30Days in brief

The supernatural sensus fidei is the “magisterium that goes first”
Norms concerning the most serious crimes
The grace of faith and the sense of sin
De Felice: 1968 and Nazism

POPE

The supernatural sensus fidei is the “magisterium that goes first”

Theresa of Lisieux

During the general audience of 7 July Benedict XVI spoke of Blessed John Duns Scotus. Here is an excerpt: “Concerning the teaching on the Immaculate Conception, important theologians like Duns Scotus enriched what the People of God already spontaneously believed about the Blessed Virgin and expressed in acts of devotion, in the arts and in Christian life in general with the specific contribution of their thought. Thus faith both in the Immaculate Conception and in the bodily Assumption of the Virgin was already present in the People of God, while theology had not yet found the key to interpreting it in the totality of the doctrine of the faith. The People of God therefore precede theologians and this is all thanks to that supernatural sensus fidei, namely, that capacity infused by the Holy Spirit that qualifies us to embrace the reality of the faith with humility of heart and mind. In this sense, the People of God are the ‘magisterium (teaching authority) that goes first’ and must then be more deeply examined and intellectually accepted by theology. May theologians always be ready to listen to this source of faith and retain the humility and simplicity of children! I mentioned this a few months ago saying: ‘There have been great scholars, great experts, great theologians, teachers of faith who have taught us many things. They have gone into the details of Sacred Scripture... but have been unable to see the mystery itself, its central nucleus.... The essential has remained hidden!... On the other hand, in our time there have also been “little ones” who have understood this mystery. Let us think of St Bernadette Soubirous; of St Thérèse of Lisieux, with her new interpretation of the Bible that is “non-scientific” but goes to the heart of Sacred Scripture’ ( Homily, Mass for the Members of the International Theological Commission, Pauline Chapel, Vatican City, 1 December 2009)”.

HOLY SEE

Norms concerning the most serious crimes

One of the incipits of the IDecretum Gratiani/I, Vatican Apostolic Library

On 15 July the new version of the Norms concerning the most serious crimes (delicta graviora, in Latin) was published. The text, approved and promulgated by Benedict XVI during an audience granted to the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, William J. Levada, last 21 May, replaces the Norms issued first in 2001 with the motu proprio Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela with which John Paul II attributed to the former Holy Office the power to deal with and judge in the scope of the canonical ordinance particularly serious crimes, such as the sexual abuse of minors committed by clerics.
At the briefing given by the director of the Holy See Press Office Father Federico Lombardi, Bishop Charles J. Scicluna, promoter of justice – in practice the “DA” – of the Congregation also attended and explained how what had been applied during the nine years between the first promulgation of the Norms and their current update was, in practice, what had originally been granted as “special faculties” but which now have been set within a more comprehensive regulatory framework: “This is a strong signal”, Scicluna clarified, “because the faculties have a somewhat ephemeral life: they depend very much on the will of the supreme pontiffs. However, Pope Benedict XVI – as soon as he was elected in 2005 – expressed the wish that the powers enjoyed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith should be a fixed part of the legislation”. Because in fact the “special faculties” die with the pope who granted them, one of the first acts of Benedict XVI, on 6 May 2005, during an audience with Archbishop Angelo Amato, then secretary of the department, was that of confirming them. Not only. He also expressed the wish that those faculties be codified into true and proper law.
In fact, the new Norms codify the special faculties already granted by John Paul II and therefore the possibility, in extremely serious and proven cases, to have recourse to extrajudicial, and therefore more rapid, procedures (administrative trial or dismissal from the clerical state imposed directly by the pope); the possibility of having as members of the ecclesiastical courts, not only priests but also laity; the right, but only with the pope’s mandate, case by case, to judge cardinals, patriarchs, nuncios, bishops and superiors general of religious orders (though, Scicluna explained, to investigate them in relation to accusations of delicta graviora, the pontifical mandate is not necessary). The new Norms also extend the period of limitation from ten to twenty years, which, in the crime of abuse against minors is always calculated from the 18th birthday of the victim. Not only that. The former Holy Office also acquires the right to go beyond twenty years, which tends to make the delicta graviora “indefeasible” in fact (“a step forward in guaranteeing substantial justice”, Scicluna explained, “and the public good of the Church”).
The Norms published on 15 July include not only the special faculties granted in the past, but also other new features. The crimes against the faith are also included, that is heresy, apostasy and schism; the delicta graviora are better defined and updated by the addition of the crime of child pornography and the attempted priestly ordination of women [attentata sacra ordinatio mulieris]. The possibility of taking precautionary measures (removal from the office, obligatory residence, prohibition on celebrating Mass in public) beginning already with the investigation, and not after the start of proceedings.

TOPICALITY

The grace of faith and the sense of sin

Jesus with some sinners: St Peter, King David, the Good Thief, St Mary Magdalene

In la Repubblica on 10 July, Pietro Citati published an interesting article entitled The grace of faith and the sense of sin. We quote some excerpts: “According to Benedict XVI, at the the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century, the kingdom of sin expanded. Almost no one prays, crosses the threshold of cathedrals, thinks of God and Christ, respects the Church’s laws on life and death. Society is deeply anti-Christian and irreligious. If we can’t spot Satan, as in the days of Hitler and Stalin, thousands of small Satans frequent and dominate the world. Even the walls of the ark have collapsed: sin has entered the Church, as the business of pedophile priests, which has so stricken the heart of Benedict XVI, reveals. Almost every trace of the luminous and triumphant feeling that emanated from the words of John Paul II seems to have disappeared. In the words of Benedict XVI, there is above all pain and bitterness. The acute sense of sin contributes to the richness and complexity of Christianity, a complexity that, for example Islam, largely ignoring the sin of Adam does not have. The Christian pays heed to himself: studies his own feelings, analyzes his thoughts, and scrutinizes whether, somewhere in his heart, lying and rebellion have left their shadow. He doesn’t let himself be fooled by the theatrical representations of the good. He mistrusts any form of optimism. This is how great experiences of the soul, like those of Paul, Augustine and Pascal are born. Whenever Christianity has erased the idea of sin, it has risked losing itself”. After mentioning the “consciousness of sin, which fills the heart of Benedict XVI”, Citati continues as follows: “The Christian life cannot but be dominated by joy: the joy of existing, of living, of laughing, of seeing, of strolling, of thinking, of noting the images of the mind and of the world: the joy of the present that recovers the joy of the past and anticipates the happiness of the future; the joy of children, who may perhaps be able to maintain their childlike state until death. We know what the origin of this joy is. The light of grace descends from heaven and gradually envelops the whole earth little by little: it illuminates thoughts and feelings and every corner whether inhabited or deserted. Under the form of faith, this grace returns to heaven from which it descended: because faith is nothing other than humanized grace”. Citati ends his article by saying that “the Church must remain a reflection or a glimmer of the Christianity of the apostles and fathers in the midst of today’s society”.

HISTORY

De Felice: 1968 and Nazism

Aldo Moro

Avvenire of 22 July contains a review of an essay by Giuseppe Parlato published in the latest issue of Ventunesimo secolo, and entitled De Felice, Nineteen Sixty-Eight and the defence of the rule of law (an analysis spanning the years 1968-1978).
Among other things the reviewer states: “In 1972, the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Rome led to tautological comparisons with the present, which De Felice countered by comparing the ‘68 protesters with the Nazi anti-Weimarian, anti-parliamentarian left wing, characterised by that “revolutionary nihilism” which Del Noce was then reflecting on (something De Felice had been aware of since his first analyses of fascism). This vacuum of ideas glimpsed in that confused extraparliamentary wishful-thinking... was linked by De Felice to the end of the historicist culture and the invasion of Anglo-American sociology that would have deleterious effects on the Italian intellectual landscape”.