Good Friday sermon: Eighty-six year old Cardinal decries the politics practiced by Catholic Church hierarchy, like that in America, that lead to divisions

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Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa 

… referring to you and your minions, Charles Chaput. 

The man is called the “preacher of the papal household,” and he has been preaching to popes for the past 41 years. 

Now 86, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa ripped into the hierarchy and others who fail to follow the words of Jesus Christ, who death occurred on Good Friday. He believes that the Catholic Church has been severely damaged by that, and he said so in St. Peter’s Basilica, in front of Pope Francis and a small crowd of just 150 people because of Covid limitations. 

Divisions hurting “Christ’s tunic”

The church is terribly divided philosophically, and that goes back to the two previous popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, who appointed only those who agreed with their extreme conservative positions. JPII tried to do everything in his power to undo the reforms of Vatican II, and by appointing these far-right people to positions in the hierarchy, he accomplished some of that goal.

This is what Cardinal Cantalamessa was referring to in his sermon,

As Pope Francis presided over the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion, the preacher of the papal household called on bishops and all Catholics to examine their consciences for ways they may be harming the unity of the Catholic Church.

Francis presided over the liturgy April 2 at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter's Basilica, but as is customary, the preacher of the papal household, Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, gave the homily as the pope and more than two dozen cardinals listened.

"Fraternity among Catholics is wounded," the cardinal said. "Divisions between churches have torn Christ's tunic to shreds, and worse still, each shredded strip has been cut up into even smaller snippets."

Cindy Wooden, “Cardinal, at pope's Good Friday service, decries divisions within church,” Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporters, April 2, 2021

No one could really rip away the tunic

The cardinal who is an Italian who was elevated by Pope Francis, said that these “bitter divisions” were hurting the church, though God will prevail,

Cantalamessa clarified that he was speaking "of the human element of it, because no one will ever be able to tear the true tunic of Christ, his mystical body animated by the Holy Spirit. In God's eyes, the church is 'one, holy, catholic and apostolic' and will remain so until the end of the world."

God's protection of the Catholic Church, he said, "does not excuse our divisions," but makes them even more worthy of condemnation and should inspire greater efforts to heal the divisions.

"The most common cause of the bitter divisions among Catholics," the 86-year-old cardinal said, "is not dogma, nor is it the sacraments and ministries — none of the things that by God's singular grace we fully and universally preserve."

Instead, he said, "the divisions that polarize Catholics stem from political options that grow into ideologies taking priority over religious and ecclesial considerations and leading to complete abandonment of the value and the duty of obedience in the church."

"This is sin in its primal meaning," said Cantalamessa.”

Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service, April 2, 2021

A veiled jab at the MAGA American hierarchy?

While Pope Francis is remaking the hierarchy in America, and since retirements are taking away quite a few of them, the fact remains that JPII and Benedict had about 35 years to stock the shelves with the far-right “traditionalists,” who are anything but since the tradition of the past 56+ years has been Vatican II. 

He, in fact, called them “diabolos,” meaning dividers,

When support for political candidates, parties or policies are given priority over building up the kingdom of God and the unity of his body, the church, it is time for "a serious examination of conscience" and conversion, he said.

"Fomenting division is the work par excellence of the one whose name is 'diabolos' that is, the divider, the enemy who sows weeds, as Jesus referred to him in the parable" in Matthew's Gospel.

Catholic bishops and priests "need to be the first to make a serious examination of conscience," the cardinal said. "They need to ask themselves where it is that they are leading their flocks — to their position or Jesus' position."

The Catholic Church is called to be a force for the unity of all Christians, he said, and so Catholics must pray and work for the peace and unity Jesus willed for his disciples.

Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service, April 2, 2021

So, on this Good Friday, Catholics must realize that the church is terribly divided and has fallen away from the basic tenets expressed by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. 

Much of this is due to the fact that the hierarchy supports immoral, amoral, and un-Christian people like Donald Trump — as long as they claim to be opposed to abortion. 

Those like Charles Chaput, who claims to be a “traditionalist” but is making the church in his image, and not in God’s.

Remember, too, that the word abortion of the life of a fetus is never mentioned in either the old or new testaments.