Saint Gallen Group

[13] According to an anonymous cardinal's diary excerpts which were published by Brunelli, two of them, Lehmann and Danneels, were "the thinking core" of the reformisti during the conclave.

[16] Three of the remaining members, however, participated in the 2013 papal conclave: Walter Kasper, Godfried Danneels and Karl Lehmann.

[17][18][19][20] The director of the Holy See Press Office said the cardinals were "surprised and disappointed" at what was written about them and that they "expressly denied this description of events ... with regard to the conduct of a campaign for [Bergoglio's] election".

In the second edition of his book, Ivereigh bolstered the cardinal's defensive positioning by replacing the phrase with: "In keeping with conclave rules, they did not ask him if he would be willing to be a candidate.

[18] The founders and members of the group felt that the Vatican impeded free discussion among bishops, so meetings were held in secrecy.

[5] All agreed that the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger, was a centralizing and conservative influence in Rome, especially as John Paul's health declined.

Bergoglio was only created a cardinal in February 2001, and Martini, who had met him in 1974, introduced him to some members, who knew him barely or not at all, at the extraordinary consistory of May 2001.

[26] Cardinal Bergoglio did not like the way the curia ran things, and his report on the 2001 bishops' synod earned him praise from much of the hierarchy, including from the Saint Gallen Group.