Pope Leo XIV received Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto, emeritus dean of the Roman Rota Tribunal, in audience this Thursday, one of the most controversial figures in the Vatican legal sphere in recent years.
The audience is part of the Pontiff’s ordinary agenda, in which several prelates, institutional representatives, and ecclesial delegations were also received.
Pinto was dean of the Roman Rota Tribunal for nearly a decade, the Catholic Church’s main appellate court, especially in matrimonial cases. Appointed by Benedict XVI in 2012, he held the position until 2021.
The controversial statements against the dubia cardinals
The name of Pio Vito Pinto jumped to the forefront of the ecclesial debate in 2016, amid the controversy surrounding the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia.
At that time, four cardinals—Walter Brandmüller, Raymond Burke, Carlo Caffarra, and Joachim Meisner—sent a series of questions (dubia) to Pope Francis requesting doctrinal clarifications on the document.
In a lecture given at the San Dámaso Ecclesiastical University in Madrid, Pinto harshly criticized the cardinals’ initiative and described the publication of the letter as a “grave scandal”.
The then dean of the Rota even went so far as to state that the attitude of the cardinals could lead the Pope to withdraw their cardinal dignity.
The controversy of the so-called “Pecorelli list”
The name of the Italian canonist also appeared in another controversy linked to the so-called Pecorelli list, a roster of clerics that the Italian journalist Mino Pecorelli claimed were linked to Freemasonry.
Pecorelli, who was investigating alleged Masonic infiltrations in the high spheres of the Church, published a list of 116 clerics who, according to his investigations, would have been initiated into the P2 lodge.
The journalist was murdered in Rome in 1979, a crime that for years was surrounded by suspicions and controversies.
Among the names that appeared on that list was that of Pio Vito Pinto, an accusation that has been the subject of debate and controversy ever since.
An influential figure in Vatican justice
Beyond these controversies, Pinto has been for decades an influential figure in the field of canon law and in the functioning of ecclesiastical tribunals.
During his tenure as dean of the Roman Rota, he also participated in the implementation of the reform of matrimonial nullity processes promoted during Francis’s pontificate.
The audience now granted by Leo XIV takes place several years after his retirement from the position at the head of the tribunal.