URING THE PAST FEW WEEKS, I happened to be in my city, Rome. Normally, for reasons that would be better explained another time, I live and work in Macau (China). However, due to my involvement with a choral competition, I was happily back inside my beautiful and unique city.
These were the historic days of the two popes’ canonizations. There was news everywhere, and millions of pilgrims invading the eternal city. It was unavoidable to be crushed by all the reporting of commentators in those days.
Some commentators, especially on the internet, made the following comments:
“This canonization was a sort of ‘canonization’ of the Second Vatican Council: John XXIII, the Pope who gathered the Council, and John Paul II, the Pope who implemented it during his long pontificate.”
I am sure of the personal sanctity of these popes. But it was unavoidable to pay attention to many comments, some of them whispered to me by some priests of different orientations (conservative or progressive), questioning the appropriateness of so fast a canonization of John Paul II. Now we hear news concerning the beatification of Paul VI. This seems give credence to the idea that Vatican II will be exalted by means of the exaltation of Vatican II’s key men.
I want to repeat: I have no reasons to doubt their personal sanctity, but perhaps the proverbial “Roman slow pace” in this case would prove to be useful and somehow opportune.
BOTTEGA • Aurelio Porfiri is where you can discover
many of Mæstro Porfiri’s compositions in PDF format.
