Dailies and periodicals” “

The 9th public ordinary Consistory, convened by the Pope on 21 October for the creation of 31 new cardinals (including one “ in pectore“), was given wide coverage in the main international dailies on the following day (22 October). They especially reflect on the relation between Consistory and Conclave. “The Curia and the entourage of the Pope are taking steps to organize the succession”, is for instance the headline in Le Monde, over an article in which Henri Tincq comments: “The ‘consistory’ of thirty new cardinals (…) puts an end to a week of feverish reflections at the ‘summit’ of the Church, during which discussion focused less on the silver jubilee of John Paul II than on the future of an institution paralysed by the illness of a man who is no longer able to govern it”. According to the paper’s Vatican expert, it’s the question of the “succession” that monopolises the interest of the Curia and of the international press : “Some observers – argues Tincq – do not dismiss the hypothesis of a long-drawn-out end, in which the physical infirmity of the Pope would be compounded by his incapacity to communicate with his aides (…). Can a pope suffering from aphasia rule the Church? Such a case has never been presented before and is becoming the main topic of conversation in Rome”. According to Yves Pitette ( La Croix), John Paul II “is not unaware of the fact that his entourage is speaking of the succession”, nor “is it fortuitous” if “all his interventions” in recent days “have spoken of unity”. “Unity is not created in an abstract way, but in a particular place and round a particular person: in the Roman Church and round the Pope”: that’s how Andrea Riccardi, writing in the Italian Catholic daily Avvenire, sums up the words of the Pope to the Consistory, and he adds: “Today, in a time of globalization, [unity] is particularly apparent in a movement of communion from Rome to the world and from the whole world to Rome. This is a sign even more clearly recognisable in a globalized world, in which there has been a violent resurgence of identities (and with them the clash of civilizations that would like to justify war and terrorism)”. “The Pope gives a further ‘form’ to the group from which his successor will be chosen”, headlines the Herald Tribune. “There’s a strong probability – writes Frank Bruni -, given the Pope’s precarious health and the customary interval of three years for the admission of new cardinals, that the list of cardinals will not be further expanded. The cardinals already on this list have spoken out more than usual, in recent days, on the current situation of the Church and its future challenges. One issue that has emerged from the interviews released by many of them to the press is the concern that the Church’s decision-making process has become too centralised during the pontificate of John Paul II”. In recent days, the German press has been devoting a lot of coverage to the cuts in the social services and adjustments to pensions envisaged by the government’s reform package. “ In three weeks time, laws will be adopted that instead of giving something more to pensioners will remove something of what they already have“, writes Günter Bannas (17/10) in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ( Faz). “Citizens have the feeling they are being deprived of something. But Schröder fails to instil them with courage and to convince them that many things will improve once the measures decided will begin to have an effect”. Kerstin Schwenn comments (21/10): “After the meetings on pensions, the losers of the red-green policy can easily be identified: the country’s almost 20 million pensioners“. Writing in Die Welt (22/10), Marcus Heithecker comments: “The hope in other reforms exists, but it’s not enough to recreate trust in politics“. The Frankfurter Rundschau (22/10) attributes the German economic crisis to the German Minister of Finance: “If Hans Eichel were the trainer of a football squad, and not minister of finance, he would have been sacked long ago.” The fault is also that of Schröder, who ought to have “asked Germany for the transformation he expects of the nation“, not “ in a period of crisis“, but when “the economy was going well”. The weekly magazine Der Spiegel (20/10) also discusses Eichel’s responsibility for the German crisis: “ Schröder still has a need for him as an oracle of catastrophic news and sombre predictions. Like a lightning rod, he draws criticisms and disaffection onto himself and deflects attention from the inefficiencies of the government’s work“. Antoni Segura, of the University of Barcelona, writing about Europe in the Spanish daily El Periodico ( 20/10), argues that “the summit in Brussels left a substratum of pessimism due to the irreducible positions, especially of Spain and Poland, that prevented agreement being reached on fundamental questions”. In his view, “it was a 25-member summit without major decisions, but useful for seeing the contradictions that enlargement introduces”. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1242 N.ro relativo : 72 Data pubblicazione : 24/10/2003