“That was some weird s–t,” former US President George W. Bush is reported to have said of Donald Trump’s 2017 inaugural. Well, what happened on Monday was weird, too.
I’m not talking about the document the Vatican released, to some fanfare and quite a bit of trepidation, on human dignity. In and of itself, Dignitas infinita is just fine. Good enough for government work, as the saying goes, that’s just what the document was. It restated—not to say “regurgitated”—magisterial statements in its strongest points and kept the fluff and babble to tolerable levels, if not exactly a minimum.
If an upper-level undergrad had written the document for me as a term paper, I’d give it a solid C+, maybe a B-.
Basically, it was some throat-clearing exercises followed by copious rehearsal. “Connect-the-quotes” is not unfair, but the quotes were good and the organization solid. The grader should appreciate the deft use of section headings, which save a good deal of space and help keep the reader in the flow of the document.
The weird stuff came at the presser for Dignitas infinita, which I watched from afar, and from the commentariat.
Been there, done that, but I would have liked the chance to buy the commemorative t-shirt for Monday’s press conference. The Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Victor Manuel Fernandez, opened with a good three minutes on the other declaration, Fiducia supplicans, which caused a major ruckus just before Christmas last year with its novel theories about blessings and particularly its sanctioning of blessings for same-sex couples.
Fernandez said Fiducia supplicans wasn’t very important. He said it a couple of times, at least, in a three-minutes’ prefatory jag during a presentation that was supposed to be about something else.
That was weird.
In the Q and A session after the set pieces—there are almost always prepared speeches, “interventions” or “relations” as they’re styled in the Italianate argot of the Vatican, and they’re almost always very long—Fernandez said he hadn’t planned on saying anything about Fiducia supplicans but let himself be talked into saying something.
“With all the casino that there’s been [over Fiducia supplicans],” Fernandez said, “it would seem strange to say not even a word [about it].” Casino isn’t exactly a technical term, either. It is a colloquialism not to be confused with casinò, a gambling establishment, but a brothel or bawdy house (hence the kind of mess one finds in such places).
That was weird, too.
Fernandez did mention that Fiducia supplicans has been viewed digitally over seven billion times and garnered a 65% approval rating among the under-35yo crowd, before expressing the hope that Dignitas may perform as well in the polls.
So, that happened.
If that reminds you of Trump touting his “great ratings” while his sclerotic and dysfunctional presidency disintegrated all around him, well, let me just say you’re not alone.
“This Declaration,” Fernandez said in his preface to Dignitas infinita, “does not set out to exhaust such a rich and crucial subject,” but instead aims “to offer some points for reflection that can help us maintain an awareness of human dignity amid the complex historical moment in which we are living.”
Fine.
Only, when he fielded a question about how the document is to be received, he quoted from the Code of Canon Law: “[A] religious submission of the intellect and will must be given to a doctrine which the Supreme Pontiff or the college of bishops declares concerning faith or morals when they exercise the authentic magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim it by definitive act[.]”
That raises a question: How does one assent to a reflection?
Fernandez then went on a several minutes’ riff, accusing unnamed cardinals and bishops of calling Pope Francis a heretic and saying we can safely ignore him—or any pope—so long as he is not speaking ex cathedra, that is speaking in exercise of his official, public, universal and dogmatic teaching authority.
“When we become priests or bishops,” Fernandez said after reading another passage—the second one from Lumen gentium—analogous to the text of canon 752 from the Code, “or when they give us a job to do in the Church, we have to make a profession of faith and take an oath, in which we say that we give this openness [It. accoglienza] of the intellect and will even when there is no intention to proclaim these truths in a definitive way.”
“We swore,” Fernandez said, “though some bishops—among them some cardinals—who treat the pope like a heretic, who say that what Francis said is against the tradition of the Church, it seems that they have not made this oath, no?”
Near as I can tell from what followed, all that had to do with yet another controversial document from earlier in Francis’s pontificate, Amoris laetitia. There’s no reason to rehash any of that business here. Suffice it to say that Fernandez had lots else on his mind besides the “very much more important” Dignitas infinita.
The most noteworthy line from the presser—and the most powerfully suggestive, if not telling—was the one Fernandez spoke about Francis’s pontificate being insignificant, if the premises of his critics are sound.
“Pope Francis won’t ever speak ex cathedra,” Fernandez said. “He won’t want to create a new dogma of the faith—not for anything—nor [will he make] a definitive declaration,” Fernandez said. “I hope I’m not mistaken,” he said, “but I am just about 100% sure.”
“So,” Fernandez continued, “will it have served nothing, that Pope Francis should have been for eleven years the Supreme Pontiff?”
Make of that what you will.
Basically, Dignitas infinita should go squarely in the “W” column for Catholics worried that it was going to be the seal of moral revolution in the Church’s official teaching on major life issues. Whatever Dignitas infinita is, it isn’t that.
At the presser, Fernandez declared several times that Fiducia supplicans basically doesn’t count, or at least isn’t worth fighting over. That, too, is a major victory Fernandez handed to the folks who didn’t like it. Fernandez’s fumbling was not anywhere near Biden-level befuddlement, but on the whole his performance was not exactly a masterclass in rhetoric, either.
None of that mattered to those on the internet who decided to quibble over the title of the document rather than take the big wins the day gave them.
Their beef appears to be with the expression, “infinite dignity,” attributed to human nature. Only God possesses infinite dignity, the broad contours of the critique runs.
Before you non-professional Catholics have your eyes glaze over, suffice it to say that the notion according to which human nature has an infinite dignity insofar as Our Lord Jesus Christ assumed it in the Incarnation is not exactly innovative theological speculation, nor is it particularly daring.
There is nothing controversial about the expression.
Even if there were, the document and the presser would still be big wins for folks suspicious of Francis’s program. It appears that, true to form, Pope Francis’s implacable opponents will not be happy to take their gold-plated victory cups and go home. There will be plenty of time at home to scratch the plaiting and test what base metal it covers.
The weirdest weird of Monday’s doings was the way in which the pope’s inveterate antagonists elected to be sore winners.
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Altieri sniffed out the weirdness. Playing down Fiducia Supplicans as a preparatory for Dignitatis Infinita. And most know why Cardinal Fernandez says His Holiness will never speak ex cathedra. He doesn’t have to be effective in changing practice.
Many of us ask what exactly is human dignity? Man is created in God’s image, and with that he possesses that specific dignity and value from the moment of conception. Although the Vatican is apparently defining human dignity as a form of inherent, indelible virtue, whereas the virtues, justice, prudence, fortitude, temperance are acquired. They require effort.
Dignity is also subject to realization in our respect for human life, and realized in the manner we live our life. A life of virtue as opposed to a life of sin. Within that essential understanding human dignity ascribed to a person is a form of reverence. Blessing someone assumes that dimension of goodness in the person blessed. That is the fault of Fiducia Supplicans. Dignitatis Infinita appears an effort to validate by association Fiducia.
Right. Between the promulgation of FS and DI, Francis delivered an Angelus address which defined and taught that virtue was an essential, inherent gift from God to every human. He did not teach that some virtues are given only upon Baptism and others must be acquired, practiced, and perfected. He did not say that the obverse of virtue (vice) must be contended with, fought against, and renounced. [I recall all this from memory, so I may be wrong on certain points, but I think this is basically what Francis taught.]
As we recall year by year the mysteries by which, through the restoration of its original dignity, human nature has received the hope of rising again (Collect for today’s Mass Weds 2nd Wk of Easter).
The mind of the Church, here expressed in the Sacred Liturgy, teaches us that we lost the fullness of what was given. That we must respond to grace so as to restore that original gift won for us in Christ’s passion and resurrection.
But… The ontological dignity of the human person is not infinite – not even in an analogical sense. Not by virtue of the Incarnation; in which the Eternal Person of the Word assumed a single human nature – not all humans in their supposita. The Holy Virgin Mother of God has an “quasi-infinite” dignity (iuxta S. Tomas) by virtue of the Divine Maternity. Only the Most Holy Trinity and the Incarnate Word (by virtue of the Hypostatic Union) posesses an infinite dignity.
Is there a certain dignity of baptism in Christ, ordination to holy orders, or creation in the image of God? When an unrepentant, sinful, baptized person is condemned to hell, or a priest, or any human person, does that condemned human lose the seal of his charisma, or his humanity? Does he cease being a man created in the image of God?
I do not understaand the reason for these questions, Father; in all of which you are absolutely correct. As you state, the sacred characters of Baptism and Holy Orders are indelible – even in Hell. The ontological dignity of a human being is never lost – even in Hell. Only charity and grace, and the Divine friendship are lost, without any hope of recovery. I simply do not understand the “infinite” part, as applied to the ontological dignity of the hunan person – whether in time or eternity. Thank you for your interest.
Then we agree Carl. Although, if as you hold as I do that “The ontological dignity of a human being is never lost – even in Hell” the issue of infinity as problematic would seem to pertain to Cardinal Fernández’ concept of a laudatory or reverential form of infinite dignity for all, without exception, which is erroneous. At any rate I appreciate your civility and knowledge.
Grillo, if you mean infinite as unsurpassable you’re correct, although not in terms of time.
So,” Fernandez continued, “will it have served nothing, that Pope Francis should have been for eleven years the Supreme Pontiff?”
If Francis has served nothing for eleven years, since God is not nothing, then Francis has not served Him.
Don Quixote’s Sancho has this: A man dishonored is worse than dead.
Waxing eloquent, Chat GPT4 waxes wax: “Fernandez’s query lingers, like incense in a dimly lit cathedral. The answer, elusive as the morning mist…” is also like God’s God judgment upon another man’s soul. Only Francis will know his judgment until we learn the truth about him and ourselves at The End. God have mercy.
Fernandez speaks as an occultist. I cannot define it but, being an ex-occultist, I recognize it and the spirit behind it. I can hint: in occultism the strict observance of the rituals is left to the plebes, above them are those who practice a hidden meaning while at the top there is a realm of pure ideas which deny the hidden meaning as rubbish. Fernandes reminds me of some grandmaster who is looking down at “stupid children” saying “all is relative, do not worry, nothing really is fixed, all is fluid”. This is his message, in essence, to the Church.
What is happening: “they” are creating a collage. Imagine a huge map with various phenomena marked by some sentences which express the gist of the phenomena. For example, ‘FS’ would be marked with “blessing homosexual couples”. The current document about dignity would be marked as “sticking to a tradition” and so on. There are many phenomena on that map. It is created to satisfy almost all (in the Church and outside it) because it contains mutually exclusive statements. The Conductor (Fernandez, Pope and whoever else including parish priests who are in the game or just too tired to resist) pick up “a liberal” tune activating corresponding phenomena on the map of meaning. “Here it is, look, the liberal stuff (‘FS’) is not really important. Note that it is always the Conductor who defines what is important – not the Church, not the magisterium, not the Scriptures, not the tradition. Everyone is supposed to calm down – the Conductor says what troubled us before is not important. But please be aware that what troubled us (‘FS’) and other semi-heretical stuff was not judged or cancelled because it was heretical. No, it is still on the map, ready to be played when the Conductor deems it necessary.
The map utilized the need of a human psyche to hold on something definite. This is why some would hold on to the fact that ‘FS’ is heretical but the most would sigh with relief when the Conductor would deem it unimportant and hold on to that statement, forgetting that ‘FS’ is still there.
This is a typical postmodern collage (a preferable technique of postmodernism). It is now being upgraded via utilizing it in the realm of metaphysical, in the Church but it in fact the ancient Gnosticism which is being purified of all ritual and boiled down to the Gnosticism or heresy of the psyche which accepts no absolute values, no absolute (revealed) truth. This is why you will never hear “yes, yes and no, no” from the Conductors.
A question in response to Altieri’s final line: “inveterate antagonists,” as contrasted with invertebrate protagonists?
We read: “[Cardinal] Fernandez did mention that Fiducia supplicans […] garnered a 65% approval rating among the under-35yo crowd, before expressing the hope that Dignitas may perform as well in the polls.”
“Perform,” “the polls”?
We’ve been assured that overall synodality is “not a parliament;” but now we hear from the prefect of the DDC that his final documents gain stature when sorta ratified by “the polls.” A selective plebiscite? By discounting other age groups–and an entire continent and other conferences of bishops as a “special case”…the new “periphery”?
Not a parliament? So now what, pray tell? You just can’t get good help these days.
Let me guess. You hate Trump. Got it. Now you can evict him from your head, where he apparently has been living rent free. Of course, with your certified anti-Trump card punched you will still be able to hang out with the right crowd.
Two points:
#1. Altieri ought to stop with his juvenile references to Trump. They simply distract, are irrelevant and misplaced, and run the risk of making his central thesis fall on its face. For his snide political swipes at Trump, I’d grade this piece by Altieri if he’d submitted it as an essay to me as his college professor, as a C-.
#2. I would like to propose an alternative name for this most recently-released Vatican document. “Dignitas infinita: The rehabilitation of the Bergoglian Papacy.”
President Trump’s administration was dysfunctional only in the sense that so many interests were attempting to engineer dysfunction. And not the least of those were among the Establishment GOP and Trump’s own cabinet.
Trump supporters seem to be extraordinarily sensitive to any mention of him, except in a glowing light. He was a president, not a god.
Pres. Trump is broken human being like the rest of us but he does not deserve the sort of deep disrespect & hysteria we’ve seen. I was very pleased & rather surprised at all the things he accomplished while in office & against great odds with little support from his own party.
I personally wish we’d had a younger candidate this time around & someone who could serve two consecutive terms. But it is what it is.
Only you and your ilk think that Trump supporters view him as a god. That’s about all you have left in your arsenal. Pity.
shame on you, but old habits remain deeply uprooted…and evil.
Fernandez conflates the episcopal oath to guard the Faith with a pledge of fealty to whomever occupies the chair of Peter. He’s fooling no one with his craven disingenuousness.
“Sore winners”? No one is winning with this disastrous pontificate. Defeatist language is not a trophy for victims of physical and pastoral abuse. What good are weird words from such lips? 💋
And speaking of weird ideas: Perhaps the few who still care enough to wildly throw peanuts from the gallery at the pastoral heresies of this pontificate are simply being obedient. “¡Hagan lío!”
Happy Easter!
Altieri by his own authority brushes aside the three heresies inherent in the document Dignitas Infinita… I think the critics make valid points…but the real import of the document to me is that without ever mentioning homosexuality it glaringly avoids the perversity of unnatural sexual relations. Methinks the Vatican exhibits a huge moral dissonance…while serving pabulum in the cafeteria.
The article was fine, funny even. The references to Orange Man were goofy and distract from the subject matter. Sad.
Well, I remain confused.
But my dear grandma was a card player and I learned an important truth from that. Once you’ve seen the hand of cards someone’s holding, you can’t unsee it.
Professional Catholic Altieri seems to have missed the
“sleight of hand” existing in Card. Fernandez/Pope Francis’s
Dignitas Infinita document is straight out of the [ SECULAR ]
UN declaration on Human Dignity, BUT they tout it as BASED
UPON the Authority of the Church [ as found in the SACRED Deposit of the Faith ].
Bergoglio and Fernandez are out to equate, associate, establish
the secular with/as sacred.
Bergoglio/ Fernandez HATE the Sacred as TRADITIONALLY/”RIGIDLY”
understood by the Church.
Bob,
Rem acu tetigisti!
“If that reminds you of Trump touting his “great ratings” while his sclerotic and dysfunctional presidency disintegrated all around him, well, let me just say you’re not alone”.
Now this is horrible….besides untrue, as he had the most evil assaults and lies against him, and this made things dysfunctional and as a Cyrus he did more good for more people than most any president in the last 50 years…and he has some very wonderful people help him despite these diabolical activities against them. This is grave wrong against the 8th Commandment.
P.S. Dignitas Infinita [Infinite Dignity] contains no reference to the FACT of the Incarnation or of the Resurrection. Infinite
Dignity belongs strictly to God, and, by Divine Choice, to God’s
Immaculate Mother . . AND to “us sinners” THROUGH Sacramental
Baptism AND post-Baptism Sacramental Confession. We forever
stand in need of THE DIVINE MERCY, as spelled out —and institutionalized as an annual Feast day by the Church —
St. Faustina Kowalska’s Diary . . which does NOT constitute INFINITE Dignity.
Human secular institutions will never be able to grasp the DIVINE “Source and Summit” of men and women’s “Before-the-Fall” Dignity.
The UN [ a post WW II created institution ] composed a remarkable document on human dignity, but as a proclamation COUNTER TO the TOTAL SHREDDING of ALL dignity via
WW II and its MOUNTAINS of Victims, human beings reduced to
corpses.
Mr. Altieri’s statement: “If that reminds you of Trump touting his ‘great ratings’ while his sclerotic and dysfunctional presidency disintegrated all around him, well, let me just say you’re not alone.”
Couldn’t CWR find an analysis of Dignitas Infinita that doesn’t descend into Trump Derangement Syndrome?
Know what else was weird?? An unrelated and unnecessary hit against Trump in a piece about a Vatican Declaration. Far from his presidency being “sclerotic and dysfunctional”, Trump kept us out of wars, secured notable peace treaties in the Middle East,elevated wages and economic conditions for all classes of Americans, and attempted to close our border to dangerous illegals even while fighting a democratic party which actively refused him funds to do so. At least half of the country had enough brains to vote to continue such a presidency. As for the rest, they voted for Biden, and we see the dangerous deterioration in our country because of it. An estimated 10 million illegals waved in by the DEMs, some from enemy countries, posing a crime threat ( sex trafficking, fentanyl,etc) and financial burden to tax payers to feed and house them, often over consideration for our own students and veterans who are asked to vacate shelters and schools to accommodate the invaders. If you are getting hit with massive grocery bills, are reluctant to travel to your local city center because of crime, fear that going away on vacation could result in a squatter claiming possession of your home, have to vault around homeless illegals and feces in the streets,watched police be beaten but no one punished, are paying more for gas, are fearful of being forced to buy electric cars which do not work and you cannot afford, and have seen stores near you close due to unpunished flash mob theft and ransacking, you have reaped the “benefits” of the “wonderful” Biden presidency. Disgusting, and his supporters are obviously unable to think clearly enough to process what they are seeing happening in front of their own eyes. Continuing to vote for the same party with an expectation of change is the definition of insanity. (Or, stupidity). Trump in 2024.
Well said and it’s the Truth!
As semi-pro Catholic, I am nonplussed by the idea of human beings having infinite dignity. That is not my understanding of what Christ’s incarnation gave humanity, and I don’t see that it follows. That said, this piece is hilarious and I laughed all the way through.
Gail, read this book with its simple and short meditations and you will understand the Infinite dignity as created and redeemed by God in Christ Jesus and how it is to be found in us – its beautiful!!! Blessings!
https://www.catholicapostolatecenter.org/store/p11/God%2C_The_Infinite_Love.html
Here is an example ( https://pallottines.ie/st-vincent-pallotti-on-the-obligation-to-become-perfect-since-we-are-living-images-of-infinite-mercy/ )
St Vincent Pallotti – On the obligation to become perfect, since we are living images of Infinite Mercy
A characteristic of Saint Vincent Pallotti’s spiritual life was his abiding experience of God as Mercy, Infinite Mercy, that God in his very essence is Mercy and continuously expressing that with humanity.
The following is a meditation taken from St. Vincent’s writing ‘Iddio Amore Infinito’ or, ‘God, the Infinite Love’, which is a series of 31 meditations on God’s infinite love interwoven with his infinite mercy. It was written in the spring of 1849. The meditations follow the same format, a reflection on an aspect of God’s love, a prayer composed by Vincent, and an offering, or oblation.
God, the Infinite Love, Meditation XVII
On the obligation to become perfect, since we are living images of Infinite Mercy.
Enlightened by holy faith, I will recall that my soul, being created by God in his image and likeness, is also a living image of his Mercy because God in his essence is eternal, infinite, immense, and incomprehensible Mercy, and everything he created followed his most beloved designs of Infinite Mercy.
I will clearly recall that this was done by God in order that the person, as a created being, and aided by his grace, must always use free will in order to practise all the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. In doing so, the person can obtain mercy even after a live filled with sin, because our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (Matt. 5,7).
Oh, what a grace, oh, what a precious gift was bestowed on me by God in creating me like him, a living image of his mercy!
Therefore, by reason of creation I am obliged with the help of his grace, to always use my free will in perfecting myself in a worthy way because I am a living image of Mercy itself. In all my life I will busy myself in the practice of all spiritual and corporal works of mercy, according to my capability, state, position and condition, and with all the means at my disposal.
This way of life will make me always disposed and ready to receive from God newer, greater and numerous mercies. It will assure me the blessing that the divine judge will give the elect at the last judgement, in the valley of Josaphat.
Oh my God, infinite love, how ungrateful I have been. How I worked against your loving designs, especially against the design of your infinite mercy. Oh, how much negligence, oh how much resistance on my part.
But, through your infinite mercy help me to pray in this way:
Prayer
My God, my Father, infinite love of my soul, eternal, infinite, incomprehensible and immense Mercy. You see that according to your design I am a living image of you. Yet, through my ingratitude and through my fault my soul is deformed. My soul is guilty because I have acted against its very nature which is a living image of your mercy.
Therefore, I deserve to be forsaken and I deserve all the pains of time and eternity. But you, infinite mercy, do you want me to believe that you will forsake me? Through your infinite mercy, through the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, through the merits and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the Angels and Saints, I firmly believe, rather I am certain, that you will grant me a quick and perfect forgiveness of all my sins and for my inexcusable ingratitude. You grant me the grace to be always occupied in the perfect practice of all the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. In this way, I will perfect my soul more and more so that after this life I will be a living image of your mercy in the glory of eternity.
Offering
Eternal Father, in union with the most sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, I offer you the most precious Blood of the Immaculate Lamb, our divine Redeemer, in thanksgiving, as if you had already granted all the graces I have requested for me and for all persons, now and always.
OOCC XIII, pages 103-106.
I think Christopher thought he was still writing for the CRUX website where the insertions of entirely irrelevant anti-Trump comments are more commonly made as something of a touchstone that reminds them of a foundational bond they share there.
Sacrament of Confirmation marks us with the Cross not infinite dignity. The command to become perfect after the Father is the perfection of the Cross not personal infinitude.
Frs. this is Pelagianism -:
‘ Introduction
1. (Dignitas infinita) Every human person possesses an infinite dignity, inalienably grounded in his or her very being, which prevails in and beyond every circumstance, state, or situation the person may ever encounter. This principle, which is fully recognizable even by reason alone, underlies the primacy of the human person and the protection of human rights. ‘
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2024/04/08/240408c.html