People in the Vatican often use biblical allusions to express their expectations.
Such was the case of a top Roman Curia official on March 19, just a few hours after Pope Francis had published his new apostolic constitution to fully reorganize the Church’s central bureaucracy.
He was more than willing to give his views on the reforms the Argentine pope is putting into places – but, naturally, only on the condition of anonymity.
“I’ve heard a lot of people here lately who have been quoting a passage from the Book of Exodus: ‘There came to power in Egypt a king who knew not Joseph’,” the official said.
That phrase in the Old Testament marked a turning point for the chosen people. The new pharaoh forgot about Joseph, once the most powerful man in Egypt, and decided to subject the Israelites to slavery.
But what does this biblical story have to do with the pope and the Curia?
“It’s simple,” our source said.
“These people are eager for an about-face. They hope that once Pope Francis is gone, the next pope will forget everything he put in place and all the people he relied on.”
That’s a revealing interpretation of how some people in the Roman Curia are resistant to any sort of change and are hoping the end of the current pontificate comes quickly.
No doubt, the pope decided to publish his new constitution without giving any prior notice as a way to counter this resistance.
Even inside the Vatican itself, only a few officials knew beforehand of the document’s release.
As one Vatican source mused: “It was a way to prevent it from being blocked.”
Source
- Loup Besmond de Senneville has been a journalist with La Croix since 2011 and permanent correspondent at the Vatican since 2020.
- First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.