09 October 2007

Not a conspiracy, after all...

An update from Fr. Z. on the Mystery of the Misplaced Latin Adverb in the motu proprio:

Here is what we can surmise.


Some days before the official release of the Motu Proprio, the USCCB received a text through the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington D.C. Below, in the comments, you can see I posted a screen shot showing that USCCB’s pdf is dated 6 July. After the official release of the Motu Proprio on 7 July, it was found that the document distributed the the world’s bishops through the Nunciatures had discrepencies. One of those was the one I identified between continenter (in the official release on 7 July and on the Holy See website) and stabiliter (on the USCCB site from the text the Nunciature gave them). So, it seems that the problem actually originates NOT with the USCCB but probably with the way the Holy See sent out the document. When dicasteries want to distribute documents to the world’s bishops, they send through through the Secretariate of State’s diplomatic mail bag. Sometime between the time the text of Summorum Pontificum was sent to the bishops through the Nunciatures and 7 July when the document was released, there were changes made to the text. You might remember that just before 7 July, the Holy Father met with a group of bishops from around the world. It was said at that time that some changes were made.

I think this is what explains the discrepancy.

This is not a conspiracy to undermine the implementation of Summorum Pontificum. If anything, this merely reveals some not insignificant flaws in the communication process between dicasteries of the Holy See, the Nuniciatures and the bishops. In this day of rapid communication, this is deeply disturbing. However, this is a matter of lousy lines of communication, not conspiracy.

See. Told ya so.

1 comment:

  1. It also is an opportunity for education. Given the mis-reading of the "stable" group, there is an unexpected opportunity to correct the inappropriate interpretation that fits the bias of many who are resistant to the MP. In fact, the change points out how important the difference in meaning actually is.

    God works in mysterious ways - even in mistakes in Church communications. :)

    ReplyDelete