Sexual revolution in the Vatican. John Paul II Institute stormed and humiliated

"Stormed and humiliated." - The rebuilding of the John Paul II Institute by Francis and the "sexual revolution in the Vatican"

The theologian Andrea Grillo, staunch Bergoglianist, has revealed in a commentary "the plan behind the incredible appointments" (Il Timone) at the head of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, which were made on Wednesday by Pope Francis.

The reshuffles mean a realignment of the international centre, established by Pope John Paul II which was for 25 years a guardian and supporter "of the authentic Magisterium of the Church" in the area of marriage and family. The intervention of Pope Francis is the application of the “hermeneutics of rupture” of Vatican II alleged by Pope Benedict to that institution and to moral theology in general, and, in particular, the overcoming of the doctrinal heritage of sexuality, life and family of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II", according to the Catholic monthly magazine, Il Timone.

"Familiaris Consortio" was yesterday, today is "Amoris Laetitia"

The serious personal intervention suggests that not only the Post-Synodal Exhortation Familiaris Consortio of Pope John Paul II but also the prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae of Pope Paul VI are to be affected.

Pierangelo Sequeri was appointed as the new director and Curial Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia made the new Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Institute. Outstanding representatives of Catholic marriage and family teaching such as Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, Cardinal Angelo Scola and Msgr. Livio Melina, who have led the Institute in succession since its founding, are now followed by Sequeri. "The transition is large, strong and surprising, especially because it is carried out in parallel with some general developments in recent years," said Grillo.

The John Paul II Institute was founded in 1981, the same year in which Familiaris Consortio was published and is directly related to this. It was founded at the request of the then-Pope to study and deepen the theology and philosophy of marriage and the family, which was visible as a priority of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II.

The headquarters is located at the Lateran University in Rome. Additional offices are located in the USA, Benin, Brazil, India, Mexico, Spain and Australia.

In these 35 years, thousands of theologians, bishops, priests, professors and pastors were formed in the area of "theology and anthropology of marriage". The approach according to Grillo has been very "classic", and quickly acquired a strong apologetic profile and experienced after the encyclical Veritatis Splendor of 1994, the "gradual accentuation of moral maximalism, which strongly affected the work of the past 20 years."

Conflicting positions between Pope Francis and the Pontifical Institute

What has happened in the past three years since the end of the pontificate of Benedict XVI was decisive for the most recent development. The tones between “Church, which goes out" desired by Pope Francis and the Institute were always rough.

The culmination of the tensions began with the preparation of the Synod of Bishops on the Family when the conviction prevailed at the Institute that Pope Francis shared the theses of Cardinal Kasper and was beginning to make a change in the course of Catholic moral teaching.

Professors of the first rank of the institute positioned themselves openly against Kasper "openings". The result was that Pope Francis appointed no representative of the Institute as synod member or as observer. The "in-house" experts most qualified in matters relating to marriage and the family were excluded from the Synod. The marginalization by the Pope reinforced the already existing fears. Even outside observers who could not avoid seeing the overlooking of the Institute by Francis, saw this as a decision of the Pope in the direction of favouring the Kasper theses.

Grillo must dig deep into his rhetorical tricks to find a "small scandal", which should serve as a noose for the previous director. The priest and moral theologian, Livio Melina, since 2006 at the head of the Institute, wrote a critique of the papal document shortly before the official presentation of the post-synodal letter Amoris Laetitia by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and distributed it to the students of the Institute. Following the publication of post-synodal letter on April 8, several courses followed that critically dealt with the controversial Exhortation. The Institute was represented with positions in open contradiction to the papal "openings". An attitude that was certainly not received well at the highest level.

"Too maximalist"

Monsignor Melina who did his doctorate at the Gregorian University in Cardinal Caffarra and worked for several years under the direction of Cardinal Ratzinger at the CDF before he was appointed to the Pontifical John Paul II Institute, Is one of the world's most important Catholic moral theologians and bioethicists. His positions appear to be no longer in demand in the Vatican.

Bergoglianists such as Grillo already turned up their nose to the Institute in the past two years because it is "too maximalist" and regard Familiaris Consortio as " a Pillar of Heracles". To justify the papal intervention, Grillo now make the accusation that adhesion to Familiaris Consortio in terms of theology of marriage had taken "in recent months, an almost pathological form".

The defence of the sacrament of marriage and the Church's moral teaching was not only reviled by him as a "quasi-pathology" but also presented as an "aberration”. The appointment of Pierangelo Sequeri has " rightly put an end" to this. To quote Grillo: "After a phase of 35 years, which began with Familiaris Consortio, a new phrase opens symbolically a few months after Amoris Laetitia. Not without continuity with the good that has been done, but not without a break with all limitations of this experience. "

The new director

The new director Pierangelo Sequeri comes from the clergy of the Archdiocese of Milan. Ordained in 1968, Sequeri is older than Melina who has been dismissed. The fundamental theologian Sequeri was primarily known as a musician, including through his cooperation with the music group Gen Verde of the Focolare Movement. 

The Music of Father Sequeri- which has all the quality of his theology....

Since 2010, he has been part of the international Medjugorje inquiry commission set up by Benedict XVI and has been Rector of the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy since 2012. He has had previously nothing to do with the Pontifical John Paul II Institute.

Gen Verde in action

The line to be expected from the new director is evident from the anthology "Family and Church" (Famiglia e Chiesa, LEV, 2015). The new Grand Chancellor, Archbishop Curia Vincenzo Paglia, in his capacity of President of the Pontifical Family Council undertook in Spring 2015 three seminars on the topic of the Synod. The speakers were in the narrow and broad sense invariably Kasperians. Their presentations supported the "openings" in view of the crucial Synod of Bishops in October 2015 and were published as a collection by the Vatican Press. The defenders of the Church's moral teaching, whether Cardinals or Synod members, had to seek publishers for their publications themselves.

The contribution of Sequeris includes "a small, large program, for at least the next 20 years of the Institute," said Grillo with pleasure. "It has changed course, left the harbour, and is sailing on the open sea. The captain knows the course and is not afraid. Not only the ecclesiastical but also the secular family culture will benefit which is perhaps as necessary. Even to speak to this culture has suddenly become possible again." With these words Grillo celebrates the papal attack which Francis made with a stroke of a pen on a "fortress of the sacrament of marriage and moral teaching "(Cardinal Caffarra), which had stood for 35 years.

Il Timone says that Pope Francis "stormed and humiliated" the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in order to enforce "the sexual revolution in the Vatican." The real "revolution" of Pope Francis is done by appointment.

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