Keeping the "Roman" in the Roman Catholic Church
Sandro Magister reports that while a "cry of alarm has been launched by the progressive English weekly 'The Tablet'" that "the Roman curia again becoming 'too' Italian," there is, distressingly, "one Vatican congregation – and it is one of the most important and delicate – that today has been completely de-Italianized in its leadership" — Vatican Diary / The bishop factory no longer speaks the language of Dante.
"The officials of this extremely important curia congregation were all Italian with John Paul II," notes Mr. Magister. "With the current pope, they are all foreigners."
Rightly states Church historian Andrea Riccardi, "The curia cannot become a kind of UN, because it is part of the Roman Church and must maintain a particular ecclesial, human, and cultural connection with it."
"The officials of this extremely important curia congregation were all Italian with John Paul II," notes Mr. Magister. "With the current pope, they are all foreigners."
Rightly states Church historian Andrea Riccardi, "The curia cannot become a kind of UN, because it is part of the Roman Church and must maintain a particular ecclesial, human, and cultural connection with it."
Labels: Italia, The Catholic Faith
3 Comments:
Back in 1967/68 I spent the Christmas vac with some avant-garde Dutch Augustinians in their houses in Breda and Nijmegen. We were watching a TV programme where the question of having a non-Italian pope came up. I asked them what they thought and they said that since he was the Bishop of Rome, he ought to be Italian. They no more wanted a non-Italian Bishop of Rome than they would want a non-Dutch Bishop of Breda (whose enthronement we had recently attended).
I don't think Peter met his avant-garde criterion.
My question is: will there ever be a Melkite or Maronite pope?
Or a patriarch of a major New World See, like Venice has?
A pope may come from anywhere, but when he becomes pope, he becomes bishop of Rome. and Rome is a particular diocese within the broader Church. The Italian character of the Church is a consequence of this. a beneficial consequence, I would say.
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