If there is one factor that may have upset the progressives’ plans on the abolition of celibacy, it is the publication of From the bottom of our heart by Joseph Ratzinger is Robert Sarah. Pope francesco, in the apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia, did not open to “married priests” or to “viri probati”. “Spiazzare”, which is one of the verbs most used by commentators after the complete reading of the Holy Father’s document, fits perfectly.
What happened from October to February? Between Pan-Amazonian synod, where several innovations have been discussed given for adoption by 185 bishops, and the release of the papal text, it is above all necessary to place the public stance of the pontiff emeritus. The one contained in the book which in Italy is published by Cantagalli. A “Bergoglian” revolution would in fact have denied the arguments of its predecessor, which is contrary to any doctrinal reinterpretation of an institute which, although not a dogma, is qualified as a “grace of God”. If the Argentine had reformed celibacy, we would have had two very different positions. A Pope and an antipope? No, but in short, something difficult to manage from the media point of view.
The Vatican immediately specified – just given the news of the imminent release of From the bottom of our heart – as the thought of Jorge Mario Bergoglio on celibacy had always been coincident, after all, with that of Benedict XVI. Exceptions, yes, but only for some specific cases, such as for some “Pacific islands”. Then a book-interview with the Pope by Don Luigi Maria Epicoco was published. A work in which it is also underlined how Pope Francis has the same vision on the priestly ordination of St. John Paul II. The note “hermeneutics of continuity”.
But then why did many, almost all, say they were certain of how the former archbishop of Buenos Aires was about to change the basic rules on the priesthood? The Pope may have changed his idea running. Maybe for reasons external to the debate of these months and for beliefs settled over time, as they argue from St. Peter’s Square. Or, according to some reconstructions, the ex-pontiff, the German, with the book written with Cardinal Robert Sarah, could really have influenced – by way of pressing – the decisions made by the ex-archbishop of Buenos Aires. For the “conservative front”, it is as if Benedict XVI had saved the team from a goal on the goal line. The Vatican expert Sandro Magister, on his blog de L’Espresso, has told more than a few backstage.
When From the bottom of our heart it has been announced, the progressives have started to hurry, as usual. The emeritus had again “broken the silence”, upsetting the eggs in the basket of “guardians of the revolution”. It happens every time Benedict XVI leaves the private dimension. The conservative duo, the one composed by Ratzinger and Sarah, was subjected to continuous fire.
But both clergymen decided not to give centimeters to those who, however, began to claim that the African cardinal had invented theological collaboration with the former Pope. Almost as if Ratzinger had not really participated in the drafting of From the bottom of our heart. Those were very excited phases, those. And to lose it, as you know, could have been Msgr. Georg Gaenswein who was “dismissed” by the prefecture of the Papal Household.
On the aforementioned source, we read of a phone call between Ratzinger and Sarah: both, according to the journalist’s story, have cry. And that may have been an outburst due to the progressive offensive. But that is not all. Joseph Ratzinger, to support Sarah’s public position, who continued to post on social networks “evidence” that Benedict XVI had really contributed to From the bottom of our heart, had also prepared a “communicated that he intended to make public with the signature of the only pope emeritus, to attest the full consonance between the two coauthors of the book and to call for the cessation of all controversy”.
Sandro Magister therefore speculates at least that Msgr. Georg Gaenswein may have been “dismissed” because of the contradiction between the request for removal of Ratzinger’s signature from the book – the one that had been advanced at first – and the release of a press release, which never became public, but which sanctions the effective sharing of Benedict XVI to From the bottom of our heart.
In Querida Amazonia, the post-synodal exhortation of Pope Francis, there is no exception to priestly ordination: celibacy has not been touched. And perhaps it is due to the pressing of Benedict XVI, who also shed tears for his internal battle in the Church.
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