Cardinal Beniamino Stella stunned many cardinals this morning, April 30, at the seventh pre-conclave plenary assembly of cardinals when, according to a cardinal present, “he openly attacked Pope Francis” for “bypassing the long-standing tradition of the church” that linked the power of governance in the church to holy orders. Pope Francis, said Cardinal Stella, “instead imposed his own ideas” by opening positions of governance in the Roman Curia and the church to men and women not in holy orders.
Cardinal Stella, the former prefect of the Dicastery for Clergy, is 83 years old and thus not eligible to vote in the coming conclave.
Pope Francis made this major change in “Praedicate Evangelium” (“Preach the Gospel”), the Constitution for the Reform of the Roman Curia, which was promulgated on March 19, 2022. In it, he separated the power of governance in the church from that of orders and thus allowed for “the involvement of lay men and women also in the role of government and responsibility in the church.” Since then, the late pope had appointed two men as prefects of the Vatican offices for the economy and communications and, for the first time in 500 years, a woman, Sister Simona Brambilla, M.C., as prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. He also appointed women to other positions of responsibility in the Vatican.
America received this news from a cardinal who was present at the pre-conclave plenary assembly, also known as a general congregation, this morning. That cardinal asked to remain anonymous since the cardinals take an oath of secrecy not to reveal to outsiders what is said in these plenary assemblies.
“We have listened to many complaints against Francis’ papacy in these days, but the speech by Cardinal [Beniamino] Stella was by far the worst,” he said. He also revealed that Cardinal Raymond Burke spoke yesterday, also in a negative tone, about the previous pontificate but focused on aspects of canon law. Cardinal Burke, the former head of the Apostolica Signatura, has long been seen as a critic of Pope Francis’ policies and writings.
Cardinal Stella’s intervention was particularly disturbing to several of the 181 participants, including 124 cardinal electors present today, for various reasons, not the least of which is the fact that he was one of the people Francis trusted when he first came to the Vatican and gave him the red hat at his first consistory in February 2014.
Second, the cardinals were taken aback by Cardinal Stella’s intervention because he is perceived as the organizer of the campaign to have Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state under Francis, elected as the next pope. A second cardinal, who also asked for anonymity for the same reason as the first, told me that Cardinal Stella “has been pushing hard to convince cardinals to vote for Cardinal Parolin in the conclave” that opens on May 7. Cardinal Parolin is described by the Italian press (as well as bookmakers) as the front-runner to be elected as the 266th successor of St. Peter.
Cardinal Stella’s reasoning is “that it is necessary that after the papacy of Francis, which created disorder and confusion, one needs a diplomatic and moderate figure, like the secretary of state, to put things back in order,” an informed Italian bishop, who also requested anonymity, told America.
Cardinal Stella spent much of his life in the Holy See’s diplomatic service. After being ordained a priest in 1966, he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, where the Holy See’s diplomats are trained. Then, after earning a doctorate in canon law, he joined the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1970 and first served in its diplomatic missions in the Dominican Republic and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), before being recalled to serve at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1987. Pope John Paul II ordained him archbishop and assigned him as pro-nuncio to the Republic of the Congo and Chad in 1987. The pope sent him as nuncio to Cuba in 1992 and as nuncio to Colombia in 1999. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him to head the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy in 2007.
Francis, who had known and trusted Stella before he was elected pope in March 2013, appointed him as the prefect of the then-Congregation for Clergy in September 2013 and made him a cardinal in 2014. Cardinal Stella remained the prefect of that congregation until 2021.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, the dean of the College of Cardinals, who is chairing the general congregations and who sources also told America is actively supporting Cardinal Parolin’s candidacy, asked the cardinals to confine their interventions to five minutes but one of the cardinals told me that “many do not respect this time limit, and this morning one cardinal, the 93-year-old Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, spoke for 15 minutes.” In his intervention, Cardinal Zen criticized the Synod on Synodality, the cardinal said.
The first part of today’s session focused on the economic and financial situation of the Holy See, according to the Vatican communique to the accredited media. It reported that the German cardinal, Reinhard Marx, the coordinator of the Council for the Economy, “presented an up-to-date overview of the existing challenges and critical issues, offering proposals geared toward sustainability and reiterating the importance of the economic structures continuing to provide stable support to the mission of the papacy.”
Furthermore, it said that the Irish-born U.S. cardinal Kevin Farrell, the camerlengo of the church during the vacancy of the papacy, spoke as the chair of the Committee for Investments, on the committee’s role and activities. In addition, it said the Austrian cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the chair of the Supervisory Commission of Cardinals of the Institute for the Works of Religion, often referred to as the Vatican Bank, “offered a reflection on the Institute’s current situation.”
The Vatican also said that Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, L.C., the Spanish-born president emeritus of the Governorate of Vatican City State, “provided some details regarding the Governorate, with reference also to some renovation works involving buildings of the State and the support provided to the Apostolic See.”
Finally, it said, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the apostolic almoner, “spoke about the commitment of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity.”
The Vatican reported that the “Letter to the People of God,” which the press office released today, was read out during the second part of the session.
The second part of today’s session also saw 14 cardinals address the assembly. They spoke on a variety of subjects that included “a reflection on the ecclesiology of the People of God, with particular reference to the suffering caused by polarization within the Church and the divisions in society.” Some also spoke about “the value of synodality, lived in close connection with episcopal collegiality, as an expression of differentiated co-responsibility.” Several spoke on “[t]he issue of priestly and religious vocations” in relation “to the spiritual and pastoral renewal of the Church.” Several speakers “made explicit reference to the documents of the Second Vatican Council, especially the apostolic constitutions Lumen Gentium and Gaudium et Spes.” Others spoke about “evangelization” and insisted on “the necessary coherence between the proclamation of the Gospel and the concrete witness of Christian life,” the Vatican said.
Since tomorrow, May 1, is both the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker and May Day, and thus a holiday in both the Vatican and Italy, the cardinals will not meet for a general congregation and so will have time to meet and discuss the papabili and the conclave that opens a week from today. The next congregation will be held on Friday, May 2, at 9 a.m. Rome time.
