Monday, December 24, 2018

"Lord, I Want To Realize... That You Are The Bread of My Life"

HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS
THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD
THE MASS IN THE HOLY NIGHT
SAINT PETER'S BASILICA
24 DECEMBER 2018

Joseph with Mary his spouse, went up “to the city of David called Bethlehem” (Lk 2:4). Tonight, we too, go to Bethlehem, there to discover the mystery of Christmas.

Bethlehem: the name means house of bread. In this “house”, the Lord today wants to encounter all mankind. He knows that we need food to live. Yet he also knows that the nourishments of this world do not satisfy the heart. In Scripture, the original sin of humanity is associated precisely with taking food: our first parents “took of the fruit and ate”, says the Book of Genesis (cf. 3:6). They took and ate. Mankind became greedy and voracious. In our day, for many people, life’s meaning is found in possessing, in having an excess of material objects. An insatiable greed marks all human history, even today, when, paradoxically, a few dine luxuriantly while all too many go without the daily bread needed to survive.

Bethlehem is the turning point that alters the course of history. There God, in the house of bread, is born in a manger. It is as if he wanted to say: “Here I am, as your food”. He does not take, but gives us to eat; he does not give us a mere thing, but his very self. In Bethlehem, we discover that God does not take life, but gives it. To us, who from birth are used to taking and eating, Jesus begins to say: “Take and eat. This is my body” (Mt 26:26). The tiny body of the Child of Bethlehem speaks to us of a new way to live our lives: not by devouring and hoarding, but by sharing and giving. God makes himself small so that he can be our food. By feeding on him, the bread of life, we can be reborn in love, and break the spiral of grasping and greed. From the “house of bread”, Jesus brings us back home, so that we can become God’s family, brothers and sisters to our neighbours. Standing before the manger, we understand that the food of life is not material riches but love, not gluttony but charity, not ostentation but simplicity.

The Lord knows that we need to be fed daily. That is why he offered himself to us every day of his life: from the manger in Bethlehem to the Upper Room in Jerusalem. Today too, on the altar, he becomes bread broken for us; he knocks at our door, to enter and eat with us (cf. Rev 3:20). At Christmas, we on earth receive Jesus, the bread from heaven. It is a bread that never grows stale, but enables us even now to have a foretaste of eternal life.

In Bethlehem, we discover that the life of God can enter into our hearts and dwell there. If we welcome that gift, history changes, starting with each of us. For once Jesus dwells in our heart, the centre of life is no longer my ravenous and selfish ego, but the One who is born and lives for love. Tonight, as we hear the summons to go up to Bethlehem, the house of bread, let us ask ourselves: What is the bread of my life, what is it that I cannot do without? Is it the Lord, or something else? Then, as we enter the stable, sensing in the tender poverty of the newborn Child a new fragrance of life, the odour of simplicity, let us ask ourselves: Do I really need all these material objects and complicated recipes for living? Can I manage without all these unnecessary extras and live a life of greater simplicity? In Bethlehem, beside where Jesus lay, we see people who themselves had made a journey: Mary, Joseph and the shepherds. Jesus is bread for the journey. He does not like long, drawn-out meals, but bids us rise quickly from table in order to serve, like bread broken for others. Let us ask ourselves: At Christmas do I break my bread with those who have none?

After Bethlehem as the house of bread, let us reflect on Bethlehem as the city of David. There the young David was a shepherd, and as such was chosen by God to be the shepherd and leader of his people. At Christmas, in the city of David, it was the shepherds who welcomed Jesus into the world. On that night, the Gospel tells us, “they were filled with fear” (Lk 2:9), but the angel said to them “Be not be afraid” (v. 10). How many times do we hear this phrase in the Gospels: “Be not afraid”? It seems that God is constantly repeating it as he seeks us out. Because we, from the beginning, because of our sin, have been afraid of God; after sinning, Adam says: “I was afraid and so I hid” (Gen 3:10). Bethlehem is the remedy for this fear, because despite man’s repeated “no”, God constantly says “yes”. He will always be God-with-us. And lest his presence inspire fear, he makes himself a tender Child. Be not afraid: these words were not spoken to saints but to shepherds, simple people who in those days were certainly not known for their refined manners and piety. The Son of David was born among shepherds in order to tell us that never again will anyone be alone and abandoned; we have a Shepherd who conquers our every fear and loves us all, without exception.

The shepherds of Bethlehem also tell us how to go forth to meet the Lord. They were keeping watch by night: they were not sleeping, but doing what Jesus often asks all of us to do, namely, be watchful (cf. Mt 25:13; Mk 13:35; Lk 21:36). They remain alert and attentive in the darkness; and God’s light then “shone around them” (Lk 2:9). This is also the case for us. Our life can be marked by waiting, which amid the gloom of our problems hopes in the Lord and yearns for his coming; then we will receive his life. Or our life can be marked by wanting, where all that matters are our own strengths and abilities; our heart then remains barred to God’s light. The Lord loves to be awaited, and we cannot await him lying on a couch, sleeping. So the shepherds immediately set out: we are told that they “went with haste” (v. 16). They do not just stand there like those who think they have already arrived and need do nothing more. Instead they set out; they leave their flocks unguarded; they take a risk for God. And after seeing Jesus, although they were not men of fine words, they go off to proclaim his birth, so that “all who heard were amazed at what the shepherds told them” (v. 18).

To keep watch, to set out, to risk, to recount the beauty: all these are acts of love. The Good Shepherd, who at Christmas comes to give his life to the sheep, will later, at Easter, ask Peter and, through him all of us, the ultimate question: “Do you love me?” (Jn 21:15). The future of the flock will depend on how that question is answered. Tonight we too are asked to respond to Jesus with the words: “I love you”. The answer given by each is essential for the whole flock.

“Let us go now to Bethlehem” (Lk 2:15). With these words, the shepherds set out. We too, Lord, want to go up to Bethlehem. Today too, the road is uphill: the heights of our selfishness need to be surmounted, and we must not lose our footing or slide into worldliness and consumerism.

I want to come to Bethlehem, Lord, because there you await me. I want to realize that you, lying in a manger, are the bread of my life. I need the tender fragrance of your love so that I, in turn, can be bread broken for the world. Take me upon your shoulders, Good Shepherd; loved by you, I will be able to love my brothers and sisters and to take them by the hand. Then it will be Christmas, when I can say to you: “Lord you know everything; you know that I love you” (cf. Jn 21:17).

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And, well, that's a wrap – again, every joy and grace of the Babe's Coming and these days ahead to you and yours.

Keeping house custom, as ever, our sign-off belongs to this scribe's beloved countryman, teacher and friend: for a quarter-century, "The Voice" of this Holy Night.

Buon Natale a tutti – Merry Christmas... dear "Foleyness," bring us home:


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More than at any other point in our lifetimes, this Church has needed the Light of a Child to guide – and indeed, redeem – it...

...and not soon enough, that's the Coming we celebrate tonight.


To one and all, your loved ones and those you serve, every wish for a Blessed Christmas – may all the joy, goodness and new life the Bambino brings be yours on this Holy Night and all through the days ahead.

On a housekeeping note, once tonight's Vatican Midni – er, 9.30pm – Mass is in the can, this scribe's taking the Octave to catch up on sleep and grab some downtime with the clan. It's been a long, grueling six months, and Lord knows we can all use a quiet stretch, so here's to soaking it up to the hilt. The Show picks up on 2 January given the opening of the USCCB's Pope-mandated Retreat at Mundelein (a moment the bench has greeted with no end of griping).

Overwhelming as the experience of this cycle has been, the line used since time immemorial as part of the Gospel of Christmas Day has felt all the more resonant: "The light shines in the darkness / and the darkness has not overcome it."

To all of you who've shone this Light in the midst of these days – in so many ways in the trenches, and especially through all the kindness, encouragement and understanding you've beamed this way amid the waves – no words can say thanks enough... just know how it'll always be an unforgettable grace.

Christus Natus Est pro nobis – Venite adoremus! Buon Natale a tutti – however young or otherwise we might be, may the gifts and lessons of this Night never grow old. Merry Christmas, Church!


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Friday, December 21, 2018

Amid Year of Scandals, "The State of The Church" – A Choice "Between David and Judas"

In terms of policy, Christmas at the Vatican is a tale of two speeches – the season's end in early January brings the annual address to the Holy See's accredited diplomats long known as "The State of The World," while the start to the festivities sees a talk that's only recently become a pontiff's most consequential annual reflection on the life of the church.

The latter practice begun by Benedict XVI with his first Christmas "greeting" to the Roman Curia in 2005 – a sweeping message still cited as the programmatic text of his reign – under Francis, the speech has become ever more loaded, and consistently geared toward his charted reform of the church's central government: a process both practical and spiritual.

This year, however, just as "The State of The Church" has taken a considerable turn with the re-emergence of the abuse crisis across the Catholic world, so the Pope shifted course, dedicating this morning's talk to the "afflictions" which've surfaced far from the Vatican through 2018, with but a smattering of "joys" at the end. (Along the way, Francis veered off-script to say that the Curial reform "will never end, but the steps so far are good.")

Portraying the dynamic of a scandal-scarred church in evocative Scriptual terms – as a choice between King David, who repented of his sins, and Judas Iscariot, "another man chosen by the Lord who sells out his Master and hands him over to death" – here below is the full English rendering of the Pope's address, as prepared for delivery.

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"The night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light" (Rom 13:12).

Filled with the joy and hope that radiate from the countenance of the Holy Child, we gather again this year for the exchange of Christmas greetings, mindful of all the joys and struggles of our world and of the Church.

To you and your co-workers, to all those who serve in the Curia, to the Papal Representatives and the staff of the various Nunciatures, I offer my cordial good wishes for a blessed Christmas. I want to express my gratitude for your daily dedication to the service of the Holy See, the Church and the Successor of Peter. Thank you very much!

Allow me also to offer a warm welcome to the new Substitute of the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, who began his demanding and important service on 15 October last. The fact that he comes from Venezuela respects the catholicity of the Church and her need to keep expanding her horizons to the ends of the earth. Welcome, dear Archbishop, and best wishes for your work!

Christmas fills us with joy and makes us certain that no sin will ever be greater than God’s mercy; no act of ours can ever prevent the dawn of his divine light from rising ever anew in human hearts. This feast invites us to renew our evangelical commitment to proclaim Christ, the Saviour of the world and the light of the universe. “Christ, ‘holy, blameless, undefiled’ (Heb 7:26) did not know sin (cf. 2 Cor 5:21) and came only to atone for the sins of the people (cf. Heb 2:17). The Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal. She ‘presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God’, announcing the cross and death of the Lord until he comes (cf. 1 Cor 11:26). But by the power of the risen Lord, she is given the strength to overcome, in patience and in love, her sorrows and her difficulties, both those from within and those from without, so that she may reveal in the world, faithfully, albeit with shadows, the mystery of the Lord until, in the end, it shall be manifested in full light” (Lumen Gentium, 8).

In the firm conviction that the light always proves stronger than the darkness, I would like to reflect with you on the light that links Christmas (the Lord’s first coming in humility) to the Parousia (his second coming in glory), and confirms us in the hope that does not disappoint. It is the hope on which our individual lives, and the entire history of the Church and the world, depend.

Jesus was born in a social, political and religious situation marked by tension, unrest and gloom. His birth, awaited by some yet rejected by others, embodies the divine logic that does not halt before evil, but instead transforms it slowly but surely into goodness. Yet it also brings to light the malign logic that transforms even goodness into evil, in an attempt to keep humanity in despair and in darkness. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn 1:5).

Each year, Christmas reminds us that God’s salvation, freely bestowed on all humanity, the Church and in particular on us, consecrated persons, does not act independently of our will, our cooperation, our freedom and our daily efforts. Salvation is a gift that must be accepted, cherished and made to bear fruit (cf. Mt 25:14-30). Being Christian, in general and for us in particular as the Lord’s anointed and consecrated, does not mean acting like an élite group who think they have God in their pocket, but as persons who know that they are loved by the Lord despite being unworthy sinners. Those who are consecrated are nothing but servants in the vineyard of the Lord, who must hand over in due time the harvest and its gain to the owner of the vineyard (cf. Mt 20:1-16).

The Bible and the Church’s history show clearly that even the elect can frequently come to think and act as if they were the owners of salvation and not its recipients, like overseers of the mysteries of God and not their humble ministers, like God’s toll-keepers and not servants of the flock entrusted to their care.

All too often, as a result of excessive and misguided zeal, instead of following God, we can put ourselves in front of him, like Peter, who remonstrated with the Master and thus merited the most severe of Christ’s rebukes: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on the things of God but on the things of men” (Mk 8:33).

Dear brothers and sisters,

This year, in our turbulent world, the barque of the Church has experienced, and continues to experience, moments of difficulty, and has been buffeted by strong winds and tempests. Many have found themselves asking the Master, who seems to be sleeping: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mk 4:38). Others, disheartened by news reports, have begun to lose trust and to abandon her. Still others, out of fear, personal interest or other aims, have sought to attack her and aggravate her wounds. Whereas others do not conceal their glee at seeing her hard hit. Many, many others, however, continue to cling to her, in the certainty that“the gates of hell shall not prevail against her” (Mt 16:18).

Meanwhile, the Bride of Christ advances on her pilgrim way amid joys and afflictions, amid successes and difficulties from within and from without. Without a doubt, the difficulties from within are always those most hurtful and destructive.

Many indeed are the afflictions. All those immigrants, forced to leave their own homelands and to risk their lives, lose their lives, or survive only to find doors barred and their brothers and sisters in our human family more concerned with political advantage and power! All that fear and prejudice! All those people, and especially those children who die each day for lack of water, food and medicine! All that poverty and destitution! All that violence directed against the vulnerable and against women! All those theatres of war both declared and undeclared. All that innocent blood spilled daily! All that inhumanity and brutality around us! All those persons who even today are systematically tortured in police custody, in prisons and in refugee camps in various parts of the world!

We are also experiencing a new age of martyrs. It seems that the cruel and vicious persecution of the Roman Empire has not yet ended. A new Nero is always being born to oppress believers solely because of their faith in Christ. New extremist groups spring up and target churches, places of worship, ministers and members of the faithful. Cabals and cliques new and old live by feeding on hatred and hostility to Christ, the Church and believers. How many Christians even now bear the burden of persecution, marginalization, discrimination and injustice throughout our world. Yet they continue courageously to embrace death rather than deny Christ. How difficult it is, even today, freely to practice the faith in all those parts of the world where religious freedom and freedom of conscience do not exist.

The heroic example of the martyrs and of countless good Samaritans – young people, families, charitable and volunteer movements, and so many individual believers and consecrated persons – cannot, however, make us overlook the counter-witness and the scandal given by some sons and ministers of the Church.

Here I will limit myself to the scourges of abuse and of infidelity.

The Church has for some time been firmly committed to eliminating the evil of abuse, which cries for vengeance to the Lord, to the God who is always mindful of the suffering experienced by many minors because of clerics and consecrated persons: abuses of power and conscience and sexual abuse.

In my own reflections on this painful subject, I have thought of King David – one of “the Lord’s anointed” (cf. 1 Sam 16:13; 2 Sam 11-12). He, an ancestor of the Holy Child who was also called “the son of David”, was chosen, made king and anointed by the Lord. Yet he committed a triple sin, three grave abuses at once: “sexual abuse, abuse of power and abuse of conscience”. Three distinct forms of abuse that nonetheless converge and overlap.

The story begins, as we know, when the King, although a proven warrior, stayed home to take his leisure, instead of going into battle amid God’s people. David takes advantage, for his own convenience and interest, of his position as king (the abuse of power). The Lord’s anointed, he does as he wills, and thus provokes an irresistible moral decline and a weakening of conscience. It is precisely in this situation that, from the palace terrace, he sees Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, at her bath (cf. 2 Sam 11) and covets her. He sends for her and they lie together (yet another abuse of power, plus sexual abuse). He abuses a married woman and, to cover his sin, he recalls Uriah and seeks unsuccessfully to convince him to spend the night with his wife. He then orders the captain of his army to expose Uriah to death in battle (a further abuse of power, plus an abuse of conscience). The chain of sin soon spreads and quickly becomes a web of corruption.

The sparks of sloth and lust, and “letting down the guard” are what ignite the diabolical chain of grave sins: adultery, lying and murder. Thinking that because he was king, he could have and do whatever he wanted, David tries to deceive Bathsheba’s husband, his people, himself and even God. The king neglects his relationship with God, disobeys the divine commandments, damages his own moral integrity, without even feeling guilty. The “anointed” continues to exercise his mission as if nothing had happened. His only concern was to preserve his image, to keep up appearances. For “those who think they commit no grievous sins against God’s law can fall into a state of dull lethargy. Since they see nothing serious to reproach themselves with, they fail to realize that their spiritual life has gradually turned lukewarm. They end up weakened and corrupted” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 164). From being sinful, they now become corrupt.

Today too, there are consecrated men, “the Lord’s anointed”, who abuse the vulnerable, taking advantage of their position and their power of persuasion. They perform abominable acts yet continue to exercise their ministry as if nothing had happened. They have no fear of God or his judgement, but only of being found out and unmasked. Ministers who rend the ecclesial body, creating scandals and discrediting the Church’s saving mission and the sacrifices of so many of their confrères.

Today too, there are many Davids who, without batting an eye, enter into the web of corruption and betray God, his commandments, their own vocation, the Church, the people of God and the trust of little ones and their families. Often behind their boundless amiability, impeccable activity and angelic faces, they shamelessly conceal a vicious wolf ready to devour innocent souls.

The sins and crimes of consecrated persons are further tainted by infidelity and shame; they disfigure the countenance of the Church and undermine her credibility. The Church herself, with her faithful children, is also a victim of these acts of infidelity and these real sins of “peculation” [Ed. akin to "embezzlement"].

Dear brothers and sisters,

Let it be clear that before these abominations the Church will spare no effort to do all that is necessary to bring to justice whosoever has committed such crimes. The Church will never seek to hush up or not take seriously any case. It is undeniable that some in the past, out of irresponsibility, disbelief, lack of training, inexperience, or spiritual and human short-sightedness, treated many cases without the seriousness and promptness that was due. That must never happen again. This is the choice and the decision of the whole Church.

This coming February, the Church will restate her firm resolve to pursue unstintingly a path of purification. She will question, with the help of experts, how best to protect children, to avoid these tragedies, to bring healing and restoration to the victims, and to improve the training imparted in seminaries. An effort will be made to make past mistakes opportunities for eliminating this scourge, not only from the body of the Church but also from that of society. For if this grave tragedy has involved some consecrated ministers, we can ask how deeply rooted it may be in our societies and in our families. Consequently, the Church will not be limited to healing her own wounds, but will seek to deal squarely with this evil that causes the slow death of so many persons, on the moral, psychological and human levels.

Dear brothers and sisters,

In discussing this scourge, some, even within the Church, take to task certain communications professionals, accusing them of ignoring the overwhelming majority of cases of abuse that are not committed by clergy, and of intentionally wanting to give the false impression that this evil affects the Catholic Church alone. I myself would like to give heartfelt thanks to those media professionals who were honest and objective and sought to unmask these predators and to make their victims’ voices heard. Even if it were to involve a single case of abuse (something itself monstrous), the Church asks that people not be silent but bring it objectively to light, since the greater scandal in this matter is that of cloaking the truth.

Let us all remember that only David’s encounter with the prophet Nathan made him understand the seriousness of his sin. Today we need new Nathans to help so many Davids rouse themselves from a hypocritical and perverse life. Please, let us help Holy Mother Church in her difficult task of recognizing real from false cases, accusations from slander, grievances from insinuations, gossip from defamation. This is no easy task, since the guilty are capable of skillfully covering their tracks, to the point where many wives, mothers and sisters are unable to detect them in those closest to them: husbands, godfathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, neighbours, teachers and the like. The victims too, carefully selected by their predators, often prefer silence and live in fear of shame and the terror of rejection.

To those who abuse minors I would say this: convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice. Remember the words of Christ: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of scandals! For it is necessary that scandals come, but woe to the man by whom the scandal comes! (Mt 18:6-7).

Dear brothers and sisters,

Now let me speak of another affliction, namely the infidelity of those who betray their vocation, their sworn promise, their mission and their consecration to God and the Church. They hide behind good intentions in order to stab their brothers and sisters in the back and to sow weeds, division and bewilderment. They always find excuses, including intellectual and spiritual excuses, to progress unperturbed on the path to perdition.

This is nothing new in the Church’s history. Saint Augustine, in speaking of the good seed and the weeds, says: “Do you perhaps believe, brethren, that weeds cannot spring up even on the thrones of bishops? Do you perhaps think that this is found only lower down and not higher up? Heaven forbid that we be weeds!… Even on the thrones of bishops good grain and weeds can be found; even in the different communities of the faithful good grain and weeds can be found (Serm. 73, 4: PL 38, 472).

These words of Saint Augustine urge us to remember the old proverb: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. They help us realize that the Tempter, the Great Accuser, is the one who brings division, sows discord, insinuates enmity, persuades God’s children and causes them to doubt.

Behind these sowers of weeds, we always find the thirty pieces of silver. The figure of David thus brings us to that of Judas Iscariot, another man chosen by the Lord who sells out his Master and hands him over to death. David the sinner and Judas Iscariot will always be present in the Church, since they represent the weakness that is part of our human condition. They are icons of the sins and crimes committed by those who are chosen and consecrated. United in the gravity of their sin, they nonetheless differ when it comes to conversion. David repented, trusting in God’s mercy; Judas hanged himself.

All of us, then, in order to make Christ’s light shine forth, have the duty to combat all spiritual corruption, which is “worse than the fall of the sinner, for it is a comfortable and self-satisfied form of blindness. Everything then appears acceptable: deception, slander, egotism and other subtle forms of self-centeredness, for ‘even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light’ (2 Cor 11:14). So Solomon ended his days, whereas David, who sinned greatly, was able to make up for his disgrace” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 165).

Our joys have been many in the past year. For example: the successful outcome of the Synod devoted to young people; the progress made in the reform of the Curia. [Many are asking themselves, "Will it ever end?" It'll never be finished, but the steps so far are good:] the efforts made to achieve clarity and transparency in financial affairs; the praiseworthy work of the Office of the Auditor-General and the AIF; the good results attained by the IOR; the new Law of the Vatican City State; the Decree on labour in the Vatican, and many other less visible results. We can think of the new Blesseds and Saints who are “precious stones” adorning the face of the Church and radiating hope, faith and light in our world. Here mention must be made of the nineteen recent martyrs of Algeria: “nineteen lives given for Christ, for his Gospel and for the Algerian people … models of everyday holiness, the holiness of “the saints next door” (Thomas Georgeon, “Nel segno della fraternità”, L’Osservatore Romano, 8 December 2018, p. 6). Then too, the great number of the faithful who each year receive baptism and thus renew the youth of the Church as a fruitful mother, and the many of her children who come home and re-embrace the Christian faith and life. All those families and parents who take their faith seriously and daily pass it on to their children by the joy of their love (cf. Amoris Laetitia, 259-290). And the witness given by so many young people who courageously choose the consecrated life and the priesthood.

Another genuine cause for joy is the great number of consecrated men and women, bishops and priests, who daily live their calling in fidelity, silence, holiness and self-denial. They are persons who light up the shadows of humanity by their witness of faith, love and charity. Persons who work patiently, out of love for Christ and his Gospel, on behalf of the poor, the oppressed and the least of our brothers and sisters; they are not looking to show up on the first pages of newspapers or to receive accolades. Leaving all behind and offering their lives, they bring the light of faith wherever Christ is abandoned, thirsty, hungry, imprisoned and naked (cf. Mt 25:31-46). I think especially of the many parish priests who daily offer good example to the people of God, priests close to families, who know everyone’s name and live lives of simplicity, faith, zeal, holiness and charity. They are overlooked by the mass media, but were it not for them, darkness would reign.

Dear brothers and sisters,

In speaking of light, afflictions, David and Judas, I wanted to stress the importance of a growing awareness that should lead to a duty of vigilance and protection on the part of those entrusted with governance in the structures of ecclesial and consecrated life. In effect, the strength of any institution does not depend on its being composed of men and women who are perfect (something impossible!), but on its willingness to be constantly purified, on its capacity to acknowledge humbly its errors and correct them; and on its ability to get up after falling down. It depends on seeing the light of Christmas radiating from the manger in Bethlehem, on treading the paths of history in order to come at last to the Parousia.

We need, then, to open our hearts to the true light, Jesus Christ. He is the light that can illumine life and turn our darkness into light; the light of goodness that conquers evil; the light of the love that overcomes hatred; the light of the life that triumphs over death; the divine light that turns everything and everyone into light. He is the light of our God: poor and rich, merciful and just, present and hidden, small and great.

Let us keep in mind this splendid passage of Saint Macarius the Great, a fourth-century Desert Father, about Christmas: “God makes himself little! The inaccessible and uncreated One, in his infinite and ineffable goodness, has taken a body and made himself little. In his goodness, he descends from his glory. No one in the heavens or on earth can grasp the greatness of God, and no one in the heavens or on earth can grasp how God makes himself poor and little for the poor and little. As incomprehensible is his grandeur, so too is his littleness” (cf. Ps.-Macarius, Homilies IV, 9-10; XXII, 7: PG 34: 479-480; 737-738).

Let us remember that Christmas is the feast of the “great God who makes himself little and in his littleness does not cease to be great. And in this dialectic of great and little, we find the tender love of God. Greatness that becomes little, and littleness that becomes great” (Homily in Santa Marta, 14 December 2017; cf. Homily in Santa Marta, 25 April 2013).

Each year, Christmas gives us the certainty that God’s light will continue to shine, despite our human misery. It gives us the certainty that the Church will emerge from these tribulations all the more beautiful, purified and radiant. All the sins and failings and evil committed by some children of the Church will never be able to mar the beauty of her face. Indeed, they are even a sure proof that her strength does not depend on us but ultimately on Christ Jesus, the Saviour of the world and the light of the universe, who loves her and gave his life for her. Christmas gives us the certainty that the grave evils perpetrated by some will never be able to cloud all the good that the Church freely accomplishes in the world. Christmas gives the certainty that the true strength of the Church and of our daily efforts, so often hidden, rests in the Holy Spirit, who guides and protects her in every age, turning even sins into opportunities for forgiveness, failures into opportunities for renewal, and evil into an opportunity for purification and triumph.

Thank you very much and a Happy Christmas to all!

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Wednesday, December 19, 2018

After Transatlantic Tug of War, Another Bishop Falls

Precisely six months into the US church’s latest full-on storm of abuse revelations, the scandals have claimed a fourth American prelate – this time, in the nation’s largest diocese.

At Roman Noon this Wednesday, the Pope accepted the resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Alexander Salazar of Los Angeles, who turned 69 last month.

An immigrant from Costa Rica who settled with his family in Southern California in his boyhood, Salazar was named a deputy in the 5 million-member outpost in 2004 by now-Saint John Paul II.

Initially assigned to the archdiocese's San Pedro Region (each of LA's five subdivisions being home to roughly a million Catholics), in the late 2000s Salazar was quietly transferred to an office at the archdiocese's Wilshire Boulevard headquarters – a shift which today's move helps to explain in hindsight.

While, per custom, the Vatican made no reference to the rationale behind the early departure in its formal announcement, a statement from the LA Chancery released this morning says the following:
The announcement comes after Archbishop José H. Gomez requested a full review of all allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors to bring up to date the 2004 Report to the People of God lists of accused priests. In a letter issued today to the faithful of the Archdiocese, Archbishop Gomez stated that he requested and received permission from the Congregation for Bishops at the Holy See to have the Archdiocese’s independent Clergy Misconduct Oversight Board review a past allegation against Bishop Salazar of misconduct in the 1990s before he was ordained a bishop.

The Archdiocese was first informed in 2005 through a third party of an allegation reported directly to law enforcement in 2002 by a young adult alleging misconduct in the 1990s when Bishop Salazar was a priest and the alleged victim was a minor. Law enforcement had investigated the allegation and recommended that the District Attorney seek prosecution. The District Attorney did not file charges in the case.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was Archbishop when the Archdiocese was informed of the allegation, requested an immediate review of the case with law enforcement officials. Since the matter involved a bishop of the Catholic Church, according to the requirements of Canon Law, he also reported the allegation to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Holy See. The Congregation investigated and permitted Bishop Salazar to remain in ministry subject to certain precautionary conditions, which he has respected. Bishop Salazar has consistently denied the allegation. The Archdiocese has not received any other allegations involving Bishop Salazar.

Applying the standards used when reviewing allegations of sexual misconduct concerning priests and deacons, the Clergy Misconduct Oversight Board’s review of the matter found the allegation to be credible and recommended to Archbishop Gomez that Bishop Salazar should not have faculties to minister. Archbishop Gomez accepted the recommendation and submitted it to the Holy See.
Given the revelation that CDF allowed Salazar to remain in conditional ministry from 2005, here it bears noting how, in the same year, the reins of the "Holy Office" were taken up by then-Archbishop William Levada – an LA native and onetime auxiliary there.

Now 82 and retired from the Curia's #3 post since 2012, Levada recently packed up his Roman apartment to return full-time to California, where he splits his time between a condo in his hometown of Long Beach and a residence at Menlo Park in the archdiocese of San Francisco, which he led for a decade until becoming the highest-ranking American in Vatican history.

*  *  *
If the process just undertaken sounds fairly standard, to be clear, the path to this morning was anything but.

According to Whispers ops apprised of the case, Salazar's resignation was first set to be accepted last Tuesday, 11 December. However, two factors complicated that timeframe and led to the week's delay: first, as opposed to a simple resignation, Gomez was driven to handle the allegation "the right way" and – as broken here late Sunday – wrangled the Holy See's permission for the LA review board to judge the claim last week. As the Vatican must delegate the faculty to investigate the case of a bishop, that same process has been carried out twice this year by the archdiocese of New York's lay panel – the first-ever instances in which a diocesan review board has been given the ability to weigh allegations against a prelate. (In practice, though, it's ostensibly become the rule that review boards may only consider allegations against bishops which took place when they were priests; in other words, the handling of any misconduct alleged following their appointment as bishops remains reserved to the Holy See.)

Yet what's more, in the days leading up to the initially-planned announcement, Salazar himself reportedly flew to the Nunciature in Washington with the intent of taking back the resignation he already submitted, and which Francis had already accepted.

As the three US prelates previously removed since the crisis’ June eruption were either near or past the retirement age of 75, this round’s first move of its kind on a relatively younger bishop is notable. That Salazar’s appointment took place in the immediate wake of 2002 – that is, in a time when scrutiny of potential bishops was understood to be considerably intensified – represents the most substantive hit to date to the integrity of the appointment process, above all as it stood in the final stage of John Paul’s 27-year pontificate. (Of course, that same period has come under fire in the case of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, given the ex-cardinal’s promotion to Washington in late 2000.)

On a broader sweep, Salazar becomes the third onetime LA auxiliary to be felled by scandal over the last two decades: in 1999, Bishop Patrick Ziemann was forced from the helm of Northern California's Santa Rosa diocese following accusations of sexual harassment by a priest there, as well as financial improprieties, while Bishop Gabino Zavala, named an Angeleno deputy in 1994 at age 43, resigned in early 2013 as he confessed to having fathered two children.

*  *  *
Tomorrow marks six months since the crisis' second major eruption in the US began with the removal of then-Cardinal McCarrick from ministry following New York's finding that a 1970s allegation of abuse against the long-retired prelate was credible. A month later, after a second man's report that McCarrick abused him as a boy, he became the first cleric in a century to resign his place in the College of Cardinals. With the former archbishop of Washington already consigned to a life of prayer and penance at a monastery in Kansas, a full Roman tribunal on the allegations remains in process.

Over the long slog since, the Vatican forced the retirement of Bishop Michael Bransfield of Wheeling-Charleston within days his 75th birthday in September upon claims of harassment of and misconduct with adults, and the New York auxiliary John Jenik, 74, agreed to "step aside" after Gotham's review board deemed as credible an allegation from the 1980s involving a minor.

In the latter cases, what's become a sprawling investigation into Bransfield continues in West Virginia's statewide church, while the Holy See remains to make a final determination on Jenik's suspension; set to reach the retirement age early in the New Year, the auxiliary has maintained his innocence.

Developing – more to come.

SVILUPPO (10.45am ET): This piece will be updated as anything more comes from LA Chancery or other key entities – for now, from a house source, an important and quite striking piece of the puzzle....
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Thursday, December 13, 2018

Down Under, The Verdict Is In... Just Don't Tell The Locals

In a word, it is epochal – for the first time anywhere, a civil court has found a cardinal guilty of sexual abuse.

Capping an 18-month process that predated the wider church's re-immersion in the scandals, the conviction of Cardinal George Pell – reportedly rendered on Tuesday in the Australian state of Victoria – represents the pinnacle of a thread that's marked this fresh round of the crisis across the globe: an emboldened secular effort to enforce accountability where the church's own response is perceived as having failed.

Yet even as the full effect of that reckoning is just beginning to emerge, it'd be difficult at best for any subsequent process to land a more high-profile or ranking target than the 77 year-old brawler who Pope Francis recruited as the Vatican's first-ever "CFO," armed with a broad mandate to clean up the Holy See's famously-troubled books.

First reported by the US-based Daily Beast on Tuesday, then echoed by a host of other outlets, reporting the story has been exponentially complicated by a "suppression order" issued in June by the court, which has banned all media coverage of Pell's months-long trial within Australia, and subjecting local outlets to legal penalties – including imprisonment – should they violate it. Nonetheless, a Whispers op close to Pell confirmed the guilty verdict early Wednesday, while the precise details of the charges remain difficult to fully ascertain.

Arguably the most polarizing figure in Australian public life over the last three decades, even Pell's most embittered critics at home did not expect a conviction, in particular due to the caliber of the cardinal's "celebrity lawyer," described by a source as Down Under's "Johnnie Cochran." (For younger folks, Cochran was the attorney who secured OJ Simpson's 1995 acquittal on the murder of his ex-wife.)

In light of the ban – which the Australian press has addressed in very oblique terms – Melbourne's Herald Sun ran the following on the front page of its Thursday editions....

Before the court-ordered halt to what became a daily press scrum (and with the details of the charges already restricted during the pre-trial hearings), it was understood that the cardinal was to face two separate trials for "historical sexual offenses" alleged in discrete periods, with one set of charges from the 1970s – when Pell was a priest overseeing Catholic education in his native Ballarat – and another from the 1990s, by which time he had become archbishop of Melbourne, Australia's largest local church. However, the specifics of the charges that came to trial remain unclear as several counts were dismissed on lack of evidence during the preliminary hearing, the bulk of which took place in sessions closed to the media and public.

The trial on the second round of charges is slated for March.

An emblematic voice of the aggressive orthodoxy that came in vogue over the last two pontificates, Pell was named archbishop of Sydney (the Oz church's most prominent post) in 2001, and given the country's sole red hat in 2003. As previously relayed, an abuse allegation against the then-archbishop had surfaced in 2002, which saw Pell publicly step aside on his own volition as a retired judge conducted a diocesan investigation that quickly found the report as lacking credibility.

Regardless, the prior claim was used by the cardinal's Roman enemies to block Benedict XVI's intent to name Pell as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops in 2010 – a turn of events that ostensibly burnished his reputation with Francis, who quickly recruited the onetime Aussie Rules footballer known for being a "bull in a china shop" to assemble a new Secretariat for the Economy: a move intended to consolidate all the Vatican's financial and personnel operations under one roof (as opposed to the seven Curial "silos" across which they were spread).

Even before taking on the daunting reorganization – and finally landing the Roman post that he was widely believed to have coveted for decades – within a month of his 2013 election, Francis named Pell to the new kitchen cabinet of cardinal-advisers that became known as the "C-9." In a separate development from the court case, the group's latest meeting this week ended with Wednesday's announcement that, in late October, the Pope wrote to Pell and another scandal-tarred member – the Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa – "to thank them for the work they have done in these five years," indicating their respective ousters from the council, whose principal role is to advise Francis on his impending reform of the Roman Curia.

Notably, while Errazuriz said in November that he had met with Francis and had left the "C-9," his statement wasn't made to sound as if the Pope had taken the initiative on the move – and, until now, no mention whatsoever has been made of Pell's removal alongside the Chilean's. Yet amid both the fallout of the court proceedings and the more general sense that Pell had excessively roiled the Vatican waters in seeking to assert his office's dominance – a bureaucratic turf-war that ended up dealing several high-profile setbacks to the Economy arm – it has long been expected that the Australian would not be returning to Rome whatever the trial's outcome, all the more as Pell is 30 months past the retirement age of 75.

At yesterday's standard wrap-up briefing on the latest "C-9" talks – the group's 27th meeting since its creation – the Vatican spokesman Greg Burke cited the Holy See's "respect" for the court order in declining any further comment on Pell's status.

All that said, though the cardinal plans to appeal, it bears recalling that from the time the Australian charges were leveled on him in June 2017, Pell has never been placed under any kind of canonical suspension or penalty, instead stating that he would voluntarily withdraw from public ministry and his Vatican role, yet continuing to wear his collar throughout the court process.

Under the precedent established earlier this year in the case of now-Archbishop Theodore McCarrick – whose two allegations of abusing minors remain to be judged in a Vatican tribunal – a civilly convicted Pell would initially forfeit his place in the College of Cardinals, and a subsequent canonical trial could result in the deprivation of his office as a bishop or outright dismissal from the clerical state. On another front, the cardinal's replacement at the helm of the Economy office has been delayed to avoid the appearance of prejudicing the civil proceedings.

With the Australian church still reeling from last year's release of the damning findings of a years-long national inquest on the church's response to abuse, the Pell verdict comes atop a successful appeal by now-retired Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, whose July conviction on failing to report an allegation in the 1970s was overturned last week by a higher court. As the 68 year-old prelate was pressured to resign his southern archdiocese in the wake of his first trial – at which time he was sentenced to a year of house arrest – though Wilson could theoretically be restored to the post (his successor has yet to be named), the archbishop's disclosure of his diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease in the run-up to the trial would ostensibly preclude his return to office.

While the suppression order was slated to last until Pell's second trial and sentencing next year, emergency arguments on the widespread flouting of the media ban outside Australia will be held on Friday. In a preliminary court session this morning on the conviction's emergence, the prospect of five years' imprisonment for journalists who violate the order was floated by a state prosecutor, as well as the draconian possibility of extradition for overseas media who've run the story. (Indeed, it's worth noting that the Aussie reporter cited as the "pinup boy" for shirking a court ban on covering a sealed trial was jailed for publishing about a 1980s proceedings against an abusive priest.)

In the end, however, transparency isn't just a necessary value in any civilized democracy – these days, it's of infinitely more critical import for this church. Accordingly, while a state court in Australia has its rightful jurisdiction – which its citizens have little choice but to heed – it doesn't supersede the First Amendment guarantee of the freedom of the press for an American news-outlet any more than an Iranian clerical court's rulings could determine the practice of religious freedom in these States.

And if that means this scribe won't be booking a trip to Sydney Harbour anytime soon, well, so be it.

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Sunday, December 09, 2018

For Advent II, A Word of "Comfort"

Don't know about you, folks, but Advent is zipping by on this end – and with this year's calendar, by midweek it'll already be half over.

This scribe's been hoping to catch a breather as these days allow, if only events would make room for it... and, well, there'll be more of that this week. Still, as January's currently expected to bring the all-important appointment to Washington, while February will be headlined by the even more critical Vatican abuse summit and its run-up, it's as good a time as any to keep in mind that, as levels of news-import go, not every day is "Christmas" – but even if it's coming, there's prep needed for all that, to boot.

Anyways, with an eye to some "good news" on this Second Sunday, given the traditional focus of this weekend's readings on the prophecy of the Anointed, lest anyone can use it to reflect – or just play in the background while working on cards, lists and the like – here's Handel's Messiah in full (libretto text) for your Advent enrichment....


To one and all, every grace of these days, above all their peace and light... and here's hoping the next two weeks don't roll by too quickly.

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Wednesday, December 05, 2018

While most folks these days still (gratefully) know what happened in 1776, odds are you'd be lucky to find a similar understanding of 1787... let alone the year when the Constitution – and the concept of a church in full on these shores – became reality.

On April 30, 1789, atop the staircase that looms over Wall Street into today, George Washington first uttered the 35 words from Article II, Section 1 which, enforcing the mandate of the people, "ordained" him as President of the United States.

As this Wednesday brings a secular All Souls' Day of an extraordinary degree in this National Day of Mourning and state funeral for the 41st President, we turn to the other great American "high priest" raised to his office in that year – John Carroll, the elected mission superior of the early nation (and its 13 priests), who was named the founding bishop of the US church six months after Washington's oath.

A cousin of the lone Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence – his elder brother a Framer of the Constitution – Carroll first delivered the following Prayer for the Nation in August 1791.

Usually run here on major civic holidays, on this day of tribute, it's even more fitting....
We pray, Thee O Almighty and Eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy Name.

We pray Thee, who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, Pope Francis, the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, N., all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise amongst us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.

We pray Thee O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.

We pray for his[/her] excellency, the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.

We recommend likewise, to Thy unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.

Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this Church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance. 
To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen.
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Monday, December 03, 2018

On 41's Passing, Recalling "Bush's Bishop"

Given the tide of mourning over Friday's death at 94 of George H.W. Bush, when it comes to this beat, one piece of the 41st President's legacy bears particular note, all the more as its impact extends into the present.

At its core, next year marks the 35th anniversary of the establishment of full relations between the Holy See and the US. Though the bilateral ties are easily taken for granted today, if anything – fraught as it was with anti-Catholic prejudice and conspiracy theories – the path to Washington's diplomatic recognition of the Pope took almost a century to accomplish, and were it not for Bush, odds are the wait would've stretched even longer.

In a way, that owed itself to a quirk of history... well, one among others.

In 1974, six years before the Texas bureaucrat's election as Ronald Reagan's Vice President, the Federal government finally got around to giving its #2 an official residence: a house on the grounds of the Naval Observatory, located along the Massachusetts Avenue heart of "Embassy Row." Yet as it happened, the move would be an unwitting boon for the Vatican – since 1939, the Holy See's base of operations in the States, then known as the Apostolic Delegation, was located right across the street.

At the time, the state of affairs meant that, in the absence of formal relations, the Apostolic Delegates – in place since 1893 – were the Pope's emissary solely to the US church, with no status before the government. (On the flip-side, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt proved unable to establish full relations due to lingering suspicion toward the church from Protestant senators, the late 1930s saw FDR institute a "personal representative" of the President to the Holy See, who served as an ambassador in all but name.) Yet by the time the Bushes arrived at the VP's house, their presence joined other sea-changes on the global front in giving the century-old impasse the momentum to shift.

Despite the absence of full diplomatic ties, the early 1980s already saw a tightening of American and Vatican interests. In 1978, the election of John Paul II brought to Peter's Chair a figure whose deep personal experience with the States was without precedent for a Pope, an attribute born from multiple extended visits, and just as much through a network of Polish-American contacts who quietly funneled sizable aid for their homeland's suffering church and its resistance to the Communist regime in large part through the cardinal-archbishop of Krakow.

In that light, per custom at the change of pontificates, the new Pope made the Washington posting a key early target of his geopolitical strategy, naming Archbishop Pio Laghi – whose prior assignments in the Holy Land and Argentina made him a heavyweight of the Vatican's foreign service – as his Delegate to the US within days of Reagan's election. And while the courtly Italian, whose patrician bearing masked his simple upbringing, would openly execute one revolution – stacking the American hierarchy with prelates who reflected a bolstered sense of Catholic identity – a second, stealth effort would fuse Pope and President in a multi-front campaign to dismantle the Iron Curtain, a push in which Reagan's deputy would play a linchpin role long before Bush's own administration presided over its formal demise.

Having moved into their respective sides of Mass Av at the same time in early 1981, in typical Bush form, the Vice President's bond with Laghi was forged on the tennis court. Both in their mid-50s, the new neighbors were longtime avid players – and as Maureen Dowd's appreciation of Bush in today's New York Times put it, just as "H.W. used sports as a way to do personal diplomacy," in the Pope's Delegate, the high-church Episcopalian had met his match. (With Bush as Vice President, the duo are seen above in an undated photo aboard Air Force Two – Laghi at far left – along with Barbara Bush and one of the archbishop's key US appointees, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston.)

Given Bush's own strong-suit in foreign policy, burnished by stints as ambassador to China and the United Nations, the dynamic between the Vice President and Apostolic Delegate made for a symbiotic fit, so much so that Laghi would come to be seen as "a close family friend." And with the church's on-the-ground presence across the Communist bloc – not to mention Latin America, another "hothouse" of the time – providing key intelligence networks for the US to tap into, the synergy of personal ties and shared priorities arguably made for the halcyon period of the Rome-Washington axis, which finally secured the establishment of full bilateral relations in 1984, granting Laghi ambassadorial status as Pro-Nuncio. (At the time, the Holy See's practice was to reserve the title "Nuncio" solely to the Catholic countries where, by law, its representative was ex officio dean of the diplomatic corps; the distinction was abolished in the late 1990s.)

Having remained in the post through his friend's election to the Presidency and the fall of the Berlin Wall – while internally overseeing a sweeping recast of the Stateside bench in John Paul's image and likeness – Laghi was recalled to Rome in 1990 as prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education and made a cardinal months later.

Since his departure, no occupant of the Washington posting has approached his length of tenure in it.

Almost always seen as the most influential Vatican legate the US has known in its era as a hegemonic superpower, Laghi's decade in the capital still endures as a point of reference, and the man himself was discreetly sought out for high-level American efforts or advice in Rome practically until his own passing in 2009.

In the best-known of those moments, as the White House push for a second war in Iraq gathered steam in early 2003, the former Pro-Nuncio was tapped by John Paul as his personal emissary to President George W. Bush, tasked with returning to Washington to convey the Pope's intense opposition to the campaign.

While the choice of messenger indicated the most concerted engagement for peace that the Vatican could make, of course, the mission (carried out during 40-minute Oval Office talks with "43") proved futile. Upon departing the capital, the cardinal "realized that the Bush administration was very naïve about the consequences of war" – a sense that would only be revealed after his death.

Though all but a handful of Laghi's appointees are long gone from office, several of the young local aides from his US posting were subsequently named to the bench and remain atop the American hierarchy: a group led by the sitting cardinal-archbishops of New York and Chicago, two of the nation's three largest dioceses.

Of all the "Laghini," however, the DC aide invariably described as the most beloved was Msgr Bernie Yarrish, a son of Scranton whose own elevation was precluded by a two-decade battle with multiple sclerosis. At 67, Yarrish died of the disease in June, with Tim Dolan – who brought his onetime Nunciature-mate to Rome as his Vice-Rector at the North American College (Yarrish's final major assignment) – leading the sendoff at the fallen cleric's boyhood parish.

Laghi's fifth successor at 3339 Massachusetts, the current Nuncio to the US, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, will be the Holy See's representative at Wednesday's state funeral for Bush in Washington National Cathedral – sitting not with the delegations of ecumenical clergy, but the diplomatic corps.

In keeping with the procedures on the death of a former President, President Trump has declared Wednesday as a national day of mourning; among other entities, the Federal government will be closed in tribute, as will the financial markets, and mail delivery will be suspended.

On another protocol note, church institutions with flagpoles are advised that the US flag is to be flown at half-staff until sunset on New Year's Eve – 30 days from 41's passing. However, where applicable, the custom does not extend to the Vatican flag – as it represents a sovereign entity, the Holy See's banner is lowered solely upon the death of the Roman pontiff through the subsequent Novemdiales, the nine-day mourning period that precedes a Conclave.

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