Fr. Weinandy: “The USCCB strongly encouraged me to resign.” 

CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2020 / 05:11 pm (CNA).- Outgoing USCCB general secretary Monsignor Brian Bransfield on Tuesday praised the U.S. bishops whom he has served for the past 13 years, and offered a reflection on suffering and endurance in the spiritual life.

“You have taught me endurance, joy and hope,” Msgr. Bransfield said Nov. 17, praising the leadership of the bishops’ conference, both clerical and lay.

“I will be rooting for you, praying for you, and I will continue to be grateful to you for your sacred ministry,” he said.

Msgr. Bransfield has served as conference’s general secretary since 2016. The general secretary, who must be a priest, is responsible for overseeing staff, committees, and projects of the USCCB, and for facilitating dialogue between the U.S. bishops and offices of the Roman curia.

From 2009-2011, Msgr. Bransfield served as assistant general secretary for the implementation of the USCCB strategic plan, and as executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis. He then served at the USCCB as an associate general secretary beginning in 2011.

Throughout his tenure as general secretary, despite many of his interactions with the bishops centering around administrative tasks, Msgr. Bransfield said he has been moved by the bishops’ compassion and faith, especially in the face of the sexual abuse crisis.

“I have seen you leaning only on Christ. And that leaning on Christ, that deeper endurance…transforms trials into hope. And hope is the hallmark of the Christian…the only way to transform pain into hope is by shouldering it.”

Msgr. Bransfield testified that he has seen firsthand a determination among the bishops to protect minors and the vulnerable from abuse.

Reflecting on suffering, Msgr. Bransfield recalled a phone call from several years ago from his childhood parish priest, in which he learned that the priest, Father Stephen Dougherty, was dying of cancer.

For years previously, Dougherty had used a cane, because of injuries he had sustained in a train accident years before during seminary. His condition was painful, even decades later and despite many medications.

Msgr. Bransfield said to look at the priest, you would never know he was in that much pain. But at night, Dougherty was known to hold a large crucifix— approximately four by three feet in size— for comfort. He died in early 2013.

“The cross is no ordinary medicine,” Msgr. Bransfield commented.

Msgr. Bransfield said Father Dougherty taught him that “suffering takes the inner shape of endurance,” and that “to endure is not passive or grim, but a mysterious movement of grace, indescribable in its deepest design…suffering can never cancel hope, suffering can never revoke joy.”

As general secretary, beyond mere “process and coordination,” Msgr. Bransfield said he has also had the opportunity to encourage the bishops, and to accompany them.

“I see men who have the hearts of a parish priest, who every day lift burdens that others could never imagine. I see men who answer calls they never expected to get. I see men who respond to the direction of Our Lady at Canaa in John’s Gospel: ‘Do whatever He tells you,'” Msgr. Bransfield said.

Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, the USCCB president, thanked Msgr. Bransfield for his service and “wise counsel and steady guidance” in the “thankless” but “essential” task of Church administration. Gomez said it is clear that Msgr. Bransfield’s priesthood is the “great joy of his life,” and thus he is delighted that Msgr. Bransfield will now return to Philadelphia to continue his priestly ministry as a pastor and writer.

Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, STL, who had served as Associate General Secretary for the USCCB since 2016, was selected for a five year term as the conference’s General Secretary Nov. 16.

[…]

Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 28, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Jul 1, 2023 / 13:22 pm (CNA).

The announcement on July 1 that Pope Francis has named Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández to lead the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith was accompanied by a letter the Holy Father addressed to the Argentine theologian.

While Fernández’s appointment came as a surprise to many, the pope’s letter also has attracted attention because of what it reveals about Francis’ vision for the dicastery, one of the most important and powerful offices in the Roman Curia.

The pope says in the letter that the dicastery at times has promoted pursuing “doctrinal errors” over “promoting theological knowledge.”

“What I expect from you is certainly something very different,” Francis said. “I ask you as prefect to dedicate your personal commitment in a more direct way to the main purpose of the dicastery, which is ‘guarding the faith.’”

Quoting from his first apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, which Fernández reportedly helped to draft, Pope Francis emphasizes that the Church grows “‘in her interpretation of the revealed word and in her understanding of truth’ without this implying the imposition of a single way of expressing it.”

The pope said that differing “currents of thought in philosophy, theology, and pastoral practice, if open to being reconciled by the Spirit in respect and love, can enable the Church to grow.”

“It is good that your task expresses that the Church ‘encourages the charism of theologians and their scholarly efforts’ as long as they are not ‘content with a desk-bound theology’ with a ‘a cold and harsh logic that seeks to dominate everything.’”

The Holy See Press Office’s official English translation of the letter is below. Source material appears in footnotes beneath the letter.

Letter of the Holy Father to the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith

To His Most Reverend Excellency

Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández

Vatican City, 1 July 2023

Dear Brother,

As the new prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, I entrust to you a task that I consider very valuable. Its central purpose is to guard the teaching that flows from the faith in order to “to give reasons for our hope, but not as an enemy who critiques and condemns” [1].

The Dicastery over which you will preside in other times came to use immoral methods. Those were times when, rather than promoting theological knowledge, possible doctrinal errors were pursued. What I expect from you is certainly something very different.

You have served as dean of the Faculty of Theology of Buenos Aires, president of the Argentinean Society of Theology and president of the Faith and Culture Commission of the Argentinean Episcopate, in all cases voted by your peers, who have thus valued your theological charisma. As rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina you encouraged a healthy integration of knowledge. On the other hand, you were parish priest of “Santa Teresita” and until now archbishop of La Plata, where you knew how to bring theological knowledge into dialogue with the life of the holy People of God.

Given that for disciplinary matters — especially related to the abuse of minors  — a specific Section has recently been created with very competent professionals, I ask you as prefect to dedicate your personal commitment more directly to the main purpose of the Dicastery, which is “keeping the faith” [2].

In order not to limit the significance of this task, it should be added that it is a matter of “increasing the understanding and transmission of the faith in the service of evangelization, so that its light may be a criterion for understanding the meaning of existence, especially in the face of the questions posed by the progress of the sciences and the development of society” [3]. These issues, incorporated in a renewed proclamation of the Gospel message, “become tools of evangelization” [4] because they allow us to enter into conversation with “our present situation, which is in many ways unprecedented in the history of humanity” [5].

Moreover, you know that the Church “grow[s] in her interpretation of the revealed word and in her understanding of truth” [6] without this implying the imposition of a single way of expressing it. For “Differing currents of thought in philosophy, theology, and pastoral practice, if open to being reconciled by the Spirit in respect and love, can enable the Church to grow” [7]. This harmonious growth will preserve Christian doctrine more effectively than any control mechanism.

It is good that your task expresses that the Church “encourages the charism of theologians and their scholarly efforts” as long as they are not “content with a desk-bound theology” [8], with a “a cold and harsh logic that seeks to dominate everything” [9]. It will always be true that reality is superior to the idea. In this sense, we need theology to be attentive to a fundamental criterion: to consider that “all theological notions that ultimately call into question the very omnipotence of God, and his mercy in particular, are inadequate” [10]. We need a way of thinking which can convincingly present a God who loves, who forgives, who saves, who liberates, who promotes people and calls them to fraternal service.

This happens if “the message has to concentrate on the essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary” [11]. You are well aware that there is a harmonious order among the truths of our message, and the greatest danger occurs when secondary issues end up overshadowing the central ones.

In the horizon of this richness, your task also implies a special care to verify that the documents of your own Dicastery and of the others have an adequate theological support, are coherent with the rich humus of the perennial teaching of the Church and at the same time take into account the recent Magisterium.

May the Blessed Virgin protect and watch over you in this new mission. Please do not cease to pray for me.

Fraternally,

FRANCIS

Footnotes

[1] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), 271.

[2] Motu proprio Fidem Servare (11 February 2022), Introduction.

[3] Ibid., 2.

[4] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), 132.

[5] Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ (24 May 2015), 17.

[6] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), 40.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), 133.

[9] Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate (19 March 2018), 39.

[10] International Theological Commission, “The Hope of Salvation for Infants who die without being baptized” (19 April 2007), 2.

[11] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (24 November 2013), 35.

[…]

Pope Francis addresses leaders at the National University of Singapore on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Rome Newsroom, Sep 12, 2024 / 12:05 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis on Thursday praised Singapore for its “shining example” i… […]