Posted on 07/09/2009 12:23:56 AM PDT by iowamark
Pope Benedict XVI has sacked two Vatican officials over the readmission of a British Holocaust-denying bishop to the Roman Catholic Church.
He also abolished the Vatican department responsible for the lifting of the excommunication of Richard Williamson, who is one of the leaders of the Society of St Pius X.
The rehabilitation, in January, threatened to undo decades of work to heal rifts between Catholics and Jews. The German-born Pope was forced to apologise to Jewish leaders and atoned by visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel in May.
The incident made Pope Benedict, one of the most admired theologians of his generation, appear incompetent. Faced with intense criticism from Catholic leaders, he also wrote a letter to the world's bishops to explain his mistake.
Today, however, the Pope - once nicknamed the Panzer Cardinal because of his tough approach to dissenters - rounded on those he believes were to blame for the fiasco.
He announced the abolition of the Ecclesia Dei commission, the body set up in 1988 to bring traditionalists back into the Church, and deliberately put its chief, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, out of a job.
He also effectively sacked Italian Monsignor Camille Perl, Cardinal Castrillon's deputy.
Relations with traditionalists were instead put under the control of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the department the Pope headed when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and which is renowned for its investigative as well as doctrinal rigour.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Bump, bump, bump.
I think we all knew this was coming!
The incident did make Benedict look bad. He is a very well read former theology professor, now surrounded by similar experts. He should have known of Williamson’s stands, which could have been discovered by simply Googling him.
Sad to say, the SSPX really has no intention of going back to Rome. They just dance around to survive.
Give the SSPX credit tho, if it wasn’t for them, the FSSP and Institute of Christ the King wouldn’t be here.
Something JPII was incapable of doing—actually removing miscreants, incompetents, even heretics—from positions of responsibility.
Why won’t I call him “John Paul the Great”? One word: Weakland. And Hubbard. And Clark. Etc.
I am sure he was/is a saint. But not “great,” as that title is applied to Popes.
This is absolute garbage. Castrillon-Hoyes was 80 years old, the normal retirement age for curia heads. The Commission for Ecclesia Dei is being merged into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith because the ongoing process of reintegrating the traditionalists belongs under the doctrinal oversight, not merely liturgical oversight. By freeing up the old Mass, the liturgical issues are largely settled. The doctrinal issues remain.
The merging of the PCED into the CDF was announced months ago. It is not news. That the head of the PCED at 80 years old doesn’t go along with it to the CDF is not news. Had Castrillon-Hoyes been transferred to the CDF at age 80, now that would have been news.
This is typical MSM crap. Why do you post this total nonsense?
Go to http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/07/john-l-allen-of-ncr-on-the-restructuring-of-the-pced/ for an intelligent discussion of these changes.
The MSM views the Vatican through a purely political lens. All the same, the January fiasco ought not to have occured.
Thanks for the info.
Spot on.
In just a few short hours Obama will formally ask the Pope to subtly weaken the Church's discipline on abortion. In return, he will offer the Pope...the whole world.
Pray for the Holy Father.
If he sacked them, then it was a deliberate action on their part to sabotage the Pope and make him look bad.
Ratz wouldn’t fire someone just for an honest mistake...
This suggests he has enemies in the Vatican working against him...so did John Paul II...
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