Heterodox Cardinal Walter Kasper claimed that the “St. Gallen Mafia,” a group revealed by Cardinal Godfried Danneels’ biographer and dubbed by Danneels himself as a “mafia,” is “an invention of journalists.”
In an interview with the Swiss newspaper Blick on Sunday about the approaching conclave, Kasper — who according to a papal biographer was himself a member of the St. Gallen group — attempted to dismiss prior attestations that a group of cardinals and bishops met regularly in St. Gallen as part of a conspiracy to elect Jorge Bergoglio as pope.
Karim Schelkens, who co-authored the authorized biography of Danneels, affirmed in a 2015 interview, “The election of Bergoglio was prepared in Sankt-Gallen, without doubt. And the main lines of the program the Pope is carrying out are those that Danneels and Co were starting to discuss more than 10 years ago.”
Danneels said the term “mafia” was used by the prelates themselves: “The Sankt-Gallen group is a sort of posh name. But in reality we said of ourselves, and of that group: ‘The Mafia.’”
This past Sunday, Kasper instead insisted: “At the suggestion of Cardinal Carlo Martini from Milan, there was a discussion group of friendly European bishops and cardinals who met once a year after Christmas in St. Gallen. We have exchanged about our pastoral experiences and problems and the situation of the Church – but never about who the future Pope should be.”
“The circle was dissolved after the election of Pope Benedict in 2005 and as such no longer existed at the election of Pope Francis in 2013,” Kasper continued.
Kasper, who even before Amoris Laetitia pushed for divorced and civilly remarried persons to receive Holy Communion, on Sunday affirmed his support for Francis’ agenda of change for the Church, which orthodox Catholics point out includes the acceptance of mortal sin under the pretext of being “pastoral.”
“In my impression, most cardinals want to continue on Francis’ path,” said Kasper, who expressed gratitude that Francis accomplished “a lot,” but noted “he couldn’t finish” his goals.
Papal biographer shows objectives of St. Gallen mafia align with program of Pope Francis
One of the best sources of information on the St. Gallen mafia, papal biographer Austin Ivereigh, describes objectives of the “mafia,” which clearly align with Francis’ program for the Church. Ivereigh was well situated to know the St. Gallen mafia’s inner workings, since he served as the former assistant of Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor. In his biography of Francis titled The Great Reformer, Ivereigh described Murphy-O’Connor as part of the “core” of the St. Gallen group from its beginning.
In his biography of Francis, Ivereigh wrote that the St. Gallen group was formed in the late 1990s due to “growing concern” about a “position” that “looked to some critics as if it were harking back to the days before the Second Vatican Council”: the position that there is “only one ‘Magisterium,’ or teaching authority, in the Church, and that the universal church is ‘ontologically prior’ to the local church.”
The St. Gallen group considered this traditional position to be opposed to true “collegiality,” which Ivereigh describes as one of its most fervently desired goals for the Church. According to Ivereigh, collegiality is a kind of joint authority wherein the bishops help govern the church cum et sub Petro — with and under the Pope. In his idea of collegiality, the “local Church shar(es) in the governance of the universal Church.”
The Synod on Synodality, initiated under Francis, can be seen as a major avenue toward this vision of collegiality.
The self-described “mafia” lamented the lack of Church collegiality as an obstacle to evangelization, as well as to “Christian unity.” Something as fundamental as the “assertion of papal power” after the Reformation, Ivereigh wrote, was “cited as a major stumbling block” by leaders of the “reformed or orthodox traditions.”
This radical and heterodox take on collegiality was articulated by Kasper himself in opposition to a 1992 document by Cardinal Ratzinger.
Ivereigh explained that Kasper argued “in a widely published article in December 2000” that Cardinal Ratzinger’s position “became ‘really problematic when the one universal Church is identified with the Roman Church, and de facto with the Pope and the Roman Curia,’ describing it as ‘an attempt to restore Roman centralism.’”
What Kasper objects to, then, is perennial Catholic doctrine.
Ivereigh said Kasper “went on to argue that collegiality was vital to resolve pastoral questions such as the admission of divorced and remarried persons to Communion, as well as making credible the Catholic invitation to unity with other Christians. Progress on unity depended, he argued, on this recognition of the value of the local Church. ‘The ultimate aim is not a uniform united Church, but one Church in reconciled diversity.’”
In other words, a decentralization of the Church, aka “collegiality,” will permit a departure from unchangeable Church teaching on faith and morals.
It is noteworthy that, according to Ivereigh, “the phrase ‘reconciled diversity’ was one Bergoglio adopted in Buenos Aires when discussing relations with other Christians and other faiths.”
Ivereigh explained that these early concerns of the St. Gallen group carried into discussions during the conclave after Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation. “There was much talk of reform of governance … and for fluid contact between Rome and the local Church,” Ivereigh wrote. He quoted Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi as telling journalists on March 9, a few days before the papal conclave, that “collegiality had been ‘a constant theme in these discussions.”
In a September 2017 article for The Tablet, Ivereigh described Murphy-O’Connor as a “kingmaker” in the conclave that elected Pope Francis. Ivereigh said the cardinal was “proud to have opened that channel for the Holy Spirit to get to work.”
Some Catholics, such as Father Giorgio Maria Faré, believe Francis’ election was doubtful because four members of the St. Gallen Mafia in particular — Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Kasper, Danneels, and Karl Lehmann — conspired for years to make Francis the pope in order to start a revolution in the Church. The priest added that this conspiracy would violate articles 79-82 of Pope John Paul II’s motu proprio on electing a new pontiff, Universi Dominici Gregis.