- Feb 5, 2002
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ROME – There’s never a dull moment on the Vatican beat in the Pope Francis era, and the past week has offered a classic illustration of that truth, featuring dramatic charges of schism against an archbishop, a startling revelation regarding church/state relations in Italy, and a controversial real estate deal that once again could land the Vatican in hot water.
Each story carries a special wrinkle, well worth unpacking.
Did Parolin clear the U.S. bishops on Viganò?
The week’s biggest headline was the breaking news that Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former papal envoy to the U.S. who’s gone on to become Pope Francis’s most vocal — and, frankly, most extreme — critic, has been formally charged with schism by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
A June 11 decree summoned Viganò to face the charges, or to designate an attorney acting on his behalf to do so, on June 20. He didn’t show up, and has just a few more days to respond before he’s found guilty and sentenced to some form of ecclesiastical sanction.
For his part, Viganò called the charge an “honor” and showed absolutely no sign of remorse.
One interesting footnote came in the reaction to all this of Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State and among Pope Francis’s closest allies.
“I always appreciated him as a great worker very faithful to the Holy See, in a certain sense also an example,” Parolin said of Viganò, referring to a period earlier in his career before he began attacking the pope. “When he was apostolic nuncio he worked extremely well, I don’t know what happened.”
Here’s why that’s such an interesting comment, from a figure who can hardly be suspected of disloyalty to Francis or sympathy for Viganò’s criticism.
When Viganò initially came forward in 2018 to charge Francis with a cover-up in the case of Theodore McCarrick, a number of U.S. bishops were asked for their reaction, and several offered some version of the sentiment that his accusation should be taken seriously. Ever since, that’s stained those bishops with the impression of sympathy for Viganò, a perception that’s become steadily more poisonous with every step Viganò has taken into the black helicopter world of conspiracy theories and paranoia.
Parolin, however, has offered a reminder that perceptions of Viganò in 2018 were different than today.
Back then, most US bishops simply recalled him as a former Vatican official and a reasonably effective ambassador to the States. They had no way of knowing what he would later become, nor were many of them eager in the immediate wake of the McCarrick revelations to be seen as dismissing any accusation, no matter whom it involved.
In other words, hindsight is always 20/20. No doubt, many of those U.S. bishops today would be far more circumspect in their reactions to whatever Viganò has to say. Yet Parolin has highlighted the difference between then and now, a favor (however inadvertent) for which many U.S. prelates probably ought to drop him a thank-you note.
The Past as Prologue in Italian Politics
Continued below.
Each story carries a special wrinkle, well worth unpacking.
Did Parolin clear the U.S. bishops on Viganò?
The week’s biggest headline was the breaking news that Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former papal envoy to the U.S. who’s gone on to become Pope Francis’s most vocal — and, frankly, most extreme — critic, has been formally charged with schism by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
A June 11 decree summoned Viganò to face the charges, or to designate an attorney acting on his behalf to do so, on June 20. He didn’t show up, and has just a few more days to respond before he’s found guilty and sentenced to some form of ecclesiastical sanction.
For his part, Viganò called the charge an “honor” and showed absolutely no sign of remorse.
One interesting footnote came in the reaction to all this of Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State and among Pope Francis’s closest allies.
“I always appreciated him as a great worker very faithful to the Holy See, in a certain sense also an example,” Parolin said of Viganò, referring to a period earlier in his career before he began attacking the pope. “When he was apostolic nuncio he worked extremely well, I don’t know what happened.”
Here’s why that’s such an interesting comment, from a figure who can hardly be suspected of disloyalty to Francis or sympathy for Viganò’s criticism.
When Viganò initially came forward in 2018 to charge Francis with a cover-up in the case of Theodore McCarrick, a number of U.S. bishops were asked for their reaction, and several offered some version of the sentiment that his accusation should be taken seriously. Ever since, that’s stained those bishops with the impression of sympathy for Viganò, a perception that’s become steadily more poisonous with every step Viganò has taken into the black helicopter world of conspiracy theories and paranoia.
Parolin, however, has offered a reminder that perceptions of Viganò in 2018 were different than today.
Back then, most US bishops simply recalled him as a former Vatican official and a reasonably effective ambassador to the States. They had no way of knowing what he would later become, nor were many of them eager in the immediate wake of the McCarrick revelations to be seen as dismissing any accusation, no matter whom it involved.
In other words, hindsight is always 20/20. No doubt, many of those U.S. bishops today would be far more circumspect in their reactions to whatever Viganò has to say. Yet Parolin has highlighted the difference between then and now, a favor (however inadvertent) for which many U.S. prelates probably ought to drop him a thank-you note.
The Past as Prologue in Italian Politics
Continued below.
Parolin helps US bishops on Viganò, church/state drama in Italy, and a new real estate deal
“I always appreciated him as a great worker very faithful to the Holy See, in a certain sense also an example,” Parolin said of Viganò earlier in his career. “When he was apostolic nuncio he worked extremely well, I don’t know what happened.”