Cardinal Erdö and Catholicism in Mitteleuropa - by Don Pio Pace

 

Cardinal Péter Erdö, who will be 70 years old on June 25th, is Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and Primate of Hungary. Polyglot, a canonist, as well as a dynamic administrator, he is considered an eminent figure, though discreet and almost timid, of the “neoconservatives” in the Sacred College. He is a good representative of the type of leader found in the Churches of Eastern Europe that have suffered oppression under Soviet dictatorship.

Important Op-Ed by Fr Pio Pace: "Restricting Summorum Pontificum: What the Pope Said, the Credible Information, and the Risk of a War within the Church."

Rorate Note: It has been a while since that great connoisseur of the deepest secrets of ecclesiastical life in Rome, Father Pio Pace, last sent us a report.

The repeated discreet reports on the draft of a papal document restricting the application of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (the document by Benedict XVI that recognized the impossibility of the abrogation of the Traditional Roman Liturgy) prompted him to write to us again on this urgent matter:

Restricting Summorum Pontificum: What the Pope Said, the Credible Information, and the Risk of a War within the Church

by Father Pio Pace

Rome

A text weakening the scope of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, of Benedict XVI, could be about to be published: that information, that followed the announcement made "confidentially" by the Pope to the Italian bishops of the CEI [Italian Bishops' Conference], assembled at Via Aurelia, in Rome, on May 24, has been largely commented upon, notably by the major Italian press.

 

 The essential norms of the text, as the Pope informed them, are the following: from now on, the priests of the communities specialized in the Traditional Mass (the "Ecclesia Dei" communities) could continue to celebrate, as well as the diocesan priests that already celebrate it; on the contrary, if additional diocesan priests wish to celebrate it, they must first obtain a permission of the bishop.

 

Some supplementary information has been added, but this time in the shape of credible off-the-record comments: the Congregation for Divine Worship would now be in charge of the operation of the Traditional Mass and the Ecclesia Dei communities. Within this Congregation, that has just received its new Prefect, Abp. Roche, and a new Secretary, Abp. Viola, a new Under-Secretary of episcopal level, Bp. Aurelio García Macías -- former rector of the seminary of Valladolid, Spain -- would be the direct responsible man for the traditional world, as Abp. Pozzo was in the past. This ensemble of curial personnel being, in principle, hostile to the ancient Mass.

Analysis: "Querida Amazonia, a Blueprint for a Lay Church" - by Fr. Pio Pace, Roman Curia Insider

It has been a while, but Father Pio Pace, our pseudonymous very influential insider in the Roman Curia, was at last able to send us a special comment on the new post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, Querida Amazonia.

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Querida Amazonia: a document for a kind of "Lay Church"?

Father Pio Pace

Will married viri probati be ordained to the priesthood? This question was the focus of all the attention, before, during, and after the assembly of the Amazon Synod, and the bishops of the German 'Synodal Way' were mounting an ambush, getting ready to seize the issue to force the institutional transformation of the Church.

For all sorts of political and tactical reasons, the long-expected apostolic exhortation does not mention it. It does not reject the possibility (as it has been hastily claimed): it simply does not mention it. In fact, the exhortation goes much further, in the direction of a Laicized Church, in which the common priesthood of the baptized largely absorbs the priestly ministry, being mixed up with it.

Because this text, under a modest appearance, is actually very ambitious. One should read with great attention the beginning of the Exhortation: it is presented as a, "framework of reflection," which is an invitation to read the final document of the Synod (which speaks of priestly ordination of married deacons), but rises up to more fundamental, and certainly more radical, considerations. The central passage deals with the "Inculturation of ministry" (paragraphs 85-90), followed by thoughts on the communities (91-98), then on the role of women (99-103).

Exclusive Op-Ed - Pio Pace on latest Roman Comments on the Bizarre Dual Papacy

We are very honored to post this new article by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace. This time, don Pio Pace reveals to us the startling opinion mill in Rome surrounding the explosive revelation by Abp. Georg Gänswein on how he (and presumably Benedict XVI) sees the current dual status of the papacy.

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"Contemplative Pope versus Active Pope"

by Father Pio Pace

Pope Benedict XVI meets Cardinal Bergoglio in Rome, January 13, 2007

It is not doubtful that the document we will consider as the most important one in the Pontificate of Francis will be the exhortation Amoris Laetitia, just as Summorum Pontificum is already for that of Benedict XVI. Nobody truly believes in a consequential reform of the Roman Curia, regarding which Pope Francis has never revealed the beginning of a glance...and on which he is not at all interested. On the other hand, Amoris Laetitia, which opens up the Magisterium of the Church to liberal interpretations, truly represents the essence of his project: a papacy legitimized by the media, and having become a provider of good feelings to the modern world.

Exclusive Op-Ed: Pio Pace: "Conclave Preparations: Watch Out - Great Editorial Manoeuvres Signal Cardinal Tagle"

We are very honored to post this new very important warning piece, by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

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Watch Out - Great Editorial Manoeuvres Signal Cardinal Tagle

by Father Pio Pace

At the time of the 2013 conclave, the Ratzingerians did not see coming the very efficacious shadow campaign led by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Exclusive Op-Ed - Pio Pace reveals for Rorate: "The Post-Synodal Exhortation has been ready since September"

We are very honored to post this new article by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

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 "The Post-Synodal Exhortation has been ready since September"

by Father Pio Pace

Will there be a Post-Synodal Exhortation of the Synod of the Family, the commentators on Vatican matters ask. In fact, it was already completely ready before the Synod! Several months before the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Family, last October, the group of Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Assembly, together with men such as Abp. Bruno Forte, Special Secretary, Abp. Paglia, President of the Council for the Family, and a few others, had already established a campaign plan in four stages:

1st: Pretending to base itself on the conclusions of the Extraordinary Assembly of October 2014, the Instrumentum Laboris, the roadmap for the 2015 Assembly, was unveiled in June 2015. It was in its third part that the explosive mines were placed to destroy the bastion of traditional doctrine: regarding eucharistic access for "remarried" divorcees, the Instrumentum inserted this proposal (n. 123): "Others refer to a way of penance, meaning a process of clarifying matters after experiencing a failure and a reorientation which is to be accompanied by a priest who is appointed for this purpose. This process ought to lead the party concerned to an honest judgment of his/her situation. At the same time, the priest himself might come to a sufficient evaluation as to be able to suitably apply the power of binding and loosing to the situation."

Op-Ed: "The Failed Francis Pontificate - Finding another Path for the Church: may Pope Pacelli help us!"

We are very honored to post this new article by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

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Father Pio Pace

I visited in these past few days the tomb of Pius XII, in the crypt of the Vatican Basilica. My thoughts often go back to Pius XII, this great moralist pope, in this month of October 2015, in which takes place this strange Synod of the Family, during which we have spoken only of adulterous couples and homosexual couples. During which the doctrine de fide et moribus has been brought up for debate, as if the Church had not defined it already.

Op-Ed: "Rome: the Age of Emptiness"

We are very honored to post this new article by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

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ROME: THE AGE OF EMPTINESS

Father Pio Pace

The entire world was able to see on their screens, when of the recent papal voyage to Sarajevo, that the pontifical cross, that had broken, was taped back with surgical tape: "A complete symbol!" said with irony the prelates of the pontifical entourage. Yes, a complete symbol. The Church of Peter, in the 21st century, awaits an encyclical...on the environment. It is bad for one or two persons to be alone in a car because that increases the greenhouse-effect gases, so saith the Magisterium of the Holy Catholic Church...

The Society of Saint Pius X recognized in Argentina: what does it mean? Much more than you may think! A guest-piece by Don Pio Pace

We are very honored to post this new article by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

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The Society of Saint Pius X recognized in Argentina: what does it mean? 
Much more than you may think!

Father Pio Pace

By way of a decision of March 13, 2015, of the Secretariat of Worship of Argentina, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX / FSSPX) was recognized in that country as a legal person, as an association of the Catholic Church "according to what is established" by Canon Law, and was registered in the Registry of Institutes of Consecrated Life. It should be known that the concordat links between Church and State in Argentina are very strong. The State grants all sorts of advantages to worship activities, so long as the organizations providing them as registered by it, either as Catholic or as non-Catholic, but nevertheless belonging to a recognized confession. This presupposes an administrative recognition, without which they are illegal and may be dissolved: in order to be legal, and juridically able to sign contracts, have assets, plead in courts, etc, they must be registered in the appropriate Registry.

Cardinal Müller: foundations for a return to the Magisterium - and the limits of Papal power - Guest-post by Father Pio Pace

We are very honored to post this new guest-post by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of Father Pio Pace.

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Cardinal Müller: laying the foundations for a return to the Magisterium

Don Pio Pace

God only allows evil so as greater good may be accomplished. The immense disorder of the assemblies of the Synod on the Family prompts beautiful professions of faith by high-placed prelates of the Church, who are signs of hope for the future of the Church.

The extreme-progressive French magazine Golias moreover notes with disquiet the "danger" that men such as Cañizares, Burke, Müller, Ranjith, Ouellet, Sarah, and other "young" Cardinals  (around 65 years old) represent to their viewpoint, that is, in the perspective of a further liberalization of the Church's constitution, adding to them some over seventy-year-olds, such as Scola, Caffarra, Pell, among others.

Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one of the Cardinals who took part in the authorship of the book "Remaining in the Truth of Christ", along with his brothers Brandmüller, Burke, Caffara and De Paolis, has, for example, just made public a conference that he presented on the past January 13, in Esztergom, Hungary, on the "Theological nature of the Doctrinal Commissions [of the Episcopal Conferences] and the role of Bishops as Doctors of the Faith". 

"THE SUCCESSOR" - Rome in Pre-Conclave mood: What will come after the Bergoglio Papacy? - a guest-post by Father Pio Pace

We are very honored to post this new guest-post by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of Father Pio Pace.

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The Successor

Don Pio Pace

What will remain when the pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio is over ? Certainly that this Pope coming from the "periphery" caused a great upheaval, but, considering the provisional results, more in style than in substance. In fact, it will all depend on what will follow this pontificate. We can ask if Papa Bergoglio is not essentially the one who is preparing the paths to a profound innovation of the Church, if he is not a Pope of transition.

The current pontificate reminds one irresistibly of the pontificate of Pope Roncalli. John XXIII was elected by a group of zelanti electors (Ottaviani, Rufini) and progressives (Frenchmen Gerlier, Liénart), just as Francis was elevated to the throne of Peter by a very large group of Cardinals, many of whom are not embarrassed to say that they did not know the one for whom they voted in the panic of strange votes of Wednesday, March 13, 2013, and who now regret their vote.

Op-Ed: "Obedience"? "Respect"? We tolerate no lessons from those who morally assassinated Benedict XVI!

We are very honored to post this new article by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

The Great Fear of the Conformists:

We Take no Lessons from Those Who Morally Assassinated Benedict XVI!

by don Pio Pace

For some time now, Modernist, Liberal, or self-defined "Moderate" and even "mildly conservative" papers and blogs have railed against the "merciless war" waged by Orthodox Catholics on Pope Francis and his orientations. 

We are right in the middle of the parable of the mote and the beam! Didn’t they criticize, without a moment of rest, John Paul II and his attempt at a minor "restoration", these good souls now giving lessons? Didn’t they destroy Benedict XVI up to the level of what can only be called his moral assassination? Benedict XVI, about whom liberals said among themselves, on the day after his election : "This won’t last more than a couple of years!" Benedict XVI, to whose enemies Abp. Piero Marini gave openly the battle cry: "Resistere! Resistere! Resistere!" They would like then to give us lessons, those who, through their incessant and brutal attacks on Benedict XVI, by Catholic or by mainstream media, by leaks of documents, by financial pressure, by destroying him on what he did or on what he didn’t do, on what he said or on what he didn’t say, prompted him to present his resignation. They want not only to annihilate us as they did with him, but they want us to thank them for being executed, find hilarious that we are being slaughtered, and also apologize to them for the fact that our blood may be staining their spotless clothes...

Now, these good apostles have suddenly discovered the virtues of "obedience" and "humility", preaching to us about "respect" for Peter, as if, by stating the Truth – not always easy to hear, and in a much milder and more proportionate fashion than they ever did – we were lacking in this obedience and respect. Yet it is precisely due to our faith in Peter and due to our unconditional obedience to the Church and her entire Tradition that we must speak up as we do.

The truth is that they are afraid.

I see three reasons for this.

After the Synod, the Kasper party opens a second front: "Catholic Divorce"

We are very honored to post this new article by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

After the Synod, the Kasper party opens a second front: 

"Catholic Divorce"

by Don Pio Pace

The extraordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops had barely ended, and the partisans of the liberalization of the Church's discipline concerning the indissolubility of marriage open a second front, that of the "simplification" of the canonical procedures of the declaration of nullity.

The demotion of Cardinal Burke from his position as Prefect of Apostolic Signatura finds in this matter its true meaning. His role in the nominations of bishops for the United States under Benedict XVI was not enough to explain his demotion, because in order to neutralize his influence, it sufficed (as it was done) to remove him from the Congregation for Bishops, where he was replaced by Cardinal Wuerl. On the other hand, in his place as "Senior Judge" of the Roman church, he was always a serious obstacle to the accomplishment of a project now under study: to turn annulment procedures into a "Catholic divorce" in all but name.

The great lines of this project, undoubtedly already relatively settled in secret, can be summarized in four points:

Pope Francis the "Pastoral" - On the Synod and on the SSPX A guest-piece by Don Pio Pace

We are very honored to post this fourth guest-post by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace. This time, he tries to decipher Francis, also taking into consideration the stakes of the Synod of Bishops beginning this Sunday and the curious warmth towards the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).

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Janus
Vatican Museums

Special Guest-Post: "Behind the Scenes: How Francis Personally Picked Cupich for Chicago" by Don Pio Pace

We are very honored to post this third guest-post by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

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A Highly Troubling Sign: How Cupich was Chosen for Chicago

a guest-post by Fr. Pio Pace

It is very necessary to understand the full measure of the nomination of the extreme liberal bishop Blase Cupich to the see of Chicago, replacing Cardinal Francis George.

Cupich's promotion to this particularly important position, that usually entails the elevation to the cardinalatial red, was a personal decision of Pope Francis himself. More precisely, the Pope imposed his candidate on Cardinal Ouellet and the Congregation for Bishops, under the desperate suggestion of the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò. We know well that those men who are particularly authoritarian, such as Francis, also are, in many cases, easily manipulated by those who learn how to read them. Moreover, it is enough to waggle before the eyes of the Pope the scarecrow called Cardinal Burke to lead him in one direction or another, because he has kept against the Prefect of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura an extremely strong rancor after the 2013 conclave, in which the American Cardinal was one of those who tried to thwart his path to the pontificate.

Special guest-post: "Pope Francis and the Society of Saint Pius X" by Don Pio Pace

Following his very widely read first op-ed here, we are very honored to post this new article by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

His second contribution is one that is dear to the heart of all true Catholics of good will: what really happened with the Society of Saint Pius X in the final weeks of the Ratzinger pontificate? And, most importantly for the moment, what can we truly expect on this subject during the Franciscan pontificate?

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Pope Francis and the Society of Saint Pius X

a guest-post by Fr. Pio Pace

In the seemingly endless soap opera of the reconciliation between Rome and the Society of Saint Pius X, an extraordinary historic offer presented itself in February 2013. A missed opportunity. It happened after the announcement of the resignation of Benedict XVI, on February 12, 2013: a personal prelature for the SSPX, a Prelature of Saint Pius X, that had been the object of the negotiations that had been interrupted in June 2012, was once again proposed to Bp. Fellay, the Superior-General of the Society, to be erected on February 22, 2013, feast of the Chair of Saint Peter. But the General House of the Society of Saint Pius X did not follow through with it. It would have been necessary, it is true, to lead from both sides, quickly and efficaciously, final negotiations, in particular regarding the adherence formula, that I will mention later on. The pre-conclave then opened up in March, marked by an extremely violent mood on the reform of the Roman Curia, based on the implicit accusation of impotence of the pontificate that had just ended: one of the failures attributed to Benedict XVI was to have invested in vain on a reconciliation with the Traditionalists, by handing them useless tokens, in particular by way of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum and the removal of excommunications of Abp.Lefebvre's bishps. At that moment in time, before the conclave, taking into account the psychological weight that the Lefebvre question still had at the time, it is not doubtful that, if the last act of the Pontificate of Benedict XVI had been the canonical reintegration of the most visible opponents of the Council, this would have allowed a reduction of the deficit in the "balance of the pontificate" under the cardinals' consideration. And, above all, it would have been what all would be talking about! Instead, the fracture line between "restorationist" and "liberal" cardinals, that had marked the 1978 and 2005 conclaves, became obsolete in the 2013 conclave.

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The new pontificate ignores the community founded by Abp. Marcel Lefebvre. Up until then, the SSPX prompted in the Church, at least in Rome, great interest in its events and gestures. There was great interest in its growth -- less so after 1988, but still quite noteworthy since Catholicism in the West is in continuous decline. The criticism, even if badly formulated, of Vatican II and the existence of this priestly reservoir hostile to the conciliar line was a permanent "interrogation," as it is said.

But all the attention that the pontificate of Benedict XVI had given to the "good interpretation" of Vatican II (inaugural address to the Curia, of December 22, 2005; farewell address of February 14, 2013, to the Roman Clergy) suddenly vanished. True, by having recently welcomed the Franciscans of the Immaculate on June 10, Pope Francis once again expressed his esteem for an interpreter of the Council who is in a line "of continuity," Abp. Agostino Marchetto  (Il Concilio Ecumenico Vaticano II. Per una sua corretta ermeneutica, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2012). But everyone knows that Francis is a outsider to this debate. While he is not a follower of a theoretical "rupture," he is not at all interested in the attempts that imply proving a "continuity" between the last council and the preceding Magisterium. Vatican II is not for him a collection of texts that contradict, bend, or reformulate this or that prior dogma; Vatican II is a pastoral work of opening up to the world, a "return to the Gospel." Period. As for the prior Magisterium, without calling it into question theoretically, he wishes to apply to it a kind of flexibility (the expression is by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, a key figure in the Francis Curia), a flexibility that involves putting into parentheses the "rigidities" of doctrine, particularly in moral matters. The Pope has for the ancient Magisterium, for the teaching of Vatican II, and also for the theological concerns of Benedict XVI the respect one has for an elderly person, that nonetheless must not prevent the concern for the true life of the people of today and their concrete problems, for whom Catholicism must be above all a message of joy and mercy.

What is the place, in this context, for doctrinal discussion in general, and for criticism of the conciliar texts in particular? The orientation of Pope Bergoglio leads into part-time unemployment not only Traditionalist theologians, but also classical theologians, and even Progressive theologians -- the Pope being, by mental layout, impervious to this "leftwing" trend -- except for their moral liberalism. Now, that intense reflection and that theological-magisterial activity that had always taken place between the Pope and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith does not exist anymore. One could qualify this stunning new situation that prevails in the Pontifical Palaces -- perhaps one must say "the Pontifical Inns" -- as being the ground level of magisterial teaching.

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Nevertheless, if the Francis pontificate is in fact so lightly favorable to the expression of the critical charism of the Society of Saint Pius X, it could, paradoxically, make the obtaining of a canonical recognition easier. The meeting with the Pope that was set up for Bp. Fellay, about six months ago, in a hall of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, while he and his collaborators had a meal in the refectory in the company of Abp. Pozzo and Abp. Di Noia, shows that permanent contacts clearly reestablished between the superiors of the SSPX and the Ecclesia Dei Commission, and that they are approved by the Pope. On which bases were these relations reestablished? Precisely from the fact of the absence of interest of the Pope for the hermeneutical questions regarding Vatican II, it seems that the famous doctrinal "conditions" presented to Bp. Fellay were placed in the file boxes. It is anyway what emerges from the information that persons in charge of relations with the traditionalists let out: they gather that submitting to the signature of Bp. Fellay doctrinal declarations that were too strict was a mistake.

Special guest-post: "What will the Church be like after Francis?"

[Original posting time: Jun 7, 1:30 PM - scroll down main page for more recent posts. The main excerpts of this text have now been presented to the Italian public by Vaticanist Marco Tosatti for La Stampa. A French version is now available here.] 

We are very pleased and honored to post for the first time an article by a very wise and knowledgeable priest, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace, whom we invited to contribute and who will be guiding us with good advice whenever he has the time to do so.

His first contribution is one that is very important: should traditional-minded Catholics be anxious about the current pontificate? What about its aftermath?

What will the Church be like after Pope Francis?

a guest-post by Fr. Pio Pace

Has the accession of Francis to the Throne of Peter really and deeply changed things? At close examination, it seems that this Pontificate is much less innovative that one would have thought when it began.

A Pontificate that is less innovative than it was first thought