Back a couple weeks ago when Cardinal Schonborn was making the news about clerical celibacy and his remarks about Cdl Sodano I told a few people to give it two weeks. It took about two weeks for the Holy Father to rein in his former pupil over his trip to Medjugorje. To be precise, he was there on January 1st, 2010 and had an audience with the Holy Father on January 15th. On the same day, a fax went from Schonborn while still in Rome, to the Bishop of Mostar.
If this report below is correct, then my hunch was right, that we would hear within two weeks that the Holy Father had once again intervened in the case of Cardinal Schonborn.
I would have preferred to simply link to the piece, rather than duplicate it here, but it would have required people to scroll considerably. It is in the June 1, 2010 entry at 11:19 by Teresa Benedetta. It was a blogpost written by veteran Vatican journalist, Andrea Tornielli, about a report in il Foglio about a letter Pope Benedict XVI supposedly sent to Cardinal Schonborn over his recent remarks. It is translated at the "Benedetto XVI Forum".
For readers of Italian, here is Tornielli's blog entry. Critiche a Sodano, il Papa scrive a Schoenborn
Suffice it to say, Cardinal Schonborn needs our prayers.
That which is in blue, is likely the additional inline commentary of Teresa Benedetta...
Report: Pope has written Schoenborn
twice about his recent statements
by ANDREA TORNIELLI
Translated from Sacri Palazzi
June 1, 2010
Benedict XVI is said to have sent a letter to the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, after the latter's recent off-the-record statements to Austrian journalists naming Cardinal Angelo Sodano who prevented an investigation into seminarians' accusations about Schoenborn's predecessor as Archbishop of Vienna, Hans Hermann Groer.
Reference to the existence of such a letter, in which the Pope reportedly says he was stunned that Schoenborn said what he did, was made in a story in Il Foglio today. [Il Foglio, unfortunately, does not post its content online right away.]
From what I have learned, this letter regarding Schoenborn's criticism of Sodano would be the second of the kind sent by the Pope to his former student. The first was about the statements made by Schoenborn after his highly publicized visit to Medjugorje last January. Since then, Benedict XVI has appointed a Vatican commission headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini to look into the alleged Marian apparitions, which have made Medjugorje a major pilgrimage site. [One might add that after meeting with the Pope at the Vatican on January 15, Schoenborn faxed a belated letter of apology (two weeks after his visit) - to the Bishop of Mostar (who has jurisdiction over Medjugorge) to apologize for failing to inform him he was visiting Medjugorje and planning to say Mass and meet with the 'seers'. One might safely conclude he got an earful from the Pope that made him send the fax!]
I think this next set of text in the same post, is Teresa Benedetta again speaking....so, I'm putting it back in blue.
At the same time, there is a lengthy sympathetic, almost laudatory, article in the May 31 issue of the Austrian magazine PROFIL about Schoenborn entitled "The cardinal who is choking on his (Roman) collar" (Subtitle: How Schoenborn finds himself at odds with Vatican insiders) which says that Schoenborn will not attend a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday next week of the cardinals who belong to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith because he has a 'prior engagement' - and that the engagement is to participate in a public discussion on "Do we live in secular times" with the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor. It also means, says the article, that he will not be attending the closing ceremonies of the Year for Priests. (ie, the man who recently said 'everyone' is concerned about the question of priestly celibacy not only will absent himself from a CDF meeting but also from the most important worldwide gathering of priests ever to be held!)
UPDATE June 3: The "il Foglio" piece is now out. Here is a google translated version. Here is the Italian original).
Te Deum Laudamus! Home
The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!