Andrea Zambrano
La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana
February 16, 2020
Behold the
Church of bridges and mercy, open and outreaching! Cardinal Burke is forced to annul
a Mass in Ostuni: the parish priest had demanded
the celebration be held behind closed doors as his arrival in Brindisi
displeased the high levels of the diocese. The newspapers attacked him as an enemy of the
Pope. The Bishop of Ostuni however, will tomorrow meet with the Waldensians in
church to talk about immigration.
Here we see the Church of mercy, the Church of open ports and the Church of out-reach. So open,
so merciful and so out-reaching, that clandestine Masses are reserved for
troublesome Cardinals. It is happening in
Ostuni, Puglia as in China, where, according to the Vatican Chancellor,
Sorondo, the Social Doctrine of the
Church is applied.
The latest
Brindisian newspapers present us with a very disturbing sign concerning
Cardinal Leo Burke, who was politely shown the door in that sordid and humiliating
way only the prevailing clericalism is capable of. “The conservative Cardinal is not welcomed by the priests”, were yesterday’s headlines in the Quotidiano di Puglia: Annulled the American high-prelate’s Mass
scheduled in the Cathedral. The parish-priests had expressed embarrassment after
his position against Pope Francis.
[…]
So then, what is true in the article’s claim ? A lot,
but not everything. Some information is missing, perhaps because the journalist
relied only on one source - for sure the Curia - that armed him. For sure it is
true that Cardinal Burke is not welcome in the diocese of Brindisi, in Ostuni to be precise, where he
was supposed to have celebrated a Mass in the Extraordinary Form yesterday in
the city’s cathedral. But not by all of
the priests council, just those priests – at the most two or three – who are
always able - from a minority position - to strike the match that sets the
blaze alight.
For sure it is true that some priests intervened
to prevent that celebration.
But what
the local papers didn’t write is that the decision to suspend the Mass, not
annul it, was made by Cardinal Burke himself. As the Nuova BQ was able to piece together from sources close to the
American Cardinal, it was Burke who decided to cancel that meeting in the Città bianca del Salento, organized at
the invitation of some business men. The
motive? The parish-priest of the Cathedral after conceding the use of the
church, communicated the condition sine qua non to have the Cardinal’s Latin Mass held privately. This meant that only
the organizers would have been able to attend. That is to say – a Mass behind closed doors. Or if you like – a clandestine Mass. At that point Burke
ruled it out.
In the agitated undergrowth of telephone calls and
curial activity in fact, when they knew of the arrival of Burke and that the
prelate, in addition, would be celebrating the Mass in the Extraordinary Form, panic
broke out. The “dreaded” and “dangerous” Latin Mass, the same Mass that bothers
greatly the local Bishop, Domenico Caliandro, who has opposed Tradition with
all his might and the local movements that had wanted to celebrate the Mass
according to the Motu proprio, Summorum
Pontificum. So the parish priest opposed his veto, certain of the
benediction from the offices in the
Episcopal Palace. A veto, however, that
Burke, who is not infected by leprosy or the Coronavirus, decided not to
accept.
The Curia tried to justify the attempt at stopping
(the Mass) with the absence of the official request for the so-called nihil obstat of the bishop. When a bishop arrives in a Diocese, it is the non-binding
custom that the Secretariat of the Ordinary be sent a request or communication
of the prelate’s arrival. This didn’t happen and that may be imputed to the
inexperience of “clerical things” by the organizers, nonetheless surmountable
with a little bit of good will. This has become the latch created to block the
Cardinal. It should be said though that
this does not apply to cardinals who are completely exempt from this norm, even
if it would always be good praxis among
brothers in the episcopate to talk to each other.
But faced with the block, Burke was able to respond
evangelically by shaking the dust of his shoes, so as not to foster controversies
in a place where he was not welcome, seeing the treatment that had been
reserved for him. He would never have envisaged that the day after, the
newspapers would have depicted his refusal as a victory for the priests who had
stopped him.
This episode throws a sinister light on the
increasingly political way things are run in the Church. Cardinal Leo Burke is
not impeded canonically; he travels the world for conferences and moments of
spirituality; he celebrates Masses, is involved in pastoral activities; he
leads moments of prayer between the United States (where he was recently for
the March for Life) and Italy. He was even a guest recently for the Nuova BQ Day. The idea that a priest,
supported certainly by a bishop, can close the doors on him, is an indication
of how grave the situation not only in the Church has become, but also of the restricted
freedom those men of the Church, that the mainstream
doesn’t like, are subjected to, because they are considered enemies. Is
this the communion they want to impose by dint of dialogue? Are these the shepherds with the odour of the
sheep and a knife between their teeth?
In the meantime however, the Bishop of Brindisi-
Ostuni, tomorrow, opens the doors of the Church of San Luigi Gonzaga to the
Valdese to discuss immigration. Naturally it is a public event, warmly
recommended to all the faithful.
Translation: Contributor Francesca Romana
