Benedict defends celibacy while Francisco decides if he eliminates it in the Amazon
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Cardinal Robert Sarah have written a book, which will be published on January 15, in which the pontiff defends the celibacy of priests, after the last synod proposed to order married men in The Amazon.
Joseph Ratzinger again breaks the silence he promised after his resignation from the pontificate in February 2013 with this volume entitled 'De profondeurs de nos coeurs' (From the bottom of our hearts) that will be published in French by the Fayard publishing house, as announced by editor Nicolas Diat and Cardinal Sarah himself on his Twitter account.
"I think celibacy" of the priests "has a great meaning" And it is "indispensable for our trip to God to remain the basis of our life" Benedict XVI writes in this book, according to the newspaper Le Figaro.
According to the French newspaper, both Ratzinger and the cardinal of the Republic of Guinea and prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments write: "I cannot shut up," quoting a phrase from St. Augustine to refer to his position against the priestly ordination of married men.
The new book of Pope Emeritus and Cardinal Sarah, one of the greatest critics with some positions of Francisco, anticipates the apostolic exhortation that the Argentine pope should publish in the coming months on the Synod of the Amazon and where a response was expected to the request approved by the Assembly of bishops to order married men to reach the most remote areas.
"We have met and exchanged our ideas and our concerns," write Ratzinger and Sarah, who say that "They do it with a spirit of love and unity in the Church."
In April last year, Ratzinger, 92, published an 18-page document reflecting on the Church and sexual abuse, which reopened the debate about the delicate presence of the two popes in the Vatican.
The difficult coexistence of "the two Popes"
Far from the fiction of the last film "The Two Popes" of the Brazilian Fernando Meirelles, the reality is that the presence in the Vatican of two pontiffs is increasingly difficult, especially if the emeritus Benedict XVI breaks the silence that had imposed itself after his resignation.
The new bomb in the Vatican fell on Sunday when a new book signed by Benedict XVI was announced - with no reference to his status as emeritus - and Cardinal Robert Sarah, one of the main leaders of the conservative faction that criticizes every movement of Francis .
The volume, published in French by Fayard and entitled "From the deepest part of our hearts" (Des profondeurs de nos coeurs), will be in the bookstores on Wednesday, January 15 and will later be published in English, and defends especially priestly celibacy Following the Synod on the Amazon, where the bishops present approved the proposal to order married men in the most remote areas.
In some of the passages published today in the French newspaper "Le Figaro", Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, argues that ordering married men cannot be an exception but is a "violation" .
"In conscience, as a son of Africa, I cannot support the idea that peoples in the process of evangelization should be deprived of this encounter with a fully lived priesthood," underlines the cardinal originally from Guinea Conakri.
The date of publication of this book does not seem accidental, since shortly Pope Francis is expected to publish the apostolic exhortation on the Synod of the Amazon, in which the pontiff was expected to make a decision on the so-called "viri probati ", married men who can be ordained to exercise as priests in their communities.
For many it is a movement to put pressure on Pope Francis, who although he has always defended celibacy, could authorize this possibility in the Amazon and open the way to other remote areas of the planet where priests do not arrive.
Any decision Francisco makes now will be called into question after the publication of Ratzinger's opinion.
In April of last year, after the historic summit in the Vatican to end sexual abuse by the clergy, Benedict XVI broke his silence by publishing in a German magazine and forward by some conservative-oriented religious information media his vision on the topic.
Benedict XVI then blamed the abuse of minors on the supposed sexual revolution of '68 and the deviations of the "conciliar" theology, that is to say a misunderstood interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, the moral collapse of society and some members of the Church.
The interventions of Pope Emeritus, who had remained silent until a few years after his decision to renounce the pontificate in 2013 and be "hidden from the world", are paradoxically increasingly numerous.
Thus, again, accusations arise that Ratzinger, 92, who for years has been limited to brief appearances recorded or photographed by a journalist or friend who has visited him, in which he almost never makes statements and observes who speaks with great difficulty, can be manipulated by the most conservative area of the Church, facing Francisco.
But there is also the obvious problem of defining the institution of Pope Emeritus and how and where his writings have to be published.
Ratzinger and Sarah write in the book that they want to stay "away" from what divides: "personal offenses, political maneuvers, power games, ideological manipulations and bitter criticisms play the game of the devil, the divisor, the father of lies. "
However, this book does not come to calm the waters in a Church that seems increasingly divided into two sides.