John Paul Completes His Team

An African Cardinal gets a top job in a major Vatican reshuffle

It would be difficult not to be charmed by Bernardin Cardinal Gantin. Trim and tall (6 ft. 2 in.) and a youthful-looking 61, the churchman from the small West African country of Benin has emerged during the past 13 years as one of the most engaging personalities on the often austere Vatican staff. Ever ready to flash an infectious grin or pump a stranger's hand, he has even managed to upstage Pope John Paul: during a papal visit to Benin two years ago, it was Gantin who received the most rousing cheers from one welcoming crowd. John Paul's increasing trust hi his African aide was acknowledged last week when Gantin, in a major reshuffle of the papal staff, was promoted to one of three most important posts in the Vatican.

As the new prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Gantin has the power to nominate, subject to the Pope's approval, new bishops for most of the world. He is the first black prelate ever to head a major Vatican office. For good measure, the Pope summoned another African, Archbishop Francis Arinze of Nigeria, to run the Vatican Secretariat for non-Christians, one of the second-echelon offices in the bureaucracy.

These were but two of 17 changes made by John Paul in his most thorough shake-up to date of the church's powerful administrative body, the Curia--moves that Italian newspapers described as "il terremoto" (the earthquake). In doing so, the Pope further weakened the traditional influence of Italians on Roman Catholicism's bureaucratic machinery. When the Second Vatican Council began in 1962, twelve of 16 Curia offices were headed by Italians; as a result of the latest moves, 16 out of 22 are now headed by foreigners. There are rumors that the Pope is planning an even more radical overhaul of the Curia to increase its responsiveness to the Church's diverse millions and to modernize its administrative methods. Says one prelate: "The Pope has warned the Curia that if members don't take their jobs seriously, they might find themselves without one."

One American churchman moved up in the reshuffle. Monsignor John P. Foley, 48, editor of Philadelphia's official archdiocesan weekly, the Catholic Standard and Times, was named head of the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications, thereby becoming, in effect, the Vatican's top information officer.

But Illinois-born Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, once regarded as a prime candidate for Cardinal, was passed over for promotion in a reorganization of the Curia office that runs the Vatican City administration.

Marcinkus, who also heads the Vatican bank, remains under a cloud because of the bank's dealings with scandal-ridden Banco Ambrosiano. John Paul also made a major change in removing himself as direct ruler of the Vatican City government in order to stress his role as Catholicism's spiritual leader. The new administrator: Secretary of State Agostino Cardinal Casaroli, who is second only to the Pope in the Vatican hierarchy.

John Paul now has his own men running all of the key Curial offices. Noting that Cardinal Gantin is the first non-Italian to run the Congregation for Bishops, a progressive Vatican watcher observed, "For the first time, bishops of the world will be chosen without the influence of Italian traditionalism." Perhaps so, but last week's administrative reform was hardly a triumph for liberals. Two prelate's picked for other leading posts were Archbishops Jean Jerome Hamer of Belgium and Augustin Mayer of West Germany. Both have reputations as theological conservatives who share the Pope's concern about requiring more discipline of priests and nuns.