Cardinal Franc Rodé : The man at the center of the storms

 

Life under communism formed Cardinal Franc Rodé's pull-no-punches style

 

By John L. Allen Jr.

Cardinal Franc Rodé (CNS) 

 

Looking back, Rodé believes that Vatican II, while designed to generate a moderate reform, instead triggered “the greatest crisis in church history.”
“In the 16th century, during the Reformation, many religious left the church and many convents were closed, but it was geographically limited, more or less to Northern Europe,” he said. “In the French Revolution, there was another catastrophe, but it was limited to France. The crisis after the Second Vatican Council, however, was the first truly global crisis.”
“We’ve paid a very steep price due to a secularized, worldly mentality,” he said.
That cost has been especially acute, Rodé believes, in religious life.
“The statistical data make the point,” he said. “Take the case of American nuns: There were 180,000 in 1965, and now they’re just 59,000. Most are getting older, and the vocations just aren’t there. We could say the same thing for the Jesuits, and for most of the great traditional congregations.”READ...