Perspective Cardinals acquittal met with
cynicism
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Christmas was undoubtedly merry this
year for Cardinal Michele Giordano of Naples, finally out from under a
three-year criminal investigation and trial for alleged complicity in a
loan-sharking ring.
Giordano, who according to prosecutors had sustained a scam run by
his brother with money from diocesan coffers, was acquitted Dec. 22, 2000. The
verdict brings to an apparent end one of the most convulsive episodes in recent
church history, the first time a cardinal has faced jail time for such a
criminal offense.
The trial was a running embarrassment for the Vatican, given that
John Paul II has so often preached against usury, and given that Giordano was
allegedly stealing money from some of the poorest and most desperate people in
Europe. Southern Italy is chronically underdeveloped, with an unemployment rate
rising in some places to almost 40 percent.
The outcome, paradoxically, was at the same time something of a
surprise and yet universally anticipated. It was surprising in the sense that
many believed the Dec. 22 decision might go against Giordano because of the
traditional omen of St. Januarius blood, which this year seemed to signal
bad news for Naples.
The legend of the blood is among the more colorful, if bizarre,
bits of church lore in this part of the world. The story goes that on Dec. 16,
1631, the people of Naples prayed to Januarius, their patron saint, to spare
them from an eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The saints blood, preserved in a
jar, supposedly liquefied, taken as a sign of a positive response to the
prayer, and in fact Vesuvius did not erupt. Since then the people gather each
year on Dec. 16 to see if the blood has liquefied again; if so its taken
as good luck for Naples, if not, bad. This time the blood stayed dry, and many
interpreted it as an augur of misfortune for His Eminence.
Some church wags, unimpressed with Giordano, say the blood
actually called it just right: The bad omen was that Naples is now stuck with
him.
Folklore aside, however, most people were convinced that no matter
what happened Dec. 22, Giordano would never see the inside of a jail cell, for
the simple fact that he is a cardinal and this is Italy.
After all, ultra-Catholic former prime minister Giulio Andreotti
was acquitted twice in recent years, once of having links to the Mafia and once
of conspiring to kill a journalist, and many believe he was helped out of those
jams by his close Vatican ties. Andreotti is a daily communicant and the editor
of 30 Giorni, the influential magazine of the Catholic lay movement
Comunione e Liberazione. In May 1999, as his murder trial reached its climax,
he was received by the pope at the end of a beatification Mass and given a
personal blessing on national television. Birthday greetings from John Paul to
Andreotti that same year expressed the hope that his suffering
would be for the good of Italy.
If a virtual cardinal such as Andreotti could not be
convicted in this country that is still in many ways under the thumb of the
papacy, a fortiori, or so the popular reasoning went, Giordano was all
the more beyond the reach of the law.
Personally, I cant balance my checkbook, let alone evaluate
a case against someone for loansharking. Hence I have no way to know if
Giordano was culpable. There does seem to be a tendency toward political
manipulation of the legal process here, and Giordano may well be as innocent as
the magistrate declared.
Yet there remains the clear perception the Catholic hierarchy has
created, wittingly or not, that taking care of its own is its
highest value. It is troubling that so many Italians who live with this
institution every day, whose families have lived with it for generations, are
convinced of its insincerity. One can invoke platitudes about familiarity
breeding contempt or scoff at Italian volatility, but the most intelligent and
deeply idealistic young people Ive met here will, rightly or wrongly,
point to this verdict as one more reason to regard the church as corrupt.
As for the Vatican, before Dec. 22 it steered something of a
middle course. Officials said they supported Giordano, but they did not bring
him within the comfort of Vatican walls where he could not be arrested, as had
been the case with American Archbishop Paul Marcinkus during the Vatican Bank
scandals of the late 1970s and 1980s.
After the verdict, however, the Holy See went on the offensive.
Papal spokesperson Joaquín Navarro-Valls said Giordano should have been
proclaimed innocent immediately (that is, presumably, before a trial), and
complained that when police sequestered archdiocesan offices in Naples to
examine financial records, they had violated the Concordat that regulates
church/state relations.
Most Italians I know, hearing the comments, shrugged and told me:
Some things never change.
John L. Allens e-mail address is
jallen@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, January 5,
2001
|