I referenced the remarks of Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, president of the Conference of Bishops of France a few days ago that he made after Pope Benedict left France. It is a shame that such a successful trip was mucked up a tad by another example of French Catholic Church stupidity. THe Holy Father basically told the Bishops what is apparent to everyone about the state of the Holy Faith in France and I guess some were miffed
Creative Minority Report had a post that gives some background at He Ain't Nothing Special
Today The Ratzinger Forum has translated a piece by Vatican Reporter Guido Horst called Cardinal Vingt-Trois: Better if he kept his mouth shut!
As a follow up I think it is worth posting in full:
If the Pope were the head of a corporation, he would have dismissed without much ado his 'man in France'. But since the Successor of Peter is not a corporate head - that he is, in fact, a compassionate shepherd who goes out in search of his stray sheep - then Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois will certainly stay on as Archbishop of Paris.
Nevertheless, it is not less true that his statements, minimizing the importance of the event right after Benedict XVI's meeting with the bishops of France in Lourdes, has cast a shadow on the Pope's visit to France even as the Pope has incontestably won points in the media. The Pope expressed himself quite clearly to the bishops of France.
On the one hand, about the liberalization of the traditional Mass and the Church's relations with traditionalists - that no one should feel excluded from the Church. On the other hand, confirming the sacredness of the marriage vow and against the Church sanctioning or blessing illegitimate unions.
It was therefore rather surprising that following such words, Cardinal Vingt-Trois, president of the French bishops conference, told newsmen that the relationship between the Pope and the bishops was not that of 'servile submission' and that it was nothing like the relationship between a corporate chief and his subordinates! "We welcomed and heard the Pope as a brother who came to confirm the faith of those with whom he works and with whom he is in Communion," Mons. Vingt-Trois said. "And if we have something to say to him, then we will tell him."
Still, one would be justified in thinking that the enthusiasm in the French newspapers yesterday [presumably Tuesday, Sept. 16, the day after the visit ended] over the Pope's visit was not the least bit scratched by the cardinal's statements. One notes that Le Parisien, for instance, published an opinion that the French bishops did not applaud the Pope when he restated the Church position on giving Communion to remarried divorcees nor about the extraordinary form of the Mass.
The French media showed great sympathy for their German guest. But it seems, the French bishops did not. Does Mons. Vingt-Trois still have some gallicanism* hidden in the folds of his red cardinal robes - whose color symbolizes readiness to defend the truth of the faith even at the price of one's blood? *[Gallicanism was a movement that started in 17th century France when its bishops issued a declaration tending to restrain the Pope's authority in favor of that of bishops and the people's representatives in the State, or the monarch. They do not question the Pope's primacy but his supremacy and authority. That sure sounds like a textbook definition of Cardinal Vingt-Trois 's stated position!]
At the very least, the president of the French bishops has given the impression that he sees himself as the spokesman of an autocephalous Church, that is to say, independent of Rome! It has become quite clear, in the midst of a trip that was very successful in France, that the travels of a Pope can only mean a 'bain de folle' [literally, 'a bath in the crowd', the idiom used by the Romance languages for immense crowds around a person, signifying his/her popularity] of jubilation - even for Benedict XVI! What the Pope has said before on the long path ahead for the Church in France, he repeated before the bishops: a new way must be found in order to express - and live in the day-to-day - the fundamental Christian values on which the nation's identity were founded.
President Sarkozy had opened the way for this possibility. And the Pope had replied that one should see the progressive disappearance of social and political conditions that had allowed the expression of centuries-old feelings of mistrust, if not animosity, against the Church. The Church, he said, does not claim a place for itself in the State, much less to put itself in place of the State. Nonetheless - and this, Benedict XVI noted in his address at the Elysee Palace - it has become more than necessary to seriously reflect on the true sense and importance of a secularity that is open and positive, that which President Sarkozy first presented [as President, because he wrote about it in a book three years ago] when he was in Rome last December.
For the Pope, two things are fundamental: "on the one hand, the distinction between politics and religion, in order to guarantee both the religious freedom of citizens as well as the state's responsibility to them; and on the other hand, to have a clearer awareness of the irreplaceable function of religion in the formation of consciences and the contribution it could make, along with other institutions, in the creation of a fundamental ethical consensus in society."
Benedict XVI has always held the hope of a possible renaissance in Europe of a culture that is permeated with the Christian idea. That the words he used to say before he was elected to Peter's Chair must be taken to heart: "No longer to live 'as if God did not exist' but 'as if God does exist' - you will never regret this." At the Collège des Bernardins, before representatives of France's world of culture, the Pope could not have said more clearly that 'non-sense', nihilism, a lack of orientation and relativizing all values can only lead to the ruin of mankind. France, whose roots and traditions are Christian, is no longer a Catholic nation today.
But the Church there lives in freedom, and if it is united, then it can bear witness in favor of Christian values. United within itself, and united with the Pope in Rome. It is because of this that Cardinal Vingt-Trois's statements have seemed abrasive and irritating. Because they seem to pose a question mark after certain words: Unity with the Pope? Unity with the traditionalists that Benedict XVI would like to take back into the Church?
The Cardinal Archbishop of Paris would have done better to just shut up.
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