It’s already Friday, and Pope Leo XIV took off this morning for Montevideo. In the Sacred Palaces, everyone is holding their breath; there is no doubt that the Pope looks well and that these days he has fulfilled all his commitments with admirable dedication and without any alteration. There is no doubt about the interest with which Pope Leo has prepared this ‘return’ trip to his beloved Peru, without forgetting the visit to Argentina that Pope Francis never wanted to make. The first stop in Uruguay marks the beginning of a marathon that will test Pope Leo’s endurance. In the coming days we will be very attentive to what happens in Rome; absences are used to ‘clean house,’ and this one is prolonged. We will turn our Specola toward the media of the countries visited and whatever may happen. We hold our breath and increase our prayer. We will try one more day to summarize and present what we see; from yesterday three appointments remain, a Chinese centenary, and a cardinal who speaks about the American elections.
The departure
He took off from Fiumicino at 07:05, five minutes later than scheduled, on an ITA Airbus A330 baptized “Daniele de Rossi.” He arrives in Montevideo at 16:30 local time, after thirteen and a half hours of flight, and at 17:30 the welcome ceremony will be held in Plaza Independencia. Twelve days, three countries, fourteen stages, until November 17. Before leaving he sent the customary telegram to Mattarella. The list of the delegation traveling with him and of the journalists accredited on the papal flight has not been published. Of the latter, only the opening of registrations dated September 21 is on record, with the deadline closed on the 29th.
The Hungarian bishops and the nuncio to Hungary
Yesterday’s bulletin carries a single audience and three appointments, and two of those entries fit together without anyone having pointed it out. The audience: the bishops of Hungary, on an ad limina visit, and no one else on the list. The appointment, the same day: Franco Coppola, apostolic nuncio to Hungary. Coppola is titular archbishop of Vinda and comes from Belgium and Luxembourg, where he had been since November 2021. Budapest had been vacant for almost six months: his predecessor, Michael Banach, left on May 14 for Argentina and took possession in Buenos Aires in July. The chain goes back further: Adamczyk left Argentina for Tirana in January, Banach covered Argentina in May, and Coppola now covers Hungary. The one left without a nuncio now is Brussels. The note that circulated consists of two sentences and that’s it: neither the titular see, nor the predecessor, nor the six months of vacancy.
Two former nuncios to Evangelization and two under-secretaries for Smerilli
Four members of the Dicastery for Evangelization, and he appoints them to the section for first evangelization, that of Cardinal Tagle. They are Cardinals Mario Zenari and Christophe Pierre, and Bishops Ambrogio Spreafico, emeritus of Frosinone-Veroli-Ferentino and of Anagni-Alatri, and Maurizio Malvestiti, of Lodi. Zenari and Pierre are precisely the two nuncios who left this year upon reaching the age limit, from Syria in February and from the United States in March.
And there are two new under-secretaries in the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development: the Jesuit Avelino Chicoma Bundo Chico, Angolan from Lobito, until now head of office of the same dicastery, and the Chilean Claudia Leal Luna, professor at the John Paul II Institute, consultant to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and member of the International Theological Commission. Both posts had been vacant since September 1, when Baggio and Barlaš were promoted to pro-prefect and secretary. The dicastery spent two months without any under-secretary, and with this the reorganization that began on June 30 is closed. A detail that almost everyone overlooks: the pro-prefecture of Cardinal Baggio carries a special mandate for the Center for Advanced Formation Laudato si’.
The centenary of the six Chinese bishops
On October 28, 1926, Pius XI consecrated in St. Peter’s the first six Chinese bishops of the contemporary era. The centenary was celebrated yesterday at the Pontifical Urbaniana University. Everything that touches China is examined under a magnifying glass, and even more so if the Pope sent a video message. He recalled that those six “came from Shanghai to Rome,” asked for fidelity to a Church “whose unity is not uniformity, but communion in diversity,” and left the phrase that almost everyone has picked up: “no pastor in the Church can claim the mission for himself alone.” He cited Benedict XVI’s 2007 letter to Chinese Catholics, Francis’s 2024 video message, Maximum illud, and the Council of Shanghai of 1924. Very significant is what he did not name, reviewed term by term: the Provisional Agreement, the underground bishops, the Patriotic Association, and Sinicization.
Of what was said there, the most substantial was the intervention of the bishop of Beijing, Giuseppe Li Shan: that “the Sinicization of Catholicism does not intend to build a different Catholicism,” and that observance of the laws of the State “should not be considered an external imposition.” A detail of nomenclature with its own grace: Parolin calls him archbishop of Beijing, which is the canonically correct title. Cardinal Chow spoke of inculturation and asked to “find a third space.” Of Ding Zuyao, bishop of Haimen, only his presence is recorded, not a single word.
A piece from SIR that has circulated widely puts in its headline, in quotation marks and in a text whose hook is the papal video message, the phrase “many are the voices and faces of the peoples; one alone is the Body of Christ.” It is not from the Pope: it is from Parolin, and it does not appear in the pontifical text.
The Agreement with China has been extended three times, not two
Parolin spoke of the Provisional Agreement on the appointment of bishops, but not at the congress, where he only mentions it in passing: he did so outside, in answer to journalists’ questions. “That has been the line, there have been no changes,” “the appointments of bishops are made according to the provisions of the Agreement and the Pope has given his assent,” and, responding to the imperfection that Gallagher had pointed out, “all agreements are imperfect, and so is the one with China”; we continue “trying to perfect what is imperfect.” The medium’s gloss adds that the Agreement has been extended twice, and SIR repeats it. It is three times. Signed on September 22, 2018, it was extended on October 22, 2020 for two years; on October 22, 2022, another two, and the communiqué of that time expressly states that it was the second; and on October 22, 2024, for a four-year period. It remains in force until October 2028 and the text has still not been published.
Parolin after the U.S. ballot boxes
On Wednesday we noted that nothing had been said in Rome about the American elections. Now it has been said, and it was also on the margins of the Urbaniana congress. “Let us hope there is capacity to collaborate,” “let us hope that reason and common sense prevail,” and we will seek “modi vivendi” for the good of the country. Asked whether the result will change the approach to the war in Ukraine, “it is difficult to say what will happen or what will change; let us hope.”
He did not name Trump. Neither immigration nor tariffs. What the Vatican News headline did do was combine two different answers into a single formula, “let us hope in collaboration and in peace,” when peace was mentioned in reference to Ukraine; SIR keeps Ukraine in a separate piece, but in exchange describes the result in its own gloss as “a clear victory for the Democrats,” which belongs to the writer and not to the cardinal. The two chronicles, that of Vatican News and that of SIR, deserve to be read together.
Regarding the Catholic vote, a figure is circulating of a shift from 59 percent in 2024 to a tie. The SIR piece that disseminates it, signed by Riccardo Benotti, is honest in the body and must be read in full: the 59 percent comes from an exit poll and Pew gave 43-55 for the same election; the supposed tie is 50-49 in the House, which is not the same as the presidential vote; and “tie” is the writer’s word.
A World Day of the Sick without a message
The communiqué from the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development announces the theme of the XXXV World Day of the Sick, to be celebrated on February 11, 2027: “They lowered him with the stretcher in front of Jesus,” from Luke 5, with the subtitle “the role of the community in the care of each person.” The message does not yet exist: on vatican.va the last one published is that of the XXXIV Day, signed in January. Yesterday’s communiqué does not contain a single word attributed to Leo XIV, and the formula being put in his mouth is the subtitle drafted by the dicastery.
The Mass for deceased cardinals and bishops
Yesterday at nine in the morning, at the altar of the Chair, the Pope presided over the Mass for the cardinals and bishops who died during the year. The homily is published in full, which does not always happen, and it is based on 2 Maccabees 12 and Saint Paul: “if, as Scripture emphasizes, there were no resurrection, it would be vain to pray for the dead.” He did not name any of the deceased and visited the tombs of his predecessors in the crypts of St. Peter’s. That of Pope Francis, being in Santa Maria Maggiore, has not had a papal visit in these days despite being his immediate predecessor and the start today of a trip that will take him to Argentina.
Gallagher’s elephant
In an interview with Elisabetta Piqué who asked Gallagher in La Nación whether there will be many references to Francis during the trip, the answer was: “as is sometimes said in political speeches, Pope Francis will be the elephant in the room. He will always be present because he was one of the most important representatives of his country.” Of the rest, little. He supported multilateralism and admitted that international organizations need reform, to the point of conceding that the decisions of the United States and Argentina “ultimately serve to bring about reforms.” On the risk of politicization, “there is always risk, on all sides, in all countries, in all trips.” He did not name Milei, nor Venezuela, nor the debt, nor abuses, nor China. And about the Pope’s health he only said that he is “completely fit.”
Lugano, four years without a bishop
We are living in times when we have many dioceses waiting for a bishop; it is not an ideal situation. It is true that given the level of possible appointees, many think it is better to be without a mitre. Today we have a striking case: the Swiss diocese of Lugano has been without a bishop since the resignation of Valerio Lazzeri was accepted on October 10, 2022, when he was fifty-nine years old and whose reasons are not stated. It is governed as apostolic administrator by Alain de Raemy, auxiliary bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, and nuncio Martin Krebs confirmed by letter in October 2023 that he will continue “until a new decision of the Holy See.”
Even the Government of the canton of Ticino has protested, at a low level, with a brief letter of October 14 that is the response to a private individual, lawyer Franco Gianoni, in which the State Council expresses the desire that the vacancy not be prolonged. It has not asked anything of Bern. The legal detail is a 1968 convention between the Swiss Federal Council and the Holy See whose first article would require the bishop of Lugano to be chosen from among priests of Ticinese citizenship. If that is the case, there lies the explanation for four years. From the Holy See, no public response to any of this.
Zelensky works with the Vatican
Askanews reports that Zelensky said yesterday, after meeting with the prime minister of Andorra, that “we are working intensively with the Vatican, with the countries of the Middle East and with our other partners,” and that 2,790 minors out of more than twenty thousand have returned home. The agency does not specify whether it was an interview, press conference or speech.
Those figures are from Kiev and only from Kiev. There is no figure from the Holy See. The channel is that of Cardinal Zuppi, who in September made his third mission to Moscow with a mandate received from Francis and confirmed by Leo XIV, and who formulates it thus: “I have received the task of supporting the efforts of the parties to address issues relating to children.” The other figures circulating should be given with their owner: Moscow disputes the twenty thousand alleging duplicates; the Russian embassy to the Holy See speaks of seven hundred thousand minors who arrived in Russia since February 2022 and denies that there has been deportation; the UN commission of inquiry has one thousand two hundred verified cases; and Nello Scavo published in Avvenire that through the Vatican channel dossiers with about one thousand two hundred names have been delivered.
The quote that Vesco did not say
We do not find him particularly sympathetic, but information is information and it is always advisable to be honest. For two weeks a controversy has been circulating about Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, archbishop of Algiers, who is attributed with having said that the Church is not there to convert. Bishop Robert Barron replied to him in two public messages and the matter has become blog material.
The original is an interview with the Belgian portal CathoBel on October 23, in French. First problem: the Italian translations circulating do not coincide with each other. Second problem, and the real one: CathoBel published a reply maintaining that the first quote was taken out of context, because Vesco was speaking of the Church in Algeria, and that the second quote was not in the interview, but came from the introductory summary by a journalist in another medium. A transatlantic discussion between a cardinal and a bishop built on a writer’s paraphrase. It is not that the content of the text is particularly exemplary; the same Vesco responded on Facebook that the faithful of the three monotheistic religions “have much more important things to do than try to convert each other.” It may be criticizable, undoubtedly it is, but not for what is being said.
Wrapping up the day
Of Bob Dylan, Spadaro spoke in the first person on his own profile: “today I accompanied Bob Dylan to Pope Leo together with Andrea Monda.” Accompanying is not organizing, and it is still not on record who organized the meeting.
Pietro Orlandi is charged with aggravated defamation through the press and must appear before the investigating judge of Frosinone, in a forced indictment decided after the prosecution itself requested the case be filed. It is a preliminary phase and there is no trial or anything firm. The part that deserves to be said is another: the plaintiff, blogger Mario Barbato, is a regular contributor to the medium that publishes the chronicles of that proceeding, with more than two hundred signed articles, including those of the Orlandi case itself.
Today’s Gospel is the parable of the shrewd steward, and for a day of phrases put in other people’s mouths its conclusion serves. It is November and we continue to pray for the souls of our deceased. We continue with interest and pray these days that everything in America turns out as planned and that we have a good apostolic journey.
“The children of this world are more shrewd with their own than the children of light.”