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February 4, 2009 - (ESM .) - We could be surprised at the opposition made to the Pope by some of those who elected him, if we did not know the history of the Church and if we did not did not recognize the common intention to serve the Church. Alongside our prayers, it seems necessary to reaffirm our support for Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI surrounded by members of the... Curia!
By Abbe Claude Barthe

Opposition to Pope Benedict XVI in the corridors of power

Is there Roman opposition to the Pope? Investigation (part II)

February 4, 2009 - Eucharist Sacrament of Mercy - The philosopher Jacques Maritain previously distinguished the "person" of the Church from its " personnel ", the latter not always being up to the sanctity of the first. One of the most constant miracles of the Church lies precisely in its duration despite the human weakness of those who compose it, each of us included. We might be surprised at the opposition made to the Pope by some of those who elected him, if we did not know the history of the Church and if we did not recognize the common intention of serving the Church. Alongside our prayers, it seems necessary to us to reaffirm our support for Benedict XVI ⁽¹⁾ , as we have done for all the popes since the founding of The New Man. “The liberal nebula has lost important places.” Abbot Claude Barthe We can formulate the analyzes made in a previous file in the following way: by the election of April 19, 2005, cardinals who remained (moderately but massively) in line with the novations of the sixties and seventies, carried to the sovereign pontificate a man aiming (cautiously but certainly) to influence these novations in the direction of a reform of the Church in the traditional sense of the term. In this, Joseph Ratzinger who became Benedict XVI corresponded perfectly to the hopes of a whole section of the clergy and the faithful who were on the verge of becoming the majority within the Catholic people. Even more summarized: Benedict XVI, Pope of an “identitarian” Catholicism, was elected by the high representatives of a liberalized Catholicism. So that, all things being equal, his situation is the same as that of an “identity” bishop taking charge of a diocese whose ecclesiastical frameworks are still very largely of the refocused 68 type, or that of an “identity” priest arriving in a parish where he must “make do” with councils and structures of committed lay people, if not of a tendency opposed to his own, in any case fraught with totally different habits and reflexes. We must therefore always remember that this qualification of “opposition” covers very diverse, even opposing, sensitivities, for example on family morality, on priestly celibacy, etc. To tell the truth, the neo-conservatives in no way consider themselves opponents of the Pope, although they represent – ​​because they are very close to him – the most effective brakes on his liturgical designs. The range of men in the opposition The most hostile among them to the aims of Benedict XVI are found in the criticism leveled at him by the Cardinal of the Confession (1): he is a theologian Pope and not a pastor Pope 

(we do not see that this is incompatible), a Pope “ of the status quo and the restoration of order ”. He believes that the cardinals did not choose Joseph Ratzinger “ for the best reasons and that they allowed themselves to be led by irrational arguments, fueled by excessive fears, too impressed by the reactions of the world to the death of John Paul II” . And he concludes: “I must say it: they were afraid of heights. »

But it was in fact the very inconsistency that was offered to them as another branch of the alternative. This is also true everywhere, in dioceses, in parishes: within an exhausted ecclesial body, faced with the “living forces” of new communities, traditionalists, “identitarians” of all sensibilities, there is no a, it is a fact, that men without hope and that bloodless structures. Likewise, in April 2005, facing Joseph Ratzinger, at the end of the preconclave, very symptomatically, there were only three gray candidates: Dionigi Tettamanzi, archbishop of Milan; Angelo Sodano, then Secretary of State, who thought he had solid networks in Latin America where he had shone as nuncio in Chile against liberation theology; Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, who had established himself as one of the essential figures at the end of the previous pontificate. But from the first vote the three had been “knocked out”, so to speak.

Immediately after the conclave, the inexhaustible Cardinal Silvestrini urgently revived the disappointed energies: he had published in the small magazine an educational work that he patronized, the “ Villa Nazareth», the photo of a “secret” meeting held before the election by eight anti-Ratzinger cardinals: himself, Danneels, archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, who had refused the traditional invitation of the new Pope to share his table the day after the conclave, Backis, archbishop of Vilnius, Kasper, Lehmann, archbishop of Mainz, now very ill, Martini, the Englishman Murphy-O'Connor, archbishop of Westminster, and the Frenchman Tauran, then in charge of the Library Vatican, where no one, starting with him, knew what he was doing there. However, since April 2005, the liberal nebula has lost important positions from month to month: the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, was named Archbishop of Naples; Mgr Fitzgerald, president of the Council for Interreligious Dialogue, was sent as nuncio to Egypt; Mgr Piero Marini, pontifical ceremonial officer, who had publicly expressed his bad mood at the opening of the doors of the Sistine, after refusing all the positions offered to him outside Rome, ended up accepting the presidency of the Organizing Committee Eucharistic congresses; Mgr Sorrentino, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and who, as such, blocked the liberation of the Tridentine rite for as long as he could (2), was appointed to the episcopal see of Assisi. Cardinal Sodano, finally, having reached the age limit, had to leave with regret and dragging his feet for a long time the sumptuous apartments of the Secretariat of State, on the third floor of the Apostolic Palaces.

Delicate coexistence

The opposition, however, kept allies, notably within the main dicastery of the Roman Curia, whose head, the Secretary of State, is both Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister of the Holy See (3 ). To date, the Cardinal Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, who replaced Cardinal Sodano, must deal with the difference in sensitivity of his second, Mgr Filoni, Substitute for General Affairs, former nuncio in Iraq (4). Mgr Fernando Filoni is surrounded by what has been pleasantly described as a “sacred crown”, a kind of Secretariat of State within the Secretariat of State: Mgr Filoni's assessor, Mgr Caccia; two dignitaries with the rank of apostolic nuncios, Mgr Carlo Viganò and Mgr Paolo Sardi; Mgr Polvani, from the diplomatic staff of the first section, nephew of Mgr Viganò (who enjoys playing retro admirers of Che Guevara) ; still others (until last June, a little lower in the hierarchical scale, but in a key position, was Mgr Duthel, head of the French-speaking Section) .

If therefore the opposition to the Pope – which is rather a collaboration with the Pope, but with views which diverge from his own, which is worse – retains strategic positions in the corridors of power, it does not exercise, by definition, this power at the highest level. But, in addition to its leadership within the highest decision-making bodies, it knows how to use processes which have long proven their worth and which it has been able to adapt to a new situation.

The most classic is that of delaying decisions and embarrassing appointments, for which a thousand difficulties are raised, the most effective obstacles being the real obstacles. It is easy to argue, because it is true, that the instruction for the correct application of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum raises complex decisional problems.

Another process is the use of precedent, which enjoys a force that one cannot imagine in matters of court government. This applies to appointments. Thus, it is a concretely obligatory practice to give an episcopal seat to the Secretary General of the Italian Episcopal Conference (5) when he leaves office. However, nothing obliged Mgr. Giuseppe Betori to be given a cardinal's seat, especially given the importance of the one entrusted to him. Because this biblical scholar, without being what we would once have described as " progressive ", is nevertheless in every fiber the opposite of the sensitivity of the Pope's friends. Today he becomes archbishop of Florence, certain of receiving the red bar at the next consistory. It is undoubtedly, in the third year of the pontificate of Benedict XVI, the most beautiful victory of Cardinal Re, of whose importance I will speak more precisely. More ingenious is the “lesser evil” tactic. The cardinal interviewed by Olivier Le Gendre, in Confession of a Cardinal, would therefore have preferred Cardinal Bergoglio to Cardinal Ratzinger. He even admits that he was ready to favor, as a compromise candidate, Cardinal Antonelli, then archbishop of Florence (today president of the Council for the Family) , who was, during the conclave, a declared supporter of Joseph Ratzinger, but much preferable for Silvestrini to Ratzinger himself. Cardinal Arinze, reinforced by Mgr Sorrentino in a liturgical line known as “Paul VI fundamentalism” (which advocates the “good celebration” of the rite resulting from the reform)

, had however not opposed, in December 2005, the appointment as Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship of Mgr Malcolm Ranjith, nuncio in Jakarta, to replace Mgr Domenico Sorrentino, the last notable representative of the Bugnini line in this Congregation. But in March 2007, he had Father Anthony Ward appointed as Undersecretary, certainly as little liberal as possible (Cardinal Arinze appreciated in him the slayer of English translations in “inclusive language”, which avoid, especially for God, to use the masculine or feminine) , but who was hostile to the liberalization of the Tridentine rite.

Abbot Claude BARTHE To be continued soon  : (2) Benedict XVI names those he considers able to become good servants of the Church (3) The departure of Cardinal Re, the end of an era? ' Notes 1. Olivier Le Gendre, Confessions of a Cardinal, Jean-Claude Lattès, October 2007, reissue August 2008, 414 p., €18.50. 2. During the synod of October 2005, he even managed to get Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, to sign a study to try to prevent the possible liberalization of the Tridentine Mass. 3. The Secretariat of State is also divided into two sections: the first section for General Affairs, and the second section for Relations with the States. 4. The Secretary of State is assisted by a Substitute for General Affairs (Mgr Filoni, who replaced Mgr Sandri), himself assisted by an assessor (Mgr Caccia), and a Substitute for Relations with the States (Mgr Mamberti, who replaced Mgr Lajolo, himself successor of Mgr Tauran), who is assisted by an Under-Secretary (Mgr Parolin). 5. Very important de facto character in the Italian Church. It is the Pope who appoints the President of this Conference and, on the proposal of the President, who appoints the Secretary of the Conference

Source: http://eucharistiemisericor.free.fr/index.php?page=0402092_curie