Inside the Vatican magazine September-October 2024

Photo CRISTIAN GENNARI

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 $10 / EUR 10 / £6.60

Card. Pierbattista Pizzaballa

“Stop before it is too late!”

JERUSALEM’S PATRIARCH PIZZABALLA PLEADS AS GAZA CONFLICT RISKS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL

30 YEARS

Powerful Stories of Healing and Offering our Lives to Christ

◆ THE HERMIT: The Priest Who Saved a Soul, a Marriage, and a Family

T

he moving story of a holy priest-turned-hermit who came to the rescue of a deeply wounded woman and family during the COVID-19 pandemic. In his raw and tender memoir, Kevin Wells pulls readers into an unforgettable story of Fr. Martin Flum who orchestrated the slow resurrection of his wife, Krista, from the nightmare of deep wounds and addiction.

Wells’s rollicking tale of inner crisis and hope-filled healing takes readers on a spiritual roller-coaster with a penetrating exploration into the oft-overlooked sacramental grace of marriage and the mysterious movement of God in dry and lonely places.

◆ A YEAR OF DAILY OFFERINGS

F

r. James Kubicki, S.J., well-known spiritual guide on Relevant Radio, presents a prayerful 366day experience immersed in the lives of the saints, the rhythm of the Church calendar, and the stories of ordinary people living the Eucharist in their daily lives. It will help you reorder not just your devotional life, but the entire way of offering your day to Christ.

He provides a rich array of reflections based on Ignatian spirituality with a fresh perspective on connecting with God through morning prayer using prayers of the saints, a word to carry you throughout the day, and an evening reflection on the day you offered to God.

HERMP . . . Sewn Softcover, $17.95

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“A harrowing, utterly candid account of a married Catholic couple struggling with the bondage of addiction. It reveals how Christ yearns to pour out healing and liberation upon us, if we would only reach out to receive what He longs to give us. This phenomenal story should be read by all who seek to follow Jesus wholeheartedly.”

“For the past 20 years we have listened to Fr. Kubicki’s ‘Daily Reflections’ on Relevant Radio, which are clearly a fruit of his interior life, study and reflection. This new readable companion of Daily Offerings is short, clear, and packed with inspiring content, perfect for busy people on the go.”

— Fr Francis “Rocky” Hoffman, CEO, Relevant Radio

— Michael O’Brien, Author, Father Elijah and Island of the World “The best book I’ve ever read on how to pursue the spiritual life in marriage. A delicate, intimate, and compelling narrative told with the riveting literary style of Kevin Wells.”

— David Torkington, Author, Wisdom from the Christian Mystics

“Fr. Kubicki’s mediations and prayer of self-offering help us grasp what a great glory it is to unite our daily ups & downs to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.”

—Daria Sockey, Author, The Everyday Catholic’s Guide to the Liturgy of the Hours

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

(800) 651-1531

EDITORIAL by Robert Moynihan

Our Wrestling

St. Paul, writing to the Christians of Ephesus in the mid-1st century (Ephesians 6:12), said “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood... but against the rulers of the world of this darkness.” Today it is still so...

Monday, August 19, 2024 — Sometimes, the voice of one man may be key to avert great evil. Today, one such voice belongs to a humble Franciscan who has risen to the office of Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. His name is Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

We chose to place Pizzaballa’s photo, in a posture of prayer, on the cover of this issue because Pizzaballa is at the very epicenter of the tragic conflict in the Holy Land which has taken so many lives, and which threatens to take many more.

When the conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7, 2023, and more than 100 Israelis were taken hostage

by Hamas, Pizzaballa raised his voice to say, “Take me in exchange!” He offered himself as a hostage, in order to free all of the other more than 100 prisoners.

This was a gesture that we cannot forget, though it was a gesture that was not accepted. Consider: can anyone even imagine another leader, whether of Israel, or of Iran, or of the United States, offering to become a hostage to save the lives of many unknown to him? For this reason, Pizzaballa stands head and shoulders above the other leaders of our time. He is a man who talks the talk, but also walks the walk. He is a man for others.

Pizzaballa is raising his voice day and night, morning and evening, ceaselessly, in a situation of sorrow, passion, and hatred.

As I write on August 19, the anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima’s 4th apparition in 1917, the global scene is worrying.

While in the Middle East a wider conflict is now looming between Israel and Iran, and between Israel and Lebanon (following Israel’s assassination of two Palestinian leaders, one in Beirut, and one in Tehran), in eastern Europe, a wider conflict has evolved this summer in the bitter conflict between Russia and Ukraine (backed by NATO), a conflict which has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Now, Ukraine has invaded Russian territory in the direction of Kursk — the city where the decisive battle in the Second World War II was fought between the Soviet army and the German Wehrmacht.

And there are two large nuclear power plants, observers are warning, that could be harmed in the fighting — one near Kursk in Russia, the other near Zaporizhia in southeastern Ukraine, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe and among the 10 largest in the world. The explosion of either could send radioactive fallout over a wide area, and poison large territories, as Chernobyl did when it exploded in 1986. This would be horrific.

Yet, most of us seem to have become numb to such threats. The war in Ukraine has been raging for more than two and half years.

Two and a half years! And for nearly a year in the Holy Land, with the deaths of an estimated 40,000 civilians in Gaza, which has been almost leveled. Pope Francis and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa, continue to insist that a “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas be declared “immediately,” and yet... their words fall on deaf ears.

For this reason, we have placed Patriarch Pizzaballa on the cover of our magazine, as a “good shepherd,” willing to lay his life down for his sheep — even for those not of his flock. We do this to remind all of us of the urgent need to pray and act for peace in

the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and throughout the world. We also recall Our Lady of Fatima’s consoling promise: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”

Conflict continues in the Church, as well, epitomized in recent weeks by the case of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. In late June, when our last issue went to press, the former Apostolic Nuncio had been accused of the crime of schism by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). On July 4, the Vatican found him “guilty of the reserved delict of schism,” which includes a penalty of automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication.

For his part, Archbishop Viganò maintains his innocence and claims he is being unjustly persecuted by Pope Francis. “If today Bergoglio is putting me on trial to condemn and excommunicate me,” he said in a homily released on July 7 (reprinted in this issue), “it is precisely because he makes a public profession that he belongs to another religion and that he presides over another church — his church, the synodal church — from which I am ‘expelled’ because I am a Catholic and, indeed, a stranger to it.”

In light of this episode, we should all redouble our prayers for the salvation of Pope Francis and Archbishop Viganò, recalling this verse from the Book of Psalms: “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Ps. 133:1).

In closing, our thoughts return to the Holy Land, and to a great saint, St. Charbel Makhlouf (May 8, 1828 to December 24, 1898). He was a Maronite monk and priest in Lebanon. He spent his last 23 years living as a solitary hermit and was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1977. He is known among Lebanese Christians for his miraculous healings in answer to prayers said at his tomb, and for his ability to unite Christians and Muslims. He is the Patron Saint of Lebanon.

Here are some words of wisdom attributed to St. Charbel: “Do not sell your souls in the markets of this world. Your souls are very valuable. Whatever price the world may pay you, it is too low a price compared to your souls’ true value. Do not sell your souls because the world cannot pay you the true price. The true price is paid only by the Blood of Christ, fully paid on the Cross.

“The kingdom of God is not a goal but a journey that you can realize in yourself by the power of the Holy Spirit. Step by step, day by day, in the small details that fill the moments of your life, second after second. Meditation is to look at things as they are, not as you imagine them in your mind, or as you want them to be.

“Begin nothing on earth unless it has its end in heaven; do not walk on a path that does not lead to heaven. The ignorant man clings to the dust until he becomes dust; the wise and prudent man clings to heaven until he reaches heaven.

“You cannot lift people higher than yourself, but if Christ is in you, you can go up and draw them to you. When you climb high, pull your brothers towards you. Christ raised you when He was lifted up, so raise your brothers, as you are raised through the power of Christ. As you are drawn towards Christ, you will draw people around you.” m SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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CONTENTS SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 $10 / EUR 10 / £6.60

Year 32, #5

30 YEARS

Photo CRISTIAN GENNARI

LEAD STORY Pope Francis calls for immediate ceasefire as war in Gaza, and now Lebanon, escalates

by Christopher Hart-Moynihan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Card. Pierbattista Pizzaballa

“Stop before it is too late!”

JERUSALEM’S PATRIARCH PIZZABALLA PLEADS AS GAZA CONFLICT RISKS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 Year 32, #5

v

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Robert Moynihan ASSOCIATE EDITOR: George “Pat” Morse (+ 2013) ASSISTANT EDITOR: Christina Deardurff MANAGING EDITOR: Matt Gaspers 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 PO Box 1320 Front Royal, VA 22630, USA Tel: +1.800.789.9494 Fax: +1.202.536.5409 Subscriptions (USA): Inside the Vatican PO Box 1320 Front Royal, VA 22630, USA www.insidethevatican.com Tel. +1.800.789.9494

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Inside the Vatican is published by Urbi et Orbi Communications, PO Box 1320, Front Royal, VA 22630, 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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4 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

NEWS US/Vice-Presidential candidate J.D. Vance is a Catholic of a different stripe

by Darrick Taylor, Ph.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 HUNGARY/“Exiled” Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion suspended

by Peter Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 US/How Cardinal O’Malley’s replacement in Boston was picked

by ITV staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20 VATICAN/Pontifical Academy: Rethinking traditional ban on withholding food and water

by ITV staff/Vatican News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 VATICAN/Nuns must “hybridize” TLM; Cardinal Müller and “rehashed allegations”; New questions in Vatican cardinal’s past diocese

by ITV staff/AC Wimmer (CNA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 VATICAN/ Traditional Mass rumors spark a movement

by ITV staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 DOSSIER: THE EXCOMMUNICATION OF ARCHBISHOP VIGANÒ Is he a loyal son of the Church or a schismatic?

by ITV staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 “I have been summoned to the Palace of the Holy Office”

by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 The Decree of Excommunication by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 In Sanguine Tuo: A homily for the Feast of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus

by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Reactions to Archbishop Vigano’s Excommunication by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 CULTURE Church Fathers/“What does Christ desire, but freely to give you life?”

by St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 200 A.D.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Scripture/Are we putting our trust in politics?

by Anthony Esolen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Spirituality Behind Bars/The Catholic Bard: Craftsman and Catechist

by Marcellus Roberts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 URBI ET ORBI: CATHOLICISM AND ORTHODOXY Icon/The Creed: The Trinity and the Prophets

by Robert Wiesner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 East-West Watch/Bulgarian Orthodox elect pro-Moscow Patriarch

by Peter Anderson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 News from the East/ Ukrainian treatment of war prisoners condemned; India solves liturgy dispute; Pope receives Russian Orthodox metropolitan; Byzantines at Eucharistic Congress

by Matthew Trojacek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 FEATURES Tradition and Beauty/ Great music befits the Church of Christ

by Aurelio Porfiri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Art/ Jewish Rome

by Lucy Gordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Education/The College of St. Joseph the Worker

by Dr. Jacob Imam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Lord of the World/“Rome is gone. Now we must build something better”

by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56 Vatican Watch/A day-by-day chronicle of Vatican events: June-July, 2024

by Matthew Trojacek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 People/ Jerome LeJeune; Carlo Acutis; Anglicans seeking “full communion”; Lourdes bishop

by Matthew Trojacek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Food for Thought/ The Artichoke: Myth, botany and history

by ITV staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

BRiLLiANT WORKS ON TRUTH, FAiTH & SCiENCE

◆ WHAT WOULD SOCRATES SAY?

◆ CHRIST, SCIENCE AND REASON

An Introduction to Philosophy

What We Can Know about Jesus, Mary, and Miracles

P

hilosopher Peter Kreeft says the greatest teacher of philosophy in all of history was Socrates. In 2400 years, no one has topped him or his "Socratic method" of teaching not by monolog but by dialog, not by lecturing but by asking directed logical questions. Yet none of the hundreds of textbooks for beginning philosophers today use his method.

So Kreeft imagined an ideal "Socrates University" consisting of a log with Socrates at one end and an intelligent, typical modern student beginner at the other end, conversing about the central problem in each of the major divisions of philosophy. Like the real Socrates, this fictionalized version is grounded in commonsense logic, is fair on all issues but demanding of good reasons for every opinion.

I

n this unprecedented work, Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., explains the considerable scientific, historical, and exegetical evidence supporting the historicity, passion, and resurrection of Jesus, as well as the real presence of Christ’s body in the Eucharist.

He also reveals the evidence for the supernatural dimensions of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Guadalupe, Lourdes & Fatima.

The book makes clear that the Catholic Church is not anti-science, but quite the opposite—it is one of the most scientifically aware and open religious denominations in the world. It also makes clear that science is not anti-God, anti-Christ, or anti-religious.

WWSSH . . . Sewn Hardcover, $24.95

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“Many people have written phony Socratic dialogues. Hardly anyone gives us the real thing – but Kreeft does. There is nothing stiff or ‘cooked’ about these dialogues. They are quests for the legendary beast called truth. Wonderful stuff.”

—J. Budziszewski, Author, What We Can’t Not Know

“In his indomitable style, Fr. Spitzer explains how the Church has supported scientific discovery from the Middle Ages to the present, and also gives numerous examples of how the Church has engaged scientific researchers to investigate miracles and inexplicable religious artifacts like the Shroud of Turin. He makes the case that science can actually bring one to the doorstep of God.” —Dr. Daniel Kuebler, Biology Professor, Franciscan University

“Kreeft’s long experience as a scholar and teacher is evident throughout these lively conversations between the immortal Socrates and we mere mortals who are intrigued by the possibilities of knowing the truth. This book merits careful and multiple readings.”

—Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J., Author, Real Philosophy for Real People

"I urge all, especially science educators, to examine the evidence, reasoning and the comprehensive citations so brilliantly presented in this book. These are the discussions our students want to have about their faith, and this book gives you the confidence to do so."

—Martin Lindway, Ph.D., Science Chair, Benedictine High School

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

(800) 651-1531

Signature Pilgrimage to Guadalupe September 20 - 27, 2024 Join us in Mexico for Our Lady of Guadalupe & the Flower World Prophecy 2024 pilgrimage. Our pilgrimage begins with a sweeping reach back in time to 500 years ago — to the early 1500s — when the Spanish conquistadors first encountered the powerful Aztec empire. Two scholars who have spent years researching the pre-christian Aztec culture will travel with us on our pilgrimage and will shed an entirely new light on why the Aztec people were so receptive to the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the tilma that carried the flowers from the hilltop of Tepeyac. Visit us online to learn more!

∞

I N S I D E T H E VAT I CA N PI LG R I M AG E S .C O M

2024 and 2025 Pilgrimages!

Classic SPAIN AND FRANCE: With Mary from

Classic SPAIN: Pilgrimage and Retreat

Garabandal to Lourdes - August 22 - 29, 2024

with Fr. Murr - October 24 - 31, 2024

Classic ITALY: Christmas in Italy and the Opening

Classic SPAIN: Pilgrimage and Lenten Retreat

of the Jubilee Year - December 21 - 28, 2024

with Fr. Murr - March 30 - April 6, 2025

Signature ITALY: Easter in Italy -

Classic IRELAND: Saints and Scholars -

April 14 - 24, 2025

July 19 - 30, 2025

Signature LEBANON: Ancient Monasteries and Modern Saints - September 13 - 22, 2025

Our Signature Pilgrimages (intimate, limited to 15 pilgrims) are impossible to mass-produce. Like the products of an artisan, they are works of painstaking preparation that reflect our unswerving commitment to create something of great and unique beauty.

Our Classic Pilgrimages (small by industry standards, limited to 35 pilgrims) are carefully budgeted so you can visit beautiful and sacred destinations while experiencing the quality, style and integrity of Inside the Vatican pilgrimages at an affordable price.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR INSIDE THE VATICAN wants to hear from you! Email us at editor@insidethevatican.com or write to us at 14 W. Main St., Front Royal, VA 22630. Letters are edited for clarity and used as space permits.

THE VIGANÒ AFFAIR

We get requests like these everyday.

The Pope has been very patient with Archbishop Viganò, hasn’t he? I guess if the Archbishop identifies so much with Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, he’ll have a home with the SSPX (Society of St. Pius X) going forward. The SSPX probably needs a “Pope” figure, and Viganò can then have the power and status it appears he’s been craving. It’s a win win.

Mike Gutenkauf mikesdak@gmail.com

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 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

It is tragic and a travesty, the persecution of Archbishop Viganò by the heretical apostate Vatican. I have thoughtfully read every word of Archbishop Viganò’s statement; thank you for providing the statement in its entirety.

Archbishop Viganò is the most faithful, holiest, courageous priest in the entire Hierarchy. He is the “sole voice” of the true, authentic, genuine One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ.

To Archbishop Viganò: I, and millions of others are currently, in essence, without a true legitimate One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church, not recognizing Vatican II or Bergoglio as legitimate. If and when it ever occurs, recovering and restoring the true Church will be an enormous undertaking.

Victor Cameron vcamco6645@gmail.com Saw your podcast with Fr. Murr, discussing Archbishop Viganò. His words from day one were that he did not want to meet his Master not having spoken out.

We all must thank him for his courage, and you and Fr. Murr as well.

The TLM will be in the underground.

The FSSP will be next. What Fernandez will try with the SSPX should be interesting.

Louise Helder omiehelder@optonline.net My heart goes out to the Archbishop.

This is plain cruelty, that our Church

@

would persecute this devout man. He is a bright light. He has seen through the mess, cover-ups, and corruption of this pontiff and his cronies.

Brian Cissell Kamloops, BC, Canada

Your 2021 interview with Archbishop Viganò (reposted on YouTube in July 2024 by the archbishop) was very good and I highly appreciate your pro-fessionalism in general. I hope it will be possible for you to make a follow-up on this interview; it opened many new in-sights for me.

Anton Roijakkers Poland Wow, I am in a bit of a state of shock after reading +Viganò's statement.

I am not quite sure how I feel or what response is appropriate. I pray for the Spirit to also lead you, Dr. Bob, in a direction that promotes love and unity amid diversity of opinion.

While I believe Archbishop Viganò is not correct in his rejection, even condemnation, of Vatican II and Pope Francis, I also believe that both sides are not exhibiting Christian love.

I hope that this external judgment is also accompanied by back-channel outreach in a mode of love and care.

Bob Graf, D.Min. Springfield, Virginia, USA I have always respected your insights, knowledge, and perspectives.

However, I was deeply concerned about the content of your interview with Dr. Edmund Mazza. There seemed to be questions not merely about the validity of the Viganò [excommunication] decree, but on the latter’s comments on the legitimacy of Pope Francis as a successor of St. Peter, as well as the legitmacy of Vatican Concil II. While I am concerned about the confusion and direction of this papacy on certain political, moral and synodality issues, there is no substantive evidence

that he does not legitimately hold the office of Pope. Emeritus Pope Benedict and Cardinal Pell (despite his apparent concerns prior to his death) accepted Francis as Pope.

I judge the situation according to the perspective most eloquently articulated

by St. Thomas More that the Holy Father is “best and greatest of Primates, who ought to take precedence over all learned men’s votes.”

Tony Davies, BA, Litt.B., MA awtjdavies@yahoo.com.au The Holy See has now officially confirmed the truth of what I’ve realized since 2018: that for the past six years, Archbishop Viganò has been a schismatic — an ANTI-POPE in all but name. His past six years of public statements about Pope Francis and the Second Vatican Council, consisting of an admixture of timeless Catholic truths and blatant falsehoods, have greatly harmed the universal Church by exacerbating preexisting divisions and differences of opinion.

Justin Soutar justinsoutar0207@gmail.com I confess to being very disappointed by your latest hour-long conversation with Fr. Murr, which was headlined for viewers as being about Abp. Viganò's excommunication. But you never even got to that crucial question. You started with a red herring — the claim that the timing of the excommunication was politically motivated by V's recent and unsubstantiated claims of sexual misconduct on the part of Bergoglio before he became pope.

But you and Fr. M never got round to the burning question of whether this sentence was just and valid!

You and Fr. Murr end up saying that whether or not Viganò is right in claiming Francis has never been a true Pope, “That’s not our call. It's up to the bishops to decide.”

I find that pretty shocking, because it assumes that the question is open and needs resolution. But if that were true, then I and all the tens of thousands of priests worldwide who celebrate daily Mass could not in conscience do so, because the words “together with Francis our Pope” in every Eucharistic Prayer

affirm his papal status as a certain fact.

Furthermore, every Cardinal in the College recognizes him.

Indeed, in this case sedevacantism leads straight towards heresy: according to Vatican I's dogmatic definition, Peter will have “perpetual” successors - right up till the Second Coming of Christ.

You owe it to your viewers not to give scandal by hovering on the brink of sedevacantism, thereby lending credibility to that position.

Fr. Brian Harrison materdei82@hotmail.com I am very much touched by the voluminous letter of His Grace Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. Is the Pope considered more knowledgeable than his cardinals, archbishops,and bishops?

Joseph Kenyi mununs@gmail.com I read with admiration Bishop Viganò’s letter. One sentence, though, surprised me. Bishop Viganò writes that the goal of the church is “to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Does he mean that Islam and Judaism, [for instance] should vanish Haran Fainstein haranfainstein@gmail.com

— flawed. But to be flawed is not to be an invalid Council altogether. So if, as seems to be the case, Viganò rejects Vatican II in its entirety, he is indeed a schismatic, regardless of the question of who has the right to penalize him for being one.

John Rist johnmrist@yahoo.co.uk I’m saddened about the Pope’s actions, but not Viganò’s, who went a little far into the political arena, but one might as well go all the way, so good for him!

I was also saddened by the Pope’s address on AI at the G7 Summit. He sounds like an NGO’s CEO. He said, “If we struggle to define a single set of global values.” There was no mention of Our Lord Jesus Christ or the Gospel.

Carmen Fojo fojo.carm@gmail.com I just read your beautiful Letter #26: My Position on Viganò. To take a stand on Viganò and Francis is not your job as a journalist and it is sinful of people to be writing to you pressuring you to do so. It would be better for you to lose a few

There is a curious complexity in Viganò’s position.

His claim that he cannot be judged by a heretical Pope makes sense, but he seems to forget that the charges against him not only relate to the legitimacy of Bergoglio, but also to the legitimacy of the Second Vatican Council — which may have been — indeed in my view was

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9

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR readers than change the integrity of your approach to journalism.

Donna Lewis dnnlws55@gmail.com He went too far! Your father warned you when it started. He went heretical pretty quick. Viganò must confess his faults in Rome to the successor of Francis. We must pray for him.

Tom Greerty tgreerty@aol.com I think that Viganò must be right in that an erroneous thought process started in Vatican II. First, taking the Host in the hand suggests Christ is in our hands, not viceversa. Second, the priest now faces the congregation rather than Christ. Third, giving up Latin as a universal language set the stage for word -smithing. Fourth, nuns not wearing a habit suggests it would be better to fit into the world rather than be distinguished from the world.

In essence, the Church was weakened by trying to placate the world at the expense of proven holy practices over centuries.

William Forti wbf40@mac.com As St. Thomas Aquinas says “if the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly.” He further states the rebuked prelates “should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects.”

Oh, may the Lord come to our aid for He alone has the words to eternal life.

Sandra Geromette ssgolex@yahoo.com Faced with predicaments too big or too complex for our limited capacities, we have been given the most powerful weapon — prayer. In humility, we acknowledge: 1) we do not know everything; 2) we are not capable of solving every problem; 3) we know that God is really the only full solution and 4) prayer is the vehicle that God have given to us to seek His intervention.

Ray LaRose rlarose@orderofmaltaamerican.org

“Nothing so clearly distinguishes a spiritual man as his treatment of an erring brother.”

It struck me that Augustine’s quote applies, perhaps most aptly, to YOUR treatment of both Viganò and Pope Francis. Your letter closed with this neutral quote: “So I hold them both together by prayer.—RM” I think this is the right approach. I commend you for choosing not to pass judgment on either of your erring brethren.

John Halbur john.halbur@icloud.com The archbishop lost me a few years ago. He started saying, and writing things that made me scratch my head… and I was not alone. He has condemned himself with his own writings.

I hope you will be very careful not to be seen as backing him up or supporting him …he is guilty of schism, after all.

Joan Lewis whiteledge6@yahoo.com

PODCASTS Thank you for your Urbi et Orbi videos with Fr. Murr and Matt Gaspers.

The World Economic Forum sponsored not only what they called the “young global leaders” but also the “young global shapers” — and people can only become a young global shaper if they've been vouched for by another young global shaper or already a member of the WEF. Shouldn't a similar procedure apply to entering the priesthood?

David Lenihan d2lenihan@gmail.com Thank you for these helpful perspectives amidst the multiple ironies we face as Catholics. There is an intellectual seduction afoot, perhaps more fraught with error than ordinary temptations.

I am keeping you and the extended “ITV” family in my prayers. I enjoy seeing you and the Jolly Father of Seville (wink) on the podcasts.

Dr. Alicia Hill Temecula, California, USA

NOT FOLLOWING POPE Your letter #26 entitled “My position on Viganò” begins with Saint Augustine: 10

INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

I am writing to share my experiences with Catholic religious leaders who have

NOT been following Pope Francis' teachings. In fact, they are reminiscent of hatefilled/un-Christ-like echoes of the past.

1) The pastor of St. Joseph’s church in Kings Park, NY, said in his homily he was “thrilled” that Roe v. Wade had been overturned, but the Pope has also spoken publicly that we should love those who have had abortions.

2) At Easter 2024 Mass, the pastor of Christ the King Church in Commack, NY said he was “concerned about this transgender movement.” That is hateful.

The Pope blesses transgender people and even allows them to be godparents and receive communion.

3) On June 22, I attended mass at St. Joseph’s with the Our Lady of Fatima statue; one of the guardians of the statue told us to pray for the removal of sin from the world. He then said he was praying for a family member who is “living a gay lifestyle.” This is completely against the Pope's teachings. I was very upset with this man's comments because I AM GAY and was sitting right there as he basically called me a sinner.

4) Lastly, Bishop John Barres had his priests read a letter at Sunday masses saying that supporting abortion rights for women “should disqualify any and every such candidate from receiving our vote.”

But clergy have no right to push people to vote for any particular candidate.

There was a time in my life when I left the church because I felt unwelcome and God didn't love me because I am gay. I have been so happy with Pope Francis because he has made it so that I have felt welcomed, loved and included.

But with people like those mentioned, the Church could backslide and alienate many.

Alfonso Sorrese alfonsoies@protonmail.com

CHRIST OF THE MIND I'm from Donbass, and when hostilities began in Ukraine in 2014, I started been studying the Bible. This is my opinion about achieving peace: only light can defeat darkness. This can be done with the help of the cornerstone — the Truth.

The path of healing and resurrection for humanity is the New Testament, where Jesus “ascended and sits at the right hand of God.” Because Christ gives

drink and food for the mind to break the vicious circle of violence.

Jesus was an ordinary man by birth and physiology, but received the spirit of God through teaching (christening).

The Son of Man came into the world in the form of the Gospel — “as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west.”

Andrey Vlasenko Donbass, Ukraine

FRANCIS’S OSTPOLITIK Congratulations on your growing podcast audience!

In a recent podcast, a commenter mentioned Slovakian Bishop Pavol Hnilica (1926-2006), who was an opponent of the “Ostopolitik” of Paul VI and John Paul II — “direct precedents,” as journalist Roberto de Mattei said, of Pope Francis political collaboration with Communist China.

Says de Mattei, “Hnilica — writes Emilia Hrabovec — advised not settling for cosmetic concessions, asking for the liberation and rehabilitation of all the bishops, religious and lay faithful still in prison, and the effective recognition of freedom to profess the faith and never to consent to the removal of repressed bishops which would be ‘the worst humiliation for them personally and for the entire martyred Church, in the face of traitors, enemies and the general public opinion.’ “‘The exiled Bishop feared that negotiations conducted without the most heroic part of the episcopate [and arriving] at a closed agreement with no relevant concessions, would have caused in Catholics – especially the best, who with vigor and fidelity had resisted oppression – disorientation and the sensation of being abandoned even by the ecclesiastical authorities.’”

Bozka Malinak Yang, M.Sc. bozka.malinak@gmail.com

TRUMP & CATHOLICISM I am writing with a particular concern: the EWTN network apparently sent a priest to pray at a Trump rally the day of his assassination attempt.

I wasn’t familiar with priests even giving the appearance of political support, especially for a fascist movement! Now their “prayers” at Trump rallies claim he

is chosen by God, and some of his guntoting “Christian” followers equate him with God. I view this as blasphemy.

We have a democracy coalition that is fighting to overcome MAGA, Donald Trump, and the dismantling of our democratic republic and constitutional norms.

That Catholics could continue to support Trump in spite of his hatred of immigrants (he pledges mass deportations if elected) is unfathomable to me. Pope Francis said years ago that Trump is NOT a Christian. But I have never heard a single word speaking out against MAGA coming from the American Church.

Mary J. Russell Denver, Colorado, USA Former President Donald Trump was injured in an assassination attempt July 13 at his campaign rally.

I believe Our Blessed Mother Mary may well be calling him into the Catholic Faith, via her protecting role in the attempt.

On July 5 the Vatican approved devotion to Our Lady as Rosa Mystica (“Mystical Rose”) connected to her appearances to Italian woman Pierina Gilli in 1947 and 1966.

Mary said: “I wish that the 13th July be celebrated each year in honor of the ‘Rosa Mystica’ (the Mystical Rose).”

Could it be that, like Pope John Paul II’s assessment of his own attempted assassination, “It was a mother's hand that guided the bullet's path”?

R. Thomas Richard rthomasrichard@icloud.com

BUGGED CONCLAVE Fascinating YouTube interview with Paul L. Williams on the Urbi et Orbi channel.

Please do another with him soon so we don’t lose the ongoing narrative!! I believe he claimed the 1958 conclave was bugged by an American intelligence agency. A bold and revolutionary claim if supported by at least some evidence.

Jack Carter MD jbcarter7@aol.com

TRUTH & THE CIA I see you have the Holy Spirit, and know what you are talking about, not just from your education and training, but

from direct perception, discernment and experience, and I see your love of Jesus. I like that there is no nonsense, no sensationalism on the program.

My background (in addition to CIA) is in journalism; my blog is called “Barbara Hartwell vs. CIA.” I have always loved the Catholic Church, but it has taken me 73 years to finally decide to convert. I attend Mass and am now in the process.

Barbara Hartwell Legal Defense & Research Trust Rhinebeck, New York, USA barbarahartwellvscia.blogspot.com

MARCELLUS ROBERTS I had to stop and pay attention to two extremely powerful articles in May-June and July-August by Marcellus Roberts.

What marvelously clear, vivid and moving words he shares with us.

Thank you, Marcellus Allen Roberts, for sharing with us your deep Catholic faith and your ever-fresh learning about the Catholic faith. You are a true blessing to our Church.

And thank you, Robert and ITV staff, for publishing his beautiful thoughts.

Mary Ann Novak mnovak9619@yahoo.com

FROM PRISONERS As a federal inmate, I was lucky enough to receive a kind subscription to ITV from my mother. Unfortunately, she died in January and I do not have the funds to renew my subscription.

Please know that your magazine was read not only by me but by ten other inmates as it was passed around.

My prayer is that God continues to bless your work and that our Blessed Mother watches over you as you put together such a wonderful magazine.

John Lee #07811-015 Federal Correction Inst. LOW P.O. Box 1000 Petersburg, VA 23804-1000 I seek your help. I have been transferred to a medical unit with less than 50 Catholics and no priest.We are lucky to get a deacon once in a while. I request a subscription scholarship to ITV. Jamie Cuellar #2164163 Jester III Unit 3 Jester Rd. Richmond, TX 77406 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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LEAD STORY

pope frAnCis Cries out:

“immediAte CeAsefire on All fronts!”

As the GAzA wAr bleeds into lebAnon, the ChurCh lAbors to stop further esCAlAtion n BY CHRISTOPHER HART-MOYNIHAN The trust between Pope Francis and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa dates back to the beginning of the pontificate. Here, Pizzaballa whispers into the Pope’s ear on May 26, 2014, more than 10 years ago, when Pope Francis visited Israel to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic 1964 encounter in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Athenagoras (Photo Grzegorz Galazka)

“No one wants war but no one can stop it.” hat was how the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, characterized the situation in the Holy Land recently, after nearly a year of war, in an interview with Vatican News, the official Vatican news agency. What started with a series of terrorist attacks carried out against Israel on October 7, 2023, has after 10 months spiraled into a conflict that is on the brink of expanding — some would say, has expanded — to the entire Middle East.

The international community has largely stood by while the terrible bloodshed that broke out on October 7 has continued and grown worse.

Many observers have warned that the conditions are now in place for several possible “worst-case scenarios” to play out, which would embroil the world’s major powers in a new

T

“World War” for the 21st century.

These concerns were accentuated by several recent targeted bombing attacks outside of Israel, in Lebanon and in Iran, for which Iran and Hezbollah have vowed to retaliate. As of this writing, a definitive retaliation has not yet occurred.

Of course, as many analysts have observed, the roots of Israel’s current war with Hamas and the increasingly intensifying dispute with Hezbollah and Iran date back decades, making the current iteration of the conflict exponentially more difficult to resolve. Nonetheless, in recent weeks, various voices in the Vatican have continued to work through diplomatic channels in attempts to prevent the conflict from escalating further.

The task of Cardinal Pizzaballa is made even more difficult by the fact that Christians on all sides of the con-

12 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

flict have experienced, and continue to experience, suffering and loss. In the first week of August, Israel’s northern neighbor Lebanon, which is both the seat of Hezbollah’s operations as well as the home of several sizable Christian communities — including Orthodox, and Maronite, Syriac and Melkite Catholics — saw panicked crowds pack into Beirut’s Rafic Hariri international airport as people desperately tried to leave the country before the outbreak of further hostilities.

The panic in Lebanon was brought on by the targeted killings of a Hezbollah leader in Beirut and a Hamas leader in Tehran.

Airstrikes by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed Fuad Shukr, the Hezbollah commander, on July 30 in Beirut (upper left), and Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas’ political arm (here), in Tehran on July 31.

The cover of Dr. Robert Moynihan's interview with Habib Malik, Professor of History at the Lebanese American University, on the Urbi et Orbi Communications podcast in late June

In response, Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah, stated, “After the assassination of Haniyeh, Iran finds itself obliged to respond.

After the assassination of Fuad [Shukr], Hezbollah finds itself obliged to respond.”

As of this writing, nearing the middle of August, a military response by Iran and/or Hezbollah, of the type that would definitively usher in a wider war, has not yet occurred. However, multiple signs seem to indicate that such a response is imminent. In recent days, Russian military officials have visited Iran and the United States navy has begun to position warships off the coast of Israel and in the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf, to the south of Iran. An escalated conflict could quickly entangle the two superpowers, who are already fighting a shadow war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department issued an updated travel advisory for Lebanon on July 31, advising all Americans, “Do Not Travel to Lebanon due to rising tensions between Hizballah [Hezbollah] and Israel. If you are in Lebanon, be prepared to shelter in place should the situation deteriorate.”

At his August 7 General Audience, Pope Francis once again called for de-escalation. “I pray that the sincere search for peace will extinguish strife, love will overcome hatred, and revenge will be disarmed by forgiveness,” Francis said, reiterating his long-standing appeal for an end to the violence. He added, “I reiterate my appeal to all parties involved to ensure that the conflict does not spread and to immediately cease fire on all fronts, starting from Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely serious and unsustainable.”

In his interview with Vatican News at the end of June, Pizzaballa alluded to the increasing risk of a wider war, stating, “The internal debate exists in Israel and also in Lebanon: no one wants war but it seems that no one can

stop it, and this is the problem. Of course, if the northern front were to open, it would certainly be a tragedy, especially for Lebanon, which risks becoming another Gaza, at least in the southern part. I am not an expert in military matters, but the landscape remains very tense, always on the verge of further escalation.” Discussing the impact of the war specifically on the Christian community, he added, “Christians are not a separate people, they live what everyone else lives. We know the situation in Gaza, unfortunately, but it is also very problematic in the West Bank, especially from an economic point of view. There is a situation of paralysis, work is scarce or

non-existent, and this makes the prospects of emigration increasingly attractive, unfortunately especially for Christians.”

Amidst the chaos and uncertainty, one thing is abundantly clear: this war, thus far, is a human tragedy on a massive scale. While the eyes of the world shift towards Iran and Lebanon, ten months of Israeli efforts to eliminate Hamas have led to at least 39,965 dead and 92,294 wounded, according to U.N. estimates as of August 13. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, and more than 200 were taken captive. In addition, there now exists “a full-blown famine” in the north of Gaza (according to Cindy McCain, director of the World Food Programme), while Hamas continues to be operational. In the months since the October 7 attacks, millions more have been left without water, electricity, and food.

During a lecture he gave to the College of Europe in Natolin (located near Warsaw, Poland) in mid-May, Pizzaballa made several interesting observations about the nature of the conflict, and how it affects his leadership and actions as Patriarch. “The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem… has jurisdiction over Israel and Palestine, the two conflicting parties. I have Catholics who are Israelis, Catholics who are Palestinians. Some Palestinian Catholics are under the bombs and others are serving in the Army, bombing. And this brings tensions also within our church community.”

While the war in Gaza seems to have no end in sight, the probability of war in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah seems to be growing daily. In an interview with Urbi et Orbi Communications podcast in late June with Dr. Robert Moynihan, editor of Inside the Vatican, and myself — before the twin assassinations had further ratcheted up tensions between Israel, Hezbollah, and Iran — Habib Malik, a Professor of History at the Lebanese American University and the son of former U.N. General Assembly President Charles Malik, summarized the situation on the ground in Lebanon and the wider Middle East as follows: “It’s peaceful on the surface in Beirut, but there’s a lot of rising anxiety about this war in the South — which has been imposed on Lebanon

by Hezbollah — spreading northwards and igniting a far larger conflagration both in Lebanon and the region. I can tell you that the majority of Lebanese are against this war, and Hezbollah took the decision to go to war unilaterally, in the service of Iranian policy.

The majority of Christians, the majority of Sunni Muslims, the majority of Druze — these are the main communities in the country — and a good portion of Shiites, who cannot easily speak their mind — many of whom have had their homes destroyed in the

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 13

LEAD STORY Vatican issues new rules for judging apparitions villages on the border [with Israel] — are against this war. And no one consulted the Lebanese people. No one went to Parliament. Hezbollah just basically took the decision, under orders from Tehran, to plunge Lebanon into war. Malik continued, “The entire region is totally shaken up and imperiled by brazen Iranian imperial expansionism. Iran, in one form or another, controls four Arab capitals in the region: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. All of the armed groups there are beholden to Iran and ideologically in the same camp as the the leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, who has [an] apocalyptic view that the entire region needs to be changed, moderate Sunni countries that are friendly to the West need to be weakened, and Israel needs to be eliminated out of existence. And the most hypocritical part of all of this is that the Palestinian issue is being used as a convenient tool by the Iranian regime to spread terror and imperial domination by Iran, and to practice piracy on the high seas, as we’ve been seeing over the last several months in the Red Sea.” Prof. Malik’s comments highlight the strange nature of the conflict as it is being experienced by the Lebanese people: Hezbollah, which is essentially a “state-within-a state,” controls most of the southern half of Lebanon and exchanges rocket fire with the IDF on a regular basis. Meanwhile, Hezbollah also wields a great deal of political power in the Lebanese Parliament, which allows it to continue its military operations against Israel, with the tacit support — or, at least, lack of opposition — of Lebanon’s ruling coalition government. Nevertheless, the majority of Lebanese living in the capital, Beirut, as well as in the central and northern parts of the country — which are not under Hezbollah control — do not, as Malik says, identify strongly or at all with the paramilitary group’s guiding philosophy of permanent “resistance” to Israel, and many oppose it. In other words, the mostly Shiite Muslim pop-

CARD. PIZZABALLA: “ALL THAT REMAINS IS TO PRAY”

Dear brothers and sisters, May the Lord grant you peace!

Many months have now passed since the beginning of this terrible war. The suffering caused by this conflict and the dismay at what is happening are not only unabated, but seem to be fueled again and again by hatred, resentment and contempt, which only intensify the violence and push away the possibility of finding solutions.

Indeed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to envision a conclusion to this conflict, whose impact on the lives of our people is greater and more painful than ever before. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find people and institutions with whom a dialog about the future and peaceful relations is possible. We all seem to be crushed by this present, which is characterized by so much violence and, admittedly, anger.

However, these days seem to be important to be able to turn the tide of the conflict, and among them especially August 15, which for us is the day of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven.

On this day, before or after the

ulation of the Hezbollah-controlled southern part of Lebanon is largely (though with some exceptions) both strongly supportive of, and already deeply involved in, a cross-border conflict with the IDF, while the Maronite Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, and Sunni Muslim population living in the rest of the country is largely anti-war and is not yet experiencing a direct effect of the conflict in their daily lives — though this could change at any moment.

While voices such as Malik have continued to emphasize the role and

14 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

celebration of the Eucharist or at another suitable time, I invite everyone to a moment of intercession for peace to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I hope that the parishes, the contemplative and apostolic religious communities and even the few pilgrims who are among us will unite in the common desire for peace that we entrust to the Blessed Virgin.

After having spent so many words and after having done what we can to help and be close to everyone, especially those who are most affected, all that remains is for us to pray. In view of the many words of hatred that are all too often spoken, we would like to offer our prayer, which consists of words of reconciliation and peace.

Enclosed you will find a prayer to Our Lady of the Assumption that you can say on the day of this Solemnity.

Let us pray that in this long night that we are living through, the intercession of the most holy Mary will open a glimpse of light for all of us and for the whole world.

Wishing you all the best in Christ, +Pierbattista Card. Pizzaballa Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins

responsibility of Hezbollah and Iran in ratcheting up tensions to the current fever pitch, the Vatican’s most senior representatives have kept trying to find a middle ground and space for peace talks. The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, visited Lebanon June 23-27 and strongly urged all parties involved to seek peaceful solutions for the end of the conflict.

The Holy See “asks for peace proposals to be welcomed, so that fighting stops on each side, so hostages in Gaza are released, so that the neces-

Here, Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin during a June visit to Beirut, Lebanon, two months ago (June 26, 2024). Below, a map of the Gaza Natural Gas field adjacent to the Gaza Strip Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), as allocated by Israeli authorities (Source: Christian Fleury, 2021)

sary aid arrives unhindered to the Palestinian population,” Parolin said.

He added, “Lebanon, the Middle East, the whole world certainly doesn’t need war.”

The Vatican has supported a two-state solution for the Holy Land since the establishment of Israel and the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948. In 2015, the Vatican signed the Comprehensive Agreement with the State of Palestine, which officially recognized Palestine as an independent state, within the pre-1967 borders, and resulted in the opening of a Palestinian Embassy to the Holy See. Pope Francis has explicitly renewed the appeal for a two-state solution in several public statements since the outbreak of hostilities last year. On June 7, Francis gathered Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See Raphael Schutz and Palestinian Ambassador Issa Kassissieh, as well as representatives of Italy’s Jewish and Muslim communities, at an intimate prayer meeting in the Vatican Gardens. The Pope stated that he hoped the meeting would mark the beginning of a “new journey” towards peace, and he highlighted the growing number of children who had lost their lives in the conflict.

Despite these concerted efforts, Pizzaballa and the Vatican found themselves in the midst of diplomatic controversy once again after the Justice and Peace Commission of the Holy Land, which is headed by Pizzaballa, criticized the widespread characterization of the IDF’s operations in Gaza as a “just war.” The Commission, sponsored by the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, consists of representatives from the Latin, Greek Melkite, Maronite, Armenian, Syriac and Chaldean Catholic leadership of Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Cyprus.

According to a report released by the Commission on June 30, “neither the attacks by Hamas on October 7 nor Israel’s devastating war in response sat-

isfy the criteria for ‘just war’ according to Catholic doctrine…

“Most importantly, just wars must clearly differentiate between civilians and combatants, a principle that has been ignored in this war by both sides with tragic results.

“Just wars must also employ a proportionate use of force, which cannot easily be said of a war in which the Palestinian death toll is tens of thousands of people higher than that of Israel, and one in which a clear majority

of the Palestinian casualties have been women and children.”

The Commission continued: “This theory is being used in a way in which it was never intended: to justify the death of tens of thousands, our friends and our neighbors… We cannot allow words like ‘just’ to be mobilized to justify what is unjust, cruel and devastating. We must argue for the integrity of language, because we remain convinced that true justice is still possible if we can hold fast to its promise.

When words are perverted, language itself becomes incapable of plotting

out a future that is free from the scourges of the present.”

Meanwhile, efforts to start talks in Cairo or Qatar in midAugust were derailed by the August 10 bombing of the alTabin school in Gaza by the IDF (Israel Defense Force), which killed 100 people and was condemned by Qatar and Egypt — countries which, alongside the U.S., have been seeking to organize the talks for months. The IDF claimed the school was a “command and control centre” that “served as a hideout for Hamas terrorists and commanders.”

In a statement released on the same day, Pizzaballa stated, “It is becoming increasingly difficult to envision a conclusion to this conflict.”

One final observation: development of the Karish North (natural gas) field, about sixty miles off the coast of northern Israel, has been completed and oil and gas production has been in operation since February 22.

The Levant Basin, located in the eastern Mediterranean, is estimated to contain roughly 1.7 billion barrels of oil — and the question of who owns the rights to the reserves, which have been contested by Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine over the past several decades, adds yet another layer of complexity to the ongoing conflict.

On July 30, the day of the killing of Fuad Shukr in Beirut, I exchanged text messages with a friend, a young Maronite Christian, living in the western (majority-Shiite Muslim) part of the city, who until recently had been working as a tour guide.

“It’s becoming worse,” he told me.

“I hope I can leave Lebanon soon.”

The bombing had occurred in Dahieh, near his family’s home.

“We wish it would stop,” he told me. “But now it gets worse and affects our work and everything,” he continued.

“Every time we start to recover and build, something bad happens.”m

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 15

NEWS

J.d. Vance and The social Teaching of The church Trump’s Vice-presidenTial pick is a caTholic of a differenT sTripe Than Joe Biden US senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance, author of the best-selling 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.

Opposite page, Darrick Taylor, Ph.D., the author of this article. He teaches history at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida, and writes for a number of Catholic magazines

n BY DARRICK TAYLOR

F

ormer President Donald Trump, shortly after surviving a July 13 assassination attempt, selected J.D. Vance, a senator from Ohio, to be his Vice-Presidential candidate in his 2024 run for the Presidency. Vance is a first-term senator famous for his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, about growing up in a poor white family in Kentucky, published at the time of Trump’s election in 2016.

Vance, a Catholic convert, was baptized into the Church in 2019. He has stated publicly that he is influenced by Catholic Social Teaching, calling it in a 2021 interview “one of the things that drew me to the Catholic Church.”

Catholics, whatever their political stance, should know something about this potential future Vice-President.

The first thing to know about Vance is that he has ties to several figures on the “New Right” or the “Postliberal Right.” These “postliberal” thinkers have gained notoriety for their espousal of a politics that uses state power to further what they consider the common good. Many are Catholic, such as the Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen and journalist Sohrab Amari, another convert to Catholicism.

Vance has also mentioned the French Catholic thinker René Girard (1923-2015) as an influence. Girard is famous for his theory of “the Scapegoat” — that all societies begin with the scapegoating of victims. He was a lapsed Catholic who returned to Catholicism later in life.

Vance is also friends with the journalist and Catholic-turned-Orthodox journalist Rod Dreher, who attended his baptism.

Vance is also connected to figures on the secular wing of the “New Right.” He worked for billionaire Peter Thiel, and Thiel backed his 2022 Senate campaign financially.

Vance shares Thiel’s convictions about the fecklessness of liberal elites and remains close with him.

Another influence is Curtis Yarvin, a former computer programmer turned blogger whose ideas about political power are popular on the New Right. Vance has spoken at gatherings of organizations like the Claremont Institute in California, an organization inspired by the thought of philosopher Leo Strauss, and National Conservatism, an outfit founded by the Israeli scholar Yoram Hazony. Both support a “nationalist” brand of conservatism favoring the use of state power to protect or promote national interests and national culture.

16 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING All that said, there are several issues Vance promotes that relate more directly to Catholic Social Teaching. The plight of workers is one. Vance has argued for tariffs on foreign imports and lowering immigration as a means of stimulating wages for workers.

Vance has sponsored 36 bills so far in Congress, none of which have passed into law as yet. One of them is a bill (co-sponsored with Democrats) which bans the sale of products with lethal levels of sodium nitrate, a drug used to commit suicide. He also has sponsored several “culture war” bills, such as one that would eliminate DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs from the federal government.

More controversially, Vance has backed Trump’s vow to close the border and deport illegal immigrants. Vance promotes this as a way of raising wages for native workers. This policy is not popular with the Catholic left, and Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti decried what he called “narrow forms of nationalism” and opposition to immigrants (§141). Francis has repeatedly condemned the type of populism Vance appears to espouse, but both he and his predecessors have also stated that nations have a right to control their borders.

Some describe Vance as an “economic populist” though he said he is not against raising taxes. He has also sponsored bills which would limit the compensation of bank

executives when their banks fail and have the federal government backstop community and regional banks. Old comments of his have surfaced recently in which he expressed support for tax policies that favor families but disfavor “childless cat ladies,” as he called them.

While not the most diplomatic way to put it, this kind of policy is already a reality (in the form of child tax credits) and conforms to Catholic Social Teaching, as Popes since Leo XIII have encouraged the state to enact policies supporting families.

Perhaps the most controversial stands Vance has taken are those regarding abortion.

Trump gutted the Republican party platform, removing the plank that calls for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning abortion. Moreover, Vance responded to a reporter’s question about the abortion-pill drug mifepristone by saying it should be legal. Several prolife and Catholic commentators have criticized both Vance and Trump on this issue, urging Vance and Trump to restore the plank and commit to banning the pill.

Finally, as regards international order, Vance has been one of the strongest critics of the United States’ support for Ukraine’s war with Russia. He has criticized the amount of aid given to Ukraine as well as the war itself, which he regards as irrelevant to American interests, and supports a negotiated settlement to end the conflict. Like most Republicans, he is a staunch supporter of Israel (one representative at the Republican convention said in an interview that “America First is pro-Israel”). Vance supports Israel in its war with Hamas and has consistently defended its wartime policies in the Senate.

In sum, Vance is articulate, highly connected in non-traditional conservative circles, and possesses clearly-defined ideas about politics.

A MARKED DEPARTURE How then do his views actually square with Catholic Social Teaching?

One should remember that the Church proclaims principles that must be satisfied to make a just social order, but does not enjoin particular political programs to enact them. As John Paul II stated in Centesimus Annus, the Church “respects the legit-

“HOW DO VANCE’S VIEWS ACTUALLY SQUARE WITH

CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING?” imate autonomy of the democratic order” and does not insist on “this or that institutional or constitutional solution.” (§47) Ideally, the state should govern according to natural and divine law, but there will not always be agreement about how to do that or what that entails.

Vance himself represents a marked departure from the recent past both of Republican Party politics but also of many Catholics on how they have approached questions of social order, at least in America. Many orthodox American Catholics have adhered to a “limited government” philosophy since the 1980s, in line with Republican Party ideals, but a Vance-led party would likely change all that.

Catholic religious liberty advocates such as Andrea Piccotti-Beyer are critical of Catholic postliberals for their willingness to pursue “power politics,” for example. And, of course, the current pontiff and his allies dislike intensely his brand of

nationalist populism (when the Vatican issued a statement on the attempted assassination of Trump it did not even name the former president, so strong, apparently, is the Vatican’s dislike for him).

But Vance’s recent statements on abortion have drawn the most criticism from Catholic pro-life activists.

John Paul II said of laws attacking human life that Catholics could neither promote nor obey such laws.

(Evangelium Vitae, §73) Vance has not supported any such laws, but has refused to commit to passing a particular law against abortion.

This doesn’t satisfy Catholic critics like the philosopher Edward Feser, who has grilled Vance over this issue on X/Twitter. Pro-life activists, Catholic and not, have sacrificed a great deal in their campaign to end abortion, including spending time in prison for it, and Vance’s approach is not likely to win them over.

From my perspective, nothing Vance has proposed necessarily violates the principles of Catholic social teaching but there are some points of tension, and the strategy he is utilizing in pursuit of some of his goals appears questionable.

Nonetheless, if his interest in improving the lot of workers is genuine, it would make him the kind of politician that has not been seen on the American right in some time — perhaps ever.

His construal of Catholic Social Teaching is in marked contrast to that of the Democratic party, which has become the party of big business and the sexual revolution. (There is a reason why, as the liberal Catholic journal La Croix has noted, Vance is popular among younger clergy in the U.S., who are both theologically and politically more conservative than older priests.)

Should Trump win, Vance will automatically become the most important Catholic politician in America. And so, for better or worse, his career is one Catholics, in particular, must reckon with.m

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 17

NEWS

russian orThodox hilarion suspended pending invesTigaTion The former #2 in The russian ChurCh, exiled for noT supporTing The ukraine war, now faCes new aCCusaTions n BY PETER AnDERSOn

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he Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Moscow Patriarchate announced an important decision July 25: to remove Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Budapest and Hungary (photo) temporarily from administration of his diocese and to relieve him of other positions that he holds.

Metropolitan Hilarion, 58, is a noted theologian, Church historian and composer, and has published books on dogmatic theology, patristics and Church history as well as numerous musical compositions for choir and orchestra.

From 2009 to 2022 he was the titular metropolitan of Volokolamsk, Russia, and Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (a position often seen as a precursor to the office of Patriarch) and also a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was also rector of the Church-wide postgraduate and doctoral studies institute named after Saints Cyril and Methodius Equal to the Apostles.

In June 2022, Hilarion was removed from his position as president of the Department of External Church Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow and dismissed as Metropolitan of Volokolamsk; he was appointed to the Metropolis of Budapest-Hungary.

The reason given to Metropolitan Hilarion for his “demotion” at that time was that it was “required by the current socio-political situation,” and the only likely “situation” relates to events in Ukraine. As many have

Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest and Hungary from the administration of the Budapest-Hungarian Diocese.

3. The temporary administration of the Budapest-Hungarian Diocese shall be entrusted to the Patriarchal Exarch of Western Europe, Metropolitan nestor of Korsun and Western Europe.

4. To relieve Metropolitan Hilarion of his posts as Chairman of the Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission and as Chairman of the Inter-Council Presence Commission on Theology and Theological Education and to appoint His Grace Bishop Methodius of Yegoryevsk as acting chairman of both commissions, including him in the Inter-Council Presence.

observed, Metropolitan Hilarion has been very quiet with respect to Ukraine and has in no way endorsed the war there. The sudden and surprising nature of the decision to demote him supports the theory that the decision was dictated by an authority outside the Moscow Patriarchate.

A Google translation of the complete text of the relevant entry in the July 25 meeting record is as follows: HAD A JUDGMEnT on the state of affairs in the Budapest-Hungarian Diocese.

RESOLVED: 1. To form a Commission to study the situation in the Budapest-Hungarian Diocese.

2. For the duration of the work of said Commission, temporarily remove

18 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

So Metropolitan Hilarion is “temporarily” removed from the administration of the Budapest diocese pending completion of the work of a commission that will study the situation in the diocese. However, in paragraph 4 — which provides that Metropolitan Hilarion is relieved of his posts as Chairman of the Synodal Biblical-Theological Commission and as Chairman of the Inter-Council Presence Commission on Theology and Theological Education — the word “temporarily” is not used. Surprisingly, the “acting chairman” of both commissions will be Bishop Methodius of Yegoryevsk, who had only been a bishop for nine days when the announcement was made.

ALLEGATIOnS Although the decision gives no information on the “situation in the

Archpriest Nikolai Kim (in the central photo), press secretary of the Budapest and Hungarian Diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate, speaks on the . accusations against Metroplitan Hilarion made by Subdeacon Georgy Suzuki (in the small photo), accusations Hilarion has denied

PRESS SECRETARY KIM ON THE CHARGES MADE BY SUBDEACON SUZUKI

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he Budapest and Hungarian Diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate rejects the accusations of sexual harassment publicly made against Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev)

by Subdeacon Georgy Suzuki (small photo), Archpriest Nikolai Kim, press secretary of the diocese, told TASS. He said that 21-year-old Suzuki, who comes from a Russian-Japanese family and served in the Budapest diocese, stole a large sum of money and valuables from a church apartment in January 2024 and fled to Japan.

A criminal case has been opened against him in Hungary, and he himself has been put on the international wanted list. After that, Suzuki accused Metropolitan Hilarion of Budapest and Hungary of sexual harassment and tried to blackmail him by posting conversations recorded by a hidden device online, which in itself is illegal. Suzuki’s mother, threatening the metropolitan, tried to sell him these recordings for €384,000 and demanded that the money be transferred to her account, Kim said.

The press secretary called the sexual harassment allegations “incoherent and unconvincing,” and also drew

Budapest-Hungarian Diocese,” it is assumed by most that it relates to allegations made against Metropolitan Hilarion by Georgy Suzuki, a 21year-old subdeacon who is from Japan and who lived with Metropolitan Hilarion as a “cell-mate.”

On July 4, Novaya Gazeta Europe posted a long investigative article based on certain allegations made by Suzuki. Novaya Gazeta was a Moscow newspaper known for its independence. Its editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov received the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

After the invasion of Ukraine, the newspaper received several warnings from the Russian government concerning its coverage of Ukraine. As a result, the newspaper suspended its Moscow operations and began a new publication, Novaya Gazeta Europe, headquartered in Riga (Latvia). The publication has since been blocked in Russia and designated an “undesirable organization.”

The claims made by Suzuki include Suzuki being required to sleep in the same bed as Hilarion and skin-to-skin contact (but not sex acts) between the

attention to the fact that Suzuki “had homosexual tendencies, was registered on gay dating sites and visited child pornography sites, which he himself admitted to.”

The press secretary believes that the timing of the first publication with Suzuki’s accusations shows its “clearly commissioned nature.”

“It is given away by the precise timing of the peacekeeping visit of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Moscow.

“The commissioned political nature is also indicated by the fact that almost immediately a translation of this rather long and specific text into Hungarian appeared and it was published in opposition Hungarian media.

“That is, the material was ready and those who published it were just waiting for the right moment so that it would not be released in vain, but would come at a time when it was necessary to hit Russian-Hungarian relations harder,” Kim said.

According to him, clergy and parishioners in the diocese “express deep indignation at the dirty, slanderous campaign launched against him (Hilarion) by some antiRussian media.”n

two. Suzuki also attacked the Metropolitan’s alleged high style of living.

Suzuki provided the newspaper with voice recordings and photos that Suzuki had supposedly secretly taken.

The newspaper acknowledged that Suzuki “took an expensive watch and money totaling 30 thousand euros from Hilarion’s house” when Suzuki returned to Japan. Metropolitan Hilarion filed criminal charges for theft against Suzuki after this occurred.

HILARIOn DEFEnDS HIMSELF Metropolitan Hilarion has launched his own counterattack against the story, reflected in his statement made to RIA Novosti on July 9, in which he says, “An investigation is being conducted against Georgy Suzuki not only for the theft, but also in connection with the use of a forged document, unauthorized access to personal data, illegal distribution of personal data, and storage of child pornography. An investigation is being conducted against his mother for extortion.”

Archpriest Nikolai Kim, press secretary of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Budapest diocese, stated in

an interview with TASS (text above) that Suzuki’s mother tried to sell the Metropolitan these (secret) recordings for €384,000 and demanded that the money be transferred to her account.

Metropolitan Hilarion has denied many of the allegations made by Suzuki.

Archpriest Kim supported Metropolitan Hilarion in the TASS interview, stating, “The accusations of sexual harassment made by Suzuki are so incoherent and unconvincing that it is difficult to believe them.”

The press secretary added that “the thief did not go to court, where the principle of presumption of innocence applies, but to the press, where the opposite principle applies: if they accuse, then you are guilty.”

The clergy of the Budapest diocese have also posted a statement supportive of Metropolitan Hilarion.

Hilarion’s friend, journalist and Orthodox convert Rod Dreher, commented that although he does not know the truth or falsity of the accusation, “I have never seen or heard of the slightest hint of sexual impropriety attached to [Hilarion].”m

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 19

NEWS

hOw the new arChbiShOp Of bOStOn waS ChOSen Cardinal Sean O’Malley’S replaCeMent waS the ObjeCt Of diSCuSSiOn, lObbying, rejeCtiOn… and, finally, COMprOMiSe n BY ITV STAFF

Cardinal Sean O’Malley and, in the circle, Bishop Robert Henning of Providence, his successor as archbishop of Boston

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ope Francis accepted in August the resignation of Cardinal Sean O’Malley, 80, archbishop of Boston, Massachusetts, a key member of Pope Francis’ “Council of Nine” — his hand-picked group of advisors — and the highly visible president of the Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2014.

O’Malley had exceeded the normal retirement age by five years — not unusual for prelates who are in Francis’ closest circles.

But what made even bigger news, in a sense, was the appointment of his successor: a bishop who had headed a smaller diocese for only a year, Bishop Richard Henning, bishop of Providence, Rhode Island.

After several more prominent names had been bandied about in the past five years — Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego was, according to reports, a prime candidate — the announcement of Bishop Henning came as something of a surprise.

It appears that the ultimate choice of Bishop Henning as a replacement had much to do with Cardinal O’Malley himself.

As reported by The Pillar, “Several sources close to O’Malley have told The Pillar that the cardinal himself was in no hurry to retire and that he himself pushed back against different moves to appoint a successor — a stance which both delayed and influenced conversations over who would eventually follow him.”

At one point a couple of years ago, there had been a push, according to the report, for San Diego’s Cardinal McElroy to replace O’Malley, led by Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich. Although Cupich has an influential position as a

member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S. Cardinal Christophe Pierre was “very cool” to the possibly polarizing nature of the suggestion.

In fact, both Cupich and former Archbishop of Washington, D.C. Cardinal Donald Wuerl flew to Rome to lobby for McElroy, but the Pope “became very annoyed, I think. It was too much, he felt pressured and didn’t want to hear about it,” said one Vatican official.

Cardinal O’Malley himself was reportedly unhappy about his brother bishops trying to choose a successor without him. “[Cardinal O’Malley] works very closely with the Pope on many issues, in the [C-9] council and the commission [for the protection of minors]. He and the Pope have a relationship going back many years,” the official said. “It’s one thing to ask for a particular appointment without the support of the nuncio, but it’s another to ask the Pope to replace a collaborator against his own wishes.”

20 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

Instead, O’Malley initially considered auxiliary bishop and Vicar General in the Boston archdiocese Mark O’Connell. “I think there was a moment where it [choosing O’Connell] was possible, after the Pope ruled out McElroy,” the official said, but added that O’Malley “did not seem to favor beginning with [O’Connell] as a coadjutor, and the conversation began all over again.”

With his 80th birthday coming closer every day, O’Malley’s favor finally came to rest on Bishop Robert Henning of Providence. Despite Henning’s brief experience running his own diocese, “Henning’s own reputation as a pastorally-minded and evangelizing bishop, well-liked by all sides,” according to the Vatican official, solidified him as a unifying choice, acceptable to everyone.

The choice of Cardinal O’Malley’s replacement came as surprising news, with nobody more surprised than Bishop Henning himself, who said at an inaugural press conference August 5, “I was deeply shocked and surprised by this call.”

“But I know the goodness of God suffices in all things. I will trust in Him.” Henning described his “first job” in his new post as “just to be a listener and begin to understand.”

“Maybe some of you were as surprised by this appointment as I was, but maybe the first thing is simply to say that I am a sinner in need of grace and that I place my faith, my trust, my hope in the Lord Jesus, who was Bread for the world and the King of love,” Bishop Henning said.m

NEWS

pontificAl AcAdemy: rethinking trAditionAl bAn on withholding food And wAter A new VAticAn document suggests they mAy now be considered “AggressiVe therApy” n BY ITV STAFF “Small Lexicon on End of Life” the new booklet released by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life

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new booklet was released August 8 by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life (Pontificia Accademia per la Vita, or PAV) which deals with bioethical issues, including food and water for people in a so-called “persistent vegetative state,” and seemingly steps away from the Church’s traditional blanket condemnation of withdrawing such necessities for life.

Titled, “Small Lexicon on End of Life,” it reaffirms the immorality of euthanasia and assisted suicide, but it also shifts toward a new openness to forgoing food and hydration, saying they could in some circumstances be considered “aggressive treatment” rather than basic maintenance.

In section 13 of the work, reference is made to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s recently published Dignitas Infinita, as well as the 2020 letter Samaritanus Bonus, which both emphasized the need to avoid every “aggressive therapy” or disproportionate intervention in the treatment of patients with serious illnesses.

Food and hydration, it proposes, are sometimes prepared for “vegetative” patients in a laboratory and administered through technology, and thus do not amount to “simple care procedures.”

Doctors, the text said, are “required to respect the will of the patient who refuses them with a conscious and informed decision.”

Some argue, said the PAV, that when food and hydration are suspended, death results from starvation and dehydration by caregivers and not from disease.

However, the text says this argument leads to a “reductive way of

interpreting disease, then leads to an equally reductive concept of care, which ends up focusing on individual functions of the organism rather than the overall good of the person.”

Unfortunately, it is not clear how the “good” of an otherwise non-dying person in what has been called a “persistent vegetative state” — “vegetative” being a term originally coined in 1972 with no reference to actual scientific terminology — can be separated from nutrition and hydration.

Indeed, in 2007, the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith held that even in a situation where there is moral certainty — achievable in a small minority of cases — that a patient will never recover, it was not permissible to withdraw food and water, as doing so would effectively kill the person by dehydration and starvation.

According to Dr. Joseph Meaney, writing for the National Catholic Bioethics Center, such moral certainty is hard to come by: “Scientifically

there are three main [types of] clinical cases of living patients with acute brain injuries, known as disorders of consciousness. The comatose patient exhibits a total lack of consciousness and no sleep-wake cycles or opening of the eyes. It usually resolves within weeks in the patient’s death or transitioning to one of the other disorders of consciousness: the so-called “vegetative state,” or unresponsive wakefulness, or the minimally conscious state.

“Those in a minimally conscious state not only have sleep/wake cycles but show signs of awareness such as being responsive to simple commands and being able to smile or cry when given emotional stimuli.

“It is rather common for patients to progress from one state to the next as they recover.

“Unfortunately, as many as 40% of patients are misdiagnosed as being in a ‘vegetative state.’ Among the worst examples is classifying people as suffering from PVS who remain fully conscious but cannot respond because of undiagnosed ‘locked-in syndrome.’ Some have at times helplessly heard doctors and family members discussing at their bedside whether to discontinue feeding or life support.”

The PAV text argues that, in cases where unconscious persons are actively dying, their bodily functions shut down and they become unable to process food and drink — completely different circumstances from a person who is only chronically unconscious — in which case, attempts to feed and hydrate can become an “excessive burden” and even cause “significant physical discomfort” for the dying person and are not morally required.m

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 21

NEWS

rome requires trAditionAl dominicAn order to “hybridize” Novus ordo And tlm n BY ITV STAFF

A group of sisters belonging to the approximately 100-strong, tradition-minded Congregation of the Dominicans of the Holy Spirit, who staff 5 schools in France

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press release was published on the website RorateCaeli.com July 26 that contained some novel news: a small but almost 100-yearold congregation of Dominican nuns in France who, according to their website, “attach a great importance to the dignity, the piety and the beauty of the liturgy celebrated in Latin according to the Roman rite in the Extraordinary Form,” were ordered by the Vatican to change their liturgical practices to include more of the Novus Ordo.

Perhaps the first such religious institute to receive such a directive, the nuns reported that, besides telling them to start using the newer liturgical calendar of 1969: It also asks that in our various houses, Mass be celebrated according to the Novus Ordo one week of the month, with the exception of Sundays, while the Vetus Ordo remains in use for the other three weeks and every Sunday.

It specifies that the Mass readings for each day will be those of the current

Roman lectionary, and that all the prefaces of the Paul VI Missal will be used for Masses according to the Vetus Ordo.

First founded in the late 1930s, the teaching order Dominicans of the Holy Spirit is dedicated to the singing of Gregorian chant, in the Mass and the Divine Office.

Now, acknowledges their press release, the Vatican directives “significantly modify our current practice.”

Besides being now required to celebrate the Novus Ordo on certain days every month, the community must also use “all the prefaces of the Paul VI

Missal… for Masses according to the Vetus Ordo” — a novel grafting of parts of the Novus Ordo onto the TLM. The directive appears as a kind of willy-nilly patch job, tacking pieces of the new onto the old. At least that is the conclusion of Dr. Peter Kwasniewski at Rorate Caeli, who calls it a “hodge-podge rite that has lost its integrity, treated like a toy model whose parts can be switched around at will.”

Demanding this use of Novus Ordo prefaces in the Traditional Latin Masses indicates, he continues, “a profound disregard, even contempt, for the structural principles of the old rite (and, for that matter, of the new rite).”

Indeed, the “hybridization,” as Dr. Kwasniewski calls it, of the TLM with the Novus Ordo could be called an experiment, intended to gradually wean such TLM-oriented religious communities away from their own tradition and “mainstream” them.m

Abuse questions in Another diocese heAded

by FrAncis collAborAtor

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et another of Pope Francis’ trusted Vatican with some in Peru asking exactly how much the collaborators finds himself the subject of cardinal knew about the case, and whether he questions in a sexual abuse cover-up flap — could or should have acted differently.” this time an American named a cardinal by Prevost’s involvement seems to be the Pope Francis just last year. latest in a long line of abuse episodes touchAs The Pillar reported July 31, two ing Pope Francis’ friends and colleagues, a priests have been accused of molesting fact which has not gone unnoticed in the three minors almost a decade ago in the Diopress. cese of Chiclayo, Peru — the diocese headed Italian journalist Marco Tossati noted in at the time by now-Cardinal Robert Prevost, a 2019 article titled, “Pope Francis’ Parade of the American chosen by Pope Francis to head the Embarrassing Friendships,” he said, “Among Dicastery for Bishops in early 2023, and Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, them there are Cardinal Godfried Danmade a cardinal months later. neels, immortalized as the one standing next prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.

Noted the Pillar report, “Given Prevost’s to the pontiff on the loggia on the night of his (Mazur:cbcew.org.uk) role in enforcing Vos estis lux mundi, the election. Danneels covered up a bishop who papal motu proprio on episcopal negligence in abuse had abused his own nephew, and a petition from lay peocases, the situation has attracted international scrutiny, ple had in fact requested that he not participate in the Con22 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

Cardinal Müller rejeCts “finanCial iMproprieties” allegation n BY AC WIMMER (CNA)/ITV STAFF

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ardinal Gerhard Ludwig fundraising,” Müller stated, Müller has vigorously emphasizing that all actions refuted claims of financial were taken with proper overimpropriety during his tenure sight and approval. as Prefect of the Dicastery for In a differently worded the Doctrine of the Faith, disSpanish-language statement, missing new allegations as printed in full by the website “cheap tabloid literature.”

InfoVaticana, Müller said that The former prefect, who “The resurfacing of this story, served from 2012 to 2017, which was already clarified insists that “not a single cent” nine years ago, obviously has was mishandled under his leadno informational purpose, but ership, reported CNA Deutsch, is clearly defamatory.”

CNA’s German-language news Pope Benedict XVI appartner. pointed the German prelate to Cardinal Gerhard Muller (left) speaking with the late Australian Cardinal George Pell, inaugural Prefect of the Secretariat of the Citing anonymous sources lead the Church’s highest docEconomy, in 2014 (CNS photo/Paul Haring) at the Vatican, the Pillar reporttrinal department in 2012. His In response to these allegations, five-year term ended without renewal ed that allegedly large sums of cash were found in the dicastery offices and Müller said: “If people had realized, as in 2017 under Pope Francis — a move that over 200,000 euros intended for Cardinal Pell did, that the dicastery did widely interpreted as a desire for new the dicastery’s bank account were not lose a single cent in the end, they leadership in the Vatican’s doctrinal deposited into Müller’s personal could have spared themselves the office. Müller’s successor, Jesuit Carrehashing of a long-settled matter.” account. dinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, was sucAs to questions about an antique ceeded in 2023 by the personal theoloThe report also claimed these discoveries were made during an investi- conference table he purchased, “As gian and ghostwriter to Pope Francis, gation led by the late Cardinal prefect, I was able to acquire valuable Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernánnew furniture for the dicastery through dez.m George Pell’s economic secretariat.

clave. But Danneels was then invited by the Pope to be part of the Synod on the Family…”

Earlier, in 2018, Pope Francis had defended Chilean Bishop Juan Barros, complicit in the coverup of the notorious Fr. Fernando Karadima’s abuse, along with Cardinal Errazuriz Ossa, who had been one of the Pope’s informal “Council of Nine” advisers.

And on September 24, 2018, LifeSiteNews reported that another illustrious friend of Pope Francis was protected by him from investigation of a credible allegation against his friend, English Cardinal Cormac MurphyO’Connor.

Of course, there is the now-notorious Cardinal — later Mister — Theodore McCarrick, the powerful American prelate and abuser whose history of protection was detailed by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganó.

Another of Francis’ “Council of Nine,” Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga of Honduras, saw his right-hand man, Bishop José Pineda, forced to resign after seminarians accused him of sexually molesting them. Pineda had lived with one of his lovers in Maradiaga’s villa in Tegucigalpa.

In 2022, Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, a longtime associate of Pope Francis, was convicted by an Argentine court of sexually assaulting young men. Zanchetta had resigned from his episcopal post in 2017, after which the Pope created a new position for him in Rome, at the Vatican’s central bank.

Last year, abuse victims in the diocese of La Plata, Argentina, objected when their bishop, Victor Manuel Fernández, was named by Francis to head the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. As reported by America magazine, Fernández had refused to promptly remove Fr. Eduardo Lorenzo, accused of abusing teens, who killed himself prior to his imminent arrest. Fernandez had stood

by Lorenzo and officiated at his funeral.

And this year, the huge scandal of the Vatican’s favored Jesuit artist and personal friend of the Pope, Fr. Marko Rupnik, continues to roil.

One conclusion is that Pope Francis seems unable or unwilling to shun clergymen who belong, if not by participation, then by protection, to an ongoing culture of clerical sexual immorality.m SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 23

LITURGY

a rumor begets a moVement In June, a rumor began cIrculatIng: the VatIcan would moVe to Implement a so-called “fInal solutIon” to end the tlm (tradItIonal latIn mass). as a consequence, a moVement was born n BY ITV STAFF In an “open letter” appearing in the Times of London newspaper on July 2, a number of British Catholics, joined also by non-Catholics, expressed support for the continuing celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass: “The abolition of the Latin mass is a painful and confusing prospect, especially for the growing number of young Catholics whose faith has been nurtured by it”

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t seems to have started with the online journal Rorate Caeli (rorate-caeli.blogspot.com), which reported this on June 17: An attempt is being made to implement, as soon as possible, a Vatican document with a stringent, radical, and final solution banning the Traditional Latin Mass. The same ideologues who imposed Traditionis Custodes and its implementation, and who are still frustrated with its apparently slow results, especially in the United States and France, want to ban it and shut it down everywhere and immediately. They want to do it while Francis is still in power. They want to make it as wide, final, and irreversible as possible.

These rumors come from the most credible sources, in different continents, and we urge you to take them as seriously as possible…

LifeSiteNews.com joined the fray June 18 by adding that its own source gave the ban’s issue date as July 16, the anniversary of the implementation of Traditionis Custodes in 2021.

Traditionis Custodes, of course, is the Pope’s 2021 motu proprio which severely restricted the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass throughout the world.

Francis’ predecessor Pope Benedict XVI had issued a 2007 apostolic letter titled Summorum Pontificum, which acknowledged the right of all priests to say Mass using the 24

INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

Roman Missal of 1962. Pope Francis’s 2021 document abrogated that.

The Catholic news site The Pillar reported further on June 25 that, “According to curial sources in Rome, the rumor of the supposed document seems to have originated with informal claims made by a single official at the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the department led by Cardinal Arthur Roche, which is charged with the implementation of Traditionis Custodes.”

The rumors did not come to pass.

FRAnCIS REFUSES TO SIGn Then, on July 22, Rorate Caeli reported on the rumor again, this time identifying its source as the Argentinian Catholic blog Caminante Wanderer — presumably possessing some credibility given the nationality of the Argentinian Pope — and quoting from it again, as follows: July 16, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the third anniversary of Traditiones custodes, was the date set for the release of a new document from the Holy See putting an end to the traditional Mass, which, it was said, would be reserved exclusively for the so-called “Ecclesia Dei institutes.”

It was, as we called it in this blog, the final solution.

But, perhaps through the intercession of the Blessed Vir-

cultural figures — composers, artists, writers and social gin of Mount Carmel herself, nothing happened. And activists — who signed an “open letter” appearing in the some have begun to comment on what happened in the Times of London newspaper on July 2.

Vatican’s mendacious circles. I offer here the explanations It appealed to Church officials not to abolish the Tradigiven for the facts. tional Latin Mass. “Recently there have been worrying 1. The document in question exists, and has existed reports from Rome that the Latin Mass is to be banished since the end of 2021, with more or fewer details. It was from nearly every Catholic church,” the letter said. “This intended to be signed in February 2022 by Pope Francis is a painful and confusing prospect, especially for the in the form of an apostolic constitution, as we said at the growing number of young Catholics time; but not only did he refuse to do so, whose faith has been nurtured by it.” but he intemperately had the person The signatories, which included who brought him the proposal, Caractress and human rights advocate dinal Arthur Roche, expelled from Bianca Jagger, author Tom Holthe office. land, celebrated composer and 2. [...] Francis has understood impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber, that this document was a mistake that and media executive Sir nicholas brought him more headaches than anyColeridge, described the Latin thing else, and not because he has Among the signers of the British petition: actress and human sympathy for the Traditional Mass rights advocate Bianca Jagger and author Tom Holland. Mass as a “cathedral” of “text and but because it made even more vis- Bottom, among the signers of the North American petition: gesture” that developed over many blogger Andrew Sullivan and Mexican actor and centuries. ible the groups that support it, one-time political candidate Eduardo Verastegui “Not everyone appreciates its which, instead of diminishing, value and that is fine,” the writers said, continue to grow steadily. “but to destroy it seems an unneces3. A dicastery with such a prefect sary and insensitive act in a world has caused a very powerful internal where history can all too easily slip conflict to arise in Divine Worship. away forgotten.” [...]

The writers pointed to a 1971 peti4. The document reached the tion from a similar cross-section of hands of Pope Francis, who studied it prominent Britons that resulted in the but was not convinced…First of all, and “Agatha Christie indult” allowing the extraordinary most importantly, because liturgy is not his war. Tradiform to continue there. tiones custodes caused him too many problems and he “The signatories include Catholics and non-Catholics, does not need new ones, and because (as he always advisbelievers and nonbelievers,” they wrote. “We implore the es those who visit him) he is very careful when it comes to Holy See to reconsider any further restriction of access to making martyrs. A highly restrictive document such as the this magnificent spiritual and cultural heritage.” one presented to him would generate a legion of martyrs among priests and faithful, and that is not something he nORTH AMERICAn PETITIOn would allow himself: he would have no damage control.

A similar appeal was issued July 15 – the day before the 5. On the other hand, requests from many bishops, rumored “final solution” was to take place – by a group of priests, faithful, and personalities of the world reached North American cultural leaders, organized by a former the Pope’s desk begging him not to take such a step. And chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana it seems to have had an effect. [...]

Goia, and signed by blogger Andrew Sullivan, Mexican 6. But the motives of these cardinals and monsignor actor and one-time political candidate Eduardo Veraadvisors were not only those… they consider that the next stegui, theologian Larry Chapp, and a handful of other Pope will necessarily be a moderate; another pontificate cultural and political figures, both Catholics and nonlike that of Francis would put an end to the Church. And, Catholics. for this very reason, they want to prepare the ground on The petition states that for the Vatican to “deprive the which they will land, and they prefer to do so in moderate next generation of artists of this source of mystery, beauty, territory in order to win the favor of the new pontiff in and contemplation of the sacred seems shortsighted. All of advance [...] us, believers and nonbelievers alike, recognize that this ancient liturgy, which inspired the work of Palestrina, SECULAR CULTURAL FIGURES On TWO COnTInEnTS PLEAD FOR THE TLM Bach, and Beethoven and generations of great artists, is a Despite the failure of the rumored document to materimagnificent achievement of civilization and part of the alize, it did spark a worldwide reaction of surprising common cultural heritage of humanity. It is medicine for dimensions from unexpected quarters. the soul, one antidote to the gross materialism of the postAmong them is an impressive roster of the UK’s stellar modern age.”m SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

25

LITURGY A RUmoR beGeTs A movemenT

1971 “AgAthA Christie” Letter: reCoLLeCtions An orgAnizer of the 1971 “AgAthA Christie Letter” reCALLs events LeAding to the “engLish induLt” n BY ALFRED MARnAU

From “The 1971 ‘English’ Indult — a Recollection” (Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, Newsletter of February, 1999)

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owards the end of 1971 two most important, and perhaps contradictory, events happened within very close proximity. The first on 26th November, when The Universe informed its readers on its front page:“As from this Sunday, the first in Advent, it is forbidden to offer Mass in the Tridentine rite anywhere in the world.” [...]

This front page story in The Universe was somewhat contradicted by The Times less than a week later when, on the 2nd December 1971, it informed its readers with the headline, “Pope sanctions traditional Latin Mass in Britain.” It explained that Pope Paul VI had given permission for the traditional form of the Latin Mass,

known as the Tridentine rite, to be used on special occasions in England and Wales with the consent of the local Roman Catholic bishop.

This concession was obtained by Cardinal (John) Heenan, Archbishop of Westminster [...] Cardinal Heenan’s approach to the Pope on this question came after the publication of an open letter, signed by many non-Roman Catholic artists, musicians, and intellectuals, in July. [...]

The disappearance of the [Tridentine] rite, they complained, would impoverish cultural life.

Cardinal Heenan (1905-1975) had, indeed, secured a personal audience with the Pope, who, on the 30th October 1971 had granted the request.

The story goes that Pope Paul VI was reading quietly through the list of signatories and then suddenly said, “Ah, Agatha Christie!” and signed his approval...m

from the 1971 “AgAthA Christie” Letter Excerpt of the 1971 appeal letter, signed by public figures “drawn from every branch of modern culture in Europe and elsewhere”:

I

f some senseless decree were to order the total or partial destruction of basilicas or cathedrals, then obviously it would be the educated — whatever their personal beliefs — who would rise up in horror to oppose such a possibility.

Now the fact is that basilicas and cathedrals were built so as to celebrate a rite which, until a few months ago, constituted a living tradition. We are referring to the Roman Catholic Mass. Yet, according to the latest information in Rome, there is a plan to obliterate that Mass by the end of the current year.

We are not at this moment considering the religious or spiritual experience of millions of individuals.

The rite in question, in its magnificent Latin text, has also inspired a host of priceless achievements in the arts — not only mystical works, but works by poets, philosophers, musicians, architects, painters and sculptors in all countries and epochs. Thus, it belongs to universal culture as well as to Churchmen and formal Christians. In the materialistic and technocratic civilisation that is increasingly threatening the life of mind and spirit in its original creative expression — the word — it seems particularly inhuman to deprive man of word-forms in one 26 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

of their most grandiose manifestations.

The signatories of this appeal, which is entirely ecumenical and non-political, have been drawn from every branch of modern culture in Europe and elsewhere.

They wish to call to the attention of the Holy See, the appalling responsibility it would incur in the history of the human spirit were it to refuse to allow the Traditional Mass to survive, even though this survival took place side by side with other liturgical forms.

Signed: Harold Acton, Vladimir Ashkenazy, John Bayler, Lennox Berkeley, Maurice Bowra, Agatha Christie, Kenneth Clark, Nevill Coghill, Cyril Connolly, Colin Davis, Hugh Delargy, +Robert Exeter, Miles Fitzalan-Howard, Constantine Fitzgibbon, William Glock, Magdalen Goffin, Robert Graves, Graham Greene, Ian Greenless, Joseph Grimond, Harman Grisewood, Colin Hardie, Rupert Hart-Davis, Barbara Hepworth, Auberon Herbert, John Jolliffe, David Jones, Osbert Lancaster, F.R. Leavis, Cecil Day Lewis, Compton Mackenzie, George Malcolm, Max Mallowan, Alfred Marnau, Yehudi Menuhin, Nancy Mitford, Raymond Mortimer, Malcolm Muggeridge, Iris Murdoch, John Murray, Sean O’Faolain, E.J. Oliver, Oxford and Asquith, William Plomer, Kathleen Raine, William Rees-Mogg, Ralph Richardson, +John Ripon, Charles Russell, Rivers Scott, Joan Sutherland, Philip Toynbee, Martin Turnell, Bernard Wall, Patrick Wall, E.I Watkin, R.C. Zaehner.m

itALiAn ArChiteCt oF TradiTionis CusTodes deFines trAdition As “in serviCe to ChAnge”

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rofessor of Sacramental Theology and Philosophy of Religion at the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome (Sant’Anselmo), Andrea Grillo, 63 (photo) is widely considered a leading influence on the Pope’s motu proprio Traditionis Custodes; he has even been called the Pope’s “house liturgist.”

More than a year before the release of the motu proprio, in a 2020 open letter, Professor Grillo (along with some 180 signatories) described the Traditional Latin Mass as “closed in the historical past, inert and crystallized, lifeless and without vigor…there can be no resuscitation for it,” and said, “Continuing to nourish a ‘state of liturgical exception’ — one that was born to unite but does nothing but divide—only [leading] to the shattering, privatization, and distortion of the worship of the Church.”

The Italian website Messainlatino conducted an interview with Professor Grillo in late June, translated into English by veteran Vatican reporter Diane Montagna and excerpted here: Messainlatino: After the Paris-Chartres 2024 pilgrimage (with 18,000 people, average age 25), should the Church now consider pastoral care for the “traditional” charism as well?

Professor Grillo: What are 18,000 people compared to the great multitude of the Catholic Church? Little more than a sect that experiences infidelity as salvation, and is often linked to moral and political positions, and very concerning customs. It isn’t by changing words that things get better. Tradition and traditionalism cannot be equated. Traditionalism is not “one among many movements” (even though it may have characteristics that are partly similar to some of the more fundamentalist movements that were inappropriately favored over the last 40 years), but a form of “denial of the Second Vatican Council” that cannot but be clearly obstructed within the ecclesial experience.

Messainlatino: Is it possible that a ritual form that, for a very, very long time, was the “normative” one of the Catholic Church, can now no longer have a place,

along with so many other rites of the Catholic Church itself ?

Professor Grillo: Here again, the question reveals a rather weighty misunderstanding. On the other hand, I recognize that your question echoes one of the strongest (and least justifiable) motivations that marked the season (of Summorum Pontificum) to which you have become so attached that you have almost made it your banner.

At the heart of that document, in fact, was an argument that went like this: “What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too.” Where does this principle come from? Not from theology, but from nostalgic emotion for the past. Such a principle tends to “fixate the Church” on its past. Not on the “depositum fidei,” but on the vesture it wore in a season, as if it were definitive.

That there have been, throughout history, ritual forms that are recognized in their “otherness” depends on the “specific” tradition of places, or religious orders.

No one could have ever thought that, at the universal level, anyone would be allowed the freedom to remain in one version of the Roman Rite or in the version that has been surpassed by a general reform.

And “the right” cannot use the great Pauline ideas in such a shameless way: the freedom of charisms cannot be thought of as feeding an “anarchy from above,” as the implementation of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum irresponsibly did.

Messainlatino: Do the faithful who prefer the TLM also have the right to criticize the liturgical reform?

Professor Grillo: I don’t reason according to “factions” or “parties.” I only try to read the tradition and discover what we can do and what we are not allowed to do.

Everyone can critique any step of tradition. I am interested in the steps being argued. The arguments of traditionalists are weak because they deny what best describes tradition: namely its service to change.

Andrea Grillo, Professor of Sacramental Theology and Philosophy of Religionm SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 27

DOSSIER

The excommunicaTion of an archbishop is Carlo Maria Viganò a loyal son of The church, or a renegade and schismaTic? n BY ITV STAFF

Documents DECREE OF SUMMONS OF JUNE 11, 2024 Prot. N. 194/2024

H.E. Mons. Carlo Maria VIGANÒ Extrajudicial penal trial Art. 2 SST; can. 1364 CIC

DECREE Considering: • the mandate given in art. 1§ 2SST*; • the superfluous prior investigation (can. 1717 § 1CIC**); • the decision of the Congress of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith of 10 May 2024 concerning the initiation of the extrajudicial penal trial coram this Dicastery; • the Decree of 3 June 2024 which appointed the Judge of the trial, the Assessors, and the Notary, officials of the Dicastery, by the present Decree

I SUMMON H. E. Mons. Carlo Maria Viganò to present himself, along with a valid identification document, on 20 June 2024 at 3:30 p.m., at the Palace of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, 00120 Vatican City, so that the same may take notice of the accusations and evidence concerning the crime of schism of which he has been accused (public statements which result in a denial of the elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church: denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis, rupture of communion with Him, and rejection of the Second Vatican Council).

The accused is advised that he has the faculty to appoint an Advocate/Procurator whom he trusts in order to be defended/represented in the present trial and that, if he does not, one will be appointed for him.

The accused is also advised that in the absence of an appearance or a written defense, which must be forwarded to this Dicastery by 28 June 2024, he will be judged in his absence. It is so noticed.

John .J Kennedy [signature] Mons. John J. KENNEDY Secretary for the Disciplinary Section * Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela, the motu proprio issued by Pope John Paul II concerning more serious delicts in canon law ** Codex Iuris Canonici, the Church’s Code of Canon Law 28 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

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ews of the decree of exViganò began to question communication from not only the wisdom and right the Catholic Church deintentions, but the very legitilivered to Italian Archbishop macy, of some of the figures Carlo Maria Viganò, 83, forand institutions of the modern, mer high-ranking Vatican fi“post-conciliar” Church. A nancial official, nuncio to the late-comer to the Traditional United States, and “whistleLatin Mass movement (he says blower” regarding the scan- Above, left, the Argentine cardinal Victor Fernández, named by that he rediscovered the Mass dalous but protected activities of his childhood only after he Pope Francis (right) on July 1, 2023, to head the Vatican’s of defrocked U.S. Cardinal Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Below, an image of the was driven into hiding followVatican Council (1962-65). Archbishop Viganò’s negative Theodore McCarrick, has cir- Second ing the publication of his inijudgement of the Council was a cause of his excommunication culated around the world tial accusations), the archbishmany times by now. op came to champion the TLM Once a well-respected, quias the only legitimate liturgical etly efficient Vatican bureaurite. crat, he unexpectedly became Eventually he condemned the calm center of a whirling Pope Francis not only for his tempest of accusations of immoves to quash the Traditional proper, and sometimes crimiLatin Mass, but also for other nal, behavior among highcontroversial actions like the ranking prelates. The storm issuance of the theologically was unleashed when Archconfusing motu proprio Fidubishop Viganò released on Aucia Suppicans, which attempts gust 25, 2018, an 11-page letto justify the priestly blessing ter describing a series of warnof same-sex couples. And ings to high-ranking churchalong with questioning the tially, including Inside the Vatican), men about Cardinal Theodore Mc- and giving interviews to a few select very papacy of Francis, he implied Carrick, who had been removed outlets (again, ITV Editor-in-Chief — or said outright — that all the from public ministry by the Holy Robert Moynihan spent many days modern Popes — and the Second See two months prior for sexual with the archbishop, subsequently Vatican Council — were of quesabuse. writing a book based on their dis- tionable legitimacy as well.

McCarrick, the Archbishop cussions titled Finding Viganò, pubThe combative archbishop, who Emeritus of the Diocese of has garnered a small but voWashington, D.C. and a powciferous following, was finalFINDING VIGANÒ erful friend of the Vatican, was IN SEARCH OF THE MAN ly issued an ultimatum in the WHOSE TESTIMONY already disgraced by this time; form of a June 11, 2024 sumSHOOK THE CHURCH but others were implicated by mons from the Vatican’s DiAND THE W ORLD Viganò for their cooperation in castery for the Doctrine of the ignoring or covering up the evFaith, headed by Argentinian Robert Moynihan idence of wrongdoing in variCardinal Victor Fernández. in conversation with ous ways, for remarkably long Essentially, it said: publicly Archbishop Carlo periods of time. repent of your refusal to recMaria Viganò And then something hapognize the authority of the pened: Archbishop Vigano, Pope and of Vatican Council TAN Books, 2020 who had resigned from his poII, or face serious ecclesial sition as the Pope’s dutiful Apostolic lished in 2020 by TAN Books). consequences.

Nuncio to the United States in 2016, Archbishop Viganò failed to reHis statements became more acat the required age of 75, embarked cusatory of not only garden-variety spond. On July 4, the DDF issued a gradually upon a new career: calling administrative corruption, but of a formal Decree of Excommunicaout publicly what he saw as rampant more sinister philosophical-theolog- tion. Below we present a few of the corruption — both in idea and in ical corruption at the highest levels relevant documents and statements deed — suffusing the Church. of the Church, going back decades from both sides of the conflict, some He began issuing statements, car- and perverting the mission of the in excerpted form for brevity, for ried by a few Catholic websites (ini- Church to save souls. your consideration.m SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 29

DOSSIER The excommunicaTion of an archbishop

“I have been summoned to the Palace of the holy offIce” announcement of h.e. msgr. carlo marIa vIganò, archbIshoP 20 June 2024 - Silverii PaPæ et MartyriS, DerMitii O’Hurley, ePiScOPi et Martyri

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he Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has informed me, with a simple email, of the initiation of an extrajudicial penal trial against me, with the accusation of having committed the crime of schism and charging me of having denied the legitimacy of “Pope Francis” of having broken communion “with Him” and of having rejected the Second Vatican Council. I have been summoned to the Palace of the Holy Office on June 20, in person or represented by a canon lawyer. I assume that the sentence has already been prepared, given that it is an extrajudicial process.

I regard the accusations against me as an honor. I believe that the very wording of the charges confirms the theses that I have repeatedly defended in my various addresses. It is no coincidence that the accusation against me concerns the questioning of the legitimacy of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and the rejection of Vatican II: the Council represents the ideological, theological, moral, and liturgical cancer of which the Bergoglian “synodal church” is the necessary metastasis.

It is necessary for the Episcopate, the Clergy and the People of God to seriously ask themselves whether it is consistent with the profession of the Catholic Faith to passively witness the systematic destruction of the Church by its leaders, just as other subversives are destroying civil society. Globalism calls for ethnic substitution: Bergoglio promotes uncontrolled immigration and calls for the

integration of cultures and religions.

Globalism supports LGBTQ+ ideology: Bergoglio authorizes the blessing of same-sex couples and imposes on the faithful the acceptance of homosexualism, while covering up the scandals of his protégés and promoting them to the highest positions of responsibility. Globalism imposes the green agenda: Bergoglio worships the idol of the Pachamama, writes delirious encyclicals about the environment, supports the Agenda 2030, and attacks those who question the theory of man-made global warming.

He goes beyond his role in matters that strictly pertain to science, but always and only in one direction: a direction that is diametrically opposed to what the Church has always taught. He has mandated the use of experimental gene serums, which caused very serious damage, death and sterility, calling them “an act of love,” in exchange for funding from pharmaceutical companies and philanthropic foundations. His total alignment with the Davos religion is scandalous. Wherever governments

30 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

at the service of the World Economic Forum have introduced or extended abortion, promoted vice, legitimized homosexual unions or gender transition, encouraged euthanasia, and tolerated the persecution of Catholics, not a word has been spent in defense of the Faith or Morals that are threatened, or in support of the civil battles of so many Catholics who have been abandoned by the Vatican and the Bishops. Not a word for the persecuted Catholics in China, with the complicity of the Holy See, which considers Beijing’s billions more important than the lives and freedom of thousands of Chinese who are faithful to the Roman Church. In the “synodal church” presided over by Bergoglio, no schism is recognized among the German Episcopate, or among the government-appointed Bishops who have been consecrated in China without the mandate of Rome. Because their action is consistent with the destruction of the Church, and therefore must be concealed, minimized, tolerated, and finally encouraged. In these eleven years of “pontificate” the Catholic Church has been humiliated and discredited above all because of the scandals and corruption of the leaders of the Hierarchy, which have been totally ignored even as the most ruthless Vatican authoritarianism raged against faithful priests and religious, small communities of traditional nuns, and communities tied to the Latin Mass.

This one-sided zeal is reminiscent of Cromwell’s fanaticism, typical of

those who defy Providence in the presumption of knowing that they are finally at the top of the hierarchical pyramid, free to do and undo as they please without anyone objecting to anything. And this work of destruction, this willingness to renounce the salvation of souls in the name of a human peace that denies God is not an invention of Bergoglio, but the main (and unmentionable) purpose of those who used a Council to contradict the Catholic Magisterium and to begin to demolish the Church from within, in small steps, but always in a single direction, always with the indulgent tolerance or culpable inaction — if not the explicit approval — of the Roman authorities. The Catholic Church has been slowly but surely taken over, and Bergoglio has been given the task of making it a philanthropic agency, the “church of humanity, of inclusion, of the environment” at the service of the New World Order. But this is not the Catholic Church: it is her counterfeit.

The resignation of Benedict XVI and the appointment by the St. Gallen Mafia of a successor in line with the diktats of the Agenda 2030 was intended to allow — and has succeeded in allowing — the global coup to take place with the complicity and authoritative support of the Church of Rome. Bergoglio is to the Church what other world leaders are to their nations: traitors, subversives, and final liquidators of traditional society who are certain of impunity.

Bergoglio’s defect of consent (vitium consensus) in accepting his election is based precisely on the evident alienity of his action of government and magisterium with respect to what any Catholic of any age expects from the Vicar of Christ and the Successor of the Prince of the Apostles. Everything that Bergoglio does constitutes an offense and a provocation to the entire Catholic Church, to her Saints of all times, to the Martyrs who were killed in odium Fidei, and to the Popes of all times until the Second Vatican Council.

This is also and principally an offense against the Divine Head of the

Church, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Whose sacred authority Bergoglio claims to exercise for the detriment of the Mystical Body, with an action that is too systematic and coherent to appear to be the fruit of mere incapacity.

In the work of Bergoglio and his circle, the Lord’s warning is put into practice: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the guise of lambs, but who are ravenous wolves

at heart (Mt 7:15).

I am honored not to have — and indeed I do not want — any ecclesial communion with them: theirs is a lobby, which conceals its complicity with the masters of the world in order to deceive many souls and prevent any resistance against the establishment of the Kingdom of the Antichrist.

In the face of the Dicastery’s accusations, I claim, as Successor of the Apostles, to be in full communion with the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, with the Magisterium of the Roman Pontiffs, and with the uninterrupted doctrinal, moral, and liturgical Tradition which they have faithfully preserved.

I repudiate the neomodernist errors inherent in the Second Vatican Council and in the so-called “post-conciliar magisterium,” in particular in matters of collegiality, ecumenism, religious freedom, the secularity of the State, and the liturgy.

I repudiate, reject, and condemn the scandals, errors, and heresies of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who mani-

fests an absolutely tyrannical management of power, exercised against the purpose that legitimizes Authority in the Church: an authority that is vicarious of that of Christ, and as such must obey Him alone. This separation of the Papacy from its legitimizing principle, which is Christ the High Priest, transforms the ministerium into a self-referential tyranny.

No Catholic worthy of the name can be in communion with this “Bergoglian church,” because it acts in clear discontinuity and rupture with all the Popes of history and with the Church of Christ.

Fifty years ago, in that same Palace of the Holy Office, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was summoned and accused of schism for rejecting Vatican II. His defense is mine; his words are mine; and his arguments are mine — arguments before which the Roman authorities could not condemn him for heresy, having to wait instead for him to consecrate bishops so as to have the pretext of declaring him schismatic and then revoking his excommunication when he was already dead.

The scheme repeated even after half a century has demonstrated Archbishop Lefebvre’s prophetic choice.

In these times of apostasy, Catholics will find in Pastors faithful to the mandate received from Our Lord an example and an encouragement to abide in the Truth of Christ.

Depositum custodi [“Guard the deposit (of the faith)”], according to the Apostle’s exhortation: as the time approaches when I will have to give an account to the Son of God of all my actions, I intend to persevere in the bonum certamen and not to fail in the witness of faith which is required of each one who, as Bishop, has been endowed with the fullness of the priesthood and constituted Successor of the Apostles. I invite all Catholics to pray that the Lord will come to the aid of His Church and give courage to those who are persecuted for their Faith. + Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 31

DOSSIER The excommunicaTion of an archbishop

Documents

The Decree of excommunicaTion

DICASTERIUM PRO DOCTRINA FIDEI Prot. No. 194/2024 H.E. Archbishop Carlo Maria VIGANO titular archbishop of Ulpiana Extrajudicial criminal process ex can. 1720 CIC coram Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Can. 1364 CIC, art. 2 SST

CRIMINAL DECREE PREMISE H.E. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò was born in Varese on January 16, 1941, was ordained priest on March 24, 1968 for the Diocese of Pavia and consecrated bishop by Pope St. John Paul II on April 26, 1992. He has held the following positions: Apostolic Nuncio to Nigeria, Delegate for Papal Representations, Secretary General of the Governorate of Vatican City State, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, taking into account the public statements of H.E. Archbishop Viganò, traceable on the web (statements published in writing and video recordings), from which it appears that he rejects submission to the Supreme Pontiff, commu32 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

nion with the members of the Church subject to him, and the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, in a letter dated March 25, 2024, sent to the prelate via e-mail ([the mailing address of] Archbishop Viganò is unknown), invited him to the headquarters of the Dicastery “to explain his positions.”

The Prelate was also informed that “such an interview could also take place with the presence of a person he trusts, should he deem it more appropriate.” The Prelate was also asked to indicate his domicile, to which the original of the letter could be forwarded.

H.E. Archbishop Viganò did not give any reply to the Dicastery.

Subsequently, the Congress of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith of May 10, 2024, having regard to the mandate in art. 1 § 2 SST and considering the prior investigation superfluous (can. 1717 § 1 CIC), decided to initiate an extrajudicial criminal trial against the prelate, celebrated coram the same Dicastery.

By the Decree of June 3, 2024, the trial instructor, assessors and notary public were appointed in accordance with the law.

By the Decree of June 11, H.E. Archbishop Viganò

The Antichrist by Luca Signorelli in the cathedral of Orvieto, Italy

h. can. 1331: “§ 1. The excommunicated person is forbidden: 1º to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Eucharist and the other sacraments; 2º to receive the sacraments; 3º to administer the sacramentals and to celebrate the other ceremonies of liturgical worship; 4º to have any active part in the celebrations enumerated above; 5º to exercise ecclesiastical offices or offices or ministries or functions; 6º to place acts of governance. § 2. If excommunication ferendae sententiae was inflicted or excommunication latae sententiae was declared, the offender: 1º if he wishes to act against the provisions of § 1, nn. 1-4, must be removed or liturgical action must be discontinued, unless a grave cause is opposed; 2º invalidly poses acts of government, which according to § 1, no. 6, are illicit; 3º incurs the prohibition of making use of privileges previously granted to him; 4º does not acquire salaries held in a purely ecclesiastical capacity; 5º is incapable of attaining IN LAW offices, positions, ministries, Code of Canon Law: functions, rights, privileges and a. can. 209 § 1: “The faithful honorific titles.” are bound by the obligation al[Paragraphs i and j citing adways to preserve, even in their ditional canons are omitted here manner of acting, communion for brevity.] with the Church.” k. can. 1364: “§ 1. The aposb. can. 750 § 2: “One must tate, heretic, and schismatic incurs also firmly accept and hold firmexcommunication latae sententily also all and every one of those ae, without prejudice to the provithings which are proposed definsions of can. 194, § 1, no. 2; he itively by the Magisterium of the may also be punished with the Church concerning the doctrine penalties set forth in can. 1336, § of faith and morals, that is, those 2-4. § 2. If prolonged contumacy or things which are required in order to VIGAnÒ: “BERGOGLIO’S the gravity of the scandal, other punkeep holy and faithfully expound the UNINTERRUPTED BEHAVIOR ishments may be added, not excluding same deposit of faith; one is therefore opposed to the doctrine of the BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER HIS dismissal from the clerical state.”; [Paragraphs l, m and n citing addiCatholic Church who rejects the same ELECTION STANDS ALONE AS tional canons are omitted here for propositions to be held definitively.”

EVIDENCE OF HIS INHERENT brevity.] c. can. 751: “There is called heresy, 11. Norms on crimes reserved to the obstinate denial, after having re- INIQUITY. CAN WE THEREFORE BE MORALLY CERTAIN THAT THE the Congregation for the Doctrine of ceived baptism, of some truth which the Faith: TENANT OF SANTA MARTA IS A is to be believed by divine and a. art. 1: “§ 1 The Congregation for catholic faith, or obstinate doubt FALSE PROPHET? MY ANSWER IS: the Doctrine of the Faith, in accorabout it; apostasy, the total repudiaYES.” dance with art. 52 of the Apostolic tion of the Christian faith; schism, the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of com- Constitution Pastor Bonus, judges, pursuant to art. 2 § 2, munion with the members of the Church subject to him.” crimes against the faith, as well as more serious crimes d. can. 1321 § 4: “Post external violation, imputabili- committed against morals or in the celebration of the sacraments and, if necessary, proceeds to declare or imty is presumed unless it appears otherwise.”; [Paragraphs e, f and g, which cite additional canons pose canonical sanctions in accordance with the law, relating to reasons for reduced culpability, are omitted whether common or proper, without prejudice to the competence of the Apostolic Penitentiary and without here for brevity.] was summoned to present himself, with a valid identification document, on June 20, 2024 at 3:30 p.m., at the Palace of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, to take note of the charges and evidence about the crime of schism with which he has been charged. The Prelate was informed that it is his right to appoint a lawyer/prosecutor of his choice to be defended/represented in the present trial and that, failing that, one would be appointed to him ex officio. The accused was also advised that in the absence of an appearance or written defense, which was to be filed in the Dicastery by June 28, 2024, he would be tried in his absence.

Since the accused did not appoint his own lawyer/prosecutor, the Dicastery appointed an ex officio lawyer, a doctor of canon law (Art. 20 § 7 SST).

[Paragraphs 7a, 7b, 8a and 8b are omitted here for brevity.Ed.]

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DOSSIER The excommunicaTion of an archbishop

Documents prejudice to the Agendi ratio in doctrinarum examine. § 2. In the crimes referred to in § 1, subject to the mandate of the Roman Pontiff, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has the right to judge the Cardinal Fathers, Patriarchs, Legates of the Apostolic See, Bishops, as well as other individuals referred to in can. 1405 § 3 of the Code of Canon Law (CIC) and can. 1061 of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (CCEO).” b. art. 2: “§ 1. The crimes against the faith, referred to in art. 1, are heresy, apostasy and schism, in accordance with canons 751 and 1364 CIC and canons 1436 and 1437 CCEO. § 2. In the cases mentioned in § 1 it is the duty of the Ordinary or Hierarch, according to law, to conduct the judicial process in the first instance or extrajudicial by decree, without prejudice to the right of appeal or recourse to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. § 3. In the cases referred to in § 1 it is the responsibility of the Ordinary or the Hierarch, in accordance with the law, to remit to the external forum, respectively, the excommunication latae sententiae or the major excommunication; [Paragraphs c, d, e, f, g and h, which go into greater detail on the norms specified at the beginning of this section, are omitted here for brevity.]

IN FACT Allegations 12. The charges brought against H.E. Archbishop Viganò concern the crime of schism: these are the prelate’s public statements from which it appears that he refuses submission to the Supreme Pontiff or communion with members of the Church subject to him.

Evidence 13. Some statements of the accused confirm his refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff and refusal of communion with the members of the Church subject to him: a. “We must confront a painful and terrible reality: Bergoglio poses himself as hostile to Catholics faithful to the Magisterium that he mocks, condemns and marginalizes and complicit with chỉ openly contradicts what the Church has been teaching immutably for two thousand years. Not only: he wants to lead good Catholics, and with them the few bishops and priests who still profess the Faith in its integrity, to separate themselves from the sect that has infiltrated and invaded the Church, provoking them with shameless arrogance so that they feel scandalized and offended. The inclusiveness that Bergoglio is inspired by in his demolition work is the exact opposite of what Our Lord taught us” (Nov. 9, 2023, https://exsurgedomine.it/ 231109- statement/); b. “In these ten years of ‘pontificate’ we have seen Bergoglio do everything that one would never expect from a Pope, and vice versa everything that a heresiarch 34 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

or an apostate would do. (…)

Bergoglio is heretical and blatantly hostile to the Church of Christ. (…) Having therefore taken note that Bergoglio is heretical (…) we must ask ourselves whether the 2013 election was in any way tainted by a flaw of consensus. (…) I believe instead that the acceptance of the Papacy is vitiated because he considers the Papacy to be something other than what it is, like the spouse who marries in the church excluding the specific purposes of Marriage and thus making the nuptials null and void due to a vice of consent, precisely” (Oct. 1, 2023, https://exsurgedomine.it/230930-CIC-ita/, the video was published under the title “Resist The Bergoglian Fury” with the date of Nov. 17, 2023); c. “Hearing Jorge Mario Bergoglio speak today and comparing his words with those of Pastor angelicus makes us understand the abyss that separates a Pope from his grotesque parody, the chasm that divides the Vicar of Christ from the simia Pontificis. (…) His heterogeneity to the Papacy is now obvious. (…) The intention to harm the Church by acting on behalf of an enemy power is not compatible with the ACCEPTATION assumption of the Papacy, and there is therefore a flaw of consent given by the will confirmed by the words and deeds of these last ten years of wanting to act in fraudem legis, circumventing canon law and dissimulating one’s intentions. (…)

Bergoglio’s uninterrupted behavior before, during and after his election stands alone as evidence of his inherent iniquity. Can we therefore be morally certain that the tenant of Santa Marta is a false prophet? My answer is: Yes. (...)

(Dec. 9, 2023, https://exsurgedomine.it/231209-aspicite- ita/); d. “The delirious Declaration Fiducia supplicans, recently published by the parody of the former Holy Office, renamed Dicastery, opposed to the Petrine Mandate, definitively rips open the blanket of hypocrisy and deception of the Bergoglian Hierarchy, showing these false pastors for what they are: servants of Satan and his zealous allies, beginning with the usurper who sits — abomination of desolation — on the Throne of Peter (…).

What does Bergoglio want to achieve? Nothing good, nothing true, nothing holy. He does not want souls to be saved; he does not proclaim the opportune, importunate Gospel to call souls back to Christ; he does not show them the scourged and bloodied Savior to spur them to change their lives.(Dec. 20, 2023, https://exsurgedomine.it/231220-fiducia-supplicans/); [Paragraphs e, f, g, h and i, furnishing additional examples, are omitted here for brevity.]

14. Some statements by the accused confirm his rejection of the Second Vatican Council and its magisterial authority:

a. “The Council has been used to legitimize, in the silence of Authority, the most aberrant doctrinal deviations, the most daring liturgical innovations and the most unscrupulous abuses. This Council was so exalted that it was referred to as the only legitimate reference for Catholics, clerics and bishops, obscuring and connoting with a sense of contempt the doctrine that the Church had always authoritatively taught, and forbidding the perennial liturgy that for millennia had nourished the faith of an unbroken generation of faithful, martyrs and saints. (...) (June 9, 2020, unavox.it/ArtDiversi/DIV362 7_Mons-Vigano_Siamo_al_redde_rationem.html); b. “If the evidence shows that some propositions contained in the Council documents (and similarly, in the acts of Bergoglio’s magisterium) are heterodox, and if doctrine teaches us that the acts of the Magisterium do not contain error, the conclusion is not that these propositions are erroneous, but that they cannot be part of the Magisterium. Period” (September 21, 2020, https://one peterfive.com/archbishop-vigano-is-vatican-ii-untouchable/); c. “The cancer of Vatican II confirms that it is at the origin of the Bergoglian metastasis” (26) October 2020, https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/it em/5124-archbishop-vigano-addresses-the-catholicidentity-conference-2020-francis-the-new-world-order); d. “All of this stems from a postulate that almost everyone takes for granted: that Vatican II can claim the authority of an Ecumenical Council, before which the faithful should suspend all judgment and humbly bow their heads to the will of Christ, expressed infallibly by the Sacred Pastors, albeit in a pastoral and not dogmatic form. But this is not the case, because the Sacred Pastors can be misled by a colossal conspiracy aimed at the subversive use of a Council. (…) (Jan. 21, 2023, https://exsurgedomine.it/230121- pro-Council/); [Paragraphs e and f, furnishing additional examples, are omitted here for brevity.]

Defense of the public defender 15. The public defender highlighted the following issues: [Paragraphs a, b and c are omitted here for brevity.] d. (...) [T]he latae sententiae censure of excommunication for the reserved crime of schism, if it were declared, would have no medicinal effect toward the person of His Excellency Archbishop Viganò has already stated that the declaration of the censure of excommunication would be a badge of honor for him; [Paragraph e is omitted here for brevity.]

Evaluation of the evidence and the defense [Paragraph 16, which recapitulates the charges, evidence and defense points, has been omitted here for brevity] 17. Conclusions: [Paragraph 17a has been omitted here for brevity.]

b.(...) [I]t clearly appears that in the present case the circumstances of schismatic conduct referred to in can. 751 CIC (refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff and refusal of communion with members of the Church subject to him) have occurred; the Prelate directly, explicitly and consistently denies the legitimacy of Pope Francis, claiming that his election is invalid; he does not consider himself in communion with Pope Francis and those in communion with him; he believes that the Church at the head of which Pope Francis stands is not the Catholic Church; he rejects the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, believing it lacks magisterial authority; c. the circumstances indicated in can. 1324 § 1, nos. 110 CIC have not occurred and, as a result, moral certainty is reached that the offender has incurred the penalty latae sententiae (cf. can. 1324 § 3 CIC).

DECISION 18. Having carefully considered the laws applicable to the case at hand, taking into account all the evidence and arguments in the case (can. 1720, no. 2 CIC) and referring to the arguments presented above, this Dicastery, for the public good of the People of God, declares that: a. H.E. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is guilty of the reserved crime of schism; b. the offender has incurred excommunication latae sententiae ex can. 1364 § 1 CIC. 19. The removal of the censure in this case is reserved to the Apostolic See. 20. The offender is warned that, in accordance with can. 1364 § 2 CIC, if prolonged contumacy or the gravity of the scandal so requires, he may be punished with other penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state.

21. Pursuant to Article 24 SST, the cleric may interpose an Appeal against this decision to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith within the peremptory term of sixty (60) busines days from the notification of this Decree. The Appeal, for the purposes of its admissibility, must be presented with the assistance of a Patron, provided with the appropriate mandate, and clearly determine the petitum and contain the reasons in iure and in facto on which it is based.

From the Palace of the Dicastery, July 4, 2024 + Victor Fernández Victor M. Card. FERNÁNDEZ Prefect John J. Kennedy Msgr. John J. KENNEDY Secretary for the Disciplinary Section SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 35

DOSSIER The excommunicaTion of an archbishop

IN SANGUINE TUO Homily by msgR. CaRlo maRia viganò on tHe exteRnal solemnity of tHe most PReCious blood of ouR loRd Jesus CHRist REdEmISTI NOS, dOmINE, IN SANGUINE TUO, Ex OmNI TRIbU, ET lINGUA, ET pOpUlO, ET NATIONE: ET fEcISTI NOS dEO NOSTRO REGNUm. Rev 5:9-10 Il cardinale Brandmuller celebra la messa in latino.

Anche lui ha contestato Papa Francesco ma non ha ricevuto alcuna risposta……..

DEARS BROTHERS AND SISTERS, irst of all, allow me to share with you my serenity of mind in facing this trial. I experienced the same inner peace when, a few years ago, I rediscovered the Traditional Mass, which since then I have never stopped celebrating exclusively and which has brought me back to the beating heart of our holy Religion, to understand that being united to Christ the Priest in the offering to the eternal Father must necessarily be translated into the mystical immolation of oneself on the model of Christ the Victim, in restoring the divine order in which Charity consumes us with love for God and neighbor, and shows us how incomprehensible – as well as unacceptable – it is to modify anything of this perfect order that the Holy Church anticipates on earth precisely by placing the Cross at the center of everything.

Stat Crux dum volvitur orbis.

F

For sixty years, however, along with the world, volvitur et ecclesia.

The ecclesial body has also lost its point of stability: yesterday, in the mad attempt to adapt to the world by softening its doctrine; today, in the deliberate desire to erase the Cross, a sign of contradiction, in order to please the Prince of this world. And in a world hostile to the Cross of Christ, it is not possible to preach Christ, and Christ crucified, because this is “divisive” for a “human brotherhood” from which the fatherhood of God is excluded.

It is not surprising, therefore, that those who proclaim the Gospel without adaptations are considered enemies. Christians of all ages, and among them the Pastors in the first place, have always been opposed and fought and killed precisely because of the incompatibility between the Civitas Dei and the civitas Diaboli. The Lord taught us: “If

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they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also; if they have kept my word, they will also keep yours” (Jn 15:20).

A few days ago, a church enslaved to the world put me on trial for schism and condemned me with excommunication for having openly professed the Faith that the Lord by my Episcopal Consecration ordered me to preach; the same Faith for which the Martyrs were killed, the Confessors persecuted, priests and Bishops imprisoned or exiled.

But how can we even think that it is the true Church that strikes its children and its Ministers, and at the same time welcomes its enemies and makes their errors its own?

This Church, which calls itself “conciliar and synodal,” is a counterfeit, a counter-church, for which everything begins and ends in this life, and which does not want to accept anything eternal precisely be-

cause the immutability of the Truth of God is intrinsically alien to the permanent revolution that it has welcomed and promotes.

If we were not persecuted by those who are hostile to the Cross, we would have to question our fidelity to Christ, who from that Throne of pain and blood struck a mortal blow against the Enemy of the human race. If our Ministry could be “tolerated” in some way, it would mean that it is ineffective and compromised, if only because of the implicit acceptance of an impossible coexistence between opposites, of a hermeneutic of continuity in which there is room for truth and error, light and darkness, God and Belial. That is why I consider this sentence of the Roman Sanhedrin as causing clarity: a Catholic cannot but be in a state of schism with those who refuse the Profession of Faith in Charity. There can be no communion with the one who first broke the supernatural bond with Christ and with His Mystical Body.

Nor can there be obedience and submission to an adulterated version of the Papacy in which authority has deliberately withdrawn from Christ, the first principle of that authority, to be transformed into tyranny.

Thus, just as in the morally necessary choice to return to the Apostolic Mass I rediscovered the true meaning of my priesthood, so too in the decision to denounce the apostasy of the modernist and globalist hierarchy I rediscovered the meaning of my Episcopate, of being a Successor of the Apostles, a witness of Christ and a Pastor in His Church.

Timidity, human respect, opportunistic evaluations, thirst for power, or corruption have led many of my Brothers to make the simplest choice: to leave the Lord by Himself in His Passion and mingle with the crowd of His executioners, or even just to stand by for fear of going against the high priests and

scribes of the people. Some of them, like Peter, repeat the “I do not know Him” so as not to be brought before the same Sanhedrin. Others stay closed in their cenacle, content not to be tried and condemned. But is this what the Lord wants of us? Is this what He has called us to in choosing us as His Ministers and as proclaimers of His Gospel?

Dear brothers, bless these times of tribulation with me, because it is only in infirmitate that we have the certainty of fulfilling God’s Will and sanctifying ourselves with His Grace. As Saint Paul says: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). Our being docile instruments in the Lord’s hands is the indispensable premise for ensuring that His work is truly divine.

We are asked only to follow him: Veni, et sequere me (Mt 10:21); to follow Him leaving everything else, which is to make a radical choice.

We are asked to preach His Gospel, to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to keep faithfully all the precepts that the Lord has commanded us to observe (Mt 28:1920). We are asked to pass on intact what we have received – tradidi quod et accepi – without additions,

without changes, without omissions. And to preach the Word opportune, importune, enduring everything: in omni patientia et doctrina (2 Tim 4:2). We are asked to take up our cross every day, to deny ourselves, to be ready to climb Calvary and be crucified with Christ to rise with Him, to share in His victory and triumph in the blessed eternity of Heaven. We are asked to complete in our flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions, for the good of his Body which is the Church (Col 1:24). Pastors need to return to belonging to Christ, shaking off the oppressive yoke of a servitude to the world that makes them accomplices in the ruin of the Church.

From the Most Sacred Heart, pierced by a spear, flows the infinite Grace of the Sacraments and especially of the Catholic Priesthood. It ensures the perpetuation of Christ’s redemptive action throughout History, so that the perfect Sacrifice of the divine Victim – who entered the Sanctuary once and for all through his own blood (Heb 9:12) – may continue to be offered under the sacramental species to the Eternal Father. In the same way, when the Church appears defeated and is given up for dead, a spear in Her side renews the flow of blood and water, laying the foundation for a future restoration and guaranteeing the preservation of the Priesthood, the Mass, and the Sacraments: of Tradition. It will be that blood and water that will irrigate this land parched and split by drought, thirsty for the True and the Good, so that the semen Christianorum may sprout and bear fruit.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the form of sheep, but who inwardly are ravenous wolves (Mt 7:15). With these words, significantly proposed by the Liturgy of this Seventh Sunday after Pentecost and which we will read in the last Gospel, the Lord warns us against those who usurp

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 37

DOSSIER The excommunicaTion of an archbishop the gift of prophecy in order tocontradict the Faith that he revealed and taught the Apostles so that it might be faithfully handed down the centuries. The Lord does not say: Beware of those who sow error, but of false prophets. Who are these false prophets, these pseudochrists of whom Sacred Scripture speaks? For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great portents and miracles, so as to mislead even the elect if possible.

Behold, I have foretold it to you (Mt 24:24-25). These are the hirelings, the false shepherds, those whom we can recognize ex fructibus eorum, by their fruits, by what they do (Mt 7:16-20).

We know the fruits and we have them before our eyes: the planned destruction of the Lord’s Vineyard by His own vinedressers.

What is imputed to me as a crime in order to declare me schismatic and condemn me to excommunication has been put on the record of a trial that condemns not me, but my accusers, the enemies of the Cross of Christ. When the eclipse that darkens the Church ends and Our Lord returns to be at the center of the lives of his ministers, those who are ostracized today will find justice, and those who have abused their power to disperse the Lord’s flock will have to answer to His tribunal and to that of History. We will continue to do what all Catholic Bishops have done, often being persecuted by them.

And we will continue in our work even if it is hindered by those who usurp the power of the Holy Keys against the Church Herself.

The authority of the Pastors – and that of the Supreme Pontiff – is in the hands of false pastors, who as such count precisely on our respect for the Hierarchy and on our habitual obedience to make us accept the betrayal of Christ and the ruin of

souls. But authority comes only from Christ, who wants all to be saved and to reach eternal blessedness through the one Ark of Salvation. If the vicarious authority on earth preaches salvation from false religions and the uselessness of Christ’s Sacrifice, it breaks the umbilical cord that binds it to Him, thereby delegitimizing itself. We do not separate ourselves from Holy

Delivery of the Keys to Peter by Raphael Sanzio, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

“WE ARE ASKED TO PREACH HIS GOSPEL, TO BAPTIZE ALL NATIONS IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, TO KEEP FAITHFULLY ALL THE PRECEPTS THAT THE LORD HAS COMMANDED US TO OBSERVE (MT 28:19-20)”

Mother Church, but rather from the mercenaries who infest her. We do not refuse obedience and submission to the Pontiff, but rather to those who humiliate and tamper with the Papacy against the Will of Christ. Let us not impugn the revealed Truth — quod Deus avertat!

— but rather the errors that all the Popes have always condemned and that today are imposed by those who want to make the Holy Church the servant of her enemies (Lam 1:1), by those who delude themselves that they can keep the ecclesial body alive by separating it from

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its Head who is Christ.

We do not have a Pontiff who can judge and excommunicate us. If there were a Pope I would not even have been put on trial, nor excommunicated or declared schismatic, because we would both profess the same Faith and would receive Communion at the same altar. If today Bergoglio is putting me on trial to condemn and excommunicate me, it is precisely because he makes a public profession that he belongs to another religion and that he presides over another church – his church, the synodal church – from which I am “expelled” because I am a Catholic and, indeed, a stranger to it.

Pray, dear brothers. Pray first of all for the faithful and the ministers who live the contradiction of moral belonging to the true Church of Christ and at the same time belonging to the false church of the usurper Bergoglio, so that they may shake themselves from their torpor and line up underneath the Cross, bearing witness to the Truth.

Pray for those Bishops and priests who humbly, and despite their infirmities, serve the Lord. Let us not nullify the Most Precious Blood that he shed for us, and indeed let us make sure that we can repeat with Saint Paul: Gratia Dei in me vacua non fuit (1 Cor 15:10). This Blood will descend today on our altar, and it will continue to descend there as long as the Church has Bishops who can perpetuate the Priesthood and priests who celebrate the Holy Sacrifice, according to the rite handed down to us by Sacred Tradition. For this reason, let us act with a serene heart and in the conviction that what I am doing is in conformity with God’s will. And so may it be. + Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop July 7, 2024 Dominica VII post Pentecostenm

Reactions to aRchbishop Viganò’s excommunication Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana, Kazakhstan: “Unfortunately, Archbishop Viganò is not correct in his opinion on the invalidity of the papacy of Pope Francis… this is against the nature of the Catholic Church, that its head must be visible.

“The entire Church accepted and accepts still that Pope Francis is the reigning Pope. We can admonish the Pope, as St. Paul did, and St. Catherine of Siena. But always respectfully, with love. This is not the way of the Holy Spirit…

“It is regrettable and we must pray for Abp V that he may accept that Francis is the Pope….Of course, the punishment of Abp Vigano should not have been done…not excommunication. Because there are so many bishops, cardinals who are guilty of heresy–they should be punished, not Abp Vigano.”

Bishop Joseph Strickland, deposed bishop of Tyler, Texas: “Rather than addressing the serious questions and allegations that Archbishop Vigano raises, he is summarily removed from the CHurch with an apparent motive to silence him…It seems we are left with only stones to cry out for justice because the voices of faithful disciples are either mute, or ignored, or silenced.”

Michael Matt, RemnantNewspaper.com: “I have my disagreements with Archbishop Vigano but this swift ‘justice’ for the 83-year-old whistleblower on the part of a Vatican notorious for dragging its feet for decades when it comes to sexual abuse cases involving priest and even bishop predators... well, this pretty much says it all when it comes to the fraud that is the so-called ‘Church of Accompaniment.’”

Mel Gibson, Open Letter to Viganò: “I’m sure you expected nothing else from Jorge Bergoglio. I know that you know he has no authority whatsoever — so I’m not sure how this will effect you going forward. I hope you will continue to say mass & receive the sacraments yourself — it really is a badge of honor to be shunned by the false, post conciliar church. You have my sympathies that you suffer publicly this grave injustice. To me & many others you are a most courageous Hero.”

Eric Sammons, CrisisMagazine.com: “I’ve found that most traditional Catholics are sympathetic to Viganò but don’t support his more extreme views. Most will likely look on his excommunication with sadness while not following him into sedevacantism.

His excommunication will just deepen their distrust of a Vatican that is persecuting them while letting heretics roam free.”

Matt Fradd, Pints with Aquinas blog: Archbishop Viganò is guilty of schism.

Archbishop Viganò denied the legitimacy of Pope Francis’ pontificate when he said, “I maintain that the errors and heresies to which [Francis] adhered before, during and after his election, along with the intention he held in his apparent acceptance of the papacy, render his elevation to the throne null and void.” That, of course, amounts to a refusal to be subject to the Roman Pontiff.

He has also rejected the authority of the Second Vatican Council, something no Catholic can do. At the close of the council, Pope St. Paul VI said, “[The Council] has invested its teachings with the authority of the supreme ordinary magisterium, which ordinary magisterium is so obviously authentic that it must be accepted with docility and sincerity by all the faithful, according to the mind of the Council as expressed in the nature and aims of the individual documents.”

Edward Feser, American Catholic philosopher: “Schism and heresy are both grave sins. But as Aquinas teaches, heresy is worse than schism, for whereas schism attacks ecclesiastical unity, heresy attacks divinely revealed truth and thus more directly offends against God himself. Yet what we find in the Church today is that while schism is (rightly) still punished, heresy is allowed to run rampant. This disorder reflects a deeper one, namely a tendency to emphasize the second great commandment (love of neighbor) over the first great commandment (love of God). And since God is the ultimate good for our neighbor, this inversion of the right order of things actually hurts our neighbor rather than helps him. Schismatics who are excommunicated may be moved thereby to repent. But heretics who remained unpunished are likely to become hardened in their heresy and thus are in graver danger of damnation.”n SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 39

CHUrCH fAtHerS

WhAt doeS ChriSt deSire,

but freely to Give you life?

An AddreSS by St. Clement of AlexAndriA to the GreekS (C. 200 A.d.)

In the circle, portrait of St. Clement from The true portraits and lives of illustrious Greek, Latin and pagan men (1584)

by André Thevet Here a depcition of Origen, in the long beard teaching. He succeeded Clement as director of the catechism school of Alexandria, and became famous as one of the Church’s greatest teachers Facing page, the library of Alexandria in Egypt, founded in the 200s B.C. It contained more than 500,000 volumes covering every branch of knowledge

T

HE HOLY SPIRIT says, “Despise

ten Church, being made up of many not thou, my son, the training of St. Clement of AlexAndriA holy children. These are “the firstthe LORD, nor faint when thou HIS DATE OF BIRTH UNKNOWN, born, whose names are written in art rebuked of Him.” What surpassing heaven,” who hold their “general condescension! How gently does He HE DIED ABOUT THE YEAR 215. assembly” with “an innumerable HE WAS AN LEADING GREEK deal with us; not as a teacher with his company of angels.” Such are we, the disciples, nor as a master with his ser- THEOLOGIAN AND HEAD OF THE nurslings of our GOD, true “friends” vants, nor as a GOD towards His creaby kindred of the First-Begotten, as CATECHETICAL SCHOOL OF tures, but as a father instructs his sons! being the first of all men, to have disALEXANDRIA (EGYPT) Moses confessed that he exceedingly cerned ALMIGHTY GOD, saved ourfeared and quaked when he heard concerning the word of selves from sin, and abjured the Devil.…

GOD; but thou, who hearest that Word Himself, hast thou This is his sole work, to save man. Therefore he cries no dread, no distress of mind? no reverence, and earnestaloud, as urging us himself, “The kingdom of heaven is ness withal to learn the truth? earnestness for salvation, at hand.” He converts men by means of fear. His apostle, fear of his wrath, delight in his promises, anxiety for in like manner, exhorting the Philippians, takes up his acceptance, to rescue thee from condemnation? holy tidings, and repeats them. “The LORD is at hand,” he Come ye, O come, my band of young ones! Young says, “see well that we be not found wanting.” ones, I say, for unless ye be born again as children, regenBut, alas! ye are all so fearless, nay, unbelieving, that erated, as Scripture says, ye will not receive Him who is ye listen neither to the LORD, nor to holy Paul, though he your own Father, nor will ever at any time gain entrance prays you in Christ’S stead to taste and see that CHRIST is into the kingdom of heaven. To a stranger this is imposGOD. It is faith that must bring you in, experience must sible; but when he has been enrolled by name and made teach you, and the Scripture must lead you on in knowla citizen, and submits to a new Father, then shall he be in edge, according to its word: “Come, ye children, hearken the number of that Father’s sons; then shall he be thought to me; and I will teach you the fear of the LORD.” Then it worthy of the inheritance. Thus is formed the first begotbriefly addresses those who have already believed: 40

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“What man is there who lusteth to live, who would fain see good days?” We make answer. It is we; who worship him who is our happiness, and who copy those who are like him. Hear, then, both ye who afar off, and ye who are nigh. The word is hid from no one; it is a light in common; it lighteth every man; in it there is no darkness.

Let us hasten to our salvation, even to our regeneration, so that, many though we be, we may be brought close together by one love, according to that oneness which the one GOD imparts. Let us hasten, as having received a benefit; as seeking out our sole happiness. Let us follow after unity, till from many voices, loud and scattered to and fro, one divine harmony arises, led by one guide and teacher, the Divine Word, finding rest and fulness in the truth itself, and saying, Abba Father.

“Ye who thirst, come ye to the water,” says the LORD; “all ye that have no silver, come and buy, yea, drink without silver.” Thus does he exhort men to the holy bath, to their salvation, to their illumination, almost crying out to them, “Child, I give unto thee earth, and sea, and heaven; yea, all that is therein, I freely grant to thee: only, O my child, thirst for thy Father’s presence. GOD will reveal himself to thee without price; truth is not dealt out as by a trader.

He gives thee all things that fly, and swim, and walk the earth; all these things has thy Father framed for thy enjoyment, so take and be thankful. Those who are but spurious born are forced to buy their possessions with silver; sons of perdition, willing slaves of mammon.

But into thine hands he gives thine own.” Thus speaks he to his true seed, to him who loves his Father, for whose sake he worketh still, to whom alone he pledges, that the earth shall be given as a lasting foundation, which is not promised to corruption: “For mine is all the earth;” it is thine, if thou receive thy GOD; and therefore Scripture proclaims as good tidings, to those who have believed, “The saints of the LORD shall inherit the glory of GOD, and his power.”

“Hope in him,” it is written, “all the assembly of the people; pour out your heart before him.” He speaks to those who have newly turned from wickedness. He pities and fills them with righteousness. Trust, O mortal, in him who is both GOD and man; who suffered and is worshiped, even a living GOD. Ye servants, put your trust in him who was dead; yea, all men, trust in him who out of all men alone is GOD. Believe and receive salvation as your reward; seek out GOD, and your soul shall live...

The most sublime philosophers could but guess, and speak darkly about wisdom, but the disciples of CHRIST have seen and proclaimed it. Nay, and CHRIST in all portions of him (so to say) is one and the same undivided; so that there is neither barbarian, Jew, nor Greek, male, nor female, but one new man refashioned by the HOLY GHOST... I do but ask you to accept salvation. What does CHRIST desire, but freely to give you life? But who is he?

The Word of truth, the builder of the inward temple, that GOD may dwell with men. Sanctify that temple; pleasures and comforts, leave them, as flowers of the day, to the wind, and to the fire... The Word of GOD shall guide thee, and the HOLY SPIRIT settle thee in the peaceful dwelling of the heavens. There thou shalt enjoy the presence of the Christian’s GOD, and be initiated in his holy mysteries.

Come, O heathen reveler, lean not on thy thyrsus[1], bind not on thine ivy. Cast away thy turban, and thy fawnskin; put off folly. I will show to thee the Word of GOD, and his mysteries, accommodating my account to thine own fashions. Here is the mount, beloved of GOD, not the scene of tragic miseries, as Cithæro but a stage for truth to act upon, a holy mount, overshadowed with chaste and temperate groves. No Bacchantes revel here, with cruel rites, but the daughters of GOD hold festival, the pure, the gracious, divine songstresses of the awful mysteries of the Word, with their modest band of worshippers.

That band are the just ones: the song is a hymn in honor of the Almighty King. Virgins are singing it, angels are heralding it, prophets are repeating it. The chant sounds abroad; those who are called hurry to the gathering, they hasten on, desiring to regain their Father.

Thou, too, aged one, thou too must join us, leaving thy Thebes, abjuring thy sooth-saying; put out thy hand, and let us lead thee to the truth.

Hasten, O Tiresias, believe. He shall shine upon thy blind eyes more cheerily than the sun, through whom the eyes of the blind see. O mysteries of truest holiness! O unsullied Light! The sacred torches go before me, while I am brought into the presence of the heavens and GOD himself; my initiation places me among the holy ones.

The LORD instructs me in his sacred rites; he seals his teachers with his illuminating guidance, and delivers over such as trust him to his Father, to be preserved forever. He is everlasting, JESUS the one SAVIOUR, the Great High Priest of the one GOD his Father, who intercedes for men, and who is their teacher.m SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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SCRIPTURE

puttIng our trust In poLItIcs? “It Is better to take refuge In the Lord,” says the psaLmIst... n BY AnTHOnY ESOLEn*

In this engraving, Joshua's troops carry the Ark of the Covenant during the siege of Jericho and with the power attributed to it, the walls of the city collapsed upon themselves. In contrast, in the battle of Aphek (1 Samuel 4:1-10) the Philistines defeated the Israelite army and captured the Ark of the Covenant

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ere in the United States, the presidential election season is upon us, and so my mind turns naturally to these verses we do well to remember: “It is better to take refuge in the Lord, than to put confidence in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord, than to put confidence in princes” (Ps. 118:8-9).

As always, I find that it pays well to look at the original Hebrew. Let us replace one English word with the Hebrew, for example, and hear how it sounds: “It is better to take refuge in the Lord, than to put confidence in Adam.”

All at once, the folly of it bears a local habitation and a name. “It is better to take refuge in the Lord,” we might say, “than to put confidence in a mere human being who thought he could become like God by his own decision and the power of another created thing, and who ended up losing Paradise for it, and condemning all his descendants to toil, trouble, and death.”

You might think it was an easy lesson to learn, and yet Scripture shows that we make that same mistake all the time, and in fact it often gets itself up in political or military garb, with a dash of the sacred to make double sure.

Thus does Jeremiah prophesy against the confidence of the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, who believed that the temple of God in Jerusalem would never be destroyed, and who tried to play Egypt against Babylon: “Trust not in lying 42

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words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord” (Jer. 7:4).

If the people turn to the Lord and do his will, and refrain from oppressing the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, and from shedding innocent blood, says the Lord, then “I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever” (7:6-7). But if not, if the people continue to burn incense to Baal, if they turn the temple into a den of robbers, then, says the Lord, “I will do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein you trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh” (14).

That house in Shiloh, which the priests themselves, the sons of Eli, filled with lust and violence, was destroyed by the Philistines, even though the people carried the Ark of the Covenant before them into battle (1 Sam. 4:4-5). For God is not a tool to be used at man’s will. The men of Israel were put to rout, the sons of Eli were slain, and the Ark was taken, and when Eli heard it, the old man fell back from his seat in shock and broke his neck, and his daughter-in-law, bearing a child, went into labor and bore a son, whom she would not look at: “And she named the child Ichabod, saying, the glory is departed from Israel” (21).

But “blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” says the psalmist, because God is the Creator, and that is why no

Ruth im Feld des Boaz (Ruth in the Fied of Boaz) by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld.

“The Lord recompense you for what you have done,” says Boaz to Ruth “and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (Ruth 2:12)

king will be saved by his army no matter how great it is, and warhorses are vain things no matter how strong (Ps. 33:12, 16-17). We wish to believe in our nation’s glory, but it is all Ichabod, “No-Glory,” if we shrug away our allegiance to the Lord. What I say here, I intend not as an appraisal of worth, but as a statement of fact. If God is the Creator, if he sustains the world by his eternal law, then all our glory depends upon him, and if we boast, we should boast in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:31; cf. Jer. 9:23).

But let us return to the verses above, which tell us that it is better to take refuge in the Lord, than to put confidence in man. Almost all the uses of the Hebrew verb chasah, to seek refuge, refer to God, and are poetic; it is not an everyday word. “Oh to be safe under the shelter of thy wings!” cries the Psalmist (61:4). “The Lord recompense you for what you have done,” says Boaz to Ruth, who indeed is a refugee, having left her native Moab to return with her mother-in-law Naomi to Israel, “and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge” (Rt. 2:12). Ruth’s son Obed will be the grandfather of David, the great king.

It seems obvious that if you are seeking refuge, you are in flight, or you must shelter yourself against a power that you cannot overcome. You may be seeking shade from the hot sun (cf. Jg. 9:3); you may be pursued by enemies; you may be beset with troubles. Some of those troubles men bring upon those weaker than themselves, as Job says of the wicked, who are rich enough and powerful enough to “take the widow’s ox for a pledge,” and “thrust the poor out of the road” (Jb. 24:3-4), and who make the naked to have to flee the cold and the rain in the mountains, and to “cling to the rock for want of shelter” (8). Yet without God, no matter how wealthy we are, we must all be like wanderers in a dry

land without a tree to sit beneath, or like the naked, without a ledge to huddle under. We must be one kind of refugee or another; this world is not our true home.

And what about that business of putting confidence?

The Hebrew batach suggests a great deal more than having a good feeling. It suggests that you cast yourself down upon your face. If a mere man is the object, the action seems base.

I am reminded of the moment in Paradise Lost, when the other devils have heard of the plan that Satan has in store, to work harm upon mankind in Eden, and their chief rises to take his leave: Towards him they bend With awful reverence prone, and as a God Extol him equal to the Highest in heaven.

If, then, we supply the inner meaning of the verb, the verse may be understood so: “It is better to seek shelter in God, than to cast yourself prone before man.”

The very act of trusting in man as you would trust in God is not only a contradiction. It is a debasement. Would you fall upon your face before a fellow creature? If not, then what do you think you are doing when you put all your trust in politics? Man is a weak reed to lean on. Work, then, for the good, but know that only God is our shelter.

*Dr. Esolen is a Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College, North Carolina, and a senior editor and regular writer at Touchstone magazine. He is author of more than 30 books, including a three-volume translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House), and well over 1000 articles in various journals, and publishes a web magazine dedicated to language, music, poetry, and classic films called Word and Song, with his wife, Debra.m SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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SPIRITUALITY BEHIND BARS

The CaTholiC Bard: CrafTsman and CaTeChisT sanCTifying popular musiC wiTh BeauTy and TruTh n BY MARCELLUS ALLEn ROBERTS *

The Bard (circa 1817) by John Martin

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he was born with every talent and an unplumbed love for music. Christ, in His craftiness, has equipped her with the coveted physical qualifications that lead to the development of a beautiful voice. Her larynx bobs freely on its perch like a song sparrow in the breeze, sensitive to the nuances of pitch, tempo, and timbre, poised and prepared to express the full palette of human emotion, without the slightest hint of tension in the musculature from which it hangs.

When she sings, it is the sound of so many fistfuls of gold and silver coinage ascending up the hallowed steps of the Scala Santa (Holy Stairway), a waterfall flowing backward in a roar of wisdom-riddled solfeggio (clear singing of the scales). Her singular mission? Her solitary directive?

To make sure the praises of God go up, up, and ever higher.

Who she is, for our purposes, is not as significant as what she is. She is a vocalist, she is an instrumentalist, she is a lyricist. She is a child of God by rebirth and a bard by trade.

What is a bard? We are told by Merriam-Webster: a tribal poet-singer skilled in composing and reciting verse on heroes and their deeds... a composer, singer, or declaimer of epic or heroic verse” (Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 11th Collegiate Edition).

The power bards possess by virtue of their charism is anything but negligible. Long after the Apostles had laid the foundations of the Church, and shortly after the seed of the Church had been scattered broadly in martyrs blood, the charism of the bard is found circulating 44

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through the Body of Christ, overshadowing certain souls of the Holy Spirit’s choosing.

In the 5th Century, St. Patrick, after escaping enslavement under the Irish, returned to the land of his captivity to spread the Gospel, and, “is said to have also brought a bard with him from Italy.” (The Legends of St. Patrick, Aubrey De Vere, LL.D.) The ancients understood that the Church is one tribe composed of many, and therefore, possesses her own heroes, epic histories, and lore, in which Jesus Christ and His Passion hold the privileged place of primacy.

St. Caedmon, a 7th Century Benedictine monk, is described as being “marked in a special manner by the grace of God, for he was wont to make songs of piety and religion, so that whatever was expounded to him out of Scripture, he turned into verse expressive of much sweetness and penitence, in English, which was his native language.” This description is extraordinary already, but the following sentence solidifies the bard’s effectiveness: “By his songs the minds of many were often fired with contempt of the world, and desire of the heavenly life.” (Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England) The power of the Holy Spirit working through the bard bears fruit for the Kingdom of God. The rise of digital media has only increased the value of appropriating a bard when undertaking any serious attempt to evangelize modern culture. Since William Shockley’s invention of the transistor, the proliferation of music has been careering at an astounding clip, and most of the English-speaking world has lived large chunks of life superimposed upon a background of pre-

recorded theme music. So the Church needs strong voiccan drink contentedly from the cup of Church teaching. es carrying the full counsel of the Gospel, voices that can The pure milk of Sacred Scripture will nurture her intelpierce through surrounding noise more pervasive than at lect and imagination, while the Church’s commentary any other time in history. busies itself, weaving intricately-conceived correlations When lost souls find themselves wearily responding between the Catholic Faith and the arts and sciences. to the grace of God’s call, climbing the mountain of God, If she immerses herself in obedience to the Ten Comthey need the still, small voice of the Church competing mandments and the precepts of the Church, the liturgical for their attention, contending for their souls amid whirlcalendar will chart a sure course for her pilgrim journey wind, earthquake and fire. And as Catholic author Mike in this life: the liturgy will be, for her, an oasis, and the Aquilina points out in his book How the Choir ConvertHoly Eucharist, her sustenance. ed the World: “A huge number of young If her hope is firmly founded on God’s people in our culture are evangelized by promise that she will reap what is sown, perChristian, non-Catholic popular music. sistence will earn her a seat at the table of They should not be faulted for fully engag“continuous dialogue between faith and culing this culture in order to reach it for Jesus. ture,” and allow her to add her own contriBut we are sometimes lacking in doing so in bution to “the goal of all attempts at inculan authentically Catholic way.” turation as a symbiotic fusion, as it were, of To reach full potential as agents of inculculture and faith into a new creation that is turation in the realm of popular music, Christian because it is totally permeated by Catholic bards must tread simultaneously, the spirit and teaching of Christ” (Morality and unapologetically, down two uniquely Truly Christian, Truly African, Paulinus difficult paths.

Ikechukwu Odozer, C.S.Sp.).

The first path is that of a craftsman. ReCatholic bards cannot bring their compospect from the targeted culture is earned by sitions to market alone. At some critical How the Choir Converted the developing an area of creative expertise and juncture, they will need the support of a World, by American Catholic elevating it to new heights. This cannot be patron: a benefactor who believes that Cathscholar Mike Aquilina achieved unless bards commit themselves to olic popular music should exist in this train and hone their craft at a level that meets or exceeds world. Patrons subsidize the cost of education and prothe rigors of the competition. duction, affording bards the financial freedom to create.

From this bard’s throat, annually blessed on the feast Truthfully, without patrons, there is no renaissance in of St. Blaise, issues a voice faceted to the point of effortEurope, Harlem, or anywhere else, for that matter. less power, until every syllable, whether sung or spoken, Fortunately, this digital age has brought with it innoresonates beyond the threshold of brilliance. Her hands vative methods that make supporting the production of become one with her instrument — the guitar, the keyCatholic popular music convenient for patrons, rich and board, the digital mixer — until every tactile encounter poor, distant and near. with them becomes a spiritual exercise, and ordinary “The soul is like a musician who to long practice tools of music production become sacramentals. Her unites great knowledge of music; he is so full of his art poetics paint vivid pictures that awaken all five senses that, without any effort, all that he does therein is perfecof the listener, full of linguistic flourishes that reflect tion, and if his compositions be examined, they will be both her nearness to the common person and her expofound in perfect conformity with prescribed rules” sure to great literature.

(Abandonment to Divine Providence, Rev. J.P. de CausIf Catholic bards vehemently refuse to skimp on sade). artistry, the response of the culture at large will be, at the Venturing into the realm of popular music is part of very least, as Thomas Day puts it: “This is not the music our living heritage. of my tribe, but I respect it.” (Why Catholics Can’t Sing, It needs to be done diligently, garnering cultural Thomas Day) respect.

The second path is that of a catechist. Catechists It needs to be done authentically, giving a clear and teach, and a bard is not fully prepared to take on his role recognizable Catholic witness. until she learns to breathe in and breathe out the teachWith the support of faithful patrons, Catholic bards ings of the Church without coming up for air, until she can join the conversation in today’s modern digital is a catechism. In this way, whatever the bard creates music market and sanctify it for Jesus Christ. will be animated by an undeniably Catholic spirit.

The purifying fire of the Holy Spirit must become her *Marcellus Allen Roberts is a 40-year-old Prison constant companion. She must believe that He is the soul Oblate of St. Benedict’s Abbey, Atchison, Kansas. He of the Church and the voice of her prophets before she is serving a 25-year penance in the state of Texas.m SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER INSIDE THE VATICAN

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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: THE TRINITY AND THE PROPHETS “WITH THE FATHER AND THE SON HE IS WORSHIPED AND GLORIFIED. HE HAS SPOKEN THROUGH THE PROPHETS.”

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ossibly the most beloved icon among believers (and laughed. The identity of the Three becomes clear as even art critics!) is medieval Russian iconographer Sarah’s disbelief was answered: “Is anything impossible Andrei Rublev’s depiction of The Old Testament Trinity, with God?” also known as the Hospitality of Abraham. The icons of Referring to this tale much later, the prophet Moses Rublev (c.1360-c.1430) which still survive are widely declared that God appeared to Abraham at Mamre. The thought to represent the pinnacle of iconography. Of all Holy Spirit continued to speak through the later prophets Rublev’s work, the Trinity is generally of Israel. He ensured that the promises thought to be his finest accomplishmade to Abraham and his descendants ment. Scripture indicates that both were never forgotten but were kept Abraham and Lot regarded two of their alive in the minds and hearts of the visitors as angels rather than God, but Chosen, despite their more or less consubsequent theology, especially after stant infidelities and idolatry. WhenevPentecost, has inclined to the interpreer Israel broke a Covenant, a prophet tation that indeed the mysterious three would arise, providing the Spirit an appearing to Abraham were an authenearthly mouthpiece to call these fractic manifestation of the Holy Trinity. tious people back to order.

Therefore, though they have no physiThis work of God was visible mostcal bodies, this icon is an approved ly as a succession of earthly events not depiction of the Father and the Holy immediately apparent as divine activiSpirit, otherwise forbidden by the ty. The activity of the Holy Spirit on rules of iconography. earth to this day is still “hidden” as priShortly after Abraham accepted marily spiritual rather than physical, God’s covenant with its sign of ciralthough certainly there are occasional cumcision, Three Strangers appeared suspensions of natural laws in outwardto him one day as he was camped ly miraculous events. The work of the under an oak tree at Mamre. True to the Holy Spirit concerns the sanctification precepts of desert hospitality, Abra- The Hospitality of Abraham icon by Andrei Rublev of souls, mostly a process unseen. Mys(c. 1360-c. 1430) ham immediately ordered a feast to be tical writers even remind us that often prepared for the Three. Significantly, Abraham addressed the souls most concerned with their spiritual growth are the Three in the singular: “O Lord, if I have now found themselves unaware of the work of God within! grace in Your sight, do not pass by your servant.” The The icon depicts the Father and the Holy Spirit framing grammar did not escape later Jewish scholars, of course. the Son with the outline of a chalice. The Son is depicted The strain of rabbinical thought that contemplated God as as physically substantial in the center, while the other figTrinity has some root in these words which clearly indicate ures are seen as ethereal and translucent. Only the Son has a Unity applied to a Threesome. The tale relates too that as taken flesh, after all! The epiclesis in the Eucharistic sacAbraham stood serving Them, a question arose: “Then He rifice specifically calls upon the Holy Spirit to change said to him, ‘Where is Sarah your wife?’” There follows bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Thus the promise of a son for Sarah in her old age. Although the Holy Spirit is called upon to validate the single most “Sarah laughed within herself,” rather than aloud, the Lord important miracle of the Son, acting in complete equality was aware of her skepticism and asked why she had with the Son in concert with the Father.m

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East-West Watch

BY PETER ANDERSON

BULGARIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH ELECTS PRO-MOSCOW PATRIARCH

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n June 30, 2024, the Patriarchal Following the death of Neofit, the Electoral Church Council of the Holy Synod of the BOC unanimously Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC) elected Metropolitan Gregory of elected a new patriarch, Metropolitan Vratsa to head the Holy Synod and the Daniel of Vidin. The election fills the diocese of Sofia until a new patriarch vacancy caused by the death of Patriwas elected. Gregory is not considarch Neofit, who headed the BOC ered a part of either the Moscow or since 2013. Under the charter of the Bartholomew wing of the BOC. In BOC, the patriarch must be at least 50 accordance with the charter of the years of age, and Daniel is 52. Since BOC, the 14 members of the Holy 2018 he has been the Metropolitan of Synod met to prepare a “shortlist” of Vidin, a small city in northwestern three metropolitans from which the Bulgaria. He is also a member of the Patriarchal Electoral Church Council Holy Synod of the BOC. From 2010 to (consisting of approximately 140 2019 he was the vicar bishop of the members, including bishops, clergy, diocese of the USA, Canada, and Ausand laypersons) would elect the new tralia. patriarch.

Prior to the election, many thought In the first round of voting, Gregothat the BOC might be changing its ry received 11 of the 14 votes. From orientation from Russia to the Ecu- On June 30, 2024, the Patriarchal Electoral Church this it was assumed by many that Greof the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC) menical Patriarch in Constantinople Council gory would be the next patriarch. elected a new patriarch, Metropolitan Daniel and the West. Historically, Russia and After more than 40 rounds of voting, of Vidin Bulgaria have been very close. For the Holy Synod added Metropolitan example, in 1877, Russian troops played a critical role Daniel and Metropolitan Gavriil to complete the list of in liberating Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. The huge St. three.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia was built as a The election of the new patriarch by the Electoral memorial to the troops that died during the liberation.

Council and the enthronement of the new patriarch were During the Cold War, Bulgaria was one of the most loyal scheduled for June 30. Expecting a victory, Bartholosatellites of the Soviet Union. mew arrived in Sofia with a very large delegation.

However, earlier this year there were signs that However, in a completely unexpected development, important members of the Holy Synod, the governing the Electoral Council, by the narrowest of margins, body of the BOC, were preferring the Ecumenical Patrielected Daniel. Of all of the 14 members of the Holy archate under Bartholomew over the Moscow PatriarSynod, Daniel is the member who is the most outspoken chate under Kirill. On May 18-19 three metropolitans of in favor of Moscow. Just a few days before the election, the BOC met with Bartholomew and concelebrated the Daniel had harshly condemned Bartholomew for his Divine Liturgy with a metropolitan of the Orthodox role in establishing the OCU. Church of Ukraine (OCU). The OCU is a Church which The election of Daniel, rather than a middle-of-theis completely independent of the Moscow Patriarchate road candidate, will probably further divide the BOC. If and which was established by Bartholomew in 2018. the Holy Synod had made the final decision, the new Moscow acted promptly by severing communion with patriarch would have been Gregory. Under the charter of the three Bulgarian metropolitans. In May the BOC also the BOC, the Holy Synod, not the patriarch, is the ultiinvited Bartholomew to come to Sofia for the enthronemate authority with respect to most matters. Clashes ment of the future Bulgarian patriarch. between the two can be expected.m InsideTheVatican.com t UrbietOrbiCommunications.com t +1-202-536-4555

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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

NEWS from the EAST

BY MATTHEW TROJACEK

ARMENIAN CHURCH LEADER, POPE FRANCIS MEET AT VATICAN For the first time in 10 years, on June 12 Pope Francis met with Aram I, the leader of the Armenian Church of Cilicia with jurisdiction over some 800,000 Armenian Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Iran, and Greece.

The meeting took place behind closed doors in the Holy Father’s personal office and the Vatican has not offered any further details. Pope Francis last met with Aram I at the Vatican in June 2014. On that occasion, the Holy Father thanked him for his commitment to achieving Christian unity and affirmed that the suffering of the Armenian martyrs must be venerated “like the wounds of the very body of Christ.” (CNA)

INDIA’S EASTERN CHURCH RESOLVES DECADES-OLD LITURGY DISPUTE The rebelling priests in the Eastern rite Syro Malabar Church earlier this summer agreed to celebrate the synodapproved Mass from July 3 onward, ending a protracted liturgy dispute in the Church based in southern India.

“The liturgy dispute is settled,” said Father Kuriakose Mundadan, presbyteral council secretary of ErnakulamAngamaly archdiocese, where for three years, more than 450 priests and some half a million Catholics refused to accept the rubrics of a liturgy approved by the Church’s synod.

The synod-approved Mass wanted celebrants to face the altar during the Eucharistic prayer. The rebelling Catholics in the archdiocese refused UOC LAWYER CONDEMNS and continued with their traditional UKRAINE’S TREATMENT Mass, in which the celebrant faces the OF BISHOPS AS PRISONERS congregation throughout the Mass.

OF WAR “Every parish will celebrate a Pope Francis met with Aram I, the leader of the Armenian “Ukraine is engaged in the war Synod-approved Mass on Sundays Church of Cilicia with jurisdiction over some 800,000 Armenian Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Iran, crime of hostage taking,” wrote Robert and other days of obligation. And, we and Greece Amsterdam on X on June 25. Amsterare allowed to continue our traditional dam is the international human rights lawyer who is repreMass as usual on all other days,” Mundadan told UCA News senting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church pro bono. on July 3. (UCANews) Metropolitan Theodosy of Cherkasy recently spoke about how the Ukrainian state launched a 4th search of his property THE NATIONAL EUCHARISTIC and has opened a 5th criminal case against him after he CONGRESS HIGHLIGHTS TRADITIONS refused to be exchanged to Russia as an enemy prisoner of OF BYZANTINE CATHOLICS war. He is accused of inciting religious enmity (the same The National Eucharistic Congress and Pilgrimage in the charge brought against a number of bishops), which means US is introducing pilgrims to Byzantine Catholic Eucharistic he made public statements about the Orthodox Church of traditions, with its emphasis on the mystical nature of the Ukraine. If the Ukrainian state continues this tactic, of trying Holy Eucharist. Two Byzantine churches and one Byzantine to rid itself of Orthodox bishops through prisoner exchanges, monastery participated in the pilgrimage, while the congress then the lawyer and his team will be forced to turn to the will offer two opportunities to attend Divine Liturgy.

International Criminal Court, they say. Amsterdam “I think in a world that is moving so fast forward, the Eastwrites:“Father Theodosiy, among others, is being wrongfully ern Catholic Church looks backward, and anytime we go prosecuted. I am told that only through exchange of prisoners backwards, that’s when we get most creative ideas to go forwith the enemy state would the false charges be dropped. He ward,” Father Andrew Summerson, pastor of St. Mary’s is not alone. If this travesty does not cease immediately, we Byzantine Church in Whiting, Indiana, told the Register. will prepare filings before ICC (International Criminal Mike Aquilina, author of The Fathers of the Church: An Court) prosecutors concerning this outrageous behavior and Introduction to the First Christian Teachers and other books bring it to the attention of western allies. Hostage taking and on the early Church, spoke to pilgrims on July 1 at St. Mary’s hate crimes are no way for a government supported by the Byzantine Church, a participating church on the pilgrimage, United States to behave.” about the early Church teachings on the liturgy and the Holy In another case, Metropolitan Jonathan of Tulchin, the Eucharist. only bishop to be convicted so far, with a 5-year prison sen“The liturgy was the most important concern for the first tence, was recently released through the intercession of Pope generation of the Apostolic Fathers,” Aquilina told the RegFrancis at the request of Patriarch Kirill and permitted to ister. “St. Ignatius of Antioch talks about the Eucharist as the travel to Belarus, from where he traveled to Moscow. He was medicine of immortality and the blood of God, so we’re exchanged for several Ukrainian servicemen who were being using these great expressions to fan the flames to restore held by Russia. (OrthoChristian) enthusiasm from when the Eucharist was new in the world.” page 48

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A 2019 Pew Research survey revealed only 31% of primarily Latin Rite U.S. Catholics believed in the Real Presence, but Eastern Christians have historically not shared the Latin Church’s concern about the faithful not fully understanding the Real Presence.

Father Summerson said one reason is the dogma is embedded in the Divine Liturgy through their prayers, fasting, music and the use of incense.

“It’s getting into our muscle memory before it’s getting into our brain cells,” Father Summerson said. (NCRegister)

tinuing policy of concealing the full text, apparently to prevent criticism of the text of the Draft Law and to allow statements by the proponents of Draft Law 8371 to go unchallenged.

The Committee is required to prepare before the vote on the second reading a “Comparative Table” which describes all of the amendments proposed by deputies. Because of the number of proposed amendments, the table was 916 pages in length. If one goes through the entire 916 pages, one finds the full text of the Draft Law, broken into fragments. There appears to be no reason to divide the full text of 8371 into POPE FRAnCIS RECEIVES RUSSIAn separate fragments scattered throughout a 916-page docuORTHODOX METROPOLITAn AnTOnIJ ment, aside from hiding it and making it unlikely for one to Amid the Pope’s countless appeals for peace in the ongoknow that the full text is indeed there. ing war in Ukraine, Pope Francis received Russian Orthodox The Committee on Humanitarian Affairs and InformaMetropolitan Antonij of Volokolamtion Policy revised the conclusion sk in the Vatican on July 11, accordto Draft Law 8371 on Amendments ing to the Holy See Press Office. to Certain Laws of Ukraine ConThis marks the second visit of cerning the Activities of Religious Metropolitan Antonij, the head of the Organizations in Ukraine, which Department for External Relations of makes it impossible for religious the Patriarchate of Moscow, to the organizations to operate in Ukraine Vatican, after his August 5, 2022 that have ties with the Russian Fedvisit, which was part of the ecumenieration. cal contacts between the Pope and the The Committee recommends Patriarchate of Moscow. that the Parliament support the That encounter had followed a draft law as a whole as a law.

Father Mick Kopil, pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in March 16 video conference between According to the Chairman of the Indiana, a parish of the Diocese of Gary, leads a Pope Francis and the Russian Ortho- Valparaiso, Committee, Nikita Poturayev, the procession. Behind him are Bishop Robert McClory of Gary dox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, in adoption of this law will be one of and Father Andrew Summerson, pastor of St. Mary’s Byzantine Church in Whiting. which the Pope invited all Christians the fateful decisions for the devel(photo Laura Ieraci) and Christian pastors to work toward opment of independent Ukraine. peace. (VaticanNews) The heightened degree of obfuscation surrounding the law can be illustrated by the fact that the Rada’s July 18 UKRAInIAn PARLIAMEnT COnTInUES PUSH report is completely silent on an amendment of great signifTO BAn UKRAInIAn ORTHODOX CHURCH icance. The latest amendments delete the requirement for a On July 18, 2024, the Rada’s Committee for Humanitartwo-thirds majority vote for a religious organization to ian and Information Policy met and made certain amendchange its subordination and to make appropriate changes in ments to the text of Draft Law 8371, essentially saying the its charter. Thus, it appears that a simple majority will now Ukrainian Orthodox Church is under Russian domination be sufficient. This change will make it much easier for the and therefore outlawing it. This is the third time that the OCU (Orthodox Church of Ukraine) to cause the transCommittee has made amendments to 8371. The prior fer of parishes from the UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox two occasions were in March and May. As was true in Church). Yet, this extremely important change is March and May, the Committee has not released the concealed and not mentioned in the Rada’s report. latest text of 8371. This appears to be part of a con(Peter Anderson)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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TradiTion and BeauTy

Great music Befits the church of christ …and is actually performed in a few churches... why not all? n BY AURELIO POFIRI A classical music concert in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, Austria

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ecently, I had the opportunity to spend a week in Vienna, Austria’s capital. My first time in Vienna, it was a very interesting visit; I was able to appreciate the city’s great beauty and the many museums that house masterpieces of various types of art by Austrian artists who have become famous worldwide, such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.

I admired the beauty of the Habsburg imperial palaces, visited their tombs, and prayed for them in the Capuchin Crypt.

One thing particularly struck me. While visiting St. Stephen’s Cathedral, a beautiful cathedral right in the center of Vienna, I came across a brochure listing the music to be performed during Mass for each Sunday. This calendar covered February to July 2024, detailing what would be sung each Sunday. It also listed almost weekly organ concerts.

This I found quite unusual since, as an Italian, such a thing is almost unthinkable for us. (I always hope someone can contradict these observations of mine, but these contradictions rarely come because, unfortunately, what I say is based on a brutal observation of reality.)

What also struck me was the quality of the music performed. For example, on the Sunday I was there, the Missa Brevis in D Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was performed with choir and orchestra. The previous Sunday, Franz Schubert’s German Mass was performed, again with the choir and ensembles of the cathedral. A few Sundays before that, Joseph Haydn’s Jugendmass was performed with choir and orchestra.

I could list other Sundays and other composers, like Haydn, Mozart — great Viennese composers obviously — 50

INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

but also important French composers closer to our time, like Jean Langlais, whose Salve Regina Mass was performed.

In short, it seems to me that all this should teach us something important: if there is the will, great music can be performed, at least in cathedrals and basilicas.

This musical repertoire is presented because Vienna -— famously known as “the City of Music” — likely does not experience the strong ideological bent in liturgical matters, held by some currently in power, which dictates that only songs the congregation can sing should be performed.

This notion is not in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, which those same officials so intently defend.

Therefore, it is unquestionably right to give space not only to the congregation, but to the choir, polyphonic music, and Gregorian chant as well. It seems so simple, and it is what the Second Vatican Council advises. Is it worth quoting Sacrosanctum Concilium again? Let’s do it: • The musical tradition of the Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as sacred song united to the words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy. Sacred music is to be considered the more holy in proportion as it is more closely connected with the liturgical action, whether it adds delight to prayer, fosters unity of minds, or confers greater solemnity upon the sacred rites.

• The Church approves of all forms of true art having the needed qualities and admits them into divine worship. (…) The treasure of sacred music is to be preserved and fostered with great care. Choirs must be diligently promoted, especially in cathedral churches. (…)

• The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services. But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded from liturgical celebrations, so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action, as laid down in Article 30. (…)

• In the Latin Church, the pipe organ is to be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional musical instrument which adds a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies and powerfully lifts up man’s mind to God and to higher things. But other instruments also may be admitted for use in divine worship, with the knowledge and consent of the competent territorial authority, as laid down in Articles 22:2, 37, and 40. This may be done, however, only on condition that the instruments are suitable, or can be made suitable, for sacred use, accord with the dignity of the temple, and truly contribute to the edification of the faithful.

Isn’t it clear enough? It seems to me that the Council’s instructions are quite easy to interpret, so it is hard to understand the situation many of us experience in so many — too many — parishes and basilicas. Sacred music is one of the great failures of the post-counciliar era, and unfortunately, it is not the only one. How did we get to where we are today?

This is certainly a great mystery because the idea proposed by the Council was genuinely overturned. The Council proposed that the people could participate more in various ways and that the great treasure of sacred music, which

includes Gregorian chant, classical polyphonic music, modern and contemporary polyphonic music, organ music, and even some compositions involving the orchestra, should be preserved (although I realize that orchestral music is more of a German-Austrian tradition, it could sometimes be allowed).

What we really should ask ourselves is why in many of our churches, cathedrals, and basilicas, the music performed during the liturgy is truly pitiful, even in churches that have the economic means to support a music program worthy of the liturgy and, above all, worthy of the high purpose of the liturgy itself, which is first the glory of God and then the edification of the faithful. We must ask ourselves how we have arrived at the point we are today, a point of great shame, except for some commendable exceptions.

Obviously, Vienna is certainly one of these exceptions, but there are others in other countries; this cannot be denied.

There are many fine music masters and many good priests and bishops who support good sacred music in the Church.

But looking at these examples, we should feel a little bit ashamed, because, even if we as individuals have no direct responsibility for it, as a Church we are denying to so many other parish churches music worthy of the worship of God, which must indeed be worship in holiness and beauty.m *Aurelio Porfiri is an extensively published composer, conductor, writer and educator. He has lived and worked for 7 years in Macau, China and is the founder of the publishing company Chorabooks. Find him on his YouTube channel Ritorno a Itaca and on Facebook.

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

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Of Books, Art and People

Jewish Rome: euRope’s oldest Jewish Community n BY LUCY GORDAn The Tempio Maggiore of Rome was built between 1901 and 1904 on the land obtained by demolishing the most dilapidated areas of the Ghetto. (Wikipedia).

Below, the procession of Jewish slaves carved on the Arch of Titus in Rome's Forum

T

oday, Rome’s Jewish population counts some 15,000 people and a dozen Orthodox synagogues.

The liturgy of the largest and most ornate, Il Tempio Maggiore, follows the Orthodox Italki rite as practiced by Italian Jews since early Roman times. In fact, Jews have lived in Rome for more than 2,000 years, making it the oldest Jewish community in Europe. The first to arrive, in 161 B.C., were diplomatic envoys sent by the Maccabees to establish a treaty with the Roman Senate asking for its protection from persecution by the Seleucid Greeks. The Romans were delighted to help; they couldn’t wait for an excuse to get their hands on Greek territory.

The best way to explore Jewish Rome is by booking one of the many Jewish Rome Tours listed on the internet. The most extensive website is “Roman Jews: See Rome through the Eyes of a Roman Jew” run by Marco Misano, born in Rome in an Orthodox Sephardic family (info@romanjews.com).

Misano’s tours include one for children, another with Roman Jewish cooking lessons, and still others of Jewish symbolism in Michelangelo’s art in the 52 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

Vatican, and of Jewish catacombs.

Others contacts are Micaela Pavoncello, www.jewishroma.com, or David Walden at “Jewish Rome Tours.”

You’ll learn that after the Maccabees, the tables turned when Rome invaded Judaea a century later. The first members of Rome’s permanent Jewish community arrived in 61 B.C. as Pompey’s enslaved prisoners-of-war, even if they retained the right to regain their freedom. A century later, after the Emperor Titus destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., Rome’s numerous Jewish newcomers were again all slaves, who helped build the Colosseum, and lived across the Tiber in today’s Trastevere neighborhood.

With the rise of Christianity some Popes were quite tolerant of the Jews; others were not, such as Pope Paul IV, who founded Rome’s ghetto in 1556. After 1492, when Spain expelled the Jews who refused to convert, they came to Rome.

So did the Jews in Sicily, then under Spanish rule. Rome’s Jewish population doubled to c.

5,000 people. The terrified Pope forced them to live together behind three gates locked at night in a malarial- and flood-prone six acres on the Tiber’s left bank. Previously merchants,

bankers, physicians, craftspio Maggiore, built between men, and papal servants, for 1901-4. In 1986 Pope John over three hundred years Paul II was the first Pope to Rome’s Jews were forced to visit here; Benedict XVI visitwear yellow scarves and outed in 2010, and Francis in landish yellow hats, were 2016. In its basement is prohibited from owning Rome’s Jewish Museum, conproperty, and were forbidden taining tombstones from Roto work except as rag or secman catacombs and Ostia’s ond-hand items sellers and historic synagogue, decorative money lenders. and liturgical items dating Because of their overback centuries, and Jewish obcrowded quarters, friggitori, jects and documentation from (1513-1521) was among the Popes who tolerated the presence or fry shops, were set up in Leoof XJews more recent Roman history. in Rome, and right, Paul IV (1555-1559) among the more the streets for families withOther Jewish sights in hostile. In 1555 he founded Rome’s ghetto.

Below, Rome’s ghetto wasn’t demolished until 1870 out kitchens. These gave birth Rome are outside the ghetto: when Italy was unified and King Victor Emanuel II granted to carciofi alla giudia, fiori di the menorah carved on the the Jews full Italian citizenship zucca and filetti di baccalà, Arch of Titus in the Roman deep-fried artichokes, zucchini flowers Forum; and five Jewish catacombs, beand salt cod fillets, still the most popular lieved by scholars to predate the Christian Roman Jewish dishes — like the populaones by at least a century (Villa Torlonia, tion, of predominantly Sephardic roots.

Vigna Apoloni, Vigna Cimarra, Vigna Rome’s ghetto wasn’t demolished until Randanini, and Monteverde).

1870 when Italy was unified and King To stay or eat in the ghetto: two of Victor Emanuel II granted the Jews full Rome’s five kascèr (kosher) bed and Italian citizenship. One named Ernesto breakfasts are on the Portico d’Ottavia.

Nathan was elected mayor of Rome in Also here are several kascèr restaurants, 1907 and is famous for the phrase “non all good, although my favorites are La c’è trippa per gatti” when he abolished Taverna del Ghetto for its medieval atpayments for tripe to feed Rome’s numermosphere, and around the corner on Piazous stray cats from the city’s strained za Cenci, Yotvata, which takes its name budget. Another, Luigi Luzzati, was from the oasis in present-day Israel where briefly Prime Minister from 1910-11, and ironically the Jews first stopped after leaving Egypt with Moses. several Jews were close advisors to Mussolini before Il For Kascèr sweets head to Marlene’s Kosher GelateDuce enforced Hitler’s 1938 racial laws. ria, the “Antico Forno del Ghetto.” Its specialties, a kind The King had also given the Jews the right to live of “Jewish Strudel” of candied fruits, almonds, raisins wherever they wished, but many chose to remain in and pine nuts called “pizza ebraica” or “tronchetto,” and their close-knit neighborhood with its centuries of traits almond and cinnamon biscuits were favorites of dition. This led to the dark- In 1986, John Paul II met Rome’s Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff, highlighting the Benedict XVI. est episode in local Jewish Vatican’s efforts “to offer refuge and safety to so many Jews of Rome” in Nearby are another three Church institutions, even the Vatican itself, during Nazi occupation history commemorated with even better-known “Jewish,” several on-site wall plaques. but not kascèr restaurants: On October 16, 1943, the Evangelista, famous for its Nazi German occupiers carciofi al mattone (artirounded up Jews throughout chokes squashed between Rome, gathering at the ghettwo bricks and baked, a fato. From the Piazza Portico vorite dish of Karol Cardinal d’Ottavia, 2,091 were deWojtyla before his election ported to death camps in as Pope), Dal Pompiere and Germany and Poland; only Piperno, already famous 16 returned. with foreign tourists when The ghetto’s main sight is the ghetto was still locked at the already-mentioned Temnight.m SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN 53

EDUCATION

Building up the ChurCh — One VirtuOus WOrker at a time! n BY DR. JACOB IMAM, FOUnDER, COLLEGE OF ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER

The College of St. Joseph the Worker: contact the College for more information or to schedule a visit at www.collegeofstjoseph. com, tel. 740-280-2028, or 424 Washington Street, Steubenville, OH 43952

S

everal years ago I was at lunch with a dear friend.

At the time he was working in admissions at a university in the South and was feeling guilt-ridden about his sales pitch. He was telling families and prospective students that the college degree was financially worthwhile and that the education was, in and of itself, good. Like him, I think it’s incumbent upon us to question both of those claims.

On the financial side, it’s well documented that the average college graduate will out-earn the person without a college degree. But this data point is almost meaningless as it compares all jobs across the board — from engineering to delivering pizza — as if those jobs were equal in terms of the skill level required. In reality, the average person who is seriously considering college is comparing the value of the degree to the value of just starting a true career without the degree – in something like the skilled trades.

In that context, we find that the average plumber and electrician will always out-earn that average college graduate. The median skilled tradesman will actually have a greater net worth than the median college graduate through their mid-fifties — and all that without ever having faced student loans.

What about education? Is education in itself worthwhile?

With the exception of a handful of wonderful colleges and universities, education in general has lost its way.

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Real teaching demands authority and discipline. And in our current context, these have been replaced with grade inflation and student coddling. But worse, by far, is that the very existence of truth itself is questioned. Education becomes an exercise in political correctness and the most boring (and insidious) forms of conformity.

So what are we to do?

First and foremost, we cannot give up on higher education. The Catholic Church founded the very first universities for a particular reason: to teach priests how to proclaim the gospel. The universities originally taught the next generation to enjoy divine truths and to instantiate them in the world. This noble end we cannot abandon.

But we need a new model. We need a model that provides valuable education and training, without miring students in financial debt for years, sometimes decades, after graduation.

EXPLORInG DIGnIFIED WORK As my friend and I were having these initial conversations, him bemoaning his current job and me wondering about my future life as a professor, different models for education started to take rough shape in our minds — models for ensuring students wouldn’t end up in a financially crippling situation after graduation.

We found a definitive answer, taught by the same Catholic tradition that founded the first universities: the love and reverence for labor.

The ancients hated work. Among the Greeks, you actuly because the trades can offer substantial mitigation of ally find city-states like Sparta and Thebes having laws on many causes of this current “age of anxiety.” the books forbidding citizens from engaging in manual For one thing, widespread financial anxiety, often labor. Though Athens didn’t have similar laws, perhaps stemming from debt, is tempting young people to put off her most beloved son, Aristotle, wrote in his Politics that marriage or children or home buying. Since one actually citizens should not become tradesmen, for that life, he gets paid to train in the trades, people can escape part of said, is ignoble and inimical to the life of virtue. this worry, enabling them to start their adult life sooner.

Rome wasn’t much better. Historians like Livy and Secondly, we live in a rather opaque technological Gellius said that Romans shouldn’t be, and sometimes world. So many of us have no idea how the structures and weren’t allowed to be, tradesmen. And the great Roman systems we depend on for our everyday existence actually Consul Cicero wrote that work. So we begin to think that tradesmen worked in a “vulthey control us rather than that gar” profession, for there was we control them. There is an nothing “respectable” about a anxiety that arises from this workshop. notion. In the trades, one The Greeks hated work. begins to grasp how our physThe Romans hated work. And ical world functions, alleviatinto this Greco-Roman world, ing anxiety through a fuller the Word became flesh and understanding of the order of spent most of the years of his the material world. life at a carpenter’s bench.

Third, many of us don’t see In Laborem exercens, Pope a tangible difference made in Saint John Paul II wrote: our world as a result of our “Christianity brought about a labor. So many of us who fundamental change of ideas Christ in the House of His Parents, painting by John Everett Millais spend our days looking at a in this field, taking the whole computer screen don’t have “CHRIST SPENT MOST OF HIS YEARS AT A content of the gospel message that wonderful benefit the as its point of departure, espetradesman has of being able, CARPENTER’S BENCH” cially the fact that the one who, at the end of each day, to take while being God, became like us in all things, devoted a step back and admire the work that he’s accomplished. most of the years of his life on earth to manual work at the Lastly, our modern transient lifestyle can be another carpenter’s bench.” (Par. 26) source of anxiety; we are rootless. But the trades are genChrist’s life threw political dynamite into the middle of erally practiced in one’s own community; they are almost the pagan social order. And his life became a model for all “move-proof.” You can’t export the necessary practices of of his followers in every way, including in the realm of building or plumbing or wiring to China or Mexico. labor.

Tradesmen have a real chance of setting down roots in one I’m not just thinking about Saint Paul, seeing his career place, living close to family and friends forever — mainas a tentmaker as an intrinsic part of his missionary activtaining bonds of love and loyalty that our society often ity. I’m also thinking about the first monasteries in Europe sacrifices so readily. where the integration between the chapel, the library, and the fields in the life of the monk became the model for the THE AnSWER: THE TRADE COLLEGE development of Catholic higher education.

In founding the College of Saint Joseph the Worker, we To imitate Christ, we, too, must integrate the intellechave fully rejected the idea that college has to be a finantual and the spiritual life with the physical work of man. cially crippling extension of adolescence. Instead, we The union of the head, the heart, and the hands is fundabelieve that college ought to be the formation of the mental to the gospel, as it is the very same integrity that Catholic adult to know, love and serve God in all aspects the Son assumed at his Incarnation. Christ, who reveals of the lay vocation — family, workplace, and society. It humanity to itself, reveals that the humble worker is not ought to combine the robust Catholic intellectual tradition merely respectable, but is the very archetype of humanity. with skilled training, rejecting the false dichotomy The world grumbles at this disruptive revelation: “Where between the head and the hands. Instead, we need to teach did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is our students to lead both active and contemplative lives. not this the carpenter?” (Mark 6:3).

Students of the College of St. Joseph the Worker will graduate with a BA in Catholic Studies as well as a solid EXAMInInG COnTEMPORARY CHALLEnGES foundation in the skilled trades. Our goal is to produce Our modern universities do not value this great Chrisfaithful Christians who are virtuous citizens, intellectualtian insight. They prefer the pagan neglect and, at worst, ly formed, and capable of building up the Church in their disdain for manual labor. This is a great loss — particularcommunities.m SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

55

THE END EXCERPTS fRom LoRD of THE WoRLD

“RomE iS gonE. noW WE muST buiLD SomETHing bETTER” MORE THEN 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 Prologue to 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… pre-

LORD OF THE WORLD

BY ROBERT HUGH BENSON (1907) BOOK II, THE EnCOUnTER, CHAPTER VII, SECTIOn II; CHAPTER VIII, SECTIOn I (Note: The government has unleashed destruction and murder on the Catholic Church in England — and then Rome — in response to a deliberately falsified report of Catholic-perpetrated violence. “There comes a point,” remarked a London newspaper, “when destruction is the only cure for a vermininfested house.” London’s citizens have become an angry mob, while government official Oliver Brand and his Catholic wife resolve to look to the new “savior” and the future he promises.

“You must face it,” Oliver says to her. “It is over. Rome is gone. Now we must build something better.”)

I

t struck midnight from the clock-tower a mile away as they yet sat and talked. She was still tremulous from the struggle; but she looked at him smiling, still holding his hands. He saw that the reaction was upon her in full force at last.

“The New Year, my husband,” she said, and rose as she said it, drawing him after her.

“I wish you a happy New Year,” she said. “Oh help me, Oliver.”

She kissed him, and drew back, still holding his hands, looking at him with bright tearful eyes.

“Oliver,” she cried again, “I must tell you this…. Do you know what I thought before you came?”

He shook his head, staring at her greedily. How sweet she was! He felt her grip tighten on his hands.

“I thought I could not bear it,” she whispered—”that I must end it all—ah! you know what I mean.”

His heart flinched as he heard her; and he drew her closer again to himself.

“It is all over! it is all over,” she cried. “Ah! do not look like that!

I could not tell you if it was not.”‘ As their lips met again there came the vibration of an elec56

INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

dicting the 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 the book, saying its clarification of the danger of a type of humanitarianism without God is a true danger that we do face, we print a selection from it in ITV, now and in the months ahead.

tric bell from the next room, and Oliver, knowing what it meant, felt even in that instant a tremor shake his heart. He loosed her hands, and still smiled at her.

“The bell!” she said, with a flash of apprehension.

“But it is all well between us again?”

Her face steadied itself into loyalty and confidence.

“It is all well,” she said; and again the impatient bell tingled. “Go, Oliver; I will wait here.”

A minute later he was back again, with a strange look on his white face, and his lips compressed. He came straight up to her, taking her once more by the hands, and looking steadily into her steady eyes. In the hearts of both of them resolve and faith were holding down the emotion that was not yet dead.

He drew a long breath.

“Yes,” he said in an even voice, “it is over.”

Her lips moved; and that deadly paleness lay on her cheeks. He gripped her firmly.

“Listen,” he said. “You must face it. It is over. Rome is gone. Now we must build something better.”

She threw herself sobbing into his arms.

CHAPTER VIII, SECTIOn I Long before dawn on the first morning of the New Year the approaches to the Abbey were already blocked. Victoria Street, Great George Street, Whitehall—even Millbank Street itself—were full and motionless. Broad Sanctuary, divided by the low-walled motor-track, was itself cut into great blocks and wedges of people by the ways which the police kept open for the passage of important personages, and Palace Yard was kept rigidly clear except for one island, occupied by a stand which was itself full from top to bottom and end to end. All roofs and parapets which commanded a view of the Abbey were also one mass of heads. Overhead, like solemn moons, burned the white lights of the electric globes.

It was not known at exactly what hour the tumult had steadied itself to definite purpose, except to a few weary controllers of the temporary turnstiles which had been erected the

God as depicted by British poet William Blake as the “architect of creation,” now in the British Museum, London

evening before. It had been announced a week previously that, in consideration of the enormous demand for seats, all persons who presented their worship-ticket at an authorized office, and followed the directions issued by the police, would be accounted as having fulfilled the duties of citizenship in that respect, and it was generally made known that it was the Government’s intention to toll the great bell of the Abbey at the beginning of the ceremony and at the incensing of the image, during which period silence must be as far as possible preserved by all those within hearing.

London had gone completely mad on the announcement of the Catholic plot on the afternoon before. The secret had leaked out about fourteen o’clock, an hour after the betrayal of the scheme to Mr. Snowford; and practically all commercial activities had ceased on the instant. By fifteen-and-a-half all stores were closed, the Stock Exchange, the City offices, the West End establishments—all had as by irresistible impulse suspended business, and from within two hours after noon until nearly midnight, when the police had been adequately reinforced and enabled to deal with the situation, whole mobs and armies of men, screaming squadrons of women, troops of frantic youths, had paraded the streets, howling, denouncing, and murdering. It was not known how many deaths had taken place, but there was scarcely a street without the signs of outrage. Westminster Cathedral had been sacked, every altar overthrown, indescribable indignities performed there. An unknown priest had scarcely been able to consume the Blessed Sacrament before he was seized and throttled; the Archbishop with eleven priests and two bishops had been hanged at the north end of the church, thirty-five convents had been destroyed, St. George’s Cathedral burned to the ground; and it was reported even, by the evening papers, that it was believed that, for the first time since the introduction of Christianity into England, there was not one Tabernacle left within twenty miles of the Abbey. “London,” explained the New People, in huge headlines, “was cleansed at last of dingy and fantastic nonsense.”

It was known at about fifteen-and-a-half o’clock that at least seventy volors had left for Rome, and half-an-hour later that Berlin had reinforced them by sixty more. At midnight, fortunately at a time when the police had succeeded in shepherding the crowds into some kind of order, the news was flashed on to cloud and placard alike that the grim work was done, and that Rome had ceased to exist. The early morning papers added a few details, pointing out, of course, the coincidence of the fall with the close of the year, relating how, by an astonishing chance, practically all the heads of the hierarchy throughout the world had been assembled in the Vatican which had been the first object of attack, and how these, in desperation, it was supposed, had refused to leave the City when the news came by wireless telegraphy that the punitive force was on its way. There was not a building left in Rome; the entire place, Leonine City, Trastevere, suburbs—everything was gone; for the volors, poised at an immense height, had parcelled out the City beneath them with extreme care, before beginning to drop the explosives; and five minutes

after the first roar from beneath and the first burst of smoke and flying fragments, the thing was finished. The volors had then dispersed in every direction, pursuing the motor and railtracks along which the population had attempted to escape so soon as the news was known; and it was supposed that not less than thirty thousand belated fugitives had been annihilated by this foresight. It was true, remarked the Studio, that many treasures of incalculable value had been destroyed, but this was a cheap price to pay for the final and complete extermination of the Catholic pest.

“There comes a point,” it remarked, “when destruction is the only cure for a vermininfested house,” and it proceeded to observe that now that the Pope with the entire College of Cardinals, all the ex-Royalties of Europe, all the most frantic religionists from the inhabited world who had taken up their abode in the “Holy City” were gone at a stroke, a recrudescence of the superstition was scarcely to be feared elsewhere. Yet care must even now be taken against any relenting. Catholics (if any were left bold enough to attempt it) must no longer be allowed to take any kind of part in the life of any civilized country. So far as messages had come in from other countries, there was but one chorus of approval at what had been done.

A few papers regretted the incident, or rather the spirit which had lain behind it. It was not seemly, they said, that Humanitarians should have recourse to violence; yet not one pretended that anything could be felt but thanksgiving for the general result. Ireland, too, must be brought into line; they must not dally any longer. ***** It was now brightening slowly towards dawn, and beyond the river through the faint wintry haze a crimson streak or two began to burn. But all was surprisingly quiet, for this crowd, tired out with an all-night watch, chilled by the bitter cold, and intent on what lay before them, had no energy left for useless effort. Only from packed square and street and lane went up a deep, steady murmur like the sound of the sea a mile away, broken now and again by the hoot and clang of a motor and the rush of its passage as it tore eastwards round the circle through Broad Sanctuary and vanished citywards. And the light broadened and the electric globes sickened and paled, and the haze began to clear a little, showing, not the fresh blue that had been hoped for from the cold of the night, but a high, colorless vault of cloud, washed with gray and faint rose-color, as the sun came up, a ruddy copper disc, beyond the river. ***** At nine o’clock the excitement rose a degree higher. The police between Whitehall and the Abbey, looking from their high platforms strung along the route, whence they kept watch and controlled the wire palisadings, showed a certain activity, and a minute later a police-car whirled through the square between the palings, and vanished round the Abbey towers. The crowd murmured and shuffled and began to expect, and a cheer was raised when a moment later four more cars appeared, bearing the Government insignia, and disappeared in the same direction. These were the officials, they said, going to Dean’s Yard, where the procession would assemble.m (to be continued) SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 INSIDE THE VATICAN

57

VATICAN WATCH

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

JUNE SUNDAY 2

POPE FRANCIS JOINS IN CORPUS CHRISTI CELEBRATION IN ROME FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2019 Pope Francis gave a solemn blessing with the Blessed Sacrament from the steps of the Basilica of St. Mary Major on June 2 in the culmination of a Eucharistic procession through the streets of Rome.

“We are not doing this to show off, or to flaunt our faith," said Pope Francis in his homily before the procession, "but to invite everyone to participate in the bread of the Eucharist, in the new life that Jesus has given us."

It was the first time that Pope Francis participated in Corpus Christi celebrations in Rome in years. Health issues, and then Covid restrictions, prevented the Pope from participating in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. (CNA)

cial media accounts will receive a “Silver NFT” through which they can access a special collection of high-resolution images of 15 manuscripts of the library.

Financial supporters of the project, instead, will receive a “Gold NFT” giving them access to high-resolution images of all 21 manuscripts in the special collection. (CNA) THURSDAY 20

POPE TO SCIENTISTS: HARMONIZE FAITH AND SCIENCE IN THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH Pope Francis on June 20 addressed participants at the second conference of the Vatican Specola (Observatory) which focused on the theme of “Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, and Space-Time Singularities.”

The Holy Father warmly welcomed all those present by paying homage to Archbishop George Lemaître, to whom the scientists’ conference was dedicated.

Pope Francis noted that the scientific value of the Belgian priest and WEDNESDAY 12 cosmologist has been recognised by VATICAN COMMEMORATES the International Astronomical 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF PIUS Union, which, he noted, “has decided XII’S 1944 MEETING WITH that the well-known Hubble law ALLIED TROOPS should more properly be called the Bagpipers solemnly marched Hubble-Lemaître law.” through St. Peter’s Square on June 12 In his address, Pope Francis noted, to mark the 80th anniversary of a his“Faith and science can be united in To commemorate t80th anniversary of Pius XII’s 1944 toric meeting between Pope Pius XII charity if science is put at the service meeting with allied troops, the Royal Irish Regiment and Allied troops who liberated performed for Pope Francis during his General Audience of the men and women of our time, Rome from Nazi occupation. and not distorted to their detriment or On June 12, 1944, Pius XII gave an enthusiastic speech in even destruction.” (VaticanNews) English thanking the members of the 38th (Irish) Brigade as SATURDAY 22 he welcomed them to the Vatican.

POPE FRANCIS MEETS WITH RUSSIAN To commemorate the historic moment, the Royal Irish AMBASSADOR TO THE VATICAN Regiment and 38th (Irish) Brigade performed for Pope FranPope Francis on June 22 met with Ivan Soltanovsky, Ruscis during his general audience. sia’s ambassador to the Holy See, in their first meeting since Ambassador Chris Trott, the British ambassador to the Soltanovsky presented his diplomatic letters to the pontiff Holy See, pointed out that the brigade’s pipe band played the last September. same tune at the exact same time as their forebears did in St. Soltanovsky, a 69-year-old career diplomat, was appointPeter’s Square 80 years ago. (CNA) ed to his current role in May 2023.

MONDAY 17 Soltanovsky told Russia’s official Tass News Agency earVATICAN LIBRARY TO AWARD NFTS TO DONORS lier in June that the Holy See remains one of the few global IN “EXPERIMENTAL PROJECT” players who favor diplomacy, peace, and dialogue based on The Vatican library announced on June 17 that it will exmutual respect and consideration of interests. pand its use of Web3 technologies by awarding nontransfer“In a situation where traditional methods of building able NFTs (nonfungible tokens) to supporters of its manupeace no longer work, the Vatican has tirelessly been looking script collections. for new ways and opportunities and is willing, as Pope FranFor the time being, the project, considered “experimencis said, to ‘think out of the box,’” the Russian diplomat told tal,” only applies to Italian donors to the Vatican Apostolic Tass.

Library. A trial was first launched in Japan in February 2023.

Pope Francis has condemned Russia’s war of aggression According to the library, which preserves roughly and called for peace in Ukraine on numerous occasions, even 180,000 manuscripts and more than 1.5 million printed offering to act as a mediator between the two countries. books, Italians who share about the NFT project on their so(CNA) 58 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

For the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, fireworks were launched from atop Castel Sant’Angelo.

Below, St. Peter's Square. Marian prayer vigil with the recitation of the Rosary led by Pope Francis on the occasion of the Marian Jubilee.

Present: the very ancient image of the Blessed Virgin Mary Salus Populi Romani (Photo Grzegorz Galazka)

SATURDAY 29

VATICAN FIREWORKS: A 500YEAR-OLD TRADITION FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF STS. PETER AND PAUL For the past 500 years, the Vatican has celebrated the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul with a bang with a spectacular fireworks show influenced by Michelangelo and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Each year on June 29, fireworks are launched from atop Castel Sant’Angelo, the papal fortress originally commissioned by Roman Emperor Hadrian, in celebration of the co-patron saints of Rome, St. Peter and St. Paul. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York has multiple images of the Vatican fireworks in its collection, including a 1579 etching by Giovanni Ambrogio Brambilla of Castel Sant’Angelo bursting with flames at every level as a crowd looks on from the relative safety of the other side of the Tiber River. (CNA)

JULY FRIDAY 5

VATICAN APPROVES FAMED MARIAN APPEARANCE AMID BACKLOG OF ALLEGED APPARITIONS In mid-May, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) published a new expedited procedure for vetting spiritual phenomena in which things such as alleged Marian apparitions will no longer be judged “supernatural,” but simply that nothing stands in the way to promoting devotion.

Less than a month later, the Vatican issued a ruling on Italy’s “bleeding Madonna” in Trevignano Romano, where since 2016 Gisella Cardia has claimed that a statue of Mary she bought in Medjugorje has been bleeding from the eyes, while Mary has been giving her private revelations.

On June 27, after a local diocesan investigation, the Vatican ruled that the Trevignano Madonna was “not supernatural,” and forbade spreading devotion.

Then the DDF on July 5 issued Nihil obstat rulings on two other alleged Marian apparitions, “Mary Mystical Rose” in Brescia, and “Our Lady of the Rock” in Santa Domenica, Placanica.

The DDF said of the Brescia phenomena that “no elements in the messages spread by Pierina Gilli… directly contradict the teaching of the Catholic Church on faith and morals.”

Our Lady of the Rock is a spiritual occurrence in Santa Domenica di Placanica, Italy, where in 1968 alleged visionary Brother Cosimo Gragomeni, then an 18-year-old shepherd, had visions of Mary. (Crux)

THURSDAY 11

ST. PETER'S BASILICA HIRES TWO WOMEN TO ITS ELITE TEAM OF ARTISANS The Fabbrica di San Pietro, the office responsible for the upkeep of St. Peter’s Basilica, has a special team of about 80 people who are in charge of the cleaning, maintenance, surveillance and reception services at the world's largest Christian church.

The “sanpietrini” are made up of carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers, blacksmiths, plasterers, decorators, sculptors, stone cutters, scaffolders and general laborers.

Two new female hires, who are 26 and 21 years old and from Italy, are recent graduates of the basilica's recently relaunched School of Fine Arts and Traditional Trades where they specialized in masonry and decorative and ornamental plastering.

They are the first women “sanpietrini” in the Fabbrica’s 500-year history. (NCReporter) WEDNESDAY 17

POPE MARKS 1500 YEARS OF VENERATION OF ANCIENT MARIAN IMAGE July 17, 2024, marks the 1500th anniversary of the veneration of the image of Santa Maria in Portico–Romanae Portus Securitatis, or protector of the Eternal City.

“This happy occasion,” the Pope wrote in a letter to Fr Antonio Piccolo, Rector General of the Order of the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God, “is for me a joyful opportunity to join in prayer with your religious Family, to whom the custody has been entrusted since 1601.”

Devotion to Santa Maria in Portico began with a miraculous appearance of the Mother of God on July 17, 524, in the home of Santa Galla, a Roman noblewoman, witnessed by Pope Saint John I, who transformed the Portico into a Marian Sanctuary and a charity hospice. (VaticanNews) THURSDAY 25

RUINS OF CENTURIES-OLD PALACE THAT HOUSED DOZENS OF POPES DISCOVERED IN ROME Archaeologists in Rome have unearthed the medieval-era walls of a palace that housed the papacy for hundreds of years, between roughly the 4th and 14th centuries.

The site was found during infrastructural improvements in the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, which is slated to host the Catholic Jubilee, a major pilgrimage event, in 2025.

“This is an extraordinarily important find for the city of Rome and its medieval history, as no extensive archaeological excavations have ever been carried out in the square in modern times,” says the Italian Ministry of Culture in a statement, per a translation by Reuters’ Alessandro Parodi.

(SmithsonianMagazine)n SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER INSIDE THE VATICAN 59

PEOPLE B M Y

ATTHEW TROJACEK with G. Galazka photos

POPE APPOINTS NEW BISHOP OF HANGZHOU IN CHINA On Saturday, June 22, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Giuseppe Yang Yongqiang as bishop of Hangzhou, China, as part of the Vatican-China agreement still in force.

Bishop Yang was born on April 11, 1970, in Boxing (Shandong), into a Catholic family. In 1987, he entered the Holy Spirit Seminary in Jinan; in 1995 he was ordained a priest.

Bishop Yang related “My father presented me to Father Li Chonglun, the diocesan head, and said, ‘Today I hand this boy over to the Church. I will not rest in peace until he is ordained.’...The day after my priestly ordination by Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian, I received a phone call informing me that my father had just died. I burst into tears. His words were like those of Simeon in the Gospel of Luke, also cited in the Compline prayers: ‘Now, Lord, you may dismiss thy servant in peace, according to thy word…’” (VaticanNews)

JÉRÔME LEJEUNE: FREE SCIENTIST AND DEFENDER OF HUMAN DIGNITY

POPE APPOINTS FORMER SECRETARY TO BENEDICT XVI IN BALTIC COUNTRIES AS NUNCIO On the morning of Monday, June 24, the Holy See Press Office announced the appointment of Monsignor Georg Gänswein as the new papal nuncio to the Baltic countries, namely Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia.

This appointment, made a year after his expulsion from the Vatican and subsequent relocation to Germany, places the former secretary of Benedict XVI in an unfamiliar field: diplomacy.

Archbishop Gänswein’s career has not been related to this area, nor is he an ex alumnus of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, where papal nuncios are trained. In Latvia, 26.2% of the population is Catholic (about 500,000 Latvians); in Lithuania, 77% of the population is Catholic (1.5 million people); and in Estonia, 1% of the population is Catholic (a little over 5,000 people). (Zenit)

The quality of a civilization is measured by the respect it has for its weakest members. There are no other criteria for judgment.” These are the words of the servant of God Jérôme Lejeune, a medical geneticist and the first president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), which for Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, current leader of the PAV, condense “the importance and relevance of his research and his teaching on a scientific and human level.” The prelate recalled this while introducing the presentation event for the book Jérôme Lejeune: The Freedom of the Scientist, by Aude Dugast, held June 14 at Palazzo San Callisto in Rome, the headquarters of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

In the presence of the author of the biography, which he defines as “precious and complete,” and recently translated into Italian, Monsignor Paglia emphasizes that Lejeune, discoverer of Trisomy 21 as the cause of Down syndrome, was “a forerunner” of the new path started by Saint John Paul II in the life of the Church, marked by attention to the importance of defending and promoting human life.

Paglia uses the words of Pope Francis to say that “Jérôme Lejeune in his work as a geneticist has provided valid and modern tools to combat the all too widespread culture of waste that affects the fragile and the weak, and among all the elderly and children.” For this reason, he continues, “I like to think that Jérôme Lejeune today is at our side, at the side of the Pope, in reaffirming the precious and inviolable dignity of every human being, always, especially when they are innocently affected by a genetic syndrome.” (VaticanNews)

ROME TAKES HISTORIC STEP TOWARDS “FULL COMMUNION” WITH CONSERVATIVE ANGLICANS The Vatican is taking historic strides towards achieving “full communion” with Anglicans who do not ordain female priests. It is doing so by recognizing Anglican holy orders and churches, but not requiring them to merge with or convert to Roman Catholicism.

“We are scheduled to begin our talks at the Vatican this coming September 26-27,” Bishop Ray Sutton, presiding bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church in the U.S., announced in an Ecumenical Relations Task Force Report of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) College of Bishops.

60 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

Pope Benedict XVI previously established ordinariates in 2009 in the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus as a means of receiving converted Anglican priests or laity into the Roman Church. Most Anglican priests were reordained unless they could prove they had been validly ordained as Anglicans. (TheStream) FAITH AMID BOMBS: PRIESTS MINISTER TO CHRISTIANS IN BORDER TOWNS OF LEBANON AND ISRAEL Father Rody Noura, 37, a Maronite priest, drives every day from his home in Acre, Israel, to visit his parishioners—about 4,000—in the Jewish towns of northern Israel. Like him, they are all Lebanese, having arrived in May 2000 after the Israeli army withdrew from Lebanon.

“It is possible to move around fairly safely, although sometimes you see missile explosions,” he told CNA. “When I leave, I say to the Lord: ‘Today, too, I am going out to do Your will. Whether I return home depends on You.’”

CARLO ACUTIS AND 14 BLESSEDS APPROVED FOR CANONIZATION At the July 1 Vatican Consistory of Cardinals, Cardinal Marcelo Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints, presented a brief report on the lives and miracles of the 15 people approved their canonization.

The largest group of new Saints were martyred in Damascus, Syria, in 1860 and are known as the “Martyrs of Damascus.”

They include Father Manuel Ruiz López, OFM, his seven companions, and the brothers Abdel-Moati, Francis, and Raphael Massabki, three Maronite laymen.

All 11 were murdered as they prayed in a Damascus church the night of July 9 during the 1860 Syrian Civil War, which saw thousands of Christians killed in Ottoman Syria by Muslim militiamen.

Two Italians — Father Giuseppe Allamano, 20th-century founder of the Consolata MIssionaries, and Sister Elena Guerra, 19th-century founder of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit — were also approved for canonization.

The Consistory approved the canonization of a Canadian-born religious, Sister Marie-Léonie Paradis (born Virginie-Alodie Paradis), who founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family in the early 20th century.

The Consistory then approved the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis (photo above left) the first “millennial” saint, likely to take place during the 2025 Jubilee. (VaticanNews)

LOURDES BISHOP WANTS TO TEAR DOWN RUPNIK MOSAICS — BUT NOT YET The bishop of Lourdes said July 2 that he personally believes that the Marian shrine’s mosaics by alleged abuser Father Marko Rupnik should be removed but is holding off on making a final decision on the mosaics’ fate in the face of “strong opposition.”

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes issued a statement on July 2 explaining that more time is needed “to discern what should be done,” as his belief that Rupnik’s mosaics should be torn down “would not be sufficiently understood” and “would add even more division and violence” at this moment.

Meanwhile, after a review process, the Knights of Columbus have announced that they will cover in fabric the mosaic artwork of Fr. Marko Rupnik, installed in 2015 in worship spaces at the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., and in the Holy Family Chapel at the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut — pending the decision of the DDF on the artist’s sexual abuse cases.

“Our first concern must be for victims of sexual abuse,” Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly said July 11.

(CNA and CatholicHerald)

Father Sandy Habib, 45, is the Maronite parish priest of Jish, an Israeli Arab village a few kilometers from the Lebanese border, with a population of 3,000, 60-65% of whom are Christians (Maronites and Melkites).

“The hope that Jesus Christ gives us enables me to continue living in this place. We need peace, justice, and love, and that’s possible only through Jesus Christ,” Habib said.

On the Lebanon side of the border, Father Toufic Bou Mehri, 55, superior of the Franciscan convent in Tyre, is the “itinerant pastor” for the Latin Rite faithful scattered in the villages of southern Lebanon. Every Sunday he travels 70 kilometers to Deir Mimas, four kilometers from the Israeli border, opposite the town of Metulla. At 11:30, he celebrates Mass for the few remaining faithful. “We have never missed a Sunday,” he said.

“People call me ‘father.’ To live as a parish priest, I can’t lose this bond of fatherhood. They are my children. I can’t leave them without Mass and sacraments; I can’t leave them alone.”(CNA)m

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER INSIDE THE VATICAN 61

Food FoR THoUGHT n BY MOTHER MARTHA

S

with garlic, parsley and mint, but not ince the artichoke, carciofo in fried.

Italian, is the cornerstone of In fact, in 1570 Bartolomeo Roman Jewish cuisine, it yTH OTAny And IsTORy Scappi (1500-1577), private chef to seemed an appropriate accompaniPope Pius V (r. 1566-72) published in Rome the first recipe ment to this issue’s “Jewish Rome: Europe’s Oldest Comfor artichokes in his six-volume illustrated Opera of the munity” (see pages 52-53).

Culinary Arts. He suggested stuffing them with a mixture According to Greek myth, the artichoke owes its exisof veal, ham, cheese, eggs, spices, garlic and herbs. tence to the philandering Zeus. During a visit to his brother Another Roman artichoke event took place in April Poseidon, Zeus spotted a gorgeous young girl, Cynara, 1697 when Prince Borghese organized a grand reception in bathing on a beach. He fell in love with her at first sight, sehonor of Pope Innocent XII (r. 1691-1700) at which 3,400 duced her, proclaimed her a goddess, and took her back artichokes were served. with him to Mount Olympus. Cynara, however, was lonely Still another amusing artichoke anecdote concerns Anthere; she missed her mother very badly and soon kept gelo Valiani, a farmer from southern Tuscany, sneaking back home. Zeus was so infuriated who at the end of the 19th century made a that he banished her and turned her into an arname for himself in Rome as “the master of tichoke, hence the name Cynar for the Italian the cold buffet” for his specialty carciofini artichoke-based after-dinner liqueur. sott’olio or peeled artichokes preserved in a Botanically-speaking artichokes are memjar of olive oil. His invention made him a bers of the aster Asteraceae) family (also wealthy man so, out of thanks, when his son known as Compositae), which includes carwas born, he wanted to name him “Carciofidoons or thistles, various chicories and tarno.” When the priest refused to baptize the ragon, along with sunflowers, chrysanthebaby with a non-Christian name, Valiani mums, and chamomile. protested: “Father, if our Pope Leo XIII has Historically we know that the ancient Rothe same name as a wild beast [a lion], I see mans ate artichokes, likely a native of North no reason not to name my son after a harmAfrica and Sicily, pickled in honey and vineless plant,” so the priest agreed. gar, and seasoned with cumin. Pliny the Elder Artichokes still continue to plant contro(23/24-79 AD, when he died during the erupversies. During Passover 2018, Israel’s chief tion of Vesuvius) mentions two types of these The artichoke is the cornerrabbinate declared that artichokes prepared edible thistles. One was thicker than the other and had a single stem and purple flowers, so stone of Roman Jewish cuisine whole could not be considered kascèr since small bugs might hide among their leaves. The ghetto’s it’s probably the progenitor of the modern globe artichoke. restaurateurs and Rome’s Jewish home cooks were deeply According to Pliny, it had several beneficial medical efinsulted since they’d been preparing carciofi alla giudìa for fects: cures for baldness and indigestion, a breath freshener, over 500 years with no problems. To end the controversy an aphrodisiac, and a guarantee to give birth to boys.

Rome’s chief rabbi Riccardo Di Segni made of video of After the fall of the Roman Empire, the artichoke himself preparing this Roman delicacy while wishing holiseemed to lose favor, until the Moors began growing and day greetings to his community. eating them in Spain and on the Spanish-ruled island of Today, although artichokes are cultivated in Egypt, Sicily during the Middle Ages.

Spain, France, Peru, Switzerland, Germany and Austria When the Jews were expelled from Spain during the Inwith a worldwide production of 1.33 million tons annually, quisition, they had made their way to Sicily bringing the armore are cultivated in Italy (367,000 tons) than anywhere tichoke with them. Exiled also from there in 1493 by the Inelse in the world and more artichokes are eaten in Rome quisition, they came to Rome. At first the non-Jews in Sicithan in any other city. It’s said that Catherine de Medici ly, southern Italy and Rome avoided eating the artichoke (1519-89) brought them from Florence to France when she calling it “the Jewish vegetable.” However, after Pope Paul arrived at age 14 to marry the future French king, Henry II. IV established the ghetto and the Jews lacked the finances From France their popularity spread to Holland and Engto be choosy, they began frying vegetables in boiling hot land, and then to the United States where George and olive oil and carciofi alla Giudìa were born and became the Martha Washington grew them at Mount Vernon and cornerstone of Kascèr, but soon of Roman cuisine in generThomas Jefferson at Monticello near Charlottesville.m al. They’re also known as alla romana if cooked in olive oil

THE ARTICHOKE: M ,B , H

From left to right: A Giudìa style artichoke fried in boiling olive oil; Pliny the Elder (23/24-79AD) author of Naturalis historia, a naturalistic treatise; Bartolomeo Scappi (1500-1577) private chef of Pope Pius V; Rabbi Di Segni of Rome; and Cynar, the Italian after-dinner liqueur made from artichokes (Wikipedia images)

62 INSIDE THE VATICAN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024

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We also carry processional crosses, floor candlesticks, and sanctuary lamps to complement your sacred space.

Reliquaries Tabernacles Clergy Wear Sanctuary Lamps Statuary Clergy Accessories Thuribles Mass Kits Albs and Surplices Altar and Floor Viaticum Kits Altar Linens Candlesticks Religious Jewelry Candles Crucifixes Vestments …and much more 816-A Harding Street When a seminarian purchases a chalice from Southern Liturgicals we will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of that chalice to Lafayette, Louisiana 70503 the Seminary Education fund/Seminary Burse to the respective diocese he is going to be ordained to the priesthood for in his name. We want (337) 456-5892 to give back to lend our support to the Seminarians coming behind that seminarian being ordained to help with the expenses of educating SouthernLiturgicals.com priests. This program is strictly limited to the United States Seminarians as the International wiring fee of funds would make it cost prohibitive.

We are an A mer icanowned and operated company financially supporting the spiritual and academic formation of future priests since 1992.

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“‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given’: he is the ‘Prince of Peace.’ Let us welcome him!”

-POPE FR ANCIS

Christmas in Italy and the Opening of the Jubilee Year December 2024 Christmas is a wonderful time to be in Rome. The entire city seems to light up with a special joy, and there is even more peace throughout the city than usual. The entire city can actually seem to become a small village. We, too, will become “Roman villagers” at Christmas.

Throughout Italy, every church constructs a presepio (or presepe) — a Nativity tableau which may even include “living” crèche scenes with real people and animals — ranging from charmingly simple to stunningly elaborate. Some include hills, trees, lakes, rivers, angels suspended by wires, the Christmas star and reproductions of an entire village or the countryside of Bethlehem. Always, the straw-filled manger remains empty until the night of Natale — the birth of Christ.

Christmas time is also a special time to visit Assisi. St. Francis of Assisi began the Christian tradition of the manger scene by creating the very first one, with live people and animals, in the nearby town of Greccio. In Assisi, a beautiful life-size manger scene is displayed each Christmas in front of St. Francis’ Basilica.

Join us for this joyous Christmas celebration! Visit us online for more information on this moving spiritual pilgrimage.

PILGRIMAGE@INSIDETHEVATICAN.COM ∞ +1.202.536.4555 ∞ InsideTheVaticanPilgrimages.com