"Before and After the Conclave" - by Archbishop Héctor Agüer

Before and After the Conclave

Archbishop Héctor Agüer

Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina

Buenos Aires, May 12, 2025

Before the Conclave

Birth Rate Collapse: Pets Instead of Children? -- Op-Ed by Archbishop Héctor Agüer

 Children or Pets?

by Archbishop Héctor Agüer

Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina

Buenos Aires, February 11, 2025

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

[The collapse of birth rates in Argentina]

        I read in [the Argentine daily paper] “La Prensa” that, since 2016, births in the City of Buenos Aires have been decreasing. Between January and mid-December 2024, 37,864 births were registered, according to official figures from the Buenos Aires Civil Registry: a twelve percent drop compared to the previous year. 

Carlos Alberto Sacheri, Martyr - by Abp. Héctor Agüer

Abp. Héctor Agüer

Buenos Aires, November 15, 2024

This December 22 will be the 50th anniversary of the martyrdom of Carlos Alberto Sacheri, besieged by a commando of the terrorist group ERP (People's Revolutionary Army), when he was returning from Mass with his family. I do not hesitate to recognize that his death was a martyrdom, fruit of his charity. In the history of the Church there is a history of martyrdom. What makes a martyr such is not the suffering imposed on the martyr, but the charity that impels him to embrace the Cross. Charity, I stress, the agape of the New Testament. The martyr, with Christian fortitude, surrenders to death.

"Ecclesiastical Oddities": Héctor Agüer, Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata, tries to understand what is going on in the Argentine episcopate under Francis

ECCLESIASTICAL ODDITIES

by Archbishop Héctor Agüer

Archbishop Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina

 Buenos Aires, June 1, 2024

[La Plata, Argentina: Immaculate Conception Cathedral in central Moreno Square]

The corresponding adjective is "odd" ("rare"), which has several meanings in the dictionary; I choose one: odd is that which has little density and consistency. Although it also refers to extraordinary and extravagant things. I mean: it is an oddity that the Pope is Argentinian, what is also odd is the fact that in over a decade he has not had the concern to visit his homeland. John Paul II (Wojtyla) and Benedict XVI (Ratzinger), as soon as they were elected, the first trip they made took them to their homeland, respectively Poland and Germany. I read in “La Prensa”, a Buenos Aires newspaper: “Francis revealed that he would like to come in November or at the beginning of 2025”. Under this title, the newspaper says that the Pope “commented that it is in his plans to travel to Argentina either at the end of November or at the beginning of 2025”. According to the old saying, “think wrong and you will be right,” I dare to think that he will not come, and I outline a reason: he knows that he is not going to do very well. I may be wrong, of course, but this opinion of mine responds to a 46-year-old knowledge of Jorge Bergoglio.

"Where Does the [Synod] Road Lead?" - Francis and the Church's Alignment with the UN Agenda 2030 -- by Abp. Héctor Agüer

 Archbishop Héctor Agüer

Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina

Buenos Aires, September 21, 2023

Synod is the exact translation of the Greek noun synodos. It is interesting to collect the elements from which the word is formed: syn, as an adverb means "whole, all together, at the same time", and as a preposition it can be translated "with, by means of". The noun synodos, indicates gathering, assembly, and also fellow traveler. The syn is composed with hodos, "way, route, guide" (it is feminine in Greek); from there it is also formed méthodos, method. Historically, in Christian antiquity the synod was called the convocation, and the meeting of the bishops, according to the ecclesiastical provinces, each presided over by the Metropolitan; which meet in assembly to deal with matters of utmost importance, define doctrines, and condemn and refute heresies, warning of the heterogeneity of those errors, in contradiction with respect to the didache, whose foundation is found in the apostolic beginnings. Two main features to keep in mind: the protagonists are always bishops, successors of the Apostles of Jesus, and the duration is determined in time, it does not extend excessively.

The name synod has remained to signify only those designated meetings, that is, an exclusively theological, ecclesiastical use. The history of the Church offers numerous testimonies of the interchange between synod and council, a name that comes from Latin, as we shall see below.

Op-Ed: With 'Traditionis custodes', Francis Promotes Disunity (by Archbishop Aguer, Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina)

 A Regrettable Step Backwards

Archbishop Héctor Aguer*

Emeritus of La Plata, Argentina

for Infocatólica

The current Pontiff declares that he wishes to pursue even further the constant search for ecclesial communion and to make this purpose effective, he eliminates the work of his predecessors by placing arbitrary limits and obstacles to what they established with intra-ecclesial ecumenical intention and respect for the freedom of priests and faithful! It promotes ecclesial communion in reverse. The new measures are a regrettable step backwards.

I was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires on November 25, 1972; I celebrated my first Mass the following day in the parish of San Isidro Labrador (Saavedra neighborhood), where I resided all that year, exercising the diaconate. Obviously I celebrated according to the Novus Ordo promulgated in 1970. I have never celebrated "the ancient Mass," not even after the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum; I would have to study the rite, of which I have distant memories, having served as an altar boy. Recently, while attending the Divine Liturgy of the Syrian Orthodox Church, I seemed to notice a certain resemblance to the Latin Solemn Mass, with deacon and subdeacon, in which I often assisted, especially at funerals, which in my parish were often celebrated with special solemnity. I insist: I have always celebrated, with the greatest devotion I can muster, the rite in force in the Universal Church. When I was Archbishop of La Plata, I used to sing the Eucharistic prayer in Latin every Saturday at the "St. Joseph" Major Seminary, using the precious Missal published by the Holy See. We had formed, according to the recommendation of the Second Vatican Council in the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium n. 114, a schola cantorum, which has been eliminated at my retirement. In Traditionis custodes (Art. 3§ 4) it speaks of a priest delegated by the bishop to be in charge of the celebrations of the Mass and the pastoral care of the faithful of the groups authorized to use the Missal prior to the reform of 1970. It is stated there that he "should have a knowledge of the Latin language". It should be remembered that it is possible to celebrate the Mass currently in force in the whole Church in Latin. The Council affirmed in Sacrosanctum Concilium 36 § 1, "The use of the Latin language in the Latin rites is to be preserved, except by special law." Unfortunately, the "particular right" seems to be to prohibit Latin, as in fact it is done (this is not a boutade). If someone dares to propose to celebrate in Latin, he is looked upon as a misguided, unforgivable troglodyte.

Latin was for centuries the bond of unity and communication in the Western Church. Today it is not only abandoned, but hated. In the seminaries its study is neglected, precisely because it is not useful. They do not realize that this closes off direct access to the Fathers of the Western Church, who are very important for theological studies: I am thinking, for example, of St. Augustine and St. Leo the Great, and of medieval authors such as St. Anselm and St. Bernard. This situation seems to me to be a sign of cultural poverty and willful ignorance.