On Line translation
(Rome) The theologian Andrea Grillo, a staunch
Bergoglianer, revealed in a comment "the plan behind the incredible
appointments" (Il Timone) at the head of the Pontifical Institute John
Paul II For Studies on Marriage and Family, which was carried out on Wednesday by Pope
Francis.
The reshuffles mean a realignment of the John Paul
II established international center, which for 25 years has been the guardian and
supporter "of the authentic Magisterium of the Church" in the area
of marriage and family. The intervention of Pope Francis is "the
application of Benedict XVI's hermeneutics of rupture 'of Vatican II
to that institution and to the moral theology in general, and in particular to
overcome the doctrinal heritage of sexuality, life and family of Paul VI and
John Paul II," as written in the Catholic monthly magazine, Il Timone .
"Familiaris Consortio" was yesterday,
today is "Amoris Laetitia"
The serious human intervention suggests that
not only touches to the post-synodal letter Familiaris Consortio of John Paul
II, but also to the prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae of Paul VI, is to be replaced by Amoris Laetitia.
Pierangelo Sequeri was appointed as the new
director and Curia Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia on the new Grand Chancellor of
the Pontifical Institute. On outstanding representatives of Catholic marriage
and family teaching as Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, Cardinal Angelo Scola and Msgr.
Livio Melina, who passed since the founding of the Institute in succession, now
follows Sequeri. "The transition is big, strong and surprising, especially
because it is carried out in parallel with some general developments in recent
years," said Grillo.
The John Paul II Institute
Founded in 1981,
the same year in which Familiaris Consortio was published and is directly related. It was founded at the request of the then Pope to deepen the study of theology and philosophy of marriage and the family, which was visible as a
priority of the pontificate of John Paul II,
The headquarters is located at the Lateran
University in Rome. Five additional offices in the United States, Benin, Brazil,
India Mexico, Spain and Australia.
In these 35 years, thousands of theologians,
bishops, priests, professors and pastors were in the area of "theology and
anthropology of marriage" formed. The approach by Grillo had been very
"classic", but quickly developed a strong apologetic profile and
experienced by the encyclical Veritatis Splendor of 1994, the "gradual
accentuation of moral maximalism, who coined strongly the work of the past 20
years."
Conflicting positions between Pope Francis and
the Pontifical Institute
For the most recent development, however, was
decisive. In the past three years since the end of the pontificate of
Benedict XVI the tones between the willed by Pope Francis' Church and the Institute were always rough.
The culmination of the tensions began with the
preparation of the Synod of Bishops on the family when at the Institute
prevailed the conviction that Pope Francis share the theses of Cardinal Kasper
and the course began to make a change in Catholic moral teaching.
Professors of the first rank of the institute
were open against Kasper "openings" position. The result was that
Pope Francis did not appoint representative of the Institute as synod members or
as observers. The most qualified "in-house"
experts on marriage and family were excluded from the Synod. The marginalization by the pope
reinforced the already existing fears. It did not escape even outside observers and those
transitioning through saw this as a
direction decision of the Pope in favor of Kasper-theses.
Grillo must dig deep into their rhetorical
tricks to find a "small scandal", which should serve as knitting for
the previous director. The priest and moral theologian Livio Melina, since 2006
at the head of the Institute, had shortly before the official presentation of
the post-synodal letter Amoris Laetitia written a critique of the papal
document by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and distributed to the students of the
Institute. Following the publication of post-synodal letter on April 8 followed
several courses that are critical to the controversial Exhortation concerned.
The Institute was represented at positions in open contradiction to the papal
"openings". An attitude that is certainly not arrived well at the
highest level.
"To maximalist"
Msgr. Melina, who at the Gregoriana did his
doctorate under Cardinal Caffarra and several years under the direction of Cardinal
Ratzinger at the CDF has worked before at the Pontifical John Paul II
Institute.Was appointed, is one of the world's most important Catholic moral
theologians and bioethicists. His positions appear in the Vatican but no longer
in demand.
Bergoglianer Grillo turned up already in the
past two years, nosing in on the institute because it is "too
maximalist" and that Familiaris Consortio regarded as "Pillar of
Heracles".
To justify the papal intervention, Grillo then accused the
Institute that adherence to Familiaris Consortio have adopted in
terms of theology of marriage "in recent months, an almost pathological
form".
The defense of the marriage sacrament and the
Church's moral teaching was not only reviled by him as a
"quasi-pathology" but also as shown as an "aberration." The appointment of Pierangelo Sequeri "rightly puts an end: said Grillo literally: "It symbolically opens after a period of 35 years,
which began with Familiaris Consortio, a few months after Amoris Laetitia a new
phase. Not without continuity with the good that has been done, but not without
a break with all limitations of this experience. "
The new director
The new director Pierangelo Sequeri comes from
the clergy of the Archdiocese of Milan.
Ordained in 1968, Sequeri is older than
the detached from him Melina. The fundamental theologian Sequeri was primarily
known as a musician, including through its cooperation with the music group Gen
Verde the Focolare Movement. Since 2010, he is part of Benedict XVI's international Medjugorje inquiry commission and was the rector since 2012 of the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy.
The expectation of this new
director, is evident in the anthology "Family and Church"
(Famiglia e Chiesa, LEV, 2015). The new Grand Chancellor, Archbishop Curia
Vincenzo Paglia had, in his capacity as Chairman of the spring 2015 Pontifical
Family Council conducted three seminars on the Synod of Bishops. The speakers
were in the narrow and broad sense invariably Kasperianer. Your presentations
should underpin the "holes" in view of the crucial Synod of Bishops
in October 2015 and were published as a collection by the Vatican publishing.
The defenders of the Church's moral teaching, whether or Cardinals Synod had to
seek publishers for their publications themselves.
Sequeris contribution includes "a small,
large program, at least for the next 20 years of the Institute," said
Grillo pleased. "It changed course, leaving the harbor, sailing on the
open sea. The captain knows the route and is not afraid. It will not only
attract the ecclesiastical but also the secular family culture benefit from
having him perhaps as necessary. Even to this culture to speak, has suddenly re
possible. "With these words Grillo celebrates the papal engagement with
the Francis a" fortress of the marriage sacrament and moral teaching
"(Cardinal Caffarra), which had withstood 35 years old, with a stroke of
the pen dragged.
Il Timone says that Pope Francis the Pontifical
John Paul II Institute. For Studies on Marriage and Family"stormed and
humiliated" had to enforce "the sexual revolution in the
Vatican." The real "revolution" of Pope Francis takes place
through appointments .
Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: MiL