The sword of Damocles of the Past

More than an axe, it is a sword of Damocles, made up of a past that hangs above Benedict XVI, but does not refer to Joseph Ratzinger. When he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger used to work in the same way he worked as a theologian: he did not want to raise up a school, he preferred to build a team; he did not oppose to any one, he preferred harmonically match ideas of different kind; he did not acted a short-sighted protectionism of pre-judicial positions, he preferred looking at innovative foods for thought. This attitude had been the same of his Papacy. With a starting point: the search for truth. Benedict XVI dedicated the first of his Messages for the World Day of Peace to the truth. The theme was: «In truth, Peace». It is important to notice that the Message for the World Day of Peace has a very strong diplomatic impact: it is delivered to the Chancellors of all over the world, and it is the trace on which the Secretariat of State develop the traditional Papal new year speech to the ambassadors accredited to the Holy See.

Yet, only after seven years, this Papacy’s address seems to be in some ways understood. Before, medias provided just a distorted image of Benedict XVI. Then, medias began to put the Pope up everything, as if he was an ascetical, evanescent and out of the current business of the Church leader. But Benedict XVI, little by little, shaped the face of his Curia. His men trained in the Holy Office he leaded, applying the canon law and being kind with people and understanding to ideas. This Curia knows Ratzinger’s modus operandi, that is determined and accommodating at the same time. This Curia now can prepare for the final act of this quiet revolution: the Year of Faith.

«Scoops» against the Pope?

Right when the year of Faith is up to come, informing papers are delivered behind the curtain of the Roman Curia and are leaked to the press. The last «scoop» would be about a plot to kill the Pope. It is a note written in rough German – probably by a non German speaking person – , that Cardinal Darìo Castrillòn Hoyos brought to Vatican Secretariat of State. The note was a summary of a report of non well précised Chinese officials. These latter were reporting what they learned by cardinal Paolo Romeo, archbishop of Palermo that went mysteriously (maybe to encourage Chinese business in Sicily) to China the last November. Romeo would say that the Pope was not supposed to live more than 12 months. The newspapers made headlines news of the plot. «It seems to me something that is so far from reality that I don’t even want to address it», Father Federico Lombardi, s.j. director of the Holy See Press Office said.  Evidently, somebody has all the interest that these news, this «nonsense» were headlines.

Before,  The letters that msgr. Carlo Maria Viganò – former General Secretary of the Governatorate of Vatican City State – 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 Medias. According to the press, Viganò had been appointed as Papal nuncio to the United State because of this letter.

Then, an internal memo of the Authority of Financial Information – the Vatican body that  controls all Vatican finances – had been leaked to the press. The memo was part of an inside debate if the new Vatican legislation was to be considered a retroactive legislation, and if it was to be applied in the so-called IOR case (that is the seizure – ordered by Italian magistrates – of 23 million euro transferred by the IOR). Can this memo be considered a proof that the Holy See does not want to cooperate with Italian Magistrates? Actually, the reform itself of the Vatican Law n.127 (the anti-money laundering law) shows that Holy See is going to accomplish the international standards, yet not denaturalizing the nature of Vatican finances (in the Vatican there are no market and no banks).

Some days later, Luca Tescaroli – the Rome prosecutor who has pursued a 30-year-old case concerning the worst scandal at the IOR: the death of Roberto Calvi, the Catholic banker who helped managed the Vatican’s investments and was found hanging from London’s Blackfriars Bridge in 1982  – has recently revived judicial requests to the Vatican for information about IOR/Ambrosiano scandal. He complained that no information has been provided by the Holy See. But these international requests never got to the office of the Protocol of the Secretariat of State, nor they had ever passed through the Italian Embassy to the Holy See. His requests did not probably fulfill all the requirements of an international submission by a foreign prosecutor, the same requirements needed for all States.

Is Bertone under attack?

While speaking about these cases, Vatican had been treated by Italian medias as any multinational company whose seat is in Italy, while prelates had been always depicted as sharks money-makers. «We defend the Pope, not Bertone», was the slogan within newspapers offices. Bertone was in fact the executor of Benedict XVI’s will. In a meeting with the heads of Vatican offices, he asked for more cohesion and stigmatized the «small chatters», that weaken the Church.

In a passage of the last document leaked to the press, one can read that the Pope «barely stands Bertone». It is false. Let’s make a step back in the past. In June 2006, the Pope had to announce that -  after his return to Rome from his trip to Bavaria -  his first act of governance will be the change of the secretary of state, with cardinal Tarcisio Bertone replacing cardinal Angelo Sodano.

Benedict XVI’s initial plans did not include making the announcement as early as he did, with an official statement in June 22, 2006. But the resistance he encountered within the curia convinced him to nip the opposition in the bud. Many in the Curia were discontent. Bertone not only was not a career diplomat – as almost all the secretaries of state have been in recent centuries – but he came from the ranks of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, of which he was the secretary from 1995 to 2003. He was the number two man, with Joseph Ratzinger as prefect, and now he is again becoming the main collaborator of the new Pope. Even after his election as Pope, Ratzinger has kept him as an adviser and a friend: not a week was gone by that they have not spoken together or seen each other.

Bertone’s appointment as Secretary of State signed a sort of “vindication” for the Holy Office. Called by this name until the 1960’s, the Congregation was referred to within the Vatican as «la Suprema». Its highest official was the Pope himself, and the rest of the curia hinged upon it. But then came Paul VI, and the secretariat of state became the central axis of the curia. With John Paul II, who had little interest in Church governance, the power of the secretariat of state in the Church’s internal and external affairs grew even greater. It is no surprise that in the last change of the papacy, the two head honchos of diplomacy and of the curia – cardinals Sodano and Achille Silvestrini – were the ones most staunchly opposed to the election of Ratzinger, just as they later tried to block the appointment of Bertone.

More than diplomacy, it is important to Benedict XVI that his secretary of state be highly skilled «in pastoral practice and doctrinal understanding». And Bertone, in the Pope’s view, had both of these prerequisites. Ratzinger discovered him in 1988, and since then he has had him work on the most intricate and controversial issues: the schism of the ultra-traditionalist archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, liberation theology, the married men with children who were ordained as priests in communist Czechoslovakia, the third secret of Fatima, the apparitions of Medjugorje, the scandal of pedophile priests in the United States, the marriage of archbishop Emmanuel Milingo to one of the members of the sect of Sun Myung Moon.

One can understand many of Benedict XVI’s choice in Bertone’s appointment. Last but not least, the appointment of Charles J. Brown – a non-diplomat that served in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – as Papal nuncio in Ireland. The next consistory, in fact – so marked with well-formed experts in Canon Law, as Antonio Maria Vegliò and Francesco Coccopalmerio – is the signal that Benedict XVI want to get back to the solidity of Law, more than entrust on the liquidity of diplomacy. More firmness in Faith, acknolewdge of law and catechism and pastoral care, less diplomacy: these seem to be Benedict XVI’s word orders.

And behind the curtain is…

After Bertone’s appointment, Sodano refused to leave his office as Secretary of State, waiting for the works in his new office to be ended, and so Bertone had to work for about a year in a little office. Sodano is still secretary of State when the Pope goes to Bavaria, in September 2006. There, the Regensburg case on the lecture of the Pope bursted. It seems a Benedict XVI’s owngoal, it is instead the opening of unprecedented path of dialogue with Islam.

There was something else that made Sodano’s remaining in office questionable: his maneuver  to put out of commission the then Pope’s vicar and president of the Italian bishops’ conference, CEI, Camillo Ruini, when this latter turned  75 years old and handed over to the pope the letter of resignation that every bishop is required to write when he turns 75.

In 1991, 1996, and 2001, John Paul II, each time before he made Ruini head of the CEI, asked for the advice of the presidents of the sixteen regions into which the Italian episcopacy is subdivided. But that time – and this was at the end of January 2006 – rather than the pope, the secretariat of state extended the consultation to all of the 226 bishops in office. To each one, the then nuncio in Italy Paolo Romeo sent a letter under the seal of Pontifical Secrecy, asking the recipient to «indicate ‘coram Domino’ and with gracious solicitude the prelate that you would like to suggest».

The letter began by stating that «next March 6 the mandate of the Most Eminent Cardinal Camillo Ruini as president of the CEI will come to a conclusion». And it continued by asserting that «the Holy Father thinks that a change in the office of the presidency is in order».

The letter bore the date of January 26, 2006, and the only one to whom it was not sent was Ruini. But he was immediately made aware of it, and Benedict XVI – who intended to keep Ruini at his post – was also informed. On February 6, 2006 the nuncio who signed the letter, Romeo, was called by Benedict XVI for an audience. The Pope asked him how and why this initiative came about. Romeo left the audience in shambles, but Sodano was the one who was really trembling. On February 9, 2006  Benedict XVI received Ruini together with his then right hand man, the secretary general of the CEI, bishop Giuseppe Betori. They both received the Pope’s reassurances. News of the letter had not yet leaked to the outside.

But a few days later, the news agencies and newspapers were writing about it, attributing the idea for the letter to the pope and to his desire to decide «more collegially» on a replacement for Ruini. And in fact, on the morning of February 14, 2006,  as soon as he saw the complete text of the letter published in two newspapers, Benedict XVI picked up the telephone and ordered that his confirmation of Ruini as president of the CEI be made public immediately.

New stories, old people

Paolo Romeo is also one of the characters of the mordkomplott against the Pope. Behind him, there is still the same cardinal Sodano, that wanted to show his solidarity to the Pope before of the Easter Mass in 2010 – in the spite of clergy abuse storm – attacking the revelations on sex abuses as «petty gossip», and «the chatter of the moment». Yet, it was the same Sodano that for years debarred to make investigations on Marcial Maciel, the founder of Legionaries of Christ, who was found to live a double life, with illegitimate sons and a past of abuses on his seminarists.

A quiet revolution

In the meantime, Benedict XVI went on with his governing project, bringing on his quiet revolution. With time, he changed men in the key posts. It is not sufficient. The strikes does not come from the upper levels, but from the lower ones, clerks within the Secretariat of State that have nothing to lose if they leak some document, and that are still linked to the previous administration. It is a problem that deals with the quality of men. After the fall of the Wall of Berlin, within the Catholic Church, there had been the persuasion that the choice of clerks and official could be made with some more superficiality. Was not the War against the Communism over? An ex clerk of the Secretary of State – who served at the end of card. Agostino Casaroli administration and at the beginning of card. Sodano administration – tells that «suddenly, hiring conditions changed. I had been attentively analyzed, for our psychological quality and our intellectual attitudes. The new clerks hired in Secretariat of State did not seem to have any of these requisites, but a certain good will».

A weakened Curia

Step by step, the machine of the Curia is weakened from the inside. The new pieces of this machine are fascinated by privileges and at the same time they are unconscious of prestige and importance of their role. It is a machine with defective pieces, where an attack against the universal Church and its sovereignty can be easy stroke.

Right after the fall of the Wall of Berlin, the medias spoke only positively about John Paul II. On the other hand, they depict the Curia as rotten, as something that needs to be changed. So rotten that it would be better the Pope to pray, and for the Church not to involve too much in the current affairs of the world. Is it part of the strategy to undermine Holy See diplomacy? Pressures are made against the moral authority of prelates, and at the same time lay government confer upon Churchmen and Churh communities some financial privilege – e.g. tax cuts or financial aids. These tax cuts and financial aids are sometimes legitimated by the law (they are the same acknowledged to other companies and associations), but they are conferred with such a dim procedure that it is easy to create a misgiving climate. The “hottest” case are set aside, in order to use them at the most proper moment.

Market rules

In the mean time, European Union is formed, and market is always more allowed to dominate policy. At the beginning, Vatican machine is not even aware of the new challenge: it is still appeased on precedent positions.  Casaroli’s ostpolitik is considered good in every contingency, from the dialogue with Islam to Chinese situation. The Church is diplomatically weakened – even if still able to fight good fights, e.g. in U.N. Conferences in Beijing and Cairo. Benedict XVI took over this weakened Church. He wants – he has – to repair. He begins changing some piece of the machine. Giovanni Lajolo is appointed as Vatican foreign minister, and his growing agreement with the vision of Benedict XVI was made evident by the sequence of his actions and addresses as the Holy See’s foreign minister, which display a progressive distancing from the «realist» politics treasured by secretary of state Angelo Sodano. Benedict XVI wait the right time. In 2009, msgr. Gabriele Caccia and msgr. Pietro Parolin, number 3 and 4 of Vatican Secretary of State under Sodano’s administration and the under Bertone’s one, are promoted as Papal nuncios. For the first time, the “upper level” of the Secretariat of State has been appointed under Bertone’s administration. The Papal homily at the episcopal ordination of Parolin, Caccia and three other bishops is meaningful. The Pope said: «We do not bind people to us; we do not seek power, prestige or esteem for ourselves. We lead men and women toward Jesus Christ, hence toward the living God. In so doing, we introduce them into truth and into freedom, which derives from truth. Fidelity is altruism and, in this very way, liberating for the minister himself and for all who are entrusted to him. We know how in civil society and often also in the Church things suffer because many people on whom responsibility has been conferred work for themselves rather than for the community, for the common good».

These are the first signals of the fact that the Church changed its attitude, and gets back – modernly – to the origins. The world map goes on changing. States hand over sovereignty to markets, and there is an economic crisis in 2008. In 2009, European Union communicates that the Monetary Agreements with the Vatican is to be reviewed, if Vatican wants to remain hooked to the European Monetary. But Eu commissioners show their hostility, and the Convention will be signed by the European Commissioner Joaquin Almunia and by the Papal Nuncio to the European Union André Dupuy in separate rooms. To face the global crisis, Benedict XVI delivers a social encyclical, the Caritas in Veritate: handed by several people – many do not even agree with the Church -, the encyclical keeps its prophetical message. This prophecy is rooted in the request for more democracy and for an authority with universal competences, whose members are chosen democratically and whose goals is the common good, by regulating the market (thus facing the new Leviathan: international finance) and letting the State develop in a just way. The encyclical is destructured, not understood, un-focused. It is 2009.

The annus horribilis

In the mean time, international scenario changes again. A new global crisis is up to come, and men of Trilateral Commission works for having less democracy – as a paper by Zbigniew Brzezinsky, former U.S. National Security Advisor, states. Holy See has a different idea: at the international tables, Holy See asks more multilateralism, and – on economical scenario – it auspicates a new Bretton Woods, whose winner would be this time John Maynard Keynes ideas.

And here comes the 2010, the annus horribilis. Pedophilia scandals swept all the world, clergy abuse are brought into life, while they had always been hidden. Things are slightly different, and medias do not speak unambiguously, aiming to attack the Pope. It is the same strategy experimented by Adolf Hitler. Together with moral attacks, Hitler obliged the faithful of each religion to pay Kirchensteuer, a tax on religion. It is the reason why religions in German countries became rich and powerful, even if overlooking its focus, as Benedict XVI underlined during his last trip in Germany.

While the Year of Faith is being prepared, bankers took over in Europe. Italian Prime Minister is Mario Monti, Greek Prime Minister is Nicolas Papademos. They both come from Goldman Sachs and Trilateral commission; they both have been appointed, not elected. They must guide Europe to be always more market-oriented. Mario Monti – who claims himself Catholic – give a signal when he went to visit the Pope: one of the Italian Prime Minister’s presents was a book – Il governo dell’Economia e della Moneta – that he wrote in 1992, and this book was one of the pillars of the Maastricht treaty.

Jesus is the key

Attacks to the Church come from the outside, and they are favorite from the inside by incapable officials. Now, these attacks are going to strike the Pope. The tailor-made suite for the Pope is similar to the one tailored on John Paul I: a poor man alone, closed in an ivory tower, taking care of paintings in his apartments and of his clothes – both liturgical and non liturgical. He would make a revolution, but he cannot. Facts says that revolution has come. It was a revolution of faith and thought. A revolution whose symbol is Jesus of Nazaret, to whom Benedict XVI – not casually – already dedicated two books.

Just a few know the obscure work of Silvano Maria Tomasi, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva. Scalabrinian missionary, born in 1940, long-term diplomat, from his post of permanent observer he fights against the dictatorship of relativism, that is also maybe the favorite battlefield of Benedict XVI – the Pope dedicated to this topic one of his first papers, New Pagans and the Church. It is a fight for the truth. The same Pope, in his book Light of the World, observed that a large part of contemporary philosophies affirm that the man is not able of truth. «The consequence is – Tomasi comments – that man is not any more able of ethical values, cannot have objective standards and ends by accepting as the only standard the opinion of majority».

Not casually the first message of Benedict XVI for the World Day of Peace was titled: «In Truth, peace». And not casually the major part of battles on this topic had been brought on – during the last years – by msgr. Tomas from Geneva. His speeches, interventions, papers had been rarely highlighted by medias. Yet, they have a strong diplomatic impact.

In some ways, there will be a little of Silvano Maria Tomasi in the next Concistory. The red hat given to Antonio Maria Vegliò, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants, is the signal that the Pontifical Council gained a renewed importance, and this is also thanks to the entrance of the Holy See as a full member in the International Organization for Migration. This entrance, Tomasi proposed and strongly supported.

Holy See is accredited as a full member in several international organizations – e.g. IAEA, as a founding member – while it keeps the status of permanent observer to the United Nation. Holy See has no intention to get a “political” weight by becoming a full member of the United Nations – what if the Holy See would vote in a session to finance a military intervention? What would be the international and political backlashes? On the other hand, is very important that the Holy See have a “political” weight when political on migrations are on discussion. During the 100th session of the Council of the International Migration, Tomasi underlined that «the achievement of an adequate global management of migration flows, a positive understanding of them , and the approach to human development may seem long range goals. But the speed of the journey is less important than proceeding in the right direction».

What is the right direction? «Nowadays – Tomasi wrote – it is not easy to indicate a clear date when a way of thinking began. Therefore, the change of the dictionary and the prevalence of a new one began with the sexual revolution of 1968 and imposed with more coherence and insistence after the fall of the Wall of Berlin in 1989». It was then that the two blocks of the Cold War had been replaced by a plurality of actors in the international scenario. «In this new situation – Tomasi explained in a debate on February, 17 2011  – United Nations felt freer. More: they felt invested of the precise mission to promote practical priorities that – according to the advisors involved – would have led to a more rightful and free world».

From 1989 on, the new language to sustain this mission has been built up on a series of «key words»: human globalization, sustainable development, good governance, world ethic, cultural diversity, dialogue among civilization, quality of life, gender, equal opportunities, homophobia, sexual orientation, safe abortion, future generations rights, non-governmental organization, partnerships, civil society, participative democracy, transnational networks, consensus building, inclusive approach, agent-actor of social transformation, best practices, sexual and reproductive rights, right of choice, equal commerce, diverse forms of family.

On the other hand, the words that belong to the Christian-Judaic tradition are excluded, or even tend to disappear: truth, moral, conscience, reason, earth, will, parents, spouse, husband, mother, father, son, daughter, chastity, complementariness, service, authority, hierarchies, law, commandment, dogma, sin, nature, marriage.

This new dictionary is – Tomasi explained – «a mixture of words of authentic human aspirations and values and of words that represent an individualistic ideology brought to the limit. This latter inspires and guides the managers of the world governance. This is how we get to a systematic and lasting transition of words in the documents of United Nations: from government to governance, from authority to autonomy and rights of the individuals, from spouse to partner, from happiness to quality of life, from given to built, from family to family in all of his forms, from dignity sufferance to the right to die, from majority decision to consensus, from dogma to freedom of interpretation».

These changes of the dictionary are part of a long term battle, whose seeds can be seen back in international conference and interventions.  For example, in the 1995 Conference of Beijing. Mary Ann Glendon, who was part of the Vatican delegation at the time, was not lenient towards the UN’s intentions:  «Many who promote abortion as a woman’s right do not by any means have women’s real interests at heart. The movement for abortion rights conceals irresponsible men, trafficking in prostitution, industries that make their profits from women’s bodies».

And a book has been published in Italy that brings to light for the first time in a direct and detailed way this anti-Catholic aversion of the UN and the EU: «Contro il cristianesimo. L’ONU e l’Unione Europea come nuova ideologia [Against Christianity: The UN and the European Union as a New Ideology]», by Eugenia Roccella and Lucetta Scaraffia.  In the introduction to the volume, Roccella and Scaraffia identify the roots of the new ideology as the «separation between sexuality and procreation». «More – they write – than a different model of sexual behavior, but conceptually analogous to those that have preceded it in history, this is a question of a real and true utopia, because it is based upon the idea that human beings can find happiness in the realization of their sexual desires, without the moral, biological, social, and relational limitations linked to procreation. This utopia has its roots in the sexual revolution in the West during the 1960′s, and it has not yet been disputed, even though it seems not to have kept its promises. It is a utopia that echoes another, one that brings painful memories: that the selection of new human beings can create a better, more healthy, more beautiful humanity».

It is not just a matter of words. It is a matter of ideology. The conceptual scenario has its own dynamics, and this leads to concrete transformations in several branches of social and political life. Religious freedom and the way it has been handled down is an example. An approach to religious freedom linked to intolerance is first brought on in the Declaration on the principles of Tolerance of UNESCO in 1995 and is then promoted in the Resolution 2004/36 adopted from the 60th session of the Human Rights Commission in the United Nations in 2004. A new chapter of the quest is then open with the  resolution 61/164 (Combating the defamations of religions), adopted from the General Assembly of the United Nations December, 19th 2006. In that resolution, religion is used to limit other basic freedoms (the right to the freedom of expression) and to oppress religious minorities when some impose with force and terrorism their religious ideologies and others deny a place in the public sphere to faith and belief.

As always, one should look back in time. It was in 1981 – when the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief – that the concept of tolerance has been placed by side to religion or belief. «But tolerance – Tomasi explains – is a tool, not a right. In fact, while with religious freedom we mean the warranty of Government that individuals have freedom of belief and the warranty of freedom of cult for individuals and groups – including the freedom not to believe in any god, religious tolerance is the condition to accept or permit beliefs or religious practice that are different from his own one».

Holy See is one of the few sovereign entities that is aware of the risks of this change of dictionary, and that understood that this is a crucial battle. The efforts of the Holy See in this battle are probably on the basis of the initiatives to undermine the Holy See diplomacy, from the outside and from the inside.

In this crucial battle, archbishop Tomasi is one of the paladins of the Church.  He works behind the curtain, but he is one of the few intelligences able to understand what are the things on the play. United Nations have the ambition of a New World Order, and to follow this goal they create a new anthropology. «The implication – Tomasi explained – is that adaequatio rei et intellectus (the accordance of the intelligence with reality) – gained from the reason and theology – is to be replaced from a reality that is socially and subjectively built, so that truth and reality has not a stable and objective contents and every interpretation of this content is equal. This dictatorship of relativism does not use visible and brutal methods as political dictatorships. It works from inside the institution and – through consensus – promote a neutrality that let impose their own norms».

Despiting the various analysis (that always deal with numbers and “geography” of the next conclave), there is another way to understand what the next consistory will be meaning. And this way is particularly indicative of what is the approach that Benedict XVI aims the Church to take.

Rumors about a new consistory had been circulating for long time. The last 5th of December, during a confidential meeting with some journalists, msgr. Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, cracked a joke when he had to leave the meeting before of its conclusion. «I am awaited – he said – in the Apostolic Palace. It is not because of my next creation as a cardinal». The consistory question had already come into play, and lists of the possible new cardinals had already begum to circulate.  Some of the most accredited insiders reported that there was a sort of bailouts for a red hat: or Fisichella made the cut, or msgr. Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

It is during those days that someone secretly made pressures to move Coccopalmerio from the presidency of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts to the Apostolic Penitentiary. The head of Apostolic Penitentiary must be a cardinal, and so the promoted appointment could appear as a promotion. It was – on the contrary – a case of promoveatur ut amoveatur: Coccopalmerio’s move would have broken a post – the one as president of Pontifical Council for Legislative Text – that is considered a key-post for Curia’s balances.

At the beginning of December, there had been other important events to remark. It is the 60th anniversary of the International Organization of Migration, and Holy See marked the anniversary its way, becoming a a full member of the organization, and not just as a permanent observator (this status the Holy See keeps on at United Nations, Unesco, Fao, European Parliament). The I.O.M. was established in 1951, and bases its activities on the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits both migrants and society. It has 130 member States, and around 100 observers. In his address for the application by the Holy See for membership of the I.O.M.,  msgr. Silvano Tomasi – Holy See Permanent Observer at the U.N. office in Geneva – noticed that «the experience of Catholic agencies and association in Geneva and on the ground worldwide, for example the International Catholic Migration Commission and the many national Caritas organizations, is well established and extensive». And he concluded: «The participation of the Holy See as a Member of the I.O.M. is a commitment to collaboration and support in the common search of solutions and assistance to people caught up in this mayor phenomenon of our globalized world».

By becoming a full member of the I.O.M., Holy See increased its diplomatic impact. The decisions is a message sent to the ones who try to undermine Holy See diplomacy from the inside. Rumors from diplomatic environments said that there is the intention to let some lay take important charges in Vatican Diplomatic Corps. Pontifical Legates must be priests, because they represent the Pope. This rule is valid only for Papal nuncios. Papal nuncios are the Pope’s ambassador, but at the same time they work as bishops. They weigh up candidates for episcopate in the countries in which they are nuncios, they speak to Episcopal conferences, and  they also have relationships with governments. On the other hand, nuncios who are appointed as permanent observer  just have in charge to maintain relationships among Holy See and States. Appointing lay people as permanent observers would not be out of Canon Law.

It is a subtle attack, moved from the inside, and it is also made through the requests made by advisors of European Union to enroll the Holy See in the «White List», the list of states most active in preventing and fighting the financial crimes.

On December 16th, the message for the World Day of Peace is presented in the Holy See Press Office. An insider of the Vatican Secretary of State defined the text a «more or less a high school homework». It is certain that the message does not follow the sketch outlined from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and this is fairly understood during the press conference: card. Peter Turkson and mons. Mario Toso – number one and two of the Pontifical Council for Justice and peace – reveal the guidelines of international law and social doctrine of the Church that are just to be foreseen in the official text. It is the last part of a strain between the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the Vatican Secretary of State – the climax of this strain was when the Pontifical Council published the document titled «Towards reforming the international financial and monetary system in the context of global public authority».

During these days, the list of the to-be-created cardinals is definitely sketched out. The line is fair. Rino Fisichella will not be a cardinal, and the note of the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith on the year of faith – released on January, 7th, but announced on January, 5th – is interpreted as a sort of diminishment of Fisichella, even if he has the important charge to manage the Synod for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, that will open the Year of Faith. On the other hand, Francesco Coccopalmerio is created cardinal. But there is not promoveatur ut amoveatur for him: he keeps his post at the Pontifical Council for the Legislative Texts.

Why Coccopalmerio made the cut? The roots cause can be seen in a speech held by Benedict XVI  in 2008. The Pope spoke to participants in the Study Congress organized by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Code of Canon Law. He quoted Antonio Rosmini: «The human person is the essence of law». And he said: «The ius ecclesiae is not only a body of norms formulated by the Ecclesial Legislator for this special people who form the Church of Christ. It is, in the first place, the authoritative declaration on the part of the Ecclesial Legislator of the duties and rights that are based in the sacraments and are therefore born from the institution by Christ himself».

On one hand, Benedict XVI goes on with the «turning back to God» project, announced and proclaimed during the last trip in Germany, that is intended to be completed with the year of Faith. On the other hand, Benedict XVI feels the need to look back to the law, both canon and international law.

In fact, Benedict XVI – in the  letter to the Catholics of Ireland –  wrote that  «the program of renewal proposed by the Second Vatican Council was sometimes misinterpreted and indeed, in the light of the profound social changes that were taking place, it was far from easy to know how best to implement it. In particular, there was a well-intentioned but misguided tendency to avoid penal approaches to canonically irregular situations». It was 2010.

It is also in the direction of giving more importance to law that msgr. Antonio Maria Vegliò, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants, gained the berretta rossa. A highly experienced diplomat, Vegliò also got a doctorate in canon law. His appointment did not surprised as much, because it  fulfills Ratzinger’s requirements: since Holy See joined the International Organization of Migrants, a cardinal can increase the juridical impact of its diplomatic corp. The idea is to get back to the solidity of the international law, and at the same time to leave behind the fickleness of diplomacy.

And right before the announcement of the Consistory, during the Mass of the Epiphany, Benedict XVI made an important Episcopal ordination: the one of Charles J. Brown, a non-diplomat – he served until now in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – recently appointed as Papal nuncio to Ireland, to «fix» the difficult situation the Church of Ireland is living after the clergy abuse scandal. The appointment of Brown  is also a response to the choice of Irish government to close its embassy to the Holy See and to continue relations through an ambassador based in Dublin. Such a «calm and collected» response to Ireland – Thomas P. Melady, who served as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See during the administration of George H. W. Bush, said to Catholic News Service – thus reflects not only pastoral concern but also the «maturity of Vatican diplomacy».

This maturity, Benedict XVI aims to enforce. The list of the to-be-created cardinals increases the impact of Italian cardinals, and of Western Church in General, in the College of Cardinals. But, at the same time, the choices of Benedict XVI let understand what is his position: the Church needs to find its identity again, and its identity is also made of the ius ecclesiae. Turning back to law, to turn back to God: this is Benedict XVI project.