The Great Reformer

by Austen Ivereigh

  27 Homily, “Misa por las Víctimas de la Trata y Tráfico de Personas,” September 23, 2011.

  28 Puente, La Vida Oculta de Bergoglio, pp. 289–300.

  29 Saint Ignatius in the 1540s founded a home in Rome for women escaping prostitution. It was called the Casa Santa Marta, the same name as the Vatican hostel where Pope Francis now lives.

  30 In Bermúdez, Pope Francis: Our Brother, Our Friend.

  31 The story is told by one of them in Piqué, Francisco: Vida y Revolución, ch 11. Deacons are clergy who may be celibate or married; can officiate at baptisms, weddings, and funerals; and can assist at Mass by preaching. But they are not priests.

  32 Arancedo, preface to Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Open Mind, Faithful Heart. Bergoglio describes his typewriter in a 2011 interview with the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA).

  33 Andrea Tornielli, “Careerism and Vanity: Sins of the Church,” Vatican Insider, February 24, 2012.

  34 This story was told to me by Maria Lia Zerviño, who worked at the time in the diocese.

  35 José María Poirier’s article was “Quiet Thunder in Argentina,” Catholic Herald, October 7, 2005. Isasmendi quoted in Allen, “Pope Francis Gets His Oxygen from the Slums.”

  36 He tells the story in Juan Martín Ezratty’s documentary, Francis: The People’s Pope (2013).

  37 Jorge RouillÓn, “Mis Días con Bergoglio,” Diario Los Andes, May 12, 2013.

  38 DVD Caritas Argentina (Buenos Aires), Retiro Anual 2010.

  39 Rubín and Ambrogetti, El Jesuita, ch. 6. Ambrogetti’s speculation is in Juan Martín Ezratty’s documentary, Francis: The People’s Pope (2013).

  40 See Bergoglio’s essay, “For Man,” in Elisa Buzzi (ed.), A Generative Thought: An Introduction to the Works of Luigi Giussani (Montreal: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2003).

  41 Bergoglio spoke at the launch of two of Giussani’s books, praising “the good that this man has done me, in my life as a priest, through the reading of his books and articles.” Silvina Premat, “The Attraction of the Cardinal,” in Traces, July 2001. Bergoglio’s prayer at the tomb of Saint Josemaría Escrivà is recalled by the Prelate of Opus Dei, Javier Echevarría, in an interview with José Beltrán, “El Papa Sentirá la Fuerza y la Compañía Espiritual de Benedicto XVI,” La Razón, March 24, 2013.

  42 Rubín and Ambrogetti, El Jesuita, ch. 12; Stefania Falasca, “Una Rosa Bianca da Santa Teresa,” Avvenire, March 24, 2013. Bergoglio told her that the tradition of asking Saint Thérèse for a flower as a sign that a prayer has been heard was started by Father Putigan, a Jesuit, in 1925.

  43 “Bergoglio, el Cardenal que Marcó una Época y Será Difícil de Reemplazar,” Perfil, August 7, 2012.

  44 “Homeward Bound” in Bergoglio, Open Mind, Faithful Heart.

  45 “The Failure of Jesus,” in Bergoglio, Open Mind, Faithful Heart.

  46 “Bergoglio Comenzó a Negociar en el Vaticano el Nombre de Su Sucesor,” Tiempo Argentino, February 25, 2012.

  47 Fernández gives a detailed account of his treatment in “Bergoglio, a Secas,” Vida Pastoral (June 2013).

  48 One of the best summaries of Vatileaks is by Jason Horowitz, “Pope Benedict XVI’s Leaked Documents Show Fractured Vatican Full of Rivalries,” Washington Post, February 16, 2013.

  49 See Massimo Franco, The Crisis in the Vatican Empire (Milan: Mondadori, 2013), and Tornielli, “Careerism and Vanity: Sins of the Church.”

  50 The bathroom fall was reported in La Stampa after Benedict’s resignation was announced. Both the report and the decision to resign following the trip were subsequently confirmed by the Vatican newspaper and spokesman. See Andrea Tornielli, “El Papa Decidió Renunciar Después de una Caída en León, México,” Vatican Insider, February 14, 2013.

  51 “L’Ultima Intervista,” Corriere della Sera, September 1, 2012. Translation mine.

  52 Andrea Tornielli discusses reactions to the interview by Cardinals Gianfranco Ravasi and Angelo Scola in Carlo Maria Martini: Il Profeta del Dialogo (Milan: Ed. Piemme, 2012), ch. 18.

  53 “Bergoglio les Exigió a los Curas que Bauticen a Hijos de Madres Solteras,” Clarín, September 4, 2012.

  54 Jorge Mario Bergoglio, second reflection at Caritas retreat, on DVD, November 3, 2012.

  55 Carlos Galli, “Una Nueva Hora de la Iglesia Latinoamericana, y el Ícono Pastoral de Francisco,” Vida Nueva (Spanish edition), no. 2864, 2013, pp. 23–30; (Cono Sur edition) no. 24, 2013, pp. 8–13.

  56 Austen Ivereigh, “Synod of Bishops Ends with Far-reaching Goals,” Our Sunday Visitor, October 31, 2012.

  NINE CONCLAVE (2013)

  1 Interview with Giovanna Chirri of ANSA in various, Benedict XVI: The Resignation of a Pope (Turin: Ed La Stampa, 2013).

  2 Archbishop Leo Cushley, “A Monsignor Sobbed, Then Silence Fell,” Catholic Herald, February 7, 2014. Cushley is now Archbishop of Edinburgh and St. Andrews.

  3 Monsignor Viganò interview with Father Thomas Rosica, Salt & Light TV, October 4, 2013.

  4 Dolan, Praying in Rome: Reflections on the Conclave and Electing Pope Francis.

  5 Cardinal O’Malley interview with Father Thomas Rosica, Salt & Light TV, October 4, 2013.

  6 I was able to speak to Cardinal Pell about these issues while in Sydney, Australia, in May 2013. See also “Cardinal Pell Hopes for a Pope Who Knows How to Govern,” Vatican Insider, March 4, 2013. On Coccopalmerio, see Andrea Tornielli, “Curia Is in the Firing Line,” Vatican Insider, March 6, 2013.

  7 The curial strategy was revealed by Vatican Insider on March 2, 2013: “A Ticket to Vote for the First Latin-American Pope.” The Peruvian cardinal, Juan Luis Cipriani, spoke of the anti-Italian feeling in a Vatican Insider interview on March 27, 2013: “Papa Francisco: Un Místico con Capacidad de Gobierno.”

  8 These anecdotes come both from sources in the conclave and from friends of Pope Francis, and were shared on condition of anonymity.

  9 Account of this dinner from the staff of the Wall Street Journal, Pope Francis: From the End of the Earth to Rome (New York: HarperCollins, 2013), ch. 8. See also Cormac Murphy-O’Connor interview in The Catholic Herald, “When Pope Francis First Stepped…,” September 13, 2013. On the role of Santos Abril y Castelló: Giacamo Galeazzi, “Operación Santa María Mayor,” Vatican Insider, March 15, 2013.

  10 In his Francis: Pope of a New World (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2013), ch. 3, the leading Vatican commentator Andrea Tornielli says that there were no “campaigns organized in advance” of the conclave for Bergoglio. There was one.

  11 “Cardenal Ortega Revela Palabras del Cardenal Bergoglio,” www.palabranueva.net (March 25, 2013).

  12 Archbishop Quinn told this story to a gathering of priests in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 25, 2014. See Thomas Fox, “Quinn to Priest Group,” National Catholic Reporter, July 7, 2014.

  13 Valente told this to Andrea Tornielli, Francis: Pope of a New World.

  14 Cardinal Kasper told this story while in New York in May 2014. David Gibson, “Cardinal Kasper Is the Pope’s Theologian,” National Catholic Reporter, June 6–19, 2014. Francis spoke of the rose to an Argentine friend.

  15 See Associated Press report, “So What Really Happened Inside the Papal Conclave?” March 14, 2013; and Dolan memoir, Praying in Rome.

  16 The annulled fifth ballot was revealed by Piqué, Francisco: Vida y Revolución, ch. 3. Analysts who gave accounts of the voting in the days after the conclave include Andrea Tornielli (La Stampa), Carlo Marroni (Il Sole), Andrés Beltramo (Sacro y Profano), David Gibson (Religion News Service), and Giacomo Galeazzi (Vatican Insider).

  17 See Francis Burkle-Young’s classic history of conclaves, Passing the Keys (Lanham: Madison Books, 2001). On the smoke dramas at the 2005 conclave see John L. Allen, The Rise of Benedict XVI (New York: Doubleday, 2005), and John Thavis, The Vatican Diaries (London: Penguin 2013), ch. 1.

  18 “Papa Francisco Dialoga como un Hermano más con la CLAR,” originally posted on the Chilean website Reflexión y Liberación (June
26, 2013) and later removed.

  19 “Cross and Mission,” in Bergoglio, Open Mind, Faithful Heart, ch. 8.

  20 Monsignor Viganò’s interview was with Fr. Thomas Rosica of Salt & Light TV, October 4, 2013. In fact the cardinals were Vallini and Hummes, not Vallini and Tauran, as Viganò tells Rosica in the interview. In his interview with La Stampa, December 14, 2013, Francis recalls how, “before I showed myself, I knelt down to pray for a few minutes together with Cardinal Vallini and Cardinal Hummes in the Pauline Chapel,” which Father Rosica has confirmed in an e-mail to me. Francis’s recollections about his anxiety and then the “great light” were shared with Eugenio Scalfari of La Repubblica in an interview published on October 1, 2013. Because the interview was not recorded, Scalfari reproduced the exchange from memory and many details are questionable. But the experience Francis described is one he has often spoken of. See, e.g., Inés San Martín interview with Cardinal Francisco Errázuriz, “Confidant Calls Pope Francis a Changed Man,” Boston Globe, July 4, 2014.

  21 Murphy-O’Connor, interview in the Catholic Herald, September 13, 2013. María Elena Bergoglio and Daniel del Regno in Juan Martín Ezratty’s documentary, Francis: The People’s Pope (2013).

  EPILOGUE THE GREAT REFORM

  1 “Hebe de Bonafini le Escribió una Carta al Papa Francisco,” La Nación, March 21, 2013; Carlos Pagni, “Una Distancia Ideológica Menor que la que Presentía el Kirchnerismo,” La Nación, March 13, 2014.

  2 Alicia Oliveira in the documentary Francis: A Pope for Everyone (2013).

  3 Enzo Bianchi, “Il Pontefice che si é Fatto Uomo,” La Stampa, March 17, 2013; Austen Ivereigh, “Pope Francis Takes Fresh Approach to Papacy,” Our Sunday Visitor, March 31, 2013; Philip Pulella (Reuters), “By-the-book Vatican Braces for Unscripted Papacy,” March 14, 2013. Lombardi briefing, March 14, 2013.

  4 Dolan, Praying in Rome: Reflections on the Conclave and Electing Pope Francis.

  5 Bergoglio, “En Él Solo Poner la Esperanza,” in Reflexiones en Esperanza. I had a number of conversations that day with producers and correspondents from BBC and Sky, among others.

  6 Pope Francis, interview in La Repubblica, October 1, 2013.

  7 Pope Francis, interview in La Stampa, December 14, 2013; “Pope Francis to Revolutionise Running of Church with New Advisory Panel,” The Guardian, April 14, 2013; Yves Congar, Eglise et Papauté (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1994).

  8 John Allen, “Cardinal Picks Embody Principles of ‘Pope of the Poor,’” Boston Globe, February 23, 2014.

  9 Alberto Melloni, “La Riforma di Francesco,” Corriere della Sera, April 14, 2013. By “where possible” I mean that neither the Australian nor the US Church is a member of supranational episcopal bodies. On patriarchates, see Archbishop John R. Quinn, Ever Ancient, Ever New: Structures of Communion in the Church (New York: Paulist Press, 2013).

  10 Pope Francis, address to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (January 31, 2014), www.vatican.va.

  11 Evangelii Gaudium 32, 184. The Paul VI quote is from his 1971 encyclical, Octogesima Adveniens. Inés San Martín, “Pope Urges Protection for Minors Crossing the US Border,” Boston Globe, July 15, 2014.

  12 “Pope Says Structures for Collaboration, Collegiality Need Strengthening,” Catholic News Service, June 13, 2013; Andrea Tornielli, “La Comunione ai Divorziati va Affrontata con Approccio Nuovo,” Vatican Insider, November 30, 2013. Yves Congar, True and False Reform in the Church, trans. Paul Philibert OP (Collegeville, MD: Liturgical Press, 2011), p. 262. Cardinal Rodríguez quoted in Jonathan Luxmoore, “Church Entering ‘New Era’ Under Pope Francis, Top Papal Adviser Says,” Catholic Herald, January 23, 2014.

  13 “Letter of Pope Francis to Card. Lorenzo Baldisseri…,” April 1, 2014;. Ladislas Orsy, SJ, “Francis’s New Order,” The Tablet, June 21, 2014; Robert Mickens, “The Benedict Protégé in Francis’ Vatican,” National Catholic Reporter, June 2, 2014.

  14 John Allen, “The Synod Turns Sexy,” National Catholic Reporter, November 8, 2013; Josephine McKenna, “Vatican Confronts Shifting Landscape on Family Issues,” Washington Post, June 26, 2014.

  15 John Thavis, “Decision Time on Vatican Reforms?” John Thavis blog, February 18, 2014.

  16 Shawn Tully, “Holy Reformer,” Fortune, September 1, 2014.

  17 Austen Ivereigh, “Pope Francis Takes Fresh Approach to Papacy,” Our Sunday Visitor, March 31, 2013.

  18 See reports by John Allen and Inés San Martín in Boston Globe, July 9, 2014: “After Scandals, Vatican Aims to Be Model on Finances” and “Finance Czar Aims to Steer Vatican ‘Off the Gossip Pages.’”

  19 Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez de Maradiaga interview in La Croix, February 17, 2014. Interview with Cardinal Pietro Parolin in Avvenire, February 9, 2014. Cindy Wooden, “Pope, Cardinal Council Begin Work on Reorganizing Roman Curia,” Catholic News Service, December 4, 2013.

  20 Ingrid D. Rowland, “The Fall of the Vice-Pope,” New York Review of Books, June 16, 2014.

  21 Joshua McElwee, “Francis Encountering Curial Opposition, Cardinal Says,” National Catholic Reporter, April 21, 2014; Jason Horowitz and Jim Yardley, “Pope with the Humble Touch Is Firm in Reshaping the Vatican,” New York Times, January 13, 2014; Jonathan Luxmoore, “Church Entering ‘New Era’ Under Pope Francis…,” Catholic Herald, January 23, 2014.

  22 “Pope Reportedly Displeased by Sumptuous Canonization Banquet,” Catholic News Agency, May 23, 2014; John Allen, “Francis at 100 Days: ‘The World’s Parish Priest,’” National Catholic Reporter, June 17, 2013.

  23 Vanity Fair Italian edition, July 17, 2013; Economist, April 19, 2014; Prospect, April 23, 2014; Fortune, March 20, 2014; Time, December 11, 2013; New Yorker, December 23–30, 2013; Advocate, December 2013; Financial Times, December 29, 2013; Guardian, November 17, 2013.

  24 Paolo Mastrolilli, “‘Marxist’ Pope Is Jeopardizing US Donor Funding,” Vatican Insider, February 1, 2014; Eric Lyman, “Rise in Italian Catholic Church Attendance Attributed to ‘Francis Effect,’” Religion News Service (November 11, 2013).

  25 Cristina Odone, “Pope Francis Tames the Wolf of Wall Street,” Catholic Herald, September 26, 2013.

  26 “The Remarkable Figure of Pope Francis,” Financial Times, December 29, 2013. Tim Stanley, “Time Magazine’s Man of the Year Is Pope Francis. Alas, It’s Not the Real Pope Francis,” Daily Telegraph, December 12, 2013.

  27 Pope Francis, interview in La Vanguardia, June 12, 2014.

  28 Michael Sean Winters, “Pope Francis’s First Year: The Reaction,” National Catholic Reporter, March 10, 2014.

  29 Hilary White, “There Is Something Strange Going On in the Vatican,” LifeSite News, October 3, 2013.

  30 John Allen, “Right Wing ‘Generally Not Happy’ with Francis, Chaput Says,” National Catholic Reporter, July 23, 2013.

  31 Austen Ivereigh, “Francis-Scalfari: A Model of the Culture of Encounter,” Catholic Voices Comment, October 2, 2013. The interview is in La Repubblica, October 1, 2013. “Vatican Website Removes Pope’s Interview…” Vatican Insider, November 15, 2013; Eugenio Scalfari, “Il Papa: ‘Come Gesù Userò il Bastone contro i Preti Pedofili,’” La Repubblica, July 13, 2014; Andrea Tornielli, “The Pope’s Conversation with Scalfari and the Words Francis Never Pronounced,” Vatican Insider, July 13, 2014.

  32 Dwight Longenecker, “Should the Pope Tweet?” Aleteia website, May 30, 2014.

  33 John Thavis, “Curia Rumblings About a Pope Who Won’t Be Filtered,” www.johnthavis.com, May 2, 2014.

  34 Paul Elie, “The Pope in the Attic: Benedict in the Time of Francis,” The Atlantic, April 16, 2014.

  35 Reese quoted in Sally Quinn, “Pope Francis and the Church’s New Attitude,” Washington Post, September 27, 2013; Weigel’s riposte in “It’s Fun to Be Catholic Again,” National Review Online, September 30, 2013; Donohue quoted in Sara Miller Llana, “Pope Francis: Is the People’s Pontiff Really a Revolutionary?” Christian Science Monitor, November 6, 2013.

  36 Text of letter to Marche
tto in Zenit, November 15, 2013, in which Francis told him: “I consider you the best interpreter of Vatican Council II.”

  37 Francis X. Rocca, “With Few Words on Abortion, Pope Francis Shows a New Way to Be Pro-life,” Catholic News Service, January 10, 2014; Edward Pentin, “Pope’s Strong Words in Defense of the Unborn,” National Catholic Register, September 20, 2013; “Pope Supports Hermeneutic of Continuity,” Zenit, November 15, 2013.

  38 Pope Francis, interview in Corriere della Sera, March 5, 2014.

  39 John Gehring and Kim Daniels, “Joint Canonization Encourages Politicized Catholics to Bridge Divides,” National Catholic Reporter, April 24, 2014.

  40 Pope Francis refers to Paul VI in this way in an interview with Il Messagero, June 29, 2014.

  41 Pope Francis, Santa Marta homily for May 2013 in Pope Francis, La Verità è un Incontro: Omelie da Santa Marta (Milan: Rizzoli, 2014).

  42 Andrea Tornielli, “Pope Francis’ White Rose,” Vatican Insider, September 26, 2013. Francis told the archbishop of Ancona, Edoardo Menichelli, who with his permission recounted it at the launch of a book about Saint Thérèse.

  43 Austen Ivereigh, “Pope’s Protestant Friend Dies, but Push for Unity Lives,” Boston Globe, August 7, 2014.

  NOTE ON SOURCES

  The Great Reformer is nourished by four main sources: (1) the interviews I conducted in Argentina and Chile in October–November 2013 and subsequently in Rome in February and April 2014; (2) the writings and spoken words of Jorge Mario Bergoglio; (3) the existing books and documentaries on him as well as books on Argentine, Jesuit, and Catholic history; and (4) news media, mainly in Argentina, Italy, France, Spain, the UK and the USA.

  INTERVIEWS

  CHAPTERS 1 TO 5

  Recollections of Bergoglio as a young man as well as his backstory are taken mainly from interviews and reminiscences in the Argentine media following Francis’s election, though nuns of the Mercy Convent in Flores (Buenos Aires) shared their recollections with me.

  For his Jesuit period, 1960–1992, the following Jesuit priests (all “Father” with “SJ” after their names) who knew Bergoglio well were invaluable sources of insights and memories. In Argentina: Ignacio Pérez del Viso, Ignacio García-Mata, Juan Carlos Scannone, Enrique Fabbri, Fernando Cervera, Angel Rossi, Alfonso Gómez, Andrés Swinnen, Rafael Velasco, and Leonardo Nardín; in Chile: Juan Valdés and Fernando Montes; and in Rome: Guillermo Ortiz and Miguel Yáñez. The following former Jesuits who were in formation with Bergoglio also shared their memories: (Argentina) Jorge González Mament; (Chile) Raúl Vergara, Juan Eduardo García-Huidobro; (Uruguay) Francisco López.