"It was alright for us priests, I suppose," he told CNA. "We always have a diocese to go home to, but for the lay staff, they were often left stranded with no means of support."
One priest told CNA that Chullikatt would often bemoan the salaries paid to lay staffers, suggesting that they ought to volunteer their time without concern for being paid. Because they were paid, a priest said, Chullikatt questioned their loyalty.
A source recalled a particular instance in which a lay expert was recruited by the mission for a three month contract.
"This man was a tenured professor who arranged to take three months of unpaid leave from his post to serve the Church. Chullikatt sacked him within two weeks, leaving him without a salary for the rest of his sabbatical."
"There was only ever room for one opinion, one voice in the room with Chullikatt - even adult conversation was impossible with him, let alone professional collaboration."
Terrence McKeegan, a former legal advisor to the Holy See's mission to the U.N., told CNA that after he signed a one-year contract to work for the mission, Chullikatt arbitrarily cut his wages.
"On or about December 10 of 2013, I myself was informed by the nuncio that starting in 2014, he would only pay me half of the salary we had contractually agreed upon," McKeegan told CNA.
McKeegan also noted that, beyond his contracted position, he was expected to serve, unpaid, as legal advisor to the non-profit Path to Peace Foundation, a legally distinct U.S.-based private foundation affiliated with the U.N. mission. McKeegan said he was not given access to records for the foundation, or invited to attend meetings.
The foundation, he said, helps fund mission operations and staff salaries. It also, according to its tax filings, has funded scholarships, seminars, and a U.N. internship program founded by Fr. Thomas Rosica.
"Surreal" conditions
One priest told CNA that may lay employees were reticent to complain because some were in the U.S. only on diplomatic passports, and because many of them love the Church and wanted to support the U.N. mission.
Former staff members said that the imposition of arbitrary cuts to wages and the dismissal of staff were linked to Chullikatt's relationship with the woman he maintained a relationship with.
"I would say his need to be tight-fisted with the mission's finances was, at least partly, because he had a secret need. I believe he was supporting this woman: room, board, everything," one priest, who was directly involved in the mission's finances, said.
The priest recalled an example in which the archbishop budgeted money for "bonuses" for the mission's staff, but then only distributed a portion of the money.
"The rest? Well, [Chullikatt] knows where it went," he told CNA.
Another priest, who also was involved in the mission's financial administration, also told CNA that Chullikatt was supporting the woman financially.
McKeegan spoke to CNA about what he called the "surreal" working conditions under Chullikatt.
In a statement, McKeegan said that in his time in New York he heard "voluminous allegations of highly improper and scandalous behavior by Archbishop Chullikatt."
"I know that the longest-tenured cleric on staff had already brought many of most serious allegations against the nuncio to the attention of then-Secretary for Relations with States, Archbishop Dominque Mamberti, in a meeting they had around Mamberti's visit to the U.N. in late September of 2012," McKeegan said.
Report to Rome
Concerns about Chullikatt's behavior, regarding both the woman and the office finances, were reported in a "dossier" of complaints delivered to the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in December 2013, former staffers told CNA.
This dossier included a letter signed by McKeegan detailing numerous instances of financial malpractice by Chullikatt, including the unjust treatment of staff and the near-systematic withholding of agreed salaries.
"I was, and still am, absolutely certain of the serious moral violations that were being committed by the nuncio regarding the withholding of just wages," McKeegan's letter said.
"However, based on my experience with high-ranking officials in the Church, I knew that even sins that cry out for vengeance would likely go unheard in Rome, so I stressed in my letter to Archbishop Parolin that the unjust withholding of Mission staff salaries could constitute potential criminal violations of US visa and labor laws."
According to one staff member familiar with the delivery of the complaints in Rome, direct mention was made of allegations that Chullikatt was supporting the woman financially, and that he had directed mission staff to arrange a visa for her to travel to New York.
In January 2014, Chullikatt was summoned for an extended meeting in Rome, for what a former senior mission staffer called "a dressing down."
Chullikatt remained in Rome for nearly two months, while his absence from New York went unexplained to staff.
"He was supposed to be removed then and there," one priest said, "but he was able to run around to enough of his friends in Rome to stay on [in his position] a little while longer."
One staff member told CNA that Chullikatt had "exploited" the pope's well-known disposition toward mercy, in order to avoid being removed from his position.
Another staffer told CNA that Chullikatt demanded a stay of his removal, insisting that members of the Spanish royal family were scheduled to visit the U.N. in June at his personal invitation, and that he needed to be in place to welcome them.
In June 2014, Queen Sofia of Spain visited the U.N. in New York. Chullikatt's resignation from the U.N. position was accepted July 1 of that year.
"He used that time [between December and June] to clear out the opposition to him, dismissing staff and generally making life even more miserable before he went," one former mission staffer told CNA.
During the final six months of Chullikatt's tenure, several mission staffers were dismissed from their posts. Sources told CNA that Chullikatt waged a "vendetta campaign" because of the complaints to the Secretary of State.
The pontifical secret
Several staff members told CNA that Chullikatt would remind them that their obligation to maintain "pontifical secrecy" included his behavior. This, they said, prevented staff from speaking out.
One former priest official told CNA that "I'm sure he thinks everything we saw and had to endure is covered by the secret."
"In reality, it refers to the sensitive diplomatic work undertaken on behalf of the Church. It certainly doesn't cover the fact that he's a nasty little man."
The pontifical secret, which was defined by Pope St. Paul VI in the 1974 instruction Secreta continere, obliges clerics, lay employees, and even volunteers to keep confidential information obtained in service to the Vatican's Secretariat of State. Violation of the secret can be punished with an excommunication.
But the former priest-officials of the U.N. mission told CNA that the secret is formulated without clarity, and can lead employees and volunteers to think they are beholden to keep confidential things they ought to report. They told CNA that Chullikatt's situation is evidence it would be to the Church's benefit to reform its policies governing the pontifical secret.
In recent months, Cardinals Blase Cupich and Reinhard Marx have both called for reforms to those policies.
"Pontifical secrecy shouldn't protect bad people and their bad behavior," one former priest-official of the U.N. mission told CNA. "It should protect properly professional and confidential information."
Kazakhstan
After he resigned from his role New York, Chullikatt spent nearly two years without an assignment before being sent to Kazakhstan in June 2016 - a post one priest characterized as "the back end of beyond as far as the diplomatic service goes."
One former official of the U.N. mission told CNA simply "he doesn't deserve to be anywhere."
McKeegan described the handling of the allegations against Chullikatt, and his eventual rehabilitation as part of an "all-too-familiar pattern."
"Rome followed a very specific playbook with its handling of Archbishop Chullikatt. Although giving the impression (never directly but via back channels and rumor) to the whistleblower or accuser that Rome was dealing with the problem, the Vatican was instead maneuvering to protect yet another high-ranking official who had "played ball" with the corrupt leadership in the Church."
"Archbishop Chullikatt was quietly given a sabbatical. This sabbatical period was not used by Rome to fully investigate the serious allegations against him, of which my letter only constituted a small portion, but rather to wait out mission staff accusers like me to give up in frustration," McKeegan said.
Another former senior member of the mission's staff told CNA he was unsurprised that the allegations went without formal response, and that Chullikatt had been restored to the diplomatic service.
"You have to understand the culture of the diplomatic service, and the curia more widely," he told CNA.
"There is a powerful incentive to keep a problem like Chullikatt under wraps. You aren't just touching one man by speaking out, you touch a whole genealogy of those who have covered for him, and those who he's covered for and been promoted by in turn," the priest said.
The Vatican press office acknowledged receipt of questions from CNA regarding the allegations against Chullikatt, but did not respond before deadline.
Despite repeated attempts, Chullikatt could not be reached for comment.
This story has been updated.
Ed Condon is a canon lawyer and worked as Catholic News Agency's Washington DC editor until December 2020.
J.D.Flynn served as Catholic News Agency's editor-in-chief from August 2017 to December 2020.