What Happened at the 2015 Synod?

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE 2015 SYNOD? PART G An Urgent and Disturbing Aside (Continued) We continue with the topic of the increasing conservative opposition to our Holy Father as reported in the previous edition of What Happened at the 2015 Synod? Part F. In the 2014 traditional Christmas greetings of the Pope to the Roman curia, “Francis issued a blistering, public dressing down of his closest collaborators by diagnosing the 15 ailments of the Curia. He accused the cardinals and bishops of the Vatican bureaucracy of using their careers to grab power and wealth, of living ‘hypocritical’ double lives, and of forgetting – due to ‘spiritual Alzheimer’s’ – that they are supposed to be joyful men of God.” (Winfield) This did not go well and it seems that Francis did not help his own cause by these comments! “Since then, the murmuring of criticism of Jorge Mario Bergoglio [Francis] has grown, always though anonymously, given the pope’s reaction to anyone who criticizes or irritates him” (Sandro Magister, Italian veteran Vatican analyst and frequent critic of the Pope in recent writing). Thus, many were wondering what he was going to say in the 2015 traditional Christmas greetings to the Curia. We now turn to these comments. I was surprised to note that some of the secular press covered the Pope’s address to the curia. The following is an example of such coverage, by the National Post (of Canada). “The pope urged Vatican workers [the Curia] Monday [December 21, 2015] to show more honesty, humility and sobriety as he issued a Christmas-time ‘catalogue of virtues’” (on the front page under three photographs, one of them being the Pope and the other two of Sultan Hassanal Bolkhiah [the ruler of Brunei] and of an anti-Christians protester [in Japan], under the headline “Do they know it’s Christmas?,” Tuesday, December 22, 23015). “Pope Francis urged Vatican bureaucrats to show more honesty, humility and sobriety as he issued a Christmas-time ‘catalogue of virtues’ for them to follow after having excoriated them last year [December 2014] for a host of sins. “At the start of his Christmas speech to the cardinals and bishops who run the Holy See [the Vatican City], Francis joked that after last year’s public diagnosis of the ‘15 ailments of the Curia’ he should have come up this year [2015] with the ‘Curial Antibiotics’ to treat them. In a way he did, issuing a list of virtues he said should guide their work, including honesty, sobriety, respect and humility. While the speech was more encouraging than last year’s [2014] astonishing dressing-down, it nevertheless implied that problems remained. “It was at the usually jovial affair last year that Francis accused the cardinals and bishops of the Vatican bureaucracy of using their careers to grab power and wealth, of living ‘hypocritical’ double lives and of forgetting – due to ‘spiritual Alzheimer’s’ – that they are supposed to be joyful men of God.” (“Do they know it is Christmas?”) A good report as far as it goes but for our purpose we need to delve a little deeper in the matter! For this, we will turn to Vatican and other more scholarly sources. Pope Francis gave his Christmas greetings to the Vatican bureaucracy in the Clementine Hall of the Vatican on Monday morning, December 21, 2015; his addressees, the Roman Curia, consists of the Vatican’s central administrative bureaucracy. “It was a keenly anticipated speech, since this was the same group Francis took to the woodshed last year [2014], delivering a blistering indictment of the Vatican’s internal culture [which] he accused of being infected with 15 ‘spiritual illnesses,’ including what he described as a list for power and wealth, ‘spiritual Alzheimer’s’ and the ‘terrorism of gossip.’ At the time, some insiders wondered if Francis risked demoralizing the very staff he would need to implement his objectives.” (John L. Allen, Junior, associate editor of Cruxnow and veteran Vatican observer, “Analysis: Despite a rough year, Pope Francis vows it’s full steam ahead” at http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/12/21/despite-a-rough-year-pope-francis-vows- its’s...,December 21, 2015) 1 What are the virtues to which the Holy Father called the Cruia? “Missionary and pastoral spirit, idoneity [suitability] and sagacity, spirituality and humanity, example and fidelity, reasonableness and gentleness, innocuousness [cautious] and determination, diligence and attentiveness, charity and truth, openness and maturity, respectfulness and humility, intrepidness [fearless] and alertness, and finally, accountability and sobriety. These are the qualities Pope Francis highlighted this morning in his greetings to the Roman Curia, as a practical aid to embracing the time of grace of Christmas and the Year of Mercy and ensuring the fruitfulness of service to the Church. ‘I would ask the Heads of Dicasteries [a kind of court or department] and other superiors to ponder this, to add to it and to complete it,’ he said. ‘It is a list based on an acrostic analysis of the [Latin] word ‘Misericordia’ [Mercy] … with the aim of having it serve as our guide and beacon.’” (Vatican Information Service- English, “The Pope greets the Roman Curia: return to the essentials,” December 21, 2015, at [email protected]) What does “acrostic analysis” mean? Acrostic is applied to a writing “in which certain letters of each line, spell a word, motto, etc., or a sentence” (Webster’s New Dictionary and Thesaurus) “The bulk of this Monday’s speech was devoted to reflections on the theme of mercy, which Francis packaged as an acrostic list of virtues based on the letters of the Latin word for mercy, Misericordia” (Allen) (“Analysis: Despite a rough year, Pope Francis vows it’s full steam ahead”). “The Holy Father addressed the prelates recalling their previous meetings: in 2013, when he stressed ‘two important and inseparable aspects of the work of the Curia: professionalism and service’, offering Saint Joseph as a model to be imitated. Then, last year [2014], as a preparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation, he considered “certain temptations or maladies – the catalogue of curial diseases … which could affect any Christian, curia, community, congregation, parish or ecclesial movement. Diseases which call for prevention, vigilance, care and sadly, in some cases, painful and prolonged interventions.’ “‘Some of these diseases became evident in the course of the past year,’ he continued, ‘causing no small pain to the entire body and harming many souls, also by scandal [note]. It seems necessary to state what has been – and ever shall be – the object of sincere reflection and decisive provisions. Reform will move forward with determination, clarity and firm resolve, since Ecclesia semper reformanda [the Church is always in need of re-formation]. Nonetheless, diseases and even scandals [note] cannot obscure the efficiency of the services rendered to the Pope and to the entire Church by the Roman Curia, with great effort, responsibility, commitment and dedication, and this is a real source of consolation.’ … “ ‘It would be a grave injustice not to express heartfelt gratitude and needed encouragement to all those good and honest men and women in the Curia who work with dedication, devotion, fidelity and professionalism, offering to the Church and the Successor of Peter the assurance of their solidarity and obedience, as well as their constant prayers. Moreover, cases of resistance, difficulties and failures on the part of individuals and ministers are so many lessons and opportunities for growth, and never for discouragement. They are opportunities for returning to the essentials which means being ever more conscious of ourselves, of God and our neighbours, of sensus Ecclesiae and the sensus fidei [the sense or faith of the Church and the Faithful].’… “Francis turned to the central theme of his discourse: ‘this return to essentials … just a few days after the Church’s inauguration of the pilgrimage of the Holy Year of Mercy, a Year which represents for her and for all of us a pressing summons to gratitude, conversion, renewal, penance and reconciliation.’ At the time of Christmas, the feast of God’s infinite mercy … and in the context of the Year of Mercy, he presented to the Curia ‘a practical aid,’ beginning with the theme of missionary and pastoral spirit. [Note the emphasis of mercy here – it is almost as if the Pope were trying to retroactively tone down the harshness of his 2014 remarks to the Curia!] …’All baptised persons are missionaries of the Good News, above all by their lives, their work and their witness of joy and conviction.’ … 2 “‘Idoneity and sagacity represent our human response to divine grace, when we let ourselves follow the famous dictum: “Do everything as if God did not exist and then put it all in God’s hands as if you did not exist.”’” (“The Pope greets the Roman Curia: return to the essentials”) “Under the heading of idoneity, the pontiff counseled Vatican officials to avoid looking for ‘recommendations and payoffs,’ focusing instead simply on doing their jobs. Under ‘humanity,’ he warned them against acting like ‘machines and robots which feel nothing and are never moved. Once we find it hard to weep seriously or to laugh heartily, we have begun our decline and the process of turning from “humans” into something else,’ the pope said.” (“Analysis: Despite a rough year, Pope Francis vows it’s full steam ahead”) “‘Blessed Paul VI reminded the Curia – in 1963 – of “its calling to set an example.” An example of avoiding scandals [note] which harm souls and impair the credibility of our witness. … Reasonableness helps avoid an excess of bureaucracy, programmes and planning. These qualities are necessary for a balanced personality … Two inseparable virtues of Christian life, “speaking the truth in charity and practising charity in truth.

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