The presentation of letters of credence to new ambassadors is usually a formality with no relevance to the public, although held with great pomp, before the Head of State. Last Thursday they did seven new plenipotentiary, among others, Japan, and a few media picked up their names. In exchange, the ambassador of the State of the Vatican City, the smallest in the world, handed over his credentials to Felipe VI, with the trappings of a cardinal versailles garden. It’s called Bernardito Cleopas Auza, and had reached the Royal Palace in the chariot of time, dressed up with hat and coat red, escorted by the squadron of the Royal Guard on horseback and the squad of Beaters of the Municipal Police, and the anthem of the Vatican touched by the music band of the Royal Guard. The new apostolic nuncio in Spain and Andorra is a filipino, she is 60 years old, speaks six languages, belongs to the diplomatic corps of the Vatican from 1990, comes from serving five years as the maximum representative of the church in the United Nations and was accepted by the Council of Ministers on the 13th of last September, in a process that is discreet and fast.
he Had severe wounds to heal, and it would not be a vacancy as indicated. On the part of the Vatican, Francis wanted to forget the blunder of the nuncio earlier, the archbishop Renzo Fratini, who retired on the 2nd of July last, leaving a headline more worthy of the novelist Vizcaino Casas that of a diplomacy that boasts of being the most subtle and versallesca of the world. “They have risen to Franco,” he said in his farewell, not with the desire to equate such a miracle to the resurrection of the founder christian, but of slapping where it most hurt the socialist Government after months of rows to pull out of the basilica of the Valley of the Fallen, the remains of the dictator.
As the greatest resistance arose between the ecclesiastical hierarchies, pulled by the right, the vice-president of the Government, Carmen Calvo, had traveled to the Vatican to break the siege, and returned to Madrid convinced of having done so. So he said to the press, euphoric. An hour later, he found that the number two to the Pope, the secretary of State Pietro Parolín, the rectificaba without hesitation. Rome did not oppose, but did not support, came to say. It was a slight unexpected. Hence, the two parties have made efforts to close soon the crisis.
it Had been the Pope who took cards in the matter, looking for the excellence in between the large diplomatic corps of the Holy see. The chosen one was Auza. Of gentle manners, a moderate, easy smile, and experience in several countries, this archbishop filipino, she successfully coordinated the participation of Francisco in the UN General Assembly in September 2015, and has played a pivotal role in the promotion of the geopolitics promoted by the Pope is argentine in order to place the roman Church as an agent of credible processes of pacification and reconciliation, among others the Global Compact by Migrations. He was also permanent observer to the Organization of American States (OAS) and coordinated the help of the Church after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, where he had been as papal nuncio.
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pope Francis appoints a woman to a high position in the Secretariat of State, The new vatican nuncio delivered his credentials to the King
the Chosen candidate, you had to accelerate the agreement with the Government and mending fences for the immediate future, on the idea that, every time the Pope wants to appoint a bishop (you must do this with a dozen in these months), has of talking to the Government, which can be twisting the intent, as if Spain was out of China. As required by the Agreements that they replaced in 1976 and 1979, and the extravagant concordat franco 1953.
The catholic Church is not a State or a nation, but a more, although the most numerous of the religions that are at work in Spain. In practice, it is a organization double-headed. In addition to religious confession, works as a sovereign State, with embassies to virtually all the member States of the UN (its political dimension), and also they must prove to his nuncios to the national episcopal conferences (the spiritual dimension).
From these perspectives, the nuncio Azua comes at a crucial moment. On the one hand, is premiered a coalition Government of left-wing, in theory, radical in religious matters, and, in front, the Bishops ‘ Conference held at the march general meeting to renew their positions, with half of the opponents or even suspicious about pope Francis and a dozen venues with their prelates in the age of retirement, after the age of 75 years.
The archbishop Auza is in the midst of that intersection of circumstances, under siege in a way two-fold: you have said that you have the enemy outside the walls, but also has the enemy in the basement. To the Governments of the left are the bishops of the great mobilizers. What was cardinal Rouco, during its three stages as the president of the EEC, blurring the figure of a nuncio, then-archbishop Portuguese Monteiro. It does not appear that this will occur with Auza. Francis wants to change the Church (more specifically, against the scandals, poor for the poor, without many luxuries, nor desire of wealth, in Spain the self-confidence of bishops of the inmatriculaciones…), and hates conflict external. Auza comes to bring order, naming new bishops without turning to the Government. Your success will depend on Francis to come to Spain on an official visit. The is delaying “until there is peace”, has said on two occasions.
in Addition, the nuncio must carry forward its policy to the Government, without appearing weak. The vatican State has just 800 inhabitants, about 44 acres, but many bishops still standing the doctrine of the two swords, that is to say, the theory of the supremacy of the spiritual power (the pope) over the temporal (the emperor). To do this, the Vatican has millions of faithful in each country, convinced that they can aupar or bring down Governments. Experiences are not lacking, also in Spain. Nor enthusiasm.
football because others are going to mass
Or several rulings of the Supreme Court have calmed the dispute about whether the subject of catholicism in public schools and concerted, that teach tens of thousands of teachers chosen by bishops and paid by the State, should be given in school hours, and to have, at the same time, an alternative course (say) would be, the two evaluable. To do so, the bishops are fearful of losing students, which is what happened when, with the laws of the socialist Governments, the alternative was to recess, play a game of parcheesi (and it simplified the matter Aznar), or a kind of rigor less. What solution? Pressured by the bishops, or of good wins, the Executives of the PP legislaron that the subject would have a strong alternative, for example, a class of ethics. But the Supreme court returned to yountenciar that this was also illegal. Reason: if the alternative subject is serious, the students discriminated against would be the go to religion class and catholic morality, because it would lose a matter that the magistrates considered it necessary to study.
Like gibberish returns to the center of the political debate. The coalition Government has announced that it shall make very soon so that religion ceases to be assessable and will not compute for the average grade or obtaining scholarships. Also will remove the obligation to pursue an alternative course to those who reject the religion. The bishops have put the cry in heaven. But the arguments against such a course are stunning: to impose it on students who don’t go to class, catholic morality would be like to force to go to the football to the mass time because others want to go to church.
