The clash
We’re going toward a fight to the very last ballot: on one side, the team of cardinals who want to save the central role of the Curia, on the opposite, the guys that defend a radical reform which they think is necessary to lighten an institution tarnished by scandals. The spaniard Vallejo (“I’m speaking by the experience of my age”) called for unity, to go back to the evangelical “core business”, in front of a College of Cardinals that is becoming more e more divided. Even on the procedures. The Germans and Americans form a very compact block. They’d like even more time to get ready: they say that the dabate within the congregations is vital but they’d appreciate some free time in the afternoon. They’d like space and time for cardinals to meet other than officiality. Clearly this way the crucial date for conclave would just move later, also because they ask for the 15 days time limit to be respected. On the opposite block there are the skilled curials: Bertone, Sodano, Sandri, Piacenza, King, Versaldi and Calcagno. They are convinced that two congregational meetings per day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, over a one week period, is more than enough to get to know each other for a better understanding. But the acceleration would facilitate a blitz. “The Pope is chosen during the conclave and not before” says a cardinal, who immediately adds: “After all, we are still doing the same talking as during the last Synod. And if we go on like this they’ll never stop”. The Church needs unity, but the multiplicity of sensitiveness for the 148 cardinals who are now in Rome (110 voters) don’t seem to help. At least for now.
The Post Bertone era
Together with the search for “papabili”, there’s also a second very strategic choice to make: the future secretary of State. Bertone, now Camerlengo, has lost his role with the beginning of sede vacante. During informal chats there are different options for the future. Americans like Viganò, the current Vatican ambassador in Washington: he is flawless and has a good reputation of “moralizer”. It was him to denounce financial irregularities in the Curia and therefore quickly sent abroad by Vatican authorities. But there are also other high profile solutions as the Apostolic Nuncio to Paris, Ventura, or the one to Poland, Migliore, with an enviable curriculum, determined, upright, very capable. Or Baldisseri, currently secretary of the Conclave. For him there is also someone who is thinking to get back an old tradition now abandoned: the next pope taking off his cardinal vests – before wearing the new white ones – could put on Baldisseri’s head his red hat as a sign of the investiture. The curials tend for a solution of warranty in the person of Sandri, from Argentine, former nuncio in Mexico and good friend of Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, whose life was a mix of various types of serious crimes.
Pole Position
In pole position to become next pope there are also Ouellet, Erdo, Ravasi and Scola. This last one, from what we’ve heard have not been voted by Bertone nor his party, rather inclined to choose Ravasi. This afternoon they will all be reunited in St. Peter's basilica for a common prayer with the faithful. And this is something new. They’ll pray for the election of the new Pontiff and also for the Pope emeritus: they wrote a telegram to thank him for “his tireless work for the good of the whole Church". The editor in chief of “L’Osservatore Romano”, Vian is still certain that next week we will have the successor of Benedict XVI.
(Translated by Stella Prudente)
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