Papabile Cardinal Benelli
O'Grady, Desmond
ing toward union with Europe, requires a more modern church. If the Church is willing to relinquish some of its power, as in the case of marriage and divorce, it won't be stripped of it. If it is...
...Obviously he is a man to watch...
...If the election were held tomorrow, Benelli is both too young (56) and with too little pastoral experience to be a likely successor to Paul VI...
...This seems a more likely explanation of Benelli's immediate elevation to the cardinalate than that Paul VI intends to retire on September 25, when he reaches 80, or that he feels death is close...
...This centralized power within the Secretariat of State which became a kind of Prime Minister's Department, not only coordinating but supervising all the other Ministries (Congregations, Commissions, etc...
...If Paul were still pope, he could then succeed him...
...In the Vatican years ago, he received a delegation from the dissident Florentine parish Isolotto...
...He speaks excellent French and Spanish, good English and Portuguese and gets by in German...
...If it is willing to adjust the "disharmonies," then Hellenism and Greek Orthodoxy might once again be o n e . cogIE ROBERTS (CoMe Roberts, a previous contributor, is an American newspaper and radio journalist based in Athens...
...In Florence Benelli may find some waiting for him who will match him in brusqueness...
...Diplomats accredited to the Vatican praise his competence...
...Will he maintain this attitude in _9 Florenc~ which has always been a turbulent diocese...
...Joseph Ratzinger, the theologian who has been made Archbishop of Munich...
...Paul probably wanted to avoid a repetition of his own experience: when Pins XII made him Archbishop of Milan, after he had been Substitute to the Secretary of State, he did not make him a cardinal...
...As Substitute he was accused of throttling initiatives deriving from the Vatican Council But although Benelli is a disciplinarian in internal church affairs, on social issues he is not a reactionary...
...After postgraduate studies at the Jesuit Gregorian University in Rome, he entered the Vatican diplomatic corps in 1948...
...For instance, the Commission for the Revision of Canon Law might find its recommendations, fruit of a year's work, abruptly amended after Benelli had handed them to some of his advisors...
...As substitute to the Secretary of State for the past decade, Benelli has become known to all cardinals...
...After it, he was Vatican Observer at UNESCO in Paris and in 1966 was sent on his last posting before becoming Substitute: pro-nuncio to West Africa...
...5 August 1977:488...
...the Dominican Luigi Ciappi, theologian of the papal household...
...Many curialists were furious to find that Benelli changed their expert recommendations...
...But he has ensured at least that Benelli plays a key role in the next papal election...
...It is expected that, early in the new year, Pope Paul will make Benelli president of the Italian episcopacy, a post presently held by Cardinal Antonio Poma, archbishop of Bologna, who does not enjoy good health...
...The key man in the Secretariat was not so much the Secretary (Villot) as Benelli, largely because of his extraordinary dynamism which earned him the nickname of Monsignor Efficiency...
...The June 27 consistory, the sixth of Paul's reign, was held solely for Benelli, in the opinion of Vatican sources...
...He was appointed Archbishop of Florence, a cardinalate see, but he could have waited for elevation to the cardinalate as could the others who shared the honor: the African Bernadin Gantin, head of the Pontifical Justice and Peace Commission...
...And he is also young enough to succeed Paul's successor...
...Benelli served in the Vatican diplomatic corps in Dublin, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro before his Madrid posting...
...Balding Benelli is stockily built, moves like a rugby player and relaxes by driving fast...
...Among other things, Benelli virtually told them not to throw the penny catechism at him...
...His abrasive manner also got many backs up...
...Consequently he could not participate in the election after Pius XII's death...
...Benelli is a Tuscan with all their brusqueness...
...The consistory, then, according to Vatican opinion, was made by a Substitute for a Substitute just as was Paul's 1967 reform of the Church's central administration, the Roman Curia...
...Now, as cardinal, he can participate in the next papal election...
...0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Papabile Cardinal B e n e l l i In making Giovanni Benelli a cardinal, Pope Paul has not quite designated his successor...
...When the present Secretary of State, the French Cardinal Jean Villot, turns 75 in 3 years time BeneUi could well return to the Vatican as Secretary of State...
...DESMOND O'GRADY (Desmond O'Grady is an Australian journalist long resident in Rome...
...and the apostolic administrator of Prague, Frantisek Tomasek...
...At least when Vatican representative in Spain, he irritated the Franco regime by recommending that socially active priests be made bishops...
...In the Vatican, he was totally indifferent to the antipathies he aroused...
...Few others in the cardinalate college can rival his personal knowledge of other cardinals and familiarity with Vatican policy...
...But he would certainly be an influential figure within the conclave...
...For two years he was private secretary to the future Pope Paul who at that time was Substitute (or Deputy) to the Secretary of State...
...He was born one of three children of middle-class parents in a small hamlet, Poggiole di Vernio, near Pistoia, Tuscany...
Vol. 104 • August 1977 • No. 16
