Showing posts with label Father Lombardi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Father Lombardi. Show all posts

Monday, December 21, 2015

Opus Dei Greg Burke Will be New Deputy Vatican Speaker

Greg Burke Will be the New Deputy of Vatican Speaker Father
Lombardi

(Rome) In recent days there have been rumors that Father Federico Lombardi SJ would be replaced as the Vatican spokesman and might be replaced by a layman, was  already the case  under Pope John Paul II.  in Rome. At that time, the Spaniard, Joaquin Navarro-Valls was the Vatican spokesman.

The rumor has not been confirmed, but a change of the Vice Vatican Spokesman has been announced.  So far, the Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini from the tiny country of San Marino is Lombardi's deputy as the Vatican spokesman. Father Benedettini was introduced in 1994 by Navarro-Valls in the press-service, and appointed in 1995 as deputy director. After 20 years there is now a change. Until January 31, 2016 Father Benedettini  will hold this office. From February 1, the American Greg Burke will be  Lombardi's new deputy.

Greg Burke began in the 1980s as Rome correspondent of the weekly National Catholic Register, from 1994 he was in the same function for  Time Magazine and from 2001 for Fox News. In 2012, he was appointed under Benedict XVI.  as Communication Advisor to the Vatican Secretariat of State. The appointment was seen in the context of ongoing criticism about inadequate public relations of the Holy See and a bad media image of the German pope.   Critics then held   the then Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone responsible for this.

Will Greg Burke Really be Vatican Spokesman?

Then came the unexpected resignation of Benedict XVI. and with Pope Francis everything seemed quite different. It was said that Burke was held in disgrace  because of his appointment by Benedict XVI. membership of the Opus Dei by the new Church leadership. Indeed,the American had become silent, even before he could put the expectations placed in him to the test. Senior Communications Adviser Burke got his own office at the Secretary of State but his exact field of responsibility was not defined.
With his appointment as deputy Vatican spokesman, these voices have been proven wrong, while those  who predicted that the Jesuit Lombardi would be replaced by Burke in 2012  have received new confirmation.  Father Lombardi has been Vatican spokesman since 2006.  In August 2017, he will be 75 years of age.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Famiglia Cristiana (Screenshot)
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com
Link to Katholisches...
AMDG

Friday, August 7, 2015

Father Lombardi Calls Pope's Public Statements, "Confusing"

Edit: Sandro Magister has commented on an interview which appeared in National Geographic, of the Pope's mouthpiece, Father Lombardi, wherein the Vatican's Press Secretary confides some interesting views about the Holy Father's style, describing it as "confusing".


Father Lombardi also demystifies Pope Francis’s strategy in the field of geopolitics.

He makes the comparison between what Benedict XVI would tell him after a meeting with this or that world leader, to allow him to summarize the contents of the conversation in a statement, and what Pope Francis tells him today:
“It was incredible. Benedict was so clear. He would say: ‘We have spoken about these things, I agree with these points, I would argue against these other points, the objective of our next meeting will be this’ – two minutes and I’m totally clear about what the contents were. With Francis: ‘This is a wise man; he has had these interesting experiences.’ Diplomacy for Francis is not so much about strategy but instead: ‘I have met this person, we now have a personal relation, let us now do good for the people and for the Church.’”

Father Lombardi later writes Sandro Magister asking for a retraction. [Later]

 H/t: Katholisches... AMDG

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Vatican in the Crosshairs of the NSA? Cardinal Bergolio Watched Since 2005 Conclave

(Vatican) According to the weekly magazine Panorama, comparable to the German magazine Focus, the American NSA and the Vatican spy have intercepted phone calls intercepted and read emails. Vatican spokesman Father Lombardi puts a good face on a bad game.

"We know nothing about it and above all we do not have any worries in this respect." With these words, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi tried to downplay reports that the National Security Agency of the USA also systematically monitors the Vatican. These significant technical eavesdropping techniques have even been used against the Pope . According to Panorama against Benedict XVI. and now against Pope Francis, but probably already against John Paul II.

In Italy, as has been confirmed officially, between the 10th of December 2012, and the 8th of January 2013, 46 million phone calls between the U.S. and Italy were recorded by the NSA. Among them are the phone calls to and from the Vatican. Despite the denial of Father Lombardi, there are no illusions at the Vatican. Actually, no one assumes that the Vatican had been excluded from the coverage monitoring. The discussion circles in this context are concerned especially whether the whole preparations for the conclave or of the resignation announcement of Pope Benedict XVI. were also overheard. Just overheard? The distinction between the passive to the active player is fluid in espionage. According to the USA it was about the "national security" and is defined in terms of "national interests" and the particular ideological orientation of the government in Washington.

Italian observers are convinced that the monitoring of course did not only include the period of 10 December to 8 January, but before and after, and probably also applies now.

According to Panorama the Domus Internationalis Paolo VI was among the objects being monitored, and the second guest room of the Vatican, where Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio usually stayed when he was in Rome. As mentioned in the Wikileaks releases is known to the Vatican, Cardinal Bergoglio has been monitored at least since the 2005 conclave, as he was the opposing candidate of Benedict XVI.

Still according to the Panorama report not only were incoming and outgoing phone calls in the Vatican monitored, but also those to cardinals and bishops outside the Vatican were classified and assigned by the NSA to four categories: leadership intentions, threats to financial system, Foreign Policy Objectives, Human Rights.

Among other things, the filling of leadership positions of the Vatican Bank IOR aroused the interest of the American. A few days after Pope Benedict XVI. announced his resignation, a new board president, German banker Ernst von Freyberg, was appointed by the competent Commission of Cardinals for the Vatican Bank with the approval of the Pope. Since the resignation of the Director General Freyberg shall exercise this interim office also from the 1st of July.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
 Image: Vatican Insider
Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to katholisches...

H/t to Eye Witness also.  We saw this last night and got around to just translating it and must confess that Voice of Russia and Al Jazeera are not savory sources we like at all, since they have a suspicious point of view.  We have more trust, such as it is, for Panorama.


AMGD

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Why Pope Won't Fire Marini: "Put the Treasure of Tradition to Use"



Pope Francis and the Liturgy: Episcopal Indiscretions - Why Guido Marini Was Not Fired

(Rome) Italy's bishops met from the 20th to the 24th of May in their Spring General Assembly. Pope Francis previously received bishops in their ad limina visit. On the 13th of May this was the case for the bishops of Apulia, who then became talkative about what the Pope had said them.

Talkative bishops of Apulia - Two Encyclicals in Preparation

Then there was the "revelation" of the Bishop of Molfetta, Monsignor Luigi Martella, that two encyclicals were in preparation at the Vatican. An encyclical on faith, signed by Pope Francis, but written by Pope Benedict XVI., retired and living in a monastery in the Vatican, the retired German Pope was about to write this encyclical at the time was about to write this encyclical to an end.

The message of an encyclical written by four hands caused so much attention in the media that Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi was forced to make a disclaimer on May 24th: "I deny that the retired Pope is writing an encyclical on faith, which is then to be signed by Pope Francis." Father Lombardi reaffirmed that Benedict XVI. has left the far matured project of such an encyclical in his resignation. "And his successor has picked it up and it seems like he's going to finish it, if I also don't know this still not to announce until the time of publication," said the Vatican spokesman, who also laid emphasis on the statement: "The Pope Emeritus has no role in the completion of the project taken up by Pope Francis."

Besides Encyclical on Faith also about Poverty

A second encyclical on poverty, on the other hand, is entirely the work of the reigning Pope, as Pope Francis had confided to the Bishop of Molfetta and the other bishops of Apulia. This was addressed by Vatican spokesman Lombardi only curtly: "We make one encyclical after another" in order to say: One step at a time.

But there was also the Liturgy by Apulian bishops concerned indiscretions, such as the Vatican expert Sandro Magister reported.

No bureaucratization of the Church

Thus, the Archbishop of Bari, Monsignor Francesco Cacucci, after the audience with the Pope at Vatican Radio, told the Italian editor that Pope Francis had asked the bishops, "to have at relationship with the liturgy with simplicity and to live without superstructure". Literally Archbishop Cacucci said on the question of what the Pope had told the bishops of content: "It affected mainly the need to be a simple and poor preacher of the Gospel. And then he told us with great simplicity that it is important that we have a relationship with the liturgy and to live the faith with simplicity and without superstructure because we will probably experience a bureaucratization, to an exaggerated extent, also in the Church."

Bishops Complain to Pope That Traditionalists Split the Church

Then was the turn of Monsignor Domenico Padovano, the Bishop of Conversano-Monopoli, who told his clergy that the Apulian bishops have complained to the Pope. But what led the bishops of the southern Italian region to complain? About induced abortion, the collapose of the faith, divorce, corruption, organized crime causing suffering, indiscipline and the "completely normal" spread of heresies among theologians and the people? No, nothing like that. The bishops had, so the Archbishop of Padovano, complained to the Pope that the participants in the traditional Mass are causing a split in the Church.

And What is the Pope to Have Answered? The Pope Exhorted the Bishops to Put the Treasure of Tradition to Use

Following the presentation by Bishop Padovano, Pope Francis encouraged them to watch over extreme positions of certain traditionalist groups, but also - and probably the most surprising for the plaintiffs - to make use themselves of the treasure of tradition and they should let it live together in the Church with the renewal.

To explain this last point more precisely, the Pope used an example.

The Pope rejects "many" Demands for Marini's Immediate Dismissal


Behold: You say that my papal master of ceremonies [Msgr Guido Marini] is of a traditionalist character. And many have asked me about my choice to remove him from office and be replaced. I said no, just that I prefer him to even benefit me by his traditional formation and at the same time, so he is formed in the same way by my emancipated formation.
Provided always that the words of Pope Francis were translated properly, they offer a revealing insight into the liturgical thinking and celebration style of the reigning Pope. Above all, they explain how the hasty rumor surfaced immediately after his election, one of his first acts of Pope Francis will be that Pope Benedict XVI.'s appointed master of ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, is fired.

A rumor came about thus, because authoritative Church circles, expected the immediate recall Guido Marini, to pressure the new Pope and project their wish to appear sure of success and their desire manifestly projected onto the new Pope and openly declared themselves in the Vatican. Unsuccessfully, as it turned out.

Who are the "many" who by choice Bergoglios the end of the liturgical renewal Benedict hoped?

But who are the "many" of whom Pope Francis spoke, and who obviously have direct access to the Pope? "Many," who had characterized the choice of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as an end to Benedict XVI., hoped to push forward the effect of liturgical renewal.

Monsignor Guido Marini from the school of Cardinal Siri, had been appointed as papal master of ceremonies in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI., to implement the liturgical renewal which should effect the entire Church through the papal role model. Specifically, it was to push back anthropocentric biases and realign a theocentric orientation and thus to make worship the urgent task of the liturgy.

Magister doubt: have the Apulian bishops understood the admonition of Pope Francis?

However, Magister has doubts whether the Apulian bishops have understood the meaning of the Pope's traditional words themselves. Another of them, the bishop of Cerignola-Ascoli Satriano, Monsignor Felice Di Molfetta, wrote on 15 May, a message to his diocese on the meeting with the Pope. In it, he announces:

"I have not failed to congratulate the Pope to his manner of celebration: one of style marked by "noble simplicity", like him, the Council has decided where he showed a special attention to the subject to the them, to which on his side of considerations shows no lack of high theological and pastoral manner, that were shared by all the brothers present."

Bishop Di Molfetta and liturgical forms of blindness

Bishop Di Molfetta wrote further about a liturgy of an "interest of the Holy Father for this vital aspect of the Petrine ministry." Pope Francis has "in view of certain phenomena in the recent past, in which not a few forms of drift were registered on the liturgical level, in which he asked we bishops by addressing us some concrete examples of the relationship with the liturgical action, there the action of God, as true believers to live beyond any inflated ceremonialism, in complete awareness that, the noble simplicity 'of which the Council speaks is not a botch, but is beauty, beauty writ large."

Bishop Di Molfetta partially addressed the admonition of Pope Francis to the bishops, who complained about the traditional Catholic. He underrates that part entirely. "Aberrations" is all he can recognize in the desire to rediscover the "Old Mass" and the goal of Pope Benedict's liturgical renewal. Make use of the advantage of the "treasure of tradition", which Pope Francis urged the bishops, there is not to be found in the letter of the Bishop of Cerignola-Ascoli Satriano in his diocese a single word.

Dogged resistance to Summorum Pontificum

Bishop Di Molfetta's swipe against Pope Benedict XVI., however, is not unexpected. Di Molfetta, former Secretary of the Liturgical Commission of the Italian Bishops' Conference under John Paul II and a few days after the election of Benedict XVI. and elected Chairman of the Commission, was a dogged opponent of the liturgical renewal of the previous Pope, especially the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of 2007, with the return of the traditional "Tridentine" Mass as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite to general rights of citizenship in the Church.

Di Molfetta tried in advance to avoid the Motu Proprio by a corresponding call to the Italian Bishops' Conference. When this failed, he urged the Bishops' Conference together with several other bishops including Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto and Archbishop Paolo Romeo of Palermo, to make the implementation of Summorum Pontificum impossible through restrictive rules. He justified his position by saying that the ecclesiology of the Old Rite is "incompatible" with that of the Second Vatican Council. So that confirmed the hermeneutics of rupture, against which Benedict XVI., however said was "incompatible" with the understanding of the Catholic Church. The Italian Episcopal Conference rejected Di Molfetta's proposals after especially Cardinals Ruini (then Cardinal Vicar of Rome and former Chairman of the Bishops' Conference) had placed themselves on the side of the Pope, Scola (then Venice, today Milan) and Caffarra (Bologna).

Magister sees in di Molfetta statements, one of the many attempts by the progressive camp to co-opt Pope Francis. A phenomenon that has been observed at various levels since his election, on whose validity the Vatican expert casts doubt.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi Image: CTV screenshot Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com ADMG

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Palm Sunday: Papal Liturgy Will be the Same



(Vatican) The Vatican publishing house has printed the booklet distributed to the faithful for the celebration of the Pope's Palm Sunday liturgy. Cantuale Antonianum drew a comparison with the previous years papal liturgy under Pope Benedict XVI., because there were fears that the painstakingly developed  liturgical renewal of Benedict XVI. would be undone. The handwriting of the papal master of ceremonies Monsignor Guido Marini is still unmistakable. The liturgy is thus “completely identical” to Cantuale Antonianum, except of course the vintage year (2013 Palm Sunday liturgy , Palm Sunday liturgy in 2012 ).
There is only one eye-stinging difference. The parts of the preface or the blessing sung by the celebrant contain no notes in the booklet for the Palm Sunday, 2013. Therein it is concluded in the Cantuale Antonianum that the Pope would not  sing. The Holy See has this notofficially expressed their opinion and therefore has not stated the reasons for it. Cantuale Antonianum voices the suspicion that Pope Francis can not sing. "What remains is speculative for now," said the site.
To another physical aspect Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombadi has not yet taken a position. Pope Francis has  celebrated by him in the celebration of the Eucharist at the major elevation of the prayer made at the Body and Blood of Christ does not genuflect. The fact confused and led to numerous inquiries.

Singing and knee problems the pope?

In the booklet for the solemn Pontifical Mass for the inauguration on 19 March was expressly noted that the Pope after the elevation "kneels in adoration." Pope Francis occurred yet, as previously, only one bow. Also in the magazine for the Palm Sunday liturgy is again recorded in both places that the Pope after the conversion words "kneels in adoration." For this too must a physical disability will be accepted which makes a genuflection possible, especially since the genuflection is prescribed and Pope Benedict XVI. is able to execute it despite his almost 86 years and his painful hip problems. A simple explanation by the "Newsroom" of the Holy See would provide clarity.
"Even if the Pope does not sing and can't kneel down, this is not to say that the priests should imitate him in it, said Cantuale Antonianum because the papal liturgy should generally be a role model for priests. "Human limitations should not be a reason for others to liturgical fractures. It's not about a question of style, but the substance, said the website, which is mainly dedicated to questions of liturgy and church music.
On Palm Sunday again, the antiphon Pueri Hebraeorum will be sung during the procession on St. Peter's Square. "A beautiful example that should be imitated in the parishes .” The following is the recording  from the Palm Sunday  procession in 2011 The verses are sung in Italian.