Cardinal Pietro Parolin, center, on Friday. As the leader of the Vatican machinery for the past decade, he enacted Pope Francis’ vision. Credit...Tiziana Fabi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, has been described by other cardinals as someone who may have a solid, bureaucratic hand on the wheel of the church.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin was omnipresent during the days leading up to Pope Francis's passing.
The Vatican's second-ranking official, he paid Francis a visit in the hospital before assisting in the sealing of the papal residences upon the pope's passing. He spoke with former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. when welcoming cardinals from all around the world to the pope's funeral. Additionally, he celebrated an outdoor Mass for tens of thousands of faithful on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica before the conclave to choose the next pope.
Prior to a conclave where many of the more than 130 cardinals do not know one another, Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state who will oversee the papal election, has become the front-runner for a compromise. It appears that everyone knows him.
According to Andrea Riccardi, the founder of the Sant'Egidio Community, a Catholic organization close to Francis, "Parolin is the only candidate that has emerged with a certain insistence thus far." Mr. Riccardi, who is close to a number of cardinals who are regarded as potential pope candidates, added, "He represents a continuity." "Virtue stands in the middle," he stated.
Cardinal Parolin is a very cautious Italian who is silent and slow and has a poker face that is notoriously unintelligible. But that isn't always a disqualifier in a time of world turmoil. Even his supporters admit that he lacks Francis' charisma and universal symbolism, but he has carried out Francis' vision as the head of the Vatican apparatus for the last ten years.
Cardinal Parolin has been described by other cardinals as having the ability to steady the church's wheel in a bureaucratic manner. Additionally, at 70, he might win over cardinals who don't want to spend too much time with the victor.
Left-leaning detractors point to his lack of pastoral experience and his previous remarks regarding same-sex marriage, which he described as a "defeat for humanity." His role in the church's attempts to gain traction in China, which has involved talks with Communist leaders, has drawn criticism from his conservative detractors.
Few priests who know him, however, feel strongly about him in any manner. And plain but capable might be just what the cardinals are searching for after the turbulent and, for some, polarizing 12 years under Francis.
Cardinal Parolin stated that immigration was "a very, very complex subject" following a meeting with Giorgia Meloni, the right-wing prime minister of Italy, while Francis criticized the inhumanity of large countries converting the Mediterranean into a cemetery.
Some have compared it to the 1939 conclave. Eugenio Pacelli, a Vatican secretary of state who had been envoy to Germany in the 1920s during the emergence of the Nazis, was chosen by those cardinals as the world order was in danger and authoritarianism was on the increase. Whether he was excessively diplomatic in his role as Pius XII is still a matter of debate among historians.
Additionally, some liberal Catholics have questioned whether the church needs a calm bureaucrat with no pastoral expertise to maintain Francis' inclusive momentum.
Cardinal Parolin was raised in Schiavon, a small town in the Veneto region of northern Italy, which is referred to as the "cradle of popes."
His father, a hardware shop owner, died in a vehicle accident when he was ten years old, leaving his mother, an elementary school teacher, to raise him.
At 14, he enrolled in the small seminary, and at 25, he received his ordination. However, Cardinal Parolin did not pursue a career as a diocesan priest or a pastor. He enrolled in Rome's Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, which prepares priests for diplomatic service.
He served in Nigeria amid a civil war and military takeovers in the 1980s. He later attempted to mend diplomatic relations in Mexico. He returned to the Vatican in 1992, where he worked on the Italy desk and joined the influential Secretariat of State. Later, he rose to the position of director of the Villa Nazareth school, which educated bright pupils from underprivileged families. There, he made friends with young people who would go on to become part of Italy's elite.
However, he also picked up baggage along the road.
Cardinal Parolin became the Vatican's second most important diplomat under John Paul II in 2002. He concentrated on China, which many in the church believe would be the biggest challenge of the next century, and Vietnam, where he helped improve relations.
Pope Benedict XVI attempted to make peace with China in 2007 by requiring its bishops to support the Chinese government instead of Rome. To handle the negotiations over bishops in state-sanctioned churches, he selected Cardinal Parolin, who was then an archbishop. The discussions came to a standstill.
As the Vatican's ambassador to Venezuela in 2009, when prelates were engaged in a heated conflict with Hugo Chávez's Marxist administration, Cardinal Parolin was given yet another challenging task by Benedict.
The cardinal's charge in Venezuela was more political than theological, and he pressed church interests without siding with either the opposition or the government by using a strategy he would later refer to as "positive neutrality."
Cardinal Parolin, who is fluent in English, French, and Spanish with a hint of Italian, was lauded by Venezuelans with reducing tensions between the church and the government. His followers claim that his methodical and covert approach to diplomacy was beneficial.
Under Francis, his diplomatic priorities were the conflict in Ukraine as well as ties with the US and Russia. However, as Francis made another attempt to mend fences, China was once again a top priority.
In 2018, Cardinal Parolin assisted in negotiating a historic agreement that resulted in the first official acknowledgement of the pope's authority within the Chinese church. Francis's recognition of Chinese government-appointed bishops who had previously been excommunicated was viewed by conservatives as a betrayal. Conservatives contended that the millions of Chinese Catholics who worshipped in underground churches devoted to the pope were put in danger by sharing any ecclesiastical authority.
Cardinal Parolin and Francis, however, claimed it was worthwhile.
Cardinal Parolin stated in 2023 that the church had a "attitude of hope, openness, and dialogue that we want to continue on both sides." "Catholics can be Catholics," he added, was all the church sought of China.
An apparent attempt to halt Cardinal Parolin may be the best indication of his strength going into the conclave.
He fainted during one of the general congregation sessions, according to reports in American right-wing Catholic magazines in the days leading up to the pope election. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni says the incident never happened.
"That isn't accurate," he stated
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