Vatican Diary / Francis Is Also in Charge at the Cei. Replacement in View

The Chiesa
September 23, 2013

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350607?eng=y


The secretary general of the Italian bishops is at the end of his mandate, and it will be the pope who decides whether to confirm him or not. On the calendar the first episcopal ordination done by the current pontiff. And also his is the strange about-face after the appointment of Camaldo as canon

VATICAN CITY, September 23, 2013 – After the appointments made in the curia two days ago, another substantial change is approaching at the summit of the Italian Church, and this time as well Pope Francis will have the last word.

Today the leadership of the Italian episcopal conference is meeting in Rome. And in two days, on September 25, comes the expiration of the five-year term of its secretary general, the Sicilian bishop Mariano Crociata (in the photo).

Crociata could be confirmed in the position, but it is also possible that he will be promoted to archbishop and made military ordinary for Italy. What is certain is that his name is on the short list of candidates for this position.

Italy is the only country in the world in which the secretary general of the episcopate is not elected, but appointed directly by the pope. According to the statutes of the CEI, the decision of the pontiff, who is primate of Italy, takes place “at the proposal of the presidency, after consulting the permanent episcopal council."

What happens in practice is that the presidency of the CEI prepares three names, which are then put to the vote of the thirty or so members of the permanent council. The result of this consultation, however, is kept secret from the voters themselves. It is the president of the CEI - currently Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco - who communicates the results confidentially to the pope, who then, also by virtue of the secrecy of the vote that in itself is not binding, is even more free in making the decision that he wants.

This time luck would have it that the permanent episcopal council is meeting precisely during the days in which the five-year mandate of the secretary is expiring. And it is therefore possible that a vote will be held immediately for the eventual confirmation of Crociata or for the appointment of his successor.

Crociata, who had been bishop of Noto since 2007, was appointed secretary of the CEI by Benedict XVI on September 25, 2008, when he was 55 years old, and the bulletin specified that he would take this position beginning the following October 20.

According to information leaked to “Il Foglio," his name was the first of three established by the presidency of the CEI that also included Pietro Farina, 66, at the time the bishop of Alife-Caiazzo, and   Oscar Cantoni, 58, at the time the bishop of Crema.

With Crociata, for the first time in its history the CEI has had a second-in-command from southern Italy. All of the previous secretaries, in fact, came from Lombardy-Venetia (Alberto Castelli, Andrea Pangrazio, Luigi Maverna, Egidio Caporello, Dionigi Tettmanzi), from Tuscany (Enrico Bartoletti), or from Umbria (Ennio Antonelli and Giuseppe Betori).

For the record, the three most recent predecessors of Crociata (Betori, Antonelli, and Tettamanzi) were subsequently promoted to a diocese of cardinalate tradition and afterward received the scarlet.

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One website that is usually well informed on this kind of news has anticipated that Pope Francis, next October 24, a Thursday, will preside over the first episcopal consecration of his pontificate:

> "Principal consecrator: Pope Francis…"

The new archbishop who is expected to receive sacred ordination from the pope on that day is the French Jean-Marie Speich, appointed last August as apostolic nuncio in Ghana. But he could be joined by the Italian Giampiero Gloder, head of the office that prepares the texts of the pope's discourses, promoted on September 21 as apostolic nuncio and president of the pontifical ecclesiastical academy.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, as a cardinal, meaning from 1999 until his ascent to the threshold of Peter, presided over 21 episcopal consecrations, all in Argentina.

Benedict XVI during his pontificate ordained 22 bishops, while he had consecrated another 4 as cardinal.

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It is said that Pope Francis, once he has made a decision, does not like to turn back.

Exemplary in this sense appear to be the cases of the controversial appointments of Battista Ricca at the IOR and of Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui on the commission reporting on Vatican finances. So much so that in the shadow of the Great Dome there are whispers, with a change of subject, of the famous Latin saying: "Senatus non errat et si errat non corrigit ne videatur errasse" (The senate does not err and if it errs it does not correct itself in order not to show that that it has erred).

But at least in one case Bergoglio has made an about-face, all to the advantage of the person in question.

After a three-decade career as pontifical master of ceremonies, Monsignor Francesco Camaldo had been appointed in recent months as canon of Saint John Lateran.

But when the designation was about to go into effect, the countermand came.

Monsignor Camaldo, in fact, has been assigned by Pope Francis to the more prestigious and remunerative title of canon of Saint Peter in the Vatican.

The reason for the rethinking seems to have been the juridical incompatibility between the Lateran canonicate and the position of chaplain of the Corsini Chapel at Saint John, with the connected benefits: a position that Monsignor Camaldo has occupied since 1988, when he was the personal secretary of the cardinal vicar of Rome at the time, Ugo Poletti.