In the past four years, no single entity in the Italian media has been as assiduous in purveying scuttlebutt on supposed squabbling and plotting behind the scenes at the Vatican than the weekly magazine
that probably merits the title 'Smear and loathing at the Vatican'....
Lella's blog this morning had items about Panorama's latest 'incursions' behind the Leonine walls, which rehashes scullery chatter that has been making the rounds in France and Italy, but I decided to wait until I could read the article itself.
Beyond the usual gossip, this one goes as far as making the outrageous and grossly tasteless suggestion that all the 'grand maneuvering' by some ranking members of the Roman Curia has to do with positioning themselves 'in preparation for the next Conclave' - even if it does add that recent tests show there is nothing to worry about Benedict's health.
However, the article it does not turn up on a regular online search of Panorama's current issue nor on its RSS feed, so I will fall back on a item about the article posted on Lella's blog.
First, a denial attributed to the Vatican:
Vatican denounces speculation
on Curial intramurals and
about the Pope's health
VATICAN CITY, June 25 (Translated from ADNKronos) - Authoritative Vatican sources, after verification by this agency, have categorically denied the speculations published in this week's issue of
Panorama on supposed maneuvering among some prelates in the Vatican hierarchy.
The sources were even more emphatic in belying claims that Benedict XVI recently underwent diagnostic medical testing for his heart.
[And so what if he did, as he should periodically, for a man with his history and at his age? At least, the magazine said there was no reason to worry!]
They claimed that the media have had an unduly insidious interest in Vatican goings on behind the scenes but have been furnishing a lot of wrong information.
So what exactly does Panorama claim? The following story tells us:
Duels in the shadow
of St. Peter's Dome
Translated from
ROME, June 25 - The weekly magazine
Panorama in its issue that goes on sale tomorrow discloses 'confrontations at the highest levels of the Roman Curia', despite the Pope's exhortations to his co-workers to "abandon careerism and the struggle for power".
The Mondadori publication writes: "The Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, is preparing to get rid of the 'sacra corona'" - the ironic term used to describe the entourage of the deputy Secretary of State for internal affairs, Mons. Fernando Filoni.
In the Vatican corridors, there has been talks for some time of the imminent departure of Mons. Gabriele Caccia, counselor for general affairs, who was a key man in the Sodano administration; of Mons. Paolo Sardi, who heads the department in charge of translating papal texts, and is also vice-chamberlain; and of Mons. Carlo Maria Viganò, delegate to the pontifical representation
[I have not been able to find out what that means!]
But there are those who are betting that Filoni, now the #3 man in the Curia, will be replaced. He was considered an outstanding diplomat in the Wojtyla years and was called back to Rome by Benedict XVI to serve in the Curia.
[I have never read any explanation of why the Pope chose to recall Filoni from the Philippines where he was the Apostolic Nuncio, after having left Iraq shortly after the 2003 war began. There seems to have been no history of previous ties between Filoni and Cardinal Ratzinger, nor any particular qualifications that merited Filoni being put in charge of administering the Curia!
Something does not quite add up, but scuttlebutt in both Italy and France has always named him as one of the 'villains' in the Curia, whose maneuverings are even possibly against the very man who named him to his position!]
A French dossier reported in the Italian media at the time of the Williamson embarrassment identified most of these names as the 'leaks' in the Curial organization who are said to be ultimately working against the direction of this Pontificate. And therefore on a collision course with Cardinal Bertone.
It would be unreal and utopian to imagine a Curia in which everyone is in agreement. There are - and there have always been - differences of opinion among the Curial cardinals on many sensitive points - which
Panorama cites - from the Lefebvrians to relations with the Jews, from the dialog with China to the beatification of John Paul II.
Panorama claims that the present confrontations are the start of 'maneuvering for the next conclave', notwithstanding the fact that "MRI and other diagnostic medical tests in the past few weeks have ruled out any serious problems with the Pope's heart".
It adds that any eventual changes in the Curia would be a reorganization as a way of 'settling accounts' in the wake of the Williamson case.
[This implies that Benedict XVI's nominations would be dictated by the criterion of 'settling accounts' rather than actual need for change and competence for the job! Does anyone0 really think the Pope can be so petty?]
The magazine claims that there is conflict between Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Cardinal Antonio Canizares, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship - both of them former associates of Cardinal Ratzinger at the CDF.
[But their functions are very different and there should be no reason for conflict. Of course, the same French dossier referred to - by the Abbe Claude Barthes, who is reputed to have 'authoritative' inside information about the Vatican - also names Levada as one of the chief Curial cardinals working against the Pope (along with Cardinals Kasper and Re) because he is really 'very liberal'! Surely Benedict XVI cannot be so obtuse he does not realize something of the sort if there is any basis for the charge!]
Then, John Paul II's beatification is supposed to be the cause of friction between Cardinal Angelo Sodano and the Polish Pope's longtime private secretary, now-Cardinal Stanislaw Dsiwisz, the two men who served longest at Wojtyla's side.
[Excuse me, but Cardinal Ratzinger was appointed to the Curia years earlier than Sodano was! How can this people not get their facts right?]
Then there's said to be an anti-Bertone faction led by Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, 86
[who was a fixture at the Secretariat of State since the time of Pius XII, and who was later named by John Paul II to be Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches, retiring when he reached 80).
[Silvestrini is believed to have been the instigator and source of the material in the French novel Confessions of a Cardinal published earlier this year as a frankly anti-Benedict tract. Regarded as the leader of the liberal wing of the Roman Curia with influence even long after his retirement, he reportedly resents the rule that prohibits cardinals over 80 from voting in the Conclave, and did not take part at all in the last Conclave, not even in the pre-Conclave sessions. What an arrogant character and an apparent powermonger who loves nothing better than pulling the strings behind stage!]
Silvestrini and other Cardinals reportedly have never been able to accept that Benedict XVI named a theologian who had no experience or training in diplomacy to be his #2 man.
[Such pettiness and outright disobedience among "princes of the Church' is repulsive. They seem to be men who have forgotten what it means to be a priest, and I don't think they will even bother to heed Benedict XVI's message conveyed by the Year for Priests!]
Among those against Bertone is his predecessor Cardinal Sodano who, it will be remembered, did not move out of the Secretary of State's official residence in the Apostolic Palace until months after Cardinal Bertone had already taken office.
{The Italian media had been rife with speculation that Benedict XVI was about to replace Bertone - and now they have to deal with the fact that during the Pope's coming vacation in Les Combes, he has decided to say the Angelus in the little city of Romano Canavese in the neighboring diocese of Ivrea on his second Sunday on vacation. The place just happens to be Bertone's hometown. Pro-Bertone voices see this as the Pope's declaration of confidence in Bertone.]
P.S. Most of my parenthetical comments are based on various reports in the Italian media since January that I have not bothered to translate and post precisely because they are mostly idle - and sometimes malicious - speculation, but these have been among the most persistent of the scuttlebutt.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/06/2009 13:57]