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

Sandri later went on to become a cardinal, the prefect of
the Congregation for Eastern Churches, and vice-dean of
the College of Cardinals.
Braida heads a team in the Secretariat of State responsible
for producing drafts of the pope’s public remarks, making
him effectively Francis’ ghostwriter. In his free time, Braida
occasionally has published collections of his own spiritual
poetry, and he’s also close to an Italian movement for pastoral
care for the blind, a group for which a priest-relative has
worked from the beginning.
Maximino Caballero Ledo
A Spanish economist and
a former executive with
Baxter Healthcare Inc. in the
United States, Caballero was
named the new prefect of
the Vatican’s Secretariat for
the Economy in November
2022, replacing his childhood
friend, Father Juan Antonio
Guerrero Alves, SJ.
Caballero thereby became
the second layperson to head
a Vatican department, after
veteran Italian journalist Paolo
Ruffini at the Dicastery for Communication.
Given the importance of Vatican finances to the pontiff’s
overall reform campaign, Caballero occupies a key role in
trying to bring those reforms in for a landing, in a moment
in which the pope’s capacity to oversee those efforts personally
is destined to be in decline.
Sister Raffaella Petrini
A Franciscan Sister of the
Eucharist and a sociologist
by training, Petrini, 55, is
arguably the single most powerful
woman in the Francis
papacy. A former professor
of economics and sociology
at the Dominican-sponsored
University of St. Thomas in
Rome, she also has experience
in the U.S. as a graduate
of the Barney School of
Business at the University of
Hartford.
Quite obviously, she has the
Maximino Caballero Ledo. | VATICAN
NEWS
Sister Rafaella Petrini. | FRANCISCAN
SISTERS OF THE EUCHARIST
favor of the current pope. She was appointed in November
2021 as the secretary general, meaning the No. 2 position of
the Vatican City State, making her by some order of magnitude
the most powerful woman in the Vatican system.
Then, in July 2022, Francis made Petrini a member of the
Dicastery for Bishops, and in October he also made her a
member of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic
See, which is basically the Vatican’s central bank.
In other words, Petrini is positioned to play a key role in
what might arguably be called the three essential elements
of the Francis reform: the administration of the Vatican,
the appointment of bishops, and the management of the
Vatican’s financial resources.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti
A member of the conventual
Franciscans, Gambetti, 58, is
inextricably associated with
Assisi and the charism of St.
Francis. Between 2013 and
2021, he was the general custodian
of the Basilica of the
Sacred Convent of St. Francis
in Assisi, with responsibility
for administering the various
Franciscan sites in the city.
In October 2020, Pope Francis
made Gambetti a cardinal,
the first time since the 19th
century that a member of the
conventual Franciscans received the honor. At the time it
was considered anomalous, since there was already a prelate
in Assisi, Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino, who was now
outranked by Gambetti.
In February 2021, Francis resolved the anomaly by naming
Gambetti vicar general for the Vatican City State and also
archpriest of the Basilica of St. Peter, and head of the administration
of the basilica, effectively making him one of the
Vatican officials with the most direct access to the pope.
In June 2023, Francis also named Gambetti a judge of
the Court of Cassation, in effect the supreme court of the
Vatican City State.
Archbishop Edgar Peña
Parra
A 63-year-old Venezuelan,
Peña Parra is the sostituto
(“substitute”) in the Vatican’s
Secretariat of State, making
him effectively the pope’s
chief of staff. He’s the second
Latin American to hold the
role, after Sandri.
In some ways, Peña Parra’s
status under Francis was
called into question by the
part he played in the fiasco
of the failed $400 million
London property deal, which
ended in convictions by a Vatican tribunal for nine defendants,
including Peña Parra’s predecessor, Italian Cardinal
Angelo Becciu.
On the other hand, Peña Parra remains in his position,
and, as the pope ages and becomes increasingly reliant on
others to carry the ball, the fact of serving as the sostituto by
definition means that Peña Parra will become an increasingly
influential fixture on the Vatican scene as time goes on.
John L. Allen Jr. is the editor of Crux.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti. | CNS/LOLA
GOMEZ
Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra. | CNS/
PAUL HARING
February 9, 2024 • ANGELUS • 23