Vatican newspaper op-ed: Pope Francis has made Paul VI’s concerns his own
August 06, 2013
On the eve of the 35th anniversary of Venerable Paul VI’s death, L’Osservatore Romano published an op-ed piece by a French Benedictine who finds “major poles of Montini’s pontificate echoed in the words and approaches of Pope Francis.”
Father Patrice Mahieu, a monk of Solesmes since 1959 and author of Paul VI and the Orthodox, said that Pope Paul’s priorities included a Church reform and renewal dependent upon “the personal conversion of her members,” a dialogue of life and salvation with the modern world, and the restoration of Christian unity.
He concluded:
Is it unrealistic to think that the Orthodox Churches might agree to accept Rome as a center of unity, and that Rome, drawing inspiration from the first millennium, might actually set in place a differentiated and modified form of this ministry of unity? Paul VI’s intuitions are still truly up to date.
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Posted by: mario.f.leblanc5598 -
Aug. 06, 2013 9:10 AM ET USA
Thanks for this interesting and inspiring item, but be sure to note Paul VI died 35 years ago, not 45. Regards.
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Posted by: jg23753479 -
Aug. 06, 2013 7:59 AM ET USA
Will Francis also make his the reiteration of constant Christian teaching that is at the heart of Humanae Vitae? Rejection of this teaching -- especially by Catholics -- is the reason for the recent moral disasters involving public acceptance of sodomy, unnatural conception, and the destruction of marriage generally.
