The Toronto Star, contacted Cardinal Collins in Rome to explain himself, as if he answers to the Holy See Press Office or that anti-Catholic use for bird-cages and fish. Cardinal Collins stated, “I don’t know where they’re coming from, either Cardinal Wuerl or Fr. Rosica.” He went on to say that, “The Holy Father has been really clear: If you’ve got some concerns you express them."
In a post on LifeSiteNews, John-Henry Weston writes that "As for the Canadians, there are three who have garnered much attention. The heroic act of Toronto Cardinal Thomas Collins as one of the thirteen Cardinals to sign on to the letter to the Pope expressing grave concern about manipulation at the Synod caused him much suffering. I met him at a restaurant and he looked very tired. I expressed a simple thanks and offered him prayers on behalf of life and family activists. Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher planted himself firmly in the progressive camp along with Fr. Thomas Rosica early on in the proceedings."
Cardinal Collins has remained clear on doctrine and has paid a personal price for it. Durocher was an embarrassment out of the gate with a snide comment on doctrine and his call for "deaconesses." There are no vocations in Gatineau and less than 50 priests left. Let it die.
Meanwhile, Father Thomas J. Rosica, of the Congregation of St. Basil and based in Toronto with Salt + Light Television of which he is Executive Produce, had much to say at the Synod. Little needs to be said here. Thousands of Catholics on blogs and social media around the world have discovered for themselves what some of us already knew.
Basilians have much to say, it seems. They seem to think that nobody else should. Isn't this, clericalism and opposed to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council?
Cardinal Collins went on to state that sending the Pope a letter expressing certain concerns is, "Hardly opposing the Pope," adding that it is "ridiculous" to think that it would follow that one would not "like the Pope," in Wuerl's words for sending a letter. The Cardinal then asked the Star reporter rhetorically, "What do we want, everyone to say nothing?”
Yes, Your Eminence, that is exactly what they want.
Thank you for not giving it to them and by not giving it to them, you actually gave it to them good!
...
John-Henry Westen's editorial can be found at:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/popes-encouragement-of-airing-formal-heresy-is-severing-the-church
The Toronto Star story is below:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/10/22/do-some-cardinals-dislike-pope-francis.html
Do some cardinals dislike Pope Francis?
In a dispatch this week from Rome, Rev. Tom Reese, a close Vatican observer, put it bluntly: “Never in my lifetime have I heard of bishops and cardinals being so disrespectful of a pope, challenging his organization of this synod, even a few referring to him as a Protestant and threatening a fractured church if he goes against their wishes.”The public sniping was triggered by a letter to the Pope, leaked to an Italian journalist on Oct. 12. The letter was signed by 13 cardinals, including Toronto’s Thomas Collins, New York’s Timothy Dolan and the Vatican’s enforcer of Catholic doctrine, Germany’s Gerhard Muller.
They alleged the synod had been rigged to achieve “a predetermined conclusion.” They challenged the 10-member committee drafting the final document as appointed by the Pope “without consultation.” They also feared the synod would be dominated by attempts to lift the ban on divorced Catholics receiving communion after they remarry in a civil ceremony.
Pope Francis distressed some conservatives when he recently made it easier to annul marriages. Once annulled — if a spouse did not freely consent to it, for example — the couple is free to marry again and receive communion. Francis’s next step, conservatives fear, is to lift the communion ban on those who remarry without an annulment.
The Pope tried to ease conservative concerns during an address to the synod. But he also warned against giving in to conspiracy theories.
As debate heated up, German Cardinal Donald Wuerl lashed out at critics in an interview Sunday in the Jesuit magazine, America. Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Toronto priest and the Vatican’s English-language media attaché, emailed it to journalists with this message: “I fully share Cardinal Wuerl’s assessment.” “I wonder if these people who are speaking,” Wuerl said, “sometimes surreptitiously, sometimes halfway implying, then backing off and then twisting around, I wonder if it is really that they find they just don’t like this pope.”
Cardinal Collins, Catholic archbishop of Toronto, dismissed Wuerl’s comments.
“I don’t know where they’re coming from, either Cardinal Wuerl or Fr. Rosica,” Collins said in a phone interview from Rome. “The Holy Father has been really clear: If you’ve got some concerns you express them. That’s hardly opposing the Pope or something; that’s ridiculous. What do we want, everyone to say nothing?”
Collins would not discuss the details of the letter. He described it as fulfilling a cardinal’s duty to give “candid and honest advice to the Pope.”
The synod’s 253 participants, most of them bishops, have presented hundreds of amendments to 147 sections contained in a draft working document to be voted on Saturday, Collins said. The synod is an advisory body; the Pope has the final say.
Collins said he could not imagine the synod recommending that remarried Catholics be allowed communion. But on Wednesday, German bishops — progressives and conservatives — proposed a compromise. The church ban on communion remains, but remarried Catholics could get it lifted privately by a priest or bishop after a period of penance. The proposal was backed by Cardinal Muller.