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All the Pope's men

Pope Benedict is not alone in being a leader who chooses to work with men he knows and trusts. But an analysis of the priests he appointed to top posts reveals his determination to implement his own distinctive vision of the Church

"To the victor belong the spoils!" A United States senator coined that phrase in 1832 to justify the practice of presidential patronage. The noble words were meant to defend an elected man's right to give top administrative jobs to his most loyal supporters and not necessarily to those most qualified. Even though the Church shuns the language of "victors and vanquished", the system of rewarding loyalty is just as present in the Roman Curia as in any political system.

It is understandable that popes appoint men they can trust to carry out the policies they want. But since the Vatican bureaucracy tends to promote people from within the Roman Curia rather than bring in lots of outsiders, a pope who has spent time in those corridors has a distinct advantage over one who has not.

Such was the case of Pope Paul VI and, in no less a way, of Pope Benedict XVI. The first spent 34 years as a key official of the Secretariat of State and then nine years as Archbishop of Milan. The second spent five years as Archbishop of Munich and then nearly a quarter of a century as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) - effectively chief guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy.

In contrast, Pope John Paul II had never held a desk job in Rome. In fact, many analysts have argued convincingly that his Secretaries of State - first, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, and then Cardinal Angelo Sodano - ran the Curia for him. The "spoils" were in the gift of those cardinals and many Vatican appointments during the John Paul years reflected that.
While Pope Benedict XVI has allowed his own Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone SDB, to hand out a few rewards, they have been mostly limited to mid-level managerial posts. More importantly, after only four years in office, the Pope has been able to put a surprisingly high number of his own people in top slots in the Roman Curia.

Benedict has replaced a little more than half of the primary Curia posts with residential bishops and the rest with men who were already in Curia positions. But this is deceptive because in all but a couple of instances these diocesan bishops had already worked in the Vatican earlier in their priesthood. In fact, several of them were long-serving CDF employees or members of one of the committees headed by its former prefect, Cardinal Ratzinger (see below).

What these appointees have in common is an unquestioning regard for the theological and ecclesiological vision that Benedict XVI has spelled out over a lifetime of reflection and writing. Though a few of them are considered intellectually sharp on their own terms, there does not appear to be any among them that would dare cross swords with the man they revere as the "theologian pope". Almost all of them have dutifully echoed his warnings that society is being besieged by secularism, the "dictatorship of relativism", consumerism and philosophical materialism. And nearly all of them openly share the Pope's grave concern over the loss of a clear identity among Catholics, especially in places such as Europe, which they believe has seriously weakened the Church. 

One of the Pope's main concerns is to set forth authoritatively the "correct interpretation" of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, signalling an end to internal debate that had steadily diminished during the past 20 years. In fact, not a few observers and theologians are concerned that a full-scale revision of the Council is currently in process.

"It is perfectly normal for a pope to re-fashion curial leadership in accord with his own vision of the Church and its mission," says Professor Richard Gaillardetz, an American theologian who specialises in ecclesiology. But he added that he found the pattern of appointments "very disturbing" if these men were merely "executors of a papal agenda", because it is "difficult to know how the Council's vision of genuine collegial leadership can survive" in such circumstances.

Nicholas Lash, emeritus Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge agrees: "If these people are being chosen for their competence, that is good. But if these people are being chosen because they are, as it were, ‘ideological allies' of the Pope, then this is most alarming. Newman, on one occasion, said that the Church is never in greater danger than when a Pope becomes the spokesman for his own party."

David Gibson, author of the papal biography The Rule of Benedict, says that by appointing many of his long-time colleagues and acquaintances from the theological guild, the Pope is ensuring that all Vatican departments will speak in a theological register.

He points out that none of this should be a surprise given the Pope's personality: "He has never been good at delegating, which is what a pope must do in order to keep the Vatican machinery running. But he knows he must offload much of his work, and so he wants aides who he knows will represent his views and approach."

However, there are dangers inherent in doing this, according to Fr John O'Malley SJ, author of a new book What Happened at Vatican II?, who says: "From the Holy See one expects fair and informed judgements on questions disputed among professionals. This includes the complex question of what happened at Vatican II. The massive and careful historical scholarship on the council conducted on an international basis over the past several decades sometimes seems, through signals from the Curia direct and indirect, in danger of being ignored, belittled, or dismissed because of the prevailing mood."

There are more key posts that Pope Benedict will need to fill in the coming months. Among them are senior positions at the important Congregation for Bishops where the prefect - Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re - and the secretary - Archbishop Francesco Monterisi - are both past the age of 75. He is also expected to accept the resignation of Cardinal Walter Kasper, 76, as president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. Finally, the top two officials at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace are likely to be replaced in the next few months as head man Cardinal Renato Martino, 76, is expected to retire after the Pope releases his new social encyclical in a few weeks' time, and secretary Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, 61, is likely to be given an Italian diocese. Here, too, look for men with a strong doctrinal background, if not CDF work experience, as prime candidates.

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