Vatican City, May 15, 2018 / 02:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- This week 34 Chilean bishops are meeting with Pope Francis to discuss the country’s clerical sexual abuse scandal, which involves at least one of the bishops attending the meeting. The meeting is significant, but not unprecedented.
Francis summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome in an April 8 letter admitting he had made “serious mistakes” in judgment of the nation’s abuse crisis, and which was a follow-up to the results of an in-depth investigation into accusations of abuse cover-up carried out by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s top prosecutor on clerical abuse.
In April 2002, Pope St. John Paul II called 13 U.S. cardinals and bishops to discuss a large-scale clerical sexual abuse crisis. Benedict XVI followed suit when the abuse crisis in Ireland came to light in 2009, inviting high-ranking Irish prelates and members of the Roman Curia to meet at the Vatican in February 2010.
It is practically unheard of, at least in recent history, that the pope would summon an entire bishops conference – or even the leading bishops and cardinals of a country – to Rome for a previously unplanned emergency visit. But sexual abuse, and cover-ups within ecclesial environments, seems to have merited that treatment more than other issues.
While John Paul was the first of the three most recent popes to make such a drastic request, Vatican observers say that a letter sent by Benedict XVI to the Catholics of Ireland in March 2010 set the tone for the Vatican’s approach to sexual abuse crises around the world.
The letter, which was published after Benedict met with Irish prelates, is still widely read, taught, and referenced as a clear example of how the Vatican should respond to instance of abuse and cover-up.
According to veteran Vatican journalist John Allen, when the American bishops came to the Vatican in April 2002 to discuss the abuse crisis exploding in the U.S., the final results of the meeting were a mixed bag.
On one hand, John Paul II’s declaration that “people need to know that there is no place in the priesthood and religious life for those who would harm the young” empowered American bishops to develop the June 2002 “Dallas Charter,” which set national standards in place for the prevention and reporting of child abuse.
On the other hand, Allen says, the documents outlining resolutions made by US bishops and the Vatican going into the future were rushed, and were considered by most in both the U.S. and Vatican delegations to be an inaccurate account of the discussion, and the plans that had been made.
In all, it would seem that the Vatican communiques following the meeting were a missed opportunity for the Church to send a strong, unified message to the world on the issue of clerical abuse.
However, Benedict XVI, who was present for the meeting with U.S. bishops in his capacity as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, got a first-hand account of the scope of the problem, the failures that allowed the abuse, the steps that needed to be taken in the future, and the damages done to individuals and to the credibility of the Church in an entire nation.
He likely drew from the experience when dealing with Ireland’s abuse scandal in 2009, and his insights seemed to guide his own discussion with Irish prelates, his handling of the conclusions of their meeting, and his 2010 letter to Irish Catholics.
During a May 14 press conference ahead of the meeting with Pope Francis to discuss their own country’s abuse crisis, Chilean bishops Fernando Ramos and Juan Ignacio González said they and their brother bishops had recently read Benedict’s 2010, and that it provides essential guidelines for them to follow in their own country.
In the letter, Benedict addressed Catholics in Ireland not only with the concern of a father, but also “with the affection of a fellow Christian, scandalized and hurt by what has occurred in our beloved Church.”
He divided the letter into sections addressed to particular groups of people, including victims and their families, parents, priests and religious guilty of abusing children, children and youth from Ireland, priests and religious from Ireland, Irish bishops themselves, and Irish Catholics on the whole.
Benedict apologized to victims, saying that nothing could undo the wrongs they had endured, and that it was understandable if they were unable to forgive and reconcile with the Church.
“In her name, I openly express the shame and remorse that we all feel. At the same time, I ask you not to lose hope,” he said.
Among other things, Benedict urged greater formation on the issue of abuse for priests and religious, which was echoed by the Chilean bishops during their press conference.
He also highlighted several factors he said were causes in the abuse crisis. In addition to a rapidly changing and secularized cultural landscape, he said the procedures for finding suitable candidates for the priesthood and religious life were “inadequate,” and cited “insufficient human, moral, intellectual and spiritual formation in seminaries and novitiates” as one of the causes of institutional failure.
Also a problem, he said, was clericalism and an exaggerated respect for those in authority, as well as a “misplaced concern for the reputation of the Church and the avoidance of scandal, resulting in failure to apply existing canonical penalties and to safeguard the dignity of every person.”
In terms of concrete action, Benedict proposed a number of concrete initiatives, the first of which was to do penance.
He asked Ireland’s bishops to dedicate Lent of that year, 2010, as a time “to pray for an outpouring of God’s mercy and the Holy Spirit’s gifts of holiness and strength upon the Church in your country.”
Benedict also asked that Irish Catholics offer their Friday penances for that intention for a year – from Lent 2010 to Easter 2011 – requesting that they offer their regular prayer, fasting and acts of charity for healing and renewal for the Church of Ireland, and that they go to confession more frequently.
He said special attention ought to be paid to Eucharistic adoration, especially in parishes, seminaries, religious houses and monasteries in order to “make reparation for the sins of abuse that have done so much harm” and to ask for the grace of a renewed sense of their mission.
Benedict also announced that he would carry out an apostolic visitation to certain dioceses, seminaries and religious congregations and said he would implement a mission for bishops, priests and religious from Ireland.
The hope for the mission, he said, was that by access to holy preachers and with a careful rereading of conciliar documents, liturgical rites of ordination and recent pontifical teachings, consecrated persons would “come to a more profound appreciation of your respective vocations, so as to rediscover the roots of your faith in Jesus Christ and to drink deeply from the springs of living water that he offers you through his Church.”
During the press conference Monday with Chilean bishops, Ramos and González called Benedict’s letter “a precious and beautiful text full of guidelines that we will follow or are following.”
They also made comments reminiscent of the sentiments voiced by Benedict XVI, saying they are coming into the meeting this week with “shame and pain,” but they also voiced hope that the discussion will be a fresh start for the bishops, and will provide a decisive direction going forward.
However, while they have Benedict’s guidelines in mind, the bishops said that as far as this week goes, they are in Rome at the beckoning of Pope Francis, and their task “is to listen to Peter, to listen to the pope.”
“Conclusions will come, new paths will come out,” González said, adding that “the pope gives us light” indicating the path to be taken.
Meetings between Pope Francis and the Chilean bishops began early in the afternoon Monday, and will continue through Thursday, May 17. Unlike the 2002 meeting, the Vatican has already said there will be no communique or press release after the meeting, in order to keep the discussion confidential.
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We read that the three themes to be explored by the International Theological Commission are Nicaea, a Trinitarian theology of creation, and yet-undefined “anthropological issues.”
Regarding the possible anthropological issues, Three points:
FIRST, we at least have an encouraging clue from Cardinal Parolin: “I am very sorry for the loss of faith in our Europe, in our culture, in our countries, and these anthropological changes that are taking place, losing the identity of the human person” (https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/247167/cardinal-parolin-i-am-sad-to-see-the-loss-of-faith-and-reason-in-europe)
SECOND, a cry in the wilderness, this, as it is set aside by synodality’s Cardinal Hollerich: “I believe that the sociological-scientific foundation of this teaching [on sexual morality] is no longer true [….] I think it’s time we make a fundamental revision of the doctrine” (https://www.aol.com/news/liberal-cardinal-calls-revised-catholic-135429645-181222377.html). So much for Christian anthropology!
Will catechists and theologians “not walk together” on their diverging anthropological paths? Will the (bigoted and rigid?) catechists of, say, Veritatis Splendor and moral absolutes be ever more eclipsed by an ambulatory plebiscite “combined, aggregated and synthesized” by synod-ism—-with the process itself as THE message? Will even Nicaea be insinuated more as a procedural synodal artifact?
THIRD, will the Church deal coherently with the “anthropological-cultural change” (Parolin, a few years back) of the day, as more clearly articulated by Cardinal O’Malley: “The amazing thing is that historically the Church was persecuted mostly for the truths that we taught concerning Christ and the Church. The controversies were Arianism [Nicaea], transubstantiation or papal infallibility. Today, the attacks directed at the Church are directed at our teaching concerning the dignity of the human person, the sacredness of life and the importance of marriage…” (Cardinal O’Malley, National Prayer Breakfast, May 13, 2014).
What about consistency and clarity in both doctrine and theology (Vincent of Lerins, and Cardinal Newman!) about the human person and, say, binary/complementary human sexuality. Also “walking together” with the timeless wisdom of St. John Chrysostom: “The road to Hell is paved with the bones of priests and monks, and the skulls of bishops are the lamp posts that light the path.”
“The road to Hell is paved with the bones of priests and monks, and the skulls of bishops are the lamp posts that light the path.”
That would be, in essence, unfaithful priests, monks, and bishops, as we can know through both Faith and reason that The Faithful, those who remain in communion with Christ and His One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), affirm The Word Of God in regards to sexual morality, and thus respect The Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament Of Holy Matrimony, and respect the inherent equal Dignity of every beloved son and daughter from the moment of conception to natural death.
“It is not possible to have Sacramental Communion without Ecclesial Communion”, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost” (Filioque), For “It Is Through Christ, With Christ, And In Christ, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost”, that Holy Mother Church, outside of which there is no Salvation, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque ) exists.
Pray for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, who has not rejected The Gift Of The Holy Ghost in regards to Papal
Infallibility and The Deposit Of Faith.
“For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might make known new doctrine, but that by His assistance they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the Revelation, the Deposit of Faith, delivered through the Apostles. “
I’ll ask Francis his thoughts on whether it will rain next Wednesday.
Catechists have been literally holding the fort or forts. The Good News is evolving all the time. Conversion is an ongoing and a never ending process. It are the theologians who are yet to do justice to their enormous potential.
There is a distinct absence here of addressing reality.
Inter-disciplinarity in the natural sciences allows them to work alongside each other without confusion.
Trans-disciplinarity is a ceature of Modernism that penetrates among disciplines to recreate out of them and channel (the Postmodern) meta-narratives.
Again I say the use of the word “indietrism” is misleading; since the Modernist initiative/engagement is a subtle indoctrinating and mediated shifting into extreme pluralisms.
It is truly alarming that the Holy Father, who has the duty and the commission to teach and to warn, could just “appropriate” a word without proper contextualization except to blame rigidity and blame being backward-looking.
You have to read the entire LIFESITE article by Michael Haynes, “Pope tells theologians to consult ‘non-Catholics,’ avoid ‘going backward’ in Tradition”.
‘ The Pope spoke of the “appropriateness – in order to carry out with pertinence and incisiveness the work of deepening and inculturation of the Gospel – to open prudently to the contribution of the different disciplines through the consultation of experts, including non-Catholics, as provided for in the Statutes of the Commission.”
In this manner the theologians could practice “transdisciplinarity,” he said, suggesting that by consulting non-Catholics the theologians could draw from their knowledge as it comes from the “Light and Life offered by the Wisdom streaming from God’s Revelation.”
While he urged catechists to “give the right doctrine,” Francis told the ITC to “go further” than the “solid doctrine” as the magisterium will assume the role of informing the theologians when they have gone too far. ‘
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-tells-theologians-to-consult-non-catholics-avoid-going-backward-in-tradition/?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=usa
Here at ZENIT English you find the transcript of what the Holy Father said. According to this translation, he promotes transdisciplinarity as the “strong form” on inter-disciplinarity whereas multi-disciplinarity is the latter’s “weak form”. He claims here he is underlining and propelling what he put forth in Veritatis Gaudium.
But in Veritatis Gaudium transcript at VATICAN.VA, he discusses multi-disciplinarity, inter-disciplinarity and cross-disciplinarity; where in fact he had never mentioned trans-disciplinarity. He is confirming that transdisciplinarity is what he intentionally meant – as “streaming from the Light and Life of God’s Revelation”.
Before now November 2022, how could anyone have uncovered that?
lt is just wrong, even the secular scientists, sociologists and philosophers, acknowledge transdisciplinarity as Modernism.
If the Holy Father aims to “redeem transdisciplinarity” he at least must admit it is Modernism and he must assert he is doing so.
Also the best definition anyone can give to cross-disciplinarity is, as to having 2 or more qualifications in different fields whether as specialist or general practitioner.
Veritatis Gaudium is supposed to be an apostolic constitution.
https://zenit.org/2022/11/26/popes-three-guidelines-to-the-international-theological-commission/
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/papa-francesco_costituzione-ap_20171208_veritatis-gaudium.html
Yes, what might be the difference, if any, between the generic mindsets of “transdisciplinarity” and transgender?
Fr. Hunwicke’s December 1 2022 page has some remarks shared about indietrism.
FSSPX NEWS has some complaints and observations about “overabundant communication”.
These are hard times for clergy, for sure. May I offer a recommendation? To guard the heart in charity, humility and piety. And if you would accept it from me I would add my request for you to remember me in such prayers, as those, of your own.
God bless you.
https://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/2022/12/indietrism-again.html
https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/how-explain-pope-francis%E2%80%99s-overabundant-communications-2-76087
https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/how-explain-pope-franciss-overabundant-communications-1-76063
While at this present moment the VATICAN.VA/SANTA SEDE website is mostly inaccessible, you can still search directly for Veritatis Gaudium and get the English posting of it at VATICAN.VA.
Begging pardon for making this too simplistic, but part of the scientific method is looking back to find new things, or to relocate something properly, or to gain an understanding that has slipped, or to trace the course of a transmission and pinpoint a beginning, or just to learn what one didn’t yet know, etc.
I went “looking back” on the internet and I found that by early 2021 the Redemptorists had already explicitly opted for methodological trans-disciplinarity in their approach to moral theology. Now it could be this got rooted much earlier, from the private audience they had with the Holy Father 2 years before in February 2019, on the 70th anniversary of the Alfonsian Academy.
See the second link, CSSR NEWS, “Towards a Transdisciplinary Approach”.
Did they themselves translate “cross-disciplinarity” as “trans-disciplinarity”? Or did the Holy Father already tip them off to do it that way? Actually in the report they expressly quote from the Holy Father about “designing bold steps”.
It’s not lengthy and I believe it should be read. Are any other religious pursuing the same or similar “developments”? Is any particular congregation in the lead?
https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_constitutions/documents/papa-francesco_costituzione-ap_20171208_veritatis-gaudium.html
https://www.cssr.news/2021/02/towards-a-transdisciplinary-approach-to-moral-theology/