Full testament of Cardinal Ruini: A key aide to Pope John Paul II

Thanks to well placed sources, Messa in Latino have received the testament directly from the late cardinal's friends and distributed it for publication

VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — The full testament of Cardinal Camillo Ruini – a key aide of Pope John Paul II – has been published, containing reflections on his long career and the three popes he served under as a prelate.

On June 16, Cdl. Ruini died in Rome at the age of 95.

Ordained in 1954, he was consecrated bishop in 1983 and made cardinal by John Paul II in 1991. He swiftly became an influential figure for the Polish Pope, serving as secretary general of the Italian Bishops Conference from 1986 - 1991, and then president of that body from 1991 until 2007. He was also vicar general of the Diocese of Rome from 1991 until 2008.

Cardinal Ruini. ©Vatican Media

Ruini’s response to many social moral crises was much in line with John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and his firm opposition to LGBT ideology made him an unpopular figure in the increasingly anti-family forces gaining ground in Italian society. {For a detailed obituary see Vaticanist Edward Pentin’s write-up} Though perhaps less known in the Anglosphere of late, Ruini was for many years a formidable force in the Italian Church and also in the Vatican.

Now, thanks to “sources in the highest circles,” Messa in Latino has published the full testament of the late cardinal which was sent to MiL by Ruini’s friends in order “to prevent it from being published out of context.”

The reason for such concern of editing is due to Ruini’s assessment of the popes he served under, specifically Pope Francis. While the cardinal wrote to laud John Paul II and Benedict XVI, he expressed concern and criticism of Francis:

When Pope Francis was elected, I rejoiced and, as much as I could, immediately became his supporter. Even today, I rejoice and thank him for his extraordinary zeal for evangelization. I must confess, however, that I find myself in a difficult situation—certainly not for personal reasons, but because I struggle to understand certain directions that seem to me to reopen wounds that were barely healed after the Council. I humbly ask the Lord to convince me deep within that the Church is His and that He Himself cares for her, beyond our human perspectives.

A provisional English translation of the cardinal’s testament, written in 2016, is found below after it was originally published by MiL and sent to Per Mariam for distribution.

Camillo Ruini’s Spiritual Testament

A Thanksgiving and a Call for Repentance to God and My Brothers and Sisters.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

I thank You, Lord, for the long life You have given me, for making me a Christian, for the call to the priesthood, and for my many years as a priest and then as a bishop. I thank You for having been—and still being—so deeply loved by my parents, Francesco and Iolanda; by my sister, Donata; by my grandparents, Idelberto and Maria; and by my uncle Guido, with whom I lived: their love has given me strength and security throughout my life. I thank you for my other grandmother, Emma; for my uncles Riccardo and Tina; for my cousin Carlo and his wife Carla; and for my other relatives. I thank you for being loved and cared for with such devotion by my most faithful Pierina; loved and cared for with great generosity by my secretary Don Mauro—now Bishop of Tivoli—by Mara, who chose to remain by my side even after the end of my term as Cardinal Vicar; by Don Nicola, Angela, and Claudia of the CEI; and by many of my other collaborators. And, in my family life, by Palmizia, Sergio, and Raffaella.

I thank you, Lord, for my friends in Sassuolo, for my parish priest, Monsignor Zelindo Pelluti, and for Don Dino Carretti, who guided and accompanied me as I embraced my vocation to the priesthood. I thank you for the years of formation at the Capranica College and the Gregorian University, for the superiors, professors, classmates, and friends I had, especially the late Don Osvaldo Ronzon, Don Valerio Massucci, Don Nicola Battarelli, and Don Nicolino Barra. I thank You for my ministry as a priest and teacher in Reggio Emilia; for my bishops Beniamino Socche and, above all, Gilberto Baroni, from whom I received so much and learned so much; for the many priests and laypeople—men and women of several generations—especially those who are closest to me even now: from them I have received no less than what I have sought to give. I thank you for the Second Vatican Council, for having lived it and helped others live it with joy in Reggio Emilia, and also for having given me the clarity and strength to oppose post-conciliar deviations.

Then, Lord, when a certain weariness threatened to weigh down my priesthood, you had mercy on me and, to my surprise and dismay, called me to the episcopate: it was a grace as great as it was undeserved, a renewal and reinvigoration of my vocation. Since then, the number of those who pray for me and according to my intentions has multiplied, making up for the poverty of my own prayer. Since then, in a short time, I have become a public figure, even though I have always tried to remain a simple person: in this sense, to remain the same as before.

John Paul II was a very special grace for me. From the very beginning of his ministry, I saw in him the fulfillment of what I had vaguely sensed within myself and what Paul VI had already pointed out, amid much resistance and misunderstanding. Yet I never would have imagined becoming one of his direct collaborators, as I was for more than twenty years, from the fall of 1984—when the Loreto Conference was being prepared—until his death. In John Paul II I experienced your presence, Lord; I was able to witness firsthand the unity in prayer, the inseparability of prayer, life, and apostolate, the courage of faith that guides history, and the capacity to love and forgive. Through my own fault, Lord, I have sought to follow his example in those areas that correspond to my natural inclinations, but much less so in those that would have remedied my most serious shortcomings.

Specifically, during the twenty-two years of my ministry in Rome—at the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) and in the Vicariate—I hope, Lord, that I have worked not for personal interests but for the goals entrusted to me and which I wholeheartedly shared: in this way, I overcame considerable resistance and hostility, especially in the beginning, both at the CEI and in the Vicariate. I acknowledge and confess, however, that I sometimes acted with considerable harshness, though mostly—though not always—in a gentle manner: I ask forgiveness from the Lord and from all those, living and deceased, to whom I have caused pain. But I must thank you, Lord, for the people with whom I had the joy of collaborating: in particular, Bishop Giovanni Battista Re and Bishop Stanislao Dziwisz; the secretaries of the CEI, Bishop Dionigi Tettamanzi, Bishop Ennio Antonelli, and Bishop Giuseppe Betori; the vicars general of Rome, Bishop Remigio Ragonesi, Bishop Cesare Nosiglia, Bishop Luigi Moretti, Annick Johnson, Dino Boffo, Sergio Belardinelli, Vittorio Sozzi, the late Monsignor Giuseppe Cacciari, Cardinal Angelo Scola, as well as many others, including the parish priests of Rome and the directors of the CEI offices and the Vicariate: I have remained close to quite a few of them.

I have now been emeritus for eight years, and I thank you, Lord, for giving me all this time to prepare for the supreme encounter with you, but I also ask your forgiveness for having used very little of that time for this purpose. To tell the truth, I have been a very busy emeritus so far, due to various assignments I have received and, above all, because I have devoted myself to the passion for study that was born in me during my adolescence and has always accompanied me ever since. The themes I have chosen—God and life beyond death—in and of themselves prepare me for the encounter with You, and the two books in which I have condensed them are intended to be a contribution, however small, to evangelization. In fact, however, the commitment to writing has not fostered the freedom of my spirit for prayer.

But the causes of this lack of freedom are above all my sins and the weakness of my response to the Lord’s love: these are the things I would like to confess, hoping not to scandalize anyone, but rather to encourage others to pray for me and to do better than I have. First of all, I confess the weakness of my faith. From a young age, I have had the gift of faith and have said my prayers; to this day, faith has always accompanied and sustained me, particularly in accepting the call to the priesthood. I have dedicated myself to defending the faith—even as a high school student—without timidity or fear. I have sought to deepen my understanding of its content and rationale through study, and to present and defend it with passion and conviction. Despite all this, however, in the depths of my heart, I have always been tempted precisely regarding the faith, even though, by God’s grace, I believe I have never succumbed to that temptation. In practical terms, my faith was and remains insufficient to sustain and animate a life that should be entirely dedicated to God and my brothers and sisters. Lord, have mercy on me and strengthen me in the faith, in this final and decisive phase of my earthly journey.

Virgin Mary, our sweet Mother, intercede so that God’s love may fill my heart and grant me true freedom. “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35): these words of Jesus have always been for me almost a self-evident truth and a natural inclination, linked also to the fact that I have never found myself in need. Thus, thanks to the great generosity of my parents and my sister, for as long as I was a priest in Reggio I was able to work practically for free. Later, I received a great deal of money, but I did not increase the family’s wealth, instead allocating what was surplus to help people in need. Even here, however, I did not put into practice the Lord’s call to leave everything to follow him, nor did I renounce a simple yet comfortable standard of living.

I have always been a “Papist,” and for this I thank the Lord and my formators, especially the professors at the Gregorian. After John Paul II, I worked alongside Benedict XVI for three years, and I thank him with all my heart, including for the affection he still shows me. When Pope Francis was elected, I rejoiced and, as much as I could, immediately became his supporter. Even today, I rejoice and thank him for his extraordinary zeal for evangelization. I must confess, however, that I find myself in a difficult situation—certainly not for personal reasons, but because I struggle to understand certain directions that seem to me to reopen wounds that were barely healed after the Council. I humbly ask the Lord to convince me deep within that the Church is His and that He Himself cares for her, beyond our human perspectives.

Lord, help me to accept the small cross of my decline—physical for now—and the gradual fading of my role: it is the grace you are now giving me to better prepare me for my encounter with you.

Lord, you alone know why you called me; your love is totally free, undeserved, and creative. Grant that I may not reject it; forgive me also for having already evaded and disappointed it too often. Lord, faithful God, never grow weary of loving me and calling me, of converting me. Father rich in mercy, grant me and all my brothers and sisters in humanity the grace of final perseverance.

Rome, June 3, 2016

Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Cardinal Camillo Ruini