The St. Gallen Round Table that made Francis Pope
Pope Francis's pontificate was initiated 20 years ago in Switzerland. At the Synod in Rome, progressive Bishops are now attempting to set the Catholic Church on a new course. (Originally published October 2015)
When Pope Francis, newly elected, spoke from the loggia
of St. Peter's Basilica on March 13, 2013, he described himself as a man
"from the other side of the world." That's one part of the story
about this outsider on the See of St. Peter who is in the process of changing
the face of the Catholic Church.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the advocate of the poor from
Buenos Aires, now a troublemaker in Rome. The other part of the story lies much
closer to home. More precisely, Francis owes his rise to the Successor of Peter
not least to a round table that met for years in Switzerland.
It was in 1996 that Ivo Fürer, the recently appointed
Bishop of St. Gallen, organized the first meeting of like-minded prelates.
Fürer is Secretary of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences, which is
based in St. Gallen. This council was founded after the Second Vatican Council
to give greater weight to the local European Churches. In this spirit, Fürer
wanted to bring like-minded people together in a small setting. "These
were very friendly and open discussions. Everyone could say what they thought.
There was neither a protocol nor an agenda," explains the now 85-year-old Bishop.
From breakfast to red wine
For their first meeting, the confreres gathered,
exceptionally, in Germany. Walter Kasper, then Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart,
hosted the event, inviting the group to the picturesque, medieval Cistercian
monastery of Heiligkreuztal. The charismatic Jesuit and Archbishop of Milan,
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, was the group's spiritual leader. The Dutch
Bishop of Helsinki, Paul Verschuren, attended, as did Bishop Jean Vilnet of
Lille, Bishop Johann Weber of Graz-Seckau, as well as Kasper and the then President
of the German Bishops' Conference, Bishop Karl Lehmann of Mainz.
The then Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario
Bergoglio, was not yet known to any of the participants at the time. But the
topics of the group, which met in complete seclusion and reserve, could have
come from a note on Pope Francis's desk.
The discussions, which lasted from breakfast until late
evening red wine, covered, among other things, the evils of Roman centralism,
the elevating of the role of Bishops' conferences, sexual morality, the quality
and appointment of Bishops, and collegiality.
"What Francis is trying to implement today corresponds
to a large extent to the ideas we had back then."
Cardinal Walter Kasper, member of the "St. Gallen
Group"
These are themes that are also resonating at the Synod on
the Family, which has been meeting in the Vatican since Sunday. There, around
250 Bishops are expected to reflect on the Catholic understanding of family and
marriage in modern society.
These involve very specific questions such as the admission
of divorced and remarried people to Communion or the treatment of homosexuals –
topics that also concerned the "St. Gallen Group." Ultimately, the
Synod brings together numerous wishes that these clergy members expressed
privately almost 20 years ago.
The Bishops' meeting in the Vatican is about whether Bishops
should be granted more autonomy in matters of pastoral care and whether Bishops'
conferences should be allowed to apply the Synod's guidelines to their own
social circumstances. "What Francis is trying to implement today
corresponds to a large extent to the ideas we had back then," says Walter
Kasper, now 82 years old and a Cardinal since 2001.
Ratzinger's Unpopular Centralism
Since 1997, the group has always met in Switzerland at the
beginning of January, usually in the Bishop's palace in St. Gallen. In the eyes
of the changing participants, the unpopular Roman centralism is embodied not
least by the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
Pope John Paul II is constantly traveling, and Ratzinger
holds the reins in Rome. In the 1990s, Ratzinger had a debate, particularly
with Kasper, about the relationship between local Churches and the universal Church,
which he, as the guardian of the Catholic faith, authoritatively decided in
favour of the Vatican.
"Their common denominator is the conviction that
Ratzinger's influence in the last years of Wojtyla's pontificate strengthened
the centralist and restorative forces," is how the authorized biography of
the Belgian Cardinal Godfried Danneels, known for his exceptional liberalism,
recently published in French, describes the St. Gallen group.
Danneels has been part of the circle since 1999, which met
in the Benedictine monastery of Fischingen that same year. The public is only
now learning of the existence of this semi-official men's circle.
The Round Table Now Co-Determines
When Danneels, the former Primate of the Catholic Church
in Belgium, recently presented his biography ironically referring to the St.
Gallen Church as a "mafia" group that aroused suspicion in Rome,
there was great outrage among conservative Catholics. Danneels is
controversial, among other things, because of his role in the Catholic Church's
sexual abuse scandal in Belgium. In 2010, he advised a victim not to go public
with her sexual abuse by a Belgian Bishop, the victim's uncle. Francis has now
nominated Danneels for a synod for the second time.
Kasper, the spokesman for an openness in the debate on
remarried divorcees, was also appointed by the Pope. The members of the former
Round Table now co-determine the Catholic Church's agenda.
Trust in Bergoglio
Bergoglio only appeared on the group's radar in 2001.
Together with Kasper, Lehmann, and the ArchBishop of Westminster, Cormac
Murphy-O'Connor, who, like other Bishops, was a new addition to the group,
Bergoglio was created a Cardinal in February 2001. In October, the Argentinian
served as rapporteur at the synod, which addressed the nature of the episcopal
ministry.
The Swiss group became aware of him on this occasion; his
skilful and collegial manner inspired trust. "The recognition is
mutual," states Jürgen Mettepenningen and Karim Schelkens in the Danneels
biography.
As John Paul II's health rapidly deteriorated in the
following years, the members of the St. Gallen group also considered the
successor at their meetings. Some participants from that time vehemently
claimed that no names were ever mentioned.
A postcard from Rome
When John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, the question
became acute. The Swiss Knights of the Table clearly do not want Ratzinger as
the new Pope. "We were a friendly search group that reflected on the
Church and its problems," says former Salzburg Archbishop Alois
Kothgasser, who joined the reform group in 2002.
There were never any programmatic actions, concrete
activities, or networks supporting a candidate at the conclave in St. Gallen.
Rumors that the group worked against Joseph Ratzinger are completely unfounded,
says Cardinal Lehmann, who hasn't been part of the group since the turn of the
millennium.
In 2005, the St. Gallen Knights informed Bergoglio of
their plans. "I understand," he replied.
Founding member Ivo Fürer, however, reports that names
were also mentioned during the discussions about the succession, but the
participants didn't commit to a candidate. "The name Bergoglio was also
mentioned," says Fürer. Shortly before the conclave in April 2005, the Cardinals
wrote him a postcard from Rome, although as a diocesan Bishop he had no voting
rights. It contained only one sentence: "We are here in the spirit of St.
Gallen."
Eight influential Cardinals close to the St. Gallen group
threw their weight and connections into the mix at the time: Martini, Danneels,
Kasper, Lehmann, Murphy-O'Connor, the Italian Achille Silvestrini, the Lisbon
Patriarch José da Cruz Policarpo, and the Ukrainian Lubomyr Husar.
In the conclave that elected favourite Joseph Ratzinger as
successor to John Paul II, there was a second protagonist. According to a Cardinal's diary published by
Vatican journalist Lucio Brunelli, Jorge Mario Bergoglio received the most
votes after Ratzinger. In the third round, 40 Cardinals voted for the
Argentinian. A tie threatened, as
Ratzinger lacked the necessary two-thirds majority. But Bergoglio withdrew, and the German became Pope.
In January 2006, the group, reduced to just four members,
met for the last time, partly because Fürer had resigned as Diocesan Bishop of
St. Gallen in October due to age. For eight years, the Bishops and Cardinals of
the circle went into a kind of internal exile. Then, on 11 February 2013,
Benedict XVI unexpectedly announced his resignation.
Grateful for the Church under Francis
At this point, St. Gallen is only a pleasant memory for the
former members of the circle. But now, in the face of a Church plagued by
scandals like the "Vatileaks," a new opportunity unexpectedly
presents itself for the reformers. As Austen Ivereigh, Cardinal
Murphy-O'Connor's former spokesman, writes in his 2015 biography of Francis,
"The Great Reformer," the "European reformers" are once
again seizing the initiative and, with the help of some Cardinals from Latin
America, are launching Bergoglio as a candidate for a second time.
It is said that this faction had already campaigned in vain
for Bergoglio in 2005. One of the leading figures in the St. Gallen meetings,
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, explicitly pointed out the plan to the Argentinian
before the 2013 conclave. "I understand," Bergoglio replied. At
least, that is how Ivereigh described the scene. Shortly thereafter, the
Argentinian became Pope.
Since then, the Catholic Church has been undergoing a
laborious process of transformation, which will also be debated at the Synod.
"I am very positive and grateful for the way the Church is now under
Francis," says a senior Bishop who was also present in Switzerland at the
time. The spirit of St. Gallen has long since found its home in the Vatican.
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