Archbishop Sean O’Malley told John Allen at NCR that the appointment of Cardinal Law to archpriest of St. Mary Major in Rome was not helpful to him, especially as it came right after parish closing announcements. He said it couldn’t have come at a worse time, and that people really understood what it was all about. Apparently, nobody At the Vatican consulted with their American counterparts to see whether it was a prudent move. An interesting insight into how things are done at the Vatican.
He also dismisses rumors about why he wasn’t made a cardinal at the last consistory, pointing out that he doesn’t really want the work. And he said he hears from the Vatican that they’re going to be commissioning American canon lawyers to help clear the logjam of processes of laicization and appeals. Didn’t someone say that there’s a shortage of canon lawyers in the US already?
“Apparently, nobody At the Vatican consulted with their American counterparts to see whether it was a prudent move.”
Since when has the Vatican ever deferred to anyone on any appointment? If it has happened, it is a rare action indeed.
There is all this flap about Cardinal Law being the archpriest of St. Mary Major. He holds no major title, he controls nothing and he is under the thumb of the Vatican, being watched very closely, I surmise; since St. Mary Major is one of four basilicas under direct Vatican jurisdiction. He mainly lends color (red) to the ceremonies of St. Mary Major.
As long as he heads nothing major, then having him celebrate Mass and hold a ceremonial office is not all bad. Lest we forget he is a Prince of the Church. A resigned one, agreed, but nevertheless a prince. We cannot change that, only he can renounce that.
If one thinks that he should, call for it, but don’t blame him for adding color. That is harmless.
John Allen makes the statement: “John Paul’s declining health marks a change in degree, not in kind, in how the Vatican operates. No one person, including the pope, pulls all the strings or calls all the shots.”
As Sinner likes to put it, “What universe is this guy in?” He has no concept of the primacy of Peter and the fact that all things in the Vatican lie with the Holy Father.
Camilam
“I don’t know that people in Boston really understood it,” he said. “It seemed to them like a reward. It came across as some sort of prestigious, powerful post,” O’Malley said.
I love the good Archbishop but I wish he’d stop speaking in generalities. It didn’t come across as a “prestigious, powerful post” to me or to his other titular parishioners. Or to most folks I’ve talked to.
O’Malley said that a New York Times report May 28, suggesting that Law might receive as much as $12,000 a month in his new post, “was not helpful at all.”
Lies seldom are, are they?
Oh, and something not given in the original commentary (for those of you who didn’t have time to actually read the NCR article:
O’Malley defended Law’s appointment as “something given to a retired cardinal.”
“It’s not like being the prefect of a congregation or some important post in the Vatican,” O’Malley said.