The Vatican press office announced that the papal pastoral visits to Milan and other Italian dioceses next year were postponed.

The reason cited is the demands on the Pope's schedule during the jubilee year of mercy.

The visit to Milan will happen in 2017, the Vatican stated.

It has been noted that last year Francis fell ill shortly before two planned meetings with Cardinal Scola.

And by 2017, the Italian media has observed, the cardinal will have turned 75 and will thus be required to submit his resignation to the Pope.

Therefore his continuing as archbishop in Milan beyond this point will be at papal discretion.

Francis's apparent reticence to grant Cardinal Scola a meeting could also be seen as a symbol for everything the Pope is trying to change about the Church in Italy.

This includes the Vatican's historic cosy relationship with conservative politicians.

Global Pulse editor Robert Mickens said: "The Pope does not like the idea of the Church being in bed with politicians or politics."

"The Italian hierarchy is very . . . political and tied in to business and politics. Scola represents that kind of Church," Mickens said.

Cardinal Scola was seen by some as having reached a tacit agreement with Italy's former centre-right prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

In this alleged agreement, the Church in Italy would not be a leading voice on social justice issues and, in exchange, Berlusconi would respect the Church's views against abortion and other policies.

In Florence last month, the Pope urged the Italian hierarchy to stop clinging to conservatism and fundamentalism as a response to the problems the Church is facing.

In October, the Pope appointed two centre-left clerics known as social activists to two of the most important archdioceses in Italy: Bologna and Palermo.

For years, Cardinal Scola was seen as a close ally of Pope Benedict XVI.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Catholic World News
• Image: The Guardian

This year was different. The Italian Democratic Party, which dominates the country's left-of-centre politics, knew that it was in trouble. A flamboyant blogger and former comedian named Beppe Grillo had turned his celebrity into an online political force, Il Movimento 5 Stelle (the Five Star Movement), which promised to do well in the national elections. The new party didn't have any coherent plan beyond sweeping out Old Corruption, but that was enough to bring out the crowds. The Five Star Movement was particularly good at attracting young idealists, the kind of voters who might have been Democrats a decade before.

Worries about this threat spilt over into the summer school. The relationship between communication and democracy suddenly had urgent political implications. The Democratic Party had spent two decades suffering under the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's stranglehold on traditional media. Now it found itself challenged on the left too, by internet-fuelled populists who seemed to be sucking attention and energy away from it.

The keynote speaker at the summer school, the Democratic Party leader and prospective prime minister Pier Luigi Bersani, was in a particularly awkward position. Matteo Renzi, the ‘reformist' mayor of Florence, had recently challenged Bersani's leadership, promising the kind of dynamism that would appeal to younger voters. If Bersani wanted to stay on as party leader, he had to win an open primary. The summer school gave him a chance to speak to the activists in training, and try to show that he was still relevant. Continue reading

Sources

• Henry Farrell in Aeon
• Image: Architizer

Henry Farrell is an associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University.