The modernist Cardinal Prosper Grech who is a true priest delivered the following remarks to the 115 cardinals assembled in the Sistine Chapel in order to elect a new pontiff. One can read the same remarks on
· Cardinal Prosper Grech’s meditation to the 115 cardinals at
the opening of the Conclave that elected Pope Francis ·
The 5 April - 3 May 2013
edition of the official bulletin of the Holy See, the “Acta Apostolicae Sedis”
(available on the site www.vatican.va) published the meditation which Cardinal
Prosper Grech, osa, of Malta
delivered to the 115 cardinals on 12 March, at the opening of the Conclave that
elected Pope Francis the following evening. The following is a translation of
the reflection, which was delivered in Italian.
At the venerable age of 87 I am one of the eldest in the College of Cardinals, though as regards the appointment I am still a newborn; and since my life has always been dedicated to study, my knowledge of the affairs and work of the Curia does not surpass the third grade.
Only as such do I dare to
present this simple meditation in nomine Domini. The act which you are
about to fulfil here in the Sistine Chapel is a kairos, a powerful
moment of grace in the history of salvation, which continues to unfold in the
Church until the end of time. You are aware that this moment requires the
utmost responsibility from all of you. It does not matter whether the Pope you
elect is of one nationality or another, of one race or another. It only matters
that when the Lord asks him, “Peter, do you love me?”, that he be able to reply
in all sincerity: “Lord, you everything, you know that I love you” (cf Jn
21:17-19).
Then the sheep entrusted to
him by Jesus shall abide secure, and Peter will follow Christ, the chief
Shepherd, wherever he goes. With this, I have no intention to offer a profile
of the new Pope, nor even to outline a plan of action for the future Pope. This
most delicate task belongs to the Holy Spirit, who in recent decades has
endowed us with a series of excellent holy Pontiffs. My intent is to draw from
Scripture several reflections to make us understand what Christ wants from his
Church, reflections that will help you in your discussions. During his life,
Jesus sent his disciples to proclaim the Kingdom of God
(Lk 9:2). The Kingdom has many facets, but we may sum up its essence as the
moment of grace and reconciliation which the Father offers to the world in the
person and work of Christ. Kingdom and Church do not coincide; the Kingdom is
God’s paternal sovereignty which includes all of the beneficiaries of his
grace.
After his Resurrection,
Jesus sent the Apostles out to the whole world to make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit (Mt29:19). The Church accomplishes this by presenting the
Gospel whole and entire, without diluting the word; to use Paul’s words: “for I
am not ashamed of the Gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to every one
who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom 1:16). When one
descends to compromises with the Gospel one empties it of its dynamis,
as though one had removed the explosive from a hand grenade. Nor must one even
give into the temptation of thinking that one may relativize the need for
baptism since the Second Vatican Council has also paved the way to salvation
for those who are outside the Church. Today one may add the abuse of many
indifferent Catholics who neglect or refuse to have their own children
baptized.
The Gospel proclamation of
the Kingdom of God takes concrete form in proclaiming
“Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). Both the divine sonship and his
crucifixion constitute the scandalum crucis, which is “folly to those
who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor
1:18). It is this very scandal of the Cross which humbles the hybris of
the human mind and elevates it to accept a wisdom that comes from above. Also
in this case, relativizing the person of Christ by placing him alongside other
“saviours” means emptying Christianity itself of its substance. It was the
precisely the preaching of the folly of the Cross that in less that 300 years
reduced the religions of the Roman Empire to a minimum and opened the minds of
men to a new vision of hope and resurrection. Today’s world thirsts for the
same hope, as it suffers from an existential depression.
Christ crucified, however,
is intimately bound to the Church crucified. She is the Church of the martyrs,
from those of the first centuries to the countless number of faithful who in
certain countries expose themselves to death simply by going to Sunday Mass. However, the
Church crucified is not limited only to her martyrs. When she reflects the
Person, teaching and behaviour of Christ, she does nothing other than present
the Truth, which is Christ himself (Jn 14:6). Therefore, the Church requires
men to look at themselves in the mirror of Christ, as she must too. Everyone
desires to come to a knowledge of the truth, but when it reveals our defects
then it is hated and persecuted: Oculis aegris odiosa lux, quae sanis
amabilis, (Confessions VII,
22) says Augustine. And Jesus predicts: “If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you” (Jn 15:20). Therefore, persecution is a quid constitutivum
of the Church as is the weakness of her members, from which she cannot prescind
without losing her individuality; it is a cross she must embrace.
Yet persecution is not
always physical; there is also the persecution of falsehood: “Blessed are you
when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account” (Mt 5:11). You have recently experienced this through
various media outlets which do not love the Church. When false accusations are
made one must not pay attention to them, even if they are a cause of immense
sorrow. It is quite another thing when the truth is spoken against us, as has
happened in many of the accusations of pedophilia. Then one needs to humble
oneself before God and men and seek to eradicate evil at any cost, as Pope
Benedict XVI did with great
anguish and sorrow. Only thus does one regain credibility before the world and
offer an example of sincerity.
Today many people do not
come to believe in Christ because his face is obscured or hidden behind an
institution which lacks transparency. But if recently we have lamented the
regrettable happenings that have befallen clerics and laity, even in the
pontifical household, we must think that these evils, as serious as they may
be, when compared with certain past events in the history of the Church are
nothing but a cold. Just as these were overcome with God’s help, so also the
present crisis will also be overcome. Even a cold needs to be treated so that
it does not develop into pneumonia. The evil spirit of the world, the mysterium
iniquitatis (2 Thes 2:7), is constantly striving to infiltrate the Church. Furthermore,
let us not forget the warnings of the prophets of ancient Israel not to seek alliances with Babylonia nor
with Egypt
but to follow a pure politics ex fide by trusting solely in God (cf. Is
30:1; 31:1-3; Hos 12:2) and in his Covenant. Courage! Christ relieves our minds
when he exclaims: “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33).
Let us now go one step
further in our inquiry into God’s will for the Church. There is no doubt that
the unity of his body is Christ’s summum desideratum, as his priestly
prayer at the Last Supper demonstrates (Jn 17). Unfortunately, Christendom is
still divided in both faith and love. The first attempts at ecumenism
immediately following the Second World War (I remember being present at several
meetings with Romano Guardini at Burg Rothenfels), and also the commitment
aroused by Unitatis redintegratio are bearing fruit even though a long
stretch of road still remains. Prejudices die very slowly and reaching a
theological agreement is not easy at all. We are tempted to grow weary of this
road that often seems one-way. But discontinuing the dialogue would go against
the explicit will of God. Yet what is needed more than discussions or
ecumenical encounters is the confident and intense prayer of all parties and a
convergent path towards the holiness and spirit of Jesus.
Preserving unity within the
Catholic Church herself will not be an easier task for the future Pontiff. Between
ultratraditionalist extremists and ultraprogressive extremists, between priests
who rebel against obedience and those who do not recognize the signs of the
times, there will always be the danger of minor schisms that not only damage
the Church but also go against the will of God: unity at all costs. However,
unity does not mean uniformity. It is evident that this does not close the
doors to the intra-ecclesial discussion, which has been present throughout the
Church’s entire history. Everyone is free to express his thoughts on the
Church’s task, but such proposals should be in line with that depositum
fidei which the Pope together with all of the bishops has the task of safeguarding.
Peter will make his task easier to extent that he shares it with the other
Apostles. Unfortunately, today theology suffers from the feeble thought that
dominates the philosophical environment, and we need a good philosophical
foundation in order to be able to develop dogma with a valid hermeneutic that
speaks a language that is intelligible to the contemporary world.
It often happens, however,
that the proposals put forth by many of the faithful for the progress of the
Church are based on the degree of freedom that is granted in the area of
sexuality. Certainly laws and traditions that are purely ecclesiastical can be
changed, but not every change means progress; it must be discerned whether such
changes serve to increase the holiness of the Church or to obscure it.
Let us now turn to an even
more pressing chapter. In the West, at least in Europe,
Christianity itself is in crisis. Europe no
long wishes to consider its Christian historical traditions. There exists a
spreading secularism and agnosticism which has various roots. To mention just a
few: the relativization of truth, which is the result of the aforementioned
feeble thought, a theme often emphasized by Benedict XVI; a materialism which measures everything in economic
terms; the legacy of governments and parties that intended to remove God from
society; the explosion of sexual freedom and that very rapid scientific
progress which knows neither moral nor human restraint. Furthermore, a lack of
knowledge and indifference reigns not only as regards Catholic doctrine, but
even regarding the ABC’s of Christianity. We therefore feel the urgency for a
new evangelization which begins with the pure and plain proclamation of the kerygma
to nonbelievers, and which is followed by ongoing catechesis that is nourished
by prayer.
But the Lord is never
defeated by human negligence and it seems that, while they are closing the
doors to him in Europe, he is opening them elsewhere, especially in Asia. And even in the West God will not fail to keep for
himself a remnant of Israel
that does not bend the knee before Baal, a remnant we find mainly in the many
lay movements endowed with various charisms that are making a strong
contribution to the new evangelization. These movements are full of young
people, who were much loved by the two most recent Popes. They are the seed
that, well cultivated, will grow into a new tree laden with fruit. Yet care
must be taken that particular movements do not believe that the Church has no
more resources. In short, God cannot be defeated by our indifference. The
Church is his, the gates of hell can wound its heel but can never suffocate it.
Until now we have spoken
about Popes, cardinals, bishops and priests, but there is another factor of
hope in the Church that we must not pass over, the sensus fidelium. Augustine
calls it “the interior Teacher” in each believer, and St John calls is “the anointing” that teaches
us all things (1 Jn 2:20, 27). It creates in the depths of the heart that
criterion for discerning what is true from what is false; it makes us
distinguish instinctively what is secundum Deum from what comes from the
world and from the Evil One (1 Jn 4:1-6). According to Dei Verbum 8, the
sensus fidelium is also a locus theologicus which needs to be
considered by the Church’s pastors. The embers of devout faith are kept alive
by millions of simple faithful who are far from being called theologians, but
who in the intimacy of their prayer, reflections and devotions can give deeply
meaningful advice to their pastors. It is they who “will destroy the wisdom of
the wise, and the cleverness of the clever, I will thwart” (1 Cor 1:19). This
means that when the world with all of its knowledge and intelligence abandons
the logos of human reason, the Logos of God shines forth in
simple hearts that form the marrow from which the backbone of the Church is
nourished.
But why am I saying this? It
is because although we commonly profess that the Holy Spirit is the soul of the
Church, we do not always take him into consideration in our plans for the
Church. He transcends all sociological analysis and historical prediction. He
goes beyond scandals, internal politics, ambition and social problems, which in
their complexity obscure the face of Christ which must shine forth even through
thick clouds. Let us listen to Augustine: “The Apostles saw Christ and believed
in the Church that they did not see; we see the Church and must believe in
Christ whom we do not see. By holding fast to what we see, we will arrive at
seeing the One whom now we do not see” (Sermones 328, 3). And you, why
are you here? In 1961 John XXIII received
in audience, here in the Sistine Chapel, the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the
Holy See. He pointed to the dominant figure of Christ the Judge in the fresco
by Michelangelo, and told them that Christ will also judge the actions of the
individual nations in history. You find yourselves in this same Chapel, beneath
the figure of Christ with his hand raised not to crush but to illuminate your
voting, that it may be secundum Spiritum, not secundum carnem,
that is, Non in sinistrum nos ignorantia trahat, non favor inflectat, non
acceptio muneris vel personae corrumpat. Thus the one who is elected will
not only be yours, but will essentially be His.
I would like to conclude on
a lighter note. This is not the first Conclave I have attended. I was also
present at the conclave of Paul VI, as a simple sacristan who prepared the
altars. One day Cardinal Montini came to me asking me to hear his confession;
two hours later he was Pope. When he died, preparations were made for the
Conclave, and there were three Cardinals, including Cardinal Luciani, who were
staying at the Collegio Santa Monica. It fell to me, as the eldest, to greet
them before their departure for the Sistine Chapel. I remember having said:
“Saying ‘best wishes’ to you is not in good taste, saying ‘goodbye’ is even
worse. I will only say: ‘May God bless you’”. I am a bird of good omen! I
extend to you the same greeting: May the Lord be with you and bless you.
