Those of who who read Italian my be interested in an article of Marco Tosatti posted at La Stampa which purports to reconstruct some of the discussion in the now-not-so-Secret Consistory during which Card. Kasper delivered his extremely long and now infamous presentation.
You will recall that the Cardinal suggested a way for the divorced and remarried to receive Communion. Few, it seems, of the Cardinal agreed or agree now. I wrote something HERE. Card. Burke has commented HERE and HERE.
I was struck by a couple points.
Card. Ruini noted that some 85% percent of cardinals who spoke up after Kasper were against Kasper’s proposals. He opined of those who said nothing that perhaps they were simply “embarrassed”.
Ruini went on to remind everyone of what Bl. John XXIII said at the opening of the Second Vatican Council in his speech called Gaudet Mater Ecclesia… which I now provide (and you can find my PODCAzT on it HERE):
The manner in which sacred doctrine is spread, this having been established, it becomes clear how much is expected from the Council in regard to doctrine. That is, the Twenty-first Ecumenical Council, which will draw upon the effective and important wealth of juridical, liturgical, apostolic, and administrative experiences, wishes to transmit the doctrine, pure and integral, without any attenuation or distortion, which throughout twenty centuries, notwithstanding difficulties and contrasts, has become the common patrimony of men. It is a patrimony not well received by all, but always a rich treasure available to men of good will.
Our duty is not only to guard this precious treasure, as if we were concerned only with antiquity, but to dedicate ourselves with an earnest will and without fear to that work which our era demands of us, pursuing thus the path which the Church has followed for twenty centuries. […]
… But from the renewed, serene, and tranquil adherence to all the teaching of the Church in its entirety and preciseness, as it still shines forth in the Acts of the Council of Trent and First Vatican Council, the Christian, Catholic, and apostolic spirit of the whole world expects a step forward toward a doctrinal penetration and a formation of consciousness in faithful and perfect conformity to the authentic doctrine, which, however, should be studied and expounded through the methods of research and through the literary forms of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another. And it is the latter that must be taken into great consideration with patience if necessary, everything being measured in the forms and proportions of a magisterium which is predominantly pastoral in character.
Card. Ruini was entirely correct in reminding everyone of what John XXIII famously uttered.
How it is so easily and so often forgotten? You would think that such lapses in memory were something less than accidental or in the course of nature and its Biological Solution.
From a reader…
