The appointment [on Sunday, December 8] of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila as Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Propaganda Fidei) is an important signal for many reasons, but above all because it places us in a context in which we may suspect that Pope Bergoglio is thinking that the end of his pontificate is not far off. This is only a speculation, naturally; but it is a legitimate one, especially if we consider another decision, apparently without any reason, taken in the past few weeks.
We are referring to the completion of the service of [Argentinian] Monsignor Fabiàn Pedacchio as personal secretary of the Pontiff, a position that he has held for the last six years, since shortly after the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio on March 13, 2013. Throughout this entire time, Fabián Pedacchio has also maintained his position as a staff member at the Congregation for Bishops. Acting in concert with his greatest personal friend, [Brazilian] Ilson de Jesùs Montanari – named by Pope Bergoglio [in 2013] as Secretary of the same Congregation [and made an Archbishop] in an absolutely extraordinary career jump – Pedacchio has effectively overruled the Prefect, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, often acting as the spokesman of “higher authority” in the choice of bishops.
Thus Pedacchio’s departure from the post of Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops raises questions, if there are no other explanations. It is said that he will “return” to the Congregation, but in reality he never left. If the rumors we have been hearing in recent weeks are true, the picture is much different. According to what we have been told, Montanari, who has been Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops since October 2013, is going to be sent to Brazil as Archbishop of an important diocese (perhaps São Salvador de Bahia? Archbishop Murilo Sebastião Ramos Krieger is already more than a year past the retirement age of 75) so that he may become Archbishop Primate of Brazil. And the position of Secretary of the Congregation for Bishops would be filled by Fabián Pedacchio, who would naturally then become a titular bishop.