Beniamino Stella still lives in that historical building in Piazza
della Minerva which has been home to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical
Academy the Vatican Nuncio "factory", for 300 years. Pope Francis recently appointed him new Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, the Vatican dicastery that deals with priests.
But he does not seem that fased by the new mission he has ahead of him. During our conversation is became quite clear that under Francis’ pontificate there will be no need for pre-packaged “model priests” and that only someone inexperienced (or with a personal interest) could present his nomination as a comeback for the diplomatic “party”.
No articles describing behind-the-scenes events at the Vatican mention you. That’s quite an achievement.
“Ever since my return to Rome I’ve been telling myself to focus solely on what I have been called here to do. I’ve spent every single day of the past six years, including weekends, following the activities of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. At the beginning I found it hard settling back into life in Rome. I had been away for 20 years and a lot can change inside you as well in such a long time. Now I can say I feel grateful for the past few years.
You are used to community and family life, ever since you were a child...
“My family has 12 siblings altogether and thank God they are all still living. We were brought up by parents who were farmers and worked hard on the land to raise us. We have all taken after them. The Church, the parish and Catholic Action were always part of our lives... I owe the fact that I reached the Seminar, to my parish priest. After high school I moved to Rome, to join the Roman Seminary. I studied philosophy and theology and then I started attending course at the Lateran University.”
The “Pope’s” University, the university of “secure doctrine” which at the time even rebuked the Jesuits from the Biblical Institute...
“Among the professors were Antonio Piolanti, Francesco Spadafora, Roberto Masi and other distinguished representatives of the “Roman school”... Then in 1965 I was called by my bishop, the Bishop of Vittorio Veneto (in northern Italy, Ed.), Albino Luciani. He was also in Rome to take part in the Council. “Beniamino” he said tome, “your name came up for the Ecclesiastical Academy. I said yes. What do you think?” To which I answered: “what do you expect? If you’ve already said yes, what’s left for me to think about?” That’s how it worked back then.”
So the future Pope, a man from your own city, kind of influenced the path your life took.
“I have always born this in mind. I was a student at the Academy between 1966 and 1970. In those years, even we young priests experienced the concerns and criticisms of the post-Council period. Then I went off on my diplomatic missions. First to Santo Domingo, then to Congo-Kinshasa. I spent two years in Rome, from 1976 to 1978, serving in the Second Section of the Secretariat of State and then was in Malta for five years. These were difficult years. The Nuncio had been sent away by Malta’s prime minister Don Mintoff. I stayed there as a charge d’affaires...”
After Malta you returned to the Curia for five years, from 1983 to 1987. What was the Secretariat of State like in those days?
“Agostino Casaroli was Secretariat of State at the time. The head of the Second Section and therefore my superior was Achille Silvestrini, whom I still have fond memories of. That period was a gift. I worked alongside figures such as Jean-Louis Tauran and Claudio Maria Celli. I remember a team of men absorbed by intense work that was fuelled by ecclesial reflection.”
You were later consecrated bishop and sent to several Arican and then Latin American countries to serve as Nuncio. What were the most important experiences you had?
“My time in Cuba. I was there from 1993 to 1999. When I got there I found a small Churchand a community that was lacking in resources and structures, which reminded me of the primitive Church. There was a strong sense of fraternity, poverty and detachment. I remember priests turning up to meetings on bicycles all sweaty but peaceful and generous. They were only too happy and willing to share their toil, poverty and humiliation with their people. We helped and loved each other.”
How did things go with Castro?
“Things were more complicated at the beginning. Bishops had written a pastoral letter titled El amor todo espera, which contained some passages about political power and that caused some problems. But no one intended to be antagonistic. No one aimed to meddle in politics directly. Visits by some cardinals like Bernardin Gantin and Roger Etchegaray helped a great deal and relations got better.
Even the Pope visited.
“Initially, his visit was a taboo subject. But I still remember very clearly the day Mrs. Caridad Diego who was in charge of religious policy, didn’t let the subject drop and started taking notes. It was a sign that things had changed. We asked if we could let priests and religious into the country ahead of the papal visit and whether we could make an announcement or two and our requests were granted.”
When did you meet cardinal Bergoglio?
“I met him at the CELAM meeting in Aparecida, in 2007. I was Nuncio to Colombia at the time. I took part in the month-long assembly at the Sanctuary and that’s where I met Bergoglio. He was a discreet man of seemingly few words and focused on the essential. But whenever he said something, he always struck people with his symbols. After that I asked him on a few occasions to come and speak at the Academy when he happened to be in Rome. My students and I still remember the striking symbols and imagery he always used in his reflections.”
Why did he think of you specifically for the dicastery that deals with the clergy? Is your nomination part of a “diplomats’ comeback”?
“Absolutely not. I don’t believe diplomacy has anything to do with the Pope’s decision to appoint me and other people.”
What criteria are his choices based on?
“I get the impression he always looks for people who give off a certain feeling of spiritual paternity. Paternity – and maternity – are terms he is very fond of. Spiritual paternity is to do with humanity, coherence and spiritual life. This leads to goodness, closeness, mercy and all the other virtues with which he is building his magisterium day by day in the Saint Martha House masses.”
Are those homilies important to you as well?
“Of course. That is where his heart and his soul of a priest and shepherd lie. The three or four points around which he builds his homilies, reach everyone: bishops, the people of God and even politicians. His homilies in St. Martha’s House were and are a Godsend of his ministry: they bring us back down to Earth and faith in Jesus and the Gospel is always presented as something that can never be taken for granted. Pope Francis paints this picture right in front of us, using powerful and attractive imagery to describe traditional dynamics of ascetic theology and spiritual life in modern terms.”
Francis often speaks of priests, saying that they should not be clerics of the State but shepherds of the people.
“I think that today, when we celebrate mass and preach from the pulpit, all us priests across all Continents think of Bergoglio. This is what happens to me. It’s got nothing to do with following a model or repeating the expressions he uses parrot-fashion. I think of how he speaks about those who are suffering. We meet suffering people everywhere. We have always come across them. The weak and the needy do not just start existing in March. Today the Pope’s words push us to think about them. This is nothing new, it’s right there in the Gospel that is why it’s so intense.”
And what about Francis’ homilies?
“Pope Francis always focuses on two or three expressions which he uses at the beginning and repeats at the end of his homilies, infusing them with striking imagery. This was people carry a few essential things in their hearts to remember. And priests are spontaneously led to compare the way they do things against the Pope’s new way. The Pope’s is an attractive example which speaks to everyone’s heart because of its humanity.”
What will you do as Prefect? What will your priorities be?
“I believe it is too early to say what I will be focusing on in the task I have been given. The Pope has made some recommendations. But until you enter the sanctuary you don’t know how you’re going to pray.”
So you don’t have a set plan, a “priest’s plan” to carry out.
“No, of course not... My plan is not my own, it’s a plan every priest should have, which is to serve God, the Church and the Pope with a true heart and encourage priests and Seminarists to live the Gospel right to its core.”