B16 Irish Sexual Abuse Letter & St. Bonaventure

Pope Benedict XVI waves to faithful during his weekly general audience on March 17, 2010 at St Peter's square at The Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI said the same day he was set to sign a pastoral letter to Ireland's Roman Catholics about the paedophile priest scandal that has rocked their country. (Daylife-Getty Images)

Photos courtesy of Daylife

Insight Scoop's quoting John Allen, Jr. article:

Msgr. Charles Scicluna, a Maltese priest who serves as the Promoter of Justice in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- in effect, its lead prosecutor -- said in a recent interview with the Italian Catholic paper L'Avvenire that the motu proprio triggered an "avalanche" of files in Rome, most of which arrived in 2003 and 2004. Eventually, Scicluna said, more than 3,000 cases worked their way through the congregation.

By all accounts, Ratzinger was punctilious about studying the files, making him one of the few churchmen anywhere in the world to have read the documentation on virtually every Catholic priest ever credibly accused of sexual abuse. As a result, he acquired a familiarity with the contours of the problem that virtually no other figure in the Catholic church can claim.

Driven by that encounter with what he would later refer to as "filth" in the church, Ratzinger seems to have undergone something of a "conversion experience" throughout 2003-04. From that point forward, he and his staff seemed driven by a convert's zeal to clean up the mess.

Of the 500-plus cases that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dealt with prior to Benedict's election to the papacy, the substantial majority were returned to the local bishop authorizing immediate action against the accused priest -- no canonical trial, no lengthy process, just swift removal from ministry and, often, expulsion from the priesthood. In a more limited number of cases, the congregation asked for a canonical trial, and in a few cases the congregation ordered the priest reinstated.

That marked a stark reversal from the initial insistence of Vatican officials, Ratzinger included, that in almost every instance the accused priest deserved the right to canonical trial. Having sifted through the evidence, Ratzinger and Scicluna apparently drew the conclusion that in many instances the proof was so overwhelming that immediate action was required.

Among insiders, the change of climate was dramatic.

In the complex world of court politics at the Vatican, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith became the beachhead for an aggressive response to the sexual abuse crisis.

Ratzinger and his deputies sometimes squared off against other departments which regarded the "zero tolerance" policy as an over-reaction, not to mention a distortion of the church's centuries-long canonical tradition, in which punishments are supposed to fit the crime, and in which tremendous discretion is usually left in the hands of bishops and other superiors to mete out discipline.

Behind the scenes, some Vatican personnel actually began to grumble that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had "drunk the Kool-aid," in the sense of accepting the case for sweeping changes in the way priests are supervised and disciplined.

Ratzinger's transformation can also be glimpsed from an exchange with Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, which George described in April 2005, just after the conclave which propelled Benedict XVI to the papacy.

Two days before the opening of the conclave, George met Ratzinger in his Vatican office to discuss the American sex abuse norms, including the "one strike and you're out" policy. Those norms had been approved grudgingly in late 2002 by the Vatican, and only for a five-year period. George said he wanted to discuss with Ratzinger the arguments for making the norms permanent. Ratzinger, according to George, showed "a good grasp of the situation."

Forty-eight hours later, Ratzinger was the new pope. As is the custom, the cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel made their way, one-by-one, to the new pontiff in order to pledge their support and obedience. As George kissed his hand, Benedict XVI made a point of telling him, in English, that he remembered the conversation the two men had about the sexual abuse norms, and would attend to it.

Pastoral Letter for Ireland:



Irish Letter for global consumption:



St. Bonaventure's writings:



Rich Theology of St. Bonaventure:



St. Cyril of Jerusalem:



Read more about St. Cyril here.

Pope's General Audience:

VATICAN CITY, 17 MAR 2010 (VIS) - In this morning's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square, Benedict XVI continued his catechesis on St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, today comparing him with his contemporary St. Thomas Aquinas.

"Both of them", the Pope explained, "scrutinised the mysteries of the Revelation, drawing on the resources of human reason in that fruitful dialogue between faith and reason that characterised the Christian Middle Ages, making it a period of great intellectual vivacity, as well as of faith and ecclesial renewal". Both the Franciscan Bonaventure and the Dominican Thomas were members of the mendicant orders which, "with their spiritual freshness, ... renewed the entire Church in the thirteenth century, attracting many followers". Both also "questioned themselves as to whether theology is a practical discipline, or whether it is theoretical and speculative".

"The conclusion reached by St. Thomas is that theology ... is theoretical because it seeks a greater knowledge of God, and it is practical because it seeks to orient our lives towards goodness. But knowledge has the primacy: we first have to know God, then act in accordance with God. This primacy of knowledge over action is significant in the fundamental orientation of St. Thomas' ideas".

For his part, St. Bonaventure "increases the alternatives between theory (primacy of knowledge) and practice (primacy of action) by introducing a third element, which he calls 'wisdom' affirming that it embraces the other two". Wisdom, says Bonaventure, "seeks contemplation (as the highest form of knowledge) and its intention is 'ut boni fiamus', that we should become good. ... Thus, for St. Bonaventure the primacy of love is decisive.

"In this way", the Holy Father added, "St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure give different definitions of man's ultimate destiny, his complete happiness. For St. Thomas the supreme goal ... is to see God. In the simple act of seeing God all problems find their solution and we are happy, nothing else is necessary. For St. Bonaventure, on the other hand, man's final destiny is to love God, the encounter and union of His love and ours. ... In this context, we could say that the highest category for St. Thomas is truth, while for St. Bonaventure it is goodness; yet it would be wrong to see a contradiction between these two positions. ... Both have created different traditions and different spiritualities, thus demonstrating the fruitfulness of faith which is one in the diversity of its expressions".

The Holy Father then turned his reflections to the influence Pseudo- Dionysus, a fourth century Syrian theologian, had on St. Bonaventure. "While for St. Augustine 'intellectus' - seeing with reason and with the heart - is the ultimate category of knowledge", the Pope explained, Pseudo-Dionysus held that "in the ascent towards God it is possible to reach a point in which reason can no longer see. But in the night of the intellect, love can discern ... what remains inaccessible to reason".

"In the dark night of the Cross all the greatness of divine love appears: where reason no longer sees, love does. ... This is not anti-intellectual or anti-rational; it accepts the path of reason but transcends it in the love of the crucified Christ". Thus St. Bonaventure founded "a great school of mysticism which ... represents a high point in the history of the human spirit".

"For St. Bonaventure, all our life is a journey, a pilgrimage, an ascent towards God. But we cannot climb towards the heights of God only by our own efforts. God Himself must help us, He must 'pull us up', Pope Benedict concluded.

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Amid the general decline of Christians in the Middle East, the breakdown of order in Iraq has allowed Islamists to unleash constant violence against Iraq's Christians. The goal is to drive Christians out from lands in which they have worshipped God since the early Christian centuries

St. Bonaventure-"God Is One Throughout History"

Pope Benedict XVI gestures during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 10, 2010. At right is his personal secretary Georg Gaenswein. (Daylife-AP)



Vatican City, Mar 10, 2010 / 11:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Holy Father returned to St. Bonaventure for the subject of his catechesis at the General Audience on Wednesday morning. This saint, he said, not only kept the Franciscan order together with his theology that accepted "newness" into the Church but also teaches modern Christians how to be open to new charisms in the Church.

St. Bonaventure, from his place as general minister of the Franciscan Minors, refuted the idea present within the order in the 13th century that St. Francis had ushered in a “totally new phase in history.” Within this perspective promoted by so-called “spiritual” Franciscans, the Holy Spirit had come to replace Christ and the Church in a new and final age, Pope Benedict recalled.

Following of the ideas of Joachim of Fiore, these brothers believed that an “eternal Gospel” had replaced the New Testament and that history was divided into three phases, one for each person of the Trinity.

This new age was said to have been brought into being by St. Francis, who they believed had inaugurated a time when Church hierarchy was no longer necessary. The Holy Spirit, they thought, was at the base of a new age in which Christian brotherhood would bring peace and reconciliation.

But this perspective contained a “grave misunderstanding” which brought them to an erroneous vision of Christianity, the Pope said.

St. Bonaventure dealt with this question in his last work, "Hexaemeron," in which he explained that "God is one throughout history. ... History is one, even if it is a journey, a journey of progression” and that “Jesus is the last word of God." St. Bonaventure also taught that "there is no other Gospel, no other Church to be awaited. Thus the Order of St. Francis must also insert itself into this Church, into her faith and her hierarchical order.”

He also proposed that the Church always moves forward, is not immobile and experiences newness within it. In this statement, said the Pope, he adds to the theology of the Church Fathers in saying that in the Church there is room for newness, guaranteed through the uniqueness of Christ, and that "utopian spiritualism" cannot be constructed within it.

St. Bonaventure, said the Pope, "teaches us of the necessary discernment... of sober realism and of openness to new charisms given by Christ, through the Holy Spirit, to his Church."

The ideas of decline and "spiritualistic utopianism" continue to repeat themselves, Benedict XVI pointed out.

He explained, "We know how after the Second Vatican Council some were convinced that everything was new, that there was another Church, that the pre-conciliar Church was finished and that we would have another, completely other."

This, said the Holy Father was "an anarchic utopianism, and thanks to God the wise helmsmen of the boat of Peter - Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II - defended the newness of the Council on one hand and, at the same time, the uniqueness and the continuity of the Church," which, he said "is always the Church of sinners and always the place of grace."

In this sense, said the Holy Father, St. Bonaventure provided a clear line of government for the order in which, guided by healthy realism and spiritual courage, members had to bring themselves "as close as possible to the realization of the sermon on the mount, that for St. Francis was a rule."

Following his catechesis on the Franciscan saint, the Holy Father made an appeal for the victims of the earthquake in Turkey on March 8 and called for an end to violence and reconciliation in Nigeria.



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Update 1, via Sky News:

Child sex abuse scandals rocking the Catholic Church are evidence of the Devil's presence in the Vatican, the Pope's chief exorcist has said.

Father Gabriel Amorth who has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms in a career spanning 50 years, said Pope Benedict XVI "fully agreed" with him in "casting out evil".

During the past few months the Catholic Church has been rocked by a series of sex scandals in Ireland and the Netherlands.

Most recently in Germany, the Pope's brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, has even admitted to hitting choir boys.

In an interview with the La Repubblica newspaper, 84-year-old Father Amorth said: "The Devil lives in the Vatican.

"He has won over the confidences of people, but naturally it's difficult to find proof, but the consequences are visible.

"We have cardinals who don't believe in Christ, bishops connected with demons. Then we have these stories of paedophilia. You can see the rot when we speak of Satan's smoke in the holy rooms (of the Vatican)." Father Gabriel Amorth

"We have cardinals who don't believe in Christ, bishops connected with demons.

"Then we have these stories of paedophilia. You can see the rot when we speak of Satan's smoke in the holy rooms (of the Vatican)."

Father Amorth gave the interview as part of the book launch for Memoirs Of An Exorcist, which was written by Italian religious affairs journalist Marco Tosatti.

The religious official - who is said to be the inspiration for the priest in the hit horror film The Exorcist - added: "The Devil is invisible, he is a pure spirit.

"But in the people he possesses he can be seen through pain and blasphemies, but he can also remain hidden.

"Sometimes he makes fun of me, but I have to say I enjoy my work."

He described how he had "six or seven assistants" to help him hold down a possessed person when he carried out an exorcism and he kept "nails and glass that they spit out in a little bag".

''From the mouths of the possessed people all sorts of things come out, bits of metal as long as a finger [and] rose petals," he said.

"I have to have help holding them down and wiping up the saliva but seeing these people vomit doesn't upset me."

Father Amorth went on to claim that the attempt on the life of the late Pope John Paul II in May 1981 and the recent attack on Pope Benedict during Christmas Eve Mass last year were all work of the Devil.

In 2006 the priest gave an interview to Vatican Radio in which he said that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin had both been possessed.

According to secret Vatican documents recently released, wartime Pope Pius XII attempted a "long distance" exorcism of Hitler which failed to have any effect.

In the past the Italian has also spoken out against Harry Potter, claiming the teen wizard novels opened children's minds to dabbling with the occult and black magic.

Father Amorth, was ordained in 1954 and who is president of the International Association of Exorcists, said of the JK Rowling books: "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the Devil."

B16 Hails St. Bonaventure-General Audience

Pope Benedict XVI smiles as he leads his weekly audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican March 3, 2010. (Daylife-Reuters)

All pictures courtesy of Daylife





VATICAN CITY, 3 MAR 2010 (VIS) - In his catechesis during this morning's general audience, Benedict XVI turned his attention to St. Bonaventure who, he said, "makes me feel a certain nostalgia because, as a young scholar, my research focused on this author, who is particularly dear to me".

Bonaventure, who was born around the year 1217 in the Italian town of Bagnoregio and died in 1274, was one of the great Christian figures who contributed to the "harmony between faith and culture" in thirteenth-century Europe. He was "a man of action and contemplation, of profound piety and prudent government".

Baptised with the name of Giovanni da Fidanza, he suffered an illness during childhood from which he nearly died, but his mother entrusted him to the recently-canonised St. Francis of Assisi and the young Giovanni recovered. This event marked his whole life. During his education in Paris, where he studied theology, he decided to enter a Franciscan convent and took the name of Bonaventure. In the first years of his religious life he stood out for his knowledge of Sacred Scripture, the 'Sentences' of Peter Lombard, and other great theologians of his age.

Bonaventure's book entitled "Evangelical Perfection" was his response to critics of the Minor Orders who questioned their right to teach in universities and even the authenticity of their consecrated life. In that work the saint showed "how the Minor Orders, and especially the Friars Minor, by practicing the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, were in fact following the counsels of the Gospel itself", the Pope explained.

"Over and above these historical circumstances, Bonaventure's teachings in this book and in his own life still retain all their validity", he said. "The Church is enlightened and beautified by the faithfulness to their vocation of these sons and daughters of hers, who not only put the evangelical precepts into practice but, by God's grace, are called to observe the evangelical counsels and thus bear witness - with their poor, chaste and obedient lifestyle - to the fact that the Gospel is a source of joy and perfection".

When in 1257 Bonaventure was elected minister general of his order, the Franciscans numbered more than 30,000; most of them were in Europe but they also had a presence in North Africa, the Middle East and China. "It was necessary", said the Holy Father, "to consolidate this growth and, especially, to give it a unity of action and spirit, in complete faithfulness to the charism of St. Francis. In fact, various ways of interpreting the saint of Assisi's message had arisen among his followers and there was a real risk of internal division".

In order to preserve the saint's authentic charism, his life and teachings, Bonaventure "zealously gathered documents concerning Francis and carefully listened to the recollections of those who had known him personally". Thus the "Legenda Maior" came into being, which is considered the most complete biography of St. Francis.

Bonaventure presents Francis as "a man who passionately sought Christ. With the love that leads to imitation, he entirely conformed himself to Him. Bonaventure indicated this as a living ideal for all the followers of St. Francis.

"Such an ideal, which remains valid for all Christians, yesterday, today and always, was also suggested as a programme for the Church in the third millennium by my venerable predecessor John Paul II", Pope Benedict added.

Almost at the end of his life, Bonaventure was consecrated a bishop and appointed a cardinal by Pope Gregory X, who entrusted him with the preparations for the Council of Lyons which sought to reunify the Latin and Greek Churches. However Bonaventure never saw the results of his labours because he died while the council was still underway.

The Pope concluded his reflections with a call to take up the heritage of this saint and doctor of the Church, who "reminds us of the meaning of our lives with the following words: 'On earth we can contemplate the immensity of divine things by reason and admiration; in the heavenly homeland, on the other hand, we can view them, when we will have been made similar to God and by ecstasy will enter into the joy of God'".

Pope Honors Birthplace of St. Bonaventure

Pope Benedict XVI, accompanied by Mons. Lorenzo Chiarinelli, Bishop of Viterbo, prays during a visit at the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Bagnoregio near Viterbo on September 6, 2009. (Daylife-Getty Images)

All photos above are courtesy of Daylife-Getty Images & AP