As is often the case, we need to go back in time to understand why the Congregation for Catholic Education manages seminars.  In the 19^th century, after the French Revolution, the Church was on the defensive, as revolutionary movements wanted religion set aside, in the name of the principle of laity.  In Italy, the Church was depicted as a hurdle to the unification of the country.  It is well known that all of the main characters of the Italian Risorgimento were masons and anti-clericals.  Their task was not only to sweep away the Pontifical State.  They wanted to put the moral teachings of the Church aside, in order to have the cultural influence of the Church –the only truly unified cultural institution in Italy– wither away.  They were all cognizant of the Church’s cultural supremacy.  Everybody studied in the schools managed by priests, since they were universally considered the best schools in Italy.

A battle fought with culture

So, besieged, the Church decided to fight this battle armed with one of its best weapons: culture.  Thus, seminars were put under the administration of the Congregation for Catholic Education.   Marginalized and with no properties to rely on (since the properties of monasteries had been taken away by states), Catholic priests were trained to use culture to face hurdles.  True, Catholics were excluded from public life, or they were just marginally part of it.  But where it was a matter of culture, skills, and reasoning, they had to be prepared to be front and center.  This approach was not only crucial in helping the Church survive, it was also the thrust for Catholic-inspired political movements.  It was also the laboratory where the Social Doctrine of the Church grew, from the starting point of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum.  It was, ultimately, the path the Church laid to respond to the challenges of the time, thus preparing it to the great renewal of the Second Vatican Council.

Today, the Church seems to be moving backwards. Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, fought hard to have the seminaries placed under his dicastery.  In a 15 page dossier, he maintained that spirituality had gone missing in seminaries, and that his Congregation was the best suited to bring them back to a more spiritual path.  The Congregation for Catholic Education has thus been deprived of one of the reasons for its own being.  Now, the challenge of culture lies just with Pontifical Universities, and no longer pertains to seminaries. The Church risks retreating to the sacristies, and having no cultural impact on the public arena.

A Pontificate under internal attack?

Is this what Benedict XVI really wants?  If we look at his Pontificate, he always talked about the importance of the role of religion in society. He spoke several times about “positive laity”, he asked for a new generation of Catholic-inspired politicians in diverse occasions, he also warned from relegating faith to the private life. So why did he accept cardinal Piacenza issues? Why was he not aware of the risks – in terms of cultural impact – of his final decision? The first impression – now that the first trial on Vatileaks has come to an end, and the second one is beginning – is that we are dealing with a Pope not able to manage the Curia, or – worse – to a blackmailed Papacy.

A two-speed Pontificate

Let us look at his Pontificate.  Benedict XVI seems to be a two-speed Pope.  He is not clericalist, nor is his staff.  The Pope was educated in German Schools of Theology –in state-run, not pontifical, universities– where the cultural debate is strong and where there is no clericalism.  As soon as he was elected Pope, he pushes for changes.  One of his first decisions was the promotion (a promoveatur ut amoveatur, promote to remove, decision) of Leonardo Sandri.  Sandri was the number two of the former Secretary of State Angelo Sodano. Benedict XVI created him cardinal and appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches.  Then, the Pope promulgated the decree that changed the admission criteria for seminaries, and made the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (whose number one, Fitzgerald, was appointed nuncio to Egypt) a department of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

Finally, he began to search for a new Secretary of State to take the place of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who would have never been loyal to the Pope.

This activism brought on problems.  At first, Sodano tried –through the then Papal nuncio to Italy, Paolo Romeo, now archbishop of Palermo– to “direct” the appointment of the successor of Cardinal Camillo Ruini as President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.  When this maneuver failed, Sodano began to resort to news leaks to favor the selection of a person close to him for this same position.  Benedict XVI then took an unprecedented decision: he announced the name of his new Secretary of State (Card. Tarcisio Bertone), but allows Sodano to remain at his post for another three months.  A tactical error.

In three months, Sodano was able to push for the appointment of the new director of the Holy See Press Office, replacing the hated Joaquin Navarro-Valls with father Federico Lombardi; he reinstituted the figure of the Prelate in the ranks of the IOR (the Vatican’s Trust Fund), appointing his loyal Piero Pioppo to the post; and, finally, he didn’t move a finger to avoid the media disaster arising from the Pope’s lectio magistralis in Regensburg.  Unluckily for Sodano, this controversy turned into an unexpected success for Benedict XVI, who used it to restart a seemingly moribund dialogue with Islam.  Nevertheless, what happened in Regensburg was a warning: Benedict XVI could be lead into trouble anytime.

That there was trouble on the horizon, anyway, was evident from the very Conclave that elected Benedict XVI pope.  According to credible reports, even when it was clear that Joseph Ratzinger would be elected pope, between 20 or 30 cardinals obstinately voted against him.  In the unwritten language of the Curia, this had a specific meaning: not everybody wants you as a Pope, so beware.

Benedict XVI’s second speed comes after Regensburg.  It is a more prudent speed.  The Pope restores to its former rank the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.  As its head, the Pope appoints Cardinal Jean Louis Tauran, a skilled diplomat. To change the Curial organizational chart, Benedict XVI awaits for the right moment.  Officials of the Secretariat of State – unfriendly to Bertone – are replaced one by one when their mandates expire, and are appointed Papal nuncios. The Pope resumes his plan, intended to bring the Church back to God.  The Pope’s speeches during his trips mark a crescendo on this topic, and the Papal catechesis and homilies are precious in this same regard.  It is a hidden magisterium, since it is rarely highlighted in the media.  But it is a clear and steady magisterium.

A lack of governance

But the Pope is as close to issues of faith as he is far from the governance of the Church.  The Vatican is often about nuances, more about words than choices.  Benedict XVI did not catch these nuances (he was part of the Curia, but not an active participant in it), and neither did Bertone.  Many can influence in one way or another how the Church is governed.  Each point of view is taken into account, oblivious to the possibility that some may not be acting on good faith.  The hiring of Paolo Gabriele, the butler convicted for stealing and leaking Papal documents, is symptomatic.  The Vatileaks scandal was the contingency that has brought about the return of Benedict XVI’s adversaries – i.e. the Old Guard– to the helm.

They ably seized on the occasion.  Vatileaks was in fact, in some ways, propitiated –but not foreseen- by Benedict XVI’s enemies.  An evident sign was the decision to give the rights for the Pope’s new book on Jesus of Nazareth to Rizzoli, a lay publishing house.  The choice was promoted by elements of the Old Guard in the Curia, and no one was able to confront this decision on behalf of the protection and promotion of the Catholic “good press”.

Now, rumors about John Michael Harvey’s successor to the post of Prefect of the Pontifical Household have shed light on the return to influence and important positions of men from the old guard.  The Head of Protocol in the Secretariat of State, Msgr. Fortunatus Nwachukwu, may become Papal nuncio in Uganda, part of a change that may also include Msgr. Thevenin, who is very close to Card. Bertone.  It is the first time that Msgr. Nwachukwu is mentioned as departing, a transfer that would be a cause for concern.

Is the old guard returning to power?

This way, the old guard is in some ways returning to power.  This Church lacks management.  This Church above all lacks prophetic vision.  It suffices to read the document issued in 1986 by the Pontifical Council for Justice on international debt, which premises are still valid today, and that depicted an economic panorama just like the one we have today.  Nowadays, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace seems to be under bureaucrats rather than visionaries, its prophetic impulses diminished (as in the message for the most recent World Peace Day), and its international impact questioned.

In a system in which the bureaucracy counts more than ever, we must ask:  has the old boy’s club approach to hiring worked?  Not much.  If we take as a reference the 1986 document about debt, we discover that all who were behind it came from the Paul VI era.  And so one could conclude that John Paul II’s 27 years of pontificate were indeed years of splendor for the image of the Church, but they also were years during which the Curial machine came to a grinding halt at the hands of the various bureaucrats who believed more in facades and money than in prophecy.

A church unaware of his mission

They are the very same bureaucrats who have now taken the oversight of seminaries away from the Congregation for Catholic Education.  There is, no doubt, a cultural emergency, and the Pope always speaks about the need for a strong presence of faith in the public arena.  But the Vatican bureaucrats prefer a Church secluded in temples, and not speaking out loud in the public square. They don’t even remember that a parish priest must not only be full of faith and precise in liturgy. He must also be the social heart of his parish.  He must be theologian and pastor, well-rounded and approachable.  This fullness is what has been missing in the formation of priests.  Not even the strongest supporters of Catholic tradition –those who advocate for a return to a pre-council liturgy– have understood that they are lowering the Church’s prophetic force.  They leave religions at the mercy of states’ decisions, and they do not safeguard true religious freedom.  In fact, the Holy See is the only “religion” with a structure that is recognized in International Organizations. The only independent and sovereign religion (religions without a state to guarantee their independence depend on the states in which they are based).  The only religion that can independently fund its missions, through Propaganda Fide and the IOR.  Helping the faithful in the world – even financially– is part of the mission of the Church.  Also part of the mission of the Church is the diplomatic effort to protect religious freedom, life, and to promote social initiatives in favor of the poor and weak.  This mission seems to be forgotten.

GenFest 2012

«Look on high, set your gazes far ». This is what Maria Voce, president of the Focolari Movement, tells the 12 thousand youngsters coming from about a hundred countries who gathered in Budapest for the GenFest. GenFest is the meeting of the “young” of the Focolari Movement, and it took place for the first time about 40 years ago. The last GenFest took place in 2000. But when Youth for a United World gather, time seems not to have passed by. They are committed to make it a fruitful experience. «Let’s Bridge!» is the motto of the Budapest GenFest, and the motto fits perfectly the geography of the Hungarian capital, made up of bridges linking different parts of the city. They launched the «United World Project», which is a «world pact for fraternity» which creates «a fraternity network», supported by a «permanent observatory of fraternity», to personally engage those joining.

An initiative which fully responds to the Pope´s message to GenFest. Benedict XVI encouraged the participants to «shape unity and peace to the city of man, making it in some ways a prefiguring anticipation of a city with no barriers to God.» GenFest anticipated and inspired the World Youth Days. During the 70s, Chiara Lubich, the founder of the Focolarini movement, thought of a festival to celebrate the birth of Gen (Generazione Nuova, New Generation). The first GenFest took place in Loppiano in 1973 and – given the success of the initiative – it was replicated in Rome in 1975. Pope Paul VI took part in the 1975 GenFest, and mentioned: «A new world is born.» Since then, nine GenFest events have taken place.  After a 12 year gap, the 2012 Hungarian event continues this tradition.

A page of the history of Christianity

In Budapest, Tarlòs Istrvàn, major of Budapest, addressed the 12 thousand young people assembly and said:  «Here you are writing a page of the history of Christianity.» And Maria Voce underlined:: «Travelling around the world, I met young people of yesterday and today; I have seen the transformation of social conditions in which they live; I have seen the breaking down of so many securities; I have seen the sufferings of those who could not find work, of not being able  to have more moments and places of  encounter if not the empty noise of the clubs and bars or the maddening sound of motor racing. I saw a generation grow with fear, a fear of being  deceived and disappointed, a fear of giving something of oneself and to remain empty-handed; fear of finding oneself alone though in the midst of a crowd.  But I have also met many young people, including many of you, who  despite everything, know that in order to build a more united world, changes are  needed, primarily personal ones, and therefore radical choices. And they make them.  And this is the generation that I now have in my heart and I would like to
help them raise their eyes upwards.   Yes, I tell all of you: look up. Look afar, it is there that you will find a sure hold. Look at love who is God. He is the only one who will not disappoint you.  And  do not be afraid! Be yourselves and enter personally in society, putting at the disposal of everyone your personality, expertise and talents. Your contribution is unique, unrepeatable, and different from that of the adults.».

Marching to the Chain Bridge

Maybe the most evocative moment of the last GenFest was the 7 kilometers march through the streets of Budapest, in the evening of Saturday, September the 1st. All headed to Meta, i.e. the Chains Bridges, symbol of the unity between the two parts of the Hungarian capital: Buda (hill) and Pest (plain). The 12 thousand participants took almost three hours to get to the bridge. They come from Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, Congo, Sweden, Argentina… There are not young people from Syria since they could not get visas, given what is going on there. During the GenFest days, they all put on the table what they do to experience fraternity in their countries.

Michele Zanzucchi, director of Città Nuova – the Italian bi-monthly magazine of the Focalare Movement – wrote in his coverage that so many things were left unsaid.  «For example – he writes – young people from Yogyakarta, Indonesia told some anecdotes about their trip preparations for the Hungarian event. They did not mention, for example, what they did in Bantul, epicenter of the 2006 devastating earthquake: they built social centers with the Muslims of 42 rural villages, and now they are committed in a vast program to teach  English to children. Another example: young Egyptians tell about a wall they painted together with the inhabitants of a city neighborhood, so that life in this neighborhood would be more pleasant. They cannot tell stories about their participation in the Tahrir Square demonstrations, about their social networking, about their “being revolutionary”».

And finally, young people get to the Chains Bridges.  Above, the castle, symbol of Budapest. To the side, Parliament. Each delegation is greeted through music speakers. Then, everybody stops. And then – «Go», the speakers loudly proclaim, and the crowd mobilizes: they exchange colored scarves, on which everyone wrote a sentence, his name, a request. Everyone lives this exchange as a gift.

From young people, a United World

Everybody is conscious that a united world can rise thanks to the effort of the youth. It is also the topic of the last Papal Message for the World Day of Peace, entitled «Educating young people to justice and peace». Also Chiara Lubich said it in a memorable speech at the 1990 GenFest, where John Paul II was a special guest. Chiara Lubich remembered the young people in Tienanmen Square, the young people at the forefront of demonstrations and political commitment that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the young people of the Prague, Budapest and Bucharest Springs, the young Poles that joined the Catholic Union Solidarnosc – and maybe today Chiara Lubich would speak about the young people in Tahrir Square in Cairo, and the young people at the forefront of the continuing demonstrations in European capitals, or even of the “angels of mud” of Genoa. Chiara Lubich finally underlined – and her words are still valid today: «It is not true that young people today are just going on privately and are generally hardly interested in the big problems of humanity».

Yes, it is not true. Proof of it is that GenFest did not finish in Budapest. 1,700 of the young people that gathered in Budapest then went to Castel Gandolfo, to meet for a sort of workshop of fraternity. They came from 41 non-European countries, and they were all very enthusiastic. They are young, professionals, full of ideals, and they all agree: «GenFest starts now.»

GenFest goes back to Lebanon

She says to be «very excited» for Benedict XVI’s visit to Lebanon. Lara, 24 years old, is convinced that «a united world is possible» and has the will to make it happen. «Us, Gen in Lebanon –she says – are engaged in many activities for a United World. One of these activities is trash recycling. In Lebanon, people are not very much aware of the importance of recycling trash. So we are committed to teaching people to recycle and to keep the environment clean. It is also a sign for young people. We must wake up, and try to solve problems.» Lara and his Gen friends also «try to reach marginalized people. We assist a group of children who live in a shelter. It is a fantastic experience. There are about 50 children, and they come from Syria, Pakistan, Africa. They had to leave the places where they were born, so we take care of them.»

Joe was another of the 106 Lebanese Gen in Budapest. Joe is self-assured and knows he can achieve anything he sets his mind to. «Our project is to promote a Youth Community of Dialogue. We work together, Christians and Muslims, we make practical activities, like trash recycling. Every year we organize a big dinner in the evening in the month of Ramadan and we organize several social activities.»  In Lebanon, he will welcome the Pope, bringing with him a bit of the Budapest spirit. «Looking at the GenFest – he says – it is fair to say that we have a different goal: we can be one. The people responded warmly: we were 105 from Lebanon. Not a big number, one could say. But it is a big number in a country like ours. It is a remarkable result. Now we have to spread this teaching of unity, and we are ready to engage in many initiatives. We want the ideal of a United World to be known in every part of the world.»

A new Generation for a United World

Gen stands for New Generation (GEnerazione Nuova). Gen is the youth branch of the Focolari Movement. In 1967, Chiara Lubich makes an appeal to young people and young boys and girls who are part of the Focolari Movement: «Youth from all over the world, unite!» She asks to gather the greatest number of youth possible, from all over the world, and «to launch an awesome revolution, to the cry of: Unite! A love revolution.» The Gen movement is born by the adhesion of thousands of young people from all over the world.

GenFest goes back to Brazil

Let’s jump a continent, and go to Brazil. There, preparations for the 2013 World Youth day are actively underway.  In the meantime, the WYD cross is touring Brazil. «There is an I-Phone app – Leandro, 30 years old, geologist, from Rio de Janeiro, says – and so one can see the WYD cross path.»  Leando is part of the cultural committee for the WYD preparation. He is convinced that «the visit will be good for the Pope,»  he talks of the enthusiasm of people that take part of the events around the WYD cross, he explains that, yes, there is a lot of talk about an «evangelical rise» in Brazil, but «from the inside, we who live everyday Christianity don’t feel this rise so much.» Rio’s Gens are engaged in many activities. On Saturday, they go to the shore to «become one with people and show by example that a different way of living is possible.» They also work in favelas.

During World Youth Day, three events will be managed by Gen. «We – Leandro says – will organize three adorations in a Church, and we are preparing an expo in Urca, a Rio neighborhood. Then, there will also be community moments, and there the Chiara Lubich ideal will be presented».

Leandro took part of GenFest together with 110 Brazilians. «In Budapest – he says – I become aware that unity is possible. I saw it. It is as if I do not speak alone. Everything I say is answered and repeated by many people from many diverse places. It is as if I had several nationalities. I am sure that there is a brother of mine living in the other part of the world and nurturing my same ideal.» This ideal is very strong during the United World Week. «We organize it also in Rio,» Leandro says.

United World Week

The idea of the United World Week is launched at the end of the 1995 GenFest. One week a year is dedicated to create relations of pacific cohabitation, a mentality of reciprocity among different people and culture, respecting the dignity of each human being and the identity of every community or people. The United World Week takes place concurrently in several places in all the continents: from the Philippines to the USA, from Russia to South Africa, from the Middle East and other “hot” places in earth.

The apex of the week is a world phone conference that connects the over 70 participant countries. It is a planetary conference call to tell each other the common actions that are organized in each country.

GenFest goes back to Burma

In making a world unite, even simple actions help. Thomas is 24 and he comes from Burma. «In Burma – he recounts – there are just a few Gens, but we are very united with the Popis (the leaders of Gen Unity), we carry out some activities with orphans and blind children. When we Gen are together, it is easy to understand one another, but when we are in school, it is more difficult. My school mates are almost all Buddhist, we do not speak so much about the Christian faith.» Jerome, 18, also comes from Yangoon. After the experiences in Budapest and Castel Gandolfo, he spent a year in Loppiano. He recounts: «My father is Buddhist, my mother is Catholic, and my choice was to be a Christian. In the beginning, I felt a sense of unease. Then, I deeply lived the ideal of loving first and every sense of unease disappeared.»

GenFest goes back to Philippines

Nikko, 24 years old, comes from Manila, the Philippines. He came with 125 young people, a remarkable amount of people, considering the distance and the expense of the trip. Philippines Gen did not give up and they were able – through several activities – to collect about 6 thousand euro, which they invested to go to Budapest for the GenFest. «From Budapest – Nikko says – I carry with me the outpour of many young people making a world unite. This reality is not foreign to me anymore. I liked what Maria Voce said, her appeal to be united and to dedicate ourselves to one another. It is very difficult to bear witness to our faith, but I think that it is sufficient to work seriously and be pleasant with people, smiling at them at the right moment. This is spreading the culture of humanity.» Nikkko also talks about the difficulties of keeping in touch among Gen in a country – the Philippines – made up of hundreds of islands.

GenFest goes all the way to Thailand and Malaysia

It is the same difficulty Wen experiences. Wen is 21, and comes from Thailand. «Our Gen unity – she says – is divided among 5 States: Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. In our countries, everything is very different, and we really need to stay in touch. We do many activities with poor people. The biggest problems are with languages: there are 5 different languages, but when we are together everything goes very well, we feel that there are too many differences, that we can live together.»

The GenFest´s motto was «Let’s bridge». And Mary, a young 27 year old Malaysian, feels this need very much. «Malaysia – she says – is made up of different cultures. There, Christians are a minority, and building bridges is a must. What I can say is that there are many people we can build bridges with. We are doing it, even if in fact we cannot do it in a very public way. We can go to Holy Mass, but it is more difficult to live our faith publicly. On the other hand, Gen lives when there is a Gospel to be lived.» True, it is difficult to live in a country with a majority of Muslims and Indus. It is also true that «GenFest – Mary maintains – lets me understand that it is really possible going on building bridges, and this really means to know the other, to become one with the other.» So, it was worthy to work hard and collect funds through several initiatives to let everybody who wanted to go to Budapest to take part of GenFest. «In my country – Mary says – I feel very small and insignificant, we are very a few. Seeing a huge number of people making all of this together feeds my desire to go on, not to fear, not to feel alone.»

GenFest goes back to India

Elaine, 25, had the same feelings. She comes from India, and she works for Bloomberg. «In Budapest – she says – we were aware of being in something larger than our thoughts. We took part of workshops, learned how to build bridges and how we can be with one another. We discovered that building bridges is our vocation of Gen». Elaine tells that «bridging began in India, where coming together is very difficult. In GenFest, we Indians performed a ballet in order to tell our reciprocal experiences.» It is not an easy situation. «Life – Elaine says – is very extreme in India. We went from poverty to richness, with no middle stage. We conducted some activities to prepare our GenFest. For example, we did some wall painting focused on bridging in neighborhoods where people of different cultures and races lived, so everyone passing by could see that there could be bridges.»

For Elaine, everything starts now.  «GenFest – she says – is not over. It was very meaningful; it let us realized that we are not alone. But now it is the time to go back and be always more united, to carry that spirit with us to our homelands. We are going to see now how to spread this idea of Unity through the World United Project.  In India, we have several projects, diverse experiences, we work through different cultures. We have to mix up.»

In the end, this is what Benedict XVI – «addressing the GenFest participants that took part in the General audience of September 5^th – told them. The Pope asked them to promote the unity of the human family, building bridges courageously. May the simple joy, the pure love and the profound peace coming from the meeting with Jesus Christ be the sign of your joyful witness of the Good News to the young people of your countries.»

Milan 1984

The importance of Carlo Maria Martini cannot be fully grasped without some understanding of Italian contemporary history. Italy is a country of contrasts. Italian history is made of dualisms. And there were many during the 70s. They are called Anni di Piombo, years of lead (in reference to lead bullets). During those years, the extra-parliamentary «red» and «black » movements (i.e. leftist and rightist groups) are active and responsible for bombings and shootings. Ideological struggles risked becoming a full fledge civil war, with no chance of mediation. Then, after the widely condemned abduction and killing of Aldo Moro – the leader of the Christian Democrats who was forming a centrist  government with the unofficial support of the Communist Party, a support described with the double negative of «no no-confidence» – the activity of terrorists groups diminishes.

Milan, June 13, 1984: A stranger arrives at the Archbishop’s House. The resident occupying it is Carlo Maria Martini. He had been surprisingly «catapulted» to the top post at the biggest diocese of the world by John Paul II, who appointed him Archbishop of Milan on December 29, 1979, when Martini had not even been ordained bishop and had no pastoral experience –he was the Rector of the Gregorian University. The stranger enters the Archbishop’s House, and stands before Don Paolo Cortesi, then Martini’s secretary. While Martini is attending a phone call, the stranger puts on the table three bags. The bags contain three Kalashnikovs, a Beretta rifle, an automatic musket, three guns, a bazooka rocket, four grenades, two magazines and 140 bullets. It is the entire arsenal of the Comitati Comunisti Rivoluzionari (Revolutionary Communist Committees), a leftist terrorist group considered close to the Red Brigades –the latter abducted and killed Moro. The arsenal was given to Cardinal Martini as a symbol of the definitive end of the «armed struggle» and to urge the mediation of the Church for a «political, human and social reconciliation».

That Martini was chosen to carry out this mediation is revealing of how much the Archbishop of Milan had become – in just four years – a public personality. He who had never imagined he would become a bishop established a «School of the Word» as one of his first acts of his tenure in Milan, in order to let the People of God understand the Sacred Scriptures through Lectio Divinas. The School of the Word was an amazing success. Later, he would set up the Schools of Social and Political Education, and the «Non-Believers’ Teaching Chair», for those who seek faith.

«One must dare», Carlo Maria Martini used to say. Martini dared so much in dialoguing with terrorists that he went to visit Red Brigades militants in prison. «I listened to them – Martini said – I prayed for them and I also baptized a couple of twins given birth by terrorists during a process».

Loreto, 1985

Martini was also appointed President of the Preparatory Committee of the General States of the Italian Church, held in Loreto, in 1985. At this point, a parenthetical note is in order:  At the time of the Loreto meeting, Italian ecclesial movements had been maintaining for some time the so-called «religious option», i.e. living the faith privately, without posing faith-based questions in the public arena. This option worked in Italy, because there was already a party, the Christian Democracy, which bear Catholic values. So, there was no need to reaffirm a public «Catholic» identity. At the same time, John Paul II had become the Pope, and he came from Poland. There, to be a Catholic was a political statement, and religious identity had to be fought for, together with religious freedom. Even in Italy things were changing: the Catholic party was losing electoral ground, and political parties in general were becoming less influential. Martini’s approach – considered progressive, but in fact attuned to the times – was overturned in a speech by John Paul II. The Pope did not want to disown the progressive wing of the Church, he just wanted to give the Italian Church a new direction. It was considered a defeat for Martini. It was not. In fact, a year later, Martini was named President of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, a post he kept until 1993.

Rome, 1999

From Loreto on, Martini would constantly prod the Pontificate and the Church. He was full of ideas, and he knew how to express them. In 1999, Martini publicly proposed to John Paul II the convocation of a Third Vatican Council – it was during the Special Synod for Europe. Later, he would state that «certainly the Church may need to convoke a Council at any given time, to come face to face with the different world outlooks. I feel this need, because there seems to be some difficulty in reaching a common understanding. I do not think, on the other hand, that it has to be like the Second Vatican Council – i.e. dedicated to all the problems of the Church and its relationship with the world. I think that a new Council should be focused on just one or two themes and, after 10 to 15 years, once these topics are examined and exhausted, convoke a new Council also focused on just a few themes.»

Maybe he reached this conclusion observing the meetings of the Council’s fathers and their passion, in 1962 – when he was a student and then professor of the Biblical Pontifical Institute. He was also aware that the whole world was changing, and not everybody liked it or was capable to understand what was going on.

The spiritual legacy

«A bishop must dare». And Martini dared until the end. Even as he was suffering from Parkinson’s and was losing his ability to speak, he never stopped being present and active in the public arena. Up until June – when he was conscious that his illness had reached a terminal state – he answered to the readers of the Corriere della Sera, the Italian newspaper that gave him a weekly «letters column».

In the end, to really understand who Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini really was, his life must be re-read through the perspective of his reflections on the Bible. His not-unexpected death naturally invites us all to re-read the book considered Cardinal Martini’s spiritual legacy, «Night time conversations in Jerusalem». Martini wrote this interview-book with his Austrian Jesuit brother Georg Sporschill. He wrote it while living in Jerusalem, where he had settled to resume his Biblical studies after resigning from his Archbishop post in Milan when he turned 75 (he had to return to Italy in 2008 because of the progression of his illness). In this book, Martini bared his soul completely. He recounted that he had «some difficulties with God», since he could not «understand why he let his son suffer on the Cross». He admitted that «also when I was bishop I sometimes could not look at a crucifix because I was tormented by this question». He could not even accept death, and wondered why God would not save men from death, with Christ’s death. But then he realized that «without death, we cannot give ourselves completely to God.  [Not accepting death] would be as if we wanted to keep an emergency exit always available » Instead – he maintained – one should place all hope in God and believe in Him. «I – he said – hope to be able to say Yes to God at the time of my death.»

These are the words of a man in a permanent search. That is probably why his statements never went unnoticed or failed to stir debate. He brought on discussion on issues like in-vitro fertilization, euthanasia, civil partnerships, and adoption for single parents. He often called for a Third Vatican Council to encourage renewal in the Church. He opened up dialogue with non-believers – in fact being a precursor of Benedict XVI’s Gentles’ Courtyard. These topics led public opinion to consider him the leader of the «progressive wing of the Church», a sort of anti-Pope, an icon against the “traditional wing”, an alternative to the magisterium of John Paul II first and Benedict XVI after.

Not an anti-Pope

But he was not. Carlo Maria Martini was above all a man of faith. His words aimed to open up discussion and to set forth important questions, in a similar way to Benedict XVI’s style. Even if Martini and Benedict XVI did not share all the same ideas, they esteemed and were cordial to each other. Benedict XVI and Martini met for the last time on June 3, in Milan.  The Pope was there to participate in the International Meeting of Families. The meeting between the two men lasted seven minutes, and who knows if looking at each other they recalled the 2005 Conclave. Martini was considered the leader of the «left wing», but he did not want to be voted as Pope. He was already suffering the effects of Parkinson’s, and knew his health would deteriorate, and this was decisive for him. So, the left wing voted for the Argentine Jesuit Cardinal Bergoglio, but after three rounds Bergoglio failed to achieve a sufficient majority to be elected. Martini funneled Bergoglio’s votes to Ratzinger. At least on one occasion, he and Ratzinger were seen arriving together to the Sistine Chapel, leaning on each other.

The bishop

Carlo Maria Martini’s last book is «Il Vescovo», The Bishop. The book is part of the project by the Turin-based publishing house Rosenberg&Sellier to restore the full meaning of the «weakened words» of our times. Il vescovo is almost an autobiography. A part of the book is dedicated to dialogue with «non believers». Martini maintained that there is a need to address the drift from fashionable trends, and place attention on values. «We should not fool ourselves thinking that there are only a few (atheistic, agnostic or religious indifferent people), even if we are talking about the most traditional of dioceses, or that only some are away from all forms of pastoral activity. The information about the Church that these people get is filtered by newspapers and television, where speaking with detachment and arrogance about things religious is trendy.» Martini remembered Giovan Battista Montini’s constant concern (Montini was archbishop of Milan before he became Pope Paul VI): «What does the modern man think or understand about what I am saying?»

A missed journalist

Martini always wondered about this same question.  So much so, that as a kid he had wanted to be a journalist, Martini revealed to Corriere della Sera journalists during an editorial staff meeting on June 19. «It seemed to me – he said – the right job to understand ever changing life». In 1991, he dedicated a pastoral letter to the media, Il Lembo del Mantello  (The Hem of the Garment), where he maintained that the media must mediate. «Mediator – Martini wrote – is he who translates. This means that he cannot be just an outlet, or a megaphone, or one who literally translates every word from one code to another. A mediator is someone who takes the risk of interpreting. Specifically, to translate means to go to the essence, to search for the sense of a story in itself and in its context, and to tell it with words that bring it to life.» Maybe the meaning of Carlo Maria Martini’s whole life is in these words. He dedicated his life to the study of the Word and to dialogue, with words full of life, always faithful to his Episcopal motto: «Pro veritate adversa diligere», which means «For love of truth, I willingly go to confront difficulties». Among them, having his way of thinking labeled, categorized, interpreted with a bias. Perhaps to find Martini’s ideas unadulterated, we need to look at the origins of his thought, which go back to a vocation that flourished very soon in him, when he was 17 and joined the Jesuits.

An era has changed

Carlo Maria Martini was one of the most important figures of the post-Council era. An era with a lively cultural debate, renovation and adaptation. Martini’s death –somewhat symbolically on the 50^th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council – is perhaps a milestone. With Martini –one of the last remaining authoritative voices of the post-Council era—gone, signs for a new era of the Church are becoming more evident. It is now time for a new debate, a new challenge. There will be new characters and new ideas. This is why Carlo Maria Martini’s death is important to the universal Church, beyond the impact he had on Italian affairs. It is in some ways the end of a worldview. To whom will the terrorists of today consign their arms?

That the investigation on Vatileaks was in some ways negatively affected by publicity around Paolo Gabriele’s arrest has become evident in the last two months. During the sixty days of imprisonment, the Pope’s butler has been interrogated several times, and sometimes these questionings have lasted many hours. Gabriele was also questioned at length by the three cardinals of the Commission the Pope appointed to shed light on the leaks of documents covered by professional secrecy. The investigative process was far from easy. There were many attempts to throw the investigation off track. These attempts – perhaps instigated by the accomplices of the butler – sought to delegitimize the investigation and undermine the Roman Curia.

The media complicity

An accurate analysis of these red herring campaigns reveal a certain connivance between the media and the Pope’s unfaithful butler. At least one journalist was questioned by the Cardinal Commission. It is said that this same journalist used to meet Paolo Gabriele in Switzerland, where they exchanged documents. This journalist is not Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book Sua Santità lead to the investigation that unmasked Gabriele’s dealings – even if the source named «Maria» refers to several people involved in leaking Vatican documents. Long before the publication of the book, there were rumors among the journalists of «a certain exchange of information» that was «managed» by a famous journalist who would help other colleagues become part of the arrangement. This peculiar «information exchange» revealed itself in very similar articles published almost concurrently on Italian newspapers. These articles dealt with «external situations» – e.g. the revocation of the excommunication of the bishops of the Priest Fraternity of San Pius X (the so-called Lefevbrists) – and «internal situations» – criticism of Card. Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, for allegedly wanting to take the control of the Roman Curia (despite the fact that doing so would be within his responsibility). This is the media environment in which news about the “complicity” of the butler was revealed.

The red herrings

Right after the butler’s arrest, some journalist gave credence to the theory that Gabriele was not the «crow», or at least was just «one of the crows», and was made a scapegoat. This theory was supported with the publication of a blackmailing letter.  The letter threatened to make public a document signed by Msgr. Georg Gaenswein, the Pope’s personal secretary, if the Pope did not fire him and Secretary of State Bertone, the Pope’s closest collaborator.  Benedict XVI promptly reacted, publicly renewing his confidence in both. In the meantime, investigators pieced together information gathered from Paolo Gabriele’s smartphone and the documents found in his house in establishing the picture of Paolo Gabriele’s betrayal.

In July, the rope was tightening as the last interrogations took place. It was then that in Germany and after that in Italy three of the longest-standing Papal collaborators were described as the butler’s masters. The collaborators accused were: Card. Paolo Sardi, formerly responsible for the section of the Secretariat of State that collaborates in drafting the Papal speeches; Ms. Ingrid Stampa, an official of that same section and previously the secretary of Cardinal Ratzinger, who is responsible for the translation into Italian of the books by the Pope; and the bishop Josef Clemens, Gaenswein’s predecessor in the post of personal secretary of the later Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.

«These accusations are completely baseless», the Vatican Secretariat of State commented in a strong declaration. In fact, this was another red herring, maybe introduced by Gabriele himself. Gabriele was probably suggested those names after they appeared in articles in the German newspaper Die Welt and the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.  These newspapers also stated investigators found several texts sent from Gabriele’s smartphone to Ingrid Stampa’s cell phone.

The investigation has not come to an end

The Vatican investigators still have much work to do. The trial will not be the end. Big news is that the trial will not only involve the Papal butler, but also Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer specialist at the Secretariat of State. Sciarpelletti was imprisoned for just one day (the night of May 25, two days after Paolo Gabriele’s arrest), then conditionally released and finally completely freed. He will be tried for abetment. Sciarpelletti’s role is not that of an accomplice, but the Vatican magistrate decided to take him to trial because of his inconsistencies during questionings. Paolo Gabriele – caught in flagrante delicto – is in a different position.  But everything needs to be brought to light.

The indictment by the Vatican Promoter of Justice (the public prosecutor) Nicola Picardi – which is incorporated by the work of examining magistrate Bonnet – sheds to light more details of a scenario that is far from complete. In presenting the documents, Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, underlined that «the Vatican Magistrate’s Office wants to underline that this is a partial conclusion of the inquiry regarding the criminal charge of aggravated theft against Paolo Gabriele and everything linked to this crime.» It is just a «partial conclusion» because the Vatican Magistrate’s Office received many reports with different allegations. So it wanted to start first with Paolo Gabriele, the clearest investigative path.

The meetings of the Pontifical Family

The two documents taken together – the indictment and the judgment – provide a detailed timeline of how the magistrate reached the decision to arrest Gabriele. The names of all the witnesses are kept secret for privacy, except that of Msgr. Georg Gaenswein. Gaenswein had a meeting on May 21 with the members of the pontifical family: the other Papal Secretary, Msgr. Alfred Xuereb; the four Memores Domini that serve in the papal apartment; the Pope’s collaborator Birgit Wansing; and Paolo Gabriele. During this meeting, Gaenswein asked if anyone had leaked reserved internal documents, allowing whomever was responsible to speak up. Another meeting of this tenor was held on May 23. Gabriele’s attitude was cold – Gaenswein told the magistrate – in denying to be the leaker. The butler kept on denying even when Gaenswein proved that Gabriele was the only person who could have leaked two of the documents published in the book Sua Santità. When questioned by the magistrate, Gabriele declared that he denied any involvement because his spiritual father recommended him to admit only to the Pope what he did.

A mysterious spiritual father

This spiritual father seems to be a very peculiar person. Is it the person that granted an anonymous press interview a few days after Gabriele’s arrest, maintaining that the butler was faithful to the Pope? We do not know. Paolo Gabriele gave him some documents, which the spiritual father claims to have promptly burned, as he realized they were part of «something illicit». Did this spiritual father tried to make Paolo Gabriele realize how seriously flawed his behavior was?

Imbued by the Holy Spirit

Only after the arrest – that took place in the night of May 23 – did Paolo Gabriele decide to cooperate with the Vatican magistrate. A quote from the interrogation provides insights of the Papal butler’s personality. Gabriele claims to be «imbued by the Holy Spirit», claiming that, faced with certain knowledge of corruption, he thought that «a media shock» could eventually help the Pope to clean up the Curia.  He explains how he got in touch with the journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi and why he chose him (he was fascinated with his previous book Vatican S.p.A., Vatican Ld), states that he was the «crow» that granted an interview – hiding his identity – to the Italian TV show Gli Intoccabili, and that the interview was not broadcasted in its entirety. There is no hint of Gabriele’s relations with other journalists. In the documents of the inquiry, it is understood that other documents leaked to the press were not all provided by Paolo Gabriele. The content of some of the documents published in Nuzzi’s book were already public in detailed accounts in other newspapers’ articles. Was Paolo Gabriele the leaker? It is a  legitimate question, but the current process is not meant to address this.

In Gabriele’s papers

In Paolo Gabriele’s messy home one can find everything: part of the documents published in the book Sua Santità, a series of copies of various newspapers articles, and newspaper clippings. «I have a passion for intelligence,» Paolo Gabriele says. In the midst of that disorganization there is also a Euro 100,000 check made out to the Pope, from a Catholic university in Spain – «accidentally placed among other papers, he would never cash it in», Carlo Fusco, Gabriele’s lawyer, declared; a golden nugget given to the Pope by a benefactor in Peru, which Gabriele also attributes to his not being organized; and a 16th century edition of Virgil’s Aeneid. «Gaenswein – Gabriele tells the magistrate – sometimes gave me gifts sent to the Holy Father. Since I have a particular passion for books, Gaenswein used to give me books. For what concerns the Aeneid edition, I remember that my son had started studying that poem, so I asked Msgr. Gaenswein if I could show the book to my son’s teacher. He agreed, and the book remained in my house. I was going to return it.»

No accomplices?

Paolo Gabriele would have acted alone, with no accomplices. Claudio Sciarpelletti was not an accomplice. In a drawer of Sciarpelletti’s office desk investigators found a medium-size envelope, which read «Riservato P. Gabriele». Sciarpelletti gave different accounts of why the envelope was in his drawer. At first, Sciarpelletti said that Gabriele gave him that envelope two years before, and nothing was written on it. Gabriele wanted an opinion about something contained in the envelope, but Sciarpelletti never opened it and eventually forgot about it. Only recently he wrote on the envelope to remind himself about Gabriele’s request for his opinion – a request the butler never insisted on. In another account, Sciarpelletti said that he was given the envelope to give it to Gabriele – the name of the person that gave him the envelope is blacked-out in the indictment. Once, Sciarpelletti said that Gabriele was not a friend, he just happened to know him. Another time, Gabriele and Sciarpelletti are friends who are so close that when they get together their families also join them. There is no evidence to charge Sciarpelletti of aggravated theft or revealing secrets. However, his ever changing responses got him charged with abetting. The penalty for this crime – Father Lombardi explains – ranges «from nothing to not much».

Incompos mentis?

The penalty for Paolo Gabriele, on the other hand, can be a maximum of 8 years imprisonment. But he is unlikely to spend 8 years in prison, considering that he has no previous convictions and the extenuating circumstances. Among them, Gabriele’s peculiar psychological makeup. The Vatican magistrates long discussed if Gabriele was indictable, if he was incompos mentis or not. A psychiatric examination was requested. Prof. Tatarella was the examiner appointed by the Vatican public prosecutor, while Prof. Cantelmi was the examiner appointed by Gabriele’s lawyer. The first stated that Gabriele was not incompos mentis, the latter said he was. Both of them underline some peculiar aspects of the butler’s personality. Tatarella – whose examination is completely accepted by the magistrates – notes a personality marked by a sort of persecutory  delusion: more and more Gabriele «alludes to plots and conspiracies for or against prominent people, both laymen and – more frequently – prelates». Tatarella also reported that Gabriele fell victim to paranoia and his decision to leak the letters was driven by a «deep necessity to win the attention and affection of others.»

The expert appointed by Gabriele’s lawyer suggested Gabriele was prey to «restlessness, tension, rage and frustration.» He felt unfit for the job and vulnerable to «external manipulation». Who knows if Gabriele was manipulated by those «Vatican officials and prelates, even top ranking ones» with whom he confided «beyond what he could revealed if he had observed the limits and the discretion that his institutional role demanded»?

The hunt for the manipulator has just begun: was it Stanislaw Dziwisz, now cardinal, for years personal secretary of John Paul II, the one who hired Paolo Gabriele to serve in the papal apartment? Was it Msgr. James Harvey, Prefect of the Pontifical Household, a good friend of Paolo Gabriele, that after Dziwisz’s recommendation took Paolo Gabriele under his protection? Was it the circle around Jozef Bart, a “Polish gang” parish priest at the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia — where the devotion of the Divine Mercy is celebrated by will of the late John Paul II – who is a good friend of Dziwisiz and allegedly (according to some rumors) Gabriele’s spiritual father? Or was it some cardinal and prelate of the so-called “diplomats’ faction”, who stands for those who got accustomed to yielding a lot of power under John Paul II and who resent not having that power anymore?

Waiting for the Cardinal Commission report

We still do not know who instigated Paolo Gabriele’s behavior. It is for sure someone intelligent enough to understand the butler’s weakness, and shrewd enough to suggest actions while avoiding being held responsible for them. The Cardinal Commission appointed by Benedict XVI (comprised by cardinals Herranz, Tomko, and De Giorgi) will presumably address this issue. The commission ended a first round of questionings and meetings, but the report is still not public because the commissioners do not want their report to overlap with the magistrate’s investigation. Father Lombardi noted that «The Pope wants to follow with coherence and concreteness the magistrate’s course of action. That is why we may presume (…) that the Pope will wait until the end of Paolo Gabriele’s trial. We know well the character of the Pope, who is very careful to allow things to run their course properly, without rush».

Benedict XVI changes part of his team

In the meanwhile, the first changes in the Curia shows Benedict XVI’s wish to rebalance his team, giving more weight to his personal secretary Georg Genswein. Some observers hypothesize that the involvement of the previous secretary, Clemens, of Ingrid Stampa, and of Card. Sardi was leaked to the press from inside the Vatican. The purpose would have been to alert public opinion so that it would not be surprised when these names are mentioned during the trial, once that all the names omitted become public.

One of the first changes in the Pontifical Household team was, in fact, a «routine» change. Leonardo Sapienza was appointed regent of the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household. His appointment was an open secret. Msgr. Paolo De Nicolò, the prior regent, turned 75 and had to retire, and Leonardo Sapienza – who served for years as protocol attaché to the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household – was De Nicolò’s ideal successor.

Even when De Nicolò’s retirement was expected and Sapienza’s appointment a given, we still do  not know if there will be other changes within the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household. This Prefecture is an important office within the Holy See: it directly serves the Pope and oversees the Pontifical Household and Pontifical Ceremonies (liturgy excluded). Because of the particularity to be at the personal service of the Pope, the members of the Prefecture are constantly in touch with the Pope’s secretaries.

A long-time rumor speaks about a «formal» integration of Msgr. Georg Gaenswein in the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household’s ranks. Gaenswein would be appointed “Adjunct Prefect”, and be ordained bishop.  This hypothesis would be supported by the fact that Sapienza has been appointed regent, but not ordained bishop.

Gaenswein’s integration in the Prefecture staff organogram would be Benedict XVI’s way to provide his own secretary with more weight within the Pontifical Household. Gaenswein was under attack during the so-called Vatileaks scandal. Critics hostile to the Papal secretary became even more vocal with the articles involving Clemens, Stampa and Sardi.

These are just rumors, which are nevertheless revealing because they are mostly focused on the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household and its staff, underscoring the importance of those around the Pope. Vatileaks seemingly had two different goals: to make the Pope accessible to the ones who feel left out and are longing for power; or, if this is not possible, to isolate Benedict XVI, undermining even his closest collaborators, like Gaenswein. It is as if Gaenswein should pay for his role – a natural role for a personal secretary — of filtering access and shielding the Pope.

Sheriff, in this story, is msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò, now Papal nuncio to the United Stated. From 2009 on he has been general secretary of the Vatican City State Administration. His previous post was as head of personnel in the Vatican Secretariat of State. Even from as head of personnel, he discontented many. For example, he wanted all the depeneants to clock in and out. That is when the shooting of sheriff is planned, with the logic and lucidity that just the small worlds can have. And Vatican is unquestionably a small world.

Carlo Maria Viganò’s story swept the world. The letters he addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and to card. Bertone, Vatican secretary of State, to denounce the «corruption » in procurements of Vatican City State administration had been profusely highlighted by the media. His move to the post of Papal Nuncio in Washington has been described as a punishment, a promoveatur ut amoveatur case as many have been in history – and not just Vatican history. Yet, no one seems to be innocent in this story. Viganò is not, since he claims for himself to be promoted as president of the Vatican City State Administration – a position that would pave the way for a red birretta; the «bankers» – as Viganò calls in the letters the members of  “Finance and Management Committee” made up of the bankers Pellegrino Capaldo, Carlo Fratta Pasini, Massimo Ponzellini, and Ettore Gotti Tedeschi (the last of these went on to become the president of the Institute for Works of Religion) -  , manager of procurements in Vatican City State are not, since they appear ready to sideline the Vatican interests for the sake of their lucrative exploitation; and the Vatican Secretariat of State is not – it seems to lack in management.

While the Viganò affair was highlighted in the media, card. Bertone was preparing the meeting of the heads of Vatican departments (Prefectures and Pontifical Councils) about the «Process of elaboration, publishing and reception of the documents of the Holy See». During his introductive speech, Bertone pointed at the encroach of the «passion for the little news of ecclesiastical gossip, that undermines the Holy See prestige and sometimes crab the climate of confidence and trust among the Holy See’s bodies». During the meeting, nobody talked about the Viganò’s case. But Bertone’s words showed fairly that the Vatican Secretary of State – together with the Pope that presided the meeting – is working to bring some order in the Roman Curia.

Yet, there is something rotten about the whole story. Too many questions remain unanswered. The most important one: why have Viganò’s letters been delivered outside the Vatican? And why had the Viganò’s letter so profusely highlighted in the media? There is one theory above all, collected within the Vatican walls: at the time when the Holy See has rewritten its 2010 anti-money laundering law after European inspectors found that it didn’t fully meet their tough standards to combat the financing of terrorism, Viganò’s case is depicted in a way that can be outlined as an attempt to the sovereignty of Vatican City State, «that small piece of land – Pope Pius XII used to say – that permits us to accomplish to our mission». Since Vatican City State is a sovereign entity. It has its own legislation. It has its Court. It has its police corps, the Vatican Gendarmerie. No allegation remains unaccomplished, inside the Vatican.

Four letters – addressed by msgr. Viganò to Benedict XVI and to card. Bertone – has been leaked to the press. In one of these letters, Viganò denounces the counterfeiting of bills and shortfalls, hidden robberies in the pontifical villas, and he names the informers that inspired a series of articles – signed by no one – published in the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, in which Viganò’s was put under accusation. According to Viganò’s, those articles were inspired by msgr. Nicolini, then administrative director of Vatican Museums. Viganò attributes to Nicolini the «counterfeiting of bills» and a cash deficit, a «participation interest» in companies defaulting to the Government «for at least two million two hundred thousand Euros and that, prior to that he had defrauded L’Osservatore Romano for over ninety-seven thousand Euros, and APSA for more than eighty-five thousand». Viganò also accused Nicolini of «arrogance and bullying towards employees who do not show absolute subservience to him, preferences, promotions and arbitrary hirings done for personal purposes». Then, Viganò points at the denigration on him brought on by Marco Simeon, head of the Foreign Relations of Rai – the Italian State television – and of Rai Vaticano (the branch of Rai news that covers the Vatican), a man that – «according to the press» – Viganò writes – is linked to card. Bertone.

On the basis of Viganò’s allegations against Nicolini, an internal investigation was carried out in the Vatican, headed by a disciplinary committee. The committee has listened to the witnesses mentioned in the prelate’s dramatic letters. As for the anonymous articles in Il Giornale, the committee concluded the «indemonstrability» of Viganò’s accusations, while after the investigations, other allegations about Mgr. Nicolini have also proved unfounded, even if the committee retained that it had encountered the qualities mentioned about his character and suggested that measures be taken.

No allegation remains unaccomplished within the Vatican walls. Vatican is a sovereign entity, but it is also a whole different world. Let us see how this long-time planned sheriff’s homicide took place. Let us get back to the time when Viganò is working in the Vatican secretariat of State.

At the beginning of 2009, abbé Claude Barthe writes the conclusions of his fact-finding mission in the bimonthly Catholic French magazine L’Homme Nouveau. Barthe includes Viganò and his nephew Carlo Maria Polvani, head of the information office of the Secretariat of State, among the Curial frondeurs that row against the Pope and Bertone. Some maligns that it was Polvani that delivered Viganò’s letters outside the Vatican.

Once in the administration of Vatican City State, Viganò tries to change the cemented mechanisms of building maintenance procurements and of management of Vatican Gardens. Many people acknowledge that he made a worthy job. But they also remember that «he was despotic, and he did not take in consideration the Vatican office balances». In 2010, a new campaign against Viganò takes place: a series of e-mails are sent to cardinals and Papal nuncios, accusing Viganò to favor his nephew Polvani’s career. And then, in 2011, Il  Giornale publishes the article by anonymous that are cipher to let understand that the time of Viganò’s in Vatican City State is over. Isolated and strained, Viganò began writing letters to the top of hierarchy. The strain increased, and the Pope and Bertone needed to re-balance the situation. It was the time when they decided to send Viganò to the prestigious nunciature in Washington. More than a promoveatur ut amoveatur, it is a way to «save the life» to Viganò, that has more enemies than ever.

When all seems lost, Viganò writes to Benedict XVI. The paradox of this story is that Viganò, in the end, relies to the moral authority of the Church, that is embodied by Benedict XVI. «In spite of the great damage to my reputation – Viganò writes to the Pope in July, 7th 2011 – and the negative repercussions that this provision will provoke, my response cannot be anything but full adherence to the will of the pope, as I have always done during my other than brief service to the Holy See. In the face of this harsh trial as well, I renew with profound faith my absolute obedience to the Vicar of Christ».

 Benedict XVI went to Africa to deliver the post-synodal exhortation. Two years ago, the special synod for Africa that took place in Rome was very little covered by the media.  But it was «good work» – the pope then said – since it was able to mediate sufficiently between the political and spiritual dimensions. «And for me – the Pope said – this is also a reason for thanks because it makes the post-synodal document easier to draft». The penultimate act of that synod were the 57 final propositions delivered by the assembly of African bishops. The propositions touched on many topics including «greater ecclesial communion at all levels, encouraging cooperation within the Church», as well as an appeal to all those who are at war in Africa: «Stop the hostilities and be reconciled!» Another theme that was frequently discussed was the environment. Observing that there was «an irresponsible degradation and senseless destruction of the earth, which is ‘our mother’» the Synod Fathers noted  that «some businesses, governments and multinational and trans-national companies engage in business that pollute the environment, destroy flora and fauna, thus causing unprecedented erosion and desertification of large areas of arable land… in complicity with those who exercise political and economic leadership in Africa». The bishops also raised their voices on the issues that impact women. They rejected abortion and  so-called reproductive health rights of women, calling instead for the defense of the family and of human life.

All of these topics had been issued by the Pope during his short trip to Benin. «Africa is a continent of hope», Benedict XVI claimed. Hope is the key-word to understand the trip to Benin. As a key-speech was the one held in the Presidential Palace, on November, 19th. After the speech, the Pope moved to Ouidah, 43 kilometres far from the capital of Benin Cotonou from where – at the beginning of the 18th Century – every year 20 thousand slaves taken from all the Western Africa left to the Usa. In Ouidah, Benedict XVI finally deliver the post-synodal exhortation, Africae Munus, African Commitment. The commitment that Benedict XVI delivers to Africa is an important one. From Africa, he warns all the leaders of the world  against political corruption, scandals, instrumentalizing the name of God to justify violence and the individualism that generates despair.

Pope appeals to all political and economic leaders of African countries and the rest of the world to not to manipulate their people and not to deprive their  peoples of hope. «Do not cut them off from their future by mutilating their present! Adopt a courageous ethical approach to your responsibilities and, if you are believers, ask God to grant you wisdom!», the Pope said.

The background of African countries is filled with the Arab Spring and the recent - and Church sponsored – independence of the South Sudan. Neverthless the worries for the future of the Christians after the Arab Spring – especially in Egypt and Libya – the Pope favorably see to the claim of the people. During these last months – he said –  «many peoples have manifested their desire for liberty, their need for material security, and their wish to live in harmony according to their different ethnic groups and religions. Indeed, a new state has been born on your continent. Many conflicts have originated in man’s blindness, in his will to power and in political and economic interests which mock the dignity of people and of nature. Human beings aspire to liberty; then to live in dignity; they want good schools and food for their children, dignified hospitals to take care of the sick; they want to be respected; they demand transparent governance which does not confuse private and public interests; and above all they desire peace and justice».

Benin is an examplar country. Cardinal Bernardin Gantin is considered one of the father of the country – to him is dedicated the airport of Cotonou. And Catholicism had great part in the development of Benin, The former Archbishop of Cotonou, Isidore de Sousa, received special permission from the John Paul II to act as the effective leader of the country in the early 1990s, leading it through a transition from Marxism to democracy. Relationships between the Catholic Church and the State of Benin are wonderful, missionaries and Christian institutions make an appreciated job in the country. The 42,8 per cent of population of Benin is Christian, and the 27,1 per cent of these is Catholic. The rest is made up of faithful of other Confessions, mainly originated by the Lutheran reform. The 24,4 per cent of population is Muslim, and the rest of population belongs to ancient African creeds.

And all the representatives of those religions were sitting in front of Benedict XVI, together with the representatives of government and institution on November, 19th. The Pope contrasts the hope to the paradigm of the expert – who imposes his conclusions and proposes, at the end of the day, few useful solutions – and to the temptation to analyze the realities of Africa like a curious ethnologist or like someone who sees the vast resources only in terms of energy, minerals, agriculture and humanity («reductionist and disrespectful points of view which lead to the unhelpful “objectification” of Africa and her inhabitants»).

Hope is the key to understand two African realities. The first one deals with the sociopolitical and economical situation. The Pope says: «Human beings aspire to liberty; then to live in dignity; they want good schools and food for their children, dignified hospitals to take care of the sick; they want to be respected; they demand transparent governance which does not confuse private and public interests; and above all they desire peace and justice. At this time, there are too many scandals and injustices, too much corruption and greed, too many errors and lies, too much violence which leads to misery and to death ». It is not a ill that affect just Africa: it affects all the world. And people want to understand, they do not want to be manipulated. No policy is absolutely right and no economical policy is neutral. But both policy and economy – the Pope admonishes – has to be done for the common good.

That is why Benedict repeatedly cried out in defense of the poor. During an open-air Mass on sunday in a soccer stadium in Benin’s capital, before some 40,000 wildly enthusiastic, dancing and singing locals, he said «Jesus wanted to identify himself with the poor» and the poor deserve respect because «through them, God shows us the way to Heaven». And in the Africae Munus Benedict called the church to act as a «sentinel», denouncing situations of injustice. The pontiff also took yet another swipe at neo-con ideologies. In his opening speech of the trip, he warned Africans that an «unconditional surrender to the laws of the market and of finance» is among the pathologies of modernity they would do well to avoid.

The second reality deals with the interreligious dialogue. How many wars had been fought in the name of God? «True interreligious dialogue – the Pope said – rejects humanly self-centered truth, because the one and only truth is in God. God is Truth. Hence, no religion, and no culture may justify appeal or recourse to intolerance and violence. Aggression is an outmoded relational form which appeals to superficial and ignoble instincts. To use the revealed word, the Sacred Scriptures or the name of God to justify our interests, our easy and convenient policies or our violence, is a very grave fault».

The challenge for Africa – outlined in the post-synodal exhortation – is to free Africa from his ills. First of all, Aids, to face by providing «everyone with access to treatments and medicines, taking account of uncertain situations! The Church, indeed, has been pleading for a long time for high quality medical treatment to be made available at minimum cost to all concern ». And then, illiteracy that «represents one of the principal obstacles to development. It is a scourge on a par with that of the pandemics. True, it does not kill directly, but it contributes actively to the marginalization of the person – which is a form of social death – and it blocks access to knowledge». More: «Africa’s memory is painfully scarred as a result of fratricidal conflicts between ethnic groups, the slave trade and colonization. Today too, the continent has to cope with rivalries and with new forms of enslavement and colonization». And also the intolerable treatment to which so many children in Africa are subjected: child soldiers, child prisoners, children forced into labour, children ill-treated on account of physical or mental handicap, children said to be witches or warlocks, children said to be serpents, children sold as sex slaves, traumatized children without any future prospects.

Was it a sort of Benedict XVI’s opening to theology of liberation? There is – obviously – some more in depth reason. Leaving Benin, the Pope asked: «Why should an African country not show the rest of the world the path to be taken towards living an authentic fraternity in justice, based on the greatness of the family and of labour? May Africans be able to experience reconciliation in peace and justice!» In a few years, Africa can become the most Catholic continent in the world. The Pope bets on the awakening of Africa, because it is in that awakening that resides the awakening of the Church. The Church that must push for Truth, Reconciliation, Dialogue, Care for Human Being. And Africa – with its Truth and Reconciliation commissions, with its experience of interreligious dialogue because of the cohabitation of several creeds, with his traditional care for human being – can indicate the path to follow to all the world. Africa is a continent of hope. Even for Christianity. Now more than ever.

The Pope concluded: «Their inability to find God is partly the responsibility of believers with a limited or even falsified image of God. So all their struggling and questioning is in part an appeal to believers to purify their faith, so that God, the true God, becomes accessible».

To celebrate the 25th anniversay of the first meeting of Assisi – where he did not go – , Benedict XVI invited once again the delegates of the world religions in the town of the poverello di Assisi. The Pope strongly wanted to commemorate the first meeting in Assisi, but at the same time he did not want that the event would be characterized by religious syncretism.

These worries the Pope explained on March 4, 2011 in a letter to Lutheran pastor Peter Beyerhaus, a longtime friend who had told him about his fears over the new convocation of the day of Assisi. «I understand very well – the Pope wrote – your concern about participating in the encounter of Assisi. But this commemoration would have been celebrated in any case, and, in the end, it seemed to me the best thing to go there personally, in order to try to determine the overall direction. Nonetheless, I will do everything I can to make a syncretistic or relativistic interpretation of the event impossible, and to make it clear that I will always believe and confess what I had called the Church’s attention to with Dominus Iesus».

October, 27 1986. Tv stations all over the world broadcast the images of the event that the pope had so strongly desired: pilgrimage, fasting, prayer, peace among peoples and religions. John Paul II even revived a medieval tradition by invoking on that day a «divine truce». The images of the pope praying with the heads of so many different religions established itself as one of the most powerful signs of his entire pontificate.

But at the same time, critical reservations about the event were taking shape. The event in Assisi added fuel to the fire through some of its more excessive gestures. Some of the city’s churches were allotted for the prayers of Buddhists, Hindus, and African animists, as if these buildings were neutral containers, void of any indelible Christian value. The Buddhists set up a shrine of Buddha on the altar of the local Church of Saint Peter. It did not happen the last 27th of October, when each religion had a personal space to pray and reflect according to its religious thoughts.

The path to Dominus Iesus begins in Assisi and passes through an encyclical, the Redemptoris Missio, released in 1990. Beginning from the affirmation of the Second Vatican Council in the decree Nostra Aetate, according to which «the Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in other religions», the period after the council saw the widespread approval of the idea of transforming the missions into a simple commitment to foster the maturation of the «seeds of truth» present in the various religions, as if these seeds were themselves distinct ways of salvation. Redemptoris Missio decisively contrasts this «indifferent mentality, unfortunately widely diffused among Christians as well, which is rooted in incorrect theological views marked by a religious relativism that leads to the conviction that one religion is as good as another» . The encyclical reaffirms the necessity and urgency of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus. This means an explicit proclamation. It means a proclamation made in the certainty that no other religion can save anyone apart from Christ, the only «way, truth, and life».

Dominus Iesus is released during the Holy Year of 2000. The inauguration of the Jubilee refocused some of the critics, since the ceremony of the opening of the holy door was  vaguely interreligious. But the Pope was in no frame of mind for peaceable concessions, as demonstrated by the strong gestures with which he opened the Jubilee year: from the “mea culpa” for the sins of Christians in the past, to the remembrance of the martyrs of yesterday and today, to the solemn reaffirmation of the doctrine according to which «Jesus Christ, and no one else, can give us salvation».

Dominus Iesus  is not presented as an organic treatment of the relationship between the Christian faith and other religions. It limits itself to defining the errors to be corrected and to repeating the essential truth. One of its central passages reads: «The thesis that the revelation of Jesus Christ is of a limited, incomplete, and imperfect character, and must be completed by the revelation present in other religions, is contrary to the faith of the Church….This position radically contradicts the affirmations of faith according to which the full and complete revelation of the salvific mystery of God is given in Jesus Christ».

In Dominus Iesus there many citations from the documents of the Second Vatican Council. But, as soon as it was published, it was met with criticism, both from within and from outside the Church. It was rejected by leaders of other Christian confessions and other religions. There were protests from defenders of secularism, tolerance, ecumenism, and dialogue.

In the mean time, there had been a second meeting among the religious leaders in Assisi, in 1993, during the Balkan war. And then, there had been September 11 and the call for a third meeting, in 2002. But the quest for a new Assisi was shaking the Catholic world long before. Cardinal Ruini had been asked about the problem on December, 10 2001, during the presentation of his last book. “It is an important question – he answered – How to make explicit the consensus to religious freedom presumed as implicit among they who accept to pray together? How to remark the differences between the interreligious prayer of 1986 and the one of today? But it is easier for us to answer that question, since now there is something new in the Western Culture. Something that had been absent and that now is strongly emerging. This novelty is the effort to feel and assert our Christian identity. This novelty has been felt from lay culture as a need not only of the Church, but of all the Western civilization».

Is this novelty still undimished today? «This meeting is less charismatic of the one held 25 years ago, but at the same time we are now saying thing that 25 years ago nobody would tell», one of the “dialogue professionals”  said the last 27th of October. Many things were similar to the event of 1986, beginning from the weather – humid and cold in the morning, seemingly about to rain. But in 1986, a graffiti appeared on the wall of the palace of the Bishop’s curia in the early morning. There is no document to prove it, since mons. Vittorio Peri – the priest that discovered the graffiti – was not so prompt to take a picture of it before letting cancel the graffiti. The priest was mons. Vittorio Peri, now Vicar in Assisi and in 1986 “right hand man” of cardinal Roger Etchegaray, then president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. The graffiti sentence read: «Wojtyla, not with prayers, but with weapons we defend peace».

The delegates of the World religions speaks before Benedict XVI. Then, the Pope held his speech. He began from the first meeting of Assisi. «At that time – he said – the great threat to world peace came from the division of the earth into two mutually opposed blocs. A conspicuous symbol of this division was the Berlin Wall which traced the border between two worlds right through the heart of the city. In 1989, three years after Assisi, the wall came down, without bloodshed. Suddenly the vast arsenals that stood behind the wall were no longer significant. They had lost their terror. The peoples’ will to freedom was stronger than the arsenals of violence». But – he added – «the world of freedom has proved to be largely directionless, and not a few have misinterpreted freedom as somehow including freedom for violence».

The Pope outlined the new faces of violence. The terrorism, that «is often religiously motivated» – and «in that case religion does not serve peace, but is used as justification for violence». The Pope acknowledged «with great shame» that «yes, it is true, in the course of history, force has also been used in the name of the Christian faith».

Another face of the violence is the one that comes from the absence or negation of God. «The denial of God – the Pope said – has led to much cruelty and to a degree of violence that knows no bounds, which only becomes possible when man no longer recognizes any criterion or any judge above himself, now having only himself to take as a criterion. The horrors of the concentration camps reveal with utter clarity the consequences of God’s absence». Benedict XVI did not only speak about the State-imposed atheism, but he underlined that the «worship of mammon, possessions and power is proving to be a counter-religion, in which it is no longer man who counts but only personal advantage». This is the environment that leads to consider the violence a state of normality. «The absence of God leads to the decline of man and of humanity».

The words of Benedict XVI in Assisi are the perfect sequel of what he said during his last trip to Germany. The program of the Pope is now fair: purify the Faith, make the Church less worldy. And prepare the Church to a new Evangelization – it will be the topic of the next synod of bishops, in 2012 – and to renovate the Faith. The 2012 – it has been officially announced with the release of the motu proprio Porta Fidei – will be the year of Faith. Waiting for the next Papal encyclical. After the first one on Charity and second one on Hope, the next one will be be on  Faith.

The question is to make once more looking forward to the next meeting among religions in Assisi. Joseph Ratzinger did not take part to the first meeting, in 1986. He did not share the way the meeting had been organized, with the risk that one could see all religions mixed in one only vague new-age-oriented religion. «We went in pilgrimage to Assisi – John Paul II said – because we are all convinced that the various religions can and must give their contribution to peace». Twice more – in 1994 and in 2002 – John Paul II called  the religions in one day of prayer, reflection and abstinence for the peace. The first one was aimed to pray for the peace in the Balkans, the second one was called right after the Twin Towers collapse, at the beginning of the new millennium.

Benedict XVI is now preparing to his own pilgrimage to Assisi, the next October, 27^th. The world has changed since 1986, since 1994 and even since 2002. Even the way to look at the meeting has changed, and this is fair when you read the theme of the meeting: «Pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace». There is much of the Ratzinger’s thought in this theme: one cannot make less of the truth in order to give a true contribution to peace. The authentic research for the Truth is the key of the dialogue among faithful of different religions – according to Ratinger’s thought – and the research for the Truth bring to mind the image of the Light, a common symbol for many religious traditions. Several times, Benedict XVI reasserted that the «need that all men believing in God look together for peace, try to get close the one to the others, in order to go together – notwithstanding the variety of their images of God – to the source of the light. This is the interreligious dialogue».

When the Pope announced that he would go to Assisi to celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the first meeting of the world religious leaders, quite everybody was surprised. Ratzinger – the one who wrote the Dominus Jesus that confirmed the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus – had been considered by everybody the gravedigger of the Spirit of Assisi. Yet, the Pope decided to go. And he gave his personal imprint to the meeting of Assisi. In fact, the meeting of the 27^th of October has not been included among the liturgical events of the Vatican schedule of October.

The reason why is in the speech Benedict XVI held at the Notre Dame International Center, in Jerusalem, addressing to the organizations for interreligious dialogue. The Pope said: « Together we can proclaim that God exists and can be known, that the earth is his creation, that we are his creatures, and that he calls every man and woman to a way of life that respects his design for the world. Friends, if we believe we have a criterion of judgment and discernment which is divine in origin and intended for all humanity, then we cannot tire of bringing that knowledge to bear on civic life. Truth should be offered to all; it serves all members of society. It sheds light on the foundation of morality and ethics, and suffuses reason with the strength to reach beyond its own limitations in order to give expression to our deepest common aspirations. Far from threatening the tolerance of differences or cultural plurality, truth makes consensus possible and keeps public debate rational, honest and accountable, and opens the gateway to peace.»

It is the gateway Benedict XVI indicated during his last trip to Germany, during the meeting with Jews, Muslims, Lutherans – interreligious and ecumenical meetings that always enrich the Benedict XVI’s visits to a foreign country. The communion among religions can be reached through two ways: the action of the reason on the faith, from a cultural point of view, and the prayer. Each religion should maintain his peculiarity, since religious beliefs presupposes truth.

On the twentieth anniversary (September 2, 2006) of John Paul II’s Inter-religious Prayer Meeting for Peace in Assisi, Benedict XVI addressed a letter to the local bishop of Assisi commemorating the prayer initiative. The letter makes an interesting read. The idea of members of different religions praying together is not forgotten. Rightly stated, it is a good idea. But what is the right statement? Benedict recalls that the most significant event of the past twenty years is «the fall of the Communist-inspired regimes in Eastern Europe». Benedict XVI does note that the division into two opposing political blocks preparing for war did cease. Now  world relations could develop under a «common international law inspired by respect for the needs of truth, justice and solidarity». The logic of this hope was that Communism’s proving itself unworkable left the world open to a revival of a peaceful world on classic human principles.

But it did not happen. «The third millennium opened with scenes of terrorism and violence that show no signs of abating». The Pope next acknowledges that we may think «religious differences are causes of instability or threats to the prospect of peace». Certainly, in light of the religious persuasions of most terrorists, reasons to think this abound. In this light, Benedict remarks that John Paul’s initiative for prayer now seems like «prophecy» The implication seems to be that while it was rather difficult to pray with «atheists» it is possible to pray with Muslims.

The Pope is most concerned that religion’s potential contribution to peace is now being questioned. John Paul II wanted to show «with no possibility of confusion that religion must be a herald of peace». It cannot be rationally held that no actual religions have justified the use of violence to achieve their ends. Benedict himself refers to this issue in his Regensburg Lecture. What seems to be meant is rather that when a religion appears to justify arbitrary violence, it must be rejected as a false religion. Only true religions are heralds of peace. This is a deft but delicate explanation.

The dialogue among religions needs to be pushed up. After September, 11^th, stats (as a Jonathan Fox research does) document that religious conflicts in the world have become in 2002 more common than non religious conflict. On the other hand, rarely religion is the only cause of conflict, and very rarely it is the primary cause of the conflict. For example, the Islamic fundamentalist movements’ riots are never rooted in religion, but they come from secular problems. Many of these riots are acted in authoritarian countries, where the freedom of expression in policy is limited and the opportunity to purposely take part to the political decisions is also more limited. Religious institutions are often the only possible way to create alternative élites. Another data should be food for thought: the discriminations against religious minorities are more frequent than the discriminations against other kind of minorities.

Until a few years ago, religions had scarce consideration in the concert of the nations. For decades before September 11, policy makers and analysts in Western countries exhibited a sort «secular myopia» about religion in politics. Since faith was supposed to be private, they mostly left it out of their analyses. This happened despite the fact that ultra-conservative religious movements had appeared in many world faiths in those years and were often reflected in political action.

When Henry Kissinger published «Diplomacy», his study of international relations, in 1994, it had no index entries for Islam or religion. Ten years later, another US secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, wrote her own study on world affairs: «The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God and World Affairs». Almost half the book dealt with Muslims and Islam.

The contrast between the two books highlights the way the world changed after 19 Muslims flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on September 11, 2001. The attacks brought religion back into public affairs for many Western countries where faith had largely faded into the private sphere.

«9/11 showed religion can no longer be ignored – Scott Appleby, a historian at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, told a seminar on religion after September 11 at Cambridge University – It is a critical element in many national systems and in radical and extremist movements, and also in movements oriented to human rights, peace-building and civil society».

Since that day, governments and researchers in North America and Europe have turned to sociology, psychology, anthropology and other disciplines trying to understand religiously motivated violence and work out how to prevent it.

Iran staged an Islamic revolution and Afghans waged jihad against the Soviet Union. Jews settled in Palestinian territories, the US Christian right emerged and Indian Hindus and Buddhist Sri Lankans went into nationalist politics. Harvard professor Samuel Huntington was one of the few to grasp this trend. His 1996 book The Clash of Civilisations saw religions and cultures at the root of post-Cold War conflict. The West and Islamic worlds were bound to clash, he argued.

Ten years after the September, 11th, twenty five years after the first meeting in Assisi, there is still the need that religions gather together and find an effective answer for the pace. «Many of us – Olav Fikse Veit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, said –remain convinced that nonviolence can be the most helpful long-term response to violence and the most effective means toward a lasting peace based on justice».

It is the first time the Community of Sant’Egidio has not been involved in the organization of the event. The «organizers» are the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pontifical Council for the Culture, the Pontifical Council for interreligious Dialogue, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Ecclesiastical movement had been involved for some “marginal” detail and to gather the volunteers. There still no information about how the meeting will be carried out. The most important moment of the day will surely be the pilgrimage  to Saint Francis’ tomb in Assisi. The prayer will be important as well, and the speeches will for sure be about the role and responsabilities of religions in promoting peace. There will not be a liturgy. But there will be a unity based on the research of God. Turning back to God to find the Spirit of Assisi again. This is the Benedict XVI’s plan.

The sentence “We are Church” was intentionally pronounced by Benedict XVI. The movement We Are Church was created in 1995 with a collection of signatures in support of an «Appeal of the People of God» that proposed the democratic election of bishops, sacred orders for women, the removal of the division between clergy and laity, the elimination of the requirement of clerical celibacy for the clergy, a new sexual morality, etc. The collection of signatures, which came to two and a half million, began in Austria and was then extended to Germany, Italy, Spain, the United States, Holland, Belgium, France, England, Portugal, Canada. The first document was followed by many more.

The epicenter of We are Church is still in Austria and Germany, with a vast following among the clergy, with a certain capacity to exert pressure on the bishops themselves, and with an aura of approval in various seminaries. A few days before Benedict XVI left to Germany, Wir sind Kirche  - the German branch of We are Church – released to the press a statement affirming that «one cannot contrast the crisis of God and the crisis of the Churc» and that the slogan of the trip («Where God is, there the future is») focus on the question of God, but one «cannot ignore the urgent ecclesial problems and difficulties, since the ecclesiasistical structures theirselves severely create hurdles in front of many people that are in search of God and that want to practice their faith in the ecclesiastical communion». «Talking about God – We are Church’s statement concludes – must not become a distraction from the crises and problems within the Church»

Benedict XVI’s plan goes beyond. The Pope set the sight high, and he reaches out for God. By doing it, he drew on the name of We Are Church to reverse its meaning: from a separate and contrasted «we» to a «we» that embraces the Church «in all times and places».

Maybe, the most delicate phase of Benedict XVI’s pontificate started in Germany. Germany has always been characterized by a mass of different movements for the Church renewal. Joseph Ratzinger himself writes  in his autobiography about the wind of change felt in his country long before the Second Vatican Council, which he embraced with enthusiasm. Then, he was aware of the fact that talking too much about the removal of the structures of the Church (from the dogmas to its organization) could bring to lose sight of the center of the life of the christian: the faith in God.

The last year, 150 German theologians signed and delivered the document: «Church 2011, a necessary turning point». Among the issues considered the «main challenges» for the Church of the future, there were:  greater participation of the faithful in the appointment of high ecclesiastical figures, priesthood for married  men as well, a better position for women in the Church, and great respect for same-sex couples. And there is the voice of a Vatican internal report about the German Church, named «Whitesnow and the seven dwarfs». Whitesnow is Annette Schavan, minister of the Education and number two of Angela Merkel in Cdu (now in the middle of a scandal for a 150 thousand dollar private flight to go to a meeting with the Pope in March). The seven dwarfs are the seven deputies of Cdu that – together with Schavan – asked with a public appeal to Benedict XVI to abolish the celibacy of the priests and to authorized married men to be priests. Behind the appeal of Whitesnow and the seven dwarfs there would be prominent German prelates, that aim to bring the Catholic Church to a renoval. Some of this prelates have already been recognized: Hans Langendörfer, secretary of the German Episcopal Conference, Klaus Mertes, rector of Canisius Gymnasium in Berlin, Matthias Kopp, spokesperson of the German Episcopal Conference. Robert Zoellitsch, president of the German Episcopal Conference, would be just a puppet in the hands of these powerful prelates. These prelates would use the German Episcopal Conference as a political platform, in order to gain ecclesiastical reforms. For sure, they use the news daily Suddeutsche Zeitung to develop their ideas. It is the same Suddeutsche that commented the Benedict XVI’s visit to Germany with the title. «He came, he saw, he disappointed».

The pressure within the Church of Germany is very high. But the German problem concerns all the Catholic Church. For example, Benedict XVI’s speeches in Germany had a strong impact even in Austria. Austria and «Germany have a complex relationship – Georg Schimmerl, Austrian, moderator of the web-site www.dernotizblog.com – they have a common language, but the small Austria (that numbers less inhabitants than the Bavaria) suffers of the influence of the Big Germany. Even the artists that lived in Wien – e.g. Mozart – are considered Germans, and not Austrians».

Schimmerl then explains that «even the secularizing trends follow a common path. In Austria there are just the 5 per cent of Protestants, but at the same time the percentage of Catholics diminished during the last years: 20 years ago, the 90 per cent of Austrians was Catholic; today, just the 75 per cent of Austrians are Catholics. The decline of Catholics in Austria is also due to Kirchensteuer, the fiscal law introduced by Adolf Hitler that obliges every Catholic to pay a tax to Catholic Church. Many did not want to pay the tax anymore, especially on the waves of the disappointment after the Groer case – the archbishop of Wien accused of abusing seminarians – and after the clergy abuse scandal».

Finally, the theological issue. «There had not been Austrian theologians of international reputation – Schimmerl explains – Karl Rahner – in fact, a German – is considered the “master” of Austrian theologians, since he taught at Innsbruck University and he was the counselor of cardinal Koeing during the Second Vatican Council. Hans Kung, indeed, is kept in great esteem in Austria, alike Joseph Ratzinger, considered by very few a reference point».

Even because the influence of We are Church groups is strong. In Germany, the «executive arm» of We are Church is the Zentralrat der Deutschen Katholiken – Zdk, the Central Committee of German Catholics. In Austria, the Catholic Action acts like the Zdk in Germany: part of the tops of the Austrian Catholic Action were trained in We are Church, and they also held official positions in the Austrian ecclesiastical structure.

In Germany, 150 theologians began the discussion on the renoval of the Church. In Austria, there had been the document “Parish Priests Initiative”, promoted by Helmut Schuller, former general vicar for the diocese of Wien. The document had been signed by 250 parrish priest, and it invites to disobey Rome, if Rome does not align the Church to the modern times. Is it a real schismatic menace, or is it just the try to create confusion?

It is told that cardinal Schoenborn, archbishop of Wien, usually says privately – but he would never do publicly – that «the true enemies of the Church do not come from the outside, but from the inside»

Benedict XVI said it publicly, during is trip to Fatima in 2010. In Fatima, Benedict XVI began the “purification phase” of his pontificate. The purification is the goal of Benedict XVI. You can reach it by turning back to God. This is what he say in Germany, paving the way for the whole Church.