Tobin and His Coming and Going from the Roman Curia

Vatican Insider
October 20, 2012

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This is not the first time the Secretary of the dicastery which oversees men and women religious has been sent away from the Roman Curia

The nomination of the Secretary for the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the American Redemptorist, John William Tobin, as the new archbishop of Indianapolis is just the latest of a series of similar moves. Tobin was appointed as the dicastery's number two man in charge of men and women religious in August 2010, thus he only spent two years in the Roman Curia. The reasons for his transferral to the U.S. are apparently linked to his excessive openness to the LCWR's (Leadership Conference of Women Religious) requests.

Although he was nominated two days ago, hints were already given about his departure from Rome at the beginning of 2012. This means that there were signs of his promotion-removal (the classical Vatican adagio "promoveatur ut amoveatur" is also true for Tobin) just18 months after his appointment to the Congregation for men and women religious.

Transferrals, within short spaces of time, of high profile figures within the Ratzingerian Curia have become increasingly frequent in recent years. One case which stands out is the Congregation for Divine Worship, the dicastery which deals with an issue that is considered crucial by Benedict XVI: the liturgy. In December 2005, the Pope called Archbishop Malcom Ranjith Patabendige Don back to the Curia as Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, after Propaganda Fide had removed him because of differences with the then Prefect, Crescenzio Sepe. Three and a half years later Ranjith returned to Sri Lanka as Archbishop of Colombo and was then created cardinal. His successor in the Congregation for Divine Worship was the American Dominican, Augustine Di Noia, nominated to the post in June 2009, who left the Congregation after just three years to become Vice-President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. There is no clear explanation for this continuous coming and going.

Another case which stands out is that of Mgr. Vincenzo Di Mauro who was nominated Secretary of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See in September 2007and was transferred to Vigevano as a Coadjutor Bishop after just three years. In this case, rumours in the Curia suggested he was transferred because of misunderstandings with the Secretary of State, Tarcisio Bertone. The case was striking as it sparked the Vatileaks scandal and then the case involving Carlo Maria Viganò, who was nominated Secretary of the Vatican Governorate in July 2009 and removed from his post two years later, following internal criticisms about the way he managed it. Another case that cannot be forgotten, is the Tobin case which involved the scandalous dismissal, never-before-seen in the recent history of the Holy See, of the Vatican Bank's president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was given a vote of no confidence by the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR) after heavy accusations about him leaking Vatican information to the press (a piloted and authorised Vatileaks case).


Changes, promotions and dismissals are certainly not a new phenomenon in the Roman Curia and it is more than understandable that a change of Pope and balance changes in the Secretariat of State bring about a gradual and soft sort of "spoil system". What is interesting is that the above-mentioned cases involved nominations made recently, during Benedict XVI's papacy and under Cardinal Bertone's Secretariat of State. These nominations were not therefore "inherited". Leaving aside any specific reasons which may have given rise to each of the different cases mentioned above, the phenomenon clearly shows that the Roman Curia is currently facing governance problems.