Curia Is in the Firing Line. Bertone Stresses Importance of Cardinal Secrecy during Pre-conclave Meetings

By Andrea Tornielli
Vatican Insider
March 7, 2013

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/conclave-22918/

Cardinals in the lead-up to the Conclave

After asking for more information on the Vatileaks affair, cardinals are calling for reforms in the Curia. There needs to be better communication between the Pope and his “ministers”, improved coordination between dicasteries and stronger links between the central Church in Rome and the local Churches. These were some of the issues discussed during the third General Congregation session yesterday morning. The Conclave start date is still to be decided and a number of cardinals have asked for the discussion phase to be extended to the beginning of next week. They are eager to get to know each other, to examine the state of the Church across the world and to find out what the state of affairs within the Roman Curia is, given the various scandals it has recently been at the centre of.

Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts gave a speech on the last of these issues. The Milanese cardinal spoke of the need for better communication between the Pope and dicastery leaders: there needs to be constant contact and exchanges with the Pope. Once upon a time, the Pope used to hold pre-scheduled audiences throughout the year, not just with prefects of Congregations, but also with secretaries; so even deputies had contact with the Pope and could get a first hand idea of the problems the Church was facing, helping them in their decision-making.

In recent decades, the number of pre-scheduled audiences has been reduced and were only attended by some heads of dicasteries such as prefects of bishops and of the former Holy Office. The Secretariat of State has increasingly acted as a buffer: recently one dicastery leader/cardinal had to wait several months before he was able to meet with the Pope.

Cardinal Cocopalmerio therefore spoke of the need for an improved coordination and exchange of information within the Curia itself, between the various “ministries”. The cardinal also touched on the subject of relations between the Holy See in Rome and the Episcopal Conferences across the world: he emphasised that it is important for more consideration to be given to the needs of local Churches. Finally, Coccopalmerio said it was high time the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus was updated. This was the document with which John Paul II reformed the Curia in 1988.The cardinal did not go into the details but many now agree that streamlining and rationalisation are crucial.

Krakow's Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwizs who was personal secretary to John Paul II also called for greater coordination and collegiality in the Church. Tarcisio Bertone also gave a detailed speech on the management of the Secretariat of State over the past few years. This has been and still is the focal point of criticism. As Camerlengo, Bertone has asked cardinals a number of times to respect their oath of secrecy during the discussions.

Another cardinal who gave a speech during yesterday's General Congregation was the Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, Roger Mahony, who is in the cross-hairs for his handling of the sex abuse scandal in his diocese. Of the cardinals considered potential candidates for the papacy, Angelo Scola and Odilo Pedro Scherer – both of whom have made speeches during the congregations – are worth pointing out. Scherer adds himself to the list of cardinals who would like more information on the Vatileaks scandal. But the issue was given no further focus in yesterday's discussions. All cardinals wishing to receive more detailed information about the Vatileaks scandal have been asked to put their questions to the three cardinals who were in charge of investigating the case.

One of the recurring themes of the discussions has been the subject of Evangelisation: cardinals have been exchanging ideas on hos to go about announcing the Gospel in a positive and propositional way. “The discussions have been interesting, with no major surprises – one cardinal said towards late morning – so far tehre are no figures in particular that has attracted our attention.” The list of papabili gets longer by the day, there are many issues to be discussed and there is still a great deal of uncertainty.