After a quiet summer, clouds gather over Rome...
A storm is about to be unleashed on the Pope, the Vatican, and, by
extension, the Catholic Church.
The first drops of rain have just fallen, with public accusations that
the Pope lied this winter in connection with the "Williamson affair." (see
below)
============================
What
is it about?
Whether this storm will "blow over," or intensify into a "perfect
storm," only time will tell.
But whatever happens, there is this to keep in mind: many, inside and
outside of the Church, would like the Church's traditional liturgy,
known as the Latin Mass -- the old liturgy celebrated up until 1970, and
two years ago designated by Pope Benedict XVI as the "extraordinary
rite" of the Mass -- to disappear.
And they are irritated that Benedict -- against many and vociferous
objections -- "restored" the old liturgy, which many thought had been
buried definitively.
As strange as it may seem, this battle is in part about that -- about
the survival of the Church's old liturgy -- about her way of worshipping
God.
But when I say this, I do not mean to downplay other, quite obvious
concerns, for example, the tense situation in the Middle East, or in the
world economy.
I mean to say that, on a fundamental level, it is not simply a political
or economic battle, as important as political and economic factors are,
but a spiritual battle.
===============================
Is Rome alone?
And at a time like this, when many forces in the West (the European
Union, the new US administration) seem to be aligning themselves in
favor of a thoroughly secularized "new world order," the ally most
helpful to Rome may well be the ally who still celebrates a divine
liturgy which has not been modernized: the Orthodox.
And the most numerous and powerful of the Orthodox are the Russians.
In this perspective, these attacks on the Pope and the Vatican may drive
Rome to ally herself, after a thousand years of separation, with
Contantinople, and with Moscow -- reuniting the "three Romes"...
====================================
The allegation this morning is that Vatican officials (but not the Pope)
lied when they said this winter that no one in the Vatican knew about
Bishop Richard Williamson's views about the Holocaust when the Pope
decided to lift his excommication on January 24.
However, this allegation has been exploited by the Church's current
antagonist in Italy, Prime Minsiter Silvio Berlusconi, through his media
empire, to suggest that the Pope, too, lied.
Here is the headline being run right now on Google news:
By KARL RITTER (AP) – 4 hours ago
STOCKHOLM — A Swedish TV program to be aired Wednesday (Note: today)
claims that top Vatican officials knew that an ultraconservative British
bishop was a Holocaust-denier when his excommunication was lifted in
January. The program, which was obtained by The Associated Press prior
to broadcast, could add new fuel to the controversy over Bishop Richard
Williamson.
Jews and Catholics worldwide were outraged after Pope Benedict XVI
lifted the excommunication of Williamson, along with three other
ultraconservative bishops, in an attempt to bring dissidents back into
the mainstream church.
The order, dated Jan. 21, came as Sweden's SVT aired an interview
recorded two months earlier in which Williamson said he didn't believe
any Jews were killed in gas chambers during World War II.
Vatican officials have said they didn't know about the interview at the
time. Benedict later condemned Williamson's remarks and spoke out
against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.
Yet in a follow-up report, SVT says the Vatican had been informed of
Williamson's Holocaust-denial shortly after the interview was recorded
in November. It doesn't suggest, however, that the pope knew about the
remarks.
The program singles out Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos,
who had been leading efforts to heal the schism with the
ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X. The Vatican announced in July
that Castrillon Hoyos was stepping down after reaching the customary
retirement age of 80.
The SVT program says Sweden's Catholic diocese informed the apostolic
nuncio — the Vatican envoy to Sweden — about Williamson's remarks and
that he in turn informed Vatican officials, including Castrillon Hoyos...
===================
The Italian Front: "He Lied"
The second allegation is that the Pope himself knew.
This allegation made headlines today in Italy, where the Catholic Church
and the Italian government of Prime Minister Berlusconi
have been sparring for months over Berlusconi's immiration policies and
his alleged sexual impropriety. This morning, Berlusconi (or those close
to him) took the gloves off.
(
Here,
in better times, Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi greets Pope
Benedict XVI in Cagliari on the Italian island of Sardinia in this
September 7, 2008, photo -- CNS photo/Reuters)
For the first time in the many months of acrimony, Berlusconi (or his
associates) directly attacked the Pope. This escalates the battle.
Il Giornale, a newspaper owned by Berlusconi's family, carried
the exaggerated headline "He Lied" ("Ha mentito"), referring to
the Pope and his handling of the "Williamson affair."
(Below is a photo from three weeks ago of women reading Il
Giornale. The Sept. 3 newspaper front page has a picture of Dino
Boffo, editor of the Catholic newspaper Avvenire. Boffo
resigned from Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops'
conference, in a row that has strained relations between the Vatican and
the Italian government -- CNS photo/Stefano Rellandini, Reuters)
Here
are a few lines from a British newspaper today explaining this story:
Silvio Berlusconi turns his guns on Pope Benedict XVI
The Italian newspaper Il Giornale
, owned by the family of
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, carries a headline today dominated by the
words “Ha mentito
” - “he lied”, referring to Pope Benedict XVI.
The paper is busy stirring up trouble over the claims by Swedish TV, due
to be aired tonight, that the Vatican knew in advance about the
Holocaust-denying background of Bishop Richard Williamson before his
excommunication was lifted.
The words “he lied” are admittedly taken from the programme. But it’s a
malicious allegation: Benedict has told no lies whatsoever regarding
this matter, even if Vatican officials working for him have a case to
answer.The background you need to know is that Il
Giornale has been engaged in a furious battle with Vatican Radio and
the Catholic newspaper Avvenire, whose editor Dino Boffo it
forced to resign after claiming he was a homosexual with a police
record. Avvenire, not coincidentally, had consistently opposed
Berlusconi, with the backing of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.
That struggle, which is part of a left-right, secular-Catholic battle at
the heart of Italian society and government, has already damaged
relations between the gruesomely oversexed Berlusconi and the Holy
Father...
=====================================
One consideration is the Italian situation.
There isn't space or time here to go into the entire sordid affair.
Suffice it to say that a rift between the Vatican and the government of
Silvio Berlusconi has now become a chasm.
Since the Vatican, humanly speaking, is a tiny state entirely surrounded
by Italian territory, it is naturally always a hope of the Vatican to be
on close and friendly terms with the Italian government.
Therefore, this deteriorating relationship with the Italian governement
led by Berlusconi is a real concern.
A second consideration is the relationship of the Vatican to the world
Jewish community.
The re-emergence of the "Williamson affair" under these circumstances,
with new allegations, shows that the "affair" was not settled in March,
when the Pope on March 12 issued a dramatic letter of apology to the
bishops of the Church.
Here are some key lines from that March 12 letter:
"An unforeseen mishap for me was the fact that the Williamson case came
on top of the remission of the excommunication," the Pope wrote.
"I have been told that consulting the information available on the
internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on. I
have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have
to pay greater attention to that source of news. I was saddened by the
fact that even Catholics who, after all, might have had a better
knowledge of the situation, thought they had to attack me with open
hostility.
"Precisely for this reason I thank all the more our Jewish friends, who
quickly helped to clear up the misunderstanding and to restore the
atmosphere of friendship and trust which – as in the days of Pope John
Paul II – has also existed throughout my pontificate and, thank God,
continues to exist."
Will the world Jewish community come to the Pope's defense?
============================
A third consideration is the relationship between traditional Catholics,
now un-excommunicated, and those we may call "conciliar" Catholics.
Is this case only about Williamson and his views, or are the "conciliar"
Catholics actually unwilling to accept the readmission of
"traditionalist" Catholics into communion with Rome, and themselves?
In this regard, a question arrises: who is really behind the
re-emergence of attacks on the Pope for his January 24 action in
un-excommunicating the four Lefebvrist bishops?
It isn't fully clear.
But it has been reported in the La Stampa of Milan, Italy, that
the Catholic bishop of Stockholm, Anders Arborelius, is
in a very cordial relationship with the Swedish TV -- and that he is a
firm opponent of the Society of St. Pius X (the SSPX).
Arborelius said Wednesday in a statement posted on his diocese's website
that he was aware of negationist remarks Williamson made to an
investigative news program filmed by Swedish public television SVT in
November 2008 and which aired on January 21, 2009.
Arborelius wrote: "The content of the interview with Richard Williamson
... was sent to the Vatican in November 2008, forewarning that the
program with the Holocaust denial would be broadcast on January 21,
2009.
"We, at the diocese office in Stockholm, as we always do in matters of
the Church, had forwarded the information we had about SSPX and Richard
Williamson, including what we knew about the content in the interview
Uppdrag Granskning had with him, to the Vatican," Arborelius
said.
"I want to underline that forwarding information to the Vatican is pure
routine, and not something exceptional for this case," he added.
(Of course, it is evident that such information could possibly have been
held up on one desk or another, and never reached the Pope or his top
advisors.)
====================================
A fourth consideration is the relationship of the Roman Catholic Church
to the world's Orthodox Churches.
It became clear last week, during a very cordial visit to Rome by a
representative of the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, that relations
between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, especially Russian Orthodoxy, at
least on the surface, are much improved over the past few years.
Here are excerpts from an account of that visit I wrote for the Monday,
September 21 edition of the Zenit news agency:
Recent Meeting Could Mark Turning Point
On
September 18, inside Castel Gandolfo, the Pope's summer palace about 30
miles outside Rome, a Russian Orthodox Archbishop named
Hilarion
Alfeyev (
photo), 43 (a scholar, theologian, expert on
the liturgy, composer and lover of music), met with
Benedict XVI,
82 (also a scholar, theologian, expert on the liturgy and lover of
music), for almost two hours, according to informed sources.
(There are as yet no "official" sources about this meeting -- the Holy
See has still not released an official communiqué.)
The silence suggests that what transpired was important -- perhaps so
important that the Holy See thinks it isn't yet prudent to reveal
publicly what was discussed.
But there are numerous "signs" that the meeting was remarkably
harmonious...
In memory of the visit, Archbishop Hilarion gave the Pope a pectoral
cross, made in workshops of Russian Orthodox Church...
It is especially significant, in this context, that Hilarion, Patriarch
Kirill's "Foreign Minister," has some of the same deep interests as
Benedict XVI: the liturgy, and music.
"As a 15-year-old boy I first entered the sanctuary of the Lord, the
Holy of Holies of the Orthodox Church,” Hilarion once wrote about the
Orthodox liturgy. “But it was only after my entrance into the altar that
the 'theourgia,' the mystery, and 'feast of faith' began, which
continues to this very day.
"After my ordination, I saw my destiny and main calling in serving the
Divine Liturgy. Indeed, everything else, such as sermons, pastoral care
and theological scholarship were centered around the main focal point of
my life -- the liturgy."
These words seem to echo the feelings and experiences of Benedict XVI,
who has written that the liturgies of Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday in
Bavaria when he was a child were formative for his entire being, and
that his writing on the liturgy (one of his books is entitled "Feast of
Faith") is the most important to him of all his scholarly endeavors.
"Orthodox divine services are a priceless treasure that we must
carefully guard," Hilarion has written. "I have had the opportunity to
be present at both Protestant and Catholic services, which were, with
rare exceptions, quite disappointing… Since the liturgical reforms of
the Second Vatican Council, services in some Catholic churches have
become little different from Protestant ones."
Again, these words of Hilarion seem to echo Benedict XVI's own concerns.
The Pope has made it clear that he wishes to reform the Catholic
Church's liturgy, and preserve what was contained in the old liturgy and
now risks being lost.
Hilarion has cited the Orthodox St. John of Kronstadt approvingly. St.
John of Kronstadt wrote: "The Church and its divine services are an
embodiment and realization of everything in Christianity... It is the
divine wisdom, accessible to simple, loving hearts."
These words echo words written by Cardinal Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI,
who often said that the liturgy is a "school" for the simple Christian,
imparting the deep truths of the faith even to the unlearned through its
prayers, gestures and hymns.
Hilarion in recent years has become known for his musical compositions,
especially for Christmas and for Good Friday, celebrating the birth and
the Passion of Jesus Christ. These works have been performed in Moscow
and in the West, in Rome in March 2007 and in Washington DC in December
2007.
Closer relations between Rome and Moscow, then, could have profound
implications also for the cultural and liturgical life of the Church in
the West. There could be a renewal of Christian art and culture, as well
as of faith...
(Here is a link to the complete article:
http://www.zenit.org/article-26932?l=english.)
====================================
As I said at the outset, the "Williamson affair," and the effort to
ascertain what the Vatican knew, and when, about Williamson's views, may
continue to dominate news headlines, or it may pass away into silence.
Time will tell.
But the re-emergence of the issue reminds us that there is a larger
battle occurring, a battle for the "deposit of the faith," a battle for
our tradition and the beliefs handed down to us from the Apostles, and
it is that battle that we should be aware of and concerned about.
Last week, I had a wonderful and productive meeting in New Rochelle, New
York, with Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, 86, who has given
me some documents which may help me to understand better the history of
the Church in our time.
I will be returning to Rome soon, God willing, and reporting on these
documents, and on other matters which I have left unfinished.
====================================
“He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely
trust to God's providence to lead him aright.” —Blaise
Pascal (French mathematician, philosopher, physicist and
writer, 1623-1662)
[resources: Inside the
Vatican]
