Last Sunday of the month of August, a day that, in principle, has every possibility of being a quiet day, is not, and we have many interesting articles. We will try to present them as briefly as possible.
Castelgandolfo happy with Pope Leo.
A historic day on Lake Albano. Paul VI and John Paul II took part in the procession, but did not walk the entire shore of the lake. The heat and humidity did not spare the Castelli Romani. In his homily, the Pope recalled that “hatred and violence bring nothing good, only destruction and death, even when they are a response to the injustices suffered.” This is a situation that “we see every day, from the small things in our domestic life to the great world stage.” “Let us not conform to the mentality of the world: let us continue to love, to give and to forgive.” “Saint Paul VI, who longed for and supported the construction of this church dedicated to Mary and consecrated it, and Saint John Paul II, who wished to commemorate his memory here and renew his message.”
Mutua Concordia.
With the apostolic letter Mutua Concordia, dated August 29, 2026, Leo XIV intervenes in canons 106 and 126 of the Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium, which has governed the Eastern Catholic Churches since 1990. Until now, Eastern canon law provided no procedure for the removal of a Patriarch against his will. Canon 126 listed only two causes for the vacancy of the patriarchal see: death and resignation. Resignations were accepted by the Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchal Church, after consultation with the Roman Pontiff, unless the Patriarch appealed directly to him. A serious and persistent disagreement between the Patriarch and his episcopate, in the absence of a voluntary resignation, had no legal solution under the Code.
The preamble of the apostolic letter sets out a twofold horizon: the synodal tradition of the Eastern Churches, where the Patriarch is defined as “the First and not merely the President of the Council of Bishops,” and the sensitivity of the Orthodox Churches, where the responsibility of patriarchal leadership toward its own Synod has deeper roots. The text cites Saint Ignatius of Antioch when he spoke of harmony between the Bishop and his presbyters, and Leo XIV specifies that he acted after consulting the Dicastery for Legislative Texts and the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.
The new §3 opens a breach in this exclusivity: if the Patriarch does not convene the Synod when required, authority passes to the bishop of highest rank in episcopal ordination among those entitled to vote; if he also fails to do so, it passes to the next available bishop of highest rank to assume the task. This is a provision of service, designed to prevent the removal procedure provided for in canon 126 from being blocked at the outset by a Patriarch who simply does not convene the body called to judge him. §3 provides that, for a grave cause recognized by a Synod convened with the threshold of one-third of the members established by canons 106 §1 n. 3 and 108 §3, the Synod may request the Patriarch to resign from his office. At this stage, it is merely an invitation without automatic legal effect.
If the Patriarch refuses, article 4 intervenes: the bishop of highest seniority in ordination chooses a new president of the Synod, who submits the removal to a secret vote. A favorable vote of at least two-thirds of the members entitled to vote is required, and the Patriarch retains the right to defend himself before the Synod prior to the vote. The new president must then inform the Roman Pontiff “as soon as possible,” who has the consent that effectively vacates the see. The procedure introduced by Mutua Concordia also applies to churches such as the Syro-Malabar or the Ukrainian, led by a major archbishop instead of a patriarch. This does not include the metropolitan sui iuris Churches governed by Title VI of the Code, where the head is a metropolitan appointed directly by the Roman Pontiff and not elected by his own Synod: the mechanism of synodal accountability built by this reform presupposes a prior election that in those Churches takes a different form.
Let us hope that sooner rather than later we will have something similar in the Latin rite. We are losing synodal arguments on issues that are not very Catholic, and no one raises the fact that the appointment of bishops, as we have it now, fails too often and no one assumes responsibility. It is necessary to resume a regulation of the traditional ‘odium plebis’ that gives the people of God the canonical possibility of defending themselves against imposed and undesirable situations. You will see that this does not enter into synodal concerns; better to stick with the sixties traumas and leave serious matters aside.
Pope Leo and Communion and Liberation.
«Comunione e liberazione» was at one time one of the most influential Catholic movements in Italy. After years of internal conflict, Pope Leo XIV urges renewal and unity, and he is not the first pope to do so. Last Saturday the enthusiasm was palpable, even for the Pope himself. No pope had attended the Meeting for the Friendship among Peoples in 44 years. This multi-day event has been organized annually since 1980 by the foundation associated with the Catholic community «Communion and Liberation» (CL). Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) officially recognized the lay movement in 1982. That same year, the Polish pope visited the meeting, then still relatively small.
In October 2022, Pope Francis urged the movement to overcome its internal conflicts and maintain unity with the Pope. He praised the work of Carrón, who had resigned, but acknowledged that there were «serious problems, disputes and an ever-decreasing presence of this important movement»: «Do not waste time with gossip, distrust and divisions!» Pope Leo XIV himself urged the members of the League of Nations to purify their thoughts, interests, habits, friendships, plans, investments—all aspects of life—from everything that the culture of power has corrupted.
The president of CL, Davide Prosperi, described the Pope’s speech as a milestone for the community. In an interview with the «Corriere della Sera,» he interpreted Leo XIV’s exhortation to unity, even with Rome, as a signal for the movement. Each year a message is transmitted, but rarely does a pope personally attend Italy’s largest Catholic gathering. Leo XIV changed that after more than 40 years.
The beatification of Giussani.
The cause for the beatification of Father Luigi Giussani, the priest founder of Communion and Liberation, is receiving special attention. After the conclusion of the diocesan phase last May, the material collected is being examined by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. During the Rimini Meeting it was hinted that the process may have taken a new turn. The postulator, Apeciti, mentioned a healing he considers particularly significant, maintaining the necessary confidentiality at this stage. His statements have inevitably fueled expectations among the faithful and within the Communion and Liberation community, which sees this process not as a formal recognition, but as the confirmation of a spiritual history that has marked generations. In Desio, his hometown, Apeciti’s words were received with a mixture of emotion and caution. Here, the figure of Father Giussani is part of the collective memory: the square that bears his name, the house where he was born, and the school he attended are places that bear witness to his presence and his formation. In recent months, there has been repeated discussion about the need to enhance these spaces, to integrate them into a civic itinerary that allows new generations to learn the history of a man who left Desio to launch a movement that has now spread throughout the world. While awaiting the Holy See’s decision, the discretion proper to any cause of beatification is maintained, but there is also a widespread sense that something is changing.
The obsession with consensus.
It can affect anyone who has power: parents, educators, religious pastors, teachers, politicians, magistrates, military personnel, business or public administration executives, leaders of a community of believers, of an association or of a national or international organization, or leaders of any community. The obsession with consensus is one of the many diseases of power: doing everything possible so that others approve of me, show me their approval, vote for me, applaud me, praise me, to the point of «idolatrous passion» (E. Fromm), blind and harmful to oneself and to others. The obsession with consensus is the eldest daughter of the obsession with power. Power can become a «great narcotic» (M. Kets De Vries) if one does not protect one’s psychophysical and emotional balance and does not regularly develop one’s skills.
Electoral campaigns are one of the greatest manifestations of the obsession with consensus and, to a lesser extent, of the obsession with power. Calvino would say in Invisible Cities: «Yes, the empire is sick and, what is worse, it tries to get used to its wounds. The purpose of my explorations is this: by scrutinizing the traces of happiness that still glimmer, I measure their scarcity. If you want to know how much darkness surrounds you, you must fix your gaze on the faint distant lights.» The Church, the great majority of our bishops, many long-suffering parish priests, seek consensus, to be applauded. The search for holiness has been relegated and now we are in the search for unity at any cost. It is painful when in synodal settings something is rejected because it is not yet mature, there is no consensus; if there were, we could remove Jesus Christ without problem, all under the cover of holy consensus.
The capital sins.
Little is said about it; for most, they are linked to memories of boring catechism classes or some tedious religion class. For many centuries, in Christian countries, awareness of one’s own vices was a way of knowing oneself and overcoming destructive impulses and passions. We have a book by the British historian Peter Jones that invites us to explore the inner life of medieval men and women and the rediscovery of confessional literature as cutting-edge self-help fiction. «Self-help from the Middle Ages: A Journey into the Medieval Mindset.»
The vices: which and how many? Since late antiquity, vices have been codified into seven disorders of behavior, listed in order of gravity from the most lethal to the most harmless: pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust. Today we find it hard to understand the threat these passions represent because, as Jones explains, many of these vices have been transformed into virtues throughout the twentieth century: pride has become self-esteem, anger into a form of self-assertion, lust into a healthy libido and gluttony into culture. What would they have said in the Middle Ages about two monks who spend hours in the kitchen preparing tasty meals as in the series «The Convent Recipes»?
Silicon Valley guru Reid Hoffman stated that pride, envy, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust have become the » concept » of successful social platforms like LinkedIn, Netflix, Yelp and Tinder, which thrive on the immediate gratification of more or less excessive passions. Behind these modern virtues (or ancient vices) lie diseases of the soul that today are treated by a psychologist, but that in another time were the daily bread of confessors.
Jones begins the book by recounting his personal experience with acedia, a mixture of boredom, sadness and disillusionment that today we call depression. In the Middle Ages, sloth was taken very seriously because it could lead to suicide, the greatest of sins. And what could the confessor do? First, help the sinner (today we would say patient) to recognize it for what it was (is), that is, a lack of love for oneself and for life, and then help him overcome this difficulty. The book is organized into seven chapters: in each chapter, Jones addresses a vice, describing it according to the characterizations of medieval literature. At the root of each vice is a dysfunction of love: too much love for oneself (pride), for success (envy), for one’s own disdain (anger), for food (gluttony) or for sex (lust). Every excess is complemented by an opposite disorder in our relationships with others: when we are proud, we do not care about those around us; when we are envious, we dislike the happiness of others; when we are dominated by anger, we do not care about the consequences of our reckless actions.
With this book, Jones leaves us a valuable legacy: the awareness that, when we allow ourselves to be dominated by pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony and lust, we cease to perceive reality clearly and begin to live in prisons we ourselves have created.
The guillotine is resurrected in France.
The usual anticlerical discourse returns around Pope Leo XIII’s visit to France. Controversy over costs and references to the guillotine in the Place de la Concorde. Everything that smells of anti-Catholicism is excited by the Pope’s upcoming presence on French territory. The Pope will travel to the homeland of Voltaire and on the 26th will celebrate a great Mass between the Place de la Concorde and the Champs-Élysées, before a crowd that could reach 500,000 people. The 80,000 tickets for the prayer vigil at the Stade de France sold out in just a few hours. The shrine of Lourdes had to close registrations due to the enormous demand ( 150 thousand registrations in one week).
But evidently not everyone is enthusiastic. The first controversies appeared in an article in the secular magazine Marianne, signed by Mégane Chiecchi: «A Mass celebrated by the Pope in the Place de la Concorde… and then what?». The journalist speaks of a «defeat of secularism», defines the celebration as a kind of «Woodstock of the intolerant» and wonders what the reaction of the French press would be if the person gathering hundreds of thousands of people were, instead of the Pope, a great Muslim, Jewish or Orthodox authority. The image shows Leo XVI next to the guillotine, a proud emblem of the very secular French Revolution. The Place de la Concorde is, in fact, the place where Louis XVI was guillotined.
Obviously, there was no shortage of controversy surrounding the cost of the visit. Communist senator Pierre Ouzoulias did so, writing: «250,000 euros for priests and a Mass. But the emergency rooms remained closed for two weeks in the middle of a heat wave, due to lack of staff and resources.» The Union of Secular Families of Metz promises to raise barricades in exchange for the 500,000 euros the municipality has allocated to receive the Pope. The mayor of Metz, François Grosdidier, responded by accusing those who did not understand the importance of the event of being «blinded by ideology.» Deputy Alexis Corbière expressed his irritation at the fact that the protocol of the National Assembly had regulated access for deputies who wished to attend Mass. A few months ago we experienced a similar attempt on the occasion of the visit to Spain, with announcements of protests that ended up attracting more journalists than participants.
Seeking «spaces of freedom and conscience.»
And we continue with the drumbeat of avoiding divisive tones on ethical issues and creating «spaces of freedom of conscience,» setting doctrine aside. This is a transformation that has been brewing for some time and is now openly proclaimed in the official newspaper of the Italian bishops by the leaders of the Italian Theological Association for the Study of Morality. Even the commandments, the lifelong ones, seem too ideological and extremist. Avvenire published an interview by Luciano Moia with the new president and vice-president of ATISM, the Italian Theological Association for the Study of Morality, Father Martin M. Lintner and Gaia De Vecchi. The words of both interviewees clearly confirmed the transformation of Catholic moral theology.
It is a radical change for which it is impossible to discern any continuity between before and after. The two theologians put forward the following proposal: moral theology seeks to overcome rigid ideological oppositions on abortion, gender, end-of-life issues and similar topics, and to focus on the formation of consciences and the creation of spaces for dialogue. The debate must be reintroduced into the context of civil dialogue, not ideological conflict. Doctrine must be set aside and reflection must focus on the human, avoiding the logic of opposing forces.
The Ten Commandments are considered a product of rationalism far removed from the concreteness of existence. According to the two interviewees, discussing such norms would amount to entering the terrain of ideology. The Ten Commandments would hinder freedom of conscience and would not respect the dignity of the person. Today’s pastors, faced with every great personal and public moral problem, limit themselves to asking that it be discussed, avoiding taking sides so as not to appear divisive or ideological. Cardinal Zuppi, in a televised conversation with the director of the newspaper Domani about abortion, limited himself to asking that we not act like the Horatii and the Curiatii.
The street painters in Assisi.
More than fifty «madonnari» (pavement artists) from various countries are transforming the square in front of the Lower Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi into an open-air art gallery. «Francis in the Art of the Madonnari,» an initiative organized by the City Council on the occasion of the eighth centenary of the death of Italy’s patron saint. At the center is «The Vision of St. Francis,» a collective composition of approximately 50 square meters conceived by Kurt Wenner, an American artist considered the inventor of three-dimensional «pavement art.» The other artists participate in 40 individual works of Franciscan theme, distributed over a total area of more than 220 square meters. The works are created on a special support of linoleum, natural and eco-sustainable, which will allow their conservation and subsequent exhibition. The creations will remain on display until September 1.
«What will it profit a man to gain the whole world if he loses his life?»
Happy reading.
Saint Francis in the art of the madonnari on the square of Assisi
Leo XIV modifies the Code. Now an Eastern Catholic Patriarch can be removed against his will
Don Luigi Giussani beatified: the miracle, perhaps, is there. The documents to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints
Subversion accomplished, Avvenire attests to the passing of morality
Leo XIV to the Lutheran bishops of Norway: «Goodness and charity have the power to disarm»
The Pope in France awakens secularism: nostalgia for the guillotine?
Russia: diplomatic mission of Msgr. Gallagher concluded. Mass with Russian Catholics, «called to become artisans of peace»
Leo in a boat for the procession for Our Lady of the Lake in Castel Gandolfo. It is the first time for a pontiff
Pope Leo XIV appoints Mons. Lizardo Estrada Herrera as Coadjutor Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cusco
How Abbot Lepori transforms dissent into betrayal
Leo and the search for a new spirit in «Comunione e liberazione»
What are the capital vices for?
The obsession with consensus