Showing posts with label Secretary of State. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Secretary of State. Show all posts

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Factions Fighting for Position in the Vatican


Edit: Considering how the Jesuit, Father Becker, was passed over for a Cardinal's hat, when he's clearly in good health, there's a lot going on at the Secretary of State. It seems that Cardinal Bertone is opposing some of the more conservative appointments, but then, it also seems as though the criticisms being leveled against him aren't very substantial either. It's also interesting in light of frantic reports in the Italian press about a supposed threat on the Pope's person.

It is not impossible that these Cardinals have a foreseeable future in the Congregation of Doctrine and the Faith.


(kreuz.net) On the 12th of January the journalist Franco Massimo reported about apparent factionalism in the Milan daily 'Corriere della Sera'.

There are two factions: the group of State Secretary Cardinal Bertone and his opponents.

Between the lines, Massimo ascertained that the opponents of the Secretary of State are to be found in the ranks of the Italian Bishops Conference.

There was  [?]  even a group of Cardinals who intend to draw up an anti-Bertone memorandum.

Inner-Italian Conflict

Massimo says that with the most recent increase in the Consistory of Cardinals -- 30 of 120 -- has generated a lot of frustration.

At the same time, the Italian Bishops' Conference and the Vatican agrees that the Italians will not be able to agree on a candidate at the next Papal election.

Thus, Massimo points out the lines of conflict.

The Confidence of the Secretary of State



Of the new Cardinals there are three followers of Secretary of State Bertone:

- Archbishop Domenico Calgano, the President of Apsa, which manages the assets of the Holy See.

- Archbishop Giuseppe Versaldi, the President of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

-Archbishop Giuseppe Bertello, the President of the Vatican Governorate.

Msgr Versalde had originally been Cardinal Bertoni's candidate for the Archdiocese of Turin.

Actually, the Italian Bishops' Conference chose another candidate -- Msgr. Cesare Nosiglia (67).

Thus Msgr Versalde has been summoned to Rome, where he is to receive a Cardinal's hat before the current Archbishop of Turin.

In any case, the Secretary of State had no luck when the Patriarch of Venice, Angelo Cardinal Scola was named Archbishop of Milan.

According to Massimo's information, he is to have opposed this nomination.

The Charges Against Cardinal Bertone


The journalist explains that the Pope had not once succeeded in calming the conflict between the Bertone group and their opponents -- although he has publicly and privately called them to order.

Against Cardinal Bertone there are many -- often unspecific -- charges:

-Through the naming of new Cardinals his power base will -- in so far as a powerless Vatican generally allows -- grow further.

-He has made the Secretariat of State into a kind of Vice-Pope.

-He is one of the worst Secretaries of State, which the Vatican has ever had.

- He is indebted to provincialism and has reduced the international profile of the Catholic Church.

Two Unmentioned Things



Two important things were left unmentioned by Massimo.

Cardinal Bertone is already 77 -- and consequently a Secretary of State on call for retirement.

Other than that, there is a Salesian of Cardinal rank, the Old Liberal Prefect of the Congregation for Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato (72).

Like Cardinal Bertone, he is a former Secretary of the Congregation of Doctrine and the Faith.
It is not to be ruled out that Cardinal Amato could could return to there as Prefect.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Still More Spies in the Vatican

The sister was in the apartment of the Cardinal tidying up.  Then she pushed against the statue of the Mother of God of Fatima, which then fell to the floor.

Cardinal Casaroli's Coat of Arms


(kreuz.net)Pope John Paul II. was not the only one in the Vatican who pursued spies.  The Italian news agency, 'Adnekronos' reported on the 29th of December.


Even the former Secretary of State, Agostino Cardinal Casaroli († 1998), found a bug in his home.

It was for that reason that the Cardinal is said to have been shadowed by the Soviet Secret Service, KGB throughout the 80s.

Cardinal Casaroli was  in office from 1979 to 1990.

According to reports from 'Adnkronis' the Cardinal had a little statue of Our Lady of Fatima in his dining room.

One morning  a sister, who was a servant  in the residence, bumped into the statue.  The statue fell to the floor whereupon a bug was suddenly visible.

The Italian Secret Service had determined in the  90er that the bug had been placed by Irina Trollevera in the residence of the Secretary of State.

Mrs Trollerova was a Czech citizen and was married to the Cardinal's nephew.

Already since the election of John Paul II († 2005) in  1978, the KGB had planned to wiretap the Pope.

The goal of the exercise was, "to discredit the Church and the Pope himself with disinformation-actions and provocations."

Actually Pope John Paul II. had already had his experience with Secret Services.

He was already being investigated by the Communist Secret Police of his own country.

Link to the original at kreuz.net...

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Rome is Powerless in Germany

Most of the colleagues in 'Networks of Catholic Priests' are not prepared any longer to endure the patience-solutions, which have been proposed by the Roman authorities.

There are still only old Liberals coming in German, unscrupulous careerists in mitres.


(kreuz.net) "As the Priest Network was in Rome for the Priestly Year this Summer and we have been in contact with various dicasteries,  we were shaken by the powerlessness and helplessness of the Roman authorities in the face of Germany's plight."

Hendrick Jolie (46) said this in an interview in the most recent edition of the Catholic monthly magazine 'Kirchliche Umschau'.

 Fr. Jolie is a Pastor in the Diocese of Mainz and member of the Spokesman Committee of the 'Network of Catholic Priests' [Netzwerks Katholischer Priester].

"It is not even so, that one doesn't know in Rome, what is going on in Germany." -- he continued.

The 'Network' has been on a visit to Rome preparing an appeal, as it brought its own dossier on conditions in the German Church: "The opposite was actually the case."

A Congregation answered that it is "still much worst" than portrayed in the dossier.

In Germany The Problems Pile Up

Especially in connection with the British Hero Bishop Richard Williamson Rome was schoked, that the Bishops themselves were not too shy to distance themselves from the Pope rather than defend him.

Fr. Jolie counted numerous problems in the German Church:

-  The Pro-Abort organization 'Donum Vitae'

-  The ecumenical scandal- 'Kirchentag' with its homosexual propaganda

-  The distribution of Holy Communion to unbelievers.

-  The 'Central Committee of German Catholics' with its unspeakable President

-  The infamous ‘Königsteiner Erklärung’

-  The so-called pastoral teams which bury the office of shepherd.

For Fr. Jolie it is "always the same little game":  "Rome writes an instruction, a reprimand or the Pope admonishes the Bishop personally, to correct certain erroneous developments, and what happens -- nothing!"

The Thread of Patience is About to Break

 In Rome they feel powerless to go publicly against the powerful German Church-tax apparatus:

"Letters, reprimands and directions from Rome are met by the local authorities with so much disinterest, that it takes your breath away, is what someone in the Secretary of State Office told us."

For Father Jolie nothing else can be done, "than either to wait for the disintegration of the German Church-tax Monster or even waiting for a >>biological soluion<< in expectation on a decision maker."

Then he finally adds:  "Most colleagues in the Network are not ready to put up with the "Patience-Solution" being proposed by the Roman authorities.

 Link to original, kreuz.net...