Pope's Intimate: "Senses Revulsion" for the Publication of the Letter of Complaint

(Rome) Bishop of Albano, Marcello Semeraro, secretary of the  C9-Cardinal Advisors, expressed his disquiet that the complaint letter was published by 13 Cardinals.  I sense a feeling of revulsion about the publishing of the letter," said the Bishop.  He then corrected himself and spoke for the entire synod. "That is the general opinion." 

Bishop Semeraro belongs to a circle of confidants around the Pope. His outburst is difficult to separate from his job in the Synod. He belongs to that group of whom the Cardinals had been directly critical. Semeraro is a member of the ten member editing committee of the  Relatio finalis, whom Pope  Franziskus named publicly on the 2nd of October.

The Cardinals had criticized in their letter  that the membership of the committees gave a "decisive majority" to the  partisans of the "new mercy", as  Vaticanista  Sandro Magister noted. Cardinal  Napier, one of the signatories of the letter said, "We preferred not to see the same kind of person there, who had already caused us pain previously.“ What was meant were the passages on remarried divorced and homosexuality in the middle report and in the final report of the Synod of 2014.

Semeraro's  provided  evidence that the  Cardinal's criticism was understood. The bishop chose offense as the best defense and was encouraged to downplay the significance of the critique.  By showing disapproval of form and procedure, he  distracted from the vital content. 

Semeraros condemnation, really: "I don't understand this letter"

To make the complaint letter public had  "not been  proper," and did not "serve a noble purpose,"  says Semeraro. It really looked like a, "disruptive action." The critic pointed his finger at the Vaticanista  Sandro Magister, without naming him, but he really meant the signer of the complaint letter, no less than  Gerhard Müller, the Prefect of the CDF.  Despite the apodoctic condemnation, the bishop clarified himself in the next sentence. "I don't understand this letter." 

The composition of the editing committee he explained that the Pope intended it not be "too Eurocentric."  As to the onsidedly progressive composition of the editing committee, Semeraro had nothing to say.  Initially he disregarded the charge of onesidedness, just reintroduced  yesterday by  South African Cardinal Napier. The question if it were "Eurocentric" or not, was not addressed in the critique. Yet the Archbishop of South Africa expressed the fear that the voice of Africa should not be misaligned with a progressive inclination.  

Question of the Remarried Divorced "Open"

As to the question of Communion for the remarried divorced  Bishop  Semeraro considers it "open," but "there is really still no  answer yet."  A onesided party of papal intimates, for which the signers of the complaint letter is not an open question, because the changing of doctrines "is impossible."   It is a new question and the life of the Church will not be handled on a theoretical basis.  In the direction of the critics, he said: "Above all it is to be avoided to portray those, who don't think as I do, heretics." 

Finally he said: "There has to be more time to deepen the questions. The Church discussed for several centuries of the mother of God was conceived without sin […]. Moreover, there are dogmas, like the Immaculate Conception which are not as important to the concrete lives of people, about which we are talking in the Synod. This should make us more reluctant and concerned, if we take a position."

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Bild: Vatican Insider

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG