VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider
Now that Francis has been enthroned, Bergoglio will soon be making his first appointments
Marco Tosatti
Vatican City
Pope Francis has confirmed – pro tempore – all heads and secretaries of Congregations “donec aliter provideatur”, until it is decided otherwise. The statement released made no mention of the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, but an explanation was issued stating that the announcement concerned him as well. Reliable Vatican sources say Pope Francis intends to choose his closest collaborator quickly, after Easter. Tarcisio Bertone will turn 79 in December and it seems only logical that he should leave the position he held as Benedict XVI’s right hand man, amid controversies and divisions.
These sources also mention an Italian member the diplomatic corps as the Argentinean Pope’s potential number two man. The current Substitute, Angelo Becciu and the Prefect of Propaganda Fide, the former nuncio Filoni, seem to be excluded as possible candidates because of their involvement in the rifts and internal struggles that have tainted Bertone’s management of the Secretariat of State. Pope Francis would apparently prefer to start with a clean slate and a new Secretary of State.
The Church is not short of possible candidates, starting with Archbishop Piero Parolin, Apostolic Nuncio to Venezuela. Archbishop Celestine Migliore, the Pope’s current ambassador in Warsaw who represented the Holy See at the UN is another potential future collaborator of the Pope. Both have close ties with the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, who was Secretary of State under John Paul II for many years and also under Benedict XVI for a period of time, before Bertone was appointed as his substitute.
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