Sentries of the Roman Tradition
Among the Pope’s closest advisors on a day-to-day basis are the cardinals of the Roman Curia and of Italy. Until John Paul II, the College of Cardinals normally chose a Supreme Pontiff from among this group. For this reason, these Italian cardinals are always closely watched and discussed

BY FILIPPO DI GIACOMO

Just as nature abhors a physical vacuum, so society, it is said, cannot tolerate a political void. In England, the phrase "God save the King" exorcises the fears attending the royal succession. In France, the Bourbon exclamation "Le roi e mort, vive le roi" performs the same function. The Roman expression with regard to the papacy is similar: "Morto un Papa, se ne fa un altro" ("one Pope dies, another is made").

How will Romans confront the transition from this pontificate to the next? This Italian maxim suggests the answer: with a certain equanimity. The people of Rome have learned in the course of two millennia not to be distracted by the details of complicated, often tumultuous, papal successions. This "vox populi" (which is traditionally believed to give insight into the "vox Dei"), this "common sense" of the Romans and Italians, displays a seraphic indifference toward all the problems of the papal succession that, as this pontificate moves into its autumnal phase, seem to have driven the media of the entire world into a frenzy of speculation and debate.
There is, in fact, no obsession in Italy with divining who the next Roman Pontiff may be. Roman speculation, rather, seeks to discern which concerns will be paramount within the College of Cardinals, the "Senate of the Catholic Church," at the moment when, in Conclave, it exercises its fully autonomous electoral power.

Consequently, granted that there does exist a behind-the-scenes "lobby" prepared to work for the election of an Italian Pope in the next Conclave, the first speculation concerns how much influence the "old guard" among the Italian curial cardinals still has, and how much it will have in a future Conclave.

These typically "Roman" prelates (so abhorrent to the Churches of Northern Europe) have just about disappeared from the scene. For centuries the assumption was that cardinals of Roman lineage guaranteed a secure and unshakable fidelity to the Church and to the Pope. Now very few of that branch remain: the sole "Roman from Rome" Fiorenzo Angelini (born in Rome in 1916 and now 80), and two "Laziali" (Lazio is the Province where Rome is located), Vincenzo Fagiolo and Angelo Felici (both born in Segni, in 1918 and 1919, respectively).

The large contingent of Italian cardinals who are now 80 and older, and therefore excluded from any Conclave vote, are all men who served the Church as diplomats or in the Curia in the years between the Second Vatican Council and the pontificate of John Paul II. They are all, in a certain sense, the expression of that ecclesial current more or less formed and inspired by Paul VI (thus they are known as the "Montiniani," the "progressive" faction in the College). Since the unexpected death of their chief representative, Cardinal Giovanni Benelli (Paul VI’s Secretary of State and presumed heir), this group has been unable (or unwilling) to unite behind a single leading figure, leaving it leaderless — and consequently without a consensus papal candidate. Moreover, even the "youngsters" of this group — Fagiolo and Felici, Luigi Poggi (1917), Salvatore Pappalardo (1918), Giovanni Canestri (1918), Pio Laghi (1922) — are nearing the 80-year age limit, after which they will be unable to vote in a Conclave.

he Italian papabili (cardinals with a reasonable likelihood of being considered for the papacy should a Conclave be held today) are thus quite few. They range from the "old" Achille Silvestrini (born in 1923) to the "young" Camillo Ruini (born 1931). Between these two are Silvano Piovanelli (1924) Giovanni Saldarini 1924), Carlo Mario Martini (1927), Marco Ce (1925), Michele Giordano (1930), Angelo Sodano (1927), and Giacomo Biffi (1928).
Silvestrini and Sodano earned their cardinals’ hats through their diplomatic service. The first, a leading figure behind the Helsinki Accords, has the merit of having succeeded in attaching the Church to all those social and political processes that led to the collapse of Communism in Europe. But it is a strike against him that he did not understand how senseless it was in Italy to support the Christian Democracy of the Movimento Popolare and the pact it thought to enter into with last remnants of the "Andreottiani" (the circle of former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti).

The second showed himself able, using both the iron fist and the velvet glove typical of the Church diplomats of the "Bennellian" school, to manage the complicated Latin American affairs of the Argentine generals and the Chilean dictator, Pinochet. And he has managed to embody in a remarkable way, as John Paul II’s Secretary of State, the Pope’s conviction that the Church must not be closed within narrow or nationalistic attitudes but must demonstrate a universal rather than a specifically Italian orientation, when representing the Holy See.
Sodano, therefore, is thought to represent a certain continuity between Paul VI and John Paul II, without being "characterized" by either pontificate.

This advantage is also enjoyed by Ruini, the Pope’s Vicar for Rome and President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference. Ruini has probably been underestimated as a papal candidate. In fact, he can boast many pastoral and institutional achievements. He has led the diocese of Rome and safeguarded the structures of the Roman Church in a difficult period of Italian politics, loosening the knot which bound the Italian Church to the corrupt Christian Democratic Party. Ruini’s "bad press," due in part to his indifference to public relations, does not give sufficient weight to the courageous capacity for dialogue and the wise leadership he has displayed.
Piovanelli, Saldarini, Martini, Ce, Giordano, and Biffi will come to the next Conclave with the charisma of pastoral bishops. This quality seems to appeal to their cardinal colleagues from other countries (according to certain published statements to that effect). However, large dioceses like Milan, Munich, Boston, Rio de Janeiro, have diocesan curias comparable, in the number of employees and offices, to the Roman Curia, and they can be just as "bureaucratic" and "overly centralized."
In any case, Martini, during his tenure as Archbishop of Milan, has displayed his magisterial and theological gifts so often that he may be seen, in the future, as more suited for the office of Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, than for the Chair of Peter (he has published dozens of books, his doctrinal views are a matter of record, and he would have the intellectual cachet for such a post). More "moderate" in quantity, but more intransigent in form, Biffi, with his combative style, seems destined rather to doctrinal combat than to universal spiritual leadership.

Possible "pastoral" (rather than curial/diplomatic) candidates could be Piovanelli, Saldarini, Ce and Giordano. Indeed, the See of Venice has already contributed three Popes in this century: Pius X, John XXIII, and John Paul I. For that very reason, however, Ce will likely be passed over as a papal contendant. Giordano’s base, Naples, may be regarded as too "out of the loop" to recommend him as a universal pastor.

Saldarini in Turin and Piovanelli in Florence are among the leading episcopal figures chosen during John Paul II’s papacy. The international Catholic press, and particularly the French press, has often praised the Florence archbishop’s spiritual and pastoral qualities, and openly stated that these qualities would be highly commendable in a future Pope.

But all such speculations should not obscure the fact that papal elections involve a great deal more than political and psychological considerations. Paul VI felt the Holy Spirit always expressed His will by bringing about the unexpected. The Romans have a saying that expresses that conviction: the Church loves to listen to prophets — but not to allow their interfering.

Papal information – Home