From Green to gays, to China and Finance. Among the voters, the need to bring the doctrine back to the center is a much more shared theme than it appears. As well as the desire to return to the diplomacy. And hope in a less media pontiff.
“The Church does not cut, the Church sews”. Under the Sistine Chapel, every knot waits for expert hands that dissolve it, certainly not the blade. So too Guglielmo d’Ost it is archived; no trauma, no thematic amputation on the threshold of Conclave. Yet the knots are there, resemble those of the Rosary and are so close that they prevented the congregations from loosening them. If the need to bring the doctrine back to the center is a theme shared also by Jesuit movementism; If the urgency to close the dossiers left (disorderly) open by Pope Francis It is an imperative for everyone, there are ten points on which the debate is open and the corners point again. Here they are.
Independence from temporal power
It looks like a topic of five centuries but it is not so: the China case represents an open wound in the Vatican for the superficiality with which Pope Francis He faced it. The 2018 protocol which provides for the approval of Beijing of the designated bishops has created a deep fracture between those who saw a return to subordination towards temporal power and those who justified the barter to return to a cult in the light of the sun. In the meantime, persecutions continue. A church submissive to governments do not like traditionalists, who accused the Pope of “softness” in criticizing the dictatorships in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba. Some prelates are still indignant for the decision to close the places of worship (especially in Italy) during the pandemic.
Reverse on green fideism
The enthusiasm of JORGE Bergoglio In facing the Green cause, it also aroused perplexity in cardinals and moderate episcopate. The pontiff had joined the ecological thrusts even with an encyclical (Laudato yes) of great media visibility, but of total practical evanescence. Despite a context of respect for the nature and creatures of God, the conservatives ask to dismantle the “green fideism” that tends to confuse Christianity with a hippie sect. Unconditional adhesion to the campaign of Greta Thunberg (welcomed in the Vatican as Giovanna D’Arco) he gave ephemeral popularity, but was the basis of a method inversion underlined by Cardinal Gerhard Müller: “The Church cannot chase the fashions of the faithful but must be the guide”.
Rainbow world and blessings
It is one of the closest knots. For progressives it is a fixed point, determined by the letter of Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez entitled Conference confidence which provides for the blessing of the unions between people of the same sex. After the literal revolt of African and Asian bishops, Francis He pointed out that “people cannot be bless, not the act”, also sending this topic into the purgatory of interpretative uncertainties. The new Pope will have to summarize between trend and doctrine, go beyond that “who I am to judge” who brought the church into the gay and transgender juniper, making himself exploited by the potentates and gay pride that make Ateism a dogma. The superior general general of the Company of Jesus, Father Arturo Sosa Abascalsaid: “If the mistakes of Francis They had consequences, we have to overcome them ».
Straight bar on non -negotiable values
On euthanasia, abortion and uterus for rent, the game concerns the lay people. Also because the ultra progressive thrusts of some episcopates (especially German and French) had already been mitigated by Franciswho repeatedly spoke of “scarce culture as a human shame”, embarrassing the number one of the CEI, Matteo Zuppiperceived as the Catholic soul of the Democratic Party. On values, the consonance of the cardinals is more significant than it seems. The return to the cardinal principles is also an alarm cry against the secularist West led by the European Union, repeatedly criticized by the Vatican “to have forgotten the Christian roots”. The souls in Conclave need the common front. As the Irakene Cardinal Luis Sako repeated, “the West emptied of values is no longer a guide for the East in which we are minority, often persecuted”.
Pedophilia between saying and doing
Here is another LEARD NODO. The theme was fundamental for Pope Francisthat after an ambiguous start (the story relating to the cardinal Theodore McCarrick), he faced him with rigor and decision, imprinting an acceleration to Pope’s interventions Ratzinger. With proprietary motu Like a loving mother, Bergoglio He codified a series of still stitches to stem the drift of pedophilia between the tonache. As Cardinal said Camillo Ruini“The Pope did not want to destructure, he wanted to purify.” With results all to decipher. A huge difficulty has been noted in moving from theory to practice, for example on the role of priests and bishops accused of “acts of omission”. Many pedophile priests have found shelter between the shirts of the canonical process, helped by slowness and procedural holes.
Accounts in red (and rich Americans)
The financial alarm is shared by progressives and conservatives. For the third consecutive year, the Vatican coffers cry: -78 million in 2022, -83 in 2023, -70 last year. With the donations in deep red. The faithful also have hands in their pockets: San Pietro’s Obolo recorded 52 million incoming and 103 outgoing. A signal of diffidence towards certain risky ecclesiastical adventures, with the offers of the mass used to finance the Mediterranean NGO of Luca Casarini or to pay the bills to the Roman social centers. Now a further spending review and a wisest strategy will be needed, also because the populist toys cost and the pension fund shows a 750 million chasm. Since the richest church is the American one and the number one in raising funds is the archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolanit is predictable that the Trumpian conservatives play a non -secondary role in the match.
Ambiguity with Islam
While the sample of Emmanuel Macroncardinal Jean-Marc Avelinetheorizes the great brotherhood with the Muslim world Puchessia, in Africa (Nigeria above all) the Christians killed are thousands and the burnt churches no longer make news. Overcoming the “progressive double -sisming” has become an imperative of all and goes beyond good intentions in relations with the Islamic world, where it is difficult to distinguish significantly silent moderate and criminal fundamentalists. A more careful and prudent line, which starts from reaffirming the Christian principles, is solicited by most of the cardinals in conclave. A line carried out by Robert SarahGuinean purple with numerous votes in the pocket, which theorizes: “Dialogue cannot ignore the enhancement of faith against dominant relativism”. Those who want to abolish the crib so as not to irritate the other religions will have to take ahead.
“The world war in pieces”
In a panorama of geopolitical tensions and radicalization of conflicts, the Church has as its objective the absolute value of mediation. The balance of Vatican diplomacy has always been appreciated because it is a meeting point between contenders. For this reason, the entire diplomatic body that works within the walls Leonine is perplexed for the moves of the papacy of Franciswith dialectical overexposure and poor results. The only success is the repatriation of the Ukrainian children prisoners of the Russians thanks to the work of Zuppi. For the rest, a walking from one capital to another without a strategy, without a voice capable of standing over the crackling of weapons. Here too the cardinals ask to return protagonists.
Sobriety in communicating
In the sacred corridors there is hope: that the Papa-Rockstar television interviews season has ended. While the progressives of the brigade led by Antonio Spadaro They continue to consider “being within the world” with the repetitiveness of words, the most conservative part asks for greater sobriety “because the Word of God is not like the others and must stand on the background noise of everyday life”. Authority against trivialization. Less show from Fabio Fazioless Scalfarian style exits with embarrassing consequences (such as the denial “of the resurrection of meat”), less video message to the Sanremo Festival. Silence and prayer, first of all.
Return to the flock of the Catholics
«Francesco seemed to privilege the distant to the detriment of the neighbors. With the paradox for which the lay people were mostly in favor of him while the believers were often against “. Cardinal’s thought Ruling summarizes everything. It is the corner stone, that of the Catholic Pope, of the shepherd who returns to deal with the flock. Hence a conclave with the task of expressing a shared figure, able to make the climb less impervious. In honor of the nineteenth -century motto in vogue in the Holy See: «The Pope will have to go well to everyone. And if it is not good, that at least it does not go sideways ».
