Yesterday, we heard the strange rumor that the most traditional-minded of all Cardinals to be created in the Feb. 18 consistory, Fr. Karl Becker, an 83-year-old Jesuit, had had his name "blocked by the Secretariat of State", that a "rumor" would follow that he would "be made a cardinal in a future consistory", but that actually it had actually "been decided that he should not ever receive the honor".
We were stunned - Father Becker was one of the pioneers of the need for a "hermeneutic of reform in continuity". For instance, see his most interesting text on the question of the "subsistit" in Lumen Gentium published a decade ago (available in the EWTN library). Becker, a longtime consultant of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, also took part in the 2009-2011 doctrinal discussions with the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX).
Today, that amazing rumor was confirmed - Fr. Becker, "for health reasons, will not be created a cardinal in the public ceremony of Feb. 18, but in a private form in some other moment" (Bollettino of the Holy See Press Office). Some other moment that is not set... Exactly as our source had indicated yesterday. Yes, the health reasons are certainly true (health reasons can always be used as an excuse for almost anything, particularly related to the elderly). And the private conferral of the cardinalatial dignity is the most traditional form. But the fact that the rumor forwarded to us proved right forces us to share this with our readers.
Let us pray - for Fr. Becker and for the current state of mysterious affairs in so many parts of the Curia.
