A well-informed observer of Vatican affairs has just alerted me that “something important will be published on Sunday” in Rome, so I should “get ready” to take the entire day to cover and report on the “big news”…
At the same time, earlier today an alert was published on the Rorate Caeli (link) Twitter website (link), where one may read the following “tweets,” the first from August 19, the second from today, September 22:
August 19 — Rorate Caeli @RorateCaeli Oh, goodness, just got some unbelievable Vatican news now (not rumor, news)! — but not authorized to publish it at this moment.
September 22, 9:52 a.m.— Rorate Caeli @RorateCaeli
This news will be, barring something unforeseen, on Rorate Caeli in just over 24 hours. Stay tuned, and pray.
Here is what it looks like:
What might this upcoming “news” be?
One commenter in August speculated: “Francis will resign?” (Pope Francis will turn 81 in December; he was born on December 17, 1936.)
The Rorate Caeli editor wrote in reply: “No, not this. But we cannot confirm or deny anything else.”
Other commenters speculated it might have something to do with the mysterious message of Fatima, also because the 100th anniversary of the final apparition, October 13, 1917, when the “Miracle of the Sun” occurred in Fatima, Portugal, will come in just three weeks, on October 13, 2017.
In another vein, an Italian website that often has interesting, and occasionally has quite accurate, information has just written, without giving named sources, that the dismissal of the conservative, eloquent and increasingly-respected (also because of two recent books, one entitled God or Nothing, the other The Power of Silence) African Cardinal Robert Sarah from his post as head of the Vatican’s dicastery for the liturgy has already been discussed and “approved” by the Pope’s “Council of 9” cardinals, and will be announced in December. (link)
(Left, Cardinal Robert Sarah, and his recent book God or Nothing; below, the more recent book by Sarah, The Power of Silence (link). Both are available from Ignatius Press, link)
There have also been scattered reports that a further revision of the Church’s liturgy is being studied, and may be announced in the relatively near future.
So the news might have something to do with the liturgy, which, as I argued in my Letter #53 a few days ago, is of supreme importance for the Church…
Regarding the liturgy, here is a link to full summary report by my colleague, Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register, on the Summorum Pontificum Conference held in Rome last week to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 2007 papal document of the same name permitting wider use of the old liturgy. (Link)
In his report, Pentin cites Cardinal Sarah saying the following a week ago:
“Anthropocentric liturgies [are] unacceptable because they reduce something which is of its very essence supernatural to the level of merely the natural, contrary to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy…
“God must come first in every element of our liturgical celebration. It is for love of Him and so as to worship Him all the more fully that we set aside and consecrate people, places and things specifically for His service in the Sacred Liturgy…
“Noise in fact kills the liturgy, kills prayer, tears us and exiles us far away from God…
“Silence and calm is so important in our churches before, during and after liturgical celebrations. What hope have we of an interior focus on God if what we experience in our churches is yet more distraction and noise?
“There should be no competition between the more recent rites and the older ones of the one Roman rite: both should be a natural element of the life of the Church in our times. Christ calls us to unity, not division!
“You are not traditionalists: you are Catholics of the Roman rite as am I and as is the Holy Father…
“You are not second-class or somehow peculiar members of the Catholic Church because of your life of worship and your spiritual practices, which were those of innumerable saints.”
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Looking toward Sunday…
And now, it is nearly 2 a.m. in Rome…
In the morning, in 5 hours, I will set out with a small group of pilgrims to Lanciano and Manoppello, in central Italy, not far from the Adriatic coast, to the Shrine of the Eucharistic Miracle and to the Shrine of the Holy Face.
If all goes as we plan, we will be back in Rome in the evening, so on Sunday, September 23, barring something unforeseen, I will be here to prepare something if there is news…
So stay tuned… (and, please consider subscribing to the magazine Inside the Vatican; to do so, click below on the red-colored link at the bottom)…
(to be continued)
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(Correction: My last email bore the title “Letter #50,” but that was a mistake, it should have borne the title of “Letter #55.” My apologies for the oversight.—Robert Moynihan)
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An December 2017 Inside the Vatican Pilgrimage
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What is the glory of God?
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