Roberto de Mattei
Correspondenza Romana
July 18, 2017
Roberto de Mattei
Correspondenza Romana
July 18, 2017
Correspondenza Romana
July 18, 2017
Among the many “work groups” created
by Pope Francis is the “Mixed Commission
of Croatian Catholic and Serbian Orthodox Experts for a joint rereading of the
figure of Cardinal
Alojzije Stepinac, Archbishop of Zagabria, which met on the 12th and 13th July 2017 and held
its last meeting at the Domus Sanctae Marthae in the Vatican, under the chairmanship of Father
Bernard Ardura, President of the
Pontifical Committee For Historical Sciences. The joint communiqué from
the Commission, published by The Holy See Press Office on July 13th,
states that “ “The study of Cardinal
Stepinac’s life has taught that in history all the Churches have cruelly
suffered diverse persecutions and have their martyrs and confessors for the
faith. In this regard, the members of
the Commission agreed on the eventuality of future collaboration, in view of a work
in common, to share the memory of the martyrs and confessors of the two
Churches.”
This statement, which synthesizes six work meetings held by the Commission, turns the Catholic conception of martyrdom upside down. Martyrdom, in fact, according to the Catholic Church, is death faced in witness to the Truth. Not any old truth, but the one Truth of the Catholic faith or morals. In the Church, for instance, the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist is celebrated, since he suffered death for having publically rebuked Herod’s adultery. St. Augustine’s saying applies here: non facit poena, sed causa (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 34, 13, col. 331). It is not death [itself] that makes a martyr, but the reason for the death, inflicted by hate of the Catholic faith or morals.
For the commission presided over by Father Ardura, in contrast, martyres non facit causa, sed poena: it means nothing other than the equalizing “of martyrs and confessors of the two Churches”, the Catholic and the Orthodox. This principle, according to the communiqué, can be extended to “all the Churches”, which have had “martyrs” and “confessors” for their own respective faiths. Yet if a martyr is he or she who suffers death to defend their own truth, why not consider a martyr a Christian sui generis, that Giordano Bruno was, burnt at the stake by the Catholic Church in Campo de’ Fiori, on February 17th 1600?
This statement, which synthesizes six work meetings held by the Commission, turns the Catholic conception of martyrdom upside down. Martyrdom, in fact, according to the Catholic Church, is death faced in witness to the Truth. Not any old truth, but the one Truth of the Catholic faith or morals. In the Church, for instance, the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist is celebrated, since he suffered death for having publically rebuked Herod’s adultery. St. Augustine’s saying applies here: non facit poena, sed causa (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 34, 13, col. 331). It is not death [itself] that makes a martyr, but the reason for the death, inflicted by hate of the Catholic faith or morals.
For the commission presided over by Father Ardura, in contrast, martyres non facit causa, sed poena: it means nothing other than the equalizing “of martyrs and confessors of the two Churches”, the Catholic and the Orthodox. This principle, according to the communiqué, can be extended to “all the Churches”, which have had “martyrs” and “confessors” for their own respective faiths. Yet if a martyr is he or she who suffers death to defend their own truth, why not consider a martyr a Christian sui generis, that Giordano Bruno was, burnt at the stake by the Catholic Church in Campo de’ Fiori, on February 17th 1600?
Deep down Freemasonry has always
considered him a “martyr” for the religion of liberty, and as such the
Dominican apostate was honored last February 17th in the Grand
Orient of Italy’s headquarters. It was a priest, Don Francesco Pontoriero, of
the diocese of Mileto, who, in the headquarters of Italian Freemasonry, reconstructed
Giordano Bruno’s choices “right to the
end, what made him return to Venice, where a death sentence hung over him, and thus
an embrace of martyrdom, was the awareness that it was only in this way his
message would have reached down through the ages.”
The
meeting at Santa Marta was preceded two days before by Pope Francis’ Motu
proprio Maiorem hac dilectionem of July 11th,
which escaped public attention and which introduces the “offering of life” as a new paradigm for the
procedure of beatification or canonization, distinct from the traditional model
of martyrdom and heroic virtue. In an article published on July 11th
in the Osservatore Romano, Archbishop
Marcello Bartolucci, Secretary of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints,
explains that until now, the three pre-established ways to arrive at
beatification, were martyrdom, heroic virtue and the so-called “equipollent
beatification.”
Now
to these three a fourth has been added, “the
offering of life” which “intends to
valorize heroic Christian witness, until now with no specific procedure, for the reason that it doesn’t enter entirely into the paradigm of martyrdom nor
that of heroic virtue.”
The Motu proprio, specifies that the offering of life, in order to be
valid and efficacious for the beatification of a Servant of God, must respond
to the following criteria: a) a free and voluntary offering of life and heroic
acceptance propter caritatem of certain death in the short term; b) a connection
between the offering of life and premature death; c) the exercise, at least in
an ordinary degree, of Christian virtue prior to the offering of life and, after
that, until death: d) the existence of fama sanctitatis et signorum, at least after death; e) the necessity of a
miracle for beatification, occurring after the death of the Servant of God and
through his intercession.
But
what does propter
caritatem mean? Charity, defined by St Thomas as man’s
friendship with God and God with man (Summa
Theologiae, II-IIae, q, 23, a. 1) is the most excellent of all the virtues.
It consists in loving God and, in God, our neighbor. Charity is not therefore
that virtue which brings us to love our fellow human-beings, inasmuch as they
are men, but is a supernatural act which has God as its essence and its final aim. Charity, moreover, has
order: first of all, the spiritual interests of our neighbor must take
precedence over his material interests. In
the second place, we first need to love those who are close to us before those
who are far from us (Summa Theologiae, II-IIae,II-IIae, q.
26, a. 7), and if ever there were contrast between the interests of those near
us and those far from us, the former would need to prevail over the latter. Is
this the new vision of the Papal Motu proprio?
We have doubts about that.
Interviewed
by the weekly of the Archdiocese of Gorizia, Voce Isontina, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, the new President of the
Pontifical Academy for Life, expressed his joy for Pope Francis’ document also because - he stresses “ I was involved
in some way as postulator for the cause of beatification of Oscar Arnulfo
Romero”. “The Archbishop of El
Salvador, in effect, - he continues – was
not killed by atheist persecutors who wanted him to deny the faith in the
Trinity: he was assassinated by Christians because he wanted the Gospel to be
lived in its profound perception as a gift of life.”
Monsignor Romeo offers then the model for an “offering of life” on the same footing as martyrdom. The “fourth way” which, according to Pope Francis’ Motu proprio, will bring canonization, is death suffered not in hatred of the faith, but as a consequence of political choices in service to the poor, the immigrants and the “peripheries” of the earth. Will they be able to exclude from beatification the warrior-priests who died propter caritatem, in the political revolutions of the last decades? Why not then place on the same footing of martyrs also all those Christians who offered their lives in a just war and start their procedure for beatification,? In dying for their country, they performed an excellent act of charity, since the “good of the nation is superior to the good of the individual” (Aristotle, Etica, I, cap. II, n. 8). The Catholic Church has never considered them martyrs, precisely because the religious motivation is missing, but it would seem unjust to deprive them of a space in Pope Francis’ new Pantheon of martyrs.
Monsignor Romeo offers then the model for an “offering of life” on the same footing as martyrdom. The “fourth way” which, according to Pope Francis’ Motu proprio, will bring canonization, is death suffered not in hatred of the faith, but as a consequence of political choices in service to the poor, the immigrants and the “peripheries” of the earth. Will they be able to exclude from beatification the warrior-priests who died propter caritatem, in the political revolutions of the last decades? Why not then place on the same footing of martyrs also all those Christians who offered their lives in a just war and start their procedure for beatification,? In dying for their country, they performed an excellent act of charity, since the “good of the nation is superior to the good of the individual” (Aristotle, Etica, I, cap. II, n. 8). The Catholic Church has never considered them martyrs, precisely because the religious motivation is missing, but it would seem unjust to deprive them of a space in Pope Francis’ new Pantheon of martyrs.
Translation: Contributor Francesca Romana
