Christmas Cards (2)

 ... and, carrying on from the previous post, I would like to express my appreciation in hoc tempore Adventus et Natalis Domini to those who work in the Curia Romana, and especially in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. I do so in advance of the Holy Father's imminent good wishes on Monday December 21!

I have no way of knowing what truth there is in the easy denigrations made so often of the Curia. I can only say that my own experiences have been invariably and unambiguously favourable. When we were formally applying to the CDF for the necessary dispensations to join the Presbyterate of the Ordinariate, I was impressed by the speed and efficiency and kindness with which they dealt with the necessary matters. It compared very favourably with the conduct at that time of some other Catholics. Friends with whom I have spoken have had the same good experiences as I did, both with regard to that particular period; and also on other occasions when they have been in touch with members of the Curia, both high and less high. Such members have often, I have been told, gone well beyond the call of duty to be as helpful as they could. And during the period of the gestation of the Anglican Use Missal, we have been dealt with in the kindest possible way, as well as with good sense and meticulous learning.

Journalists do not often clutter up their copy with the undramatic News of how hard, and how well, members of the Curia work. I would like to take the opportunity of filling this lacuna; and, not least, because this is a time when working in the Curia, and particularly in the CDF, may be accompanied by unusual complications.

So ... both humble thanks and dutiful best wishes to His Eminence Gerhard Cardinal Mueller; thanks to those highly important people in Ecclesia Dei; and to all the Cardinal's collaborators ... and especially to one particular worker who is due, I gather, in 2016 to leave Rome to return to America. I wrote that before his appointment was gazetted!

Ubicumque fueritis, fausta vobis precor tempora.