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By Root 1412 0

in his speech. In vetting bishops, Sodano promoted men supportive of the regime.24 In 1986 a group called the Vicariate of Solidarity asked the Chilean bishops’ conference to have Sodano recalled to Rome: “For a long time now, numerous communities have been demanding this. Hundreds of priests and nuns have also asked for this. The people know of his ‘reports’ to Rome and of his excessive attachment to the military regime … We do not see in him diplomacy, but rather complicity.”25 Sodano stayed on the job. The quality of John Paul’s intelligence on Chile from Sodano will be one of history’s black holes until the Vatican releases the information he sent.

When John Paul embarked on his historic 1987 trip to Chile, Pinochet faced rising international pressure. A Vatican priest, Roberto Tucci, coordinated the trip. En route, John Paul told journalists, “To the Gospel message belongs all the problems of human rights, and if democracy means human rights then it also belongs to the message of the Church.”26 The pope added, “We will find a system that is dictatorial, but one that is transitory by definition.”27

As the motorcade entered Santiago, huge crowds chanted, “Our brother, Pope, take the tyrant with you!” People held signs naming loved ones who had disappeared. John Paul met with opposition leaders and members of all parties in a gathering that Sodano organized.28 Sodano also helped Pinochet maneuver the pope onto the presidential balcony for a photo op that sent a chilling message to people traumatized by the dictator. But a countermessage rose when crowds flooded into a Mass in the same stadium where fifteen years earlier troops had rounded up and slaughtered Allende supporters. The pope heard “speaker after speaker who complained of censorship, torture, and political murder,” wrote Jonathan Kwitny. “Crowds burned barricades, threw rocks, and taunted police.” John Paul praised Chilean priests seeking justice, denounced the brutality, and called “suffering for the sake of love, truth and justice … a sign of fidelity to God.” His voice rang out as the police used roaring water cannons to drive people back: “Love is stronger … love is stronger.”29

Chile was close to restoring democracy, in 1988, when Pinochet gave Sodano a medal as the nuncio returned to Rome. His ease with Latin strongmen helped the United States in the invasion of Panama. President Manuel Noriega, estranged from the CIA for his ties to drug cartels, took sanctuary in the Vatican embassy. Sodano persuaded him to surrender. U.S. authorities flew Noriega to Florida, where he was tried, convicted, and put in a federal penitentiary.30

In 1991 Sodano became secretary of state. Of all the cardinals in the Curia, why did John Paul choose one so close to a dictator with bloody hands, a surreal contrast to the papal stance of peaceful nonviolence? The pope bypassed Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, an adroit diplomat on arms control, human rights, and a protégé of Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the outgoing secretary of state. Casaroli had spent decades negotiating with Eastern bloc officials to ease the persecution of Catholics behind the iron curtain.31 For his part, Sodano called diplomacy “an instrument of dialogue, aimed at defending and promoting the rights of Catholics and favoring international relations.”32

Behind those vanilla words lay a strange reality, according to Giovanni Avena, a priest-turned-editor of Adista, a liberal Catholic news service. “Casaroli had great diplomatic skills; he presented the church in a sober, businesslike way,” Avena told me in Rome. “Casaroli thought Sodano was dumb. They sent Sodano to Latin America and he muscled his way, making friends with the worst right-wingers. John Paul clashed with Casaroli over how to deal with Communism. The pope wanted more hard-line resistance. Silvestrini was an heir to Casaroli. Sodano is a foot soldier, not a thinker. He was put there [as secretary of state] as manager of the Curia. He is perfectly gray.”33

By “gray,” Avena meant a calculated neutrality capable of turning colors on a given issue.