When Church historians look back on the early 21st century, they may focus on a middle-ranking Italian archbishop. He was unfamiliar to most contemporary Catholics, but he was at the centre of two of the great controversies of the second decade of that century, one of which led to a papal resignation and the other whose outcome is currently unknown.
Until last weekend Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò was best known for his role in the so-called VatiLeaks affair, one of the factors that prompted Benedict XVI to step down in 2013. Viganò was named secretary-general of the governorate of Vatican City State in 2009. In this role, which has been compared to that of a city mayor, he tried to introduce sweeping reforms but met resistance. He wrote to the Secretary of State to complain and these letters were later leaked by the papal butler, creating the VatiLeaks scandal.
