Wailing and Lamentation From the Vatican

The Vatican in View

Guest Post by Manfred Ferrari *

In these days a time bomb has exploded in the Vatican, whose existence was long known to insiders. The Pope from Argentina had tried to transform the existing framework into a "church of the poor". He did so with good intentions.  He ignores the fact that the Vatican is a construct that has been shaped over the centuries. Francis could not or would not see that the Curia is a powerful apparatus whose middle management is more important than the honorable leadership of cardinals and bishops. The Pope from distant Argentina, whose authoritarian management style is well attested, veiled by a populist posturing, is  able to enforce his new thinking against the wishes of the powers of the Vatican.

Now a "palace revolution" has been inflamed. The anonymous prelates of the second rank have made themselves known to journalists. For many connoisseurs, the outbreak of this situation had  long expected. The more his acceptance by the Catholic foot soldiers increased, the more the internal anger at the unconventional style of leadership became known. Dozens of wrong decisions were never made public because they were hardly interesting for the media. They concerned marginal theological questions but   fell well within the competence of middle management.  Curial archbishops and Cardinals are easily interchangeable. The "Middle Management" of the Vatican rarely changes rapidly. Yet many of the papal decisions were and are marked by a shocking naivety. It was quickly  becoming known that Francis was planning changes that would change the very structure of the Church to its foundations.

A small example. For decades it was customary that the diocese of large dioceses were occupied by bishops from smaller diocesan sees. So the experience of aspirants could be tested and a pool career could be created. Francis  took over it filled the major archdioceses of Bologna and Palermo with simple priests. Imagine how dismayed the passed over episcopal candidates were, and the pontiff grumbled.

At the beginning of his pontificate, the Pope spontaneously made the managing director of his priests  retirement fund,  chief director of the IOR, an important post in the Vatican.  It soon became apparent that Mons. Ricci was dismissed from the diplomatic service years ago, because of his aberrosexual affairs.  Ricci's personnel dossier simply  lacked these distressing pages.  Francis refused to reverse the decision. How should the Curia take such Pontifex seriously? Almost everyone at the Vatican knew of the misconduct of the priest.

And the waste in the Vatican under Pope Francis has increased rather than decreased. While the Pontiff symbolically pulls up in the small car in front of the White House, he flies his Cardinals in private Swiss MAX AIR to Astana in Kazakhstan to attend the inauguration of the new Greek Catholic Church, a convenience that should have cost around 20,000 Swiss francs.

For many members of the curia this Pope is simply no longer acceptable, because no one really knows where he stands morally. Francis has become famous for his contradictory statements. Was it  not  he himself who said on the flight from Manila to Rome: "Who am I to judge?" And then many more prelates ask, who else may judge, if not the Pope?

The Pope  continues to "wallow"  in the enthusiasm of the masses. The trouble is that departures from the Catholic Church in Germany have risen sharply.  Where is the eagerly anticipated "Francis effect"? Italy's (left)  media cheers him, and the atheistic Scalfari, editor of La Repubblica, boasts to be a friend of Francis. But there remain a few hundred hypocrites in the Vatican who perform for kippers before the pope and give him the illusion of a "pope
 for all".  But the pope from Argentina is in danger, even before his death, to find a new place to live. In the Vatican itself there will be little room for a second Pope pensioner.

* Manfred Ferrari, Vatican expert, kathmedia.org, fotoferrari.com

Picture: fotoferrari.com

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

Link to Katholisches...

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