Cardinal asks moratorium on new Vatican documents

Rome, Dec. 22 (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Godfriend Danneels of Brussels has asked for a limitation on the documents and instructions produced by the Holy See.

Cardinal Danneels spoke of the "perpetual flow of paper" from Vatican bureaus to the world's bishops. "We need a moment of calm," he remarked, in an interview with the Italian monthly 30 Giorni.

"We are always inundated with very long documents, instructions, and manuals," the cardinal complained. "The deluge of documents that come from Roman dicasteries with an authoritative character, the norms-- which come without any organization which would indicate to us which are important and which are less so." The result, he said, is that diocesan bishops spend much of their time relaying messages from Rome to their own diocesan agencies.

Cardinal Danneels suggested "a moratorium on that all, to promote simplication." A break in the flow of documents from Rome, he said, would provide "a moment of calm, to catch our breath."

Questioned about the intense focus on the Pope as the head of the Church, the cardinal remarked that the mass media coverage is "concentrated on a personality, a detail, divorced from its context." While that is a common tendency of contemporary culture, he argued that "the identification of a role and a particular personality is not a good thing."

The only way to counteract that tendency, he suggested, is by "the humility of the man himself." As an example of that humility, he cited Pope John Paul XXIII.

Cardinal Danneels argued that during the second millennium of Christianity, the papacy was modeled after the national monarchies, especially those of Europe. In the future, he said, that model should be dropped, so that the Church "emphasizes the essential characteristics of the Petrine ministry."

Ah yes, this from the cardinal who did nothing to stop the complete destruction of the faith at the seminary at Louvain...

Perhaps if the documents were read and followed, there would not be such a need for so many? The good cardinal speaks of the "perpetual flow of paper" from the Vatican, yet this is the only way many of the faithful can be nourished since far too many times bishops and priests neglect to pass this information on. These "papers" from Rome are a welcome relief from the "perpetual flow of heresy and heterodoxy" that flows from the mouths of the dissenters.

I think that all we need to do is to take a close look at the state of the faith in his country to determine to what extent we should heed his advice on this matter.