Departing Pope's Daily activities

[MarieT]

The Popes days ahead

[MarieT]

His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus


(Vatican Radio) The end of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, at 20:00, Thursday February 28th, will be marked by the stepping down of the Pontifical Swiss Guard from the gates to the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo. At that time they will end their active duty, because their service is specifically linked to the Petrine ministry. The gates closing on these men, who swear an oath to protect the life of the Holy Roman Pontiff, will thus be the final act and lasting image of Benedict XVI’s eight year Pontificate. Emer McCarthy reports: RealAudioMP3

But he will continue to be called His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus. He will continue to wear white, a simple white cassock without a cape, but he will not wear the signatory red shoes, choosing instead the brown leather shoes gifted him in Leon, Mexico last year and with which he is very happy.

Moreover his fisherman’s ring and papal seal will be destroyed as they pertain specifically to the Papal office. All of these decisions on the future of Benedict XVI once the clock strikes eight pm on Thursday were taken by the Holy Father himself, in collaboration with the camerlegno and pontifical household.

They were relayed to press by Fr. Federico Lombardi Tuesday in the now daily briefing on the final hours of this pontificate.

Fr. Lombardi also revealed that the Pope is preparing for his final public appearances through prayer and reflection. And he confirmed that the Holy Father together with his private secretaries is also sorting between documents of a more personal nature and those relating to the Petrine ministry, ahead of his move.

But ahead of his departure from the Apostolic Palace, scheduled for 17:00 hrs Thursday he still has two great appointments one public and one private.

Fr. Lombardi revealed that upwards of 50 thousand tickets have been requested for Wednesday’s last general audience, which will follow the regular pattern of a catechesis and greeting in various languages. But the Press Office director also confirmed that many more pilgrims are expected to arrive without a ticket and will be able to gain access to the square.

After the general audience, the Holy Father will greet leading figures in the Clementine Hall, among others, the President of Slovakia, the captains regent of San Marino, the president of Bavaria, the Prince of Andorra.

On Thursday morning, at 11am, there will be a farewell greeting with all of the cardinals present in Rome. Thursday afternoon, the Pope will bid farewell to the pontifical household at 16.55, departing by car from the San Damaso courtyard. There he will take his leave of Secretary of State officials. From there, the Pope will go to the heliport where he will be greeted by the Cardinal Dean, Angelo Sodano. Shortly after 17:00 he will leave for Castel Gandolfo, where he will arrive at 17.15. At 17.30 he will make a brief greeting to greet the faithful of the Diocese of Albano from the central balcony of the Apostolic Palace. This will be the last public appearance of Benedict XVI.

At 20:00 the Vacant See begins. The following day, March 1, Fr. Lombardi confirmed that the Cardinal Sodano will officially convoke the Cardinals to Rome. He added that as March 1 is Friday the general congregations not begin on Saturday or Sunday, but "in all probability” will begin on Monday, March 4. The meetings which will determine the start of Conclave among other things, will be held in the New Synod Hall.

Finally Fr. Lombardi confirmed that there will be daily press briefings with general information of from the Congregations for journalists following the event.

source

[MarieT]

Vatican Diary / The last appointments before the departure

From Gänswein to Balestrero, passing through the IOR. An analysis of the appointments decided by Benedict XVI in the final phase of his pontificate. Not all of them were obligatory. Will they be a hindrance or a help to the future pope?

VATICAN CITY, February 26, 2013 – During the dramatic last weeks of the pontificate of John Paul II, by this time unable to speak and extremely debilitated, there were some appointments that raised perplexity.

Like that of Angelo Comastri, now a cardinal, as coadjutor of the archpriest of the basilica of Saint Peter.

Or like the acceptance of the resignation of Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo as archbishop of Managua, published together with no fewer than twenty-three other pontifical provisions during the last two days of the pontificate, with pope Karol Wojtyla by this time on the verge of death.

Without counting that there circulated constantly the rumor, not devoid of foundation, of an attempt - not successful - to replace in extremis secretary of state Angelo Sodano with Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, at the time the prefect of the congregation for bishops, the same congregation that had instead successfully arranged the resignation of Obando Bravo.

With the end of the pontificate of Benedict XVI as well there is no lack, and there will be no lack, of critical observations on his appointments at pontificate's end. Even if no one will ever be able to contest the fact that these appointments were made by a pope indeed "resigning” because he is weakened by age, but still in full possession of his powers and, above all, in full possession of his physical, mental, and spiritual faculties.

Having said this, it is nonetheless interesting to analyze what have been the last decisions that pope Joseph Ratzinger has made in the governance of the Roman curia and will leave to his successor, who however, it is always good to remember this, will be completely free to confirm them or not at the beginning or in the course of his pontificate.

In spite of the rumors unleashed by “Vatileaks," Benedict XVI has not at all punished his closest collaborators, but if anything has reinforced them for the future.

It is in this perspective that the appointment of his personal secretary, Georg Gänswein, as archbishop and prefect of the pontifical household can be interpreted. When this took place last December 7 there was no lack of those who pointed out the unprecedented anomaly of a churchman who united in himself the twofold position of secretary and of prefect of the pontifical household. But in all probability the pope already knew that this anomaly would not last long.

As for the economic-financial questions, it seems that Benedict XVI has wanted to leave to his successor an Institute for Works of Religion, IOR, directed by a clear “governance,” without any more of the unresolvable internal disputes that had been produced with Ettore Gotti Tedeschi at the head of the lay board.

This is the perspective that must be used to understand the appointment of the German Ernst von Freyberg in the place of Gotti Tedeschi, and the renewal of the cardinalate commission of supervision over the Vatican “bank,” which has seen the inevitable departure of Cardinal Attilio Nicora - requested by Moneyval in that it was incompatible with his presidency of the Financial Information Authority - but not that of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, an authoritative - and sometimes critical - voice of the classical school of Vatican diplomacy.

Cardinal secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone has been confirmed by the pope as member and president of the commission of cardinals of the IOR. The Salesian cardinal has also obtained that a cardinal of his innermost circle, Giuseppe Versaldi, should become a pontifical delegate with the religious congregation of the Conceptionists, the owners in Rome of two important healthcare facilities that are on the brink of failure because of bad management.

In the last phase of the pontificate, the influence of the focolarini in the Roman Curia has also grown.

In addition to the prefect of the congregation for religious, the Brazilian cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, the followers of Chiara Lubich already had two points of strength in the secretariat of state, with archbishops Angelo Giovanni Becciu, who holds the position of substitute, very important also in the period of the conclave, and Luciano Suriani, a sort of personnel manager of the curia, with an influential role especially in the appointment and transfer of nuncios.

But this already substantial squad of curial focolarini acquired even greater influence with the promotion last November of Angelo Zani from undersecretary to archbishop secretary of the congregation for Catholic education.

Also to be pointed out as significant is the appointment of the new undersecretary of this congregation in the person of Fr. Friedrich Bechina, 47, Austrian, highly esteemed in the pontifical apartment. He is a member of the spiritual family “The Work" (Das Werke), another member of which is Sister Christine, the nun who assists Benedict XVI's brother, Georg Ratzinger, during his stays in Rome.

But the appointment that has captured the greatest media attention in recent days has been that of the brilliant young Vatican deputy foreign minister, Ettore Balestrero, as archbishop and nuncio in Colombia.

The appointment in question, which took shape around Christmas, took on a particular dimension because it was published after the announcement of the pontifical resignation and precisely during the days in which the churchman was the object of hostile articles in the newspaper “la Repubblica.”

It is an important appointment, and difficult to decipher.

During three years of service Balestrero has won the trust both of the secretary of state and of the pontifical apartment. And this has brought him not a little jealousy. Without counting that it has been above all he who has innovated the international politics of his office: from a “softer” approach to more intransigent attitudes on ethically sensitive questions.

Now, at the age of 46, he is being sent to an important country, thus becoming the youngest among the nuncios and among the Italian bishops. At the same time, however, he must leave Rome for a faraway country. And the veterans of the curia maintain that even a minor post in the secretariat of state counts more than a nunciature, however prestigious it may be: this would be proven by the careers of the great Agostino Casaroli and Achille Silvestrini, who came down from their "cursus honorum" without ever leaving the Apostolic Palace.

In the Vatican it is nonetheless noted that the appointment of Balestrero in Colombia has an illustrious precedent.

In 1975, then-assessor (equivalent to deputy foreign minister) Eduardo Martinez Somalo, in office since 1970, was appointed at only 48 years of age by Paul VI precisely as archbishop and nuncio in Bogotà. And this was only a temporary removal. In 1979, in fact, the new pope John Paul II called him to Rome as substitute at the secretariat of state, a position that he would leave in 1988 because he was promoted as cardinal prefect of the congregation for worship.

The comparison between Balestrero and Martinez Somalo is undoubtedly intriguing. But it is obvious that for now it is limited only to the first phase, and nothing can guarantee that it will evolve in an analogous sense. Everything will depend, in fact, on who will be the next pope and on who will be the next secretary of state.

The pontificate of Benedict XVI is therefore closing with a series of significant appointments. But with one designation still lacking.

There remains empty, in fact, the position of secretary of the congregation for religious, a dicastery that has yet to draw the conclusions of the thorny and contested apostolic visitation to the American sisters.

After evaluating the hypothesis of a stars-and-stripes bishop, most recently it seems that thought has been given to the promotion of a religious from the United States, in all probability a Dominican.

But pope Ratzinger has wanted to leave this choice entirely to his successor.

source