In the Curia, No More Than Five Years and Then Out, Says the Pope. But There’s Many a Slip...

Dll, 10/07/2017 URL article: http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2017/07/10/in-the-curia-no-mor…

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Commenting in “Allgemeine Zeitung” on his removal as prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, which took place on July 2 at the exact expiration of his five-year mandate, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller reported that Pope Francis “no longer intends to prolong roles in the curia beyond five years, and that he was the first one to whom this practice has been applied.”

That Müller’s removal is the first of this kind is beyond a doubt. So much so that in the days and months leading up to it other officials in the curia whose terms expired were kept in their positions by the pope. But it remains to be seen if in the future everyone will be removed at the end of their five years.

Francis loves to move with a great deal of freedom when it comes to the rules, which moreover include two age limits: 75, when a resignation letter is supposed to be sent to the pope, and the age of 80, when all curial positions are supposed to expire automatically.

For example, the dean of the tribunal of the Roman Rota, Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto, is 76 but remains in his position. And it is doubtful that Francis will want to take him from it next September 22, when his five-year term will expire.

To Pinto, in fact, the pope has entrusted himself “in toto” for the reform of the processes of marital nullity, in spite of his mediocre credentials as a canonist and the criticisms that have been heaped upon him because of the disjointed arrangement of the new procedures.

1 Not only that. Last June 19, Francis placed beside him as chancellor his protege Daniele Cancilla, the first layman to be promoted to this important role, in spite of the fact that he had been fired for bad conduct from the Italian episcopal conference where he had long been in charge of aid for foreign dioceses but where he had also forged a friendship with none other than the archbishop of Buenos Aires at the time, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, one of the beneficiaries.

Returning to the Müller case, it must also be noted that Francis is reshaping the congregation for the doctrine of the faith to his own liking not only with the removal of the prefect unacceptable to him, but even more with the preceding and unexpected appointment as undersecretary of a man closely bound to him, Monsignor Giacomo Morandi, called there from outside - he was vicar general of the diocese of Modena - on the advice of Cardinal Beniamino Stella, a former nuncio to Cuba and Colombia and now the prefect of the congregation for the clergy, perhaps the closest to Bergoglio among all the cardinals of the curia.

It was on Morandi’s advice that the pope summarily fired, a few months ago, three high-ranking officials of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith greatly esteemed by Müller. A firing that made quite a stir.

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But let’s take a more detailed look at the state of service of various curia officials whose mandates have expired in recent days and months but have remained at their posts.

- Last July 1, the day before Müller’s removal, brought the end of a second five- year term for Argentine cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the congregation for the Oriental Churches. But he’s still there.

- June 26 brought the end of a five-year term for English archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary of the congregation for divine worship. But cardinal prefect Robert Sarah still finds him at his side, and certainly not to his satisfaction considering their clashing viewpoints.

- Last February 15 brought the end of a second five-year term for Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the pontifical council for legislative texts. But Pope Francis has not removed him, in spite of the fact that he is over the age of 79. Enlisted among the defenders of communion for the divorced and remarried, Coccopalmerio seems to have survived even the scandal that three months ago toppled his secretary, Monsignor Luigi Capozzi, caught in flagrante by the Vatican gendarmes in his apartment in the building of the Sant'Uffizio during a drug-fueled gay sex party.

- August 18, 2016 was the 75th birthday of Cardinal Beniamino Stella, prefect of the congregation for the clergy and very influential with the pope. But he is still in office.

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And now let’s see a list of curia heads whose terms will expire in the near future and whom the pope - according to what Müller has reported - should little by little dismiss.

2 - Next September 1 would be the turn of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, when he comes to the end of his second five-year term as president of the pontifical council for interreligious dialogue.

- On September 3 it will be Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the pontifical council for culture, at the end of his second five-year term. And the following October 18 he will turn 75.

- September 8 will be the 75th birthday of the Argentine Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, chancellor of the pontifical academy of sciences and of the pontifical academy of social sciences. And next year, on October 5, 2018, he will also finish his fourth five-year term of service.

- September 22 will bring the end, as stated above, of the five-year term of 76-year- old Monsignor Pinto, dean of the Roman Rota.

- October 1 will be the 75th birthday of Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the governorate of Vatican City State.

- October 1 will bring the end of a second five-year term for pontifical master of ceremonies Monsignor Guido Marini.

- On December 7 it will be Archbishop Georg Gänswein, secretary of “pope emeritus” Joseph Ratzinger, who ends his five-year term as prefect of the pontifical household.

- February 3, 2018 will be the 75th birthday of Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, APSA, who has close ties with Pope Francis and has remained in his role even after the expiration of his first five-year term on July 7, 2016.

- On April 6, 2018 it will be Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo who will arrive at the end of his five-year term as secretary of the congregation for religious.

- July 9 will bring the expiration of a second term for Cardinal Angelo Amato - who will be 80 years old as of that date - prefect of the congregation for the causes of saints.

- July 10 of 2018 will be the 75th birthday of Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, adjunct secretary of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, confirmed in this role on September 21, 2013 “until reaching the age of 75.”

- August 3, 2018 will bring the end of a first five-year term for the almoner of His Holiness, Archbishop Konrad Krajewski.

- September 21, 2018 will bring the end of a five-year term for the secretary general of the synod of bishops, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, who is already 77 years old and is another favorite of Pope Francis.

- October 12, 2018 will be the turn of Brazilian archbishop Ilson de Jesus Montanari, at the end of his first five-year term as secretary of the congregation for bishops, placed in this crucial role by Pope Francis himself, to whom he reports directly.

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Theoretically, all of these should be dismissed one after the other, according to the procedure applied first to Cardinal Müller. But in practice, what will Francis do? The bets are open.

(English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.)

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