March 5, 2012 ROBERT MICKENS
Leaks and recriminations at the Vatican - A Church in disarray
As preparations begin for the fiftieth-anniversary celebrations of the Second Vatican Council, leaked documents have revealed inside the Roman Curia a series of scandals. But the troubles of Catholicism go well beyond them.
St Peter’s Basilica echoes with the sound of horns and trumpets blasting from the upper balcony as the Sistine Chapel choir sings a muscular version of Palestrina’s Renaissance classic, Tu es Petrus. Applause erupts as Pope Benedict XVI suddenly appears at the approach of the church’s long central nave. He is a flash of gold – from the pastoral cross in his left hand and the large Fisherman’s Ring on his right, to the tall, heavily embroidered mitre on his head. The several thousand worshippers cheer him, straining their necks and cameras to capture an image of the Supreme Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on Earth. Papal footmen in white gloves and morning coats facilitate their efforts by slowly wheeling the Pope down the aisle on an elevated plat- form.
He is about to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving just a day after presiding over one of the most colourful and pageant-filled events in the Vatican’s ceremonial repertoire, a consistory to create new “Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church”. It is the fourth time in his nearly seven years in the Chair of Peter that Pope Benedict has held this millennium-old ceremony, this time creating 22 new cardinals. And despite the Second Vatican Council’s attempt nearly half a century ago to purify the Church of its worldly and court-like accretions, these men are still commonly known as “Princes of the Church”.
“After the council, the good news was that triumphalism in the Church was dead,” neo-Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York insisted in a closed-door meeting just a couple of days earlier with his new confrères. But the ceremonies this past weekend, which Pope Benedict has described as a “particularly festive moment” for the Vatican, suggested otherwise. The Pope and his cardinals – indeed everyone in St Peter’s Basilica – seemed impervious to this contradiction. And for a brief moment, caught up in the excitement of the liturgies and receptions, they also appeared not to notice that the Catholic Church in almost all parts of the world is in crisis.
The problems are no more evident than at the heart of the Vatican itself. In the weeks preceding the consistory, some of its more acute troubles were made public through a series of embarrassing secret documents from within the Roman Curia that were leaked to the Italian media. These letters and notes – all of which have proved to be authentic – portray the Church’s central offices as being run by ambitious men jockeying for power in a sealed-off world shrouded by secrecy, political intrigue, financial corruption and gross mismanagement.
First, there was the case of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a lifelong papal diplomat, who was transferred last autumn from his job as “deputy governor” of Vatican City to nuncio to the United States. For months he had protested vehemently against this change of post, saying it would be seen as a punishment for trying to clean up “corruption” and cronyism inside the Vatican. His letters to the Pope and the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone SDB, highlighted a squalid side of the Roman Curia. The Governorate responded swiftly and in detail, describing the archbishop’s charges as either misjudgement or paranoia.
Next came a series of memos revealing that the so-called Vatican Bank (officially the Institute for the Works of Religion, or IOR) had found loopholes to exonerate it from full compliance with the newly adopted international money-laundering regulations. One document reported that the IOR had recently transferred millions of euros into Italian bank accounts without notifying the proper authorities. Another, signed by the cardinal in charge of the Vatican’s newly formed agency to monitor all such cash flow, complained that such reneging on financial regulations would be disastrous. Again, the Secretariat of State denied the charges, but did not contest the authenticity of the material.
Finally, there was a strange letter warning that Pope Benedict would die before next autumn (some interpreted this as an assassination plot). The text also claimed that the Pope was “on the outs” with Cardinal Bertone and was working to ensure that Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan succeeded him as Bishop of Rome. The anonymous letter, written in German, blamed Cardinal Paolo Romeo of Palermo for revealing this information in conversations last autumn while visiting China. The letter was sent to retired Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, who gave it to the Pope. Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi SJ, called its contents “nonsense”, but no one contested its authenticity. Vatican officials say the most serious aspect to this latest mess is the fact that secrecy, long coveted as a virtue in the Roman Curia, has given way to indiscretion and public disclosure. They believe these incidents are part of an inside campaign by forces (likely to be loyal to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the former Secretary of State) to embarrass and discredit the leadership of Cardinal Bertone so as to leave the Pope with no choice but to replace him.
What no senior Vatican official seems willing to admit or able to grasp is that there may be something more serious going on. Certainly, there have been other moments of governing crises and lapses in the last few decades – and each time they were overcome. Each time also, as calls arose for change, the Pope would state that true church reform could only come about by “spiritual renewal” and “internal conversion”. It is a conviction that Pope Benedict has repeated many times, including this past weekend to the College of Cardinals. While Popes Paul VI and John Paul II made modest “reforms” to the Roman Curia, they failed to address the lingering and deeper crisis.
Quite simply, the crisis is this: the structures of the Catholic Church are no longer adequate for life in the modern world or responsive to the developments of the Church’s own ecclesiology and self-understanding. “No one puts new wine into old wineskins,” warns the gospel. “Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins.” The “new wine” that came forth from the Second Vatican Council – the rediscovery of episcopal collegiality and shared governance between the Pope and the bishops, the awareness of the Church being a communio of all the baptised, the full participation of the laity in the liturgy and the mission of the Church – risks being lost because the post-conciliar Church has not been able to provide “new wineskins” or new structures to sustain such a kind of Church.
The skins have not yet burst, but there are signs of them springing leaks, which the men in Rome are struggling to plug. One glaring example makes the point. Despite the council’s teaching on shared episcopal responsibility, the lack of structural changes means that the Bishop of Rome continues to hold absolute power in a governing system akin to a male-only monarchy. This model is foreign to the living experience of the vast majority of Catholics, even the clerics who come to work in the Roman Curia from across the globe or hold positions of authority in the Church around the world.
The case of Australia’s deposed Bishop William Morris was a reminder that supreme authority rests with the Pope and that he can take away a bishop’s authority at any moment and for any reason. As supreme lawgiver, he can deny justice or treat another bishop as a subject rather than a confrère, because – as canon 1404 states – “the First See is judged by no one”.
In about eight months’ time, the Church will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the moment in the Church’s history when the institution embraced the belief in itself as a communio, in which the members shared an equal dignity as “priest, prophet and king” through the conferral of baptism. That some should be ordained to further service and responsibility in the community is essential, but that the rest (especially the female half of its members) should be completely denied a voice in how that community is organised is contrary to Scripture and common sense.
Vatican II placed new emphasis on ancient principles, but there is grave concern now that the unwillingness to modify church structures dating from the Tridentine era, or to create new ones, will make it difficult for the Church today to fulfil the wishes and prayers of the council fathers. Could the fiftieth anniversary be, rather than a celebration of aggiornamento, or updating,
a time of mourning lost opportunity?
Published in THE TABLET, 25 February 2012, www.thetablet.co.uk