A New Year Begins With An American's Resignation

"Greg Burke, the director of the Vatican press office, and his deputy, Paloma Garcia Ovejero, have resigned, effective January 1....The timing of the resignations suggests a disagreement over new strategies for Vatican communications." [1]

As to be expected, the exact reasons for Burke and his deputy Overjero's resignations have not yet been made clear but one can speculate [2] and anticipate that a tell-all book or two could be forthcoming.  Meanwhile, one could guess at one of the reasons based on the divergent backgrounds of the two individuals, Burke and Bergoglio.

Burke "is an American journalist.  He was the Director of the Holy See Press Office.  He was formerly a correspondent for the Fox News Channel, and for Time Magazine, based in Rome." [3]  As such, he is probably inclined to be transparent in reporting the facts balanced by his experience in re-stating embarrassing positions taken and spontaneous utterances to help save face.

Bergoglio, in contrast, is a politician deep down more so than a shepherd who is pastoral and disinterested in politics.  As with most politicians, there are secrets and maybe even scandals.  Bergoglio most certainly has both.

Thus, it is transparency that Bergoglio is unhappy with and as a true politician, Bergoglio likes doublespeak and uses words that are often shrouded in ambiguity with insinuations when he is not keeping silent.  The juxtaposition of two irreconcilables, transparency and secrecy, is where the two men cannot find compromise in the same way that truth and deceit in both its forms--intentional nondisclosure and misrepresentation--have no common ground.

Whether Bergoglio's new team will serve Bergoglio to his liking remains to be seen.

It is interesting to note that Bergoglio seems blind to the fact that the papacy is not a position of power but of humility, that all who are at the Vatican work for God Who being all good has no differences in approach and result in leading all souls to Heaven.  Humility, kindness, mercy and love is a language that everyone in the world instinctively recognizes and comprehends.  All that seems to be sorely missing from this and other papacies.



[1] https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=40080
[3] Speculation is the underpinning of this blog.
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Burke_(journalist)