MARY TODAY
In the Church and in the World (cont.)
The Case of the Missing Paragraph
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| Vincenzo Cardinal Fagiolo, president emeritus of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts |
On June 19, the Osservatore Romano published a long commentary an the recent Marian catechesis of the Holy Father under the title "L'infallibita del Papa a servizio della glorificazione di Maria" ("The infallibility of the Pope in the service of the glorification of Mary"). The article was not signed with a complete name but only with the three letters "V.C.F." Who is "V. C. F."?
Inside the Vatican has learned that he is Vincenzo Cardinal Fagiolo, president emeritus of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the interpretation of Legislative Texts (the "Supreme Court" of the Catholic Church), making Fagiolo the Pope's highest-ranking advisor on canon law.
In his commentary, Fagiolo praises Pope Plus IX, who in 1854 promulgated the dogma of Mary's Immaculate Conception. He notes that Pius engaged in very wide consultation with the bishops of his time prior to making the proclamation (the vast majority favored it) and that there had been a wide- spread "petition movement" among the pious faithful which "virtually compelled him to proceed to the definition."
Fagiolo then writes: "The Church will always continue forward in the penetration into the mystery of Mary... Following the dogma proclaimed in the last century by Plus IX, in our century there was the dogma of the Assumption, proclaimed by Plus XII. Is it in the plans of Providence that also in the coming century the Pope should place on the virgin head of the Madonna another luminous dogmatic crown?"
Fagiolo continues: "Cardinal Paolo Dezza has told me that when Plus XII made the dogmatic definition of the Assumption, distinguished theologians of the Gregorian University said that the definition of the dogma 'Mary Universal Mediatrix of Graces' is in itself more easy to understand and explain than the dogma of the Assumption."
And he concludes: "For this eventual dogma as well, the Pope has the comfort of ecclesial practice and of the faith of the Christian people, which Dante seven centuries ago expressed through the mouth of St. Bernard in his hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary in paradise, saying she was so great and of such worth that anyone who seeks grace and does not have recourse to her ‘sua desianza vuol volare senz’ali’' ('his petition will fly with-out wings') (Paradise, XXX, 13-1 5).
Here the Osservatore Romano article ends. What it contains is sufficient to show there is serious consideration being given within the Vatican to the proclamation of a Marian dogma in conjunction with the celebrations of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
But Inside the Vatican has learned that Fagiolo's original draft of this article contained an additional paragraph: "May God grant to the Church the joy of opening the Third Millennium of the Christian era with the dogmatic proclamation of Mary Mediatrix. Have courage, Holy Father, the Christian people will follow you and you will not lack the support of good theologians, who are numerous. What a happy, glorious, immortal crown for the Holy Year 2000!"
But these final sentences were not printed in the Osservatore Romano. They were evidently cut at the last moment. Why? Probably because the editors of the Holy See's newspaper judged it prudent, for now, to omit such an explicit appeal to the Pope on a matter still under discussion.
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