Cardinal Grech warned future pope of Vatican’s internal schism

Maltese cardinal Prospero Grech gave Pope Francis's electors a hard-hitting meditation, warning fellow cardinals of the 'smoke of Satan' inside the Vatican and of schisms being created by ultra-orthodox and ultra-progressive priests inside the Church.

In an unprecedented step for the Catholic Church, Pope Francis released the entire meditation delivered to the cardinal-electors behind the closed doors of the Sistine Chapel, immediately before the start of the voting that concluded in the election of the pope in March.

The meditation, published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, was delivered by Cardinal Prospero Grech, an 87-year-old Augustinian who did not have the right to vote in the last papal election. After his meditation, in fact, he left the Sistine Chapel.

In his message to electors, which included Argentinian pontiff-to-be Cardinal Jose Bergoglio, Grech called on cardinals to "humble" themselves before God and men in the face of revelations concerning paedophilia in the Catholic Church, "and seek to uproot the evil at all costs, as did, to his great regret Benedict XVI" - hinting at the possible reasons behind the last pontiff's decision to resign.

"Only in this way can we regain credibility before the world and give an example of sincerity. Today many people do not arrive at believing in Christ because his face is obscured or hidden behind an institution that lacks transparency," Grech said.

Warning against the "evil spirit [that] constantly strives to infiltrate the Church", Grech said the new pope would have to find himself dealing with a Vatican schism between "ultratraditionalist extremists and ultraprogressive extremists, between priests who rebel against obedience and those who do not recognize the signs of the times."

Touching upon the Vatican's philosophical foundations, Grech also reminded cardinals that the Church faced calls to open up to the "freedom granted in the area of sexuality", hinting at the opposition to installing women as priests. "Certainly laws and traditions that are purely ecclesiastical can be changed, but not every change means progress, it must be discerned whether such changes act to increase the holiness of the Church or to obscure it."

But in his analysis, Grech also told electors that beyond all temporal concerns of these problems, the Holy Spirit transcended "all sociological analysis and historical prediction. He surpasses the scandals, the internal politics, the ambition, and the social problems, which in their complexity obscure the face of Christ that must shine even through dense clouds."