Pope With the Humble Touch Is Firm in Reshaping the Vatican —
Less than a year into his papacy, Pope Francis has raised expectations
among the world’s one billion Roman Catholics that change is coming. He
has already transformed the tone of the papacy, confessing himself a
sinner, declaring “Who am I to judge?” when asked about gays, and kneeling to wash the feet of inmates, including Muslims.
Less
apparent, if equally significant for the future of the church, is how
Francis has taken on a Vatican bureaucracy so plagued by intrigue and
inertia that it contributed, numerous church officials now believe, to
the historic resignation of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, last February.
Francis’
reign may not ultimately affect centuries-old church doctrine, but it
is already reshaping the way the church is run and who is running it.
Francis is steadily replacing traditionalists with moderates as the
church prepares for a debate about the role of far-flung bishops in
Vatican decision-making and a broad discussion on the family that could
touch on delicate issues such as homosexuality and divorce.
In
St. Peter’s Basilica on New Year’s Eve, Francis, dressed in golden
robes, hinted at the major changes he had already set in motion. “What
happened this year?” he asked. “What is happening, and what will
happen?”
To
some of the scarlet-clad cardinals seated in rows of gilded armchairs
at the New Year’s service, the answer was becoming clear. Cardinal
Raymond L. Burke, one of the highest-ranking Americans in the Vatican, found his influence diluted. Another conservative, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, was demoted. Among the bishops, Archbishop Guido Pozzo was sidelined.
To
some degree, Francis, 77, is simply bringing in his own team and
equipping it to carry out his stated mission of creating a more
inclusive and relevant church that is more sensitive to the needs of
local parishes and the poor. But he is also breaking up the rival blocs
of Italians with entrenched influence in the Roman Curia, the
bureaucracy that runs the church. He is increasing financial transparency in the murky Vatican Bank and upending the career ladder that many prelates have spent their lives climbing.
On
Sunday, Francis made his first mark on the exclusive College of
Cardinals that will elect his successor by naming prelates who in many
cases hail from developing countries and the Southern Hemisphere. He
pointedly instructed the new cardinals not to consider the job a
promotion or to waste money with celebratory parties.
“It
was an important year,” said Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the
Vatican’s second-ranking official and one of only four Vatican officials
Francis will make a cardinal in February. Asked in a New Year’s Eve
interview about the personnel changes, he replied that it was only
natural that the Argentine pope should prefer to have “certain people
who are able to advance his policy.”
Interviews
with cardinals, bishops, priests, Vatican officials, Italian
politicians, diplomats and analysts indicate that the mood inside the
Vatican ranges from adulation to uncertainty to deep anxiety, even a
touch of paranoia. Several people say they fear Francis is going
department by department looking for heads to roll. Others whisper about
six mysterious Jesuit spies who act as the pope’s eyes and ears on the
Vatican grounds. Mostly, once-powerful officials feel out of the loop.
“It’s
awkward,” said one senior Vatican official, who, like many others,
insisted on anonymity for fear of retribution from Francis. “Many are
saying, what are we doing this for?” He said some officials had stopped
showing up for meetings. “It’s like frustrated teenagers closing the
door and putting their headphones on.”
Francis
remains tricky to define, a doctrinal conservative whose humble style
and symbolic gestures have thrilled many liberals. On Christmas, the
destitute poured into an ancient church in Rome for a holiday lunch
sponsored by a Catholic lay organization. The group’s founder, Andrea
Riccardi, once a liaison to the church when he served as an Italian
government minister, expressed hopes for change, but also wariness about
Vatican officials ignoring the pope’s agenda.
“You
hear people talk about it in the corridors of the church,” Mr. Riccardi
said.
“The real resistance is to continue business as usual.”
Four
days earlier, Francis met with the Curia in the Sala Clementina, the
16th-century reception hall in the Apostolic Palace, to deliver one of
the most important papal speeches of the year. Benedict used his last
such Christmas address to denounce same-sex marriage. Francis used his
first to castigate his own colleagues in the Curia.
He
warned the men in red and purple skullcaps and black cassocks arrayed
around him that the Curia risked drifting “downwards towards mediocrity”
and becoming “a ponderous, bureaucratic customhouse.” He also called on
the prelates to be “conscientious objectors” to gossip.
Not New to the Battle
It
was a pointed rebuke of the poisonous atmosphere that had troubled
Benedict’s papacy, and for which the former secretary of state, Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone, was often blamed. And it was a reminder that Francis,
if a new pope, was not new to the machinations of the Curia, having
tangled while in Argentina with a powerful conservative faction.
“He
was not an ingénue coming out into the world,” said Elisabetta Piqué,
an Argentine journalist who has known Francis for more than two decades
and whose recent book, “Francis: Life and Revolution,” documented his
past clashes with Rome. “He had had almost a war with this section of
the Roman Curia.”
Now
Francis talks disparagingly of “airport bishops” who are more
interested in their careers than flocks, and warns that priests can
become “little monsters” if they are not trained properly as
seminarians.
He
is dismantling the power circle of Cardinal Bertone, who led a ring of
conservatives centered on the city of Genoa. In September, Francis
demoted Cardinal Piacenza, a Bertone ally, from his post running the
powerful Congregation for the Clergy.
To
some it was an indication that the new pope could act with a measure of
ruthlessness. Several Vatican officials said that Cardinal Piacenza’s
greatest transgression had been undermining his predecessor, a Brazilian
prelate close to Francis who appeared with him on the balcony of St.
Peter’s after his election.
Francis
also removed a top official of the Vatican City government, although
arranging a soft landing pad. Others were less fortunate.
As
a priest, Guido Pozzo led a Vatican commission tasked with bridging the
schism between the church and traditionalists critical of the Second
Vatican Council. In November 2012, Cardinal Bertone elevated him to the
rank of archbishop and Benedict appointed him to run the church’s
charity office. Francis, who is much less interested than Benedict was
in appealing to the schismatic conservatives, has since sent Archbishop
Pozzo back to his former post.
Another
is Cardinal Burke. In 2008, Benedict installed his fellow
traditionalist as president of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s
highest court, and the next year appointed him to the Congregation for
Bishops. The post gave Cardinal Burke tremendous sway in selecting new
bishops in the United States.
In
December, Francis replaced him with a more moderate cardinal. “He’s
looking for places to put his people,” said one official critical of the
pope.
Another
Vatican conservative took offense at Francis’ disdain for elaborate
dress. And speculation that Francis might convert the papal vacation
home of Castel Gandolfo into a museum or a rehabilitation center has
also raised alarms. “If he does that,” said an ally of the old guard,
“the cardinals will rebel.”
For
now, the resistance is not gaining traction. “The Holy Spirit succeeds
also in melting the ice and overcoming any resistance,” Secretary of
State Parolin said. “So there will be resistance. But I wouldn’t give
too much importance to these things.”
Francis
also has empowered a group of eight cardinals representing five
continents to spearhead reform of the Curia. He has hired secular
consultants and set up a special commission to oversee the Vatican Bank.
And while he has spoken infrequently on clerical sexual abuse, he has
formed another commission “for the protection of minors.”
He
may also delegate some of the powers traditionally held by the office
of secretary of state by creating a new papal enforcer, who would wrest
power away from Curia bureaucrats.
“This
is a very real possibility,” said Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop
of Washington, who replaced Cardinal Burke on the Congregation for
Bishops.
Shunning Italian Politics
For
years, Italian politicians have courted the Vatican, and vice versa, as
both Pope John Paul II and Benedict encouraged Italy’s prelates to
speak out on issues that concerned the church. Francis’ distaste for
directly involving the church in politics has now threatened that old
link between Italian prelates and Italy’s conservative politicians.
“Today,
the Italian bishops are keeping silent,” said Pier Ferdinando Casini, a
prominent politician who once met with cardinals and even popes but has
yet to meet Francis.
The
Vatican remains a disproportionately Italian institution, with Italy
boasting the biggest bloc of cardinals even as it now accounts for only 4
percent of the world’s Catholics. Vatican employees are overwhelmingly
Italian, with lifetime job security, sometimes extending for
generations.
Perks
abound. On a recent afternoon inside the Vatican’s department store,
bargain hunters shopped for tax-free wine, cigarettes, Ferragamo
clutches and North Face jackets beneath clocks reading the time in New
York, Vatican City and Tokyo.
The
Italian problem, as many non-Italian cardinals called it, loomed over
the conclave that elected Francis in March. An undue Italian influence
was blamed for suspicious accounts and mismanagement of the Vatican Bank
and the gossip mongering that fueled an embarrassing scandal centered
on leaks of Benedict’s private letters.
“What
is necessary is that at this stage that the culture becomes less
Italian,” one senior Vatican official said, “particularly as people work
towards greater transparency and meritocracy.”
Off the Career Track
Francis,
whose father was an Italian immigrant, and whose second language is
Italian, does have key Italian allies, including Secretary of State
Parolin and two other Curia department prefects he named as cardinals on
Sunday. But analysts say his passing over of traditional Italian
powerhouses, such as Venice, where the archbishop is close to Cardinal
Bertone, shows that he is trying to break the established career track
in the Italian church.
Francis
is also tinkering with the once mighty conference of Italian bishops,
which he sits atop in his role as bishop of Rome. Popes have
traditionally appointed the president of the Italian conference, but
Francis may introduce elections, as happens in other bishops’
conferences.
Under
Benedict, the conference’s president, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, jousted
for influence in Italian politics with Cardinal Bertone, whom Francis
has largely sidelined. But the pope also recently removed Cardinal
Bagnasco from the powerful Congregation for Bishops.
In
a recent Saturday homily, Francis warned an audience that included
Cardinal Bagnasco of the danger of becoming a “smarmy” priest.
Succumbing to worldly temptations, he added, made for
“priest-wheeler-dealers, priest-tycoons.”
The
New Year’s Eve Mass at St. Peter’s ended with a procession of priests
escorting Francis out of the basilica, followed by the thousands of the
faithful. In the emptied church, the cardinals and bishops rose from
their seats, shook hands with dignitaries and milled about around St.
Peter’s tomb.
Cardinal
Piacenza collected his umbrella from a prayer bench. Archbishop Pozzo
made his way to the door. Asked about the changes underway in the Curia,
he replied, “It’s been a surprising year!”
Not far away, Cardinal Burke blessed a few stragglers and declined to comment without permission from his “superiors.”
Weeks
earlier, Cardinal Burke seemed poised to be the most prominent voice of
resistance to Francis’ reign, telling a Catholic television network
that he was not “exactly sure why” the pope “thinks we’re talking too
much about abortion” and other culture war issues. When it came to
changes in the Curia, he bemoaned “a kind of unpredictability about life
in Rome in these days.”
At
roughly the same time, Francis gave an interview to the Italian
newspaper La Stampa. The pope spoke again about “tenderness” and opening
up the church. But he also added: “Prudence is a virtue of government.
So is boldness.”
It
was a telling point. On Dec. 15 Cardinal Burke returned to his boyhood
parish in Stratford, Wis., to celebrate a special Mass. Dressed in the
tall miter cap and traditional pink for the Christmas season, he spoke
about his dairy farm roots but disappointed some of his parishioners by
making no mention of Francis or the events happening in the Vatican.
“I was hoping he would,” said Marge Pospyhalla, who attended the Mass. “But, no, we did not get that.”
His silence said enough. The day after the Mass, Francis took Cardinal Burke off the Congregation for Bishops. ( nytimes.com )
This article originally appeared in : Pope With the Humble Touch Is Firm in Reshaping the Vatican |
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