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Filipino's appointment to Propaganda Fide may be the most significant personnel move of Francis' pontificate
By Robert Mickens,Rome | Vatican City
If you are an enthusiastic supporter of Pope Francis and his efforts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, make sure you put Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle at the top of your prayer list.
The 62-year-old Archbishop of Manila is soon to take charge of one the most important and powerful offices at the Vatican. And in what will, no doubt, be his most difficult assignment ever, the cardinal will need all the prayers he can get.
On Dec. 8 the pope named the youthful-looking Tagle prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the office founded in 1622 as "Propaganda Fide". He will take up the post in mid-January, succeeding Italian Cardinal Fernando Filoni, 73, a career Holy See diplomat who has headed the office since 2011.
The prefect of Propaganda Fide is often referred to as Il Papa Rosso (the Red Pope) because he oversees roughly 1,100 ecclesiastical jurisdictions (about a fourth of all dioceses in the world) and controls vast financial resources and property holdings.
As expected, Cardinal Tagle's appointment to this powerful post has caused a lot of chatter and speculation among Vatican watchers. Some have gone so far as to say that Francis is bringing the Filipino to Rome to give him the seasoning and toughening up he needs to become the next pope.
Leaving that sort of speculation aside, let's take a look at what's really behind this key personnel move and what his means for the Vatican and the worldwide Church.
The Timing of Tagle's Appointment
This was another one of those announcements that no one saw coming. While there had been rumors that Cardinal Tagle was in the running for a top job in Rome, no one expected it to be announced on a Sunday.
Papal appointments (or nominations) are almost never announced on the Lord's Day.
But this past Sunday was also the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. And each year on the afternoon of the December 8thfeast the pope goes to downtown Rome to take a floral tribute to a statue of Our Lady.
The statue is perched on a large column near the Spanish Steps, directly in front of the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide. That massive building, which was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is the headquarters of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
And when the pope makes his Dec. 8 visit, the congregation's prefect comes out to ceremoniously greet him. This year, just four hours before the pope's arrival, the Holy See Press Office announced that Francis had chosen Cardinal Tagle to replace Cardinal Filoni.
Nonetheless, the 73-year-old Italian put on a brave face and welcomed the Jesuit pope in the square. But behind Filoni's smile there was surely some anguish and probably some bitterness.
Although still two years away from the normal age of retirement, he had just learned he was being removed from a major Curia office and relegated to little more than a ceremonial post: Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
Cardinal Edwin O'Brien, the 80-year-old former Archbishop of Baltimore, has held that title since 2011. And it is not exactly what Filoni expected or wanted. The person who was really hoping to take O'Brien's place was a cardinal who currently heads the largest diocese in the Eastern United States.
Sidelining a double-crossing Italian cardinal?
The change of the guard was surprising for at least one other reason. No one was expecting Pope Francis to replace heads of any major Vatican offices until the reform of the Roman Curia was finalized. It is expected to be a major overhaul, but will not take place until the publication of Praedicate Evangelium.
The latest thinking is that this won't happen until next June 29, although some people are now saying it could be as soon as the Feast of the Chair of Peter on Feb. 22nd. And until then it was believed that all Vatican chieftains – even a number of prefects who are already 75 years or older – would remain in place.
So why remove Filoni now? One reason may be that it was the outgoing prefect's dealings with the bishops in Japan. It is well known that he harangued the prelates over their refusal to allow the Neocatechumenal Way, a group that he greatly favors, to establish seminaries in Japanese dioceses.
Only one bishop in the Land of the Rising Sun has conceded to Filoni's wishes. And that man, to the chagrin of many, was made a cardinal in 2018. He's Thomas Manyo Maeda of Osaka.
Some people actually believe Francis gave the red hat to the wrong Japanese bishop. And maybe quite unwittingly.
On the day he announced the consistory the pope referred to Maeda as "Thomas Aquinas Manyo". Did he forget or did he not even know that Manyo is actually the bishop's given name. Maeda is the surname. That could have been found out easily enough in the Annuario Pontificio and confirmed by merely asking the papal nuncio.
Cardinal Maeda does not speak Spanish or Italian, so when the pope had his only meeting with him several months before the consistory, another bishop translated for the two men. Some believe the translator may have given to Francis an image of Maeda that did not correspond accurately with the cardinal's true personality and theological-pastoral thinking. Certainly, Filoni had urged the pope to give Maeda Japan's first red hat since 2007, the year Cardinal Stephen Hamao died.
And Francis may have learned more about all that during his pastoral visit to Japan this past November. In any event, something happened to make him decide to demote Fernando Filoni now and not wait for the completion of the Curia reform.
Inside Out and Outside In
The Italian cardinal is not only a consummate diplomat, but also the consummate Vatican insider. Cardinal Tagle is neither.
Filoni climbed slowly and progressively up the rungs of the Holy See's diplomatic corps. He courageously stayed on as papal nuncio in Iraq, even as the US-UK-led invasion devastated the country. Later he became the Deputy Secretary of State for internal affairs (Sostituto) under Benedict XVI before being named to Propaganda Fide.
The Italian cardinal knows the Roman system as well as anyone. And he has a stake in protecting it and the privileges the Vatican's top brass enjoy. While he has always shown outward signs of loyalty to Pope Francis, his vision of the Church is more conservative institutionally.
Tagle, on the other hand, is a theologian and pastor. He rose quickly through the ranks of academia and the hierarchy. He did his doctoral studies at the Catholic University of America under the direction of Joseph Komonchak, the distinguished theologian and editor of the English edition of History of Vatican II.
It was through Komonchak that Tagle was invited to submit a chapter for the five-volume series, which was produced originally in Italian by the so-called "Bologna School" directed by the late Giuseppe Alberigo.
That theological circle often has been criticized, ham-fistedly and inaccurately, for holding that Vatican II marked a rupture with previous Church teaching and tradition. Being a contributor to the group's work certainly did not hurt Tagle's reputation among the people who count. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger got him made a member of the Vatican-sponsored International Theological Commission (1997-2002), after which John Paul II named him bishop of his home diocese in the Philippines.
Then it was Ratzinger who, as pope, appointed Tagle to head the Archdiocese of Manila, the largest local Church in Asia. And it was also Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, in the very last consistory of his pontificate, who made the Filipino a cardinal.
But Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle (Gokim is his mother's Chinese surname) not only found favor with now retired pope. He has always been perceived, at least by the public, to be a favorite of the current one, as well. And his appointment to Propaganda Fide would seem to support that.
Tagle is only the second Asian to head this powerful office. Ivan Dias of India (2006-2011) was the first. He is also just the second Filipino to be prefect of a Vatican congregation. He follows Cardinal José Sanchez, who headed the Congregation for the Clergy from 1991-96.
Sanchez died in March 2012 before Tagle even got his red hat. Interestingly, before heading Clergy he also served at Propaganda Fide. He was archbishop-secretary, the No. 2 official, from 1985-1991.
In the kingdom of the new Red Pope
Cardinal Chito, as Tagle likes to be called, is the second outsider in less than a month to be brought into Vatican governance.
On Nov. 14 the pope appointed a 60-year-old Jesuit priest, Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. That vacant post was initially held Australian Cardinal George Pell who was subsequently convicted for sexual abuse of minors.
There is a connection between the appointment of Guerrero and Tagle. The first is in charge of overseeing all the financial entities of the Holy See. The second is head of one of more lucrative of those entities. Both will come up against fierce opposition if they try – as expected – to bring greater transparency and accountability to the way in which the finances are being managed.
Some commentators have surmised that Francis named Tagle to his new Vatican post because of the pope's burning desire to further ties with China and visit Beijing.
That's because Tagle not only has Chinese ancestry from his maternal grandfather, he is also seen to be in full agreement with the Vatican's strategy to engage China. Filoni, though he refrained from publicly criticizing that strategy, is known to be much less in favor of it.
But, actually, it may be in the financial sector where Tagle will prove to be the pope's MVP – most valuable player. Propaganda Fide is a vast empire and, up to now, it has operated its finances and property holdings in almost complete independence.
The two outsiders – Cardinal Tagle and Father Guerrero – could change that. But it will mean the main outsider, Pope Francis, will need to have their backs. And that will likely require bringing in other outside forces to join them.
Phase-Two of the pontificate, which began in earnest last October with the Synod of Bishops' assembly on the Pan-Amazon Region, is likely to bring more and even bigger surprises. To use a well-known colloquial phrase:
"You ain't seen nothing yet!"
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