It has already been spoken much about the fact that the next conclave, which begins on Wednesday, takes place in the shadow of American cultural wars. As the lobby before the conclave intensified, the Vatican's top diplomat, Pietro Parolin, has become a convergence point for the cardinals who want to restore the Vatican primacy, writes Politico.
Cardinals listen to the job officiated by Pope Francis in December 2024 Photo Shutterstock
Since the death of Pope Francis, almost every morning, about 180 cardinals have entered a Vatican meeting room, settled on a wooden chairs with a high backrest, and quarreled with the direction of their religion, which has 1.4 billion people worldwide.
Under the auspices of a 91 -year -old cardinal, with hearing problems, which are said to give orders when he thinks he speaks slowly, the clergy with red hats share trivial kind of kindness about the late Pontiff, hiding a deep anxiety about the 12 years controversial.
“Everyone is very respectful, but you need to know the situation to know what is hiding behind the words.”said a person present at these assemblies, who are called general congregations and who are intense lobby outbreaks, the old ritual of choosing a new pope. “So everyone talks about Pope Francis, but the way I talk about him looks like he doesn't like it ”says this ..
“It was a good pope,” they could say. “But we must consider the popes before him, we must see the whole tradition.” – That's how the dialogues might sound.
It has already been spoken much about the fact that the future Conclav takes place in the shadow of the American -style cultural wars, of which the Holy Church cannot even escape, opposing the conservatives of the tolerant progressives towards LGBTQ+. But the divisions among the clergy are also about something more concrete: the future of ecclesiastical power and who should exercise it, in a church that quickly goes beyond the limits of Rome, its old European Bastion.
The remark and blessing of the same -sex couples
Along his papacy, Francis, who died on April 21, dramatically changed the geographical balance of the church by appointing 50 cardinals with voting rights – almost half of the 133 voters in office – outside the traditional bases of Western power. The cardinals were chosen from places previously ignored, such as Bridgetown, from the small Caribbean island, and Bogor, a city with less than one million inhabitants of Indonesia. The leaders of important dioceses such as Los Angeles and San Francisco were ignored.
In addition, the Pope has launched a series of major global consultations, called councils, who have addressed hot topics such as the blessing of same -sex people and the remarriage of the divorced. The idea was to involve more closely the laity and women, as well as the clergy in the distant regions of the church – especially in the rapid growth centers in Africa and Asia – in making ecclesiastical decisions.
But the consultations also offered more freedom to non-European priests, fragmenting the implementation of theology and attracting even more power from the cake, the Vatican bureaucracy. To the dissatisfaction of many, one of Francis's last movements before his death, on April 21, was to extend these deliberations by another three years, despite the speculation that he used only postponement tactics to avoid establishing more radical reforms.
The inheritance of this decision and its implications on the place where the power of the Church is truly is now one of the main topics discussed during the pre-Conclav lobby sessions, according to three persons up to date. And this ideological struggle, said these people, is concentrated around a man in particular: the Secretary of State of the Holy See and the longest ally of Francis, Pietro Parolin.
Francis's clone
This skilled diplomat has already been a controversial figure since the Pope became ill for the first time in February. The silent affirmation of Parelin's spiritual leadership during this period, especially his prominent role in a prayer session in front of Saint Peter's Cathedral, at the end of February, consolidated the image, while attracting suspicions from those who saw him to be the place of Pope.
While the betting houses were based on Parolin, its discredit campaigns were launched quickly. The traditionalists, in particular, cataloged him as a clone of Francis, while drawing attention to his controversial business with the Chinese government and the supervision of a Vatican key involved in a 200 million euro scandal in 2019.
But for those who are afraid of the declining influence of Rome, Parolin is a good option. Cardinal is seen as resisting synodal reforms. This aspect brought the support of some of the so-called curly cardinals, officials of the Vatican who work directly for the Holy See in the Vatican Fortress, according to the persons mentioned above. These include cardinals over 80 years old, who will not be able to vote in Conclav, but who still exert a considerable influence on the pre-lobby, as well as the Italians who could want to see one of their compatriots on Peter's throne after 47 years in which this role has returned to outside people, they added.
Inevitably, Parolin's promotion irritated the pro-Francisc faction, which warned that it would reduce Francis's radical efforts to make the church more inclusive. As a result, some tried to discredit Pecolin as a hidden conservative, at the same time promoting the Secretary General of the Synod, Cardinal Maltez Mario Grech, as a candidate of continuity, people said. “Rome cannot know and cannot understand all the dynamics that take place on different continents.”said one of them. “They do not want the Church to be led by the Roman Curia”says the interlocutor.
But this camp is divided and poorly coordinated, with few strong candidates around them, politician sources said. It is also full of clergy with fresh faces, taken from “relatively unimportant” positions, which could fall prey to machinations “The worship politicians of the Church, such as European and North American cardinals”, He warned Miles Pattenden, historian of the church and lecturer at the Faculty of History of Oxford University.
Of course, the insistence for Parolin is not an indication of its successful chances in a competition known for punishing leading candidates, and the debate on the primacy of the Holy See is only one of the many painful disagreements that press on the calculations of the clerics, including tolerance to LGBTQ+people, the ordination of women and the more serious financial crisis. Some indicate that Parolin's Star is already decreasing after holding a disappointing charisma job.
But the support for Parolin may be less related to the man himself how much the ideas he represents and there could be an appetite for a more papable alternative, with a similar vision of the power balance. For some clergy, the idea of a church without Rome is as unpleasant as a pope who would not be a Catholic.
