The Vatican announced a major shake-up on Sunday, December 8 – to the surprise of several veteran Vatican watchers, including this one – which involved a move out of a big archdiocese and into the Curia for a long-standing favourite of Pope Francis, a resulting vacancy in a capital see, and an internal transfer for the head of a curial department.
Pope Francis has taken Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle out of his see of Manila and brought him to Rome to lead the powerful – and apparently ascendant – Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples. The former prefect of the missionary dicastery (often known by its historical Latin name, “Propaganda Fide” or simply “Propaganda”), Cardinal Fernando Filoni, will lead the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
