Vatican City, Sep 28, 2021 / 04:00 am
Pope Francis appointed the first layman to lead a Vatican dicastery. He also named the first lay secretary of APSA, the Holy See’s treasury. Is he about to choose a layman as No. 2 of Vatican City State’s administration?
According to Vatican sources, the layman Giuseppe Puglisi-Alibrandi is top of the list to succeed Bishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga as secretary of the Governorate of the Vatican City State.
Vérgez served as secretary of the Vatican Governorate from 2013. Earlier this month, Pope Francis promoted him to the president of the Governorate, although he had already passed the usual retirement age of 75, granting him the title of archbishop.
Let’s suppose that the appointment of Puglisi-Alibrandi -- the first consultant of the legal service of the machine that manages the Vatican City State -- takes place. Vérgez will have at his side a person he knows well and with whom he has managed some particularly difficult dossiers of the Governorate.