By Julia Meloni
2021 TAN Books, Gastonia NC
In the wake of the election of Pope Francis, the public became aware, either through hostile exposes or the self-serving boasting of its members and supporters, of the coordinated activities of certain prelates that had fostered the election of the new pope. This coterie had formed to discuss electing a liberal alternative to succeed John Paul II. After that initial goal failed, much the same team – now perhaps unofficially – remained intact. With election of Jorge Bergoglio they succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.
Julia Meloni has written a succinct history of the St. Gallen Mafia. It’s a story that often reads like the novels of Malachi Martin – especially The Final Conclave (1978) or Windswept House (1996) – but is all too true. Meloni has diligently sorted through the published material on the subject – much of which is online – and has put this into a coherent narrative.
Who were the key players here? Above all there is Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan, who exercised a role as the public voice of the liberal opposition under John Paul II and Benedict. Sandor Magister once described his publicly expressed alternative views as the commentary of an “antipope”; Meloni calls Martini an “ante-pope” in view of his status as the ideal progressive dauphin. Others of the left wing of the European episcopate – such as Cardinals Kaspar and Danneels – also worked, if in a less aggressively public manner, in this direction. Then there was Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, the representative of the Vatican bureaucracy and diplomatic corps, who assumed the role of an anti-Ratzinger leader and coordinator. These ideological and political players joined to further a program of further “reform” of the Catholic doctrines on homosexuality, divorce and remarriage etc. At a relatively early date and well prior to the 2005 conclave, they identified Jorge Bergoglio as a leading candidate for realizing their aims. Meloni describes well all these – and other – personalities.
But it would be a mistake if the reader would conclude that a sound Church had been subverted by a nefarious conspiracy. A cabal like the St. Gallen Mafia only exists because of the secretive, non-transparent clerical culture in which it operated and which continues to dominate the highest levels of the Catholic Church today. It is a milieu that encourages underhanded conduct and palace intrigue (the disclosures of Cardinal McCarrick’s career illustrate this well).
Furthermore, the “reforms” for which the St Gallen Mafia agitated were entirely public. Cardinal Martini might have been their most brazen exponent among high-ranking clerics. But the same ideas were and are being spouted at every Jesuit-affiliated institution of higher learning in the entire world – and at most other Catholic universities as well. And had not demands like those of the St. Gallen Mafia already been made at the Detroit “Call to Action” conference in 1976 – an event organized by the episcopal leadership of the Catholic Church in America? True, under John Paul II liberals had to “keep their heads down” to certain degree. But the reformers of St. Gallen could rely on a strong base of institutional sympathy and support for their ideas.
In a similar vein, it is evident from this book (and others) how incapable were Popes John Paul II and Benedict of confronting their ideological and political opponents within the Church. On the contrary, they seemed to go out of their way to flatter Cardinal Martini. Benedict also tried to remain on good terms with many of his progressive colleagues from Germany. Meloni insinuates the existence of internal pressure exercised on Ratzinger to block the Pope from pursuing his conservative revival. But do we really need to hypothesize such obscure forces? Wouldn’t Ratzinger’s own prior history of dealing with Catholic progressives in academia and the hierarchy – as well as his political ineptitude – have made his failures probable?
Finally, there are the conclaves. But weren’t the electors free to vote? Were they entirely gullible as to what was going on in the Vatican and progressive circles? And was it not probable that a Cardinal from the Jesuit order would share the ideology and political practices of most of his fellow Jesuits – also after being elected Pope?
So I would qualify Julia Meloni’s admirable little book as follows. Yes, I accept that progressive individuals did band together to frustrate conservative reform and elect one of their number as pope. But these intrigues only became possible in the context of deep seated and very public problems afflicting the faith and organization of the Roman Catholic Church. These are what made the election of Bergoglio possible. In actions like issuing the encyclical Amoris Laetitia Pope Francis may be implementing the ideas of the St. Gallen Mafia – but isn’t he also realizing the decades-old, incessantly restated demands of the progressive Catholic establishment? Some future historian, who will have gained access to all the sources now hidden from our eyes, will be able to fully lay out these intricate interrelationships. For now, Julia Meloni’s book is good place to start.
Related Articles
No user responded in this post