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Battle for power in the Vatican as well/ Pope Francis reveals for the first time the political 'maneuvers' during the papal elections

2024-04-02 20:11:40Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Battle for power in the Vatican as well/ Pope Francis reveals for the first time
Pope Francis and Pope Benedict

Pope Francis has revealed the political "manoeuvres" used to swing votes during the last two papal elections, while denying he plans to reform the process for future conclaves. The statements were made during a lengthy interview in a book that was published on Tuesday. 

The confidential revelations are contained in the book "Success: My Memories of Benedict XVI," in which the Argentine pope reflects on his relationship with the late German pope and settles accounts with Benedict's longtime aide.

The book, written as a conversation with Spanish daily ABC correspondent Javier Martínez-Brocal, comes at a delicate moment for the Pope. His poor health has raised questions about how long he will remain pope, whether he might follow in Benedict's footsteps and resign, and who might eventually replace him.

In the book, Francis revealed previously confidential details about the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict and the 2013 ballot on which he himself was elected, saying he was allowed to deviate from the cardinals' oath of secrecy. because he is the Pope.

In 2005, Francis said, he was "used" by cardinals who wanted to block the election of Benedict - then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - and that they managed to swing 40 of the 115 votes his way.

The idea was not to elect the Argentine, but rather to force a compromise candidate after Ratzinger's elimination from the race, he said.

"They told me afterwards that they didn't want a 'foreign' pope," - in other words, a non-Italian - Francis said, making it clear that the process was not so much about the Holy Spirit inspiring cardinals, but it was a cold and hard political calculation.

Francis said he ended the maneuvering by announcing he would not accept to be pope, after which Ratzinger was elected.

"He was the only one who could become pope at that moment," Francis said, adding that he too voted for Ratzinger.

In 2013, after Benedict's resignation, there were political maneuvers again. Francis – who at the time was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio – said he only realized it as cardinals were rallying behind him, peppering him with questions about the church in Latin America and hinting that he was gaining support.

He said he finally realized he could be pope when Spanish Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló came up behind him after lunch on March 13, shortly before the final vote.

The Spanish cardinal had what was clearly a health-related question about Bergoglio's ability to withstand the physical rigors of the papacy, as opponents had apparently raised his health as a potential obstacle to his election.

"Eminent, is it true that you are missing a lung?" Franciscus showed Abril's speech, to which he replied that he had part of one of his lungs removed after a respiratory infection. After assuring the cardinal that the operation had taken place more than 50 years ago, he remembered Abril muttering, "Oh these last minute maneuvers..."

Pope Francis has denied rumors that he is planning any reform of conclave rules for the next papal election.

Conservative media have speculated, without attribution, that Pope Francis was tampering with protocols to limit pre-conclave discussions about the needs of the church to cardinals under the age of 80. Only those cardinals - most of whom were appointed by Francis - can vote for the next pope, but senior colleagues are currently allowed to participate in earlier deliberations.

While Francis denied any such reforms, he revealed he was reviewing the protocol for papal funerals.

Francis said Benedict's would be "the last wake in which the body of a pope is exposed in an open coffin."

He said he wanted to ensure that popes were "buried like any son of the church," with dignity but not excess.

In the book, Francis also settles scores with Benedict's longtime secretary, Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, whom he first fired and then exiled from the Vatican after what he described as a series of careless decisions that "made it difficult for me life".

Gaenswein is widely believed to have helped fuel the anti-Francis opposition during Benedict's decade-long retirement, allowing Benedict to be used by conservatives nostalgic for his doctrinal papacy. He was behind some of the biggest 'battles' in the unusual coexistence of the two popes.

Francis reveals details about a well-known incident in 2020 in which Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Vatican's former conservative liturgical chief who co-authored a book with Benedict, reaffirmed the need for a celibate priesthood.

The book was published at the exact moment Francis was considering calls to ease celibacy requirements and allow married priests in order to address the shortage of clergy in the Amazon. It caused a stir because Benedict's participation in the book raised the prospect of the former pope trying to influence decision-making.

Francis blames Gaenswein squarely for the affair, insisting that Sarah was a "good person" who had probably been "manipulated by separatist groups". Francis said he felt compelled to remove Gaenswein after the riots.

"I was forced to ask Benedict's secretary to take a voluntary leave of absence, but keeping the title of prefect of the papal household and the salary," Francis said.

Gaenswein later sealed his fate with Francis when he published a lucid memoir, Nothing But the Truth, in the days following Benedict's death on December 31, 2022, a death that was highly critical of Francis.

"It hurt me that they used Benedict. The book was published on the day of his burial, and I felt that it was a lack of nobility and humanity," said Frančesku.

Francis insisted that Benedict always pushed, protected and supported him and was not behind any of the conservative attacks or maneuvers to undermine his authority.

He denied that his dry homily at Benedict's funeral, criticized by conservatives as lacking eulogy, was a sign of anything other than liturgical protocol.


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