Inside the Vatican magazine May-June 2023

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the proGress of the ChurCh

the results are sloW Cardinal arthur roChe head of the diCastery for divine Worship

Bishop paul riChard GallaGher vatiCan seCretary for relations With states

CapuChin Cardinal raniero Cantalamessa preaCher of the papal household

Teaching Our Souls to Sing Divine Praises ◆ THE SINGING - MASTERS

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cclaimed theologian Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P., presents a passionate, personalized account of the theological achievement of 18 Church Fathers. Ten come from the Greek East: Irenaeus, Origen, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Cyril of Alexandria, Denys the Areopagite, Maximus the Confessor, and John Damascene. Eight come from the Latin West: Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, and Bede the Venerable.

These Fathers have been especially authoritative for Catholic doctrine and influential in Church life. While giving a dramatic, humanized account of patristic thought, with biographical detail, Nichols draws the reader into a serious discussion of the Fathers’ profound theological doctrines.

He offers a holistic, loving introduction to the figures who most shaped Christian thought, in the East and the West.

SMP . . . Sewn Softcover, $19.95 “A lively summary of patristic theology. To call the Fathers ‘singing-masters of my soul’ pays them the highest tribute, as their goal was to teach the human soul how to sing the divine praises with joyful gratitude!” —Fr. Simeon Leiva, O.C.S.O., Author, Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word “This book is mighty and weighty, and yet it reads as easily as a love letter. I didn’t want it to end!

What the Patriarchs were to the people of the Old Testament, the Church Fathers are to us.”

—Scott Hahn, Author, Rome Sweet Home

◆ CHURCH COUNCILS: 100 Questions and Answers

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rom the days of the apostles, the Church’s teachers have met to defend and explain the Catholic faith. From the Council of Jerusalem in the Acts of the Apostles, through the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Trent, and Vatican II, these meetings of the world’s bishops are some of the most important events in the life of the Church and the most profound expressions of the Church’s teaching authority.

More than a history of the 21 ecumenical councils, this question & answer book by Paul Senz provides a practical and theological explanation of them. It presents the historical context for each council, the reasons it was convened, the major events during the council, and the impact of its teachings, then and now. It also explains and defends the teaching authority of the bishops as successors to the apostles, particularly when teaching together as a single, united body, in union with the pope.

CCHQAP . . . Sewn Softcover, $16.95

“Besides the canonization of Scripture, few events have affected the Church more than the ecumenical councils. What has been too massive a topic for us is now easy thanks to this readable book!”

—Stephen Ray, Author, Upon This Rock

“Knowledge of the teachings of Church councils is necessary for us to know where and what we are.

This wonderfully accessible book provides answers to all our questions.” —Joseph Pearce, Author, Faith of Our Fathers

◆ MARY FOR TODAY

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his revised edition of Hans Urs von Balthasar’s work, with a new foreword by Edward Sri and new preface by the author, provides a concise spiritual guide for all who desire to know and love the Mother of the Lord. Using Scripture and the Church’s rich tradition, the acclaimed theologian draws a portrait of Mary that shows her importance and relevance for Christians today.

Balthasar combines a deep traditional devotion with intellectual precision to reveal the crucial spiritual task of Mary for all Christians: to show us what it means to be close to Jesus. Balthasar captures her singular role when he quotes her words in the Gospel at Cana: “Do whatever He tells you.” Beautifully Illustrated by Virginia Broderick.

MFT2P . . . Sewn Softcover, $14.95 “Keeping the humanness of Our Lady in focus, Balthasar rightly underscores that even with her unique revelations, graces, and privileges, Mary still had to grow in faith as a disciple. This book places Mary near to us, rather than raising her to inaccessible heights.” —Edward Sri, from the Foreword

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EDITORIAL by Robert Moynihan

Destination Galilee A reflection on the Easter Vigil 2023 homily of Pope Francis on April 8. Francis focuses on meeting the Lord in our own personal “Galilee,” the place where we first met him and became his disciples

“But the angel said to the women... ‘Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead and, behold, He is going before you to Galilee.’”—Matthew 28:1-8 (Pope Francis reflected on these lines in his Easter Vigil homily on April 8, 2023) I was in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 8 when Pope Francis delivered his very eloquent and very personal Easter Vigil homily.

The heart of the Pope’s message was that we, like the Apostles, should “return to Galilee” to meet the Risen Christ.

“The night is drawing to a close and the first light of dawn is appearing upon the horizon as the women set out toward Jesus’ tomb,” the Pope began. “They make their way forward, bewildered and dismayed, their hearts overwhelmed with grief at the death that took away their Beloved. Yet upon arriving and seeing the empty tomb, they turn around and retrace their steps.

They leave the tomb behind and run to the disciples to proclaim a change of course: Jesus is risen and awaits them in Galilee...

There they will meet the Risen Lord.

“The rebirth of the disciples, the resurrection of their hearts, passes through Galilee.”

I listened to the Pope intently, weighing his words.

Francis continued: “Let us ask ourselves today, brothers and sisters: what does it mean to go to Galilee?”

Yes, I thought, what does it mean?

“Two things,” the Pope said. “On the one hand, to leave the enclosure of the Upper Room and go to the land of the Gentiles (cf. Mt 4:15), to come forth from hiding and to open themselves up to mission, to leave fear behind and to set out for the future.”

OK, I thought, to come forth from hiding, even in our very secular age, our “post-Christian” age — to come forth and (in my case) to write, and to speak, as a Catholic, as a disciple of Christ, and not to be silent, tongue-tied, afraid... even in such places as in this editorial...

Francis continued: “On the other hand, and this is very beautiful, to return to the origins, for it was precisely in Galilee that everything began. There the Lord had met and first called the disciples. So, to go to Galilee means to return to the grace of the beginnings, to regain the memory that regenerates hope, the ‘memory of the future’ bestowed on us by the Risen One. “In other words,” Francis went on, the good news of Christ’s Resurrection “asks us to relive that moment, that situation, that experience in which we met the Lord, experienced his love and received a radiantly new way of seeing ourselves, the world around us and the mystery of life itself.

“Brothers and sisters, to rise again, to start anew, to take up the journey, we always need to return to Galilee, that is, to go back, not to an abstract or ideal Jesus, but to the living, concrete and palpable memory of our first encounter with him. Yes, to go forward we need to go back, to remember; to have hope, we need to revive our memory. This is what we are asked to do: to remember and go forward!

“If you recover that first love, the wonder and joy of your encounter with God, you will keep advancing. So remember, and keep moving forward.

“Remember your own Galilee and walk towards it, for it is the ‘place’ where you came to know Jesus personally, where he stopped being just another personage from a distant past, but a living person: not some distant God but the God who is at your side, who more than anyone else knows you and loves you.

“Brother, sister, remember Galilee, your Galilee, and your call. Remember the Word of God who at a precise moment spoke directly to you. Remember that powerful experience of the Spirit... Each of us knows where our Galilee is located. Each of us knows the place of his or her interior resurrection, that beginning and foundation, the place where things changed. We cannot leave this in the past; the Risen Lord invites us to return there to celebrate Easter.

“Remember your Galilee. Remind yourself. Today, relive that memory. Return to that first encounter. Think back on what it was like, reconstruct the context, time and place. Remember the emotions and sensations; see the colors and savor the taste of it. For it is when you forgot that first love, when you failed to remember that first encounter, that the dust began to settle on your heart. That is when you experienced sorrow and, like the disciples, you saw the future as empty, like a tomb with a stone sealing off all hope... Let us return to Galilee, to the Galilee of first love.”

As I reflected on the Pope’s words in St. Peter’s Basilia on the Vigil of Easter, I recalled my own “Galilee,” my experience as a boy attending Mass in the late 1950s and early 1960s. And in my mind’s eye, I saw my father, kneeling. He was then in his early 30s. I saw him place his face in his hands in prayer. I saw him strike his chest with his hand as he said, “mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa” — “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.” I recalled wondering, “What is he thinking? What is the fault that he is accusing himself of, and asking forgiveness for? And why does he place his face in his hands?”

And I recall in those moments conceiving of our universe as a moral one, one in which we have freedom to act rightly or wrongly. One in which, if we act wrongly, as may occur, we may turn to One who can forgive, and heal, and enable us to go forward again. In other words, a world of possible redemption.

And I remember sensing that we were in the presence, in that chapel, of the “highest,” the “best,” the “most holy” — the very “Word of God,” whom we referred to as Dominus, “Lord,” as when we said Dominus vobiscum, “The Lord be with you.”

And so it was that, as I reflected on the homily of Pope Francis on the Vigil of Easter, I did return to my own personal Galilee, a parish church in a small town in Connecticut, kneeling by my father, watching him, and watching as the priest lifted the host and chalice, and hearing my father say, “My Lord and my God.”m MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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CONTENTS MAY-JUNE 2023

Year 31, #3

LEAD STORY Archbishop Roche’s critics: “There is no evidence for hermeneutic of rupture”

by Robert Moynihan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 NEWS VATICAN/Pope Francis celebrates 10 years by granting interviews

by ITV staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 MAY-JUNE 2023 Year 31, #3

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Robert Moynihan ASSOCIATE EDITOR: George “Pat” Morse (+ 2013) ASSISTANT EDITOR: Christina Deardurff CULTURE EDITOR: Lucy Gordan CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: William D. Doino, Jr. WRITERS: Anna Artymiak, Alberto Carosa, Giuseppe Rusconi, David Quinn, Andrew Rabel, Vladimiro Redzioch, Serena Sartini PHOTOS: Grzegorz Galazka LAYOUT: Giuseppe Sabatelli ILLUSTRATIONS: Stefano Navarrini CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Deborah B. Tomlinson ADVERTISING: Katie Carr Tel. +1.202.864.4263 kcarr@insidethevatican.com

v EDITORIAL OFFICES FOR MAIL: US: 14 West Main St. Front Royal, VA 22630 USA Tel +1.202.536.4555 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 New Hope, KY 40052 USA Tel: +1.800.789.9494 Fax: +1.270.325.3091 Subscriptions (USA): Inside the Vatican PO Box 57 New Hope, KY 40052 USA www.insidethevatican.com Tel. +1.800.789.9494

v 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 bimonthly (6 times per year) 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.

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Copyright 2023 Robert Moynihan

4 INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

VATICAN/Vatican-China deal “not the best deal possible”

by Courtney Mares (CNA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 HOLY LAND/Jerusalem’s Latin Catholic Patriarch: “We are not afraid”

by La Croix International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 SPECIAL INSERT COMMUNIQUÉ: A Newsletter of Urbi et Orbi Communications The Way of the Logos; building unity for thirty years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 PHOTO ESSAY: GOOD FRIDAY AT THE VATICAN “We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your resurrection” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 CULTURE Scripture/Drink deeply of the living waters

by Anthony Esolen, Ph.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Latin/The outstretched finger of St. John the Baptist

by John Byron Kuhner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 URBI ET ORBI: CATHOLICISM AND ORTHODOXY Icon/The Creed and the mistake of Arius

by Robert Wiesner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 East-West Watch/Cyprus elects a new Primate

by Peter Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 News from the East/“Universal value” of Jerusalem; Prague cardinal: Ukrainians “crucify Christ’s Church”; pro-life in Romania and Moldova; celebrating 1988 Czech “candle” protest

by Matthew Trojacek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 FEATURES Tradition and Beauty/True and false “progress” in sacred music

by Aurelio Porfiri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Art/German shrines in Rome and Vatican City

by Lucy Gordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Lord of the World/“Pantheistic worship ....a success”

by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Vatican Watch/A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events: February-March-April 2023

by Matthew Trojacek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 People/Church desecration in India; Nicaragua closes Catholic universities; bishops reject human composting; sainthood sought for 3 Koreans; new Nigerian dicastery head

by Matthew Trojacek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Food for Thought/Joseph Ratzinger, the gourmet

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

T HE L EGACY OF T HE S EXUAL R EVOLUTiON

◆ ADAM AND EVE

◆ THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION

AFTER THE PILL , REVISITED

History, Ideology, Power — Bishop Peter Elliott

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elebrated author Mary Eberstadt continues her ground-breaking examination of the legacy of the sexual revolution. The book’s predecessor, Adam and Eve after the Pill (2012) dissected the revolution’s microcosmic fallout via its empirical effects on the lives of men, women, and children.

This book investigates the revolution’s macrocosmic transformations in three spheres: society, politics, and Christianity. It also includes an analysis of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

With unflinching logic, she summarizes the toll on Western society of today’s fractured homes, feral children, and social isolates. Empathetic yet precise, she connects the dots between shrinking, broken families and rising sexual confusion, seen most recently in transgenderism and related phenomena. The result is an indictment of the turn taken by much of the world after the post-1960s embrace of contraception and the stigmatization of traditional morality. It is an indispensable blueprint for today’s emerging revisionism, and a manifesto for a more humane order to come.

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“Mary Eberstadt is our most astute commentator on the vast human costs of the sexual revolution. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to navigate out of the wreckage of our present age.” —R. R. Reno, Editor, First Things “In her literate, passionate, hard-hitting book, chock full of empirical and theological erudition, Mary Eberstadt sets up the debate we so badly need in the United States.”

—Helen Alvaré, Professor of Law, George Mason University “A wake-up call to everyone—particularly the Church—to be bold in our witness to the truth about human sexuality, as there are human costs to getting human nature wrong.”

—Ryan Anderson, President, Ethics and Public Policy Center

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he sexual revolution asserts the total freedom of the individual to behave as if the traditions of religion, the wisdom of philosophy, and the realities of biology have no claim on how we live.

Bishop Elliott traces the history of the sexual revolution, from the Enlightenment through Marxist movements to our times, and the failure of governments and even churches to defend sound principles for sexual behavior. He presents the constant teaching of the Church and highlights the focus on the integration of sexual morality and personality within the contexts of human nature, marriage, and the welfare of children. To help parents, teachers, pastors, and students with sound guidance on sexual ethics, he offers the clarity that comes from a thorough understanding of the subject, with the pastoral sensitivity from decades of service to the Church.

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“The best book I’ve read on this subject! A highly readable account of the history of the sexual revolution, the ideas underpinning it, and its social effects over the past two centuries.”

—Tracey Rowland, St. John Paul II Chair of Theology, University of Notre Dame (Australia)

“Brilliantly illuminates the sexual revolution’s roots and its harvest of horrors. Above all, this book offers hope of redemption and renewal, for Christ came not as the savior from the body, but as the savior of the body!”

—Christopher West, President, Theology of the Body Institute

“This book is a marvel of concision and comprehensiveness. As Bishop Elliott surveys the wasteland from the sexual revolution, he also maps out a blueprint for recovery that offers us hope.”

—Robert Reilly, Author, America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding

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Classic United States: Wisconsin September 1 - 9, 2023 In the heart of the Midwest lies a historically significant and little-known treasure of Catholic sites. From a shrine nestled in the bluffs of Lacrosse to a towering hilltop basilica to a quiet chapel in farm country, Wisconsin is home to several unique shrines, including three Marian shrines of special significance. As we trace out the constellation of Shrines through Wisconsin, we will also encounter the “living stones” of the Catholic Church in Wisconsin. Come with us to walk the Wisconsin Way and experience the rich history and culture of Catholicism in Wisconsin – come discover Mary in the Heartland. Visit us online to learn more!

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Inside the Vatican Magazine 30th Anniversary – October 6 - 14, 2023

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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

PETER THE ROMAN?

We get requests like these everyday.

Dear Friends: I’ve just received your latest issue, and even a cursory perusal reveals your usual incisive and relevant articles and stellar photography.

I also noticed, however, that it was marked “last issue” of my subscription. If possible, may I request another year’s extension?

In this prison—deep in rural Georgia—there is no Catholic ministry, ergo, no sacraments; Inside the Vatican is therefore a vital part of my communion with the Church—second, of course, to prayer, in which I always include you and your staff.

I appreciate your kindness.

With love in Christ, Richard J. T. Clark, T.O.M.

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INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

Editor’s Note: Ten years ago, replying to my Letter #37 of March 7, 2013, entitled “A Living Stone,” written a few days after February 28, 2013, when Pope Benedict XVI abdicated and left the Vatican in the white helicopter, and a few days before the election of Pope Francis on March 13, 2013, and which I have excerpted in this month’s Editorial, I received an email comment from a longtime reader and friend, Cathy Fernandes, which I wish to publish now, 10 years later, as “Letters to the Editor.”

(Remember, this letter is from 10 years ago, so the writer is not aware of anything that has happened in these 10 years.)

—RM On March 8, 2013, Cathy Fernandes wrote: Why did neither John Paul II nor Benedict XVI deal with the Sodano problem? Where does Sodano get his power? Is he a freemason? The notion that the next Pope will be able to fix what neither John Paul nor Benedict could fix is wishful thinking, as there are forces both inside and outside the Church that want the Church out of the way. The best thing that can happen at this point is a deadlock in the voting and a schism in the Church with no Pope elected. The dissenters can form their own cult which won’t resemble the Catholic Church, and will have to merge with the coming oneworld Luciferian religion, as the Antichrist won’t tolerate any competition.

I think Benedict XVI is the Bishop in white who gets martyred in the third secret of Fatima. The true (remnant) Church will have to go underground and elect a valid Pope in the future. This Pope will have to consecrate Russia, proclaim the fifth Marian dogma and lead the Church into the New Era. Is a possible candidate Peter Erdo? Is he Peter the Roman?

I signed up to this group “Adopt a Cardinal” and was assigned Cardinal Peter Erdo to pray for, so I did research on his name and found articles by you

@

lauding him. Ted Flynn of Signs and Wonders also had good things to say about Cardinal Erdo on his website, including the fact that Erdo had approved the private revelations (Flame of Love) to Hungarian Elizabeth Kindelmann, and that Erdo has a conservative (although the orthodox vs. heterodox label is more appropriate when referring to the Church) voting record.

That Cardinal Erdo speaks fluent Russian is an asset in dealing with the Russian Orthodox Church, especially in light of the fact that the Triumph of Our Lady will coincide with the conversion of Russia.

Various commentators on Fatima suggest this implies the conversion of the Russian Orthodox to the Catholic Church which makes sense. There have been prophecies about an angelic Pope and a great Monarch ruling in the New Era, so although this may be a stretch, I wonder if Cardinal Erdo is that Pope?

Cathy Fernandes cfernal1634@aol.com

ARCHBISHOP VIGANÒ Thank you for publishing Archbishop Viganò’s letters. He is one of the few who make the world make sense. Such troubling things go on, and most people either don’t notice or sweep them under the carpet with smooth platitudes. When I read a Viganò letter, with forthright explication of events, these troubling things fall into some sort of logical order.

Sheryl Collmer Texas, USA You are doing Holy Mother Church a great service by publishing Archbishop Viganò’s insights. Those who do not like it do not have to read it, but censoring ANYONE is uncalled for. Are people not able to think for themselves any longer?

Do we need some self-appointed thinktank or council to tell us what we are permitted to hear?

For many of us this holy prelate is a voice in the desert.

Those that trust in God can use the brain He gave us to decipher for

themselves what to believe. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is speaking through him! It is our choice to hear Him! Jacqueline jmacphee@bellsouth.net We thank God for Archbishop Viganò’s courageous witness to truth in the midst of the rampant chaos and deceit in our beloved Catholic Church.

Enemies of the Church are now striking at her very heart—the contemplative orders—utilizing the dagger of Cor Orans to bully and finally dismantle conservative contemplative religious communities so the Vatican can collect proceeds from the sale of assets. Cor Orans, like Traditionis Custodes, is taking aim at structures of tradition in the Church with the apparent goal of completely stamping them all out.

Ken and Elizabeth Schwab schwab@decorcarmelli.com Your friend Matthew’s letter criticizing you for publishing the writing of Archbishop Viganò raised my pulse rate and I cannot stay silent.

The early use in his letter of the word “rant,” which I only see in gutter journalism and blog comments, betrays his loyalties. A theologian is one who, inspired by Divine Wisdom, is able to impart the Truth to us because he lives totally for the glory of God. Matthew’s letter shows loyalty to the institution and officials of the Church but betrays no wider perspective to recognise arbitrary, unjust, tyrannical and sinful actions which are suffered by many.

You are one of less than a handful of sources which report to us the concerns and teaching of an archbishop with a good record of service to the Holy See, for the service of the whole Church, and not a personal clique or professional interest group. Precisely someone who, in concerns of Justice and Truth, prudently but fearlessly does what he can as a pastor and teacher to inform, guide, and protect the flock of Christ while he has strength. I am amazed at his output, and the consistent quality of his presentation of the Gospel as the Church has always taught it.

Christ said that the sheep know His voice and follow Him. You, by your very gentle and respectful approach, allow the sheep to hear the voice of a good

shepherd in Archbishop Viganò. I am not alone in viewing him as the father and protector that fewer and fewer Catholics find in their hierarchs. May you long continue your openness to both sides of these essential and existential arguments.

Andrew Neyman xaneyman@yahoo.co.uk

OLD WINE IN NEW SKINS When I was at Notre Dame (Paris), I went to a Mass during the week which turned out to be the ordination of a deacon. I couldn’t help but note that the main altar was in the cross section of the cathedral. The metallic design was clearly 1970s, and the two steps up to the altar had insufficient space for a large gathering. Some priests were in the raised steps, some were not. In this epic and awe-inspiring space, to watch Mass be celebrated on this very 1970s, dirty bronze altar with modern-art sculptures of what looked like paper cut-outs of saints, felt to me very awkward spiritually. Like old wine in new skins.

When Notre Dame had the fire, on April 15, 2019, I thought it was interesting that the only part of the roof that caved in was the central cross section, directly over this new 1970s altar.

Nothing else was seriously damaged.

It has occurred to me in prayer that this could be a divine message from Heaven. God is speaking to us through the tragedy of Notre Dame’s fire that we must remove these 1970s altars and return these magnificent cathedrals to their original splendor and function for European Catholicism to have any chance to survive. I say this as an obedient Catholic who attends the new Mass every Sunday.

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I think our Church is doing a disservice to all who came before us — to all the Communion of Saints — if we try to suppress this incredible liturgical gift that served to inspire a hundred generations of believers. For goodness’ sake, Mozart and Beethoven wrote music for this Mass. Don’t you want to experience that in worship? To pray to some of the best music ever written? To allow your heart to soar on the wings of Palestrina polyphonies and monastic chants?

I just don’t understand why anyone would want to walk away from this immense liturgical treasure. What are these people who aim to suppress it afraid of?

Tom Esposito tespo18@yahoo.com

SPECIAL MARY ISSUE My thanks to all who masterfully compiled your Special Mary Issue. I look forward to seeing similar special issues in the future. Yes, “Being in print benefits a lot of people.” In a troubled world, “being in print” reaches out to the human heart and provides enlightenment, truth and hope to those God desires to be reawakened by His Divine Providence.

Gladly included is a check to help pay for printing and prisoner subscriptions.

Judy Kozlowski Salem, Massachusetts, USA Thank you for your intelligent and inspiring magazine. I enjoy especially the “Lead” story and “Food for Thought” by Mother Martha. I loved the Special Mary Issue — truly beautiful.

Ludmila Sedlackova, M.D. Astoria, New York, USA Please excuse me for correcting page 47 of your 2022 Special Mary issue: the caption says “Our Lady of Kazan” but actually the icon pictured is Our Lady of Tikhvin in the Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Moscow. The “Icon of Tikhvin” has an interesting story: it escaped from Communist Russia and ended up in the Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois, until it was sent back to Russia after the fall of the Soviet empire. The small cathedral housing it was built by the last czar of Russia. The Mary issue is beautiful and was very nice to have for Christmas.

MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Thank you! Icons are the Gospel in color and meant to teach us our faith, and how Our Lady protects her people.

Fr. Anthony L. Markus Archdiocese of Chicago (retired)

ITV. I am sending a small contribution, along with my prayer.

Fr. Brendan Murray Nazareth, New Jersey, USA

EXCELLENT COVERAGE SPECIAL BENEDICT ISSUE Words cannot express my gratitude for your Special Issue on Pope Benedict XVI. I can remember praying that he would become Pope after Pope John Paul II died. During the Second Vatican Council, I had prayed then that the Church would stay as Jesus intended. Praise God that both John Paul and Benedict worked for this.

Unfortunately, things have changed dramatically. However, I do believe that the Mercy of Jesus will prevail and the smoke of Satan will be extinguished.

The Holy Spirit is in you and we are gratified to have you and your writings. I am happy to send the enclosed check.

Please continue with ITV and pray for generous donors!

Cathy

THANK YOU Thanks for supporting Archbishop Viganò, whom I hold in the highest deference and respect — the good shepherds are dwindling. May God’s grace sustain us. Here is a check to support prisoner and retired clergy subscriptions.

Andrea Cruz Azusa, California, USA Faithfully and gratefully following your letters, Robert. Thanks for the witness!

Edwin Cardinal O’Brien Diocese of Baltimore

Be assured that your articles help the reader to understand the issues of our times and many of us admire your willingness to bring them to our attention despite objections. At this time in Church history it isn’t surprising that two contrary views are emerging, and likely the gulf between them will only widen in the foreseeable future. You are a brave man indeed to put yourself in the thick of a battle where only the Lord knows when the final outcome will emerge. Keep up the excellent coverage!

Suzanne Formanek suzanne.formanek@gmail.com

CLIMATE CHANGE Do we know the Church’s position on climate change? Pope Benedict, known as the “Green Pope,” had this to say: “The pollution of the outward environment that we are witnessing is only the mirror and consequence of the pollution of the inward environment.” (World Youth Day, 2008) Pope John Paul II echoed this assessment: “Modern society will find no solution to the ecology problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyle.”

We must face the awful truth: natural disasters will not go away. However, the words of Pope Benedict give us hope.

They provide a pathway for humanity to survive, if we turn back to God. This should be shouted from the housetops.

Charles Gallagher San Jose, California, USA

FROM THE TRENCHES Thank you for sharing your time, knowledge, thoughts and heart with your readers. I have been following you for many years, and consider you a dear brother in Christ. Enclosed is a gift for the Friends of Lebanon project. God bless you!

Diane Doody Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Thanks for your Lent letter: it was fascinating to read about your friendship with Pope Benedict XVI. What a gift he was to the Church and the world. I am a retired priest, and always enjoy reading 10

INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

I found your online discussions with Fr. Charles Murr on “The Death of Pope John Paul I: What really happened?” [find them on the Urbi et Orbi Communications channel on YouTube: “30 Years: The Untold Stories” – Ed.] intriguing and insightful, but also hopeful. His jovial manner was welcome!

It is not that I doubt my faith, but I doubt the passing on of the faith and have what I hope is righteous anger at the stupidity of the masses led by poor faith keepers. Yet I know the truth wins in the end. In the meantime, I am sharing some

recent work “from the trenches,” a 3-part series that describes the building of the healthcare system and how the transgender cause has gathered its allies to support the mutilation of young human bodies: https://www.the11thhourblog.com/post/all -aboard-the-human-rights-campaign-andthe-making-of-transgender-industryleaders-part-i Kathy kpmurano@protonmail.com

FROM PRISONERS Please know of my love for your beautiful magazine that I so look forward to every month. It is filled with truth, life and love. It is food for my heart and soul.

I have been incarcerated for almost 18 years and recently denied parole. My next review will be in 2024. I would be most grateful if you would kindly renew my subscription for another two years.

Mr. Thuan Duc Vu, #1396661 Luther Unit, 1800 Luther Dr. Navasota, TX 77868-4714 I would like to express my gratitude for renewing my subscription for another year. May 2023 be a great year for Inside the Vatican!

David Williams, #D29095 Everglades Re-entry 1599 SW 187th Ave. Miami, Florida 33194 I’m now in a better prison — today we will have Catholic Mass — WOW! Mondays we meet to pray the Rosary and we have a Legion of Mary group too.

Once a month we have a “Brothers of St. Dismas” Group and also RCIA. We’ve been getting the Blessed Sacrament twice a week — our wonderful Mother and our Lord Jesus have heard my many and constant prayers. I know you were praying for me too!

Thank you for the amazing Special Mary Issue. I am speechless. It is the greatest gift I could have received in 11 years in a Texas prison. I wish I could convey to all my ITV -reader brothers and sisters just how much ITV means to me as an indigent Catholic prisoner. Any reader who answers the call to donate any amount to help provide prisoner subscriptions is following Jesus’ command in Matt. 25, and you will be greatly rewarded.

I believe God hears the prayers of suffering prisoners, and if anyone has a special intention, I and my Oblate of St. Benedict inmate brothers and my Catholic community will pray diligently for you!

I’ve enclosed $5.00 in one-dollar postage stamps as my contribution. Truly this is the “widow’s mite” and I just hope and pray you can use them.

Peter J. Ellington, #1819234 Pack Unit, 2400 Wallace Pack Rd. Navasota, TX 77868-4567 I am a devout Catholic from Mexico. I saw my friend’s copy of your very beautiful Special Mary Issue. I would be grateful if you could send me one. I read the Bible and say the rosary every day, and write songs about Jesus and Mary.

Lazaro Ceballos, #C05929 G4206L CFRC Unit, 7000 HC Kelley Rd. Orlando, Florida 32831-2518 I have received your magazine for several years due to your generosity, but my subscription has apparently run out. I am writing to ask if you would kindly renew it, and also send if possible a copy of the Special Mary Issue. Your magazine is well read here, as I pass it around to several men to enjoy. There is no other publication like yours! Thank you!

Ron Haney, #21991b JHCC Box 548 C1-203 Lexington, Oklahoma 73051

GÄNSWEIN BOOK ITV is an invaluable, honest, and very informative magazine. Question: Are you going to publish in English Archbishop Gänswein’s book that came out after Pope Benedict died? Has anyone else published it? We are anxious to read it.

Heidi and Joe Nolen Jamacia, Vermont, USA (Editor’s Note: We expect the book to be published soon in English. We will keep you posted.)

“THE UNTOLD STORIES” Your comment to Reverend Father Murr [guest on “Thirty Years of Inside the Vatican: the Untold Stories” series on our YouTube channel] about his sense of humor was most appropriate. Humor can also reflect humility.

Many years ago (I’m in my 80s),

possibly the mid 1960’s, I found a small hard-bound book about the humor and love of St. Pope John XXIII — which I still have. In it are many wonderful anecdotes about his beautiful wit. On the cover, there is a picture of then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower standing next to His Holiness breaking out in a very huge laugh. It was obvious that Pope John had said something humorous that totally delighted the President. This is so missing today in our troubled world. We all have something to learn from our late beloved Pope.

Pat and Greg Strauss gstrausshaus@aol.com

“FEED MY LAMBS” The Catholic community often appears confused and at odds with itself.

Why? The reason is that some listen to the Pope and some do not. What is the basis for obedience to the Pope?

In St. John’s Gospel we read of Christ saying to Peter: “Feed my lambs.” These passages attest to the authority of the institution of the papacy to guide and protect the people, especially from false doctrines or teachings. Today, more than ever, Catholics need to look to the Pope for guidance and light. To go it alone, trying to make one’s way through this troubled world, is a formula for disaster.

God protects our freedom; He doesn’t want an obedience born of fear. He wants each person to freely choose to fulfill those teachings given through His Church and the Holy Father.

Robert Severine Connecticut, USA Attacking and attempting to destroy the Traditional Tridentine Latin Mass is ecclesial insanity, evil, and malice of the highest magnitude — in essence, an absolute disgrace, beyond belief, from supposedly the original, authentic Church of Jesus Christ!

Vic Cameron vcamco@comcast.net Interesting that you bring up the case of Fr. (Msgr., according to my recollection, was his correct title) Kunz (Moynihan Letters #62: Fr. Kunz’s Unsolved Murder). Soon after his murder, we learned there were indications that his was a ritual murder, Masonic, is the term I recall. He was about to reveal names

others didn’t want known. His death was a warning to others.

Jane Elliot corjesu@icloud.com I really wish you would reconsider your approach to Archbishop Viganò... not to silence his voice, but to consider his statements more critically, and perhaps help him see some of the harm in his viewpoints. All voices from very progressive to very conservative need to be heard... However, as the community of believers is the real presence of Jesus in the world, hostile attitudes put a fog over Jesus’ presence and betray the truth of Jesus.

Your recent letter talks about the Council Fathers (Vat II) not really approving the Novus Ordo when it was released after the close of the Council. I am convinced that the pro and con are using the liturgy as a proxy to accepting the Council or rejecting the Council... read some of Archbishop Viganò’s previous comments about the Council.

I entered seminary before the Council in August 1962 and was ordained after most of the dust had settled (June 1974).

But regarding the liturgy, I find it difficult to understand the rejection of the Novus Ordo, except as a proxy rejection of the core of Vatican II. The old liturgy had been encrusted with rules and repetition, hidden from the people, most of whom said the rosary or other unrelated prayers during Mass. I think some of these people have forgotten what Mass in a parish church was like before the liturgical reforms. They are idealizing it, not remembering the reality.

Fr. Bernard Häring told us in the seminary that a priest saying the old liturgy could commit 154 mortal sins... there were that many ritual rules binding under pain of serious sin. I served Mass for several priests who were scrupulous and repeated the words of consecration with extreme caution, fear of stumbling, and going back to the beginning if they were not certain they got all the syllables correct. The key is helping the community worship together with full active participation. All this seems very organic to me. The reforms corrected a lot of problems, involve the laity much more.

Bob Graf robertgraf@aol.com MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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LEAD STORY British Cardinal Arthur Roche during a concelebrated Mass offered according to the rules of the Second Vatican Council.

Opposite page, a painting of Pope Pius V, the Pope of reference for the Traditionalists, used in one of several billboards appearing in Rome in late March with the quote, from his 1570 apostolic constitution Quo Primum. Translated: (Heading on green background) For the love of the pope — For the peace and unity of the Church — For the freedom of the traditional Latin Mass; (Quoted text) “We decree and declare that the present Letters may at no time be revoked or diminished, but always set and valid; they must remain in force.”

CRITICS OF CARDINAL ROCHE: “THERE IS NO EVIDENCE FOR A ‘HERMENEUTIC OF RUPTURE’” n BY ROBERT MOYNIHAN

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ritish Cardinal Arthur Roche, 73, the Pope’s head of the Dicastery for Divine Worship since 2021, spoke briefly in a BBC report on Sunday, March 19 on the issue of the Vatican’s limiting of the Traditional Latin Mass (abbreviated as the “TLM”) on July 16, 2021, in Traditionis custodes. The BBC report also included the opinions of several British Catholics who attend and appreciate the old rite of the Mass.

Roche’s abbreviated remarks featured most prominently his claim that, in regard to the liturgy, in regard to what happens at Mass, “the theology of the Church has changed.” This was striking, and is material for reflection.

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Roche explained his viewpoint this way: “You know, the theology of the Church has changed. Whereas before, the priest represented, at a distance, all the people — they were channeled, as it were, through this person who alone was celebrating the Mass. It is not only the priest who celebrates the liturgy, but also those who are baptized with him. And that is an enormous statement to make.”

He is right: it is an “enormous statement to make.”

Enormous, because it seems to say what very few up to now have been willing to say explicitly: that there has not been “continuity” in Catholic teaching on this matter from prior to the Council,

through the Council, and after the Council, up until today, but a kind of “rupture,” a “change” in teaching.

However, it seems that it was the chief burden of Pope Benedict XVI’s theological endeavor to express, define and defend the belief that what the Church believes about the liturgy, about the Mass, was not a rupture with the past, was not changed by the Council, but was in continuity, presenting traditional teaching at and after the Council in a way which enabled the inner, unchanging meaning, the perennial meaning, the meaning handed down “from the beginning,” from apostolic times, of the Church’s teaching on the Mass, and the priesthood, to be

St. Pius V and the Miracle of the Crucifix, by Domenico Maria Muratori (1700s). St. Pius V, Pope from 1566 to 1572, codified the old liturgy in 1570, saying it was for all time.

The painting represents one of the 10 miracles that are remembered in the life of Pius V. In this case, Jesus on the Cross moves His legs to one side when the saint is about to kiss them — because the Pope’s enemies had spread poison on the legs of the crucifix to harm the Pope. He was not harmed.

The same image was used on a poster displayed in Rome in March, 2023, just before Easter (small photo)

presented effectively in this period of history, our present time.

Not change, but continuity.

Because it would create a theological problem to say “the teaching has changed.”

CONTRADICTING POPE BENEDICT? The striking thing about what Roche is saying is precisely this, that it seems to contradict the central teaching of Pope Benedict: that the new Mass is not simply a “more accessible” Mass for ordinary people in the pews (because, for example, the words are in the vernacular rather than an ancient language, Latin, that few people know) but that it actually represents a “change” in the theology of the Mass.

Is this actually what the assembled bishops at the Second Vatican Council said, or intended? Is there any place where the Council Fathers say, “We are going to have a new theology of the Mass” (evidently, holding that what the Church had taught up to that time on the matter was in some way deficient, or

incomplete)? Is it not rather the case that Pope John XXIII and the Council Fathers said, “We would like to keep the same theology of the Mass as always, but allow the ordinary faithful to understand it better”?

And is it not the case that some of the changes made — in order to make the Mass “more accessible” — like (for example) the shift of the position of the

priest, from facing the altar to facing the people, had the opposite effect from the one intended?

That is, in the old Mass, do not the people sense clearly that they indeed, along with the priest and, as it were, led by him, are, yes, participating in the offering of the Holy Sacrifice?

And is it not, rather, in the Novus Ordo, with the priest facing the people, that the assembled laity feel as if they are a passive audience at the rather unpredictable “show” that the priest presents, not according to time-honored rubrics handed down for centuries, but according to the events of the day and the whims of the particular priest?

In any case, is it not the case that Catholic theology holds that the priest is ordained to offer the very bodily sacrifice of Christ Himself, in a way that the people may participate in, but cannot accomplish without the presence of the ordained priest?

To suggest that the primary action of the ordained priest is not different from that participatory action of the people at MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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Mass would seem not in keeping with traditional Catholic teaching on this matter; that is, it would seem to represent a change in theology... risking being a development not in keeping with perennial Catholic teaching.

AN “UNEXPECTED BATTLEGROUND” You can listen to the BBC report in which Cardinal Roche, and others, are interviewed here: https://bbc.in/3K2z6DP You must skip the first 5 minutes, and start precisely at 5:12 into the program, to hear the newsman ask Cardinal Roche about the Latin Mass, which the newsman says, quite dramatically, has become “an unexpected battleground in a Catholic culture war over the future direction of the Church.”

At 5:47, someone (evidently a priest) sings a few words from the old Latin liturgy, “vere dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutare...” (“truly worthy and just it is, fitting and helpful for salvation”) and then the correspondent says that, while Pope Benedict provided space for the traditional Latin Mass, Pope Francis has “changed the rules” and required bishops to seek permission

from Rome before any celebration of the old Latin Mass. A Catholic speaks of the beauty of the silences in the old Mass.

The correspondent then explains how many vibrant traditional communities are being repressed. And a priest from England who favors the celebration of the old Mass asks Pope Francis and Cardinal Roche to reverse their restrictions on the old Mass.

Catholic journalist Austen Ivereigh then defends the decision of Pope Francis; he asserts that the Traditional Mass serves as a rallying point for a “movement” of Catholics who oppose Vatican Council II. Precisely at the 10:19 mark in this report, the correspondent introduces

Cardinal Arthur Roche. In his 24 seconds of speaking, the cardinal speaks the words also quoted above: “You know, the theology of the Church has changed.

Whereas before, the priest represented, at a distance, all the people — they were channeled, as it were, through this person who alone was celebrating the Mass.

It is not only the priest who celebrates the liturgy, but also those who are baptized with him. And that is an enormous statement to make.”

That is the extent of his remarks. The report ends after another Catholic layman speaks.

As Lifesitenews reported, Liturgical scholar Matthew Hazell highlighted Roche’s comments, noting that contrary to the cardinal’s claim, the teaching of the Church has not changed.

He pointed to the teaching of Pope Pius XII in his 1947 encyclical Mediator Dei, in which the pontiff outlined the Catholic teaching on the congregation uniting themselves to the priest in the sacrifice of the Mass.

“Now it is clear that the faithful offer the sacrifice by the hands of the priest from the fact that the minister at the

OTHER CATHOLIC COMMENTATORS RESPOND TO CARDINAL ROCHE’S REMARKS Teaching that the laity participate in offering the Holy Sacrifice is nothing new

By Michael Haynes LifeSiteNews, March 20, 2023

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hile the arguments of the “priestly people” have been much proposed since Vatican II, chiefly by those looking to eradicate a difference between priests and laity, Pius XII noted clearly [in Mediator Dei, November 20, 1947, Par. 93] the difference in their respective actions: “But the conclusion that the people offer the sacrifice with the priest himself is not based on the fact that, being members of the Church no less than the priest himself, they perform a visible liturgical rite; for this is the privilege only of the minister who has been divinely appointed to this office: rather it is based on the fact that the people unite their hearts in praise, impetration, expiation and thanksgiving with prayers or intention of the priest, even of the High Priest himself, so that in the one and same offering of the victim and according to a visible sacerdotal rite, they may be presented to God the Father. It is obviously necessary that the external sacrificial rite should, of its very nature, signify the internal worship of the heart.”

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Pius XII also drew from Pope Innocent III to denote the teaching of the Church in the joint offering of the sacrifice: “‘Not only,’ says Innocent III of immortal memory, ‘do the priests offer the sacrifice, but also all the faithful: for what the priest does personally by virtue of his ministry, the faithful do collectively by virtue of their intention.’”

Hence, Roche’s claim that the theology has changed does not seem to be supported by Church teaching — both that of recent times and that made by popes from ancient eras. His argument that the people now join the priest in offering the sacrifice has always been taught, with the careful differentiation between the priest and people’s various roles.

Vatican and “rad trads” agree on this: the new Mass expresses a “new religion”

By Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, March 22, 2023

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ust as important as Roche’s confirmation that the present Vatican has done away with wide permission for the old Mass is his affirmation of the underpinning assumptions that

Opposite, British Cardinal Arthur Roche with the late Pope Benedict, and below, with Pope Francis

altar, in offering a sacrifice in the name of all His members, represents Christ, the Head of the Mystical Body. Hence the whole Church can rightly be said to offer up the victim through Christ...

“The fact, however, that the faithful participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice does not mean that they also are endowed with priestly power.

“It is very necessary that you make this quite clear to your flocks…

“Now the faithful participate in the oblation, understood in this limited sense, after their own fashion and in a twofold manner, namely, because they not only offer the sacrifice by the hands of the priest, but also, to a certain extent, in union with him.

“It is by reason of this participation that the offering made by the people is also included in liturgical worship...”

(Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 1947) THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES American Catholic scholar Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, author of The Once and Future Roman Rite and other books on the Traditional Mass, commented on Cardinal Roche’s BBC interview for

Inside the Vatican. His reaction: “Cardinal Roche is wrong about the theology of the Mass prior to the Council, as can be seen in an unbroken line of magisterial documents and popular commentaries and devotionals on the Mass, some of them intended for popular audiences, that speak of the laity’s offering of the Mass in union with (but also in distinction from) the priest’s offering of it.

“He is wrong too about the liturgy prior to the Council, because the Roman Rite, like every other approved and received rite, always speaks of the offering of the people (Orate, fratres... Pray, brethren, that your sacrifice and mine may be acceptable...); and there are

Benedict XVI used to license it — namely, Benedict’s “hermeneutic of continuity,” or the idea that the Second Vatican Council did not impose upon the faithful anything substantively new or different from the faith that the Church held before it. Therefore, the old Mass and the new Mass must express the very same faith.

That is not this Vatican’s position. Roche and the Vatican agree with progressives who view the old Mass as unsuited to a Church that has a new theology. And so they agree with radical traditionalists, and the Lefebvrites, that the purpose of the new Mass was to impose a new religion upon the Church.

Roche is “casting about” for a new rationale to suppress the Traditional Mass

By Dr. Joseph Shaw, OnePeterFive.com, March 24, 2023

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find myself, here, and not for the first time, defending the words of the Second Vatican Council against an interpretation which would impute to them theological novelties incompatible with the perennial teaching of the Church. It’s beyond the scope of this article to do the same thing for everything the Council said, but at least on this important

plenty of other indications in the texts, faithfully printed in countless hand missals used by the faithful as much in the 1950s as in the 2020s).

“He is also wrong about Vatican II, which clearly affirms the ontological, i.e., essential, difference between the ordained priesthood, which empowers the priest to offer the Holy Sacrifice on behalf of the living and of the dead, and the common priesthood, which empowers the baptized to unite themselves, body and soul, to the Son’s perfect offering to His Father.

“So much of this is Catholicism — found in the littlest kids’ version of the Baltimore Catechism.

“It’s becoming a huge embarrassment that these prelates either know next to nothing about their subjects or are ready to throw truth under the bus for the sake of Francis’ obsession against ‘backwardism,’ at a time when there are thousands of Catholics well-educated about the liturgy constantly posting on social media.

“The emperor has no clothes, and the moral authority of the Vatican is plummeting like overpriced stocks in a bear market.”m

issue, of the manner in which the faithful participate in the Mass, Austen Ivereigh should note that I am not the one criticizing Vatican II. It is Cardinal Roche, by implication, who seems to be casting it as introducing an historical rupture into the teaching of the Church.

He can’t, really, have meant this, but I do wonder what he did mean. It is clear that he is casting about for a different kind of rationale for the planned suppression of the Traditional Mass from the one offered by Pope Francis in the Letter to Bishops: one not just based on the empirical claim that its supporters are bad people, which fares so badly when a journalist takes the trouble to ask some worshippers about it. He would like an argument based on the theology of the liturgy, something that would allow him to say that it is objectively bad to allow any celebrations of the Traditional Mass to continue longer than absolutely necessary.

I’d love to hear more about this, because any such argument is going to have this difficulty: that if the Traditional Mass is bad, then the Church’s entire liturgy was bad for fifteen centuries, and most probably the Eastern Rites are bad even today. It would be intriguing indeed to discover that the Dicastery for Divine Worship is saying that celebration ad orientem is theologically problematic, while the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches is at the very same time trying to impose celebration ad orientem on the Syro-Malabars.n MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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Billboards Supporting Traditional Mass Spring Up around Rome in Late March “Out of Love for the Pope” March 28, 2023

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tarting this morning, and lasting for 15 days, several dozen billboards dedicated to the traditional liturgy will be posted near and around the Vatican.

An organizing committee, whose members are participating in a personal capacity and who come from different Catholic entities (such as the blogs, Messainlatino and Campari & de Maistre, and the associations, National Committee on Summorum Pontificum and the St Michael the Archangel Association), wished to make public their profound attachment to the traditional Mass at a time when its extinction seems to be planned.

They do so out of love for the Pope, so that he might be paternally opened to understanding those liturgical peripheries that no longer feel welcome in the Church, because they find in the traditional liturgy the full and complete

expression of the entire Catholic Faith.

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful” (Benedict XVI, Letter to the Bishops on the occasion of the publication of the Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum).

The growing hostility towards the traditional liturgy finds no justification on either a theological or pastoral level.

ROCHE IN LETTER TO GERMANS IN SEEMING CONTRADICTION TO HIS BBC REMARKS, ROCHE LETTER CITES UNIQUE ROLE OF PRIEST

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n a March 30 article by CNA-Ger- formed lay people should contribute, for potestas [sacred power] conferred on many’s A.C. Wimmer, Cardinal instance, as catechists or by conducting him at ordination.’

Arthus Roche was revealed to have conversations about Sacred Scripture.

“Explaining that the issue of preaching written a seven-page letter to the head of “However, he added that lay people at Mass was, in other words, a sacramenthe German Bishops’ Conference, Bish- could not give the homily at Mass since tal rather than an educational matter, op Georg Bätzing of Limburg, warning only someone ordained ‘sacramentally Roche warned of ‘misunderstandings’ him that the German Synodal Way’s represents Christ by virtue of the sacra about the figure and identity of the proposal for lay people to regularly baptize and preach Mass Francis fears “rejection homilies was not allowable. of the Church and its institutions” He then went on to give docin TLM adherents trinal reasons supporting these disciplines. According to the Excerpt from Traditionis Custodes, Pope CNA report, “On the issue of Francis’ letter to bishops homilies, Roche wrote that the ope Francis, in his July 16, 2021 letter to bishops reason why lay people cannot accompanying the motu proprio Traditionis regularly preach at Mass is not Custodes, limiting the celebration of the Tradidue to their need for ‘better thetional Latin Mass after it had been liberalized by Popes John Paul II and Benedict, explained his ological preparation or better rationale for the move: communication skills.’ Nor is “Unfortunately, the pastoral intent of my predethe intent to create ‘inequalities cessors… has been used to increase distances, among the baptized.’ harden differences, and build oppositions that hurt “Instead, the cardinal pointthe Church and hold back its progress, exposing it ed to ‘distinctions made by the to the risk of divisions.

Spirit, who produces different “I am equally saddened by the abuses on both charisms that are distinct and Pius V thanks the Virgin for the victory of the sides in the celebration of the liturgy. Like BeneChristian fleet against the Turks complementary.’ dict XVI , I too regret that ‘in many places people in the Battle of Lepanto October 7, 1571 “Roche wrote that well-

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John Paul II and Benedict XVI are also depicted in the traditionalists' campaign, with phrases of approval and support for the ancient Latin liturgy

The communities that celebrate the liturgy according to the 1962 Roman Missal are not rebels against the Church.

On the contrary, blessed by steady growth in lay faithful and priestly vocations, they constitute an example of steadfast perseverance in Catholic faith and unity, in a world increasingly insensitive to the Gospel, and an ecclesial context increasingly yielding to disintegrating impulses.

For this reason, the attitude of rejection with which their

priest, who is the only one who can act ‘in persona Christi capitis’ [in the person of Christ, the head of the Church] by virtue of the sacrament.”

According to the report, Cardinal Roche also addressed the issue of lay people performing baptisms as a matter of routine, saying that, with the exceptions of danger of death or areas of persecution or mission territories, such a practice did not comport with canon law.

own pastors are forced to treat these communities today is not only reason for bitter sorrow, which these faithful strive to offer for the purification of the Church, but also constitutes a grave injustice. In the face of this injustice, charity itself demands that we not remain silent: for “indiscreet silence leaves in error those who might have been instructed” (Pope St Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule, Book II, Chapter 4).

In the Church of our day, in which listening, welcoming, and inclusion inspire all pastoral action, and there is a desire to build ecclesial communion “with a synodal method,” this group of ordinary faithful, young families, and fervent priests has the confident hope that its voice will not be stifled but welcomed, listened to, and taken into due consideration.

Those who go to the “Latin Mass” are not second-class believers, nor are they deviants to be re-educated or a burden to be gotten rid of.

—Press Release, The Organizing Committee (Toni Brandi, Luigi Casalini, Federico Catani, Guillaume Luyt, Simone Ortolani, Marco Sgroi) prolibertatemissalis@gmail.com (Trans. Diane Montagna)

One of the more interesting things about Cardinal Roche’s letter to the German bishops is that in it, he almost seems to walk back some of his earlier remarks to the BBC about the role of the congregation versus the role of the priest in offering the Mass.

In the BBC interview, he had said: “You know, the theology of the Church has changed. Whereas before, the priest represented, at a distance, all the people — they were channeled, as it were, through this person who alone was celebrating the Mass. It is do not celebrate faithfully the prescriptions of not only the priest who celethe new Missal, but that it is misunderstood as brates the liturgy, but also an authorization or even as an obligation to creativity, which often leads to deformations borthose who are baptized with dering on the unbearable.’ But nonetheless, I him. And that is an enormous am saddened by an instrumental use of the statement to make.”

1962 Missale Romanum, increasingly characThe baptized lay people, terized by a growing rejection not only of the he said, “celebrate the liturliturgical reform, but of the Second Vatican gy” along with the priest; he Council, with the groundless and untenable made no further distinctions, claim that it betrayed tradition and the ‘true and claims this understandChurch.’ ing is a “change” in theology.

“One last reason I want to add as the foundaBut in the letter to the tion of my choice: the close relationship beGerman bishops, he appears tween the choice of celebrations according to to be saying the opposite: the liturgical books prior to the Second Vatican that the role of the priest, Council and the rejection of the Church and its who alone offers the Mass in institutions in the name of what they judge to be persona Christi, is absolutethe ‘true Church.’ It is a behavior that contradicts ly unique due to his sacracommunion, fueling that drive for division.”n mental ordination, and that

lay people are not able to participate in the Mass, and offer to the Father the Body and Blood of Christ, the way that the priest does – which is the traditional teaching of the Church.

Perhaps the Cardinal’s more recent clarification of the doctrine on the priest’s role in celebrating the liturgy of the Mass was in some measure a response to the criticisms following his BBC interview. Perhaps the Cardinal was forced, upon further reflection, to reconsider his enthusiasm for a Mass re-imagined as a more egalitarian celebration, in which there is little to no real distinction between priest and people.

Perhaps, in the interview, the Cardinal simply misspoke.

Perhaps, the Cardinal was, as Dr. Joseph Shaw remarked on March 24 in the online journal OnePeterFive, simply “casting about for a different kind of rationale for the planned suppression of the Traditional Mass from the one offered by Pope Francis in the Letter to Bishops: one not just based on the empirical claim that its supporters are bad people, which fares so badly when a journalist takes the trouble to ask some worshippers about it. He would like an argument based on the theology of the liturgy…”m MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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INTERVIEWS

PoPe Francis celebrates 10 Years With series oF intervieWs This year is the 10th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis to the papacy, which occurred on March 13, 2023. In recognition of this anniversary, several news outlets were granted interviews with the Holy Father in the month of March.

Francis addressed the questions in his signa-

ture style of frankness and informality. The topics covered ranged from Francis’ personal feelings about being Pope to the wartime political situation in Ukraine and Russia, to his more controversial pronouncements touching on Church doctrine and pastoral practice. We excerpt four of them here.

March 10, 2023. Paolo Rodari introduces to the Holy Father the staff of editors and technicians of Italian-Swiss Radio and Television who will assist him during the interview

E

This brings to mind the arms industry. An expert told me: if for one year no weapons were produced, the problem of world hunger would be solved. It is a market. Wars are made, old “THE CHURCH IS NOT weapons are sold, new ones are tested.

A HOME FOR SOME, Before the conflict in IT IS A HOME FOR ALL” Paolo Rodari: Holy Father, Ukraine, you met Putin several n BY PAOLO RODARI in these 10 years, how much times. If you met him today, have you changed? what would you say to him?

POPE FRANCIS: I am old. I have less physical I would speak to him as clearly as I speak in public. He endurance;the knee injury was a physical humiliation, is an educated man. On the second day of the war I went to although it is healing well now. the Russian embassy at the Holy See to say that I was willJesus asks that everyone be brought to His table. ing to go to Moscow if Putin would give me a window to What does this mean? negotiate. Lavrov wrote to me saying thank you but now is It means that no one is excluded. When the guests did not the time. Putin knows I am available. But there are not come to the feast, He said go into the main roads and imperial interests there, not only of the Russian empire, but invite to the banquet whomever you find, the sick, the good of empires elsewhere. It is typical of the empire to put and the bad, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, nations in second place. everyone. We must not forget this: the Church is not a home How were Benedict XVI’s 10 years at Mater Ecclesiae? for some, it is not selective. The holy faithful people of God Good. He is a man of God; I love him very much. The are: everyone. last time I saw him was at Christmas. He could hardly There are several wars in the world. Why is it diffispeak. He spoke in a very low voice. His words had to be cult to understand the horror they cause? “translated.” He was lucid. He was asking questions: how In a little over a hundred years there have been three is this going? And what about that problem? He was up to world wars: 1914-18, 1939-45, and this one which is a date on everything. It was a pleasure to talk to him. I would world war. It started in bits and pieces and now no one can ask for his opinion. He would tell me what he thought: he say it is not worldwide. The great powers are all caught up was always balanced, positive, a wise man. The last time, in it. The battlefield is Ukraine. Everyone is fighting there. however, you could see he was nearing the end.m

xcerpts of an interview with Pope Francis conducted by Paolo Rodari on March 10, 2023 for ItalianSwiss Radio and Television, and broadcast on March 12, the eve of the tenth anniversary of the pontificate.

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March 17, 2023.

Pope Francis during the interview, at Casa Santa Marta, with Argentine Jorge Fontevecchia, CEO of Perfil Network

“GENDER IDEOLOGY IS SINISTER” n BY JORGE FONTEVECCHIA

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o mark a decade of his papacy, Francis received Jorge Fontevecchia, CEO of Perfil Network, at the Vatican for an interview of both great length and great depth, published March 17.

the Good Shepherd, Jesus, who grabs Judas and takes him away with an ironic smile. What does that mean? That salvation is stronger than damnation.

Those who consider that since the Church is not a worldly institution, it should not be updated to modern Jorge Fontevecchia: Science states that the Big Bang times… Does time stop? marks the beginning of the universe, while the Bible Pope Francis: It does for the “indietrists” (those always states that it was God who created the universe. What is looking back). When somebody tells me: “This is traditionyour own interpretation of the beginning? alist,” it could be on the right lines because tradition always POPE FRANCIS: The main thing here is that there was a moves ahead. Tradition is like the root of the tree and then beginning, that is key: there was something that started. afterwards the sap of the tree makes it grow ever upwards.

The Book of Genesis was not the first Tradition is healthy because it has this to be written in the Bible. The first dynamism. The problem is taking a step “H ELL IS NOT A PLACE … was Exodus, that is, the experience of back because it was always done that the liberation of Israel. Then he HELL IS A STATE, IT IS A STATE way before and there are people who looked back and wondered how things OF THE HEART, OF THE SOUL, take a step back. There is a phrase in started…

[Saint Paul’s] Letter to the Hebrews When God created, he did not create OF A POSITION TOWARDS LIFE, which has always caught my attention, everything perfect, he created it in a TOWARDS VALUES, TOWARDS which partly refers to this when it says: FAMILY, TOWARDS process and it is the same as the Bible “We are not people going back but fortells us. There was a process, that is why ward.” The problem is not tradition, EVERYTHING…” those seven days are symbolic of a which is always a source of inspiration; whole process of centuries, but it is a the problem is what I call “backreinterpretation through the history of Israel, of the exodus. wardism,” being stuck in the past century 20 or more years And it is a rereading of what human salvation would be ago. from chaos to the cosmos.

You were ordained a priest in 1969 after the concluWhat is your interpretation of hell and paradise? sion of the Second Vatican Council. Are you purely the Hell is not a place… hell is a state, it is a state of the product of that Vatican II? heart, of the soul, of a position towards life, towards values, In part yes, in part no. I studied theology and, of course, towards family, towards everything… he is already in it philosophy according to the old school. When I was studyfrom here. If you ask me how many people there are in hell, ing theology, the Council had recently started and some I answer you with a famous sculpture from Deslé cathedral professors were introducing some innovations, but it was — I don’t know if it’s from the 11th century or the 9th centhe old school. It was only very advanced in the Holy Scriptury, in southern France — there is a famous capital, the tures because that leads to another kind of thinking and columns have capitals… And that capital has Judas hanged research and I had some excellent professors like [Severiand the devil pulling down, and on the other side they have no] Croatto, for example. Only there would I say that I had MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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INTERVIEWS PoPE FRaNcIS cElEbRaTES 10 yEaRS a very up-to-date training in Holy Scriptures and I had to When same-sex marriage was discussed in Argentina, catch up with the rest later. In Morality, for example, I had the Synod argued vigorously and I, along with many other the most traditional and narrow-minded training there was bishops, proposed that there should be the option of a civil in those times and I had to reassemble Morality afterwards union, not only for persons of the same sex but also to help on my own account. others. We were thinking that three old-age pensioners How did you arrive at the conclusion that the Church could make a civil union of their assets for their mutual benmust display greater understanding towards the efit with the inheritance going to one or two of them. Civil divorced? union is a much broader thing, it’s a social contract which Jesus beat me to it. My attention was caught by that parasomehow guarantees social rights and a certain stability ble so characteristic of Him when those fussy people were without being the sacrament of matrimony or at least some dodging the invitation to the bankind of marriage. In my eyes quet and Jesus, transforming His this means the internal voting mood into the wrath of God, sayin the Synod went badly and ing: “Go to the crossroads and that’s why the law [for samebring them all to me, the healthy sex marriage] was passed and the sick, the righteous and the because we gave the governsinners, big and small, old and ment no alternative. I believe young, everybody.” The call of that civil union should exist.

Jesus is for everybody — the In a recent interview Church is universal in that aspect. with the Associated Press, And nobody can say: “They’re you maintained that homosinners and I’m not.” sexuality was not a crime When we were kids, the cusbut it was a sin. What haptom among the most Catholic pens with respect to the posfamilies was not to go to the houssibility of going to Hell or es of divorced people because that Paradise? gave the impression of having I return to what I said about already taken one step into Hell. That is going to Hell. I’ve spoken three times not a Christian concept, it’s really politiabout homosexuality, the first time cal, segregationist, etc. Jesus tells us “WHEN WE WERE KIDS, THE during my flight to Rio de Janeiro, CUSTOM AMONG THE MOST today: ‘everybody,’ and each person in when I said: “If a person is homosexthe Church, aided by the community or by CATHOLIC FAMILIES WAS NOT ual and seeks God, who am I to judge the pastor or whoever, should review and them?” As if to say, “Enough is TO GO TO THE HOUSES OF analyze their situation, placing themenough,” let’s not victimize them. The DIVORCED PEOPLE BECAUSE selves before God. Nowadays it is the second time, on my trip to Ireland, I THAT GAVE THE IMPRESSION right of Christians and a duty of the told a father and mother: “Never OF HAVING ALREADY TAKEN Church to accompany the new unions. throw a homosexual child out of your Nobody can say: “You’re divorced so home, accept them and work them ONE STEP INTO HELL...” you’re on the list for Hell.” No, they are into your family.” And the third time children of God who have taken their path, I cannot judge at a press conference and the Associated Press interview them from outside. That’s very clear, that’s why everybody where I spoke of criminalization. Unfortunately homosexmust be accompanied. uality is criminalized today in more or less 30 countries, And secondly, Benedict XVI, when he was prefect of the with capital punishment in almost 10 of them. That is very Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith [in Alto Adige, serious and I also said so very clearly. My stance on homoPiedmont and Rome] said that many marriages were sexuality is contained in those three occasions. Here [in invalid for the Church. Why? Because when people said: Rome] at the general audience, persons belonging to homo“Yes, until death do us part,” they never took responsibility sexual groupings are among the other people, presenting for what that meant. So a separated and remarried person is themselves as such, and I greet everybody. They are all chilperhaps the victim of a superficial culture and way of thinkdren of God with each one seeking God and finding Him ing, even within the Church. Nowadays we are insisting on any way they can. God only leaves aside the arrogant, all religious instruction to prepare for matrimony and afterother sinners are in line. wards. When they say “until death do us part,” they someWhat is your position on voluntary celibacy? times have no idea what “forever” means and separate That is a possibility which exists within the Catholic within a year. [...]

Church. All the Greco-Catholics have it. Here in the SecreHow about civil unions between people of the same tary of State’s department we have a father who lives with sex? his wife and small daughter. It’s an open possibility. I don’t 20

INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

know if it will open up or not, but it remains a possibility. worst, in my judgment, because it erodes differences — There have indeed been local concessions over this issue leading one to think there are none, when it is the rich conthroughout the history of the Church, not just in Eastern trast of the differences which makes for progress. Gender Europe where it is already normal, but in part here. ideology is sinister…not the persons in any way caught up To what do you owe the preponderance of cases of in it, but the ideology itself which simplifies, unifies and sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church? removes differences.

There I want to be very objective. According to the perAbout that I once read a novel written in 1903, The Lord centages of the worldwide statistics of the United Nations, of the World by [Robert Hugh] Benson, with a glimpse of UNICEF, etc.; between 40 and 42 percent of the abuses the future which describes what is happening now. The occur at home and in the neighborhood where they persist novel is a bit heavy but worth reading because it makes you in the old habits of covering up for the see with that futuristic outlook this trap uncles, grandfathers and neighbors. of removing differences and making Then come the clubs, then the schools everything uniform, governed by one “OF ALL THE IDEOLOGICAL single person, all uniform. And such and finally Catholic priests who account for three percent. That might uniformity is the most inhuman thing COLONIZATIONS TODAY, not seem like much but it is because there is, because if there is one thing GENDER IDEOLOGY IS THE Catholic priests are proportionally which distinguishes us human beings, WORST, IN MY JUDGMENT, fewer compared to everybody else, so both men and women, it is creativity BECASUE IT ERODES that three percent weighs far more heavand liberty. I cannot imagine a dog DIFFERENCES ... ” ily than the 40 percent of others. painting a picture, while I can imagine And secondly it is blasphemy. If you Picasso doing so because there is a crehave a vocation to be a priest or ativity born of liberty which an nun, instead of helping that person animal does not have. to seek God, you eat them alive.

Monsignor Oscar Ojea has That’s an aggravating factor. related that the first meeting of That is the work of the Comall the bishops with you after mission and all that, but there is your election as Pope was via one loose point of child abuse videoconference when you which I’d like to underline and asked the Argentine bishops to that is the problem of kiddie porn pray for you so “this does not go produced live, sometimes with to my head.” You have singled very small children. I wonder out arrogance as the cardinal what country produces that, nosin. How do you prevent this? body knows. What hidden pacts It has to be by the grace of God, are there between certain authoryou have to ask for it. Arrogance ities of this or that place and the does not come suddenly, it starts producers of kiddie porn? That’s with vanity, which is the silliest why I always ask the authorities thing, looking at yourself in the to open their eyes and look mirror. The day you smash the around because unfortunately kiddie porn is within the mirror is the day the circumstances of your life change. reach of anybody’s mobile telephone. The damage it does Arrogance is born out of vanity. And sometimes it takes is like a drug — once you develop the taste, [so hard to] much humility to ask God to look after us and also listen to get out... Who produces and where and who is covering other people, accepting criticisms. up that production are all questions which must be Does any version of capitalism which could be answered. aligned with the social vision of the Church exist?

The Anglican Church is analyzing a change in the The answer to your question was best defined by Saint Lord’s Prayer (“Our Father”) to remove gender conJohn Paul II by adding the word “social” to the market notations, saying that God is neither man nor woman. economy: he was in agreement [that it could]. Today things What do you think? have gone beyond that and we can have a very good ecoWe were talking a bit about that in the airplane with the nomic dialogue and achieve steps towards understanding Archbishop of Canterbury when returning from South or formulas which work well. Conversely, there is no good Sudan, and it’s a very small group within the Church of dialogue with the financial world. Finance is gaseous, the England, within a line of taking gender out of everything — economy concrete.

“I want to be father and mother, both together.” Here a very great danger of our times comes into play, which is gender English-language translation: Michael Soltys and Marideology. Of all the ideological colonizations today, it is the tin Soltys.m MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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INTERVIEWS PoPE FRaNcIS cElEbRaTES 10 yEaRS Pope Francis meets Argentine priest Fr. Guillermo Marcó, former spokesman for Jorge Mario Bergoglio when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires

“WHEN I AM IN TUNE WITH HIM, I FEEL AT PEACE” n BY GUILLERMO MARCÓ

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rgentine priest Fr. Guillermo Marcó, former spokesman for Jorge Mario Bergoglio when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, conducted an interview with his friend, the Pope, at Casa Santa Marta, published by L’Osservatore Romano on March 14, 2023.

seminary... It was three years. It’s like a process that changes your orientations, your references. The Lord enters your life and rearranges it. And without taking away your freedom. I’ve never had the feeling that I’m not free.

You have your devotions. Here is this painting of Our Lady Undoer of Knots, a devotion begun in Germany.

Guillermo Marcó: The first thing I want to ask you Can you tell us why you always sent it with your notes is what attracts you most in following Jesus. in your envelopes?

POPE FRANCIS: I can’t express it verbally. What I can say I’ve never gone to where the original image is. It hapis that when I am in tune with Him I feel at peace, I feel pened that a German nun sent it to me as a greeting. I liked happy. When I don’t follow Him, it. I began to have a devotion to this image because I’m tired, because I set Him a in Argentina. The story is beautiful, but specific time or a time limit, I feel the picture is not worth much; it is from insipid. It is as if I were already filled the low baroque of the 1700s, already “WHEN I AM IN TUNE with my life... Someone once said to decadent – a painter of the time who put WITH HIM (JESUS), I me: “God gives you freedom, he his wife through hell. They were very FEEL AT PEACE, I always gives you freedom, but once Catholic but fought every day. And one FEEL HAPPY” you know Jesus you lose your freeday he read the text of Saint Irenaeus of dom.” This put me in crisis. I don’t Lyons, according to which the knots that know if one actually loses it or not, but our mother Eve had tied with her sin had the way in which the Lord calls you been untied by our mother Mary with her and establishes a dialogue with you obedience. The Council took it and insertmakes you say: “No, I’m not going anywhere else, this is ed it, I believe, in the Constitution on the Church. enough for me.”

He liked it and so he asked Our Lady to untie the knot he There, in that confessional of the parish of San José had with his wife because they didn’t get along. de Flores, you were able to discern your vocation: what And this is why below he paints the archangel Raphael did you feel was particularly special in that call? with Tobias who leads him to look for his fiancée (now his It’s curious because after that experience on September wife), to meet her. The Virgin performed the miracle and it 21st I went on with my life without knowing what I was all started from there.[...] It is as if Our Lady is able to help going to do. But there was something different that was you, as the text of Saint Irenaeus says, to help you unblock slowly establishing itself. I didn’t leave there to go to the things.

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INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

Pope Francis during the interview in Santa Marta with Daniel Hadad, owner of the Argentine portal Infobae

“I WOULD BE SUSPICIOUS IF THERE WERE NO RESISTANCE” n BY DANIEL HADDAD

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ope Francis received Daniel Hadad, founder of Infobae, at the Vatican where they discussed different topics, from the war in Ukraine and Latin America to his daily prayer life, in an interview published March 10, 2023.

Daniel Haddad: Holy Father, did you feel at first, or I don’t know if now, resistance on the part of the Church or the bishops of Rome before some ideas or some changes that you promote?

POPE FRANCIS: Resistance is like an attitude of selfdefense, always, in the face of any novelty, in the face of anything. I would be suspicious of decisions in which there were no resistance…I would be suspicious of a Congress, for example, where they don’t fight among themselves.

That there were no different opinions. That they resist things from the Executive and vote against it. A passive Congress is not a Congress, it is a primary school, or even less so.

Many more women working in the Vatican...

Yeah. And that is necessary. Machismo is bad. And sometimes celibacy can lead you to machismo. A priest who does not know how to work with women is missing something, he is not mature. The Vatican was all very macho, but it’s part of the culture, it’s no one’s fault. It was always done that way. Now they are working more.

An example: the Economy Council is made up of six cardinals and six lay people. It was necessary to renew and I put in a man and five women. I once received a very highlevel head of government, a mother and a professional, a professional who later went into politics and is doing well.

And I asked her how she had managed to resolve a very difficult conflict that had occurred in that place; nobody could solve it and she managed to solve it… She looked at me: silence. “As we mothers do.” I don’t know exactly what she meant, but “as we mothers do” solved the problem. They have another methodology, women. They have a sense of

time, of waiting, of patience, different from man.

How many hours do you sleep per day?

Six. From 10 to 4. After lunch, half an hour.

Nap? Yes, half an hour.

A curiosity: in the book El pastor you comment that since 1990 you haven’t watched television. Can I know why?

Yes. July 15, 1990. I was with the community watching television and some things appeared that are not good for the heart. Not a sinful thing, but those relativisms that weaken the heart. I got up, because I didn’t like it, and I left, very restless. I don’t know why I left if it wasn’t such a big deal. And the next day — that was on the night of July 15 — at the mass for the Virgin of Carmel, I felt that I didn’t have to see television, period. And I said, enough, and I made the promise.

Is it true that you don’t use a cell phone?

I never had one.

Never?

When they made me a bishop they gave me one, in [year] ’94, or ’92. At that time it was [the size of] a shoe. I said “I’m never going to use this.” “Okay, but make a call.”

There, in front of the person who gave it to me, I called my sister: “How are you doing?” Boom! I cut off. I gave it back.

And never again.

Holy Father, do you pray at any particular time? In your room, in the chapel? Where do you pray?

In the morning I celebrate Mass right away, if I don’t have Mass outside the chapel. At six in the morning I have Mass. Before, I say a little prayer, and after too. I get up at four, at five I’m already praying there in my room; 5:50 I go to the chapel and there I celebrate Mass, generally alone or with a priest who comes, accompanies me, and that helps me; when there is another it helps me more. And then the day begins.m MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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NEWS

Vatican-china Deal “not the Best Deal PossiBle,” GallaGher says n BY COURTNEY MARES (CNA)

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, 69, the Vatican’s “foreign minister” as the Secretary for Relations with States since November 2014 Photo-Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

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he Vatican’s foreign minister has said that the VaticanChina deal was “not the best deal possible” and that negotiations are underway to make the deal “work better.”

In a March 14 interview in Rome with Colm Flynn for EWTN News, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican secretary for Relations with States, said that Holy See diplomats are “negotiating improvements” to the Holy See’s provisional agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops, first signed in 2018.

Gallagher, who was not directly involved in the negotiations, underlined that the agreement with China, which the Vatican has renewed twice in the past five years, was the fruit of a long process under three pontificates. The Holy See diplomat said he believes that the Vatican and Chinese authorities have grown in “a greater

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INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

understanding, a greater respect” for each other over the years.

“Everything is done obviously in the context of Chinese domestic politics… And therefore, we can only achieve so much,” he added.

China’s Xi Jinping assumed an unprecedented third term as president last week at a rubber stamp parliamentary session of the National People’s Congress that unanimously voted for Xi in an election in which there was no other candidate.

The National People’s Congress had previously confirmed a constitutional change, eliminating term limits and granting Xi the possibility of lifelong rule in 2018, six months before the Holy See first signed its deal with Beijing.

Under Xi’s leadership, respect for human rights and religious freedom has deteriorated. Xi has come under mounting international condemnation for China’s brutal persecution of

Uyghur Muslims in the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang, and state officials in different regions of China have removed crosses and demolished church buildings.

In November 2022, the Vatican said that Chinese authorities had violated the terms stipulated in its provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops.

A statement released on Nov. 26 said that “the Holy See noted with surprise and regret” that Bishop John Peng Weizhao had been installed as an “auxiliary bishop of Jiangxi,” a diocese that is not recognized by the Vatican.

“The Holy See hopes that similar episodes will not be repeated, remains awaiting appropriate communications on the matter from the authorities, and reaffirms its full readiness to continue the respectful dialogue concerning all matters of common interest,” it said.m

Top VaTican DiplomaT archbishop paul richarD GallaGher, on ukraine, DifficulT china accorD n BY COLM FLYNN (EWTN)

When we look around the world, in your opinion, what would be the three biggest challenges diplomatically speaking?

Well, obviously, the biggest diplomatic challenge at the moment, for the world and for the international community, is the war in Ukraine. After that, I think we have the climate change crisis: which you know, in the last few days has been this good news about the oceans, which is to be applauded, and hopefully will be a big step forward.

After that, I think a lot of the things are the general conflict duality that we have in the Middle East, parts of Africa, also, the destabilization of Latin America. These are the things that I think are facing the international community at this time.

Now nations across the world are sending tanks and other military equipment [to Ukraine]. Through diplomacy, what can the Vatican try and achieve there?

Well, we can try to keep what I call the dream of peace alive. We can talk about dialogue, and peace, which in many areas are words which are not appreciated at the moment. And we can understand that. We understand the suffering of the Ukrainian people.

They’re not thinking in terms of dialoguing with Russia at the moment. But what we also can do is maintain, to some degree, contacts with the Russian authorities, to the embassies, to the Nuncio in Moscow. Same thing with the Ukrainians, because obviously, that’s much easier. And we can continue to repeat our willingness to participate and to share in any peace process, any negotiations of any kind, to offer our good offices. Now, at the moment, it doesn’t appear that that’s being taken up by anybody, but it remains there.

And I think that that’s the position of the Holy See and of the Holy Father, that if we can do anything to help —

and we are trying to do something about prisoner exchanges. We’re trying to help a little bit with some of these children who have been deported, and with some results.

If you were to try and predict – as one of the Church’s top diplomats with immense experience dealing with the heads of nations across the world, and often very tricky situations – how do you think this is going to play out?

Well, I don’t have a crystal ball. I think that much of the commitment of arms by the West and by NATO, the United States, and others, inevitably is going to be perceived by Russia as an escalation of the conflict, to which they will presumably make an appropriate response. So I think we’re in for a long war of attrition. We’re seeing in these days, the fighting of Bakhmut and other towns. The result is not easy. The resistance can be strong. The aggression has to be very strong as well. So I think we’ve got to be prepared for the long haul. And we’ve got to try, in one sense, to keep working to prove that I’m wrong: that some solution can be brought about, a lasting peace and a just peace, as soon as possible.

When we look at something like the Vatican’s deal with China, it’s quite controversial. What tips the balance in terms of whether you agree to or not agree to make a deal like this?

Well, in the case of China, you have to remember that the agreement that was signed five years ago was the fruit of working on negotiations over a period of about 30 years. So it was a long process under three pontificates. And most of the agreement was already agreed and accepted by the Holy See, and by the Chinese authorities already in the time of Pope Benedict. So it was only a bit of crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s. And I obviously was not

involved directly in those negotiations.

But yes, obviously, the objective is to get the best deal possible, which certainly this agreement is not the best deal possible, because of the other party: they were only prepared to go so far and to agree to certain things. But that was what was possible at the time. As Cardinal Parolin has said on numerous occasions, it wasn’t really a great time to sign the deal, for various reasons. It was always going to be difficult; it was always going to be used by the Chinese party to bring greater pressure on the Catholic community, particularly on the so-called underground church. So, we just go forward. There have been some bishops appointed. There are negotiations underway for the appointment of other bishops. Obviously, the deal could work better. And in fact, we are negotiating improvements to the deal, and that’s a work in process. But we remain committed to carrying forward that dialogue.

And as has been said many times, over the years, there has grown up, I think, a greater understanding, a greater respect between the two parties. And we’re trying obviously to maximize that. It’s going to be difficult.

Everything is done obviously in the context of Chinese domestic politics.

And therefore, we can only achieve so much. And we can only achieve it quite slowly. But one of the things that the Chinese and the Catholic Church and the Holy See have in common is that we don’t think in months, or even in years. We’re thinking in terms of a much longer time. And we hope that, in time, the relations between the Catholic Church in China will be much more normal, much more fluid, much more fruitful. And as we set off from here, we remain committed, believing that good Catholics can also be good citizens of the People’s Republic of China.m MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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NEWS

Latin CathoLiC PatriarCh of hoLy Land: “We are not afraid” AMID INCREASING ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS BY ISRAELI EXTREMISTS, PATRIARCH PIERBATTISTA PIZZABALLA, 57, SAYS, “WE HAVE SOMETHING BIGGER THAN HATE” n LA CROIX INTERNATIONAL

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, 57, since November 6, 2020, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. A Franciscan friar, Pizzaballa has a reputation for personal integrity and simplicity; much of his pastoral work has been with Hebrew speakers and he has close ties to Jewish leaders, while he has also been a vocal supporter of the Palestinians Photo Grzegorz Galazka

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he Christian faith is bigger than hate crimes and Christians will continue to engage in interreligious dialogue, says the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem amid increasing attacks by extremists on Church communities in the Holy Land.

“We won’t allow a few deranged criminals to dictate our agenda,” Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem, told Radio Maria in a March interview. “We have something bigger than the hate of these people.

Extremists are all the same, but we are not afraid. We know that the general climate is rather negative and we are heading towards an escalation of violence, but we must not be frightened.”

He added: “As a Christian community, we must work and cooperate to build communities of solidarity,” reiterating the need to continue seeking interreligious cooperation, despite increasing attacks on Christians.

Yisca Harani, a researcher in Christian affairs and close to churches, said: “Since the beginning of the year, that is, with the formation of the far-right government in Israel, it is noted that there has been a sharp rise not only in attacks on priests and Christian holy places, but also in the level of violence and audacity in carrying out the at tacks. If in the past they spat on a clergyman and hid, today they do so publicly.”

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INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant leaders in Jerusalem have also appealed to authorities in Israel and Palestine to help curb the increasing trend of violence and intimidation that Christians in the Holy Land are facing.

There have been countless incidents of physical and verbal assaults against priests, attacks on Christian churches, with holy sites regularly vandalized and desecrated, and ongoing intimidation of local Christians who simply seek to worship freely and go about their daily lives.

ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS On March 26, a man entered a Maronite church in Nazareth during Mass, forcing the priest to recite the Quran.

When the priest refused, the man began to pray aloud until the congregation managed to convince him to leave. On March 23 five masked men with clubs entered a Salesian Sisters School in Nazareth asking the nuns to say “Ramadan Kareem” (Ramadan be generous). The nuns refused and managed to get the men out of the building. A week before that, a Catholic school run

by the Franciscan Sisters in Nazareth was fired at by two men.

On March 19, clerics were attacked during Sunday service at the Greek Orthodox Church of Gethsemane in Jerusalem by what Church officials described as “Israeli radicals.”

On February 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, a man destroyed a statue of Jesus with a hammer at the Church of the Flagellation located on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, the route that Christ walked to Mount Calvary.

Before that, some tourists were attacked by a group of religious Jews who entered the New Gate where they “committed acts of vandalism at the New Gate, near the headquarters of the Custody of the Holy Land, throwing chairs, tables and glasses and transforming the Christian quarter into a battlefield.” And two weeks before that, a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem was vandalized and “Death to Christians” graffiti written on the walls of a monastery in the Armenian quarter and premises used as a church in the Maronite center of Ma’alot.

Pope Francis during the Sunday Angelus on February 26 appealed “to make dialogue prevail over hatred and vengeance,” adding that he prays to God that Palestinians and Israelis “may find the path to fraternity and peace, with the help of the international community.”m

Spring 2023

Issue 4

The Way of the Logos GREETINGS! In the pages of this special Communiqué, you will find an account of the remarkable things a number of talented and faithful people with the US nonprofit, Urbi et Orbi Communications, are accomplishing to bring the message, the presence and the love of Jesus, the Logos (“Word”) of God, to an increasingly dehumanized and de-humanizing world.

Our flagship magazine, Inside the Vatican, has been published for 30 years (2023 marks our 30th anniversary!).

Now we embark on the next 30 years, which, if anything, are crying out for the light of the Gospel as never before.

The Way of the Logos In about the year 60 A.D., St. Paul wrote to the first generation of Christians living in the city of Ephesus: “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.” (Ephesians 6:12) This understanding of our struggle remains true today, almost 2,000 years later. In our time, the “spirits of wickedness” are the schemes and cold ideologies of powerful men, the theorists of an emerging technocratic elite, the doctrines of a rigid materialism which are taking away the very concept of the “soul” from our understanding of what it means to be human, and in the process depersonalizing our culture.

Against all these “spirits” of ideology, we propose a different way: the way of truth, of beauty, of love, of unity in and through Christ.

Here, you’ll read about how we are doing it: in our manyfaceted print and digital efforts, yes, but also in our pilgrimages, which bring individual souls face-to-face with the Logos in many different places: in the beauty of a lush mountainside crowned with white peaks, within a spectacular edifice of stone and glass built by the devout 800 years ago, or by gazing upon the mysterious image not painted by human hands of a bearded man’s loving face. And, of course, the everyday kindnesses of a fellow traveler: these are the

human — and humanizing — experiences we share with each pilgrim we travel with, and each pilgrim we encounter on the way.

You’ll also read about our efforts to bring human relief to currently disastercrippled places on the globe, like Ukraine and Lebanon, where we partner with people on the ground who live and work in the midst of sometimes terrible conditions.

And you’ll learn about how we are reaching out to Orthodox Christians, our brothers in faith and sacrament, to join hands with them in round-table meetings and discussions on how to confront, together, a confident regime of secular humanism which sees no place for our 2,000-year-old faith in Jesus Christ.

Even within our own Catholic Church, there is a sad division and strife which we are working to heal with balance and objectivity, always holding high the Church’s unchanging message of salvation, yet never abandoning dialogue with anyone willing to engage.

Enjoy this issue of Communiqué! I hope you will be so impressed and moved by our accomplishments and our plans that you, too, will want to join us as we take to heart the words of Christ to St. Francis of Assissi: “Come, Rebuild My Church!”

Editor, Inside the Vatican magazine Founder and President, Urbi et Orbi Communications

TABLE of CONTENTS Unitas Report..............................…......................2 Urbi et Orbi Communications timeline ............6 Spotlight: Digital and Print Media...................10 “Now is the Time”..............................................12

URBI ET ORBI COMMUNICATIONS u 14 W. MAIN ST., FRONT ROYAL, VA 22630 +1.202.536.4555 u UrbiEtOrbiCommunications.com.

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Our goals

Building the foundations of unity Bringing the lOve Of Christ that OverCOmes divisiOn — Between BrOthers, and alsO within eaCh heart

Left, on pilgrimage with Inside the Vatican Pilgrimages in Wisconsin, USA, in the fall of 2022.

Right, Urbi et Orbi Communications meeting with community leaders in Beirut, Lebanon

n BY CHRISTOPHER HART-MOYNIHAN

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ince the launch of Unitas: Come, Rebuild My Church in 2021, our work has taken us in several directions, but always within the main theme of pursuing greater unity.

Our ideal of unity is both personal and ecclesial: unity within the Catholic Church, and unity between Catholics and Orthodox, but also the unity of each soul with God. For this purpose, we have undertaken the following initiatives, which build on our more than 15 years of work as a charitable organization as well as on the 30-year history of Inside the Vatican magazine.

PRINT AND DIGITAL MEDIA

ences both new and old in a different way, we have increased our digital presence. Currently, we operate three websites: UrbiEtOrbiCommunications.com, which covers all the activity of our nonprofit; InsideTheVatican.com, which contains material from every issue of our magazine and more; and InsideTheVaticanPilgrimages.com, where anyone can learn about our unforgettable pilgrimages to beautiful and holy places around the world.

We also have a robust social media presence, two YouTube channels, and a free email bulletin authored by ITV editor Robert Moynihan with 20,000+ subscribers called “The Moynihan Letters.”

Go to pages 10-11 of Communiqué to learn about all we’re doing in the digital realm.

Our print and digital media are central to the mission of Urbi et Orbi Communications, and they From left: Friends of Lebanon Director Christopher Hartcontinue to be the sine qua non of our Moynihan, Prof. Habib Malik, FOL Project Advisor Tony Assaf, work. In a media landscape that is and Urbi et Orbi Founder and President Dr. Robert Moynihan constantly changing, we are extremely proud to be celebrating 30 years of Inside the Vatican magazine in 2023. Thanks to our readers and supporters, we have been able to continue publishing Inside the Vatican in a time when many illustrious print publications have gone by the wayside. We believe that it is vital to continue our print presence in an age of Big Tech-driven online censorship.

At the same time, recognizing the power of the internet to reach audi2

PILGRIMAGES In 2008, we began bringing pilgrims to some of the most beautiful and holy sites in the Catholic world: to Rome and the Vatican, of course, but also to Assisi, the town of St. Francis and St. Clare; to Manoppello, the site of a miraculous image of a Man of Sorrow; to Catholic Bavaria, in Germany, where Pope Benedict XVI grew up; to the Ireland of saints and scholars; and to the England of St. Thomas More.

The spirit of pilgrimage has also been fundamental to our work with the Orthodox. In 2000, Dr. Robert Moynihan traveled to Kazan, Russia,

September 2022: the Advisory Council of Friends of Lebanon meeting with victims of the August 4, 2020 Beirut Port explosion in Beirut, Lebanon.

Urbi et Orbi is also reaching out to the elderly, families with children, and handicapped persons in war-torn Ukraine

unity, we work to provide spaces for dialogue, mutual underon a mission to facilitate the return of the icon of Our Lady of standing and reconciliation. Our knowledge, experience, vast Kazan from Rome to its original home. In 2004, Pope John Paul international network, agility as laity, and reputation make us II presented the icon to the Russian Orthodox Church, ushering uniquely positioned to bring together Catholics — as well as in a period of relative good will between East and West.

Catholics and Orthodox — to discuss the important issues.

Since then, we have also brought pilgrims to traditionally In 2022, we met with Catholic and Orthodox leaders in Orthodox countries like Ukraine, Russia and Turkey, where they Lebanon and Cyprus and began planning a joint Catholic-Orthowere able to meet firsthand with Orthodox leaders for discussion dox Day of Unity for Lebanon, to be held in late 2023. This event and fellowship. The new understandings that result have often will help raise regional and world-wide awareness about the been life-changing. incredibly rich history of the Christian faith in Lebanon. At the In 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, we adapted same time, it will offer a chance to mobilize support for Lebanese by taking pilgrims on a journey of discovery of holy sites within Christians so that they can “remain and renew” — not through the United States, centered in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, celacts of violence, which tore the country apart over previous ebrated by Catholic novelist Walker Percy. In 2022, covering decades, but rather through rebuilding — so that Lebanon truly new “spiritual territory,” we added a second pilgrimage, to Wisbecomes the “message of peace” spoconsin and its “Wisconsin Way” — a Friends of Lebanon delegation visiting with Lebanese ken of by Pope John Paul II. constellation of Catholic shrines, Catholic Patriarch Rai in Lebanon, September 2022 Also in late 2023, we will hold a crowned by the first and only Churchconference in Rome, at the Vatican, to approved Marian apparition in the commemorate the 75th anniversary of U.S. the ratification of the Universal DecWe returned to international pillaration of Human Rights by the Unitgrimages with a pilgrimage to Lebed Nations. One of the authors of the anon in late September, 2022. This Universal Declaration, Charles Malpilgrimage was truly an unforgettable, ik, was a Greek Orthodox Christian once-in-a-lifetime experience, as our from Lebanon whose influence pilgrims had the opportunity to see ensured that the Universal Declarafirsthand this ancient land where Jesus tion recognized the Judeo-Christian Himself walked, preached, and pervalues of freedom, pluralism, and — formed miracles. perhaps most significantly — the natROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS ural and immutable dignity of all As part of our mission to foster human beings.

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Our goals In order to properly honor Charles Malik’s legacy, and the legacy of his faith, we met with Habib Malik, Charles Malik’s son, in September 2022 in Lebanon to discuss a 75th anniversary conference. Malik agreed to be an advisor and participant. A former professor of history at the American University of Beirut, and now at the Lebanese American University in Byblos, Habib Malik is an expert on the history of Christianity in Lebanon and the wider Middle East, and a member of the Friends of St. Charbel, dedicated to the beloved Lebanese saint and miracleworker.

Also in 2022, we met in Hungary with Cardinal Peter Erdö, the archbishop of Budapest, and with Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, from the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate, now of Budapest.

These personal meetings served to reestablish face-to-face contact after the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, and lay the groundwork for future roundtable events to be held between Catholic and Orthodox leaders.

RELIEF EFFORTS The events of the past several years have left an indelible mark on Churches worldwide. For our part, as we witnessed horrors unfolding in Lebanon and Ukraine, we took to heart Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:40 — “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brethren of mine, you did for me” — and decided to do whatever we could to help.

Our personal relationships in these countries, forged over many years of travel and collaboration, have enabled us to effectively bring short-term help and long-term hope in troubled times, when Catholics and Orthodox alike are fleeing violence and misery. Throughout 2023, we will continue these efforts to provide aid through our Friends of Lebanon and Friends of Ukraine and Russia projects.

Since 2020, the Friends of Lebanon project has provided the following aid to our Christian brothers and sisters who were displaced in the aftermath of the 2020 explosion in the Port of Beirut: —Water purifiers for 40 households —Monthly food boxes for 52 households —Scholarships to 133 students to high school and college —Medicine for two families which they could not get in Lebanon (one was monthly medicine for a cancer patient) —Bedroom furniture for one family of six who were sleeping on a hard concrete floor In addition to our direct support for affected families, Urbi et Orbi Communications has published The Lebanon Report monthly, which sheds light on the issues affecting Christian communities in Lebanon. This report is beginning to be read widely in the Maronite diaspora community, and we have been encouraged by Bishop Gregory Mansour, of the Maronite eparchy of St. Maron in Brooklyn, to continue this publication.

We have made two visits to Lebanon: first, a fact-finding mission in June 2022, which included a brief meeting with the papal nuncio and the Maronite Patriarch, and an agreement with them to continue this work. Second, a pilgrimage in September 2022 with 10 members of the advisory council of our Friends of Lebanon project. All were greatly moved by what they saw, heard, and experienced, and all continue to strongly support our initiatives in Lebanon. As one of our Friends of Lebanon, Hilda 4

in Ohio, wrote following the pilgrimage: “The journey affected me personally; the people and their country have left deep impressions in my heart and mind. Troubling sights of areas severely impacted by the explosion two years ago lie in contrast to the magnificent beauty of the hills and the blue sea surrounding much of Lebanon. The history of people of faith was almost palpable in monasteries we visited. The pilgrimage may have actively ended, but the journey in prayer and faith with unforgettable people still lives.”

Our Friends of Ukraine and Russia (FUR) initiative was instituted in 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In 2022, FUR provided grants to assist families with their most basic necessities — shelter, food, water, and medicine — in the midst of the active conflict in Ukraine.

All of the aid recipients reside in or near the city of Brovary, a city in central Ukraine to the east of Kiev. In 2022, eight grants were given to the following recipients: —A family with 3 small children — the father does not have a stable job due to the war —A nursing home for 30 elderly people that had been damaged due to the war —A family of an Orthodox priest with 3 small children — the youngest one is autistic —A family with 4 children — the father is visually impaired —A family with 3 small children —An elderly couple who are both very ill —A family with 5 children —A family with 4 children — the father is in need of a medical operation and further treatment One of our “boots on the ground” in Ukraine is Sergii Bortnyk, who works for the Department of External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

We have spent time with Sergii over the years on various trips to Ukraine, where he organized itineraries and meetings with members of the Orthodox hierarchy for our Urbi et Orbi pilgrimages. For the past year, Sergii has made heroic efforts to find the members of his community who are most in need and ensure that they receive support.

EXCHANGE PROGRAMS Long-standing connections have given us a unique opportunity over the past several years to partner with the Holy See’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, as well as the heads of the Orthodox Churches, to sponsor exchange programs for seminarians and clergy.

In June 2022, we supported a Vatican-sponsored exchange program with 18 young monks from Egypt, Armenia, Lebanon, Syria, India, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, who visited many holy sites of Rome and met Catholic seminarians, priests, monks, and leaders in the Vatican, including Pope Francis.

These young monks represented six Orthodox churches: Coptic Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, Ethiopian Orthodox, Eritrean Orthodox, and Malankara Orthodox Syrian.

Unitas: Come, Rebuild My Church will continue to support these exchanges, as we observe with each exchange that the new understandings and relationships that are formed spark a desire for unity.m

Pilgrimages

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ur pilgrimages help people escape the bustle of daily life and provide a space to “be” as they seek the Face of christ –– encouraging a metanoia, a transformation of the heart. coming up in 2023 we have five pilgrimages planned:

Traunstein, Germany (Pope Benedict lived here)

Castel Gandolfo, Italy (near Rome)

ClassiC italy: June 3-13, 2023 Journey towards the FaCe oF Christ pilgrimage From the ancient rooms where St. paul lived for seven years, to the bishop’s residence in Assisi; from the treasure trove of art and faith at the vatican Museum, to the Benedictine monastery of Norcia; we will encounter some of the “living stones” of our church, as we journey toward the Face of christ — both spiritually and physically, in the form of the miraculous Face of Manoppello. signature germany: June 28 - July 6 , 2023 in the Footsteps oF pope BenediCt pilgrimage come and pray at pope Benedict’s tomb at St. peter’s. visit the places he lived and worked for 20 years as a cardinal — even a restaurant he loved! Next we’re off to southern Germany where we will visit his birthplace in Marktl-am-Inn, the small towns of his childhood, and the places of pilgrimage he visited with his family, especially the Marian sanctuary in Altötting, a place of peace and profound holiness.

St. Saba Bacharre, Lebanon in the Qadisha Valley

of catholic shrines, monasteries, and chapels spanning the state of Wisconsin. Encounter the “living stones” of the catholic church there, from the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary to the Byzantine catholic Monks of holy Resurrection Monastery, to the priest from Milwaukee who started the walking pilgrimage that has come to be called the Wisconsin Way. signature leBanon: september , 2023 (exact date tBa) in the Footsteps oF st. CharBel pilgrimage The ancient land where Jesus himself walked, Lebanon, is a land of unique beauty, history and holiness. visit monasteries hewn out of rock more than 1,000 years ago; see the majestic cedars dating to the 4th century; enjoy modern Beirut’s Mediterranean coastline, pray at the shrines of St. charbel and St. Maroun. Lebanon tells the story of faith, of resilience, of legacy… and of christianity.

ClassiC italy: october 6-14 , 2023 inside the vatiCan magazine 30th anniversary pilgrimage pilgrimage with dr. Moynihan as we ClassiC wisConsin, usa: explore the theme of holy Souls visiting september 1-9 , 2023 sacred sites and encountering living disCovering mary in the heartland “stones” of faith. Attend and participate in The Shrine of Our Lady of Good help – the ITv’s vatican Forum discussing church first and only church-approved Marian issues today with thoughtful vatican offiApparition in the united States – is a cials who continue to guard the flame of A pilgrimage in Wisconsin, USA, bright star set in a gleaming constellation with Monks of the Holy Resurrection the faith.m

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media realizations

urbi et orbi’s Print and digital media Shining the Light of ChriSt in every medium

PRINT PUBLICATIONS Inside the Vatican magazine’s first edition — we call it “Issue Zero” — was published in April 1993. Founder and editor-in-chief Robert Moynihan started the magazine in response to the growing confusion in the world and in the Church. As he recounts: The roots of Urbi et Orbi Communications stretch back to 1986, when I was in Rome researching my doctoral dissertation in the Vatican Library — and meeting Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. The great Pope John Paul II was confronting worldwide communism — the Soviet Union still existed — and new winds were blowing through the Church. These winds of change brought renewal, but also division, confusion. Our precious unity was in clear danger. And not only was our Catholic unity threatened: the 1,000-year fracture between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches was crippling Christianity, as each of our Churches struggled, alone, to confront unprecedented secularization, moral chaos, and even persecution.

Since that first “Issue Zero” thirty years ago, Inside the Vatican’s aim has been, and still is, to bring Catholics and all Christians of good will together through independent, bold, honest and balanced journalism. And as our “Why Print?” informational campaign points up, in this era of digital censorship and “cancel culture,” print publications are “where free thought stays alive.”

In addition to our regular bi-monthly issues which feature Catholic news and analysis, spiritual reflections, cultural

commentary, music, art – even a Roman restaurant page! – we also publish beautiful “special issues.” These high-quality publications contain contributions by some of today’s most thoughtful Catholic writers and spiritual reflections by saints and scholars of the past. And they are lavishly illustrated with the classic sacred art and dramatic photography that Inside the Vatican is known for.

In 2022 we published a lovely coffee-table-quality volume on the life and significance of the Blessed Virgin Mary, entitled Mary: Behold Your Mother. This year, we published a special March-April 2023 issue of ITV dedicated entirely to the life and legacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who left this world on the last day of 2022.

SCHOLARSHIPS FOR INDIGENT PRISONERS AND RELIGIOUS Part of Urbi et Orbi Communications’ calling is to bring the Light of Christ to even the darkest corners, so, many years ago, we established a ”scholarship” fund for prison inmates and religious who cannot afford a regular subscription to Inside the Vatican magazine. The reaction was, and still is, enthusiastic — and gratifying. We have received countless letters over the years from prisoners for whom ITV magazine is the only “lifeline” to the Faith that is available to them.

OUR DIGITAL PRESENCE Over the past two years, we have expanded our digital media presence in order to reach new audiences and present

JOIN US!... BE THE HANDS THAT BRING UNITAS TO THE CHURCH! Visit https://urbietorbicommunications.com/unitas-come-rebuild-my-church/ Email us at USoffice@InsidetheVatican.com or call +1.202.536.4555 to see how you can join us.

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content in new and engaging ways. Now you can experience our reporting from the heart of the Church every day on our Youtube channels and social media platforms.

Urbi et Orbi Communications has three websites: UrbiEtOrbiCommunications.com, which contains links to all areas of our outreach, from our relief efforts in Ukraine and Lebanon to our roundtable discussions and conferences both within the Catholic Church and with the Orthodox; InsideTheVatican.com, which contains digital versions of our magazines, special articles and photos, subscription information, and links to The Moynihan Letters, written by ITV editor-in-chief Robert Moynihan and received in 100,000 inboxes around the world; InsideTheVaticanPilgrimages.com, which is the website dedicated to our one-of-a-kind pilgrimage experiences, led by Robert Moynihan and CEO Deborah Tomlinson, along with local experts in culture and Catholic spiritual leaders.

Our Youtube channels — the Inside the Vatican Pilgrimages Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@InsideTheVaticanPilgrimages) and the Urbi et Orbi Communications Channel (https://www.youtube.com/@urbietorbicommunications) — are where we connect with any and all who are interested in learning more about our work. These channels have truly become an outlet for news and analysis in their own right, hosting content to go alongside our print media and beyond.

The Inside the Vatican Pilgrimages Channel showcases the highlights from our past and future pilgrimages. Anybody interested in joining us on one of our 2023 pilgrimages can see memorable moments from previous pilgrimages to Italy, Ireland, Wisconsin, and Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, as well as from our Virtual Pilgrimages held in 2020 and 2021. In addition to the hours of video content, the ITV Pilgrimages Channel has short reels that capture spontaneous moments and encounters from our pilgrimages, such as our visit to St. Anthony’s Monastery in Lebanon’s Qadisha (Holy) Valley. Currently among the most watched videos on the channel are Virtual Pilgrimages to St. Peter’s Basilica, Assisi, and Rome.

To mark Inside the Vatican’s 30th anniversary this year, the Urbi et Orbi Communications channel is currently hosting a series of videos called 30 Years: The Untold Stories, launched as part of the Unitas: Come, Rebuild My Church initiative. These videos are available at https://www.youtube. com/@urbietorbicommunications and our Rumble channel, https://rumble.com/c/c-1125751.

Part of the 30 Years video project is a series of videos on the history and aftermath of the Second Vatican Council fea-

turing Dr. Robert Moynihan and Fr. Charles Murr. Their discussions have been an eye-opening and engrossing dive into little-known Church history. In this series, Fr. Murr discusses his work as an aide to Édouard Cardinal Gagnon, who conducted an Apostolic Visitation to the Roman Curia from 1976 to 1979. As a result of this Apostolic Visitation, Cardinal Gagnon wrote a report that was never publicly released — the original copy, kept in a safe in the Vatican, was stolen.

Dr. Moynihan and Fr. Murr discuss the contents of this report and other related issues in their weekly conversations, which are streamed live online and are all available on the Urbi et Orbi Communications Youtube channel. The discussions have garnered hundreds of views during each live stream, and each one is available in its entirety on the channel.

To subscribe, go to www.youtube.com/@urbietorbicommunications and hit the “Subscribe” button on the far right side of the screen. You’ll be notified of all new live streams before they happen.

The Urbi et Orbi Communications Channel is also home to Inside the Vatican Voices: a series of Dr. Moynihan’s interviews with renowned Catholic thinkers like Robert Royal, Anthony Esolen and Paul Kengor.

Finally, we are producing Christian Voices, which focuses on uncovering the stories from Christian communities worldwide, with a particular focus on the Eastern Orthodox Churches. We have kicked off Christian Voices with an ongoing series on the unfolding ecclesiastical crisis in Ukraine, talking to experts like longtime reporter on the Orthodox world Peter Anderson and Sergii Bortnyk of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

As always, the free Moynihan Letters email bulletins provide 100,000+ readers with timely and insightful analysis of pressing issues in the Church, whether it be the debate over Traditionis Custodes or Dr. Moynihan’s reflections on the theological issues that will shape the next pontificate.

A recurring series distributed by email is the monthly Unitas: Friends of Lebanon Report, now going into its third year. This report seeks to raise awareness of the plight of Christians in Lebanon, who face incredible challenges simply to remain in a land in which they have a nearly 2,000-year history. The Lebanon Report also chronicles the relief efforts of our Friends of Lebanon project — a concrete effort to build unity between East and West by bringing the attention and the aid of Catholics in Europe and the Americas to the Maronite Catholics and Greek, Syriac and Armenian Orthodox — all ancient Christian communities of Lebanon, and all threatened by the country’s ongoing crisis.m 11

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NOW is the TIME

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ou, our dear readers and friends, are essential partners in our work to shine the Light of Christ’s truth into all the disunity and confusion in our world and in our Church.

Join with us to be the hands that reach out to the confused and doubtful… to the suffering victims of war and economic disaster… to souls longing for the beauty and love of God.

Join with us as we join hands with our Orthodox brothers and sisters to oppose an increasingly hostile secular culture.

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Good Friday

“WE PROCLAIM YOUR DEATH, O LORD!” Grzegorz Galazka Photos

ON GOOD FRIDAY, POPE FRANCIS PRESIDED OVER THE LITURGY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD AT ST. PETER’S. HERE, EXCERPTS FROM CARDINAL CANTALAMESSA’S HOMILY Capuchin Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, Preacher of the Papal Household, at the Liturgy of the Passion of Our Lord, celebrated by Pope Francis on Good Friday, April 7, at St. Peter’s Basilica

By Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa (excerpts)

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or 2,000 years, the Church has announced and celebrated, on this day, the death of the Son of God on the cross. At every Mass, after the consecration, we say or sing: “We proclaim your death, O Lord, and profess your resurrection until you come again.”

Yet another “death of God” has been proclaimed for a

century and a half in our deChristianized Western world.

When, among cultivated people, one speaks of the “death of God,” it is this other death of God — ideological rather than historical — that is meant. To keep up with the times, some theologians hastened to build a theology around it: “The theology of the death of God.” We cannot pretend to ignore the existence of this different narrative, without leaving prey to suspicion many MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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Good Friday

Pope Francis and (bottom) Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller during the adoration of the cross ceremony

believers. This different death of God has found its fullest expression in the well-known proclamation that Nietzsche puts into the mouth of the “madman” who arrives out of breath into the city: “‘Whither is God?’ he cried; ‘I will tell you. We have killed him — you and I. …There has never been a greater deed; and whoever is born after us – for the sake of this deed, he will belong to a higher history than all history hitherto.’” Nietzsche’s “madman” proclaims the death of God — but He has undergone a different kind of death, for us.

God knows how proud we are and has come to our 40

INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

Archeological Park of the Colosseum.

Via Crucis at the Colosseum without Pope Francis.

help by emptying himself in front of us. Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.

Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

(Philippians 2:6-8) “God? We killed him: You and me!” shouts the “mad-

man.” This dreadful thing was, in fact, realized once in human history, but in quite a different sense. For it’s true, brothers and sisters: It was we — you and I — who have killed Jesus of Nazareth! He died for our sins and for those of the whole world (1John 2:2)! The resurrection of Christ from the dead assures us, however, that if we repent, this path does not lead to defeat, but to that “apotheosis of life” sought in vain elsewhere.

– Excerpt from the homily by Preacher of the Papal Household, Capuchin Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, at the Liturgy of the Passion of Our Lord, celebrated by Pope Francis on Good Friday at St. Peter’s Basilica.

MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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SCRIPTURE

drink deeply of livinG waters God’s word will quench the thirst of your soul n BY ANTHONY ESOLEN

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ately, I’ve been providing at the well (Jn. 4:14), will have the notes for my new transsprings within him, rushing up lation of Augustine’s Coninto eternal life. That is the water fessions (forthcoming from TAN we long for, like the deer.

Books), and something has struck Augustine found that water me with especial force. It’s that both in Scripture and from ScripAugustine apparently breathed ture. That is, the word of God in the words of Scripture, especially Scripture does quench the thirst, those of Genesis, the Psalms, the but it also awakens and arouses Gospels, and the letters of Saint the thirst and fills it with longing Paul. I don’t just mean that he for the reality toward which it often refers to them. I mean that leads us. The psalmist says that he he hardly has to refer to them at meditates upon the word of God, all: they rise naturally to his mind, and that has made him wiser than regularly, always, because in a his teachers (119:99), but at the wondrous way they seem to be in same time it causes him to desire accord with everything a wise more and ever more. The true wisman can say about human life and dom does not make us fat and selfhuman nature, fallen as it is, and satisfied. It urges us onward. glorious as God intends for it to “Seek my face,” says the Lord, become in those who will accept and the psalmist replies from the the grace He offers. It is like a heart, “Thy face, Lord, will I source of ever-springing musical seek” (27:8). If we inquire of the airs to a Bach or a Mozart: not just Scripture with a humble heart and a strand of melody here or there, an open mind ready to learn, if we but a living and all-penetrating inquire of it with love, allowing world of music and meaning. ourselves to be little so that the Imagine what it is like to drink Lord may make us great, we will Detail of the mosaic in the apse of St. John Lateran with the deeply from such springs! I am but be like the deer that the artist porcross from which the baptismal water flows for all to drink a beginner by comparison, a small trayed at St. John Lateran, thirsty, boy who crouches down and cups his hands to sip from the but calm, peaceful, filled. clear pool.

Augustine wasn’t always like those deer, longing for the If you go to St. John Lateran in Rome, you may see a running streams. Or rather, he was like them in his being mosaic of a lovely rushing river, and deer that drink from it. parched, but he did not know where the good water was; or My family and I saw that mosaic long ago, in 1998, when we he did know where it was, but he was too proud to seek were traveling through Italy, and I heard a tour-guide refreshment there. And this is our condition when we look explain it to the people he was leading. “The deer are symto Scripture to confirm what we already believe for other bols of the apostles,” he said. They weren’t. I told my family reasons — personal, political, philosophical, or even theowhat they were, straight off, and I said it loud enough for logical reasons. Deer will naturally be drawn to the water. some in that entourage to overhear me. The deer were an But man, possessed of a free will, can wrench himself echo of the first verse of Psalm 42: “As the deer longs for the away from his own proper nature, and persuade himself that running streams, so my soul longs for you, my God.” something other than God, the God of truth and beauty and That was one of Augustine’s most beloved verses. He love, can satisfy him; or he makes into God what he believes knew from bitter experience how the water that the world already does satisfy him, changing “the glory of the incorhas to offer smacks of salt, and does not satisfy. We drink of ruptible God into an image made like corruptible man” that water, and we thirst all the more, because the salt burns (Rom. 1:23), even an image that looks like himself. our throats and leaves them raw. But he who drinks of the Then we become like the Pharisee who proudly goes to water that Christ will give us, as the Lord said to the woman the temple to pray, saying that he is grateful to God for hav42

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ing made him not “as other men are,” such as the tax collector standing far off. Then that Pharisee goes on to enumerate the ways that other people are bad, and the ways he is good (Lk. 18:10-14).

The Pharisee, essentially, is praying to himself about himself, while the tax collector simply beats his breast and begs God for mercy.

To approach Scripture as a deer that longs for the running stream is to open yourself to it, knowing that it brings refreshment that we cannot bring for ourselves. But because we cannot, we may well shy away from the water — or Satan, that liar and murderer from the beginning, may whisper into our ears something like what Augustine thought, that the Scriptures were beneath his notice. For Augustine was trained up as a man of letters, and he expected to find in Scripture his own kind of eloquence, just as someone of our time might expect to find in it his own politics, his own view of the relations of man and woman, his own economics, his own scientism — whatever Egyptian stew we are fond of, seasoned with garlic and onions and leeks, and not the manna, the bread of heaven (Num. 11:5).

The children of Israel had already tasted of the manna, but not with grateful hearts, so they grew weary of it. Consider: God gives us heavenly food, even his word, so that the psalmist can cry out, “Taste and see how good the Lord is!”

(Ps. 34:8). But we have proud stomachs. We want the stewpots of Egypt. We want the flesh that tastes of death. Only after Augustine gave up his pride did he find in Scripture an eloquence infinitely more profound than any that Cicero ever knew, humbling and exalting at once. I dare not say, as a notorious Swiss theologian once said, that much of Scripture is “trash.” No, it’s the attic of the fallen human person that is full of trash, the trash of sin, certainly, but also the trash of current fads, political programs, social climbing, self-presentation, what all the smart people “know,” and so forth. Do not give me, I might have said to that man, your best champagne at Biarritz. I want the living waters.

And, God, give me the greater thirst, that I may drink the more deeply. Let me long to know you better, that I may better long while I am here, and more plentifully enjoy the sight of your face at those ever-rushing streams beyond.m

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LATIN

June 24: feast of st. JoHn tHe Baptist His outstretcHed finger points to sometHing––someone—otHer tHan Himself n BY JOHN BYRON KUHNER St. John the Baptist Announces the Coming of Christ by Mattia Preti (c. 1665) Opposite page, St. John with the motto: Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui in a detail of the crucifixion by Matthias Grünewald in a panel of the Isenheim Altar preserved in the Musée d'Unterlinden in Colmar

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once had the misfortune of touring the Uffizi Galleries in Florence in the company of a renowned professor of art history. Art history professors are of course notorious for not knowing anything about Christianity, even if Christian art is their field. This professor was an expert in the Renaissance.

She brought the tour group to a painting of St. John the Baptist. “Florentine painters always show John the Baptist with his finger outstretched,” she intoned in her nasal British accent. “Does anyone know why?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “It’s because the finger of John the Baptist was in Florence! So when you see a Florentine painting of John the Baptist, they’re showing you the finger of John, as a way of saying, ‘Look how important Florence is.’ Isn’t that interesting? Most people don’t even know that.”

Needless to say, this is not the reason you see images of St. John pointing. The Florentines were undoubtedly proud of having the great saint’s index finger in their baptistry (you can visit it there today), and it remains an object of pilgrimage for those who know about it, but painters from every city in Christendom paint St. John with his finger outstretched.

To understand why, you’ll need to know your Bible — not, of course, a requirement for an art history degree.

Luckily, the painters often label their paintings with the relevant Biblical verses, usually in Greek or Latin (also not required for an art history degree). John is usually the most recognizable of all saints: shaggy hair and

44

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beard, shaggy clothing, and raised finger; but if those indicators fail, he often has a banner, or nearby motto: ECCE AGNUS DEI. “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Some painters give the full version: ECCE AGNUS DEI, QUI TOLLIT PECCATA MUNDI. “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”

Those who are not familiar with Latin will note that the language lacks a word for “of”: to say “of God” you change the ending of deus to dei. Mundus follows the same pattern, becoming mundi.

This is called the genitive case, and dei and mundi are arguably the two most common genitives in Church usage (Ecclesia Dei, Lux Mundi, etc.) though Christi and Domini are two other common ones.

Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi are the words of St. John the Baptist when he sees Christ, from the first chapter of the Gospel of John. They are used in the Mass as well, making the priest, when he shows the Most Sacred Body and Most Precious Blood to the congregation, a kind of figure of St. John the Baptist, “not the light, but here to give testimony to the light” (non erat ille lux, sed ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine).

Sometimes all that is written next to St. John is Ecce — a kind of synopsis of the role of all the saints in salvation: to say “Look!” Look at God. Don’t look at me here — look over there. John’s clothing and personal humility suggest the same — “I am not the mystery, the mystery is elsewhere” — but the ultimate incarnation of this idea is John’s finger.

The finger cannot only be something, but also means something. The point is not the finger, but what the finger indicates.

The Latin word for the pointer finger is index, by the way; indicis in the genitive case, and the infinitive verb for “to point with the finger” is indicare.

St. John’s feast day and birthday is June 24.

This is in keeping with Luke’s indication that St. John’s mother Elizabeth was “in the sixth month” when Jesus was conceived; so St. John is about six months older than Jesus is. This is another interesting example of meaning and significance, here applied to the year itself.

Since the two were born six months apart, they stand on opposite sides of the year, and as we start to move away from one, we begin to head toward the other. St. Augustine noted this: “Christ was born when the days were beginning to increase; John was born when the days were beginning to diminish” (natus est Christus cum iam inciperent crescere dies, natus est Ioannes quando coeperunt minui dies).

This is a kind of astronomical example of the other motto you often see written by St. John: Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui. “He ought to increase, but I ought to decrease.”

John had said this describing his entire relationship with Christ (in Chapter Three of John’s Gospel, well worth reading in full). Hence, in honoring St. John on this day in June, the tradition suggests that even the furthest point in the year from Christmas points back towards it — indeed all Creation, rightly understood, says “Ecce!” and points to God. It is said that understanding significance is one of the signs of intelligence in animals.

If you point at something, a rabbit will look at your finger; but a dog will look in the direction your finger indicates, and can understand that the finger means what it points towards.

It seems God sometimes reveals this truth to the lowly and humble, but has concealed it from the wise professors.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

THE CREED AND THE ERROR OF ARIUS

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“I BELIEVE IN ONE LORD, JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF GOD, ETERNALLY BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER. LIGHT FROM LIGHT, TRUE GOD FROM TRUE GOD, NOT MADE, ONE IN BEING WITH THE FATHER”

f all the distinct articles of the Creed, this is the This statement in the Creed is clear enough, but that is statement which most directly refutes the teachnot to say that the mystery of the relationship between Faing of Arius. The error in logic that Arius comther and Son is equally clear. In fact, the greatest theolomitted was to equate temporal begetting with eternal gians in history are unanimously agreed that limited human begetting. We can more or less understand temporal begetintellects simply cannot fathom exactly what constitutes ting; there are eggs and there are chickens and the occabegetting in eternity or just how Sonship and Fatherhood sional intervention of a rooster, and so a definite are distinguished from one another but at the same time progression can be discerned over the form a unity: “The Father and I are course of time. The same is true of huOne” states John 10:30. (Arius should man beings; even Scripture speaks ofhave read the Gospel of John more ten of just who begat whom, providing carefully!) The best recourse is to recall an orderly line of descent from past to the experience of Job in his encounter then-contemporary historical figures. with God. The upshot is simply that Most notably, the human lineage of JeGod’s ways are not our ways and any sus is given in the Gospels of Matthew attempt at fully comprehending the doand Luke, Matthew according to physings of divinity are doomed to failure. ical descent and Luke according to the There are certain revelations conlaw; both clearly indicate that Jesus, in cerning God which demand that theoloHis human ancestry, was a legitimate gians simply shrug their shoulders and descendant of King David. admit defeat: “All right, I don’t really What Arius failed to understand was get it, but God has said it and I am not the vastly different dynamic operating going to call Him a liar. I accept it and in time as opposed to eternity: he made move on with life, perhaps with a much the assumption that begetting in etersimpler topic like astrophysics or quannity was essentially the same process tum mechanics.” as begetting in time. In other words, he Although Arianism in its pure form failed to properly examine his terms was largely put to rest by the first two before going off on his wild tangent.

Ecumenical Councils, there are yet Arius sentenced The revised Creed of 381 made the movements and theologians in our modby the Council of Nicea, distinction clearer by the addition of the ern age who still persist in attempts to icon from the monastery of Mégalo term “eternally”; another way of putting downplay the divinity of Jesus Christ.

Metéoron, Greece it in some translations would be “begotUnder the influence of scientific rationten before all ages” which definitively distinguishes eternity alism, many philosophers came to the conclusion that the from time. finest form of inquiry into the mysteries of creation consists Eternity “predates” time, if one may put it that way. of splitting composite beings into their component parts for Eternity seems not to be a creature, whereas time, with a study in detail. Thus, some theologians following this path beginning, clearly is a created reality. The divinity of the so separate divinity and humanity in Christ as to deny the Son is emphasized further by the blunt assertion that He is union of the two — but that is the subject of a later article “true God from true God... one in being with the Father.” in the Creed! m

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East-West Watch

BY PETER ANDERSON

CYPRUS ELECTS A NEW PRIMATE The enthronement ceremony of the new Archbishop of Cyprus, Georgios, took place at the Cathedral of the Apostle Barnabas in Nicosia

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n November 7, 2022, the primate of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, died at the age of 81. Because of this, it was necessary to choose a successor. The Church of Cyprus is one of the autocephalous churches of the Orthodox world, and this means that it elects its own primate. For Catholics, it has been established for almost a millennium that cardinals elect the new Pope. However, among the various autocephalous Orthodox churches, the procedures for electing a new primate vary widely. For some Orthodox churches, the laity is involved to some degree in the election, and for others, only bishops are involved.

A specific autocephalous church may also change its procedure from time to time.

In 2010 the Church of Cyprus adopted a unique procedure for electing a new primate. The procedure involves two stages. First, there is a general election in which all of the Cypriot Orthodox faithful (age 18 or older) are eligible to cast a ballot designating their favorite candidate for primate. The three candidates who receive the most votes then advance to the second stage. In the second stage, the Holy Synod (consisting of all of the 16 Cypriot bishops) selects a new primate from one of those three candidates.

Applying this new procedure, the general election was held on December 18, 2022. The voters chose between six bishops who had declared their candidacy for the office of primate. There were 548,793 eligible voters, but only 165,688 (30.2%) voted. The three bishops who received the greatest percentage of the votes were: Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol — 35.68%; Metropolitan Georgios of Paphos — 18.39%; and Metropolitan Isaias of Tamasos —18.10%. After this first round, there was general agreement among experts and the media that the second and final stage would be a contest between Athanasios and Georgios.

These two are poles apart on certain issues.

Metropolitan Athanasios, born in Limassol, Cyprus in 1959, is very much a product of Mt. Athos. He became a monk at Mt. Athos in 1980 and only two years later was granted the “Great Schema” (the highest level of asceticism allowed to those with great spirituality).

Beginning in 1991, he served a one-year term as head of the body that governs the entire Mt. Athos complex.

He returned to Cyprus and in 1999 became the Metropolitan of Limassol, the second largest city in Cyprus, at the very early age of 39. He is a prolific writer who is popular particularly among the most conservative Orthodox.

Metropolitan Georgios, born in a Cypriot village, studied both theology and chemistry in Athens and in England. In 1994 he became secretary of the Holy Synod and was ordained a bishop in 1996. In 2006, Georgios became the new Metropolitan of Paphos, an important port city visited by the apostle St. Paul.

Since 2006, Georgios has represented the Church in various pan-Orthodox and ecumenical meetings.

On December 24, 2022, the Holy Synod met and selected Metropolitan Georgios as the Church’s new primate. This choice is good news for the Ecumenical Patriarchate and bad news for the Moscow Patriarchate.

Georgios had supported the decision of Archbishop Chrysostomos II in 2020 to recognize the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine, while Athanasios had strongly opposed this decision.

The selection of Georgios is also good news for Catholics. Georgios is very ecumenical and has participated for years in the international Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue. On the other hand, Athanasios boycotted the visits to Cyprus by Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, whom he considers to be heretics and not even bishops.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

NEWS from the EAST

BY MATTHEW TROJACEK

CATHOLIC PRIEST FROM UKRAINE GIVES POPE Interreligious Dialogue and the Palestinian Commission for FRANCIS CROSS MADE OUT OF WAR RUBBLE Interreligious Dialogue. (CNA) Father Vyacheslav Grynevych vividly remembers the first day of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine one year GREEK PATRIARCHATE DECRIES “ATTACK” AT JERUSALEM CHURCH ago.

The Greek Orthodox Church on March 19 denounced The Catholic priest woke up to a phone call: “Father, what it called a “heinous terrorist attack” on a church at the wake up because the war has started.”

Tomb of the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem.

“I understood that my life would never be the same as beIsraeli police had said earlier in the day that a 27-yearfore,” Grynevych said. old resident of southern Israel had been arrested over “a viAs the executive director of the Catholic charity Caritasolent incident” at the church in annexed east Jerusalem, Spes, Grynevych soon found himself coordinating humaniwithout providing further details on the suspect’s identity. tarian efforts from a basement bomb shelter in Kyiv, also The Greek Orthodox Church said taking in 36 other people, mostly it “denounces the attempt to cause children, and their pets within the physical harm to Archbishop first week of the war.

Joachim, who was leading the servA few days ahead of the Ukraine ice, as well as the attack on one of war anniversary, the Catholic priest the priests in the church.” was able to speak one on one with In a statement, it called for “interPope Francis at his Vatican residence national protection of holy sites.” to share with the Pope updates on the “Terrorist attacks, by radical IsChurch’s humanitarian efforts on the raeli groups, targeting churches, ground. cemeteries, and Christian properIn an emotional moment during ties... have become almost a daily octheir meeting, Grynevych presented currence that evidently increases in Pope Francis with a cross made out Father Vyacheslav Grynevych, Catholic priest intensity during Christian holidays,” of broken glass and rubble from defrom Ukraine gives Pope Francis cross made out it said. (UCANews) stroyed buildings in Kyiv. of war rubble “I wanted to share with him the stories, the places that we see, the eyes of people,” ARCHBISHOP MICHAEL OF PRAGUE: Grynevych said.

“UKRAINIAN AUTHORITIES ARE GOING TO In an interview with CNA in Rome on February 22, the CRUCIFY THE CHURCH OF CHRIST” priest shared that he saw how much the Pope was pained to The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia hear about the experience of Ukrainians during the last year published on March 29 an address of Archbishop Michael of war. of Prague, who expressed on behalf of his diocese a protest “He [Pope Francis] listened and then he said, ‘Please tell against the actions of the Ukrainian authorities towards the everybody that I try to do everything that I can do, everyUkrainian Orthodox Church. The text of the address is availthing that I can do.’ And he repeated this a few times.” (CNA) able at the UOC External Relations Department.

In his address, Archbishop Michael stated, “Fateful events POPE FRANCIS UNDERLINES are taking place in Ukraine as the Ukrainian authorities are “UNIVERSAL VALUE” OF JERUSALEM going to crucify the Church of Christ.”

IN SPEECH TO PALESTINIANS “The faithful and clergy of the Orthodox Diocese of Pope Francis underlined the “universal value” of Prague are looking at it with concern and sorrow in their Jerusalem in a meeting with members of a Vatican-Palestinhearts. ian interreligious dialogue group on March 9.

“For us the Ukrainian people are a fraternal people.

“Jesus wept over Jerusalem,” the Pope said in the Apos“That is why the beginning of the war echoed with pain in the soul of every believer of the Orthodox Church of the tolic Palace. “We should not pass over these words in haste.

These tears of Jesus should be contemplated in silence.”

Czech Lands, and our diocese has immediately joined the actions to give spiritual and material aid to refugees,” the hi“How many men and women, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, have wept and in our day continue to weep for erarch stressed.

“While so many disasters have fallen to the lot of the Jerusalem. At times, we too are moved to tears when we Ukrainian people, for the Ukrainian authorities it was not think of the Holy City, for she is like a mother whose heart enough, and they have launched a crusade against the cannot be at peace due to the sufferings of her children,” he Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has culminated in the continued.

The papal audience was held with representatives of the banishment of the monks from the Kiev Lavra of the Caves,” the letter reads.

Joint Working Group for Dialogue between the Dicastery for page 48

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Archbishop Michael assured the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that “the Orthodox Diocese of Prague is lifting up prayers” and expressed a protest “against the Ukrainian authorities’ violations of the rights of the clergy and faithful of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.” (Mospat.ru) BARTHOLOMEW TO POPE FRANCIS: THE WORLD IS IN NEED OF YOUR SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sent a heartfelt fraternal message of support to the ailing Pope Francis, who was in the hospital for three days at the end of March.

In his message, the Ecumenical Patriarch wished the Pope a speedy restoration of his health and a return to his duties as soon as possible, especially in view of the Holy Week of the Roman Catholics.

“The world is in particular need of you and your spiritual leadership, and for this reason prays fervently for you,” the Ecumenical Patriarch said. (OrthodoxTimes)

manity, not only to rule the earth, but also to acquire the kingdom of heaven. Thus, the gift of earthly life is also a call to eternal heavenly life in the Kingdom of God.” (OrthoChristian) ANTIOCHIAN CHURCH SAVING ICONS FROM RUBBLE OF EARTHQUAKE-TOPPLED CHURCHES The Antiochian Patriarchate is still hard at work dealing with the tragic consequences of the earthquakes that rocked Turkey and Syria in early February.

On March 15, the Patriarchate published photos of holy icons being recovered nearly unscathed from the rubble of the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Arsuz, Turkey, and the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Antioch, Turkey.

Thousands of people lost their lives, and countless buildings, including many churches, were destroyed or severely damaged.

The Church’s relief service, GOPA-DERD, has been busy identifying needs and gathering and distributing food, clothing, bedding, and other necessities.

(OrthoChristian)

PRO-LIFE MARCHES HELD THROUGHOUT ROMANIA AND MOLDOVA CARDINAL KOCH The marches held on March 25, coIN SLOVAKIA inciding with the new calendar feast of FOR ANNIVERSARY the Annunciation of the Most Holy OF ANTI-COMMUNIST PROTESTS Theotokos, were the culmination of the Cardinal Kurt Koch was in Slovakia 13th annual Month for Life. from March 27-30 for the anniversary of More than 1,000 localities particithe anti-Communist Candle Demonstrapated in the Month for Life this year, retion. ports the Basilica News Agency.

The protest, organized on 25 March “Everything we do today will lead to 1988 by Catholic dissident František More than 1,000 localities participated results for another generation, for the Mikloško, was the first mass public exchildren of today’s generations, for the in the pro-life marches held throughout Romania pression of resistance to Communism in and Moldova children of these children. Someday, former Czechoslovakia since the 1960s, abortion will become unthinkable,” said Teodora Diana and was widely seen as a forerunner of the following year’s Paul, president of Students for Life Bucharest, reflecting on Velvet Revolution, which brought the 40-year-long dictatorthe theme of this year’s march, “The Future is Pro-Life.” ship to an end.

Patriarch Daniel of Romania issued a blessing and proDuring his visit, Cardinal Koch, who is head of the Vatlife message on the eve of the March, saying: “Although toican’s Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, met with reday’s society is experiencing a crisis of birth and family, ligious leaders from Slovakia’s various Christian this crisis cannot be stronger than the blessing of God churches, including Metropolitan Ratislav, the Prithe Creator, Who told the first family, Adam and mate of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church, Eve: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the as well as with political figures, Slovak Prime earth, and subdue it! (Gen. 1:28). In Jesus Christ, Minister Eduard Heger among them. the birth of infants is God’s blessing given to hu(VaticanNews)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 49

TradiTion and BeauTy

true and false “progress” in saCred musiC Clarifying the differenCe between an imposed “pop” musiC and a musiC truly “of the people” and their religious heritage n BY MAESTRO AURELIO PORFIRI

Rome, Basilica of Sant’Ignazio di Loyola in Campo Marzio. XI International Festival of Sacred Music and Art

T

hose who defend traditional sacred music, Gregorian chant and polyphony, are often accused of being “against progress” in the musical art. It is a very strange accusation if one thinks about it, because the Church in the past has been the main protagonist of that progress precisely through its traditional repertoires.

The problem arises when there is no understanding of the meaning of the word “progress.” The word comes from the Latin pro (forward) + gressus (step), meaning an advance with respect to what was previously. But the step forward certainly does not deny what existed previously, because the foot moving forward must necessarily rest on the one that was behind it. From this it follows that true progress can only be in tradition and with tradition.

But, unfortunately, today an 50

INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

Romano Amerio’s book Iota Unum. A critical study of pre- and postconciliar Church changes. The wise Confucius invites us to reflect on the importance of the meanings of the names of things.

“Change” is not necessarily “progress”

idea of progress is spreading as if it meant only “new,” that is, everything that is new must be “progress”: but it is not. Taking a step beyond oneself for its own sake is not progress at all, but rather a decisive regression.

The great Italian thinker Romano Amerio (d. 1997) addresses this theme in his extraordinary book Iota unum (first published in 1985). In it he says: “Introducing another poetic analogy, L’Osservatore Romano of 23 July 1972 states that the present groanings of the Church are not those of death but of birth, since a new being, in fact a new Church, is about to appear in the world. But can a new Church be born? Here, under the attractions of poetic

metaphor and an amalgam of ideas, there lurks the notion of something which, according to the Catholic system of things, cannot possibly occur; namely the notion that the change which the Church experiences over time can amount to a fundamental change, a substantial mutation, a change from one thing into something quite distinct. According to the Catholic system, change in the Church consists of change in accidentals and in historical circumstances, amidst which the substance of religion remains the same, without innovation.

The only newness known to orthodox ecclesiology is the eschatological newness of the new heaven and the new earth in which, by means of the judgment of all judgments, there will be a final and eternal reordering of the whole creation, freed not from its finitude but from the imperfections of sin.”

We can also say this about sacred music: the new is not always a sign of progress, especially if it is not based on holy tradition. What is the progress between a Renaissance motet and a pseudo-religious song strummed on the guitar? It is said to be a “popular song.” But which “people” do you have in mind?

Because it seems to me that they are merely juggling words.

I think the great Chinese thinker Confucius can help us in this: “Zilu said: ‘The lord of Wei intends to entrust you with the government.

What do you propose to do first?’ The Master said, ‘First we need to rectify the names [of things].’ Zilu replied, ‘This is it? You are wrong. What is the point of rectifying?’ The Master said, ‘You are very rude, Zilu. The superior man is cautious when he does not know. If the names of things are not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice thus goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.’”

And in our own situation, rectifying the names is similarly important. We started with “progress”; now we see “popular.” This is an extremely insidious term, because it is often invoked in a demagogic way. But if we talk about true “popular” music, we are referring to the product mostly of societies who hold an oral tradition, and which, in Christian countries, was largely influenced by sacred music itself. We have to distinguish between singing for the people and singing of the people: there is confusion between “pop” music (music for the people) and “popular” music (music of the peo-

ple). Unfortunately this confusion has fully entered into the current practice of the Catholic Church, which confuses what comes from the people with what powerful multinational corporations produce for the people. And unfortunately, the demagogic use of the term “people” is now not only the prerogative of politics, but also sees many men of the Church as practitioners as well.

Moreover, it is no coincidence that the present Pontiff was also a follower of the Argentinian “theology of the people.” In a 2012 speech, when he was still head of the diocese of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio said: “If earlier we spoke of popular religiosity (the term remains in use), Paul VI takes a step forward and says: it would be better to call it popular piety. Aparecida takes another step forward and calls it popular spirituality.” But here too: what do we really mean by “popular spirituality”? Commercial music passed off as liturgical music? The ideologies imposed by certain powers passed off as ideas of the people? The masters of this world are very good with words; they know how to manipulate them with unsurpassed skill. And many people, helpless against this ability, often fall prey to it.

I believe that we need to be really careful about the use we make of certain words, because deception is hidden in them when they are manipulated for the use of certain shrewd ideologues.

Progress can only exist within tradition, never against it. Here we find ourselves today contemplating the ruins of the liturgical and musical heritage of the Catholic Church, a heritage destroyed to make way for the remnants that the world leaves to those who seem so eager to follow it.

And those who rebel are singled out as “strange, traditionalist, disturbed.” I, who probably am all these things and even more, wonder about the times we live in and in them, I seem to read the signs of the end. I see a civilization that is dying and in its place rises the kingdom of the antichrist, the kingdom whose laws overthrow everything that was good, beautiful and holy in our civilization.

The final battle is being prepared and we may not see it, but our children and our grandchildren will. At that time, it will still be better to stand alongside our Savior and invoke Him with the final prayer of the Book of Revelation: “Come, Lord Jesus.” And He will come to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. The end of the Book of Revelation will be our new beginning.m MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

51

Of Shrines and Sacred Places

German ShrineS in rome and Vatican city n BY LUCY GORDAN Santa Maria dell’Anima (St. Mary of the Soul), located close to Piazza Navona.

In contrast with the austerity of the church’s exterior, its interior is lavishly decorated with brightly colored frescoes, paintings, and sculptures, including Baldassare Peruzzi’s funerary monument for the gloomy Dutch Pope Adrian VI

any countries have national churches in Rome: Albania, Argentina, Canada, Croatia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, and the United States. The Ukraine and Spain each have two; Armenia has three; and France has four.

Ethiopia has one in Vatican City, and Germany has one in Rome and one in Vatican City. Both German shrines began as hospices, date to the Middle Ages, and are dedicated to the Virgin.

Santa Maria dell’Anima (St. Mary, or Our Lady, of the Soul), located close to Piazza Navona, is one of the many medieval charity institutions first built as hospices for pilgrims visiting Rome. It was founded in 1350, when Johannes (Jan), either a Dutch merchant or an officer in the Papal Guard, and his wife Katharina Peters of Dordrecht, bought three houses and turned them into a private hospice for Dutch, Flemish, and German pilgrims during the 1350 Jubilee.

They named the hospice Hospitium Beatae Mariae Animarum (“Hospice of Blessed Mary of the Souls”) from an ancient fresco of the Virgin between two souls in Purgatory.

M

52 INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

The first church, named Santa Maria dell’Anima, was built in 1431 on the site of the hospice’s chapel and consecrated by Pope Eugene IV in 1444. Soon afterwards the church’s Confraternity decided to build a new church on the same site for the Jubilee of 1500. Paid for by German subscriptions between 1499 and 1522 and a generous contribution by Johann Burchard of Strasbourg (c.1450-1506), papal Master of Ceremonies for Pope Alexander VI Borgia (r. 1492-1503), the “new” Church of Santa Maria dell’Anima, still standing today, wasn’t consecrated until November 25, 1542. Built in the style of a hallenkirchen or hall church, typical of Northern Europe, its architect was Andrea Sansovino, and Giuliano da Sangallo completed its plain Romanesque façade. It became the “national” church in Rome of the Holy Roman Empire and so the “national church and hospice” of German-speaking people in Rome.

In contrast with the austerity of the church’s exterior, its interior is lavishly decorated with brightly-colored frescoes (for example, the Life of the Virgin by Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta) and paintings: St. Bennone’s Miracles (1618), by Caravaggio’s heir Carlo Saraceni, and the altarpiece of the Holy Family (damaged by floodwaters from the Tiber) by

Views of the Vatican's Teutonic cemetery from above (from the roof of St. Peter’s Basilica) and inside

Raphael’s talented collaborator Giulio Romano, a Pietà by Lorenzetto, and Baldassare Peruzzi’s funerary monument for the gloomy Dutch Pope Adrian VI (r. 1522-3), the last non-Italian pope before John Paul II. He’d been buried in St. Peter’s until Cardinal William of Enckenvoirt (1464-1544), later also buried there, transferred his remains here.

To return to Burchard, he not only helped to finance the “new” church in 1496, but, as provost of the Confraternity of Santa Maria dell’Anima, he turned the hospice into a residential college for priests who studied (and still do) at one of the Pontifical Atheneums for advanced studies or who work in the Curia. Known as the Pontifical Teutonic College Santa Maria dell’Anima, for many centuries these students came from the many countries of the Holy Roman Empire, not exclusively from Germany. The College served and still does as an intermediary between Austrian and German dioceses and the Curia and as a residence in Rome for German and Austrian bishops and priests as well as their citizens in difficulty.

Not surprisingly, during the Napoleonic occupation the church was plundered and its sacristy used as a stable. Luckily, in 1859 the College was reestablished, but this time for Father Hugh chaplains who remained in residence for O’Flaherty, and two or at most three years to study canon Herbert Kappler on his arrest law, with a view to using this newlyacquired knowledge in their dioceses or universities back home. Nonetheless, the College continued to assist Germans who fell on hard times while in Rome.

The Napoleonic occupation was not the only time the church and College had connections to hostilities. In 1937 a chapel was built in commemoration of the Austro-Hungarian First World War soldiers. Underneath it are buried about 450 soldiers, mostly still unidentified, who’d died in POW camps near Rome. A project, started in 2021 and supported by the Austrian Ministry of Defense, aims to identify them.

Also on the dark side, after World War II, the College served as a “Ratline” to help Nazi War criminals, for example Gustav Wagner and Franz Stangl, escape to Brazil.

Another College-connected episode, this time ironic, is that, according to its then-custodian, during the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) Joseph Ratzinger, then a young

priest, who attended all four sessions of the Council as a peritus or expert for Cardinal Joseph Frings, the Archbishop of Cologne, was turned away from the College due to no vacancy. Luckily, instead, he found lodging at a temporary residence for priests just across the street!

As I mentioned before, the German College downtown has a twin in Vatican City founded 50 years before. Besides being a hospice for German-speaking pilgrims, the guilds of German bakers, weavers, and cobblers had their headquarters here. In 1876 the hospice also took in for 2-year residencies priests from the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were pursuing their studies and officiating at Mass in the nearby Church of Santa Maria della Pietà (Our Lady of Mercy).

Surprisingly, however, the College’s most special resident was not German, but an Irish priest, Hugh O’Flaherty (1898-1963). He’d served as a Vatican diplomat in Egypt, Haiti, Santo Domingo, and Czechoslovakia, and lived here while working for the Sacred Congregation De Propaganda Fide. From his bedroom he clandestinely established the “Rome Escape Line,” a precious network of assistants with whom he saved some 6,500 conscientious objectors, Allied soldiers including escaped POWs, and Jews.

O’Flaherty’s team lodged them in Vatican extraterritorial residences and religious institutes during the Nazi occupation of Rome. Nicknamed “The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican,” evading traps set by the Gestapo and Sicherheitsdienst (SD) who wanted to assassinate him, O’Flaherty met his contacts on the steps of St. Peter’s. Since the Nazis couldn’t arrest him inside the Vatican, the infuriated Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler ordered a white line painted on the pavement at the opening of St. Peter’s Square (the border between Vatican City and Italy). He stated that the priest would be first tortured and then killed if he crossed the line, which is still there today. Ironically, after the War, O’Flaherty, Kappler’s only permitted visitor, regularly comforted his former nemesis in prison. In 1959, Kappler converted to Catholicism and O’Flaherty baptized him.

MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN 53

Of Shrines and Sacred Places In addition to providing housing, the Vatican’s College has a library specializing in Christian archeology and an important collection of early Christian art.

A few years ago Pope Benedict XVI spoke of his intention to bequeath his personal library of some 5,000 liturgical and theological volumes, as well as his collection of musical scores, here. In 1888 the Roman Institute of the Görres Society (Görresgesellschaft) was established in the College and together they still publish a quarterly review, the Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Archäologie und Kirchengeschichte.

The year before he was crowned in St. Peter’s on Christmas Day 800, Charlemagne established the Vatican’s German Shrine on land granted to him by Pope Leo III (r. 795816) to build a hospice (the College), a church, Our Lady of Mercy, and a cemetery for German and Flemish pilgrims who’d died in Rome.

According to tradition, the cemetery, the only one in Vatican City, is located in Nero’s Circus, at the site of St. Peter’s crucifixion, its soil having been brought to Rome by St. Helena, the Emperor Constantine’s mother.

Still today the cemetery is for German and Flemishspeaking pilgrims who die in Rome, Confraternity members whose duty it is to maintain the cemetery, German and Flemish priests and nuns, and German-speaking civilians who have served the Church. No one knows how many peo-

ple have been buried here over the centuries, though some sources say around 1,500. The earliest gravestone dates to 1474, and one of the most recent graves belongs to a homeless Belgian, Willy Herteleer, who died on December 12, 2015.

Had he not been elected Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger’s would probably have been the most recent grave. After his appointment as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger celebrated Mass every Thursday (some sources say every day) at 7 AM in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, one of the two chapels in Our Lady of Mercy. The other chapel is the burial place of the 190 Swiss Guards who died making their last stand in the Teutonic Cemetery during the Sack of Rome on May 6, 1527. Technically-speaking, this church is in Italy, not in Vatican City, but, since it can only be accessed from inside the Vatican via the cemetery, it’s governed by the 1929 Lateran Pact, giving it extraterritorial status.

The Vatican’s Teutonic Shrine is open daily from 7 AM to noon. Visitors must request permission from the Swiss Guards stationed at the large white gate near the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Palazzo del Sant’ Uffizio. The same entrance gate leads to the Paul VI Audience Hall, outside Bernini’s colonnade, to the left of St. Peter’s Basilica.

For a detailed history of these two German shrines in Rome, click on www.romanchurchesfandom.com/wiki/Santa_Maria_della_Pietà.m

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So ...You’e Intolerant ?

Well, so was He. Jesus more than o昀ended the moneychangers; He intolerantly threw them out of the Temple. He said mean-spirited and hurtful things to those who were against Him, calling them “hypocrites,” “a brood of vipers,” and “sons of Hell.” He was more than insensitive to unrepentant sinners; He said Heaven wouldn’t be inclusive of them.

Secular liberals have largely succeeded in remaking American society in their own image. And their Catholic counterparts now want to do the same in the Church. They speak beguilingly of tolerance and diversity. Abortion? “We must respect women’s experiences.” Assisted suicide? “Be compassionate.” Homosexuality? “They’re born that way.” Pre-

marital sex? “Kids can’t help it.” Moneychangers in the Temple? “Everybody has to make a living.”

We at the New Oxford Review, an orthodox Catholic monthly magazine, refuse to go gently into the dark night of some strange new religion, one that cravenly mimics the surrounding culture.

We don’t shy away from the “hard” teachings of Christ and His Church. We know why we’re Catholic, and we’re not afraid to tell doubters and dissenters all about it. We address all the challenges facing the Church, and we do so with “attitude,” says Karl Keating, founder of Catholic Answers.

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THE END EXCERPTS FROM LORD OF THE WORLD

“Pantheistic worship... a success” MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO, MONSIGNOR ROBERT HUGH BENSON FORESAW THE RISE OF SECULAR HUMANISM, THE CONTRACTION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND THE COMING OF THE ANTICHRIST... n BY ITV STAFF Editor’s Note: The passage below is from the novel Lord of the World, written by the English Catholic convert Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson (the son of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury) in 1907. He attempts a vision of the world more than a century in the future — in the early 21st century… our own time… predicting the

LORD OF THE WORLD

BY ROBERT HUGH BENSON (1907) BOOK II: THE ENCOUNTER. CHAPTER V, Section I (Note: The hero of the story, a young English priest named Fr. Percy Franklin, has gone to Rome to report directly to the Pope on what he has seen in England: the emergence of a popular political figure who seems to be entirely humanistic, and so to have one of the characteristics of the anti-Christ. Now Percy has been made a cardinal, and is studying the new form of liturgy which has been imposed by law in England, a form of pantheism...)

Percy Franklin, the new Cardinal-Protector of England, came slowly along the passage leading from the Pope’s apartments, with Hans Steinmann, Cardinal-Protector of Germany, blowing at his side. They entered the lift, still in silence, and passed out, two splendid vivid figures, one erect and virile, the other bent, fat, and very German from spectacles to flat buckled feet.

At the door of Percy’s suite, the Englishman paused, made a little gesture of reverence, and went in without a word.

A secretary, young Mr. Brent, lately from England, stood up as his patron came in.

“Eminence,” he said, “the English papers are come.”

Percy put out a hand, took a paper, passed on into his inner room, and sat down.

There it all was—gigantic headlines, and four columns of print broken by startling title phrases in capital letters, after the fashion set by America a hundred years ago. No better way even yet had been found of misinforming the unintelligent.

He looked at the top. It was the English edition of the Era. Then he read the headlines. They ran as follows: “THE NATIONAL WORSHIP. BEWILDERING SPLENDOUR. RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM. THE ABBEY AND GOD. CATHOLIC FANATIC. EX-PRIESTS AS FUNCTIONARIES.” He ran his eyes down the page, reading the vivid little phrases, and drawing from the whole a kind of impressionist view of the scenes in the Abbey on the previous day, of which he had already 56

INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

rise of Communism, the fall of faith in many places, the advance of technology (he foresees helicopters) and so forth, up until... the Second Coming of the Lord, with which his vision ends. For this reason, and also because Pope Benedict and Pope Francis have repeatedly cited Benson’s book, saying its clarification of the danger of a type of humanitarianism without God is a true danger that we do face, we are printing selections from it in ITV, now and in the months ahead.

been informed by the telegraph, and the discussion of which had been the purpose of his interview just now with the Holy Father.

There plainly was no additional news; and he was laying the paper down when his eye caught a name.

“It is understood that Mr. Francis, the ceremoniarius (to whom the thanks of all are due for his reverent zeal and skill), will proceed shortly to the northern towns to lecture on the Ritual. It is interesting to reflect that this gentleman only a few months ago was officiating at a Catholic altar. He was assisted in his labours by twenty-four confreres with the same experience behind them.”

“Good God!” said Percy aloud. Then he laid the paper down.

But his thoughts had soon left this renegade behind, and once more he was running over in his mind the significance of the whole affair, and the advice that he had thought it his duty to give just now upstairs.

Briefly, there was no use in disputing the fact that the inauguration of Pantheistic worship had been as stupendous a success in England as in Germany. France, by the way, was still too busy with the cult of human individuals, to develop larger ideas.

But England was deeper; and, somehow, in spite of prophecy, the affair had taken place without even a touch of bathos or grotesqueness. It had been said that England was too solid and too humorous. Yet there had been extraordinary scenes the day before.

A great murmur of enthusiasm had rolled round the Abbey from end to end as the gorgeous curtains ran back, and the huge masculine figure, majestic and overwhelming, coloured with exquisite art, had stood out above the blaze of candles against the tall screen that shrouded the shrine. Markenheim had done his work well; and Mr. Brand’s passionate discourse had well prepared the popular mind for the revelation. He had quoted in his peroration passage after passage from the Jewish prophets, telling of the City of Peace whose walls rose now before their eyes.

“Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee…. For behold I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind…. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders. O thou so long afflicted, tossed with

God as seen by William Blake as the Architect of the world, in Ancient of Days, held in the British Museum, London

tempest and not comforted; behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and thy foundations with sapphires…. I will make thy windows of agates and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. Arise, shine, for thy light is come.”

As the chink of the censer-chains had sounded in the stillness, with one consent the enormous crowd had fallen on its knees, and so remained, as the smoke curled up from the hands of the rebel figure who held the thurible. Then the organ had begun to blow, and from the huge massed chorus in the transepts had rolled out the anthem, broken by one passionate cry, from some mad Catholic.

But it had been silenced in an instant….

It was incredible—utterly incredible, Percy had told himself.

Yet the incredible had happened; and England had found its worship once more—the necessary culmination of unimpeded subjectivity. From the provinces had come the like news. In cathedral after cathedral had been the same scenes. Markenheim’s masterpiece, executed in four days after the passing of the bill, had been reproduced by the ordinary machinery, and four thousand replicas had been despatched to every important centre. Telegraphic reports had streamed into the London papers that everywhere the new movement had been received with acclamation, and that human instincts had found adequate expression at last. If there had not been a God, mused Percy reminiscently, it would have been necessary to invent one. He was astonished, too, at the skill with which the new cult had been framed. It moved round no disputable points; there was no possibility of divergent political tendencies to mar its success, no over-insistence on citizenship, labour and the rest, for those who were secretly individualistic and idle. Life was the one fount and centre of it all, clad in the gorgeous robes of ancient worship. Of course the thought had been Felsenburgh’s, though a German name had been mentioned. It was Positivism of a kind, Catholicism without Christianity, Humanity worship without its inadequacy. It was not man that was worshipped but the Idea of man, deprived of his supernatural principle. Sacrifice, too, was recognised—the instinct of oblation without the demand made by transcendent Holiness upon the blood-guiltiness of man…. In fact,—in fact, said Percy, it was exactly as clever as the devil, and as old as Cain.

The advice he had given to the Holy Father just now was a counsel of despair, or of hope; he really did not know which. He had urged that a stringent decree should be issued, forbidding any acts of violence on the part of Catholics. The faithful were to be encouraged to be patient, to hold utterly aloof from the worship, to say nothing unless they were questioned, to suffer bonds gladly. He had suggested, in company with the German Cardinal, that they two should return to their respective countries at the close of the year, to encourage the waverers; but the answer had been that their vocation was to remain in Rome, unless something unforeseen happened.

As for Felsenburgh, there was little news. It was said that he was in the East; but further details were secret. Percy understood quite

well why he had not been present at the worship as had been expected. First, it would have been difficult to decide between the two countries that had established it; and, secondly, he was too brilliant a politician to risk the possible association of failure with his own person; thirdly, there was something the matter with the East.

This last point was difficult to understand; it had not yet become explicit, but it seemed as if the movement of last year had not yet run its course. It was undoubtedly difficult to explain the new President’s constant absences from his adopted continent, unless there was something that demanded his presence elsewhere; but the extreme discretion of the East and the stringent precautions taken by the Empire made it impossible to know any details. It was apparently connected with religion; there were rumours, portents, prophets, ecstatics there. ***** Upon Percy himself had fallen a subtle change which he himself was recognising. He no longer soared to confidence or sank to despair. He said his mass, read his enormous correspondence, meditated strictly; and, though he felt nothing he knew everything.

There was not a tinge of doubt upon his faith, but neither was there emotion in it. He was as one who laboured in the depths of the earth, crushed even in imagination, yet conscious that somewhere birds sang, and the sun shone, and water ran. He understood his own state well enough, and perceived that he had come to a reality of faith that was new to him, for it was sheer faith—sheer apprehension of the Spiritual—without either the dangers or the joys of imaginative vision.

He expressed it to himself by saying that there were three processes through which God led the soul: the first was that of external faith, which assents to all things presented by the accustomed authority, practises religion, and is neither interested nor doubtful; the second follows the quickening of the emotional and perceptive powers of the soul, and is set about with consolations, desires, mystical visions and perils; it is in this plane that resolutions are taken and vocations found and shipwrecks experienced; and the third, mysterious and inexpressible, consists in the re-enactment in the purely spiritual sphere of all that has preceded (as a play follows a rehearsal), in which God is grasped but not experienced, grace is absorbed unconsciously and even distastefully, and little by little the inner spirit is conformed in the depths of its being, far within the spheres of emotion and intellectual perception, to the image and mind of Christ.

So he lay back now, thinking, a long, stately, scarlet figure, in his deep chair, staring out over Holy Rome seen through the misty September haze. How long, he wondered, would there be peace?

To his eyes even already the air was black with doom.

He struck his hand-bell at last.

“Bring me Father Blackmore’s last report,” he said, as his secretary appeared. (End, Section I) (To be continued) m INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

57

VATICAN WATCH

By Matthew Trojacek with CNA Reports - Grzegorz Galazka and CNA photos

FEBRUARY THURSDAY 23 HOLY SEE AND THE SULTANATE OF OMAN ESTABLISH DIPLOMATIC TIES The Holy See and Oman have established full diplomatic relations, leaving only six countries worldwide without any diplomatic connection to the Vatican.

The announcement on February 23 did not come as a surprise as, in November during Pope Francis’ trip to Bahrain, there had been contact between the Vatican and Oman’s Foreign Ministry. (CNA)

vatory from 1906 until his death in 1930. He was noted for experiments on the Vatican grounds to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. He was also the spiritual director of St. Elizabeth Hesselblad, Swedish founder of the Bridgettine Sisters who saved the lives of Jews during the Holocaust. (CNA)

MARCH WEDNESDAY 1 POPE FRANCIS ENDS FREE AND DISCOUNTED RENT FOR CARDINALS Reuters and Vatican News reported March 1 that cardinals and other high-level personnel at the Vatican will no longer be able to live in Vatican-connected apartments for free or at special prices.

The Vatican owns an extensive amount of real estate both inside and outside Vatican walls. Apartments are principally managed by APSA (the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See).

The Pope’s decision to drop housing benefits for upper management was communicated in a note from the Vatican’s new prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, Maximino Caballero Ledo. The note, called a rescriptum ex audientia, was posted in the San Damaso Courtyard inside Vatican City, according to Reuters. (CNA)

TUESDAY 28 ASTEROIDS NAMED AFTER THREE JESUITS AND A POPE The Vatican Observatory announced on February 28 the naming of four newly-discovered asteroids after prominent Catholics, including Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585), the reformer of the Western calendar and a supporter of papal astronomers. Christopher Graney, a scientist at the Observatory, said in a press release that the Working Group for Small Bodies’ Nomenclature (WGSBN) of the International Astronomical Union published its latest batch of named asteroids in early February, and that the newly-named asteroids include 560974 UgTUESDAY 7 oboncompagni, which honors Ugo Boncompagni (1502-1585), the baptismal name POPE FRANCIS ADDS HOLLERICH of Pope Gregory XIII. Gregory commisAND FOUR OTHER CARDINALS TO sioned the astronomer Father Christopher HIS COUNCIL OF ADVISERS Clavius, SJ — who also has an asteroid An image of the Vatican telescope at Castel On March 7, Pope Francis appointed named after him — to reform the calendar five new members to his council of cardinal Gandolfo outside of Rome. The Vatican’s in the 16th century (it is the calendar we still astronomers also use a telescope in Tucson, advisers, including Synod organizer CardiArizona, for their research use in the West today). nal Jean-Claude Hollerich and Canadian The other three asteroid names honor Jesuit priests who Cardinal Gérald C. Lacroix. The Vatican announced the nine work or worked at the Vatican Observatory: members of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals who assist the —Asteroid 565184 Janusz honors Robert Janusz, SJ, Pope “in the governance of the universal Church.” The Pope who currently works at the observatory focusing on photomalso named Brazilian Cardinal Sérgio da Rocha, Spanish etry (light measurement) in star clusters. He previously Cardinal Juan José Omella Omella, and Cardinal Fernando worked in the philosophy of computing with Fr. Michal Vérgez Alzaga, the president of the Governorate of Vatican Heller, a Polish priest and scientist who won the Templeton City State, to be new members of the council, along with HolPrize in 2008. lerich and Lacroix. (CNA) —Asteroid 551878 Stoeger is named for Fr. Bill Stoeger WEDNESDAY 8 (1943-2014), a California-born cosmologist who studied with POPE FRANCIS MEETS WITH TWO WHO WERE Sir Martin Ross and worked with Stephen Hawking.

KIDNAPPED BY BOKO HARAM Stoeger was a well-known spiritual director as well as a sciOn March 8, Pope Francis met with two young Nigerian entist: “I think he was the smartest person I ever knew,” regirls who suffered horrendous violence at the hands of the called Observatory director Fr. Guy Consolmagno. “You Boko Haram terrorist group. Sixteen-year-old Maryamu could tell because he would never give a fast, glib answer to Joseph, who escaped from Boko Haram in July after being anything, but a thoughtful, well-reasoned reply.” held against her will for nine years, greeted the Pope along —Asteroid 562971 Johannhagen is named for Fr. Jowith Janada Marcus, also a victim of Boko Haram kidnaphann Hagen, SJ (1847-1930), director of the Vatican Obser58 INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

Here, Notre-Dame Basilica, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Below, Pope Francis greets staff at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome

ping, at the end of his general audience.

Both girls saw members of their families murdered by Boko Haram. Marcus’ father was beheaded by a machete in front of her in 2018, and Joseph saw her brother killed and cut into pieces in 2019.

The pontifical charity arranged for the girls to meet the Pope on International Women’s Day. “We must find the cure to heal this plague and not leave women alone,” the Pope said.

Both priests and lay faithful are regularly targeted by Islamic terror groups such as Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and militant Fulani. In the face of this persecution, Nigeria has the highest Mass attendance of any country in the world. According to recent data compiled by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, 94% of Catholics in Nigeria attend Mass at least weekly. (CNA) WEDNESDAY 15 NO “PRIVILEGED CATEGORIES,” SAYS FRANCIS Pope Francis said that everyone in the Church is equal in dignity, thus a focus on hierarchical advancement is “pure paganism.” At his general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope said: “There is no promotion here, and when you conceive of the Christian life as an advancement, that the one above commands others, because he has succeeded in climbing, that is not Christianity,” he said. “That is pure paganism.”

MONDAY 27 POPE’S MESSAGE OF HOPE HEADED TO SPACE Pope Francis’ message of hope for humanity will be shot into earth’s orbit as a “nanobook” embedded inside a small satellite, and his words will also be transmitted back to earth each day for ham radio reception.

The new space mission, called Spei Satelles, is being promoted by the Dicastery for Communication and coordinated by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The project was unveiled at the Vatican on March 27, the third anniversary of the prayer service the Pope led in an empty St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Monsignor Lucio Adrián Ruiz, secretary of the Dicastery for Communication, said at a Vatican news conference that they have found many ways to spread the Pope’s words and images from that historic evening three years ago: first as a global livestream, then as a book, Why Are You Afraid? Have You No Faith?, which gathers together Pope Francis’ most significant speeches and comments during the pandemic.

While more than 150,000 copies of the book have now been sold around the world, the monsignor said the next step was to send the book literally around the world in a low earth

orbit satellite as a symbolic gesture of extending the Pope’s loving embrace even farther.

The nanobook was created by Italy’s National Research Council (CNR). The lab converted the 150-page book into binary code that fits on a tiny chip, said Andrea Notargiacomo, head researcher in nanotechnology at CNR. The 2 mmby-2 mm chip is about the size of the tip of a crayon. If all goes as planned after its scheduled launch from Vandenberg Base (VSFB) in California June 10, any amateur radio receiver should be able to pick up its radio signals (437.5 MHz) transmitting papal messages of hope and peace in English, Italian and Spanish. (USCCB) FRIDAY 31 VIETNAM-HOLY SEE WORKING GROUP MEETS Delegations from the Holy See and Vietnam had a “broad and deep exchange of views on Vietnam-Holy See relations, including issues related to the Catholic Church in Vietnam,” according to a press release on the 10th Meeting of the Vietnam-Holy See Joint Working Group. Both sides agreed that the Catholic Community in Vietnam will continue to be inspired by the Magisterium of the Church regarding their vocation to be good Catholics and good citizens. The two sides acknowledged the progress that has occurred in Vietnam-Holy See relations, including now regular contacts and consultations, the exchange of high level delegations, and the frequent pastoral visits to Vietnam by the Non-Resident Papal Representative, Archbishop Marek Zalewski. (VaticanNews)

APRIL SATURDAY 1 POPE FRANCIS RETURNS TO THE VATICAN AFTER THREE DAYS IN THE HOSPITAL Pope Francis was discharged from the hospital April 1 after a three-night stay in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. Before departing by car, the Pope greeted the crowd gathered outside of the hospital. In an emotional moment, he stopped to embrace and pray with a sobbing mother whose 5-year-old daughter died in the hospital the night before. When asked by journalist Delia Gallagher how he was feeling, the Pope quipped: “Still alive!”

The Pope also spoke to the hospital administrators as well as the team of doctors and medical staff who treated him before leaving the hospital around 10:30 a.m. local time. Before returning to Vatican City, he stopped to pray in the Roman Basilica of St. Mary Major, where he entrusted the sick children he met at the hospital to the care of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (CNA)m MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

59

PEOPLE B M Y

ATTHEW TROJACEK with G. Galazka, CNA and CNS photos

n BISHOPS’ TEAM U.S. BISHOPS REJECT REPORTS TO VATICAN ON HUMAN COMPOSTING, INDIAN CATHEDRAL ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS DESECRATION A Vatican-appointed team, retired Archbishop Maria Callist Soosa Pakiam of Trivandrum, and retired Bishop Stanley In a March 23 statement, the Roman of Quilon, has wrapped up its factU.S. Conference of Catholic finding exercise into the alBishops’ Committee on Doctrine leged “desecration and sacrisaid it had evaluated two new alterlege” at a cathedral-basilica natives to burial or cremation — human composting and alkaline hydrolysis — and in southern India, linked to a concluded that both “fail to satisfy the Church’s requirements for proper respect for decades-old disthe bodies of the dead.” pute over the In human composting, the body of the departed is placed in a metal bin with plant mode of celebrating Mass. material to enable microbes and bacteria, along with heat and oxygen, to break down A group of 29 Catholics, bones and tissues. The resulting mixture is then offered for lawn or garden use. mostly men, are accused of Alkaline hydrolysis dissolves the body in some 100 gallons of water and alkali desecrating the consecrated under high temperature and pressure. Within hours, the body is dissolved, except for bread and wine when some priests of the some bone material which is then dried and pulverized.

Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese were Burial is “the most fitting way to express faith and hope in the resurrection of the celebrating their traditional Mass. body,” wrote the bishops, quoting the 2016 instruction “Ad resurgendum cum Christo: A majority of priests and laity in the Regarding the Burial of the Deceased and the Conservation of the Ashes in the Case of archdiocese want to continue with the traCremation” by the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith.

According to the 2016 instruction, flame-based cremation is permissible, so long ditional Mass in which the celebrant faces as the ashes are gathered and laid to rest in a sacred place. the congregation throughout the Mass.

In contrast, both human composting and alkaline hydrolysis leave nothing that However, the Synod-approved mode recould be properly interred, said the U.S. bishops. (UCANews) quires the priests to face the congregation only until the Eucharistic Prayer and after the predominantly Christian Kayah state on March 23.

Communion. The synod approved the new form across all its The army’s jets bombed Wan Pala village in Bawlake dioceses. township, according to the Karenni Human Rights Group, Church leaders familiar with the development reported which tracks violence in the civil war-stricken southeast that “this is perhaps the first such case in the history of the Asian nation.

Catholic Church in which the Vatican had to step in.”

The fresh round of attacks has prompted (UCANews) thousands, mostly Christians, to flee their homes and take shelter in churches, convents n NICARAGUA CLOSES TWO CATHOLIC and jungles.

CHURCH-LINKED UNIVERSITIES Noeleen Heyzer, special envoy of the UN Nicaragua on March 7 shuttered two universities with Secretary-General on Myanmar, said violence ties to the Catholic Church just a day after stripping 18 emcontinues “at an alarming scale” after the military, which topployer unions of their legal status in an ongoing clampdown pled the civilian government in February 2021, extended the on dissent. state of emergency on February 1 and beefed up its aerial Since anti-government protests were violently put down bombings, burning of civilian structures, and other grave in 2018, leaving more than 350 dead, hundreds imprisoned human rights violations to maintain its grip on power. and more than 100,000 in exile, rights groups, the UN, and (UCANews) Western governments have accused President Daniel Ortega’s government of illegally atn POPE FRANCIS SAYS IMPRISONMENT tempting to crush any and all opposition.

OF NICARAGUAN BISHOP REMINDS HIM The institutions were ordered to hand over OF HITLER’S DICTATORSHIP all information on students, professors, study Pope Francis called Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega “unstable” plans and other details to the country’s Nationand likened Nicaragua’s Sandinista government to Nazi Geral Council of Universities (CNU), according to many in an interview published March 10. the publication. (UCANews) Speaking about Nicaragua’s Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was sentenced to 26 years in n 3 DEAD, 6 HURT AS MYANMAR MILITARY prison by Ortega’s dictatorship last month, BOMBS VILLAGE Pope Francis said: “It is something out of line Three civilians were killed and six others wounded after with reality; it is as if we were bringing back Myanmar’s military stepped up attacks on several villages in 60 INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

Bishop Shen Bin, who had been Bishop of Haimen, was On March 24, 1944, in occupied Poland, all nine installed in Shanghai on members of the Ulma family were killed by the Nazis April 4, having been — including a child still in the womb — for hiding a named by the Council Jewish family in their home in Poland. of Chinese Bishops — The anniversary of the martyrdom of the first unborn a body that is not recogchild on the way to sainthood marks a moment to pray nized by the Holy See — of which for the protection of every human life, according to the Bishop Shen Bin himself is the chairpostulator for the Ulma family, Father Witold Burda. man. Vatican spokesmen said that they Burda stated that the Catholic Church’s decision to were taken by surprise by the “unilaterbeatify an unborn child “shakes our consciences.” al” move, having only heard about the In an interview with EWTN, Burda called it “a reappointment “a few days ago” through minder for us of the sanctity of every human life that bemedia reports. gins at the moment of conception until natural death.”

Although the terms of the Vatican“It is a great reaffirmation, a great hymn of the sancBeijing agreement have never been tity and dignity of every human life,” he said. (CNA) disclosed, it is generally understood that new Catholic bishops would be sethe Communist dictatorship of 1917 or the Hitler dictatorship lected by the Holy See from a list of candidates approved by of 1935.”

Chinese authorities. Evidently Beijing either did not submit “They are a type of vulgar dictatorships,” he added, also Bishop Shen’s name to the Vatican for approval, or ignored using the Argentine word guarangas, meaning “rude.” the Vatican’s negative response.

Pope Francis said: “With much respect, I have no choice The agreement has not produced new appointments to but to think that the person who leads (Nicaragua) [Daniel ease an acute shortage of Catholic bishops in China. Dozens Ortega] is unstable.” (CNA) of Chinese dioceses are currently without bishops, or are led by bishops well past retirement age. n CHINA INSTALLS BISHOP WITHOUT VATICAN The illicit appointment in Shanghai follows another violaAPPROVAL tion of the accord last November, when Chinese authorities The Chinese government has installed a new Bishop of transferred Bishop John Peng Weizhao of Yujiang to become Shanghai without Vatican approval, in a clear violation of the an auxiliary of the Nanching archdiocese— also without Vatsecret accord between Rome and Beijing. ican approval. The Vatican expressed “surprise and regret” at that move.

KOREAN CHURCH SEEKS SAINTHOOD n MEET THE NEW NIGERIAN FOR THREE PROMINENT CLERGYMEN SECRETARY FOR THE VATICAN DICASTERY FOR EVANGELIZATION: ARCHBISHOP FORTUNATUS NWACHUKWU From a childhood as a war refugee to a career as a Holy See diplomat, Archbishop Fortunatus From left: Bishop Barthelemy Bruguiere, Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan Nwachukwu, 62, will and Father Leo Bang Yoo-ryong now take on a new leadThe Seoul archdiocese in South Korea has officially launched the cause of canonership role in one of the ization for three prominent Catholic clergymen including a French missionary bishop most important dicasterand the first Korean cardinal. ies in the Roman Curia.

The Archdiocesan Committee for Beatification and Canonization finalized the deThe Nigerian archbishop was recision to pursue the canonization of Bishop Barthelemy Bruguiere, Cardinal cently appointed by Pope Francis as a Stephen Kim Sou-hwan and Father Leo Bang Yoo-ryong, archdiocesan website secretary for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Good News reported on March 28.

Evangelization.

Bruguiere (1792-1835) from the Paris Foreign Mission Society was the first aposThe dicastery is tasked with “the tolic vicar of Korea; Kim (1922-2009) was archbishop of Seoul from 1968-1998; and work of evangelization, so that Christ, Bang (1900-1986) was the founder of Korea’s first native religious order, the Clerical the light of the nations, may be known Congregation of the Blessed Korean Martyrs. and witnessed to by word and deed, and Archbishop Peter Chung Soon-taek on March 23 appointed Auxiliary Bishop the Church, his mystical body, may be Job Koo Yo-bi of Seoul the chairman of the committee to pursue canonization for the built up.” (CNA)m candidates. (UCANews) UNBORN MARTYR “SHAKES OUR CONSCIENCES”

MAY-JUNE 2023 INSIDE THE VATICAN

61

Food FoR THoUGHT

Stefano Navarrini illustration

n BY MOTHER MARTHA

A

ll his life Joseph Ratzinger was devoted to his closeknit family, theology, music (especially Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven), cats, and food. His close attachment to food, especially sweets. was due to his mother, Maria Peintner.

Born in Mülbach in Bavaria, though some sources say in the South Tyrol (today Italy), on January 8th, 1884, the oldest of eight children, she was the illegitimate daughter of a baker. To help support the family Maria trained as a cook and, according to Peter Seewald, in his biography Benedict XVI: A Life, published in 2020, “worked for a Czech violinist in Salzburg, in the home of General Zech in Wiesbaden, and then in Munich’s Hotel Wittelsbach as a pastry chef. Some years later she worked as a cook for two seasons in Reit im Winkl, a small ski resort, at the Pension ‘Glück im Winkl.’”

Her life changed in 1920 when on July 11, she answered an ad placed by Joseph Ratzinger Sr. (1877-1959) in the newspaper Liebfrauenbote; he was looking for a wife. They married on November 9th of that year. He was 43 and she 36. The first child, Maria, who became her younger brother’s housekeeper, was born in 1921; Georg, the priest-musician, in 1924, and Joseph in 1927.

Joseph Sr. was a small-town policeman of modest agricultural origins; because of his anti-Nazi sentiments (he called Hitler “The Anti-Christ”), the family couldn’t live in government barracks and was often transferred to smaller and smaller places so it became impossible for Maria to continue working. In 1933, Joseph Sr. bought an old farmhouse (1726) at Eichenweg 33 in Hufschlag on the outskirts of Traunstein. They moved there just in time, in 1937, so the family always had fresh food during World War II. Not surprisingly, many of Benedict XVI’s favorite foods had Bavarian origins. They include spätzle (tiny Bavarianstyle gnocchi with spinach or with bacon and cheese), canederli or knődel, consommé with strips of omelet, potato pancakes, and sausage from Regensberg where he taught at the University from 1969-77 and co-founded the theological journal Communio and where his brother Georg was choirmaster.

After these main-course dishes he chose one of his favorite sweets: Kaisermarren, Sachertorte, rotolo alla Foresta Nera, or Black Forest cake and apple strudel.

On November 25, 1981 Pope John Paul II appointed Ratzinger Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He moved to Rome with his sister and lived in an apartment on the fourth floor, directly across the street from the Vatican’s Gate of St. Anna. Before long he started going regularly (at least once a week) to savor his Bavarian favorites at the Cantina Tirolese, a two-storied family-owned restaurant at Via Vitelleschi 26, tel. 011-3906-68136804, cantinatirolese@gmail.com, a short (5minute) walk from home.

Founded in 1971 by Gherti Macher from Graz and her Italian husband, to the best of my knowledge it’s still the only German/Austrian restaurant in Rome.

Ratzinger always sat at Table 6. The daughter of the founder, Manuela, who died at the age of 54 in 1994, and mother of the present owners, Riccardo and Mario, liked to recount her favorite Ratzinger anecdote: A client who’d lost his dog, pinned up a sign: “Has anyone seen this German shepherd?” When Cardinal Ratzinger saw it, he supposedly said, “No, no, that’s not me; I’m here.”

Needless to say, when Ratzinger was elected Pope and could no longer go there, he wrote the Machers a note saying: “Thank you for making me feel at home,” and the Machers always sent him an apple strudel for his birthday on April 16. He always thanked them, so they knew he enjoyed them.

Over his many years in Rome, the Pope Emeritus also learned to appreciate Italian cuisine. Before becoming pope he also occasionally ate at Al Passetto in Borgo Pio around the corner from his apartment. There his favorites were spaghetti alla carbonara and artichokes alla romana.

In a recent interview with the newspaper La Repubblica, Sergio Dussin from Bassano del Grappa, a former soccer referee, the owner of Il Pioppato and Dalla Mena in Romano d’Ezzelino and Villa Razzolini in Asolo, and consulting chef to the three last popes, revealed that Benedict XVI disliked mushrooms, but enjoyed his tortelli con ricotta e spinaci, his veal scallopine with radicchio from Treviso and his zucchini flan with saffron cream sauce. One of Dussin’s prized possessions is a goblet still stained with orange soda, which Ratzinger usually drank at meals, though he enjoyed toasting with Franziskaner Weissbier, a light monk-made brew, or with sweet sparkling Moscato.m

JOSEPH RATZINGER THE GOURMET

From left: Maria Peintner, Joseph Ratzinger’s mother; Kaisermarren; Ratzinger’s table at Cantina Tirolese in Rome; Strudel and Bretzel; Chef Sergio Dussin

62 INSIDE THE VATICAN MAY-JUNE 2023

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