Some News for us who love the Traditional Latin Mass:  The New Ecclesia Dei

 

Pope Benedict XVI has merged the Ecclesia Dei commission into the Congregation for the doctrine of the Faith. It happened today, July 8, 2009, in Rome. What will it mean for the old Mass, for the Society of St. Pius X, for Bishop Williamson, and for the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council?

By Robert Moynihan, reporting from Rome

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"God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."—Jesus Christ, Gospel of John, 4:24

 

"Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than the truth itself." —Irenaeus (AD 120-202), Against Heresies, Book I, Preface 2

 

"Corruptio optimi pessimum est" ("The corruption of the best is the worst"). —Ancient proverb

 

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Something important happened in Rome this morning.

 

I don't fully understand what it means, but I know it is important, and very interesting.

 

The Pope merged an entire Vatican office, lock, stock and barrel, an office which had been separate and on its own for the past 21 years, the Ecclesia Dei ("Church of God") commission, set up to work with traditional Catholics, especially those desirous of preserving the old Mass, into the most important Vatican Congregation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

 

The CDF is No. 1 Vatican office in terms of doctrinal authority, after the Pope himself.

 

It is the chief doctrinal office in the Roman Catholic Church, and as such the final arbiter of Catholic orthodoxy and heresy, truth and error.

 

The CDF is the Congregation which, prior to the Second Vatican Council, was known as the "Holy Office of the Inquisition" — the office which, believing that doctrinal truth is of supreme importance, and deserving of extraordinary intellectual and legislative energy to defend it, became the "sentinel" or "watch-dog" over orthodoxy throughout the world.

 

After Vatican II, Paul VI ordered the name of the Congregation changed from "Holy Office of the Inquisition," which seemed to have a negative connotation, to "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," because that seemed to him to have a more positive connotation.

 

And the mission was revised to emphasis more clarifiation and "promotion" of doctrinal truth rather than investigation and condemnation of doctrinal error.

 

This is the first time any external office has been merged into the CDF. There is no precedent for it that I know.

 

Why did the Pope do it?

 

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I was in the Press Office, watching "the wives" on television (photo), when the news broke. (By "the wives" I mean the wives of all the presidents and government leaders who are meeting in Aquila, Italy, not far from Rome, at the G8 world economic summit. Many of the wives will not meet with the Pope when their husbands meet with him, so a special meeting was set up at noon today, just after the regular Wednesday general audience. A group of 10 or 12 wives, all wearing black, with black head coverings, were received by Pope Benedict XVI in audience...)

 

"They've released the Ecclesia Dei motu proprio," my colleague, Martin Zoeller of German television, said to me.

"Ah!" I said. "Do you have a copy of the text?"

 

"Yes," he said. "It's on the Vatican Radio website. Hasn't it been published here yet?"

 

"No," I said. "Can I see your copy?"

 

A few minutes later, the Vatican Press Office itself released the news in a press bulletin, and then Father Federico Lombardi came out from his office to explain the text and answer questions.

The text was released in Latin and Italian.

 

Essentially, what it said was this:

 

The Ecclesia Dei commission would not longer have a separate head, but would be under the Cardinal Prefect of the CDF, currently the American Cardinal William Levada. The old head, the Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon-Hoyos, who has passed the retirement age of 75 in any case, would retire.

 

The Secretary, or #2 man, would change from the Belgian Monsignor Camille Perl, who had been with Ecclesia Dei since the beginning, for 21 years, to Italian Monsignor Guido Pozzo, a staff member of the CDF. The aml Ecclesia Dei staff would remain in place.

My first thought was: What are Cardinal Levada's intentions? What has the Pope instructed him to do with Ecclesia Dei?

 

My second thought was that Monsignor Perl might feel a bit mistreated, as he was confirmed just last year "ad quinquennium," that is, for another five years...

 

I decided I should try to visit the Ecclesia Dei offices.

 

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As I walked across St. Peter's Square, I noticed that the fountains were not working.

 

They had been turned off for cleaning (photo).

 

I saw a worker spraying a hose to dislodge all the lichens and moss which grows on the inside of the fountain basin.

Then, up ahead, as I looked up at the saints along the top of the colonnade, I noticed that only two of them are white.

 

The rest are all dark with soot and grime.

 

But there are two which have been cleaned in recent weeks, and I suppose all of the 153 statues all along the top of the colonnade encircling the Square will be cleaned in the next year or two.

 

When I reached the Holy Office, I rang the bell, and the doorman let me in.

 

"May I speak with Monsignor Perl?" I asked.

 

"Monsignor Perl is in a meeting and can't see you now," he said."You'll have to wait."

 

He indicated a room next to the foyer. "You can wait in there..."

 

I sat down in the empty office.

 

"Whose office is this?" I asked the doorman.

 

"It is Monsignor Mario Marini's old office," he said. "He died just a month ago, on May 24.

 

"Here is the card from his funeral Mass. (photo)

 

"He died rather suddenly. No one knew he was ill. But he had a cancerous tumor in his lung, and it metasticized. He learned of it about seven months ago, but he didn't tell any of us. In fact, up until three weeks before his death, he was in here every morning at 8:30, laughing and joking and wishing all of us good morning. He was a saint..."

 

"Did you know him well?" I asked.

 

"I was with him at the end," the man said. "I would go to the Policlinico Gemelli those last three weeks when he was bed-ridden, and bring him whatever he needed. And I was with him, along with his brother, the night he died."

 

I looked around the office. There were only two things on the wall: an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and a wooden crucifix. 

 

"He loved Mexico," the doorman said.

 

"Who is Monsignor Perl meeting with?" I asked.

 

"It's a big meeting," the doorman said. "Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, Cardinal Levada, Monsignor Pozzo, and the staff ofEcclesia Dei..."

 

I waited for 20 minutes, then the meeting ended.

 

I could see Monsignor Perl coming down the corridor. He looked tired.

 

"Monsignor," I said.

 

"Oh," he said. "Hello."

 

"I wondered if I could talk to you..."

 

"No," he said. "Some other time."

 

He turned, his shoulders bent as if under a heavy load, his face grey with suppressed emotion, and went out the door of the office where he has worked for 21 years for the last time...

 

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Here is the story that Cindy Wooden, a very experienced Vatican journalist, wrote today:

Pope says doctrinal congregation will dialogue with traditionalists

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has placed the commission responsible for relations with traditionalist Catholics under the authority of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

With a brief apostolic letter issued "motu proprio" (on his own initiative), Pope Benedict said he wanted to "demonstrate paternal care toward the Society of St. Pius X," founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, so members could return to full communion with the church.

The apostolic letter, dated July 2 and published July 8, was titled "Ecclesiae Unitatem" ("The Unity of the Church").

In a brief note published separately, Pope Benedict accepted the resignation of 80-year-old Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos as president of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei," which since 1988 has been charged with outreach to the Society of St. Pius X and assistance to Catholics attached to the pre-Vatican II liturgy.

As president of the commission, the pope named U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In addition, the pope named Italian Msgr. Guido Pozzo, assistant secretary of the International Theological Commission and a staff member of the doctrinal congregation, to serve as secretary of "Ecclesia Dei."

"The task of safeguarding the unity of the church, with concern for offering everyone assistance in responding to this vocation and divine grace in appropriate ways, is expected particularly of the successor of the apostle Peter, who is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of the unity of both bishops and faithful," the pope wrote.

He said that after Archbishop Lefebvre ordained bishops against the orders of Pope John Paul II in 1988 and the bishops were excommunicated, the pope established "Ecclesia Dei" to "facilitate the full communion" of the priests, religious, seminarians and laypeople who had a bond with the traditionalist archbishop and an attachment to the liturgy as it was celebrated before the Second Vatican Council.

Pope Benedict said his 2007 decision to allow Catholics greater and easier access to the older liturgy was motivated by the same concern.

And, he said, his decision in January to lift the excommunications of the four bishops was done to help overcome "every fracture and division within the church and to heal a wound experienced as increasingly painful"...

The pope's July letter said that while the president of "Ecclesia Dei" will be the prefect of the doctrinal congregation, the commission would have its own staff. However, the doctrinal questions that arise during the commission's work and in its contacts with the Society of St. Pius X will be handled by the cardinals and bishops who are members of the doctrinal congregation....

In a March letter to the world's bishops explaining why he had lifted the excommunications, Pope Benedict already announced his intention to place the commission under the guidance of the doctrinal congregation.

Placing "Ecclesia Dei" under the doctrinal congregation, he said, "will make it clear that the problems now to be addressed are essentially doctrinal in nature and concern primarily the acceptance of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar magisterium of the popes."

(Here is the link to the full story by Cindy Wooden: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0903122.htm)

 

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Here is a photo of the two columns in St. Peter's Square which have been cleaned, and the two white angels at the top.

 

The cleaning of the Michelangelo frescoes in the Paoline Chapel took almost seven years.

 

There is no indication that the cleaning of the saints' statues, and of the columns of Bernini's colonnade, will take any less time. But the work has begun, and one wonders already how the Square will look when all the columns are as white as these two, and all the saints' statues gleam under the Roman sun.

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