Word: staffa
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Last week the Vatican sought again to correct that problem by clamping a firm ceiling on fees for Rota trials-and promptly found itself under fire from both the press and the Rota lawyers. In a circular letter to bishops, Dino Cardinal Staffa, the curial prefect whose jurisdiction includes the Rota, explained that lawyers' fees for annulment cases would henceforth be permitted to range only from $255 to $510. Trial costs would range from $425 to $595. To ensure compliance with the ceilings, all costs would be paid to the court, which would then pay the lawyers...
...Catholics, the very fact that Paul is Christ's Vicar on earth puts him beyond criticism. "The prince of teachers is an exalted person, kumo no ue?above the clouds," says one elderly Japanese Catholic lady, sweetly. Many priests and prelates share the enthusiastic view of Archbishop Dino Staffa, secretary of Rome's Congregation of Seminaries, who says that "we are only at the beginning of a pontificate that promises to be truly great." Others agree with Atlanta's Archbishop Paul Hallinan that the Pope's cautious approach to progress is precisely what is needed for the church today...
...Curia alone, or whether the college of bishops shares in this authority, and if so to what extent. Council progressives believed, as one American theologian put it, that "this council was called to abolish papolatry." But to council conservatives, collegiality means a sharp loss of power. Archbishop Dino Staffa, an official of the Roman Curia, contended that "supreme power over the entire flock of the faithful was entrusted to Peter and Peter alone." The implication is that such power was also entrusted to the Curia, which is responsible to the Pope and not to the bishops...
Speaking of Stupidities. Explaining the instruction last week, Staffa argued that Catholic universities have recently been giving out too many honorary degrees, often to men who are "not worthy of merit." Asked if Küng, who is a peritus (theological expert) of the Vatican Council, fell into this category, the archbishop replied that "there are many periti of the council who speak stupidities." As far as Küng is concerned, "if we give honorary doctorates to him, it would seem that we approve his ideas." Staffa claimed that the instruction is still under study by the congregation...
...Staffa has little liking for Küng's ideas is easy to see. In his new collection of essays and papers called The Council in Action (Sheed & Ward; $4.50), Küng pleads for such reforms as internationalization of the Roman Curia, reduction of its power, greater authority for regional councils of bishops. He speaks of "reactionary doctrinaire tendencies" in certain council fathers, and dismisses the agenda items drawn up for the council by the Curia-dominated preparatory commission as "ill-prepared, partisan schemata...