Sorry, I have yet to adapt my CEI banner to reflect the change in Popes.
'Bagnasco will continue to lead Italian bishops for another four years'- Now, there's a strange headline! Considering that the cardinal was reappointed just last year by Benedict XVI for a second five-year term as president of the Italian bishops' conference. It would have been genuine news if Pope Francis had rescinded the nomination and decided that now was the time to put into effect his announced view that the president of the Italian bishops' conference (CEI) should henceforth be elected by the bishops of Italy, just as in other countries. Italy has always been an exception in that the Pope, as Primate of Italy, names the CEI president.
Bagnasco will continue
to lead Italian bishops
for another four years
by Marco Ansaldo
Translated from
April 28, 2013
Left photo, Cardinal Bagnasco meeting with Pope Francis on Saturday, and right, his last meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in February, when he led the bishops of Liguria on their ad-limina visit.
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco will serve the rest of his five-year term as president of the Italian bishops' conference (CEI), and perhaps after that, the way will be open for the direct election of the next CEI president by the bishops themselves.
The communique after the first meeting between Pope Francis and the
primate of Italy [Now, how could the Vaticanista of Repubblica make such an error? The CEI president may be primus inter pares among the Italian bishops but the Primate of Italy is the Bishop of Rome. Just as the Primate of the national church in the countries that do have national primates is not necessarily the president of the national bishops' conference, which is a bureaucratic position, not an apostolic title.]
The communique makes no reference to the reform that Papa Bergoglio has in mind for the method of choosing the CEI president But it is known that the Pope has spoken about introducing the direct election of the CEI president as opposed to the present practice of nomination by the Pope.
A source at the CEI said, "Bagnasco will finish his second mandate which ends in 2017. But it is possible the Pope will introduce a change", although already, the choice of the CEI head has taken place after consultations with all the Italian bishops, the results of which are taken into account by the Pope in his final choice.
[In 2007, when Cardinal Camillo Ruini ended three terms as CEI president and retired, the then Apostolic Nuncio in Italy (now Archbishop of Palermo, Cardinal Paolo Romeo) even conducted a controversial informal survey of the Italian bishops for the purpose of determining their ideas on Ruini's successor. Benedict ended up choosing Cardinal Bagnasco (then the new Archbishop of Genoa succeeding Cardinal Bertone when the latter became Secretary of State), over a far less prominent bishop from southern Italy who, the media claimed, Cardinal Bertone endorsed because he felt he could use him to take control of the Italian bishops. In fact, Bertone's first letter to Cardinal Bagnasco upon the latter's being named CEI president was to tell him that henceforth, it would be the task of the Secretariat of State to deal with the government of Italy on all things affecting the Church in Italy.
With the tacit approval of Benedict XVI, Bagnasco pointedly ignored Bertone's attempt which would have arrogated a specific function assigned to the CEI by the 1984 amendments to the Lateran Pacts. Under those amendments, the CEI is also the direct recipient of the annual 0.008% of Italian tax revenue that goes to the Catholic Church in Italy as ongoing restitution by the State of Italy for the confiscation of Church properties and assets from the former papal states in Italy at the time of Italian reunification in 1860. The letter to Bagnasco was widely reported at the time, being the first of Cardinal Bertone's ill-judged initiatives as Secretary of State. To his credit, Bertone did not further push the initiative. ]
So, Bagnasco's first meeting with the new Pope took place with this background. Pope Francis confirmed that he will take part in the CEI's general assembly on May 20-24, and asked to be informed about the important themes to be discussed.
He also reportedly warned against 'wasteful efforts' by a 'multiplication of organisms which ultimately end up uselessly weighing down the work of the CEI'.
Bagnasco told newsmen afterwards, "I felt great sympathy along with a great capacity for listening and attentiveness on the part of the Pope. For my part, I conveyed to him the affection of the Church and the faithful in Italy".