First, this appointment seems to be (from the description of the bishop-elect given by Valle Adurni) a catastrophic and totally unaccountable act on the part of 'the eldest daughter of the Churchi'. The Pope has only just 'removed' Australian Bishop Morris after years of quiet negotiation, during which theVatican had tried repeatedly to persuade him to resign. After all that trouble why is a similarly dissenting bishop now appointed to a French diocese, and moreover one that is not known to have a history of heterodoxy? Suspecting that the Congregation for Bishops had been atrociously misled by the terna from Paris, I turned to "my friend in Rome" hereinafter MFIR. I refer to him thus to answer his need for anonymity.
The rest of this post is based on what he was able to tell me.
MFIR assured me that the problem had indeed arisen from a misleading Terna, and that those who, even before this incident, wished to see the responsible Nuncio replaced, may soon have their desire fulfilled. Cardinal Ouillet is now perfectly well aware that he was wrong to have trusted the Terna and that 'mistakes' of this magnitude therefore will NOT be repeated in future, at least not while the present Nuncio remains in post.. In any case there is great concern amongst the priests of the diocese of Rodez about this appointment. If there is to be a change, will the Vatican be able to find a replacement Nuncio strong enough to resist pressure brought to bear on him by the 'liberal' wing of the Church in France? MFIR felt it unlikely that the decision would be reversed.
My comment:
Whoever was behind this successful attempt to trap the Holy See into appointing a bishop as far away from the mind and wish of Pope Benedict as is Hans Kung, has achieved something he or they could only do once. They are people who have got their way by the playing of a dishonest trick which makes both Cardinal and Pope look foolish and not at all with their fingers on the pulse. But the players of this dastardly hand against truth, have now blown any cover they may have had. As to the decision being reversed, Pope Benedict has done something similar once before in the case of Fr Wagner's not after all being appointed a Bishop because of local liberal opposition to his traditionalism. Perhaps the Holy Father will use this opportunity to again reverse a locally unpopular choice. Ishall have a keen eye of the VIS list of people the Pope will see privately next week. In the meantime please join me in praying for the priests and people of the Rodez diocese.
1 comment:
Poor people. Poor priests. They have my prayers, too, for it is going to be a long slog for them.
You'd think that in the 21st century those at The Vatican would think to make use of the internet research tools so readily available to the rest of us.
Post a Comment