Showing posts with label Cdl Schonborn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cdl Schonborn. Show all posts

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Another "slap from Vienna" as Cardinal Schonborn hosts Medjugorje "seers" at his cathedral



What is going on with Cardinal Schonborn?  He is not helping the cause for Medjugorje.  If anything, he is pushing the kind of ecclesial buttons that will force the Holy See into responding sooner than later.

In my last post I explained how Cardinal Schonborn is giving Medjugorje "seers" a platform at the Vienna cathedral - something which is out of harmony with tradition in the church on alleged apparitions.  It also causes confusion and disunity when the bishop of another diocese (and another country) allows promotion of a phenomenon in his cathedral which is prohibited in the diocese of origin, and forbidden on Church property anywhere within Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

By this action, Cardinal Schonborn, no matter how well intentioned, offers a "slap" from Vienna not only to the Bishop of Mostar-Duvno, but to the entire Bishop's Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
In a matter of minutes [event is now over, but screen shots and video links are embedded in this post], Mary TV will televise the event from St. Stephens Cathedral, including the "apparition" which Ivan and Maria are scheduled to have at Standard Apparition Time (SAT) of 6:40 p.m. (advertised here as 12:40 p.m.).  See here a FreezePage snapshot taken a few minute ago of the advertisement.

[Edit on Sept 27, 2010: English language viewers: can view the event which is uploaded now to MaryTV, and broken down into four parts (scroll when you get there) .... German language viewers can see edited clips at Kathtube.com:  Cardinal Schonborn speaks here], the Rosary and "vision" are here, and testimonial of Ivan and Maria from the St. Stephen sanctuary here, and the homily is here (Cardinal Schonborn did not appear to be at the Mass)]

Further, Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno is not some "spirit of Vatican II bishop", but a man of considerable orthodoxy, and a very good teacher of the faith. He has been vilified by the "Medjugorje Movement" to the point that there is a vein of contempt for him among devotees. Each time a brother bishop pulls a stunt like this in Vienna, it only deepens that contempt people have for this apostolic successor. The concerns he has raised consistently, as well as those of his predecessor are reasonable and he should be treated with more respect.



It says in the above:


VIENNA LIVE!
September 23
(Padre Pio's Feast Day)


Medjugorje visionaries Ivan and Marija will be streamed live in English from Cardinal Schoenborn's Cathedral, St. Stephens in Vienna. (Kathnet will be streaming in German.)


10:00 AM EDT: (4:00 PM Vienna time) Testimonies from Sr. Elvira and the Cenacolo Community


11:00 AM EDT: Testimonies from Ivan and Marija


12:00 Noon EDT: Rosary


12:40 PM EDT: Apparition to Ivan and Marija


1:00 PM EDT: Mass


2:00 PM EDT: Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament


3:00 PM EDT: Adoration ends



EDITS WILL FOLLOW BELOW:

  • At around 10:40 a.m. my time, Mother Elvira, foundress of Cenacolo Community, just addressed the crowd, using a short prayer with a title for the Blessed Virgin Mary which not approved by the Church when she said, "Mother of Medjugorje, pray for us".

  • 11:20 a.m. my time, Ivan Dragicevic and Maria Pavlovic-Lunetti give their testimony from the sanctuary of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna about how "Our Lady" appears to them.
  • Things are going on according to schedule (not the printed schedule, but the "apparition" schedule.  I was trying to figure out why they would start the Rosary at Noon when it is well known that the "seers" of Medjugorje usually break mid-Rosary to have their "vision" at "Standard Apparition Time" (SAT) of 6:40 p.m. local time where ever they are.  It is now 12:12 here where I am, so I think we can pretty much plan on seeing the "apparition" right on cue at 12:40 p.m. if they delay things for another 5-10 minutes.

  • 12:22 Rosary underway.  I can't help but think how distracting these events are to the Rosary itself.  Are people truly meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary when a "seer" falls into "ecstasy" in the middle of it? Or, are they focused on the apparent vision which seems to be taking place.  Not to worry... the camera which is currently trained on a picture of the BVM (same one at top of post), will soon shift to the faces of Ivan and Maria as they have their "vision" in St. Stephen's cathedral.  Cardinal Schonborn has not been seen ... .yet.  A photo-op must be in here somewhere.  Wait for it...

  • The Rosary stops at around 12:40 my time so Ivan and Maria can have their vision. I think it was just about over.  Ivan nodding his head and smiling at 12:41. Maria now moving her lips. Ivan nods again.  Ivan moving lips.  Ivan smiling as Maria has a somber look on her face.  People gawking all around.  Ivan continues with big smiles as Maria holds a nearly distressed look on her face at 12:43 my time.  Ivan nodding again.  Camera pans away to people watching.  Deafening silence.  Camera pans back to Ivan and Maria.  Ivan and Maria's lips moving simultaenously. It all ends at 12:47 with the Sign of the Cross at 12:47.

Here is a shot of Ivan smiling and the serious look on the face of Maria.
  • At 12:48 the musicians begin playing the official "anthem" of Medjugorje.
  • Now they prepare for Holy Mass. 
As we wait for Mass to start, I have to ask:  Am I really suppose to believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary, a model of humility and obedience, would appear to "seers" in the Vienna Cathedral, when the bishop whom the 1991 Zadar Declaration states has authority for the pastoral care and attention "in Medjugorje and all connected with it" has prohibited such things on Church property?  Does it require a Cardinal in the Vatican to explain that if the "seers" are not permitted to have such public events in their home diocese, or in their home country, they ought not be given such publicty on Church property in any diocese? 

Are the "seers" disobedient for having "visions" in public?  If the same bishop has prohibited the release of "messages", then how does the world continue to get them if not by an act of disobedience? In 2006 the local bishop called these "visionaries" and those "behind the messages" to obedience.  In 2007, Archbishop Angelo Amato, then Secretary of the CDF, invited the bishops of Tuscany, Italy, to share with priests of the diocese that same 2006 homily (see fax in the link).  Archbishop Amato is now on the Medjugorje commission, and was also the one who authorized Bishop Peric to share the canonical status of Tomislav Vlasic who was being investigated by the Holy See "in the context of Medjugorje" (words of Abp Amato).  Vlasic then requested laicization.  In late 2009, Bishop Peric released a series of statements, which included more prohibitions (see "Part 3")

So, would the Blessed Virgin Mary appear to disobedient "seers" in the Cathedral of a Cardinal who is out of step with how unapproved apparitions are traditionally handled, and who disregards the matter of collegiality?  That this event would happen on the Feast of St. Pio of Pietrelcina is even more offensive, given his solid obedience, even in the face of persecution from within the Church.  He never wavered on that. 

Mass is underway.  More in a moment...




  • Cardinal Schonborn, if he is there, is not seen.  While I cannot warm up to tie-dyed chasubles and do not feel that guitars meet the appropriate standard for liturgical instruments for holy Mass, it was otherwise reverently celebrated.  The homily focused on St. Pio. 


  • Not only did this create a form of scandal among people in a packed cathedral, but for who knows how many millions watching it on MaryTV.tv (English) and on Kathtube.com which broadcast it in German. 


  • At 2:42 Ivan is talking about his "apparition" which just took place earlier (this is about 8:42 local time in Vienna).  I did not catch the first part of what he said.  He is now talking about how "Our Lady blessed objects" and how she "blessed all of you priests".  I'm confused because the schedule shows this as a period of Adoration.  I was away for a time and was unsure if the monstrance was brought out yet or not.  If this is happening during Adoration, it ought not be.  I'm sure there will be a complete printout online of all that he said. 

  • OK - Adoration apparently has not yet begun.  Maria is asking people to stay for Adoration, "Our program is not yet done". Maria spoke only for a moment. 



Here comes Cardinal Schonborn to the podium.    He thanks Maria and Ivan for coming again.  He thanks them for their service.  He asks God to pay them back a hundred-fold for what they are doing tirelessly. 

Three things he wants to say (this part I cannot type fast enough to keep up with so we will look for a transcript for later).  Here's what I was able to capture...


  • He is talking about the depth of prayer which shows what Our Lady says at the end of her message "thanks for responding to my call". 

  • He is speaking about the "miracle of tears" and I did not catch who it was he was talking about from some centuries ago.  If someone heard it, drop in a comment.

  • The third thing I was able to catch part of because of how he told the story, pausing in between.  He now speaks of something he calls amusing. He's heard from so many witnesses from Medjugorje.  He says he took a train after his visit to Medjugorje and he felt a wink from Our Lady on the train to pray the Rosary and Breviary.  A very voluminous lady - he clarified as "fat" - sat next to him, and he was annoyed, saying "not virtuous".  She began to talk to him and he didn't like it.  She asked him where he is a parish priest.  He responded, that he wanted to read.  She asked him again.  Annoyed again, he replied that he was the Archbishop of Vienna.  She then apologized for disturbing him.  Then she explained that her husband was in Medjugorje, he climbed up the hill and after coming back down was never so friendly as he is now with her.  And she said, she wants to go to Medjugorje also now.  Cardinal Schonborn then said, "perhaps she will also be so friendly".  
Is it just me?  I don't find that amusing at all. We all suffer from human fallen nature and can experience such things, but they are better left for the privacy of a confessional.  I mean, what if this woman is watching the broadcast?  Good grief!

I'm signing off on this blogpost as they enter Adoration after which this all concludes. 




How long will it take for Cardinal Schonborn to get another private audience with Pope Benedict XVI?  While there are indeed good fruits coming from Medjugorje, which most would attribute to the unapproved apparition, rather than a return to the Sacraments, there are also many bad fruits.  Let's keep in mind that many fine men converted and heard the call to the priesthood through the Legionaries of Christ.  Yet, lurking in the background, were the abuses of the founder.  Maciel was a fraud.  One lesson we learn from the Legionaries - something to consider with regards to Medjugorje.  Good fruits can happen even where there is sinful activity and fraud. Where sin increases, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20-21)

Further reading:


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!
Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.
Posted by Diane Korzeniewski at 10:02 AM
Labels: ,

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Report: Pope Benedict XVI wrote to Cdl Schonborn about recent statements

Updated, June 3, 2010

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!
Posted by Diane Korzeniewski at 1:07 AM
Labels:

Friday, May 28, 2010

Sandro Magister: Schonborn and Celibacy




Italian journalist, Sandro Magister, has an excellent piece up on clerical celibacy.  It was prompted by the many news stories still being discussed in Italy over the Austrian bishops, and their public push for a re-evaluation of celibacy.  However, as Magister notes, Pope Benedict XVI has been on a different path, one which has been aimed at strengthening celibacy.   

I will give you the beginning, then you can follow the link for the rest.  Note to my international readers: If you prefer Italian, French or Spanish, there are options in the left sidebar for you.  Magister publishes his blog in four languages.  Emphases mine in bold:
Sandro Magister
ROME, May 28, 2010 – Benedict XVI is preparing to conclude the Year for Priests, which he called in order to restore spiritual vigor to the Catholic priests at a difficult time for the entire Church.


Meanwhile, however, one famous cardinal among those closest to the pope, Vienna archbishop Christoph Schönborn continues to beat the drum of a "rethinking" of the discipline of celibacy among the Latin clergy.


Schönborn is a well-educated man, a former student of Joseph Ratzinger when he was a professor of theology. In the 1980's, he collaborated in the writing of the catechism of the Catholic Church. But as a man of command, since he has been at the head of a Church so off-kilter as the Austrian Church is, he has shown himself more attentive to the pressure of public opinion than to his leadership duties.


In mid-May, as soon as one of his fellow Austrian bishops, Paul Iby of Eisenstadt, said that "priests should be free to decide whether to marry or not" and that "the Holy See is too timid on this question," Cardinal Schönborn quickly commented: "The concerns expressed by Bishop Iby are the concerns of us all."


And this was only the latest – for now – of an unending series of similar statements. From Cardinal Schönborn and from other cardinals and bishops all over the world, not to mention representatives of the clergy and laity. "Moving past" the discipline of celibacy has long been the basso continuo of the music of the innovators.


In this music, just a couple of things are usually heard and understood.


The first is that the celibacy of the clergy is a rule imposed in recent centuries on the Latin clergy alone.


The second is that Catholic priests should be allowed to marry "as in the primitive Church."


The problem is that both of these things are at odds with history and theology.

Magister then goes on to qualify this last statement, and much more.   Continue reading Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. The Argument over Celibacy by Sandro Magister

Problems in Austria

Before leaving you with some links to qualify that which I have emboldened above, about the problems in the Austrian Church, let's look at what Pope Benedict XVI said to the Austrian bishops on their last ad limina visit in 2005. They are now up for their next ad limina.  Has their been any change?

Here are a few excerpts:

Grievous events are occurring today: the secularization process, constantly gaining momentum in Europe at this time, has not even been halted at the gates of Catholic Austria. Identification with the Church has been eroded in many of the faithful and with it, the certainty of the faith and reverential awe for God's law are lacking.


[snip]


As you well know, profession of faith is one of the Bishop's most important duties. "I have never shrunk from announcing to you God's design in its entirety", St Paul said at Miletus to the Presbyters of the Church of Ephesus (Acts 20: 27). It is true that we Bishops must act prudently. However, this prudence must not prevent us from presenting the Word of God in its full clarity, even those things that people are less willing to hear or that never fail to arouse protests and derision.


Dear Brothers in the Episcopate, you are well aware that there are topics concerning the truth of faith and especially moral doctrine that are not being adequately presented in catechesis and preaching in your Dioceses and that at times, for example, in youth ministry in the parishes or associations, are not being confronted at all or are not being clearly addressed as the Church wishes.


I give thanks to God it is not like this everywhere. However, perhaps those responsible for preaching fear that here and there people might drift away if they spoke too clearly.


Yet experience generally shows that it is precisely the opposite that happens. Be under no illusion. An incomplete Catholic teaching is a contradiction in itself and cannot be fruitful in the long term.
The proclamation of the Kingdom of God goes hand in hand with the need for conversion and love that encourages, that knows the way, that teaches an understanding that with God's grace even what seems impossible becomes possible. Only think how the teaching of religion, catechesis at various levels and preaching can be gradually improved, deepened and as it were completed.


Please use zealously the Compendium and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Ensure that your priests and catechists use these instruments, that they are explained in parishes, associations and movements, and used in families as important reading.


In the uncertainty of this time in history and of our society, offer people the certainty of the complete faith of the Church. The clarity and beauty of the Catholic faith are such that they brighten human life even today! This is particularly true if it is presented by enthusiastic and convincing witnesses.


The clear, public and resolute witness of Bishops, which can give a direction to all the faithful and especially the priests in your special care, and the courage to strengthen the faith through your own attitude, must be accompanied by many measures, often seemingly insignificant and unnecessary, which have a public effect.

Now, for some recent related links to this subject, and content which will qualify what Magister is talking about with regards to the Church in Austria being so "off-kilter".


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!
Posted by Diane Korzeniewski at 7:57 AM
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)