the late Pope–Aldo Bellini relationship

The relationship between the late Pope and Aldo Bellini joins private affection to the pressures of institutional reform. Bellini is among the people closest to the Pope, yet he also remembers how the Pope’s determination to change the Curia turned his pontificate into a daily struggle and left him unsure whom he could trust.

Private Affection and the Chess Set

After the Pope’s death, Bellini stands by the desk in the Pope’s austere Casa Santa Marta apartment, where the Secretary of State’s term has ended with the breaking of the Fisherman’s Ring. He examines the travelling chess set the Pope carried in his briefcase, tracing its small red and white pieces, still crowded into an unresolved battle at the centre of the board. He asks whether he may keep it as a keepsake. The object recalls a regular intimacy: the two men often played at the end of the day, and the Pope said the games helped him relax. Bellini confirms that the Pope always won.

Jacopo Baldassare Lomeli urges Bellini to take the set, saying that the Pope loved him more than anyone and would have wanted him to have it. The chess pieces preserve a relationship that public office cannot fully describe: they are evidence of repeated shared time, while their unfinished game makes the absence left by the Pope’s death tangible. Bellini hesitates over whether permission should be sought, even as Joseph Tremblay prepares to seal the apartment.

A Shared Understanding of the Pope’s Rule

Bellini later describes the Pope’s pontificate as a war that began on its first day. The Pope refused the full regalia of office and chose to remain in the plain fifty-square-metre apartment at Casa Santa Marta rather than move to the spacious apartment in the Apostolic Palace. Bellini recalls the confrontation with Curia leaders over that choice and the reproach the Pope’s simplicity implied for officials living in grand official apartments.

The conflict extended from the Pope’s personal example to his demands for institutional accountability. Bellini remembers him addressing the prefects of the congregations in the Sala Bologna, insisting on transparent finances, properly maintained books, disclosed accounts, competitive tenders for even small building works, and receipts. He brought in accountants and management consultants to examine the files and gave them offices on the first floor of Casa Santa Marta. Bellini’s account makes clear that resistance came not only from the old guard: the scrutiny threatened wider habits and interests within the Curia.

Reform, Isolation, and Doubt

Bellini links the push for transparency to a growing series of public embarrassments. Leaks exposed allegations that the Pope’s friends, including Tutino, had diverted money intended for the poor to renovate apartments or travel first class. At the same time, Bellini recalls Goffredo Tedesco and his allies attacking the Pope’s comments on gay people, divorced couples, and the promotion of women, treating them as grounds for accusations of heresy.

The Pope’s popularity beyond the Vatican therefore coincided with increasing isolation inside it. By the end of his pontificate, Bellini says, the Pope hardly trusted anyone; Bellini is uncertain whether the Pope trusted him, either. That uncertainty gives their closeness a painful limit. Their personal bond is real, but neither affection nor shared service could insulate them from the suspicion and conflict generated by the Pope’s reforms.

Shared Work and Institutional Legacy

The relationship also appears in the practical work that follows the Pope’s death. Bellini participates with Jacopo Baldassare Lomeli, Joshua Adeyemi, and Joseph Tremblay in deciding how to present the official account of the death. Lomeli proposes adding the Pope’s attendance at vespers to the timeline while issuing the rest as written, and preparing a fuller schedule of the day to keep in reserve. The group accepts the proposal, and Bellini dryly acknowledges that the Dean’s diplomatic skill may be needed in the days ahead. In this moment, Bellini and Lomeli manage competing demands for accuracy and caution within the Church’s formal procedures.

The late Pope’s hidden financial papers later place the institutional question in concrete terms: they list apartments occupied by Curia members, including Bellini’s, against the Pope’s small residence, and an accompanying assessment describes a major discrepancy between the stated book value of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See’s property and its potential value. Bellini’s recollection of the Pope’s insistence on receipts and outside scrutiny thus connects their personal history to a continuing problem of accountability. The chess set memorializes their private companionship; the reform campaign shows the public burden they shared, and the loneliness that burden left behind.