The WaPost on the Pope’s confidants

Observers acknowledge that top officials are eager to lift daily burdens from the pope so that he can concentrate on key duties: naming bishops, creating dioceses, issuing documents and meeting with heads of state. Cutbacks in the pope’s schedule effect not only church business but also how many people have the ear of the pope, the officials say.

For instance, interdepartmental meetings that used to take place monthly now occur every two or three months, reducing important opportunities for access to the pope. The meetings were designed to ensure that one Vatican department was not working at odds with another. In 2002, just before a visit to Russia by Cardinal Walter Kasper, who heads the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the secretary of state announced plans to upgrade official Catholic administration in Russia. The move upset the Russian Orthodox Church, which is wary of Catholic missionary ambitions, and helped sink efforts by John Paul to visit Moscow. “Kasper knew nothing about the plans. The lack of papal coordination can lead to incoherent church policy,” a Vatican official said.

Some observers say they believe that the difficulty the pope had in coming to grips with the sex scandals afflicting the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and congregations in other countries had to do with his reduced ability to meet at length with officials outside his immediate circle. “It is natural that the pope becomes more isolated from the world when he hears less people,” another Vatican official said.