Bertone’s bruising can only help Parolin

With the retirement and replacement of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as the Holy See’s secretary of state, a difficult chapter in Vatican governance has come to an end. Over the last few years senior cardinals around the world openly criticized him. A delegation of Pope Benedict XVI’s most trusted cardinals went to see him, begging that he fire Bertone, and news of the meeting became widely known. In the meetings of cardinals before the conclave in March, the dominant theme was how to remedy his maladministration, and that indelicate topic was aired publicly in Bertone’s presence.

He will formally retire on Oct. 15, replaced by Archbishop Pietro Parolin. Those expecting Pope Francis to make a bold, precendent-shattering appointment in choosing his most senior collaborator were wrong. Had Benedict XVI continued in office and been forced to replace Bertone when the latter turned 80 next year, Parolin himself would have been a leading candidate. Secretaries of state usually come from the star performers in the diplomatic service of the Holy See, and Parolin has been just that for nearly 15 years. An Italian diplomat who served for seven years under John Paul and Benedict as “deputy foreign minister,” Parolin’s appointment is thought by some as a return to the customary ways that things used to be run before Benedict decided upon the novelty of appointing Bertone, a religious priest and diocesan bishop who did not come from the diplomatic service.

It is more complicated than that, for the seeds of the current problems stretch back some time. The Venerable Paul VI reorganized the curia after Vatican II, making the secretariat of state the most senior, central and co-ordinating department. The men chosen for its leadership were drawn from the Holy See’s diplomatic corps, a group held in generally high esteem for their professional competence and management skills. Like all bureaucracies there was a default orientation to the ways things were usually done, so when the unexpected Polish pope arrived with his unexpected ways of doing things, the usual ways had to be adapted...