Category Archives: Personal Prelature

POPE MODIFIES CHURCH LAW ON PERSONAL PRELATURES – VIETNAM’S PRESIDENT MEETS WITH CATHOLIC BISHOPS IN HO CHI MINH CITY – “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND PEACE,” THEME IF 57TH WORLD DAY OF PEACE MESSAGE

Posted in Artificial Intelligence AI, Motu Proprio, Personal Prelature, Vietnam, Vietnam Catholic Bishops, World Day of Peace by

Some interesting news today for personal prelatures (so far Opus Dei is the only such prelature in the Catholic Church). Today’s motu proprio is the 66th of Pope Francis’ pontificate: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/motu_proprio.index.html)

And very positive news about the future for the Catholic Church in Vietnam!

POPE MODIFIES CHURCH LAW ON PERSONAL PRELATURES

Pope Francis issues a motu proprio to modify two canons of Church law related to the treatment of personal prelatures. A personal prelature is made up of a particular group of faithful and is structured in a hierarchical manner, with a prelate who is its head and source of unity and with priests and deacons who assist him. The Pope’s motu proprio goes into force, today, 8 August, the Feast of St. Dominic, with its promulgation in L’Osservatore Romano, and later, inclusion in the official commentary of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

The new legislation says that given recent Church law updates, especially Art. 117 of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate evangelium (19 March 2022), in which the competence over personal prelatures was transferred to the Dicastery for the Clergy, upon which public clerical associations with the faculty to incardinate clerics also depend (Art. 118, 2), the Pope modifies canons 295 and 296 relating to personal prelatures.

FOR MORE: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-08/pope-francis-church-law-personal-prelatures.html

VIETNAM’S PRESIDENT MEETS WITH CATHOLIC BISHOPS IN HO CHI MINH CITY

Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong visits the headquarters of the national Bishops’ Conference in Ho Chi Minh City, confirming the new course of relations between the Holy See and the Asian nation.
By Lisa Zengarini (Vatican news)

On Monday, 7 August, the President of Vietnam, Vo Van Thuong, met with the country’s Bishops’ Conference at its headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City.

The visit came in the wake of his audience with Pope Francis in the Vatican and of the signing of the landmark Agreement on the Status of the Resident Papal Representative and the Office of the Resident Papal Representative in Viet Nam, on July 27.

The meeting lasted more than an hour, from 11:00 to 12:25 and was attended by ten Government officials and nine Vietnamese bishops, including the president, Archbishop Joseph Nguyễn Năng of Ho Chi Minh City, along with five priests and two religious.

The bishops expressed their satisfaction with the talks, which they described as “open and sincere”.

President’s appreciation for work of Church and Pope FrancisFor his part, President Van Thuong acknowledged the contribution and service offered by the Catholic Church to Vietnamese society, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He then spoke of his recent visit to Europe, and in particular to the Vatican on 27 July. He said he was impressed by his meeting with Pope Francis, specifically by the fact that the audience lasted longer than expected, and by the Holy Fathers’ words on human fraternity which the President greatly appreciated, stating that Vietnam is proceeding in this direction.

He also expressed his appreciation for the Pope’s words on the need to listen to others by putting oneself in other people’s position so as to understand them better.

Father Đào Nguyên Vũ, head of the Secretariat of the Vietnamese Bishops’ Conference, then presented the activities of the Church in the country by offering an overview of Catholic institutions in Vietnam and detaling that that the Church in Vietnam only runs nursery schools, but no other educational institution. The President assured that he will consider the matter.

For his part, the president of the Vietnamese Bishops’ Conference congratulated the Vietnamese head of State over the success of his visit to Europe.

Archbishop Nguyễn Năng also spoke of the work of the Catholic Church at the service of the country.

Finally, the bishops honoured President Van Thuong with two gifts: a picture of him and his wife with Pope Francis during the audience and the Encyclical ‘Fratelli Tutti’ translated into Vietnamese.

Viet Nam-Holy See relations
During the Vietnamese President’s recent official visit to the Vatican the two parties expressed great appreciation for the significant progress of bilateral relations and for the positive contributions offered so far by the country’s Catholic community.

Relations between the Holy See and Vietnam had been interrupted in 1975, but have seen encouraging developments since 1990, a year after the then President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, late Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, was able to make an official visit to Vietnam the first of a series.
A new beginning
Relations further improved after then Prime Minister Nguyên Tân Dung met with Pope Benedict in 2007, marking the first official visit to the Vatican of a Vietnamese head of government in over thirty years. That visit was followed by that of then President Nguyen Minh-Triet on 11 December 2009, which resulted in the establishment of a Viet Nam-Holy See Joint Working Group.

POPE TRANSFERS OPUS DEI TO DICASTERY FOR CLERGY, SAYS PRELATE MAY NOT BE A BISHOP – GERMAN BISHOPS RESPOND TO VATICAN COMMUNIQUE ON SYNODAL PATH

Posted in Germany, Motu Proprio, Opus Dei, Personal Prelature, Pope Francis, Prelature, Synodality by

POPE TRANSFERS OPUS DEI TO DICASTERY FOR CLERGY, SAYS PRELATE MAY NOT BE A BISHOP

Forty years after St. John Paul established Opus Dei as a personal prelature in his Apostolic Constitution Ut Sit, Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Letter Motu proprio Ad charisma tuendum, published today, confirmed the charism of Opus Dei but ordered the transfer of jurisdiction from the Dicastery of Bishops to the Dicastery for Clergy and also established that the Prelate can no longer be awarded the episcopal order. This enters into force August 4.

The Holy Father modified some of Opus Dei’s structures on the basis of the March 19, 2022 constitution on reform of the Roman Curis, Praedicate Evangelium, in order to “protect the charism” and “promote the evangelizing action that its members carry out in the world” by spreading “the call to holiness in the world, through the sanctification of work and commitments to family and society.”

Here’s a translation of some of the salient paragraphs:

“To protect the charism, my predecessor Saint John Paul II, in the Apostolic Constitution Ut sit, of 28 November 1982, erected the Prelature of Opus Dei, entrusting it with the pastoral task of contributing in a particular way to the evangelizing mission of the Church.” (Vatican file photo, Pope, prelate)

“With this Motu Proprio we intend to confirm the Prelature of Opus Dei in the authentically charismatic context of the Church, specifying its organization in harmony with the testimony of the Founder, St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, and with the teachings of the conciliar ecclesiology regarding personal prelatures.”

By means of the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium of March 19, 2022 that reforms the organization of the Roman Curia to better promote its service in favor of evangelization, I have deemed it convenient to entrust to the Dicastery for the Clergy the competence for all that pertains to the Apostolic See regarding the personal prelatures, of which the only one erected up to now is that of Opus Dei, in consideration of the pre-eminent task carried out in it, according to the norm of law, by clerics (cf. can. 294, CIC).

In Article 1, the Pope moves the jurisdiction for Opus Dei from the Dicastery for Bishops to the Dicastery for Clergy.

Article 2. The text of art. 6 of the Apostolic Constitution Ut sit is, starting from now, replaced by the following text: “Each year the Prelate will submit to the Dicastery for the Clergy a report on the state of the Prelature and on the carrying out of its apostolic work.”

(That original Ut sit article VI read: “Through the Sacred Congregation for Bishops, the Prelate will present to the Roman Pontiff, every five years, a report on the state of the Prelature, and on the development of its apostolic work.”

Art 4. In full respect of the nature of the specific charism described by the aforementioned Apostolic Constitution, we intend to strengthen the conviction that, for the protection of the particular gift of the Spirit, a form of government based more on charism than on hierarchical authority is needed. Therefore the Prelate will not be awarded or eligible to be awarded the episcopal order.

Art. 5. Considering that the pontifical insignia are reserved for those awarded the episcopal order, the Prelate of Opus Dei is granted, by reason of his office, the use of the title of Apostolic Protonotary supernumerary with the title of Reverend Monsignor and therefore may use the insignia corresponding to this title.

This motu proprio will enter into force on August 4, 2022 and be published in the official commentary of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

Given in Rome at St. Peter’s on July 14, 2022, the 10th year of pontificate, Francesco

GERMAN BISHOPS RESPOND TO VATICAN COMMUNIQUE ON SYNODAL PATH

The Bishops write, among other things: “Since the beginning of the Synodal Path, the Synodal Committee has endeavoured to find direct ways of communication with the Roman bodies. In our opinion, this would be the right place for such clarifications. Unfortunately, the Synodal Committee has not been invited to a discussion to date. We regret with irritation that this direct communication has not yet taken place. In our understanding, a synodal Church is something else!”

An English translation of the full response from the German episcopacy on the July 21 Vatican communique on the “synodal path” underway in Germany is here (scroll down to bottom of page): 21.07.2022: Statement by the Presidents of the Synodal Path on the statement presented by the Holy See