Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal-designate Archbishop Angelo Becciu, one of his most trusted aides, to run the Vatican’s saint making department.
Soon-to-be Cardinal Becciu is the Secretariat of State’s “sostituto” (“substitute”) a chief of staff equivalent with a crucial Vatican role working closely with the Pope.
On Saturday, however, the Vatican announced Francis had decided Archbishop Becciu will succeed Cardinal Angelo Amato, who turns 80 on 8 June, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. This is the Vatican body which assesses sainthood candidates: a laborious, painstaking and at times politically sensitive task.
A sure-footed papal diplomat renowned for his loyalty, Archbishop Becciu, 69, has been the “institutional face” of a papacy known for bypassing protocol and the old Roman structures.
He summed up his approach in a 2016 interview explaining: ”As the Pope's collaborator I feel I have a duty to tell him what I think when a decision is being taken. Once it is taken though, I obey.”
It was the Sardinian-born Becciu, who celebrates his 70th birthday on 2 June, who played an important role in organising, at short notice, the Pope bringing twelve Muslim refugees back with him on his papal plane from the Greek island of Lesbos. He was also appointed the Pope’s special delegate to the Order of Malta following the public battle between the knights and Francis and will continue in that position.
At the same time it was the archbishop who suspended an audit of the Vatican’s finances by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) commissioned by Cardinal George Pell, the finance tsar. In signing the contract ordering the full scale review of 120 Vatican entities, Pell controversially described himself as “manager of the Holy See”, a novel title that jarred with experienced papal officials.
A full scale audit could not take place, it was argued, because it had not taken into account the Vatican’s status as a sovereign entity. PwC continue to assist Vatican departments in drawing up their accounts.
As “sostituto”, a role he has held since 2011 under Benedict XVI, he worked closely with the Pope on a day-to-day basis and travelled with him on all his trips abroad. It is a position that has been held by an illustrious line up including Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, and Archbishop Giovanni Benelli, a leading contender for the papacy in the 1978 conclave.
The job of the “sostituto” is to oversee the first section for “general affairs” at the Secretariat of State, the key co-ordinating department of the Holy See and responsible for diplomacy and external affairs. This section is responsible for much of the internal functioning of the Vatican, overseeing translations of key papal texts, and the management of papal ambassadors, known as nuncios. The “sostituto” travels with the Pope because papal visits are to the “local church” in the country he is going to.
The second section of the Secretariat of State, responsible for relations with states, is led by Archbishop Paul Gallagher although recently a third section has been added that will be tasked with dealing with diplomatic personnel.
All of these sections come under the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and, ultimately, the Pope.
Archbishop Becciu’s closeness to Francis has seen him absorb criticism at difficult moments in a job where failures are highlighted but successes largely hidden.
There has been persistent talk in Rome in recent months that Becciu would be moved off his role by Francis and when the Pope announced he was making the archbishop a cardinal last Sunday it was seen as only a matter of time before a new job was found for him.
In the hierarchy of the Holy See it would not be possible for a “cardinal-sostituto” to serve under the Cardinal Secretary of State.
Archbishop Becciu, who will receive his red hat on 28 Jun and leave his current job the day after, has been a long serving diplomat working in Sudan, the United Kingdom, Liberia, Central African Republic, New Zealand, the United States. He was papal ambassador in Angola and Cuba before being called to Rome.
In his role as prefect of the saints congregation he will be advising the Pope on various candidates to be raised to the Church’s altar. And he will also play a role in the high profile canonisation ceremony on 14 October where Francis will declare Oscar Romero and Paul VI saints.
A member of the Focolare movement, founded by Chiara Lubich in 1943 to promote unity and community, Archbishop Becciu has always maintained close links with his home of Sardinia, and the farming communities on the island. He was born in Pattada, an area known for producing small knives known as “resolzas”, traditionally used by shepherds and agricultural workers.
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