(Vatican City) Appointments, reforms, diplomacy: since the death of Benedict XVI, criticism has redoubled in intensity in the Vatican against the governance of Pope Francis, revealing a climate of “civil war” within a Church in full thinking about his future.
A few days after the death of the German theologian, on December 31, his private secretary Mgr Georg Gänswein scratched the Argentine pope, claiming that the latter had “broken the heart” of his predecessor by limiting the use of the Latin Mass.
Far from being new, the criticisms expressed by the German prelate add to the reproaches against the “Francis method”, in particular on the part of the conservative clan of the Curia, the “government” of the Holy See, which criticize him for an overly lax doctrinal vision and a certain authoritarianism.
In mid-January, on the death of the controversial Australian cardinal George Pell, an Italian journalist revealed that he was the author of an anonymous note directly attacking Jorge Bergoglio.
Pell, a former close adviser to Francis who had notably contributed to putting order in the Vatican’s finances, describes the pontificate there as “disaster in many respects” and points the finger at the “heavy failures” of his diplomacy, weakened by the war in Ukraine.
But it was the publication at the end of January of a book by German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former prefect of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which set fire to the powder.
The theologian launched a violent charge against the governance and style of the Argentine Jesuit, denouncing the influence of a “coterie” around him and worrying about his “doctrinal confusion”.
“Unstoppable Escalation”
In the corridors of the Vatican, the book made people cringe. “When you accept the cardinal’s bar, you pledge to support the pope. The criticisms are made in private, not in public”, takes offense at a senior official of the Secretariat of State, who says he is “disappointed”.
For the Italian Vaticanist Marco Politi, this book “is a new step in the unstoppable escalation of the Pope’s adversaries”. “There is a civil war within the Church which will continue until the last day of the pontificate”, he explains to AFP.
Questioned on Sunday on the plane that brought him back from South Sudan, Francis regretted that the death of Benedict XVI had been “instrumentalized” by “people without ethics, who act for partisan ends, and not people of the Church” , he scolded.
These internal frictions appear all the more intense as they occur in the midst of the “Synod on synodality”.
With this vast worldwide consultation on the future of the Church, whose first phase of the final assembly will take place in October in Rome, the pope intends to decentralize the governance of the Church, but he comes up against notable differences between the reformist and conservative fringes.
“Mini Council”
This week, delegations from around forty countries met in Prague to discuss the themes at the heart of these debates (the place of women, the fight against pedocrime, remarried divorcees, marriage of priests, LGBTQ+ people, etc.).
With this world synod, “which is almost like a mini council, we will see what is the weight of the different currents within the Church”, observes Mr. Politi.
According to him, criticism of the sovereign pontiff “already serves to create a current of thought capable of influencing the next conclave”, and by extension, the future pontificate, he adds.
However, according to many observers, they do not seem to precipitate at this stage a possible departure of the pope, who seems more than ever in control as long as his health allows him to continue his task.
At 86, the head of the Catholic Church, who has always left the door open to a possible resignation, uses a wheelchair because of his knee pain, but remains as popular as ever, like the crowds who cheered him on in Africa last week.
“My health is not the same as at the start of my pontificate, my knee is bothering me, but I am moving forward slowly and we will see…”, he said on Sunday. And to add, with irony: “The weed never dies! »