Tuesday, December 09, 2008

More on the New Prefect of the CDW


As I said in my original post about the appointment of Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera as the new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, it would seem as though we can expect much that is very good from the Cardinal.

His support for the Extraordinary Form, of which the pictures from the already mentioned ICRSS 2007 ordinations accompanying this post give proof, is also evidenced by the two usus antiquior workshops his former archdiocese of Toledo has already co-organised with the Institute of Christ the King this year (cf. NLM reports from February and October). Moreover, Cardinal Castrillón in his interview with the Italian magazine "Jesus" (cf. NLM translation here) has stated that in "Toledo, Spain, for example, it is being evaluated whether it is convenient to erect a seminary specifically for the preparation for the extraordinary rite or to give special courses in the seminary of the diocese." This taken together with Cardinal Cañizares's membership in the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei - a position Cardinal Arinze did not hold - does not only give reason to hope for support of the Extraordinary Form as a good in its own right, but also to hope for the mutual enrichment envisioned by the Holy Father.

As mentioned, a nickname for Cardinal Cañizares is the "little Ratzinger" ("pequeño Ratzinger", not "Ratzingerino" as I have read in some places, which simply means "Ratzingerian"). The Cardinal himself has given an explanation of this nickname, which to my mind gives a good insight into his mind in few words, and shows why there is reason to be glad about his appointment. Here it is in an NLM translation:

I think it is owed to the similarity due to the white hair, and to having been secretary of the Doctrinal Commission in Spain [i.e. the Committee for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Spanish Bishops' Conference] before [I became] Bishop, and to this consonance which God has granted to me with the thought of the then Cardinal Ratzinger, consonance and communion in the same Faith and in the great concern for man who, if he misses God, misses everything. It is also consonance and communion in the great love and passion for the Church, in the search for the truth which makes us free, a Truth that comes to us through Tradition, and therefore it is consonance in the fidelity to Tradition which is the only way to open to the future and make possible that a renewal of the Church and of society comes about. I have learned much in the years in which I have worked at his side as a memember of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It is a gift of God having worked with him, and a gift of God to feel myself so deeply bonded to Peter in the form of Benedict XVI. I know that only thus will I walk within the Church and not take steps in vain.


(Source: Archdiocese of Toledo.)

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