Quite a few Vaticanistas today (Monday, June 25) went out on a limb to assert that Benedict XVI's recent moves indicate he is planning for a post-Bertone administration in the Vatican, going so far as to mention some likely candidates from the Vatican's experienced diplomats. I don't know how much credibility - or even plausibility - one can place in these judgments, but Giacomo Galeazzi gives the rationale for their point of view, and cites some 'facts' regarding the private meeting between the Pope and the five cardinals that could be sheer conjecture... As much as my mind is made up about the utter management fiasco at SecState - and how it all works against the Pope's best intentions for the Church - I do not wish to indulge in wishful thinking, and I hope the Vaticanistas are not doing that...
After a season of vipers and venom,
Benedict XVI seems set to revamp
the Vatican's administration
by Giacomo Galeazzi
Translated from the Italian service of
June 25, 2012
Phase 2 of this Pontificate may be starting. Benedict XVI plans to restore Vatican diplomacy to the top of the Vatican administrative pyramid, and will most likely name one of the Vatican's most experienced Apostolic Nuncios to succeed Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as Secretary of State.
The five cardinals who met with the Pope privately on Saturday evening are said to have agreed on two possible names, both with outstanding diplomatic experience - Italian Luigi Ventura, now Nuncio to France, and Spaniard Pedro Lopez Quintana, now Nuncio to Canada.
Of course, the Pope does not move at the pace of the 24/7 news cycle, and for now, he is seeking to understand the situation within the Church as a consequence of Vatileaks and its related developments, as well as keep track of the investigations being carried out by the Vatican police and by his three-man cardinals' commission.
Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said that for now, the Pope wishes to restore 'calm and confidence' in the Roman Curia
[that has unfairly been vilified in general by the media due to Vatileaks, even if clearly all the negative inferences and deductions emerging from the documents divulged have to do with mismanagement and false moves at the Secretariat of State and its two main dependencies, the Governatorate and IOR].
However, it appears as if it's a done deal. Cardinals Pell and Ruini reportedly advised the replacement of Bertone, a solution said to be favored even by Benedict's faithful secretary, Georg Gaenswein, who is believed to be increasingly trusted by the Pope.
Cardinals Tomko, Ouellet and Tauran were said to be more prudent though they concurred on the criticality and gaps apparent in the 'governance' by the Secretariat of State.
Benedict XVI obviously wishes to put an end to any power infighting in the Vatican. His Saturday morning meeting with all the heads of the Curial offices and then with the five trusted cardinals in the evening, shows he wants to listen to diverse opinions and be kept up to date on what's happening in the Curia after Vatileaks, but more specifically, the meetings serve as informal consultations about the possible choice of a new Secretary of State.
A changing of the guard could take place as early as October (after the Pope ends his annual summer stay in Castel Gandolfo), or in December
[when Bertone turns 78, though age apparently is not always a factor for retirement, the same way John Paul II named Joseph Ratzinger to a fifth five-year term as CDF Prefect after he turned 75. What's more, Secretaries of State do not have a fixed term as the Curial cardinals do. So, unless the Holy Father himself decides that Bertone has become more of a liability than an asset, it would really be wishful thinking to count on Bertone going when he turns 78! I love the Pope unconditionally, but I pray he will make an objective rather than an affective decision in this case.]
The cardinals' commission and the Vatican police and magistrates continue their separate investigations into Vatileaks. Meanwhile, the leaked documents have evidenced a state of non-governance that has reached a tipping point and that must be confronted.
Of course, Benedict XVI does not make his decisions - much less strategic choices such as a changeover at State - because of 'scandals' and media pressure. But the College of Cardinals is rallying behind him to make the right decision because they saw how he singlehandedly handled the pedophile-priest crisis in 2009 and 2010, going against established (and erroneous) Vatican practice in terms of transparency.
But it will be recalled that when Bertone presented a customary letter of resignation when he turned 75, the Pope turned it down. And last May, speaking publicly about Vatileaks for the first time, Benedict reiterated his confidence in 'my closest collaborators'.
Age is not a factor in this. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, appointed Secretary of State back in 1990 by John Paul II, continued as Benedict XVI's Secretary of State for another 18 months, retiring a month and a half before he turned 79. So the matter of replacing Bertone is a matter of substance, not just of form.
Perhaps after an unnerving war of attrition between Bertonians and Sodanians, Benedict XVI may wish a more collegial and shared leadership at State, a 'Prime Minister' with a more palatable style of being 'first among equals' in the Curia.
But he is also facing a more general problem regarding fundamental aspects of governance at the Vatican that will not be solved by simply having a new Secretary of State.
Perhaps he is thinking of accelerating the pace of Curial reform that has been pending for decades. For less bureaucracy and more coordination. In which everything must be, by definition and in fact, considered 'service to the Church'.
The lingering image now of infinite power struggles in the Curia is damaging to Papa Ratzinger's Church of preaching and purification. And Fr. Lombardi underscored Saturday that the Pope is well aware of the central role that his Secretary of State has in that image.
Whatever the Pope decides to do, it will be a well-considered move, not a punitive measure nor the sacking of a cardinal who had been Cardinal Ratzinger's right-hand man for six years at the CDF.
It will be an acknowledgment that changed conditions demand new responses. Vatileaks has weakened Bertone, not the Pope. A 'technocratic' government that will allow a 'settling down' would seem to be the only feasible escape from the venomous quagmire of Vatileaks.
Meanwhile, the Holy See appears to be shielding itself in a way by turning to the Opus Dei and its reputation for quietly systematic order. First, Cardinal Julian Herranz who leads the three-man cardinals' commission looking into Vatileaks.
[Herranz served closely with Opus Dei founder St. Josemaria Escriva for almost two decades.]
And then, on Saturday, the announcement that Greg Burke, veteran Rome correspondent for over two decades for Reuters, Time and Fox News, will the senior communications adviser to the Secretariat of State. Burke is an Opus Dei lay member.
[I think the Opus Dei connection is purely coincidental. Two swallows don't make a summer, although I don't doubt that, following the precedent of John Paul II in hiring lay journalist and Opus Dei member Joaquin Navarro Valls, Burke's being Opus Dei must have given him an advantage when the Vatican was making its choice, in addition to the fact that he is American and therefore quite knowledgeable in the ways of both the conventional media and the new Internet-based outlets. I cannot think of any other present Vaticanista who has such a connection...
The Opus Dei is the only 'new ecclesial movement' that I have had any contacts with, since in the 1960s-1970s, it already had a significant following in the Philippines, especially among middle-class professionals and businessmen. In 1978, my executive editor and his wife introduced me to Opus Dei because they asked me to go with them to visit the tomb of Mons. Escriva in Rome, when we were there for a Holy Week event. The church of Our Lady of Peace, which is the Opus Dei's prelature church in Rome, is located in a modest building with an un-churchlike facade, that is found along the bus route leading from central Rome to the Parioli district (nine years later, the first time I lived in Italy for almost a year, it would be my daily bus route). My first visit to the church was only three years after Mons. Escriva died - long before he was beatified in 1992 and eventually canonized in 2002. The Opus Dei members I was privileged to get to know, and some even to work with, were solid orthodox Catholics and daily communicants, usually successful in their professions, business and government positions, with exemplary families, but who never called attention to their being Opus Dei. The whole point of the movement is to do the 'work of God' by living the routines of secular life in a holy way but discreetly. I've been watching Fox News exclusively since 2001, and I never knew Burke was Opus Dei until it came out this weekend. Of course, once it is known, you're tagged for life and you'll have to live up to it publicly every hour of every day!]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/06/2012 06:14]