From now on, the Pope will no longer deliver speeches to new Ambassadors.
The turning point in the Sacred Palaces takes place when, after the beginning of his pontificate, Benedict XVI had done away the ancient practice by which the papal nuncios visiting Rome were automatically received in audience by the Pope.
For fifty years the speeches to the "feluccas" was the time in which the Popes publicly explained his point of view on international politics. The gauge of relations maintained by the Holy See with various countries around the world.
An opportunity to support with words the diplomatic role of the Vatican, a small state on the international scene but also important for announcing the divine word. But from now on there will no longer be the traditional speech given by the Pope to Ambassadors presenting their credentials.
On Thursday, December 15th at the Vatican Benedict XVI received the new Ambassadors to the Holy See from Trinidad and Tobago, Guinea Bissau, Switzerland, Burundi, Thailand, Pakistan, Mozambique, Kyrgyzystan, Andorra, Sri Lanka, Burkina Faso and addressed them with "a common speech", said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.
"Unlike the past, there is no greeting text by the individual Ambassadors, nor a specific text by the Pope for each”. Vatican spokesman said that "in reality the practice of speeches - that did not previously exist as such, apart from a few exceptional occasions, such as during the Second world War – dated back to the years of the pontificate of Paul VI, and speeches were written texts that were exchanged and then published, but were not actually spoken”.
He recalled that "in the various countries around the world it is not foreseen that a speech be given at the presentation of credentials. It was therefore a peculiarity of the Holy See in recent years”.
And he stressed that "at the end of the pontificate of Paul VI, there were about 90 accredited Ambassadors, while today there are about 180, almost twice as many”. However the announcement is somewhat revolutionary.
The Osservatore Romano does not publish the statement by the Vatican spokesman, and just reports, in a way, that in today’s audience, the Pope addressed eleven new Ambassadors "according to current international diplomatic practice, which the Holy See has maintained until the mid-sixties of last century”.
From now on, however, diplomatic etiquette changes.
No speech to the Ambassadors, except collectively.
As for private interviews, personal encounters "with the Holy Father will naturally be larger in the case of Ambassadors residing" in Rome, "for whom the presentation of credentials requires a special and not collective audience”, said Father Lombardi. Lastly, the Pope has "many occasions in which to express his sympathy and solicitude for the different populations”, as well as specific messages for certain occasions or in circumstances of particular importance.
The new diplomatic practice is not dictated by the desire to spare the eighty-four year old Pope.
Benedict XVI has certainly cut back on audiences, he enters the basilica of St Peter with the help of treadmill, for his summer vacation he decided to stay in Castel Gandolfo, and even with the bishops visiting the Vatican "ad limina Apostolorum" he has adopted the habit of receiving them in small groups and not individually.
But his health is fine and in any case, the speeches delivered to new Ambassadors (the Pope never reads them) were never a problem. Ratzinger’s decision, beyond any explanation from the Vatican, seems rather dictated by a precise geopolitical vision.
Compared to John Paul II, Benedict XVI has given less importance to explicitly diplomatic issues. Even his Secretary of State is not a career diplomat. “Monsignor Bettazzi, Bishop Emeritus of Ivrea, my native diocese – says Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone shortly after his appointment as "prime minister" across the Tiber - advised me to be Secretary 'of the Church' rather than 'of State'. I agree with him”.
Apart from the single cases (after the pedophilia scandal, for example, Catholic Ireland officially closed the Embassy to the Holy See for financial reasons), the Pope seems more focused on religious, spiritual, theological and doctrinal matters.
Without diminishing the importance of Vatican diplomacy and its inevitable political role, the Pope explained his thoughts when, for example in Freiburg, during a recent trip to Germany, he explained that "the historical examples show that the missionary testimony of an “unworldly” Church emerges more clearly.
Freed from its material and political burdens, the church can dedicate itself in a truly Christian manner to the whole world, and truly open up to the world. It can once again live its calling to the ministry of the worship of God and serving others with more ease”.
So, «for reasons of simplicity and consistency with the current diplomatic custom» a stop is placed on the etiquette that was introduced from time to time by Pius XII during the Second World War and systematically by Paul VI.
In fact, the speeches were almost always delivered and never read by the Pope, a fact that excludes the desire to spare the 84 year old Pope.
Instead the ones to be spared are the specific offices of the Secretary of State that were put to the test by the fact that today the Ambassadors to the Holy See are 180 while during Paul VI there were exactly half, that is 90.