UNITED STATES
CNN
By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor
(CNN) It was one of the worst kept secrets in Washington or Rome: Pope Francis would waste little time in replacing his ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Vigano.
On Tuesday, the Vatican announced that the day had come. Vigano, the diminutive diplomat who aroused ire by setting up a secret meeting in Washington between the Pope and Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who has become a conservative Christian heroine for refusing to sign same-sex marriage certificates, is out.
He wasn’t fired, exactly. Bishops are required to submit their resignation to the pope when they turn 75, and Vigano reached that milestone in January. But many bishops are allowed to serve past that point at the pope’s discretion. That’s true of Vatican ambassadors, called apostolic nuncios, as well.
Officially, then, the Pope accepted Vigano’s resignation, and replaced him with Archbishop Christophe Pierre, a seasoned diplomat who was previously the papal nuncio in Mexico, where Francis just finished a successful trip in February.
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