Word: italianize
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Informal but highly important chats fill the suspenseful days before the conclave. The Cardinals hold a daily General Congregation in the ornate Sala Bologna in the Apostolic Palace, where, speaking in Italian or Latin, they handle preparations for the conclave. When the meetings end, usually around 1:30 p.m., the emerging Cardinals form groups of twos and threes and stroll slowly down Raphael's magnificent loggia or across the San Damaso courtyard three stories below. Other conversations take place during evening walks, a common form of ecclesiastical exercise. National and regional groups hold informal caucuses as a matter...
...question under intense discussion everywhere: Should the next Pope be a non-Italian for the first time since 1523? Austria's Franz König spoke in favor of that idea; none of his fellow Cardinals, however, appear to be joining such a movement. In fact, Spain's Marcelo Gonzales Martin declared that an Italian would provide the needed "balance and serenity." One seasoned Vatican official-neither a Cardinal nor an Italian-figures the conclave simply will not have the courage to break the centuries-old lock that Italy has on the office, even though non-Europeans...
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...
...Another Italian, Sicily's Salvatore Pappalardo, 59, was said to have picked up the backing of Belgium's progressive Leo Jozef Suenens. But the most mentioned Italians are Baggio and Pignedoli. On paper, Baggio's presumed backing appears formidable; it includes many Latin Americans, plus several votes, each, from Italy, Spain, Germany and the U.S. Pignedoli, long the most gregarious of Curialists, had the week's most active dinner table. Among his guests: Aloisio Lorscheider, president of the Latin American bishops' conference, and Tanzania's Laurean Rugambwa, who has influence among Africans...
...moment, at least, the Cardinal most in the public eye is France's Jean Villot, the first non-Italian in modern times to be Camerlengo (Chamberlain) or interim administrator of the Vatican between Popes. Villot was Paul's Secretary of State, which theoretically made him the Vatican's virtual Prime Minister and eminently papabile. In fact, Curial Italians routinely bypassed the Frenchman and dealt with Benelli, who was nominally Villot's assistant until he assumed the Florence see. But an adroit performance as Camerlengo could make Villot, 72, an attractive compromise choice...