MALTA
Times of Malta
Sunday, June 21, 2015
by Mgr Charles Vella
For ages, the boat of Peter had to row amidst heavy storms. Pope Francis has exhorted us “to row with him in the storm”. Since the Pope set out to reform the Church and the Vatican Bank and to sort out the Curia finances he has had to face many a storm. All the opposition he faces worries him, though he looks serene and determined to overcome the storms. When one touches money in the Vatican, there will be opposition. Quite rightly a Vatican journalist recently described the situation as “an open war”.
The camp is divided in two fronts. On one side we have the Pope, Cardinal George Pell, the Council of Cardinal Advisers and the Secretariat for the Economy. The secretary of the latter is the Gozitan Mgr Alfred Xuereb and the co-ordinator is Joseph F.X. Zahra, who both enjoy the confidence of the Pope.
On the other side we have some cardinals and bishops from within and outside the Curia. Some have been ousted from power and from the management of the Vatican finances. This is quite a strong group, which also opposes any changes with regard to marriage and divorcees in the forthcoming Synod on the Family. They are not rowing with the Pope.
These include Cardinal Ludwig Müller, prefect of the Congregation of Christian Doctrine, or as known in the past, the Holy Office. Very vociferous is the American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who was removed for the Apostolic Signatura to be the patron of the Order of the Knights of Malta.
A strong ally of Pope Francis is Cardinal Walter Kasper, who was selected by the Pontiff to address last year’s extraordinary consistory on the family. Another heavyweight is German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and head of Vatican financial control. Zahra is a close advisor to him.
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