The Funeral of Cardinal Tardini, 1961

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1961 of Domenico Cardinal Tardini, the Vatican Secretary of State under Pope St John XXIII. Born in Rome in 1888, and ordained a priest in 1912, he served in the Curia under Pope Pius XI as a close collaborator of the Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, a role in which he continued when the latter was elected Pope in 1939. In 1952, he was made Pro-Secretary of State for (Extraordinary) Foreign Affairs. Shortly after Pius XII’s death in 1958, John XXIII made him Secretary of State, and raised him to the cardinalate; he was ordained a bishop at the end of the year.

From the always-interesting YouTube channel of British Pathé, here is some archival footage, without soundtrack, of the funeral ceremonies held in St Peter’s Basilica, a Mass coram Summo Pontifice, followed by the Absolution at the catafalque celebrated by the Pope himself.

A few points of interest: throughout the ceremony, the Pope is accompanied by Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani, whom he had appointed Secretary of the Holy Office, and walking in front of the Pope at the beginning is his Master of Ceremonies, the famous Mons. Enrico Dante. The ceremony is held not at the main altar, but in the right (north) transept, dedicated to Ss Processus and Martinian; starting at 1:44, we see the three chapels of the transept covered over with black drapes, and the central one decorated with a large plain cross. At 2:25, we briefly see the Elevation of the Host during the Mass, which is celebrated at a temporary (but very beautiful) altar set up in front of the drape. The Absolution begins at 2:34; notice how Mons. Dante gestures to people to stand up as he leads the Pope to his place at the foot of the catafalque.

YouTube’s suggestion algorithm also recommended to my attention this footage (once again, archival material without soundtrack), taken in January of 1962, of meetings held in the Apostolic Palace in those strangely perfervid years between the calling of the most recent ecumenical council and its actual beginning.

At 0:21, we see a fresco of St Raymond of Penyafort, the Patron Saint of canon lawyers, presenting his collection of Decretals, the great canon law book of the Middle Ages, to Pope Gregory IX, ca. 1232. At 0:56, we see a group of bishops and cardinals, including Card. Ottaviani and Mons. Dante once again, and at 1:26, Marcel Lefebvre, then newly appointed as Archbishop of Tulle in France; he would serve in this office for less then seventh months, resigning it to take up the role of Superior General of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. At 1:33, we see Giovanni Cardinal Montini, the Archbishop of Milan and future Pope Paul VI, and then Eugène Cardinal Tisserant, dean of the College of Cardinals, and retired Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. The rest of the footage is of a meeting at which Card. Tisserant presides.

An Ancient Pallium Displayed at the Vatican Museums

From March 24th until June 25th, the Vatican Museums is hosting a small but very interesting show about St Caesarius of Arles (470-542), an important figure in the early Merovingian church. After spending his earlier years at the famous monastery on the island of Lérins, Caesarius was sent to Arles for health reasons; the local bishop, a kinsman of his, was so impressed by him that he asked the abbot of Lérins, St Porcarius, to release him to clerical service. In due course, Caesarius was elected bishop by popular acclamation in 502 A.D., and served in that role until his death 40 years later, at the age of about 72. As bishop, he was an assiduous preacher, and over 250 of his sermons have survived. He also presided at a number of important synods, and strongly promoted the monastic life, writing two monastic rules, including the first Western rule specifically for women. (In time, these would both be completely superseded by the more gentle Rule of his contemporary St Benedict.) He is said to have been the very first bishop to have received a pallium from the Pope, and this object has been loaned to the Vatican Museums for this display by the diocese of Arles, along with several relics of the Saint.

Here are some photographs of the main object in the show; given their extreme antiquity, several of them are of course very fragile, and therefore displayed in sealed plastic cases which do not provide optimal conditions for photography.

The pallium of St Caearius, given to him by Pope St Symmachus (498-518). The two bands of cloth on the right are part of a cover added to it later on to protect it; the original part is the decorated band on the left. (detail below.)

 A second pallium which also belong to him.

A child’s sarcophagus of the 4th century, with an image of Christ as teacher; later reused for his relics.

This early ninth-century manuscript is a collection of the ecclesiastical canons of several different councils held in Gaul, and includes this letter written by Pope St Symmachus to St Caesarius, whom he addresses as his “most beloved brother.”

Continue Reading this Article. . .

False Statements attributed to Pope Francis

The Vatican's News.va Facebook Page has released the following statement following a proliferation on the internet of false statements attributed to Pope Francis:

Dear friends, we have been notified by many readers that there are stories currently circulating all over the Internet spreading statements by Pope Francis with regard to a number of issues, concerning the Bible's content, the relations between religions, the renewal of the Church's doctrine, and even the calling of an alleged "Third Vatican Council", which are FALSE. These statements were spread by unknown sources. Therefore, we would like to alert all readers to be careful and not to trust too soon news about the Pope that are not from the Vatican.

There are also many unidentified trolls on social networks that try to put false information in circulation, taking advantage of the fact that it is easy to "throw the stone and hide the hand".

Many are also not aware that ALL FACEBOOK PROFILES OF POPE FRANCIS /JORGE MARIA BERGOGLIO ARE NOT OFFICIAL PAGES AND THEY HAVE NOT BEEN AUTHORIZED TO OFFICIALLY REPRESENT THE POPE, THEREFORE THEY SHOULD CLEARLY STATE THEY ARE JUST 'FAN PAGES'.

We encourage all readers to check the official Vatican media sources for further confirmation of Pope Francis' statements, or even to check what exactly he said with reference to specific issues.

IF THE STATEMENTS ATTRIBUTED TO THE POPE BY ANY MEDIA AGENCY DO NOT APPEAR IN THE OFFICIAL MEDIA SOURCES OF THE VATICAN, IT MEANS THAT THE INFORMATION THEY REPORT IS NOT TRUE.

Below is a list of the official Vatican media which you should use as valid reference to be sure that any reported statement referred to the Pope is true:

- News.va: a news aggregator portal, it reports the news and information from all the Vatican media in one website, available in five languages: www.news.va
News.va also has a facebook page: www.facebook.com/news.va

- L'Osservatore Romano (newspaper): www.osservatoreromano.va

- Vatican Radio: www.radiovaticana.va

- VIS (Vatican Information Service): www.vis.va

- Holy See Press Office: www.vaticanstate.va/content/vaticanstate/en/altre-istituzioni/sala-stampa-santa-sede.html

- Centro Televisivo Vaticano (Vatican Television Center): www.ctv.va
or www.vatican.va/news_services/television/

- Vatican.va: the official website of the Holy See, where you can find the full text of all speeches, homilies and Apostolic documents by the Pope: www.vatican.va

- PopeApp: the official app for smartphones dedicated to the Pope (Copyright News.va)

- @Pontifex: the official Twitter profile of the Pope.

The only official facebook profiles representing the Holy Father and the Vatican are those from News.va and the Vatican media (see the above list of Vatican media).

We would like to thank you all for your kind attention as well as for your notifications and suggestions. Please do share this information as much as possible with your contacts! Thank you very much!