(s.m.) Cardinal Camillo Ruini offers this “prayer” of his for the cardinals who in a few days will enter into conclave to elect the new pope.
But he also offers it for the whole Christian people, which the next successor of Peter will have the task of “confirming in the faith.”
Ruini, 94, was the cardinal closest to John Paul II, whose vicar he was for the diocese of Rome, as well as president of the Italian episcopal conference. And he was among the great electors and admirers of Benedict XVI, whose value he recalls in this text, but also a limitation: his “meager aptitude for governing.”
A limitation to which the future pope would best not fall subject.
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Prayer for the Church of the Near Future
by Camillo Card. Ruini
The legacy of Pope Francis is a question that profoundly impacts the Church and shakes it. In these lines I will address it from a perspective that is trusting, because it is founded on the merciful power of God, who guides our steps in the way of the good.
I will formulate four wishes – which are also invocations – for the Church of a future that I hope is very near. I trust in a good and charitable Church, doctrinally secure, governed according to the law, and deeply united within itself. These are my prayer intentions, which I would like to see widely shared.
1. First of all, then, a good and charitable Church. Love brought to living efficacy is in fact the supreme law of Christian testimony and therefore of the Church. And it is what people, even today, are most thirsty for. Our style of government must therefore be freed of all useless rigidity, all pettiness and dryness of heart.
2. As Benedict XVI wrote, today faith is a flame that threatens to go out. Rekindling this flame is therefore another great priority of the Church. For this there is need of much prayer, there is need of the ability to respond in a Christian vein to the intellectual challenges of today, but there is also need of the certainty of truth and the security of doctrine. For too many years we have been experiencing that, if these are weakened, all of us, pastors and faithful, are severely penalized.
3. Then there is the question of government. The pontificate of Benedict XVI was undermined by his meager aptitude for governing, and this is a concern that is valid for all times, including the near future. Woe betide, moreover, if it be forgotten that this is a question of governing that very special reality which is the Church. Here, as I said, the fundamental law is love: the style of government and the recourse to law must be as far as possible in keeping with this law, which is very demanding for anyone.
4. In these years we have perceived some threats – which I do not want to exaggerate – to the unity and communion of the Church. To overcome them, and to bring to light what I like to call the “Catholic form” of the Church, mutual charity is once again decisive, but it is also important to reawaken the awareness that the Church, like every social body, has its rules, which no one can ignore with impunity.
At the age of 94, silence is more fitting than words. I hope nonetheless that these lines of mine may be a little fruit of the good that I want for the Church.
(Translated by Matthew Sherry: traduttore@hotmail.com)
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Sandro Magister is past “vaticanista” of the Italian weekly L’Espresso.
The latest articles in English of his blog Settimo Cielo are on this page.
But the full archive of Settimo Cielo in English, from 2017 to today, is accessible.
As is the complete index of the blog www.chiesa, which preceded it.
