The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, smiles microphone in hand. It is the fourth or fifth time they ask him the same question in recent days. What about Cardinal Becciu? Can you participate in the conclave and vote to choose the new Pope? With his leisurely voice, he dodges the question by charting the words of the previous occasions: “Now we are to talk about the Pope’s funeral. The conclave will be spoken later.” The remains of Pope Francis already rest in Santa María la Mayor, after a funeral held before more than 250,000 faithful. The day later is already guessed, a pontificate ends and, without continuity solution, the struggles to choose the Bergoglio successor begin. A succession that will be elucidated in the conclave, but for which some prelates belonging to the most conservative block of the Catholic Church have been working for some time.
They are the same that, for years, considered Francisco a Pope invalidto be the Catholic head and tried to make Joseph Ratzinger back up to his decision to resign because, then, and although his name did not appear in the headlines, he was already evident in the Vatican halls that Bishop Bergoglio had all the probabilities to be chosen. In the conclave where Benedict XVI emerged, he obtained many supports and, a posterioriit has been known that the Argentine prelate asked that his supporters stop voting. He supported Ratzinger. His moment had not arrived.
After the death of Pope Emeritus, the strategy completely turned: it was no longer about delegitimizing Bergoglio, but to look for a successor to return what they considered the order to the Church after what they have lived as a time of “rupture” with orthodoxy.
Characters such as Cardinal Gerdhar Müller, with Francisco’s inert body even in the Basilica of San Pedro, already talked about a possible schism if he did not return to orthodoxy, a strategy to which other glitter influencers have joined, such as the New York Timothy Dolan, or the always solicitous to criticize Bergoglio Robert Sarah or Raymond Burke.
Several of these purpurated have seen how they came out of their power stalls in the Vatican curia during Franscisco’s papacy, but have not been formed. From Müller who jumped from the head of the prefecture for the doctrine of faith or Angelo Becciu of the Obolo of San Pedro for his corruption scandal for which he has a provisional sentence.
Especially the latter, spearhead of the movements of the groups close to the magician who, grown after the choice of Donald Trump and the death of which he could be considered a direct opponent (Pope Francis), seek to make the church ‘great again’. And they have armasmoney, and time to do it.
This is the case of the report Red Hat (Birrete Report, in Spanish), which since 2018 has been investigating all cardinals to search for possible weak points, especially in the closest to Francisco, with the aim of eliminating any candidate who did not meet the rigid orthodoxy standards proposed by the ultras sectors.
Aware that many ecclesiastics have pitfalls in their past or ‘dead in the closet’, the investigation – disvened by National Catholic Report– He focused on searching for compromising information on the sloping ones closest to Francisco.
Thus, they were elaborated dossiers On the links of all cardinals with scandals of abuse or corruption, or with economic problems in their dioceses and witnesses who could try some kind of dishonest behavior. At the same time, ultra -conservative media launched a website in which brief reports about the cardinals are presented based on their orthodoxy about doctrine, in such disparate matters as their position in the face of blessings to homosexual couples, divorced married, the agreement with China or the masses in Latin. Aspects that Francisco has played.
All with the intention – counted in many cases – that the cardinals farthe Ránking prepared by this current as contrasted information to evaluate the possible successor. And, at least these days, they seem to have achieved it.
That ‘Birrete’ report is one more of the curial attempts to control the conclave. It already happened in 2005, when it was leaked that the then Cardinal of Bergoglio had been complacent with the dictatorship, something that did not prevent the following conclave from being chosen.
In fact, when pre -painted has not yet been entered, alleged weddddies, sexual scandals of others, or management scandals associated with possible candidates begin to be leaked. Although, publicly, the great scandal among the cardinals is in the participation of Angelo Becciu in the conclave.
Meetings resume
This Sunday will be a day of prayer for the cardinals, who will approach the basilica where the pontiff rests to pray for him and perhaps for the divine inspiration they need to choose the next leader of the Catholic Church. But behind the Latin phrases and the signs of respect, all are aware that the race has begun and that they begin to count the definitive hours.
The cardinals will meet again on Monday morning, although it is not known how many of them are already in Rome – the last general congregation attended 149 – nor how many of them may finally be voters, on account of the Conflict buckywhich had its great script turn on Friday, when the number two of the Vatican, Pietro Parolin, exhibited in front of these two letters signed by Francisco in which he vetoed the defenestrate enemy of Bergoglio, according to the former director of The Roman observer in the middle Tomorrow.
Outside the Roman walls, ultraconservative movements sharpen their teeth. Some, even from Spain. And it is that the priests who prayed for the death of Pope Francis, and who were forced to suspend the broadcast of their gatherings through the network announced their return this Friday afternoon, when Francisco’s body had not yet been buried.
One of the leaders of the Sacristy of the Vendée, ‘Pater Góngora’, published a tweet in which he referred to the final abrupt emissions, and a promise of return. And he did it with an attached message: “The moment is approaching.”
A message that has already been bounced by other ultras priests, such as the son of the butcher of Salta, Javier Olivera Ravasi, without, for the moment, his bishops have done anything to avoid it. The void of power seems to have also reached the Spanish ecclesiastical authorities.
Source: www.eldiario.es
