What happened?
Two letters that Benedict XVI wrote to his friend Cardinal Walter Brandmüller last November have been leaked to the German newspaper Bild. In the letters Benedict rebuked his friend for publicly criticising his decision to abdicate the papacy. He also defended his decision to accept the title “Pope Emeritus”. If he had returned to being a cardinal, he said, he would have been “constantly exposed to the media”. As Pope Emeritus he was “absolutely not accessible”, he wrote.
What the media are saying
One passage in the letter provoked two wildly different interpretations. Benedict XVI referred to people’s “deep-seated pain” over the way his papacy ended, adding that for some the pain “has turned to anger, which no longer just affects the abdication but my person and the entirety of my pontificate”. He added: “In this way the pontificate itself is being devalued and conflated with the sorrow about the situation of the Church today.”
Bild said the letters showed Benedict was “deeply worried about the state of the Church”. The letters, it claimed, would make Church historians “sit up and take notice”. Jason Horowitz at the New York Times, meanwhile, argued that the letters were actually a rebuke to Pope Francis’s critics – that the Pope Emeritus believed anger over his abdication was devaluing Pope Francis’s papacy. But EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo responded on Twitter: “Pope Francis has nothing to do with it.”
Phil Lawler, writing at Catholic Culture, sided with Bild. Quoting Benedict’s reference to “sorrow about the situation of the Church today”, he said: “The former pope seems to be agreeing – in a private letter, not intended for public release – that something is seriously wrong.” Lawler had a caveat. At the end of one letter Benedict wrote: “Let us rather pray … that the Lord will come to the aid of his Church.” According to Bild, this was a “remarkable sentence”. Lawler disagreed. “Shouldn’t good Christians ask for the Lord’s help, even in the best of times?”
✣Vatican signs deal with China on bishops
What happened?
The Holy See and the Chinese government signed an agreement on how bishops in China should be appointed. The Vatican also lifted the excommunications of seven bishops appointed by Beijing without Vatican approval. Cardinal Pietro Parolin said that all the bishops in China were, for the first time in decades, in full communion with Rome.
Why was it under-reported
The deal was covered widely, but never became a truly big story for the world’s media. While the pact is potentially historic, few of its actual details have been made public. The agreed process for bishops’ appointments is unclear. The Holy See described it as a “provisional agreement” subject to review, while Vatican spokesman Greg Burke called it the start of a process. With all this in mind, it is hard to know if the agreement signals a real change for China’s at least 10 million Catholics, long split between an official and “underground” Church.
What will happen next?
The aim of the agreement, said Burke, is “not political but pastoral”, allowing faithful to have bishops in communion with Rome and also recognised by the authorities. But it is unlikely to help Chinese Catholics in the short term. For a start, Cardinal Joseph Zen fears that half of the underground Church may protest against the deal. Meanwhile, experts say that some officials, feeling a concession has been given, will crack down on Catholics even harder. And so the restrictions – the bulldozing of churches, the detentions of bishops – are likely to intensify.
✣The week ahead
The three-week Synod of Bishops on “young people, the faith, and vocational discernment” will begin on Wednesday. About 300 people will attend the gathering. Most of the participants are cardinals and bishops who have been elected by their bishops’ conferences. Thirty-two women, a mix of lay people and Religious, will attend as “observers” or “collaborators”.
An exhibition of cartoons by John Ryan, the Catholic Herald’s late cartoonist, has opened at Ushaw College, County Durham. It is entitled “Sink or Swim? Catholicism in Sixties Britain” and runs until December 22.
The relics of the Martin family – St Thérèse of Lisieux and her parents Ss Louis and Zélie Martin – arrive in Stockholm today for a six-week tour of Nordic countries. Bishop Czesław Kozon of Copenhagen said St Thérèse “helps us to rediscover today the deep mystical aspect of the Church … that of a loving Mother to all those who feel ignored, or even unloved”.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.