The Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz, who holds the record for being the longest in the Vaticandenounced the attacks that some sectors of the Church launched against the Pope Francisco: “They are martyring the Pope for trying to unite the two currents of the Church,” he said in an interview with the newspaper abc.
Herranz started working for the Holy See in 1960 and was created a cardinal in 2003. Throughout his long career he was president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and member of the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia. Most recently, he was commissioned to investigate the document leak known as Vatileaks.
He has just finished a book with his personal testimony about Benedict XVI and Franciscoof whom he has been a close collaborator during both pontificates.
At the interview, herranz He said that, despite the attacks against the pontiff, he does not believe that there is opposition to the Pope in the curia: “I am aware that at my age it is legitimate to doubt the validity of my opinions, but I do not live in isolation and I know the environment of the Curia. That is why I would dare to deny the evidence of that ‘opposition’”, he told the Spanish newspaper.
He also assured that the emeritus pope Benedictwho died on December 31, 2022, “would not have tolerated being used to attack Francisco” and that “he was happy” to see the popularity of his successor.
“Benedict spoke freely with me, he did not need to measure his words. I never heard any negative comments or judgments from him about Francisco. He was faithful to the promise of loyalty and obedience that he made with his resignation,” he said. Herranz. “I have read that he threw out the ‘Mater Ecclesiae’ [la residencia del papa emérito] to one who went there to speak ill of the Pope. He once confided to me that he was happy to see how much affection and sympathy Francisco aroused among the people.
According to herranz, Far from being a contrast between the two popes, “the two have made two facets of the Gospel shine.”
“With Benedict XVI faith shines and the search for truth against the dictatorship of relativism; with Franciscothe practice of love to neighborespecially with the poorest and most needy”, he evaluated.
In another interview with the media omnes, herranz delved into this point.
“The difference in terms of the content or pastoral priority from one pontificate to the other. Benedict put the accent on Faith, Francisco on Charity; Benedict in Truth, Francisco in Love; Benedict in the ‘vertical’ dimension of the Gospel, worship and love of God, Francis in the ‘horizontal’ dimension, service and love of neighbor”, he said. “But it is obvious -above any ideological or political-financial manipulation- that among this diversity of projects or pastoral guidelines there is no contradiction or opposition, but rather harmony and complementarity”.
In another recent interview for Spanish radio COPE, herranz He claimed to have seen Ratzinger live specific virtues of a holy person.
“In my soul, this Pope is a Holy PopeI already canonized him while he was alive because he has made and is living a gesture that reflects the heroic character of two fundamental virtues on which all Christian holiness is built,” he said. “These virtues are the heroic humility of having given up their power, that today no one does this, neither today nor yesterday nor probably tomorrow, because the attachment to power, the God of power, is a tendency to want to count. The humility with which he gives up power is motivated by a reason of love and there is the following. A heroic humility, because it is a gesture of love for the Church”.
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Francis, the pontiff who proclaimed the most saints: from a historic double papal canonization to 813 martyrs at the same time
Source-www.infobae.com