Card. Sodano and Italian Politics

Angelo Cardinal Sodano

Function: Former Secretary of State, Roman Curia

Title: Cardinal Bishop of Suburbicarian See of Ostia

Birthdate: Nov 23, 1927	Country: Italy

Elevated: Jun 28, 1991	More information: www.catholic-hierarchy.org

Send a text about this cardinal »

View all articles about this cardinal »

Card. Sodano and Italian Politics
Oct 16, 2004
With an ailing Pope functioning more at the level of symbolism than governance, Vatican policy is being set from the Apostolic Palace these days only on very big picture questions, and even then only in the most general sense.

(The Tablet, 18 September 2004) Normally some of this slack would be picked up by the secretary of state, who functions something like a prime minister to the Pope’s presidency. Yet the current occupant of the position, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, is largely captivated by Italian politics, preferring to leave most other questions to the relevant offices of the Roman Curia.

It is increasingly difficult to know what the “Vatican line” on any given question might be, with different officials staking out different positions. Thus the public comments of senior cardinals, even when they are voicing merely “personal opinions”, are scoured with unusual vigour to try to determine to what extent they might hint at an emerging official policy.

Despite these dynamics, there is little indication that Ratzinger or similarly outspoken Vatican colleagues, such as cardinals Alfonso López Trujillo in the Pontifical Council for the Family or Renato Martino in the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, have any intention of lowering the volume. The idea that there exists a single entity out there called “the Vatican”, with one mind and one will, and hence only one view of any issue, has always been essentially a myth; that point has never been more clear than it is today.

18 READERS ONLINE

INDEX

RSS Feed

back to the first page

printer-friendly

CARDINALS

in alphabetical order

ARTICLES