Here is some news to cheer the heart. For your brick by brick file… in VIS today we read:
RINUNCIA DEL PREFETTO DELLA CONGREGAZIONE PER IL CLERO E NOMINA DEL SUCCESSORE
Il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI ha accolto la rinunzia presentata, per raggiunti limiti d’età, dall’Em.mo Card. Cláudio Hummes all’incarico di Prefetto della Congregazione per il Clero ed ha chiamato a succedergli nel medesimo incarico S.E. Mons. Mauro Piacenza, Arcivescovo titolare di Vittoriana, finora Segretario dello stesso Dicastero.
Basically, Card. Hummes has stepped down from his position as Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy for reasons of age and the Secretary of the same Congregation, Archbishop Mauro Piacenza has taken his place.
Archbp. Piacenza is excellent. I have heard him speak on more than one occasion and I have always been impressed. His writings are sound and clear.
By the way… Archbp. Piacenza is from Genoa and was ordained by Card. Siri.
Add another name to the list for the consistory. Archbp. Piacenza will, I am glad to say, be a cardinal.
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Excellent news. I am waiting for NCR to throw a nutty, but they are so far removed from the reality of the Church they probably don’t know who he is. Fantastic!
Piacenza placet.
FYI, Archbishop Mauro Piacenza just turned 66 years old last month.
E venuto da Vicenza con la licenza, Piacenza?
Do you mean Cardinal Siri….of the “Siri Thesis” fame, is anyone familiar with this….oy vey!!!!
A word about Cardinal Hummes…. Thiberville!
http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2010/03/thiberville-saga-continues.html
In days gone by, those named to head dicasteries who did not hold the cardinalatial dignity at the time of their appointments were termed “pro-prefects” until such time as they were raised to that dignity (thus becoming prefects de facto). I noticed that the English announcement of the appointment called the archbishop “prefect”. Is this a novelty or did I miss a papal document somewhere along the way?
I believe it was the Apostolic Constitution, Pastor bonus of 1988 that eliminated (by simply not mentioning it) the custom of designating those heads of Congregations who were not Cardinals as “pro-prefects,” just as the custom has been changed of designating representative of the Holy See as a “pro-nuncio” in countries where that representative was not recognized as the dean of the diplomatic corps.
Ah – Cardinal Siri: an excellent pedigree! BTW, anyone ever stumbled across the sedevacantist claim that Cardinal Siri was first elected Pope in 1958, and again in 1963 I believe, but stepped down immediately due to threats made against the clergy?
Yes, I’m aware of the “Siri Thesis”: elected pope in 1958, 1963 and probably twice in 1978! What really should upset us is that His Holiness, Pope Pius XIII, died last year at an undisclosed location in the American Northwest without nary a word in the press. He was surround only by his beloved chicken wire, being barred from his true home in the Vatican by the “bogus Council Vatican II Novus Ordo Church”. For the uninformed, Lucius Pulvermacher was elected Supreme Pontiff by “Cardinal” Bateman, an Australian layman. As a cardinal, however, he ordained Fr. Pulvermacher a bishop and Pius XIII, in turn, ordained Cardinal Bateman a bishop. Their path parted, however, after Cardinal Bateman discovered that Pius XIII made use of fortunetelling. I tell you, you just can’t make this stuff up!
@papfidelis – Wow! Pope Michael’s saga is almost boring in comparison.
Oh, that’s nothing. The story gets more and more interesting (viz. bizarre) as one delves deeper. I made no mention of the long-planned “telephone conclave” which elected him and whose planning, once again, is underway, due to the death of His Holiness on November 30, 2009. After Fr. Pulvermacher left the Franciscans in the mid 1970s, he joined up for a time with the SSPX, but left them because they were willing to administrate the sacraments to “Novus Ordo Catholics”. He wrote the famed “Hand Encyclical” among his other fine works. (For a priest trained in the pre-Vatican II era, Fr. Pulvermacher seemed to be rather limited theologically and, at times, only semi-literate.) I wonder if his successor will occupy the same compound (and chicken wire) as Pius XIII.
The stories that Siri was elected pope at one or more conclaves (but declined election) have been around for some time. Like any other story that is impossible to prove, we never know whether it’s just disinformation put out to weaken the actual winner. A similar story emerged that BXVI was barely elected.
It is sometimes said that sometimes, as support for a Cardinal begins to grow, he will let it known in between ballots that he is not interested.
BTW, I have also heard that Merry del Val was elected, but declined because he thought he would be divisive.