Did Paolo Rodari of Il Foglio and Giacomo Galeazzi of La Stampa agree between themselves to write today that Georg Gaenswein is practically the only person Benedict XVI trusts in the current intra-Vatican wars? Or are their articles published on the same day just a case of synchronicity? Probably the latter, as their respective arguments are not alike. In any case, here's Rodari's presentation first:
In the Palace wars,
they say the Pope trusts
only Don Giorgio
by Paolo Rodari
Translated from
February 19, 2012
One of the consequences of Vatileaks - the publication of confidential documents from the Secretariat of State - is that no one is sure right now about where they stand where their jobs are concerned.
No one except the Pope, of course, whose resignation is out of the question. But recent events have upset various equilibria and it is not ruled out that in the coming months, many administrative changes will follow.
The other day, at the pre-consistory assembly of cardinals, Ouse Dei Cardinal Julian Herranz, who was one of Cardinal Ratzinger's leading electors in the 2005 Conclave, surprised his colleagues by openly seeking clarification of the current muddle.
The confrontation between supporters of Cardinal Angelo Sodano - the so-called Vatican 'Old Guard'- and those of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone remains open, and the impression seems to be that anything is possible between now and December when Bertone turns 78
[the same age at which Cardinal Sodano retired, that is, three years beyond canonical retirement age].
Benedict XVI in recent days has indirectly appealed for calm amid the tempest, and typically, he apparently wants no hasty moves.
One thing is certain. There is one person whom Benedict XVI trusts, with increasing conviction, one with whom he can play off his ideas about important decisions.
That person is Georg Gaenswein, the Pope's private secretary. German like the Pope, he is reserved and has generally stayed in the background - perhaps in a conscious attempt to be different from his predecessor, now Cardinal Stanislas Dziwisz who played a considerable political role as John Paul II's private secretary.
Gaenswein has increasingly been the indispensable funnel through which men of the Roman Curia must go through if they wish to have direct contact with the Holy Father. And it's a measure that is decisive as it has never been at the Apostolic Palace.
[If only to spare the Pope unnecessary expenditure of time and energy at his age!]
Obviously, Papa Ratzinger is different from Papa Wojtyla, who delegated much of his powers of governance to Dziwisz and allowed a group of close Polish friends, among them the pyschiatrist Wanda Poltawska, to take part in planning his missions and achieving his objectives.
Gaenswein and Ingrid Stampa, the Pope's housekeeper-confidant when he was a cardinal (along with her fellow German and Schoenstatt lay member Birgit Wansing, she continues to oversee the integrity of the Pope's texts for publication), by no means have the same 'influence' over the Curia that John Paul II's trusted friends had.
But something apparently has been changing in recent months. Gaenswein is believed to have played an important role in some recent appointments made by the Pope. Not, of course, that he has proposed candidates of his own, but
to make sure that the entire range of opinions get to the Pope.
He has apparently made sure that the Pope is informed of all the possibilities in play within the Roman Curia and the College of Cardinals. More so since the recent 'troubles' began.
Part of Gaenswein's relatively modest background role in the first years of the Ratzinger Pontificate may be due to the fact, far from secondary, that he was supposed to be a transitional private secretary until Cardinal Ratzinger retired.
He became his private secretary replacing Mons. Josef Clemens, who had been the cardinal's private secretary since 1984, when in 2003, the cardinal, anticipating his impending retirement, moved to have Mons. Clemens named secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, a post he continues to hold.
Gaenswein therefore knew when he was appointed that it was not a long-term job. Instead, the unexpected happened in April 2005 - Clemens would say afterward that the possibility of Cardinal Ratzinger becoming Pope had 'never' been imagined - and Gaenswein found himself in a whole new game, in a truly key role, but one in which he had hoped to continue being in the background.
In a profile on Gaenswein entitled "The man behind the Pope" at the time of the papal visit to the UK,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/16/georg-ganswein-pope-papal-secretary
John Hooper of London's
Guardian newspaper wrote of Gaenswein's upbringing in the "idyllic Catholic environment of the Black Forest", the son of a blacksmith who became the proprietor of a firm selling agricultural machinery.
In his years as private secretary to the Pope, Hooper says, Gaenswein has been seen to gain enough influence as to earn him not a few 'enemies'. Every time he says No to a request from some people who insist on having a private appointment with the Pope, Hooper says, "he makes a new enemy, especially among those who work in the Roman Curia".
Hooper also wrote: "Formerly a lecturer at a papal university [the Pontifical Santa Croce University] funded by the theologically conservative Opus Dei fellowship, Gänswein has been blamed by some for reinforcing the Pope's conservatism".
[How silly! That's like saying Benedict XVI consults his private secretary about theology!]
The writer is quick to note that any role Gaenswein plays around the Pope has to do with practical decisions, some of them decisive - and such a role may have become more important in these days of loose lips and questionable loyalties.
Mons. Gaenswein with new Cardinal Edwin O'Brien. GG rep[resented the Pope at the receptions held by each of the new cardinals for their wellwishers the afternoon after the consistory.
Giacomo Galeazzi, who has a tendency sometimes to overstate the situation, goes as far as to call GG the 'grey eminence' in this Pontificate. Which is a mistaken use of the term. Originally coined to describe the right-hand man of France's 17th-century Cardinal Richelieu who rose to become Louis XIII's Chief Minister., the term has since been used to designate a highly influential behind-the-scenes unofficial adviser to an important personality. One would have to be delirious to think of GG in such terms. Besides, truly great men like Benedict XVI do not have and do not need a 'grey eminence'. From what Galeazzi decribes, GG is more like a super-secretary who has the initiative to act above and beyond what is expected of a secretary but without over-stepping certain bounds.
The grey eminence who protects the Pope:
Mons. Gaenswein emerges as mediator
among warring factions in the Vatican
by GIACOMO GALEAZZI
Translated from
February 19, 2012
VATICAN CITY - He is 56 and he has been the private secretary of Joseph Ratzinger for the past ten years. Son of a blacksmith-turned-small-entrepreneur from the Black Forest, he is a great fan of Pink Floyd
{Really???] and has a doctorate in canon law from the Pope's Alma Mater, the University of Munich.
When Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope,
Avvenire, the Italian bishops' newspaper, was quick to note his secretary's physical assets: "Blond, six feet tall, athletic physique, and decidedly a good-looking man".
For the most past, he has been the man in the black cassock and pink sash who primarily looks after the Pope's daily appointments. More than a majordomo, but hardly a spin doctor.
But since the dossier wars erupted in the Vatican between the Old Guard close to Cardinal Angelo Sodano and the current leadership of the Secretariat of State who are loyal to Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the role may have changed.
Don Georg Gaenswein has become, like his predecessor Don Stanislaw Dziwisz in the later years of the Woytyla Pontificate, the baricenter and mediator of equilibria within a Curia in which, amid anonymous fliers and poison letters
[the Italian term is very picturesque and a great wordplay 'velina e veleni'], crows have been cackling and and moles are hard at work.
[Unfair to attribute the skulduggery to the entire Curia, when so far, only people at the Secretariat of State appear involved in Vatileaks. Even Vigano was ex-Secretariat of State, and his main targets were people uspposedly close to Cardinal Bertone.]
Someone who has been described in the UK press as 'a cross between George Clooney and Hugh Grant, but more beautiful than either', the most serious family disagreement he recalls was over the length of his haircut. He was fascinated by stock trading until he found his true love - the priesthood.
After earning his doctorate in canon law from the University of Munich, he came to the Vatican to work at the Congregation for Divine Worship, to end up after a year, at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Meanwhile, he taught canon law at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce. In 2003, Cardinal Ratzinger decided to make him his private secretary, and since then, he has only shown total devotion to him.
Now, it seems that the Pope's private secretary is no longer just his 'guardian angel' screening out non-essential appointments, but has also become the
dominus or virtual master of the Sacri Palazzi
[Italian term meaning literally 'holy buildings' for the Apostolic Palace; 'palazzo' in Italian primarily means 'building'].
Shortly after the 2005 Conclave, he had described his new environment to the German media with some trepidation and distance: "The Vatican is also a sort of royal court with the gossip and small talk that characterize courts. However, there are also arrows that are aimed deliberately at specific targets. It's one of the first things I had to learn to live with".
Then he confides something that now sounds almost prophetic in the incandescent atmosphere following publication of the Vigano letters (with its accusations of financial wrongdoing against friends of the Secretary of State), to confidential notes about IOR and a bizarre memorandum alleging a plot to kill the Pope: "Definitely a weakness are the indiscretions. Unfortunately, there seem to be constant leaks about prospective appointments, preliminary drafts of documents, or planned disciplinary measures. It is not just unpleasant, but there's the risk of bringing in external influences that can only aggravate the situation".
Having been at home in Santa Croce as a professor, he appeared as the very antithesis of of John Paul II's very influential private secretary, Mons. Stanislaw Dziwisz, now Cardinal and Archbishop of Cracow.
Of the thousands of decisions on routine administration that John Paul II ignored, his right-hand man had the decisive voice. Papa Wojtyla reigned, but he governed. He was never absent from any important meetings that the Pope had, formal or informal.
But with Papa Ratzinger, Gaenswein, almost timid, has been a discreet presence and certainly not a surrogate of the Pope. The German Pope always speaks one on one with his important guests (except when he needs an interpreter).
But now, it seems that Don Giorgio is involved in many practical decisions, smoothing out edges where necessary. A preview of his 'baptism of fire' as a behind-the-scenes worker came during the Boffo case in the summer of 2009. He was the peacemaker in the confrontation between Cardinals Bertone and Ruini.
[Dino Boffo, the talented former tri-media executive for the CEI, was a Ruini appointee; and it was alleged that Bertone's men were responsible for initiating the false media expose that led to Boffo's resignation. The newspaper editor responsible for the falsehood retracted three months later, but the damage was done.]
He appears to be coming closer to the Dziwisz model. Dziwisz became the most powerful man in the Vatican because of his sheer proximity to the Pope.
[But one doubts that Benedict XVI will ever allow that to happen. He has never given carte blanche, for instance, to Cardinal Bertone, formally the #2 man at the Vatican, and his friend since 1994 - opposing him on many important appointments, and making him withdraw important decisions he took on his own, such as the attempt to get controlling interest in Milan's San Raffele Medical Center].
In 2007, Gaenswein deplored 'clerical envy' at the Vatican, to journalist Peter Seewald. And he confided this: "There is no school for papal etiquette. What I had was a one-on-one conversation with Mons, Dziwisz, about two weeks after the Conclave"
(on the occasion of the Ratzinger team's first visit to the papal apartment).
"Don Stanislaw handed me an envelop with some documents and the key to a very old safe made in Germany. After we talked, he said, 'Now you have a task that is very important and also very beautiful but very, very difficult. My only advice is that you must not allow the Pope to be crushed by anything or anyone. And how to do that, only you will be able understand from experience".
Gaenswein won't say what the documents in the envelop were. "They are things that a Pope's secretary hands down to the next one". An example of useful discretion - in a Curia with its share of disobedients, Don Stanislaw may have something to teach, after all.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/02/2012 16:56]