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| Laurent Stefanini |
Last January, the Council of Ministers appointed Laurent Stefanini, (photo above) a 55-year-old career foreign service officer who is openly gay, to be France's ambassador to the Vatican. That post, to the historic Villa Bonaparte Embassy in Rome, is considered a plum assignment, often given as a reward for years of service by members of France's diplomatic corps.
The Vatican was notified of the new ambassador in early January, and the ambassadorship has been vacant for more than a month now, but Stefanini has yet to be credentialed by the Vatican. Reports are Pope Francis himself personally rejected the posting, telling members of the Curia that he would not yield.
This, apparently, is the way things are done at the Vatican: no outright refusal to accept the Ambassador's credentials, just silence. In the good old days, after a certain period of non-response, the nomination would be withdrawn and a substitute named. But that was the good old days:
France has announced it will not rescind the nomination of Laurent Stefanini as its ambassador to the Vatican. Speculation is that French officials have determined to force Pope Francis to either accept Msr. Stefanini's appointment or openly reject it for all the world to see.
A government spokesman, Stephane LeFoll, told France24:
"France has chosen its ambassador to the Vatican. This choice was Stefanini and that remains the French proposal. ...We are awaiting the response from the Vatican."
I'm with France -- if the Pope is going to reject the nomination, let him do it openly.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out -- the article notes that "negotiations are underway."
2 comments:
This is simply proof that Francis's trumpeted "shift" in religious attitudes is merely window dressing, a public relations shift rather than an actual softening of attitude. I rather expect there will be pretty much the same response to today's very public appeal to him over the appointment of Archbishop Cordileone to the San Francisco archdiocese -- intransigent silence -- unless there is actual repudiation (probably accompanied by a reminder that the pope is infallible, or something along those lines). Same old, same old; in Rome, everything new is old again.
I think Francis really does want to open up the Church, but never forget that he's not an autocrat: he has the Curia to deal with, and until he's able to load it with more liberal bishops, that's going to be a brake on the whole process. Not that the Church has ever been known to move rapidly.
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