All the Pope's Men Read online

  One final point about my aims and assumptions. I said above I want to foster informed and respectful conversation. Part of respect is taking others at their word about the logic for their decisions, and treating seriously the arguments they provide for particular actions and choices. Thus when I cover the Vatican, I do not start with the assumption that Church officials are guilty until proven innocent and that the Vatican’s motives for any given decision can be assumed to revolve around power and self-interest unless shown otherwise. To tell the truth, my experience is that most of the time Vatican officials are trying to make the best calls they can for the common good of the Church, based on the information available to them and the political and theological convictions they hold. One can debate the wisdom of those judgment calls, and I hope this book will provide tools to do that, but the debate will suffer from fatal confusion unless the challengers appreciate the values Vatican officials are seeking to defend and the logic that led them to particular decisions.

  What I have just written may come as a jolt to those of a certain mentality accustomed to thinking of Vatican officials as the heavies, casting the outsiders, prophets, and reformers as the heroes. I understand that view. In my career I’ve had the good fortune of knowing some of these prophets, and they can indeed be impressive people, pressing the Church to realize its best self. On the Catholic left, such figures might include Sr. Joan Chittister or Fr. Hans Küng; on the right, one thinks of Fr. Richard Neuhaus or Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska. Although all are quite different from one another, they share the courage to speak out about what they believe is wrong with the Church, to risk giving offense for the sake of speaking the truth that they see. Their relations with the institutional Church, or at least with certain elements of it, can sometimes be painful. This is true even of someone like Bruskewitz, who is himself a member of the hierarchy, but who is willing to challenge ecclesiastical structures or personnel if he sees them as compromised.

  Yet there is a sometimes forgotten, but very powerful, compensation that comes with being a prophet: for those who share your point of view, you are a celebrity. I have attended conferences of the liberal Call to Action group, for example, at which popular reformers such as James Carroll and Eugene Kennedy are greeted with rapturous standing ovations. On the other side of the street, I have listened to young men at the North American College, where U.S. seminarians preparing for the priesthood in Rome live, swap stories about handshakes with papal biographer George Weigel like other young people might talk about meeting one of the Rolling Stones. Prophets may sometimes be struck down by the powerful, but they are also lifted up by their disciples. They have the opportunity, at least within a certain circle, to receive wide acclaim and affirmation.

  Most of the men and women of the Roman Curia I know will never have this experience. Fr. Frans Thoolen, a plucky Dutch priest who works in the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Refugees, will probably never walk into a crowded ballroom and hear a packed room explode in applause for him. Long lines of people will probably never cue up to have Fr. Donald Bolen, a soft-spoken Canadian who works the Anglican/Methodist desk in the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, sign a book. Catholics are not likely to tell their grand-children about the time they met Sr. Sharon Holland, a quietly effective American, in the Congregation for Religious. Those who work in the Roman Curia are generally not public figures, and the occasional media darling is a rarity. Vatican officials are involved in the art of the possible, making compromises rather than waves, trying to get things done. By definition and necessity, most of their work is in the shadows. In most cases, the documents into which they pour their blood, sweat, and tears will never bear their names. Their role in forging steps forward in Catholic tradition will likely be known only to a small circle of experts. Such is the cost of progress in a bureaucracy that can only move so far, so fast. The Roman Catholic Church, as I am fond of saying, is not built for speed.

  Any social institution needs both its prophets and its bureaucrats. It needs those who will create a clamor for reform from the outside, but it also needs those who will do the hard, patient work of making change happen from within. The person who chooses to labor on the inside, without adulation, exercises a different, but, to my way of thinking, equally real kind of courage. Many of these men and women have put their own desires on hold to do this work, because they think it’s important. Some have sacrificed careers as academics, or pastors, or missionaries in order to answer the Church’s call to serve at a desk in Rome. I have learned to respect their choice, and I hope this book bears the imprint of that respect.

  Much of the research for this book arose from the daily experience of covering the Vatican over four years. I also wanted to test my own perceptions, however, against those of the men and women who serve in and around the Holy See. I therefore conducted thirty-five interviews specifically for All the Pope’s Men, most with officials of the nine congregations, eleven councils, three tribunals, and other offices that make up the papal bureaucracy. I aimed for a representative sampling across different types of offices, as well as different nationalities and linguistic backgrounds. I also included a few heads of religious orders who have regular contact with the Vatican and a couple of diplomats accredited to the Holy See. In every case, the condition of the interview was that the individual would not be identified by name or even acknowledged in a general way in this introduction. This was both to ensure that people felt free to speak candidly, but also a concession to the requirement of the Vatican’s employee handbook that officials below the level of undersecretary must have the authorization of their superiors before submitting to an interview. Thus I can only express a generalized note of deep thanks to these remarkable souls who move the levers of the institutional Catholic Church and who helped me understand their world.

  A number of other people have been instrumental in making this book possible, often without realizing they were doing so. I want to acknowledge those who contributed to whatever virtues the book may possess. First a word of thanks to my colleagues in the Vatican press corps: Gerard O’Connell, Giancarlo Zizola, Gianni Cardinale, Phillip Pullella, Orazio Petrosillo, Marco Politi, Marco Tosatti, Luigi Accattoli, Victor Simpson, Sylvia Poggioli, Greg Burke, John Thavis, Cindy Wooden, John Norton, Robert Blair Kaiser, Robert Mickens, Jeff Israely, Jim Bitterman, Alessio Vinci, Hada Messia, Robert Moynihan, Delia Gallagher, Sandro Magister, Allen Pizzey, Bill Blakemore, Keith Miller, Bruno Bartoloni, Anna Matranga, Paddy Agnew, Frank Bruni, Melinda Henneberger, Alessandra Stanley, Richard Boudreaux, Tracy Wilkinson, Manuela Borraccino, Richard Owen, Dennis Redmont, Franca Giansoldati, David Willey, Ludwig Ring-Eifel, Andreas Englisch, Renzo Giacomelli, Giovanni Avena, Eletta Cucuzza, Ewout Kieckens, Philippa Hitchens, Charles Collins, Tracy McClure, and many others. They have offered me several lifetimes’ worth of insight, expertise, and friendship.

  I also want to acknowledge other friends and colleagues who have offered me valuable nuggets, even if they were not conscious that their contribution would help shape this book: George Weigel, Fr. Thomas Reese, Fr. Richard McBrien, Fr. Andrew Greeley, Fr. Richard Neuhaus, Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, Fr. John Jay Hughes, Giovanni Ferro, James Nicholson, Brent Hardt, Alberto Melloni, Fr. Antoine Bodar, Fr. Antonio Pernia, Austin Ruse, Fr. Bernardo Cervellera, Bill Burrows, Fr. Borys Gudziak, Fr. Brian Johnstone, Fr. Bruce Harbert, Fr. Bruce Williams, Sr. Clare Pratt, Fr. Daniel Madigan, Fr. Dan McCarthy, Fr. Keith Pecklers, Fr. Mark Francis, Fr. David Fleming, Fr. David Jaeger, Fr. Dennis Billy, Fr. Donald Cozzens, Donna Orsuto, Fr. Drew Christiansen, Eugene Fisher, Rick McCord, Duncan MacLaren, Erich Leitenberger, Christa Pongratz, Ernesto Galli della Loggia, Sr. Filo Hirota, Fr. James Moroney, Francis Pimentel-Pinto, Fr. Franco Imoda, Fr. Michael Hilbert, Fr. James Puglisi, Hubert Feichtlbauer, Fr. Jacques Dupuis, Fr. James Hentges, James Walston, Fr. Jeremy Driscoll, Fr. John Baldovin, Fr. John Huels, John Page, Fr. John Wauck, Fr. Robert Gahl, Marc Carroggio, Fr. Flavio Capucci, Fr
. Jose de Vera, Julia O’Sullivan, Fr. Ken Nowakowski, Fr. Kieran O’Reilly, Robert Mickens, John Wilkins, Margaret Hebblethwaite, Austen Ivereigh, Sr. Marie MacDonald, Mario Marazziti, Francesco Dante, Claudio Mario Betti, Fr. Mark Morozowich, Markus Bakermans, Michael Novak, Michael Waldstein, Nelly Stienstra, Fr. Nikolaus Klein, Fr. Nokter Wolf, Otto Friedrich, Fr. Paul Robichaud, Fr. Greg Apparcel, Fr. Jim Moran, Fr. Peter Phan, Phillip Jenkins, Fr. Raymond de Souza, Fr. Robert Geisinger, Fr. Robert Taft, Fr. Joseph Tobin, Fr. Peter Jacobs, Fr. Ron Roberson, Russell Shaw, Fr. Sebastian Karotemprel, David Clohessy, Richard Gaillardetz, Salvador Miranda, Fabrizio Mastrofini, Fr. Stephen Privett, Fr. Ted Keating, Fr. Thomas Green, Fr. Thomas Michel, Fr. Thomas Rosica, Thomas Seiterich-Kreuzkamp, Fr. Thomas Splain, Fr. Thomas Williams, Fr. Anthony McSweeney, Fr. Virgil Funk, Fr. William Henn, Fr. Willy Ollevier, Fr. Gerald O’Collins, Fr. Michael Scully, Archbishop Charles Chaput, Bishop Howard Hubbard, Bishop William Skylstad, Cardinal Roger Mahony, Cardinal James Francis Stafford, and Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald.

  To Trace Murphy at Doubleday goes my thanks for his interest and support, especially as the concept for All the Pope’s Men took a few twists and turns along the way. To Tom Fox, Tom Roberts, and the rest of the team at the National Catholic Reporter go my thanks for their constant support, including allowing me to take three weeks in the summer of 2003 to work on this project. Cardinal James Francis Stafford, Archbishop Charles Chaput, Bishop Howard Hubbard, Gianni Cardinale, Sandro Magister, Fr. Tom Reese, Fr. Gerald O’Collins, Fr. Donald Cozzens, Phil Pullella, Greg Burke, Fr. John Huels, and Richard Gaillardetz were generous in reading portions of the manuscript and offering comments. Obviously, the book’s defects remain my own. The staff of the Park Hotel ai Cappuccini in Gubbio, Italy, was magnificent. I cannot recommend the facility or the people highly enough.

  Much of this book was written in Gubbio from July 10–31, 2003. Word reached us upon our arrival that on July 9, 2003, Gary MacEoin had died at the age of ninety-four. Gary was a reporter, author, editor, and human rights activist who specialized in the politics and poverty of the Third World, especially Latin America, and a longtime contributor to the National Catholic Reporter. He was also a friend. It was Gary who had suggested to Shannon and I years ago that we should visit Gubbio, saying it was his favorite spot in Italy. We filed the information away for a rainy day and finally got around to acting on it when I needed a place to write. I believe it’s not an accident that I sat down to work on this book just as the lights finally went out in those magnificent Irish eyes, and that some of Gary’s magic was meant to find me here. I hope at least a small part of his passion and his integrity finds an echo in these pages.

  1

  VATICAN 101

  If you mill about St. Peter’s Square long enough, you will eventually see a black Mercedes sedan exiting from the Vatican, bearing a cardinal or a gentleman of His Holiness to some important engagement. (The “gentlemen" are Italian laymen, often from noble families linked to the papacy for centuries, who help the Pope greet visiting dignitaries and assist at other ceremonial occasions.) The passenger is usually seated in the rear, dressed to the nines, projecting an air of worldly power and importance. One can sometimes be forgiven for straining to see the connection between such affectation and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The world-weary Romans, who have seen it all over the centuries, have developed a kind of gallows humor for resolving the tension between the high ideals of the Church and its human realities. For example, those sedans from the Vatican bear license plates that read “SCV," which stands for Stato della Città del Vaticano, Vatican City State. The Romans, however, say that it really means Se Cristo vedesse . . . If only Christ could see.

  Similar jokes at the expense of the human side of the Vatican are legendary. Monsignor Ronald Knox, an Anglican who joined the Catholic Church, once famously quipped: “On the barque of Peter, those with queasy stomachs should keep clear of the engine room." (Barque is an antiquated word for boat. Thus “barque of Peter" is an old, but still venerable, metaphor for the Catholic Church.) Here’s another classic. Question: Why is Rome such a spiritual city? Answer: Because so many people have lost their faith in it. Even popes sometimes get in on the cynical act. Beloved roly-poly Pope John XXIII (1958–1963) was once asked how many people work in the Vatican, to which he is supposed to have replied: “About half."

  Yet the Catholic Church, like any social movement, needs an institution with which it can organize its common life. Without an institution, a social phenomenon dies. It’s not enough for Roman Catholics merely to have the Pope as a symbolic figurehead. The Church needs structures with teeth in order to make decisions, and to keep its 1-billion-strong worldwide membership in some kind of basic unity. Decisions have to be made about what the Church teaches, how it worships, and what position it’s going to take on important issues. Thus the Catholic Church needs a central administrative system through which information can circulate, contacts can be maintained, and decisions can be communicated and enforced. If Roman Catholicism did not have the Vatican, it would have to invent it.

  This was what Pope Innocent III meant when he wrote to the bishops of France in 1198: “Although the Lord has given us the fullness of power in the Church, a power that makes us owe something to all Christians, still we cannot stretch the limits of human nature. Since we cannot deal personally with every single concern—the law of human condition does not suffer it—we are sometimes constrained to use certain brothers of ours as extensions of our own body, to take care of things we would rather deal with in person if the convenience of the Church allowed it." Pope Sixtus V was equally candid in 1588 in Immensa aeterni Dei: “The Roman Pontiff, whom Christ the Lord constituted as visible head of his body, the Church, and appointed for the care of all the Churches, calls and rallies unto himself many collaborators for this immense responsibility . . . so that he, the holder of the key of all this power, may share the huge mass of business and responsibilities among them—i.e., the cardinals—and the other authorities of the Roman Curia, and by God’s helping grace avoid breaking under the strain."

  The aim of this book is to explain how the Vatican thinks, not to focus on its structures. Yet those structures influence the psychology and culture, so some understanding of terms such as Vatican, Holy See , congregation, superior, and so on is essential. This chapter covers that basic ground, laying out the vocabulary one needs to have and offering an organizational overview that will at least hint at who’s who and what’s what. Think of this as a basic survey course in college that lays the foundation for more advanced study, a kind of Vatican 101. This will be quick and, for experts, frustratingly schematic. Readers wishing a deeper treatment will want to consult the classic on the subject, La Curia Romana: Lineamenti Storico-Giuridici by Niccolò del Re, published by the Vatican Publishing House in 1998. It is a comprehensive work, truly the best resource for this material, and much of the highlights in this section are drawn from Re’s book. For those who don’t read Italian, the best resource in English is Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church, by Fr. Thomas J. Reese, editor of the Jesuit-run America magazine.

  THE POPE

  A properly theological understanding of the Pope as the successor of St. Peter and the instrument of unity for the Church is offered in chapter 5. Here we’ll take a more functional approach, asking what does the Pope do? One good way of answering that question is to consult the Code of Canon Law, which is the supreme law of the Catholic Church. Its answer is clear: the Pope is the man on whose desk the buck stops. Canon 331 describes the papacy this way: “The office uniquely committed by the Lord to Peter, the first of the Apostles, and to be transmitted to his successors, abides in the Bishop of the Church of Rome. He is the head of the College of Bishops, the Vicar of Christ, and the Pastor of the universal Church here on earth. Consequently, by virtue of his office, he has supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, and he can always freely exercise this power." To u
se the language of political science, the Pope holds full executive, legislative, and judicial power in the Catholic Church. There are no “checks and balances" as in a modern secular state. It’s often said that the Catholic Church is not a democracy, and from a canonical point of view that’s right on the money. (This leads to the old joke that the Catholic Church is an absolute monarchy tempered by selective disobedience!) That should not be understood, however, in the pejorative sense that the Church is not accountable to anyone. The Church has its own system of accountability, and we will say more about that later.

  Yet to put the accent on the Pope’s power is, in a sense, to put the cart before the horse. Many non-Catholics don’t realize, for example, that the Catholic Church had popes for nineteen hundred years before it had a formal dogma of papal infallibility. The Church has clarified the powers of the papacy over a long historical process, which implies that the Church knew what the Pope’s job was well before it could list all the tools popes need to do it. The papacy is in the first place an idea, the conviction that Christ commissioned Peter to be the head of his Church, and that this role is passed on through time to Peter’s successors. As the successor of Peter, the Pope is the agent of unity who holds the Catholic Church together across space and through time. The powers of the office are the institutional expression of this spiritual and sacramental identity.