| His Excellency Salvatore Fisichella |
|
|---|---|
| President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation | |
| Church | Roman Catholic |
| See | Titular Archbishop of Vicohabentia |
| In Office | 30 June 2010 – current (1 year, 255 days) |
| Successor | incumbent |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 13 March 1976 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 August 1951 Codogno, Lodi |
| Previous post | President of the Pontifical Academy for Life |
Salvatore Rino Fisichella (25 August 1951 - ) is an Italian titular archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the current and first President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation. He previously served as President of the Pontifical Academy for Life.[1]
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Born in Codogno in the province of Lodi, he studied classics at St Francis College in Lodi. He received a degree in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, and was ordained a priest in 13 March 1976 for the diocese of Rome, by Ugo Poletti, Cardinal Vicar of the Diocese of Rome.
After ordination, he held a number of positions including Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, consultor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Member of the Central Committee of the Great Jubilee Year 2000 and Vice President of the Historical-Theological Commission of the same Committee.
He was appointed a Chaplain of His Holiness in 1994.
He is a specialist in the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, on whom he did an extensive research in 1980. He taught fundamental theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Lateran University and was named rector of the Lateran on 18 January 2002.[2] He has served as a chaplain to the Italian parliament.
| Styles of Salvatore Fisichella |
|
|---|---|
| Reference style | The Most Reverend |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Monsignor |
| Posthumous style | none |
He was appointed an Auxiliary Bishop of Rome and at the same time Titular Bishop of Vicohabentia on 3 July 1998 and was later consecrated by Cardinal Camillo Ruini.
He was president of the diocesan commission on ecumenism and interfaith relations. He worked in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. He was said to have collaborated in the publication of Fides et Ratio in 1998.
Fisichella intervened in favour of peace during the Muhammad caricature controversy of 2005. He was a friend of Oriana Fallaci. In 2005, he celebrated the 100th anniversary of the catechism of Saint Pius X.
When asked as archbishop if he would give Communion to Italian politicians Romano Prodi and Pier Ferdinando Casini, Fisichella responded that he "did not see a reason" for refusing Communion to Prodi, whereas Casini "knows well the rules of the Church" and does not present himself for Communion.[3]
On 17 June 2008 he was appointed Titular Archbishop of the same see and that same day assumed the presidency of the Pontifical Academy for Life. He later came out against a law in Luxembourg allowing for euthanasia. On 24 January 2009, he urged US President Barack Obama to listen to all voices in America without "the arrogance of those who, being in power, believe they can decide of life and death." [4]
He intervened in a 2009 controversy concerning the statement made on 3 March 2009 by Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife about a planned abortion that on the following day was performed on a nine-year-old girl pregnant with twins, reportedly because of abuse by her stepfather. He said that the mother who arranged for the abortion and the doctors who carried it out would be excommunicated.
Archbishop Sobrinho's position aroused widespread protest in Brazil and around the world, but drew swift backing from Giovanni Battista Re, Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. Archbishop Fisichella, however, penned a front-page essay on the 15 March 2009 issue (published on the afternoon of 14 March) of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, that was critical of Sobrinho.[5]
The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops had already made a declaration on the issue on 12 March 2009.[6] Its secretary general, Bishop Dimas Lara Barbosa, pointed out that, contrary to what was being widely reported, Archbishop Sobrinho had not excommunicated anyone and had only stated that canon law imposed an automatic excommunication on those who procured a completed abortion.[7] The Conference explained the provisions of canon law on excommunication. Bishop Barbosa decried the idea that excommunication meant eternal damnation. Excommunication is instead a censure and thus a "medicinal penalty" intended to invite the person to change behaviour or attitude, to repent and return to full communion with the Church.[8] If the abusive stepfather was responsible for his actions, he had placed himself out of communion not only with the Church but with God. Bishop Barbosa also pointed out the limitations that canon law places on the applicability of excommunication, especially of automatic excommunication, requiring freedom of will and awareness of the sanction,[9] and concluded by saying: "We do not know who had or had not awareness. I can guarantee that the girl was not excommunicated. I am almost certain that the mother was not, in view of the pressure on her and the fear of losing her daughter. Even among the medical team, it depends on the degree of awareness."[6]
The declaration of the Brazilian Bishops Conference predated by less than 48 hours publication of the article in which Fisichella mistakenly said that the case of the girl made the newspapers only because of what he called the archbishop's hasty statement that the doctors who carried out the abortion had been excommunicated. Life would not be easy for the girl whom violence had destroyed internally and would make it difficult for her to look on others with love. Thought should have been directed not to the excommunication, but to supporting her and to safeguarding her innocent life and restoring it from degradation. Unfortunately this was not done, with the result that the credibility of Catholic teaching was dented, appearing in the eyes of many to be insensitive, incomprehensible and merciless. While it was true that the girl carried within her two lives, as innocent as hers, that had been suppressed, that did not justify passing a judgment "as heavy as an executioner's axe". The girl's case faced the doctor and the moral law itself with a difficult decision, and it is offensive to believe that the doctor reached his decision lightly. Each case must be judged on its individual merits. Catholic morality has absolute principles, among which is the inadmissibility of abortion. The moral law has always condemned procured abortion as an intrinsically evil act, and this teaching remains unchanged. But there was no need for such urgency and such publicity about something that is automatic. What was most needed at that time was to be close to one who was suffering, a work of mercy that, while holding firmly to the principle, looked beyond the juridical sphere to what canon law itself envisages as the reason for its existence: the welfare and salvation of those who believe in the Father's love and who receive the good news of Christ like the children Jesus called to him and embraced, saying that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like them. Fisichella concluded by addressing the girl: "We are on your side. We feel your suffering with you. We want to do everything to give you back the dignity that was taken from you and the love that you will need even more. It is others who deserve to be excommunicated and forgiven, not those who have let you live and will help you recover hope and trust. In spite of the presence of evil and in spite of the wickedness of many."[5]
On 16 March 2009, the clergy of the archdiocese of Olinda and Recife published a protest against this attack, stressing that the local Church had in fact given the girl every attention, showing her and her mother that they were not alone.[10] The archbishop himself spoke of the question at some length in an interview that was published on 28 May 2009.[11] In it, he mentioned a report that Archbishop Fisichella had written the article not on his own initiative, but at the request of the Secretariat of State, which was headed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
Fisichella's article drew protests also from pro-life activists all over the world, including from Brazilian medical expert Father Berardo Graz of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Guarulhos[12] and Monsignor Michel Schooyans, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, which is headed by Fisichella.[13]
In his June 2009 commentary, Schooyans asked whether Fisichella's article had been submitted to examination by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as is usual for statements on "delicate" matters. Perhaps as a result, L'Osservatore Romano of 11 July 2009 published a clarification by that Congregation, which declared that church teaching on abortion has not changed and will not change.[14]
On 30 June 2010, Fisichella was appointed as the first President of the planned Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation.[15] He was replaced as President of the Pontifical Academy for Life by Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, who had served as chancellor of the academy. At the same time, Archbishop Fisichella resigned his position as Rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, and Enrico dal Covolo, S.D.B. was appointed as his successor.
Shortly after his appointment, Archbishop Fisichella called for an investigation into who covered up for the Legion of Christ's disgraced founder, Marciel Maciel. He said that "those who took his appointments, those who kept his agenda, those who drove him around." Fisichella added that Vatican suggested looking inside the Legion. "We must be able to verify how well-covered up it was inside his congregation, not outside it,"[16]
Fisichella's task is to reawaken the faith in traditionally Christian parts of the world, particularly Europe and North America. The idea is that, while the countries within Christendom today were first "evangelised", or converted to Christianity, many centuries ago, today it stands in need of a "new evangelisation" because of a decline of faith in the West. Its first declared project is a celebration in 2012 of the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
During the press conference on the release in October 2010 of the motu proprio authorizing the setting up of the new Council, the members of which were appointed in January 2011, Archbishop Fisichella stated that his new office did not yet have an internet connection, or even a computer: "Right now, I'm just hoping to get a computer in my office so I can get on the internet myself."[17]
In February 2011 Archbishop Fisichella said that "We’re still at the beginning of a pontificate, and in my opinion it’s always difficult to make judgments or offer a far-ranging analysis at the beginning". Archbishop Fisichella was the first Roman Curia official to suggest that controversies over issues such as the Richard Williamson misstep and the Regensburg lecture registered in Pope Benedict’s first six years may not loom so large in the future. "'A sense of history should make us prudent and cautious from this point of view,'" he said.
In August 2011 Archbishop Fischella unveiled, Mission Metropolis which is to start in Lent 2012.[18] The plan is to revive faith Christianity in Europe. The cities that will take part are: Barcelona, Budapest, Brussels, Dublin, Cologne, Lisbon, Liverpool, Paris, Turin, Warsaw and Vienna. The plan comprises of two parts. First, an emphasis on ordinary pastoral care activities particularly in the field of formation, and second, during Lent 2012, the simultaneous implementation of activities such as reading of the Word and readings of the Confessions of St Augstine.
On 10 December 2011 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture for a five year renewable term.[19] On 29 December 2011 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications for a five year renewable term.[20]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Angelo Scola |
Rector of the Pontifical Lateran University 18 January 2002–30 June 2010 |
Succeeded by Enrico dal Covolo S.D.B. |
| Preceded by Elio Sgreccia |
President of the Pontifical Academy for Life 17 June 2008–30 June 2010 |
Succeeded by Ignacio Carrasco de Paula |
| Preceded by none |
President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation 30 June 2010–incumbent |
Succeeded by incumbent |