December 31st was not just the death of Benedict XVI.
It was also the death of a fragile truce that has existed the past decade between two factions inside the Vatican and the worldwide Catholic hierarchy — one yoked to the now-deceased former pope (Joseph Ratzinger) and the other tethered to Pope Francis (Jorge Bergoglio).
It’s probably too early to tell whether the (mostly hidden, though sometimes open) animosity that each faction has long harboured toward the other will escalate into an unimpeded ugly conflict before the eyes of all.
For one thing, it’s not clear which side was the first to torpedo this uneasy inter-ecclesial détente.
After Francis surprised Roman Curia officials on December 28 by announcing that Benedict was gravely ill, a sequence of events quickly unfolded in manner that has not been fully disclosed.
We know that three days later, the morning of New Year’s Eve, the Holy See Press Office announced that the former pope (he gave himself the title “pope emeritus”) had just died. And shortly after that it was announced that he’d be given, according to his wishes, a “simple, sober and solemn” funeral on January 5.
His body would lie in state for three days prior to that (Monday-Wednesday) in St. Peter’s Basilica.
This suggests that people in Francis’ entourage (likely from the Secretariat of State and maybe even the pope himself) met with those in Benedict’s circle (certainly including the former pope’s personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein) to agree on the funeral arrangements. But something seemed to have turned sour.
A fragile peace greatly disturbed
Within hours of Benedict’s announced death, pre-recorded interviews with Gänswein — and excerpts of a tell-all book the 66-year-old German prelate had ready to publish the day after the funeral — were suddenly appearing on social and mainstream media. The archbishop’s comments were seen as attacks on Francis.
They also did more than merely suggest that Benedict was unhappy with some of the key decisions the Jesuit pope has made during his pontificate.
Francis’ reaction to his Bavarian predecessor’s death seemed odd and, probably to some, cold and distant.
He continued to forge ahead with all his pre-scheduled public engagements right up to the day of the funeral. And in the four discourses he delivered during those days he only briefly mentioned Benedict.
Was this in retaliation to Gänswein’s behaviour? We don’t know.
It is also possible that the decisions that Francis and his aides made concerning the funeral arrangements are what provoked the archbishop to lash out.
Whatever the origins, and no matter who took the first shot across the bow, a fragile peace has been greatly disturbed. And this could spell trouble for the pontificate of Francis, who at age 86 and in declining health, is likely to face even more open opposition than before.
Those who think Benedict’s death gives him greater freedom to govern the Church without the former pope’s shadow looming over him, should think again.
Benedict was actually a neutralizing element that kept the radical fringes in both opposing camps somewhat at bay.
That element is now gone…
Will we see a purge of Ratzinger’s people?
A number of people in key Vatican posts have worked in the Roman Curia since the pontificate of Benedict XVI (2005-2013) and some since the days when John Paul II was still pope (1978-2005). Some of them have become key figures in Francis’s pontificate and their posts are secure.
They include Cardinal Konrad Kraweski, a 59-year-old Pole who’s worked at the Vatican since the 1990s and whom the current pope made an archbishop and Papal Almoner in 2013 and then a cardinal in 2018. There’s also Cardinal Arthur Roche, whom Francis named head of the Dicastery for Worship in 2021, with the red hat to follow a year later. The Englishman, who will be 73 in March, actually got his job as secretary of that dicastery in 2012 from Benedict.
But there are other officials in top jobs that need to be moved out. One wonders why a number of them have lasted so long.
Perhaps that was part of the truce that now no longer exists
Cardinal Marc Ouellet (prefect, Dicastery for Bishops). The 78-year-old French Canadian theologian has been in his present post since June 2010, when he was brought to Rome by Benedict, of whose theological school he’s long been a member. Ouellet’s days are numbered.
Cardinal Mauro Piacenza (head of the Apostolic Penitentiary). The 78-year-old Italian cardinal, like Ouellet, is part of the Ratzinger school but even more fiercely so. Upon his election to the papacy, Francis quickly removed Piacenza from his former job as head of what is now the Dicastery for the Clergy and “sentenced” him to in Penitentiary, normally and end-of-career low maintenance post. His overdue retirement will clear a space for Francis to park or reward someone else.
Cardinal João Cardinal Bráz de Aviz (prefect, Dicastery for Consecrated Life). Benedict named the Brazilian, who will be 76 in April, to this post in 2011 and gave him the red hat a year later. He’s not ideologically tied to Ratzinger’s theology or ecclesiology, but he has been on the job for twelve years and is past the age of retirement. Time to collect his gold watch.
Cardinal Luis Ladaria (prefect, Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith). The Spanish Jesuit theologian will be 79 in April. Benedict named him secretary of this office in 2008 and Francis then promoted him to prefect in 2017. No matter how the former Gregorian University professor got there, it’s surprising that he’s still in office. He, too, should soon be headed for retirement.
Cardinal Kurt Koch (prefect for the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity). The Swiss theologian looks much older than 73, which he will be in mid-March. Benedict appointed him to head the Vatican’s ecumenical office in 2010 and also made him a cardinal the same year. Though he’s two years short of the normal retirement age, it’s probably time for new blood. That should soon be coming to Christian Unity in any case because the dicastery’s extremely capable and friendly secretary, Bishop Brian Farrell, will be 79 next month. Just a few weeks ago the Legionary of Christ from Ireland celebrated his 20th anniversary in this post
Archbishop Rino Fisichella (official in the Dicastery for Evangelization). The 71-year-old Italian theologian was Cardinal Ratzinger’s assistant on the theologian commission for the Great Jubilee of 2000. He was named bishop and rector of the Pontifical Lateran University in 2002 and then Benedict XVI made him president of the Pontifical Academy of Life in 2008 before selecting him as the first president of the new Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization in 2010. In the recent reform of the Roman Curia, that office was folded into what is now called the Dicastery for Evangelization. Fisichella is currently in charge of preparing the Vatican’s next Holy Year in 2025. Keeping that job may depend on Francis discerning whether the archbishop’s loyalties are fully with him or still with Benedict.
Archbishop Protase Rugamba, 62, is a priest from Tanzania who Benedict brought to Rome in 2012 to be the adjunct-secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (“Propaganda Fide”). He is now the secretary of the new Dicastery for Evangelization. His post is safe for now, but his future is unclear.
New protocols for the “sede vacante”, more cardinals?
Pope Francis recently said in one of the many interviews he gave in the run-up to the Christmas holidays that he was not going to publish any new protocols for the “sede vacante” period that spans from the death or resignation of the Roman Pontiff and the election of his successor. That not only seems unwise, but problematic. With his reform of the Roman Curia, the pope has eliminated some offices that are part the current norms concerning the “sede vacante”. So those particular norms will at least have to be modified.
But most Church officials and even ordinary Catholics also believe precise protocols should be codified to regulate the rights and obligations of a pope who freely renounces the Apostolic See. Even if Francis has said in the past he does not see a need for this, he has been known to change his mind. And, indeed, he has not spoken about this top since Benedict’s death…
And will the pope name some more new cardinals? He could probably give the red hat to another dozen near the end of the year — if he’s still in office. While Francis has indicated in the past that he would resign if he felt he could no longer govern, Benedict’s death changes the calculus. It was always thought that, as long as the retired pope was still alive, Francis would never resign. Inversely, after Benedict died, another papal resignation would more easily follow.
But don’t be so sure. The events surrounding Benedict’s funeral and the divisions they have laid bare might convince the pope he must hang on until the natural end. People all along the ecclesial spectrum will be watching closely to see how all this plays out over the next weeks and months.
Addendum: some final thoughts on Benedict’s funeral
“Benedict’s resignation was a ‘Nixon to China’ move, a radical departure from the most orthodox of popes and theologians,” said David Gibson, the award-winning American journalist and director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University.
His point, of course, is that it took someone like Richard Nixon, a fierce anti-Communist “hawk”, to make the conciliating gesture towards the United States’ geopolitical rival. There are certainly another comparisons one could try to make between the former US president and Benedict XVI.
But not the way they were honoured at their deaths.
Nixon had also resigned from his high office. But unlike Benedict, he did so in great disgrace.
Nonetheless, like every other president in US history, he was still given a state funeral with full honours (he had directed that it be held in California). A national day of mourning and a federal holiday were declared for the day of his burial.
The Vatican gave no such honours to Benedict XVI.
It was a very foggy, chilly, damp morning on the day of the former pope’s scaled-down funeral. The crowd that gathered represented the clerical Church that adored him. It was slightly smaller (cir. 50,000) than the some 65,000 that had been anticipated. And it was over in an hour and 20 minutes, some 15 minutes shorter than the papal Mass that was celebrated next day for the Feast of the Epiphany.
At the funeral Francis gave a brief, but very theologically rich homily that consisted mostly of quotes from Benedict’s writings and the sacred scriptures.
He mentioned Benedict by name only once, at the very end.
The pope looked unpleasant throughout the liturgy and, surprisingly (shockingly, some would say), he did not attend the interment of Benedict’s body in the crypt after the Mass.
The Vatican did not observe a single day of mourning or declare a public holiday but merely gave its employees the “option” of attending the funeral.
Some services and shops were closed only for the duration of the funeral, and then people were expected to be back to work.
There are many of us who were never particularly enamoured of Joseph Ratzinger. But the man was the Bishop of Rome for nearly eight years. And for that alone, he deserved better than this.
- Robert Mickens is LCI Editor in Chief.
- First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.