Letter #27, 2016: The New Nuncio

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Letter #27, 2016: The New Nuncio

[2016-04-13]

[Engleză]

The report below ranges from the retirement of Archbishop ViganĂ˛ to the Kim Davis case from last September to the question of whether Pope Francis believes we are entering into the apocalyptic period of the great apostasy. Meanwhile, I am preparing a full report on the Pope's new document...

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Archbishop Christophe Pierre New Nuncio to USA

Pope Francis today appointed Archbishop Christophe Pierre, 70, (photo) as the new Apostolic Nuncio to the United States of America.

Archbishop Pierre, a native of France, was previously Apostolic Nuncio to Mexico.

He replaces Archbishop Carlo Maria ViganĂ˛, who reached the age of retirement, age 75, on January 16 this year.

ViganĂ˛ had served in the post since his appointment on October 19, 2011, four and one half years ago.

He has been in Rome in recent days, and is now expected be in the United States for a few weeks, then to return to Italy and begin his retirement.

During his term, ViganĂ˛ strongly took up the religious liberty cause championed by U.S. bishops.

He also set up a private meeting between the Pope and the Little Sisters of the Poor in their convent in Washington DC on the afternoon of September 23, on the first full day of his trip to the U.S.

In a 2012 speech at Notre Dame University, he warned of threats to religious liberty in the U.S., citing public school curriculums presenting homosexual relations as "natural and wholesome."

In 2015, he received standing ovations from U.S. bishops after a speech in which he urged the bishops to keep working to not "fall prey" to "secularized and increasingly pagan" practices in America and the world.

Last Thursday in Rome, April 7, he gave an address at the Rector's Dinner of the North American College.

"Each one of us has a responsibility before God to bring a message of truth into this world, even if it means spending our lives for that very purpose — sometimes silently, but very often today publicly," ViganĂ˛ said. "This is an age when we need great courage — courage to stand up for the Truth, even when we are not understood, or persecuted when we are understood. We need to be strong in the face of evil. This is the prophetic role we have received in Baptism."

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A Man with a Deep, Booming Voice...

Archbishop Pierre is the first Frenchman to be appointed as Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.

He speaks English and Spanish fluently.

One press account says he is known for his “humility and simplicity” and is “excellent on all fronts.” (link)

This report, by Gerard O'Connell in Vatican Insider, says a fellow nuncio described him as “a thoughtful, hardworking man” and “good listener” with “a great sense of fairness and balanced judgment.”

He is gifted with "a good sense of humor and a deep voice" and is said to be able to "captivate an audience." (Here is a link to a brief, 30-second video of Archbishop Pierre speaking in Spanish.)

Pierre has been the Holy See's nuncio to Mexico for the past nine years, since March 22, 2007.

This means that he is uniquely qualified to deal with the delicate diplomatic issues involving immigration in to the United States via Mexico from all of Latin America.

One concern of Pope Francis, a Church official told me today, is that so many thousands of immigrants live in constant fear for themselves and their families -- in fear of being arrested and deported -- and this is "no way for a person to live," the official said.

So the goal is to overcome this situation of uncertainty, he said.

Of course, one of the key tasks of any nuncio is to identify candidates to be new bishops.

Bishops have a range of duties, from administering properties and institutions (including schools and hospitals) to evangelizing with all that that implies (traveling, preaching, listening, inspiring), to being "doctors of the faith" (overseeing the protection of the orthodoxy of the Church's teaching in their dioceses).

So they must have a wide range of talents.

Francis has made it clear that he seeks "evangelizers" who will take seriously the call of Christ to "go out" and seek the metaphorical "lost sheep" in order to bring them back to the faith -- again, to "go out" to those who have lost hope and restore in them a hope in God's mercy and love.

Pope Francis, O'Connell writes, got to know Pierre as he prepared for his February 12-17 trip to Mexico.

Francis liked Pierre so much that he decided to assign him this highly important mission, O'Connell writes.

Before serving in Mexico, Pierre served as nuncio to Uganda (1999-2007) and Haiti (1995-1999).

According to The Vision, Uganda’s leading daily, he is a man who goes "among the people" and is ready to help anyone regardless of status.

Pierre was born in Rennes, in western France. He spent much of his childhood in Africa, mainly in Madagascar, with some years in Malawi, Zimbabwe and one in Morocco.

He entered the seminary of Saint-Yves in Rennes at the age of 17, interrupting his studies for two years of military service (1965-1966).

He was ordained in April 1970, serving in a parish in the diocese of Nanterre for next three years. He then took a Master’s degree in theology from the Institute Catholique de Paris, and then a doctorate in Canon Law in Rome.

He entered the Holy See’s diplomatic service in 1977. He served in New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Brazil, and as the Permanent Observer to the United Nations office in Geneva.

He therefore has, O'Connell writes, "considerable experience in both bilateral and multilateral diplomacy."

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Further Reflections on the Kim Davis Story

Today's news of the retirement of the Vatican's nuncio to the US and the arrival of his successor, French Archbishop Christophe Pierre, 70, is being reported around the world.

In these reports, the retirement of ViganĂ˛ is raising again the issue of the meeting of Pope Francis with Kim Davis in the papal nunciature in Washington D.C. on Thursday afternoon, September 24, at about 2 p.m. in the afternoon. That was the day the Pope spoke in the morning to Congress, then left for New York City to speak the next day to the United Nations.

Davis is, as AP put it, "the Kentucky clerk who went to jail rather than comply with a court order to issue same-sex marriage licenses."

The Associated Press headlined today's story this way: "Vatican envoy who invited Kim Davis to papal meeting [emphasis mine] retires." (link)

It is as if the only thing that ViganĂ˛ did during his nearly five years in the United States was to set up the Kim Davis meeting, which is a distortion.

AP also reports that "ViganĂ˛ had invited Davis to be among those greeting Francis in the Vatican embassy in Washington last September during his visit to the country."

The suggestion seems to be that ViganĂ˛ alone organized the meeting, without consulting with his superiors, and that the meeting was very fleeting, and not private.

This first point -- that Pope Francis was "blindsided" by his nuncio -- has become part of a widely accepted narrative: that Francis knew nothing in advance about the September 24 meeting with Kim Davis.

David Gibson, for example, in his Religious News Service piece from a month ago, on March 17, sets forth this narrative.

"It turned out, however, that the Pope had been as blindsided as everyone else," Gibson writes. "He didn’t know who Davis was, Church officials said, nor did he understand the implications of meeting her, and he was reportedly furious that his chief diplomatic representative in the U.S. had arranged the decidedly undiplomatic meeting. The Italian-born ViganĂ˛ was immediately called back to Rome and called on the carpet." (link)

This narrative seemed odd to me at the time, and it still seems odd to me.

ViganĂ˛ was a career Vatican diplomat.

Vatican protocol would have required him to clear such a meeting with his superiors.

And, in this regard, informed sources have advised me that ViganĂ˛ did, in fact, follow protocol, and set up the meeting with the knowledge of his superiors in Rome.

Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com

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