What happened?
The row over the testimony of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò entered new territory as the whistleblower sought to defend his record as US nuncio – specifically in organising the Pope’s meeting with Kim Davis, a clerk jailed for five days for refusing to authorise same-sex marriages. Viganò said he was provoked by a New York Times report in which abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz said the Pope told him he was “horrified” by the meeting and “fired that nuncio”.
What the media are saying
Archbishop Viganò released a statement to LifeSiteNews explaining that the night before the meeting he had asked the Pope about the possibility of an audience, giving him a brief memo about Davis. The Pope seemed favourable, he said, but asked him to check with Cardinal Pietro Parolin. He went to Parolin’s hotel but, as the cardinal had already gone to bed, instead briefed the cardinal’s two under-secretaries, Archbishop Angelo Becciu and Archbishop Paul Gallagher, who, he said, backed the idea.
Then, in the resultant media storm, Viganò received a phone call from Parolin saying that he must come to the Vatican immediately “because the Pope is furious with you”. The next day he had an hour-long meeting with Francis, who was “very affectionate and paternal” and “did not mention even once the audience with Davis”.
On Sunday Fr Federico Lombardi and Fr Thomas Rosica, two Vatican advisers accused in Viganò’s report of falsely downplaying the meeting, issued their own statement disputing Viganò’s version of events. They said they had met him during his visit to Rome and that he was “clearly shaken”. He told them that, while the Pope had thanked him for organising the US visit, he “also said that I had deceived him” by arranging the meeting.
Jason Horowitz, writing for the New York Times, said their testimony not only offered a portrait of the Pope and his advisers as “politically naive”, it also confirmed a “key part of [Viganò’s] claims”: that the Pope actually had been briefed, in spite of the Vatican denials – and that, by claiming the meeting was a surprise, either Cruz or the Pope himself had spoken in error.
✣Cardinal dismisses ‘gay subculture’ allegations
What happened?
Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill flew to Istanbul for talks with Patriarch Bartholomew, the “first among equals” in the Orthodox hierarchy, to dissuade him from recognising an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church – which Moscow says would amount to the biggest split in Orthodoxy for 1,000 years.
Why was it under-reported
The magnitude of the meeting was not widely appreciated in the West. The request for a recognised, independent Ukrainian Church was made by the country’s president, Petro Poroshenko. If Bartholomew agrees to the request – which now seems likely – it would be a severe blow to Moscow. Most Orthodox parishes in Ukraine fall under the Moscow patriarchate. Two breakaway churches formed in the 1990s, but they are not recognised by other Orthodox churches. If recognition is given, it is likely that these two churches would unite to form one autocephalous body.
What will happen next?
One of Patriarch Bartholomew’s top advisers, Metropolitan Emmanuel of Paris, said after the meeting that the case had already been decided in principle and that only procedural questions remained. That has raised hopes in Ukraine. Yet the Russians sounded surprisingly happy about the talks too, with one official, Metropolitan Hilarion, citing a promise that there would be no schism. A compromise may have been struck. At any rate, a final decision is expected at a synod of bishops of the Constantinople church in October.
✣The week ahead
The Pope’s Council of Cardinals will meet from Monday to Wednesday next week. They will discuss a document on the structure of the Curia. Council members include Cardinal Maradiaga, who is accused of ignoring a sex scandal in his diocesan seminary, and Chilean Cardinal Errázuriz, who faces cover-up claims. Both cardinals strongly deny the allegations.
Dozens of bishops, hundreds of priests and thousands of lay people will join a Blessed Sacrament procession in Liverpool on Sunday. The procession comes at the end of Adoremus, the National Eucharistic Congress.
A Dominican priest, a bioethicist and a hospital consultant will discuss the implications of the Alfie Evans case on Tuesday evening. Alfie died aged 23 months after his parents lost a legal battle against Alder Hey hospital, which then withdrew his life support. The event will take place at Notre Dame University, London, and is hosted by the Catholic Union.
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