Pope Francis’ decision to get rid of one of his worst enemies

Francisco has indeed sent an inspection to the important congregation of divine worship and the sacraments, after retiring the African Cardinal Robert Sarah, a traditionalist theologian with whom he had several difficult confrontations.

A month ago, the Pope sent into retirement due to the age limit the most prominent figure of the curators of the Roman Curia, the central governing body of the Holy See, Cardinal Robert Sarah, an African of Guinea, prefect of the Strategic Congregation for the Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Divine Sacraments.

With Sarah, the Pope had several clashes because the cardinal made changes and launched proposals, all net conservative stamp, that the Argentine pontiff rejected it. But Sarah, also closely linked to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, has always reiterated her loyalty. “I am not conspiring against the Pope, whom I always obey,” he said. But for Bergoglio it was a danger.

Sarah was a banner of traditionalists and conspirators against Jorge Bergoglio. The last fires of differences were kindled when the cardinal signed a book with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who later requested that his name be drawn, against the prospect that the Amazon Synod would approve the priesthood of heads of families. married in the Amazonian areas depopulated by priests.

The goal, encouraged by the same pontiff, was to ordain priests to the so-called “viri probati”, elderly deacons with a wife and children, to provide greater spiritual assistance. The Synod voted for but the Pope rejected the question in the final document of the Synod which he personally writes with absolute decision-making power.

Bergoglio froze the case because the ultraconservative response even threatened a schism. So the female diaconate, the other card that progressives believed they had at hand, was postponed “sine die”.

The departure of Cardinal Sarah placed the emphasis of the Vatican summit on the Congregation. A successor must be appointed in a fundamental department. Jorge Bergoglio has decided to send an apostolic visit which began on Monday by appointing the bishop of Castellaneta Claudio Maniago, president of the Liturgical Commission of Italian Bishops, member of the dicastery and supervisor of a new Italian translation of the missal.

The visit is in fact an inspection for the Pope’s envoy is free to examine all the work and each of the officials of the Congregation, one of the main “ministries” of Francis.

Monsignor Maniago said not to be alarmed, these visits are common when there are big changes. The Vaticanist of the newspaper “La Stampa” wrote that in reality it’s the first time that this internal consultation take place to elect the head of a dicastery. “Curial sources have underlined that it is obvious that there are things to put in order”, writes “La Stampa”.

The Pope has intervened on several occasions with his autograph signature to correct Cardinal Sarah’s restrictive interpretations on important liturgical questions. Many have seen the hand of traditionalists behind attempts to stop reforms or want to embark on a conservative path back to the good old days.

There have been several “paternal corrections” from the Pope to the Cardinal. At the start of the pontificate, Francis asked for a 370-word decree to allow women to be included in the ritual of washing the feet of Holy Thursday. The Congregation took more than a year to prepare it.

The “war of the masses”

Many wonder if the farewell to Cardinal Sarah was not accelerated by the appeal “War of the masses”. It refers to the daily celebrations in the central temple of Catholicism, Saint Peter’s basilica.

The tensions were revealed by a “concerned” letter from the Secretary of State, certainly approved by the Pope, which prohibited all canons and bishops from celebrating. individual masses in the basilica, also setting a daily limit.

The decision definitively evacuated the masses in an “extraordinary rite”, as the always well-informed Roman newspaper “Il Messaggero” reports through its Vaticanist Franca Giansoldati.

Masses in extraordinary rites are those, formerly called “preconciliar”, with the celebrant facing the altar and only in latin and not the faithful.

These rites have always been promoted by the most traditionalist and orthodox groups in the Church. The decision of the Secretary of State lowered the celebrations of the central naves of the basilica underground from the Vatican caves, by removing them “from the window”.

The demonstration was accompanied by a document signed by American Cardinal Raymond Burke, an old enemy of Francis, considered one of the main conspirators of the ultras. Burke asserted that the Secretary of State is not technically competent for liturgical discipline. The cardinal wonders with what authority he gave directives contrary to the discipline of the universal Church.

It is obvious that the Pope has approved the document, but Burke plunges the knife: he claims to know “which competent authority has given mandate to the Secretary of State to legislate on a question of sacred liturgy”.

Cardinal Burke, whose conspiratorial influence has lost much strength, argues that the document assumes “that at present (the masses) are offered in a climate which is to some extent lacking. liturgical decorum“.

Cardinal Burke’s maneuvers against Francisco have worried Bergoglio himself as they have shown how plots that have even been proposed for a schism are nested in the United States. The latest incident was the decision of the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dalton, to give all members of the College of Cardinals a book that analyzes how the next conclave to elect the successor of Jorge Bergoglio will be.

The maneuver is obvious and some Vaticanists have recalled that John Paul II expressly prohibited the cardinals from speaking about the protagonists and the themes of the conclave, because only the Holy Spirit can take care of them, present according to tradition in the Sistine Chapel when the cardinals electors under 80 elect the new pontiff.

Cardinal Burke had a partner in the conspiracy against the Pope: by compatriot Steve Bannon, who in his most influential time on the American far right was the campaign strategist that brought Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016.

When Tramp got rid of it, Bannon found his restorative mission in forming the Sovereignist Party in the European Union. In this task, one of his closest collaborators was the leader of the Italian League, Matteo Salvini.

The plan for ruin the EU over 27 countries and 450 million people failed miserably in the 2019 European Parliament elections. Bannon was reassured in planning and execution a school of young leaders of the European far right. He rented the Chartreuse de Trisulti for a lot of money, a huge convent of extraordinary architecture located 200 kilometers from Rome and a jewel of medieval Christianity.

But that plan also failed. The president appointed by Bannon was naturally Cardinal Burke, who resigned after the two got into a fight.

It was inevitable that several prosecutions would be armed to suppress the contract of possession of the Charterhouse of Bannon. A few days ago, the Council of State pronounced the last word by expelling the far-right Brotherhood nestled in Trivulsi, ordering the immediate expulsion of the Institute of Human Dignitaries which was to create in Italy, under the leadership of Steve Bannon, the international school of sovereignty.

The epilogue was the bankruptcy of Bannon, also accused in the United States of maneuvers “not holy” with the millionaire donations he collected to help his leader Donald Trump build a sinister wall to prevent the entry of poor Mexicans seeking a future in the United States.

Rome, correspondent