Vatican City - In the hushed Apostolic Palace off St Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI starts the day with a 7am mass in his private chapel, followed by a lone breakfast. No press summary is brought to him. He meets a few visitors in the morning and then, after a lunch served on gold-rimmed plates bearing his seal, retires to his study to write speeches and read theological works throughout the afternoon and evening.
The Pope’s daily routine, as described by Vatican insiders, is being blamed for a series of blunders that have prompted a rare show of dissent from exasperated cardinals. Critics claim he is leading the church and its 1.2 billion faithful like a monarch cut off from the world outside his palace windows, helped only by loyal but inept advisers.
“People feel disoriented,” a senior Vatican official confided last week. “It’s a feeling common to both traditionalists and reformers. Our impression is that there isn’t anyone at the wheel.”
Hailed by his peers as “the most intelligent” candidate when he was elected Pope in 2005, the 81-year-old German pontiff has provoked outrage and a rebuke from Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, by revoking the excommunication of four breakaway bishops from the ultra-conservative Society of St Pius X. They included a British bishop, Richard Williamson, who has denied the existence of Nazi gas chambers.
Benedict then named Father Gerhard Maria Wagner as the Bishop of Linz, in Austria. Wagner had preached that Hurricane Katrina was retribution for the activities of abortionists, prostitutes and homosexuals in New Orleans.
Simmering discontent within the church exploded with the debacle over Williamson, who was subsequently removed from his post as head of a seminary in Buenos Aires and ordered to leave Argentina.
German Cardinal Walter Kasper, in charge of Jewish relations, denounced “misunderstandings and management errors in the curia” (the Pope’s civil service) – an implicit attack on the Pope himself.
Upset by the Williamson and Wagner decisions, Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn met the Pope in Rome earlier this month. The audience failed to reassure Schönborn, who called a meeting of Austrian bishops. They in turn urged the Vatican to learn from past mistakes and respect the rules for appointing bishops. They demanded “scrupulousness” and “sensitivity” in future.
Violating the custom that cardinals do not criticise one another, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the congregation of bishops, launched a loud denunciation of his Colombian colleague, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who was in charge of relations with the Society of Pius X.
On a bus carrying dignitaries to a religious ceremony in Rome, Re was overheard protesting that Castrillon Hoyos had forced colleagues to take a hasty decision. “He only gave me a few hours to sign. All because Castrillon will soon turn 80 and retire. If he hadn’t solved the problem right away, it would have been too late for him,” Re fumed.
For many inside the Vatican, the issue is the Pope’s style of leadership. “People feel that the Pope is governing in a very monarchical way. He fails to consult bishops and he has isolated himself by ignoring advice which could stop him making mistakes,” said Marco Politi, a leading Vatican analyst.
“The Pope believes he doesn’t need to take account of public opinion. He studies the files that are brought to him and decides very much on his own. The atmosphere around him is that he mustn’t be disturbed by criticism or visitors.”
Benedict offended Muslims with a 2006 speech quoting a Byzantine emperor who described the prophet Muhammad’s teachings as “evil and inhuman”. He upset Israel and Jews by saying he wanted to make a saint of Pope Pius XII, despite criticism that Pius had failed to speak out against the Holocaust during the second world war. Then he offended homosexuals by saying that their behaviour was a “destruction of God’s work”.
Benedict is ruling the church “from the top of the mainmast, he doesn’t have experience of holding the rudder”, said Giancarlo Zizola, a writer on Vatican affairs. “He performs the duties of a pope in the mornings, but in the afternoon and evenings he’s a theologian.”
Benedict meets far fewer people than John Paul II and does not share his predecessor’s habit of inviting guests to lunch and dinner. On the top floor of the Apostolic Palace he is flanked by Georg Gänswein, 52, his personal secretary.
“Father Georg is very strict, he selects who does and doesn’t see the Pope and keeps everyone punctual,” a Vatican observer said.
Several insiders fault Benedict’s choice of advisers, most of whom he has known for years. “The Pope has surrounded himself with collaborators who act more like obsequious subjects than real advisers,” said Zizola.
His main adviser, secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, 74, has the Pope’s ear but little political or diplomatic experience.
Church leaders are praying for a more harmonious leadership by the Pope, who will seek to mend relations with Israel on a visit to Jerusalem in May. At the Vatican last week Gordon Brown invited Benedict to Britain later this year or next, which may also help to bolster the pontiff’s reputation.
Bertone is expected to make new appointments to strengthen his team soon. “Sacking people would be like asking the Pope to go back on his decisions and that doesn’t happen,” Zizola said. “I expect the blunders will continue unless he decides to launch real reform of the way the church is run. Even in the Vatican you can’t just rely on the Holy Spirit.”
PAPAL FAUX PAS
Muslims, September 2006 The Pope quotes a Byzantine emperor critical of the prophet Muhammad
Jews, November 2008 He pays tribute to wartime pope Pius XII, who failed to speak out against the Holocaust