Some maintain that Benedict XVI’s pontificate has in effect come to an end, and that everything is to be put on hold. Benedict XVI does not think so. There is no need to accelerate the handling of daily affairs, but they do not come to a halt either. Everything must go on, at normal speed. Appointments for different positions are made as usual, with no exceptions. No matter if there are controversies, if every appointment is exploited and used as an excuse to feed resentments and stir feuds, or to attack the Church. The Church must go on, beyond all of this.

So, this last week, during the Lent Spiritual Retreat, two appointments were published. Scandalous, some cried out. In fact, these appointments had been decided a long time ago. The first appointment is that of the new president of the Religious Works Institute (IOR) Council of Superintendence. Ernst von Freyberg, of the Order of Malta, is a business lawyer with remarkable experience in finance. Meanwhile, nearly all of the IOR Cardinal Commission members will stay on.  The second appointment is that of Ettore Balestrero, currently the Vatican’s «Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs», as apostolic nuncio to Colombia, in order to strengthen the Church in Latin America.

The IOR – a sort of Vatican trust fund – had been nine months without a president.  Since the Council of Superintendence voted to pass a no confidence motion on the former president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the IOR «board of laymen»  had been headed by its vice president, Rolando Schmitz. The latter recommended to use Spencer & Stuart – a specialized «headhunter» agency – to look for candidates for a new president. Since July, specialists from this Frankfurter agency had been visiting the Vatican to gather information about the role of IOR president of the board, and the ideal profile of the next office holder. Spencer & Stuart first identified about 40 candidates, then selected six who were personally interviewed by the Council of Superintendence.  There were three finalists, who were interviewed by both the board of laymen and the board of cardinals.

Finally, the German Ernst von Freyberg was chosen. His managerial experience was not his only qualification. Yet, it is worth noting that he is cofounder and managing director of Dc Advisory Partners.  Formerly he had been an analyst at Three Cities Research, and president of Blohm+Voss, a naval industry. Von Freyberg was also chosen for his catholic credentials. He is an active member of the Order of Malta, a promoter of pilgrimages to Lourdes, and a nobleman. His appointment seemingly signals a return to an ancient practice: the Vatican puts its trust once again on a highly qualified personality from a Catholic and noble family, whose loyalty to the institution is independent from, and goes beyond, job-related contractual obligations.

The mandate of the IOR Cardinal Commission for Oversight, and of the new board, will expire in 2017. Card. Tarcisio Bertone is still the president of the Commission, since he is Secretary of State (he will be replaced when a new Secretary of State is appointed).  The appointments of cardinals Scherer (Brazilian), Toppo, (Indian), and Tauran (French) have been confirmed. Card. Nicora, on the other hand, has left the commission because he was also president of the Authority for Financial Information, which could have lead to a conflict of interest. Nicora had joined the board as the then president of the APSA (the Vatican «central bank»).  He is replaced by his successor as APSA President, Card. Domenico Calcagno.

Choosing a new IOR president was a process which began a long time ago, before Benedict XVI announced his decision to resign from the Petrine ministry. So was the process leading to the appointment of Ettore Balestrero, Undersecretary for Relations with States, as apostolic nuncio to Colombia.

During the past few years, Balestrero has worked to advance the Holy See’s path toward full financial transparency: he led the Holy See delegation at the plenary assembly of MONEYVAL – the body of the Council of Europe that evaluates the adherence of its member states to international standards – and he briefed journalists about the findings of the MONEYVAL report. Ettore Balestrero’s work went beyond, certainly: working as Undersecretary for Relations with States, he worked on the negotiations with the state of Israel and opened up Vietnam – where soon there will be a Holy See resident representative. Before that, he had worked in Korea and the Netherlands, and at the Vatican Secretariat of State, where his portfolio included relations with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). His main interests have always been peace, integral disarmament and religious freedom: he was among the organizers of the first conference ever held on intolerance and discrimination against Christians. While at the Secretariat of State, he also participated in the meeting organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace with non-institutional military chaplains. In that occasion, the Colombian military chaplain was present. Was it a sign of what the future held?

Certainly this background was taken into account when Balestrero was chosen to be apostolic nuncio in Colombia. The challenges he will face are those outlined by Benedict XVI in 2012. The Pope met Colombian bishops during their ad limina visit, and asked them to strengthen catechesis and relations with other Christian confessions. But he also underlined that bishops should not forget those «compelled to emigrate from their homeland» or those «harmed in their fundamental rights» or «forced to abandon their homes or families under the threat of the obscure hand of terror or of criminality», or still «those who have fallen in the nefarious networks of trade in arms and drugs. » The Catholic Church looks at Colombia with much interest: it has 102 bishops and a lively Church, so much so that there was talk of a papal apostolic visit. This project did not come to fruition with Benedict XVI, but may very well happen with his successor.

Balestrero’s appointment had been announced together with that of the new apostolic nuncio to El Salvador (Msgr. Leòn Kalenga) and that of the apostolic nuncio to Liberia (Miroslaw Adamczyk), the latter on his very first postings as “Pope’s ambassadors”. All of these appointments come at the end of a cursus honorum of about 15 years. Balestrero’s appointment, ultimately, has a precise goal: to strengthen the Church in Latin America. That is why Balestrero’s predecessor in the Secretariat of State, Pietro Parolin, was assigned apostolic nuncio to Venezuela, and its former head of protocol, Fortunatus Nwachukwu, was appointed Papal nuncio to Nicaragua.

In front of the Roman clergy, he spoke for one hour off-the-cuff, with no hesitation and with a certain serenity. And he denounced one of the “issues” with the Church, probably for him the pivotal one. Which is that there had been two Second Vatican Councils: one of the Fathers and one of the media. The latter deprived the Council of its content, used the Council’s key words to make the sacred profane, to maintain that ministers are not important and that laymen should democratically assume power. A political view of the Church, the virtual version of the Second Vatican Council, won the media. But now the real version is coming afloat, albeit with difficulty. Strength, tenacity, and a capacity of renewal are required. Benedict XVI doesn’t feel in himself that strength. So he resigned Peter’s ministerium.

Yet, Benedict XVI’s renunciation was not painful. Coherent with what he always said and wrote, the Pope trusted in God. His last actions as Pope – following an unchanged schedule – will be the Pope’s legacy to his successor. A legacy and path Benedict XVI already hinted at when he announced his renounce.

Monday, February, 11, the Madonna of Lourdes commemoration and a holyday at Vatican City State because of the anniversary of the Lateran Pacts. Cardinals in Rome gathered in a public ordinary consistory, with the aim to set a date for three canonizations. At the end of the Consistory, the Pope speaks in Latin, and declares that «with full freedom» and «well aware of the seriousness of this act» he renounces the ministry of Bishop of Rome entrusted to him 19 April 2005. Because, the Pope explains, «in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith», he feels that he lacks the strength of mind and body to carry on with his ministry.

 Those words already set the profile for the next Pope. Part of Benedict’s legacy will be in every word he utters, every speech he will deliver until February 28 – when the Sede Vacante (Vacant See) will officially begin. It was clear in the meeting with the Roman clergy, on Thursday, February 14^th. Priests of Rome asked the Pope to tell them about the Second Vatican Council. He suggested to “chat” with them, and spoke calmly. He remembered the enthusiasm of the Council, he traveled again through the Council’s main issues (liturgy, ecclesiology, revelation, ecumenism and religious freedom). He contrasted the «Virtual Second Vatican Council» with the «Real Vatican Council». «People – the Pope said – have heard about the Council according to the media, not the Council according to the Fathers. While the Council according to the Fathers was within the sphere of faith, the Council according to journalists was explained from a different perspective (i.e. not from faith), with a different hermeneutic: a political hermeneutic, a battle for power among the different parties. Surely, the media sided with those  advocating for the Church’s decentralization, for more power for bishops and then – through the use of the word “People of God” – for power for laymen. This media’s Council – accessible to all – «created so many calamities and problems and miseries: closed seminaries, closed convents, trivialized religion. So the true Council had many difficulties in taking shape, to realize itself. The virtual Council was stronger than the real Council. But the real strength of the Council has been present, and step by step it becomes concrete and becomes the real strength.»

 This program requires strength to be implemented. Benedict XVI’s program has been an ambitious one: returning the Church to God. How to do this, despite the poisonous influence of a Church (a Curia) suffering from the gangrene of careerism, against a Church perhaps excessively deferential  to the media, with the risk of trivializing solemn occasions and liturgies?  Like the Benedictines, the Pope wished to go beyond. He climbed high up, from where his thought could fly afar and reach everybody. As Saint Benedict from his cloister, Benedict XVI aimed at a new civilization, using his speeches as the building blocks of a Cathedral, moving attention away from gestures and actions and focusing instead on a deeper thought and theology, thus avoiding any trivialization.

The Pope explained and lived faith with reason, because faith is reasonable, alive and real — a fundamental and constant notion in Ratzinger’s theological work. The Curia, however, was still entangled in the long  legacy of John Paul II’s era. A renovation program needs a lot of strength to be carried out. Benedict XVI felt he had established the foundations, and that – through his theology and work – he had built a solid framework of thought. Now, there is a need for someone able to revolutionize everything, to change a mentality. And Benedict XVI knows that this someone cannot be him, who lived in Wojtyla’s Curia, being a voice in opposition, maybe the only voice.

When did Benedict XVI took this decision? There was not a precise moment. Those who know the Pope well can see that he had set a goal line and made headway to reach it. The time to step down was not – as the Pope told Peter Seewald in the book/interview Light of the World – in the midst of the clergy child abuse scandal. Nor was it time to step down when the Year of Faith was to begin, as all of Benedict XVI’s pontificate had pointed toward the Year of Faith. The time to step down was not during the Vatileaks scandal. At the beginning of his Pontificate, the Pope prayed for the courage of not running away when faced by the wolves. He did not. Now was the right time to step down: everything had been put in order with his most recent decisions, which really seemed intended to bring his pontificate to a close.

While there was not a single event solely responsible for the decision, perhaps the Pope’s meeting Paolo Gabriele in jail, the day the butler was pardoned, represents a turning point. Paolo Gabriele is the unfaithful butler who was sentenced to one year and a half imprisonment for leaking the Pope’s personal papers. The photographs show a butler who looks like a daring head of state who had finally succeeded in meeting the Pontiff. The Pope, indeed, seemed a little astonished, probably because of the butler’s self assurance – Gabriele now works at the Vatican-affiliated Pediatric Hospital Bambino Gesù, far from Vatican walls. Many inside the Vatican – especially among those most loyal to the Pope – disliked that portrait: Paolo Gabriele facing imprisonment with self assurance, and then behaving presumptuously after his pardon and liberation. Benedict XVI was surely not indifferent to all of this. Was Paolo Gabriele, Vatileaks’ artifex, just a man unprepared to deal with an unexpected career jump, and who then attributed to himself the role of defender and savior of the Church? Or was he influenced by other «parties» made up of those who – during the sunset of John Paul II’s Pontificate – ruled everything and later ill-received Benedict XVI’s new course?

A Pope can also ponder about these issues. Several days before he pardoned Paolo Gabriele, the Pope met with the Cardinal Commission charged with investigating the leaks of documents. The three cardinals reportedly gave him a dossier with information from their interviews with Vatican staff, which made him realize the extent of the network working against his wishes to make the Church more transparent and pure.

Perhaps Benedict XVI had wished to stay through the conclusion of the Year of Faith. Vatileaks, in fact, changed everything. They wanted the Pope to get rid of Card. Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, or at least of his personal secretary, Georg Gaenswein. Benedict XVI made an unprecedented choice: he stepped down, leaving both Bertone and Gaenswein at their posts. A powerful retaliation: Bertone is Chamberlain, and as such will remain at his post during the Sede Vacante  and the conclave. And Gaenswein, recently appointed Prefect of the Pontifical Household and ordained archbishop, will keep his post as well, to manage everyday affairs. In fact, Chamberlain and Prefect are the only two posts that specifically retain their portfolios during the Sede Vacante. Moreover: Gaenswein – and this prove that he is very close to Ratzinger – will go on being Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, and eventually he may take over the management of the Ratzinger Foundation, established to perpetuate the memory of Benedict XVI’s thought and work.

Benedict XVI has wanted to avoid going through a long «end of the pontificate» period, as in John Paul II’s last ten years. During that period, many appointments were not Wojtyla’s, speeches were not Wojtyla’s, and the choices were not Wojtyla’s. During those ten years, a hard core of clerks, monsignors, and nuncios rose within the Curia, who later made Pope Benedict’s  path more difficult.

Inside the Vatican, there are always the same faces, as portrayed by a wonderful picture in the last page of the Vatican daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, in its February 11^th edition. Angelo Sodano, Bertone’s predecessor as Secretary of State, will not be in the conclave: too old. His faction is made up of many of the diplomats he formed, headed by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. Sandri was among the very first people to be transferred to a new post under Benedict XVI. Many of the attacks against Bertone came from Sodano’s party, which will probably support the idea of a discontinuity with the current Pontificate, believing there is a need to have a Pope that is more focused on management than on faith.

Yet, the College of Cardinals is very Ratzingerian. In the five consistories he convoked, Benedict XVI created 90 cardinals (hailing from 37 different countries): 84 are still alive, 67 will be in the conclave, where a majority of 78 cardinals is needed to elect the new Pope. Ratzinger’s cardinals will constitute the hard core of a college willing to inherit and carry on Benedict XVI’s legacy. It will help that the Pope will live within the Vatican Walls, at the Mater Ecclesiae, formerly a seclusion convent. This choice gives a new pope the maximum level of discretion and the greatest possibility of access to his predecessor, allowing them to confidentially discuss the Church’s current affairs. (Maybe even to re-visit the dossiers which Ratzinger consulted when he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – dossiers which were rumored to have been left behind in Ratzinger’s former apartment, in piazza della Città Leonina, where now Ludwing Mueller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and curator of Ratzinger’s opera omnia, lives.)

What will the next pope be like? One can hazard a guess, based on Benedict XVI’s most recent  speeches: he will be a «young Pope» (60-70 years old), very close to the outgoing Pope, able to renovate and at the same time to lead the ship of Peter within the tradition. Card. Cristoph Schoenborn, Archbishop of Wien, would seem to be the most suitable choice, for his résumé. Schoenborn, with the counsel of Ratzinger – at the time Prefect of the former Sant’Uffizio – forcefully confronted clergy pedophilia scandals in Austria in the mid-Nineties, and is a dedicated pupil of Benedict XVI. But he has attracted some negative press coverage. Schoenberg was compelled to publicly apologize after he spoke critically about how Sodano, when he was Secretary of State, had managed the clergy sex abuse scandals. Schoenborn is perceived as unreliable in governance.  Would he be  agreeable  to all?

This is a time when Cardinals’ profiles are under scrutiny.  Under the spotlight are: Tagle, the young Filipino Cardinal; Ouellet, the Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops; and Odilo Pedro Scherer, Archbishop of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and member of the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) Cardinal Commission. It is a time when links are revealed. But what will become of all the knots tied toward a conclave that was not imminent, had it taken place after Benedict XVI’s death? What will be of the trusted relationship with Georg Gaenswein that many heralded or sought? Which of the fluctuating friendships will now be determining?

With his renunciation, Benedict XVI has profoundly shaken all of the above.  He has done it with a logic that has its own theological terminology, “un-mundanizing”, which he used during his most recent trip to Germany. The Pope underlined that secular trends had been in some ways providential to the Church, because they made the Church less worldly. Un-mundanizing, i.e. separate and unify. Benedict XVI is the only sovereign able to separate himself from the things of the world, with the aim of reuniting the  Church.

Benedict XVI choice is full of humility. The Pope personally assumed the question at the center of the general audience of Wednesday, February 13^th. «What is the God’s place in my life? Is he the Lord, or is it me?» Benedict XVI then explained: «The option between the closure of our selfishness and the opening to the love of God and others» is «the option between the human power and the power of the cross, between a redemption seen in the only material wealth and a redemption as God’s endeavor». To convert – the Pope concluded – «means not to be close in the search of his own success, prestige and post, but to get that every day, in small things, truth, faith in God and love become the most important thing». This principle, Benedict XVI put into practice as Pope: conscious that the Church is Christ’s, he decided to renounce his ministry.

And in the evening, during the Ash Wednesday celebration, he asked if it was possible to turn back to God, and he said that turning back to God could concretize in our life only when the Grace of Lord penetrate in the inner of ourselves and shake this inner, giving us the strength to rip the heart apart. «In our own day – the Pope said – lots of people are ready to “rend their clothing” in the face of scandals and acts of injustice – the fault naturally of others – but few seem prepared to do something about their own “hearts”, their own consciences and their own intentions, allowing the Lord to transform, renew and convert them».

That homily was precious, in pure Ratzinger style. It recalled that freedom of thought and expression that Ratzinger embraced during the 2005 Sede Vacante and at the outset of his Pontificate. Later, the Pope adopted a more papal mode of speech, which somewhat lacked this special ability to shake the conscience.

Now professor Ratzinger is back, and Pope Benedict is leaving a precise legacy. Will the cardinals know how to carry it forward?

The Pope said in his urbi et orbi message: «Yes, there is a good earth, a healthy earth, an earth freed of all selfishness and all lack of openness. In this world there is a good soil which God has prepared, that he might come to dwell among us. A dwelling place for his presence in the world. This good earth exists, and today too, in 2012, from this earth truth has sprung up! Consequently, there is hope in the world, a hope in which we can trust, even at the most difficult times and in the most difficult situations. Truth has sprung up, bringing kindness, justice and peace».

This assumption was an introduction to the Pope’s prayer for the world peace – a prayer that can be also seen as a geopolitical glance to the «hottest places» in the world. «May peace spring up – the Pope said  for the people of Syria, deeply wounded and divided by a conflict which does not spare even the defenceless and reaps innocent victims. Once again I appeal for an end to the bloodshed, easier access for the relief of refugees and the displaced, and dialogue in the pursuit of a political solution to the conflict». Then, the Pope prayed for Palestine, because the Redemeer «grant Israelis and Palestinians courage to end to long years of conflict and division, and to embark resolutely on the path of negotiation».

Recently, Egypt approved the new Constitution, based and inspired on shari’a, the Islamic Law. And generally, there is much concern for the transition in the countries of the Arab Spring. Holy See officials asked for a nurturing of democracy, and are working to preserve Catholic communities, that are increasingly considered at risks. This is the background that brings the Pope to pray for North-African countries. «May citizens – the Pope said – work together to build societies founded on justice and respect for the freedom and dignity of every person».

Asian scenario is also a complex one. People’s Republic of China has a new government, but relationships between Holy See and China are still difficult. Recently, China’s administration revoked the Episcopal appointment to Thaddeus Ma Daqin (now under house arrest), bishop of Shanghai, because he rejected the imposition of hands by an excommunicated bishop; did not drink from the same cup of the illicit bishop; publicly resigned from the Patriotic Association (PA) (the official Chinese Church), considering this an obstacle to his «pastoral and evangelization work». This was just the apex of a wide-spread tension in China. In his  Christmas message, card. John Tong Hon asked for «universal suffrage and defense for the family». In his urbi et orbi message, the Pope prayed the «King of Peace» to «turn his gaze to the new leaders of the People’s Republic of China for the high task which awaits them. I express my hope that, in fulfilling this task, they will esteem the contribution of the religions, in respect for each, in such a way that they can help to build a fraternal society for the benefit of that noble People and of the whole world».

Finally, the Pope prayed for Mali (plagued by a separatist war, that the local Church described as a «war of corrupted people») and Nigeria (where the bombings against Christian are unfortunately common news), for the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya («where – the Pope said – brutal attacks have struck the civilian population and places of worship»). In the end, Benedict XVI turn is gaze to Latin America. «May the Child Jesus – he said – bless the great numbers of the faithful who celebrate him in Latin America. May he increase their human and Christian virtues, sustain all those forced to leave behind their families and their land, and confirm government leaders in their commitment to development and fighting crime».

In fact, where God is denied – Benedict XVI maintained in his Christmas Eve Mass homily – there are war and violence. «If God’s light is extinguished, man’s divine dignity is also extinguished». When sometimes in history this light extinguished, religion «opposed to its deepest essence». Pope is not blind, he admits that «religions, especially monotheism, are the cause of the violence and the wars in the world». But he also responds asking «make room for him within ourselves», so that «we may recognize him also in those through whom he speaks to us: children, the suffering, the abandoned, those who are excluded and the poor of this world».

What did the Pope wish when he was 7? «I would like – he wrote – the Volks-Schott, a green suit to celebrate the Holy Mass and a Jesus’ Heart. I will always be good. Best regards, Joseph Ratzinger.» The letter was so peculiar that Maria – the Pope’s sister, who took care of Ratzinger until her death – decided to keep it. The letter was recovered when Ratzinger’s house in Pentling was being restored. The house is now a museum, inaugurated at the end of last summer by Georg Gaenswein, then Benedict XVI’s private secretary. Gaenswein reported that the rediscovery of the letter «made the Pope very happy, and made him smile.»

What is most striking is that little Joseph does not ask for toys or sweets. He asks for the Schott, one of the first books in German with a breviary and missal (with its text in Latin also). At that time, two editions were available in Germany: one for children and one for adults. Little Joseph, through that book, begins to love the liturgy that sets the rhythm of his family’s life. Little Ratzinger then asks for a vestment to celebrate Mass. No surprise, because the Ratzinger brothers used to pretend to be “parish priest”, and their mother made vestments for that. «We pretended to celebrate Mass – Georg Ratzinger, the Pope’s brother, told the American monthly Inside the Vatican – and we had vestments made for us by our mother’s seamstress. In turns, one of us was the priest and the other the altar boy». Finally, little Ratzinger asks for a «Jesus’ Heart» i.e. an image of the Sacred Heart, which his family was very devoted to.

Just an anecdote. But perhaps one should keep in mind this anecdote when Benedict XVI delivers his speeches. Whenever he defends family, there is something about memories of his own family. That it was a happy family, which life rhythm was set by liturgy, and where all rejoiced with one another.  It was a family in which it was sensible to be, because it represented the best for a child’s growth. When he became theologian, Joseph Ratzinger expanded his reflection on the meaning of family, based on the Holy Family of Nazareth. Through the example of the Holy Family, he wanted to explain why a «traditional» family was needed. This defense of family started on strictly theological basis. But also on a rational basis.

An idea the Pope has put front and center in his Christmas address to the Roman Curia. In that address, the Pope generally looks back at the life of the Church in the year that is coming to an end. As usual, the Pope flew high. No hint of Vatileaks, nor of internal problems: in the end, these problems really do not amount to much, just petty miseries of the human condition, when compared to the Church’s challenges and agenda. So, Benedict XVI put on the table three issues that marked the Church’s life and that will be on the agenda for the next ten years: family, dialogue, and new evangelization.

The Papal address starting point is the family.  The Pope approaches the topic through the arguments which the Chief Rabbi of France Gilles Bernheim made in defense of the traditional family. Bernheim also sent to the French President François Hollande a 25 pages brief, to explain all the reasons why he and his community are against «marriages for all».  The Pope states: before, the family was in crisis due to a misconception of freedom; today, the very idea of man is in crisis.

This crisis has a specific name: gender.  It is at the same time a neutral and lethal name, as is much of the new «vocabulary» promoted in United Nations documents and continuously denounced by Holy See officials.

Gender points to the human being that calls his own nature into question. «He – the Pope says, drawing on German idealism philosophy – is now only spirit and will.  The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he himself is concerned.  Nowadays, there is only the abstract human being, who chooses for himself what his nature is to be». If there is no more duality, if human being loses his identity, there is no more family.  «When the freedom to be creative – Benedict XVI notes, with Bernehim – becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God, as the image of God at the core of his being.  The defence of the family is about man himself.  And it becomes clear that when God is denied, human dignity also disappears.  Whoever defends God is defending man.»

Defending man is the Church’s mission, and integral humanism is the Holy See’s International agenda. This agenda is the basis of the dialogue with states, with societies and with religions. The Church’s– the Pope notes – makes memory part of herself, because «human culture, of which she is a guarantee, has developed from the encounter between divine revelation and human existence.  The Church represents the memory of what it means to be human in the face of a civilization of forgetfulness, which knows only itself and its own criteria.  Yet just as an individual without memory has lost his identity, so too a human race without memory would lose its identity».  And Benedict XVI concludes: «In its dialogue with the state and with society, the Church does not, of course, have ready answers for individual questions.  Along with other forces in society, she will wrestle for the answers that best correspond to the truth of the human condition.»

For what concerns interreligious dialogue, the Pope states that the dialogue does not take place on theological grounds, but on practical and cultural grounds, in order not to lose one’s own identity. How to engage in dialogue? «Dialogue – Benedict XVI says – does not aim at conversion, but at better mutual understanding: that is correct.  But all the same, the search for knowledge and understanding always has to involve drawing closer to the truth. »

And truth is Christ himself, and «both sides in this piece-by-piece approach to truth are therefore on the path that leads forward and towards greater commonality, brought about by the oneness of the truth.» This is also one of the main themes of the first Benedict XVI’s message for the World Day of Peace, meaningfully titled In truth, peace. «Being inwardly held by the hand of Christ – the Pontiff says – makes us free and keeps us safe: free – because if we are held by him, we can enter openly and fearlessly into any dialogue;  safe – because he does not let go of us, unless we cut ourselves off from him.  At one with him, we stand in the light of truth.»

What constitutes the good news, then? Benedict XVI points us to the Gospel passage where Andrew and Simon follow Jesus. Both of them are seekers, and that is why «stimulated by the proclamation, their seeking becomes concrete.» The Pope then explains the proclamation is «effective in situations where man is listening in readiness for God to draw near, where man is inwardly searching and thus on the way towards the Lord.»  The Pope’s wish for Christmas, which is also the agenda for next decades, is to know Jesus better, because as one «walks with Jesus, he is led to the place where Jesus lives, to the community of the Church, which is his body.  That means entering into the journeying community of catechumens, a community of both learning and living, in which our eyes are opened as we walk.»

In the end, it is the same agenda of little Ratzinger. He asked for a Schott as a Christmas gift, a book of liturgies, to lock himself in step with Jesus, starting a long walk in life that brought him to the Papacy.

Rome, October 11^th. The Pope speaks in front of a half-filled Saint Peter Square. Flanking the altar, the Fathers of the Synod for the New Evangelization and some of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council still alive. Not all of them could be in Rome. Some of them are very old, and in poor health. All of them have a clear memory of a Council intended to renovate the Church, to find a new way to speak to the signs of the time. Break and continuity. Continuity of the tradition of the faith, break in the way the faith is presented.

It may seem odd, but the «continuity issue» was taken for granted by the Council’s Fathers. True, there were already signs of a sort of faith drift, of that new paganism that has always been one of Benedict XVI’s greatest worries. But it is also true that the Council came about when faith experiences were flourishing in many places: the first workers’ priests in France and Belgium, the theological debate on the Sacred Scripture and its interpretation in Germany, the new need for a praxis of interreligious dialogue, the will to lay an ecumenical path with sister churches… This intellectual ferment came directly from faith, and from the need to measure ourselves up to faith. Faith supported by reason is at the apex of Benedict XVI’s thinking. Joseph Ratzinger immersed himself in this notion during his years as a theologian, and as an expert consultant at the Second Vatican Council. Council Fathers were, above all, men of faith.

They were men of such honest faith and reason that they did not foresee that the spirit of the Council would be later assessed on the basis of its documents, rather than its intentions. They did not foresee either that, as time went by, the enthusiasm generated by the discussion of the documents and by the Fathers’ reasoning on faith, would decline. To the point of falling to the level of indifference toward faith.

Many thus understand the Council as having a «social» impact on the world, but nothing else, because none of the documents of the Council explicitly focused on the question of faith. There are documents on liturgy, mission, religious freedom, and social communication. There is not a document on faith. The Pope admits: «The Second Vatican Council did not want to address faith in a specific, single document. Yet, its thrust was the will and the awareness of the need to dive once more into the Christian mystery, in order to present it again to the contemporary man.»

This awareness has been somewhat quelled by the post-Council discourse. On Wednesday, October 10^th, during the general audience, the Pope was already inviting us all to read the Council’s documents themselves, and not to allow ourselves to be misled by the different papers and books that have concealed, rather than broadcast, what the Council wanted to say.

That there is a need for faith is also clear to sister churches. Rowan Williams– Anglican Church primate until December – realizes it, and so he spoke to the synod about the revolution of contemplation. So does Bartholomew I, patriarch of Costantinople, who hoped for full and visible unity among Christians. Yet, there seems to be a bit of sadness in Benedict XVI’s mood.

October, 11^th 1962: Azione Cattolica of Italy organized a torchlight procession in the evening – from Castel Sant’Angelo to Saint Peter Square – to celebrate the just-inaugurated Council. Pope John XXIII bends out of the window and addresses participants, with off the cuff remarks. That famous speech is called «Moonlight speech».

«Words full of poetry, of grace, words from the heart», Benedict XVI –bending out of that very same window– tells the participants of a commemorative torchlight march on the 50^th anniversary of the first one.

Benedict XVI reflections are bittersweet. Having been among the experts of the Second Vatican Council, he recalls the atmosphere and the feelings at the Council in the introduction to the book Zur Lehre des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils (About the Teachings of the Second Vatican Council), published by Herder and edited by Archbishop Gehrard Ludwig Mueller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  The book consists of Joseph Ratzinger’s Council writings. The Pope writes in the introduction that the inauguration of the Council «was a moment of great suspense. Major things needed to happen. Previous Councils were almost always convoked to respond to specific questions requiring specific answers. This time, there was not a particular problem to solve. That is precisely why there was a general sense of suspense in the air: Christianity – which had built and shaped the Western world – seemed to be losing its forcefulness ever more. It seemed to have grown tired, and it looked as if other spiritual powers would decide the future.»

Before the People of God gathered at Saint Peter’s Square for the torchlight march, Benedict XVI’s words echo the somberness of the 2005 Via Crucis Meditations, when he spoke about the «filth» inside the Church.  «Fifty years ago – the Pope says – the big Ecumenical Council was inaugurated, and we were convinced that a new Spring for the Church would come about, a new Pentecost, a new strong presence of the liberating Grace of the Gospel. To this day we feel happy, we carry joy in our hearts, but it is, I would say, perhaps a more measured joy, a humble joy.»

It is because – the Pope adds – «during these last 50 years we have learned and experienced that original sin exists and manifest itself in personal sins that can even become frameworks of sin. We saw that in the Lord’s field there is always the darnel. We have seen how in Peter’s fishnet there are also bad fishes. We have seen that human frailty is present in the Church as well, that the Church’s boat is sailing against the wind, with storms threatening it. And sometimes we have thought: ‘Where is the Lord? He forgot about us!»

The Pope points out that this is «just part» of what has happened during these years, and he reassures us that «the Lord does not forget about us. Even today, humbly, the Lord is present and warms our hearts, He reveals life, He creates charismata of goodness and charity that shed light on the world and are proof to us of God’s goodness. If Christ is alive, He is here with us today, and we can be happy also today, because his goodness cannot be extinguished, it is strong even today.»

There is a need for Faith in order not to lose the spirit of the Council.

That Benedict XVI noted these principles in Lebanon – a land considered an example of religious cohabitation – and that he did at every meeting, without hesitation and without mincing his words, is very significant. It reveals how the relationship with the Islamic world has evolved in the recent past. Since the controversial Regensburg’s lecture, an unprecedented dialogue has taken place. Benedict XVI knows very well that it is pointless to argue about the truthfulness of different faiths, and he is not one who would ever water down Christian truth in order to gain some kind of concession from interreligious dialogue. Instead he focused on shared concerns, to which all religions are sensitive to. This approach was evident when – in the very beginning of his Pontificate – Benedict XVI established the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue as a section of the Pontifical Council for Culture. What happened after the Regensburg lecture, and then the visit to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul during the trip to Turkey in 2007, made the Pope all the more aware that dialogue among religions needed a proper «framework», also in order not to disturb and lose sight of the work of so many who had been engaged in ad hoc arrangements. That is why Benedict XVI revamped the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and appointed Card. Jean Louis Tauran, a skilled and most senior diplomat, as president of the new dicastery.  According to many, it was he who proofread the Papal speeches in Lebanon. Copies of the final drafts of the Papal speeches are shared in advance with journalists.  Several of these texts were tweaked to fine-tune references to Lebanese freedom, allowing the Pope to convey a clear message without the risk of a diplomatic incident.

Tauran later commented the Papal trip in an interview he gave to the French agency iMedia and to the French weekly La Croix. In the interview, Tauran recalled that «in Lebanon, we did not mention the Syrian crisis. Lebanon and Syria are sovereign countries. For sure, the Pope appealed for peace. The use of armed forces must be stopped, and both sides must sit at a table to negotiate, with the help of the international community. Humanitarian aid must be provided, in order to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. And then, there is the need for both sides to build a society where the rights of everyone are respected, with no discrimination.»

Peace was the key topic of the September, 15 speech the Pope delivered in the presidential palace of Baabda, Lebanon. This speech – Tauran says – was received in an «extremely positive» way by the Muslim leaders and by the Muslim grassroots.  «I have been told – Tauran said – that Muslims responsible for the different districts stated that the Pope said exactly what they hoped to hear.» Not even Tauran expected such an enthusiastic reaction.

A reaction that came about because Benedict XVI spoke to everyone’s heart. He underlined: «If we want peace, let’s defend life». He noted that peace must rise upon the purification of language and memory, and also by an opening to the transcendental. He once again focused on religious freedom, which must not be reduced to mere tolerance and that- because of its social and political dimensions – is indispensible for peace. And he strongly affirmed: «A lived faith leads invariably to love. Authentic faith does not lead to death. The peacemaker is humble and just.»

These words shattered to pieces the building blocks of any fundamentalist approach, and directly appeal to religious freedom. Furthermore, Benedict XVI also spoke of the tactic the devil uses in seeking his allies among men. This has an immediate resonance in the Arab world, where Shai-tan, Satan, is considered the spirit of division.

However, the speech was delivered while Islamist protests were taking place against a film about the prophet Mohammad that Muslims consider blasphemous.  The Pope´s speech received scant attention in the U.S. media. It was almost unnoticed, as religious freedom in general seems to have been forgotten. Yet, religious freedom is one of the main focuses of the U.S. bishops’ agenda.  The Pope has focused his pontificate on religious freedom. He has spoken about religious freedom during his visits to the United States, Latin American countries and to France and other secularized Western countries. Above all, he spoke about religious freedom in Lebanon, in a Middle East where religion seems to mean «contrast». Instead, Benedict XVI put forth in Lebanon two key concepts: communion and witness. These two words were the key of the post-synod exhortation Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, which delivery was the main institutional reason for the Papal trip. The news (and the message) was in these two words, which we cannot afford to forget.

This is why the Pope steers clear from polemics. Only at the previous general audience, Benedict XVI used the occasion to take a stand against the attacks to his closest collaborators.  At the end of the audience he renewed his trust in them with a precise and straightforward declaration, underlining keywords with his own voice. The latest attacks have been increasingly vague on the Vatileaks issue and the arrest of the butler Paolo Gabriele, and ever more focused on the Works’ Institute (IOR) issue and on the ousting of its former president Gotti Tedeschi.  Tedeschi has been spinning the controversy with his innuendoes, his responses to the magistrates of Rome questioning him as part of an ill-defined investigation, and with the IOR files seized by the Italian public prosecutor of Naples. The Pope responded to all of these  developments, controversies and media attention with a catechesis on a general audience.  As part of the cycle of the catechesis on prayer, the audience was dedicated to prayer in the life of the apostle Paul. The Pope recalls: «Defending the legitimacy of his apostolate, Paul looks up, above all, to his profound closeness to the Lord in prayer, marked by moments of ecstasy, visions and revelations (cf. 2 Cor 12:1ff.). Yet he speaks too of a trial which the Lord sent him lest he become conceited: a mysterious thorn in the flesh (v. 7). Paul therefore willingly boasts of his weakness, in order that the power of Christ might dwell in him (v. 10). Through this experience of mystical prayer, Paul realized that God’s Kingdom comes about not by our own efforts but by the power of God’s grace shining through our poor earthen vessels (cf. 2 Cor 4:7)».

The message of the Pope is that it is not man’s perfection that makes the Church. It is on the contrary the weakness of man that characterizes it. If the Church is still here, it is not because of the men and women that are part of it, but by the grace of God. The call to simply follow the gospel points to a fundamental change coming about under Benedict XVI. The Pope chose his collaborators on the basis of personal knowledge and trust. But their role, the responsibility they are charged with, the «image» they project as Papal collaborators, must not overshadow that of the Church as a whole. In the past, everybody knew Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State, while the work of Vatican diplomacy was less known. Now, the Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone, is receiving a lot of attention, because of  the internal resistance to him and his new course. Yet, Vatican diplomacy is more important than the Secretary of State. At an international level, the Holy See has proposed a World Authority with universal competence. During the Preparatory Commission for a new ATT (Arms Trade Treaty), the Holy See proposed to broaden the ATT to small arms and light weapons, going beyond the seven categories in the U.N. register of arms. The Holy See also supported denying patents to inventions that would damage human beings. Equally important is the Holy See position paper for the Preparatory Commission of the U.N. conference on the environment, Rio+20, where it calls for «a new model of development» and underlined that sustainable development is part of comprehensive human development – one of the key words of the “change of dictionary” for the United Nations, described by Silvano Maria Tomasi, Papal nuncio to the Geneva office of  the United Nations.

Another example of the change of an era is in the profile of the personal secretary of the Pope.  Stanislao Dziwisz – now cardinal and archbishop of Cracow – was in a center stage role.  Georg Gaenswein has been under attack by the leaks, but he has always kept a low profile, fulfilling his duties with discretion.

Many – inside the Vatican – did not welcome this change to a new era.

It is the end of personalism, evident also in the no confidence vote by the “lay” board of the IOR to the president of the board Gotti Tedeschi. He did not get a no confidence vote because of the policy of transparency – that the Holy See is implementing with tenacity and commitment, adhering to international standards – but because the board did not considered him able to lead the institute. His media activism – this is one of the accusations levied against him – was missing when the IOR needed to be defended. The memo of the no confidence vote has been (almost institutionally) released. And the general manager of the IOR, Paolo Cipriani, talked about what the Institute has been doing in terms of transparency during the last years. The facts are public, and there is not much more to say.

This last has been a sort of polar star for Benedict XVI. It was precisely on Saint Bonaventure’s theology of history that the young Joseph Ratzinger published, in 1959, his thesis for certification to teach theology. The novelty of this early text was that it compared, for the first time, Saint Bonaventure’s theology of history with the highly influential version of Joachim of Fiore.

Bonaventure – Benedict XVI said in the 10 march 2010 general audience – addressed the problem of the influence of Joachim Fiore,  who  affirmed – according to the Trinitarian rythm of the history he outlined – that the third age, that of the Holy Spirit, was up to come, and that the arousal of this new time would come from a new monasticism.  Joachim of Fiore affirmed that St. Francis and the new community he created, so different from the monasticism known up to then, called for a new interpretation.  Bonaventure understood that there was the practical need to embody Joachim of Fiore ideas  in the reality of the hierarchical Church,  and this had to be done on the basis of a theoligical foundation. He also knew that – although taking into account the necessary realism – it was not necessary to lose the novelty of St. Francis.

This is the reason why Bonaventure harmonized the positions. He remembered that Jesus Christ  is the last word of God: in him God has said all, giving and expressing himself. At the same, Bonaventure underlined that  Church is not immobile, fixed in the past and that novelties cannot be exercised in her. «Opera Christi non deficiunt, sed proficiunt», the works of Christ do not go backward, do not fail, but progress, says the saint in the letter De tribus quaestionibus. Christ is not the end of history. He is the center of history.

Bonaventure’s harmonization method  is at the basis of Joseph Ratzinger’s method. This was precisely the reason why the Papal pastoral visit  of yesterday to Arezzo, Sansepolcro  and La Verna – where in fact Benedict XVI could not go because fog and  bad weather  made the trip impossible – the Pope would have read a passage of the Itinerarium Mentis in Deum of Saint Bonaventure.

The one-thousandth anniversary of San Sepolcro – the first town founded on the basis of a theological project – has been celebrated by Benedict XVI his way. He affirmed that «today there is a peculiar need that the service of the Church to world is made up by enlighted lay, able to operate within the City of Man, willing to serve looking beyond  the private interests and the interests of only one part», and invited people to rediscover Christian roots.

And there it comes the Benedictin spirit of the Pope. When Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger took the name Benedict XVI in late April, observers immediately speculated as to what it meant. Although Benedict XVI has pointed to his desire to carry on the legacy of Pope Benedict XV (1914—22) as a primary reason behind the name, his choice of Benedict naturally called to mind St. Benedict of Nursia (c. 480—547), by far the most important figure in the history of Western monasticism. Some have said that just as St. Benedict and his monks rescued Europe during a time of general collapse, Pope Benedict hopes to rejuvenate a Europe adrift from its moorings, overcome by relativism, and unwilling even to reproduce itself.

Although many people know that St. Benedict’s monks were responsible for preserving much of the literature of the ancient world, that is where their knowledge of the subject ends. But the more familiar we are with the monastic tradition and its essential if largely unknown contributions to the West, the easier it is to understand why St. Benedict has vied with Charlemagne for the title of Father of Europe.

In the speech at College of Bernardins, the Pope explained that «it is through the search for God that the secular sciences take on their importance, sciences which show us the path towards language.  Because the search for God required the culture of the word, it was appropriate that the monastery should have a library, pointing out pathways to the word.  It was also appropriate to have a school, in which these pathways could be opened up».  Benedict called the monastery a dominici servitii schola.  «The monastery – he explained – serves eruditio, the formation and education of man – a formation whose ultimate aim is that man should learn how to serve God.  But it also includes the formation of reason – education – through which man learns to perceive, in the midst of words, the Word itself». But there is also the need for a further step. «The Word which opens the path of that search – the Pope said – and is to be identified with this path, is a shared word.  True, it pierces every individual to the heart (cf. Acts2:37).  Gregory the Great describes this a sharp stabbing pain, which tears open our sleeping soul and awakens us, making us attentive to the essential reality, to God (cf. Leclercq, p. 35).  But in the process, it also makes us attentive to one another.  The word does not lead to a purely individual path of mystical immersion, but to the pilgrim fellowship of faith».

And there it comes the character of Gregory the Great. His search for God brought him to strongly reform the Church. That of Gregorian reform is an heroic enterprise, brought on by a few man that works to re-moralized their society and so purify the Church. People gathered around Ildebrando of Soana begins a movement whose effect were so vast that a whole world change. Will this happen with the Benedict XVI’s Papacy?

Elected Pope with the name of Gregory VII, Ildebrando did not only care about the purification and moralization of the Church. He also began a movement to collect ancient sources, so creating a corpus of papers that will be the first global law of the world, the Canon Law. Gregory also defended the autonomy of the Church – its power standing upon any other power -, and  organized the Pontifical Legates network. He established two kind of Pontifical Legates: the one in loco, charged by the Pope to look after the application of Gregorian reform on a territory; and the one sent by  Rome to accomplish mission in a foreign countries. In some ways, Benedict XVI is changing the way Vatican diplomacy is ruled: he appointed Charles J. Brown, a non-diplomat that served in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as Papal nuncio to Ireland; and even Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of State, is not a career diplomat, but a canonist that wants to be considered a Secretary of Church, more than of State.

Benedict, Bonaventure, Gregory VII: Benedict XVI’s pontificate is articulated through this three monastic characters. More: it is articulated on quaerere Deum. And this search for God is intended to have a less worldly Church, and to bring it back to God. The climax of Benedict XVI’s Pontificate will surely be the Year of Faith, and the Credo that will conclude it in every diocese of the world.

Maybe the key of the quiet revolution of Benedict XVI can be found in this speech. It is – one would say – a twofold revolution. On one side, he aims to reinforce the Faith and to turn back the People of God to God. Too busy in worldly affairs, the People of God seem to have lost his polar star. The Year of Faith that will begin the next November, the Year of Priests in 2009, the Pauline Year in 2008 – all of these events prepared by catechesis, homilies, speeches during the General Audiences which the Pope conceived as the most important part of his Magisterium – are part of this project to turn the People of God to Faith. The Pope wants adult faithful. He aims to a Faith which is feed with the Reason.

But this is just one part of his Pontificate. On the other side, Benedict XVI slowly, but inexorably, reformed the Roman Curia. On the principles that «the human person is the essence of law», the Pope guided the Church toward a comeback of the Law, both international and Canon Law. To understand it, it suffices to read what Benedict XVI wrote to the Catholics of Ireland in 2010. There the Pope wrote that  «the program of renewal proposed by the Second Vatican Council was sometimes misinterpreted and indeed, in the light of the profound social changes that were taking place, it was far from easy to know how best to implement it. In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations»

No surprise that the first act of his Papacy was the «Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations  with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies
in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders» , that regulated the criteria of access to seminaries. The last act has been the reform of Caritas Internationalis. In the middle, a series of hidden but necessary reforms.. In fact, during the last years of John Paul II’s Papacy – and one should also say from Pastor Bonus on – the documents issued were not so firmly hooked to juridical sources, but more often to theological-pastoral ones. Under this, many had the occasion to abuse of their unprecedented freedom. The result has been a great confusion within the several bodies and organizations of the Catholic Church. This confusion Benedict XVI wants to clear up.

What Caritas Internationalis is

The General Decree that reform the Statutes of Caritas Internationalis are part of this «quiet legally-oriented revolution» brought on by Benedict XVI. This is why it is so important to understand what this reform really is. First, it is important to point out what Caritas Internationalis really is.

What is Caritas Internationalis? Is it a self governing body with an autonomous Statute, or is it a branch of the Pope? The Pope  – according to the Chirograph During Last Supper – gave to Caritas Internationalis the technical status of a public juridic person. According to Canon Law (Can. 116) «public juridic persons are aggregates of persons (universitates personarum) or of things (universitates rerum) which are constituted by competent ecclesiastical authority so that, within the purposes set out for them, they fulfill in the name of the Church, according to the norm of the prescripts of the law, the proper function entrusted to them in view of the public good; other juridic persons are private». This is why Caritas Internationalis can be considered the tool the Pope uses to favor charity in the world.

The Chirograph had a virtue and a limit at the same time. The virtue was that the sources quoted were more thelogical-pastoral than juridical. So, Caritas Internationalis could not be figured out as a tool in the hands of the Pope, since the Chirograph lacked of juridical tools to assure it. Curial offices seemed to have just a moral authority on Caritas Internationalis, but they did not have – in fact – a juridical authority. This favored the fact that Caritas Internationalis could have a complete independence toward both the States and the Holy See. Thus having the opportunity to include under its «umbrella » organizations that were not so aligned with the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. The new statutes better sketch the competences of  each body involved with the Caritas Internationals. That, since it is a tool of the Pope, is obviously controlled by the Secretary of the Pope. That is, the State Secretariat.

The new Statute of Caritas internationalis strenghten the cooperation between Caritas Internationalis and Holy See. At the same time, the competences of the Vatican State Secretariat are better outlined: the State Secretariat is called to be center and joint of the Church. Benedict XVI began this renewal long time ago, but this latter became visible for the first time when the Pope appointed cardinal Tarcisio Bertone – a canonist that served as secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – as Secretary of State, even if Bertone himself proclaims himself «Secretary of Church». The program of renewal of Benedict XVI aims to make lively and present the identity of the Catholic world. «Charity in Truth» is the title of the «social» encyclical by Benedict XVI, and it is also is «plan to govern». The new Statute of Caritas Internationalis, went into effect on May, the 2^nd (when it had been published in the Osservatore Romano) show once more that «Charity in Truth» is the path Benedict XVI is treading to bring the Church to the Year of Faith.

The new Statute

The new Statute of Caritas Internationalis deeply outlines  the competences of the dicasteries involved with Caritas internationalis. First of all, the role of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum - i.e. the Vatican office responsible for coordinating and promoting charitable giving. – is strengthen. In the very first article of the General Decree, Cor Unum is described as «the dicastery qualified about Caritas Internationalis, its observance of this decree and its normative of canon public juridic person, as well as to control and watching, except for what established in the articles that will follow». Caritas Internationalis must address to Cor Unum before issuing any text with doctrinal and moral contents.

Some more details of the decree: it contains new guidelines for the Caritas Internationalis personnel labour standards and it strengthens the roles Vatican offices and the pope play in working with the charity confederation, including naming and approving new board members and approving its texts, contracts with foreign governments and financial transactions.

It also creates a special «support commission» of legal, technical and organizational experts named by the pope to help the organization follow the new norms as well as canon law and the laws of Vatican City State concerning the procurement and distribution of aid, and employment of workers.

At least three members of Caritas’ executive board will be papal appointees, and Pope Benedict XVI named U.S. Bishop Bernard A. Hebda as one of them.
the need of the Holy See nihil obstat (that is «nothing obstructs») for the candidatures to President and General Secreatary – as already previewed in the Chirograph During Last Supper, and – unlike the previous Statutes – also for the candidature of the treasurer.

The Pope told the assembly that the Vatican is responsible for following the activities of Caritas and «exercising oversight to ensure that its humanitarian and charitable activity, and the content of its documents, are completely in accord with the Apostolic See and the church’s magisterium».

Other new elements that laid on the Decree: Cor Unum will name an ecclesiastical assistant whose role will be to foster «a spirit of communion» between the Vatican and members of the organization, foster reflection on theological questions and promote Caritas’ Catholic identity; the list of candidates for president, secretary general and now treasurer will require approval from Cor Unum, the Secretariat of State and the pope; the new papal appointees to the executive board are Bishop Hebda, Archbishop Paul Yembuado Ouedraogo of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso, and Maronite Archbishop Youssef Soueif of Cyprus; that Caritas Internationalis and all of its employees, including those working on contract, will have to abide by the new norms, the norms of canon law and the laws of Vatican City.

The qualification of the Vatican Secretariat of State are better outlined. The first section of the State Secretariat must defend the juridical status of Caritas Internationalis, coordinate the qualification attributed to dicasteries – the Pontifical Council Cor Unum and the other dicastieries qualified with the Vatican City State administration -, assist the «Pontifical Council Cor Unum in the vigilance on the transparency of the administration of patrimony and finance of Caritas Internationalis».

The second section of the State Secretariat holds «the relationships with the political, diplomatic, administrative and juridical authority of the States, particularly with the Italian State, as well as the relations with the Regional and International organization»; approves the agreements of official financing coming from governments and International Organizations and the agreements of cooperation and the other official agreements with the governments; it manages the disputes (if and how Caritas internationalis would appeal to a civil or international court to solve a contention).

The path to new Statute

The revision process began in 2007 as a follow-up to Blessed John Paul II having raised the technical status of the federation to a «public juridical entity» of the church in 2004. The new status formally recognized that Caritas carries out its charitable activities in the name of the Catholic Church and it meant the organization would function under the administration of the Vatican.

Prepared by the Secretary of State in conjunction with the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and legal experts, the decree said it was meant to «complete and interpret» Caritas Internationalis’ juridical status and give the organization a legal foundation and reference point for the application of the new statutes.

Msgr. Osvaldo Neves de Almeida, an official in the Vatican’s secretariat of state, said in an explanatory statement accompanying the decree that the updated status was meant to better support the federation’s activity.

Given Caritas’ worldwide presence, international profile and that it acts in the name of the church, the Vatican «has the task of following its activity and exercising vigilance in order that both its humanitarian and charitable action and the content of the documents that it disseminates may be in harmony with the Apostolic See and with the church’s magisterium, and in order that it may be administered with competence and transparency», the monsignor wrote.

According to the new norms, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith will continue to give doctrinal oversight to texts that are of a moral or doctrinal nature and the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See will continue to monitor the administration of temporal goods.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, said in a statement that the new legal framework does not apply to national Caritas organizations, which will maintain their autonomy; however, the new norms «could inspire the bishops and bishops’ conferences to eventually review their diocesan or national Caritas statutes».

More coordination

The new tidiness of Caritas Internationalis is aimed to give more coordination to dicasteries and organisms linked to the Holy See. This enhanced coordination has been requested by Cardinal Bertone in his preliminary document for the periodical meeting of the head of Curial Dicasteries in January.

Benedict XVI is bringing on a general reform of the Curia, in order to fully bring into effect the Pastor Bonus, the pastoral Constitution about the Roman Curia. In Pastor Bonus, the State Secretariat is indicated as the body that must coordinate the work of all the dicasteries. Benedict XVI’s general reform dealt with Vatican financial branch (it has come into effect the new Vatican anti-money laundering law n. 127, which also outlines the competences of the State Secretariat); deal with the reform of the Prefecture for Economical Affairs, that has now become the Vatican correspondent to a Ministery of Finance; deal with more dialogue and cooperation among the Curial office. It is not a concentration of power, it is more a coordination of power. Exactly what Vatican bodies lacked of.

Anyway, coordination is also about doctrinal issues. The search for truth, the truth itself, can be considered the main commitment of the Benedict XVI’s Magisterium: the Pope dedicated to the truth his firs message for the World Day of Peace (In Truth, Peace 2006) and several times he claimed for a Faith more adherent to the Truth of Gospel, without justifying relationships and positions that denaturalize the Catholic Thought. Recently, this commitment of the Pontificate – that the State Secretariat is bringing on – has become evident when the Secretariat of State avoided to the Catholic University of Perù to define itself anymore as «Pontifical». But it has been very meaningful last year, when the Caritas Internationalis had to elect its new general Secretary.

Theological basis. The problems of the past

Last year, Vatican Secretariat of State did not give the nihil obstat for the re-candidature of the previous General Secretary Lesley-Anne Knight, notwithstanding his job had been praised by the same president of Caritas Internationalis, card. Oscar Andrés Rodriguez Maradiaga. Michel Roy – a French that previously served in the French association Secours Catholique, and he knows what does mean working in a highly secularized country, where it is of great importance to define and defend the Catholic identity – had been appointed as the new General Secretary.

Caritas Internationalis, whose original statutes were approved by the Vatican in 1951, is made up of 164 Catholic relief, development and social service agencies working in almost 200 countries. Most of the member agencies are Caritas or relief and development agencies sponsored by national bishops’ conferences, such as the U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services or the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace.

The CCODP, a Caritas member organization supported by the bishops of Canada, has come under fire from pro-life groups for supporting organizations that advocate the legalization of abortion, distribute contraceptives, and support homosexualist policies. Knight vigorously defended CCODP in a letter sent to donors and obtained by LSN.

Similar problems also exist with other Catholic international aid organizations sponsored by other national bishops’ conferences and that this was a disturbing and unacceptable trend. These bishops’ conferences were not conducting proper oversight over their international development and aid organizations resulting in the funding of groups whose objectives are in serious conflict with Catholic teaching.  The risk is that Caritas Internationalis could be the «umbrella» of a series of organization whose purposes seriously contrast with the Catholicism.

Changes in the Vatican’s approach to international aid appear to be part of the general reform project outlined in Pope Benedict’s recent encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth).

The encyclical insisted that human development and foreign aid cannot be separated from the demands of truth. In the encyclical, the Pope underlined that «some non-governmental Organizations work actively to spread abortion, at times promoting the practice of sterilization in poor countries, in some cases not even informing the women concerned. Moreover, there is reason to suspect that development aid is sometimes linked to specific health-care policies which de facto involve the imposition of strong birth control measures. Further grounds for concern are laws permitting euthanasia as well as pressure from lobby groups, nationally and internationally, in favour of its juridical recognition». There is the need to prevent the risk that these organization get a «Catholic umbrella» to what they do.

In fact to understand the basis of the «policy of Charity» of Benedict XVI, we should re-read his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est. In this encyclical, Benedict XVI affirms that «the Church’s charitable organizations, on the other hand, constitute an opus proprium, a task agreeable to her, in which she does not cooperate collaterally, but acts as a subject with direct responsibility, doing what corresponds to her nature. The Church can never be exempted from practising charity as an organized activity of believers, and on the other hand, there will never be a situation where the charity of each individual Christian is unnecessary, because in addition to justice man needs, and will always need, love».

It was not just the Prefect for the Congregation of the Faith speaking. It was also the theologian Joseph Ratzinger speaking. And, above all, it was the believer Joseph Ratzinger speaking. Nowadays, Joseph Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI and today he celebrates his 85^th birthday. How can we understand the Joseph Ratzinger’s pontificate?

The answer is in the life itself of Joseph Ratzinger. His love for liturgy, for daylong prayer, for faith came into light within his humble and devout family – Rosary was a daily prayer in Ratzinger house. His reflection about the Church of Pagans – not anymore a «Church of Pagans became Christians, but Church of pagans that are still calling themselves Christians, but they are actually Pagans» – comes directly from his first experience as vice-rector of parish, while he spent most of his time confessing.

There are other steps of Ratzinger’s life that had been important for the evolution of his thought. First of all, the years of the Second Vatican Council: Joseph Ratzinger goes to Rome as an expert  to give is contribution to renew the Church; then, the years after the Council, when he quietly tried to resist to the turning of the Reform of the Church into a revolution; and finally, his years at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. There he raised up the method the Congregation is still working with: the condemnations of the Congregation were always made up of two documents, the one pars destruens and the other one pars construens  of the book or doctrine that the Congregation was going to condemn.

After all, Ratzinger always said that «patience is the daily power of love». Who is really Joseph Ratzinger? He loves his family, first of all. In his autobiography, Milestones: Memoirs 1927 – 1977, Ratzinger tells with great emotion the moment when his family rejoined after the years when the brothers Joseph and Georg left to study and become priests. And the last book of his brother Georg, My brother, the Pope, is full of anecdotes that testify how Joseph Ratzinger loves his a simple person, that loves his family and friends more than any other thing.

But Ratzinger is above all a man of faith. And he feed his faith with Reason – this is what makes of him a universally appreciated theologian. April, 6 2006: at the encounter of Pope with the youth, Giovanni – a 17 years old student –asked Benedict XVI how to harmonize knowledge and Faith. And the Pope – after underlining that there is the same Reason at the basis of the book of nature and at the basis of the Sacred Scriptures – affirmed that «either one recognizes the priority of reason, of creative Reason that is at the beginning of all things and is the principle of all things – the priority of reason is also the priority of freedom -, or one holds the priority of the irrational, inasmuch as everything that functions on our earth and in our lives would be only accidental, marginal, an irrational result – reason would be a product of irrationality». And he concluded: «The great option of Christianity is the option for rationality and for the priority of reason. This seems to me to be an excellent option, which shows us that behind everything is a great Intelligence to which we can entrust ourselves».

The Christian option for rationality leads directly to Faith. Hence, Ratzinger’s fear that theology would become a science similar to the other sciences. Hence, Ratzinger’s fear that the people of God would lose the sense of God. The Pope is 85, and he will celebrate this year with the year of the Faith. To turn back people to God. This has been his mission since he is a priest. This is his mission as a Pope.