugguel recountTschugguel currently resides St. Peter’s and another Roman church during the Amazon ed his reasons for removing the Synod. Alexander took several of the images at dawn and threw with his wife in Vienna, where he them in the Tiber River statues: helps to lead the Vienna Pro-Life “You have to know I followed Group. In an interview with the very closely what was happening in National Catholic Register, Rome surrounding the Amazon Tschugguel expressed his gratiSynod, and I had the idea in my tude for support from traditional mind that I should get more inforCatholic Americans: mation in Rome itself. So I traveled “Your action has been met to Rome at the beginning of the with a powerful response among Synod to attend a few conferences some Catholics, especially in the which were held to get closer inforUnited States. Do you have a mation on all the different issues of word for them? the Amazon Synod.... I traveled TSCHUGGUEL: I have a very back to Austria and really tried to important word for them: I’m really very happy that many think over and over: is this, is this American Catholics are so faithgood, is this good? And then I came ful. They really are — and maybe they don’t know this to the conclusion, together with friends of mine, we but I know — the backbone for us European Catholics. should do that, we should go to Rome, we should get the We’re really happy that we see there are possibilities in statues out of the church. They do not belong in a America to be publicly and openly Catholic and traditionCatholic church. They should be outside of the church.” al without too many problems. In Europe we have a sociTschugguel claimed that he removed the statues not ety that is always strongly connected with the Church, out of a desire to offend anyone, but because he wanted which was of course good, and has brought us a great the Amazonian people “to have the Truth of Christ” and amount of culture and teaching and knowledge, but right not some “mock Christian religion.” now I see the Church is not leading the way anymore, but Tschugguel recounted how, once he was inside the following the world.”l church, he tried to grab as many “pagan things” as he JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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TOP TEN PEOPLE

Jakub Baryła A Polish hero though still a youth

“OUR HOLY FAITH COMMANDS US TO COUNTERACT EVIL DEEDS”

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15-year-old Polish boy followed in the footsteps against people is harmful; I was going against the bad of his country’s noble ancestors when, crucifix deeds that are promoting homosexuality.” and rosary held high, he stood up against In response to his bold actions, the Warsaw Monitoring Center on Racist and Xenophobic Behavior Poland’s first and largest LGBT equality march this past released a statement claiming that Baryła’s action was August. Jakub Baryła of Polk, Poland said later that his inspiration came from Fr. Ignacy Skorupko, a priest and merely the result of parents using their children for military chaplain during the Polish-Soviet War of political nationalist ends. However, in response, Baryła 1918-21. Fr. Skorupko died heroically in the Warsaw sated: battle with the Bolsheviks in 1920, holding a crucifix “I am 15 years old, but I understand the reality that and leading the Polish army to surrounds me and I can make “I directed my prayer to the victory. decisions consciously.” Baryła Baryła later stated on Twitter Mother of God. Policemen came added that his own parents held that he held the cross to oppose and asked me to get out of the “leftist” views. the “bad deeds that are promotWhat motivated Baryła’s way.

I said I couldn’t do it...” ing homosexuality.” According action? Baryła explained to the to the account on wPolityce.pl.

Polish media that he had initialJakub stands alone to bear witness to his faith Baryła said: ly decided against taking action “I sat on the pavement and until he saw a particular reprintprayed in Latin with the words Salve Regina. I directed ing of the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa. The my prayer to the Mother of God, the ideal of purity. image depicted Our Lady and the Christ Child with Policemen came to me and asked me to get out of the rainbow halos, and was later carried in the LGBT way. I said I couldn’t do it because the participants of the March. The icon of Our Lady of Czestachowa is one of march are destroying my Catholic faith and profaning the most beloved depictions of Our Lady by the Polish the Polish flag by placing a rainbow on it.” people, so it is no wonder that Baryła was prompted to In a statement on Twitter, Baryła said, quoting a ceract. “I didn’t think about fear,” he said. “I was focused tain Father Kramer: “Jesus and the cross stood against on the cross I was holding. I am Catholic, so I focused evil and sins. Our holy faith commands us to counteract on God who gives me strength. I have the impression evil deeds. I also tried to do it. Saying that I was going that God was directing me.”l

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2019

Father Csaba Böjte A Hungarian Franciscan who helps abandoned children

“TO FREE MY FELLOWS FROM THE CHAINS OF FEAR AND LITTLE FAITH”

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moved from Dej to Deva. In the spring of 1993 we estabvery child is a message for humanity: God loves lished the Saint Francis Foundation.” us. Raising a child is an encounter with God. For more than 25 years, Father Csaba’s Francis FounJesus said: if someone adopts one of the smalldation has been looking after children; during this time est, receive myself,” says Father Csaba Böjte, who, for over 6,000 children have passed through the Foundation. more than 25 years, has been adopting and raising chilToday there are over 2,000 children in their care in over dren off the streets of Hungary after the collapse of Comeighty-three locations. These children receive more than munism. Born in 1959, in Southern Transylvania, Father just food and shelter; they receive a community. Rabu, a Csaba grew up under the Communist regime in Hungary; boy from Romania, speaks about his experience with the his own father was imprisoned for seven years for politiFoundation and Father Csaba: cal reasons. Reflecting back on Radu, you have lived here the situation of his country, More than 6,000 abandoned for quite a while…. What is the Father Csaba describes the needs of the people after the children have been protected by best thing about this foundation, how would you express it? collapse of Communism: “In this Hungarian Franciscan – That you are together with Southern Transylvania, Compeople who are in a similar situmunism built with great finanation as you are. For this reason cial effort an industry that wasn’t profitable from the The children from Iraq are happily greeting the statue of Our Lady of they understand you. You are in beginning. They mined coal in Csíksomlyó, a beautiful gift from the children in need, who were taken a community. You are not alone. in by the Saint Francis Foundation You receive love — not from the Jiu Valley, they mined metal everyone, because not everyone ore in the Apuseni Mountains, is alike — but you receive love and they separated out the valufrom a lot of people and that is able metals from the ore in what is most important. You Hunedoara and Calan. For these have role models, who you must enterprises a cheap, unskilled, follow, who you would like to young labor force was brought follow, such as Father Csaba from all over the country. Thouand certain educators. This presands of people were dislocated, sents a very big opportunity, a receiving small, simple apartvery good opportunity for ments, with most of them formimpoverished people. ing beautiful families with a lot of children. The inevitable As a young man, Fr. Csaba downfall of the dictator brought worked in the mountains as a with it the downfall of these miner, then later, desirous of megalomaniac plans as well. becoming a priest, he was Suddenly this mass of people secretly admitted to the Order of Saint Francis at Csíkwithout any roots found itself unemployed. Many famisomlyó in 1982, since religious orders were firmly prolies fell apart beneath these difficulties and problems. The hibited at that time in Communist Romania. For Fr. saddest thing is that many children found themselves on the street. In the meantime the Franciscan community, Csaba, his goal was never a question: “What else could after fifty years of forced silence, started to bloom again. my goal be than to free my fellows from the chains of fear We felt that it was the will of God to...take upon ourselves and little faith, to help them become saints to the benefit the problems and troubles of the people. In 1992 I was of their brothers and sisters?”l JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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TOP TEN PEOPLE

Kanye West A leading American musician converts to Christianity

“I’M A SON OF GOD. I’M FREE” anye West, the American rapper, singer, songTruth will set you free” — a touchstone of Christianity. writer, record producer, entrepreneur, and fashion St. Augustine’s Confessions centers around this very designer, has currently been acclaimed by theme: that sin enslaves man, while God, who is The Catholics and Christians everywhere for his new album Truth, sets man free. Kanye and his wife have chosen to entitled “Jesus is King,” and for his conversion to Chrischristen their four children in the Orthodox Armenian tianity. In a picture that went viral, his wife, Kim KarApostolic Church, a public testament to their Faith. dashian, was seen wearing a traditional lace veil while Throughout his career, commentators have noted Kanye’s praying in an Armenian Orthodox church service. As Christian undertones, with songs such as “Walking with Kanye told New Zealand media personality Zane Lowe in Jesus” suggesting Kanye’s recent conversion to Christiana recent interview: ity was the result of a prolonged period of searching for “Now that I’m in service to Christ, my job is to spread something larger than himself, a deeper meaning to his the Gospel, to let people know what Jesus has done for life. me. You know, I’ve spread a lot of things. There was a More than a set of binding rules and regulations, relitime when I was letting you know what high fashion had gion gives us a sense of meaning and belonging to a comdone for me. I was letting you munity. Kanye’s adoption of Chrisknow what the Hennessey had “Now that I’m in service to tianity, while still a member of the done for me. I was letting you Christ, my job is to spread decidedly post-Christian American know all these things. But now I’m music scene, is an example to the the Gospel, to let people letting you know what Jesus has world that each one of us can seek, know what Jesus has done and find, this “pearl of great price” done for me. And in that, I’m no longer a slave. I’m a son now — a no matter our circumstances or our for me” son of God. I’m free.” past — and find the strength to During a religious gathering in Madison Square Garden in Here Kanye echoes St. John the embrace it even in the midst of hosNew York City Evangelist’s assurance that “The tile surroundings.l

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2019

Viktor Orbán The president of Hungary is controversial, but steadfast

“HUNGARY BEFORE EVERYTHING, GOD ABOVE US ALL”

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of thousands of people — arrived in this region, and setungarians account for 0.2 percent of the tled down to start their lives here. We were not the first: world’s population. Is there any point in a many other peoples came here before us, but they disapnation of this size taking a stance and standing peared, died out, or simply moved on. To this day Hunup for a cause? Our answer is ‘Yes,’” says Viktor Orbán, garians are curious to find out why we didn’t suffer the the current prime minister of Hungary. He believes that same fate. Why haven’t we Hungarians disappeared? despite its size, Hungary has a duty to stand for the Good.

Why have we Hungarians survived, even though in this He continues, “In their day the Twelve Apostles surely region we are outsiders? We’re surrounded by Germanic accounted for a smaller percentage of the world’s populaand Slavic peoples, and we don’t belong to any of them... tion than we Hungarians do today; yet here we all are. We the key to our survival, was our are convinced that good inspires good, the Hungarian people’s “Why haven’t we Hungarians adoption of the Christian faith.”

While many focus on Orban’s support inspires courage, the disappeared?... The key to our to unrestricted immiexample we set can spread far survival was the adoption of the opposition gration, what is important to and wide.”

Christian faith.” note, rather, is Orban’s devotion Orbán has served as prime to Hungary and the Hungarian minister to Hungary for a total Viktor Orbán in October of 2017. Hungary is helping persecuted of thirteen years. Born and Christians return to their homelands, Orbán said in his opening address people, and finally to God to the conference focusing on the persecution of Christians above all else. Orban sees immiraised in a middle class family gration in Hungary as a threat to in Central Hungary, the needs of traditional Hungarian values the Hungarian people are close such as family Christianity: to his heart. After completing “We are living in times when two years of military service, he fewer and fewer children are studied law at Eötvös Loránd being born throughout Europe.

University in Budapest, writing People in the West are respondhis master’s thesis on the Polish ing to this with immigration: Solidarity movement. they say that the shortfall should In his “State of the Nation” be made up by immigrants, and address delivered at the beginthen the numbers will be in ning of 2019, Orbán stated: order. Hungarians see this in a “Thirty years after the fall of different light. We do not need Communism, on the eve of a numbers, but Hungarian children. In our minds, immigrapan-European parliamentary election, Europe finds itself tion means surrender. If we resign ourselves to the fact in the position that we must stand up again for our Hunthat we are unable to sustain ourselves even biologically, garian identity, for our Christian identity, protect our famby doing so we admit that we are not important even for ilies and communities, and also protect our freedom.” ourselves. So why would we be important for the world?

Standing before cardinals, bishops and state officials at The fate of such peoples is slow but certain obliteration, the Second International Conference on Christian Perseuntil they become a mere cloud of dust on the highway of cution, this past November, Orbán recalled the history of the Hungarian people, pointing to the Christian Faith as nations. It is not written in the great book of humanity the sole means of their survival, and connecting this with that there must be Hungarians in the world. It is only the Hungarian Constitution: “One thousand one hundred written in our hearts.... Hungary before everything, God years ago, the majority of the Hungarian tribes — hundreds above us all.”l JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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TOP TEN PEOPLE

Katie Ascough Niamh Uí Bhriain Cora Sherlock Three pro-life crusaders in post-Christian Ireland

“WE MAY HAVE LOST A BATTLE, BUT OUR CAUSE WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED”

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n January 1, 2019, abortion services became available in Ireland for the first time under the provisions of the Health Act of 2018. However, as always, these sad realities bring to light the fact of the many faithful who wish to preserve the truth and their country. Most notably, three female Irish activists chose to make a stand for life in their once deeply Catholic country, despite much resistance, and even backlash, from their peers. Katie Ascough, a young college student at the University College of Dublin who was impeached by her fellow-students for her pro-life views, as well as Niamh Uí Bhriain and Cora Sherlock, have helped to start and head Ireland’s Anti-Abortion Campaign in Dublin.

Twenty years old, Katie Ascough was the first University College Dublin Student Union (UCDSU) President to be removed from office after 69 percent of voters chose to oust her when her anti-abortion views were discovered.

The campaign to remove Ascough from her role began in 2016, when she removed a page providing potentially illegal information on abortion from the student union’s newspaper, called Winging It — a publication aimed at first-year students. While she said that she did this for legal reasons, since abortion information in Ireland at the time was prohibited, Ascough proceeded to speak out against abortion.

Ascough emphasizes the fact that her anti-abortion views come from her love for women and children. She 38

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

told RTE Radio: “(Rape) is one of the most abhorrent crimes towards women and I completely condemn it. In fact, I think we need to look at having more serious sentences for rapists in Ireland.” Yet, Ascough is outspoken about the fact that abortion is never an acceptable answer: “We need better financial measures for single mothers.

We need to improve adoption services because they are abominable and we need to show true compassion to these women in these situations.

“I think we need to support them in as many ways as we can but at the same time, when it comes to bodily autonomy, there are two people involved in a pregnancy.

A child’s heart starts beating at 21 days. And I don’t think we can ignore that.”

Throughout the decade these women, along with many others, have fought for just legislation in Ireland protecting the unborn and their mothers, even sacrificing their reputation and political standing.

“We may have lost a battle but our cause will never be defeated” said Catholic policy campaigner and pro-life activist, Niamh Uí Bhriain, after the 2018 amendment legalizing abortion was passed in Ireland. Two years later, after this defeat, the pro-life movement in Ireland is still going strong, under the guidance of leaders like Ui Bhriain. Born in Cork in 1970, Ui Bhriain grew up in a changing country — a country, once governed by Christian laws and principles, that was turning into a secular state, ruled by secular ideals that extol the individual at the expense of the family. As a sixteen-year-old in 1986, Ui Bhriain co-founded “Youth Defense,” an organization formed to fight against the divorce referendum (a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Ireland to remove the prohibition on divorce).

Ui Bhriain received her strong beliefs and her forthright character from her mother, Úna Bean Mhic Mhathúna,

2019

who was secretary of the Irish She qualified as an attorney in Three female Irish activists chose Housewives’ Union and 2002 and practiced law until became famous for her letter to to make a stand for life in their 2015 when she joined the Prothen-prime minister of Ireland, once deeply-Catholic country, Life Campaign as its press offiCharles Haughey, denouncing despite much resistance, even cer. Currently, Sherlock is their careerism among mothers and public spokeswoman and attorbacklash, from their peers. sex education for young chilney. dren. Following in her mother’s Sherlock currently writes for footsteps, Ui Bhriain became LifeSite News, The Irish Times, A demonstration in Ireland before the vote to legalize abortion the spokesperson for the MothThe UK Catholic Herald, as er and Child Campaign, which lobbied against the introwell as on her own website. With the unyielding voice of duction in Ireland of the right for same-sex couples to a lawyer, in a famous article published in The Irish adopt children. She was quoted as saying: Times, Sherlock wrote: “I would not be confident in knowing that, God forbid, something happened to myself or my husband, that my “In choosing to strip unborn children of all constitutionchildren would be raised in a household where there was al protection, Harris [Prime Minister of Ireland] and others a same-sex union. The adoption board and the Prime Minare wilfully turning a blind eye to the wealth of scientific ister have refused to give assurances to Irish parents that evidence demonstrating the humanity of the unborn. the children will not be placed in households where there “They are undeniably human. Yet those on the Yes are same-sex unions and will not be raised by homosexuside believe the only rights the most vulnerable and als or lesbians.” defenseless people in our society have in our Constitution — the right to life contained in the Eighth AmendCora Sherlock is Catholic writer, blogger, and one of ment — should be stripped away.” the foremost pro-life activists in Ireland. Sherlock has spoken at the United Nations several times, and was choSherlock relentlessly continues to argue for the rights sen as one of the BBC’s “100 women” in 2014 for her of the unborn, predicting the grief that a country that is inspiring work in her field. built on a culture of abortion will cause: Born in Drogheda, County Louth, Sherlock won “We are being told to hope that abortion on demand in provincial and national debating competitions, and Ireland will not lead to the catastrophic consequences it subsequently completed a Bachelor of Civil Law at the has led to elsewhere: the ending of countless lives, and the University College Dublin, and her Master’s Degree in causing of untold hurt and anguish to so many women.”l Computers and Law at Queens’ University in Belfast.

JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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TOP TEN PEOPLE

Vincent Guo Xijin Bishop in China

“I AM READY TO FACE THE PERSECUTION”

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ntil 2018, Bishop Guo was the ordinary of the constant pressure from the Communist authorities, who Diocese of Mindong, located in the southern regularly order his imprisonment; yet, he says, “I am province of Fujian. However, with the signing of ready to face the persecution with other priests.” Bishop the “provisional agreement” between the Vatican and Guo was born in 1958, and since his ordination to the China in September of 2018, which resulted in Pope priesthood in 1984, he has been a zealous member of the Francis lifting the excommunications of several invalidly Catholic underground Church in China. Guo has been ordained bishops in China, including Bishop Zhan, the imprisoned several times, and since 2006, he has been Underground Church in China was deeply disturbed. At regularly placed under house arrest by the Communist the request of Pope Francis, Bishop Guo voluntarily police. stepped down as the ordinary of the Mindong diocese in According to AsiaNews, the 61-year -old auxiliary favor of Bishop Zhan, to become bishop is reportedly exhausted his auxiliary. by his ordeal, having been This was among the condi- Bishop Guo has been a zealous harassed for more than a year tions Chinese officials had promember of the underground by the Chinese government. posed to Bishop Guo during his Although under the watch of 2017 detention. Bishop Guo told Catholic Church in China, due government security guards, Guo the New York Times last February to his deep-rooted faithfulness escaped from the headquarters of that “we must obey Rome’s deciMsgr. Vincenzo Zhan Silu, the to the Holy See sion,” and that “our principle is officially recognized bishop of Vincent Guo Xijin of Mindong, China, pictured when he was that the Chinese Catholic Church aBishop Mindong, and is now in hiding. priest, detained in a government-run hostel in China’s Fuan City in must have a connection with the While Bishop Vincent Guo 2006 (ucanews.com photo) Vatican; the connection cannot be may be, as AsiaNews puts it, the severed.” best-known “victim of the Sino-Vatican agreement,” he Faithful to the Holy See, Bishop Vincent Guo is under is, by far, not the only one.l

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2019

Emery Kabongo Kanundowi Former Personal Secretary of St. John Paul II

“BY NATURE THE AFRICAN IS A VERY SPIRITUAL AND BELIEVING PERSON”

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o this day, in the midst of all of the politics, turmoil, and tension that surround the Church, and particularly the Vatican, there remains a lone canon (that is, one who is part of the ecclesial body responsible for a cathedral) of St. Peter’s Basilica who is willing, despite everything, to meet and spend time with pilgrims from all over the world. He is one who is always ready to receive them and speak with them, one who worked with Pope John Paul II as his personal secretary.

When you encounter Archbishop Emery Kabongo, he leads you directly to the tomb of John Paul II; but more importantly, he brings you through the Basilica, climbing down the narrow metal steps into the dark corners underneath, to touch the tomb of St. Peter and to pray there, as a way of redirecting you to the spiritual aspects of the Faith — and to a deeper relationship with Christ. Kabongo is a beacon of light in a dark time, whose work as a canon is to focus on spiritual things before earthly things.

As Kabongo leads pilgrims through the Vatican, it is evident that he is beloved by all of the workers there as well.

Born in Bena-Kazadi-Tshikula, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on July 22, 1940, he was appointed in 1982 as Pope John Paul II’s second secretary, service that lasted until 1987. He worked side-by-side with John Paul II from 1982 to 1987, traveling alongside the Pope on all his international trips.

On December 10, 1987 Pope John Paul II gave him the personal title of Archbishop of Luebo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and on January 6, 1988 he received his episcopal order from Pope John Paul II. Before his appointment as Personal Secretary to Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Kabongo was working at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State until, one day, he received a call from the Pope, as he recalls in the book Accanto Giovanni Paolo II (“Side by Side with John Paul II”): “My first memory of John Paul II was when he appointed me as his personal secretary, so that I could help his first secretary, Stanislaw Dziwisz. I didn’t write a letter or ask for an appointment. That’s why I thank him for his Catholic mentality and for thinking that an African would be a good secretary.”

Archbishop Kabongo writes about one particular trip that he said he will always remember: “During his trip to Colombia I got sick and I just remember waking up in the bed that had been prepared just in case the Pope didn’t feel well, especially since he could have trouble with the altitude. So the doctors took me to that room and I asked myself: ‘How is it that I’m here?’ It turns out it was John Paul II who asked them to put me in a safe place so that I could recover, and I stayed there for two days.”

“He was like a father, for me and for the rest of the team. He never yelled or raised his voice at us — never,” Kabongo said.

In an address given by Pope John Paul II on the occasion of Kabango’s appointment as Bishop of Luebo, Pope John Paul II praised Kabongo’s spiritual and intellectual formation, as well as recognizing Kabongo’s love of his homeland: “Do I need to tell you what the joy was for me in celebrating this ordination, in conferring the fullness of the priesthood on Monsignor Kabongo?

“I remembered his long intellectual and spiritual preparation for pastoral service, his experience in the representations of the Holy See in Asia and South America, and the ten years during which I appreciated his careful collaboration.

“Dear Excellency, you will now reach the homeland that you love so much and where you are expected by the vast Christian community of the diocese of Luebo.”

Kabongo’s deep love for his homeland, the Congo, in central Africa, is clear when he speaks about Africa’s Christianity.

In a 2014 press communiqué for the presentation of the Conference “The Church in Africa from Vatican II to the Third Millennium: Tribute of Africa to Popes John XXIII and John Paul II,” Kabongo wrote: “We can say that the Church in sub-Saharan Africa is young: Christianity took root in us in the colonial period, it is just over a hundred years old (…) in the post colonial period, it has just over a hundred years of history.

“The Christian message has found fertile ground, because by nature the African is a very spiritual and believing person.”l JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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INTERVIEW

“THE CHURCH’S MISSION CANNOT BE LIMITED TO A THIS-WORLD MISSION”

Final part of an interview with ARCHBISHOP CHARLES BROWN, Papal Nuncio to Albania

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n BY BARBARA MIDDLETON FOR INSIDE THE VATICAN harles John Brown is an American-born archbishop of the Catholic Church who has been apostolic nuncio to Albania since 2017. Before entering the diplomatic service of the Holy See, he worked at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Inside the Vatican correspondent Barbara Middleton interviewed Archbishop Brown at the monastery of the cloistered Carmelites in Clinton Township, Michigan, U.S.A., in July of 2019, of which the following is the last of three parts.

I doing here on this earth? Where did I come from?

“No one asked my permission before I was created; I woke up, I opened my eyes, I was here — how did that happen?” I mean, if you’re constantly going, you’re just trying to buy the next thing or go to the next party, you don’t ask those questions…Where did creation come from? All of these deeper questions, I think secularism basically tells us, “Don’t ask that. Buy more stuff and don’t bother your pretty little mind with those big questions and just buy more stuff and you’ll be In the 20th century, we had more martyrs fine.” And that’s what we need to resist…we need than in the 19 previous centuries combined. to resist that mentality and not live our lives on a Why has martyrdom become more prevalent? superficial level and, if I might say, indeed, on the Should the Church focus more on the martyrs’ level of stupidity and spiritual insensitivity.

As a nuncio, what can you do to try and courage and devotion, as a lesson to inspire both young and old to live lives of greater faith? Archbishop Charles John Brown. On March bring people back to the Church?

ARCHBISHOP CHARLES BROWN: Well, to that When I say, “as a nuncio,” I say this with a lit9, 2017, Pope Francis named him the Apostolic Nuncio to Albania question, I would say, you know, the famous line tle bit of regret, as it is not really directly a pastor. of the early Church Fathers, like Tertullian: “In the blood of the martyrs He is really essentially a diplomat and as I said earlier, a liaison, a link is the seed of Christians.” You know it’s almost the case that where the between the Holy See, between Pope Francis, and a given country. The blood of the martyrs is poured out, new Christians spring up — it’s nuncio’s job is to inspire the pastors, who are the bishops and then almost literally true! In the state where I’m from, New York, and from under the bishops, the priests, to be faithful and to evangelize. I was Ossernenon, New York, where St. Isaac Jogues, the Jesuit missionary, delighted to be here in the Archdiocese of Detroit and to see the Pastoral was martyred — on the spot where he was martyred, later on was born Letter from Archbishop Allen Vigneron on “Unleash the Gospel.” This Kateri Tekakwitha, a convert, and literally the place where he was maris exactly what we need to do. We need to evangelize and evangelizatyred is the place where she was born. So you see that the blood of martion means asking people, bringing people; to encounter the person of tyrs is the seed of Christians. And I think, why is there more persecution Christ, and that happens essentially through prayer, through the expenow? You know that the devil knows that the demons know his time is rience of prayer. It happens when people realize that living their lives short, and he’s kind of raging furiously against the children of the on a superficial level is not enough. It doesn’t satisfy the deepest desires of the heart; one needs to look deeper. If we begin to look deeper we’ll Church in these last days.

We’re seeing across the world there are many cultures that are begin, we will find. We will begin to ask the right questions and we’ll begin to find the answers in there — the answer to the deeper questions becoming more secular, with young people confused by the materof the human heart. The answer has a name and a face, and it’s Jesus of ial world and focusing more attention on self. As a result, the Nazareth. God made man who came into this world to save us and to Church is shrinking... How can we turn this around?

Secularism is a huge problem in large parts of the world. And I think show us the way that leads to life eternal.

You were in Ireland and I’m sure you saw a massive exodus that you know it’s a complicated phenomenon, and it takes different from the Church. What has led a very Catholic country astray? forms in different countries; but I think that materialism is definitely To be honest, I think most of the exodus of the Catholic Church in part of it. Consumerism is part of it; capitalism is part of it, where we Ireland took place before I arrived there. But there probably was some are in a situation of constant stimulation by the different facets of capexodus while I was there, going on as well. Every country is different. italism — enticing us; addicting us; buying stuff or to play video games Ireland has a peculiar history. And I think that one could — and it’s or to surf the Internet constantly or to go on social media and spend all always difficult to generalize or to talk about complicated things in of our time doing those things — and a lot of these things, I think, prebroad strokes — but I think what one could say in Ireland, is that you vent us from asking the deeper questions, you know, and it’s a way of basically have three periods with respect to the Catholic Church, three life. It’s like a continuous permanent distraction, and we are unable to, historical periods that are impacting the present moment. One is the certainly have no time to, pray — but even ask the question, “What am 42

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period of the persecution of the Faith in Ireland which took place over How can we make the Church more spiritual? Many Catholics centuries and which rooted the Catholic faith in the hearts of the Irish leave for Protestant churches, the “mega-churches.” Could a people. The persecution of the Faith and the amazing fidelity of the greater emphasis on spirituality cause them to return? priests of Ireland to their mission as priest, the service of the priests to The example of good and holy priests and religious is very importhe Irish people during the times of persecution and suffering — it built tant. We must focus on the spiritual mission of the Church, as we were up a, how should we say, a patrimony of goodwill towards the Church. talking about earlier today with the Carmelite nuns. We must focus on That’s the first period. the mission of the Church. Think about the words of Jesus in front of Then we have the second period after independence in the 1920s, Pontius Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world.” The Church’s miswhen all of that goodwill that was built up over the centuries, really of sion cannot be limited to a this-worldly mission. There are many, many persecution, gets translated into a lot of political and social power for issues in this world which are extremely important and which demand the Catholic Church, with their culture the Catholic Church didn’t have our attention, but in the end, the most important thing is “the life of the when she was being persecuted. That political world to come” which begins now with the life of power and social prestige leads, inevitably, to sanctifying grace in our hearts. And when we “put some degree of corruption. And it’s almost first things first,” that is, the life of grace, the life inevitable that when the Church is comfortable of the world to come, striving for heaven… then, and greatly esteemed, people become priests for everything else follows. Then even the realities of perhaps not the best reasons. And that leads into this world begin to blossom and flourish. the third period, which was a period of reaction to But we need to “put first things first” and seek the second period. So we’re now living a reaction first the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of period, a reaction against the time in which the God is not a this-worldly realty. As Pope Francis Church was powerful socially and politically in has said, the Catholic Church is not an NGO. Ireland... And that is a painful and difficult expeWe’re not here to create some kind of this-worldly rience for Irish Catholics and especially for Irish paradise — that was the error of Communism. priests to bear.

There is indeed a paradise, but that paradise will But I think what will happen is that through come with Christ when He returns. And we will this, we will go back, in a certain sense, to the first achieve that paradise — God willing and by His period of a kind of persecution which will purify grace, we will be found worthy (cf. 2 Thess. 1:5) the Church, purify the priesthood and re-root, if when we pass from this world, when we make the you will, the Catholic faith in the hearts of the transition, the passage, from this world to the life Our Lady of Shkodra with a group of people of Ireland because it’s in their DNA. And of the world to come.The most beautiful thing for Albanian martyrs even now, I was recently in Medjugorje on a little any of us, at the end of our life, would be to hear pilgrimage and I was impressed by how many Irish people were there God speak our name, saying, “Come, Barbara; come, Charles; come...”

— I would say at least half the English-speaking pilgrims in Medjugor— to hear God speak your name at the end of your life and embrace you je were from Ireland. And so there is still this faith in Ireland. It’s been in His kingdom. under siege and the situation is not easy, but there still is faith there and What saint has been your greatest inspiration and why?

I believe that the roots of the faith are so deep that, once again, the green That’s a very easy question because my favorite saint is a saint who shoots will sprout in Ireland. was born in what is now northern Israel, in the town of Nazareth. Her Pope Emeritus Benedict said we’ll be a smaller and more faithname is Mary. Everything depends on her. She said “yes” to God and ful Church. Or do we have a long way to go? the cosmos changed. Everything changed, because a young woman — I think it’s different in different countries. I think you always tradinot in the capital, but in the north of the country, in the second or third tionally speak about France as “la fille ainee de I’Englise,” the “eldest city of the country— almost certainly a teenage girl who was espoused daughter of the Church,” and you look at the Church in France today. to be married, said “yes” to God. She allowed God to enter her life, to become flesh in her womb. Mary gave flesh to God. So, she is by far She’s kind of always on the vanguard, and some of the problems of the most important saint. And if we love her, listen to her, follow her, that…the vocations crisis hit the Catholic Church in France before it hit allow her to lead us, let her organize everything, then we’ll be fine. the Church in other places. And I think if you look at the Catholic Is there something I didn’t ask you that you would like to say?

Church’s state in France, you see a Church that is good, is certainly No, I don’t think so, Barbara, I think you covered everything very smaller and certainly more fervent. And that probably is the trajectory, exhaustively. You are a very good interviewer! I am very happy to be the direction, of the Church. I think in most of the European countries here in Michigan. As I said, my mother is from Detroit. She lives now — to what extent that can be applied to North American and South on Cape Cod with my sister. Her father, my grandfather, was from America, I think it’s an open question — but for Northern Europe, I Mount Pleasant, Michigan, Irish-American farmers in Mount Pleasant think the Church will be smaller and more fervent.

Do you see evangelization taking place in Albania?

— the Murphys from Mount Pleasant! My grandmother was from I do. I mean, we see baptisms of adults. I myself baptized adults in Hillsdale, Michigan. Her father was a railroad conductor born in Ire land and her mother was a very faithful Protestant. In fact, it seems to Albania. The Albanian reality is quite small; numerically there are far have been my Protestant great-grandmother who taught my grandmore Catholics, I believe, in the Archdiocese of Detroit than there are mother the Catholic Catechism. My grandmother learned the Catholic in the entire country in Albania. But there’s great interest in the Catholic Catechism from her Protestant mother! And so, I’m a Catholic today faith. You have a great openness among young people to the truths of because of that.m the Catholic faith. And I see that again and again in Albania.

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INTERVIEW

“SEEK THAT WHICH IS ABOVE”

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ARCHBISHOP SALVATORE CORDILEONE of San Francisco on “true inculturation,” “true beauty,” and keeping our eyes always focused on Christ

n BY JAN BENTZ FOR INSIDE THE VATICAN n November 16, a special Holy Mass was celebrated in the Extraordinary Form at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. The Mass, called “Mass of the Americas,” is a unique adaptation of the classical Mass texts into artistic forms of the Americas. Moreover, it is adaptable to the Extraordinary Form.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, President of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, spoke to Inside the Vatican about the meaning of this original composition and what true “inculturation” is.

What follows is the first of two parts:

wood — a screenwriter who went to a Christian school for screenwriting for Hollywood — with people of the art of literature as well as the art of music.

We have concerts and sacred liturgies using sacred music. We have recruited a composer in residence, Frank La Rocca, a very accomplished composer of sacred music who will join our efforts in the Bay Area, a big area for which to compose new compositions of sacred music. You may have heard of the first one he did, which we call the “Mass of the Americas.”

The idea was, last year in the archdiocese we had a large celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe the Saturday before the feast day.... There is a long Photos from a “Mass of the Americas” celebrated in the procession with music and cowboys Inside the Vatican: You are the Archdiocese of San Francisco by Cordileone and all kinds of cultural things before president of the Benedict XVI the Mass, to vary the celebration. Honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship, based in San is an opportunity to hold up Our Lady as the mother of all of God’s Francisco at the diocesan seminary. What inspired the foundachildren who unites us into one family. tion of that Institute?

So I asked Frank to compose this Mass of sacred music, in the ARCHBISHOP SALVATORE CORDILEONE: The original idea was to sacred music of polyphony, but to incorporate the sounds and even enhance the quality of the liturgy in our parishes and to provide some melodies of popular songs that people sing for Our Lady of resources so that our liturgies would be more vibrant, more beautiGuadalupe... He did a lot of research and accomplished what I had ful, more reverent, and with a deeper sense of the sacred. As I delibasked. The analogy, the idea, to him, was what the Franciscan friars erated this, with input of others advising me, we developed the sort did in building the mission churches. It is a whole new development of standard edition that approaches the goal another way, such as of church architecture, mission church architecture, which is the trawith the continuous “revived” resources we are providing to parishditional Catholic Church, clearly in es, that seek to help parishes learn that tradition, but it also reflects the how to sing chant; conducting chant local culture in the materials that are camps for children; and teaching used and also the style of art. That’s school choirs. what we did and we are now sort of But also we are reviving a taking it on the road.

Catholic culture of the arts, recogI celebrated a Mass with the nizing that the Church has always Archbishop of Tijuana there; actualbeen a great champion of the arts, a ly, it was the concluding Mass of a patron of the arts, and the beauty of national conference on liturgical truth, beauty and goodness. But the music. People from all over Mexico Church has been pretty much absent in the area of liturgical music were from that for the last 50 years or so, participating. The closing Mass for so we are revitalizing a Catholic culthat night I celebrated and preached. ture of the arts, and we teach through The Mass, choir, and musicians the works of Catholic artists; we came from the U.S. side of the borhave an online course, we have a lecder, so it was a real moment of unity. ture series on all the areas of art; we Now, I don’t know if you heard: the work with screenwriters from Holly44

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

The Benedict XVI Institute's schola with Archbishop Cordileone and Father Cassian outside San Quentin State Prison, August 5, 2018 (Photo courtesy of the Benedict XVI Institute)

abbot scheduled a performance for tainty and hecticness of life on the the Basilica of the National Shrine streets, somehow to convey that in of the Immaculate Conception in sacred music. To do it you need to Washington, D.C. This time it will know about homelessness...so you be in the form of an Extraordinary can really understand it from the Form Mass. inside out.

So I asked Frank to adapt the The hope is that it will revitalize music to the Extraordinary Form. again the Catholic culture that He did the original composition, holds sacred art in all forms, to have most of it, in Latin, but there are a the Church worship, giving glory to few parts in Spanish, a couple of God. But also the contribution that parts in English. He even comCatholics make to the whole world posed a Communion meditation of art, even in the secular realm. which is the Hail Mary in Nahuatl, That somehow this revitalization the language of the Aztec people. It will have a ripple effect into the is the language Our Lady actually parishes, creating a greater desire spoke to Juan Diago. He composed for this high form of beauty in our the canticles around it as kind of the introit at the beginning of the liturgies. And again to continue to provide these practical resources Mass. Those vernacular pieces we cannot use within the Mass itself; for the parishes. we can use them outside the context of the Mass. And the Mass cards In fact, the teaching choir we just formed a couple of years ago, are in Spanish or in English; we had to translate into Latin. So he another part of this effort, is in the festival of Mary we do in May adapted this music to the Extraordinary Form Mass. We want to now, every Sunday. To hear classic chants, polyphony, and hymns to show that it’ll be the same music.

Our Lady from different history and different cultures; to celebrate A special set of vestments were made for this by Ultra Worthy — that in our cathedral, it’s a “lessons and chorals” sort of format so it’s very beautiful vestments. Again, the vestment maker really put a lot not just a concert: it is prayer, there are Scripture readings, and other of thought into the symbolic meaning of the vestments. She even put readings from Fathers of the Church. Some of the hymns the people roses on in the color of the brocade in the middle; the color of the sing together; the choir will do more complex hymns in a polyphony brocade is the color of Mary’s mantle that she is wearing in the image sort of style. So we do that in May. of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She put some roses with the Scripture Two years ago — a year and a half — I was going to the San verse, Psalm 147, which was the basis of the homily I gave. I didn’t Quentin State Prison in the archdiocese. I celebrate Mass there quite ask her to do this...she put on the Latin quote, “Non fecit taliter omni frequently. I was walking with the chaplain toward the entrance of nationi” (“He hath not done in like manner to every nation”), which the prison when he asked me what I was doing later that day. That of course, for Israel, is God entering into the covenant with the peowas our first one, our first festival of Marian hymns, and I explained ple and giving them this higher law. But it is then applied to Our to him about the institute, about the teaching choir, and he said, “Oh! Lady of Guadalupe and the massive effort of evangelization that then Can they come here and teach the men how to sing chant?” So we happened after that, so many people coming into the Church. did that. A couple of months later we had a concert. They do have a Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone gives So it will be the same vestments and dedicated Catholic chapel (not too many prisCommunion to a man with his dog on November music, but in the Extraordinary Form version ons do). We had a concert of chant in the 8 at St. Patrick Church in San Francisco of the Mass, albeit a more difficult form of chapel in the prison, and our teaching choir (CNS photo/Debra Greenblat, courtesy Archdiocese of San Francisco) the Mass. So again, it’s another way to show was there. It was well attended and about thirthe continuity of the Church in worship and ty of the men signed up to be part of a Gregothe possibility of the Church to worship in rian chant schola. There is now a schola, a either Form. It’s a living tradition. Sacred Gregorian chant schola, inside the San music isn’t something of the past, or Quentin State Prison... something confined to concert halls. It was So we are seeing how beauty has the composed for worship; we are using it for power to heal the spirit. Someone else whom, worship, and we are developing new through the institute, we are working with in compositions of sacred music.

San Diego, has been teaching and working The next one Frank is working on is in the with women who are victims of human trafarchdiocese here in San Francisco that will ficking — to sing Gregorian chant, ancient be celebrated in November — the Mass will hymns to the Virgin Mary, to help in their healbe a special Mass for the dead: a memorial ing process, in getting their life back together.

Mass for people who died homeless. And the [We] try to hold up the power of beauty for decision was made to make this an annual healing and for unity to these different efforts Mass. So I asked him to compose a requiem and resources. for the homeless. I have these bizarre ideas The conclusion of ITV’s interview with and somehow he manages to achieve them.

Archbishop Cordileone will appear in the next To convey the sense of the fear and uncerissue.m JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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FOOTSTEPS ON THE WAY

SERVANT OF GOD, PADRE DOMENICO DA CESE THE HOLY FACE, BILOCATION, AND SAINT PADRE PIO n BY TAMARA KLAPATCH

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ho is this humble Capuchin from Manoppello, Italy, and how have I come to know of him? This journey began in 2006, when my son Joseph and I went for the first time to see the holy “resurrection veil” of Jesus Christ, known as the Volto Santo (“Holy Face”). The veil is an extremely fine cloth, woven out of marine byssus (a silky filament harvested from certain sea mollusks), and bearing the image of Jesus; it shows a countenance with facial wounds still just beginning to heal, yet there is a gentleness in His eyes that affects many who come before this image of Our Lord.

Transparent in certain lighting, this delicate cloth is impossible to be painted, as confirmed by Chiara Vigo, the renowned expert on marine byssus from Sardinia. This particular veil can be traced back historically to the Sack of Rome, along with earlier icons or religious paintings showing the image on a veil with the eyes of Jesus open, possibly reflecting the moment of His Resurrection.

History speaks of this image being carried in procession from the Vatican to the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome, by Pope Innocent III in 1208. This is also thought to be the cloth which is spoken of

by John (20:6-8). When he and Peter “saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head,” John was able to say that “he saw and believed.”

For some time, I had been a devotee of St. Padre Pio, visiting his shrine at San Giovanni Rotondo several times, and participating in the February 2016 procession of his body to St. Peter’s for the Jubilee Year of Mercy. But I was unfamiliar with the life of Padre Domenico da Cese, whom Padre Pio called a “spiritual son.” That was all about to change.

In 2018, while watching a program entitled, “The Long Road of Fr. Domenico: From Cese to Turin,” I saw footage of Padre Domenico de Cese as the first person ever caught on film during a bilocation: he was participating in Padre Pio’s funeral procession on September 26, 1968, while also still in Manoppello.

I wanted to know more. So, on a pilgrimage to Manoppello in October 2018, I sought further information, and was referred to Sr. Petra-Maria Steiner, who wrote the book, Servant of God Padre Domenico da Cese, O.F.M. Capuchin: An Illustrated Biography. I purchased the Italian-language book and Sr. Petra-Maria and I soon met; I eventually helped her to publish her book on this extraordinary Capuchin in English.

GOD’S GUIDING HAND IN PADRE DOMENICO’S LIFE Padre Domenico da Cese was born Emidio Petracca on March 27, 1905; his parents were Caterina and Giovanni. By the age of 4, little Emidio was diagnosed with infantile paralysis. His mother took him to the local church, placed him on the altar of the Blessed Mother and

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INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

Padre Domenico da Cese, the “Apostle of the Holy Face” of Manoppello, with the image of a bruised man who is just opening his eyes

desperately prayed; miraculously, Emidio began to move his legs and feet. From that moment on, Mary the Mother of God would continue to be at his side in a special way.

The day before the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the Abruzzi area, killing 30,000 people, on January 13, 1915, 9-year-old Emidio predicted it — but who would ever listen to a child? In the family home, his mother was saved by a beam which became lodged safely; his two younger sisters, Elisa and Lauretta, were killed. Emidio and his father were trapped beneath the rubble of the church, when a “stranger” later pulled them out. It would not be until many years later that Emidio would come “face to face” with that stranger again.

A couple of years later, the Capuchins came to Cese for a mission, and the 12-year-old Emidio knew immediately that he wanted to become one. His father was firmly against it, but Our Lord told Emidio to ask for permission again; if he was permitted, then the family would be granted more children to take his place. His father finally agreed, and shortly after that Elisa, Mario and Angelo were born into the family.

Emidio entered the seminary in 1921, at the “Collegio Serafico” in Vasto. Then, in 1922, he went to the novitiate in Penne (where he chose the name Domenico) followed by studies in L’Aquila. He was then sent to Florence for military service as a paramedic. In Sulmona, on the feast of the Divine Motherhood of Mary, October 11, 1931, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Nicola Iezzoni.

Padre Domenico went to see Padre Pio in November 1940, at which time Padre Pio exclaimed, “Finally I have the honor to see a military chaplain with the cassock!” Soon his military duties sent him to various locations, where he witnessed the tragedies of war. While in Dubrovnik, on October 18, 1941, something miraculous occurred in the presence of a Mr. and Mrs. Basso: after Padre Domenico prayed the Divine Office prayers, his crucifix began to bleed warm red blood from the wounds of the cross. This crucifix is kept in the archives of the Capuchin Fathers in Manoppello.

Padre Domenico endured numerous trials: in October 1941, he wrote to his provincial of his extremely high fevers, migraines, swollen legs, “open wounds on his feet,” and lack of sleep, among other physical complaints. Later, he suffered the envy and jealousy of some of his brothers for his “radicalism”: he offered all for Jesus to save souls. He was sent to Luco dei Marsi, Trasacco, Campli and Caramanico Terme before finally being transferred to Manoppello — places in which he had many spiritual children who came to him for his counseling and blessing, as he was known also for his spiritual gifts, including reading souls. Padre Pio used to tell pilgrims, “Why do you not go to Padre Domenico in the Abruzzi and save the trip? He is just like me!” according to the testimony of Clarice Marchionni.

THE “APOSTLE OF THE HOLY edly bilocated: witnesses confirm JOURNEY TO ROME FOR EASTER 2020 FACE” that he led the tour, but he was also When Padre Domenico first seen by multiple witnesses, at the Join Inside the Vatican Pilgrimages for arrived in Manoppello in 1966 and very same time, attending the an extraordinary journey to Rome for Eastsaw the Volto Santo, he immedifuneral of Padre Pio himself at San er 2020! We will also visit Manoppello and ately recognized it as the face of Giovanni Rotondo, 2 ½ hours away venerate the Holy Face of the Risen Lord the “stranger” who had pulled him by car. Later, he organized a major whose eyes have opened in life on La Pasfrom the rubble of the church in exhibition of the Holy Face in quetta, “Little Easter” in Italy, and other speCese in 1915! But what was the Pescara, Italy, for the 19th Nationcial destinations, on this ITV Signature pilexact nature of this relic that he al Eucharistic Congress in 1977. grimage. VISIT pilgrimages@insidetheused to refer to as a “spider web” As predicted by Padre Domenivatican.com due to its sheerness? He became co himself, he was struck by a OR CALL 202-536-4555 TO LEARN MORE! utterly devoted to the Holy Face speeding Fiat 500 in Turin, on the on the cloth, and his devotion was such that he asked his superiors to evening of September 13, 1978, after spending time before the Shroud; allow him to remain permanently assigned to the shrine in Manoppelhe was knocked to the ground and hit his head on a curb. (At the same lo, a request which was granted. time, a 16-year-old girl, Elisabetta Venditti of Pescara, rushed to her Padre Domenico realized that the face of Jesus on the cloth is not mother, a spiritual daughter of Padre Domenico, saying she dreamt of that of a dead person, but of someone alive. He began research, comPadre Domenico falling to the ground covered in blood.) Padre paring the cloth, on which there were absolutely no traces of either Domenico forgave the driver of the car, and around 10:30 p.m. on Sepblood or paint, with pictures of the Shroud of Turin, concluding that tember 17, he passed away peacefully. one (the Shroud) was the image of a dead man, and the other (the Volto In Sr. Petra-Maria’s research, she discovered photos which show Santo) of a man who was alive — and both of the same person. the wounds of the stigmata in his hands. Is that also what Padre Pio (Sophisticated scientific research carried out by Italian scientists as meant when he told others to go to Padre Domenico because “he is just recently as January 2019 has, in fact, confirmed that the two images like me?!” overlap very well.)

The canonical process for the recognition of his holiness by the Padre Domenico eventually became the first Apostle of the Volto Church was opened by the Holy See in 2013, and in 2015, Padre Santo, and in this capacity he also led pilgrimage tours of the Shrine Domenico da Cese was declared a “Servant of God.” in Manoppello. It was during one of these tours, in 1968, that he reportPadre Domenico da Cese, please pray for us!m

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C AT H O L I C I S M A N D O R T H O D O X Y E D I T E D B Y: C H R I S T I N A D E A R D U R F F

The Message of the Icon

BY ROBERT WIESNER

PETER’S ODD PRAYER

iracles were rather more commonplace in ancient Israel than in our modern, rationalistic world. Or, rather, people were not quite as astonished at manifestations of the supernatural. There was no sharp distinction between the temporal, material world and eternity; God had, after all, conceived a universe, not a multiverse. Peter’s reaction to the great catch of fish, then, was not so much astonishment as a recognition that something rather holy was happening: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” God was God, He can do whatever He wants — but Peter was realistic enough to realize that he could only serve to contaminate the atmosphere around a miracle. Such close proximity to sanctity could be dangerous; after all, Uzziah had been struck dead merely for daring to steady the Ark with his hand when it was journeying to Jerusalem! Peter may well have been exhibiting his sense of self-preservation when he begged Jesus to go away. Clearly he did not yet recognize that the mission of the Messiah was precisely to make contact with holiness entirely accessible to fallen humanity; henceforth, sinners were to be struck alive when connecting to holiness!

Jesus taught a great many lessons concerning prayer. Some prayers, such as the mighty Lord’s Prayer, which He gave to the Apostles specifically when they asked for the lesson, have become universally beloved and practiced. Some, such as the prayer of the Publican, have been adopted more by the Christian East by than Roman Catholics: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Scripture has supplied other prayers: the Angelic Salutation has become the Hail Mary, the Magnificat and so many others have been derived from the Messiah’s mission. Of course, the

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continuity of Old and New Covenants is fully preserved by the Psalms, still faithfully prayed by all Christians. Such prayer needed little or no adaptation for Christian usage.

Certainly after the Resurrection of Christ and the constant teaching of the Church ever since, understanding these prayers has been much simplified. Virtually all of Scripture can be adapted for prayer, really. But what are we to make of Peter’s strange, almost petulant, request?

Peter eventually learned the revolutionary theology which brought humanity directly into the Divine Family, the Trinity: he had another Father now, to add to his earthly sire. He had a new brother in Jesus, in addition to Andrew. Animating all the new relationships was a Spirit of Holy Love, binding the family together in unity and amity.

Peter had ample experience with Jesus as his brother; he was even lifted out of the waters when threatened with drowning with the simple — and understandable — prayer “Lord, save me!” (Perhaps the thought even crossed Jesus’ mind, “He ain’t heavy; he’s my brother!”)

The Apostles lived together as seminarians for some three years, in a common family life, as they came to the formulation of a New Covenant to fulfill all previous agreements with God. More of the true nature of God was revealed to them than ever before in history with the realization that God actually became a member of the human family. So, Peter’s strange prayer, understandable under the old dispensation, needed some slight modification. We see this at the Last Supper, when Peter begged Jesus to wash not only his feet, but in fact his entire being!

A new year is a great time to pray a new adaptation of Peter’s prayer, as he may understand it now: “Lord, don’t You dare depart from me, for I am a sinner and without You there is no hope!”m

INSIDE THE VATICAN PILGRIMAGES made a special pilgrimage to Russia, as well as to Rome, to take part in the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the murder of Tsar Nicholas and his wife and five children in 1918. Contact us at insidethevaticanpilgrimages.com for information about joining us for upcoming special pilgrimages like this one.

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www.InsideTheVatican.com t Urbi et Orbi Foundation is a project of Urbi et Orbi Communications t 202-536-4555

Spirituality

BY FATHER EL MESKEEN*

“HE WHO FOLLOWS, GROWS AND BECOMES FREE” THE SPIRITUAL LAW IS GENEROUS AND POSITIVE, LIKE GOD HIMSELF FROM SPIRITUAL ECONOMY, BY FATHER MATTA EL-MESKEEN (MATTHEW THE POOR), SPIRITUAL FATHER OF THE MONASTERY OF ST. MACARIUS, IN THE ANCIENT DESERT OF SCETIS PART III – THE SPIRITUAL LAW IS THE LAW OF LOVE…

n this spirit, when a person begins praying (particularly with the Psalms) he feels that the words in his mouth are not ordinary, since they bear new meanings, directions, and promises for him. For although the word uttered by his mouth is the same as that which is recorded in the psalm, it nevertheless becomes as though it were uttered

by God to give him a satisfying answer, comfort, or a promise of salvation. This, in spite of the fact that prayer seems as though it were issued on the part of man alone; for the Holy Spirit secretly enters into prayer and begins answering a person with the self-same words that have been uttered.

This is the key to inward economy, for without the Holy Spirit’s intervention in prayer, words become very feeble and devoid of any directed message: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us” (Rom 8:26).

As a matter of fact, the Holy Spirit will never cease guiding anyone who is open-hearted and open-minded, but will implement the words of prayer and reading in an amazingly shrewd manner.

Hence, any prayer or reading presented without an open mind and without an intention to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, is regarded as being foreign to well-managed spiritual economy, and its owner never reaps from it any considerable progress: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 7:21); “I will pray with the spirit and with the mind also” (1 Cor 14:15).

Prayer is a spiritual rule, and as such is absolutely positive.

Spiritual rules are neither like the physical laws of nature, nor are they like the laws of the state which the government establishes to guarantee security and justice. Physical laws are generally locked, that is, they do not open towards anything beyond themselves. They are stingy, they punish but do not reward. Actually, they limit the freedom of man.

I

The rules of spirituality, however, are like the steps of a ladder; if you stand firmly on one step, then that step qualifies you for ascending to the next one up. Here, ascent is infinite, for spirituality has no limits. Hence it is easy to see that spiritual laws are not locked. It then follows that in our feelings we must not confuse physical with spiritual laws, and thus, on account of our painful physical experience with the word law, become anxious over spiritual laws.

Law in spirituality is very generous, and he who abides by it gains infinitely. If you obey faithfully, you are made fit for a higher rule with more generosity and freedom. But anyone who rejects or violates spiritual law does not fall under its vengeance like one who ignores the law of gravity or violates the law of the state. Spiritual law is genuinely positive; as with God himself, there is no negativism in it whatsoever. Another way of putting it is that it is only by accepting and obeying God that you can have a relationship with him.

He who follows, grows and becomes free; but he who rejects spiritual law deprives himself of growth and freedom. If you would like to consider a simple illustration of the work of spiritual law, you can find it in the saying of Christ: “Walk while you have the light lest the darkness overtake you” (John 12:35). Spiritual law is, as it were, a light in which we take refuge in order to walk; in its guidance we progress step by step. So long as we cling to the Light, we progress.

If however, we neglect or ignore it, it will not abandon us or avenge itself upon us, but darkness will overtake us and we shall no longer be able to walk…

If we follow this law, we walk in the light… we shall grow in love… For we shall walk, by necessity to the source of light itself, that is to say, to Christ who is Light; meaning that we will grow in love till we reach the fullness of the stature of Christ who is perfect love. This is an exquisite expression of growth without end…

To be continuedm

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C AT H O L I C I S M A N D O R T H O D O X Y

East-West Watch

BY PETER ANDERSON

ATHENS AND CONSTANTINOPLE

O

n October 12, 2019, the State acquired the Ionian Islands Church of Greece became (1866) and Thessaly (1881), the second of the Local Orthodox these areas were added to the Churches to recognize the autoChurch of Greece. cephaly of the new Orthodox As a result of the Balkan Wars Church of Ukraine (OCU). The and World War I, Greece acfirst Local Orthodox Church to recquired what is now northern From left: Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece, ognize the OCU was, of course, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (center), and Epifaniy, primate Greece, including Thessaloniki, of the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) Ecumenical Patriarchate of Conand the size of the state nearly stantinople which had granted a tomos (decree) of autocephaly to doubled. These “New Lands” were added to the “old Greece.” In the OCU in January 2019. This grant of autocephaly has been bit1928, the Ecumenical Patriarch issued a patriarchal act relating to terly opposed by the Moscow Patriarchate. Several other Local these New Lands. He “provisionally” assigned administrative conOrthodox Churches, such as the Serbian Patriarchate, support trol of the dioceses of the “New Lands” to the Church of Greece, Moscow’s position, while others have been reluctant to enter the but he retained supreme canonical authority over them. For examfray. Because of the unique relationship between the Church of ple, bishops elected in the “New Lands” must be approved by the Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, it is not surprising that Ecumenical Patriarch. Today, certain parts of modern Greece are the Church of Greece has been the first to recognize the Ecumenistill under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. cal Patriarchate’s grant of autocephaly. To understand this unique Crete, the Dodecanese islands (such as Rhodes and Patmos), and relationship, one must review some history.

Mt. Athos are directly under Constantinople and are not part of Because of the missionary efforts of St. Paul, Greece became the Church of Greece. the first European area to accept Christianity. Important episcopal Today, the Church of Greece consists of 45 dioceses in “old sees were subsequently established in cities such as Athens, Greece” and 36 dioceses in the “New Lands.” The Standing Holy Corinth and Thessaloniki. From the fourth century until 732, most Synod, which administers the Church, consists of six metropoliof what is modern Greece was part of the Exarchate of Illyricum tans (heads of dioceses) from “old Greece” and six from the “New under the Pope of Rome. In 732 Byzantine Emperor Leo III, unLands.” It is chaired by the Church’s primate, Archbishop Ieronyhappy with the Pope’s support of icons, transferred Illyricum to mos of Athens and All Greece. At least once a year, a Holy Synod the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople. For of the 81 diocesan heads meets to decide broader issues. The Conmore than a millennium, the area of modern Greece would remain stitution of Greece recognizes Orthodoxy as the “prevailing” reliunder the latter’s jurisdiction. gion and the salaries of Orthodox clergy are paid by the state.

After the Greek revolt of 1821-1828, southern Greece obtained The decision by the Church of Greece to recognize the right independence from the Ottoman Empire. In 1850 the Ecumenical of the Ecumenical Patriarch to grant autocephaly to the OCU was Patriarchate recognized the jurisdiction of a new Church of Greece made after two commissions and the Standing Holy Synod conover this area and granted it autocephaly. However, the tomos cluded that the Ecumenical Patriarch had this right. This was then granting autocephaly also provided that the Ecumenical Patriarch confirmed by the entire hierarchy with only a small number dissenting. Constantinople is now happy, but Moscow is very upset.m needed to be consulted on all important questions. When the Greek page 50

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NEWS from the EAST

METROPOLITAN HILARION OF VOLOKOLAMSK MEET WITH THE ARCHBISHOP OF ESZTERGOM AND BUDAPEST, CARDINAL PETER ERDO

On November 28, 2019, in the parish house at the Assumption Cathedral of Budapest (Hungary), a meeting was held between the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, and Archbishop Cardinal Peter Erdo of Esztergom and Budapest.

During the meeting, which took place in a warm and cordial atmosphere, a wide range of issues was raised. Metropolitan Hilarion, in particular, shared his impressions of participating in the Second International Conference in defense of persecuted Christians, which was taking place at that

YOUNG THEOLOGIANS FROM RUSSIA VISIT GERMANY FOR PETERSBURG DIALOGUE FORUM

From October 27 to November 3, 2019, in the format of the working group “Churches in Europe” in Germany, a series of youth theological meetings took place, in which students from Russia took part. They visited the leading universities in Germany, on the site of which working meetings were held with representatives of the Catholic and Lutheran churches, and state and municipal educational authorities.

The topic of the meetings was “Teaching Religion in German Schools.” Students of the General Church Graduate and Doctoral School named after Saints Cyril and Methodius, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg Theological Seminaries, and the Orthodox St. Tikhon Humanitarian University, got acquainted with the educational activities of the theolog-

BY BECKY DERKS

time in Budapest. The DECR chairman told the head of the Hungarian Catholics about the development of Church life in Russia, Ukraine and other countries under the canonical responsibility of the Russian Orthodox Church.

An exchange of views took place on the topics of work with young people, social ministry, missionary and educational activities of Christian Churches in the modern world.

At the end of the meeting, Metropolitan Hilarion presented the Cardinal with the publication of his Catechism book in Hungarian.

Then Metropolitan Hilarion and Cardinal Erdo went to the Assumption Cathedral, where the secretary of the Hungarian Diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate, Father Svyatoslav Bulach, acquainted the guests with the progress of restoration work carried out with funds allocated by the Hungarian state. (mospat.ru)

ical faculties of the universities of Munich, Erlangen and Berlin. Dr. Johannes Elderman, Executive Representative of the Petersburg Dialogue Forum, acted as the official representative of the host country. The head of the group of students from Russia is Deacon German Demidov, head of the Fundamentals of the Orthodox Culture of the Russian Orthodox Church sector. (mospat.ru)

MYSTERY ON MOUNT ATHOS: WOMAN’S BONES DISCOVERED IN MONASTERY

A group of scientists announced on December 8 in Thessaloniki that they had discovered bones “most certainly” belonging to a woman who was buried centuries ago at the cemetery of Pantokratoros Monastery on Mount Athos.

The Greek “Holy Mountain” with its nearly 1,800-year continuous Christian presence is home to 20 monasteries

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C AT H O L I C I S M A N D O R T H O D O X Y

where only men are allowed to visit. The bones were discovered during restoration work being done on the floor of the chapel of St. Athanasios of Athonitis, where all burial ceremonies of laymen connected with the monastery have taken place.

Restorer Phedon Hatziantoniou, who led the team of experts, speculated that the bones might possibly belong to a woman called Stasha, the wife of a 16th-century landlord called Barboul or Barbouli who lived at the monastery with his sons.

The remains have been sent to specialized laboratories in Athens for further examination.

“As far as I know, this is the first case that bones belonging to a woman have been discovered on Mt. Athos,” Hatziantoniou said in an interview with Greek daily newspaper To Ethnos.

“It is well known that in the past, when there were invasions or revolutions, the monks opened their border and their monasteries to protect the local population,” he explained.

The scientists have also discovered fragments of bones belonging to men in their research. They say that these were probably workers and support staff, since monks have their own ossuary inside the monastery’s main building. (Greek Reporter)

PATRIARCHATE OF ALEXANDRIA OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZES UKRAINE AUTOCEPHALY

On November 8, 2019, the Patriarchate of Alexandria officially recognized the Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. During the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Archangels in the Dahir district of Cairo, Pope and Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria commemorated Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine in the diptychs. The official announcement of Patriarchate of Alexandria states: “In the past month, we took note of the willingness of the holy brother hierarchs to recognize the Tomos of Autocephaly granted by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch to the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine.

“As is well known, our Holy Catholic Orthodox Church is governed under the synodical system, as inherited by the Tradition and the Holy Ecumenical Councils. To this end, the Primates of the local ecclesial synods are one of their members.

“Consequently, we, as a constituent and effective principle of the willingness of the holy brother Hierarchs, commemopage 52

rated and included in the diptychs of the Catholic Orthodox Church, the Primate of Autocephalous Church of Ukraine, His Beatitude Metropolitan Epifaniy of Kyiv and All Ukraine, while wholeheartedly praying for peace and stability of our Orthodox Churches.”

The Patriarchate of Alexandria is the second Autocephalous Orthodox Church to recognize the Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Autocephalous Church of Greece extended this recognition on October 12, 2019. The recognition of the Patriarchate of Alexandria of the Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is particularly significant, as the Patriarchate of Alexandria is commemorated second after the Ecumenical Patriarchate in diptychs. (Ecupatria)

THE COORDINATING COMMITTEE OF THE JOINT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE ORTHODOX CHURCH MEETS IN BOSE

Benefiting once again from the warm and generous hospitality of the brothers and sisters of the Monastic Community of Bose, the Coordinating Committee of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, under the co-presidency of Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for promoting Christian Unity, and Archbishop Job of Telmessos, permanent representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the World Council of Churches, met from 11 to 15 November 2019 at the Monastery of Bose (Italy). The Committee examined a revised draft text entitled, “Primacy and Synodality in the Second Millennium and Today.” It is envisaged that a further meeting of the Coordinating Committee will be held in 2020. (Ecupatria)

ALBANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ACTIVATES ALL CHARITY STRUCTURES, OPENS CATHEDRALS FOR HOMELESS IN WAKE OF DEVASTATING QUAKE

An earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale shook much of southern Greece on the morning of November 26, a day after a particularly destructive quake was recorded in coastal central Albania. Many residents in the greater Athens area felt the tremor, whose center was pinpointed between the

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large island of Crete and the island of Kythira.

In Albania, a national day of mourning was declared, as emergency crews frantically worked around the clock to search for survivors in the rubble. The earthquake in central Albania has so far resulted in at least 30 deaths, with injury to more than 700 people and widespread devastation.

From the first moment news of the quake was received, the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania and the Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania, Anastasios, were at the side of those affected by the natural disaster. Cathedrals were opened to host people whose homes were destroyed and damaged, while all of the Church’s charity structures were activated to provide any and all possible relief.

Messages of solidarity quickly reached the country from the Patriarchates of Romania and Bulgaria.

Anastasios received Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias at the Archdiocese in Tirana, as the latter traveled to Albania immediately after the quake in order to coordinate how Athens could aid in efforts to support the quake-stricken.

Anastasios thanked the minister on behalf of the Church for the support provided by the Greek state.

(Orthodoxia News Agency)

CRIMEAN COURT ORDERS DEMOLITION OF UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

A Russian-controlled court in annexed Crimea has ordered the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) to demolish its chapel in Yevpatoria.

The decision can be appealed within a month.

The Russian administration had been trying to vacate the territory on which the place of worship stands over allegations that the OCU didn’t have the proper

building permits from when construction began in 2014.

Metropolitan Epifaniy, the head of the recently-formed, independent OCU, said on Facebook that the court decision “grossly violates one of the fundamental human rights: freedom of conscience and religion.”

When Russia sent in masked soldiers without military insignia to take over Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in early 2014, there were 46 parishes affiliated with the Kyiv Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church.

After the first year of annexation, eight OCU parishes remained in Crimea.

“All faiths, except the Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate, have come under fire in occupied Crimea,” the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group said in September regarding the clampdown on the peninsula.

The last major OCU congregation was evicted from its church in September by court order in the peninsula’s capital of Simferopol.

The same month, the Russian Justice Ministry in Crimea for the third time since 2014 denied registration to the OCU on the peninsula.

In October 2018, Ukraine secured approval from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople — the spiritual head of Orthodoxy — to set up an independent Orthodox church.

Three months later, the OCU was granted independence, or autocephaly, ending more than 330 years of Russian Orthodox Church religious control in Ukraine.

Moscow long opposed such efforts by the Ukrainians for an independent church, which intensified after Russia annexed Crimea and threw support to separatists in parts of Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

(Radio Free Europe)m

The Christian Churches, the communities of the disciples of Christ, were intended to be united as one; Pope John Paul II proclaimed, “The Church must breathe with Her two lungs!” Unfortunately, the Churches are not united. This is a great scandal, an impediment to the witness of the Church. Since unity was desired by Christ Himself, we must work to end this disunity and accomplish the will of the Lord.

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page 53

Of Books, Art and People

RAPHAEL

AND

n BY LUCY GORDAN

A

HIS FRIENDS FROM URBINO

s there were many exhibitions worldwide in 2019 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo Da Vinci’s death, 2020 will be Raphael’s turn. The “dio mortale,” as biographer Vasari nicknamed him, was born in the small central Italian city of Urbino in the Marches region, on March 28 or April 6, 1483 and died in Rome on April 6, 1520.

According to Vasari, Raphael’s career falls naturally into three phases and three styles: his early years in Umbria working with Perugino and Pinturicchio; then a period of about four years (1504-1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence from Leonardo, followed by his last hectic and triumphant 12 years in Rome working for Popes Julius II and Leo X and their close associates.

The first Raphael-celebrative exhibition to open, “Raphael and His Friends in Urbino,” is on until January 19 in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, housed in the Ducal Palace, where Raphael’s father, Giovanni Santi, was the court painter to the very cultured Duke Federico da Montefeltro. It concentrates for the first time on Raphael’s early life and career before he left Urbino for Umbria and the lifetime friends he made in this leading Renaissance court-city.

Particularly important and featured here were older Timoteo Viti (Urbino 1469-Urbino 1523) and Girolamo Genga (near Urbino 1476-near Urbino 1551), who also intersected with Raphael’s Florentine and early Roman period as the exhibition demonstrates.

Raphael’s mother, Màgia, died in 1491, when Raphael was eight. His father soon remarried but died on August 1, 1494.

During those three intervening years, Raphael, according to Vasari, was “a great help to his father,” who 54

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

Here, by Raphael: Madonna Aldobrandini (1510), from London’s National Gallery; below, Madonna Conestabile (1504) from The Hermitage. Russian Tsar Alexander II acquired the painting from the Conestabile family of Perugia in 1871

recognized his son’s talent and placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino.

An alternative theory is that Raphael’s formal guardian, his paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, did not apprentice him to Perugino until around 1500, but that Raphael stayed in Urbino where he studied with Timoteo Viti, who had replaced Giovanni Santi as court painter, and that he managed his father’s workshop with his stepmother. Raphael and Viti worked together again from around 1514, when, according to Wikipedia, “Viti formed part of the large team assembled by Raphael and worked on the frescoes Raphael designed in the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria della Pace in Rome. It has been suggested that Viti is depicted (as the Ancient Greek painter Protogenes) in Raphael’s fresco The School of Athens, standing next to Raphael’s self-portrait, although Vasari does not mention this identification.” It’s also said that Viti “inherited the most important group of Raphael’s studio drawings,” continues Wikipedia, “which his descendants sold to [the French self-made financier/art collector] Pierre Crozat in the 17th century. Drawings have often been disputed between the two artists in the past, and Viti has also been accused of forging some Raphael drawings (though it seems now accepted this was someone else).”

Of the some 80 artworks on display in Urbino, many drawings and 19 paintings are by Raphael; the others are by Giovanni Santi, Viti, Genga, Signorelli, Perugino, Fra Bartolomeo, Domenico Beccafumi, Domenico Alfani, Francesco Francia, Pinturicchio, Lorenzo Costa, Raffaellino del Colle, and Giulio Romano. The exhibition’s six sections are displayed in chronological order.

The first of these is entitled Urbino at the End of the 15th CentuThe sixth room, After Raphael, concerns Genga’s move from Cery: Young Raphael and Timoteo Viti’s Debut. On display here are sena to Rome where he worked with Giulio Romano. Here his style Raphael’s Coronation of the Virgin or Oddi Altarpiece (1502-4) that continued to improve so greatly, thanks to his collection of drawings he painted while in Perugia in direct comparison with Pinturicchio’s,

by Raphael, that younger artists from all over Italy and Europe came both now in the Vatican; Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga (c.1504) to study with him. On display is the impressive cartoon for his and from the Uffizi; Madonna and Child with Sts. Jerome and Francis Giulio Romano’s Stoning of St. Stephen.

(1502) from the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, In addition to Urbino, Raphael will be and St. Catherine of Alexandria and its spotlighted in many other places in 2020. recto (1508) from Urbino with her pose In anticipation of these celebrations, the echoing that of Raphael’s Mary Magdalarge-scale cartoon for the Vatican fresco lene in the Alana Collection in Newark, The School of Athens (1509) was recently Delaware, and of Leonardo’s Leda. Here conserved and has been on display in Miit’s clear the Madonna and portraits of lan’s Ambrosiana since March 2019. Elsewomen are Raphael’s favorite subject. where in Italy, the most important of these In the second room, Raphael and Giroanniversary exhibitions will be at Rome’s lamo Genga between Florence and Siena, Scuderie del Quirinale March 5-June 14, are Raphael’s Madonna Conestabile 2020 in collaboration with the Uffizi in (1504) on loan from The Hermitage and Florence which will provide the backbone likely his last work painted in Umbria beloans: Raphael’s 1504-6 self-portrait fore going to Florence; his La Gravida (painted while in his early 20s), a pair of (Pregnant Woman, 1505/6), an unusual portraits of Agnolo and Maddalena Doni subject for the Renaissance, from Flo(c. 1504) and the Goldfinch Madonna rence’s Pitti Palace, showing the influence (c. 1506), also on display in Urbino. of Ghirlandaio; and two Madonnas (1506) Outside Italy, London’s National from Vienna’s Kunsthistorische Museum Gallery, the owner of 11 Raphaels, is exand from the Uffizi, painted in Florence pected to hold an anniversary show as is but still with his soft Umbrian colors. the Victoria and Albert Museum to highThe third room, The Routes of Raphael light its permanent display of its seven Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian by Girolamo Genga, and Genga in the Second Decade, inhuge Raphael tapestry cartoons of St. Pe(1500-1510) from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Below, Noli me Tangere by Timoteo Viti, from the cludes Raphael’s precocious but badly ter and St. Paul. Even if the Louvre is not Church of Sant'Angelo Minore in Cagli, Italy damaged Madonna Mackintosh from Lonplanning an anniversary show for Raphael don’s National Gallery (c. 1509, at the earlike the one there now dedicated to ly stage of his Roman stay at the same Leonardo, it will host an Italian Renaistime Raphael was frescoing the Room of sance show, Body and Soul: Sculpture in the Segnatura, but still similar in style to Italy from Donatello to Michelangelo his Florentine works), and the Madonna 1460-1520.

Aldobrandini (1510), which reflects the On in the United States at the Nationimpact of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel’s al Gallery in Washington D.C. from Febceiling on Raphael, also from London’s ruary 16-June 14, 2020 will be Raphael National Gallery. and his Circle. The exhibition will feaThe fourth room, Two Fragments of ture four drawings by Raphael: the sheet Raphael’s Works in Julius II’s and Leo X’s from which the design of his painting Rome, refer to his and Viti’s frescoes for Saint George and the Dragon was transthe Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria della ferred; the cartoon for the so-called Belle Pace (1510-11) and his cartoon for the Jardinière (1507), also known as The Virscenes in the Room of Heliodorus (1514) gin and Child with Baby St. John the where God’s apparition to Moses as the Baptist on loan from the Louvre; a deburning bush reflects Raphael’s imprestailed representation of the prophets sive progress thanks to the inspiration Hosea and Jonah; and a well-known from his recent contact with ancient sculpstudy for part of the frescoes in the ture and Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Vatican.

Church of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome. Moreover, the The fifth room, Genga’s Works in Romagna and Viti’s Epilogue Gallery’s five paintings, including Saint George and the Dragon — in Urbino, illustrates how little Viti’s late paintings were influenced the largest and most important group of Raphaels outside the Vatiby the novelties he’d encountered in Rome. Instead, after Genga can Museums with 12, London’s National Gallery’s 11 and the moved to Romagna, his works took off from his Florentine experiLouvre with eight — all dating from the central decade of his acence, where he’d worked with Fra Bartolomeo and Raphael. tivity, will also be on view.m JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

55

LATIN

“THERE’S NO J IN LATIN, YOUR HOLINESS”

n BY JOHN BYRON KUHNER

T

IT’S HARD, EVEN FOR A POPE, TO CHANGE VATICAN WAYS Left, October 26, 2005 in the Vatican Grottoes, Polish Msgr. Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, who had been one of Pope John Paul II’s personal secretaries, in prayer at the latter’s tomb. Right is the present-day tomb of John Paul, in the second chapel on the right entering St. Peter’s Basilica

hings don’t change all that much in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Perhaps you have visited the bronze statue of St. Peter, the one whose foot has been rubbed off by pilgrims’ kisses, and want to see it again; well, you’ll find it just where it’s always been, on the right side, just before the dome. That Bernini statue of Death holding an hourglass is just past the transept on the left; the Holy Door is still the one all the way to the right in the front of the basilica. (Note: The statue of Death is part of the Pope Alexander VI tomb; Alexander, born Rodrigo di Borgia in Spain in 1431, was Pope from 1492 to 1503, and fathered several children, including the famous Lucrezia Borgia.) It’s true the Pietà wasn’t always in the first chapel on the right, but it’s been there since 1749, so your guidebook probably has its location correct. But you need a somewhat up-to-date guide if you’re looking for the remains of the beatified Innocent XI (1611-1689, Pope 1676-1689). His body was at the altar of the second chapel on the right, but it was moved in 2011, which in Vatican terms counts as a recent development. Why was he moved? To install in its place the body of now-St. John Paul II, whose visitors were flooding the Grottoes beneath until the decision to move him into the more crowd-friendly basilica. Innocent XI, it seems, was not quite so popular anymore as to merit the altar next to the Pietà.

When I visit my friend Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD, in Milwaukee, I like to tell him about the changes in Rome. Foster lived in Rome for the better part of 47 years, serving as Latin secretary to four different Popes, until he reached the retirement age of 70 in 2009 and returned to his hometown of Milwaukee. Most of our conversation is about people he knew, stores he used to go to, and things like that. In fact I didn’t even think to tell him about JPII getting a plum spot in the basilica, and I simply mentioned it offhand to him one day, when talking 56

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

about something else: “So I went right by the altar of John Paul II...” “Wait!” he interrupted. “John Paul has an altar in the basilica?” “Sure,” I said. “Which one?” “The second one on the right.” “Just after the Pietà?” “Yeah.” “So they moved him up from the Grottoes?”

I was surprised by Foster’s curiosity. He has a well-known hatred for pomp. When I once asked him which Pope was buried in a certain tomb, he replied with a verse of Scripture, in Latin: Sine ut mortui sepeliant mortuos suos: tu autem vade, et annuntia regnum Dei. “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” He was making a point: You’re here in Rome; keep your focus on God; don’t get caught up in the Vatican pomp. Why was he, of all people, now interested in who got buried where?

“What does the inscription on the tomb say?” Foster was almost breathless with anxiety.

“I think it just says ‘IOANNES PAULUS II’ or something like that.”

“With an ‘I’ or a ‘J’?”

“I think with an I, but I’ll have to go and check. Why?” “Well, it’s a long story,” he said, as I settled in. “In 1978, after John Paul II was elected, he had to sign his first document, and he wrote a big long loopy ‘J’ as the first letter. Now we all looked at each other, and sent the thing back. We said, ‘We’re very sorry but there’s no ‘J’ in Latin, Your Holiness. Your name is IOANNES, not JOANNES.’ Well, we get a note back from him saying, ‘Quod scripsi scripsi.’ ‘What I have written, I have written.’ Basically, ‘Buzz off!’ And that was just the start of it!

We went back and forth on this for years. Whenever we had the chance, we wrote ‘Ioannes,’ in inscriptions, in letters, and so forth, because that’s good Latin. But in all kinds of places, whenever he noticed, he’d change it to ‘Joannes.’ Fine. And

The tomb of Pope Pius XI in the Vatican grottoes

then he dies in 2005, and we do the inscription for his tomb.â&#x20AC;? Foster flashed his mischievous grin. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So what does it say? â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;IOANNES.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; With an â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? Foster glows with a look of smug satisfaction.

The survivors always get the final say.

Foster is really only partially correct about the Latin, by the way â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Latin does have a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;J,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; and in fact the J was invented for setting Latin text.

However, it belongs to that category known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Late Latin,â&#x20AC;? the Latin of Medieval and Renaissance Europe.

Initially J was nothing more than an ornamental flourish used when there were two or more Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in a row.

In 1524, however, Gian Giorgio Trissino decided to use the two different I characters in his printing set to differentiate between two phenomena in Latin that are indeed ancient: the letter I as a vowel (as in the word ierunt, pronounced â&#x20AC;&#x153;ee-ayroont,â&#x20AC;? meaning â&#x20AC;&#x153;they wentâ&#x20AC;?) and the letter I as a consonant, sounding like Y, as in Iesus, pronounced â&#x20AC;&#x153;yay-zus,â&#x20AC;? with two syllables not three.

You would not use â&#x20AC;&#x153;Jâ&#x20AC;? in ierunt, because I is a vowel there, but you might in Jesus. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just a â&#x20AC;&#x153;modernâ&#x20AC;? (if you call 1524 modern) way of recording an ancient Latin phenomenon.

The ancient Romans did not have lower-case letters either, or cursive writing, but Foster did not object when John Paul used both in his signature.

c n a S

The I/J distinction occurs also in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where Indiana Jones has to walk through a booby-trap named the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Path of God.â&#x20AC;? Since this path was supposedly built during the Crusades in the 12th century, it uses Latin, and Jones has to walk on letters that spell out IEHOVAH (the Latin equivalent of what we now write as Yahweh). And he is given the option of using the letter J, which he must decline, because Latin doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the letter J. But of course a 12th century booby-trap wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the letter J at all, either as a correct or incorrect answer. But that kind of strict logic doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have much place in the movie, which is absurd in many places but ultimately quite entertaining.

Now whenever I walk past the resting place of John Paul II, which is generally thronged with crowds, I find myself smiling â&#x20AC;&#x201D; first of all at the manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s popularity even in death, which is a good thing, and second at the little Curial tussle behind the manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Latin name.

When the body was moved and the inscription re-set, it was left as written, and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;? remains in place today.

The word â&#x20AC;&#x153;SANCTVSâ&#x20AC;? was added in 2014, after the Popeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s canonization. SANCTVS IOANNES PAVLVS II. It has a pleasantly classical look, which always looks good in Rome; and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a symbol of just how hard it is for a Pope to change entrenched Vatican ways.m

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JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

57

VATICAN WATCH

By Becky Derks with CNA Reports - Grzegorz Galazka and CNA photos

NOVEMBER WEDNESDAY 13

VATICAN MUSEUMS OPENS EXHIBIT WITH NEWLY RESTORED RENAISSANCE MARIAN PAINTINGS

The Vatican Museums opened an exhibit of recently restored paintings of the Virgin Mary by early Renaissance painter Carlo Crivelli.

“The Vatican painting gallery has the privilege of having three large scale paintings by Crivelli,” Vatican Museums’ Curator Guido Cornini told CNA. The restorations were made possible by members of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, the fundraising branch of the Vatican Museums that started in the United States in 1983.

The U.S. Embassy to the Holy See co-hosted the exhibition opening at the Vatican Museums in celebration of the 35 years of formal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the Holy See. “U.S. patrons fund approximately 80 percent of all restoration projects at the Vatican Museums,” U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See Callista Gingrich said at the exhibit opening November 13.

THURSDAY 21

STRIVE FOR UNITY AMID DIVERSITY, POPE FRANCIS TELLS AUTHORITIES IN THAILAND

In his first official speech in Thailand, Pope Francis encouraged the Thai authorities, civil society, and diplomatic corps to strive after unity, even while preserving the diversity which gives their country “soul.”

“As a multi-ethnic and diverse nation, Thailand has long known the importance of building harmony and peaceful coexistence between its numerous ethnic groups, while showing respect and appreciation for different cultures, religious groups, thoughts and ideas,” he said November 21.

Pope Francis spoke in the Inner Santi Maitri Hall of the Government House on his second day in Bangkok, Thailand, part of a six-day trip which also included Japan.

SUNDAY 24

POPE FRANCIS HONORS HEROISM OF JAPANESE MARTYRS OF NAGASAKI

Pope Francis honored the many martyrs who died in Japan during two centuries of persecution, encouraging Catholics in the country to use their heroic witness as inspiration to spread the Gospel.

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INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

“May we never forget their heroic sacrifice!” he said November 24, speaking of the hundreds of martyrs who “consecrated the ground by their suffering and death.”

The Pope spoke at the memorial of Nishizaka Hill in Nagasaki, where hundreds of Christians from the end of the 16th through the 18th century lost their lives for the faith, including St. Paul Miki and his 25 companions, who were crucified on the hill in 1597.

SATURDAY 30

POPE FRANCIS VOICES COMMITMENT TO FULL COMMUNION WITH ORTHODOX

Marking the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, Pope Francis sent a message to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople voicing his desire for full communion between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

“It is with great spiritual joy and in profound communion of faith and charity that I join the prayer of the Church of Constantinople in celebrating the feast of its holy patron, the Apostle Andrew, the First-called and brother of the Apostle Peter,” the Pope said in his letter.

Each year, the Holy See sends a delegation to Istanbul on November 30, the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, while the Patriarchate of Constantinople sends a delegation to Rome each year on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, celebrated June 29.

DECEMBER MONDAY 2

RELEASE OF NEW CURIAL CONSTITUTION DELAYED AGAIN The publication date of the new constitution governing the Roman Curia was delayed again as Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals continued to evaluate suggestions to the draft that was given to bishops’ conferences in May. The now six-member advisory council met at the Vatican December 2-4.

According to a brief Vatican press release December 4, the group of cardinals had continued to receive suggestions on the text of the new apostolic constitution, provisionally titled Praedicate evangelium, until a few days before the start of the latest round of meetings.

The Council of Cardinals will continue its “reading and evaluation” of the draft at its next meeting, which will take place in February 2020, the Holy See press office stated. The new document is expected to place renewed emphasis on evangelization as the struc-

Opposite page, Pope Francis met with Thailand’s supreme Buddhist patriarch on Thursday (Nov. 21) in a gilded Bangkok temple.

Then, on November 24, Pope Francis offered prayer after laying a wreath at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park in Nagasaki, Japan.

Below, Pope Francis greets refugees from the Greek island of Lesbos accompanied by his Almoner, Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski

tural priority of the Church’s mission, with some predicting the merger of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization into a single larger department.

POPE DEMANDS ACTION FOR “FAILING FIGHT” AGAINST “CLIMATE CHANGE” Despite growing recognition of “climate change” as a legitimate and looming threat, current commitments to mitigate its effects and alter human behavior fall short of those needed to resolve the crisis in time, Pope Francis said.

“We must admit that this awareness is still rather weak, unable to respond adequately to that strong sense of urgency for rapid action called for by the scientific data at our disposal,” the Pope said in a message to the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP25.

The conference was held in Madrid December 2-13, and the Vatican released a copy of the Pope’s message December 4.

The conference aimed to take crucial steps in the U.N. climate change process and to identify effective strategies for implementing the Paris Agreement, a framework of action against climate change adopted by the U.N. December 12, 2015.

However, studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “demonstrate how far words are from concrete actions,” the Pope said.

According to the intergovernmental panel, global temperatures and emissions continue to rise and humanity is not on course to fulfill the goals of the Paris Agreement by 2020.

WEDNESDAY 4

VATICAN COMMITTEE ASKS UN FOR “WORLD DAY OF HUMAN FRATERNITY” Members of a Vatican special committee met with the Secretary General of the United Nations on December 4 to deliver a petition on human fraternity co-authored by Pope Francis and the Sunni Islamic Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb.

The committee was formed in August, under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The message from the two religious leaders requested that February 4 be declared the “World Day of Human Fraternity,” and asked the United Nations, along with the Holy See and the Al-Azhar Mosque, to create a “World Summit On Human Fraternity.” The Al-Azhar Mosque is located in Cairo, Egypt, and being the Grand Imam of that mosque is considered one of the highest positions in Sunni Islam.

According to a statement released by the Pontifical Council on December 5, Dr. Antonio Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, “expressed his appreciation and availability for the initiative,” and said that he believed it was important to work “at the service of all humanity.”

THURSDAY 5

VATICAN WELCOMED ASYLUM SEEKERS TO ITALY On December 5, the Holy See welcomed 33 refugees to Italy as they arrived from the Greek island of Lesbos with papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski. Another 10 refugees came later in December.

The asylum seekers are from Afghanistan, Togo, and Cameroon.

The humanitarian corridor was organized at the request of Pope Francis, who in May asked the papal almoner to show the Holy See’s solidarity with refugees by supporting some young people and families fleeing conflict in their countries, helping them to seek asylum in Italy.

After months of negotiation between the Office of Papal Charities and the Italian Ministry of the Interior, permission was granted to bring the group of migrants to Italy to apply for asylum, according to a statement from the Holy See charity office.

WEDNESDAY 11

POPE THANKS RUTHENIAN CATHOLICS OF UKRAINE FOR FIDELITY TO CHRIST IN SOVIET ERA

Pope Francis praised the courage of the Ruthenian Eparchy of Mukachevo, which emerged from hiding 30 years ago after persecution in Soviet Ukraine.

Pilgrims from the eparchy met with the Pope in St. Peter’s Basilica December 11 in celebration of the anniversary.

“I am happy to welcome you to the tomb of St. Peter, and together with you I wish to thank the infinitely good Lord who with His powerful hand freed your Church from the long oppression of the Soviet regime,” Pope Francis said in their meeting.

During the decades of Soviet suppression of the Byzantine rite Catholic Churches in Ukraine, 128 priests, bishops, and nuns were put in prisons or sent into exile in Siberia. The eparchy of Mukachevo had 36 priests martyred during the persecution.

PONTIFICAL ACADEMY FOR LIFE HOSTS INTERRELIGIOUS DISCUSSION ON PALLIATIVE CARE The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life held an international symposium this week on medical ethics and palliative care, hosted together with the WISH initiative, a part of the Qatar Foundation.

The December 11-12 conference included presentations by representatives of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism on the topic of medical ethics, palliative care, and the mental health of the elderly.

In a press conference before the event, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, discussed the importance of palliative care, which focuses on alleviating suffering and improving quality of life.

This care may be offered in end-of-life situations or at any stage of an illness.

It may be offered on its own, or in conjunction with efforts to treat or cure a disease or medical condition.

Paglia said that promotion of palliative care is an area where all religions can work together.

He said the symposium is part of a series of events being put on by the Pontifical Academy for Life which are focused on promoting “a culture of care in contrast to the culture of waste.”n JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

59

PEOPLE

n ARCHBISHOP PAGLIA: PRIESTS CAN BE PRESENT AT ASSISTED SUICIDE Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that he would be willing to hold the hand of someone dying from assisted suicide, and that he does not see that as lending implicit support for the practice.

Paglia spoke at a December 10 press conference preceding a two-day symposium on palliative care being sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life and the WISH initiative, part of the Qatar Foundation.

Answering a question about assisted suicide and whether a Catholic or a Catholic priest can be present at someone’s death by assisted suicide, Paglia told a small group of journalists that he would be willing to do so, because “the Lord never abandons anyone.”

“In this sense, to accompany, to hold the hand of someone who is dying, is, I think, a great duty every believer should promote,” he said, adding that believers should also provide a contrast to the culture of assisted suicide.

n FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY FORMS PARTNERSHIP WITH IRAQI CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY A Catholic university in the U.S. has partnered with an Iraqi Catholic college to promote opportunities for scholarship, collaboration, and understanding between the two countries.

Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio and the Catholic University of Erbil (CUE) in Iraq signed a Memorandum of Understanding on December 6.

The document was signed by Father Dave Pivonka, president of Franciscan, and Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, who founded the Iraq university in 2015.

“The agreement forges ties between the two schools and cities that include cultural exchanges, such as the visit this past September by 60

INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

BY BECKY DERKS with G. Galazka, CNA and CNS photos

“SHEEN BEATIFICATION DELAY AN ACT OF SABOTAGE”

After the Diocese of Rochester confirmed it had requested that the beatification of Venerable Fulton Sheen be delayed, a longtime Peoria diocese official is accusing the Rochester diocese of repeatedly “sabotaging” Sheen’s sainthood cause.

“Under the veneer of the Rochester diocese’s call for caution, more than an overwhelming majority of people would conclude that it is an unexplainable act of sabotage — a sabotage that simply hurts the faithful,” Monsignor James Kruse, an official in the Diocese of Peoria involved in advancing Sheen’s cause, wrote in a lengthy December 7 op-ed.

Venerable Fulton Sheen was an American archbishop and television personality who was set to be beatified December 21. The Holy See made the decision to postpone the beatification on December 2, with the Peoria diocese attributing the Vatican’s decision to “a few members of the Bishop’s Conference who have asked for further consideration.”

“Rochester diocese’s revelation of these undisclosed cases simply follows the same pattern that the Rochester diocese has executed since this past spring,” Kruse wrote.

“This pattern is simple: the Sheen Cause takes a step forward and then the Rochester diocese acts to block the Beatification. When examining the pattern it is hard not to believe that the diocese of Rochester acts more to sabotage the Cause and less to protect the good of the Church.”

Iraqi high school students to Steubenville,” Tom Sofio, a Franciscan University spokesman, told CNA. “The agreement also allows for the development of language courses in Arabic and Aramaic to be offered to Franciscan University students, the pursuit of scholarship funding for Iraqi students to study at Franciscan University … and Skype sessions between students at Franciscan University and The Catholic University of Erbil,” Sofio added.

n MARTYRED RELIGIOUS BROTHER FROM WISCONSIN FARM FAMILY BEATIFIED IN GUATEMALA The son of Wisconsin farmers, Brother James Miller, FSC, was beatified on December 7 in Guatemala, 36 years after he was shot and killed while working with school children and the indigenous poor in the country.

A graduate of St. Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota and a member of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, Miller is re-

membered for his generosity, courage, and zeal to serve the children of Central America. He is the first member of his order in the United States to be beatified.

“No one is perfect, and yet Jim, like a lot of people, did things very quietly, behind the scenes. He never asked for recognition,” Brother Pat Conway, who first knew Miller as a student and then as a fellow brother, told Minnesota newspaper Post Bulletin.

n CARDINAL TAGLE NAMED HEAD OF VATICAN EVANGELIZATION OFFICE Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, archbishop of Manila, Philippines, to lead the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Tagle, 62, follows Cardinal Fernando Filoni as prefect.

The Congregation is usually referred to by its historic name of Propaganda Fide. Charged with the Church’s missionary works and territories,

Propaganda Fide is one of the largest curial departments, with a size and scope exceeding almost any other.

The beneficiary of centuries of dedicated legacies and bequests, Propaganda Fide is also the most financially autonomous curial department.

Praedicate evangelium, the new curial constitution, not yet promulgated, is expected to place an even further emphasis on evangelization as the structural priority of the Church’s mission, with the possible merger of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization into a single larger department.

As the head of a curial department, Tagle will no longer be the archbishop of Manila, a post he has held since December 2011. He was made a cardinal by Benedict XVI in 2012.

n BUFFALO’S BISHOP RICHARD MALONE RESIGNS AFTER YEAR OF SCANDAL Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Buffalo’s embattled Bishop Richard Malone. The Diocese of Buffalo will be administered by Albany’s Bishop Edward Scharfenberger until a permanent replacement for Malone is appointed.

A December 4 communiqué from the United States’ apostolic nunciature said Malone asked Pope Francis for an “early retirement” during last month’s ad limina visit, after being made aware of the results of an apostolic visitation to the Diocese of Buffalo, which concluded at the end of October.

In his own statement December 4, Malone said the results of the apostolic visitation were a factor in his decision to resign, but he is doing so “freely and voluntarily.” n DULUTH’S BISHOP PAUL SIRBA DIES UNEXPECTEDLY AT 59 Bishop Paul Sirba of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, died December 1 after suffering a heart attack before offering Mass.

He was 59 years old.

FOR PREGNANT WOMEN IN CUBA, PROJECT HOPE OFFERS ALTERNATIVE TO ABORTION

With much of Cuban society today losing a sense of the value of human life, a Polish nun on the island says she has created an initiative to offer practical help and support to women facing difficult pregnancies.

Sister Filipa Bak of the Congregation of the Mother of God of Mercy told EWTN News November 11 that she founded “Project Hope” with a dual purpose: to support pregnant mothers in need and to “help women who have had an abortion to find the forgiveness of God who is rich in mercy.”

These women “often find themselves in difficult situations, they’re losing their family, their partner,” she said. “The project aims to bring hope to women who have no way out, who don’t see the way out of these difficult situations.”

Pregnant women who come to Project Hope are assigned an aid who accompanies them with support and resources during the pregnancy and for one year after the baby is born. Each mom also receives a basket with clothing and other newborn necessities, which are collected through donations.

“It is with an incredibly heavy heart that I must inform you of tragic news regarding our Bishop,” said a December 1 statement from Fr. James B. Bissonette, who had been the diocesan vicar general until the bishop’s death. The office of the vicar general ceases upon the death of the diocesan bishop.

“Words do not adequately express our sorrow at this sudden loss of our Shepherd,” Bissonette said.

n BENEDICT XVI REFLECTS ON 50 YEARS OF THE INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI sent a message to the International Theological Commission this week reflecting on the theological contributions of the commission that he led for nearly half of its 50-year history.

The Pope emeritus expressed “gratitude for what has been accomplished in half a century” by the theological commission, “even with all the inadequacies of the human search,” in a message read aloud to the International Theological Commission.

Benedict XVI, then Joseph Ratzinger, served as president of the International Theological Commission from 19822005 as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith under St. John Paul II. n POPE FRANCIS NAMES ARCHBISHOP GABRIELE CACCIA AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS Pope Francis named Archbishop Gabriele Giordano Caccia the next Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations.

“I hope to be able to fulfill well the new task Pope Francis has entrusted to me, seeking to bring the light of Catholic social teaching to the discussions and debates of the international community,” Caccia said of his appointment November 16.

Archbishop Caccia will succeed Archbishop Bernardito Auza, whom Pope Francis appointed Apostolic Nuncio to the Kingdom of Spain and to the Principality of Andorra in October.

Caccia has spent nearly 30 years in the Vatican’s diplomatic service working in nunciatures in Tanzania, Lebanon, the Philippines, and the Vatican’s Secretariat of State in Rome.

Most recently, Caccia has been serving as the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines since September 2017.m JANUARY 2020 INSIDE THE VATICAN

61

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

n BY MOTHER MARTHA

Stefano Navarrini illustration

he year 2019 was memorable for a favorite Italian aperitivo: the sparkling white wine called prosecco. Its terroir, the region it comes from, is the Veneto province between the towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, north of the city of Treviso, and into parts of the region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. On July 8, the region was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The UNESCO designation reads: “The landscape is characterized by ‘hogback’ hills, ciglioni — small plots of vines on narrow grassy terraces — forests, small villages and farmland... Since the 17th century, use of ciglioni has created a particular chequerboard landscape consisting of rows of vines parallel and vertical to the slopes. In the 19th century, the bellussera technique of training the vines contributed to the aesthetic characteristics of the landscape.”

The first recorded mention of the name prosecco dates several centuries back to the memoirs of Fynes Moryson, an English gentleman traveler who visited this area of Italy as part of his “Grand Tour” (the name given to a cultural tour of the European continent, often made by aristocratic Europeans as young men in their 20s) in 1593.

However, this sparkling white wine was apparently a favorite of the ancient Roman historian Pliny the Elder for the medicinal quality of its fizz. Today the biggest fans of this drink, growing by leaps and bounds in popularity, are the British (consumption doubled in 2013-2014) followed by the Americans.

The Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene are the 8th UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Veneto region, the 55th site in Italy, and the 10th site in the world in the category of “cultural landscape” in recognition of their unique interaction between man and the environment.

As can be imagined from its name, we owe the spritz or the spritz veneziano to the Austrians who ruled the Veneto from 1815 to 1866. It seems that the Austrians found Venetian wine too strong so they diluted it with a spritzen or sprinkling of water to make it more drinkable. Today the spritz in Italian cocktails is not water; it’s prosecco.

After the Veneto was relinquished to the newly-formed Kingdom of Italy in 1870, bitter herbal liqueurs were gradually

T

added to give the drink a bit of a kick, the way gin was added to the Americano. Another turning point took place in 1920 when, according to www.selectitaly.com, “the Barbieri brothers of Padua invented their aperol bitter using orange, rhubarb and gentian and the neon-orange Aperol spritz was born, made from 3 parts prosecco, 2 parts aperol and 1 part soda water with a large green olive on a stick as a garnish.”

Today Aperol spritz is one of the most commonly drunk aperitivi in Venice. It’s the archetypical Venetian pre-dinner drink, and in the watery city alone, an estimated quarter of a million are drunk every day! And in the last 10 years, the Aperol spritz has enjoyed a stratospheric rise in international popularity as an Italian alternative to Pimms, rosé wine and other summer cocktails.

In my opinion that is exactly the point: the aperol spritz is the perfect summer cocktail, while the Negroni is perfect in winter.

Therefore I have to disagree with Jennifer Finney Boylan, who in “The Negroni is 100 Years Old — and the Perfect Cocktail for 2019,” wrote in The New York Times on June 12 that the aperol spritz “is not a good drink.”

She’s wrong; it’s a seasonal drink!

Although seasonal as well because of its higher alcoholic content, “The Negroni,” wrote Carlo Ottaviano in “Negroni, 100 Years of Taste: In the US it Beats the Aperol Spritz” in Il Messaggero on June 14, “is the synthesis of Italy; born in Florence, to make one you need red vermouth from Piedmont; it was the symbol of Rome’s Dolce Vita and thanks to the ‘Erroneous Negroni’ it has a pinch of Milan.” His thesis would have been more accurate if he’d said that the “Negroni” and “aperitivi” are the synthesis of Northern Italy. For digestivi or the, for the most part, sweet after-dinner digestion aids, except for Grappa from the once-Austrian Veneto and the unbeatable Milanese Fernet Branca, are the synthesis of southern Italy with its long summer romantic suppers consumed on rooftop terraces: “Sambuca” in Rome, “Limoncello” everywhere but especially around Naples, “Liquirizia” in Calabria, “Mirto” in Sardinia, and “Averna” in Sicily, to name just a few. But digestivi are another story. In the meantime, Cin! Cin! — especially during the Christmas holidays, when prosecco is perfect on its own, an undisputable universal favorite!m

PROSECCO PLINY THE ELDER’S FAVORITE DRINK

From left: the vineyards of northern Italy awarded by UNESCO, the traveler Fynes Moryson, “Prosecco,” “Spritz” and “Limoncello”

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INSIDE THE VATICAN JANUARY 2020

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