PP's bid to pick Sistach's replacement fails

In the second volume of his memoirs, titled "The Commitment of Power", José María Aznar detailed the pressure that the PP government exercised in the succession process to Ricard Maria Carles as the Archbishop of Barcelona. Aznar wrote: "My government insisted to the Holy See about the error of yielding to the pressure of Catalan dioceses to appoint a replacement with a nationalist profile and the need to adhere to the principle of universality that would make a different nomination both possible and advisable, as happened in other parts of the world". Spain's former president revealed how he tried to assure that the replacement for Carles would not be a Catalan bishop. The maneuvers, executed with the help of Carlos Abella, Spanish ambassador to the Holy See at the time, did not bear fruit. Today's pressures to influence the choice of replacement for Sistach have also failed.

Aznar unsuccessfully supported the candidacy of Manuel Ureña, archbishop of Zaragoza, a figure close to the positions espoused by FAES, the think tank of the Spanish right. The PP led by Aznar did not agree with the candidacy of Lluís Martínez Sistach, who was eventually named archbishop of Barcelona. Despite his moderation, Madrid considered Sistach too close to Catalan nationalism.

Enter the Catholic Minister

Today, with Sistach in overtime after having reached the episcopal retirement age, the PP government has, once again, decided to apply pressure. The movements have been led by the Minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernández Díaz, a devout catholic and one of the most belligerent members of the Spanish government with regards to the independence process. "His objective is to have an archbishop of Barcelona that is cut from his own cloth", indicated a source with knowledge of the Catalan church and who has attended Vatican events with Fernández Díaz. "He is the Catalan Catholic minister in the PP government. He has applied pressure to bring to Barcelona Valencian cardinal Antonio Cañizares, who is a personal friend of his", revealed another source close to the Catalan bishops. The relationship between the two is so close that every time that Cañizares travels to the Catalan capital -something that happens often- he stays in the Minister's home.

The strategy of the Interior Minister is to place his friend Cañizares in Barcelona, as a counterweight to the majority of the Catalan church leadership that favors the right to self-determination. Fernández Díaz understands that the choice of the Valencian cardinal -who expresses himself in Spanish and maintains a good relationship with the government of Mariano Rajoy-- would be interpreted as a Vatican gesture against the independence process as 9 November approaches. In fact, the PP movements have already caused concern in various ecclesiastical and catholic sectors, which have openly expressed their misgivings about a candidate whose profile that does not fit in with the right of self-determination.

Església Plural (Plural Church), a Catalan grassroots Catholic group, has already voiced its position. The organization has collected more than 4,000 signatures calling for the Vatican to appoint a replacement for Sistach who is not a figure from outside the Catalan culture. The signatures will be attached to a letter, written in Catalan and Italian, reminding the Holy See that a candidate who is not in tune "with the Catalan ecclesiastical tradition" would be met with "suspicion, disappointment, mistrust and rejection". The missive will be addressed to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State for the Vatican; Cardinal Marc Oellet, in charge of the Bishops' Congregation, and the nuncio of the Holy See in Spain, Renzo Fratini, as well as to Antonio Cañizares, the preferred candidate of the PP government. The Spanish cardinal, currently prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, is expecting a new appointment, given that Pope Francis has not officially confirmed that he will continue to serve in his current position. Cañizares wants to leave Rome and a few months ago he asked Jorge Mario Bergoglio if he could do so. Sources close to Cañizares claim that the Pope agreed to allow him to return to Spain.

But where will Cañizares return to? The first option that springs to mind is Madrid, where cardinal archbishop Antonio María Rouco Varela has been waiting nearly three years for a replacement. Nevertheless, and despite the fact that the two share many ideological aspects -the defense of Spain's territorial unity and an ultraconservative moral viewpoint, for example- Rouco has tried -and apparently managed- to stop the appointment of the Utiel-born cardinal to Spain's capital city. As difficult to believe as it may seem to outsiders, Rouco and Cañizares have been enemies since the latter confronted Federico Jiménez Losantos, Rouco Varela's protégée, and ended up forcing his exit from the COPE network during the most troubled times at the radio station owned by the Spanish bishops.

The Spanish government's request, put in via informal channels -direct interference by one state such as Spain in affairs of another state like the Vatican is not possible-, was unsuccessful. The Holy See does not want to interfere in the Catalan independence process. The Vatican's non-interference policy has been confirmed on several occasions by their actions. As this newspaper reported on 17 March, the Vatican already evaded the pressure from Rouco when the cardinal insisted that Rome oppose the referendum of 9 November. Rouco tried to make his last act as head of the Spanish bishopric to be an explicit pronouncement by the Vatican against any possible independence of Catalonia. And he failed.

The Pope is kept informed of what happens by different sources and his position is pragmatic. "Francis knows that, independent or within Spain, the Church has to be with the faithful and with society. In the future, Catalan Catholics will continue to be Catholic and the Church will have to keep preaching the Gospel", noted a Spanish source in the Vatican. It does seem clear that the designation of the new archbishop will not take effect until after the referendum, as this newspaper reported at the beginning of February. Rome does not want Sistach's successor to have to carry any undue burdens.