- Feb 5, 2002
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Last year I wrote a piece that respectfully argued that the Holy Father does not understand the Church in the United States. I wish I could say I was wrong, but the piece has held up. Pope Francis does not seem to understand the Church in the United States, especially its relationship to Vatican II. A recent interview from his diplomatic representative to the United States, His Eminence Cardinal Christophe Pierre, appears to shed some light on the Holy Father’s misperceptions.
In a recent interview with America Magazine, Cardinal Pierre claimed, “there are some priests and religious and bishops [in the United States] who are terribly against Francis as if he was the scapegoat for all the failures of the church or society.” He went on to say, “We are in the church at a change of epoch. People don’t understand it. And this may be the reason why most of the young priests today dream about wearing the cassock and celebrating Mass in the traditional (pre-Vatican II] way.”
Earlier in the interview he focused on the experience of South America, especially as expressed in the Aparecida document that forged a new way for the Church to evangelize, which Cardinal Pierre said was “invented” not by then Cardinal Bergolio (now Pope Francis), who was the president of the drafting committee, but by the Holy Spirit. Cardinal Pierre claimed the bishops of South America and Mexico, “developed a kind of dynamic of working together and looking for solutions together, to evangelize better, which is what the synod [on synodality] is all about. Nothing else: Better evangelization. And they accompanied the people in their suffering, in their difficulties, and their challenges.” He went on to claim that the bishops of the United States were wholly ignorant of this extraordinary development occurring south of them, implying that the Church here in the U.S. is less evangelical than in Mexico and South America.
Continued below.
whatweneednow.substack.com
In a recent interview with America Magazine, Cardinal Pierre claimed, “there are some priests and religious and bishops [in the United States] who are terribly against Francis as if he was the scapegoat for all the failures of the church or society.” He went on to say, “We are in the church at a change of epoch. People don’t understand it. And this may be the reason why most of the young priests today dream about wearing the cassock and celebrating Mass in the traditional (pre-Vatican II] way.”
Earlier in the interview he focused on the experience of South America, especially as expressed in the Aparecida document that forged a new way for the Church to evangelize, which Cardinal Pierre said was “invented” not by then Cardinal Bergolio (now Pope Francis), who was the president of the drafting committee, but by the Holy Spirit. Cardinal Pierre claimed the bishops of South America and Mexico, “developed a kind of dynamic of working together and looking for solutions together, to evangelize better, which is what the synod [on synodality] is all about. Nothing else: Better evangelization. And they accompanied the people in their suffering, in their difficulties, and their challenges.” He went on to claim that the bishops of the United States were wholly ignorant of this extraordinary development occurring south of them, implying that the Church here in the U.S. is less evangelical than in Mexico and South America.
Continued below.
The Vatican Does Not Understand the Church in the United States
Jayd Henricks examines the claims in Cardinal Pierre's recent interview about the American church
whatweneednow.substack.com
