Pope With the Humble Touch Is Firm in Reshaping the Vatican
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Pope With the Humble Touch Is Firm in Reshaping the Vatican - NYT... htp://www.nyimes.com/20 I 41 0l I 1 4/w orld/europe/pope-with-the-h...
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Pope With the Humble Touch Is Firm in
Reshaping the Vatican
Bv JASON HOROWITZ and JIM YARDLEY JAN. 13, 2014
VATICAN CITY 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 Bays,
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 nowbelieve, 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 NewYear'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 NewYear'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,
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was demoted. Among the bishops, Archbishop Guido Pozzo was sidelined.
To some degree, Francis, 77,is simplybringing 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 murkyVatican 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 NewYear'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
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destitute poured into an ancient church in Rome for a holidaylunch
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 r6th-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 Bqttle
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 power{ul conservative faction.
"He was not an ing6nue coming out into the world," said Elisabetta
Piqu6, 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
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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 2oL2, 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 zoo8, 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
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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 I t qliqn P olitics
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 suspicioris 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
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Italian," one senior Vatican official said, "particularly as people work
towards greater transparency and meritocracy. "
Offthe 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 sayhis 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 worldlytemptations, he added, made for "priest-wheeler-
dealers, priest-tycoons. "
The NewYear's Eve Mass at St. Peter's ended with a procession of
priests escorting Francis out of the basilica, followedbythe 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.
ArchbishopPozzo 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
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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 offthe Congregation for Bishops.
Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on .January 14, 201,4, on page A1 of the New York edition
with the headline: Pope With the Humble Touch ls Firm in Reshaping the Vatican.
@ 201,4 The New York Times Company
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