Latest news with #MatteoBruni
Toronto Star
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Vatican says leaked documents were only part of information Pope Francis used to restrict Latin Mass
ROME (AP) — Leaked documents seemingly undermining Pope Francis' stated reason for restricting the old Latin Mass provided an incomplete reconstruction of the evidence that informed his 2021 decision to crack down on the spread of the ancient liturgy, the Vatican said Thursday. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni declined to explicitly confirm the authenticity of the documents, which were posted online this week by a Vatican reporter. But he said they 'presumably' were part of one of the documents forming the basis of Francis' decision.
CTV News
03-07-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Vatican says leaked documents were only part of information Pope Francis used to restrict Latin Mass
Nuns stand next to copies of L'Osservatore Romano newspaper with headlines in Latin of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, Friday, May 9, 2025, a day after he was elected as the first North American pope. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) ROME — Leaked documents seemingly undermining Pope Francis' stated reason for restricting the old Latin Mass provided an incomplete reconstruction of the evidence that informed his 2021 decision to crack down on the spread of the ancient liturgy, the Vatican said Thursday. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni declined to explicitly confirm the authenticity of the documents, which were posted online this week by a Vatican reporter. But he said they 'presumably' were part of one of the documents forming the basis of Francis' decision. 'As such, it provides a very partial and incomplete reconstruction of the decision-making process,' Bruni told reporters. adding that successive confidential reports and consultations were taken into consideration. The publication of the documents this week revived the debate in the Catholic Church over the Latin Mass, suggesting that whoever leaked them aimed to put pressure on Pope Leo XIV to address the dispute just as his pontificate is getting under way. Leo has said his aim is unity and reconciliation in the church, and many conservatives and traditionalists have urged him to heal the liturgical divisions that spread over the Latin Mass, especially in the United States, during Francis' 12-year papacy. In one of his most controversial acts, Francis in 2021 reversed Pope Benedict XVI's signature liturgical legacy and restricted access for ordinary Catholics to the old Latin Mass. The ancient liturgy was celebrated around the world before the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, which allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular, with the priest facing the pews. Francis said he was cracking down on the spread of the old liturgy because Benedict's decision in 2007 to relax restrictions on its celebration had become a source of division in the church. Francis said he was responding to 'the wishes expressed' by bishops around the world who had responded to a Vatican survey, as well as the Vatican doctrine office's own opinion. 'The responses reveal a situation that preoccupies and saddens me, and persuades me of the need to intervene,' Francis wrote at the time. Benedict's relaxation had been 'exploited to widen the gaps, reinforce the divergences, and encourage disagreements that injure the church, block her path, and expose her to the peril of division,' he said. The documents posted online, however, paint a different picture. They suggest the majority of bishops who responded to the Vatican survey had a generally favorable view of Benedict's reform. They warned that suppressing or weakening it would 'do more harm than good' and lead traditionalist Catholics to leave the church and join schismatic groups. The documents include a five-page 'overall assessment' of the survey findings, written by the Vatican's doctrine office, as well as a seven-page compilation of quotes from individual bishops or bishops' conferences. There is no letterhead or signature on the documentation, and it's not clear if its author cherry-picked the quotes. The documents contain some negative and neutral opinions and say some bishops considered Benedict's reform 'inappropriate, disturbing,' dangerous and worthy of suppression. But the Vatican's own assessment said the majority of bishops who responded expressed satisfaction. It cited the rise in religious vocations in traditionalist communities and said young Catholics in particular were drawn to the 'sacredness, seriousness and solemnity of the liturgy.' The documentation was prepared by the Vatican department that handled traditionalist communities and its authors may have been more sympathetic to their plight. That said, even the office's retired head backed Francis when he published the 2021 crackdown. The new documents have comforted traditionalists who felt attacked and abandoned by Francis. 'The new revelations confirms that Pope Francis restricted the Traditional Mass at the request of only a minority of bishops, and against the advice of the dicastery in charge of the subject,' said Joseph Shaw, of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales. In an email, he said Leo should address the issue 'urgently.' One way Leo can do so is by merely instructing the Vatican to more freely grant exemptions to bishops to allow Latin Masses to be celebrated in diocesan parishes. Such permission was recently granted to the diocese of San Angelo, Texas, according to the Rev. Ryan Rojo, the diocesan seminarian director. In a June 27 post on X, he thanked Leo and the Vatican liturgy office for extending permission for another two years. ___ Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Reuters
17-06-2025
- Reuters
Pope Leo to escape Rome's summer heat with July stay at Castel Gandolfo
VATICAN CITY, June 17 (Reuters) - As temperatures in Rome swelter this month, reaching more than 35 degrees Celsius (95°F) under the hot Mediterranean sun, Pope Leo has decided to leave town. The pontiff will spend July 6 to 20 about an hour's drive south in Castel Gandolfo, a small hamlet on Lake Albano, the Vatican said on Tuesday. Leo, elected pope on May 8 to replace the late Pope Francis, will also return to the lakeshore for at least one weekend in August, it said. All of Leo's public and private audiences have been suspended from July 2 through July 23, the Vatican said, as was usual under Francis, to allow the pontiff a period of rest. They will restart on July 30. By going to Castel Gandolfo, Leo is restarting a summer tradition that was broken by Francis. Dozens of popes over centuries have spent the summer months at Lake Albano, where temperatures are usually about ten degrees cooler than Rome, but Francis preferred to stay in his air-conditioned Vatican residence. The Vatican has owned a papal palace and surrounding grounds in Castel Gandolfo since 1596. Spanning 55 hectares, the property includes official apartments, elaborate Renaissance-style gardens, a forest and a working dairy farm. Francis, who shunned most of the trappings of the papacy, had the official papal palace turned into a museum. Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni told Reuters the pope would not stay at the palace, which will remain a museum, and will instead stay on another Vatican property. Leo will return to Castel Gandolfo for the weekend of August 15 to 17. August 15, a Catholic feast day to celebrate Mary, the Mother of God, is an Italian public holiday. Many Italians spend that day, and much of August, at the beach.
Arab News
17-06-2025
- Arab News
Pope Leo to escape Rome's summer heat with July stay at Castel Gandolfo
VATICAN CITY: As temperatures in Rome swelter this month, reaching more than 35 degrees Celsius (95°F) under the hot Mediterranean sun, Pope Leo has decided to leave town. The pontiff will spend July 6 to 20 about an hour's drive south in Castel Gandolfo, a small hamlet on Lake Albano, the Vatican said on Tuesday. Leo, elected pope on May 8 to replace the late Pope Francis, will also return to the lakeshore for at least one weekend in August, it said. All of Leo's public and private audiences have been suspended from July 2 through July 23, the Vatican said, as was usual under Francis, to allow the pontiff a period of rest. They will restart on July 30. By going to Castel Gandolfo, Leo is restarting a summer tradition that was broken by Francis. Dozens of popes over centuries have spent the summer months at Lake Albano, where temperatures are usually about ten degrees cooler than Rome, but Francis preferred to stay in his air-conditioned Vatican residence. The Vatican has owned a papal palace and surrounding grounds in Castel Gandolfo since 1596. Spanning 55 hectares, the property includes official apartments, elaborate Renaissance-style gardens, a forest and a working dairy farm. Francis, who shunned most of the trappings of the papacy, had the official papal palace turned into a museum. Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni told Reuters the pope would not stay at the palace, which will remain a museum, and will instead stay on another Vatican property. Leo will return to Castel Gandolfo for the weekend of August 15 to 17. August 15, a Catholic feast day to celebrate Mary, the Mother of God, is an Italian public holiday. Many Italians spend that day, and much of August, at the beach.
New York Times
09-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
What's in a Name? In the Case of Leo XIV, Lessons in Bridging Historical Shifts
What's in a name? A lot it turns out. Matteo Bruni, a Vatican spokesman, told reporters on Thursday that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost's choice to be called Pope Leo XIV had been a clear and deliberate reference to the last Leo, who led during a difficult time for the Roman Catholic Church and helped marshal it into the modern world. Leo XIII — who was head of the church from 1878 to 1903, one of the longest reigns in papal history — is known for his 1891 encyclical 'Rerum Novarum,' which strongly defended the rights of working people to a living wage and set the tone for the church's modern social doctrine. He became known as the 'pope of the workers.' 'Addressing the rising socialist threat — as the church saw it in the late 19th century,' Leo XIII 'called on the church to reach out to a working class and to basically try to ameliorate some of these goals of capitalism and to benefit the working class and work out a amicable relationship between capital and labor,' said David I. Kertzer, a professor at Brown University whose book 'Prisoner of the Vatican' examined the role of Leo XIII's predecessor, Pius IX, the last sovereign ruler of the Papal States. 'In that sense,' Leo XIII is 'seen as a kind of connection between the pre-modern and the modern church.' 'The choice of name is a moderate reference, in that Leo XIII was a pre-modern pope and conservative in many ways, but he was also a transitional figure reaching out to the poor,' said Professor Kertzer. 'You could say he was a middle-of-the-roader.' The selection of the name Leo XIV 'seems like a choice of following Francis, but taking the edges off,' he added. Leo XIII was a strong pope who was 'very much engaged in the issues of his time,' said Robert Orsi, a professor of religious studies and history at Northwestern University. 'He responded with authority and compassion to the industrial era' and defended workers' rights and labor organizations. Choosing to be called Leo XIV could signal the new pope's intention 'to equally engage the issues of his time,' Professor Orsi said. Pope Leo XIV referred to the notion of a global church open to the world in his first address to the faithful on Thursday, which Professor Orsi said might be a signal 'that he'll be challenging resurgent nationalism everywhere in the world.' Mr. Bruni, the Vatican spokesman, said that choosing the name of a pope associated with the church's modern doctrine 'was clearly a reference to the lives of men and women, to their work — even in an age marked by artificial intelligence.' Leo XIII began his reign with the papacy having lost its temporal power when the Papal States it had ruled for hundreds of years were annexed by a unifying Italy in 1870. He sought to reinforce that the role retained a moral authority that reached beyond national borders, said Roberto Rusconi, a church historian. Mr. Rusconi added that Leo XIII had also deepened devotion to the Virgin Mary, writing 11 encyclicals on the rosary, the cycle of prayers invoking Mary that Catholics count out on rosary beads. Leo XIV recited the rosary at the end of his first address Thursday. Leo XIII was the first pope to appear on film. He founded the Vatican Observatory, a research institute, as a signal of the church's openness to science. 'It must be clear that the Church and its pastors do not oppose true and sound science, both human and divine, but that they embrace, encourage and promote it with all possible commitment,' he wrote.
