Denver Catholic

22 APRIL 23-MAY 13, 2016 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives The best Nuncio we've had thus far T he announcement that Arch- bishop Christoph Pierre will succeed Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States is an opportu- nity to pay tribute to a courageous church- man who has served Catholi- cism, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Fran- cis in an exemplary way during his tenure in Washington. I've had the pleasure of knowing and working with each of the Nuncios in Washington, since full diplomatic relations were established between this country and the Holy See under President Reagan and Pope John Paul II. And at the risk of embarrass- ing him, I have to say that I consider Archbishop Viganò to have been the best of them all thus far. He came to Washington under what some in the Vatican thought was a cloud. The truth of the matter is that this scrupulously honest man had seen fi nancial corruption in the Holy See and tried to do something about it – a task now being pursued with vigor by Pope Francis and Cardinal George Pell. But in the last years of Benedict XVI, things were not in good shape managerially in the Vatican; Viganò's honesty was resented and, I expect, feared by lesser men; and the Wash- ington appointment was arranged to give what amounted to a sacking the appearance of a promotion. It was a completely one-sided trade: those who exiled Viganò from the Vatican lost, badly, and the Church in the United States won, handsomely. For Carlo Maria Viganò understood this moment in U.S. Catholic history as perhaps few other career Vatican diplomats could have done. He appreciated the many strengths of the Church in the United States, including the evangelically-centered reconstruction of the hierarchy by John Paul II and Benedict XVI. He understood where the vitality was in American Catholicism, and he knew that this vitality had to do with the strength of faith in those living parts of the Church. He knew that Catho- lic Lite wasn't going to advance the New Evangelization, and he quickly grasped that the great project of con- verting a wounded culture in America was being threatened by an unprece- dented assault on the Church's capac- ity to be itself. And he knew that the threat came, not from old-fashioned nativist bigots of Protestant persua- sion, but from militant secularists allied with the federal government. Thus there was complete agree- ment between the papal representa- tive in Washington and the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on the imperative of defend- ing religious freedom in full, and on challenging an administration that seemed determined to reduce that fi rst freedom to a lifestyle choice about weekend leisure activities. The archbishop understood that there was no honorable retreat from what some deplored as "culture wars." He knew who had declared war on whom; that the Church had not been the aggressor in this struggle; and that the battle had to be engaged, with the tools of reason and persuasion, for the sake of all religious communities and indeed for the sake of American democracy. His support for the bish- ops was crucial and ež ective, as was his work in preparing the meeting in Rome between Pope Francis and President Obama, where the POTUS got the message that the Bishop of Rome was deeply concerned about the pressures being put on his fl ock in the United States. The wonderful reception that Pope Francis received in the United States last September was due to many factors; Archbishop Viganò was surely one of them. As for the idiotic caterwauling in some quarters about the Pope's spending a few minutes with former Kentucky o" cial Kim Davis, let's be clear that Kim Davis's presence in the Nunciature was cleared by Archbishop Viganò's supe- riors, Archbishop Giovanni Becciu and Archbishop Paul Gallagher. The obsession in certain quarters with this episode, which was front-loaded in far too many stories about Arch- bishop Pierre's appointment, says far more about the passions of the obsessed than it does about Arch- bishop Viganò. Carlo Maria Viganò may be sev- enty-fi ve, but a man of his faith and integrity still has much to give the Church. The further reform of the Roman Curia would be well-served if he were drawn into it, o" cially or uno" cially. The Catholic Di¦ erence George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. GEORGE WEIGEL Truth and death In death, a human being emerges into the light of full reality and truth. He takes up that place which is truly his by right. The masquerade of living with its constant retreat behind posturings and fi ctions, is now over. Man is what he is in truth. Judgment consists in this removal of the mask in death. The judgment is simply the manifestation of the truth." JOSEPH RATZINGER (POPE BENEDICT XVI) M y cousin died last month. On my birthday. We grew up together. He came back to the Church in the last week of his life. It was a di" cult time, with some amazing moments showing us that God was with him and with us. I was present in the hospital room when he died. And in those fi rst moments after his last breath, I thought Where is he? How does it work? Of course I believe in a just and merciful God. I also believe, as Christ told us, that there is judgment after death. But what does that look like? What is he seeing? What is he experiencing? Diž erent people have diž erent ideas, diž erent visions of that judg- ment. Some see it as a terrifying encounter with a wrathful God. Others see it as a mere formality, a brief stopping point before entering the Heaven that everyone (except perhaps Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden) is guaranteed to enjoy imme- diately after death. I am more and more convinced that the essence of our eternal judg- ment is, as Pope Benedict XVI said, simply "the manifestation of the truth." At the moment of death, I believe that I will see the absolute truth of my life for the fi rst time. I will see the fruits of my work — my speaking, my writing, my good deeds — as they spread out and down through gen- erations in time and eternity. That might be kind of nice. But I will also see the consequences of my sins — my thoughtless words, my selfi shness, the neglected opportunities to do good — as they play out generation after generation. And I am perhaps not quite so enthused about that. I will see the times where my lack of courage or desire to be liked kept someone from knowing the truth about the love of Christ. I suspect that I will even see suž ering — both temporal and eternal — that I could have prevented if I had listened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And I don't like that at all. When the truth is made manifest, all lies will be exposed. That makes me happy, when I think of the times I have been unfairly accused or the " Guest Column Bonacci is a syndicated columnist based in Denver and the author of We're On a Mission from God and Real Love. MARY BETH BONACCI Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. PHOTO BY LISA JOHNSTON | ST. LOUIS REVIEW

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