The preacher of the papal household, Cardinal Cantalamessa, preaching the Good Friday homily this year. (Photo by Andreas Solaro/pool/AFP via Getty Images)
This essay by Paul Fahey is one of two duelling takes on Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa's Good Friday sermon. The other is Larry Chapp's "Cantalamessa Should Have Preached to the Pope" and is available here. Divisions in the Church are tearing “Christ’s tunic to shreds,” Raniero Cantalamessa said in his homily during the Good Friday service in Rome. These conflicts, said the Capuchin Friar and Preacher to the Papal Household, are not about dogma or sacraments. They “stem from political opinions that grow into ideologies after being given priority over religious and ecclesial considerations.” Put simply, “The kingdom of this world becomes more important, in the person’s heart than the Kingdom of God.” I don’t know if there is a more true, or more obvious, assessment of the Church at this moment.
