The Divine Diplomat

Among the passengers getting off a Yugoslav JAT airliner in Belgrade one afternoon late last month was a middle-aged Italian whose dark suit, white shirt and maroon tie only faintly concealed an unmistakable clerical look. Traveling in mufti, as he has on all of his 15 or more trips to Communist-ruled lands, Monsignor Agostino Casaroli, 51, had come to Belgrade to sign the historic protocol agreement re-establishing diplomatic ties between the Vatican and Yugoslavia after a 14-year break (TIME, July 1).

Two years in the making, the Yugoslav protocol was merely the latest in a long line of negotiating successes that have earned Casaroli the Roman nickname of "the divine diplomat." In recent years, hardworking, hard-traveling Diplomat Casaroli has obtained the release from confinement of Czechoslovakia's Josef Cardinal Beran, arranged an agreement with the Hungarian government by which Pope Paul VI was able to fill a number of vacant dioceses, and negotiated a treaty with Tunisia regulating the rights of the Catholic minority in that Moslem country.

Ecclesiastical Nobles. The son of a tailor, Casaroli was born in the northern Italian town of Piacenza, attended Rome's quaintly named Academy for Ecclesiastical Nobles--actually, the Vatican's chief school for its future diplomats. Like Pope Paul VI, who is also a graduate of the academy, Casaroli served as an archivist in the Vatican's Secretariat of State. Eventually he became head of its department for Latin American affairs, and in 1961, Pope John named him Under Secretary for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, the job he still holds.

Looking much like a back-country parish priest, Casaroli has several qualities that make him an almost ideal Vatican diplomat: he speaks half a dozen languages, has both a vast fund of patience and a passion for anonymity. Casaroli approaches negotiations by picking and probing for small areas of agreement, hoping to expand them later. If a Red government insists that its constitution prohibits granting preferential treatment to any one religious group, Casaroli suggests that Catholics simply be allowed the spiritual rights available to anyone. If an issue seems certain to lead to dissension, Casaroli will suggest that it be put aside while the negotiators move on to things they can agree upon. Pragmatic in dealing with the Reds, Casaroli knows that a tactic suitable for handling Yugoslavia will infuriate the Czechs, and varies his strategy accordingly.

"Padre Agostino." Some Vatican conservatives contend that Casaroli is too soft as a negotiator, concedes too much to the other side. The Yugoslav agreement, for instance, refers to "terrorism and analogous forms of political violence" that were allegedly committed by Catholic priests during World War II in Yugoslavia. Casaroli readily admits that the phrase is offensive, but replies that without it the Tito regime would not have recognized the Vatican's jurisdiction over the Yugoslav Catholics in spiritual matters. Casaroli's critics also point out that his judgment is not infallible. Long after it was evident that the Polish government would not let Pope Paul enter the country for the ceremonies marking the 1,000th anniversary of its conversion to Christianity, Casaroli kept insisting that the trip could still be arranged.

Nonetheless, Casaroli has a circle of admirers in the Holy See who, with perhaps excessive zeal, see him as a future papabile--a prelate with the potential to be elected Pope. Nobody is more shocked by the idea than Casaroli himself, who is never happier than during the leisure hours he spends as a spiritual counselor at the Villa Agnese, a home for wayward boys on Rome's Janiculum Hill. There he is simply "Padre Agostino," who never reprimands, takes his charges to the corner cafe for ice cream and sodas, and gives them duty-free cigarettes, which he buys at the Vatican commissary.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.