Francis's enemies begin to mobilize

RomeDuring the first seven years of his pontificate, as second-in-command at the Secretariat of State, Monsignor Angelo Becciu was one of Pope Francis' closest cardinals. But in 2020, the honeymoon ended. The pontiff forced the prelate's resignation as Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the position he held at the time, and forced him to renounce his cardinal rights. An exemplary and previously unprecedented punishment.

The Italian cardinal had been implicated in a scandal involving opaque financial transactions involving funds from donations from the faithful and the Secretariat of State. Sentenced to five years and six months in first-degree prison, his presence is one of the mysteries of the upcoming assembly of cardinals who will elect Francis's successor.

"I have the right to participate in the conclave," Becciu, 76, said in an interview with the newspaper The Sardinian UnionIn his defense, the Sardinian cardinal asserts that Pope Francis withdrew his privileges as a cardinal, but did not suspend his duties as a cardinal, including the right to participate in the election of a new pope. "The Pope recognized my cardinal's prerogatives as intact, since there was no explicit intention to exclude me from the conclave nor an explicit written request for my resignation," he asserted.

The Sardinian cardinal's fall into hell is the sad parable of someone who brushed the throne of St. Peter with his fingers after an impeccable career within the Vatican Curia. Until his dismissal, his name was in every poll to succeed Pope Francis, to whom he became one of his most faithful advisors. This support was hardly obvious, since the emergence in 2013 of the pontiff "who came from the end of the world" opened A fratricidal war in the Vatican between conservatives and progressives who has yet to write his final chapter.

That's why he considered the Pope's coldheartedness in expelling him after his indictment to be a real stab in the back. "I have been treated like the worst of pedophiles, ridiculed by the world's media."

Becciu wasn't the only one. Throughout his pontificate, Francis did not hesitate to cut off as many heads as necessary to put an end to the Vatican intrigues that had led to the resignation of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. the controversial Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who wielded so much power as the Vatican's second-in-command during the German pope's reign that he believed himself invincible. However, according to his critics, Francis's papal authority ultimately turned him into an absolute monarch who fell far short of the synodality he preached.

A firm grip on critics

The Argentine pope's heavy-handed approach to his critics ended up turning them into a kind of countervailing power. It's no coincidence that at the forefront of the traditionalist movement that could influence the next conclave are prelates who confronted the Argentine pontiff before he removed them from their posts or forced them to retire.

One of the most representative is the case of conservative theologian Gerhard Müller, very close to Benedict XVI and known for his opposition to the reforms promoted by Francis, who dismissed him in 2017 after five years as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "At the end of the brief conversation, he briefly told me: 'You have fulfilled your mandate. Thank you for your work,' without giving me a reason, and he didn't give me one afterward either," the German cardinal recounted regarding the coldness with which he was ousted.

The most recent case was that of the American ultraconservative Raymond Leo Burke, whom Francis evicted from his 400 square meter Vatican apartment because the pontiff considered that he was using those resources against the Church. Burke had been – along with the German Walter Brandmüller, the Mexican Juan Sandoval, the retired Archbishop of Hong Kong Joseph Zen and the Guinean Robert Sarah – the author of a document (dubia, in theological terms) in which he raised his concerns with the pontiff regarding the Synod of Bishops, which reflected on access to the priesthood for married men, the female diaconate, and the blessing of homosexual couples.

African Cardinal Sarah, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and one of the most authoritative voices on liturgical matters, went further in his confrontation with the pontiff after publishing a book in which he attacked Francis' reforms and presented it as "written by four."

This challenge not only gave rise the most serious clash between Francis and the Pope Emeritus during his long tenure at the Vatican, but also put an end to the promising career of the German pope's historic secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who later settled scores with the Argentine pope in another controversial book.