Fr. Lombardi, spokesman for the Holy See, has said that the Holy Father has not signed the decree of beatification of Pius XII.
Città del Vaticano, 9 October (Apcom)
The Pope hasn’t signed any decree for the beatification of Pope Pacelli. Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See’s Press Office clarified this in a note, commenting on the words of Ratzinger during the solemn Mass for the 50th anniversary of the death of Pius XII.
"With those words pronounced during the homily about the cause of beatification of Servant of God Pius XII, presently underway," Fr. Lombardi explained, "the Pope intended to show explicitly his spiritual unity and a hope widespread amongst God’s people. However, nothing was expressed about the next steps in the cause or their timing, namely, the signing of the decree of recognition of heroic virtues, which is in its turn the premise for introducing the next stage for the recognition of a miracle."
The Vatican spokesman recalled that the Congregation of cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for Causes of Saints on 8 May 2007 unaninimously ruled on the heroic virtue of the Servant of God. "However, the Pope has not yet signed the relative decree, considering a period of time of reflection to be opportune."
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The Pope seemingly wants Pius XII. to be beatified, but does not sign the decree of recognition of heroic virtues.
The Pope seemingly wants the liberalisation of the Tridentine Mass, but does not sign the clarifying document of the P. C. Ecclesia Dei.
Maybe we should buy him a pen to quicken things? Seriously: I am getting more and more disappointed. Especially about the latter thing. We are working so hard for getting a Tridentine Mass in our parish, and no help from Rome. WHY? If I only could understand the hesitating and dithering of our Holy Father! We really had much stronger popes.
Dear Wait,
I am trying to figure out just who you mean by stronger popes. The only one in recent memory would of course be Paul VI because he is teh only one who by the stroke of a pen changed things in a radical way. Of course some of the things that were changed have had serious consequences many of which Pope Benedict is trying to rectify. If he tries to force the issue as I suspect you desire then there could be far more serious consequences. I know you desire the TLM in your local parish and if there are a few people like you then that should happen. It is not because the pope has not signed another document rather it is the lack of obedience to the documents he has already signed. This is not new. The same Paul VI experienced an even more serious lack of obedience when he signed Humanae Vitae. Today many bishops here in the US are beginning to speak out on the issue of abortion and it’s impact on the public square. Hopefully this trend will continue and the bishops will see the prudence in obeying the Holy Father in his manifest will as Lumen Gentium demands. Hopefully that will happen in less than the 40 years it has taken for bishops to discover that Paul VI was right. For your part, and indeed for all of us, the vital necessity is to pray and be humble. Humility and obedience will gain the favor of the LORD and then He can accomplish His Will which we must accept. It is possible to be correct and still loose my soul if I fail in Charity and Obedience and humility. These are hard things and these are hard times. God is giving us the opportunity to grow; but, we must follow Jesus and not Caesar.
From a PR perspective, the Pope certainly wasn’t going to make any definite move in the year leading up to the 50th anniversary of his death considering that the anniversary falls this year on Yom Kippur.
Santo subito!
Let’s remember that the Church is 2,000 years old and that the Vatican moves very slowly, and usually with good reason.
Whenever I hear people complain about the pope doing this or not doing that, I often think of the old saying “too many chiefs, not enough indians”. We should let the pope be the pope and let us attend to our own affairs.
“Pray and don’t worry.”
Time we’ve got. Pius XII isn’t going anywhere. ^_~
That’s right. But people are dying since 40 years now without the traditional latin mass – and they are still dying without that mass. And the pope? He is considering, “when the time might be right” to sign, to celebrate …
Not to get off topic, but people are NOT dying for the past 40 years without the old Mass. That is a bit extreme. I was born in 1979 and only came to know the old Mass a few years ago. I for one am not dead. I think Baptism took care of that.
Geoffrey,
People have certainly died in the last 40 years. Some of these people had been waiting for the TLM to be celebrated again in their churches, but did not live to see it.
Rose,
My comment was in response to the “dying… without the traditional latin mass”. I was in no way suggesting that no Catholics have died in the past 40 years!
The Pope giveth and the Vatican spokesman taketh away.
Perhaps the Holy Father is trying to stay on the good side of the Jews over their understandable dislike of Pius XII and the anniversary of his death falling at the time of the High Holy Days this year. Also, Benedict may have himself be harboring doubts about his predecessor… Pius XII seems to be an odd character – making that movie about himself that he “starred” in.
Thanks Geoffrey. I was just trying to get your attention. I think the point Wait was trying to make is that people are not dying BECAUSE they don’t have the old mass, but that many will not live to see the full fruits of Summorum Pontificum. Wait is tired of waiting.
The cathedral in my city took 60 years to complete. Many of the folks who began the original work on the cathedral did not live to see it completed, therefore, they “died without the cathedral”. I think that’s all Wait meant.
In the same way, many who would like to see the beatification of Pius XXII may not live to see it happen.
Oops, I meant Pius XII—more coffee, please!
@Rose
You got exactly what I meant – and expressed it far better than I did. (I am not a native speaker.)
Thanks!
“However, the Pope has not yet signed the relative decree, considering a period of time of reflection to be opportune.”
I think this is wise. I think it actually might be best to wait until Pope Pius’s contemporaries die out. That will put his Pontificate in the hands of history, not personal feelings. And clearly, Pope Benedict thinks that history will vindicate Pope Pius XII.
In both cases, it is possible that he wants to win more people over (or wait until they pass on) so that he doesn’t wind up signing “dead letters.” It is also possible that he already considers one or both of them dead letters, and further clarification will be forthcoming. After all, look at how many bishops have tried to stifle the motu proprio.
Wait wrote:
“The Pope seemingly wants Pius XII. to be beatified, but does not sign the decree of recognition of heroic virtues.
The Pope seemingly wants the liberalisation of the Tridentine Mass, but does not sign the clarifying document of the P. C. Ecclesia Dei.
Maybe we should buy him a pen to quicken things? Seriously: I am getting more and more disappointed. Especially about the latter thing. We are working so hard for getting a Tridentine Mass in our parish, and no help from Rome. WHY? If I only could understand the hesitating and dithering of our Holy Father! We really had much stronger popes.”
Larry wrote:
“Dear Wait,
I am trying to figure out just who you mean by stronger popes. The only one in recent memory would of course be Paul VI because he is teh only one who by the stroke of a pen changed things in a radical way. Of course some of the things that were changed have had serious consequences many of which Pope Benedict is trying to rectify. If he tries to force the issue as I suspect you desire then there could be far more serious consequences. I know you desire the TLM in your local parish and if there are a few people like you then that should happen. It is not because the pope has not signed another document rather it is the lack of obedience to the documents he has already signed. This is not new. The same Paul VI experienced an even more serious lack of obedience when he signed Humanae Vitae. Today many bishops here in the US are beginning to speak out on the issue of abortion and it’s impact on the public square. Hopefully this trend will continue and the bishops will see the prudence in obeying the Holy Father in his manifest will as Lumen Gentium demands. Hopefully that will happen in less than the 40 years it has taken for bishops to discover that Paul VI was right. For your part, and indeed for all of us, the vital necessity is to pray and be humble. Humility and obedience will gain the favor of the LORD and then He can accomplish His Will which we must accept. It is possible to be correct and still loose my soul if I fail in Charity and Obedience and humility. These are hard things and these are hard times. God is giving us the opportunity to grow; but, we must follow Jesus and not Caesar.”
)(
First of all, Wait, you are correct in that it very much does look like the Holy Father talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. He does a lot of his own stuff but it’s confined to the top. There are obvious instances where various bishops and communities are following his example and taking full advantage of Summorum Pontificum, but as far as helping us overcome the denials of which the Holy Father himself says are permissible are sorely lacking.
Larry, insofar as strong Popes, Paul VI is not the prime example of strong. He can be noted as being a very imprudent Pope, but not necessarily strong. Regarding obedience to Humae Vitae, that’s a practice of a moral and social directive, much like the Church’s teaching on other things. What the individual ultimately does or doesn’t do, the Church can’t help that. Dealing with matters of liturgical practice and authentic teaching in the Church, yes, the Pope can effect that, but does little to do so.
Ecclesia Dei said we can appeal to them when the Tridentine Mass is denied to the Faitful by whomever. It’s been over a year now and the various members of the Faithful still have not had any sign of relief from their liberal oppressors. All talk, no walk.
I find it very conceited and negligent for people to continue to make excuses for the Church on the Why Nots rather encourage an impetus to get a move on. It is also possible for the Clergy to lose their souls when they fail to act to do what is right instead of making all kinds of silly “hurt feelings” decisions. I can just imagine all the hurt felings and discord we should have taken into consideration when implementing the Civil Rights Act. Would you still be saying the same thing if it is still taking forty years to let a minority drink out of the same fountain or use the same restroom? A Catholic should expect no less swift corrections as you should expect something from your government. It’s also a failing in charity to continue to tell others to have to accept things, to have to wait, etc.