Waning Pope Cedes Governance to Sodano and Vatican Apparatus

by Christopher A. Ferrara

        This column has long noted the alarming predominance of Cardinal Angelo Sodano as an unelected quasi-Pope, who has even gone so far as to dictate his personal "interpretation" of the vision pertaining to the Third Secret. The Vatican commentary on the vision cites Cardinal Sodano’s "interpretation" no fewer than four times.

        According to Sodano, the Third Secret was fulfilled back in 1981, when the Pope escaped death at the hands of Ali Agca, and thus has nothing to do with any present or future event. Yet the vision depicts a Pope being killed by a band of soldiers in the fashion of a military execution. Sodano’s "interpretation" is thus plainly ridiculous. Yet it was the only way Sodano could twist the Third Secret so as to consign it — along with the rest of the Fatima prophecies — to the past

        And the real Pope’s interpretation? It is nowhere to be found in the commentary, even though in his sermon at Fatima in 2000 John Paul II explicitly linked an obviously yet-to-be-revealed aspect of the Message of Fatima to the Book of the Apocalypse and its reference to the "tail of the dragon" which sweeps one-third of the "stars" (consecrated souls) from Heaven. Ahem. Pope Sodano I is not interested in that interpretation.

        Well, even the secular press is catching on to the fact that the real Pope has taken a back seat to Sodano I in the daily governance of the Church. As reported by the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 6, 2003: "As the Vatican prepares for a high-profile ceremonial season with the pope’s health in question, the world’s largest and most powerful Christian institution faces an uncertain period in which top prelates are jockeying for position to influence both the church’s direction and the pope’s succession; public policy seems adrift or incongruous; and it is not at all clear who’s in charge."

        The article further observes that: "What is clear is that the 83-year-old pope is sick. As the world saw during October celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of his election, the pope no longer walks and hardly talks. In public, he speaks less and less. As he fades, other priests (sic) are, by all accounts, stepping in to fill the widening voids, and the pontiff’s role in day-to-day affairs is minimal."

        But Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls "denied the institution is adrift." Not at all, says Navarro-Valls. You see, the Pope is still in charge because, as Navarro-Valls put it, "his aides are able to anticipate and project his thoughts. His goals and ideas are there. They are impregnated in his collaborators." In other words, the Pope is now just a figurehead, and his "collaborators" are running the Church. But don’t worry — they know John Paul’s thoughts, and can "project" them. How comforting.

        And who are these "collaborators"? The Los Angeles Times notes that "The two most powerful men closest to the pope are Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, and Pope John Paul’s personal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz." Pope Sodano I is firmly in place, and the whole Church is expected to march to his Party Line — on everything from the Message of Fatima, which he has buried, to the evil United Nations and its evil outgrowth, the International Criminal Court, both of which Pope Sodano extols.

        Be afraid. Be very afraid. And pray that God soon delivers the Church from the virtual papacy of Angelo Sodano and his "collaborators."