Angelus News | February 9, 2024 | Vol. 9 No

CARRYING THE LOAD
A brief guide to some of the Vatican figures poised to take on more
visible roles in this stage of Pope Francis’ pontificate.
BY JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
ROME — In many ways, Pope Francis sailed through
the demanding holiday season with flying colors.
Despite a series of health scares throughout 2023,
and despite, at 87, now being the oldest reigning pontiff in
120 years, he seemed remarkably strong, engaged and in
command, even delivering a 45-minute speech to diplomats
Jan. 8 with gusto.
In a recent interview, Francis confirmed plans to travel to
Belgium this year and dangled the prospect of additional
outings to Polynesia and his native Argentina, and of late he’s
been taking planning meetings for the Great Jubilee of 2025
— none of which necessarily suggests a pope who’s winding
down.
Yet, of course, time and the tides stop for no one.
Inevitably, in 2024 the combination of age and health will
impose increasing restraints on the pontiff, perhaps limiting
his mobility and energy and forcing him increasingly to focus
on the essentials. More and more, that reality will mean
that much routine administration of the Vatican and the
papacy will be handled by people around the pope, acting in
his name and with his approval.
Some of the people called upon to carry an increasing
share of the load are already well-known figures, others personalities
whose profile seems destined to rise.
Herewith, then, a brief guide to figures on the Vatican
scene likely to become steadily more visible and consequential.
Msgr. Paolo Luca Braida
Originally from Lodi in northern Italy, the 59-year-old
Braida enjoyed a brief run in the spotlight in late November
and early December, when Francis’ bronchitis rendered him
short of breath and unable to read his public addresses, so he
turned to Braida to become his voice.
It’s a role that can signify bigger things to come. In 2003-
2004, for instance, then-Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, at the
time the sostituto, or “substitute,” in the Vatican’s Secretariat
of State, sometimes was called upon to read St. Pope John
Paul II’s speeches in public when the ailing pontiff couldn’t
do it for himself.
Pope Francis leads a livestreamed recitation of the Angelus last November with the help
of Msgr. Paolo Braida, who read the pope’s commentary on the Sunday Gospel for him.
22 Francis • ANGELUS was suffering • from February a lung infection 9, 2024at the time. | CNS/VATICAN MEDIA