POPE JOHN PAUL II INSTITUTE LEADERS TRY TO SILENCE CRITICS IN WAKE OF LEFTIST ‘PURGE’
Vatican insider: Church rocked by ‘violent upheaval’ at school
ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) – In spite of Vatican attempts to silence critics, backlash continues to mount in the wake of last month’s shake-up at the John Paul II Institute in Rome.
In a letter published by Italian journalist Aldo Maria Valli last week, an anonymous Church insider described the outcry over the “violent upheaval of the teaching staff” and the “drastic distortion of the curriculum and orientation of academic research” as an unfolding firestorm “unprecedented in intensity and duration” during Pope Francis’ pontificate.
Describing the institute’s chancellor, Abp. Vincenzo Paglia, and president, Msgr. Pierangelo Sequeri, as “firefighters” aiming to snuff out criticism of the school’s “new course,” the author revealed that with “powerful means of mass media containment and threat deterrence at their fingertips,” the pair have forced multiple journalists “to give up writing about the matter.”
But, owing to the work of “several Italian and international newspapers and websites,” these “firefighters … cannot put out the fire,” the source said.
A stream of criticism has followed last month’s announcement that the institute’s president was being dismissed, all institute professors suspended (pending final review) and the moral theology program discontinued — sweeping changes described by proponents inside the Holy See as part of Pope Francis’ reforms, a program of “renewal in continuity.”
On Aug. 2, more than four dozen signatories published an open letter condemning the move.
Representing universities from across the world — including the Pontifical Gregorian University, the Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo, the Catholic University of America, Franciscan University of Steubenville, University College London and Harvard University, among others — the scholars declared:
It is … with great distress that we learned the news about the sudden dismissals of two full professors, José Noriega and Livio Melina, together with other colleagues: Maria Luisa Di Pietro, Stanisław Grygiel, Monika Grygiel, Przemysław Kwiatkowski, and Vittorina Marini. All of them are outstanding scholars of international reputation … We cannot see any convincing reason — academic, doctrinal or disciplinary — which justifies their dismissal.
“If your institute wants to maintain its high academic profile and international reputation, we ask you to revoke these dismissals and to reassume the aforementioned scholars among the faculty of your Institute,” the signatories added.
Others close to the institute have protested the recent moves.
Father José Granados, the school’s vice president, has warned that the changes threaten to critically undermine the institute’s identity.
More than 250 students have signed an open letter slamming the changes, which they say undermines the institute’s core mission. The students have launched a website dedicated to exposing the dismissal of certain professors and the restructuring of institutional governance.
Some of the most damning criticism has come from St. John Paul II biographer George Weigel, who has excoriated the architect of the recent changes, Abp. Paglia:
That thes e Stalinistic acts of intellectual brigandage against the theological and pastoral heritage of Pope St. John Paul II are being carried out by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia — who came to international attention in 2017 for having commissioned a homoerotic fresco in the apse of the cathedral of Terni-Narni-Amelia — is ironic in the extreme. … Paglia’s appointment as Grand Chancellor of the John Paul II Institute — a position for which he had and has no discernible qualifications — was puzzling when it happened two years ago. … [Paglia] is acting precisely like those who manipulated the Synods of 2014, 2015, and 2018, i.e., another cabal of ambitious (and, frankly, not-so-bright) clerics who continually lost arguments and then tried to compensate by brutality and threats.
Critics note that as the institute is purged of orthodox priests and professors, leftist clergy appear to be readying to take their place. Father Maurizio Chiodi — an openly pro-contraception, pro-gay priest — will be among the most prominent members of the revamped institute.
Initially founded in 1981 as the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, the institute was re-established by Pope Francis in September 2017 and charged with a new mission: to help implement Amoris Laetitia, the Pope’s controversial apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family, which has caused worldwide confusion over the issue of allowing the divorced and civilly remarried to receive Holy Communion.
Read the source: https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/john-paul-ii-institute
POLISH PROFESSOR: JOHN PAUL II INSTITUTE FORSAKING MORAL THEOLOGY
Stanisław Grygiel: The late Pope’s name ‘shouldn’t be used as a fig leaf’ for changes at institute
ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) – A professor tied to the John Paul II Family Institute sees signs of heterodoxy in the school’s current shake-up.
The Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Science is experiencing a massive overhaul. After two faculty members were dismissed in July, many close to the institute have expressed concern about the direction it is heading.
Earlier this month, professor Stanisław Grygiel gave an interview to Catholic Polish site Teologia Polityczna. An English translation of the interview appeared on another Polish site, Polonia Christiana. In the interview, he noted that the John Paul II Institute, where he used to teach classes, was technically dissolved and re-established by Pope Francis in his September 2017 apostolic letter Summa Familiae Cura. Grygiel opined:
The new institute is called “The John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences.” One new word in the name says everything: “sciences.” What sciences? There is no science about marriage and the family. So what does this name describe? Only the fact that sociology, psychology and related sciences will decide how and what one ought to think about marriage and the family in the newly established institute.
Grygiel remarked, “At one point I called for the removal of St. John Paul II’s name from the name of the institute, because, as I said, it shouldn’t be used as a fig leaf.”
“Moral theology, and also Wojtyła’s adequate anthropology, were forsaken by the institute,” he argued.
As the institute underwent a major shake-up this summer, Grygiel’s classes at the institute were canceled, but his research position as professor emeritus was retained — according to an Aug. 17 report by the Catholic Herald.
The interviewer asked Grygiel if the shake-up at the institute is a “symbolic moment” for the state of affairs in the Church. He replied, “Yes,” adding, “I’m convinced that what happened to the institute is linked to the changes that might be introduced by the approaching Pan-Amazonian Synod.”
Grygiel reflected, “The abolition of the John Paul II Institute became a sign that revealed the thoughts of many hearts.”
He went on to say:
Some professors have been removed from the institute, some professors who read Amoris Laetitia in the light of the faith of the Church rooted in the Gospel and Tradition, and not, as Cdl. Christoph Schönborn of Vienna demanded in his discussion with Cdl. Carlo Caffarra, read the Tradition present in the teaching of the previous popes in the light of that document.
Referencing the debate over barring the divorced and civilly remarried from Holy Communion, Grygiel remarked, “According to the imperious voice of today’s followers of situational ethics and pseudo-Ignatian discernment, Christ didn’t know what was hidden in every man, because, for example, He didn’t know what was hidden in the man with a clear conscience who was living in his second or third pseudo-marital union.”
Grygiel said this would essentially imply that “Christ wasn’t God.”
Polonia Christiana asked the professor about the role of Poland in preserving Pope St. John Paul II’s legacy. He called for the country’s bishops to ensure that seminaries and universities have departments dedicated to the Polish pope and his writings.
Grygiel also spoke about the need to resist LGBT ideology in Poland, saying:
In the difficult time today, local Churches need bishops courageously professing their faith in Christ and saying a strong “No!” to the devil. The recent statements by Abp. Marek Jędraszewski of Krakow, who expressed his evangelical “No!” to the ideology of the warped rainbow, encourage and bring hope, not only to Poles.
He added, “It is the duty of bishops and priests to defend the fold entrusted to them against this chaos and against those who use this chaos to come into power.”
Archbishop Jędraszewski of Krakow spoke out against LGBT ideology in a homily on Aug. 1, saying that Poland is experiencing “a siege from the ‘rainbow plague’ of LGBT activism.”
The Krakow archbishop faced backlash from pro-LGBT leftists, but many fellow bishops came to his defense. Bishop Wiesław Mering of Włocławek, Abp. Stanisław Gądecki of Poznan, Abp. Emeritus Stanisław Nowak of Częstochowa and Cdl. Zenon Grocholewski all voiced support for Abp. Jędraszewski — as did the bishops of Hungary.
Thousands of faithful Catholics showed their support for Abp. Jędraszewski in a prayer rally on Aug. 10 in Krakow.
Read the source: https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/john-paul-ii-institute-forsaking-moral-theology-prof
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