Cardinal Francis George tells the Tribune's Manya Brachear about the qualities that a new pope should have, one day before the cardinal heads to Rome to elect a new leader of the Catholic Church. (Chris Walker/Chicago Tribune)
As he prepared to rush to Rome ahead of a snowstorm at home, Chicago's Cardinal Francis George said Monday that the next pope should have insight about how the Vatican operates and the ability to lead a global church.
"You're talking about governance here," George said. "People say sanctity. Well, sanctity is nice, but there have been popes who have governed fairly well who have not been holy. … What's important here is governance. Can the man govern the church as a pastor? He has to be a man who knows the Lord because he's governing in his name. But it doesn't mean he's going to be a great saint."
George's interview with the Tribune was cut short as his staff scrambled to move up his travel plans to avoid a snowstorm in Tuesday's forecast. He will land at Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome on Tuesday morning, two days ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's departure to the Vatican holiday retreat of Castel Gandolfo on Thursday.
The cardinals will meet Friday to begin preparing for the conclave where they will select the next pontiff. George also voted in the 2005 papal election that chose Pope Benedict.
While George initially will stay at the Pontifical North American College on the Janiculum Hill overlooking Rome, he will join other cardinals at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, a secluded residence on the edge of Vatican City, when the conclave begins.
In many respects, the Eternal City has become George's second home. He spent 13 years there as the vicar general for his religious order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. During his time as a cardinal, he has served on at least eight congregations, or Vatican committees, advising the pope on everything from financial management and evangelization to charity and liturgy.
Like cardinals from Germany, France and Italy, George also has served as president of his national bishops conference. For three years, the job took George back and forth as a liaison between the Vatican and the American Catholic Church. It's those kinds of responsibilities that leave an impression on other cardinals enough to earn their consideration, George said.
"Those are all relationships that enable you to have some insight into how they operate, a little bit about what they do and how they think," George said.
George considers the mileage accrued between a cardinal's diocese and Rome an important credential for the papacy.
Time spent in Rome enables a cardinal to learn how the church traditionally operates. It creates opportunities for cardinals who are not posted at the Vatican to learn the leadership styles of others outside their dioceses. It also exposes them to a different set of pressures and gives cardinals a chance to witness how they would respond.
A cardinal does not have to serve in the Roman Curia, he said. In fact, Pope John Paul II did not.
"But he knew what was going on," George said.
"Because the administration of the church is in the hands of the Roman Curia, at that level, does he have some curial experience?" George added. "Does he know a little bit about what's going on? Can he handle it? Can he appoint people who are in charge?"
The informal conversations leading up to the conclave, George said, provide opportunities to share observations and ask questions. Those questions often revolve around a man's style of public ministry, his administrative abilities and "his freedom from his own cultural background if he's got to be universal."
"You assume the man is prayerful and that he understands and lives out of the apostolic faith," George said. "However, you might create a question about that depending on what he might have said (publicly)."
Kurt Martens, an associate professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America and an expert on the Roman Curia, wholeheartedly agreed.
"Comparable to government agencies, the Roman Curia will help the Roman pontiff when he's planning out his ministries as shepherd of the flock," Martens said. "That means the Roman Curia is at his service. If you don't know the administration and how it works, it's not going to be at your service. You might be at the service of it.
"I might even go a little further than his eminence. It's key for the new supreme pontiff to not only be familiar with the Roman Curia, but also to be willing to control the Roman Curia to make sure they do what he wants, not the other way around."
Last year, confidential memos leaked to the news media — a scandal dubbed Vatileaks — revealed allegations of corruption within the Roman Curia.
Indeed, in his new book "Evangelical Catholicism," papal biographer and conservative Catholic scholar George Weigel said reforming the Roman Curia will be one of many priorities for the next pope.
"The Curia not infrequently caused acute embarrassment to Benedict XVI, putting obstacles in the way of his evangelical, catechetical, and pastoral efforts, and ill-serving the Pope's attempts to reframe the global agenda of debate on the crucial issues facing humanity," Weigel wrote.
Martens agreed with the cardinal's point that experience in Rome outside a cardinal's local diocese also helps demonstrate how well he can shake off cultural habits or constraints.
"You have to almost distance yourself from where you come from and think for the whole church," he said.
Everyone is speculating whether the cardinals will choose a pope from the developing world, he said.
"Perhaps we are ready for an African or Latin American pope," Martens added. But when he's elected pope, "he becomes a Roman."
mbrachear@tribune.com
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