Charlotte priest challenges bishop, demands reinstatement to ministry

 

An embattled priest in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina, has taken the unusual step of publicly criticizing his own bishop for recent comments on the priest’s removal from active ministry – a decision the Vatican has already upheld twice.

Father Patrick Hoare said in a Jan. 24 statement that in a recent letter to the faithful from Bishop Peter Jugis, the phrasing regarding allegations of inappropriate behavior towards minors was “inaccurate and implies an objective finding of fact that has not occurred.”

“It is very unusual for a priest to publicly question the statement of his bishop, and for three years, I have been silent, but I feel I must respond because this letter has caused real and unjust harm to my reputation,” Hoare said, claiming that he can’t go into much detail because he has a third appeal pending with the Vatican’s Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest court.

Jugis’ Jan. 21 letter to the faithful stated that Hoare’s first appeal to the Vatican was denied in July 2021, with the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Clergy writing in a decree that the diocese had “sufficiently demonstrated grave and lasting cause for the removal” of Hoare from ministry.

As outlined in the letter, Hoare then appealed to the Apostolic Signatura, which ruled last November that the priest’s appeal was “manifestly lacking in foundation” and “must be dismissed.” 

Hoare is now making a final appeal for reinstatement to a larger panel of the Apostolic Signatura.

“It is unclear when a decision in that matter might be made, but that ruling is expected to conclude the Church proceedings involving Father Hoare,” Jugis said in the letter. “Until then, he remains on leave without ecclesiastical assignment.”

Hoare was removed as pastor of St. Matthew Catholic Church in December 2019.

At that time, Jugis placed Hoare on administrative leave after receiving an allegation of child sexual abuse that was said to have occurred in Pennsylvania more than 25 years ago, before Hoare entered ministry. 

A local Pennsylvania police department investigated that allegation, and a subsequent one that emerged, both of which involved accusations of inappropriate touching of relatives in the 1980s and early 1990s, when the future priest was in his teens and early 20s.

The Abington Township Police Department in Pennsylvania found the claimants to be credible, but due to the statute of limitations of the claims local authorities were unable to bring charges.

Hoare has denied both allegations.

Jugis later announced in a July 2020 letter that he would follow the recommendation of the diocese’s independent lay review board to keep Hoare out of active ministry, after the board’s investigation found instances in which there was troubling behavior exhibited by Hoare towards minors from his time as a priest in the Diocese of Charlotte, where he was ordained a priest in 2007.

“These complaints were reported recently and did not constitute sexual abuse but involved a hug, rubbing the shoulders or abdomen of a minor, and being ‘very touchy,’” Jugis wrote in the July 2020 letter, noting that the diocese hadn’t received any sexual abuse allegations against Hoare from his time in the diocese.

Jugis nonetheless said the review board concluded, that those behaviors “represented boundary violations that raised questions about Father Hoare’s judgment.”

Jugis formally removed Hoare as pastor of St. Matthew in December 2020. He issued a decree to do so, which is required under church law.

In his Jan. 24 statement, Hoare highlighted that Jugis has stated that no credible allegation of sexual abuse has been identified, or received by the diocese, and therefore he should be allowed to return to ministry. 

He didn’t go into any specifics, including the behaviors identified by the diocesan review board, citing the ongoing appeal.

Hoare said, however, that he will continue his efforts to reach out to Jugis to try and come to an “equitable resolution to the situation on a local level.”

Hoare’s Jan. 24 statement was posted to a change.org petition in his support. The petition has received about 1,700 signatures to return Hoare to active status as St. Matthew’s pastor. The petition was created by the group “Friends of Fr. Pat Hoare” in June 2020.

“I have never ceased to pray daily for the parishioners of St. Matthew Parish, as well as the people of the Diocese of Charlotte, whom I have served faithfully as both a member of the clergy and a lay minister for more than 28 years, and most especially children and vulnerable adults who have endured abuse,” Hoare said in his Jan. 24 statement.

“I also continue to pray for the bishop in his challenging role as our spiritual father,” he added. “I stand in solidarity with my brother priests who suffer profoundly due to false allegations.”

Facing declines in people and money, Seattle launches parish consolidation push

 

Citing a decline in both practicing Catholics and available resources, the Archdiocese of Seattle has become the latest U.S. diocese to announce that it will embark on a years-long parish consolidation initiative.

Titled “Partners in the Gospel,” the process will follow a model used in other parish consolidation initiatives around the country, where two or more parishes will come together to create a new parish family under the leadership of one pastor and one or more parochial vicars.

Archdiocesan leaders said the initiative is essential given the present situation in western Washington.

“With all of the changes that we’re facing today  – globally, culturally and within the Church – it’s very clear the status quo is no longer an option,” Archbishop Paul Etienne said in a statement. “’Partners in the Gospel’ is a plan for how we embrace these realities with hope and confidence.”

Announcing the plan Jan. 22, the archdiocese highlighted the reality that while the population in western Washington continues to grow, the number of practicing Catholics continues to decline, as evidenced by fewer registered households, fewer people attending Mass, and drops in overall parish life.

That reality is compounded by a decline in resources, including priests, lay leaders and finances. The archdiocese has 80 pastors for its 174 locations, but predicts the number of clergymen will decline to around 66 over the next 13 years. The archdiocese also expects to have fewer seminarians and lay ministers.

“We have churches built for many more people than are attending Mass, and most parishes have constrained resources with significant expenses to maintain facilities,” Caitlin Moulding, the chief operating officer for the archdiocese said in a statement.

“Many smaller parishes have fewer resources, so they can’t invest in the programs and the staff needed to bring people together and re-enliven their faith,” she said.

Financially, the archdiocese is in a solid position. After reporting a debt of $1.5 million in fiscal year 2020, the archdiocese reported a net liquidity – cash and assets minus debt – of $16.5 million last year. The archdiocese was able to buy a $2.4 million house for Archbishop Paul Etienne, and also sold a property used by his predecessors for $13.5.

The archdiocese’s parishes, however, face a different financial reality. About 64 percent of parishes operate with a deficit, Helen McClenahan, the chief communications officer for the archdiocese, told Crux.

McClenahan noted that there have been other archdiocese parish mergers and changes in recent years. The difference with “Partners in the Gospel,” she said, is the process will be highly consultative.

As outlined by the archdiocese, the first step are parish and archdiocesan consultations that will begin this spring. The public will then have the opportunity to provide input on parish families this fall.

Moulding emphasized the importance of the consultation period in coming to any conclusions.

“We have a full year of consultation planned as part of this process,” Moulding said. “We want to hear from our priests, deacons, religious sisters, lay leaders, parish employees and the people of God throughout the archdiocese. This year of consultation will allow us to get everyone’s perspective in crafting a plan for the future.”

The archdiocese said there is no predetermined outcome of the process, while maintaining that most parishes will join with two or more other parishes to create a parish family. The parish family structures will then be announced early in 2024, going into effect with one pastor in July 2024. From there, the pastor, parish leaders and parishioners will determine how the new parish family shares resources, such as staff, ministries, outreach efforts and facilities.

2024-2027 are outlined as years for the parish families to journey together, with the intent that by 2027 the parish families will become one canonical parish.

Etienne said the new initiative is “at the heart” of the mission of the church.

“To achieve our mission, we must reinvigorate the faith of our people and re-envision how we live our faith in our parish communities, which includes adapting to our current reality so that we can strengthen our relationship with Jesus, accompany one another in faith and credibly proclaim the Gospel,” he said.

For Italy’s Catholic church, the battle of the bells tolls on

 

Anyone who’s ever taken an English literature course in an American high school likely knows the classic Edgar Allan Poe poem “The Bells,” which, among other turns of phrase, celebrates “the tintinnabulation that so musically wells .. from the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.”

Those lines, however, were written in mid-19th century Baltimore. 

In Italy, where it’s basically impossible to find a square inch of space that isn’t with easy acoustical reach of a nearby church tower, yet where levels of religious practice are declining while cultural diversity expands, the constant tintinnabulation of the bells isn’t uniformly a cause for delight.

For years now, Italians have groused, bickered and even litigated over when, how often and how loudly church bells should ring. Official ecclesiastical decrees have been issued, police complaints have been filed, and priests have even been sued and fined for the offense of “acoustic pollution” over their bell-ringing zeal.

The latest entry in this brouhaha over bells comes from the Diocese of Savona-Noli in the northern Italian region of Liguria, where Bishop Calogero Marino has issued a new set of, well, bellwethers:

• Bells should ring normally for 90 seconds, two minutes at maximum to signal major liturgical solemnities.
• The volume should be low enough “not to be a source of disturbances.”
• Bells should ring “only to indicate liturgical celebrations and other manifestations of prayer and popular piety.”
• In terms of marking time, bells should not ring on the hour but only to signal the traditional morning, midday and evening prayers to Mary.
• Bells may ring only between 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. on weekdays, and between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. on feast days, with the exceptions of Easter and Christmas Eve.
• Other uses of bells must be approved by the bishop.

Marino is hardly the first Italian bishop to try to settle the conflict by decree. As far back as 1958, then-Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini of Milan, the future Pope Paul VI, sent a letter to his clergy urging them to be moderate in the sounding of their bells “so as not to cause anyone avoidable annoyance.”

A quarter-century later, another giant in Milan, the late Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, found it necessary in response to mounting complaints to decree that church bells should not ring at night, and ordered pastors to observe “true moderation in the length of the sound [of the bells], and in its use.”

In 2002, the powerful Italian bishops’ conference, known by its acronym CEI, issued a circular letter which defended the sounding of the bells as an expression of both cultural values and religious freedom, but, at the same time, also recommended reasonable limits, including “normal use only during daytime hours, a brief duration of the ringing, and a moderate intensity of the volume.”

None of those efforts, however, have brought a lasting peace to Italy’s battle of the bells.

As recently as last January, an Italian priest named Father Leonardo Guerri in Florence lost a long-running legal battle with some 500 local families, who had complained to authorities about “noise pollution” emanating from his parish bells, which, they claimed, sometimes rang out as many as 200 times a day.

After conducting acoustical tests, a regional agency for environmental protection found in favor of the locals and fined Guerri $2,000, in addition to ordering him to sound the bells only between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., and only to mark the celebration of Mass and evening vespers.

“After all these years, during which we have repeatedly asked for our living needs to be respected, we can finally resume our activities inside the houses with more tranquility,” one local told reporters at the time.

Guerri wasn’t an isolated case. In 2008, another Italian priest named Father Stefano Queirolo in Genoa was hit with a much heavier fine of $60,000, after neighborhood residents had been suing him for almost 13 years. The higher price-tag was in part to compensate one of the plaintiffs, a woman who lived near the church, for impaired hearing as well as “social harm,” meaning friends who wouldn’t visit due to the sound, and “moral harm.”

In 2015, Monsignor Giuseppe Gianotto in Pramaggiore in northern Italy was fined $1400, also by a regional environmental agency for the offense of “noise pollution.”

In general, Italian civil courts have treated the ringing of church bells to mark liturgical celebrations such as Sunday Mass as a protected form of religious expression, but other uses — to celebrate a victory by the local soccer team, to announce a parish fair, and so on — are seen as amenable to regulation.

Observers also say it’s easier for churches of more recent construction to moderate their noise levels, since they often use recordings and loudspeakers which can be easily turned up or down. It’s more difficult with older churches which rely on actual, centuries-old bells, which only ring out at one volume level.

While it remains to be seen if the new edict in Savona-Noli will be enough to keep the peace there, it’s a good bet that in multiple spots up and down Italy today, people will awaken to the sounds of the bells – some with contentment, and others with consternation.

Key papal ally says divisions in the church nothing new, can be healthy

 

A top papal aide and one of the main organizers of Pope Francis’s ongoing Synod of Bishops on Synodality has said current tensions within Catholicism, including those highlighted by the recent deaths of Pope Benedict XVI and Australian Cardinal George Pell, are nothing new and are potentially healthy.

Differences in opinion are actually good for the church, said Jesuit Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, provided they are shared with respect and humility.

Speaking at the presentation of a major ecumenical event aimed at strengthening intra-Christian ties as part of Pope Francis’s synodal reform process, Hollerich said he’s not worried about perceived conflicts among different Catholic camps.

“That there are different opinions in the Catholic Church is quite normal,” he said, adding, “We live in a moment of change, a change of the era. We are in the year zero of digitalization, and this means that we have to see together how we can proclaim Christ in this new world emerging.”

Noting that a good deal of debate in the church is currently centered on the synod process, Hollerich said the synod itself “is not a divisive factor,” as there have always been differing opinions on key discussion topics, but rather the synod “is a factor that brings people together where you have to listen to each other, but not just as a position, but in order to discern what God wants for his people.”

Shortly after the Jan. 10 death of Pell in a Rome hospital, it emerged that his last essay was a piece for the Spectator objecting that the Synod on Synodality has developed into a “toxic nightmare” and that its preparatory document is “incomplete [and] hostile in significant ways to the apostolic tradition.”

Despite what Hollerich said are “loud and shrill” voices complaining about the synod process unfolding, he said an attitude of listening and discernment alone “can be the answer the church gives for all of these questions.”

“We have to go together, humbly walk with our lord, and really trust in God, trust in the Holy Spirit,” he said, saying, “it’s not about church politics, it’s about prayer, and it’s about the Holy Spirit, and it’s about the people of God walking humbly together.”

Christians obsessed with internal politics give the world an image of “a small group of people not interested in the world, in mission, but centered on themselves all the time,” Hollerich said, adding, “If that’s the image we want to give the world, we can try it, but I prefer the synodal way.”

President of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union and relator general for the Synod of Bishops, Hollerich spoke at a Jan. 23 press conference presenting the “Together Project,” an ecumenical initiative tied to Pope Francis’s Synod of Bishops on Synodality.

Announced by Pope Francis earlier this month, the initiative includes a special ecumenical prayer vigil that will be held Saturday, Sept. 30 in St. Peter’s Square on the eve of the opening of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality in Rome.

Young people aged 18-35 from different Christian traditions throughout Europe are invited to participate in a special program organized by the Taizé community, a prominent French ecumenical monastery, beginning that Friday, Sept. 29, and extending through the weekend.

Typically held every three to four years in Rome, this year’s Ordinary Synod of Bishops is distinct in that Pope Francis has extended the process into a multi-stage consultation that began in October 2021 with local consultations among lay faithful at the diocesan level, is continuing at the continental level, and will culminate with a two-part discussion in Rome that begins this October and closes in October 2024.

This year’s Synod of Bishops, which holds the theme, “For a synodal Church: communion, participation and mission,” will last from Oct. 4-29, and is part of Pope Francis’s broader effort to make the church a broader, more inclusive community.

Part of this inclusion for organizers means listening to the voices of Christians belonging to other rites, traditions, and denominations in a bid to further efforts toward Christian unity.

Hollerich said the synod gathering “is not about church politics, but listening to spirit of God, advancing together, and praying.”

To this end, he announced that after the Sept. 30 ecumenical prayer vigil, the participants in the month-long synod gathering will make a 3-day retreat near Rome from Oct. 1-3, that will be led by British Father Timothy Radcliffe, a former Master of the Dominicans.

Joining Hollerich at Monday’s press conference were other Christian leaders and representatives of different Christian churches.

Speaking about the difficulty of pursuing unity amid difficulties, as a broader Christian objective as well as within individual churches themselves, Archbishop Ian Ernest, personal representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Holy See and director of Anglican Center in Rome, said, “When we talk about unity, it’s not uniformity.”

Space ought to be given to those with different opinions on relevant issues, and a real community should “take their opinion to heart,” Ernest said, saying, “there’s a lot of suffering going on because one wants to see things going in one’s own way,” whereas the synodal process teaches one the importance of working together.

Likewise, His Emninence Khajag Barsamian, representative of the Armenian Apostolic Church to the Holy See, said one of the most important aspects of leadership is “leading people around the table to come to an alignment.”

“As we remember from Gospels, apostles also had disagreements, but when they were together, in that togetherness, in that moment of prayer, the spirit led them and they were able to become real disciples of Jesus Christ,” he said, adding, “Unity is the key.”

Barsamian also stressed the importance of being humble, saying some people think humility is a sign of weakness, “but it’s the contrary…the humblest is the strongest.”

According to Hollerich, most current tensions within the Catholic Church “come from the fact that each one honestly wants to see or share how we can follow and proclaim Christ in today’s world.”

“That is the source of tension,” he said, noting that a document prepared for the continental phase of the synod, which is based on a synthesis of individual diocesan reports after consultation with lay people and pastors at the parish level, a certain level of tension was touted as “something positive.”

Referring to the Catholic Church as a tent, Hollerich said that “In order to have a tent, you need some tension, otherwise the tent falls down.”

“Listening to word of God, being together along the way, will ease those tensions. We do not want bad tensions destroying the church, but good tensions are sometimes necessary for harmony,” he said.

Christian leaders present at Monday’s press conference praised Pope Francis’s commitment to ecumenism, saying the prayer vigil on the eve of the synod’s opening in October signals a new stage in ecumenical efforts.

Reformed Pastor Christian Krieger, president of the Conference of European Churches and the French Protestant Federation, said the synodal path initiated by Pope Francis “is becoming a moment of great importance which will probably mark the history of the church for decades, the Catholic Church, but other churches as a whole, the ecumenical movement.”

While synods are nothing new in Christianity, as they have been a tradition in many churches, including Orthodoxy and Anglicanism, what is new, Krieger said, is “the listening process organized by the Catholic Church,” in which laypeople are consulted about problems and solutions to contemporary issues, as well as the invitation for all Christians to pray together for the Catholic Church’s individual synodal process.

“Ecumenism is necessary for the synodal process just as the synod is necessary for ecumenism,” he said, quoting Pope Francis, calling the participation of non-Catholic Christians in the synod process “a way to express unity in Christ,” and voicing his belief that through the synod, “that desire for unity will be more deepened in the future.”

Steubenville bishop says all options ‘on the table’ for future of diocese

 

Months after Bishop Jeffrey Monforton announced his desire for the Diocese of Steubenville in Ohio to merge with the Diocese of Columbus, causing a stir that resulted in the canceling of a U.S. bishops vote on the idea, he says every option is still on the table but by no means is a merger inevitable.

After the whirlwind of the fall, Monforton dubbed the theme of the moment “we’re taking a step back.” And while discerning the future of the Ohio Valley diocese continues, the process has slowed down, and will take into account a swath of different perspectives before any decisions are made.

“Absolutely not,” Monforton said when asked if a merger was inevitable. “Everything is on the table.”

“I’m going to see what the future holds at this point, so I’m not going to say I’m holding steadfastly towards a merger,” he continued. “I’m just stepping back. That’s the best way to take a look at it, and to see just exactly how we continue to proceed forward in looking at the diocese.”

Crux spoke with Monforton on Jan. 26 about what’s next for the diocese. Reflecting on the initial announcement, the bishop acknowledged that things could’ve been handled differently.

“The question is, could I have done it differently? The answer is ‘yes,’” Monforton said. “I can’t just do a 35,000-foot look at the whole situation. I have to take a look at it personally, as well.”

Monforton announced the proposed merger on Oct. 10, 2022.

Monforton told Crux at the time that the possibility of a merger became apparent about a year and a half ago when the Holy See expressed concern over declining numbers in the diocese, and the two sides agreed something had to be done. Months later, the Ohio bishops met and unanimously voted that a Diocese of Steubenville and Diocese of Columbus merger was the best path forward.

Central to Monforton’s position were the older ages of priests in the diocese, and a belief that the diocese would fall below 25,000 total Catholics in 10 years. The Diocese of Steubenville currently has about 29,000 Catholics, 36 priests and 51 parishes across 13 southeastern Ohio counties.

The diocese is also home to the Fransiscan University of Steubenville. Monforton said he hasn’t spoken to the university about the merger, but because it’s owned by the Fransican Friars of the Third Order Regular, and not the diocese, he doesn’t see how a merger could have an adverse effect on the campus.

The October announcement said the immediate next step in the process was sending out a survey to the Diocese of Steubenville’s faithful to get their perspectives on the matter, and give them a “chance to vent.” It also revealed that those results would be presented at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops general assembly in November, where a vote on the merger would take place.

Instead, less than a month later on Nov. 7, 2022, Monforton wrote a letter to the clergy and religious in the diocese that he had requested that the U.S. bishops’ conference table the vote, after receiving feedback of “disappointment” and “fear” from priests and laity over the potential change. In the Jan. 26 conversation with Crux, Monforton emphasized it was his call, and his call alone, to cancel the vote.

As for where things stand now, Monforton said he’s been in contact with the metropolitan of the province, Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati, and the Holy See, as well as “a number of the [diocese] consultative bodies.” He also has meetings coming up with the presbyterate council consultors.

Monforton said the survey results yielded a number of recommendations for possible paths forward. The frequency of the different recommendations and how realistic they are will be assessed, he added, though he declined to share any of them beyond saying they are across “the whole spectrum.”

“I’m grateful for the constructive suggestions made in the letters to me after the announcement, and I’m equally grateful for the feedback in the survey we conducted after the announcement and a lot of that will predicate how we move forward,” the bishop said.

The reality, though, according to Monforton, is given the declining numbers in the diocese “doing nothing is not an option.” But the important thing is making “sure what’s done is right because in the end it’s on me and I want to make sure that it’s done right for the people of God.”

“In the end, the Catholic Church is not leaving the Ohio Valley. That’s a certainty,” Monforton said.

Pope’s chief of staff could undercut star witness in Vatican’s ‘trial of the century’

 

In a decision that could set the stage for a decisive turn in the Vatican’s long-running “trial of the century,” the president of the Vatican’s tribunal ruled Thursday that although the pope himself cannot be called as a defense witness, the pontiff’s chief of staff, Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, will appear.

The court also ruled that the president of the Institute for the Works of Religion, better known as the “Vatican bank,” French layman Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, also can be questioned.

Defense lawyers had also asked that Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State and thus the pope’s top aide, be called to testify. The court reserved judgment on that request pending the results of Peña Parra’s testimony.

Both Peña Parra and de Franssu are expected to address a controversial $400 million real estate deal in London which is at the heart of the current trial. Thursday’s hearing was the 45^th session of the trial since it began in July 2021, featuring ten defendants, including, for the first time in a Vatican criminal proceeding, a cardinal, Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

Peña Parra’s testimony is considered especially crucial to the defense case, since theoretically it could undercut the credibility of the star witness for the prosecution, Italian Monsignor Alberto Perlasca. For ten years, from 2009 to 2019, Perlasca was head of the office for administrative affairs within the Secretariat of State, effectively making him responsible for the secretariat’s financial affairs.

When prosecutors began looking into the London deal, for which the Vatican eventually absorbed a loss of roughly $140 million, Perlasca was a prominent target of the investigation. In the middle of 2021, Perlasca instead volunteered to become a whistle-blower in the case, testifying against former colleagues and superiors, including Becciu.

In effect, Perlasca has attempted to describe himself as a victim of a scheme orchestrated by Becciu in league with unscrupulous Italian financiers, testifying last November: “Becciu made me do the things for which he’s charged in this trial … I’m not an accomplice, nor a conniver, nor an abettor.”

Yet in August 2021, Italian news outlets carried reports of a secret memorandum prepared for Vatican investigators in April 2021 by Peña Parra, who had been tapped by Pope Francis in October 2018 to take over from Becciu as the sostituto, or “substitute,” in the Secretariat of State, effectively the pope’s chief of staff.

Though the Vatican has never confirmed the authenticity of that memorandum, it’s never denied it either. In it, Peña Parra describes Perlasca as the key figure in a system within the Secretariat of State intended to pressure top officials into making hasty decisions about financial matters, effectively rubber-stamping decisions already made.

“It’s a mechanism in which the superior is put under pressure, pushing him to act quickly and predicting catastrophe, such as, ‘If you don’t sign immediately, you risk losing a lot of money,’ ‘We don’t have an alternative,’ ‘Don’t worry, the practice is fine,’ and ‘This is only a formality’,” Peña Parra wrote.

With regard to the star witness, Peña Parra said, “In daily meetings with Monsignor Perlasca, in response to my request for explanations he provided incomplete or partial information that were limited to attempts to justify operations that were already underway.”

Perhaps most damningly, the Peña Parra memo asserts that Perlasca himself signed two key documents authorizing the London deal “before the question had been submitted to the attention of the Secretary of State or the Holy Father,” meaning, effectively, that Peña Parra had presented his superiors with a fait accompli.

Should Peña Parra confirm those claims during examination at the trial, it could cast additional doubt on the credibility of Perlasca’s testimony, which has already been damaged, among other things by revelations that he was indirectly coached by Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, an Italian PR consultant previously convicted of leaking confidential documents in the Vatileaks 2.0 scandal.

Speaking of Chaouqui, the Vatican tribunal also ruled Thursday that she will not testify again as originally planned on Feb. 16, after her first appearance at the trial Jan. 13. She had appeared along with Genoveffa Ciferri, a former analyst for the Italian Secret Service and a longtime personal friend of Perlasca, to discuss how Chaouqui and Ciferri had advised Perlasca in preparing several audio recordings he provided to prosecutors.

In effect, Chaouqui and Ciferri contradicted each other on virtually every point, making it impossible to know who was telling the truth. The president of the Vatican tribunal, veteran Italian jurist Giuseppe Pignatone, recognized as much, holding that further testimony from the pair would be “useless.”

“By now, their contrasting respective positions have been crystallized in repeated depositions,” Pignatone ruled.

On another front, the court also ruled that the current bishop of Ozieri in Sardinia and one of his predecessors will be called as witnesses, since Becciu is also charged with illicitly funneling Vatican money to charities in Ozieri run by his brother, who will also testify.

During Thursday’s hearing, Becciu replied to the claims of another former bishop of Ozier, Sergio Pinto, who died in December 2020, and who left behind personal papers in which he accused Becciu and other Vatican officials of “heavy interference” in the diocese. Becciu insisted there was no such pressure, insisting that Pinto never had any complaints until an unspecified personal incident caused a change of heart.