George Weigel has published an article about L'Osservatore Romano in National Review Online. (See: Parsing the Vatican Newspaper. It doesn’t always speak for the pope.) Fr Z commented on the article a couple of days ago. (See: Weigel on L’Osservatore Romano’s “fideist credulity”)Weigel takes the line that although the newspaper is published by the Holy See, it "does not speak authoritatively for the Church in matters of faith, morals, or public-policy judgment", and that it is middle and lower-level officials who are enamoured of Barack Obama. He also discusses "the Vatican", saying that it is a confused bureaucracy and that "what counts is what is said by the Bishop of Rome."
This is fair enough up to a point and I can only commend George Weigel's loyalty to the Holy Father which I entirely share. Nevertheless, I think that this series of pro-Obama articles show that there are serious problems at the Vatican. L'Osservatore is the official newspaper of the Holy See and falls, for practical purposes, under the direction of the Secretariat of State. If it is true, as Weigel says, (and I agree) that "several recent pieces on the Obama administration in L’Osservatore Romano have been both factually questionable and analytically dubious" then that reflects badly on the Holy Father who exercises his pastoral ministry through the various departments of the Vatican, including the Secretariat of State and - well yes - L'Osservatore Romano.
Recent controversies have been harmful to the ministry of the Holy Father: the Williamson affair, the furious reaction to his mild and reasonable questioning of the effectiveness of condoms in the fight against HIV, and the appointment at Linz. It could be that his enemies now feel that it is "open season" and that his authority is weakened.
If so, that is wholly foolish on their part. Soft negotiating with Obama (or Tony Blair for that matter) will not help the Church but will assist the secularists in ushering in a new age of persecution, laughing as they see no effective resistance from the one organisation that could challenge their worldly consensus.
We must pray for the Holy Father. In doing so, it is worth remembering that St Vincent Ferrer pointed out that prayer for the Pope is not the same as prayer for any other individual. In the case of the Vicar of Christ, prayer is an appeal to his immediate superior.
8 comments:
Excellent piece, Father! You should develop this into an essay for an eminent Catholic publication - not, of course, the Bitter Pill.
Ah yes, the ooooh so familiar American neo-Cath excuse: "He couldn't possibly know what's really going on...it's all the fault of the mid-level Vatican bureaucracy who are keeping key pieces of information from him..."
Heard it.
For 26 years.
I'm not in the business of defending the award to Obama or the newspaper, but George Weigel, in spite of his popular biography of John Paul II, is not really in a position to criticise. At the time of the outbreak of the Gulf War six years ago, he and Michael Novak, with others, worked hard in the US to undermine the Holy Father's opposition to what President Bush was doing. This is described in William Cavanaugh', 'To Whom Shall we Go?' in D. L. O'Huallachain and J. Forrest Sharpe (eds.), 'Neo-Conned! Just War Perspectives: A Condemnation of War in Iraq' (Vienna, Va.: IHS Press, 2005), pp. 269ff. Another public outspoken opponent of the war was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Bingo. I think it's obscene that even ONE "low level or mid level" L'OR hack would support Barry Soetero. It is obvious to me, ever since the Williamson debacle that there are people in position in the Vatican who simple are waiting for Benedict to die. They want him to come off badly in public relations. They don't like his reforms, and disciple, and wanting to clean up the excesses of Vatican II. He needs to see this for what it is, and put on a little Rottweiler, which he was always accused of having, but hasn't used. Yet. These people need to be thrown off the chessboard. The sooner the better.
And what kind of excuse is it that "lower level employees" blah-blah-blah. These "lower level" employees aren't supervised with editors in chief? Please. Do they think they are speaking to kindergartenera? The insult to the intelligence is mindboggling. They expect people to believe their claptrap.
These "people" are a scandal to the faith, that they back Soetero. Worse than the devil on the outside are the devils within. Start with the media office and send them packing.
Rumour hath it that there is a huge battle going on in the Curia at the moment between those loyal to the pope and those who aren't. The pope and those loyal to him need our prayers.
Mary, mother of the Church, intercede for our Holy Father and those loyal to him
St Michael the Archangel intercede for our Holy Father and those loyal to him.
St Joseph, patron of the Universal Church intercede for our Holy Father and hose loyal to him.
St Peter intercede for our Holy Father and those loyal to him.
I was reading an interview with Fr Amorth and it made me reflect on the words ‘the smoke of satan’ is in the Vatican.
Fr Amorth mentioned that the Rite of Exorcism had its sting taken out when it was altered after the second Vatican Council. It should have been corrected not re-written “their intention was to arm us with a blunt sword”
“The Second Vatican Council asked that some texts be revised. Disobeying this command, they set about re-writing them completely with no thought for the danger of making things worse instead of better. So many rites came off badly from this mania to throw out the old and start from scratch, as if the Church to date had always conned us and as if only now the time had at last come of the great geniuses, the supertheologians, the super-biblists and the super-liturgists who know what the right thing is for the Church. This is a lie: the last Council simply asked that the texts be revised, not destroyed.
The Rite of Exorcism, for example, should have been corrected, not re-written. It contained prayers born of 12 centuries of experience. Before cancelling prayers which are so old and which proved for centuries to be so effective, we should think long and hard. But they did not. All of us exorcists in trying out the prayers of the new ad interim Rite have proved that they are totally ineffective. But then again, the Rite of Baptism of children came off worse, too. It was totally re-worked so that exorcism against Satan has been all but eliminated. Yet, this always had such great importance for the Church that it was called the exorcism minor.
Paul VI also publicly protested against this new Rite. The new Rite of Benediction is not as good now. I read every line of it, all of its 1,200 pages and every reference has been removed to the fact that the Lord must protect us from Satan and the angels must protect us from attack by the Devil . They removed all the prayers for the benediction of homes and schools. Everything used to be blessed and protected but, today, we have no further protection from the Devil. We no longer have any defences or even prayers against him”
He also mentioned that there are a number of priests and bishops who do not believe in satan. “Satan’s greatest success is that he has managed to convince people that he does not exist. He has almost managed it, even within the Church. We have a clergy and an Episcopate who no longer believe in the Devil, in exorcism, in the exceptional evil the Devil can instill, or even in the power that Jesus bestowed to cast out demons”
An accumulation of these factors is no doubt the causes of the trouble the Pope is being faced with from within the Vatican and from L'Osservatore Romano.
So thank you Father for bringing back the one true Catholic and Apostolic Faith of our Fathers to Blackfen. You truly are a priest for our times.
Thank you for this very important post, and thanks to others for some perceptive comments.
I am an exorcist myself and feel, from recent experience, that we are certainly in the thick of something furious at the moment. My fear is that it will get worse. It is obviously of great importance that we pray for the Pope, and it is - to my mind - VERY important that we are pro-active in both encouraging prayer and showing support for him.
One battleground is the Liturgy, and we mustn't think that it is quiet at the moment and all will be well. In recent weeks I have become so convinced that the Holy Father's moto proprio was prophetic that I have done something I thought I would never do - joined the LMS!
Yes, this is the time to give thanks for the Apostolic Faith and to stand with Our Lady in defence of Peter.
Victoria - don't forget the Holy Father has the utterly loyal Swiss Guard firmly at his side. Best 'Minders' in the world.
So those disloyal and mischievous 'souls' better watch out for those sharp, swishing halberds - deadly in the right hands!
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