The transition from Shrove Tuesday’s festivities into Ash Wednesday’s fasting can often be stark and somewhat unsettling, serving as a time of change on many levels in the Church.
As my Catholic Herald colleague Clement Harrold wrote, the good news of Christianity cannot be understood without “the recognition that there is something wrong with us”, a recognition which forces personal change during Lent.
Over the past few days in Rome, this stark change and consequent inner reflection have been notable in varied ways.
First, the Vatican Secretary of State issued a cold, clear rebuttal to the American invitation to join President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace for Gaza.
The Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other states,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin informed journalists on Monday.
Instead, he “insisted” that the United Nations be the body “that manages these crisis situations”, although the Board is required to report its activity to the UN.
The White House received it poorly, with the (Catholic) press secretary Karoline Leavitt replying: “I think it’s deeply unfortunate. I don’t think that peace should be partisan or political or controversial.”
With the decision now made, the Holy See’s diplomatic influence in the region may suffer, with Trump likely to take the view that the Vatican turned down its chance to have a meaningful input into the future of the Holy Land and surrounding area. Yet this view is not shared by all.
The Holy See’s de facto point man in the region, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, has firmly criticised Trump’s endeavour.
“I think it is a colonialist operation: others deciding for the Palestinians,” said the Italian cardinal earlier this month.
Closer to home, St Peter’s Basilica is gearing up for its 400th anniversary of consecration later this year, with a wide range of new visitor features and tourist-tempting options designed to highlight the basilica, or generate more footfall and increased revenue, depending on one’s point of view.
For locals and pilgrims, though, the one simple thing Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of the Basilica, could do to effect change in the Vatican would be to overturn the March 2021 note which controversially banned nearly all of the private Masses which had hitherto been the daily norm.
While no such welcome reinstatement of the private Masses is yet on the cards, one positive step was the return of a Pope leading the Ash Wednesday procession from the Benedictine church of Sant’Anselmo to the Dominican church of Santa Sabina.
With Pope Francis wheelchair bound and then in hospital for the last few such events, Leo’s first Ash Wednesday procession saw a pope once more on the streets in his diocese – a sight Romans are particularly keen to witness, and whose importance should not be overlooked.
Leo also signalled great continuity with his predecessor last Saturday when he confirmed a large swathe of cardinal members of the Dicastery for Bishops, along with appointing Sister Simona Brambilla, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, as a member. Both elements are immensely significant.
The former demonstrates continued roles at the Vatican for cardinals such as Parolin and Fernández, about whose future in Rome under Leo speculation had been growing.
Both men, though serving the Holy See for greatly varying lengths of time, can be linked to the most pivotal elements of Pope Francis’s pontificate and legacy, hence the intrigue regarding their future under Leo.
The latter revealed that Leo is likely to continue the innovation made by Pope Francis of having women hold leading curial roles, something defended this week by Leo’s predecessor in the Dicastery for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who wrote passionately – and arguably under orders – on the subject for Vatican News.
But all that aside, once again relations between the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) and the Holy See are the chief news item of the week.
As expected, SSPX Superior General Fr Davide Pagliarani issued his prompt reply to Cardinal Fernández – a rejection of the dialogue under the terms outlined.
Pagliarani penned the striking line: “We both know in advance that we cannot agree doctrinally, particularly regarding the fundamental orientations adopted since the Second Vatican Council.”
While Fernández’s statement after the meeting last week had hinted at “dialogue” over the levels of assent given to the Second Vatican Council, the SSPX rejoined that the official response on the documents had already been given by the Holy See in controversial texts such as Traditionis Custodes, Evangelii Gaudium or Amoris Laetitia.
Pointing to this divergence on “doctrine”, Pagliarani thus sought to lobby Fernández in the name of “charity towards souls and towards the Church”, mentioning how “neither of us wishes to reopen wounds” – a veiled request for the Holy See not to make any declaration of excommunication following the SSPX’s episcopal consecrations.
If Lent is meant to be a time of self-reflection and challenge, then it has without doubt become thus for Leo.
The SSPX have chosen to be forthright; rather than dialoguing for months before the likely breakdown of negotiations, they have decided to make their position known now.
Leo has five months to decide what to do, and his response to the Society will arguably define the course of his pontificate.
On the one hand, he has the Society asking for bishops so that they may serve their faithful out of “charity towards souls”, defending this request by highlighting what they see as hypocrisy in the Holy See’s response to China unilaterally appointing bishops yet denying the Society their own bishops.
Yet on the other hand, the SSPX have raised doctrinal questions about Vatican II and also about Pope Francis.
For Leo XIV, Vatican II is the crux of his pontificate. If he allows such questions to remain unrebuked, he may fear for the authority of his papacy, while also casting an instant judgment on his predecessor’s legacy.
Regardless of one’s position for or against the Society, the doctrinal concerns they raise in the documents mentioned above are those shared by many Catholics, and thus Leo’s next move will have significant implications for the Church at large.