Cardinal Georges Cottier recently retired as the theologian of the papal household.
But why would the pope need a theologian? I mean, isn’t it the pope’s job to be a theologian–a top theologian?
Well, yes. But there’s something a lot of folks don’t realize:
The papal theologian’s main task is to vet the many thousands of words prepared by Vatican aides for the pope to speak or publish. He checks for statements of dubious theology and otherwise hazardous phrases that could come back to haunt the pope.
"People have to understand that nowadays the pope is obliged to make so many speeches and send so many messages that he needs a lot of collaborators to prepare them," Cardinal Cottier said. "The theologian of the papal household is charged with reading all these texts and give(s) a theological opinion on them."
Cardinal Cottier said that given the number of papal speeches, sermons, messages, prayers, telegrams and other documents it would be impossible for the pope to write them all. The cardinal said he worked daily with the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, going over the papal texts prepared by others.
The fact that many papal addresses are written by others is something that many people don’t realize, and it’s one of the reasons that they don’t have as much weight as documents prepared in a more careful and deliberate manner–like encyclicals and apostolic constitutions. Even the latter are often ghosted in whole or in part by others, but in their cases the pope and his advisors spend a lot of time going over them meticulously before they are issued. In the case of things like Wednesday audiences and speeches to particular groups, the process is much more informal–hence the need for the papal theologian to serve as censor.
I remember reading that John Paul I once gave an improvised speech (he often improvised) in which he said something like: “Can a mother ever forget her own child? But even if she did, God would never forget His children”, and theologians all over the world began wondering whether it was a reference to some old female-God theories, before JPI, surprised by the reaction, told them it was just a metaphor. I suppose that’s the kind of things theologian-prepared speeches are meant to prevent.
That sounds exactly right, Nihil. It’s very easy to get taken out of context. I’m worried about people getting the wrong impression from this catholic blog post (link below). On the surface it looks like a priest who is giving a homily to the pope, is backing up Sola Fides, not to mention the Catholic author of the blog article: http://catholicnewsandviews.blogspot.com/2006/01/faith-alone-required-for-salvation.html
They are not pro-Sola Fides–at least they would say so–but I don’t think the blog author sees how people can get this impression from those selective quotes AND the title of her post. If only someone would have combed through that homily before excerpts could be published out of context.
Wow, I had no idea that encyclicals are often ghosted. That kinda sucks.
+J.M.J+
Nihil: The speech to which you refer was JP1’s Angelus address of September 10, 1978. I’ve only been able to find the Italian text online at the Vatican website; this url will take you there:
http://tinyurl.com/897oj
You can try to translate it thru Babelfish, but it comes out a bit stilted. (I may still have the English translation of the text from _The Pope Speaks_ somewhere around this black hole I affectionately call “my house,” 🙂 but have no idea where it is).
Anyway, here’s the essence of the speech. JP1 was commenting on the recent Camp David talks, and he mentions that Sadat, Begin and Carter had all mentioned God. Carter had cited Jesus’ words about how a sparrow doesn’t fall without the Father knowing, and Menachem Begin had cited Isaiah 49:15, where God is compared to a mother.
The pope then said about God, “He is father, moreover he is mother” (E’ papà ; più ancora è madre). He was indeed speaking metaphorically, since the Isaiah passage he cited is a metaphor.
I’ll keep looking for an English translation of the entire speech online.
Ignatian Spirit writes:
>>>Wow, I had no idea that encyclicals are often ghosted. That kinda sucks.
Well, I kinda knew it because I read long ago that Pius XI’s anti-Nazi encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge (sp?) was ghostwritten by Eugenio Pacelli – who went on to become Pius XII!
In Jesu et Maria,
+J.M.J+
Well, after a lot of digging I finally found an English translation:
http://tinyurl.com/cgx25
It’s not exactly the same as the official translation I have somewhere, but it seems basically accurate. When he says “God is Father, even more, is mother” it doesn’t mean that God is “more mother than father” (as I heard one person misinterpret it). Rather it’s more like a “moreover” statement: God is our Father, moreover, He also has a maternal quality (see Catechism #239 & #370).
In Jesu et Maria,
“The fact that many papal addresses are written by others is something that many people don’t realize, and it’s one of the reasons that they don’t have as much weight as documents prepared in a more careful and deliberate manner–like encyclicals and apostolic constitutions.”
I very much doubt this bit about original authorship and levels of authority. If a group of Cardinals brought a Pope a surprise proposed definition of Mary as Co-Redemptorix and he signed off on it with a light comment like, “Yeah, I always liked that doctrine: Core Dumptrucks or whatever,” it would be just as infallible as a document labored over by the Pontiff through many a sleepless night.
Mutatis mutandis, an address to a convention of meat-packers or a homily for a Mass at some Roman parish would have the same level of authority (not too much) whether it was ghost-written or penned with the blood of the Pope’s own heart.
Rosemarie: Thanks for the links – fortunately I’m Italian so I can read the original. While more theology-savvy people might prefer JP2 and B16’s kind of speeches, the one you linked seems a good example of why JP1 was very liked by the “simplices” – he indeed talked like a parish priest at a small town Mass.
Jeff: Damn you, you owe me a coffee-stained screen with your “Core-Dumptrucks” 😀