Mgr Guérard des Lauriers analyses the addresses given by Cardinal Ratzinger and three other churchmen back in 1983.
Introduction
This is the beginning of a serialisation of Mgr Guérard des Lauriers’ long article The Wojtyłan Dicatorship (La Dictature Wojtylienne), published in Bulletin de l’Occident Chrétien, nos 79 – 80 of April-May 1983. In it, he critiques addresses made at a conference by:
Archbishop Dermot J. Ryan of Ireland
Cardinal Godfried Daneels
Cardinal Josef Ratzinger
Cardinal Franciszek Macharski
The first part consists of his analysis of the addresses by Archbishop Ryan and Cardinal Daneels. These are relatively short engagements compared to what follows.
Mgr Guérard objects to what he calls Ryan’s phenomenological and humanistic account of catechesis, and then proceeds to Cardinal Daneels conflation of the fallen state of human nature with human nature as God made it – along with what he calls the heretical “prétérition” (passing over) of original sin.
Cardinal Daneels
Daneels is particularly interesting for two reasons. The first is that Archbishop Lefebvre pointed to his consecration as a quintessential example of why we must ask, “Are they priests at all […] are their ordinations valid?”
“They published booklets for this consecration. For the public prayers, here is what was said and then repeated by the crowd: ‘Be an apostle like Peter and Paul, be an apostle like the patron saint of this parish, be an apostle like Gandhi, be an apostle like Luther, be an apostle like Martin Luther King, be an apostle like Helder Camara, be an apostle like Romero....’ An apostle like Luther?! What intention did those bishops have when they consecrated this bishop, Msgr. Daneels?
“It’s frightening... Has this bishop really been consecrated? It can be doubted, all the same. If that was the intention of the consecrators, then it is unimaginable! The situation is even more serious than we had thought.”1
You can see our recent writing on this matter here:
The other reason that Daneels is so infamous is that he appeared with Francis on the loggia after the 2013 conclave, and was a part of the so-called “Sankt Gallen Mafia” that reportedly had him elected.
Entrée before the main course
We provide this first part for its own interest, but principally as the introduction to what follows: Mgr Guérard’s incisive critique of Cardinal Ratzinger’s theology of “tradition”. This present part is, in some ways, an entrée for what follows.
In addition to that, we shall see that this papers contains some aspects of Mgr Guérard’s thought which have fall into obscurity, in the course of debates about the “Thesis of Cassiciacum” and the vacancy of the Holy See.
Leaving aside the question of the Thesis, it is our hope that readers will see the truth of what Fr Reid Hennick said to us some time ago: that Mgr Guérard des Lauriers was indeed responsible for “some of the best writings on the crisis” that are available.
S.D.Wr.
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