Vatican Diary / the Pope Gives, the Pope Takes Away

The Chiesa
January 14, 2014

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350697?eng=y


In Argentina, the appointment of a bishop announced and then revoked. In Venezuela, the comeback of the churchmen most hostile to Chávez. In the curia and outside of it, disparity of treatment for the "Monsignors." The "Gentleman" displeasing to His Holiness.

VATICAN CITY, January 14, 2014 – In addition to the appointment of cardinals, Pope Francis is also taking liberties with the selection of bishops.

Above all when it comes to his native Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio often (if not always) neglects to submit the appointment to the judgment of the cardinals and bishops who make up the Vatican congregation set up for this purpose, even though he radically overhauled it before Christmas.

In Argentina, during the first ten months of his pontificate, Francis has made fifteen episcopal appointments: eight “ex novo” and seven with transfers from other positions.

But in one of these Argentine appointments, something must not have gone quite right.

It is that concerning one of the two auxiliaries of Lomas de Zamora appointed by the pope last December 3, the Capuchin Carlos Alberto Novoa de Agustini, 47, who - as stated in the official biography published in the bulletin of the Holy See on that date - in May of 1996 had “received priestly ordination from the then-auxiliary of Buenos Aires, Bishop Bergoglio, now Pope Francis.”

It happened, in fact, that on the subsequent December 14 a statement from the diocese said that Novoa de Agustini would not be consecrated bishop because “after mature discernment” he had “requested from the Holy Father Francis a dispensation from his appointment, which he had granted to him.” No details were given on the reasons for this reversal.

It is somewhat rare for a bishop to resign the position between the announcement of his appointment and his consecration. The last conspicuous case was that of the auxiliary bishop of Linz, in Austria, the conservative Gerhard Wagner, who asked for the dispensation from Benedict XVI, who had appointed him on January 31, 2009, after the noisy progressive component of the clergy rebelled at his appointment without the other Austrian bishops coming to his defense. Wagner announced his resignation on February 15, while on March 2 the Holy See made public in the official bulletin - something that was not done in the recent Argentine case - the fact that the pope had dispensed him from accepting the appointment.

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Also concerning the new bishops, it is not common for the diocesan bishop of one country to be consecrated by a prelate of another country. This in any case will take place next February 8, with the ordination of the new pastor of the Venezuelan diocese of La Guaira, the Salesian Raúl Biord Castillo.

His main consecrator will in fact be the Salesian cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa in Honduras and coordinator of the council of cardinals created by Pope Francis to help him in the governance of the universal Church and in the reform of the curia.

The fact is even more curious because Rodríguez Maradiaga was a strident adversary of Hugo Chávez, the despot of Venezuela from 1999 to 2013 except for a brief parenthesis in 2002.

In July of 2007, Rodríguez Maradiaga said of Chávez that "he is blind, deaf, and believes he is God,” prompting this retort from the Marxist leader: “Another parrot of the empire has appeared, now dressed as a cardinal, another imperialist clown.”

Without counting that the new bishop Biord Castillo is a nephew of the powerful Salesian cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara, who after a long career at the top of the Roman curia (where it was joked that the license plate SCV stood for "Se Castillo Vuole" [if Castillo wishes]), ended his days in his country doggedly opposing the Chávez regime. Also in July of 2007, Castillo Lara called Chávez a "paranoid dictator." While a few months later, in October, Chávez hailed the cardinal's demise: "I am overjoyed that this devil dressed in the cassock has died."

Now Venezuela is governed by Nicolás Maduro, the protegee of Chávez. The disputes with the Church have not yet entirely died down. But with the advent of Pope Francis, who received Maduro in audience on June 17, and the arrival in Rome as secretary of state of the archbishop - since February 22 a cardinal - Pietro Parolin, who was most recently the nuncio in Caracas, the climate seems to have improved.

On October 5, the pope received the letters of credence of the new Venezuelan ambassador, after Chávez had controversially left vacant the diplomatic post with the Vatican.

And on November 30, a favorite nephew of the deceased “devil dressed in the cassock” Castillo Lara was appointed bishop, with the approval of the government - which in Venezuela has a sort of veto power over episcopal appointments - and with the "payaso imperialista" Rodríguez Maradiaga ready to consecrate him.

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Meanwhile, at the Vatican they are discussing the future of the title “Monsignor.”

The secretariat of state has established that from now on this honorary title will accompany only that of “Chaplain of His Holiness” and will be attributed to priests over the age of 65, and no longer, as in the past, starting at age 35.

The news, leaked in the media, was confirmed by Vatican Radio in the broadcast of January 7. In these terms:

«With a circular letter sent to the nunciatures, [the secretariat of state] asks that the individual episcopates be informed “that from now on in the dioceses the only honorary 'ecclesiastical title' that will be conferred (and to which the designation "Monsignor" will correspond) will be that of 'Chaplain of His Holiness,' and will be attributed only to priests who have reached the age of 65."

«The use of the designation, the directive continues, remains instead “unvaried” when it is “connected to certain important offices,” like that of bishop or vicar general of the diocese. And no variation will take place in this regard in the Roman curia, both concerning titles and concerning the use of the designation “Monsignor,” “being connected,” it is specified, "to the offices entrusted, to the service carried out.” This norm, the secretariat of state clarifies, “does not have a retroactive effect,” so that those who have “received a title previously will retain it.” Moreover, the disposition does not introduce innovations concerning honorary pontifical designations for the laity.

«"It has rightly been observed," the informative note states at the end, “that Paul VI, in 1968, had already reduced to three (with respect to the previous, more numerous) the honorary ecclesiastical titles. The decision of Pope Francis therefore moves in the same direction, as a further simplification."»

The "informative note" of the secretariat of state cited by Vatican Radio - not without some inexactitude: the title of Monsignor for vicars general, in their capacity of “titular apostolic protonotaries," was stipulated in the old code of canon law of 1917 but not in the new one of 1984 - is curious because it specifies that while in the dioceses the papal stance of “further simplification” was already in force, this was not the case for those who work in the Roman curia and among the diplomats of the Holy See.

Therefore, based on the instruction concerning the conferral of honorary pontifical titles issued by the secretariat of state on May 13, 2001, the following rules would remain in force.

For the officials of the Roman curia who are members of the secular clergy, the possibility of becoming Chaplains of His Holiness is opened up at the age of 35, after ten years of priesthood and at least five of service (but over the age of 40, three years of service are sufficient). While the possibility of becoming Honorary Prelate of His Holiness is granted to priests who have reached the age of 45, with 15 years of priesthood and at least 10 since their appointment as Chaplain.

Even more streamlined are the norms in effect for the “ecclesiastics in the diplomatic service of the Holy See” who work in the pontifical consulates outside of the Vatican. For them the title of Chaplain, under the same age requirements as for the others, can be granted after only three years of service abroad and that of Prelate after “at least ten years of service.”

It will be interesting to see how much longer this disparity of treatment will last between the curia and the rest of the world with regard to the “further simplification” of ecclesiastical honors.

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Receiving in audience on January 10 the “Gentlemen of His Holiness,” Pope Francis curiously omitted some words of the initial greeting that are found in the text prepared for the occasion. “Dear friends, I greet you all with warm cordiality and I thank you for your service,” it was written in the original version. “Dear friends, I greet you and I thank you for your service” was what the pontiff actually said.

Having omitted the words “all with warm cordiality” could have been due to a simple desire for brevity. But it must not be overlooked that among the Gentlemen is also the former Argentine ambassador to the Holy See Esteban Juan Caselli, whom the highly knowledgeable papal biographer Elisabetta Piqué places in the party of the major Argentine opponents of then-cardinal Bergoglio.

As for whether Pope Francis will or will not continue to appoint other Gentlemen after, on account of scandals that hit some of them during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, the decision was made to freeze the appointment of new ones (the last to be appointed was the former papal physician Renato Buzzonetti, on May 19, 2009), this is another story.