Vatican Diary / Confirmed, Promoted, Demoted

The Chiesa
September 25, 2013

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350609?eng=y


Cardinal Piacenza is the most illustrious victim of the first shake-up of Pope Francis in the Roman curia. Diplomats are advancing. The Italians are resisting. "Ratzingerians" to the sidelines

VATICAN CITY, September 25, 2013 – With the announcement of the appointment of the new secretary of state and with the measures taken four days ago, Pope Francis has kicked off a first round of incisive changes in the Roman curia.

He has done so in relatively short order, as moreover had been asked of him by the cardinals who supported him to the point of electing him successor of Peter.

From this series of appointments, confirmations, and non-confirmations - preceded by small but significant adjustments in other Vatican offices - one can already draw a few indications on the lines of governance of a pope who loves to call himself bishop of Rome but who within the Leonine walls acts 100 percent as supreme pontiff of the universal Church.

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First of all it can be said that if his predecessor Benedict XVI nourished a certain idiosyncrasy with regard to the “caste” of apostolic nuncios, pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio is not showing any prejudice in this. On the contrary. While decrying the fact that the clerics who carry out the diplomatic service are more threatened than the others by the leprosy of ecclesiastical careerism, when he finds among them a person he maintains to be valid and competent - or is presented to him as such by advisors he believes to be trustworthy - he shows no hesitation in promoting them to high and delicate positions.

This is certainly the case of the new secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, and of the new prefect of the congregation for the clergy, Beniamino Stella. Also valued by pope Bergoglio for their discrete profile, foreign to all forms of extremism.

Another apostolic nuncio is the more exuberant archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, who has been promoted as secretary general of the synod of bishops in the place of Nikola Eterovic, appointed nuncio to Berlin. Baldisseri is the prelate who, as secretary of the conclave, was made a "half-cardinal" by the newly elected pope, who conferred the scarlet zucchetto on him. Now it can be presumed that he will become a full-fledged cardinal and receive the biretta - together with Parolin and Stella - at the first consistory available.

As for the transfer of Eterovic two Berlin, it can be noted that all three of his predecessors as secretary general at the synod (Wladyslaw Rubin, Jozef Tomko, and Jan P. Schotte) became cardinals while they were in this position, or immediately afterward. The Croatian archbishop is not receiving the scarlet, but as nuncio in Germany will be in charge of the appointments of some of the most important diocese of the country: Cologne, Mainz, and Freiburg.

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It is not known if Francis will continue the tradition of bestowing the scarlet also on the occupants of Italian sees of longstanding cardinalate tradition - at the moment, Turin and Venice are without it - but the fact that there are already three Italians in the curia in the running for the cardinalate could perhaps mean that the pope is not thinking of prejudicially “punishing” the Italian presence in the curia and in the college of cardinals.

At the most one can point out that with a pope of Piedmontese and Ligurian origins there is a transition from a predominance of churchmen from the Savoyard regions (Tarcisio Bertone, Mauro Piacenza) to that of clerics from the ancient Republic of Venice, like Parolin from Vicenza and Stella from Treviso, to whom could be added the new archbishop and president of the pontifical ecclesiastical academy, the diplomatic school of the Holy See, Giampiero Gloder, originally from Asiago in the province of Vicenza.

A slight signal of a geographical countertrend with respect to this has come at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, where the Veronese Massimo Boarotto has been replaced as delegate of the ordinary section by the Piedmontese Mauro Rivella. According to the rumors in the curia, the appointment of this latter is coming across as a little slap in the face to the presidency of the Italian episcopal conference, which last year did not extend the five-year term that Rivella had spent as undersecretary, and sent him back to Turin.

In any case there is no sign of a preclusion of Italians on the part of the pope, as long as they demonstrate a modest demeanor and are not very talkative, in public or in private. Pope Francis has repeatedly said that he does not like chatter. As a cardinal, during the rare occasions when he came to Rome he did not disdain to hear it from those "old curials" whom he now extols. But now that he is pope, the context has changed.

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Perhaps this is the way to interpret the adjustments that have demoted some churchmen considered among the most conservative and "Ratzingerian" of the Roman curia. Moves that have brought rejoicing to the progressive media circus and mourning to the more traditionalist one.

Three transfers in particular have prompted discussion:

- that of Archbishop Guido Pozzo from pontifical almoner to secretary of the pontifical commission "Ecclesia Dei," a position that had been abolished a few years ago;

- that of Bishop Giuseppe Sciacca from secretary general of the governorate of Vatican City-State to adjunct secretary of the apostolic signatura, a previously nonexistent position;

- and above all that of Cardinal Mauro Piacenza from the influential congregation of the clergy to the more marginal apostolic penitentiary, where in general were sent cardinals of very advanced age or - with the glaring sole exception of Luigi De Magistris - archbishops who were to be given the scarlet.

In the past, not many cardinals of the curia have been demoted in their positions. But there have been some.

With John Paul II, for example, in 1984 a glaring curial "diminution" was undergone - because of problems of ecclesiastical "stance" - by two cardinals of the highest rank:

- the Argentine Eduardo Pironio, whose personal secretary Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, a Legionary of Christ, has now been rewarded by pope Bergoglio, who has promoted him to the position that Bishop Sciacca held at the governorate;

- and the Italian Sebastian Baggio, from Vicenza like Parolin.

Pope Karol Wojtyla also transferred Cardinal James F. Stafford of the United States to make room for his countryman Stanislaw Rylko.

It is evident that in the case of Piacenza, pope Bergoglio has wanted to impress a change of direction on the dynamic but tradition-minded leadership of the congregation that the Genoese cardinal, a pupil of Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, had undertaken with the full approval of Benedict XVI.

This lashing has been made all the more evident by the fact that Pope Francis has wanted to appoint another secretary in the dicastery, the Mexican bishop Jorge Carlos Patron Wong, who now joins the Spanish Celso Morga Iruzubieta, of the priestly fraternity of the Holy Cross tied to Opus Dei.

And the change of course is emphasized yet again by the fact that the pope has not confirmed the members and advisors of the congregation for the clergy, who therefore remain in office hanging by the provisionality of the "donec aliter provideatur."

A provisionality that instead the pope has removed for the leaders, members, and advisors of the congregations for the doctrine of the faith and de Propaganda Fide. Confirmation has in fact been given both to the German Gerhard Ludwig Muller as prefect of the former Holy Office and to Italian cardinal Fernando Filoni, who also came from the diplomatic service, as prefect for the evangelization of peoples.

Cardinal Piacenza has also always been a firm supporter of the discipline of ecclesiastical celibacy. His exit from the congregation for the clergy, associated with the statements of the next secretary of state Parolin interpreted as an openness to the retirement of this ecclesiastical norm in the Latin Church, has raised the idea that among the innovations of the current pontificate there could be a change precisely in this delicate area. But as a cardinal, Bergoglio affirmed that he shared the thought of the pope on this topic, which is that the topic is not to be considered as under discussion today.

At the most it could happen that Pope Francis might approve or promote an international debate to see if the historical conditions for a change are there. But it is easy to predict that even such a limited openness would provoke white-hot discussions, with the possibility of deep divisions even within the episcopal college.

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see the thought of the new secretary of the congregation for the clergy, Patron Wong, who will have competency precisely over the seminaries. The prelate - who was the first Mexican bishop to register an account on Twitter - has so far released on this topic statements that are not innovative, even if his profound thought on the argument can be found in his thesis in spiritual theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University, dedicated precisely to the significance of celibacy in the contemporary world.

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Now many of the expectations of the curia, and not only there, are resting on the congregation for bishops and for divine worship.

In the former, where the confirmation of cardinal prefect Marc Ouellet is predicted, the transfer of Baldisseri has left the position of secretary vacant.

In the latter it seems a given that the cardinal prefect Antonio Cañizares Llovera will return to Spain as the successor of Antonio Rouco Varela as archbishop of Madrid.

Moreover, in the congregation that "fabricates" bishops it will be interesting to see if and how the members of the dicastery will be changed. Currently the composition is an ensemble fairly well balanced among the various ecclesial tendencies. But seeing the latest appointments there are some who fear - or hope for - a sort of purging of the most conservative members, starting with Cardinal Piacenza.

In the congregation for divine worship it will instead be interesting to see who will take the place of Cañizares, whom some call the "little Ratzinger" because of his presumed theological affinity with Benedict XVI. In the traditionalist sectors there is circulating like a nightmare the rumor that he could be replaced by Archbishop Piero Marini, the director of pontifical ceremonies of John Paul II sent to the bench by pope Joseph Ratzinger.

Piero Marini was the first co-consecrator of the new archbishop pontifical almoner, the Polish Konrad Krajewski, a pupil of Bergoglio.

That none other than he should be brought to the leadership of the dicastery for the liturgy appears implausible, but with Pope Francis surprises are always possible.

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Moreover, on Tuesday, September 24 the pope confirmed the leaders of two pontifical councils "until the conclusion of the respective five-year terms in course."

At that of the laity, therefore, the cardinal president, the Polish Stanislaw Rylko, and the secretary bishop, the German Josef Clemens, have been confirmed until next January 24.

While at that of justice and peace the cardinal president, the African Peter K. Appiah Turkson, and the bishop secretary, the Venetian Salesian Mari Toso, have been confirmed until October of 2014.

These two councils could therefore survive the planned reform that should cut or combine various offices of the curia, but it is not a given that they will be guided by their current heads.