Pope’s health remains stable following respiratory crisis

Vatican City, Jan 8, 2021 / 04:40 pm (CNA).- For the first time, the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia will be presided by a layperson after Pope Francis appointed professor Vincenzo Buonomo, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University. And it is possible that more laypersons will be appointed for other Vatican positions.

The Commission is composed of a president and six members. Established by St. John Paul II in 1981, the Commission rules whether an administrative sanction – i.e., suspension or firing – can be imposed on a Roman Curia official is pertinent or not.

Pope Francis also appointed two new members of the Commission: Monsignor Alejandro W. Bunge, president of the Labor Office of the Apostolic See, known by the Italian acronym ULSA; and Mr. Maximino Caballero Ledo, General Secretary of the Secretariat for the Economy.

The appointment of professor Buonomo, a layperson, as a president is unprecedented. According to the Commission’s Statutes, issued in 2016, the president of the Commission must be a cardinal or at least a bishop. The statutes have a five-year validity. Until now, the Commission had five presidents: three cardinals, an archbishop, and a bishop. The last president was Bishop Giorgio Corbellini, who was also president of the ULSA. Corbellini died in November 2019, leaving the position open.

Article 4 of the Statutes read that “the Commission is composed by a Cardinal or Bishop president and other six members, both laymen and clergy, appointed for a five-year term by the Pontiff.”

Article 4 also states that the Vatican Secretariat of State’s adviser and the secretary of the administrative section of the Secretariat for the Economy are members de iure (officially sanctioned) of the same Commission. That means that also Monsignor Luigi Cona, is a member of the Commission.

The other Commission members are Bishop Juan Arrieta, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, and Flaminia Giovannelli, undersecretary emeritus of the Dicastery for the Service to the Integral Human Development. Vincenzo Buonomo was also a member before being elevated to the chairmanship of the Commission. Pope Francis may now appoint another member of the Commission.

Buonomo has garnered growing attention during the years. Pope Francis called him in 2018 to be the first lay rector of the Pontifical Lateran University. Since he became the rector, Pope Francis has paid a visit to the university twice.

Since 2014, Buonomo is also a counselor of the Vatican City State Administration and was part of the committee that drafted the first Vatican law on procurements, issued in July 2020.

A professor in the Pontifical Lateran University since 1984, Buonomo began his collaboration with the Vatican Secretariat of State during the 1980s.

Since 2007, Buonomo is office chief of the Vatican’s delegation to the U.N. Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO,) where he has served since 1993.

In 2015, he was a member of the Secretariat of State’s working group for the drafting of the Holy See Periodic Reports to the U.N. Committees on the Rights of Children, on Racial discrimination, and Against Torture.

The appointment of Buonomo as president of the Commission is certainly a sign of trust by Pope Francis. Pope Francis is also continuing his policy of appointing laypeople as Curia top-officials.

In the last year, Pope Francis appointed Maximino Caballero Ledo as general secretary of the Secretariat for the Economy and Fabio Gasperini as general secretary of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA, a sort of Vatican central bank). In 2018, Pope Francis appointed another layperson, Paolo Ruffini, as prefect of the Dicastery of Communication.

There are rumors that Pope Francis might also choose a layperson as general secretary of the Vatican City State Administration. The current general secretary, Bishop Fernando Vergez Alzaga, already turned 75, the official retirement age.

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Vatican City, Jun 30, 2020 / 04:35 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has appointed a commissioner to reform the administration of the office responsible for the upkeep of St. Peter’s Basilica, where documents and computers were seized by order of judicial … […]

Vatican City, Jan 28, 2018 / 03:55 am (CNA).- “I’ve been expecting you.”

These were reportedly the foreboding last words of Blessed Giuseppe “Pino” Puglisi, an Italian priest who was shot and killed by the Italian mafia in 1993.

Declared a martyr by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and beatified in 2013, the priest is being honored once again by the Vatican, which has just released a commemorative stamp in his honor on the 25th anniversary of his martyrdom.

#Vatican issues stamp commemorating 25th anniversary of the assassination of anti-mafia priest Don Pino Puglisi pic.twitter.com/06bLMCtBHE

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) January 23, 2018

Blessed Puglisi was born on Sept. 15, 1937 to a modest working-class family in Palermo, Italy. He entered the seminary at the age of 16, and was ordained a priest in 1960 at the age of 22.

Throughout his priesthood, he was known for being outspoken against injustices – including Communism, the Mafia, and problems within the Church.

He was also passionately involved in youth ministry and in promoting vocations.

Archbishop Salvatore Di Cristina, a fellow priest and friend of Puglisi, recalled to the National Catholic Register in 2013 the transformative effect that Puglisi had on the whole town of Godrano.

Once an entangled mob town with an unspoken curfew and neighbors that were afraid of each other, Puglisi’s pastoral approach “won over the kids of the town, and after the kids, he won over the families. After his departure, Godrano was completely transformed,” he said.

While there are some who “would define him as a social-action priest or some kind of ‘anti-Mafia’ professional,” Archbishop Di Cristina said that was not really the case.

“He just deeply lived his vocation,” he said.

In 1990, Puglisi was transferred to San Gaetano’s parish in Brancaccio, another mob-ridden town in Palermo. His approach was the same – to win over the youth and be a pastor to his flock.

“Father Puglisi was not a typical anti-Mafia priest. He did not organize rallies or make public condemnation of Mafia,” Archbishop Michele Pennisi told the National Catholic Register in 2013. “[The] Mafia does not see that kind of priest as dangerous.”

Puglisi was actually considered more dangerous “because he educated young people,” Archbishop Pennisi said. He would convince youth not to steal or quit school and encouraged them away from the Mafia, who would often use children to help them traffic drugs and other illicit materials.

Puglisi preached against the Mafia, ignored their threats, banned them from leading religious processions and even stealthily gave clues to the authorities about their latest activities in his homilies. Consequently, his life was threatened by the mob numerous times, unbeknownst to even those closest to him until after his death.

Just months prior to his murder, while the Italian state was in peak conflict against the mob, Pope John Paul II blasted the Mafia in an impromptu speech during a visit to Sicily in May 1993.

“You must understand that you cannot kill the innocent. God once said, ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ No man, no human organization, no mafia can kill or stamp out this most holy right of God!” John Paul II declared. In later comments to EWTN, Archbishop Giancarlo Maria Bregantini said the powerful speech was one of the rare times he saw the Holy Father truly angry. The fiery speech, coupled with government crackdowns, prompted the Mafia to plant several car bombs throughout Italy that spring, leaving at least 10 people dead.

On September 15, 1993, having received numerous warnings and death threats, Fr. Puglisi was shot in the neck at point-blank range by Mafia hitmen under the direction of local Mafia bosses, the brothers Filippo and Giuseppe Graviano. It was the priest’s 56th birthday.

Although he was taken to the hospital, Puglisi was unable to be revived and died of his injuries.

“This is a Mafia crime,” Lorenzo Matassa, an investigating magistrate with broad anti-Mafia experience, told the New York Times in 1993. “Cosa Nostra could not stand that priest’s teaching the kids in the neighborhood about an anti-Mafia culture.”

The uproar in Italy was strong – it was the first time the Mafia had dared to kill a man of the cloth since 1979. His martyrdom also further galvanized the Church to act and speak out against the mob in Italy.

“After [Father Puglisi’s] murder, bishops made a public condemnation of the Mafia, and they maintained that whoever is part of this criminal organization cannot consider himself a Christian,” Bishop Salvatore Cuttitta, who had been an altar boy serving under Fr. Puglisi, told the National Catholic Register in 2013.

Father Puglisi was beatified on May 25, 2013. The following Sunday, Pope Francis called Puglisi “an exemplary priest, especially dedicated to the pastoral care of youth.”

He also condemned the continuation of Mafia activities and prayed for the conversion of those involved.

“Let us pray the Lord to convert the heart of these people. They cannot do this! They cannot make slaves of us, brothers and sisters! We must pray (to) the Lord! Let us pray that these members of the Mafia be converted to God and let us praise God for the luminous witness borne by Fr. Giuseppe Puglisi, and let us set store by his example!”

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