Eduardo González
The Spanish government has not blocked the appointment of the new apostolic nuncio to Spain, Italian Archbishop Piero Pioppo, diplomatic sources assured The Diplomat on Tuesday, thus denying reports advanced that same day by an Italian Catholic newspaper and later confirmed to our newspaper by Vatican sources.
Last Tuesday, the InfoVaticana website reported, citing “well-informed” Vatican sources, that Italian Archbishop Piero Pioppo—current nuncio of the Holy See to Indonesia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations—will be the next apostolic nuncio to Spain. The news has not yet been officially announced, but various Italian Catholic media outlets, such as Avvenire di Calabria, already assume the replacement will be a sure thing.
However, Silere non possum, an Italian news site dedicated to the activities of the Pope, the Holy See, and the Catholic Church, exclusively reported this Tuesday that, “after weeks of waiting and confidential negotiations,” the name of the Archbishop of Savona has disappeared from the radar. “Neither the Holy See nor the Spanish government have offered official explanations, but silence—as is often the case in diplomatic corridors—speaks louder than a thousand verbal notes,” it added.
Furthermore, Vatican sources informed The Diplomat that Piero Pioppo’s proposal was submitted by the Holy See’s Secretariat of State shortly after the transfer of the previous apostolic nuncio, Bernardito Auza, to the representation to the European Union, which took place last March. However, they added, the Spanish government “discreetly blocked the process, without offering public explanations.” However, diplomatic sources later assured The Diplomat this Tuesday that this information is “false.”
Piero Pioppo, born in Savona in 1960 and ordained a priest in 1985, he was also a close collaborator of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State of the Holy See between 1991 and 2006 and prelate of the IOR (Institute for Works of Religion), the well-known Vatican Bank, “during a period marked by financial turmoil and judicial investigations that affected the Institute’s environment, although without formal implications for Pioppo.” On the doctrinal level, Pioppo is considered a man of conservative profile, which, according to the Catholic newspaper and the aforementioned Vatican sources, “could have influenced his lack of harmony with the current Spanish government.”