Moves in the Vatican curia

Was the appointment of Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald as nuncio to Egypt from his former post as head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue a demotion? It certainly wasn’t a promotion or a lateral move. Had he stayed at the council he would certainly be considered for a cardinal’s hat, but now… cardinals aren’t nuncios.

Some see this as the beginning of the great curial restructuring being talked about but Rorate Caeli also sees a motive for this move in Fitzgerald’s history with Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict.

Korazym offers this set of opinions:

“‘The Pope’—says the Vaticanist [of Italian news agency AGI]—has not shown himself as able to compromise on aspects regarding the personal life of the members of the Curia.‘ The same concept is also published by ANSA [another Italian news agency], according to which ‘among [Vatican] watchers it is asked if other considerations may not have weighed down on Ratzinger’s decision, regarding, particularly, personal lifestyles.‘ It is impossible to understand to what those allusions refer: the agencies do not say it and turn a gossip into news presumed [as widely known].“

Both Korazym and Andrea Tornielli in today’s edition of Il Giornale remind their readers that Fitzgerald was the highest authority in that scandalous interreligious meeting in Fatima, in 2003, whose star was none other than Jacques Dupuis, SJ, highly praised by Fitzgerald at the time as the man who had provided the “theological basis” for interreligious dialogue. Dupuis, as is well remembered, was condemned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (2001) and was the most important individual theologian who forced the same Congregation to issue one of the most important documents of the previous pontificate, the declaration Dominus Iesus (2000). Il Foglio also regards this as the overwhelming motive for the promotion of Fitzgerald.

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