The appointment of the Secretariat of State is just one piece of the Curia puzzle. On Aug. 30, Pope Francis fitted another piece, appointing the number two position for the Vatican City State government. Fernando Vergez, who until now headed the Telecommunications Department of the Vatican, held the right qualifications and was appointed.

Parolin will start on his new job on Oct. 15, when Pope Francis will «receive for an audience high- ranking members and officials of the Secretariat of State, »  in order to publicly thank Bertone for his faithful and generous service to the Holy See and to introduce Bertone’s successor to Secretariat of State officials.

Actually, it is a homecoming for Msgr. Parolin: He served in the Secretariat of State from 1992 to 2009, at different posts, most recently and importantly as the Vatican’s equivalent to a vice minister for foreign affairs, overseeing sensitive portfolios and closely following the outcomes of the Second Gulf War. Later, As papal nuncio in Venezuela, Parolin did a great job reconciling the Venezuelan government and the Church.

The new Pro-Secretary of State (Parolin will become Secretary of State only after Pope Francis creates him cardinal) is happy. He issued a press release thanking everyone, from his family to Pope Benedict who «ordained me bishop,»  and affirming that he «stands before this new service to the Gospel, the Church and Pope Francis with trepidation, but also with confidence and serenity, ready – as the Pope always calls for – to walk, build and confess.»

Parolin will work with Bertone’s team, since Pope Francis confirmed all the top Secretariat of State officials.  These include Parolin’s deputy, Msgr. Angelo Becciu; Secretary for Relations with States, Msgr. Dominique Mamberti; Undersecretary for Relations with States, Msgr. Antoine Camilleri; Assessor, Peter Bryan Wells. The Pope also confirmed in his charge the Prefect of the Pontifical Household, Msgr. Georg Gaenswein.

Parolin’s appointment means that a diplomat will once again be heading the Secretariat of State. Card. Bertone, who served as Secretary of State under Pope Benedict XVI, was not a diplomat and he often claimed that he was mostly «a Church secretary.»  Bertone’s critics often lamented and called attention to the fact that he was not a diplomat.

In fact, any pretext was good to attack Bertone. Even Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, a member of the commission appointed by Pope Francis to rationalize Vatican expenses and management, described Bertone as a «corrupt man»  in a tweet. This became public knowledge, but carried no consequences. Nobody, from inside the Vatican, said a word to defend Bertone.  During a lunch he had with the Pope on August 15,  Bertone let it be known that he had taken note of this silence, and told him that he wanted to leave as soon as possible. The Vatican press release specifically and intentionally notes that Pope Francis «will publicly thank»  Bertone in the upcoming meeting.

Angelo Sodano was also present at the lunch with the Pope on Aug. 15. The Secretary of State Emeritus is again a king maker, it seems. In fact, Parolin is widely appreciated, but he is also considered by many observers a Sodano’s man. The same observers note that Fernando Vergez, the new number two of the Vatican City State government, comes from the ranks of the Legionaries of Christ, traditionally a Sodano’s feud. Pope Francis, in the press conference he held coming back from the Rio World Youth Day, underlined that he felt nostalgia for the «old curiale,»  and Sodano is ultimately one of the oldest representatives of a certain idea of the old curia.

Vergez, a Spanish priest hailing from Salamanca, is not only a gentle and competent monsignor who improved the Vatican’s website, which under his direction has expanded to cover seven languages. He is also a Legionary of Christ, and it is rumored that he was one of those who testified that the Legion’s constitution presented to the Pope (and then approved by the Vatican) by the Legion’s founder Marcial Maciel was different from the one used within the religious congregation.

Vergez also stands out because he has been for years the personal secretary of Card. Eduardo Pironio, from Argentina, the unforgotten organizer of World Youth Days.

Vergez will replace the archbishop Giuseppe Sciacca as the second highest-ranking official in the government of Vatican City State. Last Saturday, Sciacca was appointed adjunct secretary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature, a sort of court of last appeal for canon law. When friends of Pope Francis are asked about the reasons for giving Msgr Sciacca a new assignment, they explain that the Pope thought about strengthening the Signature, following a typical Vatican practice to justify with subtle arguments each promoveatur ut amoveatur (promote to remove). In fact, Sciacca is paying for a certain level of activism during the final period of Benedict XVI’ pontificate. His proclivity to call attention to himself and his networking had been considered expressions of careerism that needed to be downplayed.

If Benedict XVI’s team was recruited from the ranks of what used to be the  Sant’Uffizio, Pope Francis’ team will probably be comprised of Argentinians or other Spanish-speaking Church officials who know Latin America’s problems well.  These officials gained the trust of the then- Card. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, when he had to endure a difficult relation with the Vatican Secretariat of State and the Papal nuncios in Argentina over the selection of bishops in that country.

It is thus not surprising that another Argentine priest is hailed as a rising star in the Vatican. He is Msgr. Daniel Alejandro Giorgi, rector of the major seminary in Buenos Aires. Pope Francis has tracked his career from its beginning. Giorgi was also present at the August 15 lunch (which followed the Mass and the Angelus of Ferragosto celebrated by the Pope in Castel Gandolfo).

Pope Francis will probably proceed one step at a time, with no revolutionary, sudden changes. For example, the pressure to dismiss Bertone have been very strong. However, Pope Francis – who often speaks with Benedict XVI and asks for his advice–  resisted the push to oust Bertone, and got Sodano to advocate for Parolin. In fact, pressure may be counterproductive because it raises suspicions. Since Pope Francis likes to work by himself and does not involve the Secretariat of State much, he had no problem with leaving Bertone at his post until now.

According to Vatican sources, Bertone would have kept his post at least until the meeting of the group of cardinals the Pope chose to counsel him on a Curia reform, but it was Bertone himself who insisted on  retiring. The meeting will take place in the Vatican Oct. 1-3.

Pope Francis’ working methods are become ever more clear. Some insiders maintain that, beyond his lack of interest over institutionalization, Pope Francis knows very well what he is doing. He wants to see others backing his views. According to an American monsignor, Pope Francis is acting as one who  «would create a commission to decide how to get from Washington to New York. Everybody knows that the best thing is to take a high-speed train heading north, and everybody knows that a commission would reach this conclusion. The Pope, however, wants to count with a strong backing for his views.»

In fact, the «gang of cardinals» (whose appointments follow a regional diversity model, similar to that of Jesuit commissions) follow this criteria. Pope Francis agrees with the views of each of the cardinals he chose. Particularly – it is rumored – Pope Francis thought is in perfect tune with that of Card. Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston.

The same criteria informed the selection of the members of the commission on the IOR (the so-called Vatican bank) and of the commission to oversee the Vatican government. The commissions will make their proposals, but it remains to be seen what weight Pope Francis will give to these recommendations.

In the meantime, lobbies have flourished and are applying some pressures. This is why Pope Francis would have thought about– encouraged by the work developed under Benedict XVI – to institutionalize his path to renewal. It should not lead, however, to an excessive institutionalization, which Pope Francis would not approve or allow. It would be a way to protect the outcomes of his decisions and to give the Church a solid framework beyond its image, which is for many a renewed image.

The Pope’s meeting with his nuncios had been scheduled as part of the Year of the Faith.  It was to be a sort of spiritual-retreat journey, enriched by a meeting with the pope. Benedict XVI’s renunciation somewhat changed the scope of the event, since it offered the newly elected Pope Francis the first opportunityto meet with his «ambassadors».

Two passages in his remarks in particular alluded to Bergolio’s hardships in Argentina.

The first passage corresponds to Pope Francis’ off-the-cuff remarks (thus not included in the transcript of the speech that was made available as is customary rightbefore he delivered it) regarding the importance of the work of a nuncio. Stating that nuncios are called to «build the Church,» Pope Francis urged them: «Don’t be intermediaries, bemediators instead, and use mediation to bring about communion. Theologians speak about a local Church. I am not a theologian, but theologians say that pontifical representatives and presidents of bishops’ conferences are part of the local Church. The most important work is the mediation, and in order to mediate it is necessary to be informed. It is important to know the people personally, not just what documents –as many and as important as these documents are– may say about them. The personal relationship between the bishop of Rome and you is essential. There is the Secretariat of State that help us to link. Yet, a personal relationship is important, and it must be carried forward on both sides.»

Many might see in this language a public denunciation of the administration of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who still remains as Secretary of State. Bertone was criticized for filtering access to Benedict XVI excessively.  The same kind of criticism was levied against Benedict XVI’s private secretary Georg Gaenswein.

Nevertheless, Vatican sources insist that Bertone – now very close to retirement, to take effect  probably in October – enjoys Pope Francis’ trust, and that the latter even asked him for recommendations regarding eventual promotions. Yes, Bertone might be considered a muddler, but he is certainly loyal.

More likely, Pope Francis’ words referred to his prior experiences with Cardinal Sodano. A papal nuncio to Chile for many years, Sodano acquired an incomparable influence in all of South America. Sodano’s men have been appointed to the ranks of many nunciatures and of the CELAM (the Latin American Bishops’ Conference). Sodano also gained influence thanks to the Legionaries of Christ.  Under Sodano’s tenure as Secretary of State, the wrongdoings of the Legionaries’ founder,Marcial Maciel, were never brought to light.

For years, Sodano was such an active filter for the papal apartment that many news did even reach the first of the four loggias of the Apostolic Palace. It was the then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger, who fought for transparency. Ratzinger carried this commitment with him when he was elected Pope. Not by coincidence, his pontificate has been one of the most difficult and attacked of the last 70 years.

The other part of the Pope’s speech to the nuncios that should be circled in red was Pope Francis’ outline of the identikit of the candidates for bishop that the nuncios are called to propose. «Be mindful – Pope Francis says – that the candidates are shepherds close to the people, at their same level and like brothers to the people. May candidates be gentle, patient and merciful; may they love poverty: the interior poverty, as freedom for the Lord, and the exterior poverty, to live a simple and austere life; may they not feel like “princes”». And furthermore: «Be mindful that the candidates to become bishops are not ambitious, that they are not running after the promotion to the episcopate, and that they are spouses of one Church without constantly looking for another one.» Moreover, «may the new bishops be able to oversee the flock that they will be entrusted with, to look after everything that makes the flock stay united; may they be able to watch out for their flocks, particularly to stand vigil with them, to complete the vigil with them, to cherish hope, to illuminate people’s hearts,  to support with love and patience God’s designs for his people.»

A special call, in a speech in which Pope Francis did not offer guidelines for diplomatic action. This is the third aspectof the speech that stands out. For the time being, Pope Francis has left the Holy See diplomatic machine in motion, with the same guidelines introduced under Benedict XVI. The latter changed its diplomatic perspective, and anchored all Holy See diplomatic activity on truth (a theme ever more present in the Holy See’s international relations documents) as it emanates from the Gospel and natural law. Pope Francis seems to share this perspective, so much so that he did not even presented his own guidelines for diplomacy in his first speech to the Corps of Ambassadors accredited to the Holy See.

Pope Francis prefers instead to focus on the spiritual aspect of being a nuncio. This is why he delivered tothe nuncios a speech «written by myself» in which he focused on their responsibility to be shepherds, nomad priests, rather than on theirduties as diplomats.

These guidelines seem to fulfill what he stated on March 14, during the homily at his first mass as pope in the Sistine Chapel, with the cardinals. Our duty – he said – is «to keep walking, to confess and to build.»

For now, Pope Francis is still in the walking mode. He wants to bring the Church to the world, and he wants every believer to come out and reach «existential peripheries». History will tell if he will be the one who will carry forward confessing, which is the purification required before building. How much more sowing will still be needed to have once again a Church that is alive?

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.

Even Scola wants to be archbishop of Milan. It is not just a sort of vindication for the Patriarch of Venice, since he comes from Milan but he was not ordained priest in his home-diocese. Cardinal Giovanni Colombo, archbishop of Milan at the time, had strong reservations about Communion and Liberation, the ecclesial movement whose Scola was a strong activist, and so Scola was ordained priest in the diocese of Termoli. From there, he had begun an ascent who brought him, from being number 2 of  Fr. Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation, to a free-thinker activist within Communion and Liberation itself, until his appointment as Patriarch of Venice. In Venice, Scola did not typify himself as a man of Communion and Liberation. He founded a «Studium generale» there named after Saint Mark, the patron of the city, which covers all of the stages of learning, from childhood to university, with students from many countries, with courses in various disciplines and theology embracing them all, and with its own publishing house. He then created a magazine and an international cultural center named «Oasis», as a bridge to the East, from Eastern Europe and Northern Africa all the way to Pakistan, in multiple languages including Arabic and Urdu, with marked attention to Islam and Christianity in those countries, with periodic conferences between bishops and Christian and Muslim experts.

In Milan, Scola will have two tasks: the first one is to keep culturally active and at the same time anchored to orthodoxy the diocese of Milan; the second one will be to chair the board of administration of Istituto Toniolo, the “strongbox” of Catholic University and of other 13 universities inspired to Catholicism, schools and hospitals. But his main task will probably be another one: to open – and hopefully to close – the beatification process of Fr. Luigi Giusanni. It is very important for Benedict XVI – who celebrated Fr. Giussani funeral as pontifical delegate – that the beatification process would be brought on in the best way possible. Scola is the right man to do it.

Behind the shadows of the dome of Milan, a larger game has been played. It was a sort of «chess» played by large sectors of the Curia, with the goal to occupy every single space of power. There is the strong impression that it is now the time of a crucial transition for Vatican balances. After this transition, nothing will be the same.

Two of the main characters of the last part of John Paul II pontificate, cardinals Angelo Sodano and Camillo Ruini, retired some time ago and will not be able to take part to the next conclave since they are older than 80. Yet, both of them have still their importance and influence in the Sacred Palaces. Sodano, former secretary of State, had a brief interregnum before he had to give up his charge – Bertone was nominated in June 2006, but he took possession of his new charge in September. Then, Sodano extended the interregnum by not leaving his office until his new office of Dean of the College of Cardinals had not been completed. In his new office, he still meets his faithful friends, prelates that together with him and thanks to him made career in the Vatican diplomacy. Mons. Gabriele Caccia and Mons. Pietro Parolin often go and visit him when they are in Rome – they are now appointed as nuntii in Lebanon and Venezuela. Mons. Parolin suddenly jumped forward in the rose of candidates to be archbishop of Milan, and there is now the possibility that he will then appointed as successor of card. Scola as Patriarch in Venice.

Even card. Leonardo Sandri often meets card. Sodano. Sandri is the prefect of the Congretation for the Oriental Churches, and owes his career to Sodano. This latter appointed him as Apostolic Nuntio in Mexico, in order to face the mounting denounces to Legionaries of Christ – Sodano was very linked to the Congregation founded by Marcial Maciel. Then, Sandri became Substitute in the Secretary of State, and then he had the charge of Prefect of the Oriental Churches, a very important one.

Card. Ruini is now president of the scientific committee of Ratzinger Foundation, but he is also president of Progetto Culturale, the organization that manages the money for the Culture of the Italian Episcopal Conference. Even the founding for Istituto Toniolo pass through the Progetto Culturale.

And the Istituto Toniolo has been – and is – the key issue. The Istituto is controlled by Ruini fellowships after a cocaine scandal that brought the previous board to resign, and has constantly been under attack during the last year. Dino Boffo, former director of Avvenire (the news daily owned from the Italian Episcopal Conference) was obliged to resign after being put under attack from Il Giornale (the news daily owned by Berlusconi’s brother).   This was the full-page headline in the August 28, 2009  issue of Il Giornale: “Sexual incident of ‘Avvenire’ director. The supermoralist charged with harassment. Dino Boffo, at the helm of the newspaper of the Italian bishops and involved in the fiery press campaign against the transgressions of the prime minister, intimidated the wife of the man with whom he had a relationship”. The article based on an anonymous flier. The same flier that had been passed from hand to hand in the rooms of the Toniolo since 2005. The flier had the same peculiarities of the informative footnotes written by Carabinieris of the Borgo quarter in Rome (where the Vatican is sited) and usually passed to Secretariat of State for «good neighborhood relationships»

Nowadays, it’s Bertone that is running for the Istituto Toniolo, anxious to have fellowships within the strongbox of Catholic culture. Bertone is backing as new president of the Board of the Administration Gian Maria Flick, former Italian minister for the Justice.

The name of Flick resounds of the third empire that is now firing for the last times. Card. Achille Silvestrini had been a powerful and admired member of the Roman Curia. His career has nevertheless drowned, even after the publication of Via col Vento in Vaticano, a poisoned-pamphlet written with the task to attack the Silvestrini-Casaroli cartel in the State Secretariat. Yet his opinion seems to be important again. Gian Maria Flick would be – according to rumors – part of the Silvestrini-cartel. He was one of the lawyer of the trial that abolished the crime of slavery, and consequently the crime of plague. There were several law proposal in Italy to reintroduce at least the crime of psychological plague, but none of that succeeded.

The appointment for the new archbishop of Milan and the struggle for the new board of Istituto Toniolo were just the pretext for a sort of  game for the power that seems to be a struggle to survive, since the cartels are going to fall. Even the links with the external world of the Vatican are at risk. Gianni Letta, the shadow of Silvio Berlusconi, Gentleman of His Holiness, the man who links Italian State and Church, is now under attack. There were at least three judicial inquiries that stroke him and his men: one against him, the other one against Guido Bertolaso that brought to Propaganda Fide scandal, the last one against Luigi Bisignani, exponent of the masonry well known in the «good society». Cesare Geronzi, the banker that sponsored the 2005 World Youth Day, is now out of scene. Giulio Tremonti – Italian Minister for the Economy, appreciated by Benedict XVI and close to the ecclesiastical environments, that his aiming to be Prime Minister – risks to be marginalized. In the mean time, the last true exponent of the finance inspired on Catholic values, Antonio Fazio, has been subjected to a controversial first appearance sentence.

This is the temperature of the Roman Curia. A Curia too appeased on Italian issues, sometimes – but there is a Vatican diplomacy who is alive and not taken in account by medias – with no awareness of the universal mission of the Church. After these last fires, everything will change. Now Marc Ouellet – a Canadian – is the Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, and this fact is emblematic: the new Episcopal appointments will be done with a different point of view from the Italian one, even if they concern Italy. The Joseph Ratzinger’s Papacy was not a transition papacy. It is the quiet transition to a revolution.

John Paul II is now blessed, despite many books that – even recently, capitalize on the imminent beatification – contested his saintliness. Everybody raked up the shadows and the contradiction of a 27 years long Pontificate: I.O.R. scandal, the bishop covers to clerical sex abuses, the double life of Marcial Maciel, founder of Legionaries of Christ. The pontificate had many shadows thickening  to  the loud popular shouting of the people in Saint Peter’s square during John Paul II’s  funeral that he should be made a saint..

«Yes, I can personally testify the saintliness of this Pope. Often, after an audience with John Paul II, I had  the impression inside me that Heaven opened up. I found myself as directly linked to God, in a very dense union with Him, with no intermediaries. It was as though I were directly linked to God, in a very deep union with Him, with no intermediaries. The Pope is a mediator, but as soon as he links you with God, he disappears. It seemed to me that I could understand in a deeper way what the charism of the Pope is. The keys that Jesus gave to Saint Peter are not only useful to wash our sins away: they can also open Heaven to us, opening ourselves in turn to union with God». This how Chiara Lubich, founder of Focolari movement, spoke about John Paul II. She often did so. It was so natural  for the adherentsto Focolare Movement who were preparing to attend John Paul I’s funeral to make the posters they showed in Saint Peter’s square proclaiming : «Santo subito», «Saint now!».

The John Paul II saintly reputation was promoted from Roman Curia a little after John Paul II’s death. Angelo Sodano, at the time cardinal Secretary of State, called him «John Paul II the Great» in the homily pronounced during the first mass after his death. Suddenly,everyone adhered to the huge popular emotion. More than one hundred head of State had to assist the funerals, and cardinals and cardinals who originally had not been  so sympathetic towards the «Polish» Wojtyla spoke about him only in a positive way.

It was long time before that someone decided that everyone should speak about John Paul II in positive way. Just by taking a look to media reports, one can divide Wojtyla’s pontificate in two key moments: until 1989, every single media (with some obvious exception) criticized a pontificate that – they reported – was a step back to the Council, attacked the waste of the continuing international trips, did not lose any useful occasion to complain about the Church. Then, the Wall of Berlin fell down. And John Paul II was erected as an Anti-communist bastion, as a new icon of a world that lacked a consuming ideological war, and that needed a new one. From then after, all of the medias hailed John Paul II. In 2000, the Pope asked for forgiveness for the faults of the Church. He did not ask forgiveness for clerical sex abuses, but no one noticed it. When the paedophilia scandal broke out and the Pope wrote the letter De delictis Gravioribus, even he who now attack that document at that time wrote that it was the beginning of a new transparency era.

After Wojtyla trasparency, many hid the fact that they were not so transparent. After the people of God claim for an immediate canonization, cardinals assessed what to do. Jozef Tomko, one of them, a very good friend of Wojtyla who had  made Tomko  a cardinal thanks to this friendship, put on the table a request for the to-be-elected-Pope to proclaim saint for acclamation the late pontiff. The cardinals who went in procession to sign that document were a great majority of the Sacred College, according to what media reported. In that document, many saw their own warranty to remain unpunished. A fast canonization could also move the historical judgment on the Papacy 50 years forward. Many things could had been covered, many fixed. That was the reason why it was important to follow the popular will.

Focolarinis, all the ecclesiastic movements, common people were betrayed, because their claim of love for John Paul II was toward a man, not a Pope. Journalists – accused in the past to have been directly inspired from Stanislaw Dziwisz, the powerful secretary of John Paul II – brought to light the first miracle obtained thanks the presumed intercession of the Pope. At the same time, other newspapers  preached to be prudent.

Benedict XVI had been for more than 20 years prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. He knew what of rotten was inside the church. He fought against the rotten on Wojtyla’s side. He knew that – sometimes – some choices are decided by circumstances more than by conscience. He knew that people was talking about a man who was a saint, and not about the saintliness of a pontificate. He decided to follow the rules, and it was the most logic thing to do: he did not canonize Wojtyla coram populi, but just dispensed from the need of waiting five years after the death of the candidate to start beatification procedure. No breakdown to the pressure for a quick canonization, but a regular procedure, as the Pope himself underlined in the homily he held during the beatification mass.

That’s the moment when the ones that praised Wojtyla’s saintliness become the ones that let understand not to have testified in favor of the beatification. Cardinal Angelo Sodano – who was accused in the last year for covering up the founder of Legionaries of Christ Marcial Maciel’s double life – and cardinal Leonardo Sandri – the one who announced to the people in Saint Peter Square John Paul II’s death – let understand to some Vatican reporter that they wrote a letter in the one they underline that John Paul II’s beatification process is going on too quickly. No word on Wojtyla saintliness, just a matter of opportunity, since other Popes – as for example Pius XII – are still waiting to be beatified. Two Italian newspapers publish this pieace of news. But they have to square thing up with an obstinate reporter. In a public meeting, this latter asks cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect for the Congregation of the Cause of the Saints, how can be interpreted the absence of Sodano’s and Sandri’s testimonies. Card. Amato answers twice that both the testimonies are included in the Positio for the beatification process. Who gave the news grasp at straws.  It all seems a subtle game to ease someone’s conscience.

John Paul II is finally blessed. In the mean time, many make the late pontiff an instrument of a strange debate, opposing him to Benedict XVI, not remembering that they are accusing Benedict XVI of the same things they accused John Paul II during the first years of his pontificate.