According to the organisers, the recent Vatican sexual abuse summit was aimed at changing a mindset more than specific procedural reforms. Yet the legal reforms announced last week for the Vatican City State may prompt a wide-ranging shift in the culture in the Roman Curia and the Holy See’s diplomatic corps. Indeed, it might be a second earthquake in that culture, following the seismic shift wrought by the “testimony” of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò last year.
The Viganò testimony, despite casting a recklessly wide net, has been confirmed in its broadest outline. Aside from the substance of Viganò’s denunciation, the very fact of it caused a horrified reaction in the Roman Curia and the diplomatic corps because it violated the pontifical secret (the Church’s rules of confidentiality). Whistleblowing is not something curialists and diplomats do.
