As you know, His Eminence Francis Card. Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, on 1 November turned 76. Very often Prefects are called to step down at 75.
Card. Arinze’s 50th anniversary of ordination of priesthood, his Jubilee, is 23 November.
There has been some talk that the next Prefect may be his Eminence Antonio Card. Canizares Llovera, archbishop of Toledo, the one some have nicknamed "the little Ratzinger".
AUDIENCES
VATICAN CITY, 20 NOV 2008 (VIS) – The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:
– Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and of the Governorate of Vatican City State.
– Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, archbishop of Toledo, Spain.
AUDIENCESUPDATE:
This is in from the site of the intrepid Andrea Tornielli (my translation):
Today Benedict XVI received in audience the Archbishop of Toledo, Antonio Card. Cañizares Llovera. Sunday, 23 November, the Nigerian Francis Arinze, celebrates his Jubilee of priesthood and in the first weeks of December we await the nomination of his successor, who will be Cañizares, called in Spain, "the little Ratzinger. It is foreseen in the first months of next year, probably before Easter, after the new Prefect will have settled into the Congregation, also a change of the Secretary: the Sri Lankan Archbishop Malcom Ranjith Patabendige Don will be named Archbishop of Colombo (and perhaps cardinal).
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No surprise. I trust the HF knows best, but I know I would have been jazzed if His Emminence Ranjith would have been elevated to Prefect. He has joined the HF in the ranks of “The Bold” in my book. While I’m happy that Ranjith may be looking at a red hat as the Ordinary of Colombo, wouldn’t he have been looking at the same as Prefect?
Sorry to be cynical, but it’s kinda like having your favorite football player be turned down for MVP.
I guess (Holy) Father knows best.
oops…..I mean, His Excellency Ranjith. LOL, I write this as I enter the Anti-spam phrase “think then post”.
This appointment will not make the “Bugninists” happy at all. I remember meeting him at the consistory in Rome in 2006. He had an extremely supportive group of his flock present for his reception of the red hat.
Sorry to be cynical, but it’s kinda like having your favorite football player be turned down for MVP.
The Church is not a football team, with the same rules and traditions and inner workings. It is not customary for a secretary to be promoted directly to the post of Prefect of the same congregation. This way seems to be a win-win both in the short and the long haul. Card. Canizares Lovera won’t make any “bugninist” happy, and Abp. Ranjith gets a red hat all internal opposition notwithstanding, and the Lord knows how we need more of the good guys in the College of Cardinals.
But I wouldn’t limit any analysis of what is going to happen to a mere clash of “parties” within the Church. That is certainly one aspect (we’re still speaking of men, after all), but OTOH we don’t know all the arcana imperii behind certain decisions and most important we have to trust the Holy Father. He will certainly do what he sees as the best way for the Church to work for the salvation of souls not according to wishful thinking and desiderata, but what is realistically possible in a given context.
What we can/should do is pray for the Holy Father and all the successors of the Apostles and do what we can according to our own talents, vocation and possibilities, never budging an inch but with a serene heart and an open mind.
If Antonio Card. Cañizares Llovera is named to head the CDW, I wonder how things will go between him and H.E. Card. Schönborn.
The Archbishop of Toledo is also the Primate of Spain. While his duties, obviously, will involve liturgical matters, I think the possible appointment is significant in general because the Church in Spain is under relentless attack by the Socialist government (the positions of which are very similar to those of our incoming government) and this, to me, indicates support by the Pope for the Spanish Church in its trials.
In terms of the old mass, there was initially a fair amount of resistance among the Spanish bishops, but bit by bit, the availability of the mass is expanding. Spain has a couple of Una Voce chapters that have been instrumental in this, and it also has some high-ranking churchmen who are supportive (such as the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, who personally commissioned the restoration of a chapel). The Novus Ordo also appears in Latin here and there.
In some ways, Spain is very similar to the US. Liturgical practice was awful, although it rarely reached the clown-mass stage, thank goodness. The country was infested by very liberal and politicized clergy and bishops for decades, but it is recovering now as these men fade away. It has a higher rate of mass attendance than the rest of Europe. It also has a number of new, dynamic, conservative religious orders, and is one of the focal points for the revival of monastic chant in the existing contemplative orders. Not bad, I’d say.