WHEN POPE Benedict presides this morning over two important Vatican ceremonies – one to “create” 22 new cardinals, the other to canonise seven saints – he does so against an unusually turbulent background.
Not only has the Holy See in recent weeks been shaken by a series of leaked documents containing allegations of corruption and a papal murder plot, this has also been a week when the Italian government has made it clear that tax privileges will no longer be extended to the church.
Obviously, accusations of Vatican City corruption, not to say the allegation that the cardinal of Palermo, Paolo Romeo, has been travelling the world (in this case China) predicting the death of Benedict (by November of this year apparently), all need to be taken with a snow-shovelful of salt. Consistories for the appointment of new cardinals always prompt speculation about the “next pope”, and the recent flurry probably fits into that context.
That is not to say, however, that the saga of the leaked papers is not important. However farfetched some of the documents might seem, there appears to be no doubt about their authenticity. Clearly someone in the Holy See is trying hard to embarrass someone else in the Holy See. It may well be true, too, that various figures in the ever Italian-dominated Holy See believe the time has come for an Italian to regain the seat of Peter for the first time since 1978.
For months now, Vatican insiders have been saying “the Italians” want the “top job” back, and that they have had enough of foreigners. Perhaps the only significant news item to emerge from the “murder conspiracy” theory is that Benedict allegedly favours the archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola, as his successor.
It’s worth pointing out here that the Italian hold on the so-called “universal” church is stronger than ever. Remarkably, Italy still boasts by far the largest body of elector cardinals (those aged under 80), with 30 of the 125 electors being Italians.
If cardinals were appointed on a proportional representational basis, it would mean that Italy had a Catholic population of just under 300 million, rather than 50 million.
Italy claims 30 elector cardinals as opposed to 22 from Latin America, which represents more than half the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics. This is a bit like suggesting that Italy is entitled to five places, including one permanent one, on the UN Security Council even if, obviously, such considerations are inappropriate when applied to a fundamentally non-democratic institution such as the Holy See.
Amidst all the gossip and speculation of recent weeks, however, two serious considerations emerge. First, there is the allegation, made in a Holy See document carried this week by leftist daily Il Fatto Quotidiano, that not everyone at the Vatican bank is on the same page when it comes to the fight against money laundering.
The bank continues to struggle to throw off the legacy of suspicion generated by the Marcinkus-Calvi-Banco Ambrosiano years of the early 1980s.
The latent anti-clerical sentiment in sections of Italian public life is also significant.
Last Wednesday prime minister Mario Monti told the European Commission his government would ensure the Catholic Church in Italy pays property tax on buildings used for commercial purposes (hotels, health clinics etc), thus ending a longstanding tax exemption privilege that had twice been strengthened by the Berlusconi government.
Asked about this decision, an ad-hoc opinion poll on Sky Italia TV showed that 93 per cent of Italians believe it is right that the church be obliged to pay property tax on its portfolio of more than 60,000 buildings.
Catching the popular mood, 72-year-old rocker Adriano Celentano, hosting the ever-popular San Remo song contest this week, railed against the church, telling churchmen to stop going on about death and paradise but rather to pay their taxes.
Was Benedict listening or was he counting the numbers for the next College of Cardinals?