The church stood up and pointed the finger at Alberto Fernández

One of the officials closest to Cristina Kirchner already Alberto Fernandez he settles down in his chair and remembers. The maxim to be quoted must be at least 20 years old and must be targeted. Until he came out. “This is how ‘Cacho’ Caselli used to say: the Church does not make you win the elections but it makes you lose them “, tape, in reference to the almighty former secretary of the cult of Menem and intimate enemy of Jorge Bergoglio. It is a feeling shared within the government. Many in this space believe that the world’s oldest institution played against them and played a role in the OSP election debacle. It is a suspicion that over the days since the vote, the Church itself has grown. God moves in a mysterious way and so do his disciples.

It is because three important bishops marked the ground for the president in the week following the elections. And not only that: two of them are the men closest to the Pope and with more weight in the ecclesiastical organization chart.. And they had no Christian mercy on the president. In the background there is a smoke which can be black: in November the authorities of the Episcopal Conference change and the elections could be close. There is no pax.

Not holy. “In the Church, they are all disappointed with Alberto, starting with the Pope”. The voice that has spoken for several decades walks the ecclesiastical halls and enjoys the absolute trust of the most famous San Lorenzo fan in the world, whom he has known since he was simply Jorge. The source tells step-by-step how a relationship that had a good start deteriorated but which, through abortion law, went to hell.

When the pandemic began, with Fernández just taking over, the connection between the Vatican and Quinta de Olivos was fluid. The president had a direct dialogue with the Pope, regularly incorporated several of his reflections in his speeches – for example the famous “no one is saved alone” -, regularly received bishops and priests – once, when the Jesuit Rodrigo Zarazaga asked the present to pray, Alberto started to cry– He had incorporated a Virgin of Luján into his office desk, and the last thing he had done before leaving La Rosada to officially begin his quarantine was to go to the chapel of the government house to pray to the priest Brochero . It was a political but also a spiritual approach. “Is that the Pope had done a good jobSays one of the priests who knows Bergoglio best.

In this process, the President’s first visit to the Holy See had a lot to do with it. During this meeting, at the end of January 2020, Francisco, according to one of his relatives in Argentina, had “opened his agenda”. After this forty-five minute conclave, the Argentine government met Georgieva, from the IMF, and Angela Merkel from Germany. It was the invisible hand of the Pontiff at work. In addition, a few days after Fernández left the Vatican, the Pope delivered a speech calling on the IMF to grant “relief” to indebted countries. “This is why the relationship is as it is: Francisco played it for him and as soon as Alberto returned to Argentina, he put on a green tie “the source Bergoglian said, referring to the president’s support for legalizing abortion. In the Church, they believe that it was not necessary for the president himself to take charge of the project. Even Macri had the option of letting him debate without him in the middle.

This is why PASO raised old issues, ridiculous ones that were also noted during the Pope’s last meeting with Fernández in May, considerably shorter than the first. “President, time is running out”, was titled the letter from Víctor Fernández, Archbishop of La Plata and historic right-hand man of Francisco, to La Nación. It came out on Thursday 16, four days after the elections, and it was very hard for Fernández. “We saw it very entertaining with the Abortion, the marijuana and up to euthanasia, while the poor and the middle class had other deep anxieties that did not get a response, ”said the Pope’s friend. The registration and the forms – a letter in an opposition media, whose recipient is at the top of power and which is criticized with a first and last name – surprised everyone who knows Fernández: he is a man with a profile historically low. more discreet ways. Some saw Francisco’s hand behind the publication, although all sources consulted – Government, Church and Savage Franciscan – deny it.

Either way, the government confirmed its suspicions with Fernández’s letter. It was a fear that had been hanging around since 2015 – when, legend says and there are few who dare deny it, the Church of Buenos Aires supported Vidal against Aníbal – and now they are seeing it happening again. “There is also Father Pepe, the one who militated against usThey say to the government. Close to Pepe and the CEA, they deny all the versions. “We in partisan politics don’t get involved. It’s a cuckoo that appears in all the votes: when the officials lose, in their distribution of guilt, we also fall, but this is not true ”.

The next day, it was Oscar Ojea himself, the president of the CEA, who joined in the criticism. It was, yes, in the classic ecclesiastical tone: in the middle of a homily and being much more elegant than his colleague. “In Argentina, we are discussing power, we are not discussing the nation’s project,” he said in a homily, in a veiled sting at the institutional crisis suffered by the Frente de Todos the previous week. Then Jorge García Cuerva, Bishop of Río Gallegos, the historic cradle of Kirchnérisme, joined us. “When we couldn’t meet or vaccinate our grandparents, they were vaccinated and they met. They were not subjected to the restrictions of the pandemic and that’s why they didn’t understand what was happening to people ”, he said, in an interview with FM del Rosario.

In chapel. Beyond darts in government, the Church is also involved in its own internal sphere. In November the CEA is renewed driving today Ojea, near Francisco, and tensions reappear. There seems to be a growing distance between the bishops of AMBA, where the Pope has reached out in recent years and changed the whole leadership, and the interior, with a more conservative tinge. An example: in San Rafael, the conflicts reached such a point that the Pontiff, of the Vatican, ordered the closure of the only seminary in this city. Today, young people who want to be priests have to move to another city to study.

Faced with this election, say those who know the cloth, we must also understand the declarations of the bishops. Those who know Fernández say that he has everything on the right track – starting with his own desire – to replace Mario Poli, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, when he retires next year. The Ks, who suffered from Bergoglio when he was in this position, know this very well: it is a strategic location. In this sense, we must also read the statements of Ojea, to whom many in the Church have asked that during the previous week of fury he take a stand. “The government stumbled and the CEA did not issue any official statement. So we lose political weight, ”complained the right-hand man of an important bishop. Will there be white smoke?