Vatican Diary / How the Bishop Factory Is Changing

Chiesa
December 20, 2013

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350687?eng=y

Among the cardinals and bishops who are members of the congregation, Pope Francis has replaced half of them. With glaring exclusions. And surprising promotions


VATICAN CITY, December 20, 2013 – The motu proprio canonizations of John XXIII and the Jesuit Peter Faber on the one hand, and the incisive and determined interventions in the organizational structure of the Roman curia on the other are the most demanding juridical actions taken by Pope Francis during the first nine months of his pontificate.

Among these latter a prominent place belongs to the shakeup in the leadership of the congregation for bishops, the crucial dicastery that works most closely with the pope in the appointment of Latin bishops in much of the world: Europeans, Americans, Australians, and Filipinos (the appointment of prelates for missionary territories in Asia and Africa are overseen by Propaganda Fide).

After personally selecting the new secretary of the congregation in the person of the Brazilian Ilson de Jesus Montanari, his old acquaintance as a neighbor at the Roman residence on Via della Scrofa, and after ordering his personal secretary Fr. Fabian Pedacchio Leaniz to continue spending his mornings working in that dicastery, where he has been an official for a few years, the pope confirmed last Monday as prefect the Canadian cardinal Marc Ouellet.

Not only that. But as he has already done at the congregation for Catholic education, here as well he has reshuffled the members of the dicastery. With confirmations, new appointments, and removals.

Let's start with the twelve new entries.

Among the new components of the congregation there are five cardinals: Francisco Robles Ortega of Guadalajara, Mexico; Donald William Wuerl of Washington in the United States; Ruben Salazar Gomez of Bogota, Colombia; Kurt Koch, Swiss, president of the pontifical council for the promotion of Christian unity; Joao Braz de Aviz, Brazilian, prefect of the congregation for religious. Six archbishops: Pietro Parolin, secretary of state; Beniamino Stella, prefect of the congregation for the clergy; Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the synod of bishops; Vincent Gerard Nichols of Westminster, Great Britain; Paolo Rabitti, emeritus of Ferrara; Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia. And one bishop: Felix Genn of Munster, Germany.

And then there are the eighteen confirmed.

Fourteen are cardinals: Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state emeritus: Zenon Grocholewski, Polish, prefect of the congregation for Catholic education; George Pell of Sydney, Australia; Agostino Vallini, cardinal vicar of Rome; Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the congregation for divine worship; Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris; Jean-Louis Tauran, French, president of the pontifical council for interreligious dialogue; William Joseph Levada, of the United States, prefect emeritus of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith; Leonardo Sandri, Argentine, prefect of the congregation for the Oriental Churches; Giovanni Lajolo, governor emeritus of Vatican City-State; Stanis?aw Ry?ko, Polish, president of the pontifical council for the laity; Francesco Monterisi, archpriest emeritus of Saint Paul's; Santos Abril y Castello, archpriest of Saint Mary Major; Giuseppe Bertello, governor of Vatican City-State; Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the prefecture of economic affairs.

And three are archbishops: Claudio Maria Celli, president of the pontifical council for social communications; Jose Octavio Ruiz Arenas, Colombian, secretary of the pontifical commission for the promotion of the new evangelization; Zygmunt Zimowski, Polish, president of the pontifical council for the pastoral care of health care workers.

But as has already been seen in the congregation for Catholic education, the most striking list is that of the fourteen removals.

Among the eleven cardinals excluded, four will turn 80 soon: the German Joachim Meisner at Christmas, the Brazilian Claudio Hummes in March, the other German, Paul Josef Cordes, and the Slovenian Franc Rode in September. But seven are younger: Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid, the Portuguese Manuel Monteiro de Castro, the Americans Justin Francis Rigali and Raymond L. Burke, the Italians Angelo Bagnasco, Attilio Nicora, and Mauro Piacenza.

Two archbishops have been removed: the Croatian Nikola Eterovic and the Italian Pier Luigi Celata. And one bishop: the Italian Lorenzo Chiarinelli.

From a numerical point of view, it can be noted that the number of Italians remains unchanged, although their influence has increased because they were 12 out of 33 and now are 12 out of 31. The number and influence of the Latin Americans has increased (from 3 to 5), while the non-Italian Europeans have decreased (from 13 to 10) as have the North Americans (from 4 to 3). The only representative from Oceania remains in place. The members of the curia have also decreased (from 25 to 21), while there has been no change in the number (10) of the churchmen coming from diplomatic careers.

Obviously it did not make the news that the French representation (Tauran, Vingt-Trois) and the Polish representation (Grocholewski, Rylko, and Zimowski) remain unchanged, while the other two representatives of the Churches of Eastern Europe (Rode and Eterovic) have disappeared.

There was, however, a great stir in the media over the removal, together with Rigali, of American cardinal Burke, a churchman very much attached to the traditional liturgy and always in the front ranks in the defense of "non-negotiable" principles, so much so as to be a tenacious proponent of the fact that on the basis of canon law it is not possible to give communion to those politicians who pertinaciously and publicly support and propose laws in favor of the right to abortion.

In the place of Burke the pope chose Wuerl, who although he has a past as a personal secretary and conclavist, in 1978, of ultraconservative cardinal John Wright (bishop of Pittsburgh and later prefect of the congregation for the clergy), has a much more compliant attitude than Burke with regard to pro-abortion politicians.

This change has been hailed positively in the "liberal" American world, which is now hoping for the selection of more progressive bishops with respect to those appointed in recent years.

The same thing is happening in Spain, where the exit of Cardinal Ruoco Varela has been welcomed with satisfaction by those who desire the advent of new, less conservative bishops.

But particularly revolutionized by Pope Francis is the Italian component of the membership of the congregation.

Two churchmen who grew up in the Genoa of the conservative cardinal Giuseppe Siri have been removed: cardinals Piacenza (already demoted from prefect of the congregation for the clergy to major penitentiary) and Bagnasco (the current president of the episcopal conference, in spite of the fact that the occupants of this position have been members of the dicastery uninterruptedly since 1985, when the responsibility of selecting Italian bishops passed from the council for the public affairs of the Church, now the second section of the secretariat of state, to the congregation).

Also removed is Archbishop Celata, who was the personal secretary of Cardinal Agostino Casaroli.

Taking over instead are the vice-president of the CEI and archbishop of Perugia Bassetti (highly esteemed by the pope), the three churchmen already promoted to other positions in the curia by the current pontiff (Parolin, Stella, and Baldisseri), and the emeritus Rabitti, known for having represented at the CEI a stance different from that of Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the historic leader of the Italian episcopate during the pontificate of John Paul II.

Remaining in the dicastery, instead, are Cardinal Bertone and the cardinal closest to him, Versaldi, as well as Archbishop Celli, heir of the diplomatic school of the elderly cardinal Achille Silvestrini. Also remaining in office is Cardinal Monterisi, in spite of the fact that he will turn 80 next September.

It must also be pointed out that the prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, the German Gerhard Ludwig Muller, has not been called to be part of the congregation for bishops, in spite of the fact that his predecessors Levada, Joseph Ratzinger, Franjo Seper, and Alfredo Ottaviani were members of the dicastery.

In the German-speaking camp, therefore, in the place of Cardinal Meisner comes the bishop of Munster, Genn, who is a member, like the prefect Ouellet, of the Johannesgemeinschaft, the priestly fraternity founded by theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.

As for Latin America, the Mexican Robles has been selected over his countryman Norberto Rivera Carrera, held to be more conservative, while the Argentine curia member Sandri remains in place, although he is considered an historical Roman rival to Bergoglio.

Curious in this regard is the episode recounted by papal biographer Elisabetta Pique about the dinner the two shared at Santa Marta before the beginning of the conclave:

"The archbishop of Buenos Aires sat down to eat with his countryman Leonardo Sandri. They had known each other since their youth. Bergoglio was Sandri's prefect at the seminary in the quarter of Villa Devoto in Buenos Aires, before deciding to join the Jesuits. Their careers were very different. Bergoglio dedicated himself to pastoral tasks, Sandri gave himself to diplomacy and has spent most of his life in the Roman curia. In the past they have had their differences, everyone knows this. But they pretend that nothing has happened."

With the confirmation of Sandri at Catholic education and at bishops it would seem that the "pretend nothing has happened" of Bergoglio continues even after the conclave. But it will be necessary to wait for the confirmation or non-confirmation of the current leaders of the congregation for the Oriental Churches - who are still provisory - to know if this is truly the case.

Also significant is the appointment as member of the congregation for bishops of the archbishop of Bogota, and not only because this doubles the Colombian presence in the dicastery. Shortly before receiving the cardinal's biretta in 2012, in fact, Cardinal Salazar had to undergo a reprimand and make a subsequent corrective declaration after one of his statements was interpreted as favorable toward the legalization of gay marriage in his country.

Just as it is significant that a place in the congregation for bishops has gone to the Englishman Nichols, who ended up in the crosshairs of the Holy Office - and perhaps because of this has not yet been made a cardinal - for not having promptly put an end to ad hoc liturgies for homosexuals.

To be pointed out finally is the twofold promotion of Cardinal Koch, a Swiss theologian of Ratzingerian stamp, who has been incorporated into the congregations for Catholic education and for bishops, of which he was not a member previously.

What the congregation for bishops remade from the ground up by Pope Francis will produce will be seen in the upcoming months.

Before that, however, we will learn the names of the first cardinals created by the new pontiff at the consistory next February. With him, making predictions is much more difficult than in the past. Surprise is the rule.