By Renaissance standards the prelude to the papal election has been tranquil. But it has still been more boisterous than any in living memory. Almost every day the media have published stories of scandals, of gossip about the company cardinals keep, of discord within the Curia (the papal civil service) and of discreditable conduct by high officials that allegedly prompted Pope Benedict to resign.
The run of stories has led Cardinal Bertone, the Secretary of State, to claim that the media are trying to influence the result of the election by bringing the Curia into disrepute.
The media coverage and the Vatican response to it deserve reflection.
Some things are obvious. The reporting has emphasised the lurid and thrived on speculation.
In looking for a master story within which to situate the choice of the next pope, many commentators have naturally retailed the current default story of the Catholic Church: its identification with sexual abuse. But they have drawn attention beyond the sexual abuse of children and its cover up to accusations made against cardinals and others who have been unfaithful to their commitment to live chaste lives. This touches on governance.
Like sex, scandals in governance attract an avid audience. So the master story of the papal election has become one of governance in disarray — of Vatican departments riven by ambition, scandal and acrimony. Even if the reports are not true, hearers begin to wonder who leaked them, and in whose interest.
Cardinal Bertone is certainly right to surmise that this form of media coverage will encourage belief among cardinals as well as others that a radical reform of church governance is necessary. But what kind of reform?
The Curia is a whipping boy for critics of different persuasions. It is variously regarded as being too conservative, too strong, too weak, too out of touch, too in touch with unrepresentative Catholics in local churches, too arrogant, too clerical, too Italian in composition, too powerful or too weak, too pious or too worldly. Critics united in the desire to reform the Curia are quickly divided when they discuss in detail what reform should look like.
The Catholic Church is distinctive in the weight it places on its local and international dimensions and