A Complaint about the Lack of Collegiality

What Church has Cardinal Marx been in all these years? Since when does the Pope or the Church need a quorum to issue a teaching? This is why the papacy exists: to teach, correct and protect doctrine. Endless synods are not practical or necessary. Thoughts? https://t.co/gHdJ4XnPbi

— Raymond Arroyo (@RaymondArroyo) July 27, 2020

Cardinal Kasper aptly defends the Vatican instruction on parish reform against German critics: Reform begins with conversion - and that is something German bishops do not like to hear. Good for Kasper to speak out! https://t.co/0hckgGcoHc #Theology #Vatican #Parish #Catholic

— Ulrich L. Lehner (@ulrichlehner) July 27, 2020

The Roman Curia

Fr. Hunwicke: Pope and Curia, The Curia Romana (1), The Curia Romana (2), and The Curia Romana (3)

The Roman Curia exists primarily to assist a bishop with the local Church. Why should its role extend beyond this? Perhaps it can be a concession that it should play a role with respect to the patriarchate (instead of proper synodality/collegiality), but with respect to the Church Universal? Wouldn't it be better to have certain priests or bishops as recognized advisors or eminent clergy to the synod of Latin bishops?

The Synodal System

An Anniversary

Pope Francis on Saturday morning marked the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops as a permanent...

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Saturday, October 17, 2015

Pope Francis on Saturday morning marked the 50th anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops as a permanent...

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Saturday, October 17, 2015

The President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Kurt Koch, speaks of about the Synod on the Family.

Posted by Vatican Radio - English Section on Saturday, October 17, 2015

Fr. Z: Pope Francis wants a transformation of the papacy and a synodal Church

"As a Church that “walks together” with men, participates in the travails of history, let us cultivate the dream that the rediscovery of the inviolable dignity of peoples and the exercise of service of authority will be able to help also civil society to be built upon justice and on fraternity, generating a more beautiful world, more worthy of mankind and for the generations that will come after us."

Civil society, justice, fraternity: if these terms are not understood properly in relation to well-defined notions of community and friendship, then the result will be a utopian fantasy leading to bureaucratic statements or worse, the reinforcement of the modern nation-state.

Adam DeVille on the Changes in the Imposition of the Pallium

The CWR Blog: What a Pallium—and Why Should We Care? by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille
It seems clear that Pope Francis' recent decision is one in a series designed to decrease focus on the Roman curia and bishop.

Rorate Caeli: Pope Francis: "Bishops, Enough with Congresses, Conferences and Travels! The Decrees of Trent must be obeyed: a Bishop must truly reside in his diocese."

The solution is not to abolish national episcopal conferences (though the concept may need to be re-examined and the existence of some is questionable, i.e. that of the United States, since the United States was not formed as a unitary nation but as a federation of polities). Rather, local synods may need to be the ideal (Bavaria, not Germany), guided by a better understanding of a more humane scale of travel and interaction (as well as group identity).

Part 2 of the NLM Interview with Dom Alcuin Reid

The 'Consilium ad Exsequendam' at 50 - An Interview with Dom Alcuin Reid (Part 2)

NLM: Were there any persons who, in your opinion, should or should not have been included on the committee? If so, why?

Dom Alcuin: Eleven pages of an appendix to Archbishop Bugnini’s memoirs, The Reform of the Liturgy (Liturgical Press), lists the personnel. Many of these had been involved in the commission for liturgical reform of Pius XII, the preparatory liturgical commission or the conciliar liturgical commission. Names such as Jungmann, Gy, Botte, Martimort, Righetti, feature rightly enough amongst the consultors. Interestingly Louis Bouyer was only included in 1966. Antonelli was one of the members; Bishop Jenny also. And there were bishop members from around the world who were regarded as having shown interest in the liturgy at the Council.

And a reference to Fr. Bouyer's memoirs:

NLM: During and after the Council, there was a great deal of talk in the Church about “collegiality” between the Pope and the bishops. Sacrosanctum Concilium itself says in no. 25 that “(t)he liturgical books are to be revised as soon as possible; experts are to be employed on the task, and bishops are to be consulted, from various parts of the world.” Were the bishops consulted by the Consilium? If so, to what extent? Were the reforms carried out as an act of collegiality between the Pope and the world-wide episcopate?

Dom Alcuin: Certainly there were bishops from dioceses across the world on the Consilium. And some schemas were sent to Bishops Conferences before the 1967 Synod of Bishops. But it is simply not true to assert that “every suggested adaptation, change, or modification was sent out to every Catholic bishop in the world” and that “when changes were severely questioned or opposed by a large number of bishops, they were revised according to the will of the bishops and then sent back again.” (Robert Taft SJ, Interview, 4 Nov. 2009) Bugnini describes the relationship with the world’s bishops in chapter 14 of his memoirs—and it is a very different account from Father Taft’s. The Consilium had ongoing contact with the Episcopal conferences, certainly, but one only has to read Cardinal Heenan’s letters to see how a residential Archbishop regarded the reform as something imposed by ‘Rome’ regardless of local bishops’ views (cf. A Bitter Trial, Ignatius Press).

Msgr Martimort, the Relator (co-ordinator of the working group) for the reform of the Liturgy of the Hours, explained to me in an interview that after consultation with experts he presented two position papers to the Consilium plenary meeting, which decided on which to follow and on appropriate revisions. After this, Martimort complained vigorously, Bugnini ignored these decisions and himself proposed another course to Paul VI—which was the one adopted. This ‘Paul VI approves what Bugnini-wants’ is a significant factor in the postconciliar reform, a fact underlined also by details recounted in the memoirs of Louis Bouyer, still sadly unpublished.

So too in 1969, the by-then Archbishop Jenny wrote to Paul VI because he believed he had “a duty in conscience” to utter “a cry of alarm” about “the liturgy in general and the divine office in particular” because of influences outside of the Consilium and outside of its normal working methods. Co-operation within the Consilium itself was questionable!

CNA: Church must evangelize humbly, Pope Francis reflects

In humility and in charity... the homily was addressed to "members of the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops at Casa Santa Marta," and not to lay people in general.

"Also present at the Mass were Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, and police from the Vatican Gendarmerie, Vatican Radio reported."

Zenit: Pope Francis: Prepare Your Hearts For the Heavenly Homeland

Wednesday's audience: Pope Francis: “The Church is not a bureaucratic organization, but a love story”

From earlier this week: Pope's Homily on Feast of St. George

More from Sandro Magister on the need to reform the Curia: Vatican Diary / Future curia, old project

John R. Quinn, archbishop emeritus of San Francisco, has an opinion, one which he voiced before the conclave as well: American archbishop advocates new power-sharing structures in the Catholic Church - John R. Quinn advocates the expansion of the patriarchal structure in the Catholic Church and the attribution of decision making power to the synod of bishops, to remedy excessive centralization and strengthen communion

More from Bishop Quinn:
THE CLAIMS OF THE PRIMACY AND THE COSTLY CALL TO UNITY (alt)

The Reform of the Papacy