Illness and extra work have left me with little time for blogging. One of the things I have had to finish is the translations for the upcoming issue of Humilitas, the quarterly newsletter for John Paul I.
Among other things, I happily translated one of Luciani’s earliest writings, from his time in Belluno. It was written for the Amici del Seminario Gregoriano, a little newsletter Don Albino himself had founded to encourage vocations in the diocese. He did it by writing a series of articles called “The Great Vocations,” recounting the moments of decision in the lives of some well-known priests, including some saints. He had a real knack for making the choice for the priesthood look like a noble and exciting adventure — something to be undertaken by the bold and daring. Here he tackles the story of one of the greatest vocations of all time: St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Don Albino had a predilection for Ignatius’ life story, for early on while in the seminary, he had planned to join the Jesuits, though he was dissuaded from his bishop, because of the need for diocesan priests.
As I was finishing the translation last night, I thought to myself: “Wait a minute: isn’t St. Ignatius’s feast day sometime in July?” I looked it up — and it is in fact today! Reason enough to put up this delightful little piece.
If you are interested in learning more about John Paul I, you can receive Humilitas free of charge by writing to Ray and Lauretta Seabeck, The Missionary Servants of John Paul I, 22 Boyd Hill Rd., Gilford, NH, 03249.
IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA
The Fray
The French artillery had taken delight in hammering the old walls of Pamplona. Under the precise, sure and vigorous blows, the defenders took flight and retreated.
There was still the citadel; a fortress where around a thousand men now had to consider this dilemma: either surrender or condemn themselves to a long, hard siege without hope of victory.
The conditions were harsh; the alcade (mayor) seemed to be wavering. But a young captain decided him. His name was Ignatius of Loyola; he was small, elegant, but all movement and full of fire. He said it was not possible to surrender; that the Spanish were acquainted with death, but not life with dishonor: better to be buried under the rubble than to accept ignominious conditions. And his eyes and works seemed like flame. He succeeded in communicating his enthusiasm to the alcade and his companions; they re-entered the fortress ready for anything.
The siege began. But it was understood from the beginning that it was not to last for long: the enemy was too superior, too well furnished with artillery. The balls came like waves in a storm: the parapets fell. Ignatius performed prodigies of valor: careless of the danger, he appeared everywhere, his voice was heard among the sound of the blows and the collapsing rubble: he tried to keep up the soldiers’ courage. In vain . . . a mortar ball hit him, passing between his legs; the left one was little more than scratched, but the right was shattered. He fell and then the fortress surrendered.
When the French entered, they found him covered with rubble and having lost half his blood: the treated him as they treated the brave, and as soon as possible they had him carried to his father’s castle.
They had discovered in that young man the stuff of a hero.
The Discovery
On the other hand, no one had yet seen in him the stuff of a priest. His parents had already proposed an ecclesiastical career to him, but he had answered with a curt “no.”
He was dreaming of something better! And he entered the following of a gentleman of the court as a page.
Later he had embraced a military career, putting all his passion and courage into it; he had made a name for himself by brilliant feats of arms, and like ancient knights, he now dreamed of only two things: performing great deeds and serving noble ladies.
For this reason, once the first very painful days of illness had passed, and he had entered convalescence, he asked for some romances of chivalry. He wanted to relieve his golden dreams in his imagination, immerse himself in the world he had longed for so much, while he awaited the time he could leave again.
But none of the books he wanted were in the house; his brothers were only able to make available to him a Life of Christ written by Ludolf of Saxony and the Legends of the Saints.
He yawned on opening them; perhaps he thought that numerous other yawns would follow, but there was nothing to do but to make the best of it.
He read, and as he read, he was astonished: This too is chivalry! Here too there are war leaders and captains and ladies!
Other leaders, of course, other soldiers, Christ, Dominic, Francis and the martyrs; but no less gallant and generous and splendid than Amadis of Gaul and Roland; stronger than them, infinitely more powerful, so much so that they revolutionized heaven and earth and changed the face of the world. And what ladies! Virgins who kept faith with their heavenly spouse at the price of any kind of martyrdom; with a smile on their lips, with light in their eyes, they offered their heads to the executioner!
By Jove! It was interesting and he had never thought about it! He immersed himself in reading. He admired the new world, the new heroes. A little at a time, he began to desire to enter and become a part of it.
But then he needed to say farewell to the old world. Here is a divided heart! Half is still wrapped up in the castles, the ladies, the glittering of the halls and the swords; half is subjugated by the fascination of the cross, the sufferings, the souls.
Now, there is one thing that is more interesting than anything else: to choose!
The Decision
One morning in winter, he left home, riding on a good-hearted mule.
He directed the beast to the famous sanctuary of Monserrat. Here he made a last gesture as a knight by spending the night in a vigil of arms in front of the statue of Our Lady, now the only lady of his thoughts. The next day he donated the mule to the convent, gave his soft fur garment to a poor man, put on a poor habit and began his new life.
The choice had been made!
Fifteen years later, in Venice, he was ordained a priest.
And in a short time, he filled the countries of Europe, the Indies and the Americas, with priests; all people in whom he had first transfused his marvelous love for Christ; his enthusiasm, his passion for conquests and great deeds; his combative ardor; people who astonished the word with deeds and miracles that recalled the apostles, along with the sacrifices of the martyrs and the writings of the doctors of the Church; something that was and still is today, one of the most beautiful affirmations of the Catholic priesthood.
Amici del Seminario Gregoriano, September 1942, p. 4 (Albino Luciani, Opera Omnia 9:377-78).
This is the latest newsletter on the documentary I have sent out by e-mail. If you interested in getting on the list for these notices, please let me know at editor@taucrossbooks.com. Please not also that the PayPal set-up has now been fixed, so that when you donate at the documentary’s website, the extra $3.75 for shipping isn’t added any longer.
Dear Friends,
I’m happy to say that the first showing of a rough cut of A Woman For Our Time: St. Elizabeth of Hungary on June 1 went very well. Some 80 people attended the screening at St. Elizabeth’s Church in Melville, and there was very enthusiastic applause and much comment afterward. This is a great way to help toward finalizing the editing, because I now know what works and what doesn’t. The temporary narration for the showing was provided by an actress friend of mine, who agreed to donate her services at short notice.
There is still a lot to be done not only for the final editing, but completion of narration in different voices, final music score and preparing subtitle tracks, as well as making copies for distribution. Not to mention the outstanding bills for photo and video rights.
Unfortunately, I have come to a complete standstill on the financial side. A very generous donation from a Franciscan friend helped me get a much needed transfer of some of our original HDV tapes to disk (the original transfer had been lost, and the only thing left was the bad DVD version that caused all sorts of trouble). Because the tapes from Rome used an older camera, a camera I couldn’t seem to rent anywhere, I had to go to a video house to have them do the transfer; in all that cost $750.00.
So once again, I’d like to urge people who are interested in the film to make a donation. You can donate HERE, using your Paypal account or credit or debit card.
Or you can send a check or money order to Lori Pieper, Tau Cross Books and Media, 30 W. 190th St., Apt. 6N, Bronx, NY 10468. If you donate $10 or more, you will get a free copy of the DVD. Please be sure to include your name and mailing address. I’m hoping this will give me the last push necessary to put the film out.
In a short time, I hope to put one last short trailer on YouTube, using some of the beautiful recreation footage of Elizabeth’s life we shot last fall in LA. It will also include a bit from Elizabeth’s childhood I shot in May in Queens, with little Isabel Mogollon playing Elizabeth.
And also hopefully I will soon be able to announce the distribution date.
Please keep reading these updates to learn of future showings. If you are in the New York area and are interested in having a showing in your church, school, SFO fraternity, etc. — anywhere that has a TV and DVD player, please let me know.
Thanks you for your patience, especially all those who have donated so generously. May God, St. Francis and St. Elizabeth bless you.
Stop the presses! So Crimen Sollicitationis isn’t — as we’ve been told for so long — the smoking gun, the primary instrument by which the Vatican covered up sexual abuse by the clergy, the nefarious work of the former Inquisition, which imposed a secrecy so strict that it prevented bishops from reporting crimes to civil authorities?
No! In reality, it was the key to reform, the document that would have put all power for completely re-writing the Church’s policy on sexual abuse right into Cardinal Ratzinger’s hands as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), if only he would have been willing to use it!
Ah, but that’s not the only shocking revelation: it now seems that we were mistaken all along in asserting that U.S. bishops in the 80’s and 90’s were a sorry lot of aiders and abettors of child abuse, in fact, criminals themselves, who shuffled child-raping priests around from parish to parish. I know this is what we’ve always been told, but we now know that this is completely wrong. No, they were really noble-minded crusaders for emotionally-wounded victims of abuse, who spent the whole of the 1990’s prodding the Vatican and the recalcitrant Ratzinger into action!
I do wish the all-knowing members of the press would make up their minds. It’s so hard to keep the conspiracy theories straight. It’s like reporters don’t even remember what was previously said. As soon as they come up with some new “truth” they just expect us to play along. (Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia).
Note how, little by little, the burden of blame is shifting. Nothing was the fault of the bishops, the police, governments, or the abusing priests themselves. No, it’s solely and completely Ratzinger’s fault!
All that aside, what does the new story actually say? Parts of it do contain some valid reporting, but there is much obscuring of vital details (some already known and available from previous Times reporting), along with much editorializing and wild speculation.
The article is based on this premise. Crimen Solicitationis, an Instructio first issued (secretly) by the Holy See to bishops in 1922, and again in 1962, gave the responsibility to the Holy Office (the future CDF) for overseeing and serving as a court of appeal for the trials of priests accused of sexual solicitation in the confessional. The bishops of individual dioceses were responsible for hearing complaints, charging priests and holding trials. Almost as an afterthought, in a couple of paragraphs the Holy Office was also given similar powers for trials of priests accused of sexually abusing minors.
The major contention of the new Times piece, by Laurie Goodstein and David Halbfinger, is that based on this document (let’s call it CS henceforth), Ratzinger had the power in his hands to crack down on clergy abuse throughout his tenure at the CDF in the 80’s and 90’s but didn’t act on it. One of the canon law experts the authors of the piece depended on, Nicholas Cafardi, explains in a separate article “The fact that the Holy Office had jurisdiction over those crimes was very important, because crimes in the Holy Office’s jurisdiction are unprescribable, that is, they have no statute of limitations.” This would have meant that the CDF would not be bound by the five-year statute of limitations for abuse laid down in the 1983 Code of Canon law. In fact, the norms of CS were in effect, by Ratzinger’s own admission, up until 2001, when a complete overhaul was made in the Church’s approach to clergy abuse. So while the future Pope may have urged action in a few cases (like that of the notorious Fr. Maciel), he really deserves no credit for the reform in 2001.
Now Goodstein and Halbfinger do admit that the canonical situation was confusing after the promulgation of the 1983 code (recall that Ratzinger only came to Rome to head the CDF in February 1982). Many canonists were of the opinion that the new code nullified the earlier document.
But that didn’t stop the authors from engaging in speculation and innuendo in arguing that Cardinal Ratzinger ignored the problem of abuse throughout most of his tenure at the CDF. Other than that, the story is very light on evidence. They claimed to have interviewed some ten bishops who had inside knowledge, but only quoted a couple of them - in itself very strange. And the ones they do quote had only good things to say about Ratzinger’s efforts against abuse.
The authors say that Ratzinger blocked the laicization of one pedophile priest in the 80’s because of a fear of too many men leaving the priesthood. The priest is not named, but it is largely admitted to be a reference to the Fr. Steven Kiesle case in Oakland, CA on which the Times has based other reporting, with documentation. If this is the case, why didn’t they authors name the priest and provide the link to the sources which their own paper had published?
Perhaps the reason is that it is anything but clear in this case that Ratzinger did anything to block the priest’s request for voluntary laicization – or that he would have even been able to do much to expedite it, given Vatican policy at the time. (See my story here) It seems that the authors now realize they didn’t have much of a case there and conveniently hurried over this part.
Also, the Times said nothing about another much-publicized case that showed Ratzinger’s office being pro-active in urging action in a canonical trial for abuse in Tucson from 1992-97 (although the AP and a Tucson reporter tried to make it look like the opposite). I also wrote about this case here:
This particular span of time, the mid-to-late 90’s, is key, since canonists had begun asking the CDF about CS around 1994, and urged its use to expedite cases. Yet the Times doesn’t give any clear timeline as to when Ratzinger might have taken action (See this superb piece by Mollie at GetReligion for an explanation).
Yet the Times, it seems, already has information on this very question that it didn’t use: it comes right from the notorious article on the Father Murphy case - also written by Goodstein the Times back in March with extensive documentation. Among the documents was an April 6, 1998 letter from Cardinal Bertone of the CDF to Bishop Raphael Fliss of Superior, WI, in which he reminded the bishop that Crimen Sollicitationis had ruled that penitents in cases of solicitation in the confessional must make their accusations within 30 days. Wait! So CS does mention a statute of limitations after all?
In fact, it does. Archbishop Weakland of Milwaukee, who had originally been handling this case, had written to the CDF to ask if this provision could be waived. Evidently it could. On the other hand, Bertone then went on to say that there was no statute of limitations as to how long after the event a trial could be held, which meant that the bishop would be able to prosecute a 35-year old case. This document shows clearly that by 1998, the CDF (or at least Bertone) making use of CS to expedite a case. And the statute of limitations questions turns out to be more complicated than expected. Why didn’t Ms. Goodstein include this information from her own files?
And yet while they had space for none of the above, the authors did find time to castigate Cardinal Ratzinger for — gasp! — actually doing what his Congregation was set up to do: oversee Catholic doctrine.
As [accused molester] Father Gauthe was being prosecuted in Louisiana, Cardinal Ratzinger was publicly disciplining priests in Brazil and Peru for preaching that the church should work to empower the poor and oppressed, which the cardinal saw as a Marxist-inspired distortion of church doctrine.
Here, I believe, is the real reason for the Times‘ fury - Cardinal Ratzinger just kept right on and on, upholding true Catholic teaching, refusing to substitute Marxism for salvation in Christ refusing to accept everything else that modern wisdom tell us is good, like divorce, sexual promiscuity, abortion, etc. etc. etc.
What of the authors’ main contention the CS was the key to reform? It may have been helpful with the statute of limitations, but it clearly wouldn’t have given Ratzinger the power to make new regulations, rewrite parts of canon law, or go deeper into the causes and solutions to the problem of clergy sexual abuse. That’s clearly why the whole 2001 re-organization was needed. So trying to base an argument on this one document doesn’t hold water.
Stop the presses is right! Can no one stop the press from distorting the truth?
Update: Sunday, July 11
I just learned that late in June, many Catholics in Germany began making plans for rallies in support of the Holy Father today, on the feast of his papal patron, St. Benedict. Very heartening news! Note to the Times: if your plan was to detach Catholics from the Pope — it’s not working!
Update, July 16
Yesterday, the Vatican put out some new norms, including those on sex abuse cases. The document has a lengthy section giving the historical background of the Church’s legislation on the subject, with some much-need clarifications:
Cases concerning the dignity of the Sacrament of Penance remained with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly the Holy Office; its name changed in 1965) after the Council, and the Instruction “Crimen Sollicitationis” was still used for such cases until the new norms established by the motu proprio “Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela” in 2001.
A small number of cases concerning sexual misconduct of clergy with minors was referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after the Second Vatican Council. Some of these cases were linked with the abuse of the sacrament of Penance, while a number may have been referred as requests for dispensations from the obligations of priesthood, including celibacy (sometimes referred to as “laicization”) which were dealt with by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith until 1989 (From 1989 to 2005 the competence in these dispensation cases was transferred to the Congregation for Sacraments and Divine Worship; from 2005 to the present the same cases have been treated by the Congregation for the Clergy).
The Code of Canon Law promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1983 updated the whole discipline n can, 1395, § 2: “A cleric who in another way has committed an offense against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, if the delict was committed by force or threats or publicly or with a minor below the age of sixteen years, is to be punished with just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state if the case so warrants”. According to the 1983 Code of Canon Law canonical trials are held in the dioceses. Appeals from judicial sentences may be presented to the Roman Rota, whereas administrative recourses against penal decrees are presented to the Congregation for the Clergy.\
In 1994 the Holy See granted an indult to the Bishops of the United States: the age for the canonical crime of sexual abuse of a minor was raised to 18. At the same time, prescription (canonical term for Statute of Limitations) was extended to a period of 10 years from the 18th birthday of the victim. Bishops were reminded to conduct canonical trials in their dioceses. Appeals were to be heard by the Roman Rota. Administrative Recourses were heard by the Congregation for the Clergy. During this period (1994 - 2001) no reference was made to the previous competence of the Holy Office over such cases.
The 1994 Indult for the US was extended to Ireland in 1996. In the meantime the question of special procedures for sexual abuse cases was under discussion in the Roman Curia. Finally Pope John Paul II decided to include the sexual abuse of a minor under 18 by a cleric, among the new list of canonical delicts reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Prescription for these cases was of ten (10) years from the 18th birthday of the victim. This new law was promulgated in the motu proprio “Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela” on 30 April 2001. A letter signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, respectively Prefect and Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was sent to all the Roman Catholic Bishops on 18 May 2001. This letter informed the bishops of the new law and the new procedures which replaced the Instruction “Crimen Sollicitationis”.
The acts that constitute the most grave delicts reserved to the Congregation were specified in this letter, both those against morality and those committed in the celebration of the Sacraments. Also given were special procedural norms to be followed in cases concerning these grave delicts, including those norms regarding the determination and imposition of canonical sanctions….
The important thing to not here is that after the promulgation of the 1983 code of Canon law, the CDF only had jurisdiction of abuse cases that were connected with the Sacrament of Penance. This is indoubtedly what was meant in 20001 in saying that CS had remained “in effect until now.” The effect referred only to the particular cases the Congregation still had the authority to treat after 1983.
Here’s another new trailer - for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!
I haven’t had much time to analyze this, but it seems to be a trailer for the whole of the film version, even though it’s going to be shown in two parts in theaters, Part I this November, and Part II next summer. And yes, it does look exciting and brings back all sorts of memories of a book which I read all of three years ago now!
So — analyze away for yourselves, and let me know what you think.
Pausing to look at all the sights on our way to Jerusalem. . . Mainly about faith, the Church, film, writing, famous Christian authors, and anything else I'm interested in at the moment.
The photo above was taken at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in March 2007.
Quote of the Month
"The history of the Catholic missions is by now a long road: at the beginning of that road is the Father of Mercy, who holds out his arms to all his children. All those who encounter the missionaries encounter the Father. And they also encounter the Son, the first missionary, who, obeying the Father, comes to earth, becomes flesh in human nature, is one of us, in solidarity with our misery (except for sin) and ends up dying for us in order to then return to heaven, carrying on his shoulders the human race his has won back.
Out of the same mold are the missionaries, who repeat, in some way, his journey. They too leave their fathers and families and depart to go among a foreign people. They too strip themselves of the refined culture they have acquired in their homelands; and of their native customs and habitat, of a hundred little comforts, in order to be in solidarity. With who? With a people who are on one hand naked and poor, and on the other rich in possibilities, which the missionaries intend to respect, value and elevate."
Albino Luciani (Pope John Paul I), to the people of his diocese of Vittorio Veneto, on his return from the diocesan missions in Africa in 1966
