As indicated in yesterday's Vatican bulletin, Pope Francis has appointed Robert Cardinal Sarah as the new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.As noted by Rorate Caeli, Cardinal Sarah had "distinguished himself as one of the strongest conservative voices at the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops this year.
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In other news, as Christine Niles noted yesterday, Archbishop Bruno Forte
remains a synod organizer for next year: "The traitor bishop who did untold damage by inserting those scandalous pro-gay paragraphs in the Midterm Relatio will be a synod organizer--along with the rest of the same crew, plus Cdl Napier (a good man).Perhaps, though I remain open to the possibility that the "God of surprises" may have a propitious surprise for us in the offing in this regard.
"Not demoted, kicked out, or disciplined for his betrayal, but instead left in a position of power and prestige--while the great Cdl Burke gets a public smackdown."
In any case, par for the course at the moment seems to be something like "one step forward, one step back."
I think that the emphasis here is off a millimeter or two. The real story is not that Sarah is liberal or conservative. It is that he is African.
ReplyDeleteFrancis is courting favor with third world bishops. He is betting that by doing so he will make them controllable, not the wild cards they were at the last synod. Kasper recently tried to lecture African bishops, but somehow, the legendary charm of his ancestry failed him. Francis will certainly be more successful.
The progressives are in control. However, in the votes that were taken at the synod, they often fell a few votes short. These votes, they reckon, are more likely to come from third world sources rather than first world (already thoroughly progressive). Francis’s answer is to give positions of responsibility to third worlders, and eliminate the few first world “conservative” voices most likely to influence them. Such as Burke.
R. Emmet Tyrell once coined a phrase to describe the process by which politicians elected in hayseed “red” states as firebreathing conservatives arrived in Washington, were danced and romanced by establishment types, and ended up legislating like Tip O’Neill. He said that such politicians had come to be viewed with a “strange new respect.” Understand that anecdote, and you will understand what Bergoglio is up to, IMO.
And please, don’t tell me that anecdotes of American politics are inappropriate in a Vatican context. You are a dreamer if you think so.
Just a thought. We are far more likely to see an African pope in the near future than a first worlder dedicated to the restoration of Catholicism to the Roman Catholic Church. Cdl Burke and those few like him are marginalized, powerless. But an African might make it, and it is with him that the Church's salvation from itself might lie.
ReplyDeletePope appoints Cardinal Napier as synod organiser
ReplyDeletehttp://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2014/11/21/pope-appoints-cardinal-napier-as-synod-organiser/
"... the legendary charm of his ancestry failed him"
ReplyDeleteRalph, your accuracy is surpassed only by your wit.
Marcel Lefebvre, though a French bishop, spent most of his adult life building up the Church's presence in central African posts. Eventually he became papal representative to this vast expanse of diocese, and finally, the archbishop of Dakar (Senegal). In other words, Lefebvre had much to do with the development of the Church in modern central Africa (much of which used to be French colonies). His influence in developing priestly formation there in the last century has to have been extensive.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.
Brrrrrrr. Is it just me, or has it gotten cold in here?
I gave R Emmet Tyrell credit for coining the phrase "strange new respect." That was a mistake. The credit should go to Tom Bethell, long time contributor to the magazine Tyrell founded, "The American Spectator."
ReplyDelete