Conservative Catholics have warned that the mainstream media was presenting Cardinal Parolin, former Vatican Secretary of State, as the favourite to take over the papacy, suppressing or denying news that would hurt his candidacy.
In particular, critics said, the media had ignored the fact that, in 2018, Parolin was said to have signed a secret deal with the Chinese Government that allowed Communist Beijing to appoint Catholic bishops.
While Parolin’s allies said the Church approved the appointments afterwards, the Chinese Government has just put in place two more bishops during sede vacante, meaning while the Chair of St Peter, which symbolised the pope’s magisterial authority, was vacant.
That meant the appointments have no canonical value because they were made without papal approval and in violation of the 2018 agreement.
Beijing has also knocked the 150 archdioceses, dioceses and apostolic prefectures down to 100 without the agreement of the Vatican.
According to the Daily Compass, an Italian Catholic news outlet, Parolin’s secret deal “has legitimised the Patriotic Church run by the Communist Party, abandoning to their fate the ‘underground’ Catholics who have paid dearly over the years for their loyalty to the Pope”.
Parolin was also linked with financial scandal. Italian daily newspaper Il Tempo published a document dated May 5 about a London property investment by the Vatican that appeared to have Parolin’s signature on it. The investment is regarded as a €350m financial disaster for the Vatican.
In addition, a US Church watchdog called Bishop Accountability claimed Parolin could not be trusted to protect children from sexual abuse.
It alleged he withheld incriminating Church documents from authorities around the world investigating abuse: A spokesperson for Bishop Accountability claimed to the British press: “’No church official in the world has withheld as many documents about abuse to civil authorities as Cardinal Parolin.”
Conservative Catholics said none of the above was being published by the mainstream media.
UK news outlet The Independent has referred to Parolin as “a soft-spoken administrator” and “a steady administrator”.
The New York Times called him “a steady bureaucratic hand” and “a quiet plodding administrator”.
