Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published on January 7, 2012, the pastoral guidelines to be followed at the global, national, diocesan and local level during the Year of Faith (October 11, 2012 – November 24, 2013).  According to the wishes of Benedict XVI, the Year of Faith will celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the 20^th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).

At the level of the Universal Church, three major movements will mark the Year of Faith:  the Synod in October 2012 on “the new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith”, the World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in August 2013 and the closing Mass that Benedict XVI will celebrate at the Vatican on November 24, 2013.  The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith also encourages Christians to go on pilgrimage to Rome, to the Holy Land and to Marian shrines.

The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, for its part, will be in charge of promoting ecumenical initiatives on behalf of the restoration of unity among all Christians, which is “one of the principal concerns” of the Second Vatican Council.  A solemn ecumenical celebration “in which all of the baptized will reaffirm their faith in Christ” is thus planned as part of the program.

Thanks to a special Secretariat, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization will manage to coordinate the initiatives promoted by the different dicasteries of the Holy See “or other events relevant to the Universal Church”, and will suggest some initiatives.  The Secretariat will be in charge of a website specially created for this purpose.

The Year of Faith should be the occasion to rediscover the teachings of Vatican II and of the CCC.  Several international conferences will be organized, and seminarians will be invited to study these documents carefully.  Similarly, the CDF encourages a rereading of the homilies, catecheses, addresses and other texts by Benedict XVI.

Episcopal Conferences should do everything possible to publish and distribute the documents of Vatican II, the CCC and its Compendium, in a way that is economical and accessible, in new [electronic] formats and in new languages, especially the local languages of countries in mission territory.  This latter task will be the responsibility of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

All forms of communication should be employed to speak about the faith and the Council:  television or radio broadcasts, films and publications, “on the popular level, making these things available to a wider public”, the CDF Note explains, but also by means of the heritage of visual works of art in the region entrusted to the pastoral care of the dioceses.

The episcopal conferences will also ensure that the local catechisms and the various catechetical resources being used in the local Churches are in “complete conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church”.  Finally, they will be able to devote a study day to the theme of faith, personal witness to it and the transmission of the faith to younger generations.

At the diocesan level, the CDF invites Catholics to celebrate the opening and the conclusion of the Year of Faith.  Each bishop can dedicate one day to study of the CCC and compose a pastoral letter on the theme of faith.  The Vatican also hopes that in each diocese will hold “catechetical events … especially for the youth and those searching for the meaning of life,” and encounters with meaningful witnesses to the faith.  During Lent, the bishops can organize “penitential celebrations … in which all can ask for God’s forgiveness, especially for sins against faith.”

At the university level, the CDF hopes to encourage “a renewed creative dialogue between faith and reason in the academic and artistic communities, through symposia, meetings and days of study, especially at Catholic universities”.

Finally, at the local level, parishes, communities, associations and movements are also invited to participate in the distribution of the Catechism.  The CDF is counting particularly on the new communities and the ecclesial movements, which “in a creative and generous way, will be able to find the most appropriate ways in which to offer their witness to the faith in service to the Church”.  The faithful are called to communicate their experience of faith with members of other Christian denominations or other religions, but also with non-believers.

On January 21, 2012, Father Federico Lombardi declared in an editorial of the weekly newsletter of the Vatican Television Center that he directs:  “The theme of the new evangelization that escorts us toward the Synod of Bishops next Fall is intrinsically ecumenical, and the Year of Father announced by the Pope will likewise have an ecumenical dimension at the universal level.”  “The new evangelization can be more fruitful if all Christians announce the truth of the Gospel together,” he assured his readers, adding, “once again, it is clearly evident that ecumenical engagement is essential and intrinsic to the mission of the Church in the world of today and to the main lines of this pontificate.”  (Sources : VIS/Apic/Imedia/Zenit/CTV – DICI no. 249 dated February 3, 2012)

The new College of Cardinals will have a majority of Europeans: 119, of whom 67 will be cardinal electors, well over half of electors.  Far ahead of other European nations, Italy has seen the number of its cardinals increase to a total of 52, with 30 of those eligible to be cardinal electors.  By themselves, the Italians represent 25% of the electoral college.  After Italy, comes the United States with 12 electors, Germany and Brazil with 6 each, Spain with 5, and France, Poland, Mexico and India with 4 each.

Accordingly, the distribution among the five continents will be:  European Cardinals will account for 67 electors of 125 possible or 53.6%; Latin American will have 22 or 17.6%; North America will have 15 or 12%; Asia will have 9 or 7.2%; Africa 11 or 8.8%; and one cardinal will come from Oceania (0.8%).

After February 18, the absolute majority of the electors will have been named cardinal by Benedict XVI, 63 of 125 (50.4%).  The number of 120 cardinal electors under 80 years of age, set for the conclave by Paul VI, will again be reached after the 80^th birthday of the American Cardinal  James Francis Stafford on 26 July 2012.

As of February 18th, the Roman Curia will have no fewer than 10 new cardinals.  Among the Roman prelates who will receive the red biretta, the latest is Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, who was appointed Grand Penitentiary of the Catholic Church by Benedict XVI on January 5, 2012.  It should be noted that among the names missing from the list is that of Monsignor Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.  The Synod on the New Evangelization of October 2012 as well as the proclamation of the Year of Faith (October 11, 2012 – November 24, 2013) would lead one to think, however, that the Italian prelate would have been elevated to cardinal.

Benedict XVI also appointed four cardinals over the age of 80, among whom is Father Karl Josef Becker SJ, the Pope’s fellow countryman and a consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 1977.  Close to Cardinal Ratzinger for a long, he was, from 2009 to 2011,  a member of the Committee of Roman Theologians responsible for the doctrinal discussions with the Society of St. Pius X. (Sources: VIS / APIC / I media / Q – DICI No. 240 of 02/03/12)

The Decree occurs after the 2002 approval of the Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way ad experimentum for a period of five years.  The Statutes received final approval in 2008, two years before the validation of the Catechetical Directory at the end of 2010.

Dated December 30, 2011, the Decree of Approval specifically concerns the liturgical celebrations and other types of celebrations.  The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments emphasized the distinction between the two types of celebrations, making a clear distinction between the Mass and other types of gatherings.  This validation comes six years after Cardinal Francis Arinze, then president of the Pontifical Council, sent a letter addressed to the leaders of the Way, on behalf of Benedict XVI.  In that document the prelate evaluated the situation of “the celebration of Mass in the Way communities,” after completing an analysis with its leaders.  He asked them to accept and follow the liturgical books approved by the Church during Mass, “without omitting or adding anything”—notably by reinstating the Creed and the Agnus Dei.

Among other things, Cardinal Arinze asked for the communities to regularly participate in parish Masses, and that they also take care to reserve preaching to priests or deacons.  He also expressed reservations about the manner in which the neo-catechumens received communion, asking them to do so while standing and not sitting.  His letter authorized the exchange of Christ’s peace before the offertory and the admonitions and sharing on the readings by the faithful, provided they are brief.  Finally, Cardinal Arinze prescribed a series of modification of practices, providing two years to the neo-catechumens to change their practices.

The Neocatechumenal Way describes itself as an “itinerary of Christian formation” begun in the 1960s, in a working-class suburb of Madrid. Its founder, Kiko Argüello (on the picture), was joined by another lay person, Carmen Hernandez, as well as an Italian priest, Mario Pezzi, and now form the international leadership team.  The Way is currently present on all continents, in over 900 dioceses and includes about 40,000 communities.  It has also more than 70 Redemptoris Mater seminaries.

During the January 20^th audience, Benedict XVI asked the members of “Camino” (the Way) for greater communion with the Pope, Rome and the bishops.  “In your valuable work, always look for a deep communion with the Apostolic See and with the pastors of the churches in which you are inserted.”  The Pope again wished for “unity and harmony in the ecclesial body,” in reference to the sometime difficult insertion of the Neocatechumenal Way in certain dioceses.

Citing the statutes of the Way, which emphasize the centrality of the Eucharist as part of their “post-baptismal-lived-in-small-communities” itinerary, Benedict XVI affirmed that every Eucharistic celebration must be “open to all those who belong to this Church,” emphasizing the public nature of the Mass.  He asked the neo-catechumens not to separate themselves from the parish community on that occasion.  If he recognized certain peculiarities as being approved in their statutes, he asked that the liturgical books be faithfully followed in the celebration of Mass.

This official recognition comes despite the approach of three Japanese bishops received in audience, January 12, 2012, by Benedict XVI.  ”One of the major topics of the visit was the issue of neo-catechumens,” John Eijiro Suwa, Bishop of Takamatsu confided to the Roman news agency I. Media, before referring in a general manner to “many types of problems.”  “These problems are the same as before,” simply added the Japanese prelate whose diocese has long hosted a Neocatechumenal Way seminary which was closed in 2008 at the request of his predecessor.  He was accompanied by Paul Sueo Hamaguchi, Bishop of Oita, and Thomas Aquino Manyo Maeda, Bishop of Hiroshima since June 2011, after having been the secretary general of the Bishops’ Conference of Japan.

In 2007 and 2010, the Pope had already granted an audience to the Japanese bishops who came to confide their difficulties with the Neocatechumenal Way.  The last audience, in December 2010, was attended by heads of departments of the Roman Curia, did not elicit a response to the request of the Japanese bishops to suspend the presence of the Neocatechumenal Way in Japan for a period of five years.  Instead they proposed that the bishops develop a dialogue between the community and the Episcopate and appoint a delegate in charge of this dialogue.

In 2007, before the Pope, the then president of the Bishops’ Conference of Japan did not hesitate to speak of the “grave problem,” referring to the activities of members of the Way.  “Within the small community that represents the Catholic Church in Japan,” he said, “the activities of members of the Way, powerful and similar to those of a sect, are a cause of division and conflict.  They are the cause of deep and painful suffering in the bosom of the Church.” Its mode of operation, more than the vitality of the Neocatechumenal Way, is what poses a problem for the Japanese bishops.

Four years later, Bishop John Eijiro Suwa brought up “similar problems” but expressed confidence in the approaching meeting with the local leaders of the Way.  “In the near future, the Japanese bishops will meet with the leaders of the Neocatechumenal Way in Japan,” he says, adding: “We must forgive each other, but at the same time, we must also solve the problems.” (Sources: Apic / Imedia – DICI No. 249 of 02/03/12)

The pastoral guidelines that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has just published show that this year should be considered the occasion to spread the teachings of Vatican Council II and of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is presented by Benedict XVI as “an authentic fruit of the Second Vatican Council” in the Apostolic Letter Porta fidei dated October 11, 2011.  Is this widespread diffusion possible, without preliminary examination?

As Bishop Marc Aillet of Bayonne, France, recently acknowledged in La Vie, “The very principle of adhering to the Council is a source of misunderstanding, since there are opposing interpretations of it.”  That is why Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Astana in Kazakhstan, requested during a colloquium held in Rome on December 17, 2010, a syllabus condemning the errors in interpreting the Second Vatican Council and explaining clearly the traditional sense in which certain disputed statements of the Council must be understood.

Can the celebration urbi et orbi [in the Eternal City and in the world] of the 50^th anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II (October 11, 1962 – October 11, 2012) do without such a syllabus?  That is the wager of this Year of Faith.

Fr. Alain Lorans

This study, entitled “A Crucial Question”, responds to the article by Msgr. Fernando Ocariz published in the December 2 issue of L’Osservatore Romano;  both authors participated in the doctrinal discussions about Vatican II that took place in Rome from October 2009 to April 2011.

Rather than speculate on the nature of Bishop Fellay’s response, it is better to study the entire text by Fr. Gleize in Le Courrier de Rome [“The Mail from Rome”, a French-language newsletter of the SSPX], the December issue of which was transformed into “Courrier à Rome” [“Mail to Rome”].

Fr. Alain Lorans

“The family is… the first school of prayer [where] children, from the most tender age, can learn to perceive the meaning of God, thanks to the teaching and example of their parents.”  The Holy Father invited families to be “the place in which to rediscover the beauty of prayer in common”.  Precisely through prayer we become “capable of approaching God in an intimate, profound way,” he said.

The prayer of the Rosary takes Mary as its model, because it consists in contemplating the mysteries of Christ in spiritual union with the Mother of our Lord.  “Mary’s ability to live by God’s gaze, is so to speak, contagious.”

The pope also accentuated one of the main things taught by the family of Nazareth—silence—and underscored the importance of a spiritual discipline that can be understood “at the school of the Holy Family”.  “Whereas we are deafened by the din, the noise and discordant voices in the frenetic, turbulent life of our time,” Benedict XVI said [quoting his predecessor Paul VI], the silence of the Holy Family can teach us “to be steadfast in good thoughts, attentive to our inner life, ready to hear God’s hidden inspiration clearly and the exhortations of true teachers”.

Two days later, on December 30, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, granted an interview to L’Osservatore Romano concerning the results of the 20^th plenary assembly of the Council that was held at the Vatican from November 29 to December 1, 2011.

The crisis of the traditional family is “undeniable”, he said.  “Almost everywhere in the world, the same phenomena are noted:  a decrease in marriages, which are being celebrated at a later age, an increase in divorces, cohabitation, people remaining single, homosexual relations, fewer births and [more] births outside of marriage and artificial procreation.”

This situation is explained by the widespread availability of contraceptives, the search for self-fulfillment through work and the pursuit of a career, in the subjectivist mentality and relativism, in the secularism that excludes God from everyday life, and in the ideology of gender.

And so the Roman prelate asked for the protection of:  the right to conscientious objection by members of healthcare professions with regard to abortion and euthanasia, the right to freedom of opinion on one’s ethical evaluation of homosexual behavior, the right of children to a family founded on marriage between one man and one woman, the right of that family not to be lumped together with other forms of cohabitation, the right of parents to freedom of education and consequently the freedom to choose a school and a curriculum, and financial fairness for families with children.

To the members of the plenary assembly of the Council for the Family, Benedict XVI had declared:  “Just as the eclipse of God and the crisis of the family are connected, so too the new evangelization is inseparable from the Christian family.”  In a secular society like ours and faced with consumerist individualism, the witness of the Christian family is the most effective and credible means of teaching the faith, Cardinal Antonelli declared in L’Osservatore Romano.  Furthermore he announced that the next World Meeting of Families in Milan from May 30 to June 3, 2012, will be the priority in the new year for his dicastery.  (Sources : apic/imedia/vatican.va/Osservatore Romano/VIS – DICI no. 248 dated January 13, 2012)

You can also read :
Fr. Patrick Troadec on His Book “The Catholic Family” (Clovis)

Nearly 85 years old, Benedict XVI intends, for the second time, to make an apostolic visit to Latin America, which is home to more than 40% of the world’s Catholics. He visited Brazil in May 2007. In addition, he confirmed that World Youth Day 2013 is set to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

. (Sources: Apic / Radio Vatican – DICI No. 247 of 23/12/11)