Winds of change: Italians losing centuries-old grip on Vatican

Google – AFP, Jean-Louis de la Vaissiere (AFP), 26 March 2014

Pope Francis speaks during the audience of the Curia, the administrative

 apparatus of the Holy See, for Christmas greetings in the Sala Clementina of

 the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, on December 21, 2013 (Pool/AFP/File,

Claudio Peri)

Vatican City — A quiet revolution is afoot in the Vatican.

With many of Pope Francis's new appointments, control over the powerful city state is slipping, slowly but surely, from the centuries-old grip of the Italian hierarchy.

Popes may come and go -- and three in a row now have been non-Italian -- but the inner workings of the opaque Vatican bureaucracy, the Curia, have traditionally been the province of Italian apparatchiks.

Cardinals (from L) George Pell, Oswald

Gracias, Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya and

Reinhard Marx are seen before a meeting

at the Vatican, on October 1, 2013

(Vatican Press Office/AFP/File)

Like Francis, his predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI found themselves in the midst of back-stabbing and turf wars in the Catholic Church's corridors of power, but they had little appetite for disturbing the hornet's nest.

The world's first Latin American pontiff however has had no such qualms, readily appointing fresh faces from diverse countries -- including lay people and women -- much to the chagrin of the old guard.

Putting himself on what one commentator dubbed a "collision course with the Curia", the Argentine has set up several international committees. The latest, created to root out paedophilia in the Catholic Church, includes only one Italian out of eight.

The same is true of a body that he set up in April last year, just one month into his papacy, to advise him on reforming the Curia -- his council of cardinals, nicknamed the G8.

Foreign cardinals have been awarded prestigious posts, from the Australian George Pell -- head of the new economy ministry -- to Germany's Reinhard Marx, who leads up a council tasked with overseeing the Vatican's economic management.

Marx is assisted by Britain's Brian Ferme and Alfred Xuereb of Malta -- who doubles as the pope's very influential private secretary.

Pope Francis, pictured during the audience

 of the Curia, the administrative apparatus

of the Holy See, for Christmas greetings in

the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic

Palace at the Vatican, on December 21,

2013 (Pool/AFP/File, Claudio Peri)

"By entrusting delicate government tasks to hierarchies that are made up mainly of non-Italians who are not resident in Rome, the pope is putting himself on a collision course with the Curia's traditional power," editorialist Ernesto Galli Della Loggia wrote in Italy's leading daily Corriere della Sera.

"What seems to emerge is a plan to concentrate (power) not in Rome, but in his person," he said.

'Secret wantonness'

Galli Della Loggia described what Francis is up against: "A certain shrewdness, an ability to mediate (and) impalpable but enduring influences" but also "ferocious ambition, corruption and careerism and, sometimes, secret wantonness".

Lay people and women -- traditionally underrepresented in the leadership of the 1.2 billion-member Church -- figure increasingly in new committees.

A body tasked with carrying out a detailed inquiry into the Vatican's administration is made up of seven lay people, including a woman, while the new committee on paedophilia includes five lay people -- four of whom are women -- and just one cardinal.

Perhaps the most eye-opening appointment to that panel was that of Marie Collins, an Irish survivor of sexual abuse by a chaplain and an outspoken campaigner for victims' rights.

Pope Francis (C) meets with cardinals at the end of the audience of the Curia,

 the administrative apparatus of the Holy See, for Christmas greetings in the Sala

 Clementina of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, on December 21, 2013 (Pool/AFP/

File, Claudio Peri)

What is more, instead of dictating the committee's mandate, Francis is confident that "the members can draw on their own actual experiences to define the new organ's remit themselves", according to Marco Politi from Il Fatto Quotidiano.

All this does not mean the pope is giving the Italians the cold shoulder: he has given at least two key posts -- the secretary general of the bishops' assembly and the prefect of the congregation for the clergy -- to trusted Italian prelates.

But those who longed for the 77-year-old to decentralise and diversify power at the highest levels of the Holy See hope Francis will continue as he has begun, ignoring the gnashing of teeth from the ousted old guard.

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“ … 1 - Spirituality (Religions)

Number one: Spirituality. The systems of spiritual design on your planet are starting to change. This is not telling you that certain ones are going to go away. They're simply going to change. Some of the largest spiritual systems, which you would call organized religion on the planet, are shifting. They're going to shift away from that which is authority on the outside to authority on the inside. It will eventually be a different way of worship, slowly changing the rules while keeping the basic doctrine the same.

The doctrine of the Christ has always been to find the God inside. The teachings were clear. The examples of the miracles were given as an example of what humans could do, not to set a man up for worship as a God. So when that has been absorbed, the teaching of the Christ can remain the teaching of the Christ. It simply changes the interpretation. 

The teachings of the great prophets of the Middle East (all related to each other) are about unity and love. So once the holy words are redefined with new wisdom, the Human changes, not the words of the prophets. In fact, the prophets become even more divinely inspired and their wisdom becomes even more profound.

You're going to lose a pope soon. I have no clock. Soon to us can mean anything to you. The one who replaces him may surprise you, for his particular organization will be in survival mode at that point in time. That is to say that fewer and fewer are interested in starting the priesthood. Fewer and fewer young people are interested in the organization, and the new pope must make changes to keep his church alive. That means that his organization will remain, but with a more modern look at what truly is before all of you in a new energy. It is not the fall of the church. It is instead the recalibration of the divinity inside that would match the worship that goes on. It's a win-win situation. The new pope will have a difficult time, since the old guard will still be there. There could even be an assassination attempt, such is the way the old energy dies hard. That is number one. Watch for it. It's a change in the way spiritual systems work. It's a realignment of spiritual systems that resound to a stronger truth that is Human driven, rather than prophet driven.…