Posted on 09/21/2023 10:24:33 AM PDT by Hieronymus
Today, it was announced that Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, former prefect of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), will not be taking part in the Synod on Synodality 'at his own request.' No other reason was given.
The peculiar timing, and absence of any explanation (other than that it was Ladaria's own request), are notable. Ladaria's last day as DDF prefect was September 8. He was replaced on September 11 with Francis loyalist Tucho Fernandez, who has been instructed by Francis to stay away from sex abuse investigations (despite it being a chief duty of his office). Pope Francis met with the Rupnik's ardent defender and head of his Aletti Center, Maria Campatelli, the following Friday, September 15. The shocking statement rehabilitating Rupnik was released the next Monday, September 18. Ladaria announced today, three days later, that he would not be participating in the Synod on Synodality.
At least some online commentators have made the same connection-- Ladaria, who oversaw sex abuses investigations as head of the DDF, was the 'katechon' holding back the full-blown rehabilitation of Rupnik that Francis ardently desires, and is now expressing his extreme disapproval of Francis's appalling behavior. Massimo Faggioli's statement on Ladaria's departure from the Synod indicates something similar: "a forza di torcere e tirare, a un certo punto la corda si spezza"-- "due to the twisting and pulling, at a certain point the rope breaks."
If Ladaria held back Francis's rehabilitation of Rupnik, it would not be the first time that he has acted to avert scandal. Before the Pope's release of Traditionis Custodes, unveiling vicious Latin Mass restrictions against Traditional Catholics, Ladaria "held it back as long as he could" so as to avert reigniting the liturgical wars and persecuting the faithful.
Ladaria's defection indicates that Francis's shocking attempt to rehabilitate Rupnik- a confirmed rapist- may prove to a bridge too far even for his loyal admirers.
Ping
Cardinal Ladaria was actually an ok Jesuit pick for his office. He wasn’t particularly brave but was also one of the more orthodox Jesuits on shear academic achievement alone.
Know a few Jesuits who knew him personally.
Time for a big housecleaning in the Vatican.
Ok for a Jesuit is like Ok for a Democrat. Tolerable examples exist, but if you find them in an office of any significance you need to ask why.
I was in a parish that had a couple of good Jesuit curates when I was growing up, met Father Hardon, and have a good friend who is a relatively young Jesuit.
I’m just waiting for Pope Francis to canonize Clement XIV.
He’s a Spaniard (like St Ignatius) and also Catalan from Majorca...an island that produced a huge number of the Franciscan and other missionaries who converted the New World (or the Spanish possessions, at any rate, including Florida).
He was orthodox but timid. I think nothing in his scholarly background had prepared him to deal with a Pope who was not supportive of orthodoxy, and he really didn’t know what to do.
But he’s a Spaniard and they’re proud and I think he felt used. This is a very brave thing to do now. He is essentially showing that he won’t participate in the Synod because nothing about it will be orthodox teaching and he doesn’t want to be used again to make people believe that it is.
Servility is a vice, not a virtue. This, however, is generally not explained in detail in priestly training, because servility is so useful. Rather, it is often confounded with obedience.
That goes triple in the Jesuits. Or as the French would say, tres mal.
I don’t really think he was servile as much as just confused and dealing with a situation he had never dreamed of. Remember, the Jesuits are supposed to be the “shock troops” of the Pope, that is, totally loyal.
However, there’s a rogue element among them which now dominates, and actually wanted to be the Pope and take over all the offices. Accepting election as Pope is specifically forbidden in their rule, btw, and I never figured out how Bergoglio got away with it.
They always dabbled in politics, which is why many a country expelled the order at one time or another, but at the same time there were always many very devout and devoted Jesuits who loved the Faith and taught it.
Bergoglio is the full flowering of a combination of 60’s Jesuit Latin American Marxism and pantheist Teilhard de Chardin theory.
Ladaria was a scholar and probably an actual believer, unlike many a Jesuit, and he wasn’t ready for this (and was probably already an outsider in his own order).
I think he’s trying to make it right now and I give him that.
I’m not surprised that accepting election was initially forbidden, but that this made it through the post Vatican II overhaul, was breached, and I have never heard of it would surprise me.
I have no problem imaging that a Jesuit would find a way around the constitutions when it suited him.
there were always many very devout and devoted Jesuits who loved the Faith and taught it.
https://www.blueridgejournal.com/poems/hb-here.htm
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