Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Motu Proprio update

Just for the record, from Rorate Caeli, via Conversi ad Dominum, the following words from Father Claude Barthe (author of Beyond Vatican II: The Church at a New Crossroads), who had the following to say about the possible motu proprio in an online interview given on January 22, 2007, to the readers of Le Forum Catholique:
As far as it can be known, there have been two successive drafts of the MP. It was the second one — which should be more complete and which should detail the resolution of problems — which was examined by the full membership of the Ecclesia Dei Commission in December. A handful of modifications would have been added by the Commission and the text is “ready for signature” on the desk of the Pope. It is notorious that he takes his time for the decisions (that became legendary in Munich, during the short time in which he was Archbishop).

The text is now known to Cardinal Ricard, Cardinal Barbarin, and a certain number of French bishops, at least in its general lines. Their reactions, the precautions which they take, the manner in which they speak to their clergy seem to indicate that there is nothing institutional in the document (it would not refer at all, in theory, to the Ecclesia Dei communities themselves), but that the “needs of the faithful” must be compulsorily satisfied, without their being able to oppose it, except in a justified manner.

I do not believe, but I may be wrong here, that the freedom shall be restrained. I believe that the psychological shock which the freedom will generate will be salutary, even if it creates difficulties, those which we can predict and others which we quite surely cannot predict.... I insist on the conditional tone which I have constantly used [in this answer].
In related news:
Curia resists papal policies, Italian magazine says:

Rome, Jan. 19, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) has faced steady opposition within the Vatican as he seeks to implement new policies, according to an article in Italy’s Panorama magazine. The article concludes that the Holy Father is now assembling his own management team to implement his policies.

“Benedict XVI does not have a decisive temperament,” writes Ignazio Ingrao in his analysis for Panorama. The Italian journalist reports that the Pontiff has faced stiff resistance in his effort to reform the Roman Curia and to broaden access to the traditional liturgy. ("Pope Hampered by Bureaucracy," Conversi ad Dominum, January 19, 2007)
Sources:[Hat tip to New Catholic for Rorate Caeli English translations from Le Forum Catholique]

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