A return to the papal lodgings, the eruption of the Becciu case and a convocation of bishops all vied for centre stage, with each carrying notable long-term implications for the Holy See.
Just after the previous Vatican Dispatch went to print, news came of an event that had been anticipated for several months but was of a kind that would not quite seem real until it happened. Such, of course, was Leo XIV’s return to living in the Apostolic Palace on March 14. Moving in with his ‘closest aides to the quarters previously occupied by his predecessors’, the American Pope thus ended the vacancy that had endured since Benedict XVI’s poignant departure in February 2013.
