Right-thinking people do not commonly recommend reading of the Tablet, but today I wish to commend to you a letter printed there on December 14 1991, and written by John Finnis, Professor of International Law in this University. Or, rather, this post will extensively plagiarise his letter, so you may feel you need not bother to search it out.
CONTEXT. Cardinal Hume had quoted the words of B John XIII at the opening of Vatican II: "The substance of the ancient deposit of faith is one thing, and the way in which it is presented is another". The cardinal went on to claim that this "was considered at the time to be quite controversial"; and the [2012] Bishop of Guildford had, quite separately, claimed that these words caused "nervousness" in Rome and that by the time the pope's words were published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis six weeks later, they had been substantially changed, to something reactionary, 'curial', and objectionable. The Tablet, as you might expect, had weighed in with an editorial.
PROFESSOR FINNIS' LETTER. Finnis with waspish elegance suggested that "A form critic would ... opine that behind both of these statements stand" words published by Peter Hebblethwaite in his biography of the beatus, and went on "The facts discoverable by anyone with access to a library are quite inconsistent with the grave allegation".
Professor Finnis pointed out that Osservatore Romano had printed, the very day after the Pontiff had spoken, his (Latin) words in the form in which AAS subsequently printed them, and my - perhaps imperfect - recollection is that John Finnis later secured clinching evidence from a radio recording that B John XXIII did indeed utter these words.
Which words? eodem sensu eademque sententia. Finnis translated the Latin text of the passage concerned as "This certain and unchangeable teaching, to which faith assent [or: submission] should be given, needs to be explored and expounded in the way our times call for. For the deposit of Faith, i.e. the truths which are contained in our venerable teaching, is one thing; another thing is the manner in which those truths are enunciated, keeping the same meaning and the same judgement [or: opinion]".
HEBBLETHWAITE, I should explain to younger readers, was a former Jesuit who had cornered the narrative of that period and whose account continues even today to go the rounds, fuelling a hermeneutic of rupture with regard to Vatican II. You may have seen his widow being filmed by the TV cameras as the crowd outside S Peter's watched the white smoke rise from the chimney during the [2005] conclave. She yelped in anguish as she realised that such a speedy end to the papal election could only mean that "Ratzinger has been elected".
Win some, lose some.
Margaret was with Joan Chittister at the time. If I recall correctly her exact words of dismay, addressed to Chittister, on realising what the early appearance of white smoke meant were "Oh God, it's Ratzinger!".
ReplyDeletePerhaps a 20-year old Tablet and the letters page at that, might be acceptable!
ReplyDeleteGood to have you back.
John Lamont's article may be long but it is well worth reading by non-theologians, like me, as he nowhere those long words such as 'existential', 'ontological', 'kenosis', 'epistemological' etc. Words which mean I have to rush to a dictionary only to forget the definition almost immediately which suggests to me that they do not have much meaning! It can be done!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I thought that I was the only person who suffered instant brain fog on seeing these words... and then forgetting them immediately after I looked them up.
DeleteIt has been routinely claimed that Pope Saint John XXIII's speech was written by the then Milano Archbishop, Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montin.
ReplyDeleteIs that an accurate claim?
Thanks again Dear Father for yet another splendid and crucial post.
Margaret H, in her very eccentric way, does some marvellous work in Paraguay which I have witnessed in situ
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteIn an article dated October 11, 1962, the New York Times published the complete text of John XXIII’s speech “in translation from the Latin.” The text we have been discussing reads:
“One thing is the substance of the ancient “depositum fidei” and another is the way in which it is presented; and it is this that must be taken into great consideration, with patience if necessary, everything being measured in the forms and proportions of a magisterium that is prevalently pastoral in character.”
No “with the same meaning and the same judgement” there
In 2012, Joseph Komonchak did an English translation, saying “The text is the official Latin version, but significant variants in this text from the original Italian are also noted.”
The fourth of those notes is the text we have been discussing.
4 Italian: "The salient point of this Council is not,therefore, a discussion of one or another article of the Church's fundamental doctrine, a diffuse repetition of the teaching of the Fathers and of ancient and modern theologians, which is presumed to be well known and familiar to all. For this a Council was not necessary. But from a renewed, serene, and tranquil adherence to the whole teaching of the Church, in its entirety and precision, as it still shines forth in the acts of the Councils of Trent and Vatican I, the Christian, Catholic, and apostolic spirit of the whole world expects a leap forward toward a doctrinal penetration and a formation of consciences in more perfect conformity with fidelity to authentic doctrine, with this doctrine being studied and presented through the forms of inquiry and literary formulation of modern thought. The substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposit of faith is one thing, and the formulation in which it is clothed is another. And it is the latter that must be taken into great account, with patience if necessary, measuring everything by the forms and proportions of a teaching authority primarily pastoral in character.
https://jakomonchak.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/john-xxiii-opening-speech.pdf
The “with the same meaning and the same judgement” of his translation from the Latin is not there in the Italian
If anyone here whose spoken languages are better than mine (not hard) would be willing to listen to John XXIII giving the speech, the video is available here, starting at 3h:17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=OU1gurfHc2M