Vatican City, Mar 21, 2018 / 23:00 pm
The story of Benedict XVI's letter and the communication issues it raised, dubbed "Lettergate," has led to the resignation of a curial prefect, among other things.
But it also had the effect of revealing the agenda behind some discussion, namely, pieces of a strategic plan for undermining the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church, especially regarding Humanae Vitae.
Reactions to Saturday's publication of the full text of the letter reveal a certain resentment among the supporters of the "agenda of mercy," those in Rome pushing for a change in the doctrine of the Church.
A particular example is a blog post from Italian theologian Andrea Grillo, written after the publication of the full text of the letter by the Holy See Press Office.
Grillo, a professor of theology at the Pontifical Sant'Anselmo Univerity, titled his blog post "The letter of discord: too many unjust words and the silence of the innocent"
In 2017, Grillo criticized Benedict XVI for speaking out in a public context after his resignation. After the Pope Emeritus wrote the foreword to a popular book by Cardinal Robert Sarah, Grillo said in an interview that "for the future, in case of resignation of the pope, norms that more sharply and safely regulate the 'institutional death' of the predecessor and the full authority of the successor will be required."
Grillo mentioned that criticism at the beginning of his recent blog post. He continued to criticize Benedict, this time for his remarks about a theologian who authored one of the books about Francis.
Grillo said that Benedict XVI's letter shows "acrimony and one-sidedness of judgment on a theologian like Father Huenermann, of whom he presents a distorted and unjust profile." He criticized the Pope Emeritus for "judging the great theologian only with the measure of censorship."
(As a side consideration, it must be said that Benedict XVI knew very well what he was saying about Fr. Huenermann: as former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he knows well how Fr. Huenermann's books had been monitored and checked. Plus, he did not describe Fr. Huenermann as an 'enemy of popes', as Grillo wrote, but as a man who virulently attacked the magisterial authority of the pope. That is, of any pope in any era.)
Grillo's post also criticized Msgr. Dario Edoardo Viganò, prefect of the Secretariat for the Communication, mostly because he asked Benedict XVI to break his silence, and then because he used only part of the Pope Emeritus' response.
But it was the final part of his post that was the most revealing. Grillo praised Francis for "having broken the silence", overcoming the "awkward silence that had paralyzed the magisterium for three decades," while the Church was "making believe that the magisterial authority 'had no power' to change anything in matrimonial, ministerial, liturgical, ecumenical, juridical and curial field."
Grillo criticized what he called "the still Church" of the past to the current lively Church, which needed "lively theologians" like Fr. Huenermann, who "continued to speak even when the magisterium wanted from theologians only silence or applause."
The blog post ended with a critical note about the Pope Wmeritus, who, he said "solemnly promised be silent," but "spoke without prudence."