Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI hugs Pope Francis at St Peter's Basilica during the start of an extraordinary Jubilee year. (Photo by Vincenzo Pinto/AFP)
"If I were Cardinal Robert Sarah, I'd be worried."
Thus begins a brief article by Andrea Grillo, a well-known Italian layman who teaches sacramental theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant'Anselmo in Rome and liturgy at the Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua.
It is titled, "An afterword without discretion: Ratzinger persists in promoting Sarah."
Sarah, of course, is Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW). And Ratzinger… Well, we all know him.
He's Joseph Ratzinger, the man whose theological views became normative on the rest of the Catholic world over the course of his many years as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
And the same one who then tried to re-cast his "doctrinal inquisitor" image during the eight years he served as Bishop of Rome under the name Benedict XVI.
In this new article Grillo quite justifiably takes aim at the former pope for an afterword that he (or one of his minions) penned for future editions of the cardinal's latest book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise.
Grillo bristles especially at these lines the Bishop-emeritus of Rome writes: "We should be grateful to Pope Francis for appointing such a spiritual teacher as head of the congregation that is responsible for the celebration of the liturgy in the church… With Cardinal Sarah, a master of silence and of interior prayer, the liturgy is in good hands."
Pope Francis surprised many people when he named ultra-conservative Guinean as CDW prefect in November 2014.
As I have noted on several other occasions, Cardinal Sarah, who will be 72 next month, was not the pope's first choice. Pope Francis had decided on Archbishop Piero Marini, a strong proponent of the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council and the long-time master of papal ceremonies under John Paul II (and briefly under Benedict).
But the former pope's inner circle (and Grillo suggests Benedict himself) balked when they got a whiff of this and they warned Francis that he'd cause "a war" by appointing Marini as head of the congregation.
Instead, it is Cardinal Sarah who has been causing consternation throughout the church. He has tried to sandbag Pope Francis' quiet, but clear support of the post-Vatican II liturgical reform.
For instance, he dragged his feet on issuing a decree to formalize the pope's wish for women to be included in the Holy Thursday feet-washing ceremony.
And, even worse, he has continued to urge for changes that the pope, in very clear terms, has refused to endorse, such as the cardinal's personal crusade to get all the world's priests to "say Mass" ad orientem (with their back to the people).
"Sarah has demonstrated, for years, a substantial inadequacy and incompetence in the area of liturgy. His outlandish theories and rigidity have impeded the CDW from doing its ordinary work," Grillo says.
The cardinal has been peddling his eccentric liturgical proclivities — which one can only describe as neo-Tridentinist — in books and articles, as well as by going around the world giving lectures. And it appears that he's used so-called liturgists (of questionable scholarship) as ghostwriters for at least some of those talks.
In a recent one for a conference in Germany, the cardinal (or his suspected scribe, Father Uwe Michael Lang) again called for a "Reform of the Reform" — that is, re-doing the post-Vatican II liturgical reform by restoring certain elements from the Tridentine Rite.
Of course, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has encouraged such an effort and, naturally, the cardinal quoted him extensively in his talk.
No one should be surprised that Sarah continues to do the former pope's bidding. Yes, he's part of the crowd that's pushing what Massimo Faggioli has called the "Benedict Complex."
And why not? Benedict gave Sarah his red hat and then made him a key ally in a hapless pontificate, which — de facto — appeared increasingly as promoting an inward-looking, ritually pure church obsessed with the great moral evils linked to the so-called "pelvic issues" related to sexuality.
So, yes, Cardinal Sarah owes a lot to Benedict.
"And we also know that Pope Francis chose Sarah [as CDW prefect] on the advice of his predecessor [Benedict]. This is why the predecessor's praise of his successor — on an issue in which he played such a decisive role in causing this 'flop' — sounds very strange," Grillo rightly notes.
But, according to the liturgy professor, this is not the worst "indiscretion" Benedict XVI has committed by writing the afterword in Sarah's book. Rather, it's the former pope's concluding words.
"His affirmation that 'the liturgy is in good hands' appears, clearly, as the bishop-emeritus' self-defense in respect to the worrying result of choosing Sarah," says Grillo.
And that's not even the worst of it.
It certainly appears that Benedict (or the person that wrote the book afterward in his name) is still trying to bind the hands of Francis.
"One must say that the move appears all the more serious if, in the meantime, (Francis) is planning an inevitable and healthy change of (CDW) prefects. It is a sort last ditch effort (difesa in extremis) to defend a prefect who is about to be fired," says the professor.
But back to Grillo's opening salvo. Why should Cardinal Sarah be so worried by Benedict XVI's afterword in the book?
Take it away, Andrea Grillo:
"It's not the first time for J. Ratzinger to write a foreword or afterword for questionable books and authors.
"I recall, for instance, his preface for such a scarcely credible author as Alcuin Reid, whose theories and personality have raised scholarly and ecclesiastical concerns halfway around the world. And yet Ratzinger tried to promote him as practically an authority."
It's not surprising. Ratzinger is in love with all things liturgical, but he never did formal, advanced studies in the liturgy. However, one does not need to be a trained liturgist to understand — which the former pope, Cardinal Sarah and their little band of neo-Tridentinists evidently do not — that there is a profound difference between communal worship and private prayer.
The church's public liturgy is not the place for a Catholic to have his or her "personal quiet time" with Jesus. It is where the community of believers proclaims, acclaims and adores the Lord together — in word, song, symbols and gestures. Silence is also an essential part of that. But it is meant to punctuate the choral praise, not completely suppress it.
But back to Grillo's main point, which is that Benedict XVI committed an "indiscretion" by publicly backing a cardinal that is clearly on the outs with Pope Francis.
Remember when Benedict vowed of his own free will and by no one else's order that he would live out his retirement in a monastery and would be "hidden from the world" in prayer and quiet?
Yet, according to Grillo, he has violated this vow of discretion and humility by once again weighing in on internal church matters in a way that could be seen as trying to force Francis' hand.
This is extremely serious, as Grillo states forcefully in the conclusion of his article: "One thing is certain. As it was already noted a month ago the interference that an intervention of this type exerts on the successor's free exercise of authority constitutes a grave interference and an alteration of ecclesial equilibrium.
"The choice of discretion and humility, absolutely necessary for one who has chosen to the 'renounce the exercise of ministry,' thus seem profoundly undermined.
"Beyond the institutional questions, there is just one consideration regarding the res liturgica. And here we must observe that, as always, the praise of someone incompetent renders the praise incompetent.
"We need to entrust the liturgy to very good hands; which, God willing, should be defined and determined without an obsession to impose on the church a 'Reform of the Reform.'
"For this Cardinal Sarah is totally inadequate. Even if he comes recommended by the Bishop-emeritus of Rome."
