On the day that the extraordinary consistory of cardinals opened in the Vatican, Brazil's Cardinal Aloisio Lorscheider outlined some of the underlying tensions facing the four-day meeting when he told the French daily, La Croix, that the Pope is "a prisoner of those who surround him".
Cardinal Lorscheider's comments came as the Pope made a brief introductory address to more than 150 cardinals who have arrived from all over the world for the sixth "extraordinary" consistory of this pontificate. Referring to his apostolic letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte (Towards the New Millennium), the Pope outlined the central theme of the consistory.
"The memory of the Holy Year is still alive in all of us," the Pope said. "When I think back with emotion on all the many moments and numerous events that we shared during the Holy Year, I pray that God's will, which enabled us to share some extraordinary ecclesiastical experiences, will continue to guide us and help us now to identify the forthcoming challenges in this current epochmaking moment . . . help us outline concrete programmes for the evangelising work of the church, on the eve of this new millennium."
The Pope went on to suggest that greater involvement on the part of the laity should become one of those "concrete programmes". "We should now concern ourselves with both preparing and making full use of all pastoral workers because the field of apostolic action that lies before us is both vast and complex."
Pope John Paul was flanked by Cardinal Bernardin Gantin of Benin and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of the Vatican Congregation for Doctrine, along with the Vatican's number two, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
The meeting opened only three days after the Pope turned 81 and is widely seen as a trial run for the day when the 134 cardinals young enough to participate in a closed-door conclave will choose his successor. As well as the future role of the laity, issues such as collegiality, inter-religious and ecumenical relations, declining vocations and the growing north-south divide are all likely to figure in the discussions of the next few days.
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray of France, making the opening consistory address as jubilee committee president, immediately highlighted the difficult nature of the Catholic Church's relations with parts of the Islamic world. "How can we not think about the continent of Asia, where the [Catholic] church is a tiny minority amidst a population that represents a majority of the world's people?"
An indication of the controversial nature of another of the issues certain to dominate this week's discussions came from the surprising statements attributed to Cardinal Lorscheider in La Croix. "The Pope is a prisoner of those who surround him and who undermine him . . . The Pope has made many efforts to change things but, none the less, I don't think he has succeeded."
Referring to the Second Vatican Council, he said: "The current centralisation of the church does not seem to pay any attention to the council decisions. The collegiality called for at Vatican II is far from the current reality. This week in Rome I will be calling, above all, for the central organisation of the Holy See to listen more to the bishops . . . All of us in the front line suffer because of a faraway bureaucracy that seems ever more deaf."