The first impression was chilling … on 13 March 2013 in the “room of tears” where the vestments for the newly elected Pope were ready in the adjacent Sistine Chapel. There, Ratzinger’s master of ceremonies, Guido Marini, former secretary of Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi in the years of the Genoese episcopate, received Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s clear refusal to wear the gold pectoral cross and the red velvet mozzetta. Edged with clear words, Francis said: “I prefer not to”.
An urban legend colored the episode with the untrue joke addressed by the newly-elected Pope, pointing to the mozzetta and saying to the master of pontifical ceremonies: “You’ll wear this. The carnival is over”. But even if there was no joke about the carnival and no humiliation for the obedient master of ceremonies who, at the opening of the Conclave, had pronounced the fateful formula “extra omnes”, certainly at that moment Guido Marini understood that it was. The time has come to turn the page: with the end of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, chasubles and historiated and precious mitres returned to the wardrobes of the pontifical sacristy.
For Monsignor Marini therefore everything changed. However, the intelligent liturgist, who at the time enjoyed a great following among the traditionalists, did not oppose and indeed cooperated with the new course inspired by Franciscan simplicity and poverty, testified by the truly radical choice of the new Pope to always and only wear the modest robes he had brought from Buenos Aires. So much so that just three months after the election, during the most important mass of World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Francis publicly embraced his master of ceremonies during the sign of peace.
For almost eight and a half years, Marini faithfully served Pope Francis supporting his reform in the same way he had done from 1 October 2007 until 28 February 2013 with Benedict and his liturgical revival. But the Guido Marini chapter in the Vatican closes today. Francis has in fact decided to entrust him with the beautiful diocese of Tortona.
Monsignor Guido Marini, 56 is then Genoese priest who in 2007 Pope Ratzinger had wanted as master of pontifical liturgical celebrations and then Pope Francis had confirmed in this role. Francis also entrusted him with the responsibility of the Sistine Music Chapel in 2019. After graduating from high school, he entered the seminary where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology.
Ordained a priest on February 4, 1989, Marini continued his studies in Rome at the Pontifical Lateran University, where he obtained a Doctorate “In utroque Iure” with a thesis concerning the problem of Church and State relations in the early 1900s. He was then personal secretary of the archbishop Tettamanzi and master of the ceremonies of the successors Bertone and Bagnasco, until the call of Pope Ratzinger who wanted him in Rome.
Why is Bergoglio now sending him back to Liguria (and lower Piedmont) as bishop? Simply because at the age of 85 the Pope realises that his pontificate will not last very long and Marini, at the age of 56, may well turn the page to start a new ministry and perhaps return to Rome in the years to come.
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