Word: curiae
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...counting went on, two Cardinals who had entered the conclave as favorites listened attentively. Both are highly placed in the Vatican's powerful bureaucracy, the Curia: Sergio Pignedoli, who sat just to the right of the altar, and Sebastiano Baggio, who sat just to the left. But the name that kept resounding toward the shadowy ceiling of the chapel be longed to no seasoned veteran of the Curia. It belonged to a Cardinal who had never drafted documents from the dry heart of the Vatican at all, or served overseas in the papal diplomatic service. He had, in fact...
...second consensus, resisted to the end by some members of the Curia, was that the church, whatever its farflung political and administrative problems, needed a pastoral Pope. "It is one thing to interpret the faith and another to convey it to the people in the parishes," said one ranking Curia prelate. "That is something that the bishops-whatever their theology-understand better than the Curialists at their little desks...
Then how did the required majority coalesce so swiftly? One observer explained it succinctly: "The foreigners," the 85 non-Italians, did not want a bureaucrat from the Curia but a man who, like John XXIII, had the warmth of a good pastor. In addition, almost all the Cardinals seemed to want a man who emblemized faith as well as hope and charity, one who, like Paul VI, had a deep concern for doctrine. Luciani fitted both bills. He was also ideal in another respect. The Cardinals are always uneasy at the prospect of a lengthy papacy?15 or more years?...
Unlike his recent predecessors, the new Pontiff has never been a Vatican diplomat, has no experience in the labyrinthine ways of the Roman Curia, and has spent most of his life in the region of northeastern Italy where he was born (he never left Italy before last year, when he visited Brazil). But he is precisely what so many Cardinals said they were looking for: a pastor who shepherds his flock with concern, compassion and a profound sense of the spiritual...
This in turn revived the old Roman axiom, "A Pope is not elected against the Curia." Active and retired Italians with Curial experience, and the skill in papal politics that goes with it, far outnumber non-Italians. Ethnic solidarity enhances the prospects of three Curial Italians: Sebastiano Baggio, 65; Paolo Bertoli, 70; and Sergio Pignedoli, 68. At the same time, Curial clout damages the candidacy of Argentina's Eduardo Pirono, who is Italian descended but heartily disliked by many of his fellow Cardinals in the Vatican because he is an individualist and an outsider. (Besides that...