THE LATE GREAT CARDINAL RUINI IN HIS OWN WORDS, AND CERTAINLY, ALL OF US IN OUR RIGHT MINDS FELT THIS WAY!

As I always wrote on this blog, I felt Pope Francis was bringing the Church backwards to the time before the election of St. Pope John Paul II, and even before St. Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae, thus that short period between 1965 and up to Humanae Vitae in 1968. 

It was as though His Holiness wanted to restart the Church pre-Humanae Vitae and go from there with His Holiness at the helm of the listing barque, a list His Holiness exacerbated. 

Cardinal Ruini  felt as I did but stated it in a different way:

I have always been devoted to the Pope, and for this I thank the Lord and my teachers, especially the professors of the Gregorian University. After John Paul II, I worked for three years with Benedict XVI, and I thank him with all my heart, also for the affection he continues to show me. When Pope Francis was elected, I rejoiced and, insofar as I could, immediately supported him. Even today I rejoice and thank him for his extraordinary missionary and evangelizing zeal. Yet I must confess that I find myself in a state of unease—not for personal reasons, certainly, but because I struggle to understand certain directions that seem to me to reopen wounds which, after the Council, had only with difficulty been healed. I humbly ask the Lord to convince me inwardly that the Church is His and that He Himself cares for her, beyond our human perspectives.

And this is what Pope Leo XIV stated in His Holiness’ homily at the Requiem for Cardinal Ruini:

Cardinal Camillo Ruini had the grace of personally knowing and working with some great saints of recent times, such as Saint Paul VI and Saint John Paul II. Regarding his relationship with Pope Wojtyła—whom he served as a collaborator for many years—he wrote in particular: "In John Paul II, I experienced Your presence, Lord; I was able to witness firsthand the union in prayer, the inseparability of prayer, life, and apostolate, the courage of faith guiding history, and the capacity to love and forgive" (ibid.). I believe the Cardinal drew a great deal from the great Pontiff’s example of a unified life, for we can find in him, too, many of the traits he used to describe the saintly Pope; and I think this harmony of spirit can inspire us as well on our own journey.

As the motto of his episcopate, our brother chose a phrase inspired by the Gospel of Saint John: *Veritas liberabit nos*—"The truth will set us free" (cf. Jn 8:32). These words encapsulate the profound understanding of the human person and of freedom that Christ revealed to us and that the Church teaches: we are made for truth and goodness, and only in this do we find unity, peace, and fulfillment—both in this earthly life and for eternity. They clearly remind us of a message that is particularly significant for our times, an era in which one can easily become disoriented by relativistic trends and by entirely fluid views of reality and the human person. Looking at Cardinal Ruini’s life—at how he lived and how he departed this world—we can discern a sign of the strength and steadfastness with which a person grows and matures when they find, in the Truth that comes from God, the center and anchor of their existence.

And this is what Edward Pentin writes about Cardinal Ruini:

He praised John Paul II and Benedict XVI, but was less at ease during the pontificate of Pope Francis. His criticisms, he suggested, stemmed not from conservatism but from concern that some of the faithful might struggle to understand Francis’ direction of the Church. Upon the pontiff’s death in April 2025, Cardinal Ruini set out four conditions that, in his view, the new Pope should possess: sound doctrine, capacity for governance, a spirit of communion, and the strengthening of the faith. Many observers saw in these criteria an implicit critique of the pontificate just ended.