(58) Guido certainly makes strong claims about the Church's supreme judicial role, as we would expect from a fourteenth-century
curialist working for the pope's cause against the Spiritual Franciscans.
Accompanying the latter on diplomatic legations to France and the Empire, Cervini gained the experience that prepared him as papal legate to Trent, diocesan administrator, cardinal and
curialist, director of the Roman Inquisition and the Vatican Library, and finally as Pope, albeit for only three weeks.
Beyond Szoka, today's most powerful American
curialist is Archbishop James Harvey, 52, originally from Milwaukee and now serving as prefect of the papal household.
Deeply suspicious, Rolfe says: "Wait a minute, I'll accept the apology, provided it is in writing and signed by the pope." The archbishop reaches into his capacious pocket: "I have the document here." No
curialist goes into a meeting without knowing what he intends to get out of it.
McElwee's advance reporting from Rome (see Page 1) demonstrates, through interviews with former members of the papal commission set up to deal with the scandal, that one of the chief obstacles to reform is the clerical culture itself, particularly the
curialists who resist taking the most basic steps toward reform.
In Chapter 3, McCahill again turns to humanist texts by papal
curialists for insights into humanist views and recommendations for negotiating this tumultuous period.
During the first weeks of the Council he wrote in his diary, 'For my part, I am a Roman, and in Rome I found a fount of inspiration, learning and piety.' So, he wrote, he would support the draft documents put before them by the
curialists.
Greeley subjects the pontificate of John Paul II to a devastating critique: That pope stifled the movement for collegiality, treated bishops as low-level bureaucrats, and spent his considerable communications talent on promoting a cult of personality that persuaded few people of the merits of his teachings, while he left the administration of the Vatican to myopic
curialists. Allergic to German theologians, whom as an associate editor of Concilium he found insufferably immune to factual realities, Greeley had reason to fear a Ratzinger papacy, which he sensed to be in the works but daily tried to deny.
Seripando's insistence on the ius divinum brought him into conflict with the
curialists at the council, led by fellow legate Cardinal Simonetta, who feared that basing residency on divine law would compromise papal primacy.
Its participants demonstrated, at times genuine creativity and adherence to the main lines of Renaissance humanist thought, and the conviction of popes and
curialists in the necessity and importance of anti-Protestant action waxed and waned in an exceptionally human, and truly fascinating, manner.
Asked if he had nm into resistance to change in the Vatican, Francis delivered a mildly rambling response stressing the presence of many helpful and loyal people, along with the blunt judgment that the place's quality has declined from the era of "old
curialists" who simply did their jobs.