VATICAN CITY
Chiesa
VATICAN CITY, September 25, 2013 – With the announcement of the appointment of the new secretary of state and with the measures taken four days ago, Pope Francis has kicked off a first round of incisive changes in the Roman curia.
He has done so in relatively short order, as moreover had been asked of him by the cardinals who supported him to the point of electing him successor of Peter.
From this series of appointments, confirmations, and non-confirmations – preceded by small but significant adjustments in other Vatican offices – one can already draw a few indications on the lines of governance of a pope who loves to call himself bishop of Rome but who within the Leonine walls acts 100 percent as supreme pontiff of the universal Church.
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First of all it can be said that if his predecessor Benedict XVI nourished a certain idiosyncrasy with regard to the “caste” of apostolic nuncios, pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio is not showing any prejudice in this. On the contrary. While decrying the fact that the clerics who carry out the diplomatic service are more threatened than the others by the leprosy of ecclesiastical careerism, when he finds among them a person he maintains to be valid and competent – or is presented to him as such by advisors he believes to be trustworthy – he shows no hesitation in promoting them to high and delicate positions.
This is certainly the case of the new secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, and of the new prefect of the congregation for the clergy, Beniamino Stella. Also valued by pope Bergoglio for their discrete profile, foreign to all forms of extremism.
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