NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT

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OREMUS PRO PONTEFICE NOSTRO








One fallout of the current FSSPX controversy is that more Catholics - and journalists, one hopes - may get to learn the basics about excommunication.

And in the process, I hope something sinks in about the significance of the Pope's act of generosity. He granted a request that the bishops wanted very badly - their insistence on it as a pre-condition to further talks towards reunification shows they do not think it is a mere formality - to remove a pretext that could keep the talks from moving on.

Of course, one reason why few of us really know the basic about excommunications is that it is something very unlikely to happen to ordinary Catholics - in fact, it can only happen in exceptional cases.

And thanks to Father Z

for pointing out this blog on the subject, by the Archbishop of Toronto:
archdioceseoftoronto.blogspot.com/2009/01/reflection-from-archbishop-coll...


Explaining excommunication
to the faithful
by Mons. Thomas Collins
Archbishop of Toronto
January 31, 2009




There is a dramatic scene in a movie about one of the English kings of the middle ages. The Catholic Church is excommunicating him: hooded monks solemnly enter the cathedral, while denunciations of the offender ring out, and large candles are smashed into the floor.

On the basis of Hollywood scenes like that, many people take it for granted that they know perfectly well what the Catholic Church is doing when it excommunicates someone, and what it is doing when it lifts an excommunication: the former is a spectacular official
Catholic condemnation of a person, while the latter is a restored approval of the one who was once condemned. Once rejected, now he is embraced.

As Mark Twain noted, in life the real problem is not with what we don't know, but with what we know that isn't so.

It should not be surprising that when it comes to excommunication, the Pope himself deals with what it is, not with what people imagine it to be.

Excommunication is, in fact, a very limited and narrow response in Church law to certain specific problems. It is quite possible, for example, for a Catholic to break every one of the ten Commandments, and commit every one of the seven deadly sins, and hold every bizarre and evil opinion imaginable, and not incur excommunication, though he or she may well be guilty of grievous moral wrong and face eternal damnation.

If, however, a Bishop ordains someone as a Bishop, in defiance of the Pope, thus destroying the unity of the Catholic community of faith, and setting up his own private Church, he and the one he ordains are excommunicated.

They may not receive the sacraments, including confession, until the excommunication is lifted. [S}The excommunication is not some kind of all purpose punishment; it is an instrument designed to bring about a change in the specific situation that led to it.

One important step in an effort to lead excommunicated bishops and especially their followers to end the division and return to the Church is to lift the excommunication that was imposed because of the unlawful ordination, and that has just recently happened as the Pope has made one more attempt to open the pathway for hundreds of thousands of followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to come back to the Church.

The four bishops he ordained when he broke away were automatically excommunicated because they split the Church; now, that excommunication of the four bishops has been lifted in an effort to heal the wound of that division.

This is the most recent of several actions in years of patient work by Pope John Paul, Pope Benedict and others to try to bring home hundreds of thousands of Catholics.

Apart from the fact that Pope Benedict is not known to be a fan of Swedish television interviews, in which one of the four bishops has revealed that he holds bizarre and evil opinions, it should be noted that the lifting of the excommunication is simply an important but limited step to help bring about the reversal of a move made years ago to destroy the unity the Church.

Williamson has clearly revealed himself to be a holocaust denier, but the Pope has not "embraced a Holocaust denier".

Lifting the excommunications of the four bishops ordained by Lefebvre in an effort to repair the damage he caused is not in any way an award, nor a sign of approval, nor a blessing, nor an endorsement of the opinions or behaviour of any of the four Lefebvre bishops.

In any case, they are still suspended from priestly ministry, and it is now up to them and their numerous followers to respond to Pope Benedict's action by taking the initiative to complete the restoration of unity.

A hopeful sign is that the leader of the four bishops and their break-away church has now strongly condemned Williamson.

Pope Benedict's total opposition to anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial has been made clear over the years. As recently as last week he stated: "I hope that the memory of the Holocaust may induce humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of evil when it conquers the heart of man. May the Holocaust be for all an admonition against forgetting, against denial or reductionism, because violence against a single human being is violence against all."

The Vatican's official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, last week ran an article denouncing those who deny the Holocaust. To suggest that the Pope in any way approves of those who deny the Holocaust is utterly unjust.

Bishop Sheen once said that there are not ten people in the country who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate the image of the Catholic Church that they have created out of misunderstanding.

Before people jump to conclusions and launch into impassioned condemnations of the actions of the Pope, simple decency and fairness dictate that they understand what they think they are disagreeing with, and not construct great castles of indignation upon the sandy foundations of mistaken information.

Archbishop Thomas Collins
January 30, 2009


*********************************************************************


I hope more bishops and priests would use the occasion, after clarifying to the faithful what excommunication means, to show that it is one of the primary duties of the Pope to keep the Church united - not that everyone will necessarily think alike and agree about everything - but so that no community that considers itself Catholic lives apart from the rest of the Church.

Therrre's a similar statement in the next story by Cardinal Vingt-Trois of Paris, seeking to explain what the Pope's gesture really means, even as he expresses himself forcefully against Bishop Williamson's views on teh Holocaust.


Paris cardinal denounces Williamson's negationism
and reiterates Church unity is the Pope's mission





PARIS, FEB. 2, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The archbishop of Paris says the denial of the Holocaust by a Lefebvrist bishop is a cause of horror, but that the issue at hand is not his successive apology but the facts of the Shoah.

Cardinal André Vingt-Trois was quoted by the French daily Le Parisien on Sunday, referring to the media flurry caused by Society of St. Pius X Bishop Richard Williamson.

The Lefebvrist bishop denied that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust during an interview taped in November for Swedish television. He claimed that historical evidence denies the gassing of Jews in Nazi concentration camps. He also alleged that no more than 300,000 Jews were killed during World War II.

Bishop Williamson is one of the four Lefebvrist bishops who had his excommunication lifted Jan. 21 by the Congregation for Bishops acting under a papal directive.

The lifting of his excommunication -- which happened shortly after the interview was aired [What a misleading statement! As I've pointed out before, the decree has June 21 as the signing date, and if it was indeed signed on that day - chances are it was actually signed earlier - then it was unlikely the signing was done at night when the TV documentary aired!] - was called an affront to Jewish-Catholic relations, though the Holy Father made clear that his motive in removing the excommunication was the advancement of Church unity.

In papal commentaries and in statements from the Vatican spokesman, it has been reiterated that the Church does not share the bishop's views.

The prelate has since asked forgiveness from Benedict XVI for what he said in the interview. His apology came through a letter dated Jan. 28 and sent to Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

The Ecclesia Dei commission was established to facilitate communion in the Church for people associated with Bishop Williamson's group, the Society of St. Pius X.

The prelate said in his letter: "Amidst this tremendous media storm stirred up by imprudent remarks of mine on Swedish television, I beg of you to accept, only as is properly respectful, my sincere regrets for having caused to yourself and to the Holy Father so much unnecessary distress and problems."

"For me," the prelate continued, "all that matters is the Truth Incarnate, and the interests of his one true Church, through which alone we can save our souls and give eternal glory, in our little way, to Almighty God."

While entirely rejecting Bishops Wililamson's position on the Holocaust, Paris' Cardinal Vingt-Trois said that it is not his place to "judge consciences to know if his repentance is sincere or not."

"On the other hand," he continued, "the question is not about sincerity but about the historical truth. It is expected of him, and of people like him, that they recognize the historical reality of the extermination camps and that they say this."

The Paris cardinal went on to explain Benedict XVI's "outstretched hand" toward the traditionalist bishops.

"The schism is not a political option," he said. "It is a religious attitude. The decision of the Pope is not an outstretched hand toward political options, and much less their approval. His mission is to work for the unity of the Church."

The cardinal said the lifting of the excommunications tore down a wall and makes it possible to work in-depth. "Now it is up to the interested parties to say if they are decided to re-encounter their place in the Church," he contended.

Regarding the Pope's adherence to the Second Vatican Council -- a council contested in part by the Society of St. Pius X -- Cardinal Vingt-Trois said there is no question whatsoever.

"I don't need to say that for the Pope, Vatican II is non-negotiable," he said. "He is more than convinced [of it] himself, and has said so again this Wednesday."

Finally, Cardinal Vingt-Trois offered a message to the Jewish community: "The negationist propositions of Williamson and of others hardly reflect the position of nearly all Catholics unanimously, and certainly do not reflect the position of the Church. They cause us horror. What wounds Jews wounds today Christians as well."

"I would like to ask the Jewish community not to condemn the Catholic Church on the basis of extremely minority propositions of someone who does not have any post or any mission in our Church," the cardinal added. "The path that we have walked together and that opens before us is too important to allow us to be manipulated by extremists."



NB: We have normal line lengths now, as we begin this page. I hope nothing happens to skew it like the previous page.